1.6

Content warnings: violence typical of a fight scene, descriptions of chemical burns and other torture-inflicted wounds, brief mentions of two characters sharing a body (detail below; skip if you prefer surprises)

• A character shoots someone point-blank.

• A character is depicted shackled, upside down, with broken bones and old chemical burns to the face.

• A character is depicted shackled, upside down, with one arm missing. It is implied that the arm was removed to torture her.

• A character briefly mentions they are sharing a body with another character.

~.~

The group headed down to the next floor together. The air was thick with tension, and everyone walked in silence, still processing what Felix had just told them. Rae tried xyr best not to think about it. Xe could sort out xyr feelings later; for now, xe focused on the persistent buzzing inside xyr head that told xem that the group was getting closer and closer to Haku.

Haku’s on the next floor, Rae informed everyone. Morgan seemed to perk up at that—probably because she was excited to punch the bastard in the face.

Wonder what sick tricks the Necromancer thought up to keep that monster contained, Felix muttered.

Monster…? Juli ventured.

Haku is easily one of the most powerful among us, Kai explained. They can bring memories to life. The projection of Haku that led you here—that was a memory-based illusion.

As Kai spoke, the group reached the door at the bottom of the stairwell. Rae worried his bottom lip with his teeth. If Haku was truly as powerful as Kai had just described, then surely their cell would be heavily guarded—and Rae already knew xe was useless in a fight.

Before Rae could properly steel himself, Felix pushed the door open. The first thing that hit Rae was how bright it was. As xyr vision settled, Rae realized that this floor of the prison was extremely simple. There were no hallways, no torture chambers, no biometrically locked prison cells. In fact, there were no guards in sight. Instead, the floor took the form of a single large room with white floor, ceiling, and walls. An orange glass stripe ran horizontally across the wall.

In the center of the room was Haku. Their wrists were chained to the floor and their ankles to the ceiling, as Felix had been.

Karai, Minerva murmured. She ran over to Haku without a second thought and started melting their shackles, and Kai and Felix followed. Juli made no move to help. In fact, all of the mortals lingered awkwardly near the stairwell except Lian, who walked over to Haku with concern in their eyes. As the top two shackles came off, Haku’s eyes fluttered open, and Kai and Felix gently lowered Haku to the ground.

“Hi there,” Lian said softly. The cheer that had permeated their voice on this whole venture was muted, dulled by the reality of the situation. “We’re here to—”

“Asshole!” Morgan yelled. Her voice echoed through the empty space. She stormed over to Haku, cracking her knuckles as she walked. “You fucking—you left us here!”

Haku’s gaze seemed clouded as they looked at Morgan. Their lips twisted into a sardonic smile. The last two shackles melted away. And then, for the second time that night, Haku’s form dissipated in a shower of orange sparks, leaving behind an orb of orange light. The buzzing in Rae’s head stopped.

“Fuck,” Juli breathed. “Was that one a memory, too?”

“No,” Kai replied. He turned to Felix. “You want to take this one?”

“Sure,” Felix said easily. He cupped the orange light in his palms, and for a second, he hesitated. Then, he plunged the orange light into his chest. Immediately, Felix fell to his knees, hunched over in pain, and Minerva knelt next to him, placing a glowing pink hand on his back.

“So that was the real Haku,” Rae intoned.

“Yes.” Kai rose to his feet. “That is what happens when our bodies give out. Our souls persist, and anyone who carries Yaran's curse can then host that soul. Felix has just given Haku a place to rest for the moment, until Haku can regenerate.”

"So Haku will be back,” Morgan grumbled. “With a new, punchable body.” Kai nodded. In the background, Felix rose shakily to his feet with Minerva’s help.

“Are you okay?” Lian asked, taking a step towards Felix. “You don’t look okay.”

“Fine,” Felix said shortly between shaky breaths. “It was just the initial stress of having two souls in one body.”

“This is fucked up,” Dani muttered.

“No shit,” Ilia shot back. “At least you’re not becoming like that. You get to stay nice and mortal and not fucked up.”

“Annnd you don’t?” Juli guessed.

“Mm.” Ilia made a face. “I’ve got Yaran’s curse. It’s only a matter of time before the curse takes hold, and I become immortal, like these—these shitfaces.” Rae filed that tidbit away for later. Xe was curious about how that worked, but now seemed like the wrong time to ask.

"And with that, there's nothing left for us here," Kai concluded. "Stairwell's that way." He pointed to the southeast corner of the room.

The group proceeded down the staircase and to the next floor. No sooner had they exited the stairwell than the ground started to move downward.

Well, that brings us closer to the bottom, at least, Minerva said with a sigh. All right, Team Teleporter, let’s move. She waved to Felix. See ya on the flip side.

