It took less than 10 seconds for Ace to whittle the butter knife into the doorjamb and disengage the lock into the facility. Elliot was stunned, half from Ace’s skills and half that a research facility would have such a simple point of failure in its security.
The break room and kitchen were dark and empty as they entered. The two crept through the room and started cautiously up the stairs. At the top, Ace could see a dark hallway stretch to his left and another, lit by a row of wide windows, continuing straight ahead. A small strip of yellow light poured into the hallway from an open door halfway down. He remembered this as the monitoring room he had snuck through before.
He stepped slowly down the hallway, past the heavy door that led to the room of beds, and he approached the lighted room with caution. He could hear the creaking of a chair and a light sigh, but there was nothing more as they waited patiently outside.
A door opened and closed, and the sound echoed from the other side of the L-shaped hallway. Both inched back to the corner as voices came to their ears.
“Missing? Again?” A furious voice fumed.
“Sir, the mob got to him before our officers could. And then, he awakened his powers and broke away. We couldn’t touch him.”
“I’m well aware, Cason,” the first voice grumbled. “We’ve been fielding calls all afternoon calling for my resignation for failing to protect our fair citizens from this ‘blatant attack’.” Footsteps pounded as the man paced the hallway. “Here, I was hoping you’d come to inform me you had recaptured him.”
“I’m sorry, sir. Officers are scouring the city as we speak.”
“They had better find him. The rest of them aren’t ready—so, you had better come up with a reason to explain why this one was here before the others.”
“I have one, sir: he was the scout.”
“Scout?”
“He was sent to check the state of the city.” Reynold’s voice was cool and collected. “And whether the mob kills him or we catch him, the rest of the Echoes will descend upon the city in an act of revenge.”
The first man hummed. “Good. Good, yes. Now, on a related note, I thought we had engineered this set to be more easily captured and controlled. How is it A-077 was able to not only escape the facility unseen, but he was also able to avoid being recaptured?”
“A-077 has the power to manipulate water, sir.”
“Water?” The footsteps stopped. “That’s impossible!”
“I believe mutation was involved; it explains the greater power and may explain why he awakened before the others.”
“What does that mean?? They're supposed to have no power!! And if they did, it should have been fire!”
“‘Should’ is a key word in all of these instances, sir, but we are dealing with an outlier.”
“An outlier!”
“No one was expecting any of this, but the genetics team will determine what has happened.”
“I want to speak to them myself. Are they still here?”
“No, sir, but rest assured, we will figure this out as soon as possible.”
Footsteps immediately started towards them. Ace and Elliot now found themselves trapped between the occupied office down the hall and two men coming around the corner. The metal door into the room of beds was their only escape.
Ace jammed the knife into the door and triggered the lock. The two barely slipped into the darkened room and pushed the door closed as the footsteps rounded the corner.
The Echo held his breath with his hands still pressed against the door, listening as the footsteps continued past without stopping. Only then did he sigh with relief. “Oh my gosh, they really did give people Aravasti power—but why? Just to be captured again?” He paused and turned his head. “Elliot?”
Elliot, however, was struggling to breathe. His eyes darted from bed to bed, and he could hardly keep his hands clutched against his chest.
“Elliot,” Ace put his hand on his shoulder.
“I can’t—I can’t—be in here—”
“Okay; we just need to wait until we know it’s safe—”
“I can’t be in here—the wires, the beds—”
“Just—breathe for a second—”
Elliot shrieked, shoved Ace aside, and dove his entire body at the door to force it open. He staggered into the hallway and fell into a window-shaped square of moonlight on the floor.
“What was that?”
Ace grit his teeth in dismay and wavered out of sight as footsteps clattered into the hall.
“What—who are you?? How did you get in here?” A tall, olive-skinned man in a dark jacket stood in the hallway as a thinner, paler man with wavy hair remained behind him. A uniformed security guard from the monitoring room pushed past both of them and rushed at Elliot.
Ace darted out of the room and caused a burst of mist to blow across the ground.
The guard was thrown back into the taller man as the thinner man braced himself against the force. When the three recovered from the shock, they found Ace in a wide stance with veins of light fading from his arms. He stood protectively over Elliot, who was now gazing up at him with guilt in his eyes.
“Sir, that’s—” Cason attempted before the broad-shouldered man stepped in front of him.
“A-077,” he huffed an amused breath, “I certainly wasn’t expecting the Echo to come back of his own accord. And what’s this?” He leaned over to catch Elliot’s eyes around Ace’s knees. “You’ve already caught someone in your spell, hm?”
“I need answers,” Ace commanded, regaining his attention. He glanced out the corner of his eye when he heard the sound of more footsteps rushing from the other hall, and he instinctively stepped closer to Elliot. “I need to know what you did to me.”
“Is it not obvious?” He smiled condescendingly. “We brought you here to help awaken the power deep within you.”
“Yeah, that’s a load.” The Echo scowled. “I heard you talking about mutations and the other hundred captives you’ve got in there. You stole me from my home planet and gave me this power against my will. I want to know why and how.”
“Konstantin, if I may,” Cason drew closer to the broad-shouldered man. “I see no need to withhold the information he seeks.”
Konstantin looked down his nose at Cason, but conceded when he noticed the thin man’s knowing expression.
“I do apologize in the way this has been handled,” Cason began, “and I’ll start by introducing myself: I am Flint Cason, Lieutenant Commander of NAGI, or the New Arden Governing Institution. Beside me is Commander Konstantin. And you are?”
