[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/iyJuAe0.png [/img][img]http://i.imgur.com/KDaLzr2.png[/img][/center][center][b]Aubrey Adkins[/b] | [b]Amanda Allen-James[/b][/center] The two superpowered women descended into the depths of the Hound’s local cell. As they went underground, the air became stale as a result of the lack of any sort of direct air flow. Whether the Hounds did it out of an accustomed habit or for tactical considerations, all the lights had either been dimmed or completed shut off, leaving only whatever artificial light coming from the outside to illuminate the entrance. But once the two women progressed deeper into the nest of anti-metahuman terrorists, they could no longer count on that light to aid their eyesight. While she could only see a little better than a regular person could in such a situation, Arachne’s so-called spider sense prevented her from being blind in the pitch dark. Although the stagnant air sometimes muddled her senses, the blonde drider’s body utilized her other senses to make up for the blindness caused by the darkness. Therefore, even if the Hounds would try some sort of ambush, Arachne could give her new ally a forewarning. Eventually, the two women stumbled upon a three-way fork: three passages heading in three different directions. Even this dilemma could not be solved by Arachne’s spider-sense. Now that they had a decision to make, Arachne turned behind herself and checked to make sure Slipstream was still following along as best as she could. [color=b22222]“Which way?”[/color] Arachne whispered, just in case the Hounds were hiding in the shadows down one of the halls, even though she could not sense them in their immediate proximity. “I don’t know.” Slipstream said in a whisper. “”But I think I have an idea.” She finished before vanishing in a blur. First, she zipped down the hallway which lied directly in front of the two heroines. It was a long and narrow hallway, which ended abruptly about a quarter mile from the entrance. [i]Dead end.[/i] she thought to herself before racing back toward the beginning of the hallway. The second hallway was much of the same, a hallway to nowhere that ended as abruptly as the first one. However, the final hallway, the one on furthest to the right, was a different story. It led to a large open doorway, and another set of stairs that led further down into the sublevels of the base. Slipstream rushed back to Arachne coming to a sudden stop directly in front of the spideresque heroine. “The one on the right. That’s where they are.” Slipstream said to a visibly surprised Arachne. Though Slipstream had travelled quite a distance in exploring the hallways, she had only been gone for an instant, and she had forgotten that occasionally her sudden disappearances and reappearances can be rather unsettling to others. After they had picked the passageway on the far right, Arachne set up a few silk threads at the entrances of the other two passages as both trip lines to alert them to any movement behind the two heroines and an escape rope so that they could backtrack in the darkness of the tunnels. Her hind arachnid legs took these threads and tied them with a third line that her spider abdomen was producing so that she could keep track of their escape plan, if it happened to become necessary. The two heroines continued down this path, still in blinded by the pitch black darkness. Eventually the two women stumbled upon a spacious room at the end of the passage. Red emergency lights gave a little visibility, but not enough to illuminate the space. In this room, they found dozens of cages of varying sizes. But what shocked the two girls was that there were people, presumably metahumans, locked up inside the cages. “My god, what is this?” Slipstream asked as she laid eyes on the small cages and their occupants. “What are these monsters doing with these people?” When Arachne peered into one of the cages, which contained a young girl no older than herself, flashbacks of three months ago played back in her mind. First, she remembered waking up strapped to a medical table in a repurposed factory in West Virginia where she was injected with Doctor Diplodoc’s serum and swapped powers with Black Widow. Then, her mind turned to the time when she was temporarily in STRIKE custody after being “rescued” from Doctor Diplodoc. Next, she recalled the time when, after the Demon Invasion of Lost Haven, she had been kidnapped by some human traffickers. That was when, through some woman’s greed, she acquired her unbelievable curves. Finally, a scene from only a few weeks ago played out in her mind, where a cabbie driver had attempted to kidnap her and her boyfriend. If revealing her driderlike appearance had not have freaked out the driver, Arachne was not sure what would have happened. [color=b22222]“I can’t breath.”