A few days pass. The weekend arrives. The traffic's current on the state highways rises and falls with rush hours, and with the popularity of certain weekend activities. Kansas, after all, still has state parks...as well as hunting leases, and pits for bonfires. Farther west, there might even be a few dude ranches. Superman has hunted at one of them, in fact. While doing so, he even went the extra mile...by wearing a camouflage version of his hero suit. He also holds the title of being the only big game hunter in Kansas who never needs to wear blaze orange. He still needs to wear cover-scent, though; decades after his first time, he still has a tendency to spook the game with his strange kryptonian scent.
For a certain someone close to Superman, though, this weekend will not be liesurely in nature. In case some of you have already forgotten, a couple of days ago, a few students here were caught with drugs on their person. One of them made quite a scene, too, while getting caught with them...as did the drug dog that cornered him. And naturally, "cornered" would be an over-polite way of summing it up...if not completely irrelevant.
Most is quiet, at Smallville High. The flag doesn't fly. Only a few of the HVAC units vent. The parking lots have more space. Alas, there are a few cars here.
This is Jon's locker. Or rather, it is now. That's about to change. All it's got to do is wait about half an hour...
Down the hall, doors open. Jon's here...on a Saturday. Not to worry; he hasn't been sent to summer school. And he wouldn't be here for that anyway; summer is nine months away. He's just here to clean out his locker. He might as well. His parents know their kid's expulsion, after all, when it comes at them from across the farthest-away state line. Or rather, Lois does; her husband probably sees it coming all the way from Apokolips.
Jon makes his way to his locker. It's still there. It was before he started school here, and still will be when he leaves. Alas, it wasn't used by the same person, as it won't be after Jon empties it. Many teenagers' belongings, it's stored. Many pinup girls, the male students have stored in it. Now, the locker is about to become a new student's problem...although it might have to wait until the beginning of next semester for that to start.
Outside, the cheerleading squad rehearses. Once, for Jon, they made a sight for sore eyes at football games. More than once, Jon would have fantasies of looking up their skirts. Now, alas, he might never see the underside of their panties again...if they even wear underwear. The choice has not yet been made...but at present, Jon is betting the bulk of his stake on his own expulsion from this school.
A combination locker hangs from the latch of his locker. Jon reaches up, undoes the combination, and pulls down on the lock. This'll surely be the last time he does this. Either way, he takes the lock off, and pockets it.
Now, he cleans out his locker...one photo of a bare-naked lady at a time. His father never visited him at school much. Good; his father's x-ray vision would surely cost him the pinup decor within his locker.
From behind, two cheerleaders approach. Mindlessly, Jon's ass faces the both of them. As they approach, they slow. They look at each other, and giggle.
Jon hears them. He stands and faces them.
The girls stand still. They're still smiling. If they're the icy blondes in a Hitchcock thriller, one can't tell. But then, they probably can't either. Poor girls; they probably think that Hitchcock is a sex toy. Come to think of it, Jon probably does, too...
Jon softens himself. He'd rather not make things worse...if he can help it. Alas, he could start manifesting kryptonian powers at any minute. He never has, of course. His little brother's half-kryptonian Schwartz is bigger than his...and that may never change.
He speaks. "You know, on Earth-X," he begins, "there's an old saying. If you laugh out loud, you've got to share the joke." He arches his brows. "Now, aside from the cleavage those uniforms reveal...what delights might you dare share, with a poor guy who you might never see around these hallway corners again?"
They're still grinning. "Aw, nothing," one of them says. "We're just...wondering if you'd, perhaps..."
The other cheerleader laughs. The first one hesitates. Jon places one hand over his own bicep, and drums his fingers, half-mimicking impatience.
"We were wondering," she continues, "if you'd...turn around, bend over, slide down your pants, and show us your butt?"
The other cheerleader makes a lot of noise. Alas, Jon can't tell if she's trying to laugh, cry, scream, or...any, all, or too much more of the above...
The first cheerleader sighs. "Pardon my friend. I keep telling her that she needs therapy, but..."
"Some bimbos can't find their way to the shrink's office, yes, I get it..." Spontaneously, Jon blinks and shakes his head. "Wait, what?!"
"I know it's a lot to ask, but... We just...want to see where that drug dog bit you."
The other cheerleader laughs.
Jon closes his eyes. He struggles to keep them shut. He's not sure...but he thinks the first of his inheritance from his father is on its way into his eye sockets. And he's pretty sure it's not a classic car.
"Uh, Jonathan?" The first cheerleader now sounds concerned. "Are you alright?!"
Jon opens his eyes. They're laser-red. Not to worry, though; they don't discharge...yet.
If the girls were laughing before, they aren't now. Now, they seem terrified. Too bad their panties aren't stuffed with tampons...or maxi-pads.
Jon's next words are in a highly amplified voice. "I'M ONLY GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE." His voice resonates throughout the entire school. Without luck, the vice principal will be summoned. But then, Jon had better keep things short, if not sweet.
The cheerleaders wait around, terrified...like that moment in Shrek, where the ogre-hunters hesitate for a very long time after the first time Shrek roars...
"GET OUT," Jon says, concluding his "thunder-speech."
