Like an Acorn

Five’s brain felt deep fried as she clutched onto the person for a moment like a child would their security blanket. He's warm. Her lips trembled for a second before realization of her actions crashed down upon her like a wave.

The boy (as far as she could tell?) was not a doctor, guard, or scientist. Latching onto complete strangers hoping they could help her was downright stupid. For one thing, he was even more freakishly costumed than the women. Although at first touch he’d been warm, the bright blue bodysuit was rough, painful more so when it collided with her injured shoulder. The shock and hurt rang like a bell through her body, as she tried to sit up no longer willing to play the innocent damsel.

A hodgepodge of noise surrounded her, swelling in her ears as Five's head whipped up. The two women were catching up, and this man was not alone. There were four of them in counting, unlike the women they did not appear far older than her. Blue boy, and two others were dressed so strangely. Spandex and masks…

Five had been taught that no one hid their face unless they were up to something they shouldn’t have been. None of these boys were supposed to be here, just like the women. All of their faces were covered, all of their bodies no doubt hiding surprises like the gun slinging, acrobatic clown. Except for the one barking questions her way, no he was dressed like she'd seen others in the simulations. Regular pants, a plain black shirt decorated with a strange red ‘s’.

Just because he wasn’t wearing a mask didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat in his own way, she knew that. He was with the others. Yet, she was happy he didn’t try to mask his true feelings as Ivy and the clown had, Five knew he wasn’t happy seeing her. His eyes were frighteningly serious as he tried to reach where she was on the ground. Five was still next to the boy in blue, his confusion at her presence seemed even greater than her own. He’d yet to move, to do anything but stare. All but the serious eyed boy seemed surprised, and she could use this.

Five's own body suddenly lashing out as she had with the redhead; legs kicking out with enough force to send the already grounded boy sliding. Lurching upwards she regained her balance in seconds. Sidestepping a shocked boy wearing a bodysuit decorated with some kind of lightning bolt. The sounds of Ivy and the clown entering the hallway greeted Five’s ears as she turned the other corner leaving the shell shocked boys behind.

Five wasn't sure if the boys were working with Ivy, or what exactly they were doing on her level. She didn't care. As long as their awkwardness slowed down the women, who seemed the bigger threat.

Running at full speed down the dimly lit hallway Five tried to keep track of every turn she took, every path she switched to. The frantic fear of not reaching the emergency stairs in time ticked like a bomb in the back of her mind. The girl did not know why she felt such need to go to the stairs, just because she would reach them didn't mean that she was safe. She could die as easily on the stairs as she could in the confusing maze of halls. Yet, her adrenalin rushed mind could concentrate on nothing else. The stairs were familiar, the stairs did not wear strange costumes or shoot at her. This level that had once been safe now radiated with war.

The scientists had not prepared her for this. Five was used to scenarios where she was the only one with powers. Even in those dream like situations she was never dressed oddly. Perhaps a little more scantily but that was only to fulfill the mission. Missions had meanings, they were not confusing.
Missions also had blueprints. Even though the hallways were familiar it was still a maze and her brain could not process changes fast enough to perfectly keep up with it. Reaching the next intersection Five felt her body hesitate. Was it right or left towards the stairway? She couldn’t remember. The feelings of panic crept up her spine again irritating her with her failing skills. She wasn’t supposed to panic. Why was she panicking? Even as she questioned herself she couldn’t turn it off, which only made her panic more. That wasn’t helping, it wasn’t giving her more time between herself the rapidly growing sounds of her pursuer.

“How unlucky,” she whispered to herself as she calculated her chances for each twisting hallway. It would be equally probable that one was the correct way to go. Yet which one would take her to the stairs?

Right-or-Left?



Five suddenly dove towards the right, her legs springing to action, her body turning the corner the moment she saw a figure step into the one she’d once occupied. “Very unlucky,” she almost whined as it took only seconds for her to realize that her decision was incorrect.

The hallway only protruded a few feet before cutting off. A vending machine hummed to life at the end, the only room joined to the structure was a small janitorial closet hardly large enough for her to fit in. Hiding in there would be illogical, escaping was preferred but if a fight was necessary she thought it best not to be inhibited by cleaning supplies.

Five wondered if she should turn and fight, her mind calculating the odds as she reached the machine. “16.6% chance,” the girl whispered to herself anxiously. There wasn’t even a 20% chance that she would get the broken armed Red chasing after her, more likely it was one of the boys with unknown powers, or even worse the gun-clad clown. It was impossible to calculate the success rate of the battles with so many unknown variables on the table so instead, Five searched for another option. Her head shot around quickly studying the area with extreme care, as she did a second glance of the hall for other options. For the first time since she awoke a grin planted itself upon her lips; brilliant! Out of the corner of her eye Five could see a small air vent above the vending machine. Ignoring the sharp pain in her shoulder, Five gritted her teeth tightly before quickly lifting herself on top of the machine.

She had little-to-no time, any second now the person chasing her would realize she’d turned right and find her crouching there. It wouldn’t take that person long to figure it out, most likely she’d left more than a few droplets of blood. Even though the bullet had only grazed her shoulder, it would need treatment. After she got away.

