Endowed

A week had passed since the revelations were passed out among the subjects; Abel excluded. Everyone did as told; to remain oblivious and continue doing the experiments. They would continue to do this until a clear indication was made of an escape opportunity. Though this indication was currently unknown, but to be made.

Every experimentee continued to increase their ability affiliation, slowly coming to a proper mastery of what they could inevitably use on the day of their escape. Midas and Venus under Overseer Chamuel, Veronica and Vidia under Overseer Ariel, and Gian-Luca and Ian under Overseer Jophiel. These were the three groups of experimentees, and their proper supervising Overseers.

"That's three Overseers, acting as the experimentee supervisors" Veronica said, while discussing plans with Midas.

"Then there's Michael who's in control of the Angel Unit Infantry," Midas added on.

"There's also Overseer Gabriel who's always making announcements on the speakers."

"He's in charge of general communications I'm pretty sure," Midas corrected.

"Now who else is there?" Veronica pondered.

"Overseer Raphael."

"But…" Veronica hesitated. "He's been gone ever since the Reed Incident."

"I have my doubts," Midas took on a serious tone.

"What do you mean?"

Midas looked at Veronica. "He isn't gone. He's probably been here all along. Somewhere."

Veronica was shocked. "But even Overseer Ariel told me that he left after that disturbing incident—"

"Are you really gonna believe everything an Overseer tells you?" Midas asked her. "Even after finding out that we've been abducted by these very people?"

Her eyes dipped. She felt shame from the realization. "You're right. But where could he be? How could you know?"

"I know because I was there the day before he vanished. Both me and Venus witnessed the entirety of the Reed Incident. Overseer Raphael was everything but distressed; rather excited and outgoing. There's no way he just left of his own accord."

Veronica recalled the words. "You saw… what happened at the Reed Incident?"

"Yes. It was brutal. The sort of monster that Overseer Raphael had turned Reed Regardius into—it was both fascinating and disgusting. But he found joy in everything that happened, including the aftermath."

"What happened at the end? How did the incident end?"

"Well everyone knows it ended with Reed dying."

"But how?" Veronica pestered.

Midas sighed. "He died to Overseer Azrael, the Angel of Death."

"Overseer Azrael? There's another?" She asked with worry.

"Yes. That makes seven confirmed Overseers. And with what I've witnessed, I can confidently say that Overseer Azrael is the most dangerous of them all. It's best if we avoid all possible contact with him. Coming across him would result in a guaranteed loss."

"Guaranteed loss?"

"Death, presumably," Midas grinded his teeth. "He's a hurdle infinitely too high for us to cross. Even with the inhuman strength and regeneration Reed Regardius possessed, he wasn't even close to beating him. That boy was pummelled and sliced into pieces by that… monster."

Veronica furrowed her eyebrows with worry. "How come I've never seen this Overseer Azrael around?"

"Probably because he's only called-in on certain occasions, such as the Reed Incident. There, Reed was unstoppable, killing dozens of Angels without any sign of slowing down. The only one who was able to stop him, was Overseer Azrael—with ease too," he paused. "Therefore, Overseer Azrael must be avoided at all costs during this escape. In order to do that, we'd have to provide him a distraction of some sort somehow." Midas began pondering. "Or rather… We disable communications so that Overseer Gabriel can't call him in."

This idea sparked another in Veronica; "Disabling communications would also prevent the call-ins of Angel Unit reinforcements from Overseer Michael."

"Good idea," Midas said. "Lessening the numbers will lessen the overall power, and that'll make it a whole lot easier for us."

"Now how about our personal Overseers from the experiments?" Veronica asked.

"We'll have to find different ways to surpass our own Overseers. It's gonna vary for each of us pairs, so we'll have to come up with our own plans. You think you can do that with Vidia?"

"Sure."

"Good, I'll set mine up with Venus, and I think Gian-Luca and Ian are responsible enough to make their own plan too."

