PLOT

Charlie sighed, taking a deep breath as he entered the gym. This was the place only two days ago he had held the failed combat session. He was hoping he would have better luck with power control. This was one of the newer sessions, having been held three times already in the past few months and there had been difficulties with it.

Mainly because either the residents didn’t want to learn control or they were completely ignorant about their powers or they simply had trouble controlling their emotions. Charlie had more often than not fallen into the latter category with his own powers. There were times, in the past mostly, when Charlie lost his temper and used his power. For the most part, aside from the odd outburst, Charlie had developed some control.

His preferred method was meditation, one that the scientists had scoffed at in the beginning with these sessions but were finally letting him use to teach the others. They had believed that simple practice and experimenting would be enough but Charlie had known a better. It was one thing to study the powers like the scientists did but it was a totally different thing to have to live with them. Only the person living with their gift could have an innate understanding of it. That’s the message Charlie was hoping to get across today.

In the gym a few of the others had gathered and he nodded to them in greeting. “Good afternoon folks. We will begin shortly once some of the others arrive. Until then, have any of you been practicing with your powers lately?”

Life was better when you had a purpose. Sure she didn't know Chris Keller from almost any other young man who was unlucky enough to now sleep within Gene Unit, but Ursula felt useful and happy at the thought of helping him in such a worthy cause. It was his mother damn it, and with how she was feeling towards the Unit in general the redhead probably would have helped those wankers Tadeas or Victor if they had come forward telling her their mother was dying. Not really Kriz. I mean who can believe a word that comes out of that idiot's mouth?

Nicholas had been a big help and if she could get some more practice in tomorrow, without overdoing it and exhausting herself, Ursula could almost feel optimistic about the success of her 'project.' But she wasn't confidant, not nearly, and thought the power session would be a good way to round off her day of improvement. Too bad she'd missed that it was being led by her room mate.

Damn it, damn it, damn it. She mentally kicked herself upon entering the gym, catching the last of Charlie's question and the beginnings of answers from those already present. Ursula had heard through the grapevine that most of the power sessions were little more than free-for-alls, where residents practiced their powers with little to no instruction or supervision. Obviously today was not going to be like that. And after hearing the rumours about the guard in the common room, the Australian should have known better.

She kept to the side, barely acknowledging Charlie with a nod, and moved her arms above her head in an absentminded stretch, immediately feeling foolish as she doubted they would be doing anything physically strenuous. At least, she didn't think they would be.

She had been chatting politely with another resident when the tough-looking blond man came into the gym. The day had gone well for Leonie from the beginning, from discovering the gymnast Zelda this morning as well as a few new friends around her own age in Joseph and Quinn, but she had also been able to chat with Huck and have a better look around the Unit with him as an easy-going guide. The American hadn't been here any length of time either and was still getting his bearings; it was nice not feeling like the only one lost in a crowd.

The First Aid and Wilderness sessions had been surprisingly helpful--despite certain irregularities, what with one man arriving to the first lecture as high as a kite--and so the Austrian had wanted to see what this Power session was going to be about. It still concerned her that no doctor had approached to place her on medication, but after the awful discussion out in the yard the night before (awful because of her own behaviour) Leonie would have to get over that. If not pills, the people here had to have some other way to help her stop producing cold.

"...I've been scared to practice," Leonie spoke up, replying honestly. "I don't want to hurt anyone else but I--I was hoping Mr Wilson or any of the doctors here could just well, make it go away." One of her arms crossed over her stomach to grasp the elbow of her flower-pattern long sleeve shirt. Even just talking like that sounded silly and childish, like getting rid of a boogeyman under her bed. She glanced back to the person she had been speaking to before and hoped she hadn't come off sounding like a fool. "Have you attended many of these sessions?"

Damian had a great chat with Avery before Wilderness survival, but he wasn't a big Wilderness person unless it was scaling a tree outside of someone's cabin to get a good vantage point to snipe them. That was his extent and he was happy with it. Even being from a country of beautiful landscapes and a town in the mountains, he preferred having dinners cooked for him to hunting and killing his own. Ironically, killing animals had never been high on his list. Damian preferred a challenge.

He had waited around for power control to start chatting idly with the few others who were in there and apologizing to Leonie for how their conversation ended the other night. It was the best place to scope out other people's abilities as he wasn't about to demonstrate his own. No, thank you. So he was one of the few who were in the gym before Charlie. Mister military himself. How unfortunate that he came from Canada where the military was lacking any flare to other countries.

Damian smirked. I don't get to practice, I get to be practiced upon. He thought to himself. His eyes followed Ursula as she entered the room and he smiled. She seemed too shy to be a ginger. Shy, geeky and determined. Not the worst combination. As least she wasn't a threat in the least.

