Despite her fear, Dela was finding it hard to stay upright. Even kneeling was getting difficult and she desperately wanted to lay down, only willpower kept her from shaking like a leaf from exhaustion. Worse yet, she felt her grip loosening on her body. She didn't know what would happen if she switched before she could explain her condition to Grenadier, but it probably wouldn't be good.
Alexander wasn't talking to her either. She could feel him watching everything through her eyes, hopefully he was thinking of a plan. At least Huginn and Muninn were focusing on the others and not reading her mind.
'I can't stay awake much longer. What should I do?' she thought as quietly as she could.
There was no answer from him. Biting her tongue until she tasted blood, she tried to focus on Grenadier and the two Wardens.
The black haired girl looked to be about seventeen or eighteen. Guessing from her broken nose, battered face, and how her armoured green and white cadet uniform was torn and bloodied, she'd put up a fight before going down. Despite her injuries she was glaring at the former dictator and his supervillain minions. The hooded teen beside the Warden was wearing regular clothes, but from the way he was leaning against her, plus how he was bound, made it clear they were close and he had powers as well.
Grenadier leaned forward in his chair, his deep voice was almost a growl as he spoke. “Warden, what are your names?”
“Cadet Warden Flamer, ID 983776. Cadet Warden trainee Hole, ID 439133,” the girl said.
Huginn looked up at Grenadier. “Her name is Samantha Holmes.”
Muninn pointed at the hooded boy. “His name is Dwayne Washington.”
Flamer glared at the mind readers, spitting in their direction. A guard kicked her, sending her face first to the ground. The girl managed to turn her head protecting her broken nose, but she groaned and began sobbing a little in pain, even as she was wrenched back up into a kneeling position.
Ignoring the abuse, Grenadier asked, “How did you get here?”
Neither of the cadets answered.
“Like the rest, they don't know how they came here,” Muninn said.
“They both think it should be impossible,” Huginn said.
The former dictator sighed, saying something to himself in his native tongue. “Samantha, even though you are a Warden, yours and Dwayne's powers are too useful to waste. You see the community I have built, it's as close to civilization as you will find in The Oubliette. I will give you a chance to work with me, keeping the people safe from the insane and the savage who wander this prison. With you both at my side, we may even be able to expand, bringing order to more of The Oubliette.”
“Fuck you!” Flamer said. A tiny gout of flame leapt from her hands.
“Then you'll be the newest entertainment for the week. Strip her, lets see what she looks like” he said.
Dela could only watch in horror and disgust as a guard pointed a shotgun at the hooded boys head, his finger on the trigger. Two others yanked Flamer to her feet, making her shout in pain, and a third started taking off her uniform. The teen turned to look at her friend and the gunman. With a look of pure hatred she glared at Grenadier as she was stripped, refusing to speak or cover herself. She was left standing there in a sports bra and panties, her muscular body on full display for everyone.
As the guards reached for her underwear Grenadier raised his hand, stopping them. “Dwayne” he said, turning his attention to the hooded boy, “you have a chance at saving your friend. You're portal powers could be the most useful tool in The Oubliette. If you work for me, willingly and without complaint, Samantha will merely be a prisoner. She will be well cared for, with food, water and clothes, and as long as she doesn't try to escape or harm a guard, she will be unharmed. If you refuse, we will drug her so she can't use her powers and she'll be sent to the guards barracks for a week.”
Dela wanted to vomit. Hugging herself, she tried to keep control. That's what he meant by entertainment. No matter what Grenadier wanted her to do, she'd agree to it, just to avoid that fate. Ducking her head to hide her tears, she prayed that this was all a nightmare.
She felt Alexander looking through her eyes, trying to move them. Unsure what he wanted to do, she looked up, straight at Grenadier.
'JUMP!' he shouted.
Alexander had to hold back his rage as he watched the girl get stripped. If he tried anything it would just get him and Dela killed. He couldn't even really plan anything, the twin mind readers would be able to read his mind as soon as he switched with Dela, and that would happen any minute now.
Uselessly he clenched his insubstantial hands, wanting to break something. Through his anger he heard Grenadier talking to Dwayne.
Portal powers?
It would explain why they had him hooded.
While Dela cried, he heard Dwayne's reply to Grenadier. “You son of a bitch! I'll do it, but if you break your word, I'll do whatever it takes to kill you.”
He had to act now. It was their only chance.
Alexander thought about looking up. He couldn't risk saying it, he had to hope Dela would feel his desire and look at Grenadier.
She raised her head.
“Jump!” he shouted.
Dela threw herself at Grenadier as hard as she could. As they flew through the air, he forcefully took control, her body fading as his larger and much stronger body replaced hers. There wasn't time for the twins or the guards to react. He slammed his shoulder into Grenadiers chest with enough force to flip over a car.
The old man fell backwards, his throne toppling with him. The blow hadn't killed him, he was too strong for that, but he was at least stunned. Alexander couldn't worry about what would happen once Grenadier recovered, he had to act fast and without thinking or he and the two Wardens were dead.
