Co-op: Kiro Akira and ADN
Sitting on the ground Echo looked around seeing another person enter the room. Like the guards she couldn't really make out who it was. It wasn't just her vision being blurred from not wearing her glasses but she was always disorientated when she came out of a vision. It didn't help that she had been pulled from the vision by a blow to the face. Her head was throbbing both from being struck and exiting a vision quickly. Reaching up she rubbed her cheek, the skin wasn't broken but she could already feel it starting to swell and a bruise forming. The two guards left the room and she stayed still for a moment noticing the newcomer was still in her cell, she leaned over to the end table retrieving her glasses, putting them on allowing her to see that it was Bakari and he was bleeding. He had taken a few hits as well. "You didn't have to do that they would have gone away on their own." Echo said.
Bakari shrugged shaking his head. "Yea after they beat you like they just did to me. The guards here are ridiculous and you know that. Besides, they don't deserve to treat us like that. Useless is what they are. Exploiting their 'authority'. They're just scared little chickens who think they have a right here." Bakari rubbed his swelling cheek next to his eye and dabbed at it with his shirt the best he could without taking it off.
Looking at the blood, Bakari shrugged it off and motioned the bits of sand he still had to form over the wounds on his face. It wouldn't stop the bleeding but it would help it from spreading. Bakari held his hand out to Echo and gave her a gentle smile. "Come on, lets get out to this hell hole we call a Yard." Bakari knew the issues that could come with her touching his bare hand but he didn't care at that given point in time. It would be fine as far as he knew anyways.
She watched him dab at his wounds with the sand thinking at first it was strange that he did that it could get infected but like her Bakari had powers and his power had to do with sand. Before coming to Brickhurst she never knew there were so many powered people out there. She wasn't fond of the term gifted as she didn't see her ability as a gift. A gift meant it was something you wanted and something that you would like. Her powers were nothing like that. She hadn't gotten used to there being so many together even if their powers were suppressed by the medication they gave them.
Echo got pills every day but she never knew if it was the medication or a placebo pill. She figured out a while ago that from time to time they gave her placebos so they could study her powers. There were days were she hardly had any visions and others where they were constant. She hadn't taken her pills yet today so she didn't know which it was going to be. It was always best to avoid people until she had her pills and even after she tried to avoid others. Bakari stood there with his hand out for her. She was weary to take it but normally she didn't get back to back vision so she reached out to take it.
As he took her hand he nodded and lead her to the door of her cell. "I hear that the guards were planning some stupid shit today so be on your toes yea?" He said spoke taking a glance back to her before falling in line leading the female. Bakari saw no difference in any of the people here. They were all treated the same, with the same horrific language and beating from the guards.
With Bakari's help she was pulled to her feet, through the contact of their hands she could feel the surge of a vision. She stiffened waiting for it to come but nothing happened. It just fizzled out. She must have used it all on the vision with Harrison and the rough exit. Not wanting to press her luck she quickly let go of his hand and shoved them in her pockets. True she didn't need to touch someone with her hands to have a vision it was the most common. Thankfully they kept her on enough medication that she didn't have very many spontaneous visions without contact. Those were the worst because half the time she didn't know where they were coming from.
"Aren't they always doing something?" Echo said. She was no stranger to the dog and pony shows places like this put on. When she had been working for the police department the detectives would always be showing her off to the chiefs to try and get more funding. Echo looked around the room noticing everyone breaking off into their usual groups. When she was forced out of her cell Echo always tried to find somewhere quiet on her own. She noticed one of the nurses moving around with a cart with little cups of pills on them, trying to get the easy going inmates to take their pills. Most wouldn't take the pills without some sort of encouragement but there were some like Echo who didn't fight it.
Stopping at the cart Echo held her hand out waiting for the woman to give her a cup. "Lets see Sara Miller and Bakari Bennu, here we go." She said, pushing two cups forward as she looked up at the pair. Her focus was more on Echo's bruises than Bakari, they weren't unusual on him. "Oh dear, let me look at that." She said, reaching out to touch Echo's cheek.
