Chapter Text
The first thing Michelle noticed as she came to was how clammy her hands were, pressed together by what felt like a zip tie. She couldn’t see- a moment of panic, before she felt the pressure of cloth brushing against her rapidly blinking eyelashes. Michelle let out a small groan, and at the signs of her stirring, her upper arm was encircled by a large gloved hand yanking her to her feet. Not for the first time, Michelle wished she was anything other than a ten year old girl, that she could tear herself out of this man’s grip and run.
“Got a new one for the Doc,” a gruff voice said. The Doc? This obviously wasn’t a hospital- wait, how had she gotten here? She didn’t know. For the first time in her life, Michelle Jones couldn’t remember something.
“Enhanced?” A female voice this time. Michelle couldn’t breathe. Was she here because of what happened with Mr. Phillips? Had they found out about her super-memory? Mama would’ve scolded her for how careless Michelle had been, if she was still here.
“Donovan thinks she might be. I dunno. But she also won’t be missed, and the Doc always needs more, so.” The man pushed her with a jerk, and Michelle stumbled as they continued forward. Won’t be missed. They were right. No one, except maybe the librarian or the church ladies on 7th, would notice she was gone. Even the people at the municipal buildings or food drives would just think she had moved on, like all the other kids that slipped through the cracks in New York City. Michelle struggled to hold in her tears and hoped that the man couldn’t feel her trembling. She tried to do what her favorite characters did when they get kidnapped- tried to count steps, note turns or means of escape, but her head was spinning and she was nine and they were all grown-up and big and it was so so much scarier than it was in books.
“Ah, Agent. What’s this?” They stopped, and Michelle repressed a shiver at the sound of the new slippery voice.
“Donovan found ‘er in Queens with the tests. She’s off the charts in mental aptitude, no family, could be enhanced.” The man holding her said the words casually, almost bored with the process.
“Very interesting.” He leaned forward, and Michelle forced herself to remain still as his breath ghosted over her face. She felt his hands on her cheeks and flinched, but the man simply continued to pull her blindfold off and stepped back with a smirk. Michelle blinked in the fluorescent light, her eyes darting all over the place as she tried to drink in her surroundings. White tiled walls, door must be behind her, the large machines looked vaguely medical. Guy holding her was muscly, wearing what she assumed was black tactical armor, and the other- slippery voice- was a tall, skinny man with thinning hair and pale, dead eyes. “Let’s do normal procedure. We’ve already got the written test results, so it’ll just be brain and energy scan, tissue samples. Something quick and easy, and we’ll hold off on the rest until I’m sure she’s worth keeping.”
Michelle didn’t make a sound as an assistant took her and strapped her to the large metal table. She got the feeling, that like with her father, it was best to be as quiet as possible with these people, and any hint of disobedience would cause them to get angry. Her practice with her father was just about the only thing that kept her from falling apart, and as she stared at the halo of metal above her, she returned to the all too familiar method of silently reciting her favorite books.
Ships at a distance have every man’s wish aboard.
Her eyes were glued to the blue light above, but she could feel the cotton pad on her arm and smell the rubbing alcohol. The machine started to whir, and there was a pressure building in her brain that threatened to leak out of her eardrums.
For some they come in with the tide.
The slippery voiced scientist said something but Michelle couldn’t hear him over the machine and the roaring of her own blood. The pain was crawling all over her skin now, her body burning despite the cold metal of the table.
For others they sail on the horizon,
The whirring stopped, but the pain was still there, and in the silence she could hear the sound her skin made as the man sliced it open. She bit her lip to keep herself from screaming, and someone laughed.
“These EEG readings are promising. Let’s call this one X-23. Hm, and put her in the main cell”
“But- it’s in there.”
never out of sight,
“Yes. I want to see how it reacts to a subject its own age.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Turn it up another level. I want to see how 23 reacts to pain.”
never landing-
The world went black.
SX-24 had been dozing in the corner of bed when the door opened and Agent entered. It immediately kneeled facing the wall, and its heart quickened anticipating the punishment the guard must be here to give it. But to its surprise, the door shut again, and Agent’s presence was gone from Cell. Still, it didn’t dare leave the position until even its hearing could not hear Agent’s footsteps in the hallway.
It turned, and against the wall was a small slumped body. Far too small to be a guard, but the long hair and delicate features made it think they were female, like the Doctor’s old assistant. It wanted to go closer, but thought that SX-24 would be scared if it woke up near someone,
The body started to move, and SX-24 kept itself perfectly still as not to scare her. She groaned as she lifted herself from the concrete floor, solidifying SX-24 suspicion that she had just come from the experiment room. Her eyes widened as she saw SX-24, and it pressed itself further back into its corner to give her more space.
“Hello?” She had a soft voice, and SX-24 found itself opening its mouth to reply, even though it never excelled in speaking. It had been a while since A-6 had taught it the little words that it knew.
“H-hello.” It managed, stuttering out the unfamiliar syllables.
“Where are we?” She said, her dark eyes darting around the small room. SX-24 paused, trying to think of how she wanted it to respond. Was it supposed to give a report on Cell? The makeup of the space- 12 feet by 12 feet, reinforced concrete that even its strength could not impact.
“Cell.” It said simply.
“No, no, like outside here.”
“Do you mean experiment room, or hallway?” It said carefully. It may not have much practice, but it listened as much as it could to pick up words.
“What? No, the rest of this place, or what state we’re in.” She was frowning now, and SX-24 was worried. Had it failed a test? It wasn’t sure what it was missing.
“SX-24 has always been here. There is only Cell, hallway, and experiment rooms.”
