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Arsenic watched intently as he watched the same mutant from the previous experiment once again be subjugated to the "Power Control" experiments. The shock from the helmet was forcing the mutant to emit a stream of fire, a computer analyzing his brain activity and the body's reaction to the power being used. After a while the device was turned off and the operator turned to the doctor for instruction.
"Increase the intensity and focus it on this region." He instructed, pointing to the image of the mutant's brain that was shown on a computer screen. The operator obliged and typed in a few commands before restarting the machine. The pain was much more intense, if the mutants screams were anything to go by, and this time a ball of fire formed in both of his hands rather than a continuous stream. "Interesting, crank it up a bit more." He ordered, and so it was done. This increased the size of the fire ball, as well as the subjects painful cries. "Higher... higher... higher!"
"Sir, if we go any hire the subject will die." One of his colleagues reminded. Arsenic grunted in annoyance.
"Stop." He said, and the machine was shut off. He sighed, almost in boredom, and sat back in his chair. "Well, I believe we've gotten all we can from this one, prepare him for harvesting." He ordered, and his subordinates complied, unstrapping the helmet and moving him to another part of the lab. He ran the data from the previous trial, impressed with the results, but it didn't seem to satisfy him.
"Is this really all we can get, is this really the extent of this amazing creature's power?" He thought to himself, he didn't think so, not for a second... he believed that they could be so much more.

Wander was dumbfounded, still trying to comprehend what the hell just happened. "W-What the..?" He uttered. He couldn't ponder what it was. It's the weirdest thing he's seen in his few minutes of living. "You know what? I'm not even going to ask." There was no point, considering that they were barely moments old, like they had just been born. He knew nobody would have the answer. If Lucy didn't know herself, no one would. "Sh*it's starting to get weird around here. Nathan zoning out, and Lucy blowing stuff up. "Damn it all!" he shouted. Wander became frustrated, lost in this void where nobody knows anything. Out of anger, he struck his foot against the door that had been blown off with a kick. CLANG! The ear-piercing sound didn't come from his foot breaking, but rather the door splitting in two and sailing through the air! It merely tickled his foot, and he didn't feel a shred of pain from soccer-kicking a steel door. Oddly, he started to calm. "Looks like there's something ****ed up about all of us."

Everything was so messed up. Everything was off. This did not seem normal, no not at all. Nathans eyes slowly starred at Lucy as the door blew off its hinges, the surprise causing him to take a rather deep breathe- which of course hurt him worse. It wasn't a gasp, or anything like that, just a bigger breath than he should've taken. His hand gripped his shirt over his ribs tightly.

He tried to subside the pain, slowly he managed to. He didn't express his pain, but it felt like somebody hit him in the ribs with a metal baseball bat, hard.

He slowly looked back at Wander, hearing him begin to speak again. He watched as he kicked the door, hearing the loud CLANG as his foot impacted with the metal. But somehow he didn't get harmed. It wasn't logical in his opinion, then again, none of this shit was ****ing logical! None of it! Nathan looked down, why was this happening? What caused this? What exactly.......were they?

Thorne approached the north side of the city in his battle cast suit. It was clunking around loudly, how could you sneak up on any mutant in a piece of garbage like this? The sounds of scraping rust could be heard and Thorne stopped his jog, he looked down trying to adjust some wires in the suit. But as he did this a loud clang came to his attention, "Oh god, he said, "Here they are, mutants."

Thorne trotted up further north, he saw a small group of kids. A brown haired one, blue haired one, a blonde, a girl and a guy with head phones. He didn't want them to scatter so he stepped as softly as he could, seconds felt like hours if one of them knew how to use their powers fully he would be killed for sure in this hunk of trash, a few gears clicked and three round magnetized balls flew towards the group! He didn't have a good view of the group but one kids got caught in the net! The blonde one?

