JASMINE walked into the Rangers Ops Centre. The two story concrete building was long and square with the front made completely of glass panes and a slanted roof. Above the bay doors that were the entrance, the ranger crest was etched in black and red on a massive glass pane over the entrance.
It was 3AM, and at this time of night, the only ones awake were the skeleton crew staff on the graveyard shift.
She entered the Ops Centre and walked inside. Inside was massive; the open space took up the front half the building. A stone obelisk sat nearest to the door, it was one story tall and had a cavity in front where a small multicolored bonfire sat in a brazier inside, at the base of the obelisk, The Fallen, was carved in big block letters. Along each wall were black stone slab, holographic profiles of people were on their surfaces, above each slab were the words Black List, at the top of the Black List was the profile for Jessica Dawson. Clusters of monitors hung above the stone slabs broadcasting different information. And a skylight bathed the room in moonlight. There were offices to the sides for the senior officers and waiting rooms for everyone else. Overhead was a catwalk system with different areas as well, connected to the first floor by stairs along the side walls.
As Jasmine walked into the back, she was shocked to find Ryan, Simon, and Mac, sitting there, with packs at their feet.
"So, what was the plan?" Ryan asked, "hack into the system and assign yourself the mission of hunting down Jessica?"
"And what if it was?" Jasmine demanded, "As a proctor, I have the authority to reassign missions,"
"That won't work, ma'am," Simon said, "Keeper Fairchylde will already has safeguards in place for that, the system would flag the alteration before you got to a warp gate. You could be arrested for that."
"I need to be the one to find her," Jasmine urged, an unknown desperation burning in her,
"Look, I won't pretend to understand why you're so hung up on this," Ryan said, "but I will tell you this; instead of illegally assigning yourself the mission, give it to me."
"You?"
"Yeah," Ryan said, holding up his badge, "I'm a ranger of a high enough rank, I could take it on… or should I say, we could take it on."
Jasmine gave him a questioning glance.
"We just registered as an official squad," Mac said, "we're going out on a training exercise and just so happen to end up on the trail of a certain missing convict. And since we're still new, we'd need a senior officer, who is currently benched from official missions, to supervise us."
"You'd do this for me?" Jasmine asked
"Of course, ma'am," Simon nodded,
"Technically, we aren't doing anything for you," Ryan shrugged, "it's just a random coincidence."
"So are you in or out?" Mac shivered, "this place is cold and creepy at night."
"What choice do I have?" Jasmine sighed
"That's the spirit," Ryan grinned, "alright, let's gear up, Misfits."
"Misfits?" Jasmine asked
"Yeah, thought I'd bless our little squad with an official codename," Ryan beamed,
"Cute." She replied rolling her eyes
Jasmine was surprised by how well thought out this little act of insubordination was. Ryan and Simon had already requisitioned standard field gear for the four of them, and has also already filed their training exercise in the system, along with Jasmine's seal of approval as a proctor. Thanks to the bureaucratic nightmare that is a state of emergency, it was marked as 'low priority' and would be at least a few days before anyone even thought to review it, by which time they would already be on their way.
Along with their field kits, they also received some special toys from the armory; Mac had gotten specially crafted magik knuckles with enchanted scripts, and a case of emergency flares. Simon chose a box of grenades and explosives. Ryan took a demolition pack. Jasmine had replenished her arsenal of arrows and bolts.
)]≥(
Attraxus Prime had no Naexis code, or warpgate, as a security measure, so Jasmine had to commandeer a warbird.
The trip from camp was uneventful; Ryan spent most of the time in the hold with Riot, properly equipping him [I had gotten him a special animal vest and everything], everyone else was pretty quiet as well, especially Jasmine, who sat away from the others and barely looked up from between her feet. As their warbird landed on the landing pad, the team disembarked.
"Thanks for the life," Jasmine said to the pilot
"It's just a detour from my route." the pilot nodded, then took off as soon as they disembarked,
"They didn't seem all that keen on waiting for us," Ryan comments as he pats Riot on the head, the black beast looked up at him with her icy blue eyes then nuzzles Ryan's hand.
"Can you blame them, I mean look at that thing," Mac comments, gesturing to the towering goliath before them.
Attraxus Prime was a giant monolithic structure that stood hundreds of feet tall, easily the tallest man-made structure in the world [at least fifty stories taller than the Burq Khalifa in Dubai]. The floating fortress was carved from dull grey rock and the base was anchored in place by large thick chains with links the size of buses that moored it to the cliff face and the rocky outcrop that just breached the surface of the rolling tides. Around the body of the lone giant were floating rotating rings that made up the extra wards of the prison. Sentry floaters hovered around the fortress, monitoring the skies, seas and lands, ready to destroy any threat on sight.
