gemini book one of two // phandom big bang 2016
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Author: @skyboidjh
Beta: @icomparemyselftoyou
Artist: @nataliadeluckah (her wonderful art!)
Rating: PG-13
Summary:
colors whirling, thoughts flashing-it felt as if the butterflies in his stomach had lit themselves on fire.
“you weren’t supposed to find out…”
or, the one where Dan and Phil end up with superpowers, including the ability to feel each other’s emotions and hear each other’s thoughts, are declared threats and taken into custody by the government, Dan’s confused, and Phil has a secret.
Warnings: nondescriptive violence, acephobia, mild ableism
Word Count: 3450 for this chapter! (So Many in total)
Dan was getting more than a bit tired of waking up to life-altering scenarios.
At first, everything had seemed fine and normal as he woke up, stretching and yawning before rolling back over into his pillow. His eyes had shot back open, wide, when he realized that it was not, in fact, his pillow. It all came back to him in a flash- the gas, the hospital, the hotel, his freak powers-
Of course, just as he was beginning to process all of that being real, there was someone pounding on their door. Phil somehow stayed asleep through this, causing Dan to sigh and get up to see who it was himself. Maybe they had forgotten to put out a ‘do not disturb’ sign? He peered through the peephole.
Two fully-uniformed policemen were outside. One raised a fist to knock again.
They must be here to get our story of what happened, Dan thought to himself as he unlocked the door and pulled it open slightly. “Hello, can I help you?”
He never did get his answer, as the policemen pushed the door open wider, surprising him into jumping backwards a bit. They pushed their way into the hotel room, one grabbing Dan and shoving him into the wall.
“Hey! What the-” The rush of adrenaline was so much more intense with his new ability, Dan discovered. He struggled against the officer’s tight grip.
“Just keep your mouth shut and come with us without a fight, and there won’t be any trouble, alright?” the man leered at Dan, his cigarette-scented breath washing over Dan’s face as he put handcuffs on him. Once that was done, he started to drag Dan out of the room.
Dan’s head was spinning. “What did I do?” he asked, bewildered. “You can’t arrest me if you don’t tell me what I did,” he said quickly, silently thanking his past self for paying attention in at least one law lecture. He heard Phil shout as the other officer got to him, then there were more and more people coming in through the door, dressed in mostly dark colors and what seemed to be protective gear.
The officer didn’t answer immediately, simply chuckling at Dan’s statement. “We’re not exactly arresting you, kid,” he sneered as he managed to shove Dan out of the door.
Dan struggled as hard as he could, suddenly absolutely sure that these were not cops. How had they found the two of them? Why? He managed to bang his elbow hard against one of the walls in the hall, creating a loud noise. The man dragging him along pulled him to a stop, pressing him back into the wall again. “Do that again, and we will not hesitate to shoot both you and your friend. We know what you are, and how to deal with you, so cooperate. For your own sake.”
An ice cold feeling spread over Dan’s heart at the man’s words, feeling, in a way, similar to Phil’s emotions that he had felt yesterday, but at the same time so much different, more… intense. Cold. Controlling. He swallowed, relaxing his arms from their previous defensive position between him and the man. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Phil being led out without much of a fight. They must’ve told him the same thing.
“Where are you taking us?” Dan asked, trying his best to keep his voice from shaking.
Of course, he didn’t get a response, as they continued down the hall. Dan’s mind was racing at a million miles an hour, trying desperately to think of a way to get them both out of this alive.
Outside of the hotel, after a torturous elevator journey and terrifying walk through a mysteriously silent lobby, Dan glanced around for any CCTV cameras or alarms, anything he might be able to set off to get out of this. They were headed towards a big black van, and he felt a sort of prickle on the back of his neck, unsure if it was someone else’s fear or his own. His thoughts turned hysterical when he realized that once he got into the van, their chances of escaping would be slim to none. He was looking around more desperately now, terrified tears prickling at the corners of his eyes and blurring his vision. Ten feet away. Five. Three.
A sharp jab to his back. A rough voice told him to get inside. He twisted around to look over his shoulder, seeing Phil right behind him looking equally desperate and scared as Dan felt. He put up one foot onto the bumper, stretching this out as long as possible. His eyes darted back and forth along the perimeter of the building, finally locking onto an old-looking camera, pointed in such a way that he just might show up in the edge of the frame. Staring directly at it, he managed to mouth out ‘help me’ before being shoved into the car fully. Phil was pushed in behind him and the doors shut, leaving them in total blackness.
