1 A Beating

Idris Rosario. Day One of Weapon-X

There was loud ringing in my ears, I opened my eyes to see bright white lights like in a hospital. I felt cold steel on my back, and I could feel leather straps on my arms.

"What the hell?" My vision was still bad, and I tried to look around the room and free myself from my bondage.

"Good morning, Mr. Rosaria." I heard a voice say over an intercom.

"Who the fuck are you!? Where the hell am I?" I yelled and continued to thrash around.

"I thought you would remember. You volunteered for the Weapon-X program. You're in one of our facilities." Shit. I remember, my brain throbbed as the memories came back.

"They never said anything about getting drugged and kidnapped!" I was still straining against the bondages.

"No. They didn't." The voice said simply, and I heard some ruffling of paper. "Beginning Test 1 of Elemental breakdown." I heard whirling and whishing as needles came forward towards me and I tried to get out of the way, but a chain formed around my throat holding me in place.

"What the fuck! Hey, get me out of here I don't want to do this shit anymore." I heard a sigh on the intercom.

"I'm afraid that can't happen." That's when the needles plunged into me and all I knew was pain.

Edris Rosario. A few days earlier.

I was walking down the streets of Brownville New York, after school. The neighborhood is shit so ain't much to do after school. Yeah, you could go visit some other shit hole in New York but there all for tourists, not for us street rats who ain't got nothing to our name. I was walking down an ally when I was surrounded by a group of guys.

"Hand us your wallet. You can keep the bag kid." One of the men said, it was four of 'em. I sighed; this was the fourth time this month. I barely had any cash on me anyway.

"I can't do that man." He only looked at me with a sorry expression and looked at the rest of the guys.

"Listen kid. I ain't gonna ask again. The wallet, or these fine gentlemen here will beat the living shit out of you and take everything you got on you." I was shifting on my feet. I needed the money to get to work.

"Look. I need the cash to get to work. It ain't that much anyway." He sighed and looked at me with a hint of pity. I couldn't take all these guys by myself. Hell I probably couldn't take one of them on by myself. I was a scrawny underfed kid, who's only muscle came from soccer on the weekends.

"Sorry kid. This ain't personal." That when one of their fists met my chin and I stumbled to the floor. Fuck me that hurt. I looked up to see one of them trying to kick me, I rolled out of the way and hit a wall. I stumbled to my feet and another punch landed in my gut. I went on my knees as all the air left my body. One of them took my bag from my and dumped everything out. Only seeing a pair of clothes and some notebook paper and pencils. They all groaned.

"Last chance kid, the wallet." I was still gasping for air and used the wall to support me getting up. I spat oout some blood.

"Go fuck yourself." I lunged for the nearest one and landed a clean hit to his throat which he only backed away grabbing at it and whizzing. Some guy grabbed me and threw me back into the wall and the back of my head hit the wall and I thudded to the ground.

"You got spirit, that much I can admit. Hate to do this to ya." With that he landed two clean hits to my face and I was out. I woke up to find myself on a cot in a rundown apartment. With dried blind on my face and a fresh bruise starting to form. I heard footsteps in one of the rooms and I cried out in pain, touching my stomach. A huge welt was there. The footsteps got closer and in came a man, around middle age and he had glasses that hid his eyes.

"Hello." His voice was cold. He was in a suit that looked expensive, far more expensive then this apartment.

"This isn't some sick rich man pedo shit, is it?" He examinded me for a moment before giving a dry chuckle.

"No."

"Then why the fuck am I here?" He pulled a chair and sat down.

"You are here because I took you here. I found you when you were getting jumped in that ally. Awful stuff really." I just continued to look at him and around the room. There was a window I could jump out of. Though I don't know how far up we are. He noticed my gaze and smirked.

"You are free to leave, your belongings are over there." He pointed to a corner and there sat my bad and wallet. Along with a free pair of clothes. "Though I have a proposition to make to you." I snapped to meet his eyes, or at least tried to. Those glasses of his creeped me out.

"Yeah so? How'd you get my bag anyway?"

"I killed the people who took it." He leaned back in the chair and I could see the gun sitting comfortably in the holster and I gulped. "Again, you can leave whenever you want too. Though I think you would want to hear my offer." I was nervous. Batshit scared as well. This man was talking about killing people like he was talking about how cloudy it was outside. What the fuck.

"What he offer?" I asked with a shaky breath. He gave another smirk.

"I'm restarting a program and we could use people like you." I looked confused.

"People like me?" His smirk lessened and just nodded.

"Mutants." What the fuck. I'm not a mutant. I heard about them like the X-men but I don't have powers.

"You got the wrong guy man. I'm no mutant." I tried to sit up, but he pushed me back down.

"You are. It is not uncommon that some powers are latent and come at a later age, or under extreme...stress." He chuckled at that, and he had a smiled.

"Listen man, I don't know what type of shit you're on, but I'm going to go." I got up and limped to my stuff. He sighed and stood up.

"You haven't heard my full proposition." I was taking off my shirt and putting on the new one when he said that.

"Go ahead then. You got 5 mintues." If it involved money I'm in. Can't keep scrapping by while my parents only spend their money on drugs and leave me to the bills.

"Good. Weapon-X program is a program that brings out the best in all mutants involved. There's been many cases where mutants didn't know they were mutants until we were done with them, similar to you." I only stood there, trying to be unfazed at his comment. I'm not a mutant.

"That sounds good and all but getting powers doesn't pay the bills." I crossed my arms and looked at him expectingly. He just reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a roll of hundreds.

"No. The powers won't. But I will." He threw me the roll of money and began heading for the door. I caught the money and stared at it in shock. "I'll give you the day to think on it. You can find me here." With that he opened the door and left. I just stared at the roll of money. It was a lot. Like more then I'd see on any paycheck id ever get. I didn't really need to think on it. I ran towards the door, grabbing my bad and wallet. Stuffing the money in my bag. I ran out the door to find the man leaning against the wall waiting for me. He smiled.

"I'm in." He just put his hand forward and I shook it. Trying my hardest to keep it a solid handshake.

"I knew I could count on you. We'll do great things together Mr. Rosario." I only nodded figuring he looked at my I.D when he picked it up.

"What do I call you?"

"You can call me Director." I looked confused and he just turned his back and walked down the stairs. I quickly followed him and there was a Blacked-out Sedan waiting outside. He just opened the back door and motioned me in. He walked around and got into the passenger sit. There was a rough looking man sitting in the driver sit, who sounded like he was growling all the time. "Do you want to tell your parents of your decision, Mr. Rosario?" Should I? No. Fuck those drugged out crack sniffing 40 chugging deadbeats.

"Nah. I'm good." There was a gas that came out from inside the car, and I could see the Director putting on a gas mask. The driver just kept driving.

"Great". On that word I was out.