[center][h2][color=ed1c24][u][b]Maya[/b][/u][/color][/h2]
[img]https://media-prod.fangoria.com/images/l-intro-1626905169.width-800.jpg[/img][/center]

[color=ed1c24][i]Ninety-Seven...[/i][/color]

[indent]The morning had drifted sluggishly into afternoon. What had started as a deceivingly cool midwestern day had risen to sweltering temperatures. The sun lashed down with devilish fury. The heat was simply ubearable to the collective of souls caught within the fencing of Area 06. The Gifted, powerful though they might be, were only as capable as their powers allowed them; adding the suppresant collars they had all been forced into, they stood little chance of finding comfort outside of the small pockets of shade they had been allowed to erect. Even the Hunters guarding the base were ill-prepared, with those unfortunate enough to be on the daytime rounds being denied nearly any access to the presumably climate-controlled fortification at the camp's center. Truly, the high rollers of the Hunter initiative treated themselves and their bootlickers well while the bottom feeders were left to the worse aspects of the job. 

[color=ed1c24][i]Ninety-Eight...[/i][/color]

Despite the heat wafting down from the skies, there remained at least one person in the camp either too resilent or too foolish to be caught idling. In a bare and open spot close to where the Gifted had built their shelters, Maya Anne Morales-Torres was deep into an effort that had the guards themselves shaking their heads. In the midst of sparse, labored foot traffic and watched curiously by the small gatherings in nearby shelters Maya was propped up, stripped down to little more than a pair of shorts, shoes, and a sports bra, powering her way through a long set of push-ups. Around the count of thirty, she had begun to feel the adverse effects of the heat beginning to poke and prode at her collar-stiffled person. But by the time she reached sixty, all care for the struggle and fatigue evaprated into the humidity that hung in the day's heat. 

[color=ed1c24][i]Ninety-Nine...[/i][/color]

Truthfully, she realized as she had hit the eighty mark, she had no clue just how beneficial any workout would be in her current state. Without the suppresent force of her collar, she could push herself further, and hone, however marginally, her already amplified physical prowess. With those powers either stiffled or altogether blocked the end results would be uncertain. Would her superhuman strength and endurance even benefit from workouts she did without them? Would gains she made as an otherwise "normal," if physically fit, human, translate and scale up once she finally got out of the Hunters' trap? Maya really couldn't say for sure; she had asked herself these questions more than once since she arrived in Area 06, but had continued exercising despite not knowing, and in sheer spite of the conditions she was being kept in. If nothing else, she could at least rest assured that she was maintaining her dignity and willpower. If that was it... it would have to be enough. 

[color=9e0b0f]"One... Hundred."[/color] 

Maya's upper body pushed itself back to starting position for the centenial count. Deciding on the spot to cutoff her final set there, she pivoted to her right and landed gently seated onto the ground below. She collected a few breaths, and then hopped back to her feet and began a circling track around the camp. Usually, on obscenely hot or rainy days, the few dwellings and shelters for the Gifted were occupied fully; it took either a lot of luck or a lot of force to clear out a space in one. Maya couldn't have cared less about that though. Enduring the harsh circumstances only set her apart from the others. It kept most people at a distances where she could see them if they came up on her. Plus, she'd be better off if they ever did break free; some of the weaker ones might not even make it to the tree line before exhaustion took them and delivered the back to the Hunters. 

As she walked around the encampment, Maya found herself the recipient of a share of nervous and outright frightened glances, and the subject of murmurs and whispers. She had grown used to this kind of treatment around Area 06. Still, it kept her on her toes. While some might have thought her paranoid for it, she knew there was a target on her back. Area 06, even as it was lauded with a perfect track record for keeping its prisoners inside, had nonetheless seen an attempt at an uprising. As it happened, Maya, then tied to the Hunters' chains as the proverbial junkyard dog, had been the one to drop in and literally beat down the resistance. Naturally, sentiments were unfavorable towards her, and once she arrived as a "permanent" resisdent of the camp, she knew there was a buzz about the camp regarding how and when to exact sweet revenge unto her. The only thing keeping anyone from making good on their talk was the fear that the guards would put the voltage through them if they started anything, or that [color=ed1c24][b]"Balboa's"[/b][/color] collar would get conveniently turned off just long enough for her to fight them off... the others couldn't be too certain that Maya was in fact a prisoner and not just another safety net for their captors. 

[color=ed1c24]"Ugh... The Hell?"[/color] a sudden spike in temperature drifted out in a wave from somewhere nearby, and for all of her time still training herself, Maya wasn't ready for that kind of heat. She stopped in her tracks, glaring down a staring passerby until they shuffled away. She looked around for the source of the heatwave, finding it in a young woman a short distance away. The heat subsided quickly as the source Gifted ways treated with the Guards' tried-and-true shock therapy. Maya, in an overtly dispeased mood, stepped with pounding feet towards the other Gifted, joining a gathering group of one she racognized as 'Wildfire,' a blonde woman she couldn't recall, and Blitz. She arrived just in time to overhear riff-raff about defending each other. Maya shot the blonde woman a disdained look. [color=ed1c24]"No chance anyone in here is putting up a fight while these things are still on,"[/color] she pointed out, tapping the collar around her neck. [color=ed1c24]"This place is as tight as Hunter camps get."[/color]