Ray's Office

Two guards come and escort me to my cell. They unshackle my arms from the chair, never letting go of either arm. They then place my hands in cuffs. These cuffs go over my hands, each in like a small coffin. The cuffs are bound together by a thick rod of metal. They then cautiously remove my ankles from the binds and stand me up.

My cell was surprisingly not far from the interrogation room. This building must be much smaller compared to the central Fulton prison. Once in front of cell number 21, one guard scans his badge on a scanner next to the door and the door slides open. The guards then, rather forcefully, put me in my cell. The door slides shut behind me. I look in the room around me.

It's a dim room with white padded walls. There is one bed that's really low to the ground, and one toilet. On the wall across from my bed it a chute built into the wall. I've heard about these things. You press the big button, and a crunchy, pancake-like food thing comes out. You get 4 of them a day, three meals and a snack. Gracious, huh?

I walk over to the bed and lay down. It's surprisingly not too unpleasant. It was at this moment I knew how tired I truly was. I start dozing off almost immediately. I don't have time to sleep… the loose mutants… That's the last thought I had before I lost consciousness.

I wake up to the sounds of footsteps sprinting down the hall towards my room. My eyes shoot open and jump onto my feet, having flashbacks to my time at the hospital. My arms are still bound, but I'm locked in on the door. I'll fight whatever it is even if I am bound.

The footsteps get to my door, then stop abruptly. There is a small beep. A keycard? The door slides open, and someone rushes into the room. I instinctively leap into the farthest corner from the door.

"Mornin' hero!"

It's just Rachel. I exhale heavily then slump into a heap in the corner.

"Are you able to enter a room like a normal person?" I grumble.

"Maybe," she shrugs, walking over to me.

She grabs my cuffs with one hand and lifts me to my feet by them. I try to shake off my surprise but I'm failing miserably. She can't be much older than I am!

"How are you…" I begin to say.

"So strong?" she finishes my sentence, smirking. "Long story. But in short, I lift. Now lets go!" With that she walks out of my cell. I, however, don't move.

Rachel peeks back in the room. "What's the hold up?"

"Well let's see. I barely know you, I am still arrested, and I have no clue where you're taking me," I say bluntly.

"Is that all?"

"Also, I don't trust you," I add.

"Ah," she replies. "I hear ya. But do you feel better now? Getting all your complaints out?"

"What do you want?" I ask.

"Simple. I want to catch the loose mutants. And maybe solve the great Azure mystery while we're at it."

I pause for a moment. This is a good opportunity to not only get out of here, but to also a chance catch those loose mutants before they do more damage to the city.

"What's your angle?" I say, before considering further.

Rachel leans against the cell doorframe. "No strings attached. This will be a mutual partnership."

I raise an eyebrow, not buying it.

"Still don't trust me?"

"No, not really."

Rachel sighs. "You know what, just come with me. I'll take you to my office. We can get your cuffs off and I'll explain everything. If you aren't into it, I'll slap the cuffs back on, bring you back, and you can let Big Valice deal with ya."

I think for moment. If things do go south, I'm fast enough to get out of here without much struggle anyway. So, I might as well hear her out.

"Fine," I say. "You get one chance."

"Yay!" exclaims Rachel, dancing out the doorway and down the hall. I sigh and follow reluctantly.

Rachel's "office" turned out to be a storage closet in the science building. But it was a BIG closet. The closet is bigger than the cell I was in! There are tables all over the room, each table covered to its absolute max with tools, newspapers and empty Azure pill cases. I must have left my gaze on the pill cases a little too long, because Rachel notices.

"Don't worry I didn't take em and they're I empty I swear," she says. "I've been running experiments on them."

"Experiments?" I ask.

"Yep!" She grabs I a mallet-shaped tool off a desk and walks over to me. She lifts my cuffed hands and places the head of the tool on them. She rotates the tool like a doorhandle and there is a metallic clink. With that the cuffs fall off off my hands. I massage my wrists.

"That's impressive," I say.

