Time Warp: Prisoner (Open)

[Lani Hunter]

September 2010

This couldn't be right. Nothing made sense. His head hurt all the time and his parents had thrown him here to be locked away. Lani had had panic attacks when he was younger, this terrifying situation was bringing Lani closer and closer to the brink. Only this time his breaks in composure and sanity came with a deadly show of power. Oh god, he held his head in his hands, what if he had killed someone? He shook his head when someone tried to speak to him. He'd been dumped off with this trainer almost as soon as he got here. This was a dream. Hammel was a dream. He'd wake up eventually and there wouldn't be people who could fly and people who could start fires with a thought and most importantly he wouldn't be able to move things without touching them. Two days had passed since that terrifying moment that Lani's head exploded and with it went the rest of the street in Boston. They kept telling him that everything was going to be fine. They were going to teach him. But things weren't fine. Things were never going to be fine! Lani'd spent seventeen years going through life with his own hands and never imagining that this world existed and they wanted him to just accept it?

"I don't fucking want it! Take it back!" Lani screamed the training room in shambles. This was a conversation that he had been having with surprising frequency considering the time he'd been here. The delinquent couldn't keep himself from throwing things when he thought about anything. Hell this morning his poor alarm clock had taken a deadly flight into the wall. As usual the trainer replied that there was nothing he could do in that regard. "Isn't there someone who can take away powers? I don't want this! I want my old life back!" He yelled. He wanted his life back where he was safe and didn't have to worry about hurting anyone. The trainer deflected a stray tennis ball that had decided to make the trainer his target. "Make it stop!" Lani screamed and the world shook around him. No, that wasn't right, he was shaking the world! Lani panicked, he didn't want this power. No one should have this kind of power.

Lani wanted to go back to his family, back to his boss, back to people who knew him without knowing him. These were new people and he didn't know what they were capable of, he hadn't grown up with these people, they were not his friends from back in Boston and he didn't want them to be. He wanted to leave this place. He wanted to be the best thief he could be, he wanted to work hard at what he was good at. These were new people, he didn't have the support network of thieves he'd had in Boston, this was all new and Lani had to keep his face hidden. Anger was easy, anger was good at covering the fear. The trainer gave a sigh and lifted his hands, almost as if giving up. "Alright, Lani, I know this is still new, let's give it a few days and let this all sink in, alright? Maybe that'll give your mind a bit of time to heal from that blast." "Whatever," The sour telekinetic replied. The trainer left and Lani stood uncertain of what to do now. His dorm room was bare, his parents were supposed to come in a few days with a few things. Lani swallowed. He felt like he'd been sent to prison. He was a prison here and he couldn't leave so long as this power kept on being a pain.

How had this happened to him? What had he done wrong to get this thrown at him. Anger grew in the teen and Lani gritted his teeth rage flowing through his veins. His power clawed at his mind and unable to stop it, unable to do anything it lashed out into the real world and Lani covered his head in terror as everything started to shake and everything raged around him. Things were flying everywhere and the agony in his skull making it all worse. Why would anyone want this power. The trainer said his mind was blasted open, that it was wounded in a sense. Lani shook his head. He had to get out of here. He fumbled his way to the door and it blasted itself open and Lani sprinted from the building. He wasn't sure he could leave, they made it seem like he couldn't and they had security. He instead crossed the fields. It was just starting to get dark but Lani'd never had a problem with navigating dark places. His power raged all the while and Lani found himself trying to run from it and he saw the lights and the fence up ahead and he built up himself to climb it.

[Vincent Romanov]

Vincent had a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and today was no different. He was walking the perimeter of the school as usual and as usual, nothing seemed wrong at first. The training field was relatively quiet and life outside the fence seemed calm as well. He was just about to radio in to the security office that all was clear and quiet when he caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of his eye. Turning to better see what was coming his way, Vincent stopped dead in his tracks. He narrowed his eyes on the figure of a boy who seemed to be running straight for the fence. Vincent raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner and sighed. Usually the kids knew better than to try and scale the fence and walls which surrounded Hammel, but every now and again, there were the few who just didn't seem to learn.

