A prison break?
Something like this had never happened before on The Promise. Not in the past four years, at least. It was something unheard of- unthought of. It was supposed to be
impossible. There was the safe, relatively normal side of The Promise, and then there was that
dark, dangerous side of The Promise. The two were never meant to collide. The Promise's high-security, high-level parahuman threat prison was supposed to be the best in the solar system.
But really, did they never think that this would ever happen? Especially when the place is practically run by parahumans with troubled pasts. Anyone could falsify their way onto the ship under "good intentions". All it would take was one skilled technopath and
viola, you'd have a prison break on your hands. Then again, maybe this is what the government wanted from the beginning? If the parahuman prison was located on the parahuman space boat, the only ones that would be harmed or who would have the best chance at surviving would be the parahumans themselves. This would benefit the government; although they weren't likely to be behind this prison break, it would benefit them if the two parahuman sides aboard finished each other off. There would be less parahumans to deal with, and therefore they would spend less of their budget on The Promise.
These were thoughts that ran through Eli's mind as she quickly put on her running shoes. Whether it was by coincidence or sheer luck, it was Eli's first day off in five days. She'd slept in, had a quiet breakfast with coffee as she watched what little news was broadcasted on The Promise, and had just put on her running clothes to jog towards her parahuman parole officer meeting (technically it was called training) when the alarms began blaring.
Eli wasn't exactly panicked yet. Surely there would be enough security officers loaded with nullifiers and guns to quell the prison break. She hoped that The Promise hadn't been ignorant, and that they had made a plan for emergency situations like this. They had to have at least enough backup nearby to stop a prison break, right?
These thoughts were enough to give Eli the courage to step out of her apartment and head down the single flight of stairs it took to get to the bottom floor. She would head towards the public shelter as fast as she could. Her apartment door wouldn't hold for long if there were prisoners lurking around. It was her best bet for safety. As she was just about to exit her apartment building, her fears were finally realized as she heard a shriek outside. She stood frozen at the door, the milky glass making it impossible to see what was outside.
As Eli squinted in an attempt to see if there were any figures, a dark shadow loomed in front of the glass, and outside of the door she could hear
sniffing. Without a second of hesitation, Eli slowly backed away from the glass while trying not to make a sound or release a breath. The moment she felt she was at a safe distance from the door, she turned and bolted for the stairs. If getting to the public shelter wasn't possible on the ground, Eli knew a few ways to get there on her own.
Eli had just rounded the corner of the second level staircase, she heard the sound of glass breaking from down below. Her heart beat and pace quickened instantly, and she didn't stop until she made it to the roof of the building. She'd snuck away from her building plenty of times this way, either from ex-boyfriends who were waiting outside of her building to see her or from officers here to question her about an incident that had the markings of an illusionist. Apparently being a trickster had its advantages: Advantage #1 being a quick getaway from a potentially life-threatening prisoner, or an awkward breakup.
Eli's building was only three stories high, and fortunately it was connected to a whole line of apartment buildings. She really only had to climb or jump over a few ledges in order to reach the next building, and so on and so forth. She tossed the bat aside. Unfortunately she would need both of her hands to scale the ledges, so her physical protection item could not come with her. It was all up to her abilities if she ran into trouble now. With a huff, Eli turned towards the direction of the shelter and began her familiar trek across the rooftops but at a much faster pace.
It was when she reached the fourth rooftop over that her untrained parkour speed got the best of her. Her foot slipped as it made its landing on a ledge and she tumbled over it, landing with a thud on the other side. She winced, remembering a few drunken nights when something similar happened to her. This fall was nothing but a nuisance until she heard the sound of a door bursting open a few rooftops behind her. She remained still, listening in case the pursuer would find her trail and follow after her. She would be fucked if they did.
A loud grunt was heard from that direction, followed by the clattering of her bat as it was kicked across the roof. Then, in what seemed like one achingly long passage of time, the thing turned and headed back into the building.
Eli released the breath she had been holding in and slowly rose to her feet. Down below her she could hear the sounds of released inmates creating chaos, the shrieks of helpless parahumans whose power meant nothing against the power of a threatening criminal. She grimaced. The government had to have some kind of plan when something like this happened, right?
Right?
By the time Eli reached the closest building to the public shelter, her hope of any security taskforce rushing in to save the day had been squashed like a bug. It had taken ten minutes for Eli to make it there, and she still had to climb down a fire escape and make a run for the building. From the direction that she came, she was facing the back of the building. She would still need to make her way to the front.
The street below was quiet, and she could have sworn that she saw a hovercraft land near the public shelter a few minutes ago. A flicker of hope passed through her. Maybe some reinforcements had arrived? Maybe some ammunition had shown up? ... Maybe it was just someone trying to save their own skin.
Eli closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was just a few hundred feet. She could easily make that within forty seconds.
Forty seconds... Okay. She could do this.
A quickly as she could, Eli climbed her way down the fire escape and in one slick move slid down the ladder to land firmly on the ground. She turned and bolted across the eerily silent street and around the side of the building that held the public shelter. Slowing down as she neared the corner to the front, Eli stopped to peek around the corner before she would make her move into the open square in front of the building.
The sight of security officer Radvi filled Eli with a wave of temporary relief, but before she could make her presence known she saw Radvi raise his gun. Out of nowhere, the gun was knocked from his hand and lodged into the wall by a literal
spike. Eli pressed her back firmly against the wall, trying to think of what to do. She was of no help standing there, and it seemed that Radvi and his partner were the only officers in sight. So much for getting to safety.
After a quick peek around the corner once more, Eli caught a good look at the three inmates as they moved to practically surround the shelter. Their menacing exteriors made the hairs rise on the back of Eli's neck. They were grotesque. They could have come straight out of a horror movie. Why did this have to be the first time Eli had to use her abilities to fight?
She was frozen in her spot, trying to convince herself that she could handle them. That with Radvi there, everything would be okay. It was then that she heard Radvi's usual strong, friendly voice sound small and fearful,
“Stay… calm…” Suddenly, Eli could feel the blood under her skin boil. There was no way that Eli was going to let anything happen to Radvi. He was the only security officer that she'd grown fond of over the years. The only officer that didn't report every moment she spent rebelling against The Promise's rules. He was the one that continued to fuel her hope that The Promise wasn't all that bad. If he was gone, she would surely give up on The Promise's good intentions.
Eli's face hardened, her lips pressed into a thin line.
Let's kick some prisoner ass.Stepping out from behind the corner she walked to stand a few feet to the side of Radvi. She focused her attention on the three disgusting figures in front of her, tapping into their mind's perception of their senses. There were only a few illusions that Eli could use at this moment. She could make an optical illusion, but she would have to think of something that would deter all three of them in a second's amount of time and hope they would be fooled. Or there were the options of messing with their perception of balance or negating one of their senses. If she chose the latter, she would have to quickly decide which of the three she could manipulate at her current strength. Sound, sight, or feeling? Eli had to chose within a matter of seconds, and she decided to go with the one that would have the strongest effect.
As soon as Eli had a strong connection with the three, the inmates would begin to feel the world beneath them ebb and flow like a wave. Up would feel like down, and it would seem as if they were spinning off into space. They would begin to feel dizzy.
Extremely dizzy. The few subjects that have had to undergo this effect reported feeling extremely nauseous, and a few of them threw up because of the feeling. That was simply an experiment; Eli had held back because she was afraid of hurting the volunteered subject. She wondered what would happen now that she wasn't being cautious...
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