Tomorrow came and the guard of her cell banged on the iron bars clamorously with his club like a bell. The guard, pleased with his mischief, opened the door and cuffed Maria alongside Dr. Sean, taking them to the mess hall for breakfast. They served her eggs and sausage and escorted her to an empty table. Along the way, a random highwayman flipped Maria's tray and she had to order another serving, a pittance compared to what she originally had. As she got a better look at her bully, she saw that the Highwayman was someone her father had worked with. Looking around, she saw plenty of familiar faces, each with a look of hate directed towards her. Another girl sat next to her just as Maria was about to dig in her meager breakfast. Allister was seated at a separate table.

  "You must be special to get a second serving after what just happened," said the girl. She was about Maria's age, with short, straight, black hair, a farmer's tan and freckles. She wore a power dampener around her neck. She was an Ascended Human.

  "I hate it here, I don't want to be special," Maria answered. She couldn't bring herself to eat her plate. Her misery robbed her of her appetite.

  "None of us want to be here," said the other girl. Trying to lighten the mood, the other girl said, "My name's Dakota."

  "Maria Cervantes," said Maria with some trepidation. She needed a break from her own misery if she was to survive here. "So, um, what are you in here for?" she asked.

  "They kidnapped me from the streets to be a slave and found out about my powers," said Dakota. "I can use electricity as a weapon," she added. That explains the dampener, Maria thought.

  "I'm sorry," said Maria. She truly was.

  "Thank you," said Dakota. "You should eat before they put you to work."

  Maria looked down at her plate and thought of how Dakota had it worse than her. She frowned and scarfed her food down, not even tasting any of it.

  Maria had to say goodbye to Dakota as she was escorted to the lab. Doom was waiting for her and Dr. Sean.

  "Your project is to make another Robot 28," he said. "You have 2 weeks to finish. I trust both of you to finish in that time."

  Doom left them, no doubt looking for a suitable location for the highwaymen to begin robot production. She and Dr. Sean stood in awkward silence there for a moment in a room full of electronic scraps. Dr. Sean spoke first.

  "He keeps mentioning this Robot 28 and I am having a hard time following," he said. "It's hard to get news of the outside world here. Care to explain, young friend?"

  She furrowed her brow and explained everything to Dr. Sean. He raised an eyebrow.

  "And he expects us to build that in two weeks with all this?"he asked, indignation in his voice.

  Maria surveyed the room around her and started pulling the junk off the shelves. She laid it out on the floor before her, categorizing everything by type and evaluating the state of each piece of scrap. Allister sat in a chair, chin in hand, contemplating and mumbling to himself. Maria took a piece of paper and a pencil and started drawing a blueprint. She went through several sheets.

  Curious, Allister stepped forward to see what she had drawn.He tried to grab a schematic but Maria stayed his hand. He waited as Maria drew schematic after schematic, arranging the papers like a puzzle. He lowered his voice so as to not be overheard and said, "You're building a transmitter watch?"

  She nodded, her determination returned to her. She figured,or at least hoped, that the Highwaymen must not be particularly literate in electronic diagrams and so long as she looked busy, she could get away with making her escape plans. Allister expressed his approval silently, stripping the junk in the room for parts.

  The tools the Highwaymen had left her with were adequate enough for the job. The computer was old but workable, the hand tools only touched by rust. Allister for his part had found an old programming book for the language they would be using. Hours passed by and Hank, in his Doom vestments, came into their lab after a while had passed.

  "Time for the both of you to return to your cells," he barked. The guards entered the lab, cuffed the two of them and escorted them back to their cells. Maria laid awake in her bed, sweating from the night's heat.

  She heard the snoring of the guard. She whispered at the doctor through her door. She needed to talk.

  "What is it, child?"he asked drowsily. He sounded on the verge of sleep.

  "Do you think we have a chance of escaping?"she asked. She kept an ear out for the guard's loud snoring. It was like the sputtering of an engine.

  "Let's not get our hopes up just yet," he answered. "Get some sleep. We're going to need it."

  She did as she was told, lulling herself by counting backwards from 100 by 7 as many times as she needed until sleep finally overtook her anxious mind. The next day came and the two of them were taken to eat their breakfast again. She sat alone until Dakota came to her.

  "Hey again," said Dakota. Maria acknowledged her and Dakota sat across from her. Trying to keep an awkward silence from forming, Maria asked Dakota about the Highwaymen's facility.

  "What do you want to know?"asked Dakota, her voice lowered and eyes shifting left and right.

  "As much as you can tell," said Maria, keeping her voice low like Dakota. She needed as much info as she could gather for her plan to work.

