Containment Six…. affectionately known as ‘Deep Six’. The most secure facility in the world. It is a prison for containing the worst, most powerful, super powered people in the world. It is on the ocean floor, almost a full mile below sea level.

Every cell is equipped with power dampeners. They don’t just suppress your powers, they feed off of your powers. You spend all day doing nothing but you are exhausted like you used your powers all day, everyday, non-stop. They literally suck your will to live…. to power the lights.

Down here, there is no sun rise, no sun set…. They cycle the lights randomly to keep us from getting into any sort of routine, from being able to measure time or days or figure out guard rotations. Some ‘days’ have two hours of light, some have twenty six hours of light, and, of course, we have everything in between…. Just an extra layer of punishment to our days in solitary.

I don’t know how long I have been here. I don’t belong here, but the courts said otherwise.

There was a fight between two supers. They were tearing apart the city trying to kill each other. One of them crashed into the high rise I was in, right at the base of the building, taking out a structural pillar holding the whole damn place up. The building began to lean, she was going down, so I did the only thing I could think of…. I stood where the pillar was and held up the building.

I was shouting for everyone to evacuate, but it takes time to evacuate ninety floors of office space. I started to sweat. The strain of holding ninety floors up is more than I have ever experienced. The building was slowly crushing me. I could feel my muscle bulge and ache under the strain.

The longest minutes of my life passed as I struggled to hold that building up. The fighting supers came back this way and hit the building again. They took out a second support pillar and the building came down.

I was buried in ninety stories of rubble. I dug myself out and walked away unscathed. One hundred and fifty three people made it out while I held that building up. Two hundred and thirty three died when it came down. The supers kept fighting like the lives didn’t matter.

A rage I didn’t know I possessed washed over me. I watched the two supers flying and fighting, ignoring the carnage and the lives they were destroying and that rage became a fire that I could not contain.

I leapt into the air and crashed into one of the supers flying over head. I wrapped my legs around him and started punching. He couldn’t get away and he couldn’t shake me and by time we crash landed there was only a bloody stump where his head should have been.

The second super landed near us as I screamed at the bloody corpse of the first super.

“Thank-you citizen! I will” #BAM

Fuck him. I hit him with everything I had in an upper cut. I found out later that I knocked his body into orbit. They never found his head.

I collapsed and cried for people lost that today. For the senselessness of it all.

The courts didn’t care about the people who escaped from the building because of my efforts. The courts didn’t care about the people who didn’t escape. The courts didn’t care about the supervillain whose head I pulverized. No… it was city’s hero, one man, that they cared about. I was charged and convicted of knocking the strongest man in the world into orbit. What a farce.

It was decided that I was a threat. That I couldn’t be trusted walking the streets. That I could snap and start punching people into orbit at anytime. I was sentenced to life in solitary at Containment Six.

There were memorials built in his honour…. There was nothing built for regular people that died that day. The world was in love with superhero’s and it didn’t matter how many people they killed, injured or maimed…. As long as it was in the name of the greater good.

Fuck the greater good.

“Open twenty-two!”, a voice yelled. My door slid open. A man in an expensive black suit stood outside my cell. “You look bigger than when you were locked up.”, he said to me.

I shrugged. “I think it is the dampeners. It is like they are forcing me to use my strength non-stop. I might as well be at the gym twenty four seven. This place has made me stronger than I could have ever been on the outside.”, I said.

“Dampeners!”, he yelled. I felt my strength return in an instant. It was like a breath of fresh air. I flexed my muscles and stretched. I haven’t felt this good since I have been down here.

The man in the suit smiled. “I have a proposition for you.”, I raised an eye brow at him, “I am looking to put together a team.”, my face dropped into a scowl. “A team that will stop supers…. Heroes and villains. I don’t care about good and evil. I care about saving lives.”, he said. He was watching my face closely. Reading me. “I watched your trail. I watched the footage of you holding up that building. You cared about the people…. Not the other supers. Not the press or fame… you cared about the people. Join my team and help me put an end to threat the supers pose.”

“Who are you?”, I asked.

“I work for the government. The people maybe in love with the supers but the governments of the world aren’t. They have created a NATO task force, in conjunction with every government in the world, to deal with the super threat.”

“You are going to stop supers with supers?”

“How else?”, he said simply. I shrugged. “Will you join my team?”

“No stupid spandex suits. No cheesy names.”, I said.

“Agreed.”

And just like that I joined the team that hunted down supers.

My powers are more dangerous than any Superhuman on the planet. I was born with the ability to control gravity. But over time, as my powers grew, Itheu caught the attention of a sentient creature that resided in the Sun's solar energy. The creature was dying, and needed a symbiotic host. I agreed and my powers became that of the universe itself.

I became the hero known as Galaxy. I was capable of creating meteors and asteroids to crash into my enemies, unleash piwerful bursts of Solar energy and radiation. My gravity powers could create miniature supernovas and black holes.

