The Watchwomen

Chapter 19 (Act II): Driven To Suicide

We last read Chapter 18, in which the Watchwomen were quick to jump into action following Allie Bannister, Bryan Birchwood, B.B., and the Diamond Legion's sudden attack on the Utah State Correctional Facility, quickly orchestrated by Bannister herself once she learns that at least some members of the Paragons are present at the institute. After the quartet—led by Voltara and, to a lesser extent, The Viper—pay a visit to the Evidence Storage building to retrieve their weapons and gear, the serpentine heroine then saves the Warden from an attempted ambush by B.B., despite the fact that the man had ruthlessly taken them into custody mere hours beforehand without even giving them a chance to explain themselves. Using B.B., she coerces him into taking them to their objective and deactivating the chips on their necks with his voice commands; said chips were inhibiting their inmates powers, and once they're deactivated, the heroines are returned to their full power.

This event is what makes the Warden start to second-guess his recent actions towards the girls, and, seemingly having realized the error of his ways, he agrees to take them through the chaotic inner prison courtyard to the cell block containing two inmates named Ivan and Gill, a pair of people who were indicated by the Paragon Herman to be two of the three people behind the manufacturing of the mysterious red dust vials acquired by The Viper. The chapter ended with the five of them entering the cell block and seeing something very grim indeed.

This time, we find out exactly what it was, and what happened to Ivan and Gill since they disappeared from the Diamond Legion's service.....

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The Watchwomen stayed together as they kept pace with the rushing Warden, evading the gunfire, turret fire, and missiles coming from all factions. The prison's security alarms were also blaring throughout the entirety of the grounds, placing anyone and everyone present on extremely high alert.

To make matters more confusing, the Diamond Legion's Legion Guard looked almost identical in physical appearance to the Utah State Correctional Facility's armed guards, and the only difference was that the Legion Guard had diamond insignias on their right shoulder pad. Keeping track of such an obscure detail in such an intense firefight proved to be immensely difficult, and thus there were many instances of soldiers from one faction accidentally eliminating members of their own team.

Of note, Voltara noticed a few things. First, the inmate named Lucky and his entire medical team had perished in the firefight, after initially being defeated by The Viper within the canteen mere minutes before everything went off the rails. Additionally, the very first guard whom Voltara had talked to—the one who mockingly suggested that she and the Watchwomen "stay in the kitchen" since it'd be "better odds"—was also dead, buried beneath a medium-sized pile of rubble.

Her reactions to their respective demises were mixed; on one hand, the sexist guard likely had it coming, but she sincerely believed that Lucky could've potentially benefitted from therapy. Perhaps something had happened in his past to turn him into an aggressive and impulsive individual, but whatever it was, it didn't matter now.

All that mattered was safely reaching Ivan and Gill's cell block to learn more about the mysterious red dust vials.

"Viper!" Voltara called to the serpentine heroine, who was more or less matching her speed. "Do you have the silver container with the red dust vials on you?!"

The Viper smiled and pulled out the container from the right back pocket of her shorts. "Right here, 'Sparky'!" she confirmed with a slight teasing tone in her voice. "Got it when we recovered all of our other weapons and gear! Let's hope Ivan and Gill can tell us more about it, or else we'll be stuck."