As the boy closed in on the fence and Vincent, Vincent took a harder look at the situation. This wasn't exactly what he thought it was, the boy was clearly in a frenzy of some sort. "Really?," Vincent said to himself as he knew this moment was about to erupt into a whirlwind of insanity. The boy, Lani, appeared to have lost control of his ability and like all creatures who panic, he was making a break for somewhere he felt safe, and that clearly wasn't anywhere on campus. "Why me?," Vincent muttered as he felt that bit of worry creep up across his back and neck and wash over him. He had no idea of this boy's power and what he could and would do. Vincent had no real choice though, he had to stop the boy before he broke the confines of Hammel and started some serious crap in town. Anything the boy destroyed here at Hammel was easily taken care of, but if he managed to escape and hurt anyone outside of Hammel or caused any sort of damage to the town, then things would get very messy real quick. There were all sorts of anti-meta crazies out there who would use a situation like that as a reason to start some sort of crusade against the school and those who lived there.

Rolling his neck back and forth, Vincent readied himself for whatever this boy had to throw at him. Hopefully the boy would stop if he saw Vincent or at least the boy had a power Vincent could deal with in some fashion or another. As Lani neared even closer though, Vincent began to feel a rumble about the area and knew this was heading toward the more ugly side. It wasn't hard for Vincent to narrow down the possibilities of what the boy could do, after all, he had seen a lot in his years here at the school. "Come on kid, let's not do this!," Vincent yelled at the boy, reading himself to do what he could to confine the kid to school grounds.

[Lani Hunter]

They told him it was normal to be freaked out, but Lani had seen the kids around here. they were just that, kids. They didn’t have to live in the real world yet, this couldn’t be possible. Lani didn’t want this, he wanted to go back to normal, or what his strange sense of normal was, the normal where he didn’t have this insane power. It roared like a dragon in his mind and lashed out just as viciously. Lani didn’t want to be here. He needed to get out, he had to get out. He’d just find someone to make his power go away. Or he’d wake himself up. The fear and desperate need to be away was starting to get into his power and it was starting to push things away. He couldn’t breathe, he was terrified. He wanted it to stop, he wanted it all to stop. The turbulence in his head was translating into the real world, a turbulence he could usually hide had transitioned between the plane of mind and the plane of physical.

So desperate, Lani was doing the only thing he knew how to do. Run. He was attempting to run from something that was suck in his head. He was so caught up that he didn’t in fact notice the man standing by the fence until he called out. Lani’s heart jumped in terror and he skidded. He was a thief for heaven’s sake, he should be better at thinking on his toes, and normally he was, normally he’d have changed course so swiftly he’d barely break a stride. Normally he also would have noticed someone standing right in his path, but this was obviously a place where normalcy took a back seat to magic or witchery or whatever it was these people wanted to call this thing that they could do. This thing that he could do. Lani didn’t know who this guy was or what he was here for but he was currently in Lani’s way and Lani wanted to be away.

Somehow that single thought translated and Lani’s power focused and struck out at the man grabbing him and the will to move him translated into action and Lani’s breath caught. His hands flew forward to defend himself from whatever happened next. It was just like last time. Oh god! “No!” He barely heard himself cry, as if he was standing far away watching the scene. He couldn’t stop it. He didn’t want to hurt anyone but his instinct to get away overtook the desire with the stronger emotion and his power collided with the man all of the force that had lifted a car or too in desperation focused now on lifting this man and moving him out of the way. The power flowed harmlessly through the man himself but the clothing was more than fair game to his power. Lani groped into the air with his hands as if he were trying to pull it back. The power obeyed and flashed back into Lani’s mind like a whip. He closed his eyes and held onto his head with hands as agony tore through his mind. The damage was done. Unable to think of anything else to do he ran parallel for a short distance and using well trained skills leapt and caught the top of the fence with his fingers. As far as Lani knew he’d completely flattened the man.

[Vincent Romanov]

It wasn't hard for Vincent to figure out what Lani's power was, especially after he was hit with the telekinetic wave. Lucky for Vincent the boy wasn't exactly in any sort of control of his ability or things could have gone a lot different. The power was directed to dislodge Vincent, to crush him as the security chief could best guess. Even with his ability, Vincent could still feel the push of Lani's raw power trying to move him. The coat Vincent wore was torn at the seems in almost every place and thank goodness his pants were still in some manageable state. If Lani had been in some control of his ability, he could probably dislodged Vincent by actually trying to pick him up instead of just slamming the telekinetic power against him. Vincent's own power absorbed most of the initial force of the attack, giving Vincent enough power to make his next move, because with Lani's next action, Vincent was clearly going to need it.