"Gotcha," he reeled the boy in seeing that he maybe unconscious from one of the magnets that had hit him in the head. Thorne only had one net, and didn't want any of the others to try and be heroes, and he knew their location so he'd send a hunter or two to scout again once he got back to base. Just in case he fired a few rubber bullets at the group to scare them off, scatter them. "Good first day," he laughed.

Lucy and volume were taken by surprise by the appearence of whoever that just was and the capture of Alex. Outwardly, the only sign of panic on Lucy's face was the fact that her eyes had widened. But on the inside, she could feel her heart beating as fast as a bullet train moved through a subway system. "Wh-what was that?" She asked sheepishly, obviously scared for both her life and the life of those around her. "I'm not quite sure, but I think we should get inside before any more of them show up." Volume responded, walking through the empty doorway and into the building. It wasn't the best hiding spot, but maybe it would buy them some time.

Dr. Arsenic sat at his computer, he and his colleagues preparing for the harvesting. They had strapped the Mutant to a table like apparatus that was indented to fit a human body perfectly. Above him were three laser beam like devices, the one on the left would take each cell in his body and slightly separate them so they could be better worked with, the apparatus making sure that when separated they would go to far apart from each other and thus completely disintegrate the subject. Once separated, the one on the right fires at the nuclei of each of his cells, freeing the designated part of the DNA that they wished to extract. And finally, the center laser was actually more of a tractor beam, which would extract and store the gene for further testing. Due to the delicate nature of the procedure, no foreign substances were given to the subject, they didn't want to risk damaging or altering the gene. The scientists had isolated the gene from a sample of his DNA, ran it through their computer, and entered the data into the machine.
"Begin pre-activation diagnostics, once cleared begin activation." Arsenic ordered. His subordinates began to type in commands and fiddle around with machinery, until they were given the all clear and began activating the machine. The apparatus and the lasers began moving into position, the sound of the lasers powering up sending waves of fear into the mutants heart. Eventually the computer flashed that the device was ready.
"Begin Harvesting... now." he ordered and the device was activated, the first laser firing at the mutant, creating the most agonizing scream of pain yet. Dr. Arsenic smirked at the display, excited to see the results of the harvesting, on the gene itself, and the subject.

(Well, this took absurdly longer than it should have...)

Wander had no idea what to make of it. Alex was gone in an instant. He was dumbfounded, not knowing what to do in the wake of whatever had taken him. Wander veered in Alex's former direction and noticed a person in a clunky suit of armor. He's just one guy, Wander thought. The person was already far away, and going after him would be pointless.Why is everyone else so frantic? It was a stupid thought, he knew. "Who are you?" he said out loud. "You abducted my friend, and you'll pay for that." For the first time, Wander really thought. "This guy looks like he knows things we don't." he told the others. "I'll find him. I will get answers, even if I have to beat them out of him." But for now, he knew that the best thing to do would be to settle down in the shelter.

Nathan pondered deeply. He didn't understand any of this. He was lost deep in his own thoughts, until a wave of eerie washed over him leaving him with a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. His eyes were that misty grey again but he had some consciousness back during it this time though. He felt something bad was about to happen, then he looked in the distance and saw a man, then something shiny coming towards them, three shiny things, he dodged one of the silver balls, which caused him o wince, but once he saw One of them hit Alex and leave the blonde boy unconscious, he was glad he dodged it.

Nathan backed up a step, in his mind he was seeing what was to come. It most certainly did not seem fun either. The fact Nathan couldn't flee as quick as the others did not cheer his mood either, and he didn't bother with it. His eyes returned to the normal color they were. Alex was in deep deep trouble..

The boy was unconscious, good, he wouldn't have to deal with any mutant powers. Thorne heard some yelling but ignored it, if any of these people knew of their powers they would surely try to kill him, he had to escape! Firing rubber bullets backwards as he ran he turned his head back for a moment. Could these people know of his brother Logan, maybe they had met him just wandering about the wastelands alone. They couldn't, he thought. Finally, he had escaped the savage mutants with their deadly powers of destruction... that none of them used, and they were actually not as deformed as most. Thorne looked at the blonde boy. His scans said he was in fact mutant, so why did this all feel off, almost wrong.

