Farah didn’t spare the man so much as a glance as she brushed by him and entered through the door Eli was holding open for her. She duly noted Eli’s expression change, and she smiled discreetly to herself.
Just because this man was helping them didn’t mean she had to like him. Farah was in this for the powers, nothing more.
Eli followed his sister and the man in, letting the door close behind them. It shut with a thud, a sound that made him worry if they had made a mistake agreeing to work with the man. "You promised food," He finally said, motioning into the building, "If you'd prefer me to stay here, I think that's a good first stop." Screw politeness, Eli was starving, and if there was food somewhere, he needed to eat.
The man only laughed. "There is food. It is on one of the higher-up floors. We will get there soon, but before we get started, I'd like to give the both of you a welcoming tour. So the two of you will get… used to this place."
Farah sighed heavily and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, let's go then. We don't have all day."
He turned to face her with a warm but not kind smile. "You're so right."
That was the last thing Farah heard and saw before she felt the presence of someone behind her, and an overwhelming amount of electricity entered her body, causing her to twitch and pass out.
(I'm assuming Eli also passes out, but if you have a different plan, I'll change it.)
Eli groaned in annoyance but nodded. If this took long…he was going to go find the food himself. As he opened his mouth to tell the man though, he saw Farah crumple to the ground, and before he could speak or run off, he felt a jolt of electricity against his back. He cried out momentarily as his muscles seized and then he was out like a light, falling into a heap. The last thought in his mind being how bad of an idea this had all become.
(No, that's literally perfect. When they wake up, Eli's going to be in the cell next to her, like they were in Hydra)
When Farah awoke, the first thing she recognized was the chilling metal surface she had been sleeping on. The second was that her brother was no longer next to her. "Eli–!" she called out as she sat up, but she abruptly banged into something with her head. She hissed in pain and gripped her head with her hands, using her abilities to reduce the hurt. Surprisingly, she could still use her abilities, but she noted the thick metal bands around her wrists. A small dot on each of them was blinking white.
As her head cleared and the fogginess of sleep faded from her vision, she realized exactly where she was. In a cool, isolated, grey prison cell. She curled into a ball on the metal surface, which was attached to the wall and suspended in air, and trembled.
(Perfect!)
Eli was still starving. He woke up with a grunt of pain and a gurgling stomach, prying his eyes open. In an instant, it was clear they were no longer in the entrance to the wicked building. They were somewhere else, probably still inside.
He stayed laying still on the metal platform he was on, carefully looking around his surroundings. He was in a cell. A freezing cold prison cell with his sister nowhere to be found. Finally sitting up, he blinked, looking down to see thick metal bands around both his wrists and ankles. Things had certainly changed since they had stepped inside the building.
"Fara?" Eli called back, hearing his sister's words after a moment. "Where are you? Are you alright?"
It was obvious that neither of them would be 'alright' but he hoped she got the idea. They were in a new dangerous place, stuck in a cell away from each other, and with no idea of why they were there. Things had gone about as badly as they possibly could've. At least that was certain.
Farah jerked her head up again, this time minding whatever she'd hit the first time. Apparently, it was another steel slab sticking out of the wall. However, she didn't pay it any mind for the time being. She heard her brother. He was close. Way too close. Her abilities sensed him, but she couldn't touch or see him. She touched the wall, and her eyes glowed silver-blue with the use of her powers. Focusing intensely, she could see his outline literally inches away, but separated by grey concrete.
"Eli, I'm here," she called. "I'm…" She closed her eyes and whispered, unsure if he'd be able to hear her or not. "I'm sorry."
He did his best to follow where her voice had come from, assuming that she was near him just from how loud her words were. "There's nothing to be sorry for," Eli replied, cutting off any more apologies, "We didn't know this would happen, and we'll find a way out. Right now I want to make sure you're okay."
Closing his eyes, he scooted until he could lean against the concrete wall behind his 'bed'. Another rumble came from his stomach, this time accompanied by the gnawing feeling of hunger. His metabolism was no joking matter, as his powers used up immense amounts of energy, and with the energy it had used to create the water spiral, his body was rioting. Any further use of his powers would most likely be diminished just from the sheer fact that he wouldn't have the food in his body to fuel the use of them.
Quickly, he pulled himself out of thoughts of food and his powers, opening his eyes to look at his surroundings once more.