Shaking his head a little to gain his bearings, Vincent saw Lani just in time to guess what was coming next. Vincent had been trained in this sort of area, to judge your enemy's next move and try to counter. As Lani bolted along beside the fence, Vincent was already moving as well. The much younger boy was quick and certainly had speed on his side compared to the older and much larger Vincent. Lucky for Vincent, he had managed to stay withing about two steps of Lani because when Lani jumped and scrambled against the fence, catching the top of it, Vincent was able to grab the younger boy's ankle, with much effort and scrambling of his own. Vincent's body weight probably would have been enough to pull the boy from the fence, but Vincent wasn't really one to ever do things the easy way. As his feet found solid ground again, Vincent pulled rather roughly on Lani's leg, using the stored power from Lani's previous attack against the boy himself. "No you don't," Vincent muttered as he did his best to not really hurt the boy as the kid was just scared, not really trying to just go AWOL. However, keeping Lani inside the grounds was first priority for Vincent.

Vincent felt the boy sort of slip from the fence as Lani's body seemed to move all that much closer. Side stepping just some to avoid Lani's body and to allow the boy to fall somewhat uncomfortably against the ground, Vincent winced just a tiny bit figuring this probably wasn't going to feel all that well for Lani. On the bright side though, hopefully the initial shock of hitting the ground would jolt Lani just enough to snap the boy out of his state of shock to reign in the telekinetic power pouring out from him.

[Lani Hunter]

This was impossible, Lani kept telling himself, if he could only get away he could handle this and he’d wake up from this dream. This nightmare! Seventeen years of his life, day in and day out were all normal, no powers, no headaches. It was like the pressure he’d always felt in his mind had finally burst when he needed it and it had opened the door to so much more. The world felt more vivid. That in and of itself was stranger. It didn’t look any different but it felt different. He didn’t just gain a power his whole perception of the world had to change because it wasn’t how he’d always imagined it. Lani didn’t know how to do anything with this thing that he had and he didn’t want it. In a sense he was trying to throw it away but it was so deeply engrained that the power lashed out when he tried to throw. It didn’t make any sense. He felt the fabric and the threads as if he were running his fingers over every fiber, and that alone let him know that someone was inside of them but never did he feel the person.

He didn’t meant to blast the person with his power, he didn’t know who this person was or why he was here or anything anymore. Lani’s arms started hauling him upward and his body jerked back and he let out a shocked gasp as he felt a sudden weight on his ankle. He instinctively tried to kick out but the force pulled him down stronger and his fingers slipped from wall and he did just as expected. “Woah!” He fell back and landed on his feet but his backward momentum dumped him on the ground on his rump. He looked up at the man and his eyes glanced over him very quickly. He wasn’t wearing a uniform but he had the physicality of cop and that alone made Lani nervous. The pain in his head was threatening to split his mind apart. He swallowed and sprang to his feet, he wouldn’t be met on the ground.

His power coiled and he felt it take aim in his mind and he swallowed gritting his teeth in attempt to hold it back. He took a step back and his power poured forth with nothing to stop it. It was like grinding salt against an open wound and Lani gritted his teeth and his hands went to his head as if he could physically contain it. “Stop!” He shouted, more pleading in his voice than he wanted but his desire for it to stop did something at least. It all rushed back into his head and battered against his skull as he tried to contain it. Dead leaves and twigs along with smaller rocks and other strange objects that Lani hadn’t even realized he’d picked up started to rain down around them. Lani didn’t understand what was going on and he did what he always did when things were confusing, he lashed out and got angry. Unfortunately that also destroyed any form of control he had and his power leaked out. He growled in frustration. “Leave me alone!” He snapped at the man. He was angry but what if he hurt this guy, his shirt was already in shreds. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, it wasn’t his fault! Lani turned on his heel and stalked along the wall his power pushing at it now and again as if trying to find the ideal place to bust it open.

[Vincent Romanov]

Vincent stood, motionless and a bit worried. Lani was clearly out of control and with his power, that made him dangerous. Telekinetics were walking bombs in Vincent's opinion. Lani wasn't the first telekinetic the man had dealt with, and Lani wouldn't be the last. From Vincent's other encounters with telekinetics, he had learned the hard way to give them space, even if that seemed rather stupid. Sure, Vincent could have put the smaller boy down with one well placed punch, but this was a kid, a scared kid in a strange place with some really strange people. No, Lani needed reassurance, he needed something to anchor him and calm the power raging from him.

Vincent looked around, taking note of the rocks and twigs and other pieces of debris which were being levitated into the air by Lani's power. Vincent's own shirt was ragged from the boy's first 'attack', and he knew things were heading in a very bad direction. A few guards were already running toward Vincent and Lani, but Vincent held up his hand, signalling his men to stop where they were at. The guard slowed and then stopped a safe enough distance from the scene. Lani was fighting to contain the power inside him and Vincent sort of felt a pang of sorrow as Lani had only Vincent to help him. Vincent wasn't good at this stuff, emotional support and what not. He was a soldier. He was just an expendable game piece on the board, doing exactly what he was told to do. Lucky for Lani though, Vincent had seen enough soldiers back during his time in the military sort of just break down in the heat of battle. Vincent knew how to deal with that, how to get your men to focus on their mission, but unfortunately, Lani had no mission to focus on.

