literature

Personal Prison Break Part 2

Deviation Actions

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It had been two days now since Elaina had begun her plan in secret, away from any and all eyes of the League.  It had taken very little time to prepare for this moment, as she had never expected Team PHANTOM to fulfill their end of the “bargain” in the first place, and thus had been working on her own course of action since the Conference of the Rebel Forces had ended.  She knew that the teenage team’s focus was far too widespread, too unrefined, and that this little “side mission” they had so eagerly snatched up would easily slip through the cracks of their larger agenda.  But this was to Elaina’s advantage, for now that Metro City was in the public eye, a threat breathing down its neck from an unknown and powerful party, she could work swiftly behind the scenes without being disturbed, distracted or detected.

Ays had been sent off some time ago on her own; the 13-year-old agent the only one capable of carrying out the second half of Elaina’s scheme.  Where normally the woman would have had reservations about someone so young going off on their own, she held not an ounce of doubt toward the girl’s ability to succeed in this particular endeavor.  No, Elaina had complete confidence in her current undertaking, which is why she could now stand so comfortably at the edge of a maximum security prison.

The location of this prison truly worked to her advantage.  Hidden away from society, there were no nearby houses, no flat stretches of unoccupied land, that could give the doctor’s position away.  Rather than opting to have a clear line of sight in order to shoot anyone who approached or fled, the Allegiance had chosen instead to surround the prison in dense forestry, miles upon miles away from civilization.  Anyone who escaped–as there were several powerful figures in this detention center that could¬–would have to fight their way through a sea of trees, maintaining orientation lest they lose their heading, while at the same time hoping that any creature that stalked the woods didn’t get to them before the authorities did.  Not surprisingly, the number of successfully escaped prisoners in this compound’s history only amounted to two, but even this was speculation under the premise that their remains were never found.

However, the number of escapees was soon to be three if Elaina had her way; and her effort to make it so was already in progress.  Shadowed by trees, Elaina walked from the woods toward two armed guards, making no effort to hide herself or mask her intention to approach.  The nearest guard, female, dressed in a grey camouflaged uniform with an M4 carbine in her arms.  Her male partner dressed the same, yet held a pistol instead.  Obviously inlaid in each piece of clothing, just below the first layer of fabric, was a piece of body armor:  a thick pad woven together that was built to stop bullets, but was just as effective at stopping any of Elaina’s needles that would threaten to pierce the skin.  The jacket’s open neck was the only weakness in uniform’s design; a weakness that Elaina had every intention of exploiting.

Coming ever closer, Elaina threw a single spring-loaded needle as close as she could to the woman’s jugular vein, knowing that aiming for the major vein would get the blood through the woman’s system as quickly as possible.  When the woman flinched, yelping slightly from the sudden prick in her skin, she pulled the needle away and began to turn to assess the arrival of sudden danger.  Elaina was quick to dispatch her though; loosing her whip from her belt and entangling the woman’s left leg.  With a hard pull on the metallic cord the soldier faltered, falling to a knee and losing most of her grip on her gun.

Having been only a few feet away however, the attention of the female’s male counterpart was drawn to the scuffle as soon as his partner had spoken, and Elaina, seeing him turn toward her, worked quick to drive a needle into his neck as well.  Yet despite the needle stabbing him very near the throat, the man turned, unflinching, toward Elaina, and without hesitation pulled up and shot her in the chest, dropping the doctor where she stood with the stopping force of a bull.  Elaina felt the burning sensation as the bullet ripped into her flesh and struck a rib, lodging itself in her body rather than going cleanly through.  As painful as this was though, this was what Elaina had hoped for.

Playing the part of the injured assailant, when Elaina fell to the ground on her back she feigned fatal injury, clutching near the bleeding bullet hole and purposefully straining her breathing.  The two guards, unaware of the ruse, took their time in gathering themselves before approaching to inspect their attacker.  Elaina waited patiently for them to meet at her side, feeling her body already beginning to heal as it slowly worked the bullet from her system, pushing it out via the hole it had entered through.  Although in excruciating pain–the metal lodged within her currently tearing her inner muscle as it raked its way to the surface–Elaina bit her tongue and all sounds were forcibly molded into dying breaths.  This was not the first time she had been shot, nor would it be the last, and she had learned to deal with the agony that came with healing some time ago.  This was why she could bend it to her use now.