Scrambling to his feet, he ran at the twins. Muninn reacted quickly, punching him in the face. There was a crunch and she grabbed her broken hand screaming in pain. Grabbing her arm with one hand, he swung her at Huginn as hard as he could, they collided and flew backwards, landing in a broken heap. The three most dangerous people were taken care of, now there were only the guards.
The guards reacted quickly, aiming their guns and firing, peppering him with bullets. He winced in pain. It seemed like he was bulletproof, but he was going to be bruised if he survived this.
The unarmed onlookers scattered, while the guards tried to regain control.
Flamer, taking advantage of the distraction, grabbed the two closest guards by their faces, her hands lighting up with a brilliant blue flame. Their lungs were flash fried as they tried to scream. She spit a fireball from her mouth, setting fire to the guard holding a shotgun at Dwayne. He dropped and rolled, trying to put the fire out, forgetting about his gun and the prisoners.
From the group of teens who had agreed to work with Grenadier, Ivy screamed, making everyone close by drop to the ground clutching their ears. She stopped to catch her breath, and Tobias tackled her, driving her head into the pavement, knocking her out.
Lucas ran towards Flamer and Alexander. “Take me with you!” he shouted.
A guard swung around and fired. The young boy kept running for a few feet before falling face first to the ground. He wheezed, feebly moving his legs, trying to push himself forwards, before going limp.
Alexander threw a guard out of his way, and jumped through a wall of fire, reaching Flamer and Dwayne. Spreading out his arms, he grimaced in pain as bullets pelted him. “If you can, get us out of here,” he said.
Flamer struggled for a moment with the hood covering her friends face. Once it was off, Dwayne blinked a few times, then his eyes flashed and a hole appeared beside them.
“GO!” Flamer shrieked, looking over his shoulder. She grabbed Dwayne and jumped through the portal.
Alexander turned and saw Grenadier was on his feet, a ball of white light hung over his head. Screaming, he followed the pair through the portal as the ball was released.
There was an explosion, and Alexander felt himself being thrown through the air. He hit a wall and everything went black.
The portal closed just in time, protecting them from the worst of the explosion. She still yelled out in pain as her battered body was flung along the ground.
Aching, barely able to breathe, and almost naked, she slowly got to her feet. Dwayne was lying on the ground, still cuffed. He was groaning and bruised, but seemed to be in decent shape. Limping over to him, she knelt down taking the chain linking the cuffs in her fingers.
“Hold still, I don't want to burn you,” she said. Channelling some of the heat that filled her veins, fire appeared on her fingers. The chain turned a brilliant yellow as it melted, some of it fell on her hands. Keeping the heat on, she wiped the molten metal off on the ground, when it was all gone she allowed her skin to cool down.
“Thanks,” Dwayne said. He looked up at her, then turned away. “I'm sorry I couldn't help you.”
“Not your fault. You never wanted to be a Warden and you suck at fighting. Going along with them was smarter than what I did.” She frowned as she said it.
Her instructors would have chewed her out for not being more cooperative, getting beaten and then threatened with gang rape just to have the satisfaction of telling a supervillain off, wasn't very smart. But in the heat of the moment she hadn't been able to help herself.
“Let's check out our rescuer,” she said.
The boy didn't seem to be in too bad of shape. He had left a nice little crater in the wall, but he was already sitting up. He looked like shit, with his weird black clothes all shot up, and his face had definitely been prettier a few minutes ago, but he was conscious which was a good sign.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Like I got shot and blown up,” he said.
She grinned. “Glad you have a sense of humour. Thanks for the rescue, but what happened to the girl? Delia was it?”
“I'm Alexander, she's Dela. She's kind of my sister.” He shook his head. “It's hard to explain. Where are we?”
Turning to Dwayne, she raised an eyebrow, which turned into a wince as her many bruises made themselves known.
“Not sure,” Dwayne said. “I just made a hole without really thinking about it, all I know is it's somewhere near where we first showed up.”
“At least that means we're a few blocks from their base. Can you walk?” she asked Alexander.
“Yeah, but,” he stopped talking. It looked like he was listening to someone.
He suddenly seemed to fade away and shrink down, becoming thinner and smaller, his clothes shrank with him. In a second the girl was standing in his place, she looked tired, but wasn't bruised or dirty.
“Oh thank god you're OK,” the new girl said, throwing her arms around Flamer, making her yelp in pain. “I wanted to help, but I didn't know what to do, and I'm not bulletproof like Alexander is. I'm Dela by the way, I'm going to need to go to sleep soon, my time out wasn't nearly long enough. But I can keep going for at least an hour and Alexander is in no shape to walk far. So we should find a way out of here before the creepy twins wake up.”
Flamer looked at Dwayne, they had both seen some weird things, but this was definitely in the top ten. Still questions could wait, the girl was right, they needed to find a safe place to hide, preferably out of this part of The Oubliette. The twins were far to dangerous to risk sticking around.
“Good idea,” she said, making Dela beam with delight. “Let's head for the edge, we should be able to find a crack to a new section without too much trouble.”
Slowly, wishing she still had her uniform, or at least her boots, they started walking.
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