The two girls scream, and highball back to practice, with their figurative tails tucked between their bare legs. Good thing they don't cause a stampede at cheerleading practice, just by doing what they're doing now. That'd be like Chicken Little all over again. Funny; some people probably wonder why Chicken Little has never been in a Superman comic. It seems, after all, like he'd fit right in.
Jon closes his eyes again, and bends over. More is coming. There's only so much he can do to tame it, now... He knows he must. He'd do his father proud, after all, if he tried more. Alas, trying to wrangle a beast is often like fighting fire with fire; overcorrecting is just as likely to make the problem worse as is not addressing it at all.
Alas, it soon conquers him. Slowly, he stands. He opens his eyes. They're laser-red again...but still very much holding their power.
Nearby, his open locker sits, with its door hanging open. A bag lies beneath it. On the upside, there are no inhalers inside this time. On the downside, it's about to be forgotten and left behind.
Towards a tall brick wall, Jon approaches. He stops before it. His eyes still glow. He's ready for revenge. He's aware of a German shepherd dog, posted to the fences that run around Belle Reeve prison, that needs shanking...and disheartening.
There's a mural on this wall. It's Hollaback-themed. A crown, woven from olive vines, hovers over it all... This was surely an anti-war mural during the Vietnam War... But then, Bloodsport's signature isn't likely beneath this wall's many layers of paint...
Jon's vision becomes a geyser of flame and destruction, as he mows down this wall from his own left to his own right. His left eye leads the charge...although both of his eyes do Heat Wave, Heatstroke, Fire, Firefly, Maj. Force, and Vulcana proud.
The rubble settles. The dust clears. Before Jon, he can see outside. Before him, he sees a barbed-wire fence...and beyond it, nothing but miles and miles of Kansas. He sees the stars up in the skies. He sees miles and miles of Kansas. And he's going to live here until he... Wait; is this a western swing concert, or a quest for revenge?
The path to revenge lies before Jon...just beyond a pile of rubble and a barbed-wire fence. All he's got to do is take the first step...
With the spontaneous speed of Zoom, Jon lights a streak across the great Kansas plains...literally. As he runs, he inadvertently starts a wildfire. In moments like these, he should be even gladder than usual that he's not the one dating Sarah, daughter of the fireman Kyle Cushing. Just as soon as Cushing helps a bunch of unfortunate firemen put out this wildfire, he'd want to invest in a kryptonite shotgun...if only John Henry Irons had an arsenal of them to spare...if he doesn't.
Welcome to Belle Reve Prison. It's a prison of devils and demons. Every now and then, one of them becomes a dark god or a dark angel...with the dark angels being slightly more common.
Aloft and in circles, a pair of thanagarian inmates fly. One of them is Zizz. They've both had their wings clipped...but not to such an extent that they can't fly at all. They wear high-tech restraints that restrict their flight. Otherwise, Zizz would surely escape.
On the prison grounds, surrounded by high walls and monoliths of chain-link, a wooden stage sits. Atop it, method-acting is in progress. There's an inmate named Haas, who once tried to kill the Human Target without knowing who he was. (Human Target, of course, was impersonating his then-client at the time.) Next to Haas, the Film Freak stands, and aids in Haas's performance. Film Freak is a crook whose main gimmick is pretending to be characters from movies. He sure loves his Hitchcock villains. Inquisitive though he is, at least he holds a candle to those bimbo cheerleaders back at Smallville High; he actually knows that Hitchcock isn't a sex toy.
Upstairs, there's a computer room. It controls all of the technology that dampens the inmate's powers/abilities. Modem's cell is as far away from this place as "far" in this prison gets. Voltaic's cell, too, is far from here.
An entire wing of this prison is dedicated to the Suicide Squad. It's often a full house in the big house. If only it wasn't so much easier to become a villain than it is to become a hero...
The Master Jailer isn't here; but a lot of his tech is. In fact, much of his tech has been replicated, and made to secure this prison. The state has finally judged that most prisons are too rusty to keep an escapologist like the Master Jailer in chains...so to speak. Hence, Master Jailer is being kept in an isolated prison in the middle of the Sea of Okhotsk. There, he's often sedated. Just as often, he's put under ice. He's often lucky to get so much as fifteen minutes outside of these constraints.
Chemo's one dozen cells are often being cleaned by the prison janitors. They must be. Most days, it feels like they never get clean. The janitors often fear that there, one day, won't be enough water in the local water tower to keep Chemo's quarters clean. One thing's for certain, though; if Maj. Force ever comes to stay here, odds are he will NOT become Chemo's cellmate.
They've got Cyclotron in a tank of water in one of the dungeons. They've got a mask over his airway. A very precise chemical mixture goes into his airway at all times. If too many explosive gases enter his systems, after all, then whatever security there is here to keep him constrained will get blown to bits, as he makes his escape. Even so, this dungeon is uphill, and near the edge of the grounds, and beneath a mound of soil. This might not be enough to ever keep him from escaping. So far, though, it's worked. Oh yes; and the propane tanks are on the opposite side of the prison grounds.