When finally the two guards walked to her side they jested with each other about how foolish an attempt it had been to attack two armed guards with naught but needles.  Elaina could only smirk at their ignorance, and with a quick move of the hand the Countess watched from her place on the ground as the guards who stood over her stiffened, every muscle in their bodies now unnaturally taut.  She chuckled and rose as shock befell the faces of her victims, and upon reaching her feet she caught the bullet that fell from her fully healed torso.  Inspecting the bullet hole that had damaged her jacket, she brushed past the armor-clad pair and retrieved the syringes that had fallen to the ground.  These two needles along with the bullet she stored away in the pouch on her belt, and after returning her whip to its place as well, she guided the two guards toward their patrol unit, forcing their mouths silent.

Once seated safely within the leather upholstered jeep, Elaina guided the male into the driver’s seat and the woman into the back.  Keeping watch on both, Elaina felt her control on their bodies strengthen as her blood infected them further, and in flexing her hand she directed her male puppet to start the vehicle and drive to the prison gate despite how much she felt him struggle.  Down the grassy hills and over the branches of a fallen tree, Elaina spotted the overgrown dirt road that would lead them to the prison.  Admittedly Elaina was surprised to see the path in the state it was in:  ill fitted for travel and forgotten, despite having once clearly been an often used means of travel.  She assumed that only with the addition of Addler Finch to the prison’s roster had security been increased and tightened to what it had once been before, and although Elaina could commend the warden–or the Allegiance–for their efforts at foresight, she knew that these precautions would do them little good.

Clearing the trees and nearing the prison, calls began coming through on the radio in number, bombarding the lot with questions that all asked why the two had returned from their patrol without leave or warning.  With no control over their voices, Elaina could have the two soldiers give no response, and so with radio silence she forced the man to drive in to where an alert had most assuredly been raised.  Yet even this undesirable turn of fate did not deter Elaina nor her plan, and despite now believing that danger rested just beyond the prison doors, without hesitation she directed the vehicle–through the hands of her male hostage–toward the garage at the far end of the complex for entry.

Having been programmed to open at the approach of any vehicle, the iron doors that masked themselves as walls lifted as the jeep drove near them.  With the tugging of metal and the churning of gears, the barricade chugged upwards as it bared the lot passage without hesitation.  Although Elaina had expected this feature to have been disarmed given the unauthorized return of the stolen vehicle, she was not about to object to having been so willingly allowed behind the prison’s walls.  Of course, the reason for her easy entry was waiting just inside, leaping from its hiding place as the metal doors behind the jeep slammed shut with its incalculable weight.

With walls of iron now at their back, five prison guards rose from their scattered places along the holding bay and made to trap the three within the stolen car.  Elaina smiled as she watched them approach as only soldiers would:  uniformed and in sync with their fellows, the guns they held locked on the jeep’s windshield.  The guards had the trio surrounded, and the confidence they had in knowing so led the one at lead to bark orders of compliance, ordering those within to turn the vehicle off before stepping out.  Elaina was more than willing to oblige with the first order as she had no need for the car any longer.  Moving her fingers just enough to make her male hostage turn the key of the ignition off, the sound of the engine died and spurred the outside guards to step a few paces forward.

Now in the looming quiet, the guards ordered again for those within the jeep to step out into the open; hands where they could be seen.  This order Elaina was not as inclined to listen to, at least not in regards to herself.  Her “team” however, was a different matter entirely, and with hands hovering just inches above her lap, she glanced from the male to the female and made both reach for the handles of their doors.  To amuse the prison guards, she had her hostages exit with hands raised to head level, showing their hands void of weapons and given over to surrender.  Satisfied, the guards turned their attention to Elaina instead–the unknown third party– and ordered again for her exit.  But Elaina merely propped her elbow up on the cill of the passenger window, grinning as she leaned her cheek against her fist and flexed the fingers of her free hand.

At this command the two blood puppet soldiers reached for their guns, and shouts of alarm went up from the five opposing guards as they raised their own weapons and ordered repeatedly in rage for their two comrades to remain still.  Elaina almost laughed at the sight.  It was like playing with a pack of small dogs:  so tense and on edge they were, that by simply poking them they would erupt into a fit of angry barks and growls that you found so amusing, that you couldn’t help but desire to maliciously poke at them again.  But unfortunately Elaina had a mission to fulfill, and she couldn’t spend all day playing with a schedule as tight as hers.