“The Outlier.” Ace drew a narrow smirk. Behind him, Elliot had stood up and was now glaring at Cason through his dark eyes.
“Fair enough.” Cason nodded, his lips curling. “I assume you’ve learned where you are and of the tension between Barea and Aravast that has riddled our history?”
“I’ve been made aware.”
Cason nodded, brushing dark waves from his forehead. “See, after Aravast’s self-destruction, we were shocked to find others rising up with the powers of the Aravasti, echoing back to the threat their people once caused. NAPA was increasingly pressed to do more to protect its citizens, while constantly threatened to be overthrown if we did not. And so, we took it upon ourselves to capture and take control of these ‘Echoes of Aravast’.”
“You had them executed.” Ace muttered coldly.
“We like to use the term ‘humanely euthanized’.”
Ace tensed as the security guards behind him inched closer. “What’s all this got to do with me?”
“Well, despite NAPA’s successes in overcoming this threat, we have found ourselves losing the respect of our people. They feel we have become lax; that because we have not found more Echoes, we simply must not be looking hard enough. They refuse to accept the threat has been diffused and choose only to criticize their saviors.”
“So, you’re creating a new batch in order to prove your dominance and regain your support.” Elliot sneered. “Distract the people from the real problems we’ve got here in New Arden by uniting them against a common enemy.”
Cason leaned to one side to get a better look at the Barean behind Ace. “Ah, no wonder you’ve chosen to take the side of an Echo. You’re undoubtedly one of the instigators who use your own opinions to drive away the others.”
Elliot practically shoved past Ace as he spat, “It’s not an opinion when my entire family dies in a hospital because your people deemed they weren’t important enough to save!!”
“Guards!” Konstantin barked.
“Stay back!” Light shot up Ace’s arm as a whirlwind of mist hissed around he and Elliot’s feet.
Konstantin glared at Cason. “We need to control this,” he hissed without unclenching his teeth.
His calm demeanor still withstanding, the lieutenant commander kept his eyes curiously upon Ace. “Interesting; you source the water from the air in order to manipulate it. That’s why tossing you into the canal only worked to your advantage. You’ve got quite the handle over it in such a short amount of time, too.”
“So, why capture me?” Ace maintained the misty veil across the ground. “Why not take your own people and do this??”
“Obviously we can’t use our own people, or they’d be recognized.” Cason’s lips curled again. “Your planet was one of many we procured our new breed of Aravasti from.”
Ace’s furrowed brows finally lifted as realization struck. He could remember it now; he had heard a noise out his window in the middle of the night and stepped outside to determine what it had been. Darkness fell, and his next memory was waking up in a bed, cold and confused, with no idea what would be in store for him.
“Besides,” Cason’s sneer widened, “you’ll all end up captured and executed in the end. We couldn’t lose our own resources that way.”
The light on his arms faltered as he gripped his hands tighter. “You people are sick!!” He shouted.
Cason’s eyes dropped to the mistless floor and nodded curtly.
On cue, the security guards rushed at the two in the middle of the hall. Ace could not react fast enough, and in a matter of moments his forearms were clamped into heavy bracers that poked uncomfortably into his wrists. Elliot was also torn away from him in the struggle.
Ace roared back to his feet the moment he was released, throwing his hands up to force the humid air into a blast of water.
He, instead, stood with his hands raised, wide-eyed and frozen in place as nothing happened. He winced and threw his arms at Cason when the thin man nonchalantly stepped forward.
“Try all you’d like; we’ve designed those clamps to stop your powers at their source.” He announced as Ace’s fingers curled.
Sure enough, while the veins of his arms filled with power, the pressure on his wrists effectively blocked its route to his fingertips.
A short beep behind him distracted his gaze, and one of the security guards pulled a small box away from Elliot’s neck.
“Elliot Craver. Thirty-three years old. Resident of New Arden’s Canal District.”
“Thank you,” Cason nodded to him. “Make a note of his arrest in our files.”
“On what charges?” Elliot shouted.
“Association with the enemy.” Cason offered a proud smile when Ace turned back to face him. “Thank you for bringing his traitorship to our attention.”
Without so much as a hesitation, the Outlier swung the metal shackle into the side of Cason’s head.
Elliot’s laugh blended with Cason’s cursing and Konstantin’s shouts as Ace faced the onslaught of security attempting to retain him. Ace, however, proved trickier to handle even without access to his powers. His lithe frame ducked and slid below punches and used the confusion to tug Elliot free. Both fled the scene and ducked around the corner down the other hall before Cason stood, clutching his bruised cheekbone as blood trickled from his nose.
He shoved past security and drew a taser gun from his waistband. A single shot down the hallway struck Ace in the back and dropped him to the ground. When Elliot faltered from surprise, a second shot pegged him in the shoulder.
Ace was still writhing against the electric pulse when Cason, flanked by security, ripped him from the ground by his neck.
“With your permission, sir,” Cason chewed the words as Konstantin stepped up behind him, “I believe we should detain The Outlier until we can determine his future use—if any—towards this project.”
“Certainly, Lieutenant.” A smile could be heard on Konstantin’s deep voice. “And what would you suggest for his Barean pet?”
“I have an idea, sir.”
Ace groaned, struggling to open his eyes as he was tossed like a rag doll between two security guards. He managed to find Elliot before he, too, was whisked away among the uniformed bodies that cluttered the scene. Wavering at the edge of consciousness, Ace shut his eyes as he was drug away into darkness.