Farah closed her eyes to listen to her brother's words. She absorbed them and clung to them like a lifeline. They were both going to be okay. She would make sure of it. They needed a plan, and that was typically her area of expertise. Just as clearly as she heard his words, she also heard his stomach growling. "Have they not fed you?" she asked with incredulous rage.
She looked up as the sound of echoing footsteps approached their cells – drawing closer and closer. For a moment, it seemed like the person was going to walk right by them, but not if Farah had anything to say about it. She leaped up from the cold metal and stalked over to the cell door just in time to see a guard patrolling past. Her eyes instinctively began to glow, and she used her abilities to keep the guard frozen in place. The stoic look that had been on his features vanished and became a look of terror, not knowing what was happening to him. He quickly found out as Farah's voice echoed from her cell into his ears.
"Why have you not fed my brother?" she demanded through gritted teeth.
The guard's eyes were wide, and they quickly found Farah's, but he was still too afraid to speak.
"Do I have to ask again?" Farah snarled, her fingers curling into fists at her sides.
"Farah, I'm fine. Don't terrorize the poor guards," He called out to her, "I'll survive for another few hours before I really need something."
Eli switched from sitting on his bed to laying down, sighing as he listened to his sister. It was comforting to know that she was worried about him, and more importantly, that she still had use of her powers. No sane person would stay around her for so long with her being so grumpy unless they were being forced to stay there.
He glanced towards the front of his cell, sprawling out on his bed, with an arm behind his head. It was still cold and uncomfortable, but he could make it work. They wouldn't be here long after all.
Farah's lip curled into a sneer, but just as she was about to release the guard from her magical hold, a painful, numbing feeling shot through her body, causing her to collapse to her knees and fall forward against the bars of her cell. She was even too stunned to cry out in pain.
The guard stumbled back and straightened. He looked to his right, down a hallway that wasn't visible to Farah or Eli, and nodded appreciatively. "Thank you, sir."
"Of course." The man from earlier reemerged and approached Farah's cell with a fake-sympathetic smile on his face and some kind of remote in his hand.
"You…" she gasped as the numbness turned into a kind of pain that felt like every square inch of her body was being poked with a thumbtack at the exact same time. The light on her shackles was blinking red instead of the white it had been earlier.
Eli had closed his eyes, simply listening to his sister wreck havoc. Though he sat up when he didn't hear her speak. All too soon after, he heard something that sounded a lot like someone falling to the floor, and talking, this time not by Farah.
"Everything alright over there?" He asked slowly, standing and walking to the front of his cell. He couldn't see exactly what was going on, but he pressed his face against the bars of the cell and looked towards where his sister had been, scowling when he saw two shadowy shapes instead. Whatever had happened over there, it had to do with his sister. "Farah?"
"E… Eli…" Farah strained to even get her brother's name out. The man knelt in front of Farah and reached through the bars to tilt Farah's chin upwards. She gritted her teeth and told her arm to shove his hand away, but much to her annoyance, it wouldn't move. She was paralyzed. The man smiled for only a second before his face became emotionless, and his hand closed around Farah's neck. Her eyes widened in panic and she gasped for breath, but it was only about ten seconds before the man let go and withdrew his hand from between the bars.
With his "work" done, he rose to his feet and pressed a button again on his remote. Farah fell back against the cool concrete floor and trembled as the effects of the temporary tranquilizer dispersed. The man then paced over to Eli's cell and smiled, a chilling expression that didn't suit him. "Hello, Elijah."
Eli panicked a little at his sister's lack of a response. "Farah?" He asked, this time with more worry in his tone. He pressed against the bars, leaning against them as far as he could to try to see what was happening. Still, he couldn't see anything. It wasn't until the man from before came into view that Eli stepped back from the bars.
He wore a deep scowl and he crossed his arms when he saw the man. "What did you do to Farah?" He questioned, keeping a good few steps between the bars and himself, "And where are we? Why are we here?" Being stuck in a cage had severely dropped his tolerance for the man before him, and without food, he was even grumpier than he usually was.
The man smiled wryly. "One question at a time," he chided Eli like he was talking to a child. "Your sister was misbehaving. Being the gracious host I am, I allowed you to keep your abilities. But not without limits. She broke the rules, so I taught her a lesson. She'll be alright. Don't worry. It may take an hour, however, but she will eventually recover from the paralysis drug.
"Where you are specifically is confidential, but I suppose I'm allowed to tell you that you are now under the protection of HYDRA. And you are here because you chose to be," the man rattled off answers to Eli's questions, even if it wasn't the answers he wanted. "Oh, and don't worry. Dinner will be served shortly."
