As I told her the name, my best friend turned to me with a look I couldn’t place.

“Livewire?”

“Tech genius with access to electrical powers, doesn’t it fit so well?”

Her friend sighed as she moved towards the prison.

“...What?! I thought it was pretty good!” Chimera shouted back to her friend.

They both walked side by side as they reached the dock entrance to the prison, a massive thing that held only one cargo ship with supplies on board.

It stretched for a thousand feet, just a bit smaller than the commercial versions, which would normally be another three hundred or five hundred feet in some cases.

It was Meghan that was telling her this as they made their way towards the guards, who by now were radioing the warden no doubt.

“...It’s amazing the kind of salvage you can find on those things, and the containers are usually air tight so whatevers inside is still okay so long as it’s not too damaged. My dad used to help companies deep dive for ones that got destroyed.”

“I’m starting to get why you like building junk so much.”

“It’s just repurposed, those greenie weenies that talk about saving the planet should be thanking me and dad!”

“Halt!”

Chimera and Livewire both turned to the guard, their faces still in mid-arguement.

“You agree, right mr. guard? It’s better to reuse equipment that isn’t broken and repair it if necessary, not simply build new things from new resources, that's just wasteful!”

“Oh come on! Some things are just beyond help, and no amount of ‘refurbishing’ is going to save it, you agree right mr. guard?”

“Mr. Guard?”

“Hello?”

The guard was starting to look nervous, as his head shifted back and forth between the two.

“Uhm… Well, strictly speaking the economy is more hampered by actions that don’t regulate themself to safe growth, and as such, newer ventures, rather than older enterprises, often promote synergy and wellness not just to employees, but to customers and the public as a whole. You can’t simply count on salvage remaining a thing when new advances are made to prevent such disasters, so creating a enterprise out of it is actually more wasteful then simply building something better.”

Both Chimera and Livewire stopped to stare at the man.

“...I was a psychology major with a minor in economics before I came here.”

“Wanted to be a prison psychologist, but they found out about your power and made you a guard?”

“...Am I that obvious?”

Meghan patted his shoulder, “well despite your opinion, which is wrong by the way, I would be happy to utilize your services. I recently developed sentience with my robots and I was thinking they might need someone to help regulate their mental health. Especially my 3D Printer, ‘Printy, guys a total ass.”

The guard put a hand up to his chin, “machine psychology, I don’t think many have dabbled in that field. I will definitely consider it, but you two need to state your business already.”

“That’s fine, we need to speak to the warden anyway, official Hero’s League business.”

“You know, you two look the part, but isn’t she a little young?” the guard pointed at Chimera.

“She’s part of the teen level of supers, so she’s allowed to participate.”

“And you?”

“I’m a freelancer, I go by…” her friend audibly sighed as she said, “Livewire.”

“Oh, that fits, I guess you got some kind of electrical power?”

Livewire nodded, “am I that obvious?”

The guard smiled, “my power allows me to feel out people's emotions and drives. It was why I was made a guard in the first place,”

“Good benefits at least?”

The guard went silent, “I’m not really combat oriented, so no.”

“Damn, this place sucks.”

“I agree.”

A new person with two guards to her right started walking towards them.

The one to the woman’s left looked as though she had seen military action, as her uniform was pristine. The scars and look in her eyes confirmed she had seen action at one point or another.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The one on the woman’s right was a man with a calculating gaze, with a third eye on his head that searched around on it’s own.

Finally the woman in the middle was most obviously the warden, from the uniform to her countenance.

She was already drinking what Chimera assumed was a espresso as she downed the thing in a second.

“Okay, Beckles, report.”

The guard that they were both talking two turned to salute.

“No plans to raid the prison Warden Luna, one teen hero and a freelancer hero here to speak to you.”

“Jiles, any cloakers?”

“None Warden.”

“Mei, what’s your thoughts?”

“The little one’s dangerous, the other is crafty.”

“Really? The child scares you more than the power armor wearing girl?” Jiles, the man with the three eyes sneered at Mei, whose eyes narrowed at the man.

“She does, don’t underestimate her.”

Holy hell, how could she even tell that?

Chimera decided to keep an eye on Mei, the woman must have had some kind of sixth sense or something.

“Alright, let's get this over with.”

The Warden, Luna, turned to face them both.

