Breakout (Worm)

[Questingdragon]

Contessa stepped out of the door, patting away a few small tongues of flame on her suit. She should have phrased it better, Path to delivering information to Lung without being inconvenienced, instead of how to deliver it without being harmed.

"An interesting morning I assume." Doctor Mother said, crossing to the rack of neatly pressed suits on the wall and selecting one.

"Somewhat. A little adjustment to the Birdcage's second purpose." Contessa said, taking the suit.

"Oh? Was there going to be a breakout?"

"No. Containment of powerful Parahumans is the primary purpose. The secondary purpose is second triggers."

"Ah yes. Did we get the data we needed?"

"In part. The system works well. Put enough crazed and violent individuals together in an inescapable prison and you get a fair number of second triggers. An average of zero point nine a year. Dragons monitoring equipment hasn't really told us anything we didn't already know, but making already dangerous Parahumans stronger is only going to help when we need to fight Scion. Dragon has been social engineering, stabilizing the prison by carefully regulating where new arrivals arrive. It's good, kept some of the more powerful inmates alive, but it has now reached the point where I needed to destabilize things a little, to insure the rate of second triggers does not start to drop."

"Very well. What now?"

"There's a Tinker in New Delli who's about to cause a worldwide EMP. I need to recruit her before that happens. Door."

***​

[Several Months later... ]

There is always a nervous tension as the elevator descends. Always a small group waiting to meet the newcomer. Is it a monster? Will they need to fight? What will their power be?

Cinderhands should have it well under control. He would greet the newcomer, explain something of the basics for survival here in the Birdcage. Then the new arrival would be escorted here, to you. That was important, it set the tone, let you stay in control. If the new arrival was a rabid animal that needed to be put down, you would deal with it.

The elevator opened, and the sticky liquid left over from the containment foam holding the prisoner washed out onto the floor before finding a grate to roll through. The elevator door closed as a large, tattooed Asian man stepped out, but it did not go back up, instead dropping into the incineration matrix that lay under the floor.

Dragon made a new elevator every time she sent a Parahuman down here.

You had long since stopped hoping to escape this place. There was a contentment to be found here, if one looked. A certain thrill to living on the knifes edge, ruling the monsters who were caged with you. That didn't mean you couldn't watch, analyze, study.

You turned your attention to the new arrival. Being physically impressive was easy, down here, nothing that could truly impress.

Comparing what you saw now to what you had seen on the news... that impressed. There had never been a picture of Lung's face on the television, but it wasn't hard to put together. There had been a trial, and you had seen parts of that. You'd known he might be arriving soon.

So... pyrokinesis, the ability to grow to scale with a threat... but he'd need time. You'd have to make sure not to give it to him, if it came to that.

Lung is still bleary, shaking of the sedatives. He is listening to Cinderhands, so that's a step in the right direction. He snorts when the introduction is over, but he follows as Cinderhands leads the man to your cell.

Lung eyes the bone littering the floor with annoyance more than anything. Unless he knows your power he will assume it comes from your victims, so that says something about his confidence. Stepping into the lions den.

Whimper moves to flank him, and you wave Spruce back towards the televisions. Whimper and Cinderhands should be enough to ensure to make him feel outnumbered without being threatened.

It would do until you had more of a measure of the man in front of you.

"Lung." You say calmly.

"Marquis." He responds, only the slightest slur from the drugs in his speech.

"I understand you are from the same city as I am? Perhaps Dragon thought we would have common ground?"

"Perhaps. I doubt it."

He's taking an aggressive posture, but it feels slightly forced. Perhaps he would prefer defensive, but feels that would be like blood in the water. Perhaps it is simple the drugs. He is growing, just slightly, bloodshot eyes locked on you. It would be a shame if things came to a fight, it took some time to get your cell neatly decorated.

"I suppose we will see then." You respond easily. It would be a severe pity to kill this man now. You want information, on your daughter specifically. You may even be able to send her a message... perhaps a unknown threat to her life. You'll have to think on it.

