Sierra’s Reviews > Vicious > Status Update

Eli- in college they had to do thesis papers, Victor chose to study what the body can do when producing enough adrenaline.
Eli was studying EO: ExtraOrdinary people, if they exist & how.
Victor took interest in Eli’s thesis, thought they could combine both their research & figure out how it could be done.
The theory was that if the body has a near death experience & produces enough adrenaline, has enough will to live- can somehow gain “gifts” from that, magical abilities.

Present: Victor has the ability to take away people’s pain.

Past- 10 years ago at university
Victor met Angie freshman year, had a crush on her but things never got out of the friendzone. Sophomore year Eli became his roommate, Victor introduced Eli to Angie & they hit it off, started dating.
Victor hates it, thinks Eli stole Angie, thinks Angie makes Eli dull & distracts him.
Victor convinces Eli to test their theory, at first Eli is completely against it but when Victor volunteers to go first, he agrees.
Eli sells pills on campus for extra cash, they use his painkillers & a bottle of whiskey to make Victor overdose.
It doesn’t work, Victor wakes up in the hospital, is on suicide watch for hours & has to talk to a psychologist before he sweet talks his way out.
Eli tells Victor that pills & alcohol weren’t the way to go, that it dulled the senses too much so for his turn they’ll try something different, they’ll do it that night…
They get bags of ice, 3 epi pens & handwarmers. Victor drowns Eli in an ice bath (I think, or maybe Eli drowns himself 🤷🏻‍♀️), has a drink before pulling him out to make sure he’s 100% dead. He puts the handwarmers on vital points- head, neck, groin, etc. Waits until he thinks Eli is warm enough then gives him CPR, 2 epi pens in the thigh & 1 in the chest. He looses hope & doesn’t think it’s going to work…starts realizes he just killed his friend..then Eli wakes up.
Eli feels fine when he wakes up, super energized, gets dressed immediately & wants to go out for drinks. They don’t notice any superpowers but on their drunken walk home Eli falls over, cuts his hand on glass, they see that the wound heals itself. Eli spends the rest of their walk home injuring himself & watching it heal in amazement. They’re both amazed, Eli can’t wait to get home & hurt himself all night lol Victor gets jealous tho, he starts thinking he’ll just be a sidekick, a note taker, an observer to Eli.
He tells Eli he’s going for a walk when they get back, decides he needs get powers on his own & wants to be far away from Eli.
The next day when Victor does have to see him again, Eli’s absorbed in testing out his new ability, wants to get a gun to test out how fast the regeneration goes. Victor tells eli he wants to try again that night but Eli says they should wait until victors feeling better from the first attempt.
Now Victor feels like Eli doesn’t want him to have powers at all, tells him he’s going to sleep, grabs an EpiPen & goes to a party, buys as much coke as he can, plans on ODing in the bathroom & texting Eli to come use the EpiPen on him. It doesn’t work tho cause Victor never goes to parties, so when everyone sees him there buying up all the coke, some friends text Eli- he catches him in the bathroom, stops him.
Victor tells Eli to wait for him downstairs, promises to not try this again alone, then he gets shocked by the outlet in the bathroom while cleaning himself up, gets an idea, texts Eli’s girlfriend Angie their codeword from when they were close, sneaks out the window when she gets there.
He asks her to take him to the engineering lab, she has a key to it. He explains the thesis to her, explains what he wants to do, she thinks he’s crazy & doesn’t wanna help until he tells her that Eli already did it & it worked. He lies to her too, telling her that he took a pill that will kill him if he doesn’t try it anyway, & if they do try it that the pill is meant to bring him back- she somehow believes it.
Angie brings him inside, Victor says to electrocute him- like a switch, he just wants her to turn him off & then back on. He rushes her, pretending the “pill” is kicking in & they’re running out of time. Angie is upset, says she’ll never forgive him but she helps him, hooks him up to some machine & electrocutes him.
Victor dies a very painful death this time & when he’s brought back, he still feels like he’s being electrocuted, hears a buzzing sound. He begs the pain to stop & it does…he’s confused as to what’s even happening rlly, confused as to where the pain went, if it’ll come back. Angie starts screaming…Victor hears the buzzing again but doesn’t feel any pain, tries to calm himself & turn the pain down like it’s a dial but it’s too late, it kills Angie- he killed Angie with this new ability.
Victor doesn’t feel much remorse after Angie’s dead, he calls Eli & blurts it out, tells him Angie’s dead but she helped him get powers & it worked this time. Eli doesn’t seem too upset over Angie, just very adamant on finding where he is, tells him to stay put & he’ll come get him but Victor can hear Eli picking up their landline at the apartment, hears him dial 911. He runs, doesn’t make it far before police pick him up, Eli snitched & even told them Victor was an EO.
Victor escapes (I think) from jail & goes straight home to confront Eli. With his new abilities he doesn’t have fear anymore, he’s gained a sense of calmness’s, confidence, cockiness that he didn’t have before.
He sneaks into his window, surprises Eli sitting on the couch. Victor feels betrayed but so does Eli, he thinks Victor died & something sinister came back, says that he even feels like he’s missing something.
Eli says that in his experience he found god & has been enlightened, says that he left his life in gods hands & was saved by him. Victor thinks it’s bullshit, tells him his life was in victors hands & science saved him.
Victor just embraces the darkness, wants revenge on Eli for snitching to police.
Victor stabs Eli, twists the knife cause he know Eli won’t start to heal until he takes it out…then he uses his power on him, turns the dial all the way up. He goes over to get another knife, turns elis pain up & down to taunt him. Eli is able to grab a gun & shoot Victor multiple times. Victor has his pain turned off, ends up passing out- Eli shoots him in the back while he’s down..then calls police & walks outta there…