Thorne finally arrived back at the camp, "Look what I caught!" Thorne laughed, "Bring this one to Arsenic! Tell him its a gift from Thorne!" He hoped this would be what the doctor wanted, mutants in exchange for any news of his brother. The battle suit was taken off and Thorne headed into the meal hall, "Drinks all around!" Thorne yelled and the hunters cheered. Not so bad here after all. Thorne later took a stroll to the doctors lab, he pondered going in but noises within steered him away, he'd check in later with the good doctor.

As they came inside, volume continued to stand, leaning against a dusty counter in the room. If this place used to be part of a house, it was definitely the kitchen. The counter in the room had a built in sink and appliances that lined the wall, but also were getting covered in dust bunnies quickly. "So, I think the best idea would be to formulate a plan of rescue to save him from....... Wherever he was taken." The young man said. "Not to mention find that men and who he's working for. They know something. Something we don't. I just don't know what."

Dr. Arsenic sat at his computer, examining the data taken by the Hunter's Scanners. Not only did they manage to capture a mutant, but they confirmed the existence of four others, unfortunately, since they didn't actually engage them in combat, their powers remained a mystery. The doctor sighed.

"Oh well, I suppose we'll just have to figure it out for ourselves." He lamented. The process was tedious and it bored him to no end, all they would do is isolate the gene from a sample of his DNA, as if that didn't take long enough as it is, but they would also have to compare it to other gene samples from other mutants. While every mutant had its own unique imperfection in its DNA helix, it would stand to reason that mutants of the same class would have similar imperfections, however due to the randomness and ambiguity of the gene, it was difficult to discern the similarities. He acknowledged the importance of assigning classes to the genes, but the process just seemed like a waste of time to him, after all when everything was said and done, they'd just end up with an educated guess, and the consequences of performing any experiments without a good degree of certainty were... unfavorable.

"Of course we wouldn't have too if those so called Hunters had the guts to engage them combat." he insisted, it would definitely save time, and would allow them to get to the "fun stuff" right away. The captured mutant was brought into the lab, stripped of his clothes and was garbed in a patience robe that one would where in a hospital. "You know, we could always just wake him up and ask him what his powers are." He suggested jokingly, but he knew it wouldn't be that simple.

Wander observed every crevice of the shelter. Vast quantities of tools and survival instruments lay scattered on the floor. It appears that they fell off of shelves after an earthquake. One thing caught his eye, though. A chest that seemed to be a sort for preserving things. "Here goes nothing," Wander said as he gripped the frozen-shut door of the freezer. At full force, the door opened more easily than he thought it would. Inside were various canned foods and plant seeds, but definitely not enough to support a group of people for very long. He grabbed a seed packet and showed it to the others. "You guys make the most use you can out of this," he told them, "but I doubt these will grow in that tainted soil." How did I know this? he asked himself. "I gotta get going, to where that guy took Alex." With his back to the shelter, he told the group "My search starts now. Come with me if you want, but I recommend someone stays here," and so started a thousand-mile journey with one footstep.

Seconds that had come and gone way to fast ticked by. Nathans eyes had faded back to their original hazel-like color. In his mind he wanted to run and go help Alex immediately, but sadly, he was physically unable. For him to do that in his current state would be asking for a death wish, and it to be granted, and he couldnt risk that. He wanted to carry on his life, but that did not mean they were completely abandoning Alex.

Only then did he slowly, but steadily make his way to where the others were. Once inside the remains he looked around. Tools, survival equipment, and more lay all around them, surprisingly not charred to bits or in ashes. Then again, none of this was a total shocker, just a bit of one.

His eyes made their way to Wander. Seeing more things he had discovered just for breaking a door. Food! But just like the rest of them he had to keep in mind that it had to last them for what it seems could be awhile.

Nathan could be the one to temporarily stay behind, that is if nobody voluntered.

