Omega

by Riley Tune

  The entire office was created to look like the inside of a wooden building. Several rifles were resting on mounts on the wall. A large grandfather clock stood beside what appeared to be a holding cell in the back of the office, and one wall was covered in papers that resembled wanted posters. If Hunter had any doubts about his sheriff theory, what Commander Lopez did next washed that away.

  Commander Lopez stood behind a large wooden desk and motioned for them to sit down. Then he removed the golden star badge from the desk and pinned it to the outer part of his suit jacket. Hunter found it funny that the Commander acted as if this was a normal office.

  “Commander this is all well and good but I need to see Z. To make sense of all this before any decisions are made.” Flex said as he stood. Hunter looked at him from his seat and wondered if he should stand up too. “Calm down.” Commander Lopez said. “I haven’t made any decisions yet. Nor have I made any calls to the powers that be.”

  Flex took a deep breath and finally sat down. He knew what usually came next when a prisoner killed another. There would be no trial. No questions. No remains. Just a call to I.C.E and then an empty cell. It would be as if his sister had never been there. He couldn’t let that happen to her, even if she deserved it. Flex rested his face in his hands for a second as he thought about the conversation he was going to have to have with his parents later on about all of this.

  “Naturally, we want to know how she was able to use her abilities. I know you come from purestock, but still, it shouldn’t have been possible. That combined with the throne she sits on here has made the other prisoners begin to rebel.” The Commander paused as he placed two folders on the table.

  “Throne?” Hunter asked as Flex eyed the folders. “While she is young, Ms. Greene is the only Icon here that has the title of Lord Killer.” Hunter raised a brow. “It’s a title created by the prisoners here. It’s what many of them inspire to be. Reserved for any that would be able to kill an Imperial Lord. Up until Ms. Greene, it was just that, a title. Nobody had done it before, but now that she has, she has a bit of a rep. A rep that comes with followers, flunkies, and even lieutenants.” Flex adjusted in his chair.

  “So, Z is a top dog in here is what you’re saying?” “The top dog,” the Commander replied. “I just want you to know that the person you are coming to see today, isn’t the person you’ve been visiting.” Flex couldn’t help but think that the person he had been visiting wasn’t the sister he had known. She wasn’t the girl that grew up looking up to him, as he helped her control her darker side. She wasn’t the same girl that loved rap music and working out.

  Then he thought, maybe she never was any of that. That could have been the pills keeping her demons hidden from the world. Now that she didn’t have them, her true self was finally coming out. “Why me, though?” Hunter asked. His question ripped Flex from his own memories.

  “We don’t know,” The Commander said. “She just requested for both of you. Normally we don’t bend to a prisoner's will. Heck, their request means less to me than a hobo’s spit. I only gave in to her, because.” “You want us to figure out how she did it,” Flex said at last. “Bingo,” the Commander replied. “We already interviewed her lieutenants. They naturally aren’t talking. No surprise there.”

  The Commander finally opened the folders on the table. He pointed to the first file as Hunter and Flex looked to it. “Betsy Baker. Better known as Betty Boom Boom.” The picture of a young girl looked back at them. Hunter was surprised a prisoner could look so tamed in a mugshot. Not only that, but she looked so young. Her round face and short hair looked almost comical to him.

  “She looks like a kid from the Disney channel,” Hunter replied. “She’s not, though,” Flex said as he read the file. “Betty, or triple B as she is called throughout the prison,” the Commander said, “can create baseball- sized explosive balls of energy. The ball is always the same size, but she can manipulate how big the explosion is. She killed around twenty people in seven states before she was captured.” Hunter didn’t feel impressed.

  He was shocked at the crimes, sure. He hadn’t expected such a face to belong to such a killer. But her power wasn’t that impressive. Then again, unimpressive powers, while they couldn’t make you a hero of legend, could easily make you a villain that the normal community would fear.

  “And this one?” Hunter asked as he opened and looked at the second folder. The face looking back at him was that of a young boy with spiked black hair, and a smirk on his face. Hunter was confused, as he expected another female to be the second lieutenant. He looked to the Commander.