"Wow," Simon said in awe, "it's beautiful."
They all looked at him funny.
"Are we looking at the same thing?" Ryan asked, "I feel sorry for anyone who has to stay here,"
"I feel sorry for us just having to be here," Mac commented
"This fortress was built almost nine hundred years ago," Simon said, "by a master builder, Gandoe Zugo. It's one of several such structures he designed that still stand today."
"Huh," Ryan said, "Good for him,"
"Look at all this," Jasmine said, "How could anybody escape this?"
"Well, that's what we're here to find out," Ryan said. "Now let's do that so we can go home, this place freaks me out."
They walked along the narrow winding path towards the intimidatingly gargantuan fortress. On either side of the main entrance were massive statues that stood at attention, like sentries to the gates of Hell. [my god, this place is just barrels of fun.]
The entrance itself was as wide as Plaza 1 back at the Sanctum. Waiting for them at the entrance was the warden of the prison. The middle aged woman stood there waiting in a professional grey dress, her graying brown hair was tied back in a bun and green eyes were alert and attentive. The medals and other decorations of her coat speak volume of her decades of service.
"Warden Winchester," Jasmine greeted as she shook the woman's hand, "I'm Proctor Jasmine Sumner,"
"Proctor Sumner, an honor." The wizened woman greeted back, "I got your message, and appreciate your help."
"Of course," Jasmine nodded, "these are my trainees; Ryan Reins, Mac Torris and Simon Ross."
"A pleasure to meet you all," the woman said as she led them into the prison. "Please follow me,"
After passing through the massive gates, they had to go through a lengthy security check and a thorough pat-down; everyone was surprised at the amount of concealed weapons on Jasmine's person.
"What?" she defended, "You can never be too well armed,"
"Hey pal, we just met," Mac said as she shoved a guard who was patting her a bit to intimately,
"Surrender all wands and weapons," another guard said once the pat down was completed,
"Only if you can take it from me," Ryan said as Draxonn's hilt hovered above his open palm. His mastery over the mysterious sword was impressive… if not a bit concerning, given its dark nature.
When the guard made a move to approach Ryan, Riot snarled a low menacing snarl that made everyone back away.
"It's alright," the warden told the guard. "Sorry about that, we take security here deathly seriously."
"I'll bet," Mac scowled, "If anyone else tries getting frisky with me, they're getting worse than a black eye,"
A guard stepped forwards, "Please wear these," she presented a tray with four white bracelets.
"These are your tags," the warden said, showing the green bracelet around her wrist "Everyone has one," The guards also had green bracelets
The put on the bracelets and they turned blue.
"Is that good?" Mac asked
"It denotes your status as visitors," the warden said, "Sorry, but your beast will have to stay here,"
Ryan looked at Riot, "Stay girl, keep these nice people company."
The schadenkhat instantly sat and seemed to be on standby,
"Don't do anything that'll upset her," Ryan warned, "she gets really violent when you upset her,"
"Now," the warden cleared her throat, "shall we begin with the tour?"
"Lead the way," Jasmine said
After passing the security check, they passed through a corridor into the prison proper.
"This prison was built about nine hundred years ago, for the explicit purpose of incarcerating the criminal element within magus society. Since then, two other facilities like this have been commissioned to meet an ever growing demand for cells." The warden explained, "Each cell is lined with null stone to dampen magik use within, and has layers upon layers of anti-tampering scripts and mechanisms to ensure that the cells are all secure. Right now, we're passing Gen. Pop."
As they came out of the corridor, they entered a cavernous area going up fifteen stories, with balconies along every side and bridges connecting the balconies. This place looked like a stereotypical prison, there were cells lining each floor with thick iron bars. All the inmates on the floor above saw them walk in and that started a commotion.
"They seem pretty lively," Ryan comments.
"Ignore them, we don't get many visitors here unless there's a new inmate, so they always make a scene when a new face shows up," The warden said as she led them into another corridor that had offices on both sides. At the end of the corridor was an elevator.
"So what other wings are there?" Simon asked
"There's the Medical ward, the Staff ward, the Psych ward and the Isolation ward," she explained
"And where was Jessica Dawson?" Mac asked
"Isolation," both Jasmine and the warden said at the same time,
"The rings that surround the main building, how are kept in sustained rotation?" Simon asked inquisitively
The warden chuckled, "I don't really know, I just work here,"
When the elevator came to a stop, the doors slid open. "This is the Isolation ward, where we keep the most dangerous inmates." The warden explained, "They get sent up here for three specific reasons; they have a staggering body count, they possess power and/or skills too great to be left in Gen. Pop, or there are special circumstances that require their isolation."
