by Mia Archer
I blinked. I had to give the guy credit. He was actually standing up to her and telling her unpleasant truths. Though from the look she gave him she didn't care for him telling her unpleasant truths. She looked like she might be on the verge of killing him for telling her unpleasant truths.
Still, maybe the guy had a little more backbone than I'd initially given him credit for. Even if he still looked terrified of crossing her.
"You see that's the difference between people like me who rule worlds and people like you who bow and scrape to people like me," Sabine said. "You only see problems, but what I see here is opportunity."
The warden licked his lips. Reached up and pulled his glasses down. Polished them against his authoritarian villain knock off uniform. Put them back on his face, though it was a little difficult for him to do so considering the way his hands were shaking.
"An opportunity… your excellency?" he asked.
She hit him with a sharp look. This guy was going to have trouble if he had one co-ruler of the world trying to be on a first name basis and the other co-ruler of the world demanding the respect she thought she deserved.
Thought being the operative word there.
"Of course," she said. "You said you had some trouble with a fight in the commissary recently?"
He licked his lips again.
"I can assure you that it wasn't anything we couldn’t handle," he said. “Merely some of the heroes and villains having some difficulty with one another. When you take a group who've been fighting each other for so long…"
"No worries there," Sabine said. "I understand completely what you are saying, and I see there the root of our opportunity."
"You do?" he asked, his tone making it clear he didn’t see whatever opportunity she did.
"Of course I do!" she said. "We have a problem in this city with an overabundance of heroes and villains. I think you what you have here in this wonderful facility is the perfect opportunity to take care of that overabundance.”
The warden licked his lips again. He seemed to be doing that a lot. The dude was going to need some lip balm if he kept it up for much longer. Also? He didn't seem to care for wherever she was going with this. I can't say I cared for where she was going either. I had a few ideas of what sort of “opportunity” she was talking about, and it couldn’t mean anything good for the residents of this prison.
“What did you have in mind, your excellency?” he asked, the bowing and scraping clear in his voice even if he wasn’t exactly doing it with his body.
“I think we’re going to take some of your residents and put them to good use, for starters,” she said.
My scalp started to tingle. Good use. That could mean a lot of things with a woman like Sabine. That could mean they were going to run experiments on the people here to figure out what made them tick. That could mean people were going to out and out start disappearing from the prison. It could mean a lot of terrible things, and none of them good.
Somehow I doubted anything like releasing people early for good behavior would be on the table.
On the bright side if it was human experimentation they were going for then there was a good chance they weren’t going to go for me. I wasn't much to sneeze at compared to some of the supers in here. They'd taken away all of my stuff and I was no good without it.
There was an energy to the room now, and it wasn’t pleasant. All the other residents were starting to come to the same conclusions I had, but it’d taken them a little longer since most of their super powers weren’t of the genius variety.
When they did realize they were about to be carted off for something unpleasant all hell broke loose.
16
Dragged Off
The pick was the giant rock guy. As soon as the guards moved into his cell he started to fight. The guy might literally be a big hunk of rock, but clearly he understood that whatever was going on here wasn't anything good. Clearly he also had no intention of coming quietly.
A couple of guards flew out of rock dude’s prison cell and went sliding across the floor. I winced and shook my head. My inertial dampening tech was one thing these guards hadn’t gotten from Dr. Lana’s stolen tech emporium.
At least one of them looked like he'd landed in an awkward way that was going to leave a mark. Where "a mark" was a snapped neck. He wasn't going to be using any of the muscles below his neck anytime soon. Though from the way he was twitching it was more likely he wasn't going to continue breathing for much longer, which was probably a mercy all things considered.
Not that I felt all that bad about it. I might be a big fan of avoiding collateral damage when it came to the civilian population, but these guys were henchmen through and through. The moment they decided to go to work for an organization that was funded exclusively to keep a bunch of villains and heroes held prisoner was the moment the idiots forfeited their right to my pity.
Mooks got what mooks got in Starlight City. That was the way it’d always been, and they were the ones who decided to go into a job that was practically suicide for a steady paycheck.
More guards went flying, but they were lucky enough to land at different angles that were less than fatal. Still, I didn't envy them. Those hits were also going to leave a mark. Bones were crunching when the rock guy made contact and bones crunched when they landed after making contact with rock dude.
It finally took one of those guards running up and hitting the rock creature with an anti-Newtonian bubble to bring his rampage to a stop.
The rock dude was strong, but not strong enough that he could fight off a bubble that brought the laws of physics as we knew them in this universe to a screeching halt. Though he did seem powerful enough that I could see the faintest hint of a blue shift. Not as fast as Firebrand, and definitely not as long as Fialux, but definitely impressive for a lesser villain.
The rest of the a villain collection went a lot better. I’m sure they would’ve resisted given the opportunity, the hooting and hollering and banging against bars from other cells was proof enough that everyone in the cell block was interested in some resisting.
The problem was the guards never gave them a chance. I guess seeing one of their henchmen buddies getting iced by the rock dude was enough to give them an overabundance of caution.
They fired of anti-Newtonian bubbles into the cells ahead of opening them for the rest of the collection. They didn’t give the occupants a chance to fight back which didn’t seem very sporting to me, but I don’t think the guards cared. Brutal, but efficient.
They had some more trouble when they tried to get Firebrand. Though I was surprised they had trouble considering she’d caused a riot and a commissary brawl that was more about beating the crap out of villains than it was about trying to escape. After all that bullshit I would’ve figured they’d be ready for trouble with that old broad.
Never mind that the first one was their fault. The lazy assholes should’ve done their research and known she could fly. I was pretty sure I even remembered seeing something about that on a trading card I'd seen with her on it back when I was a kid and she was already a distant memory.
Firebrand wasn't one to waste an opportunity to raise some hell, though I got the feeling she was probably trying to break free more to get at some of the villains being gathered in the middle of the common room than she was trying to break free to make an escape. The old bat seemed almost content to be in here as long as she got to beat the crap out of villains on the regular.
She was in a solid cell now, transparent aluminum across the front instead of bars, which meant they couldn’t fire the anti-Newtonian bubble through those nonexistent bars like they were doing with all the other villains. I guess the overcrowding problem meant they didn’t have a place in one of the cell blocks designed for flyers.
The practical upshot of this series of poor choices was she fired a couple of fireballs through the common area and towards the gathered group of guards the moment they opened her transparent aluminum cell. The guards and warden alik
e ducked and covered, but Sabine stepped forward and held her hand up. The fire slammed into her hand and disappeared.
She looked up at Firebrand with a smile. The gathered guards looked at her with a mixture of awe and fear.
I rolled my eyes. Seriously?
I mean the whole Darth Vader at dinner thing probably looked impressive to a normal who didn’t know the trick. I’d seen the directional shield she popped up to stop the fireball before it reached her though.
It was hard to be impressed by a trick I’d invented. At least I thought I’d invented it. I was willing to admit that with this strange mind control block it was entirely possible Sabine had invented the trick and I had no idea I’d stolen that move.
Though honestly one of us stole it from Anakin Skywalker at some point so whatever. It was still damn impressive to the normals.
"You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want to take me out," Sabine said.
Her tone was almost conversational. Though she turned and looked at me as she said it, and I was pretty sure she wasn't talking to Firebrand. Not directly. No, that message was entirely for me.
I clenched my fists, but didn't say anything. What was there to say? There was nothing I could do to stop her from where I stood. I hated it, but I was helpless right now. Maybe my next-door neighbor was right. Maybe I had come to rely on tech toys entirely too much.
The fact that I was completely at this bitch’s mercy without them was proof enough of that. Of course as far as I was concerned that only meant I needed to work out better ways of having those toys on me at all times despite an enemy’s best effort to keep me from them.
That was something to think about in the future though. Assuming I even escaped this place.
"No more opposition?" Sabine asked, still looking at me.
If she was expecting me to do something that’d give her an excuse to put me in whatever chamber of horrors she was carting people off to then she had another thing coming. All I had right now was my smarts, something I liked to think was equally as formidable as the toys I’d built with those smarts, and right now those smarts were telling me to shut up and act like I was good and defeated.
I backed into my cell. Back into the shadows where I wouldn't have to see her looking at me. But she kept staring into the darkness like she was waiting for me to pull something out of my ass or something. Which, considering where we were, would be thematically appropriate even if it would be painful.
Well I definitely wasn’t going to be hiding anything there as part of operation “never be separated from my toys again.” Even if that seemed to be the preferred hiding location among most prisoners.
If movies and television were to be believed. I’d never actually checked with the cops on any of my numerous brief sojourns in local lockups to find out if that particular bit of prison lore was true or not.
Finally she shrugged.
"Oh well," she said. "I was hoping for a little backbone from some of you, but I guess it didn't take all that much to remove it."
My fists were so tight that they were white knuckled. I fantasized about what it would feel like to repeatedly ram my fist into her nose. To keep at it even after her nose was obviously broken and the front of her skull was starting to cave in. Yeah, that was a nice thought, but it wasn't going to happen right now.
Sabine finally sighed. Maybe she’d been expecting that last dig to inspire me to pull something, but as we’ve already covered multiple times I had nothing and no intention of starting something while I was operating with nothing.
"Okay then," she said. "Time to go do some super power population control. You all be sure to keep your eyes peeled to your TV, because it's going to be fun!"
