Like an Acorn

They couldn't leave her! Five felt her stomach twist painfully as she followed them out of the small room. The sound of crying greenery the only thing which kept her from running across the greenhouse after them.

Five swallowed hard, standing perfectly still as she watched the heavy metal door close, her fingers grasping the side of the connecting arch rigorously. Blood pulsed in her skull as the dying plants all spoke at once, overshadowing the words Blue spoke. The buzz of his accent hummed like honey over the husky roar of vegetation.



"Will you all knock it off?!" she demanded, long fingers clasping roughly over her ears to cut off the noise. Five shook her throbbing head wildly as she tried to push away the never ending chants which pounded like a sledgehammer against her skull.

It wasn't the same; the plants weren't listening. They didn't stop like in the simulations. Their voices many in her mind as she stared at the shocked looks the boys were shooting each other. Normal humans didn't scream at tomatoes. They didn't understand. No one could hear the voices. No one else ever heard them... It shouldn't be like this, they should be listening to her, not the other way around! Did Ivy hear the voices? Was this a mistake created by her lab? Were the voices real? It wasn't right, it wasn't right, it was not right.

The confused clone blinked as a hand landed upon her shoulder, she could feel the familiar warmth through the fabric of the sweatshirt. Spinning on heel, Five pulled awkwardly from Blue's comforting grasp. Her eyes locking on his as she put her back to the screams, "Are you okay, Chica?" He questioned a worried expression present in his brown eyes threatened to swallow Five up. She didn't like how his eyes made her feel: lost.

"Unlucky, I feel unlucky," she offered truthfully before quickly breaking contact with his disarming eyes and turning back to her own private mission.

Forcing herself forward Five let go of the arch her gaze evaluating the situation. There were things she needed to do; lives to save.

Plants shuttered hungrily towards her as she stormed past, her hands lightly batting away the weakened attempts at seizing the clone. Fixated on the empty watering can resting in the rusted sink against the right wall Five moved with clear determination. The excited little girl which had awed at the window was now safely tucked away, the robotic movements returning to her joints. She tried her best not to think, only move on. Thinking hurt. If she allowed the frustrations to overtake her she couldn't push out the voices.

Her fingers shook as she turned the water tap, the cool liquid splashing against her skin as she tried to fill the bucket. "What is wrong with you?" She whispered with annoyance to herself. "This I can do," she assured herself, this wasn't what she expected her first experience with real plants to be like... But it was better than nothing. This was her chance to prove she didn't need people to do everything for her. They may have saved her, and were taking care of her needs (something she doubted Conner would let her forget) but she could do this.

Grunting Five pulled the large watering can out of the sink, ignoring the sting of thorns as she watered the now wild plants. She knew good and well the boys were watching her, she knew good and well those brown eyes were on her back, as usual she didn't know what to say.

So instead of speaking she did her self appointed job, caring for the various Capsicum, and Solanum Lycopersicum, species held in the room. The green house was of small variety, but that was okay. Five was pleased with what she was given. The Doctors had said she could have a garden eventually, but days had turned to weeks and Five had given up on that idea, but now it was real. The plants were half dead and unruly but they were hers.

She knew Bart and Blue had seen the plants move, even if they couldn't hear them speak, she was always the only one who could hear their words. As the various screams turned into praises, she was thankful for this. The sun sweetened words reminded her why she usually liked this gift. Contentment replaced stress as she started to move around, if she was alone she would have happily twirled around... Yet, even the idea embarrassed her with prying eyes.

Swallowing her fears Five finished dousing the vegetation in the life saving liquid, her voice finally sticking to the air, "I-They won't attack you," she laughed awkwardly, placing the watering can down with a thump in the rusted out sink, her hand wiping sweat from her brow before she turned back to the boys who were hovering in the bedroom doorway as if afraid to venture out of the room.

"Say that to your hand," Bart grimaced pointing at the small droplets of blood which colored Five's pale skin. She hadn't even noticed snagging it on a few rose thorns. Rolling her eyes Five pulled Conner's sweatshirt sleeve over her 'injury,' easily wiping away the few drops. "They were dying, wouldn't you be frantic too?" She asked inquisitively, wondering with real interest his answer. Were heroes afraid to die? Or was it just something felt by unwanted clones and unloved houseplants.

