The Numbers

[Acheron]

As his eyes opened and he blinked a few times, the man with the short black hair and light green eyes was trying to figure things out. For starters, why he was laying flat on his back, in something of a hospital. He lay there, eyes open, staring at the lights beaming down on him from the ceiling but nothing was coming to him. It was not that long ago that he was...

...But he did not know what he was doing before this.

Sitting up was a start though. While he did not sleep through the speech given by the scientist, he did not find it all that important to actually let people know he was awake. He received a smile from a small girl in the bed across from him, he fired back with a wink. His attention then went to the creature lying on the floor not too far from him, at least, not far enough for his liking.

Great....This should be...interesting at the very least.

He grabbed the market from the man who just named himself "VII", taking the marker to his own clothes and naming himself "IX". With a slight yawn, he leaned his head to the right and a small popping sound came from his neck, followed by a smile on his face. He then placed the marker on his bed and turned his attention to the scientist.

"Powers, creatures, okay. If time is of the essence, shouldn't we be moving?", his tone was stoic. He was not trying to boss anyone around but he was looking for answers.

[Violet]

Laying on the hard surface of the capsule, the blue haired man sat up straight, rubbing his temples. His vision was blurred and he couldn't exactly make out where he was. The loud voices in the room did no justice to his headache. Sliding his legs to the side of the capsule, a marker rolled across the floor, hitting against the man's foot. Picking it up, he set it beside him and looked around the room.

Some of the people looked panicked and eager to leave. There was a creature laying dead near the exit, covered in its own guts and being well avoided. Curious on the situation, the man grabbed at the next person who ran by. "Hey! Easy on the arm, pal!" The red haired boy wrenched free from his grip.

"Your hands are flippin' freezing." On the boys shirt was a numerical IV written in black. The man furrowed his brow. "What's the number for? And what the hell is this place?" When he stood, his whole body felt wobbly like he hadn't walked in months. He grabbed on to the boy's shoulder to balance himself.

Number 4 shied from the man's grip, and reached for the marker on the bed. "I have no clue where we are. Nobody knows their names so we were told to write these numbers on our clothes. Here." He handed the marker to the man, eager to leave his presence. Taking the cap off, the man hesitated and looked up.

"Um.. is 6 taken?" "No, I don't think it is. Hurry up, someone else is needing the marker." Quickly scribbling a sloppy "VI" on his chest, he slipped the tool into the boy's hand. After he left, 6 went to the center of the room to get a closer look at the creature.

Kneeling down before it, he made an attempt to touch the goo that oozed from its body. “Don't touch it!!” The man in the scientist robes sounded impatient. “For all we know, it could be toxic. Please step back and wait for the rest.” 6 narrowed his eyes and grunted in disagreement, but did as he was told. Pushing someone out of his way, he went to lean against the nearest wall.

This was a predicament he didn't want to be in. How long was this wait going to be and why were they all in this room? More importantly, who was he? These were the three questions that ran through 6's mind. He wanted to know, and he wanted to know now.

[Sinister]

Blobby shapes wiggled back and forth in dim gray color, colliding, mixing, reforming… They danced to and fro, the blotches slowly resolving like the painful focusing of a Cassegrain telescope. Color swam in as soon as the brightness was reduced. But the place was virtually gray, white and silver…looking very aniseptic. The vision was still fuzzy, as she realized she was in some sort of pod, peering through glass.

She could feel the closeness of her environ choke and press on her, cutting off her air. She quickly unlatched the pod and threw it open, gasping a quick ingress of air to keep herself conscious.

Smiling cooly at the liberation, she made a mental note that she was apparently claustrophobic. She pulled herself out into the room. Her smile flickering somewhat as her long-nailed hand came to her head. 'Something of a strain? Just head-rush.' She thought. It was near that time that she became aware of the people around her and their motions.

"Where are we?" Came an alarmed voice.

She quickly ignored the other voices to conclude her own answer to that very question. Was this where she was supposed to be? Did she live or work here? Her plain meager patient/subject uniform of white garb quickly eliminated those possibilities. The small question of who she even was flitted about in her skull, but she shooed it away as if it were a fly.