As Leonie spoke up to the question, Damian had to keep from rolling his eyes. Why were so many of these people afraid of hurting people? They needed to find the joy of the kill that hid inside each and every person. Hell, the scientists here all showed it often. They loved testing his power for him in so many imaginative ways.

"You can practice on me bella, wouldn't have to worry much." He smirked. Since all the new people were settling in, Damian wasn't using the lines he usually did and Leonie seemed different to him. Just from the little they had talked about before people started arriving. Maybe his lines were getting boring, the people were getting boring, and this place was always boring.

"I've attended a fair few sessions, power control sessions are few and far between." His accent was light as he had been taught to keep accents in check so people couldn't pin point your origin. Not that these people cared as they were from all over.

Power control. Chris was immersed in his own thoughts, back up against the wall, sitting cross-legged. Watching and pondering whilst biting his lip. He hadn't come for his own power. The usage the previous day had drained him, and he had no urge to try it again when it was not necessary. He had come because he'd seen two others that interested him enter the room. So, naturally curious, he'd followed.

His eyes wandered over to where Ursula was stretching. Either she hadn't noticed him yet, or she didn't want to talk to him again in case the authority figures (he glanced briefly at Charlie) caught on to their little plan. It didn't matter - he wasn't looking for a conversation. He just found it strange that she was here instead of anywhere else in the Unit, where there was actual equipment she could test her powers with. It made him curious, very curious indeed...

But that wasn't enough reason for him to have entered this session. The other person he had his eye on was Damian - standing to the right, conversing with Leonie. After their little bump-in in the laundry room the day before, Chris was more determined than ever to find out the man's power. Hopefully, in this session, he'd manage to accomplish just that.

"Does burning the furniture count?" Chris muttered under his breath, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to himself. He turned his head towards the door, wondering if anybody else interesting was going to enter this session.

Kaito walked into the gym slowly, looking around a little with curious eyes. It was a pretty impressive place, he had to admit, but considering how they were teaching people to use their powers here, that sorta made sense. And boy, was that something he was looking forward to. Falling or walking through stuff on a random basis could get awkward - not to mention how clumsy it made him feel.

It had been a while since he'd handled anything delicate - glassware and the like - without feeling ridiculously paranoid. Heading over to the small knot of people further in, the teen gave the group a crooked smile.

"Eto..." English, Kaito reminded himself. "Is this the power control class? I am sorry for arriving late."

After the wilderness session, Maggie had continued on to the power control. She had sat down next to the friendly Austrian girl, Leonie Vastic and had a nice chat about what they had learned in the last session. Leonie was chatting with Damian when Charlie came in so Maggie gave her fellow Canadian a smile. She was probably one of the few people who liked Charlie in the unit.

Then again, Maggie’s opinion was affected by the fact that Maggie came here willingly. She also admired Charlie for his military service. Most people didn’t realize it but the Canadian military were one of the worlds expert forces in peacekeeping and not only that but had a strong, proud military history. Being Canadian, Maggie knew and it did influence her opinion of Charlie.

He asked if they were practicing and Maggie bit her tongue, keeping her hand down. She had been practicing but not intentionally. Even now, she could see a few dead people hanging around Damian but she resolutely kept her eyes averted from him. For some reason Damian had a lot of dead people around him and Maggie wasn’t sure she really wanted to know why.

What if it was the result of some horrible tragedy in which a bunch of his family died? Maggie didn’t want to stir up bad memories. Besides, after the fiasco with her ghost story the night before with Tadeas, Maggie had decided to hold off on telling people she saw ghosts. There was just no right way to break that news.

Maggie nodded sympathetically but she wondered why Leonie thought that the doctors could make it go away. Hadn’t they told her that it wasn’t going to away? That was what Maggie had been told when she first begged for her power to be shut away permanently. You have to learn control, that’s the way to master your gift, she repeated what Wilson and the doctors had told her before.

Turning her head toward the new comer, Maggie gave the young boy a friendly smile. “This is power control and don’t worry, we really haven’t started yet”, she assured him. “You’re new right?” He had to be, Maggie hadn’t seen him before. “Welcome to the unit, I’m Maggie”.

"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," Kaito replied, nodding politely. Maggie? Maggie what? Unless that was her last name after all; it didn't sound like one, but what did Kaito know? It wasn't like he'd met a lot of Westerners before coming here, after all. But maybe he'd play it safe, rather than sorry. He didn't want to be rude by being overly familiar. "Nice to meet you. Boku - I'm Sakurai Kaito." He frowned. Other way. He'd just been thinking about this, too. "Kaito Sakurai."