  “You have men and women prisoners together?” The Commander shook his head. “Normally no. Reggie, or Regina I should say, identifies as female. She is a special case.” Hunter passed the file to Flex, who muttered the words “not this one too,” under his breath. Hunter looked at Flex who was reading the file more than expected.

  “What is it?” Hunter asked as he leaned over trying to look inside the file. “What’s his, I mean her, power?” Commander Lopez answered the question. “Regina goes by the name Slingshot and is able to teleport. It’s limited to a five-mile radius, but still, you can hide in a lot of places with that type of radius.”

  “How did they all end up together?” Flex asked. “Or was this all by chance?” “Kitchen detail,” Commander Lopez said as he took the folders from Flex and placed them in a drawer. “All of them were assigned to serve in the kitchen, and their little ragtag team was born, all with your sister as the head. Now was she just looking for friends, or was she specifically looking for Icons you put here? I truly don’t know.” The Commander said as he stood.

  Hunter turned to Flex, who in return nodded to him.” “You just had to be the best at your job, huh,” Hunter said as they followed Commander Lopez to the door. The Commander grabbed the doorknob and then paused. “Remember, keep it simple, and try to see if she will reveal how she did it.” Flex nodded. “Got it,” Hunter replied.

  From this moment on, Hunter would be Paragon. No more jokes, or funny remarks. All business. He knew when it was time to be a jerk and to be a hero. “I’ll let you see Ms. Greene, and triple B first,” The Commander said. “Regina is on lockdown for touching one of the male guards again. Fifth time this month.” “Sure. I’d rather see Z first anyway.” Flex said as he looked to Hunter.

  Hunter gave a slight nod. He figured it was better to just let Flex led the way, and he would follow. He was the more experienced leader, and with the extra measures in place, what was the worst that could happen?

  CHAPTER 5:

  ESCAPE

  H unter felt out of place as he followed the Commander and Flex down another hall. This hall, like the many they passed to get here, was lined with cells. He didn’t know why but Hunter was expecting to see cells fashioned like the ones he had seen on crime shows. Room with doors that were locked by a control panel somewhere in the facility.

  It never came to mind that such traditional cells wouldn’t be used in Vincula. “Here we are,” Commander Lopez said as he walked over to a large window in the wall. It stretched from the ceiling to the floor and was easily eight feet wide. The window was frosted over, but Hunter could still see a figure moving behind it.

  Commander Lopez tapped a single blue button on the wall, and instantly the frosted window became transparent. Hunter’s eyes looked around the room. It was very clean, compared to some of the other cells they had passed to get there. There was a bed on each side and a small section in the back where a toilet and sink were. Both were behind a waist-high divider of frosted glass. It gave privacy, but not total privacy.

  Each corner of the of the ceiling had a moving camera. Combined with the camera in the middle of the cell, there shouldn’t have been any blind spots. Hunter’s training had taught him one thing about cameras. They rarely messed up or missed anything. The person monitoring them, was another story.

  In the opposite corner of the room was a small metal desk attached to
the wall with several books neatly stacked on top of it. The bed to the left of the room had a person on it, sitting cross-legged, dressed in a gray jumpsuit, and reading a book. Hunter could tell by the youthful face, that this was Betty Boom Boom. Then finally his eyes turned to the other person standing in the room.

  He couldn’t see her face, because her back was facing them. Hunter still recognized her instantly, even though she wasn’t looking his way. That athletic frame and dark hair belonged to a woman he had become friends with only the year before.

  She turned around, and Hunter could hear Flex inhale some as she walked to the window. Her mouth moved but no words came out, and as they did, Betty looked up from her book to wave at them slightly. “Oh, sorry about that,” Commander Lopez said as he tapped another button from the side.

  “I told you they would come.” Hunter jerked some as the words sprung into existence from the unseen speaker around the window. “Hey, big brother,” Zeva said as she placed both arms on the glass and leaned in. She too, like the rest of the prisoners, had on a gray jumpsuit.