Rachel beams. "I know. I'm glad you enjoy." She tosses the tool onto a nearby table, then sits on the edge of another.

"So," she says. "I'm sure you have questions for me. If we're gonna be partners I gotta earn your trust, yeah? So, I'm an open book. Ask me anything."

I pause for a second. I have so many questions. Questions about the Rush, the mutations… her…

I clear my throat. "Okay… What have you found out about Rush so far? With your 'experiments.'"

Rachel's face lights up. "Really? Okay well let me start with the basics. Dipotymene is the scientific term for Rush, like in Azure energy. It's also the active ingredient in Rush pills. Azure energy is effective because the atoms in dipotymene have a strange reaction when a certain number of particles are kept in close proximity, such as in Azure batteries. They pass energy to each other super easily, giving the batteries a long life. It's basically a natural circuit. This is why A-Guns were normalized, as well. A-Guns are powered through dipotymene reactions. The particles in the gun's chamber are rapidly charged then separated, causing the circuit to break and all of the stored energy to explode outward, causing the shot."

I nod, only half listening. Part of is me sorry that I brought this up.

Rachel continues. "But I found out something interesting recently about Rush pills. When dipotymene is exposed to human blood, the connection between the Azure particles is able to become longer. So essentially the blood becomes a wire between the particles. But here's the kicker. The human body is not capable of holding more than a set amount energy, which is why the body can have adverse effects to the pills in large quantities."

A piece falls into place in my mind. "The mutations…"

Rachel makes finger-guns at me. "Bingo. The body changes in strange ways to contain the energy."

"So, it is the result of overdose," I say. "I see. Keep going."

"That's just it. So far people just die to internal bleeding not long after overdosing. I haven't found a way to heal mutations, not yet. Which is where you come in."

I raise an eyebrow. "Oh really."

Rachel nods, standing up. "You sir, I believe have been a victim of Rush overdose as well. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"Fine. I'll keep going for now. What baffles me about you is I got a sample of your blood, and it had a ton of dipotymene in it. But none of the particles are charged. It's like they're dormant. But after watching your fight with the mutants, that can't be true. The glow under your skin was undoubtedly the dipotymene in your blood stream."

I consider what Rachel just told me. Maybe that's what that ignition feeling is whenever I activate my power, the dipotymene in my blood activating. Wild.

"Interesting," I say.

"Isn't it?" Rachel says excitedly. "The stuff is terrible for you but it's endlessly fascinating."

I nod thoughtfully. "If you're a scientist, shouldn't you be in a lab and not working the police?"

Rachel smirks. "You think the people who found and pioneered the Azure tech would let me walk in and play with it? No. I took an internship here so I could do my down research undocumented by the government. If I was being monitored, I would have been shut down a long time ago." Rachel shakes her head. "The stuff here is less state-of-the-art but I get by. After all, I can always build what I don't have."

"You must be pretty smart to do all this solo," I say, picking up some sort of wrench-like tool.

Rachel blushes a little bit. "I guess. I'm more curious than anything," she shrugs.

"You really want to help me catch the mutants?" I ask, tossing the wrench from hand to hand. "And not like… dissect me or anything?"

Rachel gives me a stupid look. "Of course not. I don't like dissecting living things. Putting things back the way they were isn't my strong suit."

I whip around to look at her and she bursts out laughing. "I'm just yanking your chain, hero. I won't harm ya. I swear."

I sigh. "I guess I'll help for now. But the second things get weird I'm dipping out and going solo."

Rachel squeals with excitement and jumps around the room. Then she charges me. I start to run but she collides with me… and hugs me?

"Thank you for trusting me. You won't regret this I promise," she says softly. I don't know how to respond; my mind is a blank.

Suddenly she clears her throat and quickly steps back. She sticks out her hand. "Rachel Blair. You can call me Ray. It's a pleasure to be working with you."

I confusedly take her hand and shake it. She just about crushes my hand with her grip. I cry out in shock.

"How the hell are you so strong?" I nurse my wounded fingers.

Ray hops away and turns back to look at me. "I already told ya. I lift."