Repetitive clangs resounded through the hallways of the research facility. They would increase in tempo and dynamics from time to time, but they continued intermittently for hours.
Reynolds had scarcely entered the genetics lab when the lead technician rushed toward him.
“Thompson, what’s all that banging?” He asked her, noting her harried expression.
“That’s... A-077,” she admitted. “It’s not stopped for hours.”
Reynolds pinched his forehead and shook it off. “I’ll handle that in a moment. What have you learned?”
“There was such heavy mutation in A-077 as compared to the original sample, it forced us to look back in our files.” She swallowed uncomfortably, “And it appears we may have mislabeled the original sample.”
Reynolds’ eyes narrowed. “Mislabeled, ma’am?”
Thompson shifted uncomfortably in her white coat. “It appears the genetics for 04897-2 were used, not 04897-1...”
“04897-2 is the Time-Manipulator!!” Reynolds spouted so loudly the entire room leapt in surprise.
The technician bit her lip worriedly. “Yes, sir. Thankfully, A-077’s mutation shifted to water-manipulation—”
“Does this mean every one of the sleepers has been given the Time-Manipulator’s powers and not the Sentinel’s?” The lieutenant interrupted.
“We’re almost finished gathering samples from all of them to verify.” She cleared her throat. “It’s been very difficult to concentrate, sir.”
Reynolds brought his hand onto the table beside her. “I don’t care how difficult it is—you have got to find this out before we can go any further with this project!!”
“Wait,” another technician behind them stood up. “Do you hear that?”
The room hushed to silence despite Reynolds’ low-burning expression.
“The banging is gone.”
Thompson glanced at Reynolds worriedly.
Reynolds audibly groaned and rushed out the room. He flagged down a security guard and raced up a flight of stairs to the examination room they were using to hold The Outlier.
When the door swung open, Ace was seated quietly on the exam table, kicking his feet back and forth.
“What is going on in here??” Reynolds fumed.
“Nothing at the moment.” Ace shrugged.
The wavy-haired lieutenant eyed Ace’s wrist bracers and then stepped inside the room to get a view of the other side of the door. “I hope you realize you will not be able to open the door or your shackles this way.”
“Who said I was trying to do that?”
Reynolds offered a bitter smile. “Do you enjoy making other people’s lives miserable?”
“Is that not what you do around here?” Ace smirked in return.
The lieutenant made a poor attempt at feigning composure. “I will ask you kindly to stop banging against the door.” He said after a long pause.
The Echo crossed his arms. “I can’t promise anything.”
“If you need anything—”
“Can I go to the bathroom?” Ace slid off the table.
Reynolds glanced at the security guard at his side.
The guard shrugged. “It has been a few hours.”
“Fine.” He gestured to the guard and turned on his heels to return to the genetics lab.
Just as he had done before, the guard placed a hand on Ace’s shoulder to keep him on a straight path to the bathroom at the other end of the hall.
“Don’t take all day.” The guard opened the door and ushered Ace inside.
“I can’t promise anything.” Ace announced as the door shut on him. He smirked and hurried to the toilet.
After relieving himself, he flushed the toilet and used the running water to cover the sound of him removing the porcelain cover to the toilet tank. He had scoured the room for its usefulness that morning, and he was able to make quick work of removing the toilet’s metal flushing arm from the tank.
He closed the toilet lid to use it as a seat, rolled his left wrist over to expose the small gap he had beaten open in the shackle’s seam, and used the metal arm as a spike to drive into the opening. He wrenched it back and forth until the locking mechanism gave way. He pushed it back closed to keep up the locked illusion, and then rapidly did the same to the other shackle.
He reached into the toilet tank to open the flapper for another flush of water to mask the sound, and in that time, he was able to reassemble the arm and handle and return the cover to its place.
He then stepped to the sink to wash his hands, stop up the drain, and leave an almost imperceptible trickle of water running from the faucet.
The Echo dried his hands on a paper towel, turned off the light, and exited the bathroom.
“Was that fast enough?” He asked innocently.
The guard shut the door and sighed. “Come on.”
--
“So?” Reynolds stood over the shoulders of Thompson and an assistant as the three of them looked at a screen full of squares and numbers.
“Every single one has the genetics of 04897-2.” Thompson announced dimly. “Almost half have some mutation beyond the original sample, but none seem to have the water-manipulation pattern found in A-077’s code.”
Reynolds sighed with furrowed brows. “You realize this mistake may have cost us this entire project, do you not?”
Thompson bowed her head. “Yes, sir.”
“04897-2 killed technicians like you when she first awakened on this planet.” He hissed into her ear.
“Yes, sir.” She muttered, trembling.
“A-077 is further proving that her line cannot be controlled. If they all awaken similarly, we will lose control and this entire plan will have been for naught!” He stressed before stepping back and crossing his arms. “We barely had the resources to travel off-planet and capture this set of sleepers. Do you think we can simply catch another hundred and try again as if nothing happened??”
