Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Chapter Text
It was pouring out. Nothing new for Haven City, citizens hustled to their destinations to escape the rain. The street lights, far and few, began to kick on as dusk approached. Jeremy, a dark skinned man in a hideously orange jerkin and contrasting red pants, raced through the crowds.
A dwarf among giants, the tiny man went virtually unnoticed by his averaged sized counterparts. His long ears couldn’t even improve his visibility. He ducked and dodged the crowds congesting the narrow streets, running past decrepit buildings with enormous neon signs advertising entertainment, and comforts inside.
Finally reaching his destination, Jeremy heaved the doors to Shorty’s Pub open and stumbled inside. Soaked to the bone and dripping on to the battered wood floor he exclaimed to the patrons inside, “I have performed a technologic miracle!”
A huge, white bearded man raised his mug of ale to the tiny man and shouted, “Here’s to state of the art robot boyfriends!” Everyone in the pub laughed, with some banging on the tables shouting “Here, here”.
Undeterred, Jeremy pointed at the man saying, “No even better, I’ve hacked the Haven City Fortress servers!” The pub went deathly quiet, “I know where they are.”
Only three men were sent for the rescue, the best the Underground had to offer. This was the first time the resistance group was able to locate and mount a rescue for captured members.
All the others had perished behind the fortress’s impenetrable walls. Under an overpass in the industrial section the three men used the override code provided to them by Jeremy to access the city’s sewer system.
Xavier groaned as the doors leading into the sewer grinded to a halt, leaving a space barely wide enough for a man to squeeze through. “Ah fuck, where’s that little midget when you need him?” Xavier, was muscular, and imposing in height, he would never fit through the gap so he began to push the enormous metal doors open.
Doc laughed, “Y’all should just give it a minute, with all the webs and dust I assume it’s been years since this thing’s been opened.”
“We don’t have a minute, we are on a schedule.” It was true, because Haven City’s ruler Baron Praxis was visiting Krimson Guard members on the front lines, he had guards from the fortress accompany him. This left a gap in security for the night.
And they only had that night.
Alarms blared again, and gears groaned as the doors slid open.
“Old bastard was right, shoulda just waited a minute.” Said Torn, the final member of the trio.
As Xavier glared, Torn grinned and ran a hand through his shoulder length brown hair.
“All right then blue eyes,” Xavier said to Torn as he stepped away from the sewer doors, “you first.”
Torn’s grin dropped, he looked to Doc who only shrugged. Muttering curses, Torn descended the stairs into the sewers.
Taking one whiff of the air Torn exclaimed, “Oh my god it reeks in here!”
“That’s cuz ain’t nobody been in here for decades to maintain it.” Doc replied pulling down his mask to lessen the smell.
The putrid stench wasn’t the only thing the men had to worry about in the pitch black sewers. Intel said that on top of video surveillance; the reason the men were dressed in all black, there were mutated creatures, sentry bots, and Metal Heads.
Metal Heads were vicious alien creatures who’d come to Earth over a hundred years prior. They reproduced so quickly, that parts of Earth were completely overrun. The humans and other aliens that had made Earth their home had fought them into a stalemate, resulting in the creatures going dormant. That is, until Praxis took control of Haven City, and the war started all over again.
The men turned on their night vision goggles. The place was a disaster, raw sewage threatened to spill on to the walkway, which was already littered with trash and god only knows what else. Cracks in the walls oozed frothy looking slime, Dolls pointed to a particularly large crack’s dripping slime and said, “Spiders... Big ones.”
Spiders were easy to fight off though. They made their way through the tunnels, according to intel, the bots had preprogrammed patrol routes, all they had to do was watch the clock and dodge the patrols.
Good thing there was enough junk down here to hide entire armies behind. Xavier’s HUD flashed seven pm, the bots should be passing the T junction they were at. They heard the unmistakable whirs and whines of mechanical parts, the sentries were right on schedule.
Ducking behind a half busted crate, the men held their breath and waited. The red light from the sensors washed over the area, narrowly missing them. Seconds ticked away, then they turned to minutes.
Why wasn’t it leaving? Five more minutes passed before the red light began to fade.
“What the hell was that?” Torn whispered, when they were sure it was out of ear shot.
“Not sure, maybe they anticipated an attempt on the fortress so they’re having the bots be extra cautious.” Xavier replied as he checked his HUD map to make sure they hadn’t taken a wrong turn.
“And here I thought the KG were too stupid to cover their bases.” Said Doc as they started down the corridor.
That earned a chuckle from the other two.
They traveled some distance before Torn asked, “So you two ever been in the fortress?”
“Plenty of times, used to work security there.” Xavier answered.
“No, I mean like behind the bars.”
“Oh. Then nah.”
“What about you?” Torn asked Doc.