They've got Heat Wave in a tank of water next to him. He, too, wears a mask around his airway. It, too, is fed a fragile balance of breathable gases. In the old days, Rory was little more dangerous than the flamethrowers he carried with him, as he helped his partner Capt. Cold commit thefts all over Central and Keystone Cities. Now, alas, Rory has become pyrokinetic...like Heatstroke of the Masters of Disaster. What's even worse, Rory now has a very intimate relationship with the Sage Force, one of the four Forces of Nature. (The other three are the Strength, Still, and Speed Forces.) Now, via this, he can literally build things out of pure flame. Or rather, he could...if only Belle Reve would loosen these constraints. Better thing, though, that they don't.
The chemistry lab is in the other room. Here, constraints are made and maintained. This is also the place where Cyclotron's air supply is concocted. Alchemaster's cell is far from this part of the prison.
At a table for one, Snakebite plays cards with himself. He must, if at all. No one wants to play with him. Besides being monstrous-looking, he's also a rabid gambler. He's never played poker with Steven Sharpe...much though many would love to see him try. A few would even pay extra to see Pruitt bite Sharpe's head off.
Upstairs, they've got Leviathan tied up in the top of a tower. (Witz; not Shaw.) Wind tunnel fans spin all around him...and do so constantly. There are also many air vents and turbines in the room's ceiling/roof. Outside of constraints, Witz is hydrokinetic. Hence, the diet this prison has him on follows a "heavy on the bread, light on the water" formula.
Behemoth wanders freely around the prison grounds. He's a Japanese sumo wrestler. Many he shares these grounds with give him his space. They must. Behemoth is no joke...funny though he sometimes looks. On some nights, he and Osita wrestle one another downstairs. The inmates sometimes place bets on these fights; they're just as likely to bet on the sumo wrestler as they are to bet on the lesbian.
Old catacombs run beneath the prison. Many of them are in bad maintenance. Hence, the prison staff has given Weasel a new job to do. They supply him with a back-camera; one that he'll wear like a backpack on his back. Next, they'll send him down into the catacombs to sleuth around. The guards will keep tabs on what he finds, via a video feed.
Today, they'll get a lot more footage than they expect... And only the first part of it will come from Monroe...
They call this place the dog pool. Don't get excited; it's not that kind of pool. It's like a motor pool on a military base...only for dogs. And this one's for guard dogs.
In a garage, a German shepherd sits very still. He's got a new collar, and a new yoke. The yoke is branded with the symbol of Belle Reeve. Or rather, it would...if the staff at Belle Reeve was the imagining type.
One brass buckle later, and the dog has his first leash attached. Teufel's already got a new partner. It didn't take the staff long to assign one to him. Teufel's predecessor got transferred to another prison...as punishment for bonding too much with Aerie. Now, Aerie's constraints have been tightened. They probably shouldn't be out there on the grounds, flying in circles around the prison towers with Zizz...
As part of their first job together, Teufel and his new partner are sent out to the outer fences, to march a patrol. And that, they do. They do several rounds around the outer fence. They pass quite a few pairs of coworkers, while doing so. They send transponder signals to the main tower, via their comms, each time a pair of pairs passes one another.
Far beyond one of these fences, a black cloud rises. It's too small to be cumulonimbus. As a matter of fact...its contents are evaporating a little fast, to be made of water vapor... Good thing, though, it isn't one of those dangerous sulfur clouds from Venus...
This is the high room in the main tower. It's a slight extension of the computer room. It's where the warden works. And the warden, in her ebony majesty, is Amanda Waller...the Wall. As big as her ego is, one would more expect her to work closer to Washington.
Like a statue, she sits in a chair. She holds a newspaper to where it conceals her face. The newspaper's headline has to do with what happened between Teufel and Jon at Smallville High.
Nearby, a coffee cup sits. It's stone cold. It hasn't known black coffee for hours. Alas, Waller's been too distracted to demand a refill. She often is. But then, of course, she once led an SOF agency named ARGUS.
A prison staffer sneaks into the warden's office. Ms. Waller doesn't bother to lower her paper. Before long, her coffee cup is refilled. The staffer makes his exit without making a sound. He leaves the door ajar behind him.
She's soon visited by Rick Flag. He leaves some papers on her desk. He notifies her of a few security issues within the prison's constraints.
He sees the paper. He scoffs, slightly. He asks her if she's seriously put further thought into recruiting Jon Kent.
"I already have one Superman loyal to me," Waller says. "An army of him would be perfect, but..."
Flag scoffs again. "We both know that Gen. Lane's been trying to bring the world that since the day he was born, practically. Decades after the wedding, and I'm still trying to figure out why Lane, in his right mind, would let his daughter marry the Man of Steel."
Waller scoffs. "If I could've gotten my hands on Lane on the day he was born, I'd use him for target practice. Or better yet, I'd roast him in the oven, as if I was a fucking hag."
"Ah," Flag holds up a finger. "But then Lois would never have been born, and Superman would be that much more likely to go rogue, and then it would take more than Cat Grant in a thong to win him back to our cause!"
Waller gives Flag an icy stare. "Look, if you want to go recruit Jon Kent, be my guest. Just don't take it personally if Mrs. Kent tries to murder you for trying to take her firstborn son away from the family farm in Smallville. Whatever the case, it's super obvious that a little more wheat-baling couldn't hurt him right about now; in fact, it might be better for him than any job we'd have for him to do."
Flag scoffs. "His brother Jordan is more qualified for farm work than he is. Unlike his brother, Jordan actually has..."
