Young Writers Society

The Lab
The lab is a relatively quiet place; the scientist all working on their own unique potions, though the majority potions have already been finished.
That's when the 'testers' enter the lab.

Spoiler

You can all start writing now. Just don't make it as short as this.

Ava

My eyes burst open and a light stings my my eyes. I try to move my arms, but they are strapped into the bed. “Will some one help me?” I say. At once the straps unfold and I am able to move. A man come over and pulls me up of the bed. “Is it done?” I ask, but he does not say a word. He just grabs my arm and pulls my off the bed. I try to walk, but my legs shake and I fall to the ground. He begins to pull me on the ground. I do no object because I can't speak, can't move. I just black out.

I wake up in a new room. I can move. I get off the floor and begin to walk around. The room is totally glass. I walk to the wall and bang on the glass. “Get me out of here.” I look down at my self and see my clothes. They are black and tight. I do not remember being in these. I turn around and slide down the glass to the floor. Why am I in here?” I think to myself. I look across the glass dome and see a man staring at me. I stand up and walk over to that side. His words are loud and screaming in my ear, but his mouth is not moving. “Lets she if you are worth something to me.” He says. His mouth still does not move.

I stare him down. “Let me out. Now!” I say and he walk over and opens the door. “Thanks.” I say tilting my head. I being to walk down the hallway, not knowing where I am going.

“You.” Someone behind me screams. I quickly turn and see men running at me. “You are a defender, why are you out?” one of them asks

“I told the man to let me out, so he did.” I say shrugging my shoulders.

“Oh so you must be Ava.” He says.

“How do you know my name.” I ask.

“We gave you the power to control and read minds.” he says. The words are shocking to me. It really worked.

Vega

When I woke up, I felt really, really nauseated. I hadn't expected that--actually, I had been expecting it to feel like a punch in the gut. But this was weird--I felt tingly all over, the same way I had after my first EEG, but more so.

I sat up slowly, red spots marching across my vision in neat, organized lines. I was in a sterile hospital room. My arms were strapped to my bed, but it was just velcro, and with a sharp tug, I freed myself. I stood up slowly, almost falling over. I was quite dizzy, but I felt strong, stronger than I had when they put me out.

I wondered when the doctors would show up. Thankfully, my procedure had been fairly simple--just a quick zap with a bunch of exotic particles I couldn't pronounce. Poor Ava would have to work through some temporary memory loss because of her mental power. I reached toward a cart of surgical tools on the other side of the room, testing my new power out. The tools flew toward me instantly, and I pancaked on the floor, nine scalpels whizzing over my head and embedding themselves in the wall behind me. I got up cautiously, making a mental note to practice a little more. I started toward the wall to pull the scalpels out, but then thought better of it, not wanting another magnetic mishap. I just backed away slowly, and then turned and walked out into the hallway. There was Ava, talking to one of the scientists. "Hey Ava!" I called.

Alli

"This will only sting a little," he said as he raised the sharp spear of the needle up to my arm. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath - no turning back for me now. The sharp sting of the needle was the last thing I felt as the serum was introduced to my bloodstream.

* * *

I groggily awoke to the gentle but insistent throbbing of my head. "Man, I feel like crap," I groaned to no-one in particular. Whatever was in that serum was some pretty strong stuff.

"Hello, Alli," said a distinguishably male voice. "I do hope you aren't feeling too unwell. We did warn that when you first awake, you would feel some rather unpleasant si-"

"Actually, Doc, I feel like crap. I know that you warned me, but that doesn't change the fact that I still feel like crap. Now, can you please get me some Panadol before my head caves in!"

"I'm sorry, but at this stage, that would be rather unwise as your system should be rather sensitive at the moment."

"Rather sensitive?" I must have looked rather puzzled to him then, but it makes sense - they didn't tell me a thing about what the serum would do to me besides the mentioned side effects.