"I'm never frantic," the speedster grinned with bravo as he stepped quickly into the room, eyes examining the now moving plants. Blue on the other hand faltered, a soft smile on his face as he paused, not as quick as Bart in plunging into the moving room. "Sure you aren't," he whispered under his breath Five hardly catching his words.

This was going to be interesting to say the least.

Grabbing a wilted looking Green Pepper plant Five took a seat on the cool concrete floor. She allowed the tired plant to rest on her lap as she went to work on pulling leaves which couldn't be saved from her new baby. "The dying leaves drain the nutrition which should go to the healthier ones... It's the way of life," she explained as the boys plopped down next to her, her back arching slightly as Bart started to help her, it took a moment before she could become comfortable with them being so close and for Bart's hands to be touching something which already felt connected to her. They worked in silence, Blue just watching. She wanted to know what he was thinking.

“So…” Five whispered awkwardly as she scooted to the left, closer to the speedster so he wouldn't have to lean so much. It felt strange as her bare leg touched his suit.

“So… You never told us your name,” Blue countered, pulling himself up to a standing position, the girl watched cautiously as he brushed the dirt from his jeans with strong looking hands; hands which had been wrapped around her ankles just hours ago.

“Five,” she admitted, balling her fists at her side, forcing her eyes away from his hands and back to his face. “My name’s Five,” she finished resisting jumping as Bart went from sitting to standing in the time it took for her to blink.

“Crash name Five, ever play Xbox?” Bart prompted only for Blue to roll his eyes. “Mission hermano, mission,” Blue stated crossing the room; he lightly tossed the well used broom in Bart’s direction.

"What's Xbox?" Five asked with a puzzled expression, again he mentioned the unknown thing. "You- You don't know what an Xbox is?!" Bart asked with wide eyes as if she didn't know how to breathe the air around them.

"Hermano she's from a tube," Blue laughed while adding moist potting soil to the large Citrus Aurantifolia resting in the center of the room. Bart only scuffed, quickly sweeping the floor as if working at normal speed was extremely taxing.

"So?" Five pouted, heaving the heavy plant back onto the counter. "There's nothing wrong with tubes, a lot safer than out here," she defended carefully, a blush working onto her cheeks, "How important can Xbox be really?" she said crossing her arms as she'd seen Babs do when arguing with Conner. She wasn't sure why she felt defensive.

"You miss out on a lot hiding," the boy in the hoodie offered up softly, his back to the embarrassed clone as he worked. Five knew she was being unfair. He wasn't personally attacking her, not like Conner would, but she still felt ruffled, even if his brow eyes weren't on her.

"Like what?" she asked curiously, the edge in her voice slipping as she slowly walked over, wanting to know in his opinion what she'd missed out on.

Dropping to the floor next to him she pulled her legs to her chest, yanking the sweatshirt over her now cold flesh. Five's eyes watching his smooth face with interest as she waited for his reply. Blue was silent for a moment, his hands worked the new soil into the old. The sound of Bart's broom brushing against the adjoining room's floor was the only thing to permeate the silence.

Rocking back onto his heels Five stared as Blue brushed off his hands once done, the gentle care he'd given the soil gave light to his mild personality. "like... I don't know... greasy fast food, corny movies, Amigos?" he smiled words sincere as if he'd really thought about them before speaking. "I've never seen a movie before..." Five admitted rubbing her arm absentmindedly.

"You-You've never seen a movie before? Not one? Chica, no has vivido!" Blue exclaimed in surprise, making Five wish she spoke Spanish. She got the gist of it though.

"I'm only 16 weeks old, I would'a got around to it, eventually..." she lied badly, a blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"Really?" He asked with a cat-like smile, catching her embarrassed blush easily.

"Really," she verified not backing down, "I mean it's not like I don't know what movies are, I just didn't have time..." she shrugged tugging on the edges of her hair awkwardly before pretending to go back to work.

"What about books, have you read a book before?"

"Of course books are important sources of information, although mostly I read the information given straight from the mainframe's education section," she answered truthfully.

"I mean fiction, you know like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings? Mi madre likes those Jane Austin romance thingies..." he clarified wiping sweat off his forehead, leaving a streak of dirt across his skin, causing Five to chuckle.

"Romance thingies? Doesn't sound educational," she couldn't help but tease, content when a cheeky grin entered his face.

"It's not, it's supposed to be fun,"

"Hmmh, sounds like a lot of work to me," she objected pulling away a loose leaf from a nearby plant.

