[16th September 2010]
[Belle Reve, Terrebone Parish, Louisiana]
Victor Fries was dead, either from the bullets striking veins in his shoulder, or the cracks broken into his faceplate thing. It didn't matter much as our now armed and mostly well band made its way swiftly down the corridor towards the Warden's office. Dead was dead which meant not having to worry about securing him, and I'd deal with fallout from that later on. Because there would no doubt be consequences to this rather fun jaunt assuming I, we, made it out alive.
What's worse Artemis was shaken by it, even if she hid it fairly well from the others, but her mother clearly saw it and I could guess at it from the gestures of the two of them and they way she clutched the bow I'd handed her. The corridor was cold as I found myself taking the lead, technically I was the tank of our brave band of adventurers after all. This was a bad thing of course, because the Cleric, or especially the Wizard, should not be the immediate choice for frontline fighter of any party.
But beggars couldn't be choosers, and right now I was the most survivable and damage resistant of the group...and the only one capable of melee of some sort against now fully powered inmates. Doing my best to arm the others from the mission stock gave us a ranged capacity to injury or kill many...most...of the tougher ones, but there was no guarantee. Especially in enclosed spaces like this where they could close before easy targeting of them and avoiding friendly fire.
I brought my hand up to hold as we approached the Warden's office according to what the guards had indicated and the small sign on the corridor stated. It was also apparently adjacent to the control room for the facility as well, and had its own master control for the inhibitor collars, which right now was proving rather convenient if we could retake it. From the noise inside it was rather clear that the prisoners were not idiots and people inside. People that we couldn't see likely by design of the facility...
Pulling loose a flash-bang from my magic-murder-bag I gestured to those behind me that we'd go for a quick and dirty assault. Time might not be on our side after all. Artemis nodded, pulling one of those electro-shock arrows of hers from the quiver while her mother and Marshal Sandoval readied their enchanted MP5 submachine-gun and M4 shotgun respectively.
I counted down on my fingers to zero before I moved forward as softly as I could manage to the intersection from where the voices emanated. Complaining about what was keeping Freeze evidently, if so they'd be waiting a very long time I guessed pulling the pins with a glance down the other corridor. Nice decor, terrible for trying to sneak through...
"Leave it you never know wh...hey what's that?" echoed down the hallway as I placed the cylindrically designed grenade and rolled it as powerfully but quietly as I could without looking around the corner. Bracing myself against the way I mentally began the mental chant of my next spell as the loud explosive BANG of the flash-bang echoed out along the corridor along with the dust and smoke of the thing for a brief moment. Even as the coughing and groaning reached my ears I was already moving around the corner crouched low, hands in a cutting gesture...
"Sleep!" a simple but rather effective crowd control spell in confined spaces like this. Not that I relied upon it entirely as the other non-lethal weapon of our party was unleashed by Artemis as she danced into position behind me and an arrow flew over my head. There two of them standing at the door, and another staggering around inside the Warden's Office that got taken down by Artemis arrow moments later as I started moving under the Haste spell. Idiots I recognised actually; Stupid Hook Ninja for one, and Mr. Surprisingly Well Recovered Abra-Kadabra.
A Mr. Kadabra...who was shaking his head as if to clear it despite the flash-bang and the magical attack I noted dashing towards them. Seemed those future tech implants of his were trying to shrug off both effects. Hook Ninja and other guy I didn't recognise were down as the world seemed to slow. Abra's arm moved up as my punch came in, blocking a little despite his near blindness, but I moved with the deflection...knee to the groin, and shove into wall face first...
'Bloody but not dead' I noted making sure the three immediate threats were out cold, the glancing behind me to check there. Good, everyone was following directions; the two Marshal's and Artemis's mother taking up covering positions at the intersection as the guard, named Ripley I'd found out from the name tag, dashed towards me alongside Artemis. I nodded, and then pressed forward into the room with all the required controls before the noise attracted the other prisoners.
'Dammit, where's Waller and baldy?' I mentally thought striding into the office and stepping over the unconscious body of...oh I knew this fucker. Doctor Ojo, or Oyo...or something like that...that Robin and the others had captured when we'd been protection detail to Dr. Roquette. Had they already moved Waller? How many of them were free?
I turned to Guard Ripley after a quickly glance around the room "How do we check the situation in the prison? And can we trigger those collars or any other suppression measures?"
She blinked looking around the room then moving over to a wooden banister on the right of the desk "The...the camera's can be shown here..." she started inputting a code as best I could tell into a touch pad and the 'wall coverings' to the right of the desk moved to reveal a rather massive screen with multiple 'channels' from within the prison. Ripley motioned at the desk "...the collar control is over there. We can trigger all of them throughout the facility with the master switch!"
"Good, good we..." something was finally going our way. I glanced up at the screens, just a few minutes and I could try come up some sort of a plan, or even just confirm the Justice League were on the way. Triggering the collars at that moment would disorient the prisoners just as...
Brrraaapppppppp Braaaappppppp Brrraaaapopppp and crackcrackcrackcrackcrack echoed from outside followed by an inhuman roar of pain and loud shouting. Dammit, just dammit. I pull my staff from my robes and readied it as I glanced at the guard "Trigger it, trigger it now!"
Beggars couldn't be choosers in a battle like this I found myself remembering once again as I triggered a Shield spell and stepped up to the doorway and glancing out carefully. Someone was lying on the floor at the end of the far corridor; a big burly dark-skinned man with white hair...dead looked like to me.