Minerva and Kai continued down the stairs with Dani, Juli, Peter, and Joshua in tow, leaving the rest of them to marvel at the room they’d ended up in. It looked like they’d stepped into a medieval action movie. A large stone wall rose up before the group, complete with battlements at evenly spaced intervals. The wall extended to the left and right before curving around on either side to form a giant loop. A glowing purple stripe of glass ran horizontally across the middle of the wall.

Silpa’s in the center of the circle, Felix noted. As soon as he spoke, a hail of arrows came from the nearest battlement, and for a second, Rae thought xe was going to die. Then, Felix raised a hand, and a dome of turquoise light came up over the group. The arrows bounced harmlessly off the shield, and Lian played a “doink!” noise for comedic effect.

Wait, since when could you do that? Rae asked. Xe tried to be diplomatic about it, but a hint of accusation found its way into xyr voice.

I can do a lot of things, Felix said dismissively. And so can Ilia.

Hey, that’s not fair! Ilia argued. I’m not nearly as experienced—or as powerful! I’ve only had my powers for, what, a month?

Well, sure, Felix replied with a shrug. That doesn’t mean you’re not capable. Ilia looked like she wanted to argue, but Karyme cut her off.

Silpa’s cell has a different kind of lock, Karyme interjected. It looks like the key is scattered around this room. We’ll have to find all the pieces and put them together. Felix contemplated this for a second.

Let’s split up, Felix decided. Blades of ice popped out of the soles of his shoes, and ice started to coat the ground at his feet. I’ll run distraction—you five find the key fragments. Before anyone could argue, Felix skated away, yelling taunts at the nearest battlement as he passed by. The hail of arrows stopped.

I’ll shield us if we get attacked, Ilia said miserably, massaging her temples. It’s going to give me a headache, but it’s better than getting speared with a million arrows.

Well, that takes care of one problem, Karyme sighed. But… I think one of the key fragments is at the top of this wall. So we’ll have to find a way up.

…I can take care of that, Morgan said slowly. She didn’t seem too sure of herself, for once. Rae was more than a little surprised himself; he still didn’t know what Morgan’s power was, despite having dreamt about snapshots of her life for years. She did a good job of keeping her cards close to her chest.

Morgan took a deep breath and stepped forward. A stiff wind blew around the group. Rae shivered, hugging xyr arms to xyr chest as the wind began to pick up. And then, before Rae knew what was happening, xe was being thrown into the air by a small tornado.

Rae’s landing at the top of the battlement was a rough one. His body slammed into the floor, and his hands and knees scraped against the stone as he tumbled across the parapet. For a few seconds, Rae let himself lay limply on the ground. Then, with a groan, he sat up slowly, taking stock of the damage. Luckily, he hadn’t sustained any head injuries. Around him, the others were slowly coming to their senses as well. A very stunned guard was standing a few feet away, holding a crossbow.

“...Miss Weir?” the guard said slowly, eyeing Morgan with caution. “Is that you?” Morgan cursed under her breath.

“Carlo.” Morgan drew her pistol. “Get out of the way.” Carlo’s demeanor changed as soon as he saw the weapon.

“Your father would have words for you if he knew you were here,” Carlo said smoothly, pointing his crossbow at Morgan. “And as a super, no less.”

“Shut up,” Morgan snapped. “Put the weapon down. Now.”

“Or what? You wouldn’t shoot me,” Carlo sneered. “The princess would never dirty herself like that.” A bang sounded through the air as Morgan shot the dude in the forehead, point-blank, and his body crumpled to the ground in a bloody heap. Rae flinched.

Princess? Ilia asked, raising an eyebrow.

Not important, Morgan said bluntly. Where’s the stupid key fragment?

Well, Karyme said grimly. I was getting all of my information from the guy you just shot. I have no idea where the fragment is now. We’ll just have to search the old-fashioned way.

As Rae knelt down on hands and knees, searching for the key shard among the stones, xe thought about what the guard—Carlo—had said. Rae knew from xyr dreams that Morgan was an heiress in the Red Scorpions: one of the three big branches of the mafia. He had seen her at fundraising galas and mafia negotiations alike. And if the raw feelings in those memories were anything to go by, he knew that Morgan absolutely hated it.

A twinge of pain shot through Rae’s fingertips as they brushed against a thin piece of jagged plastic, and Rae snapped to attention.

This what we’re looking for? xe asked, holding the fragment up for the others to see.

Looks like it, Karyme replied. Nice find.

Great! Lian said cheerfully. The treasure chest sound effect from the Zelda video game series rang through the air. So, how many of these are left?

I… don’t know, Karyme admitted. Lian seemed to wilt right then and there.

As Rae looked at the fragment in xyr hand, an idea started to form in xyr head.