"Yes. Heightened senses are a part of the serums effects. Actually, if you stop worrying about how you feel, you should start focusing on how you feel." The doctor - he was wearing a white lab coat and blue rubber gloves - was right. As I stopped focusing on how sick I felt, the world came alive around me. It's so hard to explain, but I could feel everything; temperature was beyond hot and cold instead, it was more like a physical medium that I could touch, move, and change. The stark white walls around me seemed alive in a way, not just solid objects, almost like water.

"Wh... What happened to me?" I shakily demanded.

"The serum gave you psychokinesis."

"Psycho-what?!"

"Psychokinesis. Another way to say it would be 'ultimate control with your mind'. Really, psychokinesis is an umbrella term for a whole range of abilities. It's like telekinesis on steroids in a way. Everyone calls it PK for short. One of the abilities of this PK that you now have is the ability to merge with other substances. Among other things, you shall learn how to do this later. Though be warned, if you merge to deeply or for too long with the one object, you will become a permanent part of that object and your physical body will die. Also, you may discover that too much PK use will physically and mentally drain you." I stared at him in shock. This may not be as cool as I thought it would be.

Ava

“ Hey Ava.” I turn around to see Vega standing in the hallway in the same outfit as me. “Aw how cute we match.” she says rolling her eyes. I have to laugh as she walks over.

“How did you get out?” The doctor asks her.

“The door. Was I not suppose to?” She looks confused.

“You are all suppose to be in training.” He yells. We shrug our shoulders and follow them and they walk down the hallway.

I look at one of the younger scientist and try to read his mind. He is thinking of Vega. I nudge her with my elbow and whisper in her ear. “That cute one likes you.” I say.

She laughs, “ See this is perfect, you read and control minds and I can control the magnetic field.”

“Yes. Great team.” We start to laugh. The thoughts coming from the scientists are really rude. “Hey can you think a little nicer please. I am right her.” I say. Vega burst out laughing.

“Oh yes. This is going to be so much fun.”

Dharius

I open my eyes, but the light keeps me from seeing much. I feel my wrists and ankles cramped and when I try to stretch something prevents me from moving. As I'm getting used to the lighting, I realize that I'm surrounded by several men and women in white coats, and I have straps in my arms and legs, which attach me to a vertical table. All of the scientists (apparently they're the testers) have white boxes of different sizes, except for a woman whose face is covered in a white mask.

"Welcome, Dharius. How are you? ". Says the woman with a strangely low voice, but I don't answer and instead attempt to break free of the straps that hold me down. "Do not worry," she adds, laughing in a silly way, "they are unbreakable."

I don't know who she is yet, but I already feel a great hatred for her. I volunteered for this experiment, but I'm feeling terrible nowadays. I struggle more with arms and legs but apparently I see that the woman is telling the truth: I'm not able to escape.

"I think we should start." Tells one man to the short woman.

"Sure, Roger, the sooner we do it, the better." The woman responds, very serious. I think she's the leader.

What do they mean? I fight with everything to break free but I don't even move an inch. I shout with rage, but nobody pays attention to my anger. But I try to calm down. Joining this project was my decision. They didn't chose me to do this; I chose myself. The manager of the testers approaches me with a knife, apparently taken from one of the boxes of his assistants. Traverses its surface with her gloves and stands in front of me.

"I'll warn you once: this will hurt you." And she sticks the knife in my abdomen.

I release a scream of rage and pain accompanied by a host of curses, while she turns and twists the blade inside me. The pain is totally horrible ... I feel like I'm going to faint ...

And then she pulls out the knife.

I don't know how, but I didn't faint.

"Now to see if this works, you have to stay still." Says the leader. Then she steps back and adds, with another giggle: "You can't move anyway."

I at least try to relax pulling my head back, but it is strapped to. I feel the blood slipping through my shorts, which is the only garment I'm wearing. The pain clouds my senses and start to see everything blurry.

But something strange weird begins to happen: the blood stops flowing. In addition, the pain begins to subside and I feel my mind clearer. I touch the wound, but it has disappeared. A smile covers my face before the woman says to her assistants:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we had success in the first test. Now, let's bring out the other weapons."