"Powers, I know. And believe me, I've got more than a few dozen fire extinguishers patrolling the perimeter of the Kent farm as we have this dialectic."
Flag scoffs. "Good thing none of them spend their nights playing Peeping Tom through Lois's master bedroom window."
Three of this office's walls are glass. Through all of them, one can see much of the prison's perimeter. Waller prefers it that way, of course. Too bad she's no actual argus; she could watch the entire prison at the same time...and she'd actually know where all of the world's at-large meta-crooks are, so she could send the manhunters to relieve them of their freedom before they destroy another city...as if it already wasn't bad enough that the Eden Corps specializes in destroying cities...or that the Eden Corps is even better at concealment tactics than the Green Arrow.
That black cloud in the south has gotten bigger. It's also more apparent than before that that cloud's coming from the ground, and not the sky. Also, the humidity is hardly high. As a matter of fact, the weather reports are saying that this is the lowest humidity that this region has had in the past decade.
"Waller? I think there might be a wildfire out there."
Waller scoffs. "Let it burn." She sips her coffee. "As long as it doesn't cause the prison fences to catch fire, I really couldn't give a cheaper shit."
Downstairs, there are holes/shoes. They're often occupied. One would think that as long as someone had a healthy social life, they'd never become a crook. Alas, sometimes social types become crooks. And for these inmates, their social nature can be a distraction from rehabilitation. Hence, Belle Reve has need for these holes/shoes.
Surrounded by an armed escort, Music Meister makes his way to one of them. Not a single MP3 player is on him. And naturally, he doesn't have a smartphone; hence, he can't get Pandora, either.
Up ahead, the guards have custom-made one of the shoes for him. They've added some musical equipment to it. Nothing extensive; just a few LuthorCorp gadgets. Yes; as hard as it sometimes is for Superman to believe, the Luthor family can't afford to spend all of their family company's wealth trying to destroy him. They've got to sell gadgetry that works, too. And this music equipment was made with the Music Meister in mind. Belle Reve need not worry; they'll have no need to clean up after one of Music Meister's petty escape attempts today. As a matter of fact, as far as the current inmates of this prison go, he probably stands the smallest chance of escape within the next three hours.
Outside, the armed escort surrounds the hatchway into the shoe. They make Music Meister walk backwards into the hatch, with his arms up. Once he's inside, they close the hatch, and secure it. Leaving two guards outside the shoe hatch, the rest of the escort resumes their regular duties.
Inside, Music Meister dons a pair of headphones. He turns a mega-record player on and leaves the needle in the center of the record that's on it. On a table nearby, a neo-noir comic book lies. He takes it up, has a seat atop a high stone platform, and chills. Two of his five senses are deeply buried in what he's preoccupied with.
Music Meister doesn't know it yet...but his shoe is about to become the eye of a metaphorical hurricane. And the relative eye wall will NOT be the walls of this shoe.
Outside, some of the inmates play a little baseball. This circle of friendly speedsters includes, but might not always be limited to, Zebra-Man, Cavalier, Reverse-Flash, Exit, Cheetah, Warp, Skorpio, and Henry Bendix.
Cavalier's up to bat. The pitch is on. Hence, Pyle swings the bat, and...
The ball flies high...and lands on the other side of the prison fence. Hence, the naughty speedy brotherhood spends about fifteen minutes trying to get the guards to let them go to the other side of the fence just to retrieve the ball. Alas, too bad there's a minimum education requirement for a job at this prison. And it's not kindergarten.
Over the top of the fence, clouds of smoke drift in. Below, some of the guards stop to fan their faces. Some of the dogs start sneezing, too...
In a flash, Jon appears just outside the southern fence. He's come a long way. One can tell, by his choice of attire. But then, odds are that attire didn't look that way...until he came out here...on foot.
One of the dogs sees Jon...and barks. Not seeing Jon as a threat, his human partner only pats him on the back of the neck, and urges him to move forth.
With hawk eyes, Jon looks across the southern grounds of the prison. His eyes don't rest...until they've spotlighted Teufel's location within the prison. He uses both his kryptonian telescopic vision and his x-ray vision to confirm which dog is Teufel. (Teufel's been genetically engineered, to Baron Blitzkrieg's liking. He's got a black cross tattooed on his heart.) Jon's half-shocked there isn't also a Budweiser or a Busch tattoo on the dog's liver...or both.
Jon raises his arms, grabs a part of the fence, and makes plenty of fireworks. (The fences are electric, of course.) This way, he makes quite an entrance. Jon wouldn't, if he didn't have to. Revenge, after all, prefers stealth...but will blow bugles if it has to.
THIS gets the guards' attention. Keeping their respective dogs close, they form a semicircle around the spot in the fence that Jon's breaking through. The dogs thrash against their leashes. A few break free, drag their leashes forth, pause before the sparks shower, and start barking. They've got virtual Mohawk fur all over their backs. Some of their backs are humped, too.
Teufel, it seems, is one of these dogs. The poor pooch does not yet realize that the trespasser is here for him.
Up in the warden's office, an alarm goes off. One of the computers reveals that there's been a breach in the southern fence. Flag and Waller are both rallied, of course. Waller is quick to reach for the "lockdown football," which she activates.
