"Lunchtime!" a guard outside Stella's holding cell shouted.
Right on cue, a silver tray was pushed through a slit in the heavy, metal door. It clanked as it fell onto the shelf welded into beneath the opening. A juice box, a packet of saltine crackers, and a plain ham and cheese sandwich were the meal of the day.
She crinkled her nose at it.
"Gee, thanks..."
It had only been two days since they threw her in a cell in the basement of The Acropolis, but she was already losing her mind.
After she woke up from whatever General North drugged her with, she woke up on cold, hard cement. Walls of the same material boxed her in, forming her prison. There were no windows, no screens, no nothing. Just a cot, a primitive-looking toilet, a small sink, and the door. They hadn't even given her a blanket to sleep with.
She wasn't sure what the general hit her with. Whatever it was had the power to nullify her abilities within seconds. As far as she was aware, Atlas only had Prime-nullifying cuffs at their disposal—devices they often used to subdue Primes in their custody. No one told her they had access to a serum capable of the same thing.
Then again, they didn't tell her a lot of things.
While she might've been a senior agent within Atlas, General North loved to keep her in the dark. She thought the man was trustworthy. Honest. He was a decorated United States general—a representative of their nation's ideals and values.
He was the exact opposite.
He was power-hungry. Lawless. The government could no longer be trusted, and neither could he. She learned that lesson the hard way. All along, Chase and the others had been right. They were right about President Crane. They were right about the PRA. She should've listened to them. She should've left with them.
But she didn't. Her naivety wouldn't let her.
Sitting alone in that barren room gave her plenty of time to think about where she went wrong. To think about all the decisions that led her to this point in her life.
As she angrily ripped open the plastic bag holding her sandwich, she made a breakthrough. She finally knew what her biggest flaw was.
She trusted people too much. Her heart was too pure. It had never been a problem before. She used it to help people, to make the world a better place. That was why she stayed at Atlas. Even with the problems the PRA brought with it, she knew remaining there would give her the chance to help people.
But, over the last three years, she had barely carried out any missions centered purely around saving civilians. She couldn't remember the last time General North deployed her in the field to not fight someone. When he made her leader of the team, she thought she earned the title. Now she knew she was just his puppet.
Her nostrils flared. Tears of anger welled in her eyes.
He had taken advantage of her kindness. Of her accepting nature. She never asked enough questions, always assuming the powers that be were to be heralded and their rules to be respected. When she finally did start asking questions, it was already too late.
She dug her fingernails into the stiff material of her cot.
"I can't believe this," she grumbled while taking a bite out of her sandwich.
The guards hadn't let her shower since they threw her in the cell. Her prison outfit—which was a dull, navy blue jumpsuit—was beginning to give off a smell. Her eyes cut to the door, her lip curling.
I need to get out of here.
Escaping was practically impossible, though. Even if she did somehow make it out of her cell, and that was a huge if, she would then have to make it out of the facility. The place was crawling with agents—and Primes.
Her eyes widened.
Did the others know what happened to her? She disappeared without a trace for two days. Two whole days. Surely they had been asking questions. What had General North told them?
Anger bubbled within her like a concoction in a witch's cauldron.
He was undoubtedly spreading lies about her. If she tried to escape, there was a chance he would send them after her. She wouldn't be able to take them. Not on her own. Her eyes flickered to the wall beside her.
The Primes she captured in the forest a few days ago were housed on either side of her. They were scheduled to be transported to The Vault in just a few hours. A frown stained her lips. They weren't her enemy—General North was.
She couldn't believe she let him control her for so long.
"I need to get out of here."
The only problem was she didn't know how to begin.
She glanced at the twin metal bands wrapped around her wrists. A thin, blue light wrapped around the silver cuffs. As long as those were on, she wouldn't have access to her abilities. They could only be unlocked via the device that controlled them; every guard had one on their person. If she was going to escape the cell, it would be without her powers.
An exasperated sigh left her lips.
Think, Stella, think.
Her eyes scanned the cell. She racked her brain for what felt like hours as she tried to devise a plan. Standing up from her cot, she clasped her hands behind her back and began pacing around the small room.
C'mon...c'mon...
As she continued pacing, she heard footsteps passing the other cells outside. They were steadily approaching her door. She scrambled over to the slit in her door and pushed it open. Kneeling in front of it, she called out to the guard.
Through the small opening, she could see them walking toward her.
Her eyes lit up.
She recognized the guard. His name was Dennis.
"Hey!" she hissed at him.
Scratching his head, he reluctantly made his way over to her. He kept a hand on the baton strapped to his hip, a cautious expression on his face.
"What?"
She flashed a smile at him. In normal circumstances, her charm would've been enough to win anybody over. But with her hair looking like a tangled rat's nest and her face in desperate need of a wash, she was sure her seducing skills were at an all-time low. Still, there was no harm in trying.
