Elementals

The Experiment

Gunner must've seen the look on my face because he began speaking with a much gentler tone. "I'm so sorry, Marc. Typically everyone knows they've been adopted by the time they enter our program."

I swallowed the massive frog in my throat before attempting to speak again. "They never told me that."

"Well, I'm sure they thought it was for the best to keep you in the dark. Try to give you an ordinary life."

I said the first thing that came to my mind. "I could have gotten so much more money in scholarships if I'd known that though." Now you might think this was a weird revelation but I promise you it's the only thing on any college kid's mind.

Gunner laughed at the statement. His laugh was almost like a bark but somehow was also comforting. The first sign of him being a normal human being.

"So tell me more about these experiments." I said as I felt more comfortable in my surroundings.

"Well, they began with a couple of children but soon spread to almost every adoption agency by the late 1990's. The FDA allowed Wallace to perform life saving surgeries on babies that were in critical condition after childbirth. Each baby was implanted with enhanced neurological pathways that allow them to have special abilities. Imagine taking a car and adding a third or fourth engine under the hood. But, soon the FDA found out that she was doing procedures that weren't specified in her earlier research. As well as her no longer restraining to critical patients only. This caused them to shut down the whole thing, but they never realized that those babies are still out there, whether in the foster system, adopted, such as yourself, or roaming the streets somewhere. They were spread across entire countries. That brings us to now."

"So you find these babies and what? I mean she was just saving lives right? What makes them... uhh us, I guess, any different." I inquired.

"Well, in the later years, those procedures that she didn't tell the FDA about? They weren't just making dying babies live. They were giving them the abilities. Now, she was just playing around with a couple of neurons but we soon found out that these abilities made them able to control things outside of their own bodies."

"Like superpowers?" I asked, starting to feel that little kids who used to watch superheroes fly off the pages of comic books get a little too excited.

"Um, kind of, I guess you could say that." Gunner stood up and began walking towards the doorway. "I guess it's time to show you around a little bit. Ya know, get the lay of the land."

I began to get up and follow him but something stopped me, I hesitated before asking "where exactly are we?"

"Well, we're underground, in Arizona."

My eyes must have popped out of my head because I was so bewildered. I can't believe I'm in Arizona, I must be hundreds of miles from home and I have...

Gunners words brought me right out of my swirling thoughts. "Is that a problem?"

"Umm I mean kind of, I have to be at a lecture tomorrow at 8am... but I have a feeling I'm not going to make it."