As The World Turns Cold

Trapped

He smiled warmly at her. "You're a lot prettier than I expected. Then again, being stuck in this monstrous place for this long makes me expect the worst for everything."

As soon as he spoke Mercy came to her senses, snapping out of the trance she had been in. She snarled, holding back the flutter in her chest with the cruel words spewing from her mouth. "What do you want?"  

Her gaze stay trained on the young man's own. There was something about the way his golden eyes flickered in the light of the torches that made Mercy uneasy.

The boy put his hands up in the air. "Take it easy. If I wanted to hurt you I probably could have done it by now."

"You wouldn't get the chance. The minute you stepped closer to me, I'd find a way to reverse the roles. I wouldn't go down easily." Mercy pushed against the metal surrounding her limbs.

"I may be confined, but I assure you if you threaten me, I will do whatever I can to fight back." She growled. "Who are you and how do you know about my existence?"

He crossed his arms at his chest. "Settle down, Tiger. You aren't the only person here who was taken by the government to 'save' your family. I've suffered as much torture as you, probably more. We've all sacrificed a lot for the sake of 'family' and what little good that did." His eyes narrowed in on the metal around her arms.

"Actually together we make up everyone who was sacrificed for this project." His hand floated above the metal and Mercy could feel the bolts twisting out of their casing. One by one they floated into the air before he waved his hand to the left. The bolts knocked against the wall in a range of motion, burying deep within the cement walls.

Mercy flexed her wrist gingerly. She was too afraid to make any sudden moves, worried that he'd have a syringe in her back the moment she acted.

For now, she'd allow herself only the movement of soothing her wounded wrist. Mercy scowled. Her wrist was bloody. The new, pink skin of scar tissue had opened again after the day's events. A bruise crept up the length of her forearm. She bit back a moan and looked up at him. "Again, I say, who are you?"

The stranger ran a hand through his hair and smiled softly before speaking. "The name's Rogue. Knight in Shining Armor is also an option if you wish it."

"Knight in Shining Armor, huh?" Mercy glanced at his attire. A white lab coat didn't exactly scream "savior", much less anything close to a knight. "You're not in the right suit for that nickname."

"Ah, but that's where you go wrong, girl. I wore this suit so I could, in fact, save you." He shrugged, his dark hair tumbling in front of his eyes again. Mercy's fingers twitched with the urge to fix it. "Simple, really, I could have rescued you days ago. Now, what do I get in return?"

"For saving me?" She chuckled. "I have nothing to give nor do I want to give you anything. I'm still here aren't I? You've merely unclipped my bondages. No real saving was done."

He bit his lip. "There's only so much I can do when they've administered R500, my own personal kryptonite, in my veins. As uncool as this may be, it was kind of hard to move that much titanium metal."

He glanced back at the recent holdings she had been locked in. "I've never seen them restrain someone with that much before. They insulated my room like an insane asylum, but this," he gestured around her damp, titanium cage of a room, "is something truly horrifying."

Mercy shrugged and began to stand. She rose slowly, deliberately, to gauge his reaction. "I suppose I should thank you. I'm semi-free and it's not like I've known anything else besides all of this metal for years. Even if I manage to escape someday, I don't know how I'd react to everything. This is all I can remember. This entrapment is normal for me." She nodded her head in thanks.