Chapter 14 - Smyt
Ex is laying on the ground. He slowly opens his eyes and regains consciousness. Ex groans because of his sore body as he turns on his back. His power comes back, extracting the bullets that were shot at him and healing the wounds. After that’s done, Ex stands and leans on a nearby tree, holding his sore stomach. It takes a second before Ex’s memories come back involving Kasumi being kidnapped.
“Fuck…Kasumi...where are you?” Ex says, stressed.
Ex suddenly remembers what would happen to him if anything were to ever happen to Kasumi. He immediately draws his sword, ready to fight.
“Come and get me!” Ex yells, on edge. “Kasumi is gone! It’s my fault! Aren’t you going to smite me or something?”
Nothing happens. Ex reluctantly presses on with his sword drawn.
***
Kasumi is still inside of her brain (nothing but white emptiness). Kasumi is laying down flat on her back. Kasumi sits up and looks around cautiously.
“You’re in a lot of trouble now, Kasumi.”
“I know. You’ve already stated that.”
“Stay unconscious for as long as you can. When you wake up, true hell will begin.”
“I’m not in control of how long I can stay unconscious.”
“Yes you are. Just pretend you’re asleep.”
“I need to see where I am.”
Just then, Kasumi is snapped back to the real world by cold water that was splashed in her face. Kasumi opens her eyes. When her eyes finally focus on the room around her, she realizes that she’s in a cement and square room. Her hands are chained behind her back. The chain that’s connected to her hands is connected to the wall. Her ankles are cuffed to the floor behind her. She’s on her knees with a metal guard in her mouth that’s connected to the ceiling. Overall, Kasumi cannot move or talk. She looks around and feels suddenly very cold and realizes she’s wearing nothing but wraps that cover her private areas. Standing in front of her is a man and a woman. Kasumi feels the cold water drip down her body from her now wet hair and face. Kasumi tries to move but it’s not easy at all.
“Do you like it? It makes it to where you can’t move or speak at all unless we give you the freedom to by removing the chains.” The woman standing in front of her smiles.
Kasumi stops trying to get out and grows terrified.
“Hello, Kasumi. My name is Zarya, but I’m often called Lucile.”
Kasumi stays silent due to the fact that she can’t talk anyway.
“Look at that. Your wound completely healed. Our hypothesis was correct about Ex. His power is infused with his blood. But yours, your power is infused in your heart and soul. A bit harder to obtain which is why we had to obtain you.” Lucile explains. Lucile crosses her arms. “You must be wondering as to why you're here or why you’re restrained. You may even be wondering where you are.”
The man sinks back behind Lucile and Lucile steps forward. She crouches down to Kasumi’s height so that they’re face to face.
“Everything that is going to happen to you, know that there is a good reason as to why. If you don’t mind, we’re going to jump right in. Can’t waste any time.” Lucile directs her attention to the man behind her. “Perform tests one through five on her. Make sure to record everything that happens or else you’ll have to do it again.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“And be as thorough as possible. We need accurate results.”
“Copy that.”
Lucile leaves and closes a large metal door behind her, making it to where the room only has Kasumi and the man in it with the only source of light being a dim lightbulb on the ceiling. The man picks up a clipboard and writes something down. When he’s done, he puts the clipboard down and picks up a pair of pliers.
“Test number one: regeneration speed.”
The man inches towards Kasumi with the pliers in hand, raising Kasumi’s fear and stress with every step. Kasumi tries to shake her head to get the man to stop, but he doesn’t. He walks behind Kasumi for a good angle at her fingernails. Kasumi’s muffled shouting easily turns into whimpering and screaming as the man tears off her index finger nail, then her middle finger nail, then her ring finger nail, next her pinky finger nail and then finishing with her thumbnail. Kasumi’s tears stream down her cheeks as she tries to catch her breath from the screaming. She looks down at the ground, feeling so much pain in her right hand and also feeling blood on her fingertips traveling down.