With a wry smile, he shrugged apologetically. "I keep forgetting. Gomen ne. I am happy to hear I am not too late, though. Sankyuu."

With some kind of experiment scheduled immediately afterward, Mei Bing had dragged herself out to attend the Power Control session simply because still, as yet, she had no clue what it was she had that made her a genuine part of this freak show. She had little doubt that whomever else was going to be involved would be someone with a big flash and bang, though, and the idea had filled the antsy teen with tension. Fear would probably have been a closer word, but in order to admit fear would first mean having to contain the word in her vocabulary, and then suffocate her pride enough to let it slip by. In short: unlikely. So, to further the chances of her own survival against those odds, here she was, although in her own, private opinion, she'd probably have little success here either. That realisation rankled as much as any chance of failure could, and the Taiwanese girl's eyes were faintly pinched at the edges as she found herself a place to stand. Perhaps this Charlie Evans character would just let her watch.

Clad in her usual black, tailored shirt and slim-fit trousers, Mei slipped unobtrusively in at the back, her gaze flitting briefly over each inhabitant of the room. One or two faces were beginning to slip from alien to familiar, and she directed a short but polite nod in Damian's direction, and had to resist letting the corners of her mouth turn up in a smirk as almost immediately afterward, Leonie popped into her vision. It was no surprise that the Austrian was in attendance, and the words coming from her mouth were equally predictable. In truth, Mei had some small amount of sympathy for her, but still -- the girl was an emotional see-saw. The others, though, she had yet to assign names to. She listened to the soft babble of admissions around her, the low mutters locating somene who probably produced fire - perhaps they could use him to melt Leonie down. There was almost certainly some kind of ridiculous Chinese legend about just that.

The rapid production of Japanese syllables to her left was a somewhat welcome sound. Not only was the language as familiar with Mei as her own ebony dress code, but the speaker was the first Asian she'd seen in the Unit barring the one in her mirror. Her attention thoroughly caught, the girl let a subtle stare raze the boy over. He seemed even shorter than Mei herself - hallelujah! - which unconsciously made her stand even straighter than usual. He babbled a lot, but most Japanese did. At a brief moment of accidental eye contact, the Taiwanese girl bowed slightly in greeting, although she didn't put forth any verbal interruptions to the conversations already showing forth.

Feeling eyes on him, Kaito turned and caught the eye of a girl who appeared to be looking him over. She wasn't Japanese, he could tell - why Westerners thought all Asians looked alike was beyond him - but she was most certainly from the area. It was nice to see. Made him feel less alone, somehow.

He smiled at her and bowed a little in return, promising himself that he'd make an introduction soon.

Hiding was pointless and for the weak. Yuri did not hide because he was not weak and so after the wilderness session, he entered the gym for power control. It was strange to be among the freaks that Yuri had once been responsible to help round up. A few familiar faces stuck out from the crowd but they weren’t all his former captives. In fact, there were just as many here that he didn’t know.

The two young Asian residents, the brunette girl who spoke of being afraid, they were not his. Maggie Stonewall wasn’t one of Yuri’s captives either but he knew of her from Felicia and knew she was not a true captive. Ursula Egan and Damian Fioretti were his and Yuri remembered their captures well. Damian’s had been a bloody affair to test his ability while Ursula’s had been more routine. If you could call someone trapping herself in the elevator routine. It had made his job easier at least.

He was walking in late and caught both of their eyes, a slight smile on his lips as he regarded his captives. Yuri then moved off to the side, keeping away from the others just in case they got any foolish ideas about fighting him here. His green eyes went to Charlie and he nodded at the Canadian. “I have not been practicing but I have only learned of my recent affection. Are we to be practicing in here today?”

Though Yuri spoke a number of languages, his Russian accent was always evident in his words. It was a harder accent to hide and frankly, Yuri did not care to do so. If he didn’t want someone to know where he was from then he didn’t talk. If he didn’t want them to repeat anything he said, then they never talked again. It was as simple as that.

Vaclav was not dressed for the gym or for anything strenuous. Black suit, white shirt and black shoes. His usual monochrome outfit, the kind he always wore to work even though there was no work for him to do here. His lips formed a bitter line. Žádná práce? Lži, tam je vždy práce je třeba udělat. This was true and Vaclav knew what was expected of him in the unit, to be a good little prisoner. Boredom had driven him to the wilderness training earlier and now Vaclav decided he might as well attend the power control.

