Dela

Dela felt Alexander fall to his knees in the real world. She couldn't blame him, sobs wracked her imaginary body, they shouldn't be here, they couldn't be here.

The Oubliette was a prison for the worst super powered villains in the world, the ones who tried to overthrow nations, slaughtered hundreds or thousands for their goals and crazy whims, created massive cults of brainwashed followers, or spread chaos for their beliefs or profit. It had taken the G20 a decade to build, using cutting edge theories combined with unreal tech, creating it had made the space race look cheap.

Why were they here?

Sending people to the Oubliette wasn't easy, the Wardens, who controlled the Oubliette, had to break the dimensional barrier to reach the artificial sub-dimension. Each country that accepted the Warden's, had at least one gate that would open a one way portal to the prison, it took a life sentence without the possibility of parole to be sent through the portal. If the supervillain couldn't be arrested, due to being too powerful, controlling an army, or some other reason, there were weapons that could do the same, but they were the size of a tank and only used as a last resort.

They didn't fit any of those. She and Alexander hadn't done anything wrong. Alexander had never even gotten into a real fight after he gained his super strength. The worst things she'd done was using his money without permission. Who had sent them here?

Alexander got to his feet.

She wiped the tears from her eyes, which wasn't actually necessary since she was just a mental construct at the moment, but it helped make her feel more real. Focusing on Alexander, she began looking through his eyes, using his ears to hear, trying to sense something he might miss.

There wasn't much to see. It looked like the area was an old war zone, with massive holes in the road and sidewalk, wrecked buildings, and shattered glass. Considering who lived in the prison, calling it a warzone was likely very accurate.

The Oubliette had been created by creating duplicates of random areas in the real world, and putting them in a sub-dimension, creating an enormous maze of urban and rural areas, buildings, rooms, sewers, caves and more, with absolutely no rhyme or reason. An urban area like this would be prime territory for the inmates.

Sometimes the Wardens released videos from inside, as a warning to people who would use super powers or unreal tech to commit crime. It usually showed the fights in all their bloody glory, as would be dictators, gods, serial killers, mass murderers, master criminals, and the insane, using powers that could crush a dreadnought tank like a paper cup, fought each other for resources, living space, power, boredom and old grudges. With no one to rebuild, the Oubliette was slowly being turned into a wasteland. Alexander liked watching that kind of stuff, she hated it.

“Get out of the street, we don't want to be seen,” she said.

'I don't know what's in the buildings, and they don't look very safe,' he thought back at her.

“Yeah but right now you're pretty freaking obvious. Can you at least get out of the middle of the street?”

'Shut up, I'm trying to get my bearings.'

“Let me out. I can get to the top of a building easy, and look around.”

Alexander clenched his fists, his teeth ground together, probably unconsciously. Dela bit her lip wondering if he'd be smart or stubborn.

'Fine,' he said.

She couldn't help but smile as she gained a body. It tingled pleasantly for a moment and then she was in the real world. Being inside Alexander's mind wasn't bad, she'd been created there and spent most of her life in it, but physically interacting with the world in her own body was so much more intense.

Still, she couldn't waste any time revelling in the sensations. She slipped out of the now too large shoes, let the pants fall to her ankles and yanked off his shirt and backpack, now she was just in the black jumpsuit that had altered to fit her body. Throwing the clothes into Alexanders backpack, she put the bag back on and tightened the straps so it wouldn't bounce around. Now that she could move freely, she bolted for the nearest building that looked somewhat stable and jumped upwards, landing on a window ledge. Her foot barely touched the pockmarked brick when she leapt higher, her strong, sensitive fingers finding cracks and grips that any non-powered human would have missed, unbreakable nails slipped into the cracks, letting her cling to even seemingly impossible spots. Hopping and climbing, she made it to the roof of the five story building in a matter of seconds, barely breathing hard.

