“Subject number 23, step inside,” the scientist said, his eyes locked onto me.

I walked over to him.

“Get into the pod.”

I stepped inside the massive pod nearby. Following his instructions, I leaned back against the wall, and heavy, tight straps immediately clamped down, locking my entire body in place.

The pod door was still wide open. The scientist stepped closer, watching me with intense focus.

“Tell me, what numbers do you see right now?” he asked.

“I see 2, 7, and—”

Suddenly, a fierce itch crawled up my arms. They started jerking, moving completely on their own. My breath hitched, coming faster and faster. My heart pounded violently against my ribs.

I forced my head to the left. In the next pod, a woman was strapped down, thrashing around just like me. My vision began to spin.

“ARKH!”

The scientist bolted out of the pod and started furiously punching buttons on a nearby machine.

I turned to him. “Wait! Don’t close it!”

But he ignored me, slamming the heavy pod door shut.

Through the thick glass, I could faintly hear the woman next to me screaming.

God, it was hot. My whole body was burning up.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, my frantic heartbeat began to slow. Gradually, it returned to a normal rhythm, and my breathing steadied. The trembling in my arms faded. The dizziness passed.

“Hey, Doc, is it over?” I called out. “Hey! Scientist!”

No response. Did this bastard rip me off? Damn it.

I strained against the metal straps holding me down, pouring every ounce of strength into my arms. To my absolute shock, the solid iron bands began to warp and bend under my grip until my hands broke free.

I tried the same with my legs, and it worked again. I snapped the iron restraints across my body like they were cheap Walmart wafers.

Did it actually work? Did that crazy scientist actually give me superpowers?

I kicked the pod door in front of me, and it flew right off its hinges, crashing into the distance. But the scientist was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey! You bastard! Where are you?”

Where did he go? He hadn’t even paid me yet. Then it hit me—the woman!

I rushed over to her pod and quickly ripped off the straps holding her down. As soon as she was free, she started coughing violently, slowly blinking her eyes open.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She nodded weakly. “Yeah, I think so. But it was so hot... I felt like I was having a seizure.”

“What’s your name?”

“Dalia.”

“I’m Rico. Can you walk?”

“Yeah, I can.”

I gently put my arm around her to help her out of the pod since her right leg looked stiff and uneven. But she pulled back slightly, asking me to let go. She stared down at her legs, moving them back and forth. Suddenly, her eyes went wide.

“They’re... normal? How is this even possible?” she whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“My legs. I’m supposed to be in a wheelchair.”

“Well, thank God. I guess that crazy doctor’s machine actually worked.”

Dalia frowned, looking at me with confusion. “Doctor? What doctor?”

“Yeah. He recruited you to be a volunteer too, right?”

“No. I don’t even know how I ended up in that pod, or why I’m standing in this messy warehouse.”

Her words hit me like a physical blow. My jaw tightened, and my fists clenched so hard they shook. Seeing my expression, Dalia slowly backed away.

Rage boiled inside me. That son of a bitch... how dare he?

Unable to contain the anger, I lashed out and slammed my fist into a metal table nearby. The heavy iron dented and shattered into pieces. Chemical equipment and glassware smashed onto the floor in a loud, chaotic mess.

I stared at the ruined table. My knuckles didn’t hurt at all. There wasn’t a single scratch, not even a bit of redness on my skin.

I looked back and saw Dalia shrinking away, her face pale with terror. Her legs were shaking after watching me obliterate solid iron. I took a slow step toward her, swallowing hard.

“Hey, look, I’m sorry. I just lost my temper. I’m just mad at the doc—”

“SHUT UP!” she screamed, cutting me off. She frantically looked around, spotted a revolver on another table, and grabbed it. Her hands shook violently as she aimed it right at my chest. “Who are you? Tell me the truth!”

I froze. “I’m just a volunteer for the scientist. And... I—”

“Who else are you working with?!”

“Nobody! It’s just me, okay? I swear to God, I’m a victim here too!”

Dalia didn’t lower the gun, her eyes locked on me. As she backed away, I noticed her hand was about to brush against a sharp shard of broken window glass.

“Dalia, watch out—”

She pulled the trigger. The bullet hit my shoulder, but all it did was tear a neat little hole in my t-shirt. The flattened bullet simply dropped to the floor right at my feet.

Dalia gasped, her terror turning into pure panic. Her breathing grew shallow and ragged as she kept retreating blindly.

“What are you?” she choked out. “How... how did you survive that?”

I tried to step closer to calm her down. “I told you, I’m a victim too. The scientist did this to me. Please, believe me.”

