The last things Imogen remembers were glaring lights and blasting sounds that would make the trumpet of God seem like one of those cheap plastic kazoos you got from party favors at birthday parties when you were young. At the height of these sensory assaults, she was knocked unconscious and immediately rushed to the Coast City Superpowered Prison, where a special holding cell was ready for her.

The radioactive collars they fitted on most other of the prison’s inmates would not work on her. Besides her intelligence, her abilities were direct extensions of a synthetic physiology, and neither could be suppressed without disabling her body down to the cellular level, to each individual nanoparticle.

Instead, a chamber was prepared that would hold her in a form of stasis. She might be able to think and remain aware of her surroundings, but not act, essentially frozen in place. At least she’d have enough time to think about why exactly they would keep her alive and in one piece instead of just destroying her and being done with it. They had no problem destroying the rest of her race in a heartbeat.

Imogen had woken up partially by the time she’d arrived at the prison, but her mind still reeled from the earlier sensory overload. Several heavily armed guards took her past the cafeteria where a fight had started between two inmates, and tossed her in the stasis cell: a large, cylindrical capsule containing a metal structure with restraints at her feet, hands, and neck. She was locked into these and the cell was closed. She blinked a couple times as she began to realize where she was, before a guard flipped a switch and activated the cell.

From here on out, there would be no getting out of here unless someone let her out.