(Yes, it's HYDRA because I'm in a creative dry spell for the moment.)
"An hour? What did you do to her? She did nothing wrong," Eli growled, taking a step closer to the bars. Anger flared behind his eyes, and it took effort not to walk up and attempt to smash the man's head against the metal. "I don't want to be here anymore. I'm sure Farah doesn't want to be here either. Let us go." Part of him wanted to refuse dinner and make it ever more difficult for this man to keep the two of them around, but even at the thought of food, his stomach twisted and he realized he would never turn down food. No matter if there was a chance it was poisoned or tampered with. If the man had hurt Farah for simply looking after him, he had no doubt that they would most likely mess with the food.
(No worries! It makes things easy at least lol)
"She threatened a guard," the man replied simply. "So I paralyzed her. Temporarily, of course. The drug does tend to last a bit longer in women. We're not sure why, but it does. An hour is a probable estimate of when she'd be able to form sentences again." He grinned slyly. "But I'm afraid you both have already committed to being a part of our power-enhancement study. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"We wanted to learn more about our powers, we didn't want to be locked up and paralyzed for dealing with guards who are only here to watch us in the first place," He snapped back, "If this is what we have to go through to increase our power, it's not worth it. Let us out." Eli took another step towards the bars, leaving only a foot between him and the man. He was clearly getting pissed off, and for good reason. Farah had been hurt, and the man said it was going to take an entire hour to fix.
The man sighed as though he was explaining a math concept to a child and they weren't getting it. "The paralysis was a necessary step to be taken. She abusing the use of her powers. Now, I made the case for them to allow you two to keep your abilities while awaiting testing. Don't make me regret that decision." He smiled briefly, then backed away. "Dinner will be here soon, and your sister will wake up in a matter of minutes. I suggest you get some sleep. It helps."
If Eli had enough energy to rush up to the bars and smack the man's head against them, he would've done so as soon as he mentioned Farah abusing her powers. The man was lucky that Eli didn't have the energy to do so, and instead, he shot him a sharp glower, threatening him under his breath as the man stepped away from the bars. "If you paralyze Farah again, or even hurt a hair on her head, I will do everything in my power to ruin your testing. Got it?" He threatened, admitting defeat as he backed away. Eli stalked back to his bed, sitting down on it and watching the man with anger in his eyes.
The man smiled and spoke with a condescending undertone. "I'm sure you would." With that, he walked away down another hallway with the guard from earlier following in his wake. The sound of his receding footsteps was both a comfort and a threat. He was leaving now, but he would be back later.
After about 45 minutes, Farah gasped, jerked upright into a seated position, and curled into a ball. She had heard everything, seen everything, but was able to do nothing about it. The most terrifying part of the encounter had been the man's stony face as his hand wrapped around her neck. Farah had never felt more scared in her life. She reached up with hesitant fingers and touched her throat lightly.
In the time it took for Farah to wake up, Eli had fallen back into a fitful sleep on his metal slab of a bed. Dinner hadn't shown up yet, and his stomach was protesting it intensely, enough so that it woke him up a few moments after Farah. Every so often, he had taken to calling out to his sister to see if she responded, and once again, he did. "Farah? Are you back yet?" He asked gently, his eyes closed. She had yet to answer him, and he was preparing for the same, ready to lull himself back into shitty sleep just to pass the time.
Her brother's voice was a godsend. Farah crawled over, still too shaky to walk, and leaned against the wall that separated her from her brother. "Eli?" she questioned, her voice sounding much different than it normally did. It was tight and had an unusual pitch to it. "I'm here," she added. She rested her head against the wall and hoped he heard her.
Eli swore for a moment that he imagined Farah's voice, but when she spoke again, he sighed in immediate relief and opened his eyes. She was awake. "Thank god," He murmured, then he spoke to her again, "How do you feel? Are you okay? Are your powers back?" As worried about his sister as he had been, now that she was awake, his mind was drifting towards the thought of food. He grit his teeth at the idea of being able to eat and forced himself to listen for his sister's voice, hoping she would answer him.
"E, we have to get out of here," Farah whispered. "He… That man…" She swallowed and it hurt the slightest bit. She had thought she was going to die. She had thought he was going to choke her to death. His grip had been tight. Black spots had crept in her vision, but he'd let go shortly after. "I'm okay, but…" Her hand trembled as she even thought of using her powers again.