"And what reason was Jessica brought here for?" Mac asked
"All three," Jasmine answered.
"Where are the cells?" Simon asked, they had been walking through empty corridors since they left the elevator.
"All around," the warden said as she goes to a wall terminal, entering a command, a section of wall goes completely transparent to show the inside of cells beyond it where man and women go about their daily routine in confinement. "Isolation cells are closed off from the outside."
They passed the cell as the wall went opaque again.
After several moments of walking, they came to a section of wall that was open.
"This was Dawson's cell," the warden said, "we haven't found any signs of tampering; it just opened on its own."
"That's not supposed to happen," Simon commented
Inside the cell, the far wall was dedicated to a shrine full of images of Jasmine. Everyone turned to Jasmine who looked at the shrine with mixed emotions.
"She was given special privileges as result of some deal she made, access to news materials about you, was one of the few things she requested," the Warden said
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I think she had a thing for Jasmine," Mac said,
"Do you have security footage of the night she escaped?" Jasmine asked the warden
"Yes, at the security office for this wing," the warden said
"C'mon," Jasmine said
"You guys go on ahead," Ryan said, "I'm not done having a look around,"
Jasmine looked at him for a second, wondering what was going on in his head, then she relented, "Alright,"
Left inside the cell, Ryan removed his hand from his pocket, it was trembling and giving off sparks of electricity. He took deep breaths trying to steady his hand. Once he had finally calmed down, he heard the voice of the thing in his head, Drake Darkblood.
"Hmm, this is cozy," Drake said, "You thinking of changing accommodations?"
Drake was Ryan's self-identified dark reflection, a practically separate entity trapped within his body. Ever since the Ares incident, Drake had been mostly silent. He would occasionally pop up from time to time to stir up a conversation then disappear for a stretch. His absences were moments of reprieve, but what really concerned Ryan wasn't Drake, but the mark on his side.
That's damned mark that Ness had placed on him back at the 1st branch before she disappeared. More troubling was the fact that the mark was growing… no, not growing, spreading. Black tendrils originating from the mark had spread across his abdomen. He wasn't quite sure what it was doing to him, but it couldn't be good. When he tried to show it to the healers at the Sanctum, they couldn't see it, which was awkward.
So far, he was content to just ignore it and hope it went away, but the Holy magik Jasmine had cast a few days ago seemed to agitate it, and it had started messing with his magik.
Drake, to what do I owe the grief of your appearance? Ryan asked
"I sensed the presence of the bitch that branded us," Drake scowled
Yeah, I felt it too, Ryan said as he felt the mark slowly creeping across the surface of his skin.
"We need to find out what this thing is," Drake said, "I don't like that it's spreading all over my meat sack; I have great plans for this body and this ink isn't one of them,"
If she was here, then Jessica Dawson must have something to do with her,
"So if we find her we can ask her very nicely," Drake snickered
"If I were a crazed obsessive who just escaped from prison, where would I go?" Ryan asked aloud,
"You'd go to your obsession, duh." Drake replied,
"Or, you'd make your obsession come to you," Ryan said, glancing at the Jasmine shrine.
"You think gold-eyes is dancing to her tune?" Drake countered,
"No, Jasmine was the one that caught her the first time," Ryan defended, "and she was genuinely upset when we heard about her escape. Jasmine isn't that good of a liar to fake such a convincing reaction."
He walked towards the shrine. In it, he found a picture of Jessica and Rose. The words Best Friends was written on the top right corner. Ryan removed the picture and pocketed it before he exited the cell to join the others.
"So, what do you have?" Jasmine asked Ryan when he met up with them,
He removed the picture he took from the shrine and handed it to Jasmine, "First, I thought you might like this,"
Jasmine took the picture and stuffed it into a pocket of her belt without a word, "Anything else?" she demands coldly
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know who let Jessica out, Ness,"
At the name, Jasmine simmered. The woman had blinded her when they had taken her prisoner, and she had never been more scared in her life than when she couldn't see.
"Why is Ness involved?" Jasmine hissed
"Ness is involved?" Mac asked just coming into the conversation,
"Who's Ness?" Simon queried
"Right, you weren't there." Mac said, "Ness was this crazy powerful lady who captured us; she was able to blind Jasmine's golden eyes,"
"Whoa," Simon said, "How did she do that?"