“No, sir—I understand, sir; I’m sorry—I didn’t realize this had happened until now. I—”
“I’ll let Konstantin know,” Reynolds spoke coldly, watching the technician crumple in front of the computer. “We will decide what should be done from here.” His eyes glanced back to the computer. “Who is B-077?”
Thompson raised her eyes to the screen. “The Barean.”
A half-smile found his lips. “Ah, that’s right. Our only clean slate; perhaps we haven’t lost everything after all.”
--
Ace and the guard had barely reached his holding room when another technician opened the bathroom door and switched on the light.
“Who left the sink running?” She called.
The guard had to look twice before realizing who had just been in the bathroom. He grabbed Ace by the shoulders and pushed his back into the wall.
Ace met his eyes and offered an uneasy grin. “Oops!”
In one fell swoop, he gave a heavy shake of his arms to throw the shackles from his wrists and thrust his hands forward. The water burst through the faucet in the bathroom, swept the technician off her feet, and inundated the guard under a heavy wave of water.
The sounds of gushing water alerted two others to rush into the hallway, but Ace simply redirected the water flow towards them.
The guard, back on his feet, dove at Ace from behind and tried to restrain him in a bear hug. The Echo struggled against him as the water swirled through the air and forced them both backward. The guard’s head slammed into a fire alarm, and the force broke Ace from his grasp.
A jarring bell immediately began to ring through the hall as water sprinklers popped open from the ceiling.
The guard’s eyes widened in horror as he slid to the ground.
Ace bared a toothy smile as his eyes shimmered with blue light.
--
The fire alarm’s siren interrupted all thought and action in the genetics laboratory.
“Was there a test scheduled today?” A technician turned to the door, just in time to watch water trickle past down the hallway.
Reynolds, Thompson, and the others turned to the door in varying states of shock, and almost as quickly, they rushed to the doorway.
At the end of the hall, water was steadily flowing down the stairs from the floor above.
Reynolds turned to outrage as he clenched his teeth. “That had better not be what I think it is!” He chewed on the words.
“Sir—if the water reaches the monitors it could trigger them all to wake—”
Thompson didn’t have time to finish her sentence as Reynolds bolted from the room and splashed down to the monitoring room. He had barely reached the open door when a mass of water dropped to the ground at the bottom of the stairs.
The Outlier rose from the water, gleaming from head to toe. A streak of white hair fell into his face as his cold eyes locked onto Reynolds.
“If you get this room wet, if these computers go offline, you—you will kill every single Echo asleep in the next room!” Reynolds spouted, thrusting a pointed finger at the door.
“Then, get away from the room.” The Outlier strode down the hall with mist and water curling at his heels.
Reynolds held firm in the doorway, though it was clear he was struggling to uphold his composure. “You know, your friend is in there. What was his name,” Reynolds glanced down at the water puddling at his feet as the man at the computers began pulling cables from off the floor. “Elliot?”
He stopped walking, though his eyes did not lose their light.
Reynolds huffed through his teeth. “That’s right—Elliot is in there. If you don’t stop this, you will kill him and all the others.” He offered an empathetic smile, “That’s not what you want, is it?”
He blinked, losing the light for only a moment. “You... you put him in there?” The water swirled tighter around him as he grimaced angrily. “You’re turning on your own people?”
“Careful, remember what I said? You don’t want them to die.” He narrowed his eyes and added, “It would be your fault.”
He let out a slow breath, and the light at last left his eyes and faded from his neck and arms. The mist faded and the water ceased moving.
“There you go,” Reynolds’ lips curled into a smile. “Thank you.”
“Reynolds!!” A deep voice boomed from around the corner.
The lieutenant turned on his heels. “Sir, I’ve got this under control—”
“Is this what you call control??” Konstantin kicked up the water as he rounded the corner. He froze when he saw Ace, shackleless, standing a few feet from Reynolds.
“Everything’s all right,” Reynolds held out his hands and glanced at Ace, “he doesn’t want to hurt the Echoes in the other room by getting the computers wet.” He stressed the words with a knowing glance toward the commander.
Konstantin heaved a breath and started toward him. “Reynolds, I have been trusting you every step of the way with this project. I have been allowing you to keep this ‘outlier’ alive while you spout off every aspect of this project, knowing you must have some sort of plan to keep the information within these walls and retain control of him. And you, sir, are not giving me any confidence!!”
“I apologize sir, we’ve had a number of... mishaps today.” He again turned to check on Ace, surprised to find the Echo standing where he had left him.
“I’ll say.” Konstantine’s fists clenched. “I was just informed about our little genetic ‘mishap’.”
Reynolds tensed up and almost jumped when Ace stepped next to him.
“What do you mean?”
“It doesn’t concern you, Echo.”
Mist circled Konstantin’s feet as Ace grit his teeth. “Wanna bet?”
“Commander,” the lieutenant’s demeanor was cracking with apprehension, “we will discuss that after—”
“Oh no! Since we’re so keen on including the Echo in all of our top secret information, let’s spill it all now!” Konstantin spread his arms wide, breaking the mist barrier as he stepped through it. “Let’s tell him that they all got the wrong dose of Aravasti genes and we need all of them dead anyway!”