"Do you think you could loosen these cuffs?" She fluttered her eyelashes at him. "They're starting to chafe around my wrists."
He shook his head. "No can do, Starchild. I've been told not to open this door under any circumstances."
She pursed her lips. "C'mon, it'll just be for a second." She smiled at him again. "It's not like I can break out of here. Even if you were to open the door, where would I go? Even I can't take down a dozen of you guys on my own." An idea popped into her head. "Actually, you don't even need to open the door."
Dennis lifted a brow.
She pushed her hands through the slit in the door. They barely fit through the narrow opening. Presenting her wrists to him, she waited for him to get closer to the door.
He eyed her with an air of caution for a few moments before approaching. His hand reached into his pocket and retrieved the electromagnetic key for the cuffs. Stella's eyes lit up.
Just a little closer...
As he prepared to loosen the bands around her wrists, another set of footsteps approached them. Dennis cleared his throat and moved away from the door, his head turning toward the newcomer.
Stella sunk beneath the door and buried her face in her hands. She resisted the urge to scream.
So close.
"Dr. Johansson," Dennis stammered. "Er, what are you doing down here."
"Just checking on a few of my subjects," the doctor answered.
Stella's ears perked up. Dr. Johansson? What was she doing back at The Acropolis? The last time she saw the woman, she was at the research facility in California fixing up Orion.
Dr. Johansson approached Stella's cell. She crouched in front of the opened slit in the door and chuckled. "How unfortunate to see you in here. Though, I cannot say I am surprised."
She rose to her feet and sneered at her. "What do you want?"
"That doesn't concern you."
Stella squinted at her.
"That explosion did quite a number on Orion," the doctor continued. "His body almost didn't survive. But while trying to save him, I realized something. He could be improved. He wasn't quite the finished product yet." Her gaze shifted over to the cell behind her. It was Cassie Black's.
Stella frowned at the woman. She thought back to when she and General North first explained Project Orion to her. Her eyes widened.
"The new additions you brought to the facility," Dr. Johansson began, "some of them are quite promising. Especially Ms. Black."
Stella shot up to her feet and jabbed a finger through the slit in her door. "I don't know what sick experiment you're planning, but you're not touching that girl."
"And you're going to stop me?"
She fell silent. The woman had a point. She couldn't do anything from inside a cage.
Smiling, Dr. Johansson turned to the guard beside her. "Have them open door thirteen."
"Y-Yes, ma'am." He brought his walkie-talkie to his lips and barked an order into it.
Moments later, the electromagnetic lock keeping Cassie's cell door shut disengaged. The door swung open. Bright, artificial light from the ceiling poured into the cell. Stella could see the girl sitting cross-legged in the shadows. Her face was sullen, and her cheeks were sunken in a bit.
Dressed in her typical white lab coat, the blonde-haired woman moved toward the girl. Cassie instinctively lifted her head and flinched away from her.
"Get away from her!" Stella shouted.
The doctor ignored her. Instead, she extended a hand toward Cassie.
"You remember me, little one?"
Cassie answered with a seething glare. She remembered.
Stella remained behind her door, her jaw clenched. She wanted to activate her star mode and burst through the cell, but she couldn't. The cuffs around her wrists wouldn't let her. She was helpless and powerless. She hated it.
"You are the key to unlocking unlimited power," Dr. Johansson told Cassie. "You are going to help me. Understand?"
The girl shook her head vehemently.
Stella could see the doctor struggling to maintain her sweet tone and neutral expression.
Huffing, the woman turned to Dennis. "Bring her with me to the central lab. And be careful. Even with the nullifiers, she's dangerous."
"Yes ma'am."
The guard grabbed Cassie by the arm and practically dragged her out of the cell. She struggled and thrashed against his hold but couldn't pry herself free. As Dennis pulled her down the hall after Dr. Johansson, the other captive Primes shouted at him. He paid them no mind.
Stella shouted at him too. She tried saying any and everything to get him to stop.
But he didn't listen.
Soon, he and Dr. Johansson disappeared past a pair of sliding doors, taking the poor girl with him.
Stella's face burned with rage. Angry tears welled in her eyes and threatened to spill down her cheeks. Letting out a guttural scream, she whipped around and punched the stone wall. Pain rippled through her wrist, but she was too angry to care.
Cradling her arm, she glared at the door keeping her sealed away.
"I need to get out of here."
#
Stella spent the last few hours trying to devise another plan to escape. Every idea she came up with met the same fate as the previous. There was no way out of the cell as long as those cuffs were on her wrists. And there was no way she was going to convince a guard to take them off.
She was trapped.
As she continued pacing around the small room, she heard the person in the cell to her left chuckle lowly. With her lips pursed, she glared at the wall.
"What're you laughing at?"
"It's just ironic that you ended up here with the rest of us."
Stella recognized the voice. It was Kai—the hydrokinetic from Hawaii and Emily's girlfriend.
"Tell me about it," she grumbled. The irony hadn't been lost on her.
