“Alright, we’ve contacted the mainland and help is on the way,” Harding announced shortly after everyone had finished eating dinner. “For right now there’s nothing any of you need to do so just sit tight. They’ll be here pretty late tonight so don’t bother staying up. The plan is for us all to stay here as originally planned. Once everyone’s revived, things should be able to get moving along as normal and you can focus back on learning to control your powers.”

“Are you sure we’ll be safe?” one of the supers asked.

“They’re sending a full contingent of supers here to protect you,” Harding explained. “And they’ll be increasing their patrols and monitoring the surrounding waters.”

“Weren’t the last guards supers?”

“They were, but their replacements will be much more powerful and more heavily armed.”

“There will also be a bomb squad coming to search the rest of the woods,” Kira put in, “and a repair crew to fix up the damage here.”

“So in the mean time, stay out of the woods,” Harding concluded.

It was still relatively early in the evening but I was tired so I went to my corner of the cafeteria. The bedroll was showing its wear and tear from the damage I’d done to it over the last couple of nights, moving around in my sleep. Thankfully it was still functional and soon I drifted off to sleep.

“…hold on…”

“…quiet or…”

“…Harding’s gone…”

Voices drifted through my sleeping mind and I felt myself beginning to awaken. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since I lay down but I felt like it wasn’t that long.

“…waking up…”

“…got her?”

“Keep her still.”

I opened my eyes. I was lying on my back, as usual, and felt a slight pressure all over my body. Standing above me were three other supers, looking at me while occasionally casting glances over their shoulders towards the entrance to the cafeteria.

“Evening,” one of them said, and I recognized them as the super with electrical powers. “I’m locking down your body’s ability to send electrical impulses to your muscles, so you’re completely paralyzed below your neck.”

“You know why?” another of them sneered. “You think you’re so much better than us. Eating whatever you want and lording it over us.

I flexed a finger and felt it move, albeit with a little more difficulty than usual. Immediately the super who was supposed to be paralyzing me twitched. I made a fist and they grabbed their head as if they were getting a headache.

“Something’s wrong,” they groaned.

I tore my blankets off and stood up. The super dropped to their knees gripping their forehead and screamed. The other two scattered as Harding came running into the room.

“What’s going on?” he demanded, grabbing one of the other two supers before they could get away.

Kira was close behind and with a tap she put the other super to sleep. She caught them before they could hit the ground. The electric super was convulsing by now and having a real fit. I backed up, not trusting myself to handle them without causing further injury.

Kira hurried over, Harding following along behind as he dragged the super he’d caught. Bending down, Kira placed a hand on the spasming super and they calmed down, their breathing returning to normal.

“You wanna tell us what’s going on?” Harding asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I woke up with the three of them standing over me and they started going on about being upset that I’d had a good meal. That one said he was paralyzing me, though it doesn’t seem to have worked,” I added, pointing to the electric super.

“Is that right?” Harding asked the super he was still holding on to.

They didn’t respond.

“Well, looks like you three will get to experience the finer accommodations of the Cain Center in your very own holding cells.”

“You can’t do this to us,” the electric super complained, still lying on the floor. “Do you know who I am? Who my parents are?”

“I do, actually,” Harding replied, “and guess what? It doesn’t matter. You’re here to learn to control your powers, not abuse them. Once things are back up and running here, you’re going to be charged with assault, misuse of your powers, and–

Harding locked up and then collapsed, followed by Kira. I felt the same heaviness come over me but a quick shake threw it off. Again, the super screamed and collapsed, releasing Harding and Kira.

“Not too bright, is he?” Harding asked as he got back up to his feet.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked.

“Besides being stupid?” Harding asked.

“It’s backlash from trying to suppress your muscles,” Kira answered me. “It could kill him if he kept trying.”

She tapped him on the shoulder and he calmed back down.

“You coulda let him twitch a bit more,” Harding grunted. “Come on Misha,” he added. “Help me escort these three down to the holding cells. If any of them try anything else, you are to catch them by whatever means you deem necessary and there will be no healing provided to any of you if you get yourselves hurt by her.”

The two conscious supers followed dumbly after that. I gingerly picked up the unconscious one and followed Harding down a flight of steps until we reached a corridor with heavy metal doors set into the walls on either side. Harding pulled out a keycard and held it up to the first door. It clicked and he opened the door.

“In you go,” he said to the electric super.

“An electric lock?” he scoffed. “You think that will keep me here?”

“Go ahead and try to get out, if you like,” Harding said, pushing him into the cell and closing the door.

A moment later the lights in the cell flickered and a muffled cry of pain sounded.

“The locks have surge protectors on them to prevent outside tampering,” Harding laughed. “Probably not as bad as what you did to him, but should still deter him from trying again.”

The others were put into their own cells and then I followed Harding back up to the cafeteria.

“So, who is he?” I asked.

“Who, stupid back there? He’s some billionaire’s son. I don’t remember the specifics, only that he’s a spoiled brat who has a habit of abusing his powers. That’s why he was sent here. He’s not actually so powerful that he would normally be sent here but he’s problematic enough. The powers that be decided it would be good for him to have some time away from the sheltering influence of his parents. We’ll see. Personally I think he’ll be relegated to Greenland.”

“What? I asked. “Why Greenland?”

“Oh, sorry, forget I said that,” Harding rushed to say. “I, uh, shoot. Just forget it.”

I let it drop but made a note to myself not to forget about it. If I had to guess, I’d say there was a prison of some sort there for supers who abused their powers. It made sense there would need to be some sort of prison for supers, since there wasn’t exactly a morality test for who got powers and who didn’t and a normal prison wouldn’t be sufficient for most supers. I wondered how they would contain a super like myself who could break through most any wall they put in front of me. The answer came to me immediately. Explosives. They’d blast me with high explosives until I either died, passed out, or gave up. It was humbling to know I wasn’t entirely unstoppable.

Harding led me back to the cafeteria and I returned to my corner. The bedroll and blankets were in tatters but I was too tired to care for now. I did the best I could, pushing the pieces of foam padding back together and then using the largest scrap of blanket to cover myself, fell back asleep.