Moving quickly to forward her plan, Elaina forced her two guards against their will to pick up their guns despite warnings.  The prison guards immediately shouted for them to drop their weapons, and perhaps the two soldiers would have complied if given the chance, but under Elaina’s thumb they held tight to their firearms and in doing so were immediately shot down with carbine fire.  At such a close range the sounds of the gunshots were deafening, and the sheer number of them left the doctor’s ears ringing.  Clearly these guards were not taking prisoners, even if it meant gunning down their own men.  The amount of blood that now splattered both sides of the jeep was testament enough to that.  Surely this was not normal behavior, meaning that it was likely that Seth himself had a word to say about doing everything possible to keep Addler Finch imprisoned.

With her two hostages now bullet ridden and dead, the guards again ordered for Elaina’s exit from the jeep.  This demand only led Elaina to believe that she was safe where she was:  behind what she assumed to be bulletproof glass.  Had this not been the case, she would have surely been shot long before now, and so in believing this true Elaina made no effort to get out as directed.  Instead she coerced her dead accomplices back up onto their feet, and even from a far distance away Elaina could see the surprised looks on the guard’s faces as the cadavers rose.  But the living state of her victim was inconsequential if her blood already coursed through them, such had always been the case.  Not that the guards knew this of course.

The initial shock of the rising dead stunned the opposing five long enough for Elaina’s zombies to raise the firearms still hanging at their sides, and despite another hail of bullets from those guards who immediately noticed the obvious danger, these blood tainted figures were unaffected by their display of force.  At Elaina’s command the walking dead slowly squeezed their own triggers in response to their murderer’s maelstrom, cutting down their opposition without remorse.  Painful screams rang out as bullets tore through armor and struck at flesh, and Elaina watched emotionlessly as her enemy’s blood was the next to coat the garage’s floor.

Having no way to properly aim took its toll on the allotted time Elaina had for clearing out this bothersome roadblock, but the deed was done before the female cadaver’s gun went dry, despite many of her bullets having strayed away from the intended targets and becoming lodged in the walls and surrounding vehicles.  But silence enveloped the room soon enough, and only then did Elaina finally set foot outside the armored vehicle, stepping over the pool of blood that had been forcibly removed from the woman’s body earlier.

With the sure gait of a commanding force, Elaina walked next to the bodies of the first of her fallen victims, examining them and making sure they were dead.  With no breath, pulse or heartbeat, Elaina brought her two soldiers over and had the male exchange his gun for one of the fallen guard’s, her time in the League allowing her to convey the proper motions for him to reload it.  She did this too with the female’s gun, and after having them armed again, Elaina waved them closer for personal inspection.

Instantly the doctor could tell that each wound they had sustained was quickly on the mend; her blood erasing the damage they had taken and putting life back into them.  At this rate they would be fully healed before she reached Addler, meaning she’d have to kill them again herself at the appointed time.  For now though they would continue to work as her shield, and in being her shield she forced them to walk before her, guarding her path and using their bodies as a barricade.  But as all doors were guarded by a DNA lock, her two bodyguards also worked as keys,  sliding their hands over a glowing blue orb that allowed all iron doors to swing open.

Quickly the trio proceeded through the loading bay door and into the main prison area.  Here another two guards were waiting of them at the edge of the  small, white-washed hall, firing without warning as the three began to round the corner.  Elaina muttered a curse under her breath as she remained stationary behind the wall and thanked Mizulan that the guards had fired upon her puppets first.  She sighed upon seeing that her guards were bleeding again, and pulled two more syringes from the satchel clipped to her belt, stabbing one into each guard so to make sure that their blood loss would not result in her lack of control over them.

A new sense of power came to Elaina fingertips at the addition of a fresh injection, and daring to barely peer around the corner to find her targets, Elaina lifted her hands and sent her puppets quickly into action.  With gunfire now focused on the two guards who could not be killed, Elaina stepped partially around the corner and raised her hands higher to allow for better maneuverability as well as line of sight.  Standing here she could see clearly, and swiftly she directed her puppets forward to the opposite end of the hall where they shot each of the two guards in the leg before forcibly grabbing and disarming them.

Now pinned on the ground, arms pulled back behind both with the threat of breaking, Elaina sauntered up between the two guards and looked down at their snarling faces.  Each had a string of threats and foul language to throw her way, but Elaina remained unaffected.  Calmly she asked where the prison’s control room was, despite knowing that neither would give her the answer.  Thus when they spat further threats in accordance with disobedience, she had her puppets begin to dislocate one arm of each guard.