Veronica was reminded of the mystery; "But if you're right about Overseer Raphael still being present, how're we going to deal with him?"

Midas stroked his chin. "You see, he's only a hypothetical threat; we can't 100% confirm that he's gonna be there to stop us during our escape. But if he does, I have a feeling that things would get a whole lot more complicated. Planning for his appearance, if it does happen, should be put on hold. Let's prepare for what we can guarantee first."

"Alright," Veronica replied.

The room went quiet for a moment, as the two absorbed what'd been exchanged in their discussion. They were more calm and collected than they were after the initial reveal of their situation a week ago. But time did not rid of the unsettlement that the facility and its people now brought to the subjects of A.X.A. With this came a cold breeze that swept across the room, marking both Midas and Veronica with uncontrolled goosebumps.

The familiar cool sensation brought a question to Veronica's head; "So what're you gonna do about Abel? Have you decided anything yet?"

"No," Midas sighed. "This past week I haven't really gotten the chance to speak to him. It's been more of visual observation, and mini reports of his behavior during testings from Gian-Luca and Ian."

"And what did they say about him?"

"They informed me about the ability he's developing. It's called Reflection. Essentially he can reflect anyone's ability back towards them, using his hands."

"Like a mirror?"

"Exactly," Midas replied. "But the important thing to note is that; he's basically powerless unless someone uses an ability on him. It's fully defensive."

"That sounds somewhat useful," Vidia thought.

"It definitely is," Midas understood. "Yours is too."

"Mine?" Veronica asked.

"Yes. It's basically emotion amplification, right?"

Veronica nodded. "I can amplify anyone's emotions to an extremely high state through direct eye contact. Even fatality," she paused. "But it won't work unless my victim's emotional drive surpasses a certain threshold."

"A certain threshold?" Midas asked.

"Yes. For example, if a person I choose to affect isn't 'mad enough', my ability won't work. They have to be a certain level of 'madness' for my ability to function properly."

"Ah, I see. Well I'm sure in the heat of combat, anyone's emotions would surpass that threshold," Midas said. "What's Vidia's ability again?"

"She can directly blind people who make direct eye contact with her."

"Hmm," Midas raised his eyebrow. "That could help during our escape."

"Yeah," Veronica nodded. "How about yours? I've never heard of yours, or the others'."

"Mine similarly has to do with emotions, but rather, I can absorb people's emotions."

"Absorb?"

"Within a certain radius, I can absorb the emotional drive of someone I choose and use it to fuel my physical capabilities such as strength, speed, or endurance. The more excessive their emotions, the more power I get," Midas clenched his fist.

The readiness and determination in Midas' eyes was something Veronica could easily sense. She felt a familiar scent off the aura he'd emitted. She sniffed the air, recognizing a flower.

"He smells like a Valerian," she thought to herself.

Breaking out of thought, Veronica asked another question; "How about Venus' ability? He seemed to boast about it a lot, I'm curious."

"I don't discredit him for doing so. His ability is probably the most destructively powerful out of any of ours; excluding Reed Regardius. He can control the movement of atoms in oxygen—basically air manipulation. Using his mind, he can forcibly create gusts of wind to strike anything he chooses. His ability is definitely the most important when it comes to combat during our escape. If practiced enough, he could probably even blow walls open."

Veronica's mouth opened in awe. "He's that strong?"

"Yep," Midas snickered. "He's got that much pride for a reason."

Veronica pondered at the strength of her peers. She realized that a lot of effort had been put into not only her and Vidia, but all the other subjects as well.

"I don't mean to turn this into an interview, but do you know Ian and Gian-Luca's abilities too?"

"Yes, and no problem!" Midas laughed. "I've done my research on everyone involved in this escape, you've come to the right person to ask. Gian-Luca has a memory-eating ability, whereby he must plant his palm along someone's forehead in order to initialize it."

"Memory-eating?"