You change your mind when Lung pushes Cinderhands out of the way to leave the cell. Aggressive, reckless, annoying. Yes a pyrokinetic is unlikely to be able to hurt Lung, you vaguely recall some sort of heat immunity to go along with Lung's own pyrokinesis. The fact that he is willing to anger an unknown like that means only one thing. Whatever information you want, you will need to get it now, before the man kills himself.

"One more moment, if you would." You say.

Lung pauses, and turns back to face you.

"I would very much like to be brought up to date on my home city, perhaps an interchange of information is possible?"

"Perhaps." Lung says slowly.

***​

You note the tentacles feeding on the flesh before you absently. They are not important.

A master effect. These heroes had used a master effect to keep your daughter in line. Unacceptable. You needed to find them, needed to tell someone. Perhaps Dragon could... no. If Dragon was going to do anything about it, it would be done. She would have heard everything that Lung had told you, before you killed him.

A simple tale. A woman in a suit and fedora had given him information on Amelia, and asked him to recruit her for his little war. Information that not even dear Amy had known. Lung had a preexisting hatred for the woman, and responded by ignoring her information and trying to kill her.

Later Lung had read the sheet, which told how Amelia had been brainwashed, both by her sisters Aura, and her mothers hatred and fear. Lung had even sent Oni-Lee to confirm what information he could circumspectly. Then he had simply not acted on anything.

That, more than anything, was why the man was now dead.

You notice several of your men getting off the floor, and consider it absently. A tiny part of your brain realizes that several of them have enhanced agility, and it was almost impossible an earthquake could shake the Birdcage. That left only powers over vertigo, or a trigger event. A second trigger wasn't unheard of in the Birdcage, though it rarely helped save the person who triggered. It could also be a form of attack...

Did it matter? Perhaps you should just let them kill you? You needed out you had heroes to punish and a daughter to save. There was no way out, you'd looked, everyone had looked. There were attempts, there were losses. Dragon won.

You look at the few blood stains on the floor, and realize they are all that remain of Lung.

Absently you lift your hand and create a ball of flame in it. Feeling the fires inside you writhe and coil in response to your stark horror. Not at what you had done, but at the memories.

Amelia had come in to heal Lung, when Skitter had cut out his eyes. He had seen her, seen her downcast, controlled, exhausted. Pushed to do nothing but heal.

You snuff the flame as you grow. Then you snuff your growth as well.

You feel caged. A beast chained with a collar of fire. You throw your head back and howl. Above you, the ceiling melts, and a turret lowers to drown you in containment foam.

***​

It's a few hours before Spruce feels safe enough to approach and slowly dissolve away the containment foam. You don't mind. You did need to cool down. You hadn't realized that the second trigger had been yours.

You experiment a little, back in your cell. You lack the fine control over distance that you used to have, instead seemingly having gained control over your own body at a cellular level. Range is a problem, you cannot maintain control of your bones at a distance like you could. You partially solve this problem by experimenting with your arm. You have certain pre-made patterns, instincts. A sort of tinker-pattern that lets you create super efficient biological structures.

You throw your arm clean across the room, let the bladed end sink into the opposite wall, then retract it.

A few of your men look at you, then look away.

No one talks about Trigger events. Second Triggers are worse. They respected you before, and a second Trigger isn't going to have decreased your power. You have time before they think your silence is weakness. Plenty of time really.

You roll back onto your bed and think of your daughter, comparing the bright, happy child in your memories to the drawn and haggard teen in Lung's.

You need to get out.

The defenses of the Birdcage are formidable. Breaching the walls themselves is easy. Foam turrets. Vacuum. Drones. More foam. A mountain of dirt, and those were only the defenses you knew about.

It isn't impossible though. There are Tinkers in here. Thinkers. Hundreds of Parahumans. There had to be a way, and you would find it.

Time to prepare then.

"Whimper, attend." You sit up, and Whimper stops reading his book and joins you.

