Chapter Text
All Ashlyn wanted to do right now was to go back to her room or even to go hang out in one of her other friend's rooms. She missed seeing them outside of the phantom realm. Everyone is always so tense in the phantom realm and with good reason. They could be found and killed by a phantom at any moment. She missed seeing them at least a little care free back when they were not kept in captivity.
She missed seeing Aiden's smirk when Tyler stumbled or when Taylor would flip her hair when she was focusing. All of them had their little quirks that made them so special in Ash's mind.
Now she was stuck in a room with a phantom being told to interact with it. The idea was insane but if she didn't do it she would have to live with the knowledge that one of her friends could have gotten hurt and she caused it all because she was a pussy and wouldn't go touch the phantom. Use was stuck thinking and gawking at the stupidity of the request she didn't realize that Maverick had ordered the phantom to be released. She heard it coming but it was on her by the time she turned.
She flipped through the air but it grabbed her ponytail.
She nearly screamed at the pain of being dragged down mid-jump by her hair, but recovered quickly. Not quickly enough though because when she tried to jump on it back, it grabbed her and threw her to the ground. It had a good hold on her now and no amount of squirming was going to stop the fact she was about to die. She heard the panic building up in the other room as they realized they were about to lose their favorite test subject. She freed one arm but the phantom pinned it down again.
The phantom decided it would claw Ash's chest until it bled. It was torture. She was passing out from blood loss and was getting delusional but knew she was dying so with her last strength she decided to be petty and not push off the phantom but to yell,
"FUCK YOU BITCHES!!!" And stick her middle finger out at the scientist who made her life hell for months.
The phantom decided that just then it was going to end her life and she went out with a bang.
She heard scientists yelling them she heard gunshots then...nothing. She had died a not so peaceful death, not surrounded by those she loved. She hoped that for the others sake they don't find out what happened. She felt peace for the first time in a while. She saw herself in third person, lying there as people tried to bring her back. But it's hard to bring someone back who didn't want to be brought back in the first place. She felt content watching. Then she was floating in a endless pit. All she saw was black. She didn't feel cold or hot, in fact she was just the right temperature to be content. Then it felt windy. And she got dragged somewhere and shoved in a box or a small cramped place she felt squished but soon got over it because she had more pressing issues.
She opened her eyes and saw green. That was the first thing she saw in fact. She was back in her normal clothing or at least that's what it felt like. Then the next thing she assessed was that she was in searing hot pain. Ashlyn would say she has a pretty high pain tolerance but this was like nothing she had felt before. She felt around and hit glass and she kicked as hard as she could. The glass cracked and she kicked it again shattering the glass. She spilled onto the ground and felt instant relief that lasted about 2 seconds before she heard the gunshots and the shouting. Someone saw her and probable heard the commotion he caused and came over with a tense or remorseful look on his face. Or at least that's what she thought. It was hard to tell because her eyes eye firmly shut and she just heard the tentative footsteps. Her hands were also covering her ears but that can only do so much with hearing like hers.
She braced herself but he looked like he could overpower her easily when she opened her eyes a smidge. His domino mask made it extremely hard to tell his expressions. She moved a bit father away from him wincing as another gunshot rang through the air.
"Hello, my name Red Hood. What's your name?" He spoke with a calm tone one would usually use for scared little kids...which she probably looks that part.
"My name is Ashlyn." She knows she should probably be more reserved than she is right now but she is in a fragile state.
"Okay Ashlyn, How old are you?"
"I'm sixteen but my birthday-" She stops because a particularly loud gunshot echoed through the room hurting her ears, "My birthday is in a few weeks."
She heard him quietly say into a earpiece, "We need to stop the gunfire, I have a 16 year old female named Ashlyn who looks like she just took a dip in the pit."
At that little announcement she started freaking out again because "What if he is trying to take me back" Ashlyn started searching for exits and Red Hood seemed to notice this. He realized and tried to come a step further but Ashlyn quickly looked around for something to protect herself but found nothing so she just decided to move to the corner or the room.
Red Hood stayed where he was and didn't attempt coming any further.
"So Ashlyn, do you have any nicknames or...?"
"Not for you I don't"
"Okay...any reason you are holding your hands to your ears like your in pain or is that just something you do?"
"I have Hyperacusis which is an extreme hearing disorder which makes all noises I hear amplified. Usually I have earbuds or headphones to deal with it but they got lost...some where along the way."
He thought about this for a moment then asked, "May I come closer?"
Ashlyn had to think about all the reasons he might want to come closer but eventually agreed. He took a few steps closer and asked,
"Is this okay?"
She said yes because he was close enough as to she could still roundhouse kick him but far enough he could not grab her.
"Were you the one in that machine?"
"Yes, what's it to you?"
"Did you get any injuries when you broke open the glass?"
Ash did a quick check, her legs had a couple shards of glass in them but those were fine. No serious injuries. She informed Red Hood of this and he asked if he could take her to a hospital but Ashlyn said no almost instantly. She was not going to spend another minute in a hospital setting, not after Tyler and then the whole getting kidnapped and experimented on. She did agree to let him wrap it though.
As he was wrapping it a straggler scientist came in with a gun. And all things went to hell again after that.