CW: Imprisonment, Torture
In the quiet that followed Sentinel’s entrance, Elaine found one burning question simply impossible to ignore.
“Okay, did you actually set up another scheme just to get lure Sentinel in only to ask for help?” Elaine could handle Lexi’s haughty, dismissiveness, but the bemused look Lexi and Sentinel shared made her feel downright dense.
“What? No. Elaine, I just called her and asked. She’s not a sociopath like all your other friends are.” All Elaine could manage in reply to Lexi’s scathingly blunt response was a tiny nod.
“Now come on let’s go, Elaine. Quit staring and let’s get to it. I know she’s a big deal and also very pretty and, uh-. Come on let’s go.” Someone needed to tell Lexi that attempting to cover up slip ups like that just made it more obvious. The woman was anything but subtle. Blushing, she ushered them both into a small projector room, setup with a myriad of maps, diagrams and models.
In spite of everything, Lexi was no joke when it came to actually laying down a plan. She was a sponge for detail, demanding more and more from Elaine until she’d extracted just about every aspect of her insider knowledge. Elaine woud almost feel guilty if she wasn’t already resigned to going rogue. And given the fact that her limited power made her probably the weakest member of the whole team, she was more than happy to pull her weight with information.
“Alright, we won’t have a ton of time to do this, based on what I could gather they’ll be moving her in three days, at 2pm. The info I found on the transport vehicles they use, the route they take, and the average traffic data in those places at those times, suggests it would be best if we hit the caravan here.” She jammed her pointer onto the projected city map, indicating an intersection just outside of downtown. Elaine raised her hand cautiously.
“How can we be sure that’s the best spot? Aren’t there basically infinite options?”
“It’s just gonna be like this all day with you isn’t it, Slip?” Lexi’s hands rose to tear at her hair while she glowered at the interruption, but answered anyway. “Of course there are infinite options, but I was very meticulous with my planning, I checked street after street, stretch after stretch of road, angle after angle. And after thousands of attempts I’ve found that if I hit the front right wheel of the car from above, at anywhere between forty-seven to fifty degrees vertically, and thirty-five to thirty-nine degrees horizontally, while I’m flying at roughly fifty miles per hour with my barriers up and the car doing roughly the speed limit of thirty five miles per hour, I can be seventy-eight percent sure that the car will flip in an optimal way to cause the maximum amount of damage to the guards and driver, while minimizing harm to Allie. It’s like you don’t even think, Elaine.” In response, Sentinel raised her hand curiously, and, beaming Lexi nodded to her.
“Okay, how exactly does you seeing cause and effect work? I’m confused.” Sentinel wasn’t the only one wondering, but frankly, Elaine was afraid to ask. Lexi wasted not a moment in replying.
“What an excellent question, Sentinel. Hypothetically, let’s say I wanted to find out what would happen if I, as a completely random example, asked someone out. There’s a million different ways that could go depending on the setting, the circumstances we met under, the word choice I used, how well I knew them, etcetera. With such a non-specific cause my knowledge of the effect would also be way too broad, and sort of average out. So, even if my powers told me the most likely outcome was a yes it would actually be impossible to extrapolate concrete data from that alone.”
“Are you seriously using--” Lexi’s glare was enough to shut Elaine up.
“It would be even more complicated if, once again completely hypothetically, that person happened to have some kind of power which interfered with my own ability to see the outcome whenever I tried to get more detailed. So in this case whenever I'd tryd to imagine a more specific scenario my powers would be muddled and you know what, Elaine? You were right. This is a bad example.” Lexi suddenly rigidly straightened herself out, wiped some sweat off her brow, and briskly walked to a whiteboard positioned in the corner of the room.
