She scanned the dark cell, no longer paying mind to the white chains with noticeably colored wires running along them, (they reminded her of the rainbow bridge), clad on her wrists and ankles, she still had a few tricks left up her sleeve, and they would not go unused this night,
However, she needed to get out first.
It was very dark, and with her eyes still sore from that strange super powered light, she was still not able to see that wonderfully.
She could at least make out an odd glass-like pane in place of the bars she was used to in Hel.
" I bet I can break that." She muttered to herself, starting to tug on the chains, testing their resistance.
I can sure as hell break these. She thought with a smirk.
" I wouldn't count on breaking the glass if I were you, child." A soft, withered female voice said.
She jumped a bit from being surprised, then her eyes narrowed menacingly.
" Who's there?!" She demanded.
" I am just a mutant, nothing more." She replied.
Elvira realized that she was in the cell beside hers.
An elderly woman at least 70, with silver-gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, her eyes were a dark brown, dull and sunken, was sitting against the wall as she was, only a few feet of space and the glass between them.
She looked weak, sickly, like she was dying...
" You were tricked to, huh?" El asked, resting her hand on the cool glass, suddenly feeling sympathetic.
" I was, I have cancer, you see, and the Hospital I went to was denying my medication, so I was desperate enough to fall for this sick ruse." The woman explained bitterly.
" I'm sorry to hear that." El replied, knowing it was a stupid response, but had nothing more to say.
She was sorry, for everything.
" You have any idea on escaping, Miss Mutant?" She asked, trying to lightened the sad mood sinking heavily in the air.
" Its Mavis." The old woman answered.
" Alright Mavis, I promise, I'll get us both out of here." Elvira swore.
" I wouldn't get my hopes up, this is where we'll all die." Mavis said, sounding so low, so defeated.
This poor woman's spirit is completely broken, and its all because of me. El thought.
" Oh, stop! Sitting there whining about how futile it all is won't help you escape." An angry and disturbingly familiar voice spoke from across the corridors.
Elvira felt her blood run cold, she seethed through gritted teeth and asked with suspended anger.
" Mystique?"
" How do you know my name, have we met?" The mutant assassin asked rather calmly, looking to El's cell, her yellow eyes piercing through the darkness.
Seeing her eyes broke Elvira's heart anew.
They were just like his eyes.
She fought back the tears.
" Yes, I used to go to Professor X.'s school." El replied. " We never engaged in a fight, as I was never really an X-Men, but I saw you once, let's just say your a hard woman to forget."
Vile filth! She thought of the older warrior with distain.
" I'm flattered that you remembered me, though I'm afraid, my dear that I never learned your name." Mystique answered.
Elvira sighed in relief, that wasn't technically a question, so her identity was safe.
" Well, since we're in the same boat, I guess I'll introduce myself, I'm Robyn McKnight." El "pretended."
" Okay, Robyn. I saw you get thrown in there, the men were mumbling how you actually intentionally broke into this god forsaken place-"
"And you want to know if its true?" El finished her sentence for her.
Mystique chuckled a bit, admiring the child's wit. " Yes, I do."
" The answer is yes, I came here when I heard what they were doing to the mutants." Elvira said, choosing to tell that part.
" How could you be so foolish, Robyn." Mavis asked. Understandably surprised at hearing that.
" I made a promise to a friend." Was all she said.
" Hmm," Mystique hummed with slight arrogance," I don't know whether to credit you for bravery, or mock you for stupidity."
" Pick one." El replied, annoyed but knowing it to be true.
" That's very noble, I think." Mavis said.
El smiled." Thanks." She replied.
" I take it you just barged in without thinking?" Mystique asked, knowingly.
" Yes." She replied via the curse, a little embarrassed that someone she didn't even like could guess about her like that.
But then, Mystique's been at this sort of thing a lot longer then her, not heroics, but the infiltration part, where Elvira was still pretty green, so it was understandable.
" And you don't even have a get away plan, do you?" She continued with a smirk.
El's teeth gritted." No." She confessed completely against her will.
" Your a little to honest considering I'm technically your enemy." Mystique added.
El rested her head on the wall behind her and gave a frustrated sigh. I fucking hate you, Odin! She thought angrily!
" Your not my biggest concern right now, Mystique, right now I just need to think of a way out of here." She sighed.
Mystique was not foolish, though she could not say the same about the young woman she spoke to, she heard Robyn say "The Mutants" as though she was not one, The elder Mutant could hear this in the inflection of her voice, it was most likely not even uttered that way consciously on her part.
Elvira turned to her the sickly Mutant beside her through the glass.
" What does the walls and chains do, exactly?" She asked.
