Escape, Part 1

Fate shook his head, snapping out of his daze.

He sniffed, smelling burnt hair and charred meat, and glanced down to find Normand, his body scorched to a blackened husk by the taser gun Fate still held against his neck. He blinked, his memories of the past few minutes rushing back as he stood.

'Strange,' he thought. 'If my Divine Reach was active, why didn't I wake up sooner? Maybe his Manifest Power didn't need Divine Energy to keep running once it started? But then, why did it stop now?'

He decided it was best not to think about it. Manifest Powers were always strange, with weird rules that seemed arbitrary or even contradictory at times, so it was entirely feasible that Norman's power only worked while he was alive. He stopped his train of thought when he heard Cait speak.

"Are you just going to stand there looking pretty or are you going to get me out of this?" she asked, appearing mildly annoyed.

Fate scanned the room before moving to the controls at the front, which was a hovering screen with various options. He gave it a once-over before pressing the obvious "release" button. Cait dropped to the ground behind him, quick thinking on his part preventing her from suffering the same fate he had as he pressed the "disable fields" button.

He jogged over to her and helped her up, throwing her arm over his shoulder and wincing as the added weight caused his newly-mended bones to ache. "You alright?" she asked concernedly.

"Better than you're doing, so don't try to stop me." He walked toward the door, going slow so Cait could match his pace. She had a noticeable limp in both legs, and her jumpsuit was dyed redder than his was from the interrogation. "How long until you get enough Divine Energy to heal yourself?"

She closed her eyes, feeling the well of power within her and gauging the speed with which it replenished itself. "Three, maybe four minutes, then another ten for my healing to do its job. Thankfully they didn't puncture anything vital. I'll have to rely on you until then."

"Glad to help. You shouldn't have had to go through that, but that sadistic bastard was smarter than he looked. He knew I wouldn't talk if he hurt me."

"You didn't talk when he hurt me either."

"Because I knew they wouldn't kill you, and because I was planning to escape, as you just saw. I'm still sorry that you suffered on my account, though."

"Keep me alive and I'll consider it even."

Fate stretched a hand out, the electrical baton near the guard with the fire abilities zipping into his hand. He handed it to Cait before the other one flew to his hand. He switched it off and collapsed it by slapping the point against his leg before he stowed it in his boot and turned to the door.

"Ready?" he asked, glancing at Cait.

"Ready," she said, holding her baton in front of her like a sword.

He used his Divine Reach to press the button and open the door, the portal sliding into the wall to his left as he and Cait stepped through the threshold. They entered a long white hallway that extended to their left and right.

Finding the right to be a dead end, he and Cait went left, moving slowly and steadily so as not to aggravate Cait's wounds. The door closed behind them automatically, sealing them out.

"If we see someone, we walk through the walls. I'm not confident I can lug you around and fight at the same time. Got it?"

"Got it," Cait replied, keeping an eye behind them.

"Wait, actually…" Fate went to a wall and turned himself and Cait intangible, pressing his foot against the wall. He cursed when it didn't go through. "The same thing happened in my cell," he explained when Cait gave him a quizzical look. "We're gonna have to do this the hard way. Use your Divine Reach if we find someone."

They went through what felt like miles of hallway, which it very well could have been if they were in the large cube-shaped ship from earlier. They had to stop frequently, waiting as a group of guards rounded the corner, upon which the duo immediately attacked, snapping their necks and stopping their hearts with their Divine Reach.

Shortly after the third such encounter, red lights started flashing as alarms trilled softly throughout the structure.

Fate looked at the ceiling, crushing a camera that had popped out and was now pointed at him with his telekinesis. He instructed Cait to do the same with any she saw, and they readied themselves for combat. By now, Cait's wounds had scabbed over and partially healed. They'd open again if she overexerted herself, but she would live through it.

"If you start bleeding bad, hold it back with your Divine Reach," Fate suggested.

"Of course. This isn't my first rodeo, Fate."

"Just trying to help. Sheesh." He pulled the baton out of his boot and extended it with a flourish, Cait readying her own as they continued forward.

They didn't get far before another group of twelve guards ran into them. They shouted as Cait and Fate sent telekinetic shoves their way, the guards blocking them with hastily-made barriers.

Fate closed the distance as Cait hung back, throwing Manifest Power-enhanced Divine Energy at the guards to cover him. Fate blocked a baton swipe with his own, ducked under a slice from another man's baton, and pushed outward with his Divine Grasp with himself as the center.

With the force spread out as it was between twelve men and women, that was only about a hundred and thirty pounds each, but that was more than enough to force all of them to backpedal.

He took the chance he created, snatching another baton out of one guard's hand as he whirled and twisted, using the sword and knife techniques he had honed for decades to jab, strike, parry, and dodge.

A subtle pull from his Divine Reach here brought a guard just close enough for his baton to make contact; a slight push from Cait there tripped up another guard's footing as Fate smacked the falling man's neck with his baton.

Within minutes, Fate stood amidst twelve bodies, a few dead but most unconscious. Cait joined him, and they went to work systematically breaking the necks of the survivors.