Drawing their limbs slowly back and further nearer their heads, with pain came angry shouts and pleas for her to call off her soldiers, but Elaina remained silent and stoic.  Only when the sound of straining joint and muscle tore at the silence did one guard cave to the pressure and swear he would talk.  Elaina had little time to waste with false promises though, and so to make sure that both knew just how serious she was, she ignored their cries and pushed her puppets to continue until a sickening crack echoed the hall as the guards’ arms popped out of place.  Both screamed out in pain for a short time until their academy training kicked in and they calmed themselves, breathing heavily in the effort.

Elaina asked again where the control room was, and this time received an answer from the one who had given in to the torture.  However, she took it as a lie and thus had her male guard shoot the one he had pinned, killing him before the other’s eyes.  A third time Elaina asked where the control room was and so received a different answer.  She still could not be certain however if this location was true, and so had the female shoot this guard too as she was getting nowhere with him.

Having likely wasted her time with this interrogation, Elaina took to the path the guard had offered up secondly, needing somewhere to start in her search.  She took to the stairs, climbing upwards with her soldiers still at point, and rounded her way down multiple halls, finding herself without heading.  Frustration threatened to creep into the muscles of her neck, but the sound of footsteps down the adjoining path prevented it.  Out of the corner of her eye Elaina made out the flash of a prison guard uniform and so without warning had her puppets open fire.  Three guards were mowed down at the hallway’s end and Elaina took this as sign enough to head in that direction.

Stepping over the bodies that barred her way, Elaina found the room she sought just around the corner with its door ajar.  As a precaution she sent her puppets in first yet found the station empty.  With the room deemed safe, the doctor entered and left her soldiers to stand post at the door to threaten away anyone who approached.  Now with little time allotted to her, Elaina worked quickly at the prison computers, erasing all video data from the surveillance cameras as well as uploading a Devin-made virus to hijack the Allegiance database to which all backup data was immediately sent.  If she was lucky, the prison break had not yet reached Allegiance ears and so her being here was still unknown to those higher powers.

With virus set and data erased, Elaina pulled the Readme chip with Devin’s code from the computer tower and returned it to her belt.  Now anything the cameras had or would have seen would be unrecorded and impossible to detect.  But before attempting to leave the room alongside her unwilling peers, Elaina ran her fingers along a switch board and flipped a single metal toggle that read C–32B.  This opened the cell of Addler Finch, she knew as much by watching the cameras that kept vigilant guard over his current housing.  Yet as the door to his cell slid open, the blonde man inside merely looked up in confusion and two guards quickly approached him with their hands on their weapons, talking to one another with bewildered glances as one of them slapped handcuffs onto Addler’s wrists.  This show of security measure would forcibly alter Elaina’s plan.

According to this prison’s rumored protocol, when a cell was opened two guards were to escort the prisoner out of the prison block to be received by two other officers waiting at the end of the wing.  This of course, would not happen judging by the way the two prison guards were acting on camera, for while one stood waiting by Addler’s door, the other went off to investigate what was going on.  At this Elaina now expected only three people to be waiting for her upon reaching the prisoner’s wing rather than the four she had wanted, and with this change of plan she now had only minutes to figure out how to keep from getting herself caught should the guards came up here to look for the source of their security problem.

She brushed her hair away from her glasses and pushed them farther up on the bridge of her nose while thinking, turning sharply away from the monitors when an idea struck her.  At first she was going to just waltz down to Addler’s cell and pull him free, but with the guards keeping such a close eye on the priest, that was going to be impossible.  Most likely they had been told to kill Addler should anything go awry, whereupon his death would be pinned on the one who was attempting to save him should that person be caught, and whether this was true or not, it called for Elaina to be much more cautious in her planning.

But Elaina had no qualms with being cautious, and in so being pulled four syringes from her satchel, slipping them under the gloves of her two slowly regenerating guards; one in each palm.  This made the use of guns impossible, but shooting down her adversaries was no longer an ideal strategy.  Pushing the needles until they stuck through the cloth of the soldier’s gloves, Elaina inspected her work knowing that it had to be right lest her whole plan fall apart.  It had been a long time since Elaina had to operate under such strained conditions, and she worried for a moment that she would be a bit rusty with what she was about to try.  In fact, she knew she would be, but she didn’t have a choice.

Employing a power she hadn’t in some time, she turned away from her bodyguards and returned to the wall of monitors.  In a quick test of her abilities, she watched on one of the camera screens the door of the control room as her guards made their exit, and focusing only on the screen and not on the two at her back, she willed them to lock and shut the door behind them.  They succeeded and Elaina breathed a small sigh of relief.  The brains of her two bullet-ridden soldiers appeared to not have sustained too much damage, if any.

Puppeting a person from a long distance away was a lot harder than Elaina led everyone to believe.  When she was right next to her victim she could easily look at them and just mimic any desired actions herself, instructing their muscles to follow her lead.  At a distance however, Elaina had to rely solely on sending messages to the brain, calling on its perception of how to handle any situation that arose.  This meant that simple tasks of sitting in a chair or going down a flight of stairs were of extreme difficulty, and combat was of a level of control even Elaina hadn’t come close to mastering yet.  To top it all off, all of this could only be done when Elaina could watch the puppet in action.  Were she to lose sight of them, she would either drop her control completely or make her hostage wait until she could reach them.  Without sight, she had no way of knowing how to make them move appropriately, unless they were just moving their hands that is, but that was hardly of any use out in the field.

But with all the security cameras strung throughout the complex, Elaina had full view of her puppets at almost every turn, and if she did lose sight of them in those small blind sections between cameras, instructing them to walk straight ahead solved the problem every time.  The doctor felt a drop of perspiration trickle down her temple as her two soldiers reached the stairs and already she could feel the strain of using muscle memory to maneuver down them.  On another screen the three guards that were now waiting by the closed door of the cell room stood at attention, no doubt from hearing the approaching footsteps of Elaina’s lackeys.  In a few seconds her two would enter the same screen as the guards, and the most crucial phase of her plan would commence.

The female faltered at the bottom of the stairs, nearly falling over and sending the three already on edge guards into a frenzy.  Instinctively they drew their firearms and aimed them at the two bloodstained and bullet-ridden soldiers, shouting things that the camera did not detect.  Elaina cursed herself at this slip up and rubbed her face in frustration, watching as the angry prison guards shouted silent words at her puppets.  She could guess well enough what they were saying and decided to alter her plan just slightly, knowing she could still succeed in this particular ploy if she played her cards right.

Having her soldiers put up their hands, hiding the needles protruding from their gloves between pressed fingers, she had them lower themselves to their knees and bow their heads in submission.  Truly Elaina was taking full advantage of the sentiment between these guards and their fellows, for all of them–most likely despite orders–were hesitating to fire on familiar faces.  The same was true of the three that stood against her now, for instead of shooting to kill those who were obviously injured, they approached instead in an attempt to make an arrest.

With one guard on each side and the third keeping his gun trained on the two soldiers should they move, Elaina leaned in as close as she could to the prison cell monitor to best decipher when to strike.  It was there, right when the two guards put their guns away and made for their handcuffs, that she deemed an attack suitable.  Projecting her will onto her minions, they each stabbed a needle into their captor’s lower, inner thigh.  This was as close as Elaina could guess as to where a major artery was based on the angle of the camera, and she hoped that her blood control would quickly take effect or else they could come looking for her.

Immediately after the attack, the third guard shot the male in the chest and Elaina allowed him to drop.  The guard then shot the female, but not before Elaina succeeded in having her puncture the man’s chest near his heart with the needle that was still filled with blood.  Sure that the injection had shot off, Elaina let the female soldier fall too, knowing that she needed to buy time for her blood to take effect.  Unfortunately for these particular prison guards, they had not been assigned protective clothing, and thus the needles had had no trouble slipping through their light-blue, button-up shirts and black slacks and into their skin.  So far–it seemed–so good.

In under a minute the guard injected by the heart was under her command for Elaina could feel it in her blood.  But the other two were not, and she guessed that she hadn’t been able to inject them as close to a major vein as she had hoped.  This she blamed the camera for as–were she there in person–such a feat would have been all too easy.  But even with the third guard under her command Elaina chose to do nothing until all three were hers to prevent raising any unwanted suspicion.  She steepled her fingers as she sat back in the control room chair and waited until she could feel their nervous systems pulsating in the back of her head before continuing on, watching them as they proceeded to handcuff the two downed soldiers bleeding out on the floor before them.

Another minute slipped by as Elaina watched her camera feed, keeping an eye out for anyone who might become aware of their dire situation.  A few of the guards stationed in another section of the prison seemed uneasy, but none of those spotted along the border appeared to have changed their routine, nor did those that were patrolling the more quiet halls seem perturbed.  The prisoners too seemed blissfully unaware of any problem at all, which was good of course, as the last thing Elaina needed to do was start a prison riot.  Discretion was key to getting out safely, and she didn’t need to get herself spotted by 50 condemned criminals only to have them pin her or the League for this particular crime later on.

When finally Elaina felt the hearts of three new puppets beating alongside hers, she flipped a hand and all three went rigid.  She smiled; this was perfect.  Out of these new three she had one unlock the male soldier’s hands–an endeavor to be sure as Elaina did not know where exactly the handcuff keys were nor could she make out on the monitor screen which key was the one she needed.  But when the male was eventually freed, she quickly began to set up a scene so to lure the still uninfected guard from his post.  One guard she held stationed above the “dead” female soldier, gun drawn and aimed, but lax.  The second she had stand beside the door, hiding the male soldier who now crouched beside him.  But the third she had begin moving.

Again digging through another set of pockets, Elaina had this guard swipe his ID through the lock on the steel door once it was found, and then wave his hand over the DNA scanner.  It unlatched without pause and Elaina had the man open the door to the cells within.  From the doorway the man waved to his friend, and Elaina squeezed air from his lungs through his throat in an attempt to make him whistle.  She found herself quite pleased when the uninfected man looked up with a perk of the head, insinuating that her attempt to control the human tongue had worked.  Perhaps she could control speech with enough practice, all in due time of course.

Her eyes on two screens, Elaina watched as the guard who stood next to Addler began his long trek down the hall between the bars of multiple prison cells.  A few arms dared to poke through these bars, and the officer smacked them back without hesitation using the baton in his hand.  Most appendages withdrew, but others did not, and instead tried to lash out at the officer in retaliation.  The man emerged unscathed however, having clearly made that walk several times in his days as a prison guard, and when coming into the room his partner shut the door at his back.  Not yet realizing he was surrounded by enemies, the man stooped to inspect the “dead” female, and under Elaina’s direction the male soldier made to swiftly infect this guard as well.

But at the last moment Elaina had a change of mind.  Silently she admitted that there was no need to kill more than what was necessary, and she was already going to have to clean up so much that she didn’t feel like adding another victim to her list.  Besides, having five puppets was already pushing her to her limit, and Elaina had no desire for a sixth.  So rather than infecting this guard, a quick bash to the back of the neck sent him spiraling down to the floor in unconsciousness, where he laid sprawled out alongside the bullet-ridden female.  It was then Elaina realized that the female no longer had a use, and so by turning her blood to poison did she ensure the woman’s demise.  With one less puppet working on her system, Elaina felt a bit of tension leave her.

This left four people alive under Elaina’s control, and out of these four she sent one back into the prison to retrieve Addler Finch:  the one who had been guarding him prior.  Without fuss or struggle Addler came quietly along with the officer as the uniformed cop grabbed hold of his arm, hoisting him up out of his criminal cot.  With arms linked, Addler followed this guard through the door, stopping with him as the male soldier in the adjoining room stuck four syringes into his left breast pocket–one of which having yet to be used.  Even on the camera screen Elaina could see the High Priest eye the syringes warily, but he kept quiet and accompanied the officer along his slow journey up the stairs, despite being on edge.  Elaina could feel herself sweating again as the stairs once more worked on her patience, but she had Addler now, and this was all that mattered.

When the priest and his guide reached the top of the stairs Elaina looked back to the camera view that showed the remainder of her blood puppet guards.  Now these three had also outlived their usefulness, and Elaina had the male soldier draw his gun, firing rounds into both the two standing officers and himself.  She then triggered their blood to change, becoming poison in their veins, and left them to die with the woman who had already passed on.  Her eyes darted back to the camera where Finch was standing and she realized then that he had looked back toward the sounds of gunfire.  It was not a sight for a priest to see, and so she had her one remaining puppet spur him on.

Up another flight of stairs and back to the security room, Elaina swiveled her chair around slowly to face the entering duo as the door clicked and unlocked with a simple key prompt.  She smiled at the drama of it all; how could she not help herself to such a classic scene?  This revealing of the mastermind.  Upon seeing the surprised look on Addler’s face, she would say it was all worth it.

“Miss Borovíne?”  Finch began, unable to hide his shock.

“Addler,” Elaina replied with a nod.  “You seem surprised.”

“Well, I must admit I didn’t expect…this.”  His eyes trailed to his prison guard escort.  “Not from the League of Shadows at least.”  Elaina chuckled.

“Oh, this iz not the League of Shadows.  This iz me, Mister Finch.  Only me.  And as such I am the only one who knows about this little side mission of springing you from your jail cell, as vell as vhat vill ‘appen to you aftervards.”  Elaina could have been mistaken, but she swore Addler relaxed at this knowledge, if only a little.

“Then you have a plan of escape?”  Elaina smiled and stood from her chair, walking over to the prison guard and relieving of him the key ring on his belt as well as the syringes in his chest pocket.  As close as she was, she could see every muscle in the man’s body as he struggled against her sway on his mind.  His eyes shot fire into hers, but nothing could be done to hurt the doctor, it was only a matter of time before he was dealt with in the same way his colleagues were.  The knowledge of this truth laid even deeper in his eyes than the flame of hate.

“Ov course,” Elaina said as she looked away from this last victim and unlocked the metal rings on Addler’s arms.  “And ve should be leaving as soon as possible.”  Addler nodded as he rubbed his wrists and then turned halfway toward the door.

“Lead the way, doctor.”

With a smile Elaina escorted Finch from the prison and to her pre-laid escape route.  The only loose end to tie up now was this one remaining guard, who would be easily dealt with.  As the Countess shut the control room door at their backs, she imagined the guard lifting his gun to his head, feeling in her bones his last efforts to fight her.  As the two reached the stairs a muffled bang echoed behind them, and a sadistic grin formed on Elaina’s face as her distant blood turned to poison.  Addler glance to her, reading the look on her face but choosing to remain quiet.  Within minutes the two were heading to the nearest exit, more than ready to leave this place.  Addler was not at all certain where Elaina was taking him, and in the quiet of the car ride to their unknown destination, he didn’t bother to ask.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The unassuming blood red car with its false plates drove down a gravel drive that wound around trees and over the loose sticks that had blown from the leafy canopy above in the wind.  All around was forestry, the kind that grew dense after traveling farther in.  While it was true that this let wild animals get uncomfortably close to the house–particularly should those wild animals be a bear or a cougar–it provided the protection and seclusion needed for someone who was in hiding, and that was the whole point of this place.

In approaching the house at the end of the road, Addler took his time taking in both the surrounding wood as well as the estate.  Though old, the manor had most assuredly cost Elaina a pretty penny, had she indeed bought the place.  It was of a Victorian style, both wide and tall, with several layers of roofs as well as one tower-like section on the left.  The white siding along the walls was peeling and covered with grime from the surrounding woods, and the faded blue roof could have used a sprucing up.  If one were to judge by appearance alone, a passerby would have probably mistook this place for abandoned.  But this, thought Addler, was probably left this way on purpose.  They were driving to a “hideout” after all.

Pulling around to the front of a wide, stone stairwell, Elaina put her car into park, turning it off before stepping out, and then motioning for Addler to do the same.  Only slightly wary of the LoS agent, Addler followed the doctor’s lead and rose from the vehicle, shutting the door as he went to approach the manor’s porch.  Before he could mount the first stair however, the door of the house flew open and two children ran out to greet them.

“Mister Addler!”  A little girl shouted as she pounce on the man from three stairs up, startling the High Priest as he caught her clumsily with a slight stumble.  Addler looked down, shocked at the child in his arms.  It was Carmen, the female half of the pair of twins he had adopted roughly six months ago.  But this child was not supposed to be here, nor was her brother, who was also walking down the steps to greet him.

“Carmen?”  He began, still bewildered at seeing the two.  “What are you and your brother doing here?”  Carmen giggled as she slid free of Addler’s arms, running over to stand beside her brother, Nigel.

“We came to live with you, silly,” she beamed, lifting a finger as though playfully scolding her forgetful father.  “Ays told us you’d be here, so here we came!”

“Ryker won’t worry about us,” Nigel piped in as took a more adult-like stance.  “We left him a note to explain that we were going to be with you.”  Ryker had been Addler’s go-to babysitter ever since Carmen and Nigel came into his care.  A younger yet responsible lad, Addler had been paying the young man well for the time he spent out of his days taking care of the children while the High Priest was away.  Being that the twins were runaways, having an individual that could keep a secret living right next door had been a great stroke of luck.

Addler felt a light breath tickle his ear.  “And once everyone knows you ‘ave escaped from prison, ‘is mind vill be put at ease.”  Elaina had whispered this to Addler, keeping this little fact secret from his kids.  In part the High Priest was appreciative of her discretion; knowing their father had been in prison would require a lot of explaining and he wanted time to prepare for that inevitable conversation.  But these words also relieved Addler in that Ryker had been taken into consideration, and a portion of worry was thus taken off of the High Priest’s shoulders as a result.

With a slight nod to the doctor Addler looked back to the twins.  “I’m glad to see you two here and safe,” he said with a smile as he stooped down and embraced the young duo.  “But how did you get here?”

“We came with Ays!”  Both twins exclaimed, all too eager to answer.  Addler nodded; he understood.  Knowing Ays for much of their life, it would have been all too easy for Elaina’s daughter to drop in and convince both Carmen and Nigel to go with her; and clearly it had been just as easy as expected as both children were standing here now without having given their relocation much thought.

“And did you pack your clothes?”  Addler pressed. “Toys?”

“Yep, we packed all that,” Nigel assured with a smile.  “We even packed things for you since Ays said to.”

“Oh really?  What did you two bring me?”  Again Carmen giggled and grabbed Addler’s hand, tugging on it as she backed up toward the steps.

“You’ll have to come see!  I think we did a good job.”  Addler chuckled.

“I’m sure you did, but go on ahead of me.  I’ll see what you brought me after I talk with Ms. Elaina for a moment.”

The twins didn’t need to be told twice as they raced each other back up the stairs and into the manor, shouting that the slower of the two would wear the title of “rotten egg” should they lose.  They ran by Ays who had been standing silently in the doorway since Carmen and Nigel had come outside, making her hair flutter with the sudden breeze they stirred up in passing.  The emotionless child remained at the door rather than leaving with the other two children, and watched as the two adults turned to face each other.  Only when a small gesture from Elaina permitted her leave did she turn back inside and shut the door to go after the twins.

“I am impressed, Elaina,” Addler began.  “You seem to have thought of everything.”  Elaina smirked at the compliment.

“Vell, I did not think of this plan overnight.  I took great lengths in securing your rescue.”

“I can tell.  Truly I can, and I thank you for it.  Carmen and Nigel as well.”

“Yes, I can see their thanks on their faces.”

Silence slipped between the two after that; an almost awkward silence to be exact.  While in part the two were able to enjoy each other’s company without words being said, they had only met twice before this and thus were not yet comfortable being alone together.  The long car ride here had been a testament to that as it too had been just as quiet and just as awkward.  But this time Addler broke the prolonged silence as a slight frown bent the High Priest’s mouth.  It was unusual for such an expression to sit on his face, and so naturally he wore it quite heavily.  It was most unbecoming of him.

“I did not bring it up as we were in the middle of our escape,” Addler began as he looked toward the doctor, “but how many did you kill in giving me my freedom?”  Elaina glanced over, surprised by the question, and thought several moments before giving her answer.

“Fifteen,” she said, double checking by keeping count on her fingers.

“Then I will pray for those fifteen souls that Saval may bear them safe passage to the afterlife.  It is all I can think to do for them.”  Finch began to walk away, but Elaina had made out that guilt in his tone and so before he made his exit, she spoke.

“I ‘ope you vill not think ill of me, Addler, for vhat it cost to gain your freedom.”  The High Priest paused.

“Ill of you, no,” he began, turning back, “but I do think ill of your actions, Miss Borovíne.”  Elaina frowned at the slight sting of his words and the formality of his speech.

“Casualties ‘appen daily vhen involved in a war.  It cannot be ‘elped, and you vould do vell to know that.”

“Yes,” Addler agreed, turning back.  “Working for the Allegiance, I know that all too well.”  He paused for several moments.  “But I do what I can to keep people from getting hurt, and every day I pray for it to stop.”

“Then in that ve pray similarly,” Elaina answered, “for I vish for an end to this war the same as you.”  Elaina stepped up beside of him and began walking inside.  “Take comfort in at least knowing that.”  The priest looked after the doctor as she continued on, hesitating a moment before walking to catch up.

“That is good to know, Elaina.”  He said as he lifted his hand, touching her arm.  “It truly is.”  Elaina glanced to Addler and then half chuckled with a small, disbelieving smile and a soft shake of the head.  It really was impossible to remain at odds with Addler Finch, but she had no desire to be at odds with him anyway.  It seems that she liked him too much for that, and no one would blame her for such feelings.  Now it was just her duty to keep this man hidden, at least for the time being, for the High Priest would not stay quiet forever.  But for now she was just glad that he was safe, and with Metro City now half-blown to rubble, it would allow for the two to breathe easy, at least for a long, relieving while.
Second part, mainly action in this with little talking.  But while Saraya and Rob were attempting to keep Metro City safe, Elaina was here, using them as a distraction so to keep larger eyes off her.  I have a followup story to do now which hopefully will not take too long, so I'll see you again then!  Hope you enjoy this!

Part 1

Elaina, Ays, Carmen, Nigel (c) me
Addler (c) RyoSinna
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