Getting his hands on the extra collars wasn't that hard at all. Neither was getting some of the remaining escapees to surrender or voluntarily go back to their cells under threat of getting a collar. Of course the promise of a lesser punishment helped a lot out too with the lower ranks. There were still a few he had to fight or pop a collar on but those hardly took that long.
Any of the guards he passed, conscious or otherwise, he tried to help into a safe area and used some ice here and there to cover badly bleeding wounds. Some of the guards had tried to run the second they saw him. All Danny could do in those situations was hold up his hands and slowly back away and move on to the next corridor.
He had a rough estimate of where Cujo was this whole time as he found a few escapees covered in his drool while he was doing a round. He figured the best way was to work from the outside to the center again in case anybody tried to use the commotion to get to another exit. Danny only found one that got somewhat close but he looked too puny to handle a collar with the new settings so he just froze the escapee's admittingly annoying ass to the wall.
Issues for later.
He made his way around the whole prison, both male and female wings. He mostly had more work on the female wing as there were less signs of Cujo having been there already. Before long he had circled his way back to Waller's area. Most of the prisoners there had been taken care by turning the collars back on. The two big bulky dudes and space suit man weren't there however so he knew he still had to keep looking for them. The big boss man had somehow ended up in Waller's cell but the door was still locked.
Waller had explained that big boss man was mad when the collars turned back on and tried to attack but that Wilcox and Dr. Strange prevented that. Muscle dudes and space suit man then locked them in there and went to figure out what happened. She had ordered him to the laundry area where the two wings have a tinner connected wall than other areas.
Something about an icicle being there?
He wasn't particularly sure what she meant with that but he still went to check it out anyway.
On his way there Danny and Cujo met up. With a bit of guessing work he figured out Cujo had finished his round of the women's wing and they are now headed to the last area to check before giving the all clear signal to the warden. He'd have to find a way to clean out some tufts of hair that seemed to have made its way between the pup's teeth but again, issues for later. He'd probably get away with it as he was doing his job.
Probably.
It didn't take too long to reach the laundry room. The halls felt eerily empty even though Miss Waller had warned him of the unaccounted high ranking inmates. There was somewhat of a familiar staticky cold hint in the air. Definite signs somebody with ice powers had some fun.
Making sure he would have the element of surprise, the two ghostly entities turned invisible as they neared the entrance. Danny tensed as he saw spikes of ice poking out from the doorway.
Definitely some icy shenanigans happened.
He readied himself in a defensive form as he stalked towards the room just up ahead.
At first glance the room felt normal, outside of the clear displays of power prickling in the air. It wasn't until they got to the back of the room where they could see a party had taken place. Fully focused on the two massive muscle dudes trapped in an ice formation in front of him, Danny reached inside of himself where he had stored the extra collars. It's not like he had enough pockets to carry all of them when he first started so it was the easiest storage space he could think of while keeping his hands free.
He really hoped the collars would be enough, not being in the mood to deal with even more cracked up muscle dudes.
Seriously, somebody should get them checked for steroid overuse. This can't be healthy.
Silently he cursed as he pulled out his last remaining few collars.
5
He had 5 left. Hopefully that was enough.
Before he got close enough to the still agitated muscle dudes, Danny nearly tripped over the space suit man's body on the floor. As a quiet string of curses escaped his mouth, he phased in one of the collars into the ice dome the villain had created.
How odd.
But he had bigger and angrier things to worry about.
Now only down to 4 he levitated towards the angry muscle dudes. All their wiggling had managed to create cracks in the ice formation. Surely it wouldn't last long until they'd actually break out.
Remaining invisible, Danny added some of his own ice onto the formation to strengthen it again before swiftly adding collars to the big dudes' necks.
2 left.
Danny shot some ectoplasmic goop over their mouths before the safety shocks kicked in. Big dudes usually screamed quite loud and he wasn't feeling like getting a migraine later. He bent down a little to pet Cujo who had started to lick some of the ice on the floor. No doubt the little pup was thirsty with how much drool he found literally everywhere in the prison.
A loud explosion like cracking noise filled the area.
Danny shot back up on high alert at the sudden noise. Turning to his left he was quite amazed how he had somehow managed to not notice the gigantic hole in the wall.
Oh Miss Waller wasn't going to like that.
He ordered Cujo to remain hidden by the muscle dudes as he creeped closer to the other side of the hole.
To his utter confusion and shock, he found quite a sight.
A muscle lady laid passed out on the floor and a little bit off was a blue lady also unconscious. Seeing as they were already subdued he didn't really feel the need to collar them. Not with the three still very awake inmates in front of him.
Actually, um, make that two?
Danny flickered back onto the visible plain as he watched the drama unfold in front of him.
Buff guy kissed buff girl, but then buff girl turned green? And ginger? At least her color palette matches her well, buff dude could take a note from her book as his bleach blond really doesn't suit his skin tone.
Anyway, then blue ice kid seemed to go into quite a mental breakdown over that whole mess so it seemed ice kid had equally no clue on what was going on as Danny did.
Now he had quite an issue though. With only two collars remaining and three- is green girl even an inmate? She was dressed like one before so maybe some type of shape shifter? He hadn't seen a collar on her so it seems plausible. Best just escort her back as well and let the guards and higher ups handle that administrative mess.
So two collars and three inmates.
The odds are not in his favor it seems.
Considering the muscle people and ice people who were already incapacitated before he got there, the young ghost boy would place a fair wager that it was them who took the others out. Definitely some higher ranking inmates then, especially with a possible shape shifter. They did seem calm and judging from the ice kid's mental turmoil they might not be on the same side anymore. God how he wished he could avoid puberty and never have to deal with girl drama like this.
Teens really are scary when it comes to love and attachments.
Never again.
Danny shook his head as he mentally readied himself for the confrontation.
They seemed rather docile for the moment so the best course of action was to avoid physical confrontations and hope advising them to return to their cells would be enough. He wasn't sure if there were still any other prisoners left so he really couldn't afford wasting his last remaining collars on them.
He looked behind him to where his best friend had moved. Sensing the tenseness from Danny, Cujo had moved to stand slightly behind the boy, still hidden by invisibility. Danny formed a first and gave Cujo the command to remain there for now.
The young ghost boy took a deep breath and tried to relax as best as he could. Best not to seem on edge when wanting to avoid a fight to the best of his abilities.
He cringed inwardly as he cleared his throat in what sounded like the most awkward noise he had made in a long.
"Um, sorry to interrupt but would you mind going back to your cells?"
(a/n my laptop is still broken for the forseeable future but im doing my best to get new chapters out)