Heroes

Chapter 13. Nate's powers aren't real?

"Mat?" Jack asked incredulously as our eyes adjusted to the darkness. "Morgan? Steph?"
"Mark, Jack!" They all replied happily.
"How long have you guys been here?" I asked.
"We've been here since Nate left," Morgan said matter-of-factly.
"Left where?" Jack asked just before I could ask the same thing.
"Looking for you guys, I assume. He didn't say where he was going."
"And how did the cell get fixed?" I asked, looking around at the newly restored room.
"It was broken?" Morgan seemed confused by my question; they all did.
"Yeah, don't you guys remember?"
They all shook their heads at me, excluding Jack obviously.
"It was intact when we came in here," Steph told me.
"Wait a minute," Jack started. "Are you guys telling us that you saw Nate? Like, actually saw him?"
Morgan, Mat and Steph looked between themselves before Mat said, "Well, no...but we heard him."
"We hear him all the time. You guys made it sound like you actually saw him," I said. I hadn't realised I'd been holding my breath waiting for one of them to answer. 
"We need to find him," I said to the group. They all turned to stare at me like I was crazy.
"Why do you need him?" Jack asked after a period of silence. I wasn't sure why they were looking at me like that.
"He's an important part of our escape plan," I explained to them, but they continued to just stare at me.
"If you guys won't help me, I'll find him by myself."
"Wait, wait, wait, Mark! Are you sure you need him? What about us?" Morgan asked me, almost urgently.
"You guys are important too, but I need him...and his powers."
That's what I shouldn't have said. They looked at one another, then back to me without saying anything, but I could tell they were all thinking the same thing: Nate can't help us. It was etched into their expressions so clearly it might as well have been written on their faces in marker.
"Ok, what do you guys have against Nate?" I demanded, suddenly desperate for answers. "Whenever the topic turns to him, you try and change it or you just don't respond properly. I want to know what's so terrible about him that you all refuse to talk about him." 
I wasn't angry yet but I would soon be getting that way; I had serious anger management issues. I waited for one of them to respond and, finally, Morgan did.
"Well, you see, Mark...he's different...from us..."
"In what way?"
"His powers aren't...um...real." She whispered the last word and I had to ask her to say it again.
"They're not real."
"His powers aren't real?" My head was filling with questions but I let Morgan explain.
"You see, he wasn't the first guy here. Someone else was, I forgot who. Someone else like us. Nate came after him. But Nate didn't have powers when he was brought here. He was just insane. Apparently. That's what his parents told the place, so they took him in. But the doctors, they were planning something. Experimenting with something. Trying to create more people like...that other guy. I don't know how they did it, but they managed to extract some of his power. And the first person they tried it on was...Nate."
I was listening with rapt attention. Already, my heart was beating faster.
"But it didn't work. He got powers, all right, but...something else happened. That wasn't expected. And it's utterly confusing as to how this actually happened but...the thing, the serum that they gave Nate tried to turn him into something else."
"Into what?" I asked desperately.
"An animal."
My mind had a sudden flashback to that time I saw that scales on his hand. Now it made sense. Flipping back to the present, I looked at everyone else to see that they were looking at the floor, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone else.
"Is there no way of reversing it or something?" I asked them, but they all shook their heads.
"Not that anyone knows of."
Everyone became subdued after that. We were all quietly thinking. I was thinking about Nate. To have been cast out by your own parents because they thought you were insane, to being forced to take a serum which tries to change your physical form? I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. No wonder he spent all his time behind a closed door.
"So none of you guys have seen him though, correct?" I had to ask.
"No, none of us have seen him."
"I think it's time we found Nate...and see him for the first time."