Sooraya Qadir woke up on a cold metal floor.
The light overhead didn't flicker. It hummed. A smooth, even buzz like the kind used in hospitals or labs, the kind meant to make you forget what time it is. The air was clean but it felt wrong.
Maybe it was scrubbed too perfectly, or recycled so much it didn't feel like air at all. Her back ached. Her arms felt heavy. Her mouth tasted like metal and cotton.
She opened her eyes slowly.
The room was square and sealed tight. Steel walls, steel floors. No windows. A single mirror ran along the far wall, tall and smudgeless. But she knew what it was. Not a mirror. A window. One-way.
She sat up too fast and her vision swam. Her breath caught in her throat. She touched her chest and found her abaya intact. Hijab still wrapped loosely around her head.
A soft click echoed from the far wall.
A tray slid out from a narrow slot, already holding food. Eggs. Some kind of toast and some bottled water.
Sooraya stared at it like it might explode.
Then a voice spoke.
"You're not gonna want to eat that right away. It just makes the nausea worse."
She turned. Three others were in the room with her.
One sat on the lower bunk closest to the tray, his shoulders hunched, arms resting on his knees. Skin like warm bronze, messy dark curls, face still but not asleep.
Another was pacing along the far wall. He was tall, native, and built like a boulder that could walk. His footsteps were heavy but controlled. Every turn was tight, precise. Like a soldier or a fighter stuck in too small a cage.
The third one leaned against the wall by the bathroom door, legs stretched out in front of him. Light hair, almost reddish in the dim room. Pale skin, lean muscle. He looked the most awake, but not the most alert. His eyes were tired in a way that didn't come from lack of sleep.
Sooraya's voice came out hoarse. "Where... am I?"
"You don't know," said the redhead. It wasn't a question.
"No."
"None of us did," he said, sitting up straighter. "They must've given you the needle. Same as us."
Sooraya touched her arm. There was a tiny bump near the crook of her elbow. She hadn't noticed it before.
She looked back up. "Who are you?"
"Roberto," said the boy with bronze skin, finally glancing up. "Da Costa."
"James," said the tall one, barely glancing her way.
The redhead just nodded once. "Magnus."
Sooraya hesitated.
"Sooraya." she said after a long pause.
Magnus tapped the wall behind him with his knuckles. "Well, Sooraya... welcome to hell."
No one laughed.
James kept pacing. Roberto stared blankly at the tray. Magnus just watched her.
Sooraya shifted. Her muscles ached in strange places, like she'd been forced into a pose too long. Her skin felt... quiet. Too quiet. Her hands twitched like they were waiting for something.
She reached inside herself for the storm.
Nothing came.
Panic flared inside of her.
"I can't feel it," she said suddenly. "I can't! Something's wrong with me.. I.."
"They're doing something to us," Roberto said, still not looking at her. "Been doing it since we got here."
"What?"
"I don't know what," Magnus said. "Gas? Dampeners? Drugs? Doesn't matter. Whatever it is, it cuts us off. From... whatever we are."
Sooraya hugged her knees, breathing hard. "I used to feel it all the time. The sand. The air. It was always moving."
"It's gone now," James said quietly. "Same for me."
"You had it too?" she asked him.
James stopped pacing. "Strength. Speed. Healing. I've had it since I was ten. I got in a car accident and walked away without a scratch. Didn't tell anyone. Thought it was a miracle."
"It's not," Roberto muttered. "It's something else. Something none of us understand."
"I burned through a wall once," Magnus said. "Melted steel with my hands. I couldn't explain it. Still can't. Then it stopped. Not because I lost it. Because someone took it."
Sooraya looked from face to face. "What are we?"
Roberto finally met her eyes. "We don't know."
A silence passed between them. Thick. Real.
Sooraya stood up, weakly, and walked a small circle. The room wasn't very large. A metal door in each corner, bathroom, and small bedroom cells. The main room had three bunks. Cold lighting. The air smelled like bleach and metal.
"There's no clock," she said.
"We count meals to track days," Magnus said. "But the schedule's inconsistent. I've been here for a few weeks. I think. Roberto's been here the longest."
"I lost count around day twenty-seven," Roberto said. "Might be longer. They sedate you sometimes. You wake up and it's night again. Or not."
"Why are we here?" Sooraya asked. "What do they want from us?"
James answered that one. "They're testing us. They take you out one at a time. Strap you down. Measure things. Ask questions they already know the answers to."