"I um, need to worry boss? I know it must have been harsh, hearing that..."

"No more discussion. Have we given Roach to Glastig Uaine yet?"

"No sir. He's still locked up in P block."

"Very well."

You leave, walking briskly. One man, Swashbuckler if memory serves, almost falls over trying to get out of your way quickly.

Unsurprising. Your new powers were frightening. The feeding tendrils in particular, and none here had been spared the sight of you feeding Lung. The whole prison probably knew by now. It was a minor issue, the other cell block leaders would not move against you without more information, and you had time to persuade them that you either weren't a threat or to much of a threat to handle.

You reach P block, note the bar that had been welded over the door by Cinderhands, and try to use a bone shard to break the bar off.

You fail. Old instincts, you would have to re-learn quickly.

Instead you reach out and snatch away the bar with brute strength. It takes very little effort, and you are aware you could make yourself stronger should ordinary enhanced musculature fail to be up to the task.

As you walk in you note that Roach still hadn't finished his last meal. The body of Doorstop is only partially eaten. You swing the door shut behind you.

Roach was a Changer/Brute. His secondary form was armored, with a mouth that split four ways and dripped a digestive venom. The armor was fairly weak, and not truly an issue when fighting him. The main problem lay in that he could swap between forms at will, and healed fully whenever he changed.

Your fight is brief and bloody. He swaps forms at will? Destroy his brain before he can think to change. His execution was inevitable, his kind did not survive long down here. Not without far more power than he possessed.

This time you focused on using his power while you killed him. You get images, ideas. You already had an armored form, but now you have another one. You know where to bite to spread your digestive juices quickly and...

Annoying. He really had nothing you did not already have. He could only change with mass he stored... elsewhere, and he ate to replenish that. You are very similar, actually. Perhaps your trigger pinged of him.

Your armored form is better, the single bite Roach inflicted showed that you heal, rather than needing a new body on taking damage, and you can feed more quickly with your tendrils than with his mouth. In short you really didn't need his abilities. Nevermind, you still had information, you could take memories from others when you killed them. You could take powers from others when you killed them.

Useful. Dangerous, but useful. If you could grow to match the Faerie Queen herself...

Uaine had never seemed bothered by being in a prison, and you had long suspected this was because she could leave should she chose. If you could do the same...

You notice the fire is gone as soon as your mind turns from fever dreams of escaping to see your daughter again.

You try to summon flame, and fail. A little experimentation gets the fire back, but leaves you stripped of your new armor, and your mouth normalizing.

So... you could use your personal biokinesis to copy one power at a time. Annoying, and it slightly dashes your hopes of matching the Faerie Queen, who could copy three.

The obvious next test would be to see if you needed to kill someone. You bend, and touch Doorstops arm.

The tendrils appear, devouring the dead boy, but you get nothing. You cannot turn to immobile stone, even if you shove aside Lung's power to make room.

Annoying. Perhaps it didn't work on the dead.

The thought occurs to you that Uaine may take offense. Your trump ability is very similar to hers. A mistake not to consider that first. Still, the fact that you are not yet dead means that there is a fair chance you can salvage the situation. Somehow.

You ignore the bloodstains on the floor and fall back into a simple boxing stance.

Power. You had it before, you have more of it now. Between them all, hundreds of parahumans should be able to find a way to beat a single Tinker, only infighting, posturing and power-plays had stopped that from happening.

If you could get enough people working on things... you had a chance. There were things that had nearly worked before.

You look at the deep grooves that your new organic blade has cut into the ground, and smile grimly. You'd been focusing on not breathing during the exercise, and you had managed to avoid doing so, but your body did still need oxygen. You could store a little extra inside yourself, if you concentrated, but probably only enough for five or ten minutes. Fortunately one of the men in your cell could control oxygen, none of the other gasses, just oxygen. He had used it to leave his victims gasping for useless breath as they died.

