Music is "Sharks Don't Sleep" by Dean Valentine.

Picture is my edit of Glory and Vlad.

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"I am finally learning my lesson. Anyone can betray anyone."

- Victoria Aveyard

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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

This is a rescue mission. Plain and simple. It's not every day that a twenty-six year old breaks into Stark Prison.

"What the hell does Stark think he's doing?" Wanda whispers as we watch from above. We float right above the building beside the Prison, waiting to hatch our half-assed plan. "What does he hope to gain from this?"

I crouch down onto the ledge of the roof, watching as Logan and his motorcycle come flying down the street. "I don't know. He's up to something. Here comes Logan. Get ready to jump through a portal."

Our plan is relatively simple: Logan creates a distraction by breaking into the basic levels of the Prison and causing havoc, while Wanda and I sneak in via portal to free Vlad from his cell on the basement floor. It was put together rather quickly, and that's what worries me.

Logan's bike comes to a halt as he turns towards the Prison doors, hitting the gas to go jolting through the doors, claws extending. After that, all we hear is a bunch of screaming, shouting, and loads of flying bullets.

"I hope he will be alright."

I smirk. "Trust me. He has been through much worse. Now, c'mon. Let's go, Scarlet Witch."

Wanda groans, and I create a portal to the basement level based on my knowledge of the Prison layout. "I really wish you would not call me that."

"Can't help it. It's classic."

"From the schematics we memorized, you should be putting us somewhere in a utility closet. Should not be a soul in sight."

We jump through the portal, and my skin feels icy cold, as if being dropped into space. Once through, the surroundings depict just as Wanda fortold: a small, utility closet with lots of cleaning tools. I sigh, relieved. "Thank Odin."

"Glory, behind you!" Wanda whisper-shouts.

I jerk my head and see a very shocked man going for his com. I stretch out my hand and pull the com off his belt towards me. "Sorry, buddy. Can't have you alerting Tony."

"You-You're the one they all talk about."

I open another portal to Central Park and turn back to the very frightened man. "Don't worry. We're not here to hurt you." I lift him up and throw him through the swirling portal of golden energy.

"That was close," Wanda breathes.

"So much for not a soul in sight." I open the door to the hallway of the Prison and peak outside. No one walks the hallways. "Clear outside. Follow me."

"Do you know where we are going?" Wanda asks, as we sneak out of the closet, scurrying silently down the hallway.

I nod. "I memorized the map. We should be coming up on a-" We turn the corner and see a door at the end of the hallway. "Door!"

"Why could we not just create a portal down to the basement level where Vlad is?"

"Tony has motion detectors in place all along the hallways, but not just normal motion detectors. They detect spacial anomalies, magic, teleportation, and other forms of superpowers. We'd be caught before we could get him out, even with Logan as the distraction."

Wanda nods as we head down the staircase. "No powers."

"No powers." We continue this process for a few more floors. "We should be to the basement level soon," I whisper to her. "This is where they'll be keeping Vlad, and possibly more supers to be transferred to the Negative Zone."

We round the last corner and see the final door. This one has several high security locks. An eye detector, a fingerprint sensor, and a voice code. I groan. "Great."

"What now?"

I shake my head, thinking at a million miles an hour. "I have no idea. I didn't get this far. I should've known they wouldn't just leave the door open." We hear a loud clank and lots of struggling and cursing. "That's Logan," I mumble. "Wanda, cloak us. I have an idea."

"What?" she asks. "Cloak?"

The voices get closer. "Make it so that whoever is coming can't see us. Get in their heads. Do your thing. Quickly!"

She nods, her eyes lighting up, and she waves her hands, covering us with red energy. "They cannot hear us or see us."

I nod, and we wait for the company to come down the hallway.

Sure enough, just as I suspected, Logan is being escorted by at least half a dozen guards. They have several pairs of handcuffs on him. They must be leading him towards the Prison cells for transportation to the Negative Zone.