“I uh– I’ve been picked up a few times.” That was an understatement. Despite operating a legitimate dental practice and no traceable ties to the Underground, the KG had been suspicious enough to haul him in and set him up in one of their state of the art interrogation rooms until his voice gave out from screaming.
But they had a good time though.
“Yo? Why you slackin’?”
The question, distant sounding but still loud enough to pull Doc from wretched memories. “What?” He’d fallen behind the other two without even realizing it.
The hollowness behind the question had Torn wanting to smack himself, “Shit man I’m sorry–I didn’t mean to drag up stuff like that.”
“It’s fine.” Doc answered quietly.
Xavier, despite his perceptiveness in the field, seemed to completely lack it in social situations. “Remember when Nic came back from the metal heads?” He asked with a cheery sort of ignorance to Doc’s clear and obvious discomfort.
“Jesus fuck I didn’t even realize they took prisoners until then, usually they just killed everyone.” Torn said, his voice a mix awe and disgust.
“I remember that.” Doc said as he caught up with the others. He remembered the day the KG cut her loose; damaged goods she was labeled as. Waverly had brought her into his office for dental work, holding Nic’s enormous hand as she guided her into the office.
He remembered Nic’s vacant stare as she sat in the chair waiting for her cleaning, the gaze of a woman who’d seen, and been through more than any person should’ve.
As soon as he brought the pick out Nic panicked, “Knocked little Waverly right off her stool.” He said aloud.
Confused, Torn asked, “Who did what?”
“Oh uh,” they couldn’t tell in the dark, but Doc’s cheeks were pink from the embarrassment, “Nic had a little freak out in my office, knocked Waverly off a stool, you know how tiny she is.”
Torn nodded in the dark, “Oh right, the little Earp elf.”
Waverly’s face flashed in Doc’s mind Torn said that. The tiniest woman he’d ever seen and the love of one tall ginger haired currently trapped in a shithole prison woman’s life. She’d broke down when her told her their plans.
They couldn’t afford to fail.
Finally, after dodging two more bots the trio made it to the prison’s sewer line. The grate covering the large pipe was rusted to hell, one swift kick would have done the trick but they needed to be quiet.
Doc made quick work of it with his laser torch and the three men gently lowered it to the ground.
They were in.
Up the pipe they found the hatch leading to the mechanical room; an understatement of a name, the “room” housed the prison’s entire utility system, which made it almost too easy to sabotage.
They needed to cut the electricity to the complex, the generator was at the center of the massive room, machines whirred and hummed, some groaned. Pipes and cables hung high in the air, static cams seemed to cover every square inch of the room. Torn took out his jammer, once activated, it’d hijack the feed looping the footage until they could cut the power.
He held his breath, pressed the button. The trio waited a moment before Xavier waved a hand in front of one of the cams, when no alarms went off Torn let it out. Doc wasted no time as he dashed over to the generator. There was no way they were going to be able to blow the thing without every single KG in the building swarming them. Fortunately for them, they didn’t need to.
The generator was controlled from a console, all’s they had to do was introduce a virus to shut it down, and the KG would assume software failure.
Doc powered up the console, following Jeremy’s instructions he put in the password and uploaded the virus.
They had a few minutes before the system wide shut down started. At the doors they waited until patrolling guards turned the corner and hurried into the auxiliary shaft across the corridor.
Five floors was a long climb from the basement.
“Did I ever tell you about the time I single handedly repelled a metal head ambush at the drill platform?”
“No, please, I’m sure it will be thrilling.” Wynonna was proud of herself for completing a whole sentence. Her jaw felt like it was falling off, her body ached from the beating, her hands had long gone numb from hanging from the ceiling for so long.
The man in front of her, Erol, a tall skinny man in eye searing red KG armor with fiery red hair and a weasel face, began to regale her with a tale he’d told numerous times, it seemed to have been the only brave thing he’d ever done in the KG.
It was probably true.
His brown eyes, already cruel, narrowed in annoyance as his captive audience slowly lost consciousness, he crossed the room and slapped her hard, jolting her awake, “Am I boring you?” He shouted.
Naked, freezing, in agony, Wynonna thought about her little sister; she missed her so much, wondered if Nicole was even still alive. She was in so much pain, just counting the days until they’d finally kill her.
Maybe that would be today.
“Yes, yes Captain. You’re boring me to death.”
His jaw clenched as he growled, he grabbed her face squeezing it painfully, “I don’t know why you even bother attempting to hold out, Haught already squealed years ago.” He let go and shoved her head back.
Wynonna laughed, “Okay, yeah, sure, we all know if that happened, I’d have been dead years ago… stop lying.”
He sucked in a breath, held it in as he thought, releasing it with a smile, “You know, I don’t think the Baron would mind all that much if you did die. You’re not responding to the Dark Warrior program like Haught is anyway, I don’t think anyone will miss you.”