I lost control of my abilities during an eclipse. The supernova was too large and destroyed an entire city. I was thrown into the Verge, a prison for Superhumans built with power dampeners. It felt as if I couldn't breathe, the dampeners draining the solar and celestial energy in my body. Even the being bonded to me became lethargic. Days passed that became weeks, then months. Maybe a few years, but with the windowless, darkened cell, it was hard to tell the pasage of time.

I was surprised when I heard the steady hum of the dampeners in the measurements of my cell go silent. Moreso when the door opened and light spilled in. There in the doorway, shrouded in bright orange light was a tall, thin man in a pinstriped suit with a white shirt and red and white striped tie. His hair was brunette and swept to the side, and thick stubble lined his harsh, square jaw. His green eyes scanned over me with a curious gaze.

"Mr. Jones, or do you prefer Galaxy?"

"Call me Galaxy."

"Very well, Galaxy. I represent a new organization created by the President of the United States, one that depends on the assistance of Superhumans. The President has agreed to pardon you if you decide to join a special task force for the organization for a dangerous mission."

"What is it?"

"Doctor Thanatos has stolen plans for a device that will catch onto an asteroid and drag it towards Earth. If it strikes...Well I don't need to tell you what would happen. As a person with powers from space, he believes that you're likely a unique expert on the matter."

"Ok. If it saves lives...I'll do it. On one condition."

"Of course."

"No pardon. I...my powers are too dangerous for the public, I should return here after the mission is completed until the President needs me again."

"Very well, let's go, and I'll let the President know once we're above ground." Stepping into the hallway, I could see that the light was coming from magma outside the window.

"Where are we?"

"Mount Vesuvius, the Verge is run by the UN and EU. And with Pompeii being mostly uninhabited, it was one of the safest places to hold Superhumans. Other prisons are pocated in Antartica and on the moon. Come on, the more time we waste, the greater chance for calamity."

[Sharp Laugh]

Ray blinked. Then, he did it again to be sure. He grinned as he filled his lungs with cool, stale air. He could feel again, finally. He had no idea how long he stared at the blank white wall in front of him; but, that was the only thing he could do until now. He was unable to twitch or even a muscle; his body was frozen in time for his sentence. However, his mind stayed awake the entire time. Ray gently tugged at the black chain wrapped around his wrist to get a feel for it. He was sure he could break it; but, his mind worked fast. He knew there was a reason why he could move again. He decided to wait and see what happened. Luckily, it did not take long for the white wall in front of him to open to the side like elevator doors.

A pale man in a white business suit and red tie stood behind the wall as it pulled away. He had neat, dark hair combed to the side and he wore an amused smirk as he eyed Ray. The moment Ray saw the red scissor logo on his breast pocket, he knew why the man was there.

"Are you ready to behave and stick to Ms. Sharp's plan?" the stranger asked a simple question. It was the only question that mattered to Ray's captors.

"How long was that?" Ray asked. He knew he was pushing his luck; but, that was an important question for him to gauge whether he could endure the punishment any longer.

"Not long, about a million years," the man shrugged.

"A million?" Ray laughed. It honestly felt like it and he wasn't eager to go through that again. "Didn't Dana already miss the window for her scheme?"

"Ray...," the suited man shook his head. "Ms. Sharp only punished you for a million years," he said as he gestured to the small white cell that kept him locked up. "That much time passed in here, but not out there," he said. "She asked me to check on you after a million years. If you're not ready yet, you're welcome to take another few billion years to think about it. Take as much time as you need," he grinned. "No matter how long it takes you to come around, you'll be out in time to do your part."

"Then, why me?" Ray asked. "She's made herself into a god, why pick on me? I'm not the only Calavera with Super speed," he added.

"Why do mosquitos exist?" the man gave an exaggerated shrug. "Everyone has a part to play. Ms. Sharp knows how the universe works; I don't," he said. "Did you ever consider that she's doing you a favor by choosing you?"

"Some favor...," Ray chuckled as he rolled his eyes and jangled the chains around his wrist.

"If you weren't so murdery, you wouldn't be in here," the man said. "And, you can leave as soon as you're ready to follow orders."

"Fine...," Ray sighed. "...I'll play ball," he said. It was only a temporary promise. He didn't have anything against Ms. Sharp personally; in fact, he almost admired her. She didn't mind if he killed the occasional person either; but, it was simply the fact that she tried to tell him what to do that chafed him the most. Ray preferred to be in charge of his own life; he wanted to live and kill how and when he wanted to. He initially thought that he could inconvenience her, if not ruin her plan, by being stubborn and refusing to participate. But, now he knew that wasn't going to work.

"Then, you're free to go, Ray," the man held up a clear glass card in front of Ray and the black chains binding his wrists and ankles dissolved into white powder.