"Okay, what about riding a bike, oh swimming-- do you know how to swim?" he asked his face now filled with a curious glint Five knew all too well.

"In theory," she whispered after a brief pause, she could swim in the simulations, how different could it be?

"Dude, you're dodging the most important question!" Bart interrupted appearing in a flash from the other room, it didn't take a genius to know he was listening in. His hands pressed sassily to his hips before he pointed a gloved hand down passionately towards the chilling teens.

"Oh forgive me hermano, what's the most important question?" Blue laughed grinning happily towards Five as if she'd always been there. She didn't mind his eyes on her so much at the moment. Five couldn't help but be relieved neither boy seemed to hold what happened at the lab against her.

"Duh, the most crash thing ever!" He sighed as if it was a burden to be so far ahead of the loop than the other two.

"Yes! Yes! We get it crash, important, what is it?" Jaime snickered doing his best interpretation of the younger boy from his spot on the floor, causing a snorting laugh to erupt from the pleasantly surprised clone.

"Huh! Rude! H-e-r-m-a-n-o! That was totally mode! I was just about to ask... Five have you ever had a cheeseburger before?" Bart exclaimed, mocking the Hispanic boy right back before slumping to the floor as if the question brought him to his very knees.

Joy flew through Five's veins and she couldn't help but laugh again at their antics, they were crazy, loud, funny... It was almost like her fears were being pushed to the back and only good things were filling her body the longer she was with the strange boys.

"The more important question is if she actually eats food like you and me," Blue corrected shaking his head as if Bart missed the obvious.

"No, photosynthesis requires chloroplasts which in turn provide a green pigment, as she's not green she obviously isn't an autotroph duh," Bart shot back diving into a serious conversation Five would have doubted he could have come up with on his own if it wasn't spat from his mouth seconds ago.

"She's a plant person, Ivy's kinda green-- It's photosynthesis, hermano." Blue argued shocking the clone, even though deep down it shouldn't, it's not like she hid her powers, it didn't take a detective to figure out why Ivy was after her.... Still it felt strange to have them both argue over how her body worked. Half the time she didn't know how it really worked, and it made her uncomfortable with their assumptions. She wanted to know what they thought about her. Sure they weren't rejecting her, they had guessed who she was cloned from but they didn't treat her any differently. Which was slightly comforting?

"I do both? I think, like a carnivorous plant I guess..." Five admitted rubbing her other arm again, something she realized she did a lot when nervous.

"But you've never had a cheese burger?" Bart verified as if this was the only part of the conversation he cared about.

"Um... No?" She answered with a raised brow, again something she knew about but never actually had. In the pod she was fed through intravenous therapy, it was less complicated that way or so the doctors told her.

"Those sick bastards, you were neglected, that's okay, we're here now! We shall turn you into a real full-blown teenage girl! You'll totally crash the mode, trust me," Bart winked the words puzzling the clone she couldn't help but let her head tilt to the side with confusion.

"Lack of movies and fast food counts as criminal negligence in this country?" she asked sincerely, "I'd never read about those laws, are they new?"

"He's joking, don't confuse her Bart," Blue sighed rubbing his temple even though a grin was still on his lips. Five couldn't tell if he was laughing at the speedster or her. “The sooner we finish the sooner you can go snag us some burgers hermano,” seconds after Blue spoke both teens were choking on dust kicked into the air from Bart’s sweeping. His body dipped and turned in bursts of swirling red and yellow. The broom would have been invisible to Five’s eyes if it wasn’t for the cloud of dust which tainted the air with each frantic stroke.

The clone’s eyes watered as she sucked in the vile cloud. Scrunching up her nose Five was quick to follow Blue from the greenhouse and into her adjoining room. It was clear Bart had already finished up in there, but there was more to do than just sweep. The plants were content and now it was time to get her own space into some form of comfort. There wasn’t much to do besides pick up the rusted folding chair she’d tripped over earlier and move the bed against the wall. She had no personal belongings to hoard away in the two mismatched wooden crates; she had no clothing to fill the once white painted dresser which now was badly chipped, exposing the light brown pine it was constructed of. Five didn’t even have the suit she arrived in anymore, only the borrowed clothes and improvised furniture.