"Wait… she blinded Jasmine?" Ryan exclaimed, "How did that happen?"
"I dunno," Mac shrugged
"The point is," Jasmine said, trying to bring back focus to the matter at hand, "Why did Ness release Jessica from her cell."
"Better yet, how did she release Jessica?" Simon asked, "According to the logs, her cell hasn't been tampered with, and no one unlocked it. I just opened by itself."
"Ness has got some mean powers that, well, defy the laws of magik." Mac said.
"Whoa, wicked," Simon said
"So what do we do now?" Ryan asked
"Security footage of the corridor during her escape was strangely missing, but she was picked up by another camera after she got out. She went to a guard station for the Gen Pop wing and released several other inmates to facilitate her escape. Only she got out though, the others are either dead or suffering from serious injuries." Jasmine said, "We should check out with the medical wing."
In the largest ring that surrounds the tower was the medical ring. The four of them were escorted to where the inmates involved with Jessica's escape were being treated.
"The healers say they've been in a trance since the escape," Mac said after talking to the healer, "Whatever cast she used on them, it's still in effect."
"Well, knowing Jessica; this was probably meant for me." Jasmine sighed, "Better get this over with."
Jasmine walked into the suite and saw three convicts in beds; two men and a woman.
"Who are you?" they all said at the exact same time as she walked in through the door.
"Um… that's creepy," Mac whispered as they heard from the corridor.
"I'm Proctor Jasmine Sumner, from the 45th." Jasmine introduced
"Jasmine!" the woman said in excitement, "I knew you would come for me. And you're a Proctor now? I'm so proud."
Jasmine was taken aback, "J-Jess?"
The woman smiled, "Not quite. I'm overriding this woman's consciousness with an imprint of my psyche, so that, at least, a part of me can speak with you for a while." The woman said, "Her mind isn't that strong, so I had to burn away quite a bit of her memory to leave this imprint, but it won't last long, so ask me anything."
"Okay? Who let you out?" Jasmine asked
"I don't know; I didn't catch her name." she shrugged, "I was about to kill her but she convinced me otherwise."
"So it was a woman?"
"Yes. So how are you Jasmine?"
"I'll ask the questions here," Jasmine urged
"Alright… so pushy, you've always been that way. Why don't you let me fix that when we meet up?"
"Where are you headed, I'd love to catch up," Jasmine said
"Oh, but that'd spoil the surprise." she pouted, "I want you to chase me."
"You know I'll find you either way, Jess," Jasmine stated, "I'm leding an elite taskforc created specifically to hunt you down, so why don't you make it easier on yourself and just turn yourself in?"
"Please spare me the empty threats, you aren't a very good liar." The woman sighed, "there's now way in hell Stephanie would've sanctioned you to be on this manhunt, so you broke protocol to be here right now, with a ragtag bunch of accomplices. Very naughty. When we do meet up, you'll have to tell me all about it."
With that, the woman then slumped down on the bed.
Then the monitoring devices next to the patients beeped, attracting the attention of the healers. The healers then came in to check on the patients.
"Doctor, they no longer show signs of magik influence," one of the healers said as she checked on the woman patient.
"I guess it was just so she could meet you," the doctor said as he turned to Jasmine, "I suggest you get started on your pursuit. She was powerful enough to do this after spending years in a Naexis-dry cell; her powers will only grow."
"Thanks," Ryan said sarcastically, "That was super helpful,"
"Alright people, let's move," Jasmine ordered
"Move where?" Mac asked, "We don't even know where she's gone?"
"I know how she thinks." Jasmine said, "And if I were her, and I'd just broken out of prison with a diabolical goal in mind to seduce… me, the first thing I'd do would be to get to one of my stash boxes."
"What?" Simon asked
"Jess taught me the importance of keeping caches of gear hidden around, for emergencies. And seeing as she was my mentor, I know where a number of hers were kept."
"So you just left caches of weapons, tools and magik junk just lying around in foreign zones without their knowledge?" Ryan said,
"It's not as difficult as you might think." Jasmine said
"So we have our next clue then," Ryan said, "let's go."
As they were retreiving their gear at the main attrium, they were met with the warden and a number of guards
"What's happened?" Jasmine asked, strapping on her belt
"I just had an interesting conversation with someone from the 45th," Warden Winchester said sternly
"Uh-oh," Ryan mused
"I was informed that proctor Sumner was not authorized to visit this facility, what's more she was not to lead any force out of the Sanctum."
"Warden, I can explain," Jasmine started,
"You can save your explanations for the retreival team that is on its way to recover you." warden Winchester said, "until then, you are all under arrest."