Freedom at Last

“Go!”
The cry went out, and they ran. They had been prisoners too long; some had no memories of anything else. No more. They had been beaten, tortured, anything to break them. They weren’t going to take it anymore. They had a plan, maybe it wasn’t perfect, but it was better than nothing. They waited until night, and the guard shift changeover. They had split up in order to stretch the Center’s resources, that way even if some were stopped, some would get through and get out. Kaylee had opted to go alone. She hated this place, and while she wasn’t as fast as a dasher, her muscles were able to outrun anything on wheels. Besides, she was one of the few with a deterrent device strapped to her.
FLASHBACK

“That, girl, is your new home.”
She had just arrived at the Center after hours in the car. She remembered that day all too well, the day her life was destroyed. She had been kidnapped, taken to who-knows where, and prodded and poked until they could put her into their neat boxes. After days of this, she finally met someone new. They entered her cell with a bizarre device; it looked like a metallic rib-cage, with the sternum being a large block. They instructed her to put it on, and after some persuasion and appeals to authority, it was on her. They told her what the arrangement was going to be: this device was going to remain attached to her for her duration here. If she crossed the line, then the nuclear bomb in the block would detonate. Her reaction was obvious; fear and outrage, but it was too late. If the device was removed, it would go off. One link could be retracted at a time, to allow washing and changing clothes, but should she tear it off, she’d be atomized. When she wanted to know why, they simply said that until she learned how to control her powers for the good of mankind, she was too high risk. With that, she entered the Center.

Unsurprisingly, it was not easy to make friends or adjust when there’s the equivalent of a ton of TNT strapped to you. Loneliness and isolation mutated into a superiority complex; why would they strap a nuke to her if she wasn’t powerful? They were just jealous or scared; either way wasn’t her fault or her problem. Her hatred of this place was known to everyone with eyes or ears, so when plans to escape were made, she was one of the first to know…

PRESENT

She was running as fast as she could, but the searchlights were still on her. The ground exploded from the force, but the dirt cloud was nowhere near enough to hide her. Her ears were sharp enough to hear the blades, and not just the ones behind her. They had forces converging on her, and no matter which way she went, they were going to surround her.
Fine.
If they were focusing on her, then that meant they weren’t focusing on the others. The more people that escaped, the better. The device, still strapped to her, was beeping ominously. A warning that they would blow it, and her, to kingdom come. But they had made her strong, and she had managed to keep recent developments secret from them. It had been a while ago when she had noticed that the fire that they were so fond of using to test her durability and regeneration wasn’t hurting as much. Then she began to feel good, stronger than ever. If they had suspicions that new powers were emerging, then they hadn’t thought them sufficient enough to change contingency plans. If they wanted to use that plan, then she’d use hers.

Their other helicopters crested over the treeline, spotlights at full power blaring into her eyes. Heavy duty ordinance was fired directly at her, and while it didn’t harm her, it did cause her to stop. They had all manner of weapons targeted at her. Over their speakers, a voice barked commands.
“Subject 93! This will be your only warning! Lay down and surrender, else we WILL use force!”
The beeping intensified. It drilled into her head. She wanted out, she wanted out! These bastards had abducted her and forced her to be their weapon. Well, if they wanted a weapon, she’d give them one of theirs! If she died, fine, at least it’d be over.
She placed a hand on the bomb.

She jumped toward the helicopters. They opened fire. It did nothing but strengthen her resolve.

She pulled the block. The beeping stopped, and for a brief moment, night became day.

The heat washed over everything, both her and the choppers. The closest ones were blasted out of the sky, but for Kaylee the experience was utterly different. She felt her body absorb the energy, the power rising beyond all control! The explosion was sucked into her, and with a roar deafened by the shock-wave, her body…changed.

Colonel White hated these freaks. Their existence was anathema to all he believed, and if it were up to him, they’d be liquidated as soon as they arrived. Anything that could be such a threat to his beloved United States of America should be destroyed. The ONLY use he could see for them was to find efficient ways to terminate them, so that enemy nations could not employ them.
This brat was a complete bitch, but he hadn’t expected her to blow herself and his men up like that! David, Henderson, she’d killed them all.
“Burn in hell, you true freak.” He muttered to himself, before the air rushed toward the epicenter, and the smoke cleared. His cigar nearly dropped from his mouth.
She was standing in the air, the nuclear fires wreathed around her. She was larger, her body bulking up to allow for the energy pouring through her, with her hair turned an atomic green and her eyes shining with light.
The demon raised its arms, and White remembered nothing else. When he woke up, it was two months later, he was the only survivor, and his superiors wanted a report NOW.

Kaylee barely remembered what happened either. She recalled the explosion, the rush of power, but then it was a blur until she was in the planned meet up point. She had no clue what she had done, or how she had done it, but she could still feel the embers of that power. If she wanted to succeed at her goal to destroy those who had imprisoned her, she would need to reignite it.

She put a hand to her chest. For the first time in years, she felt the weight relieved. Metaphorically and literally.