Spoiler

Sorry for my kinda bad english... I'm mexican.

Alli

With doubts starting to cloud my mind, I begin to get up, only yo be stopped my tightly secured straps. How could I have not noticed them already. "Um, Doctor?' I say. "Can you please remove these restraints, I would like to get up." He just laughs at my predicament and pulls out what looks like a box of matches.

"I'm sorry Alli, but I'm not permitted to do that. Only you can free yourself." He then takes out a match and lights it. He then drops it on the disposable paper bed sheet that I am lying on, thus putting it on fire. "You better make haste, as unlike one of our subjects, you do not have the ability to heal yourself from such grave injuries." He then leaves me strapped to the bed. I hear the dull click of the door as it closes and begin screaming out for help.

The sharp scent of the smoke starts collecting in my lungs, causing my chest to heave in wracking coughs. I feel the blazing heat of the fire encroaching my left side. Panic starts t overwhelm me - was this all just a plot to get me killed?

The dazzling, almost entrancing flames dance across the white f the bed, leaving only black in its wake. In the back of my mind, the flames are more than just an impending danger, instead, they are living, vibrating particles that travel freely across all surfaces. I somehow know that if I tried hard enough, they would submit to my will, but this is all pushed back by the confusion and panic that holds me.

I scream again, but this time it is shriller and blood curdling. my side is literally on fire, the streaks or orange and red eating away at my delicate, white flesh. Among the pain, the knowledge of control slips to the forefront of my mind, demanding that I exercise my new-found skills. I stop wreathing in my bonds and focus on the fire. I breathe out and push my consciousness into the flame, willing it to cool and cease. In a way. It's a very strange experience - its not quite like willing something to happen, it's more like just doing it - like how you don't will your arm to lift, you just do it.

Almost instantly, the fire cools and begins to shrink into nothingness, leaving only ash and the red, sticky mess where it began to eat into my skin. I almost retch at the oozing blood, but just manage to stop myself with the knowledge that I'd most likely choke on it in this position.

That's when an idea comes to mind. I tug at the bonds, hoping the fire ate away at the straps that hold me in place. No luck. I groan at this dilemma, but immediately begin to form an idea on how to escape. "Ultimate control with the mind, eh," I croak, my lungs still affected by the smoke. I cough again, and immediately regret speaking as another wave of searing pain shoots down my left side. I grit my teeth and try to focus on that state of mind where I really felt everything from before.

The world comes alive again, but this time, I block out everything out the objects surrounding me. In that same just do it way as with the fire, I begin to make myself lose solidity, but quickly think the wiser and stop myself - it'd be no good if i became stuck inside the bed. Instead, I focus on only applying the phase to where the bonds hold me. I then lift my arms and legs out of the straps. I quickly return those parts to a solid state to avoid accidents and begin to sit up.

Another scream escapes my lips as the burnt flesh tears with the movement. Blood starts coming out again, spilling onto the contrastingly white surroundings. I bite my lip and force myself though the pain as I get up off the bed and stagger towards the door. I slump against it and grasp the handle, pausing only for a moment to breathe before pushing it towards the floor. I hear an unsatisfying click and realise the door is locked.

I almost begin to step back to kick the door before remembering my injuries; how can I keep forgetting them? This phase will be trickier to do. I'll have to carefully phase and unphase each part of my body as it travels through the door. I don't even think I want to know what will happen if I unphase while still in an object.

Starting with my hands, I tentatively phase through the door, almost unphasing too early twice. By the time I'm through, combined with the blood loss, I feel like I'm going to pass out. Still, I manage to limp down the corridor towards the big green door with sign reading 'Defenders', leaving a sticky trail of blood behind me.

There're two girls and another doctor already in the hallway on the other side of the door. I'm thankful to see those who had also had the treatment, but am highly sceptical of the doctor with them. One of the girls hears my entrance and turns around a look of shock oh her face. "What the hell happened to you?" she asks. I just cringe as another wave of pain shoots down my side.