“So you can feel pain?” He asks her. Kasumi ignores the man as he teases. “I’ll do your other hand here in the second.”
The man walks back over to the tray where his materials and his clipboard sits. He checks his watch and writes something down.
“Heal Kasumi. It’s not hard. Focus all your energy on your hand. The faster you heal, the faster this will be done.” Kanai tells her.
It hurts so bad…
“Heal!”
Kasumi closes her eyes and tries to focus all her energy on her hand like Kanai said, but it doesn’t work. I need Ex to heal.
“No you don’t. Your power is a lot more than what you think.”
Kasumi tries again, and still can’t do it. It’s too fucking hard.
“Kasumi you don’t have much time. Ex isn’t here, you have to rely on yourself. Now heal yourself goddammit!”
Kasumi takes a few short breaths before shutting her eyes tight, focusing on her hand again. The pain in her hand turns from unbearable to just throbbing to no pain at all. Kasumi shoots her eyes open.
“See? It just takes some focus. Listen to me. I know what I’m doing.”
The man glances up at Kasumi and then back down at his clipboard.
“That wasn’t long.” The man says.
The man picks up what looks to be a gas torch. The man inches towards Kasumi, turning the gas torch on. Kasumi’s breathing becomes heavier and shorter the closer he gets.
“Test two: fire resistance.”
“This is going to hurt like a bitch.” Kanai remarks.
Kasumi whimpers and attempts to shake her head again. The man ignores her whimpers and attempts to beg through motions. He burns her skin right on her stomach, causing her to scream through the bar.
***
The scene smoothly transitions to Ex who is limping weakly through the forest to his cabin. Suddenly, Ex falls to the ground, clutching his stomach in pain. He grunts and clenches his teeth.
“Fuck…” The pain stops for a second, allowing Ex to sit up on his knees. “What the hell are they doing to you?”
Ex stands up and presses on, but then another wave of pain hits. This wave is even worse, actually forcing him to throw up.
“Kasumi…”
***
Kasumi is heavily breathing with blood dripping down from her hands and burn marks lining her stomach and back.
“You’re really not going to like this.”
“Stay strong, Kasumi.”
I can’t…
“It’s only going to get worse from here. If you don’t stay strong, you’ll fall under the control of these people and billions of innocent people will die. Is that what you want?”
How do you know that?
“I just do. Trust me. I wouldn’t lie to you about this, would I?”
The man grabs a bucket full of cold water from the corner of the room.
I suppose not.
The man dumps all of the cold water on Kasumi, not only does it make Kasumi freezing cold, but it makes her wounds feel even worse.
“You need to cut off your connection with Ex.” Kanai tells her.
Why..?
“Because if you don’t, the pain that’s inflicted on you will affect him greatly.”
Why should I care what happens to him..?
“Because…”
“It’s who you are.” Kasumi widens her eyes and feels even more tears brim her eyes.
Sato?
“Break off your connection with Ex.” Sato tells her. “It’s the only way to stop inflicting pain on him.”
How am I supposed to do that..?
“You have to forget him completely. You have to believe that he is of no significance in your life.”
No...I refuse to.
“Do you want him to be in constant pain?”
No…
“Then do this. Not for you...but for him.”
The man removes Kasumi’s mouth piece that kept her from talking.
“Tell me, what did you hope to gain from your powers?” He asks her. Kasumi doesn’t respond, but looks sadly at the ground. “Your power is nothing more than a death trap for you. But it will make the perfect weapon for us.” Kasumi looks up at the man, confused. “Right. She didn’t explain any of this to you. If these experiments go as planned, you’ll be our secret weapon. We’ll be able to literally take over the world. All with the help of you. It’s crazy how such a powerful being can be detained so easily. The power you have is the strongest we’ve ever seen, but you are by far the weakest person to be yielding it.”
“I’m well aware…” Kasumi says brokenly.