She grabbed the cup and jumped back away from her. "No!" She shouted causing a number of the other inmates to look at her.
Bakari look at the pills and shrugged at the cup. Of course they wanted him to take these foul things. Not only was the taste terrible but they would drain his power immensely giving him a weak nature. He did take them for show obviously but he had a small pile of them hidden away when he could. Giving a sly smirk seeing the nurse over look him and attempt to examine Echo's bruises. He quickly released the sand from his face letting his cuts show much more. Yet he didn't care.
With a quick pace, Bakari tipped the cup back to let the pills drop into his mouth, yet the sand filed in after them wrapping them to stop the pills from getting wet and into his system. With that he pushed them to his cheek hiding them there passing back the cup. "There you go." He said and turned away. If he didn't know any better the pills not only kept him in check but he was positive they drugged him into submission. He always felt loopy and uncaring when the pills were taken. But as long as he kept up the act, they could never prove anything. He just had to be sure not to use his powers within the next few hours. Unless they found his stash that is and he kept that well hidden in a small piece of sandstone hidden inside his mattress. When he was sure they weren't looking, Bakari spit the pile of sand into his hand as stealthy as possible and slipped it into his pocket.
Echo didn't like touching people and she didn't like people touching her even more. While jumping back she nearly dropped her cup of pills. It took a moment to steady herself and she didn't notice the strange looks from some of the younger inmates. There were a few that had recently arrived and didn't know about the crazy girl who saw things. The nurse seemed to apologize very briefly then gestured for her to swallow the pills. Like Bakari she didn't hesitate when taking them but unlike him she actually swallowed them. Being on the pills was one of the few times when she had a moment of piece and didn't have to be as afraid to touch people. They didn't fully block her powers, it seemed that was the case with most of the inmates they just reduced their powers. One thing she knew for sure was that they were fast acting, usually within just a couple minutes of taking them she could feel the affects of them.
Dropping the empty cup back on the cart she turned to walk away with Bakari when her foot stepped on a plastic bolt that must have fallen off a table or chair. With her altercation with the guards earlier she had forgotten to put her shoes on and was walking around barefooted. Stepping on the bolt reminded her of stepping on a Lego when she was a child. Or at least she thought it was her memory, it could have been someone else's memory she didn't know it was hard to tell sometimes. All she knew was that she had felt it before. The pain of stepping on the bolt made lose her balance and she stumbled falling into Bakari. The moment she made contact with him she felt her body go stiff and her eyes rolled back getting glassed over as she was hit with a vision.
Vision Begin"Dad? What are you doing?" An older gentleman took a swig from his bottle and gave a drunken grin as he swatted the younger boy across the face. "You are a disgrace to this family. You and that wretched mother of yours." Bakari cringed from the strike on his face and looked up at the drunken fool.
This was something he had been dealing with for the last month or so ever since his father had come home and he hated it. This man who claimed to be his protector and "protected and Served" the people of the United states. Yet here he was beating a defenseless child. When the man grabbed Bakari's arm he instantly snatched it back from the man. "Don't touch me!" He shouted back at his father.
As Bakari shouted the man stood tall and stared down at him. He was clearly towering over Bakari and was much stronger then him. His father glared as he stared him down and struck Bakari again. Yet this time the boy wasn't having it. As the blow hit him, a pile of the sand that sat in a large jar just in the corner of the room shattered the glass and wrapped Bakari's hand. The sand then hardened and moved into a point as Bakari struck back this time. The now spike pierced through the skin. He could feel the ripping of the fabric of his fathers shirt rip as it went into the skin. He felt every bit of it as his rage filled eyes stared back at the man who moved back from Bakari. "You monster! How dare you do this to your father!" The man grasped his bleeding shoulder and stared down at the boy as he quickly moved away running off to another room.
The boys mother stepped around the corner and looked down at Bakari as he sat on his knees the sand falling from his hand back into the state it once was. His mother on the other hand knelt down beside him wrapping her arms around him feeling the pain in her childs heart. "It's ok Bakari. He's just a drunken fool.....Don't cry it's all going to be all right."