"What kind of questions?"
"'How long have you been able to do this?'" he quoted. "'Has anyone else in your family shown symptoms? What triggers it? How do you feel when it happens?' They use words like symptom or anomaly."
Sooraya sat down again.
"I thought I was cursed," she said softly.
Magnus didn't speak.
"I was in school," she continued. "They bullied me. Cornered me in the hallway. And I.. I broke. I didn't mean to. It just happened. I turned into sand. The whole hallway just.."
She shook her head.
"I didn't mean to hurt them."
"We've all hurt someone," Roberto said.
Magnus looked at her carefully. "You were the last one they brought in. What do you remember before this?"
Sooraya pressed her hands together. "I ran. I don't know where. I just kept going. I think someone caught me in an alley. I remember a needle. Cold hands. A van. Then darkness."
____
Naruto walked with his hood up and his hands in his jacket pockets, cutting down a cracked stretch of sidewalk as a siren wailed three blocks over. The late summer heat clung to him, but he didn't mind it. Not really. It made him feel grounded. Human.
The further he walked, the quieter the world felt.
"You're not going to stop, are you?" Kurama's voice came through, dry as ever.
"I'm just walking."
"You know what I mean."
Naruto didn't answer right away.
"These kids. You barely know anything about them. You don't know what's waiting for you up there. But you're already making plans to throw yourself into it."
"They're not just kids," Naruto muttered, sidestepping a trash bin. "They're scared. Taken. Trapped somewhere no one can see."
"Still sounds like a one-way suicide mission."
Naruto's jaw tightened. "They're not soldiers. They're not weapons. They're just trying to survive."
"Last time I checked, you're still a kid too."
"I can take it."
"Doesn't mean you should have to."
Naruto didn't respond. His eyes stayed forward. A block away, he spotted Kate's apartment
"Just… don't make it a habit," Kurama muttered. "Saving everyone but yourself."
Naruto looked up at the fire escape and said quietly, "Too late for that."
He reached the third floor and knocked twice on her apartment door.
It opened after a second.
Kate stood barefoot in the doorway, her hair tied up, one AirPod still in, and her favorite oversized "Hawkeye World Tour" hoodie falling off one shoulder. Behind her, the apartment was its usual mess of gear and comfort, half-emptied trick arrow cases near the couch, a pizza box on the kitchen counter, a purple rug that didn't match anything and she refused to get rid of.
She blinked. "You're supposed to be resting."
"I tried. Got bored pretty quickly."
Kate stepped aside. "Kamala's with her parents. America's still trying not to burn the Sanctum down."
Naruto stepped in. The apartment smelled like coffee, honey lotion, and lavender dryer sheets. Safe.
"You good?" Kate asked, watching him drop onto the armrest of the couch like he didn't want to sit too long.
"Yeah," he said. "I just need a favor."
She raised a brow. "Okay… shoot."
"I need you to book me a flight."
Kate stared. "You mean like… a plane?"
"Yeah. Tonight."
"Wait.. You do know you can fly, right?"
Naruto glanced away. "I have a bad sense of direction."
"You mean catastrophic," Kurama snorted. "You got lost trying to fly back from Queens once."
Kate blinked. "You're kidding, right?"
"I'm not," Naruto mumbled.
She cracked a grin. "You are the most powerful idiot I know."
"Thank you," he said deadpan.
"Where to?"
"Milbury. Massachusetts."
Kate started typing on her laptop, but her fingers slowed. "Why Milbury?"
"I just… need to check it out," Naruto said. "Can't really explain yet."
Kate eyed him. "Naruto, you're still healing. You were nearly lost forever. You should be lying on the couch eating ramen and watching dumb soap opera TV."
"When can heroes ever take it easy?"
Kate stopped typing.
He wasn't being smug. Just honest.
She sighed, typing faster now. "Fine. One round-trip ticket to Creepy Town."
"Make it one way."
That made her pause again. "You planning to disappear on us?"
"I don't know what I'll find there."
Her voice softened. "You always talk like you're walking off the edge of something."
Naruto didn't respond.
She clicked a few more times. "Alright. You're booked. Private carrier out of JFK tonight. You're now officially Mr. Mason Lang."
He raised an eyebrow. "Cute."
He stood, stepped close, and without a word, pulled her into a hug.
Kate stiffened in surprise. Then melted a little.
"Do you always hug people when you're about to do something reckless?" she asked quietly.
