Benefactors

Chapter 17: Prison Break Part 1

August 14, 2025; 0900 HRS

Oh, I didn't forget. The entire day, I was roaming around like a zombie. I couldn't sleep. Couldn't even eat. Agitated? Try furious. I wouldn't even let Ben, my own twin might I add, take a step near me. We trained, a lot. We were nervous. After all, who wouldn't be nervous the day before they fought a small army of twenty trained fighters. Some of which were mutants. 

>>><<<

"Athena Atchie- requesting video call with the following: Natasha and Ben Rocket, Syth Margia, and Thomas Shayer." sounded the television, waking me up from a long, ten hour rest. I stared at it for a good five seconds before answering it. "Call Accepted." 

"Hello everyone." She said, her expression was well... expressionless. Not the usual smile you got every time you saw her. Nope, her face read blank. I felt a pang of regret for the way I insulted her when she told us why Horkos took Chief. We all mumbled our hello's. "I need you all in the Training Hall. You've got to pack beforehand though."

"How come?" Ben asked her. "Unfortunately, many missions have ended in a seperation of the group. I want to make sure you all stay safe in case that may happen." With that, she ended the call and I got up from my bed. I spent the next ten minutes gathering random essentials and stuffing them in my superhero themed backpack that I had hooked on to the front door of the room. 

"Alright, Natasha. I'm packed." Ben said throwing his bag onto my bed. "You're sure? Last time we packed, you forget quite a few essentials." I notified him. "Seriously, you gotta stop coming in here unannounced." Ben peered into his bag for a moment "Okay, so who needs their underwear anyway?" he resolved. "At least you didn't forget the actual bag this time." I snickered. "After the prison. I want to go to our parents."

"I'm not sure. Did you run by that with Athena?" 

"Last I checked, she wasn't our mother and we were adults. 

"With unpredictable powers that SHE is training us to control!" Ben retorted. 

He was right. I was being stupid. Athena's the only reason we weren't sitting on a lab table glitching out with the inability to control our powers.

I thought over this the entire time we went over to the Training Hall. I'm being stupid, stop, just... stop it.

>>><<<

As we trained, Athena showed us one more defense move. We spent until four in the afternoon working on it. It was a simple way to deflect numerous blows from an opponent: Moving aside instead of going straight for an attack. Believable or not, it was quite difficult to move out of the way at the right time. 

Afterwards, we got in our suits, grabbed our bags and headed to the elevator that led to the office building above. Athena was waiting up there for us up there. Once we were up there, I went straight to her. "I'm so sorry for the way I acted towards you the other day." I said, a little uncomfortable as I didn't normally apologize. "I was being stupid." She nodded a thank you and led us out the door. 

1600 HRS

Lockside Prison

This was Lockside. Home of New York's most sinister convicts. The city itself wasn't too nice either. Before the evactuation, you'd see a mugging go on in plain daylight, but wouldn't see anyone to help the victim. Even still, there were theives and killers hiding in the shadows of every abandoned lot, each dark alleyway, and all of the streets. The citizens were cruel to each other. There was racism, discrimination, intolerance everywhere. And the law enforcement? It wasn't the job of Erie County's department, it was the job of the Solo County. The police force was like any other, the only difference was that they dealt with a severly twisted city. They ran low on officers almost everyday. They were lucky to have at least twenty reports by the end of the day.