"Let Logan see us," I whisper.

Wanda nods, and with a wave of her hand, Logan is able to see us. His eyes go straight to us, and I motion towards the locks. He nods and remains steady with the guards. He turns to the one beside him and looks down to him. "So, you come here often?"

The guard looks like he's about to piss his pants, but he doesn't reply. He continues to hold a shaky gun towards Logan. Logan smirks as the leading guard unlocks each of the high security systems, allowing them to enter. Wanda and I follow them closely behind.

What we come to see is another set of security doors, the same as the last, only two guards have to enter their codes this time. I didn't know how far Tony had gone to make certain that the prisoners stayed that way.

What we see after that is a horror show. I hear Wanda gasp and her hands fly up to her mouth to cover it.

The basement level isn't just a Prison for supers, it's a human rights shattering nightmare. Most of the basement is lined with cell after cell after cell of induced comatose or restrained supers, enhanced, and mutants of all kinds, races, ages, and sexes. It's a heroes worst nightmare.

My anger spikes as we walk farther down the hallway, passing person after person, who are all awaiting their trip to the hell that is the Negative Zone, never to be heard from again. "This is so much worse than I feared," I mumble to myself. "How could Tony condone this? On his own property!"

"We should help them," Wanda says, turning eagerly towards me.

I wince and turn my gaze down, away from the horrid sight. "Vlad first. We'll come back for them. I swear we will."

Wanda turns away with angry eyes as the guards open the door to a new cell. "Let us do what we came here for."

"Drop the camouflage. It's time to kick ass. No powers, though. You hear that, Logan?"

Logan nods once, and as soon as Wanda drops the cover, he pulls his hands apart with ease, breaking the several handcuffs without a problem. "Holy shit!" The guards start shouting and firing bullets at him, but he knocks several out with his bare fists. Wanda allures two of them towards her and hits them in their neck pressure points. I lunge kick two of them before they can go for their coms and give the last one my right hook.

"Good planning, kid." Logan picks up their coms and crushes them in his hand.

"Thanks for letting them take you in," I reply, pulling the men off to the open cell door that they had prepared for Logan. Logan and Wanda help me. I close the cell and lock it with them all inside. "There we go. Now, let's spread out and look for Vlad. We don't have long, so let's be quick."

Logan and Wanda nod, taking off in opposite directions. I walk down the main corridor, looking into each holding cell for my best friend.

The only way I can describe the sight is sad. Just sad. The thought of someone locking away hundreds of innocents like this chills me to my bones. I thought Tony was on his way to changing. I guess I was wrong.

I walk around, searching for Vlad, when Wanda and I bump into each other. We jump back, startled. "It's me!" I whisper, hands up.

Wanda sighs in relief and looks around. "This is going nowhere. Where could he be?"

"Maybe Tony isn't keeping him down here at all," Logan says, walking up to us from the direction he headed. "I've got nothing either. Just a bunch of helpless kids."

I bite my lower lip and look around for any sign of Vlad. Where would Tony keep one of the Next Gen. Mutants? Not just any mutant, but the one who helped battle against Killbane in the Second Black Plague. "Does anyone remember any levels below this one?" I ask

They shake their heads. "This was all on the schematics. This was the lowest level."

I raise an eyebrow. "Since when does Stark show us all his cards at once?" I look for the nearest wall and rush towards it. I run my hands along it, following it for a couple hundred feet.

"What are you thinking, kid?" Logan asks, following closely, along with Wanda.

"Stark more than likely has floors, or rooms, not on the layout," I reply, running my hands along the edges of the wall, looking for a switch or a button. Something. Anything. "If I'm right, he's probably got several for high security, high risk mutants. Help me find it. Logan, use your claws. Wanda, help me feel for a give in the wall somewhere."

They both nod and do as they're told. Logan uses his claws to scratch a tiny layer of the metal off as he walks around the perimeter, feeling for a give in the metal fortress. Wanda helps me feel in the other direction.