“Let’s move on to the next test shall we?” The man chimes sadistically. “I’m taking this one a bit farther than it needs to go, but it’s all in the name of science.”
The man pulls out a larger pair of pliers, unlike the ones he used on her finger nails.
“What do you plan on doing with that?” Kasumi asks, terrified.
“I only took off your mouth piece to hear your screams for this one. It’s one of my favorite methods.”
“I’ll tell you what you need to know...anything...just please...don’t.” Kasumi begs. The man advances on Kasumi, ignoring her requests. “Please...I’m begging you...stop!”
The man forces Kasumi’s mouth wide open, revealing all of her teeth.
“Would you look at that?! Look at all those pearly whites! Beautiful teeth!”
Kasumi struggles to free her mouth from his grip, but he is far stronger than her. He reaches the pliers inside of her mouth.
“Break off the connection now, Kasumi!!!” Kanai shouts.
“Now!” Sato inserts.
Kasumi quickly shuts her eyes tight, trying to force her feelings for Ex away to break the connection before the man does anything to hurt her. Just as Kasumi opens her eyes back up, the man chooses a K9 on the top row and yanks it out, causing Kasumi to scream in pain. Blood pours from the wound and fills her mouth with the taste of metal.
“One down, 31 left to go.” The man smiles.
“Please...please…”
Tears glide down Kasumi’s cheeks as the man ignores her pleas, pulling more teeth with Kasumi screaming with each one.
***
Ex curls up on the ground in immense pain. All of a sudden, his pain stops. Ex opens his eyes, surprised by the sudden change. He stands up reluctantly and narrows his eyes.
“Did they...kill you?”
Ex waits for the creature to come and kill him with his sword tightly gripped in his left hand, but nothing happens.
“I guess as long as she’s not dead, I should be fine.”
Ex walks the rest of the way to his house instead of his cabin. He remembers a perk to his power that the supernatural being told him about.
“This better work.” Ex says with no hope in his voice.
***
“There’s a way you can contact her in case anything were to happen.”
“How so?” Ex asks.
“With intense focus, you can connect your mind with hers and be able to see and hear things she is seeing and hearing. You won’t be able to feel what’s happening, but you’ll get a general idea.”
***
Ex sits criss cross on the couch.
“Intense focus…” He mumbles to himself.
Ex takes out his phone and looks up his ability. Strangely, the first thing that comes up is telepathy. He then looks up different methods to do telepathy, trying each one.
***
Blood is pouring from Kasumi’s mouth and she looks exhausted. Her eyes are closed in an attempt to rest.
“You need to heal yourself again, Kasumi.” Kanai tells her.
“...tired…” She tries her best to say with most of her teeth gone.
“Heal your teeth. All of them are gone.”
Kasumi barely opens her eyes and stares down at the cement ground below her that’s covered in blood. Her blood, but also dried blood that has sunk into the cement that doesn’t belong to her.
I’m not the only one that’s been in here…
She hears shuffling in front of her, but she’s too tired to look up.
“I’m sad to say, this will not be the only pain you go through.” The man tells her. “We have plenty of tests to perform on you.”
Kasumi stays silent due to the fact that she’s too tired to speak and also due to the fact that she has absolutely no teeth in her bloody mouth. The man walks up to her and grabs her chin harshly, digging his fingers into her toothless mouth, causing her to whimper from the pain.
“Now we can have some fun.” The man smiles sadistically.
Kasumi pulls her face out of his hand, making him angry. He punches Kasumi hard in the face, causing her nose to bleed. Kasumi barely expresses pain afterwards. She just looks back down at the cement floor, wishing that all of it would just stop. The man crouches down to her level and looks directly at her with evil intent, but Kasumi continues staring straight down.
“Pain doesn’t feel so good, does it? Then again, it never has.” Kanai tells her.
Kasumi doesn’t pay any attention to Kanai as she continues staring straight down.
“You know…” The man starts. The man lifts Kasumi’s eyes to meet him and then glides his hand right down to her chest. Kasumi flinches but otherwise doesn’t show any other expression. “The boss said I could do whatever I wanted to you as long as I didn't kill you and as long as I performed the tests correctly. I know we’re not finished…” He licks his lips and checks out Kasumi up and down. “I can’t hold myself back any longer.”
“Are you really going to let him do what he wants to you?” Kanai asks.
“Come on...it’s not like I’m gonna hurt you anymore.” The man says sensually.
The man presses his hand against her breast, causing her to flinch again. He sees this reaction and smiles at her.
“There you go...that’s what I wanna see.”
Kasumi stops staring blankly off into space and actively tries to move away from him, but can’t. She shakes her head and whines at him. She closes her eyes tightly as he squeezes hard, causing her to flinch again. Kasumi focuses on healing her teeth so that she can speak. Soon enough, her teeth come back.
“Please stop..” She begs.
“Oh? You have your teeth back huh? Just needed a little bit of inspiration?” The man teases.
Kasumi grits her regenerated teeth and looks away from the man, terrified he might do something else. The man gets up and walks back to his clipboard, recording information.
“That was fast, but you’re definitely not consistent. We’ll have to do something about that. You may have been quick for your first time healing yourself, but you can be much faster.”
“Please...just stop.” Kasumi says through gritted teeth. “Why are you doing this?”
The man stops writing things down and looks at Kasumi.
“Because, you’re our last hope.”
“Who’s last hope? Where am I?”
“None other than Russia.”
Kasumi widens her eyes in despair.
***
Ex is sitting on his couch criss cross with two empty bottles of scotch and a third one out and halfway empty. Ex’s hair is messy and his eyes are closed, trying to focus. He takes a deep breath to try one last time to focus. This time, he feels a small spark and then hears something very faint.
“Why?” It’s Kasumi’s voice.
Ex shoots his eyes open in surprise and takes the bottle of scotch, taking another drink. He puts the bottle back on the table and rubs at his head, roughing up his hair even more.
“Let’s try one more time…”
Ex closes his eyes to try again. This time, the spark happens much stronger and quicker. He’s barely able to see where Kasumi is. All he sees is cement and a blurry figure moving in front of her.
“What do you plan to do with me?”
“Anything and absolutely everything to use you and obtain your power.”
“Even if it kills me?”
“Don’t worry. If we killed you, we wouldn’t have anything left. We don’t plan to kill you, but with everything we do to you, you’re going to want to wish you were dead.”
Ex opens his eyes, cutting the scene that he just saw.
“What do they plan on doing to her?” Ex asks himself. “Whatever it is, I don’t have to worry about them killing her.” He reaches for the bottle of scotch, but then stops himself. “Why am I still worried about her? Why do I feel so sick right now? Jesus fucking christ...I drank too much scotch.” Ex presses his hand to his forehead and closes his eyes; stressed. “Please...be ok.”
***
The man has now left the room and it’s just Kasumi alone in the cement room. She’s staring down at the cement floor with nothing but anguish in her eyes.
“You’ve lost hope haven’t you?” Kanai asks her.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Kasumi asks, depressed. “Everything I ever had or cared about...it’s all gone. And now I’m trapped here to live the rest of my life in utter hell.”
“You can’t give up.” Sato tells her.
“Why should I listen to you? You’re not alive. You’re not here, in this situation.”
“No I’m not. But you have a fire within you that’s extremely hard to match. You would try to prove Ex wrong on so many things, even though you didn’t succeed, your drive to prove yourself was even stronger.” Kasumi doesn’t say anything, but sinks down. “The Kasumi I knew would never give up.”
“The Kasumi you knew is gone…” She says, depressed.
“That’s not true.”
“How in the hell am I even supposed to get out?”
Sato appears in front of her and gives her a warm and hopeful smile.
“There’s only one way you can…”
Kanai appears beside him, giving both a creepy and warming smile.
“Trick them.” They both say in sync.