The scientist began talking, but she both heard and didn't hear what he said. She was still investigating with a non-plussed look. Her eyes eventually came to rest on the room beyond the scientist. The beast with long conical talons lay prostrate in death, still vicious, still assaulting with it's wicked and hateful form…like something torn from a nightmare. The bodies and the massive piles of gore and tossed aside parts were scattered away up and down the room.

"Now, for convenience's sake I will give you a marker, and write the numbers from 1 to 14. Here, pass around this marker, and write the number somewhere on your clothes. Unfortunately right now I don't have better clothes to give you."

She watched the mark pass from person to person, each marking obviously their number's Roman equivalent upon their clothes. Until it ended to the girl next to her. The girl seemed pretty cheerful and optimistic about the situation, which made one wonder if she fully realized the ordeal at hand. She had pert lavender hair and deep blue eyes. She seemed sprightly and undaunted by harrowing lay of her surroundings.

The girl, ignoring the efforts of the others in keeping with the Roman numerals scheme, clearly marked a cheerful "8" upon her shirtsleeve. The circuit of events left her with the designation of eleven. But the action was so out of scheme that it caused her to ask:

"Why did you write it like that, hun?" Eleven asked, her voice a deep feminine voice, hiding a small melodic accent.

"The roman numeral for eight looks just like seven. Can't have anyone mixing us up!"

Eleven smiled in a small way and took the proffered marker. Resolved to be a rebel too, she marked "Eleven" clearly across the chest of her shirt with the marker. She stepped across the cold floor and handed the marker back to the scientist and then marched back to her place among the newly awakened.

'Nothing seems more absurd than super powers, but if everything is as it seems…we'll need them.'

[Rocky]

(OoC: lol, I am not sure what number I am supposed to be, as with the new influx of people joining and all, but since I read and reread through everything so far, I am going to start with the number 10, if that is okay with you. If not lemme know and I will change it.)

He dreamed.

The young boy was unable to dream since he was old enough to remember. This must have been linked with his latent powers. One of the side effects that was noticable was the lack of dreams the boy had when he woke up. Sure, his powers seemed to be a decent enough tradeoff, but there were times where he could just lay it all down and be a normal being. This time, was different. He had no idea what he did before, or how long the sleep was, but this time...

This time he dreamed. He dreamed he was sitting on the beach, covered with the golden warmth of the sand, while an older gentleman with a long beard. The gentlemen was very grey and old judging from his facial features, but he was still quite built for his body. The two of them went sailing off of the placid water together, and went far from the beach for quite some time. Gradually, the waters grew darker as the sun became dimmer. The boy failed to noticed all of this, and was engaged in conversation with the old man. Of what was spoken, the boy can not remember. Suddenly, the dark skies and ocean ambushed the boy and the old man, and a giant hurricane enveloped the small sailboat. The boy was just shocked and could not get anything out to say, while the gentlemen smiled. As the small sailboat got ripped to shreds...

Wake up...

The boy immediately jumped from his newfound nightmare and found himself sitting up on a hospital bed. As he looked around and gatherd his surroundings, he wanted to know why exactly he was here. Many diverse individuals here, the boy thought to himself, yet they all seem to have something similar to me. What is it though? I can't quite put my finger on it yet.

...!

The boy saw the humanoid freak that lay on the floor of the hospital, lifeless. The boy did everything in his power to not react to the dead monster. He did not want everyone to think he was just a week child. He was much stronger then them, all of them! The boy stood up to grab the marker sitting on the table and wrote a "Ten" on his shirt. I wonder how long until this experiment is over and the scientists feed us to the wolves.. For the first time since he could remember, Ten made a small grin as he ruffled his short flat silver hair. He kept his mouth shut as he eyed around the room, listening to the conversations and small talk of the others. I am going to do whatever it takes to get myself out of this wretched place in one piece.. Of course, he kept up his poker face the entire time as he bottled up within him the internal desperation of making it through what lies ahead.