3.1
Paige tried not to yawn, the gag really hurt every time she yawned. That was hard given the dreams from the last few nights keeping her from sleeping. Ever since making the deal with the PRT she had one nightmare after another. At first she'd wake up screaming the images of a blood drenched Samedi ripping open her skull. Soon a new fear took over. She was worried that Armsmaster would come back and tell her they caught the killer and she'd have to go to prison forever.
"You alright?" The hero; Assault if she remembered correctly, asked from behind her. The two of them had just entered the elevator to head down to the prison docking area before she headed out. To face Samedi.
Glancing at him, she tried to look brave, but she could hear the rattling of her wrist restraints from her shaking hands. He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. He had a nice smile Paige felt.
"I know you're scared. I would be too, but don't worry, we'll be with you the whole way. If Samedi shows her face our team will be right there to stop her."
Paige tried to take solace at his words, but as the elevator slowed to a stop her heart started to race. The doors opened to the docking bay area of the station. Set on the lower level Paige had past through went she was being taken from the courthouse and back. It reminded her of a parking garage with its bare concrete walls. The bay was split between an asphalt level for the prisoner transports to park and a large open area set above it. She didn't know why the bay needed so much space if it was left empty until now.
The whole area was a hive of activity. Men and woman in full battle gear, and several plain dressed people at computers or looking over maps. A dozen different conversations all going at once filling the bay with noise. That was until Paige stepped off the elevator. She could feel the force of a dozen eyes all on her. Instinctively, she looked down to avoid everyone's eyes.
'They must hate me' Paige thought morosely, 'If they didn't need me I'd just be another criminal.'
"It's alright," Assault whispered into her ear. "Deep breaths. Armsmaster is going to debrief you. After that we'll move out."
Paige swallowed and followed after him. The restraints they had on her cuffed her hands and a chain ran down to her legs which were cuffed as well meaning that she could only shuffle slowly behind him. It did help take her mind off things by having all her mind focused on not tripping. As she moved people turned back towards their work, giving her a chance to glance about. The only vehicles in the bay were two large black SUVs. The night was cool and the bare concrete walls seemed to radiate cold. Paige repressed a shiver. She was so caught up looking around that she nearly ran into Assault's back.
The other heroes were standing toward the back of the bay separated from the chaos of the rest of the room. Paige did her best to remember each of them. The two women she knew from the news, Battery was sitting cross legged on a crate with her eyes closed taking deep breaths the lights on her costume seemed to surge with each breath she took. Miss Militia was overlooking the other groups, her eyes darting around the room to take in everything. Dauntless was hunched over a table by the wall looking at his equipment. Paige couldn't make out what he was doing with it but it must have been important. Velocity nodded from his position, leaning against the back wall where he and Triumph seemed to be deep in conversation. She nodded back in appreciation. In the center of all this though was Armsmaster himself. His armor gleamed under the lights of the bay.
"We made it," Assault said, smirking at Armsmaster, who merely nodded. Shooting Paige one more smile, he went to stand by Battery. Paige knew they were partners, or something like that, according to the gossip shows.
"Are you ready?" Armsmaster asked. His voice sounded rough, like he hadn't slept for awhile.
Paige tried to answer, but the gag made it come out as a bunch of garbled sounds. Sighing internally, she just nodded. To be honest she wasn't really ready, but she was resolved to stamp down her fear and focus on the new life she'd have soon. That would make anything worth it.
"I apologize for the restraints, but we need to maintain the ruse as much as possible," the armored hero told her. The former entertainer didn't know if he was telling the truth or not. "How much were you told about the operation?"
Paige gave an awkward shrug. No one had really told her anything. They likely thought it didn't matter if she knew or not.
Armsmaster gave a slight frown. "It will be fairly straightforward. You will be taken in one of the official vans to the ferry. Publicly, this is a transfer from BBPD holding to our more secure facility on the Protectorate headquarters. The route has been planed to pass through much of downtown, and we have blocked off access to the roads. The isolation should minimize risk to the public should Samedi make an attempt to fight us. Your transport will be monitored from this location. My team will follow behind at some distance, but we will be in a position to intercept in the event of an attack. Should you be in any danger, we will extract you, and take you to one of several checkpoints set up to offer assistance."
Paige tried to absorb his words, but the fear had started to grip at her heart again. The idea of being face to face with a monster like Samedi stole her breath. She had heard rumors of what the girl did to her victims. It turned her stomach.
Miss Militia approached the pair, taking Paige out of her thoughts.
"They're ready," she informed her leader.
"Thank you," Paige couldn't see Miss Militia's mouth due to the scarf, but she seemed to smile at the Tinker's words. "Miss Macabee if you'd please follow Miss Militia to your transport."
Nodding, she moved to follow the other woman. The hero noticed Paige's awkward shuffle, and kindly slowed her pace to let the girl slow down. Reaching one of the SUVs Miss Militia opened the door. Before she could climb inside Miss Militia touched her shoulder to get her attention.
"I know not many would have said it but this is very brave." Paige was shocked at her words. "Putting yourself at risk like this to help others isn't something everyone is up to. I want you to know my team won't let you get hurt. The world could do with a lot more people like you."
At that, the hero moved away, and Paige climbed into the back seat. Her eyes stung with tears.
'You're wrong,' She wanted to tell the hero 'I'm not brave at all. I'm a coward. Just a selfish coward dodging jail.'
Paige was pulled from her thoughts when the front doors opened. A pair of PRT troopers climbed into the front. She couldn't really make much detail given the uniform's face covering helmet. The driver looked to be a tall woman with broad shoulders. The passenger meanwhile was a somewhat stocky man.