It was what he was here for, to learn control over his power? Můj drahocenný dar. Vaclav sincerely meant it when he called his power a gift. For once in his life Vaclav felt as though he was truly unique. He had always felt like a freak so that was not unusual, it was a title he had long since grown accustomed to. Feeling unique was new. He had a power, a gift and he had to learn how to wield properly.

As he entered the gym, Vaclav's eyes rapidly searched for someone he knew. A few of the residents who had been there for a while were familiar to Vaclav. He acknowledged them with his eyes but the reserved man said nothing. One was standing off to the side, a stranger who asking if they would be practicing. "It is not an affection", Vaclav disagreed. These powers were not curses to the Czech man. "It is a gift. You should treat it as such".

Sofia cursed under her breath as she rounded the corner and heard the voices in the gym. Late again! She shouldn’t have gone back to her cell to change but since she didn’t know what to except with the power control session, Sofia thought it was best not to wear anything she really liked. Accidents could happen and Sofia was not going to lose her favorite shirt because some Дебил couldn’t control their power.

As she entered the gym, Sofia spotted a few familiar faces. Maggie, Damian, Leonie, Charlie, Vaclav, Chris, Ursula and that Ублюдок Yuri. The only two Sofia didn’t know where Mei Bing, though Sofia had seen her around, and Kaito who was completely new to her. The blond didn’t know their names just yet and made a mental note to ask around later on.

Oh how she wanted to curse and yell at Ivanov but Sofia was smart enough not to. Also, too afraid to really say what she really thought. Я не могу поверить, что он находится здесь. Как будто он не был достаточно страшным, сейчас сволочь имеет мощность. Under most circumstances Sofia could always fake a smile and hide her emotions but she couldn’t disguise the glare she threw at Yuri.

“You forget. Yuri thinks we are freaks Vaclav”, Sofia spat out with surprising harshness. Hadn’t Yuri said as much to Sofia when he brought her to this place? Желаем вам приятного отдыха урод, she silently repeated the words he had said to her.

A spiteful smirk formed on her lips. “Добро пожаловать в блок Юрия. Вы один из уродов сейчас.” With that said, Sofia headed to the opposite of the room to stand near the people she knew.

“And those Hollywood nights, in those Hollywood hills she was looking so right, in her diamonds and frills”, Valentina sang to herself, moving to a song only she could hear as she strolled down the hallway on her way to power control. She had been in her cell listening to music and had gotten Bob Seger’s Hollywood Nights stuck in her head. Estúpidos de mierda canciones pegadizas. Berating herself or the music didn’t stop the next line from coming out of her mouth. “All those big city nights, in those high rolling hills....Above all the lights, she had all of the skills....”

She was making a spectacle of herself and Valentina knew it but it didn’t matter. Who cared if other residents gave her funny looks or the guards told her to shut up? Valentina was in too good of a mood to care. It was a gorgeous day, she finally had time to go to the sessions and they would be working with their powers in the next one. Oh, mierda, qué hora es? Absentmindedly glancing at her watching, the Cuban let out a string of swear words. “mierda puta madre que voy a llegar tarde!” Bob Seger and his Hollywood nights were forgotten as Valentina broke into a run. Cuando la mierda llegó a ser diez, después de tres?

That run came to a screeching stop as Valentina nearly ran past the gym, her sneakers scuffing the floor. She came through the doors and took a huffing breath. "Así, así, lo siento! I lost track of time, I--" Woah, mucho tension. It was immidate as Valentina entered the room and it seemed to be directed at a dark haired man off to one side. The group aren't fans of you, señor desconocido?

Valentina wisely and quietly moved off to the side to await Charlie's next words.

Daniel wasn't too far behind his rather... energetic... cell mate, he the silent one of the two as he entered the gym, stifling a grin from Valentina's reactions. He doubted he should feel bothered for being a late to a control session, of all things, but with Evans commanding it, he could not help but dutifully settle in the back and stand in attention. Some people just had a natural way of demanding respect, and a past of training made that notion unshakable.

Now, his own thoughts on his power were tricky, and the concept of "control" in regards to it was doubly so. Daniel had one of the less obtrusive powers, and it was one not easily practiced as well. Honestly, if he never had to use it, whether accidentally, called upon, or otherwise, then he'd consider it a good thing. That is, if they'd let him leave the Unit.

But he was there, and stuck there for better for worse. And as he awaited Evans' next instructions, he looked around at the present Unit residents he was stuck with. He surveyed them and their stances, finding friendlies, neutral residents, and unsavory characters alike among them. Fioretti was definitely among the latter, he giving the Italian an especially bland stare before looking for his cell mate again, finding her in front of him, and focusing ahead at Evans once more.