Chapter 34: Jailbreak

It was two in the morning, and Alyssa was breaking into prison. 

Not our brightest idea, Amaranth said, but honestly I think we’re doing really well, all things considered! As it turned out, most prisons were not actually designed to prevent infiltration by flying teenage girls. Who knew? It had required some dodging, of course, and a lot of landing on the occasional roof and pressing herself flat against it. 

While Amy – and, by extension, Redshift – wasn’t able to be anything but a crimson red, Alyssa was perfectly capable of blending into the shadows with a dark gray hoodie and matching pants. So they switched back and forth between Redshift and Alyssa as they dodged over the motion sensors and onto the roof of the main building. 

“Honestly,” Alyssa said, “we’re lucky they haven’t moved him to supermax yet.” She laid down. “The question now is how we’re going to find him.” The news hadn’t exactly been quiet about where Arsonal was being kept, but for obvious reasons a little map of the prison with a ‘he is here’ marker would have been a bit much to ask for. Alyssa had assumed she’d figure it out when she got here. 

I have an idea, Amy said. Well, Alyssa was all ears. Quite literally, actually. So you know how your bones are hollow because I hollowed them out like a pumpkin so we can fly?

“Ew, you didn’t have to put it like that, but yes, I’m aware of it,” Aly said. Thanks to the symbiote, she was actually a lot lighter than she’d been before, and something Amy had done to her bone structure had made her tougher anyway. It was like she was made out of some kind of advanced carbon fiber. 

Okay, so I’m thinking, if we use that, we can use vibrations in the hollow cavities to hear what’s going on inside, and maybe even the direction of our guy. 

“And what if he’s quiet?” 

Then we’ll have to go inside and open every door until we find his. 

“Let’s go with plan A first, then,” Alyssa said. “What do I do?”

Put your hands on the roof. Let me do the rest. 

She did as Amaranth asked, and took a deep breath. Slowly exhaling, she felt subtle vibrations through her skin as the symbiote did its thing, opening them both up to the sounds coming from the inside of the prison. It started small, a distant noise that seemed to come from inside of her, but slowly but surely she was able to make out voices and, after a while, individual words. 

There was some shouting, banging on bars. She tried to focus, which was easier since there were two of her, both paying attention, filtering through a lot of information. The whole prison complex worked like a sound chamber. There. A guard. Bragging. 

“–tch your back out there. Without your toys, you ain’t worth much in here, big man. Don’t get too comfortable. You’re spending the rest of your life in the deepest, darkest hole they can find, but don’t worry, that ain’t gonna be all that long.”

“Sure,” came the response, and Alyssa recognized the gruff voice immediately. Alyssa stuck her tongue out in disgust and tried to pin down the direction the conversation was coming from. 

“East block,” she whispered and looked over. There was a building that had been attached not too long ago. It looked very secure. It was also attached to a road, where one could presumably drive up and stow away or retrieve a prisoner without exposing them to the open air or the rest of the prison complex. 

It took Redshift twenty to go over there undetected, and another fifteen to find the right barred window, but she saw him sitting on the bed, arm in a sling. His shaved head was covered in bruises and scratches. Guiltily, she knocked on the window. 

Arsonal, once so intimidating, almost fell of the bed in surprise. She waved at him and pointed at the window. He shrugged indignantly and pointed too, and mouthed something at them. Ah, right. The window didn’t have a latch. That would defeat the purpose somewhat. It was probably reinforced too. 

“Hey, Amaranth?”

Yah? 

“Just how dense could we make, say, a fingertip?”

One way to find out! Amy said, and Redshift stuck out their finger, a fingernail hardening until well past the point of ridiculousness. It glittered slightly in the moonlight.

Very carefully, they drew a circle in the glass big enough for them to climb through, then used the stickiness of their fingers to pop it out. Immediately she could hear Arsonal swearing. “Are you insane?!” he whisper-shouted. “What are you doing? You won’t even fit through the bars!”

With a smirk, Redshift put their face between the two metal rods, and allowed Amaranth to, very carefully, squish their head. This was weird. This was silly. This is fun! Inch by inch, they slipped between the bars and subsequently through the hole in the glass, perching on the edge.

“What,” Arsonal said, “are you doing here? Come to gloat?”

“Yeah,” Redshift said. “That feels in character.” They rolled their eyes. It was only after a second Alyssa realized the effect was severely diminished by the golden film that covered her eyes. “No, I had some questions for you.”

“Then why not come visit me like a normal person?” Arsonal said. 

“Because I’m not a normal person?” Redshift said. “You have to give your ID, they don’t just let you in, you know.” She looked around. “This place is a dump.”

“Thanks,” Arsonal said. He paused for a second. “I’m glad to see you’re doing okay.”

“I’d say the same but you look like crap.” He grimaced up at her. She tried to give him an apologetic smile. “So uh… what’s your name?”

