The work wasn't nearly as bad as Marcus had implied. After breakfast he led her down a few more flights of stairs to a room that made her nearly grin with delight; The Gargareans had one of the most well stocked blacksmithing setup she had ever seen! Six huge forges with chimneys set into the ceiling, anvils, hammers, power hammers, sanders, files, and tools of all sizes.
And the metals! Oh dear gods, the metals! Not only did they have quite a few mortal metals like aluminum sheeting, bars of steel and balls of tin foil, they had some divine or enchanted metals she had only ever read about; Celestial Bronze of course, but they also had Stygian Iron, an odd looking bit of Enchanted Gold, a steel bar with an odd sheen to it, a bit of jade, and what from her vantage point looked like a boomerang made of bone or maybe ivory.
But of course, the fun stuff wasn't meant for her. Marcus led her past all the forges to a smaller barred off section filled with cardboard boxes, a few screwdrivers, three hammers, a work table, a stool, and a hot glue gun. One side of the cage was taken up by a barred airlock of sorts; metal bars on a hinge over a box just big enough for a small child to squeeze into, and a mechanism inside that prevented both sides from being opened at once.
Marcus gently guided her into the cage and locked her in. A brief inspection of the cardboard boxes revealed stickers, decals, a few vanity plates and LED light strips. It became obvious then what Alexa was going to be doing.
"You're going to have me tricking out skateboards?" Alexa asked dryly.
"And bikes, scooters, and anything that'll fit in there with you." Marcus confirmed.
"It's not a bad gig. You may be working longer hours but the waitresses don't get to sit down as much. Plus it's not as busy here as it is in the diner." As Marcus spoke he unfolded another chair and sat it against a wall at an angle to Alexa's cage. He propped himself up, stretched out his legs and sighed.
From nearby an elevator opened and six young men exited, each heading to one of the forges. Every single one of them gave Alexa a look. Most were amused, some looked a bit sorry, but all of them had some amount of superiority in that gaze.
However, a work whistle blew somewhere above their heads and Alexa didn't have much time to spare to consider which of her tools would make the best throwing weapon.
The boys came down like a flood, each one making ridiculous demands as they shoved their boards and skates through the airlock. Alexa did her work exceptionally fast, and reasonably well. It wasn't her best work, after just a few minutes her mind had begun to wander and her fingers and tools began going through the motions. That being said, she was still a master smith and a mechanical wizard, so every single boy went away satisfied, even if none said so.
Her eye drifted around the room as she worked, eventually landing on Marcus in his chair. He had leaned forward attentively to keep an eye on her as she worked...or at least that's what she had assumed at first. When a run for some bright green plastic wheels took her towards the end of her cage closest to him she realized his eyes were closed! Her guard had fallen asleep!
A very small part of her wanted to use this opportunity to escape, but she smothered the impulse. One sleeping guard did not make an escape plan easy or even doable. The rest of the Gargareans were bound to notice any attempts she made for the door...and speaking of the Gargareans.
Three of Marcus's fellows snuck towards him, one in his late teens, the other two boys, maybe ten. The oldest one stood in front of Marcus, hands on his hips, while one of the others busied himself tying her guard's shoe laces together.
With that task done the third boy pulled a trumpet out of nowhere and blasted out a song Alexa recognized as Reveille barely a foot from Marcus's head. Marcus yelped, attempted to stand, and promptly fell over. The two younger boys laughed their heads off while the older one smirked.
"Well, Sleeping Beauty's awake. Rise and shine buttercup!" Said the oldest. Marcus responded to the taunt with a few choice curse words, which earned him a kick to the gut.
"Maybe if you'd actually stay awake while on duty, you wouldn't be down here, babysitting!" He gave Alexa a sneer with the final word, and Alexa responded with a set of rolled eyes and a single finger salute. He gritted his teeth, glared at her, then returned his wrath to Marcus. He gave her guard another kick in the gut before he and his two pint-size cohorts headed for the elevator.
"They do that often?" Alexa asked as she returned to her work. Her guard responded with a glare and a low grunt. Alexa shrugged and returned most of her attention to her work. It didn't escape Alexa's notice that Marcus started nodding off again almost immediately, now that she was actually watching for it. A few more of the Gargareans approached but when one got too close to Marcus, Alexa delivered a quick warning to her guard by 'accidentally' dropping or slamming one of her tools into the bars of her work cell. He never once thanked her for it, but she could only assume this was better than what the others were doing.