“My name is Luna Cosgrove, and Blackrock Prison is my charge. This is officers Jiles, Mei, and Beckles. You two have exactly,” she checked a watch on her wrist, “two minutes and thirty two seconds before I hold you both for suspicious activity.”

Chimera moved fast, “we have reason to believe that two scientists will be trying to break out Dr. Pox from his cell and cause a prison break to distract you while they escape. They both have been put under intense suggestion to kill anyone in their path and they both are supers. I have no idea what their power sets are but they must be either here already, or are on their way.”

“How do you know this?”

“I interrogated one of the death children, and they informed me of the plot, we have to move quickly!”

Warden Luna turned to Mei and Beckles, “what are your thoughts?”

Beckles scratched his head, “she definitely believes what she is saying, I can tell that much.”

Mei gazed at Chimera, “she tells the truth, our guests are not acting normal.”

“Guests? They’re here?!”

Warden Luna put a finger to her ear.

“Code Red, I repeat, Code Red, we have supers who are being controlled to release the prisoners. Head for blocks five through ten immediately! Detain Doctors Miguel Santiago and Claire Rose. Do not use lethals, I repeat, do not use lethals!”

Over the radio at Breckles side, Chimera could make out some noise coming through.

“Warden, something’s happened to the visitor room! The whole glass wall melted and the prisoners are escaping through there. Some of the guards are helping them, but I don’t think they're doing it willingly, Marcus wouldn’t work with the bastards that killed his wife!”

“Officers, relay my orders, get moving!”

Luna turned to them, “this is an operation for the Blackrock Watch Guard. While I thank you for the forewarning, I cannot allow even heroes from the League to interfere. Please remain, we will handle this shortly.”

Chimera spoke up, “you can’t handle this kind of threat! I know you have your own supers to help, but this prison break has been in the works for months at least. At least let us deal with Dr. Pox, we can help you!”

Luna didn’t turn to face her, instead she motioned for Breckles to stay, “keep an eye on them, and don’t allow them inside. We can’t risk it, I’m sorry child.”

“My name’s Chimera!”

Chimera shot forward, past the guards and over the walls of the prison.

She felt a field of energy try to slow her down, but with the electromancy that she had gifted to Livewire, the field only buzzed around her skin instead of, well, judging from the bodies of convicts around the yard she just entered, shocked people.

She tapped her ear bud as she heard Livewire come online.

“So, we’re doing this then?”

“Yes, we can’t let them get away, and I have questions for Dr. Pox.”

“This won’t fly with the League Chimera, they’re going to want an answer from you. I thought you wanted to be a hero?”

Chimera pulled from her reservoir of bioenergy, circulating it through her body as she absorbed the static field around her.

The field meant to stop convicts from leaving gave Chimera a boost.

She zipped past the guards as they came around to the yard to detain the convicts.

Many of said convicts were causing riots, and busting open other blocks to let their fellows out.

Some had failed and were already being put back into custody, though many of the convicts laid on the floor with blank stares in their eyes.

Chimera used her friend's power to slide along the bars of the prison, her feet like a skateboard as she rushed past convicts and guards alike.

He’s got to be in the five through ten side, that was what the Warden ordered to guard before the riot started.

Chimera heard a buzz overhead as her friend moved into the prison, following behind her as she shot tazer bolts from a gadget on her wrist.

“Livewire, can you point me in the direction of the blocks the Warden mentioned?”

Her friend flew alongside her as they rode the metal with electromagnitsm.

“The numbers are on the floor, best guess we just find a number and run down?”

“Wait, I have technomancy, find me a console!”

Livewire searched the area until they ran into a guard kiosk, and barreled inside past the bullet proof glass.

Or at least they tried, but the glass proved too much, so they smashed the door aside instead.

“Okay, there!”

The console was connected to the gate system, and on top of that had access to cameras and dossiers for the entire prison.

With a bit of techno-talk, Chimera found who she was looking for.

And it wasn’t looking good.

On the camera of the sixth block, stood two people she didn’t recognize, and two that she did.

The two she didn’t recognize must have been Miguel and Claire, and the other two.

Chimera shivered as she looked at the screen, the memories of her parents' death and the man who killed them flashing in her mind.

There, outside of his cell, was Dr. Tiberius Poxus also known as Dr. Pox.