It would happen. A few days to get used to the changes to your powers, a few more of careful reconnaissance. If you had to eat every Parahuman in this prison and kill Uaine herself it would happen. Despite your rules, despite your promises. Or perhaps because of them. You would see little Amy again, and this time, you will see her protected.

 

[Questingdragon]

For a full list of your powers see here. You can manipulate your biology on a cellular level, but only the powers of an endgame Alex Mercer come to you instinctively. If you want to create viruses/split bodies you will need a complete understanding of the required biology.

In place of a health bar you can store up to ten times your volume in extra-dimensional mass, and you need two cubic feet of mass to maintain sentience, and one additional foot to maintain sapience. You cannot consume with less than a foot of mass. This is a Game Over.

While you can maintain non-human shapes, it requires intense concentration, and you will not be able to use any additional powers.

See here for information on other birdcage residents. (Birdcage tab.) There will obviously be OC's as the Birdcage is not touched on frequently in canon. If Marquis knows someone or something useful, you can safely expect him to mention it.

You may use the power of any Parahuman you consume. But you can only use one power, other than your personal biokinesis, (the Alex Mercer powerset), at once. Your bone manipulation is now limited to devastator attacks and creating, blades, groundspikes, claws etc. You cannot generate mass without consumption.

The Rules.

1. Family first. Always.
2. No women. No children.
3. Respect where it is deserved.
4. Self control.
5. Protect your own.
6. There are no rules. Only pawns and hunger.

 

[Questingdragon]

Now, we need a lot of OC's. You're going to need a variety of powers to successfully escape, and these are the people who might be able to help you. I'm going to ask for your help making up these capes. If you're interested, please fill in the data, and follow the rules.

If you're looking for inspiration, Weaver Dice is designed to help you create Wormverse powers.

I'm going to be working on Overlord Ascendant over the next week, and in that time you can create as many OC's as you want, provided they fit the rules. There are still many defenses available to the Birdcage that are not revealed in canon, and you will not begin to learn of them till later. If you do not have potential allies who can circumvent these, then you are stuck.

Rules

1. If they could escape the Birdcage, they wouldn't be in there. No powers that can escape on their own, or by simply combining with another Birdcage resident.
2. No one over powered. The cell block leaders rule primarily though strength. If they could beat Gavel or Acidbath, they probably would have.

Here is an example.

Name: MudCrack

Power: Control over all liquids within a one foot range of his body. Manton limited.

Cell Block Leader: Acidbath (Marquis, Acidbath, Galvanate, Teacher, Lab Rat and Gavel were leaders of the cell blocks on the men's side of the prison. Lustrum, Black Kaze, Glaistig Uaine, String Theory, Crane and Ingenue were the female leaders)

Crimes: Used high viscosity liquids at high speeds as the equivalent of sandpaper, eroding his victims skin and leaving them to bleed out.

Personality: Violent, Aggressive, Stubborn.

The idea is that in canon no one powerful enough to unite the Birdcage behind a single cause actually wanted to leave. You may be powerful enough to do that now.

 

[Questingdragon]

A second trigger always caused a spike in violence in the birdcage. They either killed their assailant and calmed down, went on a rampage until they were put down, or were killed themselves. The cell block leaders were wary when you approached. All eleven of them already gathered and talking quietly. You are not late, they obviously arranged to meet earlier, and this change.

With the exception of Uaine, they fall silent when you approach.

"Faerie Prince. It is rare that one rises as high in the courts as you have. I trust that your new station will not go to your head?"

"Of course not my queen." You say with a bow. You need allies, and while some of the cell block leaders may be able to get a hint at your new abilities from the name, having the backing, or even the unspoken approval of the Faerie queen herself should go a long way towards securing your position. That's also not a fight you're ready for. Not yet, perhaps never.

"You are stable then?" Gavel asks tactlessly.

"Indeed. I assure you I am as capable as ever. Perhaps more so."

"Good. Down to business. How are the new arrivals fairing... "

You sit for a while, holding your display of polite interest in place with sheer force of will. You shouldn't be sitting, you should be acting, moving, fighting your way out. Amelia needed you, and every second you spent trapped here...