Ace’s eyes grew wide, and he swiftly turned to Reynolds in distress.
Reynolds, for once, mirrored his agitated expression.
“They’ll all wake up too powerful—too hard to control—just like this particular mutation!” Konstantin shoved Reynolds into the monitoring room and squared up with Ace. “So, every last one of them, including you, will be thrown away with the rest of this project!”
Ace thrust his arms into Konstantin’s chest, but the man grabbed him by the wrists and only received a splattering of water before the strength of his power was lost. He spat it back at Ace’s face and grinned.
Ace writhed and kicked against him, but the larger man swiftly shoved him backward into the wall beside the doorway. He still fought as hard as he could, but with a second more forceful shove into the wall, the wind was knocked from his chest and he struck the back of his head from the force. He was then kneed in the stomach and pinned to the wall by his arms as the rest of his body fell painfully limp.
“Shut them all down,” Konstantin shouted into the monitoring room beside him.
Reynolds had just returned to his feet when he looked to Konstantin with furrowed brows. Beside him, the technician’s mouth was gaping.
“Stop standing there and shut them all down!!”
“Sir—”
“No,” Ace groaned through his teeth, “Elliot—”
“There’s still one—”
“I don’t care!” Konstantin bellowed over his opposition, “Shut them down!!”
The technician winced and typed the command into the keyboard. He glanced at Reynolds to supply a secondary command, and, biting his lip, the lieutenant complied.
Another siren joined the mindless buzzing of the fire alarm’s bell as the computer screens began displaying a series of small red boxes.
Ace shouted at the top of his lungs and kicked Konstantin in the stomach with both legs. It was just enough to free his arms send all the water from the second floor barreling into the commander. The force knocked the man so hard, he was thrown down the staircase at the other end of the hall.
Ace rushed into the monitoring room, pushed past Reynolds and the technician, threw one of the rolling chairs against the wall as leverage, and leapt into the wire conduit. He grabbed the bundle of wires when he reached the other end and swung out of the shaft. He pushed his legs as fast as they could go, wincing as the machines across the room blinked red and powered off one by one. He ran to the only bed that would have been available for someone new.
He let out a cry and dove at bed 077 as the red light faded. The force knocked the bed onto its side, throwing Elliot’s lifeless body against his own as they hit the ground.
All around them, the red lights faded and the sound of a great exhale passed through the room. Soon, there was nothing but Ace’s labored breathing to break the silence.
“No,” Ace both gasped for air and heaved out sobs as he struggled to his hands and knees. He reached for Elliot and shuddered when the man’s arm was cold to the touch. “Please, no,” he nudged his friend in vain.
The man did not move.
A dark pallor fell over the Echo as he sat at Elliot’s side. His expression dulled until it bore no emotion, and a heavy fog descended upon the silent rows of beds.
Elliot choked on a breath. He wheezed a few gasps of air and uncomfortably rolled to his side. He groaned and tried to blink the room into focus, but it remained gray and hazy. Thunder rumbled through the floor, and when he managed to sit up, he was taken aback at the Echo’s presence.
“Ace?”
The Echo turned his head. His eyebrows had arched, but the light did not leave his eyes.
Elliot shrunk back unnervingly. “Hey, snap out of it,” he tried. “It’s me!”
Ace clamped his eyes shut and at last broke from the light. “Elliot!” he gasped, struggling for words, “I thought... I thought you were...”
The fog began to fade, and Elliot shuddered when he realized where they were. “Why are we in this room again?” He complained weakly.
The Echo turned away, wincing in anguish.
The Barean’s eyes dulled as his mind began to put together the pieces: they were on the floor beside an overturned bed among rows of dark, motionless machines and bodies. “Ace, please don’t tell me what I think just happened...”
“I was so focused on saving you,” Ace was beginning to tremble as realization and remorse sunk in. “Why didn’t I knock every bed over as I ran? Why—why didn’t I wake more of them?” His brows arched in pain as his lips quivered, “Could I have saved them?”
The heavy metal door opened with a clank. Armed guards rushed in and surrounded Ace and Elliot. Weak and worn, they were unable to retaliate before both were wrenched from the ground and Ace was reshackled.
Reynolds joined the circle, glancing between the Echo and the Barean. “You are a man of surprises, Outlier,” he said coldly. “You left your fellow Echoes to die while you rushed to save the traitor.”
“Don’t let him get to you,” Elliot blurted. “Their deaths are not your fault!”
“Silence him.” Reynolds ordered before redirecting Ace’s attention with a quick grasp of his chin. “And you do realize we can add attempted murder to your repertoire—that is, if Commander Konstantin is able to heal from the injuries you supplied.”
“Just kill me and get it over with.” Ace hissed despondently.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Reynolds grinned as he released his grip on the Echo, “But I have one last use for you.” The grin widened when he turned to Elliot. “Keep him alive too.”
Blood dripped from Elliot’s mouth as he struggled to lift his head. His face fell when he realized Ace had stopped fighting back.
“We’ll let him watch.”