" I can't explain it, but its like there's some sort of power that they put into to halt our powers." Mavis replied.
" Like Genosha." Mystique chimed in darkly.
Elvira felt a chill when that word was uttered, she had not seen Genosha with her own eyes, but Storm had once relayed it to her one day when her curiosity got the better of her.
Never how she so loathed her own need to learn.
What she remembered feeling alongside the sense of terror, as she believed herself a mutant for most of her life and still was not yet used to the thought of not being one, was the sense of disgust that people were indeed capable of such horrible things.
But on the plus side, Elvira was not actually a Mutant, so whatever device they were using would not have any effect on her.
" Are there anyone else here with us?" Elvira, or rather, Robyn asked, on account of her still poor sight.
" Yes, but they just gave up and are lying around waiting to die like dogs." Mystique said coldly.
" Alright, that's all I needed to hear." She replied with a grin.
Then, as she intended to do before she struck up a conversation with Mavis and the blue woman of her nightmares, she pulled the electrical chains in the center with relative ease.
Mavis turned around at hearing the sound, a look of surprise on her wrinkled face!
" How on earth-"
"Its a long story." El interrupted so she wouldn't have to answer further.
To her surprise there were no alarms going off.
" Hmph, pretty cocky." She scoffed, standing up.
She realized her mask wasn't on anymore, her face was exposed for all the world to see.
Thank god for the fact that no one here really knows her.
" So what will you do now?" Mystique asked, seeing that her assumption was correct.
" Well, I guess should break through the glass." El said.
" And how do you know that doesn't have an alarm?" She asked slyly.
This woman was testing her patience!
" I suppose I don't for sure." She begrudgingly replied.
But I can find out. She thought to herself.
She kneeled just inches from the glass pane and felt for an electrical surge in the floor.
She found it.
Prepare to eat your words, Mystique!
As before in the hallway, she knocked out the power,
All the chains, the glass walls that blocked hers and everyone else's freedom, even the security cameras, were all out!
The many screens flickered from static, sending a buzzing noise to drift around the dark room.
In the dim light, two ominous hands were clasped together in contemplation.
" It seems we have another Runaway, see if you can give her a proper congratulation,
Madam Illusion." He casually ordered.
" As you wish, my love." A masked woman replied, looming behind his chair.
Elvira stood to her feet, a triumphant smile playing on her face,
For the first time in almost a year, things were working out right!
She took in a deep breath,
" Now! Everyone, break out of your cells and to your freedom, this god forsaken place must fall, let them taste the searing burn of the cleansing flames of justice!
And as you stand in the victory of the ashes, let the world hear from the mutants of this city that we are not just going to just roll over and die!
That you will stand and fight for your right to fight and to survive!" She yelled as she burst through the glass!
It sparkled everywhere as the other Mutant's yelled in union to her words and broke to their freedom as well!
" Now help the weak out of their captivity!" El instructed, surprised that they actually listened to her, and at her own assertiveness in the situation!
Elvira immediately broke Mavis' cell herself and ran to her side.
" No!" The old woman protested.
" What?!" El exclaimed!
" Do not waste your time on an old woman like me, I'm already almost dead, I have been for a long time now,
You have to use your time to save people who actually need it, someone you really care about." The frail mutant said weakly.
Elvira felt tears sting your eyes," No, I swore I'd save everyone, I-" She protested frantically.
She knew logically that she couldn't save everyone from the beginning, but now, to be in the belly of the beast, deciding who gets out and who stays behind to be devoured, Elvira had no idea what she was truly getting into, until now.
" You did save me, child, now go on and save everyone else." She said peacefully.
" Okay, I'm sorry, I wish-" She choked.
" If you truly wish to do the right thing, then you never have to be sorry for that." Mavis exclaimed sternly. " Now go, your wasting time.
" Elvira, swallowing the lump in her throat, nodded." I will."
She stood back up.
" Goodbye." She whispered, then made her way out of the broken cell and back into the corridor.
Mavis smiled." Your a good girl, Elvira Vargo, stay this way, and you'll become a good woman, and this world can't have to many of those."
Elvira looked to Mystique's cell,
She was gone.
" Of course she escaped." She scoffed.
It was typical of that woman, disappearing for her own ends, not caring a bit for the lives she could save,
Yet still having the gull to say she wants the world to be a better place.
But El had no time to dwell on her grudge on Mystique.
She had bigger fish to fry...
El heard a loud smash, looked to where the sound came from..
It was one of escaped Mutants, transformed from a weal little thing, to a strong raging behemoth, broke through the walls with ease!
As the made their way into the other lines of cell blocks that held other mutants, El went right for the upstairs!
Where the true enemies lied...