“It wasn’t on the news?” he asked. 

“I haven’t had the time to really watch the news,” they said. “They were too busy picking my spine out of my lungs.” Redshift held up their hand. “I’m fine. We heal pretty good. Question stands, though.”

“Lance,” he said. “Lance Kendrick.” He sat back down. “You?”

“Nice try,” Redshift said, “but I’m not telling you that.” They climbed onto the ceiling of the cell and looked down, hands on their hips. “So, I gotta ask, man. Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you save me? Bring me to the hospital? You could have just walked away and you would have been just fine. Could have continued your roaring rampage of revenge or whatever, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop you.”

He looked up at her, frowned, then relaxed. “Get down here. I’m not going to hurt you. I get the feeling I couldn’t if I tried.” He rested the back of his head against the concrete wall. Redshift gingerly jumped down. “When I saw you without the mask, I couldn’t not do it. You’re someone’s kid, and I just… you got a dad?”

Alyssa paused for a second, then shook her head. “Just Mom.”

“How do you think she’d have dealt with it if someone like me had killed her baby girl?” He saw her expression and nodded. “Exactly. I couldn’t pay that forward. I was prepared to burn this city down but I guess I wasn’t as determined as I thought.”

“Are you seriously beating yourself up for not killing someone?”

“I guess so,” Lance said. 

“Well, I’m still grateful,” she said, then paused. There was a silence that slowly stretched out. She could feel the seconds ticking by. She had more questions but she had a hard time finding the right words. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The words were right there; she just didn’t want to ask them. “You called me a cop,” she said. “You know. Before.”

“I did.”

“What did you mean?”

“I thought you were, I don’t know, some kid from the force with a hardon for ‘justice’. Just another asshole with too much force who thinks you can get more crime fighting done if there isn’t all that red tape in the way. You’re just a kid.”

“Do you know why it’s just Mo– my mother and me?” Alyssa said. He patiently waited for her to continue. Like this, he was still intimidating but in a very different way than he had been before. He didn’t feel like a killer. He felt like someone who had lost everything and was fully resigned to it. “My dad, he, he died in the line of duty.”

“Ah,” Lance said. “That makes sense.”

“No,” Alyssa said, “it doesn’t. My dad was supposed to be a hero but I found out–”

“He wasn’t. Shocker.” He held up his hands when she scoffed. “Sorry, kid. Cops are just a way for the government to punish people for not doing as they’re told. That’s all.”

“To protect and serve–”

“Not their job,” Lance said, interrupting. “Think of it as a hobby. A cop’s job is to intimidate people into obeying the law. And I mean…” he waved. “Look at you. You fell from what, a dozen floors up? And you’re already standing here again. Picked me up like I was nothing. You could kill me, right now, if you wanted to, with one punch. Am I wrong?” 

Alyssa shook her head. “You’re not. Someone else said something similar to me the other day too.” She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. “What do you think I’m supposed to do, then, Lance villain? If my existence is a ‘threat of violence’ or whatever, like a cop, how do I not be one?”

Lance looked around for a moment and then shrugged. “I mean, I did my best.”

“I’m not blowing up city hall,” Alyssa said dryly. “We’re not all pyromaniacs.”

“No, you idiot. Fight the system that got you here or stop trying to be such a big part of it. It’s actually really easy to not be a cop, kid.” He shook his head. It was weird how much Alyssa wanted to make a good impression on him. Lance felt like he would’ve been a good dad, once upon a time.

“My mom said something similar,” Alyssa said quietly.

“Well she sounds like a smart lady. Weird you turned out the way you did.” Alyssa put her hands on her hips, and Lance grinned and leaned forward, one elbow on his knee. “I’m kidding. You seem alright, kid. I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“I’m sorry they hurt you back,” Alyssa said, gesturing at his arm.

“Yeah, well, at the time it felt like I got the better deal out of the two of us.” He squinted at her. “Now, I’m not so sure. Still, this was always a possibility. I’m surprised they didn’t shoot me then and there.”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad they didn’t. Listen, I’m going to go away for a while but this, everything, it doesn’t sit right with me, Kendrick. You’re obviously guilty of what you did but after what you went through. I mean, if something happened to my mom–”

“You could kill a man with one punch. I get it. Listen, you shouldn’t be worrying about someone like me, kid. You’re a teenager. Act like one. Stop playing cop. Enjoy the fact that you can fly. Live. Get a boyfriend or whatever. Do whatever it is stupid teenagers are supposed to do and stop risking your life. Your mother deserves better. Now get out of here, I can hear one of the guards coming and you don’t want to be caught in here.” She listened for a second. There was indeed someone coming down the hall. 