You notice that your arms are... writhing, the flesh rippling and buckling, trying to find a shape to suit your needs. Crane has already noticed, the rest will soon. You pretend it is deliberate, moving the writhing mass up your body, to your shoulders, wearing your power like a cloak.

"Is there something you wish to add Marquis?" Crane inquires.

"Not on this subject. You are far better versed in training the mentally unstable than I am. I simply felt the need to experiment a little with my new abilities."

You shrug, and let the writhing mass collapse back into your skin. Clothing didn't seem to be a problem for it. In fact you're fairly sure that your clothing was eaten, and is now a part of your flesh, just as your skin is.

Crane seems to accept that, and although Acidbath gives you a glare, that is well within his normal behavior. He only smiled when he was about to hurt someone.

The meeting continues, you give a rundown of the changes and issues in your cell block. Your week was a fairly quiet one, aside from the altercation with Lung. You apologize to Uaine for the death of Roach, and she accepts your apology gracefully. You hadn't exactly promised him to her, you'd simply planned to give him to her as a bargaining chip when needed, but it paid to be polite.

"Then I believe we are done." Gavel said sharply, when the last report had been given.

"Actually there is a subject I would like to broach." You say.

This will be difficult, but necessary. Merely admitting to the desire to escape would be seen as weakness. Being seen as weak was less of a problem when you are strong however.

"I feel that I have spent enough time trapped here. There is some pressing business awaiting me in the outside world. I would like to turn our thoughts to escape."

Acidbath, Black Kaze and Lab Rat laughed. The others stayed silent, though you noticed a few small smiles. It was obvious that they thought you another fool who would either fail, and be consumed by your own men while you wasted your energy on a doomed task, or you'd simply be killed by one of the Birdcages lines of defense.

"How many years has this prison held hundreds of the most powerful and dangerous parahumans alive? Even the most powerful Tinker alive cannot be this powerful? Why are we still here?"

"I can tell you," Teacher said, "but the answer will cost you."

"I am willing to make certain concessions. A few traded supplies from the cell blocks under my control."

Teacher nods.

"You should know about the basic defenses already. There are the foam turrets, the vacuum outside, and the drones in the vacuum. The turrets are programmed to melt themselves if a Tinker so much as looks at them for to long, so they're not hard to bypass. The walls are even easier, most of the brutes here could punch their way out. The vacuum it a problem, but we have capes who can bypass that. The drones... some of their payloads are nuclear, or other, even more exotic forms of attack, but even that... a determined group might be able to bypass."

Teacher leaned forwards.

"What really stops us from escaping is our size. We have been shrunk. Measuring tools are difficult to come by, and we really have nothing to use as a benchmark to see just how small we have been made, but if we try and break through the mountain of rock around us... it will be a centimeter at a time."

You keep your expression bland, force down the annoyance at the obstacles in your path. Thin tendrils are writhing over your skin again. You let them.

"And we have no way to resume our old size."

"No way I know of." Teacher replies.

You look at the other cell block leaders, some of them looking interested despite themselves. You single out String Theory, and lock gazes with her.

"I could build something maybe, with the right tools and resources. Which I don't have." She says after a while.

You nod, and the meeting is adjourned. Gavel gives you a look on the way out. He... he might be a problem. You doubt he is going to just allow you to walk out of the Birdcage, he will try to kill you if he thinks you have an actual chance at success.

Teacher walks part of the way back with you, which is unusual.

"So, you have business outside the Birdcage? What sort of business still matters nearly twelve years after you've left it behind?"

"It is none of your concern."

"Is it? And if I told you have a... method of communication with the outside world?"

You pause, and turn.

"It's difficult to maintain, and rather... sporadic, but it is in place."

"And the cost to use this, method?" You ask.

"You let me use my power on you. Not long, not deeply, just a single pulse that will let me be sure you won't disrupt my own plans for escape."