  “They keep slaves in a warehouse down past where they took the two of you the other day," Dakota began.

  "Past that way, they keep their weapons under lock and key. The vehicle dock is right by there too. They only allow us to clean the weapons and vehicles. I don't know what you're planning on doing, but I hope you have better luck than those that have tried to escape in the past," she continued. "They either get thrown in the hot box or are executed and the rest of us get punished for it with a long speech and extra work."

  Maria gulped and finished her breakfast hurriedly before the guard took her to the lab. She continued to work on her transmitter watch when Dr. Sean started talking to her.

  "So, who's this new friend you've made," asked Dr. Sean. Maria told Allister about Dakota.

  "So that's her name," said Dr. Sean. "The highwaymen were making a big stink about an electric Ascendant taken from the weapons raid a while back."

  "You mean she's a Torchbearer?" asked Maria.

  "Yes. What of it?" asked Allister.

  "Papá doesn't like them much, despite telling me that some of their complaints are valid," she said. She remembered her first talk with papá about the Torchbearers, she was at an early elementary age.

  "What exactly did he say?"asked Allister.

  "This was back when I was little, so I don’t remember all of it," she said. "The Torchbearers attacked a police cruiser because of an instance of police brutality. He told me that violence should only be used as a last resort and that this war between the police and the Torchers had been going on for years. He knew the officer in that attack though and said he was a total scumbag."

  Dr. Sean pressed further. "Your father, what is he like?" he asked. She told him everything she could about him and the robot. Allister clapped his hand together.

  "So that explains it," he said. They went back to working on the transmitter when Dr. Sean asked Maria how she planned on getting out of the complex. Maria told her what she had learned from Dakota.

  "But how will you defend yourself from them and keep from getting captured again?"he asked. She had not considered that. Dr. Sean handed her some blueprints, the drawings looked like a suit of power armor.

  "We can say that this is what the robot will look like," said Allister winking. They spent the next few days building the power armor as designed by the doctor. Maria worked on her watch alongside their project.

  Maria examined the schematics and said, "A lot of this seems like overkill. I don't want anybody getting killed."

  Allister raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps," he said. "You can never be too careful with these people however."

  Maria finished her transmitter watch as he said this. Their next step was escaping Doom's fortress.

  The hard part came from getting outside long enough to get a signal out to her dad. She surveyed her surroundings as her guards escorted to and from her lab, building as many possible routes as possible. Maria’s heart sank as she watched Dakota working the fields alongside the other slaves. She pondered how to help them while still helping herself. The chances of success were jeopardized as she did the math.

  She did not think long on it, as a guardsman shoved her along on her path. They entered the lab and made themselves busy. After a few minutes Dr. Sean psst'd at Maria and they went over the schematic of the power armor.

  "So, I've been thinking of how best to improve the armor, and I decided we should go with this," he said, pointing to the changes he made in the drawings. None of the lethal weapons remained and the armoring had been improved. Maria for her part, improved the actuators in the suit, allowing for a greater range of motion, and added an extra layer of armoring with a collapsible shield on the opposite arm of the cannon.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "Why help me with this?"she asked.

  "Because, I want to see these cretins suffer for what they did to you and me," answered Allister. There lied malice behind his words, surprising Maria.

  "Is it because of what they did to your partner?" she asked, uncertain if she should have asked.

  "Hm? Oh yes," he answered. They started testing the armor, beginning with the arm cannon. The cannon whirred to life, the both of them watching their testing apparati as sweat beaded on their brows. The apparati read green but still climbed until at the last second, the armor popped smoke and the arm cannon burst into flames. The alarm blared and the sprinklers kicked on. Maria and Allister leapt to cover what equipment they could with either tarp, blankets, or their own bodies, the guardsmen coming in seconds later to put out the fire. Maria saved the schematics before the guardsmen had a chance to even inspect them. After they extinguished the fire, Allister and Maria were escorted back to their cells for the rest of the day.

  Maria sat in her cell thinking about the power armor she was making. She couldn’t focus on it as more pressing issues occupied her mind. Why didn't the doctor make one for himself? Why implement such extreme measures in the designs? Why the delayed reaction? Breakfast the next day, she made her way to Dakota.

  "How are you holding up?" Maria asked her. She was still hurting for Dakota from the other day.

  "Well enough. Better with you around. You look like hell though," answered Dakota. The last part came out in a whisper. Maria’s overactive mind kept her up late into the night, despite her best efforts to fall asleep. She had to find new ways of falling asleep. She told herself she would sleep when she was home. Maria’s goal was tantalizingly close but still she worried.

  "What can you tell me about Dr. Sean?" asked Maria, cutting to the chase.

