Narrator-

"Well Frankly, I'm not even sure I get shocked anymore when some weird shit happens to one of us." Stated Khairo in a careless tone, as he slumped in his chair, a hand under his chin, with a bored expression on his face.

Jackson chose to ignore his comment once more, and instead said "okay so Lauren can go invisible, and apparently heal herself and others. Do you think we'd be able to count on you to heal one of us if the situation called for it again?" questioned Jackson, as he addressed Lauren.

"I don't think I'd care to." Was Lauren's snobby reply.

"Well you might want to reconsider if you plan on making it out of here alive princess." Khairo jumped as he stared down the spoiled princess, and all she had for his show of words was an air kiss, which Khairo scowled out, causing Lauren to smile.

"Valerie can somehow control people's minds, Adina can knock people down without touching them, and she flies. Do you think you can move an object without needing to fling them across a room?" asked Jackson as everyone turned to stare at Adina.

"I don't know. I mean I can try." She said, as Jackson shook his head, and stood up, and headed to lab's station looking for any object that could be easily moved.

There he found a half-filled bottle of water and placed it a distance away from Adina, then he looked at her and said, "Move it."

Adina looked at the object and tried to focus, but before she could do anything, Lauren's eyes suddenly glowed blue, and she felt attracted to the water.

She was barely a foot away when she lifted her hands, the water burst through the cap, and levitated above Lauren's open palm. She smiled as her eyes glowed bright with blue, then she turned and faced Adina, she threw the water ball towards Adina, and in her defense, Adina flung her hand towards the ball in hopes of moving it, but instead, the ball burst as Adina's energy collided with it.

Lauren gasped holding her head, then she snarled as she looked at Adina, her eyes going back normal.

"You Bitch!" screamed Lauren as she made her way to Adina, but before Lauren could catch her, Adina was no longer on the ground.

She was floating high above their heads as Lauren tried to catch onto her feet.

"Cat fight!" was Matthew's response.

"Hold her back!" said Jackson, as Khairo took hold of Lauren, forcing her down into a chair.

Lauren made a move to stand, when both of Khairo's palms lit up with fireballs and he simply sated with a smile "I don't think so princess."

Seeing this, Lauren released an angry breath but made the choice to remain seated.

Once Adina was sure she wasn't going to get attacked, she lowered herself down, her legs quavering, and her stomach moving about, queasy.

"You girls need to settle down, or else we won't make it out of here. From now on, no more using our powers against each other." Declared Jackson.

"Who died and made you captain?" questioned Khiran.

"Yeah, I don't remember anyone of us saying that you could go around making decisions for us. Should I remind you that you're not one of us?" Added Khairo as he supported his twin brother.

"We're not seriously about to have this repeat conversation, are we?" said Jackson exasperated. He was getting tired of the twins always on his back.

"We sure are!" protested Khiran.

"Why are they always arguing?" suddenly Adina heard Valerie's voice in her head.

"Valerie? I though you didn't speak English, how am I able to hear you speak so clearly?" asked Adina, the guys' voices arguing faded to the background.

"I don't know. My thoughts are in French, but maybe it's just how it works. But it seems that I can only talk to you. I've tried it with the others, their minds are too loud, they're too preoccupied to hear me." Explained Valerie.

"How come you controlled Matthew the other day?" questioned Adina.

"That I have no idea, I was trying to speak to him, and next thing I know, he is speaking French out loud. For some reason it was almost as though I could feel every part of him. I felt in control. But it was scary. I don't think I'd want to do that again." Stated Valerie, just as Khairo released a choice of colorful words towards Jackson.

"On second thought I might do it, just to get some peace and quiet." Joked Valerie, and Adina smiled.

"Anyway, our little secret?" stated Adina.

"Our little secret." Confirmed Valerie, before she retracted from Adina's thoughts.

"Alright enough!" boomed Matthew as he watched the twins quarrel with Jackson.

"Look, whether y'all like it or not, Jackson is the only one that knows the ins and outs of this place. He's gonna get us out if it means saving his own neck. Just cut him some slack." Reasoned Matthew, and the twins shook their head simultaneously and backed down.

Jackson looked towards Matthew, who quietly nodded and said "continue."

"Well, as we can see, Lauren has a new power, she can control water. Khairo can conjure fire, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't hesitate to burn things up, and he can morph into other people. Care to demonstrate that again?" asked Jackson has he faced Khairo.

Khairo shrugged but nevertheless, he stood. He tried to experience what he felt the first time Adina thought of him to be Jackson, and when he opened his eyes, Adina was staring at him in wonder. He felt something heavy covering his head, and when he lifted his hand, he had long hair cascading down his back.

"Dude you're a girl." Stated his brother, but before he could reply, he felt himself again.

"Thank you. So far, it seems only Matthew and Khiran have sustained one power each."

"Hey, don't jinx it man." Warned Matthew.

"Yeah, I don't need to go through any other random ugh-!" grunted Khiran mid-sentence, as his body went rigid, his fists tightening.

He grunted through gritted teeth as he felt as though his skin was burning up right before a harsh cold air kissed his skin, and slowly his skin began to change into clear ice.

The visible parts of Khiran's body were all made of crystal-clear ice, and even his mouth, nose, and eyes were ice.

"Bro, you look like- "

"The man of steel's cousin twice removed." Finished Khiran in wonder, observing his hands.

Adina and Jackson smiled at his joke, as his brother and Matthew began to laugh.

"Hey, you know I could easily use this to impress the girls." He stated as an after-thought.

"Yeah sure, very impressive." Stated Lauren sarcastically, but everyone chose to ignore her, as Khiran continued to observe his body.