“Listen, Kendrick,” Alyssa said. “I hate saying this to someone who tried to murder-suicide me but… I think you’re right. I’m going to make the world a better place and for what it’s worth? I don’t think people like you are the ones making it worse.”

With a nod, she climbed up to the window, wormed her way through and got out just in time to hear a guard get very surprised about the hole in the window that hadn’t been there before, and a Lance Kendrick lying on his cot with one arm behind his head, smiling at the stars.

Chapter 34: Jailbreak It was two in the morning, and Alyssa was breaking into prison. Not our brightest idea, Amaranth said, but honestly I think we're doing really well, all things considered! As it turned out, most prisons were not actually designed to prevent infiltration by flying teenage girls. Who knew? It had required some dodging, of course, and a lot of landing on the occasional roof and pressing herself flat against it. While Amy and, by extension, Redshift wasn't able to be anything but a crimson red, Alyssa was perfectly capable of blending into the shadows with a dark gray hoodie and matching pants. So they switched back and forth between Redshift and Alyssa as they dodged over the motion sensors and onto the roof of the main building. Honestly, Alyssa said, we're lucky they haven't moved him to supermax yet. She laid down. The question now is how we're going to find him. The news hadn't exactly been quiet about where Arsonal was being kept, but for obvious reasons a little map of the prison with a he is here' marker would have been a bit much to ask for. Alyssa had assumed she'd figure it out when she got here. I have an idea, Amy said. Well, Alyssa was all ears. Quite literally, actually. So you know how your bones are hollow because I hollowed them out like a pumpkin so we can fly? Ew, you didn't have to put it like that, but yes, I'm aware of it, Aly said. Thanks to the symbiote, she was actually a lot lighter than she'd been before, and something Amy had done to her bone structure had made her tougher anyway. It was like she was made out of some kind of advanced carbon fiber. Okay, so I'm thinking, if we use that, we can use vibrations in the hollow cavities to hear what's going on inside, and maybe even the direction of our guy. And what if he's quiet? Then we'll have to go inside and open every door until we find his. Let's go with plan A first, then, Alyssa said. What do I do? Put your hands on the roof. Let me do the rest. She did as Amaranth asked, and took a deep breath. Slowly exhaling, she felt subtle vibrations through her skin as the symbiote did its thing, opening them both up to the sounds coming from the inside of the prison. It started small, a distant noise that seemed to come from inside of her, but slowly but surely she was able to make out voices and, after a while, individual words. There was some shouting, banging on bars. She tried to focus, which was easier since there were two of her, both paying attention, filtering through a lot of information. The whole prison complex worked like a sound chamber. There. A guard. Bragging. tch your back out there. Without your toys, you ain't worth much in here, big man. Don't get too comfortable. You're spending the rest of your life in the deepest, darkest hole they can find, but don't worry, that ain't gonna be all that long. Sure, came the response, and Alyssa recognized the gruff voice immediately. Alyssa stuck her tongue out in disgust and tried to pin down the direction the conversation was coming from. East block, she whispered and looked over. There was a building that had been attached not too long ago. It looked very secure. It was also attached to a road, where one could presumably drive up and stow away or retrieve a prisoner without exposing them to the open air or the rest of the prison complex. It took Redshift twenty to go over there undetected, and another fifteen to find the right barred window, but she saw him sitting on the bed, arm in a sling. His shaved head was covered in bruises and scratches. Guiltily, she knocked on the window. Arsonal, once so intimidating, almost fell of the bed in surprise. She waved at him and pointed at the window. He shrugged indignantly and pointed too, and mouthed something at them. Ah, right. The window didn't have a latch. That would defeat the purpose somewhat. It was probably reinforced too. Hey, Amaranth? Yah? Just how dense could we make, say, a fingertip? One way to find out! Amy said, and Redshift stuck out their finger, a fingernail hardening until well past the point of ridiculousness. It glittered slightly in the moonlight. Very carefully, they drew a circle in the glass big enough for them to climb through, then used the stickiness of their fingers to pop it out. Immediately she could hear Arsonal swearing. Are you insane?! he whisper-shouted. What are you doing? You won't even fit through the bars! With a smirk, Redshift put their face between the two metal rods, and allowed Amaranth to, very carefully, squish their head. This was weird. This was silly. This is fun! Inch by inch, they slipped between the bars and subsequently through the hole in the glass, perching on the edge. What, Arsonal said, are you doing here? Come to gloat? Yeah, Redshift said. That feels in character. They rolled their eyes. It was only after a second Alyssa realized the effect was severely diminished by the golden film that covered her eyes. No, I had some questions for you. Then why not come visit me like a normal person? Arsonal said. Because I'm not a normal person? Redshift said. You have to give your ID, they don't just let you in, you know. She looked around. This place is a dump. Thanks, Arsonal said. He paused for a