The small rocks and other debris fell from the sky around Vincent and Lani, showing that Lani had managed to grab control of his power for a moment. This peaceful moment lasted only a few seconds though as Lani shouted once again and Vincent felt a bit of a stronger push against his body this time. Lani could have tossed Vincent around like a rag doll if he was focused enough. "This ain't gonna be good," Vincent muttered to himself while Lani staggered to the perimeter, his power pulling and pushing against the fence, causing it to groan and creak. Vincent had to stop this boy and stop him now before anyone got hurt.

Vincent slowly stalked Lani as the boy staggered around the fence, trying to give Lani just enough breathing room. "Listen kid, I don't know what's going on with you, but I do know I can't let you leave, not like you are right now. I let you through that fence and trust me, you're gonna be in a whole new mess. You stumble into town with your power flailing around like that and a lot of innocent people are gonna get hurt and when that happens, then the local cops are gonna come in and trust me on this, they won't think twice about putting you down by any means necessary," Vincent sort of said loudly to Lani, not sure if any of what he was saying was going to have any positive influence or even if the boy heard his pleas at all.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani didn’t even know the first thing about controlling this thing. He just thought about something and it happened and when his emotions went haywire it was like there was nothing stopping him. The power rushed through him and he was starting to feel more and more like a channel for the greater power. Lani was backing away and he wanted to run away from this. Running was what he did best and yet he couldn’t run from this thing that was connected to him. How was he going to keep his life? He just wanted to go back. Go back to his boss and back to his sister and parents. Back to things that made sense. He paid back his debt yet, how was he supposed to accomplish that while he was trapped here. How was he supposed to keep this from his boss? It wasn’t like it was easy to hide with things flying everywhere.

Catching the man’s movement Lani’s eyes followed the motion and saw the other people. He backed up quickly away from the approaching people and away from this man. There wasn’t much that Lani could grab out here, which was good, for some reason the trees merely rustled but Lani couldn’t grab them. He didn’t understand what was happening. He just wanted to be gone. Lani turned and he wanted to run, he wanted to fly out of here but his head was aching and he gritted his teeth as the world pitched around him fading from what he saw and things that he could feel. There was a knowing that came along with his vision. Lani swallowed and turned backing from the man but his eyes locked into the older man, he was not going to turn his back to these people. He backed up and a hand went out to touch the fence as he paralleled it. Lani’s heartbeat quickened and his eyes narrowed. “I don’t want to hurt anyone!” He cried, why didn’t they understand that, why couldn’t they fix this? He’d already hurt people, a lot of people, he knew.

His breath caught, trapped. He couldn’t leave here. The thought of being locked in here took the thief’s fear of prison and honed in on his panic. “I want to go home!” He continued, feeling very childish, but he wanted to see his parents. They would know what to do. Then again, they had been the ones who had sent him here, he’d almost taken out his father with their kitchen table. They wanted to be rid of him, he was dangerous and they were going to lock him in here forever! He should be ashamed being caught like this, but granted, he’d flown toward the fence like holy terror, it was no wonder someone noticed. Lani gritted his teeth and put two and two together. This wasn’t a school it was a prison, this wasn’t just a man he was a guard. Like he said, he wasn’t going to let Lani leave.

Lani’s power and he suddenly snapped into agreement and Lani’s eyes flashed. “Stay back!” He warned his voice turning to a snarl and his eyes narrowing dangerously. A hundred things rushed into Lani’s mind at once, things that he couldn’t see were appearing in his knowledge base and the world got confusing again. The focus was lost and his power fell apart and crashed harmlessly over the ground. His mind was being struck like a hammer and Lani was working on very little but habit. He’d survived this long without telewhatevertheycalledit. See, telling Lani that he wasn’t allowed to leave pretty much made it a challenge for the thief and it was a challenge he accepted. He watched the man carefully. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, he wasn’t going to go into town he just needed to be out. Lani’s fight or flight response deliberated and flight won over and Lani ran. He sprinted along the fence his eyes looking for the perfect variables that would get him up and over quickly… there. A tree with low hanging branches and just the right distance. Lani would earn his escape.