At the same time there was something rewarding about the sweat which she had to pat off the side of her face when Blue and her finally finished lining up the impossibly heavy bed with its corresponding wall. Obviously it was after some pointed criticism from Bart, who’d managed to finish his job before they had finished theirs. Not that Bart offered to help move the heavy bed, but he certainly had an opinion over how well they were performing their task. Once this task was done Blue was quick to shove a twenty in his hands and send the quick talking boy to get everyone’s dinner, with instructions to pick up one with extra pickles for WG. Bart didn’t complain, he seemed almost giddy to get out. Apparently the small room made it impossible for him to stretch his legs.

He was gone so fast it was like Bart was never there. It was unsettling and Five couldn’t help but feel stifled as well, the pride of her work wearing off as she stared at her glass window with almost jealousy. How easy it was for Bart to leave, to go outside. It was funny, she hadn’t wanted to venture outside the safety of concrete walls until she’d seen the pretty ocean waves but now she wasn’t so sure about her resolve. Even though her feelings made no sense to her, Blue instantly picked up on them. Perhaps it was her forlorn looks?

”she is not,” he mumbled to himself, his hand roughly rubbing the back of his neck as Blue seemed to have an almost internal conversation with himself. Five watched him carefully but didn’t question the boy, she knew all about hearing voices no one else could. It was better not to ask, instead she waited for him to recover. “You’re not a prisoner here,” he emphasized letting out a frustrated groan as he sat down on the creaking bed. His lean body bounced once after impact, bringing a soft smile to Five’s face. “Really, Bart and I aren’t y-your wardens or anything chica. You’ll get clearance to go outside in a few days for sure… You’ve had a crazy day already; I mean you’re taking this a lot better than in the lab, but still.” Blue sighed rubbing his bruised forehead, making Five feel conflicted and guilty. This was another thing she internally fought herself on. The calculated part of her brain wanted her ignore his pain; it was necessary he had been a threat. At the same time she felt odd tingling as her stomach twist with guilt. Her own shoulder now was bothering her. She shouldn’t have pushed the heavy furniture. Five was lucky she’d not torn out the stitches. The throbbing in her shoulder reminded Five plants weren’t the only thing which felt pain. It was hard connecting herself with these-people, these humans (and aliens). Weird to think they probably felt the same things she did. Frowning Five was silent for a moment before she could think of what to say.

“Do you ever feel guilty?” She asked suddenly, it was her turn to ask the questions. Guilt was categorized as a weakness, something which made missions difficult and lead to failure which was why his words shocked her.

“Yeah, I guess everyone does sometime. I think it’s kinda like a tool our minds use to get us back on track after we did something wrong, helps us sort out what’s right even if we didn’t see it before,” he explained letting off another nonchalant shrug as if his words could be taken or let go in one ear and out the other. This startled her. Five was taught to express emotions when they were necessary for success, and to suppress them when they became a weakness. Emotions were indicators of the body’s response to a situation, but negative thoughts especially doubt, were considered on the same level as an infection. There was no option but to cut out something which could jeopardize the sometimes cruel mission objectives. Here he was though, telling her something she had been trained not to feel was actually some tool in disguise… She regretted asking the question. Five wasn’t ready to accept his words; she’d need time to think about it on her own. Now wasn’t the time, not with her aching shoulder and his watching eyes.

“My shoulder hurts,” she said wincing painfully after accidentally brushing the bandage, pulling down the neck of her hoodie to show him the white gauze. Megan had helped Five put on the new bandage immediately after her shower. It had been delicate work plucking the wet cotton fibers from her skin; the damage was only minimal though. The bullet had just grazed her, as she’d evaluated in the lab, but it still took three stitches to patch her up. No doubt done after she’d been knocked out. Expressing her pain ended up being an effective tactic on the clone’s part as all in depth conversation on emotion was dropped.

Neither Megan nor Conner had thought about leaving pain medication. Blue explained this away with the confusion of her arrival, Five secretly assumed it was another way Conner was welcoming her to the building. Five knew her thoughts were unfair and childish, but she didn’t beat herself up too much about it either.

Blue didn’t bother hunting down the duo, instead the girl found herself back inside the glass elevator. This time they went down, one floor to be exact. The mysterious third floor she had been told most of the residents lived on. Expecting the jerking stop Five didn’t have to brace herself as it lodged into place and all four glass plates receded.

The elevator stopped in a place much like on the bottom floor, smack in the middle of four long hallways. There was no common room with plushy couches and laughing teens, this floor was quiet for the most part. The clone couldn’t help but blink in surprise as her bare feet were warmed against the obviously heated hallway floor, a step up from her own level. Five followed the Hispanic boy as he walked casually through the level as if he knew it well.