“STAY BACK!”

Dalia thrust her open palm toward me. Her eyes flared a bright, glowing blue, and a sudden force blasted me backward. I flew across the room and slammed hard into the concrete wall.

I groaned, pushing myself up off the floor. “Cough... cough... Well, looks like you got superpowers too.”

Dalia stared down at her hands in utter disbelief. They had glowed for a few seconds, but the light was already fading away.

“H-how did I do that? What is happening to me?”

“You’re a victim of his experiments, just like me,” I said, wiping my mouth.

“But where are we? Where did that man go?”

“I honestly don’t know. Why don’t we go look for him together?”

Dalia frowned, skeptical. “Why should I trust you? Get away from me.”

“Look, if I try anything, you can just blast me through a wall again. You have my word.”

She went quiet, weighing her options, before finally letting out a long sigh. “Fine. Let’s go find him.”

We headed toward the exit of the filthy warehouse. I grabbed a jacket hanging near the main exit, and when we reached the heavy, locked double doors, I gripped the metal frames and bent them out of the way with raw strength.

The city streets were completely deserted. A digital sign on a storefront read 2:13 AM. A cold wind whipped right through my torn t-shirt. Noticing Dalia shivering, I draped the jacket over her shoulders.

“I don’t need it,” she murmured.

“It’s fine, take it.”

She didn’t argue further, wrapping the fabric tightly around herself.

As we walked, she turned to look at me. “How did you end up in that lab anyway?”

“Saw an ad online looking for ‘volunteers.’ Paid five thousand dollars. I signed up and ended up first in line,” I replied with a weak chuckle.

“You risked your life for five grand?”

“Hey, I had rent to pay. Didn’t have much of a choice. What about you?”

Dalia let out a soft sigh. “Last thing I remember, I was an old woman stuck in a wheelchair. Now, I feel young again. I can actually walk, and my body feels normal. It’s crazy.”

I frowned, completely baffled. “An old woman? But you look so young and...”

“Ahem. And?”

“Well... you’re beautiful. I figured you were maybe twenty-five or thirty.”

Dalia froze, her eyes widening. She pressed her hands to her cheeks, touching her face in disbelief. Rushing over to a shop window, she stared at her reflection, tracing the smooth skin and her dark hair with straight bangs.

“I’m... I’m young again?” she whispered, her voice bubbling with excitement. A huge smile broke across her face, and she even did a joyful little spin on the sidewalk.

While she was distracted by her sudden youth, I happened to look down. My jaw dropped. My feet weren’t touching the pavement anymore. I was floating, suspended in the air like I was drifting in water.

Tentatively, I tried to kick upward, mimicking a swimming motion, and felt myself rise higher into the night sky. What was happening to me? Was this a gift or a curse?

As I drifted higher, the entire cityscape opened up beneath me, the buildings shrinking. I tried to steer myself back down, scanning the rooftops below. That’s when I spotted a figure standing casually on a roof, watching me from a distance. I flew straight toward him.

Strangely, no matter how fast I flew, the distance between us didn’t shrink. He just kept slipping away.

“Hey! You bastard scientist!” I yelled.

Why couldn’t I catch him? The harder I pushed—

CRASH!

Suddenly, I was slammed back onto the asphalt. In front of me lay the burning wreckage of a crashed airplane.

I scrambled to look around, spotting Dalia trying to run toward me. But something was horribly wrong. Her face and body were glitching, shifting uncontrollably. One second she was young, the next she was a frail old woman, and then she would vanish completely before reappearing. My heart pounded frantically against my ribs. Dalia, what’s happening to you? Everything is falling apart...

My vision began to blur into total darkness.

—-

“Hey, Rico. Rico, wake up!”

My eyes snapped open. The scientist was leaning over me. Gasps filling my lungs, I scrambled out of the pod as fast as I could. I looked over to the left and noticed another pod sitting wide open. Trembling, I forced myself to look inside.

Lying there was a pale, stiff corpse. The features were instantly recognizable.

“Dalia? You’re Dalia, right?” I whispered, my fingers brushing against her cold cheek. A heavy weight pressed down on my chest, a crushing emptiness that threatened to break me completely.

The scientist stepped up beside the pod and gently patted my shoulder. “She passed away three months ago,” he said softly. “Did you see her? Were you with her in there?”

I stared at her, completely numb. “Yeah. I was with her. I saw her. So... none of it was real?”

The scientist gave my shoulder a sympathetic squeeze, pulling a stack of cash from his pocket. “I understand. But here. I hope this covers your trouble.”

“Thank you.”