1 year prior to present-
Sydney, 12, has an older sister, Serena, 19. Every year around Sydney’s birthday they have a picnic on the lake while it’s still frozen. This year Serena is at college, during her spring break in March she’s back home so they have the picnic then. They don’t realize that w March weather, the lake has started melting..don’t realize it until it breaks & they both fall through…
Serena is able to pull Sydney out of the water & get them back onto the ice before they both pass out & die from the cold. Someone sees them on the ice so they’re rescued, taken back to the hospital & warmed up before declared dead but miraculously both wake up.
Serena is fine but Sydney never warms up, doctors say w her vitals & temp she should be in a coma, they want her to stay in the hospital. Serena talks her way out, says she feels fine & needs to get back to school. Syndey stays in the hospital for a week.
To pass time Sydney goes on walks through the halls, ventures up to the next floor one day. Up there is a lot more intense, people screaming, she sees a dead body on a stretcher under a sheet, accidentally bumps into it, touching it…the body starts to twitch. A nurse catches syndey up there, sees how freaked out she is but the person under the sheet miraculously recovers…
The night before she’s released she sneaks into the morgue to test it out again & finds that she can raise the dead!
& Serena’s a siren.

Present- Victor sees a photo of Eli in a news article- Civilian Saves City From Bank Robbers. Eli saw a guy looking sus, followed him into the bank to find him robbing it, fought a weapon off him.
In the picture Eli hasn’t aged a day…Victor keeps the pic, Syndey sees it while he’s sleeping one night. The next day she asks abt it, tells them that Eli is the one who shot her…

Sydney’s past-
The only person syndey tells abt her ability is Serena, who tells her to keep it a secret. Sydney idolizes Serena so much, wants to be just like her, misses her so much now that she’s away living her adult life, always begs Serena to come back home. Syndey is always alone, her parents always away working. By the next year Serena invites Sydney to come visit her during spring break…says she wants to introduce her to someone…
A few days ago-
It’s Eli, they’re dating..now that syndey is there, Serena tells her that Eli is just like them & they have tricks too, that if she shows them hers, they’ll show her what they can do…
Sydney is confused, she thought she was always supposed to keep it secret, Serena never told her she has abilities so she’s thrown off by that but also feels less alone knowing there are others like her…she agrees.
They take her half an hour away to a field that has a dead body laying in it…they tell her it’s from a morgue but the body is fully clothed. Eli is acting all cheery & excited to see her trick, after she shows them, Eli shoots the man in the head, killing him again. He turns the gun on Sydney, tells her that her power is unnatural, goes against god, is a danger to society, goes against the greater good…Serena starts to say maybe there’s a different way but he shoots her. Sydney is able to get away tho, Serena calling after her as she runs off.

Present-
Sydney tells Mitch & Victor what happened but leaves out what her ability is, is too afraid to tell them but they understand & don’t pry. Victor asks if she remember where Serena lives, when she’s reluctant he shows her the bullet scars, tells her Eli tried killing him too. After Mitch reassures her they won’t let Eli hurt her again & Victor explains that Eli is out there hunting down & killing other EOs, that they have to stop him, she agrees to show them the way.
They go to the apartment but find that Serena gave it to a friend, that she spends most of her time w her overbearing boyfriend.
Mitch was in prison for hacking so afterward he gets to work on making a list of EOs in the area, dead or alive, & tracking down Serena’s schedule.
Sydney follows Victor to a coffee shop & they talk more abt things. Victor thinks that because Eli’s power doesn’t bring any harm to others, he’s lost himself in self righteousness & believes he needs to cleanse the world of EOs that bring danger to people.
They walk along the streets, Victor explains that he needs to know Sydney’s power so Eli doesn’t have a disadvantage over him. She explains that she promised herself she’d never use her powers again so she’s rlly trusting him..They come upon an injured dog in an alleyway, syndey tells Victor to kill it..afterward she brings it back to life, it’s injuries healing & the dog perking up perfectly fine, even better than before. Victor is amazed & Sydney asks if they can keep the dog lolol they name him Dol.

Back at the hotel they tell Mitch abt Syndey, Victor thinks that Eli faked the robbery so he could get away w killing an EO & look like a hero, he wants to dig up the body & send Eli a message w him.

After digging up the guy- Barry, they question him in his confusion. Eli told Barry he was starting a hero league & to prove himself he had to rob a bank. Then Eli came in the middle of it & killed him, making him look like a criminal.
Barry is pissed to be revived tho, doesn’t want to help, they have to lock him in the coffin for the night to motivate him.

Eli gets a call from the local police asking for his help w another bank robbery- this time tho it’s Barry. The police inform him he’s alive & demanding to see Eli. He calls Serena & they determine it must have been Sydney…Eli told her that he folllowed after syndey when she ran & made sure she was dead so she’s confused why she’s still alive…her 13 year old sister!

Serena goes to look for syndey after…she believes that none of them have souls anymore. That when they died, so did their soul, that it’s just a shadow of who you were before walking around in your body. She considers Eli shooting her a mercy killing. Eli thinks he’s the only EO that still has his soul.

At the bank, Eli shows up to find Barry dead, cops had to shoot him. He left a note tho- a stick figure drawing of Victor & Sydney that says “I made a friend”