Breaching the Brig

"Dad, this is serious," Henry stated. He had changed into his suit and hat.

Dad Reginald, still focused on piloting the ship, said without looking back, "I am completely serious."

"You can't just keep him! That's Charles!"

"A very dangerous government pilot who helped arrest a third of the Toppat Clan members in one of the Sea Divisions smaller bases in Alaska, I am well aware of that. You should be as well."

"I know that. But–"

"It was you who decided to befriend a military brat. I, as well as several other members of the Clan, told you that this was a bad idea."

"Dad–"

"Calvin is staying here until further notice as our prisoner. Henry Stickmin, that is final. Because of this, I took the liberty of taking you off Brig duty myself."

"What? No! D–"

"You also will not be approaching the Brig for any reason unless specifically asked to do so, do you understand?"

"Dad, you–"

"Do you understand?" Dad Reginald shot a sharp look back at Henry.

Henry started to speak, but eventually let out a heavy sigh through his teeth. "Yes, Chief, I do."

"If anyone catches you near the Brig, much less meeting with any prisoners, you and they both will be very sorry. Do you understand?"

"Yes. Chief," Henry barely managed to hiss out the words.

"Good. Now, you're dismissed, Henry." Dad Reginald turned ahead again. "And don't think you can sneak in there. I raised you, Henry."

Bet. "Okay. Well, you won't have to worry about that. I'm going to storage, since I promised to organize some things in there today." With that, Henry turned and walked away, out of the Bridge. So, maybe his hopes were dampened, but he still had them. After all, he may be an enemy, but Dad Reginald knew him. People knew Henry knew them. It couldn't be that bad. Regardless, he needed to pick up Ellie and go forth with their escape plan.

Henry didn't lie to Dad Reginald; he had promised to help clean out one of the storage rooms a little and so that's where he was headed. But either Dad Reginald wasn't telling the whole story–which Henry knew he wasn't–or he didn't know Henry as well as he thought he did. Predictably, someone checked up on him within a half hour of his stay at the storage. Then there was a second person a little after that. Once he waved goodbye to Magnus, Henry shut the door and popped open one of the vents.

Within minutes he was by a closet close to the Vault. Ellie, complaining quietly about the overwhelming smell of cleaning chemicals and how densely packed the small area was, followed Henry to the Vault. She had on a hat–Dave's black one that he wore when in disguise. He stopped in front of the door. Anyone with half a brain and access to the Vault would know Henry had been through here, even if he didn't take anything. The Vault kept a meticulous log of people and contents, after all. So, if he was to break out Charles, they would need to be quick about it.

Henry took a deep breath and entered the newest code to the door, changed once yearly as the technology was kept up to date along with the security in the rest of the ship. Although a light shone on Henry and Ellie when he put in the code to open the door, once it flashed over Henry's ID, it turned green and shut off. The door to the Vault was now open.

Ellie whistled as they walked through the room packed with artifacts and gold. "Sweet place you got here."

Henry smirked, though it was rather weak. "Yeah. We get up to some trouble pretty often." Henry stopped as they passed the ruby. A bitter feeling of pettiness wormed up in him. Well, he was so intent on doing something to screw over and hurt Henry, Henry may as well return the favor. He stuck his Shrink-and-Grow device onto it. The ruby shrunk to the size a piece of popcorn and he stuck it in his pocket.

The inside of the Vault had slightly less security. It only required a password. But there was a camera from the inside facing them, which turned on when movement was present. Ellie kept her face concealed beneath her hat.

Talking from within the Brig stopped as they entered.

Henry, with a look around to make sure no other Toppats were inside, said, "Charles? Dave? You in here?"

"Henry!" This came from both of the prisoners.

Dave breathed a sigh of relief. "There you are! I was worried something happened to you."

"Hah! I knew you'd find me!" Charles laughed. His laughter stopped abruptly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, definitely. But we need to hurry up and get out." Henry opened the door to Charles' cell and tossed the key to Ellie, who went to Dave's.

Standing inside the cell was a disheveled man in a military uniform blotched by patches of maroon, some small but some alarmingly large. The man inside was pale and unsteady, definitely a side-effect of blood loss, making the bruising on his face even more obvious. His headphones were scuffed, but squarely on his head. Well, as squarely as could be when as dented as they were, one of the top bars bent to near breaking.

"Charles!" Henry sucked in his breath and pulled him out and immediately went to looking him over. "What happened? What did they do to you?"

Charles chuckled and ducked out of his grasp. "Well, while I was waiting to be taken here, I spent some time refusing to answer a few of their questions. But I'm okay! I'm not dead! I, um, probably need a doctor, but I'm fine!"

Henry took a deep, shaky breath. No wonder Dad Reginald didn't want Henry in the Brig. Whoever was responsible for this was dead meat. "Come on, we can talk about this on the way out. Ellie, Dave! Hurry!"

"Holy shit," Ellie breathed, her face going pale. But Henry didn't see shock or fear on her features. She'd probably expected this, and Ellie wasn't afraid of anything. Henry could feel the heated atmosphere near her. He could empathize with it.

Henry led them out, ushering them through the Vault as quickly as possible. As they rushed down the hall that would lead to one of the escape pods–the same one Afanasiy took all those years ago–a new pair of footsteps approached. Henry bristled and held up a hand to stop them. Charles stumbled to a hault. Ellie grabbed a hold of him, her grip tightening as he double over and wrapped his own arms around his stomach where a good amount of the blood his uniform soaked up resided.