The next thing I see is the floor as it rises up towards me, or maybe it's me falling towards it?

Spoiler

OfTheChosen, don't worry. Your English is perfectly fine. In fact, better than quite a few native speakers.

Vega

Ava and I had just stepped into the training room when Alli stumbled through the door, her entire left side covered in blood and burnt skin.

"What the hell happened to you?!" I exclaimed. Alli opened her mouth to say something, but then collapsed, hitting the floor with a sickening thud. I ran over and knelt next to her, turning her so that her burned side was off the ground. "Jeez, what gives, Doc?" I asked. "How did this--"

Then I saw something silver flying through the air toward me. I threw up my hands instinctively, and the knife clattered to the ground, stopped dead by my magnetic field. Across the room, the doctor grabbed another knife, but I swiped it out of his hand. I hopped to my feet as he ran over it, and pinned him to the wall with his stethoscope.

"Alright, you quack," I growled, stalking toward the doctor. "You have ten seconds to tell me why you're trying to kill us." When he didn't say anything, I tightened my grip on his stethoscope, watching as his face turned red, and then blue. "Five seconds," I said.

Ava

“5 seconds.” She says. I cross my arms and roll my eyes as she taunts me. It is funny, because he does not know what is coming for him as he doesn't. The man just presses a button and smiles at us. “What did you do?” She asks. He points to some where behind us. We turn around to see 12 men with knives.

“Oh yeah, can you take care of those for me?” he asks.

“You know, I am really starting to not like you.” I say walking toward him. “I do not really think you want me in you brain, now do you?” He remains still. His eyes stare into mine. “You are going to stop trying to kill us and tell us what is going on.” I say to him.

His eyes are glued to mine. “I am going to stop and tell you what is going on.” he presses the button and the people disappear.

“ Now what is going on.” I demand.

“We are preparing you for the other planet. You need to be ready to fight all the time. We need to teach you how to correctly use your powers.” He says. He voice sounds a little tired. I release him from my control and he falls to the ground.

“ Well, it looks like we bit of more that we can chew.” I say.

“Maybe not.” Vega says walking over to the button. Alli and I look at her and shake our heads. “We need to see what we can do.” she say pressing the button and the men appear.

“Vega can we at least get knives please.” I say and she rises her arms and three knives rip out of their hands and fly into ours. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” she says running towards them. Four large men come towards me. I walk back as far as I can until I reach the edge of the glass room. The men are only a few feet away from me.

“Please don't hurt me.” I say. One swing a knife at my head, but I duck before he hits me. “ I was trying to be nice, but clearly does not work.” I say. I make them look at me. “Drop you knives now.” I order. Their weapons fall to the floor. “ No you are going to stay her and not move.” I say. I begin to walk over to Vega, but the room starts to spin. My head is throbbing. I fall to my knees. I start to wobble, and I black out.

Arcadia

I wake up in a cold, white room. I try to move my arms and legs and realize I'm strapped in tightly. A small whimper escapes my throat as a man in a white lab coat approaches me with a needle.

"Don't worry, this is just to stabilize you. Your hormones are going crazy right now with the serum we introduced earlier," he says, swabbing my arm.

There is a small pinch, then it's over. "Where is everybody else?" I croak, my throat a little dry.

"In separate rooms," he murmurs, removing his gloves.

"Well, what power do I have?"

He chuckles. "You don't have an actual power. You're a spy, not a defender. And I'm supposed to have you figure it out yourself. With your ability, you should be able to release yourself from your bonds and go out that door." He pointed at a small flap cut into the actual door.

"What? Aren't you supposed to tell me how to do it? And what animal am I? A dog? A rabbit?"

He just smiles and shakes his head as he walks out the door. I hear the click that tells me he locked it behind himself.

I start to tug and pull on the restraints even harder, but to no avail.