Just outside the guards' semicircle near the fence, Cavalier and the other baseballing speedsters form a longer and wider semicircle just outside of it. They're interested in what's happening. Most of them also wouldn't mind, if a chance to escape came from this...
The sparks clear. Eyes lit with laser-red light, and with even worse attire than before, Jon emerges from the fence-smoke. He's built a gaping hole in the fence behind him.
"Jon Kent," one of the guards whispers. It's a woman.
Below, Jon hears noise. He lowers his head.
There, he sees them; a phalanx of German shepherds, all barking and baring their fangs. Many of them hop upside down, like superhuman leaping.
Jon doesn't care how many of them there are, of course. He's only here for one. With kryptonian superhuman speed, he slows time down...and double-checks which of their tags belongs to Teufel.
In slow-motion, several of the guards shout at Jon. They tell him to put his hands behind his head and to kiss the ground...or something within such relevance.
With superhuman speed, Jon grabs Teufel by the collar. Teufel doesn't even get a chance to resist.
Before long, he's got Teufel in a headlock. He's got his other hand over the spot in Teufel's chest where his heart is.
All of a sudden, of course, the guards shout less. Nearby, the other guard dogs whimper, tuck their tails between their legs, and go crawling back to their human partners.
"We can make this easy," Jon announces, in a soft voice. "This dog, Teufel Blitzkrieg. He's the one I'm here for. Just let me leave with him. No one else has to get hurt. Just let me go. I'm taking this hellhound with me." He looks around. "And as any fool can see, you clearly have no shortage of guard dogs. Plus, I've been told that in the German States...and I think this includes Kaznia, as well...they breed like COVID."
Some of the guards trade looks. Behind them, some of the speedy inmates trade looks, too. They seem confused that Jon destroyed part of a prison fence just to take one of the guard dogs and run.
"And what, might I ask," one of the guards asks, "do you plan to do with our comrade once you've dragged him away from the outer defenses of this institution? What service could he possibly demand that someone in secondhand clothes with a fire in his eyes would destroy part of our fence just to initiate...when this prison is not without a visitor's center...or communications with the outside world?"
"It's quite simple, really," Jon replies. "This dog nipped me in the butt. And that's no joke! He made me look like a pariah in front of my entire generation! The satellites saw it. In Tamil Nadu, they laugh at me on TV. On Warworld, they want me to fight them. On Apokolips, they want to turn me into a fucking pinata! In Intergang, they want to steal my sperm, and sell it to the highest bidder. In Kaznia..."
"We're sorry, Mr. Kent. You're asking us to give up one of our own. Where you come from, you've never joined the military. You might not even play a team sport..."
"I play high school football, you dickheads! I've fought linemen from Metropolis; many of whom who will surely one day make your precious Behemoth look like a baby macaque playing with Transformers action figures!"
"Well then, you're aware of how it makes an army look bad, when they start trading their brothers-in-arms for one more day of life. This prison's guard might not be a town's police force...or even a nation's military one. But not even we are strangers to the ties that bind. Hence, if you want to kill that dog, you'll have to kill the rest of us, too."
"Part of me wants to. I mean let's face it; your lipstick tattoos are all on the butt of a heartless autocrat named Amanda Waller! ALL OF YOURS! I don't care if you all donate to the Red Cross regularly. I don't care if your wives' cooking has won contests! Anyone who's stupid enough to submit to the Wall, and smile while doing it, deserves the exact same fate I've been plotting against this dirty mangy cur for the past sixty hours! So do yourselves a wise favor, and do not follow me where I plan to put my revenge cleavers to work!"
"Hear us again, half-kryptonian, and with just as much passion as before: take that dog, and you buy the farm!"
"Do you idiots really think I can't?! I LIVE ON A FUCKING FARM!"
"MR. KENT! LET THE DOG GO!"
"FUCKING BITE ME, YOU FILTHY CURS!"
Jon's taken the words right out of Teufel's mouth...or rather, he's taken the fangs from them. Teufel bites Jon while his guard is down. Jon flinches. The dog frees himself, and runs.
Now, the chase is on. Ignoring the fact that he's a biped, Jon barrels past the phalanx of guards and dogs, and chases after Teufel on all-fours. He knocks several guards down, and hurls several dogs across the prison grounds, as he begins this epic chase.
Nearby, the catacombs let out. Weasel crawls from the opening and looks around. The back-cam is still rigged to his back. It won't be for much longer.
From out of nowhere, rage-filled Jon broadsides Weasel. He squeals, as this happens.
The back-cam comes loose. It makes good hangtime, as it rises higher and higher into the air. It reaches the zenith of its rise and comes back down.
By chance, the back-cam lands on Jon's back. Its sapient straps latch themselves all around Jon's secure body. Jon doesn't heed this; he commences the epic chase across Belle Reve's grounds.
In the Music Meister's shoe, Music Meister switches records, on the mega-tocadiscos. The record is one of Ben Smith's. Smith is a red dirt singer. Music Meister switches to his favorite track on the disc, sits back down, and resumes his book-reading.
Via the headphones, he listens and smiles slightly, while listening to one of Smith's best songs, "Shuck n' Jive." It's a cracker of a party song. And it's about to become the de facto music of the epic chase that has begun on the prison grounds.