Sam finished a bottle of whiskey and tossed it against the wall. That blonde kid was so young, could he even if he was mutated be a threat? Why did he have to capture every mutant, I guess it made sense... Kill them, or harvest them or whatever before they kill us all. But why not just evolve like them what was so bad about being extraordinary, take off our gas masks outside and let the radiation change us. These were only drunken thoughts, Thorne opened another bottle and went to town on it. More kidnapping and experimenting on children in the morning... But he wasn't tired not just yet.

Volume looked around at the others as wander exited the room. "Well, I guess I''ll go with him." He mumbled, following the boy out of the room. Wanting to stay with the person who had saved her earlier, Lucy followed after the two of them, also wanting to save their friend.

After the examination was finally over and done with, the lab workers were finally ready to begin testing. They had deduced that the blond boy was a Class 2 mutant, meaning his powers would have something to do with enhanced physical prowess, to what extent, well, they would find out soon enough. Class 2 mutants had passive powers, which means they couldn't be turned on and off like the Classes potentially could, so now the only thing to do was to test out just how strong those powers were. The scientists strapped Alex's arms and legs into two wires that suspended him up into the air, his front facing a window where the scientists could clearly see his reactions.

"Is he properly strapped in?" Arsenic inquired, which was confirmed. "Good, wake him up." He ordered. The scientists then began shaking the boy, until eventually his eyes fluttered open. Arsenic put on the friendliest smile he could muster, but just ended up looking creepy.

"Greetings, I'm sure you have a lot of questions on your mind right now, "where am I", "how did I get here", and the like, but that is irrelevant at this point, wouldn't you agree?" He said through a microphone so the mutant could hear. "I am Dr. Arsenic, and for next few years of your existence you and I will be working together to unravel the mystery that is your body. I advise you not to try anything rash like trying to escape or resist, it would just make it harder on you." At this point Arsenic had begun hitting buttons and turning nobs, bringing up what seemed to be a modified tennis ball machine. The machine began to move, as if it was aiming, until the barrel was pointed right at the boy.

"Now then, shall we begin?" he said before he pushed one last button, sending a tennis ball shooting out of machine at high speed, colliding with the poor boy.

Wander took a step forward. He was hesitant to move forward. "Nathan", he said. "Stay here, you'll need rest. Come find us if you need to." The man who abducted Alex left a pretty obvious trail. They'd be following that until the trail ended. It was a reckless thing to do altogether, Wander didn't know what to do if he found Alex or the man, and he doubted that anyone else knew either. Whatever will happen simply happens. He finally sped to normal walk. Wander continued in a sort of run-walk. Brushing past any rubble, he ignored the Armageddon. Something was driving him to keep on going, to find something that must be found. What lie over the horizon mortified, yet excited Wander.

(Revealed after Kuro replies again and we're back on track.)

After a moment of being dazed, Alex's emerald eyes darted around the room and then he tried to move his arms and legs but they were constructed by wires. "What the.." He mumbled as he heard a voice he didn't know, more confused on what he was talking about. "Mysteries? Of my body? What in the world are you talking about?!" He yelled, more out of blind confusion rather than rage. Before he could figure out what was going on, a tennis ball hit him right in the stomach, but it didn't too much on his body. He bent only a fraction of an angle form it but didn't make a sound and his face gave off only a small amount of pain. What is going on here? Where are the others? he thought, trying to figure out what was going on.

(Rhythm was supposed to go as follows the lineup, but it's no biggie. She'll be next then we just continue normally.)

Nathan looked over at Wander upon hearing his name being called. His gaze went down, despite how badly he wanted to come with them, that would be asking for suicide. He knew that, and thats what sucked. But he would have to make due, and face the fact he couldn't follow for now, he would just be a bother, and slow them down, making it a much longer trip. He felt like sighing, but he decided not to, it would hurt like hell if he did. He looked back at Wander and nodded an okay. He would stay behind, but soon enough, he would join them on this mission.

He watched as they all left, abandoning him. Leaving him an easy target. Nathan slowly began to wander around, already bored.