Henry nearly laughed aloud as Geoffrey rounded the corner. Henry pointed past him and walked up to meet him.

"Who's there?" Geoffrey called, squinting up at them as they approached. "Wait–Henry? Is that–?"

"Sorry, Geoffrey." Henry took him by the front of the shirt and hit him across the head. The older Toppat slumped into his arms and then to the floor when Henry set him down.

Ellie opened the door for them, but Henry typed in the buttons required to eject them and move back to the government base in the Southwest.

"Kinda… tight in here," Dave commented as the pod blasted off.

Henry stared out the window at the airship as it got smaller and smaller. He swallowed and took a deep breath. "Right. Yeah. We'll get there and then we need to bring you to the doctor. Ellie? Mind, uh… calling them?"

"Sure."

"We'll need to tell the general you're there."

Charles nodded. "Thanks, Henny, Ellie. You guys are the best."

…

"Henry," Charles went on. "You… didn't tell me you were a Toppat."

Henry raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"Uh… it's kinda obvious. Well, now that I know," Charles admitted.

Dave ducked his head and looked away, a hand on the back of his neck.

Henry sighed. "Yeah. I am."

"Um, well… thanks. For helping me. I'm kinda surprised you'd, um… do that. You know, going against the Toppat Clan."

Henry looked out the window. The airship was barely a red speck in the sky, now. "Yeah. Me, neither. But you're my best friend, Charles. If it's between my father's senselessness or you, I chose you."

"Your father…?"

"Yeah. He was in charge of you, technically. And in charge of Dave. The prisoners."

"Oh. Well, uh, after I got back, they had a doctor look me over," Charles offered. "I have some stitches, now. And he gave me some antibiotics. I didn't expect that."

"He wanted you alive."

"Yeah. That, uh… that makes sense."

"Henry?" Dave chipped in. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Charles got a rougher time than I did. Why is that?"

"Charles is a veteran in the government, an ace pilot. He's trusted and knows a lot more than you do, Dave. You were just a nightguard in a museum, after all."

"Oh. Okay. That, that makes sense."

The Toppats did that to him.

Henry looked over Charles' wounded body, his pale skin and breaths hitched by a pained wheeze. Henry knew for a fact the doctor treated him, but he had a bad feeling someone had "forgotten" to give him any painkillers. The Toppat Clan, people Henry trusted, did that to him.

Afanasiy was right; they followed their own rules.

And good people suffered for it.

They had barely landed about a mile or so away from the base before they were met by a few trucks. Henry and Ellie had done away with their hats. The soldiers greeted Charles and carefully helped him into one of the trucks. One of the soldiers in the passenger seat of the second vehicle, Rupert, gasped and lowered his weapon. "Dave!"

"Wh-what?" Dave jumped and looked up. His eyes went round. "Rupert! Oh my God–you're a soldier? You're here!"

"Dave, we thought you'd died!"

Dave climbed into the truck and was immediately met with an uncharacteristic amount of enthusiasm. As they drove back to the base, the two laughed and Rupert checked over him and Dave, tears in his big brown eyes, struggled against him, but only a little and without any real effort.

June said, "Rup, I'll grab the General. You stay with them."

"Thanks, June."

The nurses that spotted Charles, and got the report from Henry and Ellie both, immediately pulled him into treatment. When the General got there, the nurses still hadn't let him go. Dave was gone, too, as he was taken in to be checked over. Being around people who weren't wearing top hats and instead wore slightly more familiar uniforms seemed to calm the both of them.

Henry looked up as the General set his hand on Henry's shoulder. "You did good, Henry. I knew you would."

Henry smiled a little, but looked away, unable to meet the man's soft eyes, stormy gray as the man's own hair. Henry signed, "Thank you."

General Galeforce said something to Ellie that Henry didn't catch. When they were allowed further into the Ward to visit Charles, they found him lying in a hospital bed with a clean gown on and a thin blanket rather than his dirty, bloodied uniform. General Galeforce managed a smile upon seeing him and immediately greeted the young pilot. Henry watched the two's interaction, like a grandfather meeting his grandson after a stressful time of separation. Briefly, Henry wondered what that was like, to have a grandfather or figure like one. General Galeforce was from the government, the military. He was a general. But Henry… couldn't summon the will to feel disgust or his favorite brand of exaggerated superior arrogance he liked to wear to piss them off.

"Henry, Ellie," General Galeforce announced after clucking over Charles and being filled in. The two turned their immediate attention to him. "You did well. I guess we owe you one. Now, we've had you on our side for quite some time, Ellie. Recently, you, Henry, have come to do us quite a lot of good. Henry, Ellie, what do you two think of enlistment? You'll be running a lot more missions with Charlie."

Ellie's eyes brightened. "Become a special agent and kick butt with Charles? Sign me up!"

Charles, his eyebrows furrowed in slight apprehension, lit up like a Christmas tree. He looked to Henry.

Enlisted… to become the very person he'd been trained to defy and fight for over a decade. To help a world that never loved him back? A world he honestly hadn't given a chance.

"Well, Henry? What do you say?" General Galeforce asked. "You could do the world a lot of good."

"…yeah." Henry's eyes met Charles'. "That's a great idea."

Mission Complete

Angel and Not-Angel…?

Third Power