-=II=-
The first thing that alerted them to the other people in the van was a small whimper.
His eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness, but still Dan looked around anxiously, his absolute hatred of the dark creeping up on him. “Phil?” He called hesitantly.
“Who’s there?” A voice that was definitely not Phil responded.
“Dan, where are you?” Phil replied at the same time.
“Who else is here?” Dan asked, reaching out one hand blindly, searching in the darkness. His eyes were adjusting enough to see faint shapes shifting around, but not much else.
“There are six of us, outside of you new guys.” Another new voice responded, light and feminine. “Who’re you?”
“Why are we here?” Dan asked, unsure if he could trust these new people.
“We think it’s because of an… accident. Were you all in the building that got gassed as well?”
“Was that what happened?” Dan recited the location of their apartment to the group, confirming it. “Why us? What happened?”
“Have you all been noticing anything… strange about yourselves recently? Over the past few hours?” Another new voice made itself known. “The gas did something to us.”
“Yeah, we have.” Phil responded. “What are your names? I’m Phil.”
“Paige,” replied a vaguely familiar voice.
“Alan.”
“Ivan.”
“I’m Aoife, Paige is my daughter and my son Alex is here as well, but he can’t speak, so he can’t answer, but he’s sitting back here with me,” she spoke in a warm Scottish accent.
“I’m Gabriel, Aoife’s husband.”
“And I’m Dan, Alan, I think we lived right above you? Paige and Gabriel, we rode to the hospital with you, remember?”
A brief silence followed, then Paige laughed. “I just tried nodding, but you can’t see us. Yeah, I remember.” Her voice trembled, despite her laugh.
“Yes, I remember meeting you all at one point,” Alan smiled in recognition.
“E-eefe, was it? Sorry, how did you pronounce that?” Phil questioned.
“Ee-fah,” Aoife replied with a little laugh. “Don’t worry about it, honestly. With the ridiculous way it’s spelled too, it’s just an inconvenient name to have.”
“I’m across the hall from Alan, by the way- I don’t remember meeting you all, though,” someone said (It was hard to tell who was speaking just from their voice alone, but Dan was fairly sure it had been Ivan speaking.)
“What did you guys mean by ‘weird things’ happening to all of us?” Dan asked.
“Things we couldn’t do before. Weirder than usual dreams, almost like visions. Feelings that aren’t your own,” Gabriel replied.
“Almost like superpowers,” Paige added.
Dan’s eyes widened. “Yeah, that’s- that’s exactly it, actually. The emotions one.”
He was able to make out one of the others nodding knowingly. “Anything other than that? It seems to be different for everyone.”
“Can anyone else hear thoughts if you’re touching the person? We’ve both got that, as well as feeling other people’s emotions. Nothing else that I’ve noticed, though,” Phil said.
“I might not need to be touching the person,” Dan speculated. “I thought I could tell what the people who took us were feeling, but that could’ve been something else…”
“Hearing thoughts, that’s new,” Aoife mused. “What were they feeling, d’you think?”
“Not anything I could put a specific name to,” Dan replied. “Something strong, and… nasty. Maybe scared of us, one mentioned that he knew ‘what we are,’ whatever that means. I don’t know.”
“So that must be why we were taken? Because of the power things? Who even are they?”
“Most likely, yes. Whoever these people are, they must know about the powers. Maybe they were the ones behind us getting them in the first place? Maybe they have the powers themselves? All we can really do is wait and see, at this point. We’re not sure where they’re taking us, either.”
“Comforting.”
Alan laughed. “It sure is, isn’t it?”
-=II=-
None of them were sure exactly how long the car ride was, as they had all been taken sometime during the night or early morning, meaning all they had were pajamas, and therefore no watches or phones.
At one point, the back doors opened briefly and a new woman, as well as a few bags of crisps were thrown inside. It had all happened so suddenly that they only had been able to jump to their feet, the doors being shut once more the moment the first of them had reached it.
The woman tearfully introduced herself as Janice, she had been taken away from her kids and had no idea if they had been kidnapped as well, or even killed by their captors.
She was filled in on what everyone else knew so far, and calmed down a bit. Her two sons had both been out of the apartment when the gassing had occurred, so they wouldn’t have been affected and therefore wouldn’t be a target for their captors.
They did their best to split the tiny snack-bags of crisps between them, talking over their experiences since yesterday and explaining what powers they had noticed so far.
