Volume II: Prison Break - saving the hostages

"I know you like me, Christine" the raspy voice from the cell next to them sounded downright chilling "Don’t be so coy"

"Will you hurry up and do her already?" sounded a second voice, over a woman’s panicked whimpering "Everybody is waiting their turn"

Blacklight, having just caught up with Reaper was about to try and plan out an approach to try and be smart or tactical or something about this to free the hostages but with those two simple overheard lines she blanched and began to act, there wasn't time for subtly or waiting around and punishing them after the fact. The fact was she wasn't going to let someone get raped almost within arms reach. Pulling the shadows deeper around her she stepped out into the corridor, light being swallowed in her wake as countless tentacles began to emerge and grapple with the prisoners; the original ones; pulling them away from the hostages. This might be a time to pull out at least one lesson she had been told.

"You should be afraid of the dark!" A line used countless times throughout the history of the city, a phrase synonymous with the arrival of THE DARK as it came for the souls of criminals. Perhaps not literally but figuratively and while her voice might not hold the deep ominous tones of some of her predecessors the words themselves should be enough when accompanied by literal darkness enveloping things along with the assaulting tentacles.

Reaper follows Blacklight reveling in what is about to happen to the men.

"Oh, they will be." they answer Blacklight whipping her scythe staff around. "Before we are done here, all these criminals will be." Reaper lashes out, pushing all of her fear into a wave of psychic energy, hoping to cripple the assailants before they can take any action to hurt their victim further.

"What the - ? " the woman pinned against the wall by the bespectacled convict used the shadowy distraction to slip out of his grasp and run out of the cell. Before the convict could figure out what happened, he was overwhelmed by a terrible feeling of dread. He's never felt anything like that. The fear was mind-numbing, almost paralyzing. He wanted to run away, but there was nowhere he could go except forward, right into the figure resembling death itself.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!" aiming their guns at the two, the two men emptied their clips at the heroines

"Shit!" from the corner of his eye, Steven saw Jesiah back off into the corner of the cell, pressing his back against the wall as if he hoped he could magically push through it. Hands trembling, he reached for the ammo clip, dropping it in his panic before picking it up again and sliding it into his gun.

What do you do?

The prison architects apparently didn't plan for a staff wielding teen to be beating up would be rapists in this room apparently. Abandoning their weapon, Blue Reaper lunges forward and attempts to subdue the guy with the gun.

Reaper's first punch seems to go wide as the first prisoner ducks down to the left, but the young hero let's the momentum carry their body forward. Hooking an elbow around his head, Reaper flings their body weight at the bespectacled goon and lands a heel just under his left eye. The force sends him toppling and he slams his head against the wall behind him. The extra weight and sudden shift in balance is too much for the guy in the headlock and he topples forward slamming his head onto the solid concrete floor. As Reaper rolls off of him, they deliver a hard elbow for good measure. When he doesn't react, Reaper seems satisfied and gets back to their feet, only a little unsteadiness is visible to Blacklight.

"Check on the civilian, would ya?" Reaper asks her teammate.

Blacklight nodded moving into the cell and over to the poor woman. "It's alright, you're safe now, let me get you out of here." It wasn't hard, a gentle touch to help her up, and a portal in the wall to a spot well outside the prison. With a little push Blacklight had the woman on her way. As the portal closed she turned with a wince favoring her side a bit as she looked up to Reaper. "Well, one down only dozens to go.." Steeling herself she got ready to move in on the rest, speaking softly as she described what she could see of the room, prisoners and hostages to her partner so they could try and ensure everyone's safety.

The frightened woman looked upon the unconscious bodies of the two men, then back at Blacklight. She hesitated before jumping through the spooky portal, unsure whether or not it was safe. Eventually, she decided to trust the heroines. "Thank you" she said, before disappearing through the shadowy gate.

In the meantime, Blacklight extended her senses to find the rest of the hostages. They were all kept in the two cells, not too far away, guarded by the armed convicts, who apparently skipped the lesson about gun safety. They not only pointed the loaded guns at their captives. One of them had just taken a practice shot above the hostage's heads - savoring the panicked screams and cries for mercy.

What do you do?

"Distraction and evacuation?" Blacklight spoke quietly to reaper. "You get their attention while I try to get all the prisoners out as quickly and quietly as possible while their backs are turned?" She wasn't sure if it was a good plan, there were a lot of guards, with a lot of guns, and this plan could put Reaper in a lot of danger but she didn't have a better idea.

Blue Reaper vanishes from Blacklights side, reappearing in the middle of the corridor. Head lowered so the eyes of their mask appear shrouded by the hood. Slamming the butt of their staff onto the concrete floor to create a loud reverberating sound and getting everyone's attention.

"Put your weapons down and get back to your cells, convicts."

With their words, all the fear Reaper can muster flows outward filling the room. They felt sorry for the innocents, but this was the quickest way.

Even Blacklight wasn't left entirely unmoved by the impressive showing of Blue Reaper, standing there stunned as the change washes over the crowd of ex-prisoners who are quickly returning to their previous status. She moves quietly to shuffle the ex-hostages out of the way and does her very best not to break the seeming spell thats fallen over the gathering. Quietly shushing anyone who tries to make a scene before the situation is fully back under control. Only then as the once hostages and visitors are the ones in control and the prisoners back under lock and key does she actually move to more energetically handle the situation.

"Warden, we've got to go help with the other prong of the assault, can you and your guards handle things here now without us?" She really hoped the answer was yes because they didn't have a lot of time to get back to the other half of their group, they could be in trouble. She tried not to show it but she was worried, and turning to look through the shadows did her best to get an idea of just what was happening there now that things here seemed calm.

It's always hard for Reaper to use her powers on others. Making people feel what isn't in their hearts is a violation. But that's exactly what Reaper did. The young hero takes some comfort from the idea that if these people hadn't taken hostages, none of this would have happened. They knew some people in this prison didn't deserve to be here, and the conditions often fell short of common human decency. The desire to escape made sense, Reaper didn't care about that. It was putting people in danger that made them bad.

Still, Reaper couldn't help but feel GUILTY about the manipulation they had performed.

Turning their back on as many people as possible they waited for Blacklight to give the order to move.

"We have to get the civilians to safety" The convicts who took them hostage were back in their cells, but there were still many more out there. Armed and dangerous. "we can't protect everybody on our own if the prisoners who escaped decide to come back inside and make a stand here"

"He's right. We need to get these people out before we can get back to the others."