He tested his abilities and was now able to conjure a blizzard from his palm.

He chuckled and said "yep, this is definitely a chick magnet."

Then he winked playfully at Adina, before he began feeling the ice warm on his skin. Khiran prepared to make another comment when he grunted again, his skin turning back to normal.

"But for now, just get used to transforming without cringing, or else you'll just scare the girls away." Advised his brother, clapping his palm against Khiran's back, as the others chuckled, and the conversation continued.

Everyone seemed somewhat at ease. There was no reason to hate each other's guts at this point, especially not under these new circumstances.

The atmosphere had become a bit lighter and friendlier, the tension was not as high, and the seven individuals in quadrant Exa found themselves getting closer to each other, without really meaning too.

Adina and Valerie appear to share an unexplainable bond, the twins welcomed Matthew into their brotherhood, Jackson, at times, was not always considered as the enemy or traitor, and there were moments when Lauren seemed respectful. But those moments where very brief, especially when it came to Jackson and Lauren.

"Isn't weird that your boss hasn't come to check up on us yet?" questioned Adina after a moment of silence.

"Well, they saw everything that happened before we shut off the cameras, I'm pretty sure they are currently brewing up a plan to screw us over." Stated Jackson and everyone tensed, knowing that this quiet moment was a silence before the storm.

What the Subjects didn't know was that, throughout the entire ordeal of their powers, the Head Scientist still had eyes on them. He used the cameras in the halls around the quadrant, given the transparent walls.

"I think we need to be ready for them when they do decide to show up. I mean they don't know about the rest of our powers, so we still have the element of surprise on our side." Observed Matthew.

"He's right. And since we have powers now, we might as well use them to our advantage." Stated Khiran.

"We're going to need to learn to control them, or else they will backfire on us, no pun intended Khairo." noted Jackson.

Khairo frowned, missing the pun by two seconds.

Jackson, seeing this simply continued "If you guys are willing to work with me, I won't mind it if we helped each other train. What do you say?"

"Well that's just rich isn't it. First you 'betray' your old crew, get yourself strapped in here, and at the first sign of trouble, you're already acting like we're a team, when a month ago, you were on the other side of that door, while a fair amount of innocent people were dropping like flies. How do we know you're not a double agent? Huh? Just because we've listened to you a few times doesn't mean we trust you." Snapped Khairo, he was always suspicious of Jackson.

Once a traitor always a traitor.

"Okay, I have to disagree with you there, if he was a double agent, do you think he would risk dying, or turning into some random creature just to gain our trust? Come on, just be logical for a minute." Argued Adina, she was becoming restless at them for constantly attacking Jackson.

"Yeah, plus let's say he actually gets us out of here, if he decides to screw us over, the rest of us have enough powers to take him out." Explained Matthew.

"Why don't we just walk out that door now? Tear this lab up, why wait on his call?" sneered Khairo, he wasn't ready to back down.

He was used to being the star, the captain, the one calling all the shots.

"Because this place is a maze within a maze, with many traps, you would never see the light of day again, unless you know the kinks of this place. Which I do, so once again, you have no other choice but to trust me. You can fight me every step of the way, but frankly, I'm your only shot at making it out of here. What do you say?" stated Jackson calmly as he extended a palm to Khairo.

Everyone stood, waiting for his decision, if Khairo said no, there was no way they could do it without him.

Khairo looked at his twin and saw his answer in his reflection's eyes. Khairo would do this for him.

"If any harm comes to that man standing behind you because of your stupid plan, I will burn you alive." Was how Khairo agreed to Jackson's offer, shaking his hand afterwards.

Jackson shook his head in understanding, his eyes quickly flashing to Adina, she was staring at him, and for some reason that made his heart jump for a second.

"Okay, so first, we try to master the first powers we developed. Let's start with Khiran. Let's have you, throw an ice ball at the wall with the body count board. Just one." Stated Jackson, as everyone stood back.

Khiran smiled, and took a stance with his legs apart, his shoulders square. He cracked his neck and stretched his fingers. Then with a pulse of his palm, an ice ball came alive.

Everyone backed away, and Khiran sent the ball flying. But just as he made the gesture to throw the ball, five icicles formed at each of his fingers, and as he threw the ball, the icicles went flying as well.

The spikes plunged into the glass, each leaving a web of cracks to mark their intrusion.

"Holy shit!" breathed Khiran, as he stared down at his hands.

He was really starting to love this icy ability.

"Okay, well that's new. Khairo, you're next." Jackson called up the other twin.

"Stand back." Was his smug warning, as Khairo made his way to where his brother was previously standing.

Khairo without hesitation conjured two fireballs, one at each palm. He was prepared to throw it when the flames maximized and danced up his arms.

"Woah!" exclaimed Adina as everyone took a step back.

The flames licked at Khairo's skin, his eyes burning orange in reflection of the burning flames. By the second Khairo's entire body was getting engulfed by the flames.

As instinct began to kick in, Lauren felt a rush in her ears. She could hear the water from the plumbing system running all around her. She heard it whisper and peck her skin, she felt her body and the water become one. Then suddenly, Lauren had water gushing from her palms, drenching Khairo completely until his flames were totally out.

"Okay! Okay!" coughed Khairo, his hair plastering to his forehead, his clothes drenched, and not a scratch on his body.

"Bro what the hell was that?" snapped Khiran, the worry for his brother evident in his voice.

"I'm fine, I don't know what happened, but I'm fine." He assured them, but then his mouth dropped, and everyone turned to see what he was staring at, and yet again, they found shock taking over their bodies, as they marveled at the image before their eyes.

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Hey guys!

Soooooo, cliffhanger after cliffhanger!

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-Tania.