“I’m not sure exactly what it is yet,” Ivan explained, “Last night I dreamed about getting kidnapped like this, and… other things as well. We’ll just have to see.”
“I slammed a door just by thinking about it,” Paige muttered. “I can’t seem to do anything to get us out though, maybe it was triggered by adrenaline or something? A freak accident? I’ll keep trying, though.”
Dan nodded at that. “Do what you can. For me and Phil, we’ve been able to feel people’s emotions through touch, and for me it works without touch, just not as well. Like… there was definitely something coming from the kidnapper guy, anyway. And as for you all… just a lot of nervousness and fear.” He shuddered.
“We were also able to hear each other’s thoughts, but only when we’re touching for some reason,” Phil continued, “Haven’t been able to try it on other people, though.”
“Here,” Janice said, extending her arm to him. “Will I be able to feel anything?”
“Not sure,” Phil responded, placing his fingertips on her arm, nearly missing in the dark. His head was flooded with her thoughts and feelings, just the same as it had been with Dan earlier.
“Is it working? I can’t feel anything,” Janice said.
“Yeah, it is. You’re really worried. We’ll figure out a way to get out of here soon.”
“Can I try?” Dan asked, reaching out as well. The worry that Phil had described slammed into him from behind like a brick wall, and a new feeling pushed at his forehead intensely. “You’re worried… and focused? A few vague thoughts, some object? Round object? But not really anything else…”
Janice sighed, leaning back. “I was thinking really hard about basketballs to see if that made it easier, so that must’ve been the focus part.”
“Wait, one more try? I want to see something,” Dan said, grabbing onto her hand again. The same colors and emotions flooded his senses, but he tried to reach further. Suddenly he could see something else, images flashing through his conscience, only appearing for a few split seconds. He moved away. “Do you know someone with green hair? I think it works with memory as well. That’s all I really saw, I couldn’t make out anything else.”
“My son, Mike. That’s all he wanted for his birthday, green hair.” Janice put one hand over her mouth in shock. “That’s incredible.”
“I couldn’t see memories, that’s weird,” Phil said, “Maybe you’ve got something different?”
“I’m sure something else will come up, it’s been different abilities with everyone,” Alan said. “Janice, what can you do?”
“No clue. I haven’t noticed anything odd yet, maybe I didn’t get anything?” She sounded almost hopeful.
“Maybe it’s just taking longer. Anyways, I’ve got some of the same empathy stuff as Dan and Phil, and I think…” He broke off hesitantly. “…a plant spoke to me as I got into the van?” Alan chuckled nervously.
“Wish I could talk to plants,” Phil laughed. “I have so many houseplants at home…” He trailed off. “Who’s going to water them?”
A somber silence fell across the car.
“God, everyone’s going to be so freaked out. Phil, the SITC meetup was going to be tomorrow, all those people…”
“Oh no,” Phil said. “They all paid for the meetup and we won’t be there.”
“SITC? Meetup?” Aoife asked.
“Do you mean Summer in the City?” Paige asked incredulously.
“What’s that?” Gabriel asked.
“It’s a sort of convention thing, for people who post on YouTube. We were going to be meeting people who watch our videos there,” Phil replied.
“Oh, that’s cool. You must be the same Dan and Phil that my friend Angie is super obsessed with, then.” Paige let out a dry chuckle. “Must’ve just not known it was you because of the dark or something…”
“Huh. Well I-when we get back, tell Angie we said hi,” Dan said.
“I will,” Paige said, sounding faint.
“Are you alright?” Gabriel asked, noticing her tone.
“Y-yeah, I’m just trying to get this door-“
“Don’t strain yourself too much, Paige. You might need your strength later,” Aoife advised.
“I won’t need it all if we get out before that!” she snapped.
No one responded for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” Paige muttered. “It’s just- what’re they going to do to us? I-I just want to go home.”
Suddenly, Dan realized: How old had Paige looked when he first met her on the ambulance? Thirteen, maybe fourteen? She was barely done with being a child, and going through such a horrible experience. Dan felt an awful pang in his chest at what she had said. Why did this happen to them? What did they want?
There was a small shuffling noise in the darkness, as someone scooted closer to the dark shape Dan perceived to be Paige. They raised both hands in a series of complicated gestures.
Paige let out a breath. “No, Alex, I promise it’s going to be okay. We’ll be safe soon.”
