[b]URIEL ATTICUS - LOCATION: AUDITORIUM TO ROOM 8 (URIEL'S ROOM)[/b]

Uriel sat next to Allia and Arthur, anxiously but eagerly awaiting the arrival of the authorities of this facility. He ripped open a bag of Skittles while he slouched in his seat. The rest of the teens started trickling in soon after. First, a tall dark haired guy who also happened to be shirtless for some reason. He was probably one of the guys near the entrance of the cafeteria when Uriel first burst in. The guy sat away from their initial group, agitatedly pulling down the seat and tapping his foot. He was also, wow, he was also pretty muscular. Uriel fixed his gaze to the front of the auditorium, away from [s]Hot[/s] Muscular Shirtless Guy.

[i][color=00aeef]Not the time, pal, not the time.[/color][/i]

Others came. An Asian girl with pale skin and even paler hair. Extremely striking eyes. She moved a bit strangely and seemed upset. She had obviously been crying recently. Not that he could blame her.
A toned, dark haired girl. She was with the muscular guy in the cafeteria before too. 
A … young Asian girl? She couldn’t have been older than 10! Uriel felt anger simmer in the recesses of his mind. These kidnappers had no qualms about taking children either. He ran his thumb over his mirror shard, anxiety was building up once again. Anyways, the young girl sat with the white haired girl from before. Hopefully they would comfort each other. 
The next guy, damn, talk about a flashy guy. Mohawk, tattoos, and piercings, dude was the textbook definition of a punk. He sure acted one too, casually climbing over the rows instead of walking and propping his feet on the desks. Uriel frowned at the carefree disregard of furniture conditions.
A- JESUS CHRIST WHAT WAS THAT?  It was a girl, that was the only thing Uriel was sure of. Her face and upper arms were covered in scales, but the rest of her seemed normal enough. She was pushing in a wheelchair seating a frail-looking girl with long dark hair. Uriel decided not to probe it further, he didn’t want any more worries.

Finally, a lady came in. She seemed professional, way too cordial for the situation they were in. Her voice was as level as she looked. [i]Aaand[/i] then she started talking about powers. Uriel watched her with a sceptical squint. The heir to Atticus Motors was a proud man of science, the offspring of an award-winning engineer and CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the world. He would never believe this sort of justification for their kidnappings, especially if it was as ridiculous as bloody [b]SUPERPOWERS[/b]. He wouldn’t believe for a second unless he saw it with his own eyes. And no, that scaly girl didn’t count. Uriel told himself that it was just some rare skin condition. He was a man of science, dammit, SCIENCE.

Elisa’s explanations for their circumstances were concise, practised, and [i]waayyyyy[/i] too conveniently explained. It was all too…neat, too easily brushed aside. The logic behind her words was way too sound. And she admitted to kidnapping them so easily too! If he was in any other position, Uriel might have actually believed her words. He had always been told that he was intelligent, had a bright future. But he was also extremely gullible, laughably so. In other circumstances, he would’ve eaten those words up like a club sandwich. But he couldn’t afford to be gullible here. He couldn’t believe her, even if her statements made so much sense… Geh, whatever. At least she had a pretty smile.

Uriel didn’t feel good at the idea of what Elisa’s announcement of preliminary tests. Sure, it would be blood tests and exercises, but then what? Next thing he knew, he would be sliced open and robbed of his kidneys, or have his bone marrow forcibly taken out, or have his brain taken out for examination. He had seen those sci-fi movies, momma didn’t raise no fool. Geez, weren’t there like Geneva Convention rules for this shit? There probably were, but they probably wouldn’t be much help in this most likely remote facility. They certainly didn’t do anything when he got kidnapped.

Question time came around. There were so many he wanted to ask, but which one would he choose? He could have stalled this presentation for about an hour with all the things he wanted to find out. But alas, his indecisiveness was his downfall. All the other kids asked their own questions while he was still choosing. A number of them were pissed, rightfully so. And some had accents. One Spanish, one Russian. The scaly girl who threw herself at the researchers ([i][color=00aeef]you go, girl[/color][/i]) was screaming in what sounded like Russian. Were they taken from different countries? Arthur and Allia had accents too. More worries to have. It was unlikely that they were still in Australia. There were no windows, no doors to the outside, no indication of their outside environment. They could be in any country right now, somewhere far from his home in Melbourne. Too many worries right now.