Wynonna wanted to take him seriously, but there’d been so many mock executions in the past that she no longer felt a legitimate threat from them.
“Sure, you do that.”
Before he could speak, the lights went out as the emergency spotlights kicked on.
He growled, “Now what?”
Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Summary:
The guys work to rescue Wynonna and Nicole
Chapter Text
“Oh stop, it’s not even on the highest setting.”
Of course that didn’t stop the woman pinned to the table from screaming, Lucado sighed as she cut power to the electrodes, “You’re losing your resolve I see, that’s good for me.” Tall, blond and grey, with eyes as vividly brown as the unfortunate woman on the table’s, Jeannie Lucado was the Baron’s top inquisitor. There hadn’t been a single man, or woman she couldn’t break.
Until now.
She patted red matted hair with one hand as she removed a razor from a tray with the other, “Now you can be a good girl and tell me where the Resistance is hiding out or you and Mr. Razor here can get reacquainted with one another, I know it’s been so long.”
The woman clenched her jaw tight in defiance. Lucado sighed as she watched the woman’s chest heave with every breath, “Alright Haught, have it your way.”
The lights went out as they hit the third floor, taking longer than expected but possibly working to their advantage. Small emergency lights kicked on, illuminating their way. There was no sign that the KG suspected anything other than power failure.
“This piss poor excuse for lighting ain’t helpin’ my claustrophobics.” Doc grumbled as they climbed pass the fourth floor hatch.
“It’s claustrophobia Doc.” Torn corrected, earning what sounded like a raspberry from Doc.
“I’ll call it whatever I please.”
“How about keep your minds on the mission.” Xavier scolded.
Erol stepped out into the corridor where several KGs had gathered, “What the hell happened?” He barked at them.
They all jumped, one answered, “Dunno sir, power failure I guess.”
“You guess?” Erol shouted back.
The guard apologized, “I’m sorry sir, the maintenance team is investigating the mechanical room. That is the conclusion they came to.”
Erol scoffed, “And you believe them? Kind of convenient for a power failure the night the Baron is gone don’t you think?”
The young man replied, “Yes sir, highly suspicious, possibly metal heads sir?” It was better to agree with the Captain, he’d seen too many times what would happen if someone didn’t.
Erol nodded, “That’s more like it. Someone give me a communicator.” Another guard passed him one, “This is Captain Erol requesting a status update.”
The communicator crackled as a man’s voice replied, “Hello Captain, the generator’s down, needs to be rebooted it seems.”
Erol scowled at the device, this screamed sabotage was he the only one who could see it? “Why is the generator down?”
More crackling, “Not a clue sir, this could take a few hours to fix, things older than my grandpappy.”
“Speed it up, we’re sitting ducks out here.” He ordered, it was all he could about that, for now he had saboteurs to find.
The guards were oddly quiet, they all stared at him before one of them was brave enough to ask, “What’s a duck?”
Erol’s whole body went slack from exasperation, “It’s a water fowl.”
“Okay, but what does sitting ducks mean?”
Erol put a hand to his face, “It means we’re fucked.”
There was an awkward pause before all the guards just shrugged in acceptance. Erol turned to head down the corridor, “Spread out and find the saboteurs.”
“What about the prisoner sir.”
Erol looked back into the room, Wynonna hung in the center of the room, unconscious, “She’s not going anywhere don’t worry about her.”
The fifth floor was quiet, deserted as the trio exited the maintenance shaft. This floor housed the prisoners, Doc was half expecting to hear the tortured cries of those trapped behind the bars. But no, they too were quiet.
There were so many cells, so many innocents. If only they were here for them all. But no tonight it was just for two. Jeremy had pinpointed Wynonna on this end of the floor. She was a top priority prisoner, those ones had suites all to themselves. But for Nicole…
“They have this program, hush hush,” Jeremy said, as they were going over the 3D blueprints to the prison, “called Dark Warrior. They inject people with dark eco to turn them into mutant warriors.”
He zoomed in on a section of the fifth floor, “I think this is the lab.”
“I know all about this program.” Dolls said quietly.
“How?”
He chuckled, “I’m one of its rejects. From back when they just used volunteers.”
“Shit.” Said Doc in surprise.
Dolls nodded, “I know exactly where that room is.”
They split up, Torn and Doc were to grab Wynonna, Dolls would get Nicole. Faster that way. Ducking behind crates and into unused rooms, Doc and Torn slipped past the few patrols that were on that end of the floor.
As they rounded the corner, they saw a group of KG guards, and Erol outside of Wynonna’s cell. They watched until all the men headed towards the generator room.
They found Wynonna naked, battered, but very much alive. Doc, horrified, “My word.” He took his hat off and slowly approached her. Several years ago, a fling they had resulted in a child, Alice. To keep her safe the two decided it was best if Wynonna’s aunt raised her. That way no one from the KG would know it was their child.