There was something about her tone that told me whatever she had planned wasn’t going to be any definition of fun I was currently aware of. From the way Firebrand and the rock guy held their heads high as they were carted out they clearly had a good idea that whatever was about to happen to them wasn't going to be anything pleasant either.
I was surprised they didn’t try to fight whatever was about to happen. Then again all the guards surrounding them with those anti-Newtonian blasters ready to do some business meant anything they did try would’ve been an exercise in futility.
Still, they might’ve been able to take a couple of guards with them. Not that I thought taking out guards was what Firebrand was really interested in. The hateful glare she hit me with as she passed by my cell was reminder enough of that.
They were the only ones who went out with their heads held high. All the other heroes and villains who'd been selected looked terrified. Particularly the villains. They were looking around as though they couldn't believe their lives had come to this.
I guess it was one thing to do a stint in SuperMax, and another thing entirely to discover you were going to be a pawn in some new cockamamie scheme dreamed up by the sadistic new ruler of the city who'd already demonstrated time and time again that she was perfectly capable of doing terrible things.
I waited until they were gone and the lights went out before I was back at the bars again feeling at the exit mechanism.
I was going to find a way out of here, damn it. Both because it was increasingly looking like my long term survival would depend on it and because I was going to make Sabine pay!
17
Back in Action
"Back to your old tricks?" my mysterious neighbor asked.
I was leaning through the bars and running my hand up and down the solid metal square. I wasn't sure what good it was going to do, but I had to try something. Anything. I was going to get out of here, and I would have my revenge!
“Something like that,” I muttered, concentrating more on the metal block than on extraneous conversation.
"So do you even have a plan if you manage to get out of here?" she asked. "Or are you flailing around and hoping for the best? Making up a plan as you go along?”
I turned at glared at her. Though I wasn't sure if she could see that glare in the darkness.
"I'm not hoping for the best," I said. "I'll come up with something. I always do."
"Really?" she asked. "Isn't that the attitude that got you here in the first place?"
I didn't dignify that with a response. I didn't like how close to the truth it felt. And I didn't like how I suddenly wanted to transfer a strong desire to punch something in the face over to this girl.
The problem with trying to punch someone in the face when there were bars separating us was I could either miss and hit the bars which would be painful for my knuckles or she could step back and make faces at me while I flailed at her which would be painful for my ego.
"That's what I thought," she said.
I finally turned to her. Let some of the exasperation that’d been building in me since I arrived in this place show.
"I don't suppose you have a better idea of how to do this?" I asked. "Has your illustrious career tinkering with a bunch of junk you get dumpster diving in the super science quarter of the old warehouse district taught you how to disrupt this state-of-the-art machinery?"
"You don't have to be a jerk about it," she said.
“I’ll stop being a jerk when you stop being a jerk,” I said. "If you're going to help then help. If you're going to stand there making cryptic remarks at me then you can save it, because I've heard it all before from better than you and I'm not interested in hearing it again from a second-rate dumpster diver.”
"Suit yourself," she said.
She didn't say anything else, but she did walk over and start fiddling with exit mechanism to her cell. I rolled my eyes and let out another snarl.
"If you're going to mock me…"
"Would it even matter if I did offer to help you?" she asked.
Okay. That was different.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"You're the great Night Terror," she said. "Everyone knows you work alone, so would it even matter if I offered to h
elp you? Would you take me up on that offer?"
"I mean…"
I thought about that. Would I take her up on that offer? Probably not. I didn't know this girl. I didn't trust her any more than I could throw her. With my augments that would be pretty far, but in my current circumstances I wouldn’t be able to toss her all that far at all, for all that she seemed pretty petite and light.
"No," I said. "I probably wouldn't trust you to help me."
"Exactly," the girl chirped, as though that settled some argument.
An argument I hadn't even been aware we were having. That irritated me. I didn't like it when people tried to prove points in arguments I didn't even now I was having.
"What's that even supposed to prove?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" she asked. “I’d think that would be obvious!"
"But it isn't," I said. I don't know you. I don't know anything about you. You won't even tell me your name, and you expect me to trust you?"
"Well that's the thing Night Terror," she said. "You're sort of in a situation where I think you're going to have to start trusting people. After all, you're the one who's stuck here in SuperMax."
“I’ll figure out a way out of here,” I said.
I went back to feeling around at the locking mechanism. Only I was starting to think it was an exercise in futility. I didn't have any way to wirelessly hack into the thing. I didn't have any way to connect with the technology they were using to run this place. And without a way to connect to a technology or invent new bits of tech I was screwed.
My superpower was my ability to plan and tinker with things, and while I could plan until I was old and withered it wasn’t going to do me a damn bit of good if the whole tinkering side of that equation had been robbed from me.
"Are you so sure about that?" she asked.
I heard a muted thump from her cell. Turned and stared as she ran her fingers over the locking mechanism. Her door swung open silently.