They continued like this for the majority of the day, only really pausing for the prisoner to scarf down a sandwich. When the day finally ended Alexa was taken from the workshop area to what was unmistakably a prison yard; It was a patch of packed dirt with a basketball hoop and ball at one end, and a small assortment of workout equipment in the other. Marcus sat in his chair beyond the chain link at the basketball end of the yard, set an alarm on his watch, and promptly passed out, leaving Alexa and Luna alone.
"Find anything useful?" Alexa asked as she took up space on the weight bench. Luna had been observing the place the whole time Alexa had been working, both through visual examination and other, quieter forms of observation. During their Hind hunting Alexa had given Luna a few notable upgrades to her sensory array, including sonar, radar ultraviolet and infrared. She never thought it'd continue proving its usefulness after they had caught the deer.
"Grooof!" Luna said, tossing her head and taking up a spotter's position as Alexa grabbed the bar.
"Really? No steel reinforcement?" She asked, starting her lift, if for no other reason than to keep up appearances. She didn't think they were watching her, but it never hurt.
"Grrrwoof!" Luna responded, with a particular whirring in her throat.
"Hmmm...well that explains what they do about the smoke stacks, and it'll give us the opportunity we need." She continued talking through her set, though she was hardly paying attention to it. Truth be told, 70 lbs didn't really phase her all that much anymore.
"I'll have to figure out how to do this...but there's plenty to work with. I doubt this will take anywhere near as long as the first task." She commented to Luna. This got a slight growl out of Luna, one that told Alexa all she needed.
"Danger." It said "Stop talking!" Alexa complied and tapped out a short message in Morse code.
"W-H-O?" She asked.
"C-H-A-D" Luna tapped back.
"Luna, be a dear." She said out loud, setting the bar back on the wrack. "I'm done with my warm up. Can you bump it up by a hundred pounds for me?"
Her canine companion hesitated for an instant before she complied.
"You think you're hot shit, don't you?" Chad asked with a growl, announcing his presence.
"Compared to some." She said lightly. "How's the hand?"
"Fuck you!" He spat.
"Someone's cranky." She said with a dark chuckle, finally turning to look at him. His hand was bundled in a cast, which someone had covered in flames and crossbones. His face was nearly purple with rage.
"You couldn't have just let it go, could you? Do you have any fucking clue what you did?" Chad growled, gripping the fence with his good hand.
"No, and I don't particularly care. You deserved it." Alexa responded bluntly.
"My friends ditched me, I'm a laughing stock, I got my hand broken by a girl-!"
"And now you're down here, bothering the girl whose ass you grabbed, and acting like the spoiled brat you are." Alexa interrupted, not breaking her icy tones in the slightest. "How many of them do you think would actually get mad if I beat you bloody? I think the roid monster on the throne would laugh himself silly if he found out, don't you?"
Chad leaped forward, either forgetting or not caring that there was a fence between them. Alexa grabbed the end of the barbell, ready to really show him how strong she was, but before he could climb up more than a few feet and before she could even start lifting, something else happened; the lights grew dim, a few flickering and plunging sections of the room into darkness. In a blink Marcus emerged from one darkened section directly behind Chad. He grabbed the other boy by the arm and yanked him off the chain link, hurling him to the floor.
"Y-y-you-!" Stammered Chad, staring up at Marcus. Marcus's reflective sunglasses flashed as he tilted his head down to look Chad in the eyes.
"You don't attack prisoners. She hasn't been married off to you or anyone else, you don't have the right to lay a finger on her." Marcus said calmly.
"You can't just-!" Chad started to say, getting to his feet. Marcus took a single step forward. Chad flinched and nearly tumbled back to the floor.
"Leave." Marcus said, and Chad ran. Marcus turned to look at Alexa, who reflexively let go of the barbell. His shoulders relaxed, and he motioned with his head towards the gate.
"Come on, yard time is over. Let's get you back to your cell." Without a word, Alexa complied, allowing her mind to wander over the new information she had received and what it could mean.