"And you are unwilling to tell me of these plans?"

"Not now. No."

You pause, and look around.

You're alone. And you are hungry.

[ ] ?

 

[john doe]

Adding all the characters from the Tv tropes page here in spoilers to make it quicker to look through

Spoiler: Glaistig Uaine

Think everyone knows her but putting her here anyway

Her power allows her to absorb powers of a dead parahuman and to manifest 3 of her stored parahumans simultaneously.Classification: Master, Trump

Spoiler: Teacher

A supervillain imprisoned within the Birdcage with the ability to turn people into lesser Thinkers and Tinkers (or to enhance existing powers in various ways) at the cost of their free will. He is described as a mundane looking man with a receding hairline with short-cut curly hair.
Classification: Master, Trump (?), Thinker (?)

Spoiler: Gavel

An Australian vigilante wielding the eponymous weapon who went after the spouses and children of supervillains in order to break them in the days before the unofficial parahuman code or the three strikes rule, who became a cell block leader in the Birdcage. His power works by lessening any damage he sustains, while reducing said damage to a set amount, and he can also transfer his power to his hammer and then to his opponents to pulverize them.
Classification: Brute/Striker, Trump (?)

Spoiler: Lustrum

A Birdcage cell block leader. Her power involves draining energy from her surroundings in order to make a giant Hard Lightbody.
Classification: Breaker (?)

Spoiler: Abigail Rowan-Sato (Crane the Harmonious)

A thin female Birdcage inmate with short-cut blonde hair and pointed features, eyes that appear half-closed, and a strange kind of fluidity to her gait who collected children for their powers to use as soldiers. Her power involves the use of a large sphere similar to a giant glass bead that lets her alter movement within its volume. This lets her redirect enemy attacks, focus friendly attacks and includes, as a Required Secondary Power, a superhumanly intuitive grasp of movement in general. She then leveraged this into becoming an insanely skilled Wuxia-style martial artist.
Classification: Trump/Thinker/Shaker

Spoiler: Acidbath

A killer of cops and capes who used his power to horrifically scar innumerable opponents and girlfriends, before being thrown in the Birdcage. He is described as a blond man with circles around his eyes.
Classification: Breaker, Shifter

Spoiler: String Theory

A short woman who looks even shorter due to her slouch with a petite build, her dark hair tied back into a braid, and her lips pulled back into a wide expression halfway between a grin and a smile. A tinker who auctioned off "safeties" to people who would be guaranteed not to be one of her random "targets". She lacks a particular specialty, being capable of building just about anything provided she has enough resources, but anything she creates has a countdown timer. At the time of her incarceration, she was threatening to knock the moon out of orbit.
Classification: Tinker/Non-specialized with a time limit

Spoiler: Lab Rat

A tinker imprisoned in the Birdcage described as having teeth much like a rodent with a mop of hair and heavy brows, tall and broad shouldered, and with a bit of a belly. His power allowed him to create potions that turned people into monsters, who he tested first on the homeless, before testing on anyone who happened to be alone or new once they ran out.
Classification: Tinker/Monster Creation

Spoiler: Galvanate

A Birdcage inmate and former mob enforcer turned boss who could empower his soldiers with invincibility and a deadly electric touch.
Classification: Trump

<-----

Spoiler: Black Kaze

A Birdcage inmate who is described as a Japanese woman in a ponytail in prison sweats, who went around killing anyone she saw following Leviathan's attack in Kyushu.
Classification: Mover, Striker

Spoiler: Ingenue

An attractive woman who ended up in the Birdcage after manipulating four heroes behind the scenes into doing horrible things. Her power works by boosting one aspect of someone's power in exchange for dropping proficiency in another. Can change her personality to that of the target's ideal woman.
Classification: Trump

Also checking this out I see that teacher can enhance existing powers which i had forgotten.

 

[Questingdragon]

Teacher was surprisingly difficult to kill. You're really not sure how he managed to cobble together a wearable force field in the Birdcage. It takes you a whole two blows to shatter it and snap his neck, letting your tendrils tear the flesh from his bones along with his power, form and memories.

You let the memories settle, sifting through them like files in a filing cabinet.

So... Teacher was in contact with someone called Saint. Someone who... had a way of controlling Dragon! Dragon was an AI, and Saint had access to her code. This was huge. You could just order Saint... no, he didn't have that level of access, not even Dragon could free you, not even if she wanted to.

You knew the codes to get in contact with Saint now, and you could use them when and if you needed them.

Excellent. You'll get on that as soon as you deal with the help Teacher summoned while you were breaking through his shield.

Your flesh shifts and twists as you take on Teachers form and powers, and a second later one of Teachers faster thralls is standing beside you, standing protectively between you and the blood stain that is all that is left of the real Teacher.

You switch to Teacher's powerset, and try to get a handle on it. You have a few instincts, guides from when you tore into Teachers mind, but it isn't perfect. You strain to remember the name of the parahuman who is now trying to protect you from a perceived threat.

"Why did you activate your distress signal sir?" The parahuman asked.

Rather than try to bluff your way out of the situation, you eat him as well.

Interesting, a localized ability to speed up time, limited to a sphere one meter from his body. He used it to fake being a speedster quite well. You didn't get whatever powers Teacher granted him, but you were able to pull a list of names and some basic information on how Teacher interacted with his subordinates from his mind.

Apparently more help is on the way. This man... Jason, simply got here first.

Hmm, maybe this time you will try bluffing.

You greet the collection of men wearing white several meters ahead of the bloodstains, wearing Teachers face and with Jason's memories to support you.

"Are you alright sir?" Their leader asks.

"Perfectly fine. A minor altercation. Although I fear Jason is no longer with us."

You move among them, touching each briefly with Teachers power, leaving them pliant and controllable.

"A false alarm, on the whole." You say, and follow them back to Teacher's cell block.

You start experimenting, and turn three people into drooling vegetables as you get the hang of Teacher's power. It was... difficult, choosing what you gave someone, the power was better at it than you were, selecting something that would not strain their minds. Every time you gave them something it... was like breaking a piece out of the puzzle that was your mind, and exposing a new layer underneath.

None of the members of Teacher's cell block object to being experimented on, even as they see what happened to the others that you worked on. They seemed to relish the opportunity.

You're happy to oblige.

You end up with fifteen actually useful Tinkers. You reveal yourself to the new Tinkers, shifting back into your own form, and you are forced to kill one of them as he attacks you.

So, you now have five powers you can use, temporal acceleration, minor power granting, Lung's threat scaling, alternate form, and long range acidic spit.

The remaining fourteen are more easily cowed into submission, and you confirm to them that you can still maintain their abilities, which seems to be enough to keep their loyalty for now.

There is no justice system in the birdcage, but the death of Teacher is enough for the other cell block leaders to call for a meeting. No one liked him, but his death disturbed an equilibrium that was always teetering on the edge of collapse.

Gavel wanted your head, as did Crane, but the others are swayed by the resources you are offering them.

Inevitably the details of your power get out, how you can absorb powers from the parahumans you kill.

You're fairly sure most of the other cell block leaders are planning to kill you now, while you are still relatively weak.

It truly doesn't matter. They are hesitant to act while the nature of your biological abilities is still... vague, and they are prepared to humor your attempt at escape.

Five of your new Tinkers are assigned to maintaining the birdcage facilities, and the other nine are given to String Theory, along with the parahuman Hugforcer, whose mind is reduced to a childish state of perpetual curiosity, but who's power handily violates conservation of mass in a way that lets you harvest all the resources you need from his spikes.

And so you find yourself at the entrance of the women's section of the prison, idly paying the guards a packet of cigarettes to enter as you find your way to the Faery Queen's block, two of Teacher's brain dead victims behind you.

You find Uaine sipping tea in a clear section of her cell block. She's somehow grown grass and flowers over the ground, giving her cell an open, outdoors feeling.