Upstairs, in the computer room, some guards watch the video feed from the back-cam. It'll be a while, before they all realize that Weasel is no longer the one wearing it.
To start off, Jon chases Teufel in semicircles all over the prison greens. They throw up loose turf, as they do so. They leave more than a few dents in it. By the time this chase is over, one of them will likely have left an actual dent in Harvey Dent. That'd be a shame; he just got the bullet removed from his head.
The dog runs between an opening in a chain-link fence and a chain-link monolith. Jon follows him, of course. They don't damage the monolith...although Jon does have more than a mind...or far less than a mind, rather...to build a hole in it, too...if not knock it down altogether.
All around, inmates in prison uniforms socialize. Behemoth is nowhere to be seen, as isn't Osita. A lot of guards might soon come, though...if they can get here before Teufel and Jon leave. Chances of that, alas, are becoming slimmer by the nanosecond.
The dog runs towards the table, where Haas and Film Freak act. One at a time, they run through a tunnel that runs beneath it. In doing so, they briefly ruin the illusion that Film Freak and Haas are trying to cast.
They run into one of the towers. They run up and down hallways. This prison has many facilities. By the time this chase ends, if it ends, they will both have had a tour of the whole damn prison. This would be amazing; it isn't even a museum yet. Per Degaton and Chronos would probably know if it becomes a museum in the future... Too bad neither lives here.
They run through a cell in which Master Jailer's chains hang, like clotheslines, from the bulkheads. Alas, they aren't very secure. Hence, each becomes harnessed in some of the chains, as they run through the cell.
Dragging the Master Jailer's chains along, Jon continues to chase Zoom Teufel throughout and between Belle Reve's many facilities. They both make noise, as they run. But then, good thing neither one is trying to be stealthy...although Teufel could probably use more of that than he wants.
Behemoth comes out of a bathhouse, wearing nothing but a towel. Zoom Teufel skids to a halt near Behemoth's feet, whimpers, and runs in a different direction.
Jon inadvertently builds holes in several walls. This way, he cuts the power to several spots in the prison. While doing so, several loose power lines become loose cannons...or should one say electrified whips?
Zoom Teufel runs up to the propane tanks and makes a hard turn. Jon does the same, and causes the tanks to explode, sending a signal to the entire prison. If everyone here didn't know a chase was on before, they do now.
Or rather, most of them do. Music Meister still sits in his shoe, listening to his music and reading his comic book, perfectly oblivious to the havoc being wreaked outside.
Now, the chase has come the shoes. The dog and Jon destroy every single wall that goes around every single one.
Several times, they run in circles around the stone platform atop which Music Meister sits. The Meister doesn't notice a thing. The chase doesn't even total his tocadiscos.
Next, the dog runs through the chemistry lab. Many chemicals spill. Many of the staff are knocked down. Somehow, both dog and Jon make it through the havoc without becoming mutated.
They do, however, inadvertently cause the wrong chemicals to go into Cyclotron's and Heat Wave's air supply. This, in turn, causes Cyclotron to explode. As the sleeping inmate inadvertently frees himself, Heat Wave's neighboring water tank cell becomes a by-standing victim; hence, Heat Wave is soon freed as well.
Many more prison walls, Jon inadvertently takes out. His chase of Zoom Teufel is way too passionate. Up ahead, alas, Teufel seems aware of this. He always outruns Jon. Jon keeps chasing.
Up ahead, Snakebite comes out of his cell. Teufel skids to a stop at the monstrous Pruitt's clawed feet. He makes a hard turn, and keeps running. Jon knocks Pruitt down, while continuing to chase Teufel. Pruitt doesn't see what's coming until it's too late.
On the prison grounds, Cyclotron re-constitutes himself from smoke in the air. And by now, there's plenty of that to go around...for the southern fence of the prison has finally been victimized by the wildfire that Jon trailed on his way out here; or rather, the wildfire that he trail-blazed. Even so, it'll only be five minutes before Cyclotron's ready to blow himself up again.
Downstairs, the chase happens among pipelines and plumbing. Jon inadvertently breaks some of them, making geysers and waterfalls as he goes.
Soon, a flood is in progress. In many spots throughout the prison's halls, the floods intermingle with the loose still-sparking power lines.
In a now-destroyed shoe, Music Meister still listens to his music and reads his book. All around him, the flood rises. In addition, the live electricity makes the floods very dangerous to take a dip in. Still, Music Meister doesn't flinch. Still, he remains ignorant of the havoc being wreaked.
What's even worse, there's a culvert nearby that the chase still hasn't taken out. This keeps the dangerous flood from becoming a threat to Music Meister.
Upstairs, a lot of fans stop spinning. Leviathan senses this. He promptly breaks free from his bonds, runs outside the open doorway of his cell, and leaps off a terraced hallway. Far below, the prison his flooding.
Witz splashes down and takes a moment to soak in the source of his power; water, and a lot of it. Once submerged, he becomes it, and follows the floods to freedom through the culverts.
Concerned for the noise and smoke that happen below, Zizz and Aerie both start making way towards the ground...much though they'd rather not leave the sky. It doesn't matter to them that this is the same sky they haven't been able to leave since they got transferred here from a different prison.