And then the answers came around. Once again, they were too neatly packaged. But one thing caught Uriel’s attention. They were endorsed by international governments? He found that difficult to believe. But then again, you could never trust those guys in the upper parts of society (even if Uriel himself was one). And their families had been notified too? Uriel allowed himself a flicker of hope. But then came the more interesting part, brought up by Arthur’s question. Elisa claimed that this organisation was nurturing empowered people out of goodwill. Yet another neat explanation. If this organisation was so philanthropic, then why did they confiscate his phone and cut off all outside communication? Why did they make them wait until the testing?

[color=6ecff6]“I'll take my shot at freedom, even if it means gambling on much worse."[/color]

Uriel nodded in agreement. As long as he could go back to his family, he would comply with whatever they wanted him to do.

Eventually, the presentation came to an end and the coaches came in. Uriel stood up, making sure to pick up the discarded wrappers from his snacking during the talk. He might be held here against his will, but littering was still for losers. 

[color=a2d39c]“Uriel Atticus?”[/color]

He looked to see his coach. She was the very model of a Scandanavian woman, had all that blonde hair, blue eyes jazz. She couldn’t have been any older than her early thirties. Her lab coat with rolled up sleeves loosely covered her casual attire of a shirt and jeans.

He turned and waved to his friends. [color=00aeef]“I’ll catch you guys later then.”[/color]

Uriel hopped down from the stands to greet his new coach.

[color=a2d39c]“My name is Julia,”[/color] she smiled and talked with a sweet Nordic accent, [color=a2d39c]“I’m qualified as a neuroscientist and lectured at the Karolinska Institutet. I’m looking forward to working with you.”[/color] She held out her hand.

Uriel considered his options. The quicker he went through those preliminary tests, the quicker he would get to contact his family. And he never got a chance to ask those questions before. The best way to get information now was through Julia here. And the best way to get information out of anyone was to make them trust you, to become their friend. And boy oh boy, Uriel was damn good at making friends. 

[i][color=00aeef]I’m gonna befriend you so hard that we’re gonna be baking brownies and playing laser tag together before you can even BLINK.[/color][/i]

Uriel practically monologued internally. If he could, he would have laughed maniacally too, but that would have been weird. Later, perhaps. So instead, he shook her hand with the firm grip his dad had instructed him to do and smiled.

[color=00aeef]“Uriel Atticus, but you already knew that. Flashy name, I know. I must say, I love your accent.” [/color]

[i][color=00aeef]Aha! Psychology 101, bitch! Best way to get someone to like you, open with a compliment!
[/color][/i]

She looked at him warmly.

[color=a2d39c]“Why thank you! Yours is wonderful too. We should head back to your room now. I’m sure you’d like to get these tests over and done with as soon as possible.”[/color]

They started walking to the Auditorium doors before Julia piped up.

[color=a2d39c]“Oh, and if I may, would you kindly hand your weapon over to the guards at the doors? We wouldn’t want anyone here to get hurt.”[/color]

Her friendly tone hadn’t wavered a bit, but the implication was clear. Uriel’s smile didn’t budge either, but his eyes were now cold and deadly. It was only a split second before he chuckled and broke the sudden tension.

[color=00aeef]“Oh right, of course! Yeah, it would be suuper awkward if I pulled out a weapon in the middle of our tests.”[/color] He put on the [i]“business man negotiations”[/i] voice that he sometimes used to get out of nasty situations with. [color=00aeef]“Would be a total conversation killer. Killer, geddit?” [/color]

He flicked finger guns at her, wearing a goofy grin after delivering his pun. She laughed, a bit nervously at first but it seemed genuine when the joke finally reached her. She probably thought he was some sort of psychopath now, cracking jokes about murder while in possession of a stabbing implement. He wouldn’t blame her if she did, considering the things he was willing to do to escape.

He handed his mirror shard to one of the guards at the door, as well as his empty snack wrappers.

[color=00aeef]“Make sure you put these in the non-recyclables,”[/color] Uriel advised jokingly, [color=00aeef]“Keep up the fine work.”[/color]

He gave the guard a friendly pat on the shoulder and continued to his room.  

His room, Number 5, was exactly as he left it. The door to the bathroom was closed, the shattered mirror out of his view. Uriel spoke as he took of his blazer and used one of the provided coat hangers in the wardrobe.

[color=00aeef]“I gotta say, your organisation gave us some really sweet digs. Plus, the staff here seem really nice too. Who could blame me if I got Stockholm Syndrome?”[/color]

More finger guns.

[color=00aeef]“Geddit? Cos you lectured there! Anyways, let’s get this done quickly. I’ve got a major Legal Studies project to hand in next week and I don’t need Ms Carter hating me more than she already does.”[/color]