  Her head shifted from Flex to Hunter. As she locked eyes with him, Hunter felt like he had never seen this person before. He squinted at her, and she didn’t waver in her glare.

  He could see her face. He knew it was Zeva, but something about her was off. She didn’t look like the girl he had once bickered with in school and became partnered with in the Imperial Lords. It was as if the life that was behind her eyes had long gone, leaving a shell of a person he didn’t even know. “Well, if it isn’t the half- breed,” Zeva said as she looked at him. Hunter smirked some to hide the fact that her words had cut him.

  She had never called him anything of the sort before. Hunter had been called half- breed, mistake, abomination, and many other things by the Icon community, but never by Zeva. She was always nice to him in that regard. “Sticks and stones, Zeva. Sticks and stones. Words will never hurt me,” Hunter finished as he leaned on the glass in return and gave a kissing motion towards her.

  “As you can see, without her pills for an extended amount of time, can only make my sister more sinister.” “It’s all good,” Hunter replied. “I’d be that way too, if I had to live the rest of my life in a fishbowl.” She laughed at him. A laugh that caught Hunter off guard.

  In honesty, he felt the entire prison was throwing him off his game. He felt bad thinking that had he made the wrong decision a year ago, he could have ended up one of Vincula finest residents. “So, Lord Killer, huh?” Hunter asked. “That’s different.” “Well we all can’t go by Paragon, now can we?” she shot back in a hiss.

  “Why did you want to see us Z?” Flex asked. The cold eyes of his sister turned to him again. He didn’t know what it was, but something was different, and Flex could feel it, even if he couldn’t identify it. He had seen his sister a lot over the year, and she wasn’t nearly as chatty and direct as she was now. She would talk to him, but not much.

  Now here she was, talking to them both and even smiling. Flex felt an uneasy pain in his stomach. “I wanted to see the look on your face.” As she said the words, Hunter and the Commander, had missed what just happened but Flex didn’t. As she spoke, a slight string of mist came from her mouth. “Cut the crap Z.” Flex replied. “How were you able to use your powers?”

  Flex looked at the bracelet on her arm and noticed that it wasn’t the same one he normally saw on her. “I see they fitted you with an upgrade.” She shrugged. “They figured my bracelet malfunctioned. So, I got a new one.” She took in a deep breath. “Yay me.”

  “Was it a malfunction?” Flex asked. “Just like my brother,” Zeva said. “Directly to the point. No questions of how I’m doing or anything.” A small patch of ice slowly spread on the bottom of the glass, unknown to everyone. Then Betty Boom Boom stood up from her bed as the book she was reading dropped to the floor. Betty waved to Hunter and smiled while licking her lips some.

  Hunter inadvertently stiffened and took a step back from the glass. The last thing he wanted was a fan that was truly a villain.

  “But I’ll tell you,” Zeva said as she took a few steps away from the glass. “Regina is to thank for it all. That girl has a magic mouth apparently.” Hunter flinched at the words. “Regina got you your powers back?” Flex said as he looked to the Commander. “Impossible,” Commander Lopez said as his hand fell to his gun. “Not her alone.” Hunter’s head jerked as the words came from Betty Boom Boom.

  “Hey, Paragon,” Betty said as she looked towards Hunter again. “The things I’d do to you if I had you to myself.” Hunter cleared his throat loudly as he glanced to Commander Lopez. “She’s something of a fan of yours. Many of the residents are actually,” he replied. “Girls got taste. Creepy, but facts are facts,” Hunter said.

  Her voice matched her youthful face and came out as almost a squeak. Zeva snarled at Betty as she turned to her. “Sorry Z,” Betty said as she took a step back from Zeva. Hunter didn’t like it, but for some reason, he was surprised at how quick Betty Boom Boom apologized. Zeva was powerful, but Betty had more than triple the body count on her file, yet she all but cowered in fear before Zeva.