Karyme, if I attune to this fragment, do you think I’ll be able to switch places with the other fragments? xe asked. If I switched places with the fragments, it would bring all of them directly into your hands. Karyme stared at Rae with a frown on her face, and her eyes glinted purple.

That might work, actually, she said slowly. But you’ll have to be quick unless you want to get shot. Rae gulped. Xe wasn’t sure how quickly xe could use a power that xe hadn’t even been aware of until less than an hour ago, but xe had to try.

Rae attuned to the fragment, and immediately xe felt drawn to four different locations around the room. The buzzing sensation in xyr head was almost intolerable. Xe could already feel a migraine building, but xe ignored it, instead attuning to a pebble at Karyme’s feet.

I’ll be right back. Rae took a deep breath and focused on the first location. There was a popping in xyr ears, and then xe was standing atop another segment of the stone wall, overlooking the room from a different angle. Rae was distantly aware of the surprised shouts of two guards on the battlement, but xe tuned them out, focusing instead on the buzzing in xyr ears, and then with another pop, xe switched places with the pebble, returning to the group.

Karyme jumped back in surprise. Oh! Um, that was fast, she said sheepishly. A glance told Rae that the key fragment had found its way into Karyme’s hands.

Fast is good, Morgan bit back. Do it again, lawyer man. Rae ignored Morgan and rose to his feet, swaying slightly. It was disorienting to teleport so quickly between locations. But if that’s what it took…

Rae grimaced and prepared to repeat the process once more.

~.~

Peter was a little disappointed that there were no guards on this floor. The group had passed through a locker room filled with hazmat suits—which, Kai had assured them, were unnecessary unless they planned to piss off the prisoner on this floor—and now they were in a series of hallways that smelled strongly of disinfectant.

It felt too much like being in a hospital, which was oddly fitting, because Peter’s only experience with the healthcare system involved breaking his friends out of hospitals. This, however, was not nearly as exciting.

In other words, Peter was bored.

“Hey,” Peter said, gesturing towards the red glass stripe along the walls. “What would happen if I broke that?”

“I dunno, why don’t you try it?” Minerva said with a grin. Peter had already materialized a brick and was halfway through throwing it when Kai interjected.

“Please don’t throw that,” Kai deadpanned.

“Why not?” Peter asked, cocking his head to the side. Was the glass dangerous? Special? Now he had to know.

“That glass is a conduit,” Kai explained. “It saps energy from the prisoners and uses that energy to power this place. If you break the conduit before we free the prisoner, you will get a faceful of deadly energy.”

“Oh.” Peter looked from the brick, then to the glass, and back again. Before he could actually throw the brick, though, Dani grabbed his wrist.

“Not. Now.”

Peter weighed his options, and then he decided he’d pissed off Dani enough for the night. He floated the brick into his backpack for later use. He’d just break the glass after they freed the prisoner, then.

“Who are we freeing again?” Juli asked. “And what’s their power?”

“Mateen,” Minerva said curtly. “Xe can control living matter. It’s why there aren’t any guards on this floor.” Peter wondered how far that power went. Could Mateen control bacteria? Individual cells? It would be interesting to find out.

“On that note, what are your powers?” Dani asked with a scowl. “I feel like we should know that before we head into a fight.” Minerva tapped her chin in thought.

“That is a complicated question,” she said finally. “On a base level, Kai can control air, and I can control fire. But we can also do a ton of stuff that isn’t related to either of those things.”

“Like?” Dani pushed.

“Oh, you know!” Minerva grinned and started to count off on her fingers. “Teleportation, telepathy, future sight, shielding, healing… and that’s just scratching the surface!”

“Awesome, you make half of us obsolete just by existing,” Juli said dryly.

Minerva hummed in disagreement. “Your value is more than you know.”

“Well, yeah,” Joshua snapped. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have used us as pawns in your prison break scheme.”

“You’re still not over that?” Peter said pointedly.

“Should I be, lime boy?” Joshua snarled, taking a threatening step towards Peter. “Unlike you, some of us had our lives ruined by our powers. Some of us can’t hide from the Soul Stealers. And some of us actually have people to protect, and we don’t plan on watching them die.”

Peter shrugged. “You got me there.” Joshua was completely wrong about Peter, but Peter was not going to be the one to correct him. It was more fun when people thought they knew Peter, because then it was a surprise when they realized just how wrong they were.

The group walked in silence after that. At some point, the ground began to move upwards, but Peter found it easy to keep walking. After all, the vertigo was much less disorienting than lots of other things, like swinging upside down from the monkey bars, or going a couple days without food, or running with a nasty head wound and blood dripping down his face.

It only took a few more minutes to reach the center of the floor, and when they did, they found a Black man hanging from the ceiling, strung up in much the same way that Haku and Felix were being held. His wrists were twisted at weird ankles—probably broken—and a scar ran down the side of his face (though, Peter reasoned, the scar was a lot older than the other wounds).