"Only the ones I'd miss."
Kate squeezed him a little tighter before pulling back. "You text me when you land."
"I'll try not to get lost in the terminal."
He headed for the door.
"Hey," she called after him. "Come back."
He glanced over his shoulder with a tired, crooked grin.
"No promises."
And then he was gone.
___
The holding room had grown quieter.
The buzz of the lights faded into the background. The cold floor no longer felt as sharp. The four of them sat in a loose circle now, food trays untouched, backs to the walls. The air was thick with things unsaid. Until Sooraya asked the question again, more gently this time.
"What happened… the first time you really lost control?"
No one spoke at first.
Then Roberto answered.
His voice was low, like each word was a weight he had to carry. "I was seventeen. We were at a beach party, just outside São Paulo. Bonfire. Music. Just dumb kids trying to forget our grades."
He paused, eyes glassy. "My girlfriend.. Lucia, she kissed me. Nothing crazy. Just soft, quick. But I felt it. Something inside me sparked. I was already full of sun from being outside all day, and then it just… surged."
He swallowed hard.
"I remember the heat first. The way it rolled out of me. I tried to pull away. She held on tighter, thought I was shaking from nerves or something. But my skin lit up. Fire, like sunlight, poured out of me. She screamed. I pulled back."
Silence.
"I burned her alive."
Sooraya's hand went to her mouth. Magnus looked away. James didn't move.
"She didn't even have time to run," Roberto said quietly. "The police said it was a freak accident. Gasoline on the wood or something. But I saw her face. I saw what I did. I didn't even go to her funeral."
"You didn't mean to," Sooraya said softly.
"No," Roberto agreed. "But I still did it."
Magnus leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Mine was my uncle."
They looked at him.
"He ran a scrap business. Was the only one who took me in after my mom got sick. We were working late. I was cutting copper wire with a saw. He dropped a joke. I don't even remember what it was. I laughed."
Magnus's mouth tightened.
"He laughed back. Then he grabbed me by the shoulders, like he used to when I was a kid. Something about the way he touched me, something clicked. I didn't mean to do anything. I just... felt metal all around me. And it moved."
"What happened?" James asked.
"It crushed him. The entire crane system behind us, an overhead magnet that wasn't even on, just snapped free and folded in half. Right onto him."
Sooraya winced.
"They said the bolts failed. A freak collapse. I knew better. It was me. I felt it through my teeth. I haven't touched anything metal with both hands since."
They sat with that.
James cracked his knuckles.
"I didn't have an accident," he said. "I made a choice."
That made the others look up.
"My brother John was the only one who knew I was strong. Not like, 'lift-a-tire' strong. I mean bend-rebar strong. He told me to hide it. To protect myself. He joined the Army, made something of himself. Then he came back to the rez in a box. Not in uniform. No honors. Just dumped outside our grandmother's home."
Roberto's brow furrowed. "What happened?"
"Locals killed him. White boys who didn't like that he stood up to them. Called him a dog. A savage. No one could prove it. Sheriff called it suicide."
James clenched his fists.
"I found them. Drunk in a pickup outside the bar. All three of them. I didn't think. I didn't plan. I just grabbed the bumper and ripped the truck in half."
He looked at the floor.
"Only one of them lived. He's paralyzed. I think about that sometimes."
Sooraya didn't judge him. None of them did. That was the strangest part. They just sat with him. Like they knew what it meant to cross that line.
After a long silence, Roberto turned to her.
"What about you?"
Sooraya's voice was barely a whisper. "You already know part of it."
"The hallway?" Magnus asked.
She nodded. "But it was more than that. I didn't just lash out. I destroyed the building. Half the second floor collapsed. Four students died. A teacher lost her legs. I don't even remember doing it. Just… anger. Like the sand had waited my whole life for that one moment."
Her hands trembled slightly in her lap. "I didn't stay to find out who lived. I ran. Hopped buses. Slept in mosques. Then alleys. Then… one night, I felt the prick of a needle and everything went black."
James looked at her. "Do you regret it?"
She thought for a long time.
"No," she said. "I regret not understanding it sooner. I regret letting them make me hate myself."
Roberto gave a slow nod.
They didn't say anything else for a while. But something had changed.
They were people who'd been broken in many different ways that were now welded together by the cracks.
Tomorrow, maybe they'd plan something.
But tonight, they just sat together.
And finally… they weren't alone.
__________
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