second. I'm glad to see you're doing okay. I'd say the same but you look like crap. He grimaced up at her. She tried to give him an apologetic smile. So uh what's your name? It wasn't on the news? he asked. I haven't had the time to really watch the news, they said. They were too busy picking my spine out of my lungs. Redshift held up their hand. I'm fine. We heal pretty good. Question stands, though. Lance, he said. Lance Kendrick. He sat back down. You? Nice try, Redshift said, but I'm not telling you that. They climbed onto the ceiling of the cell and looked down, hands on their hips. So, I gotta ask, man. Why? Why what? Why did you save me? Bring me to the hospital? You could have just walked away and you would have been just fine. Could have continued your roaring rampage of revenge or whatever, and I wouldn't have been able to stop you. He looked up at her, frowned, then relaxed. Get down here. I'm not going to hurt you. I get the feeling I couldn't if I tried. He rested the back of his head against the concrete wall. Redshift gingerly jumped down. When I saw you without the mask, I couldn't not do it. You're someone's kid, and I just you got a dad? Alyssa paused for a second, then shook her head. Just Mom. How do you think she'd have dealt with it if someone like me had killed her baby girl? He saw her expression and nodded. Exactly. I couldn't pay that forward. I was prepared to burn this city down but I guess I wasn't as determined as I thought. Are you seriously beating yourself up for not killing someone? I guess so, Lance said. Well, I'm still grateful, she said, then paused. There was a silence that slowly stretched out. She could feel the seconds ticking by. She had more questions but she had a hard time finding the right words. Well, that wasn't exactly true. The words were right there; she just didn't want to ask them. You called me a cop, she said. You know. Before. I did. What did you mean? I thought you were, I don't know, some kid from the force with a hardon for justice'. Just another asshole with too much force who thinks you can get more crime fighting done if there isn't all that red tape in the way. You're just a kid. Do you know why it's just Mo my mother and me? Alyssa said. He patiently waited for her to continue. Like this, he was still intimidating but in a very different way than he had been before. He didn't feel like a killer. He felt like someone who had lost everything and was fully resigned to it. My dad, he, he died in the line of duty. Ah, Lance said. That makes sense. No, Alyssa said, it doesn't. My dad was supposed to be a hero but I found out He wasn't. Shocker. He held up his hands when she scoffed. Sorry, kid. Cops are just a way for the government to punish people for not doing as they're told. That's all. To protect and serve Not their job, Lance said, interrupting. Think of it as a hobby. A cop's job is to intimidate people into obeying the law. And I mean he waved. Look at you. You fell from what, a dozen floors up? And you're already standing here again. Picked me up like I was nothing. You could kill me, right now, if you wanted to, with one punch. Am I wrong? Alyssa shook her head. You're not. Someone else said something similar to me the other day too. She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. What do you think I'm supposed to do, then, Lance villain? If my existence is a threat of violence' or whatever, like a cop, how do I not be one? Lance looked around for a moment and then shrugged. I mean, I did my best. I'm not blowing up city hall, Alyssa said dryly. We're not all pyromaniacs. No, you idiot. Fight the system that got you here or stop trying to be such a big part of it. It's actually really easy to not be a cop, kid. He shook his head. It was weird how much Alyssa wanted to make a good impression on him. Lance felt like he would've been a good dad, once upon a time. My mom said something similar, Alyssa said quietly. Well she sounds like a smart lady. Weird you turned out the way you did. Alyssa put her hands on her hips, and Lance grinned and leaned forward, one elbow on his knee. I'm kidding. You seem alright, kid. I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm sorry they hurt you back, Alyssa said, gesturing at his arm. Yeah, well, at the time it felt like I got the better deal out of the two of us. He squinted at her. Now, I'm not so sure. Still, this was always a possibility. I'm surprised they didn't shoot me then and there. Yeah, well, I'm glad they didn't. Listen, I'm going to go away for a while but this, everything, it doesn't sit right with me, Kendrick. You're obviously guilty of what you did but after what you went through. I mean, if something happened to my mom You could kill a man with one punch. I get it. Listen, you shouldn't be worrying about someone like me, kid. You're a teenager. Act like one. Stop playing cop. Enjoy the fact that you can fly. Live. Get a boyfriend or whatever. Do whatever it is stupid teenagers are supposed to do and stop risking your life. Your mother deserves better. Now get out of here, I can hear one of the guards coming and you don't want to be caught in here. She listened for a second. There was indeed someone coming down the hall. Listen, Kendrick, Alyssa said. I hate saying this to someone who tried to murder-suicide me but I think you're right. I'm going to make the world a better place and for what it's worth? I don't think people like you are the ones making it worse. With a nod, she climbed up to the window, wormed her way through and got out just in time to hear a guard get very surprised about the hole in the window that hadn't been there before, and a Lance Kendrick lying on his cot with one arm behind his head, smiling at the stars.