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The doors slid open.

In front of them was a wide-open space, sectioned off by walls of glass. Tiny lights lined the floor, illuminating the walkway that stretched in front of them, much longer than Nick expected it to be.

“Okay,” Owen said. “This is it. The overhead lights will stay off. There aren’t any security cameras down here. They wanted to keep it off the main security grid. Anything recorded is done closed circuit. But it’s better to be safe than sorry. Always remember to keep to the shadows.”

And that… that gave Nick pause. “What?”

Owen glanced back at him as he stepped out of the elevator. “Stay low and quiet, Nick. It’s… what? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Nick shook his head slowly. “Uh. Nothing. Never mind. Déjà vu, I guess.”

“That’s the strangest feeling, isn’t it? Like you’ve been here before. Or it’s precognition. I think my father has a pill for that too, to be honest. Maybe that’s the one you’d like to take?”

Nick blanched. “That’s… I can’t—”

“Let’s go.”

Nick followed.

Owen led them toward the other side of the room, ignoring the walls of glass on either side of them. Inside, large machines sat silent.There were microscopes and computers and what Nick thought was an oversized centrifuge, though he couldn’t see inside it.

They stopped in front of a sheet of glass.

“There,” Owen said. “There it is.”

Nick stepped forward.

There were seven different tubes on the inside.

In each of the tubes, hung suspended in midair, was a pill.

Green.

Yellow

Violet.

Blue.

Orange.

Black.

White.

“That’s it?” Nick whispered.

“That’s it,” Owen said somewhere near Nick’s ear. “Tiny things, aren’t they? Though they’ll surely pack a wallop.”

“What… what do they do?”

“Green is super strength, capable of turning you into a human wrecking ball. Yellow is the power of flight. Violet is the ability to summon storms. Blue can make you become a conductor of electricity. Orange is fire. Black is smoke. Or maybe shadow. I’d stay away from that one if I were you. I’m told it’s… intense. I wouldn’t want that for you. Perhaps the blue. Or the green.”

Shadow.“And the white?”

Owen shook his head regretfully. “The white one is off-limits. Even for you, Nicky. It’s the most unstable. It’s telekinesis. The power to move things with your mind. We can’t touch that one. According to my father’s tests, the last person who was given the white pill lost their mind. It’s not quite there yet. One day. This isn’t even all of them, just the ones currently being tested.”

Everything felt too big, too wild. Unreal. “Oh,” he said dumbly.