"It means he can wipe people's memories, but apparently he can choose specific memories to wipe. You see, Ian told me about something strange that happened during one of their testings. One night, Ian woke up to Gian-Luca slamming his head against the floor, and vomiting everywhere. He was seemingly traumatized by a dream or a nightmare. The next day when he went to the testing chamber, Ian said Gian-Luca was visibly frightened by Vidia who had passed by their chamber, even screaming 'stay away from me you murderer'. And then you know what he did?"

"What?"

"He planted his palm onto his own forehead, and fainted immediately afterwards. He then woke up not remembering anything from the night before, or from the encounter with Vidia. Yet, he still remembers things from the days before."

Veronica was shocked. "He wiped his own memories?"

"Yep."

She pondered on the thought Midas had provided. "You said he seemed traumatized from a dream or nightmare he might've woke up from, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think that was… 'the' dream?"

"'The' dream?"

"The true dream; the memory dream. Like what we had; a dream of memories from our past back in our districts."

Midas thought on it. "Possibly. I mean he did mention that there were gaps in his memories from back home. But I wonder why he would erase certain parts of what he remembered?"

"Maybe they truly were traumatizing."

"Actually," Midas sparked interest. "It's probably because of Vidia."

"Vidia?" Veronica was surprised.

Midas nodded. "The day he wiped his memories, he called Vidia out for being a 'murderer'. And just the night before, he'd been acting differently due to a seemingly traumatic nightmare. Connect the dots; he probably recalled a memory from the past involving Vidia. One that involved.... murder."

"Murder? Are you saying Vidia's a murderer?"

Midas reinstated his eye contact with Veronica. "Each of us subjects are irregularities chosen by A.X.A. It wouldn't be all too surprising if Vidia become one through murder."

Veronica immediately swerved her gaze. But Midas leaned in closer.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Vidia wasn't the only murderer either."

A melancholy shiver was sent down Veronica's spine. She clasped her eyes, attempting to push out memories she wanted to reject.

"But no one knows that deep into their past, so it doesn't matter anyways," Midas now leaned back. "What matters, is that Gian-Luca has more depth to his ability than meets the eye. And that can honestly go for anyone's ability, so we'll keep things like these in mind when planning out the escape in detail."

Veronica sighed of relief. She nodded in agreement. "Ian."

"Right, Ian. Last but not least, Ian's ability," he paused. "As crazy as it sounds, Ian can perform mind-control."

"Mind-control?" Veronica was surprised.

"At a subconscious level, meaning that his victims are unaware that they are being controlled. They think that the things they're doing are of their own choice, when truly they are subconsciously performing Ian's orders."

Veronica tried to understand. "So you're saying there's no distinction between an affected and a non-affected person's thoughts under Ian's control?"

"Yes. Even the people around the victim won't realize. It's completely discreet."

Veronica approved, "That's another big tool for our escape."

"It is," Midas nodded. "Now that we've summarized the abilities available to use, we can start planning the situations to use them in. But in order to use them, we need to do something else first."

"Huh? What do we have to do?" Veronica was confused.

"We need to disable the ability immobilizers."

"Ability immobilizers? What are those?"

"Haven't you noticed? None of us subjects are able to use our abilities anywhere other than within the testing chambers. That's because they probably have immobilizers scattered everywhere throughout the facility other than within the chambers. If we can't use our abilities anywhere other than the testing chambers, how're we supposed to escape?"

"You're right…"

"Don't worry, I'll disable them somehow. For now, everyone just has to continue training their abilities," Midas stood up. "But I think that's been enough discussion for today. In the next few days, I'm gonna try getting some words out of Abel—see what he's all about. I'll fill you and the rest in on more later on. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Veronica replied. Midas then walked out of the containment room, back towards his own.

The lights in the halls dimmed, settling with the night. As the thoughts regarding danger and escape settled within the minds of A.X.A.'s subjects.

They all drifted to sleep, unknowing of the incoming catalyst that was soon to make its appearance.