The rage he felt seeing the mother of his child in such a state was more than he’d ever felt in his life. “Wynonna?”
She opened her eyes, and smiled, “Hi.”
“Hi yourself.”
Doc lifted her off the hook she was hanging on, she collapsed into him. Torn glanced around the room and found a dirty tunic. Unlocking the cuffs Doc helped her into it. “I’d like to take this moment to catch up, but we are on a deadline.” And with that, he scooped her up and walked out of the cell.
“Nicole?” Wynonna asked, well demanded.
“Xavier is on his way to her now.” Torn answered.
“Good.”
Dolls found his way to the lab, as he approached the entrance he heard a familiar voice barking orders at hapless KGs. “Where is Erol?” A cold feminine voice demanded.
“Generator room Ma’am.” Answered one of them.
“Follow me.” The voice ordered.
“What about the prisoner Ma’am.”
“That bench will hold her.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Dolls watched from the shadows as Lucado stormed out of the lab with KG troops following close behind.
This was his chance. He dashed into the room and found Nicole strapped down, twitching and bleeding from numerous cut to her torso.
“Haught it’s me.”
Nicole’s eyes popped open, her breathing intensified.
“You’re gonna be okay,” Dolls said as he searched for the release button, “we’re gonna getcha out of here soon.”
While he was distracted, Nicole started to writhe in pain, her skin turning a sickly gray. Dolls found the button but before he could press it he heard the sound of shearing metal and whipped around.
There Nicole stood, a massive gray skinned, black eyed creature. Her long hair no longer a vivid red but a brilliant white.
“Nicole?”
The creature cocked her head, as if she was studying him. In a flash she lunged at him, backing him into a computer bank, “Nicole please it’s me! Xavier!” He shouted.
A clawed hand that had been reared back to slash him, dropped.
“I-I’m y-your friend.” He choked out. It’s black eyes held his gaze, its mouth open and baring pointed teeth. Its growl reminiscent of a metal head’s.
“We’re friends Nicole.”
Upon hearing her own name again, the creature’s face softened before it started to transform back. Within seconds Nicole was standing before him.
“Dolls?”
He nodded, she rushed to him and all but jumped into his arms. Their embrace was short lived, the sound of footsteps approaching the lab had them running out of an auxiliary exit.
They ran back to the maintenance shaft where the others had been waiting, there was no time now. Lucado would have found the empty bench and alerted the rest of the prison. One by one they descended the ladder, Dolls and Nicole were the last ones.
“Where is Earp?”
Erol must have made his way back to the cell. The jig was up, they descended the ladder and shut the hatch before any KGs rounded the corner.
Their descent was fast, each floor they could hear the shouts of KGs as they combed the prison. Finally they reached the bottom.
There was a problem, the sentry bots were no longer on their preprogrammed routes.
Shit.
“We’re gonna have to shoot our way out.” Doc said as he shifted Wynonna from one arm to the other to grab his gun.
“I thought cutting the power would cut access to the bots?” Torn said as the group slowly crept their way through the sewer.
“I did too.” Dolls whispered.
The corridor was suddenly awash in red light. They dove behind crates and watched as a massive security bot scanned the area with its sensors. They prayed it didn’t have x-ray vison.
After what felt like hours it left, continuing down the corridor until it disappeared around a corner.
They had to hurry. But they couldn’t run, they couldn’t risk the noise.
After a painstaking journey that took they men such a short time only a couple of hours before they made it to the sewer’s entrance.
Where a sentry bot was waiting.
“We’ll have to lure it away.” Dolls said, looking for something to throw.
“Dammit.” Torn muttered as he searched his pockets for something.
Nicole, who’d been silent the entire time, started to feel like she did in the lab again.
She gripped Xavier’s arm, “Don’t feel so good.” she said weakly before collapsing. The noise of her fall alerting the bot.
It started scanning the area.
“Shit.” Doc said as it made it’s way to their hiding spot.
Suddenly Nicole popped back up, transformed into the creature from the lab. With a snarl it leaped over the crates and attacked the bot with massive claws.
They watched as it knocked the sensor array off the bot’s head and tear into its armor. They ducked as the bot fired wildly, unable to get a lock on the creature.
Finally it tore into the bot enough to sever the main power cable, powering down completely.
Nicole transformed back, dropping to her knees in exhaustion.
“Oh no.” She blurted out before vomiting bile onto stone floor.
After a moment of awestruck silence Wynonna shouted, “That was fucking awesome!”
Nicole gave a brief thumbs up before blacking out.
Their victory was short lived however, as the sound of the fight attracted every bot in the sewer. Xavier and Torn grabbed Nicole and the group made a mad dash out before they were overwhelmed.
Jablai01 on Chapter 2 Mon 22 Sep 2025 04:44AM UTC
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