"Ray?" the lean prisoner asked as he reached for the node. He shook his head with a chuckle. "Don't call me that, it's a stupid name," he said. He grabbed the node and held it out in front of him. "Actually, it's hilarious!"

A flash of golden light came from the node as soon as he gave his password. The wiry, old man that was chained up disappeared. In his place stood a lean, athletic, white-skinned man with long, stringy blue hair pulled back in a ponytail. A red ball sat on his nose and he wore rainbow suspenders and loose red pants with giant clown shoes.

"I prefer the name Laughtrack."

***
Thank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day. This is story #1805 in a row. (Story #360 in year five.). This story is part of an ongoing saga that takes place at a high school in my universe. It began on August 22nd and I will be adding to it with prompts every day until May 26th. They are all collected in order at this link.

Thirty-three wounds in reality are known. Places where "normal" break down into any form of utter insanity. There is of course the Everstorm over greater Man Island, the most notorious of them all. However, deep in the volcanic flat lands of lower Serkursks, there is one wound in reality that is most notorious in a very different way. An enclave of international cooperation is formed around a seemingly unimportant tear in the ground. A place to house mages, too powerful to just be put in a regular prison, but otherwise too valuable to simply kill with Anti-Magic.

Each cell is precariously placed above the chasm. It is sad to see bottomless or a gate somewhere else. Whatever it may be, anything dropped into it is lost forever. The walls of the chasm stretch roughly a thousand meters down, which one would say would be enough time to maybe reach them and climb back out, but there is a catch, below the first twenty meters or so, there is no more terminal velocity, in the air no less. Everything dropped below that threshold just keeps accelerating. A thousand meters rush by fast under those conditions.

The inmates are dazed constantly by a fine mist of very potent substances that are sprayed into the cell. similar to what they do in Prussia, but dialed up to eleven. And if that is not enough, the cell is just dropped into the void that is the Oblivion Rift.

As it so happens, Gustav Roth was sitting in one of these cells. Once known as a powerful force for good, a hero of the people, and one of the most powerful magic users the world has ever seen, he was now rotting in his hell hole. Lock away until the day, he might be of use or until someone decided to just rid the world of him through the Rift below.

One day, Gustav realized, the fine mist of suppressants had stopped. He did not know how long it would have taken him to regain his sanity, but he could now think again for the first time ... Who knows how long. A door slid open to his side and fresh air flooded the confines of his cell.

"Guten Tag, Herr Roth."

The woman standing at the door wore regular office attire, but her entire presence screamed danger.

"What do you want, Winter?"

"There is a chance for you to redeem yourself. Someone managed to enter the Visitor's Grand Castle of Valdestian and stole one of the tomes of their ancient magic. It appears whoever they are, is capable of reading, their old script and they can comprehend and utilize the magic within. We need a force just as great. And against my expertise, I was ordered to give you this chance at redemption."

"You must be furious", Gustav said.

"I have orders to abide by. My grief with them doesn't matter. Unless of course, I deem you irredeemable, in that case, I just drop your sorry ass in the Rift right here and now."

There was a slight tremble in her voice. To see her in that state, caught between what she wanted to do and what she had to do was oddly invigorating. Gustav rose from his humble bench with aching muscles. With his mind no longer clouded by chemicals, he instinctively pulled on the life force and felt it flood into him, activating his body's regenerative abilities, supercharging them until he was fully recovered from years or decades of being incarcerated.

"Who will I have to answer to?" he asked while stepping towards the door.

His form, now charged again with magic, had grown to his former impressive state. The picture of a hero. Even Winters's Aura of perpetual danger appeared dull before him now.

"You will answer to Fuchs or Mallard. Whoever is closest at any given moment. And when everything is done, you will return here until further notice!"

"What a redemption would that be if you lock me up again after I saved everyone?"

"As you will be returning of your own volition, it would be a great sign of redemption. The greatest menace to the world, returning their own free will into containment until their case has been predetermined. Because that is what a hero would do!"

He stood now right in front of her. The only thing keeping her alive was his restraint of himself and the fact that his cell had been lowered to a walkway directly above the threshold of the Rift, which he now noticed.

"Fine, I accept your offer."

"Follow me then", Winter said and led him out of his cell into a new future.

He felt giddy with excitement. He could't wait to see how the world had changed and what that threat was that they needed him if all people to fight.

"Jackaboy! How ya been? Can I ask a simple eensy weensy tiny favour??"

First of all, no one had called me "jack a boy" before, it was jack, or "fire knight" (I never much liked that name).

"Drop the act" I said calmly, "this is a containment facility not a prison or an asylum, I won't lash out or something". The man's smile faded into all a grin and his shoulders lowered. "So, Ice dude went rogue, and we need all the fire people we can get. We can spruce the place up if you help." He extended his hand, I did mine and he yelped "AAGH FUCK!". I gave him a sly grin as if to say, "there a reason the league of heroes keeps me here and content"

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