"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I realized a few things. Things I should've figured out a long time ago." Stella slid a hand down her face. Then she sighed. "You guys were right. Chase was right. Once the PRA was signed and Director Shaw left Atlas, it could no longer be trusted. I was blind to what Atlas was becoming by what it should've been. I should've listened to you." She took a seat on the edge of her cot and hung her head. "I'm sorry."
Kai didn't say anything for a few long, excruciating moments. Finally, she spoke again.
"I forgive you."
Stella lifted her head. "You do?"
"You were just doing what you thought was right," Kai elaborated. "That's all you've ever tried to do. I know everyone teases you for being a goody-two shoes, but you're the purest of all of us. Everyone secretly wishes they were as good as you. You're one of the best people I know. You put others before yourself at all times, no matter what."
Stella wiped the tears from her eyes before they could fall. Sniffling, she let herself smile.
"Thank you, Kai. Honestly, you have no idea what those words mean to me."
"You're welcome. And, for the record, I never took anything you did over the last five years personally. Even when you captured us. You were just doing your job."
In the cell to her right, someone snorted.
"She didn't," they began, "but I sure as hell did."
It was Danai. Like Kai, she was a member of the second wave of Primes inducted into Atlas' Prime Task Force all those years ago.
"I'm sorry for it all," Stella told her. "You have every reason to hate me."
"I don't hate you," Danai clarified. "I wanted to, but Kai's right. You were just doing your job."
Stella shook her head. "I want to make it right. I have to make it right. For everyone."
The other girl laughed. "And how're you going to do that? In case you forgot, we're all stuck in these cells."
"I don't know, but I'm going to do it."
"You're wasting your energy."
"I can't just sit around doing nothing for who knows who long," she argued.
"Oh, we won't be here for long," Kai countered.
Stella tilted her head. "Huh?"
"You didn't hear? We're being moved soon," the girl said. "They're shipping us to The Vault. Surely you knew about that."
She cursed under her breath. How could she have forgotten? Atlas had scheduled for the captured Primes to be relocated to The Vault today. Despite being in her cell for two days, she hadn't quite considered herself to be one of them yet.
General North surely was sending her with them. There was no doubt about it.
A lump formed in her throat. In just a few hours, she'd be sealed away in the world's most secure prison, destined to never see the world again. The mere thought of being stuck in the supermax prison for Primes made her want to vomit. Her vision swam for a split second as she tried to process it all.
"Calm down," Kai urged, her voice soft and soothing like always. "I can hear you hyperventilating from here."
Stella's hands flew to her head. "I can't let them send me away. I have to save Cassie." She stopped. "I have to stop Dr. Johansson."
"Yeah?" the person in the cell to her right said. "Good luck with that."
It was Danai.
"There's nothing we can do from in here," she continued. "Might as well relax until it's time to go."
A look of bewilderment settled onto Stella's face. "Relax? Are you kidding me? How do you expect me to relax? You don't know what I know. Dr. Johansson....General North...they're planning something horrible."
Both girls on either side of her paused for a moment.
Eventually, Danai asked the question first.
"What are they planning?"
"They're building an army," she told them, her voice trembling. "They're going to replace us with it. I don't know what they plan on doing with us after, but I imagine it can't be good."
"An army..." Kai stammered as she tried to speak. "Wait, you mean an army of those super Primes? Like the one who helped capture us?"
"Exactly," Stella said. "And if Dr. Johansson succeeds with whatever she's doing with Cassie, they'll be even stronger than him."
Danai cursed. "That's not good."
"We can't let them do this."
"There's nothing we can do from here," Kai said. Stella could hear the defeat in her words. "We're useless in these cages."
The girl was right. They were useless while locked away in their cells.
Luckily for them, they wouldn't be in them for much longer.
Stella's eyes lit up. A wry smile played on her lips. "We're being moved today, right?"
"Yeah," Danai answered. "So?"
"So," she continued, "we'll be out of here. We'll be out in the open. If we can cause some sort of distraction, maybe we can get out of these cuffs and do something."
"That's a big if, Stella," Kai pointed out.
"We have to try something."
The two other girls paused again.
"Alright," Danai began. "What's your plan?"
She hadn't thought that far ahead. Kai had made a good point. Getting out of their cuffs wasn't going to be easy. It was nearly impossible. Atlas would have a high-security detail on them while moving them from their cells to the hangar. Guards would be crawling all over the compound. Escaping would take a team effort—and even then it wasn't a guarantee.
Yet, it was their best bet at avoiding a lifetime sentence in The Vault. Once they were out of their cells, they would have more freedom to cause some sort of commotion before they were stuffed in a jet and shipped off to prison.
They needed a plan. And a damn good one.
Stella wasn't the best strategist, but her years of experience leading her team had prepared her for this moment. Drawing in a deep breath, she nodded to herself.
You got this.
She exhaled.
"Alright," she started, "here's what I got."