Five’s fingers flew through her hair as she yanked out a bobby pin, a few strands of brown hair caught on the clasps as she ripped it out. Flipping it expertly in her fingers, Five jimmied the clip into the screw head of the bottom corner, her hands turning quickly. Now this, she could do. It took less than a minute for her to unscrew and remove the vent covering. Finally, something followed the scenarios; air vents were her thing. They were always popping up in missions. Spying, entering, and escaping about 75% of the time this required some vent activity.

Although she wasn’t petite by any means, (an issue Five herself had suggested the lab fix when they create Six) the girl was thin, and agile enough to make it work. This was a preferable turn of events.
Moving forward, Five pushed back the pain as her shoulder brushed up against the dusty vent walls. Her body scrunching close together as she carefully felt in front of herself, making sure it didn’t drop off. She didn’t intend to escape only to fall to her death that would be a little too ironic for her taste. Sucking in a deep breath to calm her nerves she started to move deeper into the shaft. Five only made it a few feet before a sudden sharp tugging on her left ankle caused her to lose her balance.

Five felt the air leave her lungs as her stomach hit the bottom of the metal vent with a loud bang. The hand wrapped around her ankle tried to pull her back outside of the vent. Letting out a grunt of pain Five dug her elbows into the side of the vent, ignoring the violent flashes of pain shooting from her shoulder. Instead she concentrated on holding her ground, for the briefest of moments as she turned her head to see who she was against.

Scrunching up her eyes she was able to make out that the person was wearing a deep blue bodysuit—the one she’d ran into earlier in the hallway. He was struggling to grab for her, only half way into the vent. He was too big to fit, and Five could tell he would not be able to squeeze in much farther than where he was at now.

“Let go!” She demanded with grinded teeth almost jumping at the echo which radiated down the vents. Her body tugging violently against his hold. There was only silence from the boy for a moment before his own words echoed towards her, “You… Talk?” he asked as if this surprised him, only angering Five even more. “Do you Listen? I said to let go,” she hissed, at first she’d been afraid, but now she was just angry. This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. She wanted to be left alone in her tube, not bothered by people who shouldn’t even be at the lab in the first place.

Five didn’t like the way the rage felt on her tongue, hot and bothered, and not natural. Yet, the rude words had come out anyways. The question crossed her mind if it was still rude to mock people even when they were attacking her… For now she put it away instead focusing on buckling her elbows deeper into the shaft, ignoring the white dots which started to appear in her vision. She was losing too much blood, she needed to rest, not fight this blue guy.

“You’re hurt, I saw your shoulder in the hallway, let me help-- we’re the good guys, trust me Chica,” he offered patiently, as if speaking to a child.

“Help?” Five whispered loud enough for him to hear. “Yes, help! My teammates are taking down Ivy and Harley now, it’s going to be okay, but first we need to get out of here, come on,” He said, loosening his grip on Five’s ankle long enough for her to quickly break his hold, her foot smashing into his face sending the blue boy backwards, and out of reach.

“Liberate yourself from that, I’m just fine here thank you very much!” She screamed for the first time, losing the last of her control. She didn’t want to get out of here. Five knew he was talking about the air vent, but all things considered, the kick still felt pretty good.

Ignoring the sounds from behind her, Five pushed forward her body awkwardly pulling itself along the metal bottom. Her brain felt like smoke as she moved, exhausted she made her way around a corner, mentally mapping her way as she went. “I’ll be fine,” she assured herself as she pushed on; she didn’t quite believe her words.

Coming to an end Five rested against the inside of the ventcover, closing her eyes for a moment she allowed her heart pace to slow down and her fingers to brush over her throbbing shoulder. She could feel the slick texture of blood, and a sharp stab of pain as she felt the wound. It was still bleeding ever-so-slightly. She’d need stitches. Not many, but at least two or three. Swallowing back pain Five knew she would have to move, she didn’t have time to rest, safety first, and then she would have to find a medical lab… One of them would have what she would need to patch herself up. First-thing-first though, she would need to get out of the vent.

In a simulation she would have something which would help her open vents from the inside. Something quiet and flashy… In real life she had her good shoulder. It was loud, ramming the metal against her flesh, and painful but it got the job done nonetheless.

It only took a few minutes for the metal vent lid to clatter against the floor, both shoulders now radiating pain. Breathing heavily, Five started to pull herself out of the vent her arms felt like heavy weights buckling when she applied pressure to them, causing her to tumble out of the vent more than land gracefully which was her intent.

Laying sprawled out on the ground, Five’s chest heaved, up and down, over and over as she heard the sound of her rapid pulse blaring in her ears. “This is too much work,” she moaned, rolling over after she caught her breath. “We need more cardio training,” she huffed in denial. As if when she got away things would go back to the way they were before.

“I think your problem’s stealth,” sounded a voice to the right causing Five to jump, only catching a glimpse of the domino masked boy in red before his staff collided with the back of her head and everything went black. She hadn’t even known he was there.