"I've got to change to get out of this," I mutter to myself. But into what? I ponder about it for a while before I realize that I must focus on the animal to become it. I start with dogs, thinking of my own dog back home, but nothing happens. I close my eyes and think of a rat, imagining how useful they would be as a spy, but still nothing happens. I think of rabbits, mice, snakes, and birds with no luck. The only other thing I can think of is a cat, so I focus hard on cats; their eyes, their whiskers, their tails.

I feel myself getting smaller and fluffier, growing a tail and claws. I can feel myself slipping out of the restraints, and by the time I open my eyes, I'm on the ground. A cat? I think. Not very original.

I trot over to the little flap and slink through into the hallway, where a knife suddenly whizzes over my head.

Ree

I took a couple deep breaths as I settled myself as much as I could into the bed - it was hard with the restraints. I'd signed up for this - I told myself that as the doctors came. But I still tried to look away when they pulled out the needle. I hated needles. I didn't know why, but some primeval part of my brain always screamed at me to stay away from them. They said it was a phobia and I had to get past it, but the fear was real enough.

I couldn't take my eyes off the pointed metal that they were going to jab into me, so I closed them. There was a sharp sting, and I shifted around a little, the image of a needle buried in my skin flashing through my brain.

"There we go, it's almost done," someone was saying to me. "Almost done... there." The sting was sharper for a moment as they took the needle out, and then it disappeared. I opened my eyes, but vision was fading away anyways; I passed out.



My eyes fluttered open slowly, as if they didn't want to let me see. I was still strapped down, but there weren't any IVs plugged into me. I was fine by that. Looking around, I noticed a headboard over me that seemed to be made of glass. There were also scientists all around, with white lab coats.

"What's going on?" I asked them. I felt... different. It was like I had this weird muscle in the back of my brain that wasn't attached to a limb.

A man in white smiled at me. "We're just going to run a quick test." They approached, and I realized that almost all of them had needles. Large needles.

"Um, I really don't like needles..." I murmured.

"We know," someone replied. They looked... malicious. What were they going to do to me?

"What are you doing? Can... can you wait with the needles? Please?" I struggled against the straps that held me down, to no avail. They didn't budge. "Stop! What are you doing?"

Someone raised a needle into the air, and the primitive part of my brain that made me hate the sharp metal snapped into action. The needle stopped in midair with a tiny ringing sound. It took me a moment to realize that the glass headboard had bent over me.

The person smiled, and they all put away their needles. "You just passed your first test."

"What the - that was a test?" I stammered. I felt heat rising to my face. "What the heck! What kind of people are you?"

"People who want you to learn quickly. You've been given the ability to control glass, Mr. Noran. I believe it requires some energy, but you'll be able to improve as you go along." The speaker had a notepad, which she had been jotting things down on. She put it away now. "Now, we're going to go check on the other defenders. You're expected at the training room ... right now, actually. Have a good day." With that, she left.

"Wait!" I called. "I can't get up! Where are you-" They closed the door, leaving me fuming. Finally, I took a deep breath. Right. So I can control glass, huh? I guess they ran out of super strength and spider-senses. I looked around and smiled. I could get to the training without a problem - the walls around me were made of glass. I focused on it and - I wasn't sure how - I had it shatter. Shards fell to the ground, but at my will they began to rise.

It was kind of like learning to crawl - I had to take it slow, as I learned when a piece slashed me across the face. But I cut through the straps that held me down, and then sat up, letting the glass come together and congeal into a liquid mass floating around me. For a moment, I just played with it, calibrating the muscle in the back of my head. Then I realized that I was getting tired already, and I still had to get to that meeting. I broke a chunk of glass off and formed it into a sphere; then I pocketed it. I could mess around with it later.

I found the door to the training room and realized with alarm that there was blood on the floor. Wondering what it was from I opened the door and was confronted with the sight of a girl passing out on the floor, another standing there with wide eyes, and four men blinking, shaking themselves and grabbing knives.

