IV

Ferris Mercer scanned his card on the wall, the panel turning from restricting crimson to all-clear green, and the white door slid open. He'd exited his office in the Median, the space between the two prisons that together formed the Icebox, and headed to the Powered wing. Once upon a time, under Ferris' predecessor, there had still been two wings to the prison, but one was for women, and the other for men. The women's prison had been smaller than the other. Statistically speaking, there were fewer woman criminals, and of that number, fewer still were bad enough, dangerous enough, to come here. Nearly thirty years ago, this smaller facility was fully renovated to accommodate a new type of criminal, while their first inmate waited for his new life under 24-7 armed guard by two of a new breed of soldier. By Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes.

Morrison and Reyes. Overwatch. One of an equally historic and poetic mind that Mercer did not fancy he possessed might call them the reason the Icebox exists in its current state. The Omnic Crisis, the most exceptional crisis in the history of mankind, called for the most exceptional men to rise and meet it. By some cosmic law, it seemed, warriors equal to the task at hand were created. Suddenly, everything changed. The paradigm of the very world had shifted. There were Oddities now. As if Morrison and Reyes, and the Soldier Enhancement Program, had opened the floodgates for things and people that were heretofore impossible. The world changed, and law changed with it.

The aesthetic of the Icebox's administrative corridors was different than that of the inmates. Where those rooms were sterile white alloy, these were grey mesh and neon blue. The black and blue uniforms of the prison security team almost seemed to blend into it. They walked past Ferris, acknowledging him with a short nod, recognizing his authority.

Ferris scratched his beard, looking at the monitors of the security team. They showed the map of every corridor in the Powered wing, which was impeccably ordered. Powered and criminally insane were a lethally volatile cocktail. A day without some incident, even as small as minor injury, was very uncommon here. But everything today, on all days, was going excellently. The inmates were given their scant meals and amenities without error. This made Ferris nervous, though his angular, austere face never betrayed emotion, anxiety most of all. All the same, he felt the tide of chaos rising, and he was powerless against it.

For a moment he thought, "Maybe just once you're wrong, maybe some of that grey is making it into your brain." And that was the moment he'd been proven right. A red light flashed on the security monitor. His holowatch lit up to match it, displaying a red alert. Complete failure of the system.

Ferris swallowed a lump of panic, forcing it down like a cheap drink. He watched the security monitors over his subordinate's shoulder, waiting for hell to break loose. But it didn't happen. The Oddities were sitting calmly in their cells, as if nothing were happening. Nothing was. Not in this section.

"Show me Non-Powered," said Ferris, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Now."

The girl looked over her shoulder, frizzy, side-shaved hair bouncing stiffly, momentarily confused. He knew her, just not her name. Ferris didn't remember very many people by their name. She looked back at the monitor and tapped a few keys. But then looked back with a more calcified look of befuddlement upon her doll's face.

"I can't," she said. "I'm locked out."

"Put in a clearance request," said Ferris.

"I did," she said. She'd worked here for years, she knew how clearance between the two wings worked. She was too scared to be offended.

Ferris tapped his watch again, stepping away and out of the monitoring station. "All pacification personnel to the-"

The watch fizzled and popped under blue electrical arcs as the display went wild with flashes of red, blue, and plum purple. Ferris ripped the watch off, dropping it. He went back to doll-faced girl's station and hit a button on her keyboard. She pulled her hands back and splayed them beside her head, staring at him.

"Open channel," he said. "All pacification personnel arm yourselves and report to the Median. We have a situation."

He left that room. He pointed to a passing guard, already armed with a hydraulic exo-suit and riot rifle, and said, "With me."

They went together to the exit, where they would cross the Median into the Non-Powered wing, where all the chaos was certainly going on. But they didn't get as far as leaving. Two guards in exos were already there, but turned in their direction.

"One of you with me," Ferris said. But these men did not comply. They leveled their riot rifles at him. Ferris stood like a statue. Was this part of a takeover? He'd selected each of these men and women personally. He'd worked with these two guards for five and six years, respectively. "Explain yourselves," he said.

"I-I think they want you to get back, sir," said one of the guards.

"They?" said Ferris.

"The exos… They're not responding, sir, they're doing this by them-" the suit cocked the rifle threateningly, cutting the guard's words off with a harsh electric hiss. "…By themselves." He finished. "Permission to advise, sir? Back away."

And Ferris did, all the way back into the Powered Wing. The guard he'd pulled from the hall was now wrestling with his exo, having lost control. He still hadn't given up when the exo suddenly stiffened, contorting itself, and its passenger, into distressingly uncomfortable shapes. He turned around to see ten guards who had followed his commands and reported.

"Fall back," Ferris said through gritted teeth. He tapped his naked wrist, remembered what had happened to his watch, "And hand me a comm." One of the soldiers did, unclipping a device from his belt and handing it over. He opened a channel to security and began assessing the situation before he was going to arrive there. "What's going on here?"

"Someone's taken over the non-powered wing," said the voice of the doll-face. "I can't get through."

"Someone's taking over all the exos that transfer to the Non-Powered network too," Ferris said.

"That would explain why one just blinked out," she said. Ferris heard the second half of this through open air and the comm simultaneously, as he stepped back into monitoring.

"Our network is still online and functional," said Ferris, startling doll-face with his sudden appearance. "Why?"

"Right before the Non-Powered wing's systems revolted, there was a full reset of that network that disabled pretty much everything and opened up all the doors."

"So that's why we still have our half up." said Ferris. "Because whoever's doing this, they're not a complete moron. If they reset our network-"

"-the Oddities would get loose. In other news," said doll-face, tapping keys frantically. "my plan's pretty much fucked because of that. Only way I can think to get control back without access to Non-Powered is a full system reset."

"Which would make us complete morons," Ferris squeezed the bridge of his nose. "With a mob of psychotic oddities behind us."

"So we're fucked," said doll-face.

Well and plenty, thought Ferris. The only way he could see getting into Non-Powered was a siege with their every available man, but that would mean killing. Not just the escaped prisoners, but every single guard in an exo. That just wasn't something he was willing to do.

"Fucked for right now, doll-face," he said. "Keep working on it, we'll come up with something."

As he left, he heard her say, "Doll-face? Really?"