0111

Ky woke up to the sound of his own ears ringing, along with the sounds of hospital machinery chiming next to him. He opened his eyes to find himself inside a cold, metallic room, surrounded by doctors wearing white battle armor. "1226 has regained consciousness." one of the doctors spoke into their comms upon seeing their patient finally awaken.

"Where am I?" Ky asked one of the doctors, but they ignored him and exited the room. His power dampeners were active, attaching themselves to the hospital bed he was lying on as if they were shackled. He was completely immobile.

Ky continued looking around, still thinking of an escape plan despite his ears still ringing. He thought about his roommate, Tom, and how he said he could make anything out of anything supposedly. 'I wonder if I could sneak any items out of here.' he thought to himself, though even if he wanted to do that, having his arms locked down made that a very tough task.

A few minutes later, Richard Waller walked in with a huge, shit-eating grin on his face. "1226! My man! How are you feeling!" Waller spoke to the young man as if they were best friends, still referring to him as his number rather than his name.

"I feel... fine?" Ky was actually confused as to why his body, aside from the ringing ears, felt better than it ever had before. Little did he know, the doctors did much more than simply help him recover while he was asleep.

"Great!" Waller clapped a single time, still smiling at the young mutant. "I see your body seems to be adapting to your healing factor quite nicely. Splendid!"

Ky tried to lean up in his bed due to his surprise, though his arms and legs were still stuck in place. "Healing factor!? What did you do to me!?" Ky was furious. He didn't give consent to having his body tampered with, however, being part of this subdivision of the many Weapon X programs throughout the world, this was something he'd soon have to learn to get used to.

He only had two choices: Die or let Weapon X use him however they wanted.

"Relax, 1226. All we did was improve your body's natural healing to that far above any human's. Of course, you aren't immortal. If that were the case... well we wouldn't be able to control you, would we? We just wanted to ensure our Dark Angels aren't defeated by simple gunshot wounds. Tell me, do you feel stronger as well?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?" Ky yelled once again. He was a mutant, but in his own mind, he was a human before anything, not a monster. He was afraid of what exactly these guys were turning him into.

Richard Waller walked over to a nearby table and grabbed a tablet, opening Ky's profile and showing it to him from a distance. "Enhanced healing. Enhanced strength. Enhanced agility. We figured with your skillset, having these enhancements would be beneficial. Of course, 1226, if you don't like these enhancements we could just kill you... Don't you want to earn your freedom?"

Ky didn't know what to say. This strange character had far too much power over him, despite being nothing more than a weak human. One wrong move or one wrong word could mean having his brains splattered all over the wall.

Waller pulled up a chair and sat down next to Ky and began speaking to him in a sympathetic and fatherly tone. "These... freaks out in the world, the mutants that are bad individuals, the ones ruining the reputation of your race, can be your key to freedom. Once the world sees that you and the rest of the Dark Angels are heroes, they'll think that maybe all mutants aren't so bad. Isn't that what you want, Ky Thatcher?"

Ky refused to speak. If he spoke his mind, he'd tell Waller to go fuck himself.

Waller then pressed a button, releasing Ky from being trapped to his bed, though his dampeners were keeping his powers inactive. "Let's go, 1226. You have some training to do."

Waller stood up and walked over toward the door, leaning up against the wall as he waited for Ky to follow him. Ky stood up, reluctantly, and walked over toward Waller before walking out the door without saying a word. The two then walked through the dim, metallic facility before ending up in a new training room.

This room was on the smaller side and made of metal as all the other ones, though it had walls with projected backgrounds like the main training room had. In the center of the room, there was a young woman, the same young woman that Ky saw before his demonstration.

She was sitting on the ground with her knees to her chest, looking at the ground as if she were lost in thought. She too wore a striped button-up shirt, along with striped pants. Upon seeing Ky and Waller, she stood up with her hands behind her back and watched the two men approach her.

Her eyes were cold and lifeless, contrasting her kind and cute young face. She seemed to be around the same age as Ky, likely a senior in high school. Since she was no longer sitting, he could see her long, brown pigtails reaching down past her waist. Her amber eyes were studying Ky intensely, bringing a chill down his spine.

"1226, meet 0111." Waller said, gesturing toward the young woman. "You two will be training partners for the foreseeable future. Every day at 8 AM sharp, the two of you will train for eight hours straight. Since you woke up late today, we will start now but you will still train for the eight hours."