[Vincent Romanov]

Vincent watched the boy all the while his mind ran through several different possible outcomes to this stand off. Vincent wanted to end this with little to no harm coming to Lani. The boy was scared, hell, Vincent was scared. Out of control students were always present at Hammel, but that didn't make them any less dangerous. Vincent could have ended this quickly, but in the end that wouldn't accomplish anything. It would only make Lani's fear of this place and his ability even greater. Hammel wasn't a prison, it was a place of security and safety, for everyone. Vincent had no idea of what this kid had been through prior to being brought to Hammel. He could have had a horrible family life, maybe felt he had been betrayed by those he thought loved him? The list was endless and Vincent had seen it all. Whatever reason Lani was running, wasn't enough to excuse Vincent from trying to stop him. Vincent had a job and it had to be done.

Every time Lani took a step back from Vincent, Vincent took one toward him. Keeping this proximity was crucial. If the boy bolted, Vincent had to be close enough to give chase. Judging from the look in Lani's eyes and the tone of his voice as he yelled at Vincent suggested Lani was going to take off any minute. "I know you want to go home kid, I get it. You can home, just not right now. You..," Vincent said, being cut off before he could finish. Lani wasn't going to make this easy....None of them ever did. In an instant, Lani took off and Vincent reacted. The kid was fast and had youth on his side. Thankfully Vincent was trained for things like this. He managed to keep pace with Lani, although the kid threatened to put some distance between them. Vincent's ability wasn't enough to help him run the kid down and so he used what extra juice he had to support his stamina. He knew Lani was gonna find the earliest exit he could and that meant Vincent had to think of something fast.

The guards at Hammel didn't carry guns or any other sort of weapons because these were just kids here, plus every guard was a meta. Being meta was required by Hammel in order to be a security guard. It was a sound and logical rule, one even Vincent could understand. Even if Vincent carried a weapon, he wasn't about to use it on a scared kid or any kid for that matter.

Lani's speed and direction changed a little and Vincent soon saw why. The trees. He had told the Headmistress having trees so close to the fence wasn't a good idea, but yet they were still here. Lani was about to become the example Vincent had talked about. "No, no, no," Vincent said to himself as Lani neared the trees. This kid was about to leave Vincent behind.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani was frustrated, he had spend years training his body, training his mind to be clever and quick. He could balance on a fence and he could carefully manipulate a sensitive lock but this thing came along and suddenly he couldn’t control anything. He felt so helpless, all he saw from the others with new powers were kids much younger than him. He had been so controlled but now he was back at the beginning he couldn’t see any hope in starting over. It was like taking years to discover an algorithm only to realize that he’d missed the fact that a week in he’d swapped an ‘x’ for a ‘y’. All the work for naught. This wasn’t even making sense. This was the kind of thing that happened in books and in movies. This should be impossible, it was a lot for the reality loving Lani to accept. He liked to dream in his dreams and in his books and leave it there.

The telekinetic’s eyes flashed as he was followed. He felt cornered and a cornered thief never handled things well. Lani’s manifestation would be a testament to that. The pressure behind his temples was causing a pounding through his skull and Lani’s desire to be away from this constant pain was getting greater. He’d never asked for this, he didn’t want to have this constant pain, he didn’t want this power. When the man spoke Lani’s mind automatically translated it into ‘You can’t leave’. Lani didn’t like the sound of that, it gave him goosebumps and a cold chill of terror slid down his spine, confirming his thoughts. This was a prison. He didn’t want to be here, he wanted them to take back this power, if they took back this power then Lani could go back to his old life.

With a shake of his head he bolted. Running was the only thing he’d ever been good at. He couldn’t fight, he could steal and he was good at blending with the shadows, but running was what he was trained for. It made things make sense, it was the only thing that made sense. In Lani’s mind the power was a side show, a figment of his imagination. What mattered was that he was trapped here and he wanted out and he would get out. It suddenly became very easy. He wouldn’t hurt anyone he just wanted to go to Boston, he wanted to go home. But he was a danger with his power. The memories of that night were confusing and fast but very vivid. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.

Lani saw his way out and he found himself smiling. Adrenaline raced through his veins, this was what Lani found fun. He was practically home free in his eyes. It was a quick motion that got him to the trees. People’s foolishness was the young thief’s favorite thing, it made his life extremely easy. He pushed himself forward, acutely aware of the man behind him. If he wanted to get out he couldn’t even pause. He swung himself into the branches and quickly jumped from the branches to the top of the fence, but this time his hands caught the top and his feet kicked against the higher wall and he was able to kick himself up. He paused just a moment to give a taunting smile to the security guard, who clearly had no idea who he was messing with, before dropping over the other side.