  Flex had flinched for an entirely other reason. Betty had called her Z. That was his nickname for her. Only his. He had seen his sister correct others in the past for trying to use it. “Nobody ever stops to think why the transgender inmate,” “Prisoner,” Commander Lopez called back. Zeva rolled her eyes and continued. “Would be touching guards. Especially the male ones. Narrow-minded ways of thinking make one blind to the obvious.”

  “I don’t follow,” Flex said out loud. “Neither do I,” Commander Lopez voiced from the other side of him. Hunter didn’t follow but his mind was racing trying to connect the dots. As he did so he happened to glance down, and finally saw the ice on the glass that was slowly spreading. “I wonder what would happen if a prisoner and a guard started hooking up. Screwing each other on the low. Not only that, but the guard was in love with the prisoner.”

  Zeva tapped her finger on her chin and rolled her eyes in a mock fashion of thinking. “And the only way they could have alone time was if the guard was on lockdown detail, and the prisoner kept getting sent back?” Zeva said.

  “The guard.” Hunter finally said as he turned and saw Flex’s jaw clench. “Excuse me,” Commander Lopez said as he failed to see what was unfolding in front of him. “Keep up, Commander. Your guard is crooked.” Hunter said as he stepped back from the glass. At that very moment, several guards on the hall fell down to the ground.

  “I love kitchen duty. These people will eat anything, even if it’s served to them by an inmate that with the right material, could slip something right in their food. You can kill a crap ton of people, yet a few months of good behavior and they trust you with their food. Normally guards eat their own food, but some like to eat ours just to taunt us.” This time the words came from Betty Boom Boom. Zeva rolled her eyes and stretched out her hand.

  In a fluid motion, a sword of ice materialized there, and with one slash it tore through the neck of Betty Boom Boom. Her head fell to the ground and rolled around before Zeva kicked it at the glass. The smile on her face made Hunter feel sick, as she shook her shoe a few times to get the blood off.

  “What’s going on?” a female voice asked. It made Hunter, and Commander Lopez turn in surprise, while Flex kept an eye on Zeva. His mouth gaped open as he looked at the head on the ground just behind the glass. “Z.” was all he could say in a low voice as shock consumed him.

  A prisoner had stepped from out of her cell. Her glass window had retracted into the floor. At that moment, several other prisoners stepped out. Lights began to flash and alarms sounded off in the prison. Flex turned for a moment to look at the scene that was unfolding in the hall. Then he quickly looked back into Zeva’s cell.

  Where she stood alone, she was now accompanied by another person. A person with spiky black hair, and a strong face despite the womanly features. “Let's go, Regina.” “What happened to
Betty?” The feminine voice came back from Regina.

  “Bitch wouldn’t shut up,” Zeva said as Regina placed a hand on her shoulder. “Z!” Flex said as he punched the glass to the cell. It shattered under his strength like an ice cube under a sledgehammer. “We’ll have our rematch, half breed,” Zeva said as she glared at Hunter.

  Then with those words, she and Regina vanished. “We have to go after them,” Flex said as he turned to Commander Lopez. “Son, I think we have bigger problems than that right now.” Flex and Hunter stood beside each other as they witnessed several other prisoners down the hallway.

  “You know I was impressed by this place when we first got here. Now, not so much.” Hunter said as he created a force field around him, making sure to keep it larger than normal for breathing room. “Don’t worry about them. All the Icons here are chipped. We’ll find them,” Commander Lopez said as he reached to his belt and removed several bullets one by one. As his hand touched each bullet, he began saying something under his breath. It sounded almost like a prayer.

  He spun each bullet into place, and then pulled the hammer on the revolver. “I didn’t know she was chipped,” Flex said to the Commander. “This isn’t the time to have a discussion about it,” Hunter said as he looked behind them. Other prisoners were stepping from their quarters, and into the hallway.

  Hunter rose from the ground and moved to face the prisoners on the other end of the hall, while Flex stood with Commander Lopez. “Everybody back in their cells. Don’t make us do this the hard way,” Commander Lopez said as suddenly three different replicas of himself appeared beside him.