For a moment, I was frozen. Then they started towards the girl. I gave a shout and the glass walls melted, flying at the men. It hardened around their bodies, coating around them thickly enough to immobilize them. Then I was frozen again, realizing that what I had done was kind of insane. I opened my mouth once, then closed it. Finally I realized the girl was staring at me.

"Hi," I said.

Spoiler

Wow... I didn't realize how long this was until I finished. Oops...
Is this okay, or do I need to change anything?

Vega

I just stared at the new guy, my eyes flicking back and forth between him and the scientists. They looked like those fossilized bugs that got encased in amber a couple hundred million years ago, except the glass was clear, not yellow. "Um...hi," I said to the guy. "Ah...I don't really know what's going on here, but we've all been testing out our powers, and so far, it's been going pretty well. ...Except for Alli. We should really go see if someone has healing powers, or something. And what happened to your face?"

"I cut myself trying to escape," the new guy--I think his name was Ree--explained. "Didn't you have to escape, too?"

"No, I didn't," I replied. "I think I woke up earlier than they expected me to. I nearly impaled myself experimenting with scalpels, though."

"Yeah, seems like there's a lot of experimenting going on," Ava muttered, tapping the glass-covered scientists with her foot. "I don't know what they're trying to do, but they won't tell us anything unless I order them to."

Ava

“What do you mean tell them to.” Ree asks me.

“Oh I control minds.” I tell him.

“Ah nice.” He says.

“Takes a lot of you. I just blacked out.” I say.

“You okay?” He asks.

“I am now.” I say. I sit on the floor and so do the others. I hear the faintest beeping noise. “Do you hear that?” I ask.

“Hear what?” Vega says.

“The beeping. Listen really closely.” I say.

“ I hear it.” Ree says. Vega nods. “What do you think it is?” he asks.

“Our next test.” says Vega pointing to the walls. The walls that are coming towards us. “We have got to get out of here now.”

Alli

I woke up to the strangest sight: flying knives, realistic glas sculptures, and the walls closing in on everyone. Everything is still a little groggy from my fall, and my side pulse in a steadgy throbing ache, but I can still depict that my life's in danger.

I begin to get up off the ground, but immediately duck back down as knives fly overhead. More people seemed to have arrived in the chamber, and all of them are rushing about, panicking over the encroaching walls. I almost laugh at the irony of how I had only gotten over my claustraphobia a few months ago.

"Are you okay?" asks a handsome blonde as he rushes past the glass statues.

"Anyone here got any healing powers here?" I ask jokingly. "My side is dead here." He just grins and puts out a hand to help me up. I accept and stand up, finally being able to fully examine my surroundings. That's when I notice that the glass statues are actually scientists encased in glass. I look at the gut again. "DId you do that?" I ask and give my head a jerk in the statues' direction.

"Yeah," he says and produces a liquid-like ball of glass from his pocket and lets it float in the air, "I've got control over glass." I shrug and exite the particles above my now extended had, setting the air alight.

"I've got phsychokinesis."

"PK?" he says almost knowingly. I turn around a face the far encroacing wall.

"Well, I hate to leave you all here, but I've gotta go." I start running towards the wall and began the phase at my hands. This one's a little more difficult then before, but I still manage, slipping through the wall almost seamlessly.

Arcadia

Just as I get up the nerve to try to phase back into a human, another defender shows up, so I just sit and listen as they explain, going unnoticed. As the walls start to close in, they run and of course I follow them.

They run into a room at the end of the hallway, and I manage to just get in before they close the door behind them, but now they've noticed me.

"A cat? They have cats running around in a hospital?" someone asks incredulously.

I open my mouth to say something but just a small "Mew!" comes out. I focus hard again, and when I open my eyes, I'm sitting on the ground, human again. I look down briefly to see that I'm not naked the way I thought I would be. I breathe a quick sigh of relief.

"Ummm, hi. I'm Arcadia," I say, standing up. "I'm a spy."

Before anyone else can say anything, there's a loud groan coming from the bed in the corner of the room.