Alex let out a little sniffle, wrapping his arms around his sister. A tear of desperation sprung up in Dan’s eye at the sight- if Paige, at fourteen, was too young for this, her brother, who seemed to be around ten, needed to be as far away from this mess as possible.
-=II=-
It felt like it had been several hours before the door opened again. They were greeted by a tall, graceful-looking woman with four of the armed men that had taken them in the first place, standing at her side like guards. Everyone in the truck jumped up to their feet as the doors opened, tensing and ready to run for it as soon as they got a chance.
“Don’t bother running,” the woman said calmly, “It’s a waste of both of our time. We really do need you all alive.”
“A-and what’s that for? Where are we? Who are you?” Paige stuttered.
“Aww,” the woman cooed. “She’s a bit younger than most of the rest of you, yeah? Cute. You’ll get your questions answered in due time. Now, one by one, step out of the van and follow us. These guards will shoot if you try any of your… funny business.”
“This is ridiculous,” Ivan spat as he stood to leave, the first one out. “What do you want with us? Why specifically us?”
“All in due time, dear! Now hurry up, keep it moving.” Her eyes seemed to linger on Alex for a moment as he stumbled past, still clinging to Paige’s arm. For a moment, she almost looked… regretful? Sorry for them? Dan reached out tentatively, trying to figure out what she was feeling, finding only something that felt hot, burning, boiling. He did his best not to flinch, as the woman was eyeing him carefully.
They shuffled out of the car in single file, watching the guards’ guns with wary eyes. Dan made sure to stick as close to Phil as possible, worrying that they could get separated.
The sky above was bright blue and nearly cloudless. The yard was fenced in with barbed wire and, according to the bright red warning signs that hug every so often along the wire fence, electricity. A net loosely spanned the area above them, hung from fencepost to fencepost. A small grey concrete building lay ahead on a gravel driveway, with no visible windows and an awful, bleak feeling hanging in the dry air around them. Dan couldn’t recognize the emotion, and wasn’t sure he wanted to.
Walking through the front door felt like walking into a prison. The inside of the building was lit up with too-bright fluorescent lights, reminding Dan of horror movie corridors and, oddly enough, classrooms without windows. He managed only a small glance over his shoulder at the sky before the door was slammed shut.
They continued further down a hallway and down some stairs, through hall after hall in a pattern that seemed to be designed intentionally to confuse them. At second thought, Dan realized he wouldn’t be that surprised if it actually had been.
Eventually they ended up in another badly lit room, containing a simple wooden desk with papers neatly stacked to one side, a short file cabinet, and a sleek desktop computer. The woman who had been leading them went around and sat down at the chair.
“My name is Amelia Hartford- well, to you it is. This is the Center for Civilian Threats, or CCT for short.”
“Threats?” Phil asked incredulously, “How are we threats? We haven’t done anything!”
“You are all part of a group that has been shown holding certain incredibly powerful abilities. Our job here is to test those abilities, measure their possible effects on society, and begin to teach you how to harness them to aid your country.”
“Like soldiers?” Janice asked, “I don’t want to be a soldier.”
“Somewhat. Not all of you will reach that final point, depending on which abilities you end up possessing. I will advise you all, make no attempt to hide what you can do from us. We will find out, and the consequences will be… severe.”
“How can you do this? We haven’t committed any crimes, you can’t hold us in custody like this! I’ll have you know, my brother’s a lawyer-“ Ivan said.
“Your brother will most absolutely lose any case he brings against us. Suspected threats- and yes, any of you have the potential to be threats- can be held. This program is government-sanctioned, as you can read here.” She calmly passed Ivan a packet.
Ivan scanned over the front of the packet carefully. “I’d like to keep this, to go over it further.”
“Feel free,” Amelia said calmly. “In the meantime, you all will be assigned identification numbers, living quarters, and a schedule, as you will be staying here while we assess your abilities. You will find that there are more people like you around this building, brought in separately. The rules here are quite simple. No violence amongst yourselves, obey the commands of all guards, instructors, scientists, and myself- that is, everyone with a badge. You’ll catch on very quickly. You’ll be given your assignments in just a moment.” She turned to the filing cabinet, pulling out a stack of papers similar to the ones already stacked on one side of the desk.
“When will we be able to leave?” Dan asked.
“Oh, my dear, that depends on a lot of things,” Amelia smiled. “Let’s just say… you’ll stay for however long it takes.”
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