"All set back there?" The one in the passenger seat asked.
"You realize she can't talk, right?" The driver pointed out to her partner.
"I know that, I'm just trying to be nice. You could try it too from time to time."
The driver sighed lightly. "Fine, you all set back there?"
Paige knew it was rhetorical but she nodded anyway. The banter managed to put her at ease.
"Good, let's get this show on the road," the driver said before she started the engine and drove out of the docking bay onto the street.
"So now for introductions," the trooper in the passenger seat declared. "I'm Tom and this Beth. We're your detail for tonight."
"If you're wondering, we're the only two dumb enough to risk being in spitting distance of Samedi," the driver, Beth, grumbled.
"That, and they want to keep the number of normal people in this fight at as low as they can get it." Tom informed her. That was not as comforting as he must have thought.
Paige turned toward the window, watching the buildings of downtown pass by. The few skyscrapers of the city were lit up against the night. It was a pretty sight she had to admit. In this part of town, it was easy to forget the troubles the city faced.
"Why do we always gotta do these transfers at night?" Beth complained. "I'd like to see my kids sometime."
"You'd rather try and drive in downtown traffic during rush hour? 'Sides it's not like we do this every day."
"You say that, but the way the town is going, I'm starting to doubt it."
"Calmer now than a few years ago. More heroes in town than ever."
"I'm not sure how you think that means less work for us."
"Come on, the way the city's going we may finally start gaining some headway on the crime around here. Pull a Seattle."
"Seattle had Nightingale. We don't got shit." Beth turned down onto Fourth Street. Paige tried to pull up a map of the city in her head. They had gotten about five blocks from the police station. The lack of lights and traffic meant they were making good time. She tried to spot one of the checkpoints, but either they haven't passed any, or they were very well hidden. Her focus started to drift back towards her escort's conversation.
"I'm telling you; between the director and Armsmaster breathing down my neck, I've really debated a lot of my life."
"Aw, don't say that. Where's your sense of job satisfaction?"
"I lost it last time we had to transport Kreig to holding. Asshole would not shut up."
"Yeah that sucked, but on the plus side you got to slam a cell door in his face."
"He broke out a week later."
"That's not point, you've got to foc-"
Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the SUV was yanked roughly sideways. Paige was thrown against the side door letting out a cry of pain. Then just as suddenly the car slammed into a concrete platform leading out of one of the buildings in the alley.
"Stay low!" Tom yelled back at her before throwing his door open. He leapt out and Paige was blocked from seeing him. She heard him say something she couldn't make out before a loud yell and a thumping noise left a moment of silence.
Beth made a rough croaking noise from her seat. "No! Tom! Damn it."
She pulled her gun out and pulled herself up so she was halfway out of the window of her door. A shattering bang of the gun made Paige give a muffled screech. Then a bright light lit up the interior of the SUV along with the sound of electricity arcing. Beth's body spasmed before falling limp.
Paige was close to tears, from watching her would be protectors fall. The terror from earlier was nothing compared to now. Then the sound of grinding metal filled the SUV and the door was ripped roughly away. The prisoner could feel a force pull her out by her shoulders. She was slammed into the brick wall of the alley. Eyes darted about in the dark as she tried to find the source of the attack. There! Out of the corner of her eye she saw a figure walk toward her and into the light. Samedi.
She was not what Paige was expecting. Tall for a woman, but lanky. Her long hair flowed down past her shoulders. Her face was drawn with deep circles under her eyes. Dressed in an old pea coat and ratty jeans, this girl didn't look like the blood soaked monster Paige was expecting. Then she spoke.
"Canary," Samedi had a hard voice for a girl that young. "That's what they call you. Used your powers to make a nice singing career. And take revenge. You could have gotten every villain in the city to walk themselves into a jail cell. Instead what do you do? You use it for fame and fortune, and when someone pissed you off enough, you make them hurt themselves."
'No! It wasn't like that!' Paige tried to scream past the gag 'I didn't want to hurt anyone. They never told me what the vial would do. I didn't know. Please, don't kill me. I don't want to die.'
"I suppose it doesn't really matter." Samedi muttered, "I can make sure your power gets used the right way. To help people."
Where were the Protectorate? Did they leave her to die? Was that the plan? Wait until Samedi was busy with her and take her by surprise? Paige didn't want to believe that. Didn't want to think that she was left to die by the heroes. But why should she expect them to care about her? No one else killer raised her right hand and pointed a finger at Paige. Suddenly her forehead exploded in pain. She clenched her eyes on instinct even as the gag swallowed her screams. The as quickly as it started the pain stopped and she could feel herself falling. A pair of arms wrapped around her.
"Miss me?" Assault asked, as Paige tried to understand what was happening. "No time to talk, just hold on."
With that, he raced out of the alley. It wasn't as even as running but to Paige it felt like they were flying. After about a block or so, they stopped, and he carried her into a nearby office complex. Hidden in the lobby was a collection of PRT troopers, and what looked like EMTs.
One of them raced up to the pair. Supporting Paige between himself and Assault they carried her over to a waiting bed. Laying down, she watched as the hero and one of the troopers began to talk in low voices. They were too far from her to hear what they were saying. The doctor from before returned and began to examine the cut on her forehead. Everything seemed so distant now, all the pain and fear seemed to drain away leaving her feeling numb to everything.
After a few minutes Assault came back to her bed. The way he carried himself gave off an air of tension.
"I need to go back and help my friends, but when this is all over we'll all come to see how you're doing alright?"
She gave him a nod. He shot her another smile then turned to leave.
'Be safe,' Paige thought watching the hero leave. 'I need a chance to say thank you.'
As soon as he left, she found herself drifting into a deep sleep.