  "I don't know much if anything at all," answered Dakota. She sounded disheartened when she said that. Maria would have to make it up to her later.

  "What do you know then? He says his friend was killed here,"pressed Maria. Her time in the mess hall was nearly up and she had to make the most of it and quickly. Dakota raised an eyebrow, confused by this.

  "He just arrived one day and was put to work in that lab of theirs. Normally Doom would make a big speech after he gets new slaves, going on and on about 'protecting us from ourselves' or some nonsense like that. When I was caught, Doom made it a point to insult my family and misgender me," said Dakota, not with the least hint of shame and anger, her eyes welling up. Maria reached and held Dakota’s wrist, surprising the latter. One second later, Dakota held Maria’s wrist in her hand as well, a small smile crossing her face. They held onto each other, as friends forged through mutual adversity did, for as long as they could, both feeling the kind gesture soul deep within them.

  "If it's any consolation, my dad punched Doom out when he was on the police force," said Maria. Dakota smiled at that and they both let go of the other’s wrist.

  Maria speculated on the information Dakota gave her over breakfast and how best to confront Allister Sean, her guard hurrying her along with the normal level of cruelty. Again, Maria put herself to work the instant she arrived and again, she only half focused on the armor.

  "Are you alright, child?" asked Allister, breaking Maria from her train of thought. She stammered a half truth about solving the armor’s spontaneous combustion problem.

  "Oh? How do you suppose we fix that?"asked the doctor, his brow raised and head tilted to the side.

  Maria shook her head and said, "I think the blaster should jut out from the forearm instead of being built into the rig. I’d also like to add a pneumatic ball and chain to the assembly as well."

  Allister put his hand to his chin and deliberated over her suggestion. They rerigged the gauntlet to Maria's specification and test fired. Their instruments climbed into the green and stayed there. There was no fire this time. Maria refrained from high fiving Dr. Sean in their success.

  Maria tried the rig on after the test fire. Her arms and chest were covered in heat shielding and metal plating. She wore a helmet that resembled a boxer’s headgear with a light green visor over the eyes. The visor worked as a heads-up display and synced with the arm cannon assembly, letting her aim with ease. On her hip she wore the powersource of her armor. The battery pack’s weight was noticeable but it didn’t threaten to hinder her movement. As she inspected the armor she wore, a sense of power and surety grew within her. Other feelings cultivated themselves inside as went over her attire: rightness in her power suit, determination, hope. She raised her cannon arm and turned it on the doctor. To her surprise, the doctor was not bothered by the sudden turn of events.

  He wore a smile that was too pleased with itself. "I suppose you deserve an explanation? Please sit down, we have the rest of the day ahead of us," said Allister. Maria, still uneasy, clenched the fist with the arm cannon but sat regardless.

  "Okay, where should I start?"asked Allister as he stared at the ceiling. "I suppose I should start with, 'thank you for fixing my Robot 28.'"

  This came as another surprise to Maria, this day was full of them. Dr. Sean continued on after he didn't get a response from Maria. He explained how he came to meet Doom after blowing up his old boss and how he orchestrated her kidnapping by the Highwaymen. She thought of using the arm cannon and leaving the room as soon as possible.

  "I had you brought here to study you and I must say I am impressed but worried in some regards," continued the doctor.

  "What do you mean?" asked Maria. She hated the feeling of being a labrat under observation but equally hated that she didn’t know the parameters of her testing.

  "Answer this: why do you want to go home to the people that enabled this?" Allister asked. He expected another question from Maria and continued on.

  "These people, these highwaymen, they did not come from nowhere, they came from your city government in fact. Hank has had a history of racism and violence and he was let onto the force regardless. The people you are trying to save are rotten to the core. Why go back to it?"asked Allister again.

  "Not everyone in the city is as rotten as you say they are. Why are you telling me this?" asked Maria.

  "I see myself in you, child. I wanted to help people, once upon a time, but there is no saving them. I am trying to help you," answered Allister.

  "You call this," Maria gestured towards everything in the room, "helping?" Fear and anger mixed and welled inside her, breaking the dam of self control. "I thought I could trust you!" she said, rage and indignation in her voice.

  "I am very much trustworthy," Dr. Allister went on. "I have been protecting you from Doom and his goons the entire time we've been here." He pointed towards the ceiling and Maria saw a video camera recording them.

  "I've hacked the cameras so that it looks like we are building them a robot," said Dr. Sean. "I've helped you build your armor on top of that. Even took the lethal measures out despite my concern. And you want to use the armor to go back to people who want to use you. The government is no different from Doom. You are a tool to them. The only difference between the two is-"

  "I am no one’s tool, bastardo!" snapped Maria. Maria's anger had been rising during Dr. Allister's speech. "I'm in control of myself. Maybe Doom and the government are both bad but I am not giving up hope. I’ll find a way forward and save as many people as I can."