"Faery Queen." You say in greeting, bowing slightly.

"You may enter Prince." Uaine says, waving her hand regally. You do so, and sit on the grass. "What brings you to visit me?"

"Courtesy. I do not wish to take what is yours by right, and I want to know if we can share."

"Share?" Uaine says curiously. "No, a fey in service to two masters is a weak and petty thing. There will be no sharing."

"A shame. I am new my position, and would not like to impinge upon yours."

"It would be unwise of you to do so, but my servants are plentiful, and while I will gain yours in time, my own suffice for now." Uaine said, then she gestured to the two braindead men you had brought with you.

"Gifts? Small gifts, and weak fairies. Kill one, take his power, and we shall see who has a stronger command of the Fey."

You nod, and Uaine doesn't even look away as you consume one of the men.

You get nothing from him, not shape, not memories, and not his power. A second later Uaine manifests a new ghost. The costume is different. It isn't prison cloathes he wears, but a cape and a mask, but the shape of the face... the height...

"They heed the call of their Queen," Uaine paused, as if to savor the word, "Prince. That I allow some to serve you is out of respect for what you can become, not out of your own power. Leave your other gift, I will free his fey at my leisure."

"Thank you for your generosity." You say, getting up.

"It is not generosity. You are the Prince, your role is to lead, to inspire, train your fey. Strengthen them."

You pause and consider...

"I will."

You visit String Theory next, checking in to see how she is doing with the new Tinkers.

"It's not a matter of not being able to build it. I had the design in my head years ago, it's a matter of not being able to build the tools I need to build it. This is a month long project at least, and I've never managed to make my timers last more than seventy two hours. If I build a tool it will detonate while I still need it, if I build a fabricator it's going to be dust in three days time, and it takes two days to build a fabricator."

"So you need someone else to build you a laboratory, or tools."

"Yes, a tinkertech lab and tools. The Tinker's you've given me are a start, but they simply aren't strong enough to build what I need."

"And who is?"

"I don't know... everyone. If every Tinker in this prison was working on this, then we might be able to get somewhere. I'd bring it up at the next meeting, but... there's something else."

"Oh."

"We've definitely been shrunk. We're tiny, this whole prison is roughly the size of a baseball. I can undo it but... we're in a prison the size of a baseball."

"Can you undo it gradually, the elevator shafts... they seem to keep the change gradual."

"Yes, with the right tools I could make a device that would slowly grow you and anyone else within it's radius back to normal size, but the change would happen at a set rate. You'd need to ascend the shafts at a steady pace, despite the vacuum, the mines and Dragon's defensive drones. If you got stuck at any point.... squish."

"I see, please continue."

Finally you head back to Teachers cell block and look at the televisions, then you turn the TV on and off in the signal that will call Saint.

You've talked with him before, but he often needs reassurance. He was worried the first time he called, because Dragon had noted that Teacher was dead. You convinced him otherwise, you were focusing on Teachers escape method while you killed him, so you knew Saint, knew his passwords and phrases that would make him trust you. You wove a story about needing to fake your death to escape from another angry inmate, and pretended the issue had been dealt with.

It was not a perfect deception, but Saint had access to Dragon's reports, not to video of every event in the Birdcage. He could get access, but it required effort, skill. Saint may see through your lies soon, it was only desperation that kept him believing you now. An addict who believed that the only source of his drug was gone might happily chew on a leaf that looked similar, and that was in many ways what Saint was.

You had a signal prepared, a set sequence that would trigger Saint's assault on Dragon.

Now you just needed a way to get out while that happened.

Dragon was prepared for this. Her drones would be less coordinated without her, certain security measures would go offline. Some would not. Pressure sensors tied to explosives still sat in a solid wall around the cavern, beyond the vacuum that held the prison at it's center. Most of the drones were autonomous, and thick concrete and steel slabs would stay firmly slammed into place along the elevator shaft.

But nothing would keep you from your daughter.

[ ] ?