Crouching down, she peered over the cityscape. None of the buildings looked to be above seven stories, but there were enormous piles of rubble that could be the remains of larger ones. Peering into the distance, her eyes started to water at the impossible sight.

The sky stopped. She couldn't tell how far away it was, but somewhere in the distance the sky and buildings ended in pure white. There wasn't a wall. There was nothing. It was almost like looking at a childs drawing where there was the sky and clouds above, the land below and nothing in between.

'That's the edge of this section of prison,' Alexander said.

'If we get there, we'll just be in another part of the prison right?' she asked.

'We'll have to find a doorway, the Oubliette is full of them, some are really big, some are so small only a rat could crawl through them. You should know this stuff, you watched the same documentary that I did.'

Dela scowled, he was right. 'I thought it was boring, so I was doing other things.'

'How can you do other stuff? You're in my mind, and this is not only freaky but boring. How haven't you gone insane yet?'

'If you would listen to me once in a while, you'd have learned how to use your imagination so it doesn't get all boring and stuff,' she thought.

'Maybe that works for you since you were created for it, but my brain doesn't work that way.'

She snorted. 'Sometimes I wonder if your brain works at all.'

'Says the girl who nearly burned down the house making a bag of popcorn,' Alexander said, she could practically see him rolling his eyes.

'I'd never used a microwave before and I was asked to make some. I didn't know I was supposed to take the plastic off.'

“Look sister, another newcomer,” a man said from behind her.

“We are getting so many of them, brother,” a woman said.

Dela spun around, her gasping in fear at the sight of two black clad figures wearing crows masks. She remembered them from the news, Huginn and Muninn, psychic twins who had taken the name of Odin's ravens due to their powers. They could see and hear anything within ten miles, they could even read someones mind just by seeing them. They'd blackmailed thousands of people, forcing them to commit crimes, up to and including murder, before they were finally captured and sent to the Oubliette.

“Good we don't need to introduce ourselves,” Huginn, the brother, said.

“It does save time,” Muninn said.

“Did you bring me here?” Dela asked.

The twin supervillains looked at each other, then turned back to her, there pale blue eyes seemed to stare into her soul. “No,” they said in unison.

“But now that you're here, you need to come with us,” Huginn said.

“The Grenadier insists that all visitors see him,” Muninn said.

“He is holding court now.”

“To welcome the newcomers.”

Looking over her shoulder, Dela wondered if she could jump down to the street and run away. In her mind she could feel Alexander biting his lip and crouching down, as if he could hide.

“If you jump, you will be shot.”

“We set our soldiers up to cover all your escape routes.”

“Come peacefully, and the Grenadier will be happier.”

“A happy Grenadier is less likely to kill you.”

“If you are useful, he will hire you.”

“He's a fair and powerful ruler.”

Alexander wasn't saying anything, Dela was on her own. “OK. I'll come peacefully,” she said.

The twins tilted their heads in unison, then they leaned in, their eerie movements and masks made her skin crawl. “What's wrong? I'm not going to try anything.”

“Who is Alexander?” Muninn asked

“You are wondering why he isn't speaking,” Huninn said.

“He's my brother,” she admitted, knowing they'd be able to tell if she was lying. “He should be talking to me, but he isn't.”

“Where is he?”

“If he is hiding from us, it will go poorly for him.”

“He's not here. I haven't seen him in hours,” Dela said. Technically it was truthful.

The moved closer to her, mirroring each others movements, their heads twisting and twitching like birds. She hunched down, wishing she was somewhere else, trying no to look into their weird pale blue eyes.

Finally they backed away. “Come with us,” Huninn said.

“You must meet Grenadier,” Muniin said.

“He will decide if you're useful.”

“Or if you're entertainment.”

Trying not to cry from fear, Dela followed the supervillains out of the building and onto the street where ten armed men were waiting for them. As they surrounded her and forced her to march down the street, they leered, licking their lips, and adjusting their pants.

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