Richard Waller extended his arms outward, spinning around in the center of the room before revealing more about it. "This room can and will change every day. It can emulate any weather conditions, any lighting, and any temperature... it is one of my many magnum opuses."

Richard's eyes then looked toward the entrance as he gestured toward it. "Every hour on the hour, you will be given a five-minute break and you will be delivered one of our very own meal replacement supplements for your hard work. Don't say I never did anything for you." Waller cackled by himself before placing a hand on both the 0111's shoulder and Ky's shoulder.

"Now, as for why the two of you were chosen as partners... Well, you have fairly similar abilities. One is an empath and a mind reader while the other can see into the future! In other words, you both know your opponent's move before it comes out, yes? Unstoppable force vs immovable object! That's what you two are! I believe you could test each other's limits." Richard Waller then walked away from the both of them and started for the exit. However, he had one last thing to say.

"And by the way, only one of you will officially become a Dark Angel. By the end of your training, two months from now, whoever proves themself by the end gets to join the team." Waller grabbed the door handle and began walking through the door. Before closing it behind him, he looked back at the two young mutants and spoke one final time.

"In other words: You lose, you die. Have fun!"

The sound of the metallic door slamming shut and locking behind Mr. Waller sent a chill through Ky's skin. 'One of us will die?' he thought to himself, taking a quick glance at the girl in front of him. She didn't look afraid at all, in fact, her dull eyes still looked as if she were studying him.

He realized then that their power dampeners hadn't been active for a while, therefore, she must have been reading his mind the entire time.

"HAH!" 0111 attacked with two lighting-fast palms to the face, causing Ky to stagger backward before her left palm reeled back and struck him in the chest, sending him falling a few feet backward. Ky hit the ground with a breathless grunt, lying on the ground with a surprised look on his face.

0111 was incredibly fast, hitting him with calculated strikes as if she'd been training her whole life for this moment. What he didn't know was that this girl was a master in the art of Baguazhang, a Chinese fighting style. Despite their powers being similar, she already had a massive advantage due to already having mastered a martial art.

Ky wasn't a fighter, in fact, he'd never thrown a single punch in his life. All he cared about was blending in as a human while focusing on his studies.

Slowly, Ky got back up on his feet as he regained control of his own breathing. 0111 was standing in a ready position, facing him with her palms open. Her left arm was in front of her at about head height, her palm facing him. Her other arm was to her waist with her palm facing her own body. She stood with her left foot forward, ready for Ky's next move.

The look on her face was still cold and lifeless, still calculating Ky's every move. She knew that Ky didn't know how to fight, therefore she knew she had the advantage. Regardless of that fact, she wouldn't let up.

'How can I possibly even land an attack on this girl? She knows how to fight and can apparently read my mind. Maybe if I-' Ky stopped himself from thinking up a strategy, however, despite not mentally thinking the words, he had already thought of the action. She already figured out what he had planned.

"You cannot defeat me 1226. You might as well give up. Whether you try to be defensive or offensive, I know your every move and I am far superior to you in combat. If I were you, I would probably kill myself when our training is done to get it over with." The girl spoke with a plain, monotonous voice. It was as if there was no trace of humanity left inside of her.

'Ouch.' Ky thought. Not only did she inflict physical pain on him, but mental pain as well. Despite her confidence and superiority over him, Ky did not give up. Without any sort of fighting stance or plan in mind, Ky ran up to the girl and threw a punch at her, a wild one that lacked any real form.

The attack was so lackluster, the girl would have been able to dodge it without even using her mind-reading abilities. 0111 twirled to the side, dodging Ky's attack with ease before sending a quick spinning kick toward Ky's skull. It was so fast, there would be no way Ky could dodge it on reaction, however, he didn't need to react.

Ky's eyes shone white and he reversed time by one second, reverting time back to the moment when the girl dodged his attack. Knowing exactly what her next move would be, Ky waited for her twirl to finish and began ducking the attack before it could come out.

However, as Ky ducked low enough to dodge the attack, he found that the girl's gaze was meeting his, compelling his eyes to widen. Her head was even lower to the ground than his as she stood in what is known as a phoenix stance. Her left leg was extended far forward while her right leg was bent at a perfect right angle. Her two arms were spread outward like wings, hence the name phoenix stance.

She then grabbed Ky by the right arm and pulled it to her chest as she rose to her feet. She twirled, smacking him in the back of the head with her right elbow, following through before using that same right hand to throw him onto the ground.

As Ky lay with his back to the ground, the girl spoke to him once more.

"I already told you, 1226. You cannot defeat me."