“Okay, I wanna try again. Let’s keep it simple and grounded in the plan. I happen to know from my powers that if the twins are present, which most cases suggest they will be, we can block out Siren’s power using these.” Lexi held out three sets of earbuds, which buzzed and hummed, pulsing with a dull blue light. “The signal they emit perfectly counters her power, effectively making her voice harmless. I figured that out by what was basically trial and error. Using known data on Siren’s power, I hypothesized different combinations of frequencies, vibrations, and all other manner of audio tricks until my powers showed me that cause a, wearing the earbuds with this exact signal, resulted in effect b, Siren’s power being ineffectual.”
“Wait, really? Lexi that’s incredible. You should have opened with that, we might actually be able to beat the twins with these.” Suddenly there was real hope. Even with Lexi and Sentinel, Elaine doubted they could go against everything OS threw at them. That was especially the case since the twins, who officially got credit for taking Arcadia in were just about guaranteed to be on transport guard duty. With the earbuds though, half of their power was rendered completely obsolete. Unfortunately the elation was short lived, almost immediately crushed by Lexi.
“Well thank you, Elaine. It’s nice to hear you contribute something valuable to the conversation. And you, especially, should be grateful for these earbuds. Given the fact that you’re going to be the one in charge of dealing with the twins, that is.” She cocked an eyebrow searchingly, awaiting the inevitable response. Elaine, however, was struggling to form any kind of words. Was Lexi actually trying to get her killed?
“Dr. DeLEXIous, if I may.”
“What’s with the formality, Maddie? You know my name.” Sentinel blushed in response, huffing a little before replying.
“Lexi,” Sentinel sighed, “it seems to me as though saddling Slipspace here with the burden of actually fighting the twins leaves us with very little to do and her far too much.” At least Elaine could be grateful for her fellow ‘hero’ looking out for her, and Lexi might actually listen to Sentinel.
“I know it sounds that way, but trust me, we’re going to have our hands full ourselves. In every scenario I ran there was basically no way to avoid mass alerts being sent out rallying heroes from all over the city to intervene. And that’s where we come in.” She seemed to strike the wrong chord with Sentinel, who stood with a start.
“Lexi I have a reputation to maintain, you’ve managed to get me here because I find the conditions under which we imprison deltas abhorrent. I can excuse a quick in and out fight. but I can’t have some protracted battle with all of my so-called allies in the open.” If Elaine didn’t know any better, she may have felt the undercurrent of a threat in her tone.
“I’m getting to that, Maddie, just hear me out okay? The moment I crash into the van, you’re going to come barreling in right after me to engage me in a fight, we’ll briefly draw the twins’ attention while Elaine here evacuates Allie by portaling her out of the truck from max range, which by the way how far is that?” She turned her gaze back to Elaine, who suddenly felt as though she’d been called on in a class she joined halfway through.
“Well, for a person sized portal not far, realistically? About five feet. Any further and the exertion starts to physically hurt, which kills my concentration pretty instantly.” She was expecting another snarky comment from Lexi, but it seemed even she was above swiping at someone for limitations they couldn’t control.
“Alright, five feet. Not what I was hoping for, but my portal’s are out of the question, I’ll need as much energy as possible for my part of the plan. As soon as Elaine has Allie free, Maddie, we’ll both be leaving. We can’t risk backup arriving at the van. I’ll be leading you, along with just about every other hero in the city on a destructive rampage all across the city. I intend to swing by all four major guild HQs so they’ll most definitely focus on me instead of sending backup to the wreck. They’re gonna be pissed, they’re gonna be out for blood. So Maddie, l’ll need you to use your powers to divert as many attacks as possible away from me without giving away that we’re on the same side. And well, I guess we just have to hope my forcefields hold for whatever gets through.” She grew a little solemn, and then and there Elaine realized that Lexi didn’t expect to come out the other side of this plan wholly intact. Sentinel stood with a start.
“Lexi, are you seriously telling me you intend to pick a fight with all four guilds at once just to save your sister? I’m good at keeping people safe, but this overkill. Can’t we just all attack the truck at once to get this done quickly and get out?” It would have been cute to see Sentinel actually worry about Lexi’s wellbeing, if Elaine wasn’t in the exact same boat.
“No, it has to be this way. Even if we got her out that way they’d never stop hunting her. Her breakout needs to be an insignificant blip on the radar.” Her voice was solemn, but steady, the matter was settled in Lexi’s head, her part to play etched in stone.
“Lexi, even if you survive you’ll be at the top of everyone’s shit list for god knows how long.”
“Unlikely. In the moment they’ll be desperate to stop me, yes, but when the dust settles they’ll find no casualties; Sentinel here will mitigate the damage I cause. And I’m sure after all the revenue the media buzz generates, plus the sales from whatever new line of Dr. DeLEXIous action figures that get pumped out come in, the guilds will realize what a good idea it is to keep me around. At least until Allie and I start the old plan back up.” Her playful tone was superseded by the bleak, resigned look in her eye.
“And what if you don’t make it out? You’re just gonna leave Allie without a sister?” Elaine was getting desperate, but surely if anything could dissuade Lexi it would be that.
“I was a shitty sister anyway, okay?” Lexi was bristling now, but her anger wasn’t directed externally. “I left her. Our parents were bad. Real bad. And as soon as I was old enough I got out of that shitty house, away from our horrible parents and didn’t look back. I left her behind. I tried to keep in touch with her, but she either didn’t want to or they wouldn’t let her. And I didn’t know, Elaine.” Her voice broke, and as it did Lexi’s eyes met the floor as she wiped them vigorously. “I didn’t know what she was going through, who she really was. She never told me, and when she told them, well, she won’t talk about it. I didn’t find out until it was almost too late.” She glanced up, with a stony, determined look which instantly began to crack as her jaw quivered and hands shook. “I owe her this. I’m not leaving her trapped somewhere again.” Elaine and Sentinel grew quiet, neither could find the words to argue, to dissuade. Lexi took another slow, gasping breath, shuddering on the exhale.
“While Sentinel and I are distracting everyone, it’s your job to finish the twins off and rescue my sister, Slipspace. And if I don’t make it back, keep her safe. You mean a lot to her.”
* * *
The cell was cold, but that was the point. Allie had heard rumors about such tactics, whispers of the horrors that took place within super prisons buried in deep-web whistleblower documents and the like. Nobody knew how things really were except the psychopaths deemed loyal enough to be let in, and the prisoners that is. And it seemed in her case they were using a tried and true tactic.
Persistent cold was apparently very useful with powers that required focus like hers. Store someone in low enough temperatures to keep them frigid, but not enough to kill them, and over time the low heat and isolation made it harder and harder to devote any mental energy at all toward power use. From there the shock collars would quell any remaining episodes of resistance. It seemed to be working, too, throughout the day the temperature would drop well below freezing until, just when Allie was on the verge of hypothermia and frostbite, the temperature would creep steadily upward until it was safe to exist in, but still far from warm. Allie was no hardened badass, the first day alone broke her. And this was only a holding cell. A little experiment to see what might work best for permanent lodging.
She couldn’t imagine living like this forever, constantly shivering, teeth chattering, skin drying out. It was torture, worse than death, but torture was allowed as long as Johnny public didn’t have to know about it. And had Elaine known about it? When the woman she’d harbored two long standing, complicated crushes on; the woman she trusted; the woman Allie at one point even thought she could fall for seized her by the collar and thrust her over a deadly drop to cow Lexi, did she know what fate she was sending Allie to? No, she couldn’t have, as easy as it was to hate Elaine for everything she’d done, her reputation as unimportant and untrustworthy preceded her. These deplorable conditions would have been kept secret from her, not that such knowledge provided any comfort from the cold. Elaine still betrayed her.
That betrayal hurt, too. It was all fine and good being angry and spiteful to her face, but once in her cell Allie had snapped. She wept for the trauma of imprisonment. She wept for the bleakness of her future. And she wept of the knife in her heart. For the moment the woman she trusted and cared for twisted it in. Her first few days were just that: weeping while curled up and shivering. After a while though, she was too cold to even bother. Her body was devoting every last bit of energy, every meager calorie she was fed to not shutting down.
The average day was a blur of exhaustion: sleep was fleeting and infrequent under such conditions, she mostly just lay on the floor huddled in a tight ball all day every day. If the rumors were true, she’d at least be getting temporary breaks from the cold once they transferred her to prison proper, where every once in a while they’d drag her out of her cell to experiment on for new delta-tech innovations. What a joy. Sadly enough it was actually getting to the point where whatever awful experimentation they’d put her through sounded welcome if it meant being somewhere warm. And how easy it had been to get her this far.
She tried fighting it at first, her first day was spent trading venom with whatever superfash they put on guard duty at any particular hour. But soon enough the shivering, the inability to sleep, the meager diet all caught up to her. Soon enough she didn’t even have the faintest idea of how long it had been since they’d even locked her up. For some unknowable amount of time she’d told herself over and over that Lexi would come for her. She had even once or twice entertained the delusion that Elaine would break rank for her. It had been so long, though. Too long, in this cell her sister was probably dead, and Elaine was nothing but another attack dog.
Allie was laying on the floor and staring blankly into the space in front of her, hoping she might somehow wish away all thought and experience entirely to live the rest of her days as a vegetable, when they came to visit. Siren and Kraken, the twins, the despicable duo. They always took great delight in coming down to bask in her misery.
“Good news, popsicle. You’ll have some company soon.” That mirthful smirk painted on Siren’s face was somehow colder than even the air around her. When Allie made no attempt to waste her breath in a reply she continued. “Word on the street is your little girlfriend and sister ran off together to come rescue you.” Allie raised her head. Something stirred in her, a faint pulse of long dead resolve. “As soon as she started hollering about your treatment I knew she was a traitor. It’s a good thing I bugged her place, now we know they’ll be coming.” Was it a lie? Some fabrication to bring her false hope, or were they so conceited that victory was guaranteed in their minds? Idiots, they hadn’t seen what Lexi was capable of when she put her mind to it.
And Elaine, too. Was she not lying after all? Was she a misguided tool and not a goose stepping gimp for corporate masters? That did nothing to quell her anger at the betrayal, but some other part of Allie burned hot. An unflinching ember in the cold at the thought that Elaine may have gone rogue for her.
“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you three are neighbors. Won’t that be nice?” Kraken, usually the more reserved of the two had a stomach churningly sadistic grin on his face. I can’t wait to wipe it off, some part of her snarled. With a wheezing gasp, her cracked lips split apart.
“-y sist- -onna ki- -ou.” She could barely even move her lips to form the sounds out of numbness, the air seemed to freeze in her throat even as she pushed it out, but somewhere within stirred a long forgotten warmth.
“What was that, popsicle? You’ll have to speak up, just try not to get your tongue stuck to the floor or anything.” Allie was going to enjoy silencing those laughs forever when the time came. She took a deep breath.
“My sister is gonna kill you, if I don’t get to first.” Talking like that physically hurt, but pain was a familiar companion at this point. And, in that moment she summoned what remaining strength she had and, for the briefest of moments, her powers came to life, a wave of force shook the walls, battered the door. Electricity ripped through Allie’s body as her collar came to life, leaving her convulsing in agony. And yet, as the twins stalked away, laughing in their shared delight, Allie couldn’t help but smile. For a moment, the tiniest of moments before the cold sucked her strength away, Allie had created a perfect ring of energy in the space between the collar and her neck. The sort that, if sustained, would snap her collar like a twig. Her moment would come, and when it did, Lexi and Elaine would not be fighting alone.
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That second part of the chapter really piss me off
, but if you manage to reach that part of my emotions is prove that is well done, still, I'm a little angry now 
so I will go to relax for a while.
I wanna see a certain couple of "heros" getting their faces smeared across some asphalt.
Poor Allie :(
What a kick ass chapter. Thanks for the upload.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Poor Allie