Dammit this was just turning into a fucking disaster, possible international incident, and a whole load of other things. Someone though then send a burst of flame our way and I brought up my hand in a blocking motion, stepping out of the doorway to block it going towards the desk with the controls on it.
My hastily thrown up Shield spell in conjunction with the Fireshield [Blue] rendered the attack as merely a pressure that stagger me...for a moment before the flame ended with a scream. I glanced back behind me as everything suddenly fell silent after a few nerve wracking moments that seemed to last an eternity. Guard Ripley had triggered inhibitor collars it seemed, well it had ended this fight and hopefully it had knocked out a number of the attempted escapees.
I took a breath behind my mask then tried to calm and centre myself before speaking "Is everyone okay?"
Words of the affirmative came back in replay, along with the sounds of weapons been reloaded in one or two cases. The senior Marshal, thankful Sandoval the one I knew, strode into the room as he reloaded his own weapon "That's not going to have got them all is it? These three here are all without the collars, and I bet more of them have pulled them off as well!"
I glanced at the screens to confirm what I expected to see...and there were people dropping to ground, but still others moving about seemingly unbothered by the collars activating "No it's not enough, a number must have pulled the things off first chance. Right...can we locate the Warden or Vice-Warden Ms. Ripley?"
She nodded her head frantically motioning at the screens "Yes, their near cell-block 4 here look, their being...oh god that's..." I looked in that direction and there on one screen flowing into other seconds later saw the woman and her subordinates being shoved along by some still active super-powered prisoners. Artemis's voice distracted me as she placed a hand on my shoulder and I glanced back at her.
"Skulls...we've k..." a breath "...we've got to get them freed before they kill them"
I closed my eyes for a moment then reopened them after taking a moment to get my own bearings inside the mask. That was the great thing about full face masks sometimes; it didn't show the stress or confusion. Had to at least appear like you knew what you were doing anyway. This was terrible place, I had a terrible idea and heavens help us with brave young heroes seeking to save the day.
"Against them!" Guard Ripley muttered waving at the screens nervously "...their animals! They'll kill us all and barely even notice!"
"These weapons can hurt'em for once. If we don't move fast they'll kill Warden Waller, or try and use her and the others as a shield to buy time!" Marshal Sandoval snapped back pointing at a camera image, then another, then another "...look their trying to tunnel through the walls here, here and here! If they link up the men's and women's blocks then they'll be uncontrollable! If they get access to the armoury before help arrives it'll be definitely a bloodbath!"
Aaagghhhh. Fuck, so what next oh great god of planning?
Don't split the party!
Multiple objectives! Limited Resources!
How long those collars knock them out for? If they get turned off again what's the turnaround time on rallying?
Not a fucking clue...and cameras here, command and control. Enemy forces split as well, defeat in detail possible...
"We need to do both, can't lose this office and we need to at least try get to the guards before that lot manage to link up..." I motion at the big screen as the seconds ticked. We had probably minutes at best before the remaining active convicts managed to reorganise, or before someone panicked and started killing. Many of them were in for life after all "...so; Artemis, Mrs. Nyugen and Guard Ripley you barricade yourselves here. Rip..."
"Its...Esther, my name's Esther...sorry in case..."
Oh for fucks sake not now
"Esther then. You need to guide myself and the two Marshals here to our objective and warn of income threats. That and get in contact with your bosses and the Justice League and make sure they are able to get into the place supposedly resistant to Superman"
I had doubts it was, but odds are with my luck today it probably bloody was. Artemis...wasn't happy with that idea it seemed "Skulls...you can't do that on your own. You can't just..."
'Stick me on guard duty and run off to face murderous lunatics' my mind added to that start-stop sentence. From the look Paula Nyugen was giving me having her daughter do anything more than stay here, with her, was likely to cause a problem with her. A rather large one in fact; so reason one right there to have heroic teenage teammate guard the communications centre. Reason two of course...was based on the assumption we survived this cluster-fuck.
"Artemis, you need to hold this place and keep the collars active. And one of us to talk to the Team or League if need be. I am trained for a scenario like this. It's the best choice and we don't have time to argue, you can't give out to me later on it if you want"
One prisoner was already definitely dead with my indirect help and advice, and another probably was with weapons I'd supplied. This was not going to be pretty in regards the rather strict 'Do not Kill' rules of the Justice League...and I couldn't see any other result of attempting a rescue operation than dead bodies. Mostly put there by me if the threat was too great from a convict...which was likely most of them here. So what I'd told her was technically true...I was part of the suppression force for Portlaoise Prison...which was nothing close to the scum held here. It's just I'd never mentioned lethal measures were authorised to the ERU and ARW, and me, above certain thresholds - Like now for instance.
"Skulls I should..."
I squeezed her shoulder "Artemis listen to me. You're a hero. Never, ever, doubt that. But as the song goes 'this ain't no place for no hero. This ain't no place for no better man' and this is going to get messy. I'm legally authorised to take this risk..." and the heat afterwards "...you and your mother quite simply are not. Keep this room secure till help arrives or we get back. Trust me on this, please"
She nodded looking unhappy as she turned her head away, and I glanced at the Marshals who were armed and ready to move "Okay...you ever wanted to be invisible gentlemen?"
Time to roll the dice again and face the music whatever way they fell...
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