As Minerva melted xis shackles, Mateen looked curiously at the group of mortals, and Peter realized, with a start, that the immortal’s eyes were milky white. The surrounding skin looked like it had been burnt by some sort of chemical, too.

“Sooo,” Mateen said awkwardly. “Anyone going to tell me what’s going on?”

"Jailbreak!" Peter said, doing jazz hands for emphasis.

"Oh," Mateen said calmly, as if that explained everything. "I see." Peter decided he liked Mateen. As soon as the shackles were off, Mateen landed on his feet, rubbing his wrists. Then, he frowned. "You didn't free whoever's imprisoned above me," he noted. "Is there a reason why?" Kai averted his gaze.

"We're going to the SEC to disable the teleportation blocker. There's another team that's going to save Ven," Kai explained.

"But, uh, you're free to go free Ven if you want?" Peter offered. "I just want to go fix the teleportation blocker to make up for the flaming limes—you know, so that certain angry pigeons are free to leave.” If Peter focused hard enough, he could hear the sound of Joshua trying to suppress his rage.

Mateen raised an eyebrow. "Flaming limes," he deadpanned. "Oh, how things have changed in the fifty years we've been in prison.”

“No, I’m pretty sure limes still caught on fire fifty years ago,” Peter countered, grinning. Mateen gave Peter a withering look, then turned to Kai and Minerva.

“In any case, I get the gist,” Mateen said grimly. “You came and picked me up on the way for whatever battle is inevitably going to happen in the SEC, yeah?"

Kai nodded. “Quick on the uptake as always. Let’s go, then.”

~.~

Rae couldn’t help but feel a little squeamish as the group approached the prisoner and xe finally got a look at how beat up she was. Black curls fell loosely down her back, framing her dark, dirt-streaked face. Blood dripped down her chin, her left arm was straight up missing, and she seemed to be struggling to breathe. Her ankles were tied to the upper part of two wooden posts with plastic shackles, and her one remaining wrist was chained to the base of the same post, so that she was hanging upside down.

In short, she looked like hell.

Her breathing evened out a little bit as the group approached, and she did her best to fake a smile, but when she spoke to the group, it was in a language that Rae couldn’t understand.

“Um,” Karyme interjected. “You’re speaking Malay, and I think most of us do not, in fact, speak that language.”

“Oh!” The prisoner frowned. “English, yeah?” Karyme nodded. “Sorry! It’s been so long since I spoke to anyone that I guess I just reverted to my first language.” She looked over the group warily. “You’re not here to take off my other arm, are you?”

Rae resented the immortals more than a little for their blackmail and trickery, but hearing that question broke something inside of xem. It was said with the same tone that many of Rae’s clients at the law firm used when he approached them in prison. Rae vehemently shook his head.

“We’re here to rescue you,” Lian responded, their voice gentle. “But, um.” They gestured to the key fragments in Karyme’s hand. Although the group had tried to piece the jagged, irregular shards together, they hadn’t yet managed to solve that particular puzzle.

“I see.” The prisoner laughed bitterly. “Well, it’s no big deal! I’m sure we can figure this one out together. I’m Silpa, by the way.”

At that moment, Felix skated up, and Silpa's expression immediately brightened.

"Felix! Heya there, buddy!" Silpa said with a grin. "It's been a looong time, eh?"

“Um, yeah. Hi, Silpa.” Felix turned to Karyme. “Can I have the key fragments?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be playing distraction?” Karyme asked, hands on her hips.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. The guards are all down,” Felix replied, eyes glinting orange. “Now, the key fragments?” Karyme handed them over with a bit of reluctance, and then Rae watched in awe as Felix easily pieced the shards together, as if he knew exactly where each fragment was supposed to go.

“Nice,” Lian murmured, playing the ‘puzzle solved’ sound from the Zelda series. Rae pinched the bridge of xyr nose. Now really wasn’t the time for jokes, but hey, at least Lian had taste.

"Oooo, you've got Haku with you, huh?" Silpa noted. "That explains a lot."

“Yeah,” Felix said simply, unlocking the plastic shackles around both of Silpa's ankles. “Haku told me how to put the key together.” Felix twisted Silpa around so that she wasn’t doing an awkward backbend, then unlocked the shackle on her wrist.

As soon as the shackles were off, Silpa hopped to her feet. She didn’t look okay—not by a long shot—but her smile was more genuine now, and Rae relaxed a little as xe looked at her.

“I’m surprised you came for me first when Ven’s right above us,” Silpa noted. “Especially since you’ve got Haku and all.”

"I-I'm not sure what you mean by that," Felix said with a frown. “But for now, we should go up. Ven’s waiting.” Silpa nodded.

“All right!” she said, giving a thumbs up with her only hand. “Lead the way!”

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