Bakari could feel his mother's embrace which caused his heavy breathing to finally break and his tears to start falling. He was used to the beatings. But now, his father must have hated him. He took pride in his father and his work and even wished to join him one day. Yet now here he was with a huge issue. Not only had he struck his father back through rage. He even caused him to bleed and used his "gift" to do so. The boy wrapped his arms around his mother and he held her tight. "I'm sorry mom......." Vision End
Bakari was quick to grab Echo as she fell. Of course she was unstable but it was alright he had her. "Woah there Echo everything alright?" He asked the female as she fell into him. Yet this time she seemed off, like something was wrong and not to mention her eyes were glossed over and a stiff body to add to it. He knew what this was, he'd seen it a short time back about a week ago the same instance. More then likely she would freak out after returning to the Real world. Bakari eased her body down to a state where she could lay comfortably. He was unsure of who's vision or what was going on but he was sure it'd end soon. "Oh Echo what have you gotten into now?"
Coming out of the vision was easier than before and hurt far less. It was always better if she didn't try to force anything when it came to the visions. Just let them run their course. She found herself in Bakari's arms clinging to him as she cried. "I'm sorry mom." She found herself repeating several times before she pulled away and looked around. She wasn't in the house she had just been in nor was she being held by the middle eastern looking woman that had just been there. It took a minute for her to realize whose arms she was in, then she pulled away from Bakari and stood back up.
Echo wrapped her arms around herself trying to get her bearings again. She recognized many of the inmates in the yard but there was a young man that she had never seen before making her wonder if it was a new inmate. His clothing was strange too not like the others. He didn't seem like an inmate or a guard. She turned back to Bakari, "He shouldn't have hit me." Echo said, referring to the vision. "I was only defending mom. I didn't mean to use the sand." Echo could still feel the range of emotions from the vision welling inside her. It was so hard to separate things so soon after a vision especially when the vision was so intense. Slow though the feelings in her calmed down and she found herself looking around the yard noticing the nurse and her cart of pills. Guess today was going to be a placebo day.
Bakari blinked looking down at her as she came to speaking about how she was sorry mother. "Mom? Watcha talking about? You're here Echo. Back in the Asylum. Everythings gonna be alright." He said and watched as she stood up. He was sure she was going to be fine but a vision was never fun for her he was sure. And from the sounds of it this time it was a bad one. Something traumatizing. What Bakari hadn't realized was it was his own mind that had set off the vision.
Standing, he looked around at everyone and eyed them stepping towards one kid who looked as if he was about to crack up. Bakari knew his temper was short and a gifted picking on another gifted? In the yard of all places. It was areas like this where they needed to stick together rather then laugh at eachother. "So uhh. Something seem funny to you kid? What's your power again? Oh right.... You stick to walls and thats about it. Th' Fuck outta here spider boy." He said and gave the kid a shove causing him to look at Bakari in fear and scamper off worried he might hurt him much worse.
Turning back to Echo he looked at her listening to her speak to him. "Hit who? Defen-" His words paused when she mentioned using the sand. His eyes focused to his right arm as his own mind flooded with that night. He was sure that she was speaking about him. It was his memories and he was the only 'sandman' in the complex that he knew of. "Hey Echo. Yo, look. It's not your mind. It was mind calm down a bit. It's all gonna be alright. Don't gotta worry about nothing so come on. Lets go sit yea?" He asked reaching for her with one hand while pointing off to a section of the room where not many of the inmates were. He took no notice to the man who was pretty new to everyone else yet he took a glance over to the forming group. This one was surrounded by guards and they all seemed to answer to him. "Looks like we have a prodigy here. Might wanna keep our heads low and possibly get left alone."
He was hoping the man wouldn't approach them but with Echo's vision incident he was sure that they would be approached. Bakari couldn't stand when others visited the asylum. They were generally rude and cruel to them. The last one who visited was even wrong enough to strike a gifted into submission. And the warden? He wasn't getting started on that man. He only told them to continue. He didn't care for anyone in there and he was sure that a few of the "escaped" gifted were killed long before they met the freedom that they had wished for.