Alas, they never make it. Teufel arrives, leaps, mounts Aerie, and starts flying in circles around the towers. Jon, too, arrives. He mounts Zizz, and charges after the fleeing dog. Every time Zizz complains about having Jon on her back, he slaps her ass. She yelps. Whoever knew that a male kryptonian's spanking hand could hurt a thanagarian's female ass so much? Good thing Superman never plays BDSM with Hawkwoman.
In circles, and on wings, the chase continues. And the back-cam on Jon's back catches every nth of it. (No reference to nth metal intended...much though Zizz could use a heap of nth metal to escape by now...)
Onto a pulpit with a ledge, Waller wanders. She stands tall and looks down at all that tumbles around her. The floods expand. A lot of them carry dangerous electric currents. Soon, the inmates will try to escape...if some haven't already.
Hence, Waller opens her football briefcase. There's a computer screen inside. With it, she surfs to a screen that has a big red button on it. The button is shaped like the Superman symbol.
Waller shakes her head. "He's not going to be happy about this," she admits. "But then, since when do I care so much about the fragile ego of a teenage white boy? Lord knows I've known a few from back in high school. And if I could murder most of them with Bloodsport's kryptonite weaponry, you can bet your ass that'd be worth time-travelling for." She hovers her hand over the button and prepares to press it...
Under the ledge, Aerie swoops. Here, Teufel dismounts. He still drags MJ chains behind him.
One of the chains lassos, several times, around Waller's arms. Waller barely gets a chance to swear before she falls down and becomes a human trailer.
She thrashes and swears, as the dog inadvertently drags her along. Waller isn't usually so quick to lose her temper...or at least, not to THAT extent, anyhow.
Soon, they're in her office. The dog runs in circles around it, knocking everything down and destroying it. Meanwhile, Waller becomes partly responsible for the ransacking of her own office.
Jon breaks down a wall and continues to chase Teufel. He's brought MJ chains of his own. Together, they inadvertently spin a spider's web all around the office, all woven from MJ chains.
Soon, they get free. Soon, Teufel runs away. Jon still chases him.
They leave Waller behind. She's been tangled up in the web of MJ chains. She's upside down. The messy floor is about a meter below her.
Among the rubble on the floor, a dartboard lies. Until recently, a black-and-white photo of Deadshot's face was stapled to the surface. Now, it's in ruins. Waller would, at times, throw darts at Deadshot's face in the very little down time she has on her many jobs.
Waller scoffs, despite her predicament. "People have been trying to tell me I should've taken that dartboard down a long time ago..." She tries to shake herself free...but to no avail. "Either way, I'm still going to water-board Mr. Kent's ass...right before I have his old man flogged with a kryptonite whip."
Next, the chase continues in the computer room. Many computers are totaled. They make sparks, as this happens.
Downstairs, Music Meister still listens to his music. He's still oblivious to the mess that's being made all around him. He's listening to "Shuck n' Jive" again. He's almost to the fun part of the song's bridge...
Next, Teufel takes the plunge off a terraced hallway. As usual, Jon is close behind.
Soon, they're both underwater. Soon, they've both made inadvertent contact with a live wire. Down here, they both shake. Meanwhile, as Music Meister listens to his record, Ben Smith sings the fun part of the bridge. Teufel and Jon inadvertently demonstrate the song bridge's spirit, while doing what they must do as a result of the water's and electricity's wrath...
Come on, and shake what you make, what made ya, baby
Gotta shake what you make, what made ya...
You've gotta shake what you make, what made ya, baby
Gotta shake what you make, what made ya...
You've gotta shake what you make, what made ya, baby
Gotta shake what you make, what made ya...
You've gotta shake what you make, what made ya, baby
Gotta shake what you make, what made ya...
Come on, and shake what you make, what made ya, baby
Gotta SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT, SHAKE IT GOOD...!
Well, this causes the back-cam to stop working. But then, it's just as well. It's probably finally to where no one's actually watching the video feed. By now, after all, their time and effort would be better spent sacrificing themselves to make sure the rest of Belle Reve doesn't escape. Lord knows Teufel and Jon have already made it too easy for too many of the inmates...and ex-inmates, as some of them are now.
Voltaic, now made entirely of submarine electricity, swims right past Teufel and Jon. He trades looks at them, smirks, and continues his little quest to the widening escape gates of the prison. They might not be pearly, but to him, and to every escaping inmate of this prison, they're as good as.
Upstairs, Modem has escaped. He finds the wrecked computer room. No sweat, though; if anyone can improvise an escape vehicle, it's Modem. He starts by flipping a few switches...
By doing so, he cuts the power that's electrocuting Teufel and Jon. Now, they can move again. Hence, Jon narrows his eyes. Teufel sees this, swims to safety, wades ashore, and keeps running. Jon surfaces to and gives chase. He's still got the Weasel's back-cam on...but it no longer works. But then, at least he's not a rover on Titan.
Soon, a stampede floods the hallways. Soon, Jon's chase after Teufel joins it. They both outrun everyone within the stampede. They both get trampled on a few times...but not to such an extent that neither can keep running/chasing.
Outside, Cyclotron runs towards the northern fence of the prison. He's armed with a sparkling torch.
Waller sends a fleet of armed drones to take him down. From above, they surround him, and let loose with a barrage of air support.