After a moment of looking, Logan shouts, "I found something!" from the other side of the Prison room. Wanda and I rush to see what he's found.

Logan stands by the end of his claw's trail with his ear to the metal. "There's definitely something behind this wall. Stand back. I'm going to get us in since you two are out of commission." Wanda and I step back as Logan's claws reappear, and he tears into the metal wall like it's nothing.

"That's strange," I mumble to myself. "You'd think he'd make it out of Adimantium or Vibranium."

Wanda looks at me, and I at her, and we have the same, horrible thought: what if this is all a trap?

Once Logan is through, we see another staircase. This one is dimly lit and ominous. "I got a bad feeling about this," Logan says.

I head down the stairs first. "So do I, Han Solo. So do I."

"Han Solo?"

"Long story. I'll tell you later."

The three of us continue our decent, for this staircase is much longer than the others. An endless spiral downward.

When we reach the bottom, the door is open. This instantly puts Logan back on guard. "Something ain't right about this, kid."

I clench my fists and nervously walk towards the door. "I feel it, too. Stay close. If worst comes to worse, I'll transport us to the room from where Wanda and I came." My two allies nod and follow closely behind as I push the door open further.

Inside is a large, dark room with only one cell. The walls are metal, more than likely Tony's favorite metal: an Adimantium-Vibranium alloy. The darkness can be felt, like a thick wave of fog on my skin. There are no lights except for the single bulb that hangs from the ceiling.

The single cell is oddly equipped for such an old looking bunker. It's made of energy, electric currents, bulletproof glass, and metal rods, probably made of the same material as the walls. The cell has four layers of security, each one in the order just given. Whoever is going in that cell must be of the highest risk.

And that's the oddest thing about this whole room: the cell is empty.

"Why isn't there anyone in that cell?" Logan asks, nervous and edgy.

I take a closer look at the cell. The energy radiating off the ten by ten cell can be felt from several feet away. "Where is Vladimir?" Wanda asks. "Where else could he be?"

My brows pull together as I try to think of an explanation. There is no other place he could be. This is the end of the line. "I don't-"

"-Looking for me?" a voice says from behind us. We all jump and jerk our heads towards it.

Vlad stands with his arms crossed in front of the door. He wears his usual black skinny jeans, a white dress shirt with a black blazer, and fingerless gloves. He doesn't look like a prisoner. He doesn't look like he's been suffering for months like I had worried so often. There are guards standing outside of the room, in the staircase hallway.

My eyes start to water. "Vlad? Are you okay? What is happening? We've been looking for you for over five months!"

Vlad's emotionless face remains static. "You shouldn't have come here."

I walk closer to Vlad. "Give the word and I'll get us out of here." I eye the guards poised with guns behind him. "Why are they here? I didn't hear alarms..."

My sentence trails off, and as Vlad looks away, I can only come to one, unavoidable ending. My eyes grow wide and I turn towards Wanda and Logan as fast as I can. "It's a trap!" Before I can even turn around to avoid the consequences of our actions, I feel a sharp pain in my neck. Vlad presses a needle in and injects me with some sort of sedative, no doubt.

I turn to face him with teary, confused, and angry eyes. "How could you? I... trusted you!"

Vlad grabs my arms as I stumble. "It's for the greater good, Morning Glory."

I shake my head and push him away. "Only my friends call me that." I turn, and with my final bit of strength, press open a door in space and swallow both Wanda and Logan in it, teleporting them back to the place where Wanda and I first entered the Prison.

Wanda reaches out towards me, urgently trying to grab me, but Vlad jerks me away. "Sister!"

Before the guards with Vlad can grab my companions, they're gone. Hopefully they're escaping. As my mind gets darker and darker, the voices and images around me continue to grow fainter. Vlad picks me up and places me inside the cell, on the single bed. He exits and places the four rows of security on.

"Go tell Stark we have Glory Northern."

END CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO