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pigeonwhumps · 8 months

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Imprisonment

Immortal Cannon Fodder masterlist

Taglist: @extrabitterbrain @wolfeyedwitch @fuckcapitalismasshole @ghost-whump @whump-tr0pes @rainbowsandwhumperflies @painful-pooch @i-eat-worlds @a-funeral-romance @rainydaywhump @whumpinggrounds

Phoenix gets imprisoned overnight in the HAL prison cells. For Lian, it's one surprise after another.

Set soon after Alicia's torture.

1.6k

CWs: imprisonment, villain whump, mentioned institutional whump (kinda?), implication of microaggression against asexual person, past torture and death, mentions of interrogation, implied beating, mentioned drugging, past blackmail

Phoenix! You're early for your visit, don't you usually come on Fridays? And you've brought someone new to visit? asks one of the friendlier prisoners. Wildfire. Telepathic. Low-level criminal. Stronger powers than he's let on to anyone but Phoenix (they're honoured, really). He bats his eyes at the guard holding Phoenix's shoulder. It's quite dark in here, which is presumably why Wildfire hasn't noticed their wrists. Phoenix usually brings a lantern covered in red cellophane.

Wildfire must say something to the guard because he says gruffly, "Stop flirting. It won't work."

Phoenix bets he's turned bright red.

Wildfire stopped flirting with them when they told him they were asexual. It's nice to have someone listen.

The guard unlocks the cell. "In you go, Phoenix. I'll be back to let you out in the morning. I'll tell your team where you are."

Wait, what?

Phoenix holds up their wrists on the dim glow filtering in from the tiny window.

"Thanks," they murmur, as he unlocks their cuffs and places a nightlight in their cell. Then he pauses and rolls his eyes.

"Yes, I'll get you a damn nightlight too."

Oh yeah, the flirting's working.

The guard locks the cell door and begins to walk away.

"Wait!" calls Phoenix. The guard pauses and turns. "Why are you, um, being so nice?"

It's a dangerous question but it's true. They can easily break out of here, shouldn't they have been given a sedative or something to block their powers or something? For that matter, shouldn't they been given it as soon as they were arrested?

"Because if that woman had said to me what she did to you, I'd have done the exact same thing."

He leaves the room.

What did you do?

Phoenix takes their time positioning themself relatively comfortably on the mattress, legs pulled up to their chest and arms around them, tapping their feet nervously.

Phoenix.

I punched a member of upper management, thinks Phoenix loudly. Okay?

Wildfire pauses, taken aback they think.

Can I...

Go ahead.

Wildfire passes the news down the line, and Phoenix can hear when it reaches each person. Finally, when it gets to Vulture, at the end of the block, she says thoughtfully, "I shouldn't be surprised. You've always had hidden depths."

"You've only, um, you've only known me a few, um, months."

"Yes."

There's the sound of footsteps on the stairs and the whole block tenses. Phoenix scrambles to their feet. Everyone there knows what some of the nastier guards are capable of.

As the person reaches the bottom they pause, and in the light Phoenix catches a glimpse of pink hair.

"Elemental?"

He rushes over to their cell. "Firebird! You're uninjured?"

"I'm fine." Well, they are now. In the rush to cuff them before they did any more damage someone caught skin in it, but the guard was quick to rectify it once he noticed. There's a possibility they've got a lump on the head too. But there's nothing bad. "And you can, um, call me Phoenix in here."

"Are you sure it's a good idea, a bunch of powerful villains knowing your name?"

"I'm offended that you think I'd do anything to them," replies Vulture, and she actually does sound a little offended.

Lian sighs. "Phoenix, she's one of the greatest supervillains this country's ever seen."

"I'm flattered."

Phoenix shakes their head. "Never mind that now. How's Alicia? Has she, um, woken up yet? Is she going to be, um, to be okay?"

"Dr A thinks she'll be fine. Physically, that is, she was tortured so who knows what her mental state will be like. She's not awake yet, but they're weaning her off the medicines keeping her in the induced coma, so apparently she should be awake in about a day or so. So you might be there in time for her to wake up. And in the meantime the rest of us are taking it in turns to sit with her."

"You remember she, um, needs an AAC board until her device is fixed? And she's touch averse? And–"

"Hey, hey. You told us all this." He catches their hands through the bars. "It'll be okay. We know what we're doing. Besides, you might be there anyway."

"Sorry."

Lian waves off their apology. "I have some food for you, since the guard said you missed mealtime. It's from the vending machine, I would've got you something hot but I don't think a plate would fit through the bars of your cell and I don't have your lock picking skills."

Lian passes a pasty and a packet of crisps through. Phoenix almost smiles.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now tell me. How did you befriend all these villains and why is Wildfire in my head giving me a shovel talk? And what are you in here for anyway?"

Wildfire, get out of his head. To Lian, they say, "You know I, um, I had to go to that stupid meeting? Well, I, um, punched one of senior management. She said I, um, I shouldn't have gotten Alicia out of there without prior approval, because, um, it might've let villains know who I am and obviously as one of their more valued assets I'm more important than, um, an unarmed civilian who happens to be my sister, and I shouldn't have, um, killed Villain because it'll bring unwanted attention, even though, um, again, an unarmed civilian and my sister's life was at stake! He would've killed her!"

"Who exactly did you punch?" asks Lian curiously.

Phoenix winces. "The, um, the director?"

"Damn. I'm impressed."

She deserves worse.

"You're impressed? I thought you might, um, say I shouldn't have, um, shouldn't have done it."

"Well that'd make me a hypocrite." Phoenix frowns. "I tried to attack the board of directors when I was 15. I found out they blackmailed my dad into infiltrating Razor's base. They killed him."

"I'm sorry." There's nothing else to say, really.

"Yeah, well." He coughs, voice thick. "So. How do you know all these villains? And how are you friends?"

I'm starting a conference call.

Phoenix nods. "Lian. Um, prepare yourself."

"For what?"

Hello. There should be Phoenix, Elemental and Vulture in here with me. Are you there?

Yep.

Wait, what? Since when were telepathic conference calls possible?

Why am I last? This is about me, I should be first.

Phoenix can sense Wildfire rolling his eyes. Vulture, shut it. Elemental, do you really think I revealed the full extent of my powers to HAL? I'm not that stupid.

I was the one who arrested Wildfire, starts Phoenix. A few months ago. I was feeling a bit guilty about it so I went to visit him. And I saw...

They trail off. How do they describe it? Vulture takes over, faux-nonchalance in their thoughts.

There's no cameras down here. No surveillance. And some of the guards... they're not too fond of us, to say the least. It was one of the worst ones on shift that night. There wasn't much light, but Phoenix apparently created an illusion of fog around them and when he was confused, knocked him out with his own baton.

Fucking hell, Phoenix, thinks Lian.

Phoenix shrugs. It was the right thing to do. Despite what anyone might've done, they're still people, fundamentally, with human rights who deserve to be treated humanely. I had a red torch, and I could barely distinguish the blood from its light. Took forever to do the makeshift bandages.

They're good to us, is what I'm saying, explains Wildfire. Brings us good food and extra water, treats our injuries from beatings or 'enhanced interrogation'. Helps when people have withdrawal symptoms from the sedatives or they're forced to have power blockers or sedatives of any kind or even if they're just scared. And they're good company too. Others help, but they're mostly more brusque, just doing what they need to and leaving. Plus, they can't pick locks.

Lian looks at Phoenix with such awe it makes them blush. I take it this isn't officially sanctioned?

Neither part. But if it's useful I'm not sure how much they'd object if they knew.

Lian switches to talking out loud again once they've stopped covering the sensitive topic.

"You're in here overnight, right?"

"Yep."

"Would you like me to stay?"

Phoenix glances at the dim nightlight and the darkening night sky outside the window. And the relatively small cell. They shiver.

"If it's not too much trouble."

"Of course not. They'll know where I am."

"You were the distraught teenager, right?" says Vulture suddenly. "About fifteen years ago."

"Yeah."

"Huh. I wondered what was up. This is why I became a villain."

"Sure," mutters Phoenix sceptically. It was nothing to do with power or rebellion at all.

Lian settles down outside of the cell and there's quiet for a while. Then Phoenix, mustering up all their courage, says, "I'm sorry. About Villain. I didn't... he tortured my sister because he thought it was me, and then he kept going after she was unconscious, and I was trying to save her but I got a bit too angry. I'm sorry."

We understand. Right?

"Yeah. Yeah, of course. It's not like I've never killed."

"Reassuring," mutters Lian.

You're not going to be able to make the visit this Friday, are you? asks Wildfire sadly. It's in two days time.

I– well, I mean. I'll try.

Your sister needs to come first. We'll survive for a week.

Phoenix nods. They feel a bit guilty but... Alicia does come first.

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