Snippet #2687517

"Now the party's getting started." Val says, wincing a bit as he steps away from the doorway to Darin's cell, dragging the door itself with him like a shield to protect himself from the flames. Once he heard the flames die down and the arsonist speaking he let the door drop to the floor so he could take stock of everything around him once again. It looked as if all but two of the soldiers were burnt rather crispy, with the two remaining being a blonde man with glowing eyes who looked quite angry, and another guard cowering in the furthest corner, near the door they needed to go through. It looked as if the blonde man had used one of his fellow soldiers as a shield.

From what he could tell, all of the cells along this hallway were empty now. Near the end of the hall with the dead soldiers stood the psychic girl, closer was the...well, the only work Val could think of to describe the one whose feet were burning the floor was berserker. The word stood out in his mind for some reason when he looked at her. Darin the arsonist was the closest to Val, and so he supposed that the cowering soldier must be the shapeshifter girl. Val then took a moment to look himself over. He'd been shot a handful of times, but already the wounds were healing. The blood had stopped flowing, but the holes in his left ankle, right thigh, right shoulder and left hand still looked like open wounds because his kind of healing started from the inside out. A shot which had grazed his left side along the ribs was nearly healed already because it was so shallow. Within the hour these wounds would be healed, but he was sure there would be more.

"Whatever you say hothead." Val says as he begins to walk past Darin. From the hole in his left hand what looks to be a black spike begins to grow until it reaches about a foot in length. Val takes it with his right hand and holds it like one might a dagger as he makes his way down the hall. "I don't care how we do it, I just want to get out of this place. I'd like to burn the entire facility down, but today, just escaping will do. Now-" His words are cut off when the blonde man grabs the cowering soldier from the corner and pulls him close, pressing a pistol to their head. "Shit. I was hoping you wouldn't notice her for a little while."

-=-=-

Somewhere much deeper in the facility...

The power Zeke had been storing seemed to burn inside of him now, and he didn't think he could hold it in much longer. He'd been in this hellhole for a while but never tried to escape. He'd cooperated with the scientists and soldiers, had been given permission to walk about some parts of the facility unescorted as long as he wore that damned collar around his neck, the one that fed off his energy and fed it to the machines in the facility. He'd become a walking battery.

What the scientists had failed to notice, however, was that the energy levels the collar was soaking up had dropped slightly after it had been locked around his neck for some time. This was because Zeke had tampered with it. The collar took in a steady flow of his energy, but it was just a trickle compared to what he could produce. And on top of that, he had been hiding his potential, only showing off the more mild side of his abilities. They didn't have a clue what he could really do.

Passing by several cells, each holding a powerful mutant like himself, restrained in some manner, an alarm begins to go off.

Soldiers file past Zeke, shouting for him to return to his cell. They didn't say why, but he knew. He knew all of the alarms in this place, and this particular one only sounded during an escape attempt. This made him smile. "No, Officer Bob, I think I'll continue my walk, maybe head outside and take in some fresh air for a change." The soldier he'd addressed stopped and raised his rifle, but before he could fire there was an explosion of energy that ripped through the facility. Bullets exploded in their guns, electronic locks opened, lights exploded into showers of glass shards. Suddenly 90% of the mutants in the facility were free, and although some of them decided to stick around to take out their frustrations on the guards, most of them fled.

-=-=-

The equipment that Dr. Ritter had been using suddenly begins to hum with energy before smoke begins to pour out of speakers and the monitors begin to explode all around him. Soon everything electronic in the room is friend, leaving the lab in the silent darkness. Any electric locks or restraints release.

-=-=-

When the lights went out all around him and he could hear the clinks as the cell doors opened on their own, Richard knew he was screwed, and that faced with such odds, retreat was the only option really. He had a hostage, and the new subject at least seemed to have backed off. If nothing else Thirteen could be used as a shield. With one arm around her neck and the other pressing his pistol to her head he backs up, pushes against the door, which swings open easily.

"Stay where you are freaks, and no one gets hurt." Richard says, taking a step back. "Follow me and the girl dies. Just return to your cells and calm down, once this incident has passed you will all- FUCK!"

There was a whistling sound as something flew through the air towards him, and then suddenly pain bloomed in his left eye. In the darkness he couldn't tell what had happened, but he had an idea. Removing the gun he shoves Thirteen to the ground before him before firing a shot into the darkened hall at where he had last seen the new subject. With that he turns and takes off at full speed down the hallway towards the safe room at the heart of the Facility. As he runs he reaches up and finds a shard of what feels like metal where his eye used to be. With a wet popping sound he pulls it and what remains of his left eye free and tosses them to the floor.