[/color] Arachne whispered as she tugged on her mask. She then made a frantic dash towards one of the walls where there were not cages. After pulling off her hair tie and mask, allowing her blonde hair to cascade down over her face, Arachne planted both of her palms against the wall and tried to control her rapid breathing. “Whoa, what’s wrong?!” Slipstream asked as her new friend bounded away from the cages over to an empty wall. Though the light was dim, she could see that Arachne was suffering from some sort of panic attack. She zipped over to her arachnid friend, and put a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t know what’s going on in your head, but right now you have to pull it together. These people aren’t going to rescue themselves.” Slipstream said as she urged Arachne to get her head back in the game. [color=b22222]“I know,”[/color] Arachne responded to Slipstream as she continued to take deep breaths. [color=b22222]“But I had past experiences like this that have left me looking like…”[/color] Before completing her sentence, Arachne cut herself off before she called herself a freak or monster. Pushing herself to regain her composure, she took one last deep breath and then pulled her mask back on, threading her ponytail through the back of the mask. [color=b22222]“God, at this rate, I might as well stop trying to conceal my identity if I keep pulling my mask off,”[/color] Arachne said while trying to distract herself from the harsh memories that the Hound’s base made her recall. [color=b22222]“So, should we start peeling open these sardine cans?”[/color] “Right.” Slipstream said in agreement as she made her way to the first cage. Grabbed the door of the cell which held a young woman and pulled. However, the door didn’t budge. “This is no good. This thing is solid.” She said to no one in particular. [i]If only we had a jackhammer[/i] she thought to herself. Then she had an idea. If she could pull at the cage with enough speed, she could for all intents and purposes [i]become[/i] the jackhammer. “I have a plan.” She announced before turning to Arachne, “You might want to step back.” She said as she regripped the cage door. She took a deep breath and began moving her arms at an incredible rate of speed, at first it didn’t seem to do anything, but after several seconds, the door started violently vibrating, before coming off the hinges altogether. Slipstream tossed the cage door aside, which landed with a metallic clang. She then bent over and offered the young woman who had been trapped inside the cage a hand. At once, Slipstream pulled the girl to her feet and lead her out of the miniature steel prison. However, when Slipstream had lead the girl out of her enclosure, supporting her by draping the girl’s arm over her own shoulder, she discovered that Arachne was standing there with her hands on her hips, shaking her head. [color=b22222]“You do realize that I have superhuman strength, despite what my arms would imply?”[/color] She then approached another of the cages. After yanking the cage’s door with a single pull, the drider superheroine forced the locked door open. [color=b22222]“We might be more efficient if I were to open the doors and you run everyone out of here.”[/color] Slipstream nodded before zipping out of the Hound’s base while leading out the young girl she had just freed. Meanwhile, Arachne turned towards the next cage, which she broke open just as easily as the last one. When she peered over her shoulder, she found Slipstream waiting for the next prisoner to set free, since she had obviously already rescued the first two individuals whom they released from the cages. Seeing how swiftly Slipstream could exit and reenter the base, Arachne knew she had to quicken her own pace to keep up with the speedster, if that was even possible. “Is that everyone?” Slipstream asked once she had ran the last person out of the base. [color=b22222]“At least the last one in [i]this[/i] room,”[/color] Arachne answered while she catch her breath after trying to keep up with Slipstream’s speed. [color=b22222]“God knows whether there’s more in this rat nest.”[/color] “Well, there’s only one way to find out.” Slipstream concluded. She was preparing to zoom off down the hall when Arachne sensed a small projectile speeding towards Slipstream. Instinctively, Arachne reached out and pulled the speedster out of the way, momentarily pressing Slipstream face first into her body before releasing her after a second bullet round went off. While Arachne hit the deck, Slipstream rolled to the side and tumbled to her feet. She zipped forward and disarmed the Hound goon before he could do any damage. “I’ll check what’s down this way.” She told Arachne before zooming away. However, a split second later, Slipstream blinked back in front of Arachne. “Oh, I told the police what was happening. They’ll be here as soon as they finish dealing with an incident in town.” After Slipstream departed again, Arachne was left alone in the dark room. Once a few seconds past, she began to wonder what was taking her so long. Either this gas station hideout was larger than they expected or she must have ran into trouble. She hesitated whether she should go after the speedster. However, the spider-themed superheroine soon discovered that she was in no position to offer any aid to Slipstream. When her senses detected several individuals slowly creep up from the way that the two women had entered, Arachne fully expected to be greeted by a barrage of lead. However, the only thing that they tossed at her was a small spherical device. Since the red emergency lights did not give much visibility, Arachne could not tell what the device was until it was too late. When she realized that it was a flash grenade, the device had just set off, blasting Arachne in the face with a bright eruption of light. She stumbled to the side from being blinded by the grenade. Now, she really was going to need to utilize her other senses to make sure the Hounds would not dispatch her easily.