Sourie

Just a warning, but this chapter is probably the most gruesome chapter I’ve written to date, and the only reason I put the gore content warning up. If you can't or don't want to read about anything in the CW spoiler then I completely understand if you want to skip it. I left a TLDR at the bottom if you need it.

CW:

*Two Years Ago*

The streets were dark and lonely this time of night. Not a soul in sight, all except for one.

A young twenty-year-old man by the name of Noah was seen walking by his lonesome down the street. He had short black hair that swayed with the gentle wind. He was dressed in a jacket and t-shirt that sported a logo of his favorite video game character. 

He had no real reason to be walking the streets this late at night, no reason other than wanting a change of pace. He was bored, bored of sending in applications to dozens of different jobs only to be rejected. He was hoping that his computer skills would help him when he came to the big city, but he has only been met with rejection after rejection.

If only he had stayed home that night, if only he had wasted the night away playing video games.

Then maybe his life would have gone for the better.

A black van drove up beside him, only to park and for two huge muscular men to jump out. They quickly grabbed Noah, who tried desperately to fight back, but was quickly overpowered. They took out a syringe filled with a clear liquid and pushed it into him causing his vision to slowly go dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Noah awoke to find himself in a jail cell of sorts. There were no windows, and the air felt stiff. He assumed he was underground, but that thought was quickly discarded as he tried to bust out. 

He shook the bars, trying desperately to open the door and escape to freedom. However, he only found himself wasting his energy. The doors were locked tight, with no chance of being opened without the key.

He sighed, then looked around. He saw rows of cells, with some of them also having occupants inside them. He assumed that they were victims as well, but he didn’t call out to them.

The second he saw their eyes, he knew there was no chance of conversation. Their eyes were unmoving and unfocused. They had long since given up on escape, now they only await their inevitable end.

Noah backed away from the door as he tried to come up with some form of escape plan, but he was interrupted when two large men opened his cell and stepped inside. They quickly grabbed him and dragged him out of the cell.

Noah was dragged to the middle of the room and placed onto an operating table. They quickly tied his arms and legs down, then left him there as a man with dark hair and a long white lab coat walked up to him.

The man inspected him from head to toe, before nodding in approval.

“Yes. You should do just fine. Tell me, do you have any powers?” The man in the coat asked. Noah only responded by glaring at him, he wasn’t going to just lie down and accept his fate just yet. He’ll fight and fight if he has to, even if he was unpowered.

“It matters not if you are. You’ll be an excellent test subject either way.” The man said as he started going through the numerous tools on the table next to him. “The name’s Doctor, not ‘the doctor’ but just ‘Doctor’. Not that it matters to you.”

Doctor pulled out a small syringe that was only a quarter full with a strange blue liquid. He tapped the end of the syringe twice, before walking closer to the operating table.

“I do hope you’ll live through this, so many of my other experiments die on the very first dose. Could you believe it?” He sighed, “It just means they weren’t worthy of my time. I’m sure you will though, you seem like the strong sort.”

Noah started to sweat and tried to break out of his bindings, but to no avail. He was tied down and no matter what he did he wasn’t getting out.

Doctor gripped his arm, and slowly injected the blue liquid into Noah’s body. Once it was all gone, he took the needle out and sat it down on the table. He sat on a stool and took out a notepad and pen as he awaited the results to show.

Nothing happened for a short brief moment, but suddenly, like oil meeting fire, something immediately changed.

Noah’s entire body tensed briefly, before he started convulsing on the table. Unimaginable pain assaulted his entire being, as a small trickle of blood started to stream out of his nose.

He heard the doctor next to him say something to his assistants, and they brought him a small needle with a clear liquid. He quickly injected it into Noah’s body, and his body started to calm down very shortly after. 

The convulsing and pain went away, but it wasn’t over for Noah just yet. 

His mouth shot open, as a continuous stream of flames shot out into the air. Doctor and the surrounding assistants all backed up as Noah’s head flailed side to side as the flames caused him a new feeling of pain. His body wasn’t used to using powers, and it showed in the pain that wracked his head. 

Eventually the flames died down, and Noah collapsed onto the operating table. He was panting, and was having a hard time controlling his breathing as the doctor walked up next to him.

“Excellent, excellent!” He exclaimed, the first real emotion he’s shown so far. “I knew you’d be one of the good ones. Yes, you’ll make an excellent subject.”

Noah wanted nothing more than to escape, he wanted to cry, he wanted to scream, and most of all he wanted to never experience that pain again.

But life isn’t fair. Not to him.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. 

But all Noah knew was that it never got better. 

Day after day the doctor did experiments. Noah would consider himself lucky if he wasn’t one of the ones on the table that day. But watching the other prisoners suffer wasn’t what he wanted either.

Noah wished for an escape, but after spending so long down here he knew that it was impossible. The guards were too strict, they rarely made mistakes, and even if they did Noah couldn’t get out. His body was too worn down by the constant experiments to actually fight off any guards.

He’s been poked and prodded constantly by the doctor since his arrival. The days where he got powers like flame breath were the better ones. It meant that he only had to deal with the pain from the powers, but if he got something like regeneration as his power…

He shivered just thinking about it.

The blue vial, in a small dose, would give temporary powers to the unpowered. That much Noah knew, but he also figured out that it gave random abilities each and every time. 

So when someone got a power similar to regeneration, the doctor would test it extensively. He would create cuts across Noah’s body to test the speed of the healing, he would burn or freeze his body to test to see if it would heal that as well.

Noah looked over his body with a saddening expression, each and every scar that formed was just a reminder of the torture he's endured. He wanted it to end…

No.

It had to end.

When the guards came for Noah, he decided to make his final stand. He kicked one of the guards below the belt, and elbowed the other guard in the gut before he sprinted towards the exit. 

He was ecstatic, his escape was right there! His body pushed itself to its limits, and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest, but the door was just-

His blood ran cold, as did the door when a large chunk of ice surrounded it in an instant. He turned around to see Doctor holding his hand towards the door. Noah dropped to his knees as his only escape was cut off right in front of him.

He didn’t even fight back when the guards reached him and dragged him to the table and strapped him in. 

“I had such high hopes for you, to think you would misbehave like this.” Doctor said with a sigh as he walked closer. “I think a punishment is in order, we wouldn’t want you to attempt that again now do we?”

Doctor summoned a sword made of pure ice in his hand, and Noah’s eyes went wide as he watched the blade get closer and closer. He pleaded, promised to never do it again, promised to behave, and he desperately begged for mercy.

Mercy he didn't get.

Doctor brought the sword up into the air, and with one quick motion he brought it down. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Noah stopped counting the passing of time. He didn’t care anymore. Not about time, about himself, or even about escaping. His last attempt still showed its ugly head each and every day of his remaining life.

He glanced down towards his missing left arm and winced. He could still feel the pain at night, and sometimes he’d try and move it only for him to realize it was still gone. He couldn’t wrap his head around losing a limb, and the phantom limb feelings continued to keep him up at night.

Noah stopped reacting to the experiments, and he knows it's only a matter of time before the doctor gets bored with him. He realized from watching the other victims that the only time you can leave is when you're dead, and the doctor only lets you die when he gets bored.

Noah looked up as he heard noises coming from the direction of the exit door. A loud feminine voice started screaming out to be let go, only to be ignored. Noah watched as the person was brought past his cage.

The girl had long black hair, and stood just a tad bit taller than Noah. He guessed that she was around his age. She was beautiful, and caught Noah’s attention as she was forced by. 

He was captivated by the way she tried to desperately fight back against the guards, and it reminded him of when he was captured. He hated himself for losing that will to resist, if only he hadn’t given up...

Noah watched the guards lock her in the cell next to him, and turn to walk away. They didn’t get far before the building shook violently. Before Noah could even begin to guess what was going on, a guard burst out into the room.

“Heroes are here! Prepare to escape!” 

Noah instantly felt his hope return to him. The heroes were here! Finally, he could get out of here!

It wasn’t long before a large, muscular hero wearing a blue skin tight suit made his way into the room. He quickly ran to the first cells he saw, and started opening them up one by one using brute force. By the time he got to Noah, there were only two cells left to open.

He used his strength to bust the cell door open, but was suddenly attacked from behind by a blast of ice. He was knocked forward just a step, but he quickly turned around and faced towards Doctor.

“Stay here until you find a moment to escape civilian, I’ll hold him off!” He said before he rushed toward the villain.

Noah instantly started to run away, but he paused right as left his cell. He looked to his left towards the girl still locked in the cell. He realized she was the only one who didn’t get freed yet.

The girl looked at him with a pleading look, and Noah gulped before he turned and ran straight towards the doctor’s office at the end of the room. He burst into the room, happy that it was unlocked, as he picked up the jail key and ran back. He had to dodge debris and stray ice shots from the fight between the hero and the villain.

He managed to make it to the jail cell, and quickly got to unlocking the door. Just as he slid the cell door open, he was knocked forward as an icicle pierced his shoulder. He stumbled, but the girl caught him. 

She thanked him with a smile, before helping him towards the exit door. It led into a hallway that was mostly empty thanks to the battle between the two forces, so they managed to escape through a side exit out onto the streets.

As Noah took his step of freedom he took a deep breath, he took joy in the fact that the air no longer felt stale like it did in his cell. He made a vow right then and there, he didn’t know how he’d accomplish it or what he needed to do, but either way, he promised himself.

He would see the villains who did this to him get justice. He would see that the Phantoms were erased from the city, and that he’d get his revenge for the horrors they forced upon him.

Even if he had to become a villain himself.

He decided he needed a new name, a new identity, so he picked the first thing he could think of. To fight fire with fire. If they want to be Phantoms, then well...

He would be Ghost.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Skye stretched with a groan as she awoke. She looked around to see that she was still in her lab, tucked away in the basement of the cafe.

“...it was just a dream…” She said to comfort herself, as she reached over and gripped her left arm. She squeezed tight on the metal robotic arm, as she whispered to herself.

“A reminder…”

TLDR:

Sourie

Part of me was tempted to take this chapter out entirely, but decided against it. Not showing Skye's backstory didn't sit right with me, though perhaps I could have shown it in a different way. Thanks for reading and sorry for the rough chapter, thankfully things should start looking up relatively soon.