“What’s SX-24?” It pointed to itself and she frowned further. “What, that’s a number. What’s your name?”
“SX-24 is an experiment. Don’t you have a designation?”
“No, my name is Michelle.” She said sharply. It ignored her tone and curled his lips around the syllables of her name. Michelle. “You have to have a name. What did your family call you before you were in here?”
“SX-24 is an experiment. Don’t have a family or a name. Mitch-yelle.”
“It’s Michelle.”
“My celle?”
“Michelle.”
“Me-chelle.” It said slowly.
“Close enough. Fine, but at some point I’m gonna give you a name. I’m not gonna just call you SX-whatever.” Michelle scooted forward. “So you don’t know where we are. What kind of experiments do they do here? Are there others… like us?”
“SX-24 is the only one besides Mechelle now. The others failed. And the experiments change. Sometimes Doctor injects things. Sometimes he takes things from SX-24’s body or gives it tests.”
“That’s-“ Michelle had an expression it couldn’t place. She breathed deeply, staring at the floor and trying to calm herself down. “What do you mean failed?”
“They died during an experiment or were terminated for other reasons.”
“Oh.” Michelle looked paler, and she curled into a ball. SX-24 had seen this before, on itself and on other subjects. It remained silent as she sobbed, unsure of how to help her. It quietly made its way to bed, finding what it wanted under a blanket.
“Michelle?” The girl gave no answer. “Do you want to see my most important thing?”
Her head shot up at its use of the first person- clearly as thrown by it as SX-24 was. It shyly brought a small, threadbare rabbit from behind its back.
“This is Pep. SX-2- I hold it when really sad.” It gently placed Pep in her tearstained arms and nervously shuffled its feet.
Michelle looked at this boy, who had been through god-knows-what, but let a stranger hold his only possession because she was crying, and decided that she was going to protect him.
“Thanks.” She offered a wobbly smile, and the boy tried to give one back. “Um, when I’m sad, I read my favorite books in my head. I’ve got this thing- my mom used to call it my ‘super memory’ but I think that name is kinda dumb. Point is, I can remember with perfect detail anything I’ve seen or heard.”
The boy was watching her with wide eyes, drinking in her words with an attention she had never seen before. She couldn’t remember the last time someone actually listened to her, actually let her speak, actually gave a crap about Michelle Jones, half-orphan who was too smart for her own age. She took a deep breath, suddenly self-conscious.
“I - I think super memory is… not dumb. Better than SX-24’s enhancements. Those were from experiments.” The boy said, faltering at points, but in his strange accent, everything seemed so sincere.
“You have powers? Can I see?”
He rose to his feet, and began to climb onto the ceiling. Michelle gasped as he executed a perfect flip and landed in a crouch below.
“Okay, I’m going to get the story behind that later, but I can’t handle more new information right now.” She managed.
“Um, Michelle? SX-24 has only ever read science papers, and it enjoys those, but its never had a book.”
Michelle feels a boiling anger as she hears him revert to third person, and not for the first time, wishes that she could punch Agent in the stomach. But she schooled her expression into a more gentle one, and mentally went through her catalogue, eventually settling on a few children’s books.
“Sure, I guess you showed me yours, so I gotta share mine. Um, we could do Harry Potter, A Wrinkle in Time, Peter Pan…”
She trailed off as she saw an expression she had never seen before on his face- recognition.
“Yes- P-peter.” He stuttered.
“Peter Pan it is. Hey, let’s have that be your name. Peter.” He nodded vigorously, and Michelle felt a tiny flicker of pride at being able to make him so excited. She shut her eyes, calling up her memory of the crisp pages beneath the reading lamp in her childhood bedroom, her mom making cornbread downstairs.
“All children, except one, grow up.” She began. “They soon knew that they will grow up, and the way that Wendy knew was this.”
After she had finished the first chapter for an eager Peter, something slid over the skylight and the room was swallowed in darkness. Michelle was pleased their progress though- he interrupted her throughout to ask questions, and already his speech was getting better, with only one chapter. She got the sense that Peter was smart like her, and if he had had any sort of conversation his speech would be accelerated for his age, not atrophied. They went to bed, both curled up on the mattress. But Michelle couldn’t sleep. It was so dark, and cold, and she was scared about what the Doctor might do to her and knew no-one was looking for her or Peter. She waited until Peter went to sleep, and then began to let the tears slip down her face. Another lesson from her father- don’t let anyone see you cry. The first time with Peter was a mistake she was determined not to make again, especially as she felt a sort of responsibility for him now.
Peter stirred, and she could feel the weight of his eyes on her, even in the dark. She steeled herself, waiting for him to tell her to be quiet, or ignore it and go back to sleep. But he didn’t.
“Ninna nanna marinare,” Peter sang softly. She blinked- the words were quiet, hesitant and slurred, but she could tell they weren’t in English."'Ngopp a varca, miezo o mare." He kept singing, and she felt her sobs begin to die down.
“That was beautiful.” She said hoarsely when he had finished. “When’d you learn it?”
“Not sure. Sometimes I remember it when it’s dark, but its never sang around someone else.” He said, his voice so, so small and fragile. “Wanted to help, Michelle.”
“MJ” She blurted suddenly, after a moment of silence. “My friends call me MJ.”
“ I think you’re my first friend, MJ”
Michelle thought of her days after she left her father, after her mom was gone, the days of sitting in New York City public libraries and scanning every book she could get her hands on. She thought of a school where people called her a witch, or weird, where no one talked to her.
“I think you’re mine too.“ she whispered into the dark.