Spectrum ⇒ Avengers [ 1 ]

Otherworldly

I finish wrapping the bandages around myself as Edward puts a metal box onto the table next to me. The painkillers are strong- I've taken about four, which probably won't be good for me, but the burning has receded to a sort of faint throbbing in my skin. It's like going from a machete stabbing me, to a kitchen knife, which you wouldn't think would be an improvement, but it is. Vastly.

"That's it?"
"This is it." He confirms. "All of it."
I swallow, staring at the shining metal of the box that seems to glow in the light, and wipe my clammy hands against my thighs. I don't trust him at all. I know that he's desperate to get away, and desperate to get rid of me, but the box is stamped with Nemesis in bold lettering, and he hasn't touched it since he took it out of the cupboard.

I reach over and flip the lid open, clattering onto the table, and look at the three bottles inside- three bottles with a deep, glittering green liquid inside. It's the sort of thing that screams Do Not Inject, but I know I have to take the risk. I'm not bulletproof anymore, and I don't have a weapon, save for a gun with limited bullets- and my unwillingness to kill is also a problem.

I need to get to Peter. Peter's my priority.

"Alright." I press a fist to my lips. "Alright. Let's do this. And if I even start to bloody twitch the wrong way-"
"I presume you'll kill me." Edward says, looking tired. "I'll go and find a syringe."

I don't want to move, but I know that I don't have long- and this could be my only chance to look around a laboratory owned by Arachne Alkaev. As Edward starts opening cupboards in search of a syringe, I carefully stand up, gripping the table with one hand for support.
"Where are Freya and Jo?" I ask, making my way slowly, painfully, towards the other side of the room.
"Who?" He asks, puzzled, glancing back over at me.
I grit my teeth. "Gaia and Clio- you don't even know their real names?" I demand. He blanches, his neck prickling a deep shade of red.
"We weren't- we weren't told their names." He mutters. "They're in holding cells on the other side of the compound. I think it's cells 19-62 and 19-80?"
"Great." I grumble. I'm really going to have to find a map of this place. "How do I open the cells?"
"There's a master control room, but you'll never reach it alive. It's at the end of the hallway, and as soon as they realise you're missing-"
"Shut up." I rasp. "Would this room open the cell I was in, too- the box?"
"Of course. It controls the whole compound."

I frown at the sight of a long, slender box lying on a table on the work station I'm approaching. The colour blue hangs in the air around me, but no ones speaking- I look over my shoulder in a panic, but the lab is bare as ever. What's going on?

Brynn...

My head snaps back to the box, and I take slow steps towards it- it's glowing a faint blue, hypnotic and enchanting.

Come and play, Brynn...

I pull the box up, shoving it aside and staring at the object underneath. It's some kind of staff, or sceptre, made of gold and engraved with patterns I don't understand- they don't look like anything I've ever seen before. But at the tip of the sceptre is a blue gem, a stone that seems to be creating a light all of its own.

Pick me up, Brynn, become one with me...

My hand extends to the gem, slowly, my fingers quivering and crusted with blood, and they're millimetres from touching the stone when Edward shouts in alarm, the yellow cutting into the blue like a siren.

"Don't touch that!"
My hand recoils like I've been burnt, and I turn to see him looking terrified, clutching a syringe.
"Don't, don't lay a finger on it."