Cyclotron gets hit a few times...but not enough to fall down. For him, this is the big scene from Remember the Titans. All he's gotta do is leap into the enemy team's end zone. And in this case, that'd be the electric fence at the northern perimeter.
So, he leaps. He spirals through the air, while doing so. All around him, Waller's hellfire rains down. He tosses the torch away, and loses himself in his own acrobatic dive.
Moments before he hits the fence, he sets himself off. All around him, an explosion expands. It takes out the length of the northern fence, and then some. The electricity within the fence...the little left within it whose circuitry hasn't been severed...aids the explosion's expansion.
Soon, it no longer matters. It's like blitzkrieg; only it's an electric prison fence instead of under-armed Allied warriors on the Western Front in WWII. (Blitzkrieg, of course, is what destroyed the French Third Republic.) And that was a shame; at the time, it'd been France's longest-lasting republic. It'd even shamed the Second German Reich...which, ironically, was born from the same war ashes that created both governments. What's even more ironic is that Germany had won that war...and yet, their Kaiser lost his crown about twenty years before France's president lost his...champagne.
Now, the stampedes have been given an outlet. They run out the front door, and no one stops them. A few get gunned down on the way out...but very few stay down, once gunned down.
To the north, portals open. Some open into parallel worlds. Some open into different time periods. Some, even, open into the atmospheres of other planets. The stampeders choose one and run into it.
Hours pass. Soon, the prison grounds are in silent ruins. In several basins, the flood still lingers. Alas, all power has been shut off into the compound. So if anyone else falls into the floodwaters, they won't get electrocuted.
Across the vast plains to the south, air support makes its rounds, and douses the wildfire in water. At least if they run out of water, they can visit Belle Reve. There's more water there than there needs to be.
Near the propane tanks, fires still burn. Much of the flames still smell of propane. That'll become less and less, as the fires consume whatever propane remains...
Heat Wave lies unconscious nearby. Slowly, he wakes. As he does, a portal into the Sage Force opens within the biggest of the propane flames. Within the portal, an apparition of Kayla, Rory's alien girlfriend, appears. She smiles, raises her arm, and makes a summoning gesture to the slowly-waking Rory.
Alchemaster, too, lies nearby. He, too, wakes. He sees the portal, too.
Rory stands, stumbles, and joins the apparition inside the portal. He waits and allows Rischar to join him inside. Behind them, the portal vanishes...as do Kayla, Rory, and Rischar.
Among the shoe's ruins, Music Meister's record starts to reach the end of the needle's range. At long last, Music Meister looks up...and surveys the havoc that's been wreaked in the absence of his guard.
The ruins of Waller's office are right before him. Waller still hangs upside down from the tangled mess of Master Jailer's chains, all around her. At this, Music Meister snickers.
Their eyes meet. Very slowly, Music Meister's smile starts to wilt.
Waller raises a finger...which is actually lowered, due to her upside-down position. "If you lay one foot outside the perimeter of that shoe, I swear I'll add another decade to your sentence."
"As you wish," Music Meister responds, "Woman-Bat!" He giggles.
"That cute comment," she mutters, "has just appended thirty days to your sentence."
On the greens, Jon's finally been caught. An amazon has ensnared him in a kryptonite lasso. On either side of her, both of the Ironses stand, clad in their exosuits, and armed with their respective nine-pound hammers; John Henry and his daughter Natasha. Bloodsport is nowhere to be seen. But then, he wouldn't be. In fact, by now, he'd surely be halfway to Apokolips...if not ALL the way there... Then again, he might find a funner niche on Warworld... Superman sometimes delights at the thought of Bloodsport having a Black Mercy clung to his chest...
Zoom Teufel is nowhere to be seen. He's gotten away...again. Not to worry, though; Jon hasn't given up his quest. He never will. One day, one way or another, that German shepherd WILL become his own sheep's mutton. Jon would prefer Irish stew...if Irish green didn't remind him so much of kryptonite.
Finally free of Master Jailer's chains, Waller circles the scene, and stands before Jon. She faces him. She puts her hands on her hips.
Jon narrows her eyes. With what little energy the kryptonite lasso allows him, he reddens his own eyes, and shoots Waller in the pussy with a laser.
Waller shouts, swears, and hops around, with a pair of panties, and skirt, that are literally on fire. John Henry Irons attends to her, helps put out the red flames, and helps her find her way to one of her own ladies' rooms. With luck, there's a ladies' room in the prison whose walls still stand.
Natasha shakes her head. "You sure hate this dog a lot." She studies him, from behind. "Keep chasing him, and one day, he's going to kill you."
"I don't care," Jon responds. "In every place and respect that I do care about, I'm already dead. I'm just making sure the second grave gets filled."
Natasha only scoffs and shakes her head. "I sure hope Thompkins can save you. We all already know that Quinzel can't. I also wouldn't count on Highfather saving you, either."
Jon scoffs. "Aren't you a little old to still be believing in Jehovah just because mommy wants you to?"
Natasha turns her head, and stabs Jon with an iron look...no pun intended.
Jon heaves a sigh...as much as he can bear, considering the constraints of the kryptonite lasso. "Right. Sorry. I'm not supposed to bring her up...even if she is my mommy too."
At this, Natasha scoffs. Jon...just isn't sure as to whether she's scoffing at the humor of it, or at the drama of the same.