  Dr. Allister paused at her outburst, calm but taken aback. He let Maria continue. He wanted to see where this would lead.

  "You might have given up on people, but I haven't! I won't give up on them. If my dad can do it, then so can I. With or without their help or yours," she said. Silence fell between them and persisted, their previous camaraderie split by an ever widening gulf of ideology. Finally, Dr. Sean spoke.

  "You think you will succeed in this?"he asked, his voice a comingling of disbelief and pity. She nodded, unsure of the doctor’s sincerity.

  "For your sake, I hope you do. I would hate to see you disappointed," he said. He stood from his chair. Maria rose quickly and took a step back, raising the cannon in self defense. Allister raised his arms and slowly pulled open a drawer. He reached in and pulled an Uzi out from the junk.

  "What are you doing?" Maria asked.

  "Doing what I must to help you escape. I'll distract them child, you get out of here and return to your father," answered the doctor as he made his way to the door. He kicked open the door and started firing into the hall. Maria ducked behind a desk and Allister ran headlong into the corridor. Maria soon followed after him in the few seconds she saw that no one had come into the lab to secure her.

  As she ran, she was torn between escaping on her own or trying to save Dr. Sean. Her decision was made for her when she heard Dr. Sean cry out after a rat-tat-tat of bullets went off. A highwayman saw her and told her to freeze. Maria raised her arm cannon and fired, sending the highwayman flying into the wall. The highwayman slid to the floor, groaning in pain. They did not upright themselves,laying still on the floor, unconscious. Her experiment proved successful even if she could not celebrate it.

  Maria thought of a new plan within a split second: create as much chaos as she could while she escaped. Starting with the slaves.

  Maria panted as she exited the building that held her lab and the dead doctor within, spotting Dakota almost immediately. She broke into a dead sprint and almost tackled Dakota. For her plan to work, Maria would need to get Dakota’s inhibitor collar off.

  Before Dakota could ask anything Maria spouted, "We're getting out of here!"

  Maria strained with the rig to rip the device off her friend. Highwaymen ran towards them with polearms and bludgeons in hand, hate in their eyes. Maria fired at some with the cannon and struck others with the ball and chain. Every strike costed Maria precious seconds that she needed to break the device around Dakota’s neck. A highwayman came dangerously close to overtaking Maria when she finally split the inhibitor into pieces. Dakota unleashed a lightning bolt on the man and silence fell on the field. A slave roared in triumph and picked up a fallen weapon. The rioting soon followed as more slaves picked up weapons and Maria and Dakota freed more from their shackles.

  Some of the slaves ran whereas others took up arms and fought back. More highwaymen poured out of the building and started beating them.

  Maria aimed the arm cannon and sent the highwaymen flying. She deployed her shield from her arm and hid behind it when the Highwaymen brought out their firearms. A few well aimed lightning bolts from Dakota exploded the weapons in the henchmen’s hands.

  "YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, GIRL!" shouted a familiar and hated voice. It was Doom, pointing at Maria and brandishing his energy hammer. He charged at them.

  Maria pointed the arm cannon and destroyed Doom's energy hammer. The freed slaves swarmed Doom, defanged without his hammer.

  Maria and Dakota bolted for the vehicle bay.

  Maria and Dakota started an unoccupied car, pealed out of the bay, and drove towards the highway and the city.

  Doom beat back the slaves that attacked him. Some ran away, others fell to the crushing blows of his fists. Doom would not be denied his vengeance! He had been days away from accomplishing his dream of conquering the city. His vengeance against Marco, the most important of all, would not be complete until Maria lay dead or dying at his feet after she fulfilled her purpose of building an army for him, Doom.

  The doctor’s betrayal further enraged him. Hank pulled resources away from his true project just to help the doctor with his proposed army of robots. The doctor may have paid with his life for wasting the Highwaymen’s time and money, but he had made a mockery of them all before he died. Doom channeled his fury into each blow he dealt to the rioting slaves.

  When he arrived outside, chaos had broken out in the time it had taken to get there. He saw that Maria had freed the boy pretending to be a woman and the two of them were wreaking havoc against his highwaymen. He moved to smite them but was held back by the freed slaves. As he put them back in their place, his hammer was destroyed by the girl and she and the boy ran off to the vehicle bay.

  Putting the slaves down ate precious minutes and as he fought he saw a vehicle leave the bay and make for the highway in the direction of the city. He ordered his highwaymen to ignore the slaves and to hunt down Maria Cervantes.