“Do you and Bart live here too?” she asked eyeing the random doors they were passing, unlike the electric door to her greenhouse room, these were the ordinary wooden kind having simple knobs not keypads. While some doors were eccentrically decorated by their unknown owner, most were bare of anything but the metal number pinned to its surface.

“No… I live with my family, Bart lives with his guardians,” Blue answered reluctantly as if she’d violated some secret agreement. Then again, he didn’t tell her his real name, why would he answer a different kind of personal question? The rational part of Five’s mind understood this; self preservation was the most important thing (next to the mission of course). She wasn’t sure why she felt disappointment.

Blue stopped suddenly in front of a blank door, although Five had no clue why. Unlike some of the other rooms there wasn’t any light shining under the crack, even so, he still knocked. The first rapping sounded almost halfhearted, but by the time his knuckles smacked against the wood for the third time, he seemed to have picked up some confidence. It took an extremely long time for the door to creep open even an inch. Five could make out nothing behind the girl, the room was pitch black, and from the gray circles under her eyes she’d been asleep. Her long blonde hair was the only thing to spill out from inside the room as she opened the door another inch.

“Blue?” She asked her voice rumbling and deep, the kind someone could easily get lost in. The girl was a few years older than Five. A catlike yawn escaped her throat cutting off his apologies for waking her up.

“Megan and Conner took her pain medication with them by accident, you wouldn’t happen to hav-“ His words were cut off as her hand shot out of the doorway thrusting a prescription bottle into his hands.

“I have a mission in four hours, so ya,” Five could only stare as the barely open door was shut once again, leaving the clone speechless.

“Oh, Dios mío…. Lo siento, Tigress she’s not always so- well, I guess she didn’t use to be like that. She’s a great person to be around when she isn’t crashing from work-overload,” Blue defended while fiddling with the child lock on the bottle. “She’s the only person in who’d have what you needed; similar injury last month…” The boy didn’t mention how the girl knew exactly which bottle he was talking about, so Five didn’t bother bringing it up. She just enjoyed the sound of his soft voice switching languages with surprising skill, as if he didn’t even notice the change himself.

“It says take one with food,” he explained his legs starting to move again down the warm hallway, Five couldn’t help but trail her fingers along the bright ocean colored walls as she moved next to him. Slipping down a different hall she was happy to see a familiar red and yellow suit talking cheerfully to a muscular girl who couldn’t help but bop her blonde ponytail enthusiastically with her responses.

“Crasssh! F-i-n-a-lly, we’ve been waiting like forever; our burgers are going to be icier than Captain Cold’s underwear!” The teen hero laughed as if Five knew who Captain Cold was. Blue only rolled his eyes as if this was a horrible joke before grabbing for the grease stained takeout bags clutched in Bart’s hands.

Five would have been more amused if she wasn’t staring doubtfully at the tank of a blonde in front of her. Smiling as if at any moment she would wrap the killer, strong looking arms around her in some sort of barbarian hug. The clone remembered the girl from the crowd on the third floor, but up close was a different thing. A few inches shorter than Five, Cassie was an interesting oxymoron- A knockout blonde with a body meant for more than show and an almost innocent soprano voice to match. How did Five know this was Cassie, well simply put because the girl had already announced it (rather loudly) before shoving a hand in her face much like Bart had done, although her shake was ten times as strong and left Five’s right hand feeling like a limp noodle afterwards.

“Robin was right,” Cassie said without explanation as she looked Five over with a careful eye before nodding to some internal thoughts Five couldn’t quite figure out. The smile which seemed to be implanted on her glossed lips did help put her to ease though.

“You’re both crazy-- No, eso no es lo que ... Yo no lo soy!” Blue muttered almost angrily to himself, before walking hastily between the two girls and into the room behind them. Five couldn’t help but raise a brow as if it was some inside comment she wasn’t allowed to hear. Just another instance she wish she knew Spanish.

“Crazy about what? Does he do that often?” Five questioned Bart seriously once Cassie followed Blue back into her room. Bart couldn’t help but grin, “You’ll get used to it, totally more fun if you figure it out on your own my friend,” Bart smiled quickly tapping Five’s shoulder before breezing by leaving the girl startled.

“Wait! Friend?” She asked with an almost ridiculously pleasant smile as she stumbled after him like someone’s recently praised puppy. “Bart!”