[OP: "Hometown" -- 21 Pilots]

The boiler room was sort of a blend of old fashioned technology that ran on steam and newer technology that was more electric.

The thing about enslaving all the humans was a lot of them were the ones who knew about machines and engineering, but very few of them were allowed to work on such designs, for fear they'd get ideas about sabotage.

The number of mutants who knew about it was smaller just by dint of being the smaller population, period, and most of them didn't take the time to learn this stuff.

So things had regressed to a more simple form of tech that was easier to operate.

For Forge, it was a cakewalk to operate all this when he was forced to work on it, and his ability to quickly repair it made him too useful to discard and lock up with the other X-men. Also they considered him a lower level threat.

And this boiler room might provide him with just the diversion he needed to get out of here.

He hadn't been going to try, because he'd never get past the walls, he thought, but, if the others were going to be here soon, they might be able to help him escape.... He just had to have an opening ready for them. Mystique better have been right.

It was a long shot...but the world was ending anyway, right? He had to take it.

He'd assigned himself to work on the biggest boiler there, which was, in fact, in sore need of repairs.

At first he just went about tinkering, and soon the overseer forgot about him and started harassing the slower workers who had been there for weeks and were tired and worn out.

Forge felt sorry for them.

But it gave him ample time to throw a wrench, as it were, into the piping of the boiler.

At first nothing was noticeable, but then the pressure began to build up, and alarms started going off.

"Fix it!" the overseer yelled at him.

Forge feigned shock. "Something's clogging it up," he said. "The whole thing's gonna blow. If you don't evacuate now, you'll get blown to kingdom come."

"You're not allowed to use words like that, prisoner," one said.

"No time for a grammar lesson, Centurion. We have to get clear of it," a different one yelled at him. "You, Forge, right? Can you fix it?"

"There's a 50% chance I can stop it," Forge lied. "But just in case, you might want to get out of range."

"Your funeral," they said, "Better fix it or it's on your head if it explodes and the boss hears about it."

They ran out of the room, and the prisoners ran after them.

Except one, who looked at Forge suspiciously.

"Did you do that on purpose?" she said.

Forge had no idea who she was. She looked too young to have been alive in his time.

"Why would I?" he called.

The girl glanced around. "You know we can't escape, right?" She pointed to the tracker in her arm.

"I might be able to get around that," Forge yelled over the alarms. 

The girl raised an eyebrow.

"Well, s---," she swore. "Why didn't you say so? What's the plan?"

The plan didn't involve bringing another person, but backup couldn't hurt.

"I gotta get out of here before it blows," Forge said, "or I'll have to stop it, but it's better if it does. It'll slow them down."

"They have backup power, but it might buy you about 10 minutes while they load it. They only use electric power when they have to," the girl said. "Name's Bolts." She held up her hands. "I can suture things together. It's not that useful for a mutation, but it keeps me alive around here. Not enough to let me escape on my own, but if you've got a plan, I'm so ready to be out of this rattrap."

"You're welcome to join me, but you can't squeal," Forge said.

"Sure," Bolts said.

"And if you could maybe shut the door to this place, then," Forge said. "If there's a back exit."

"I heard that there're air vents to the outside that you can squeeze in," Bolts said, pointing up to some. "The scanner would set off the alarms outside once you left the building, so no one tries it."

"We have maybe 5 minutes," Forge said. "Come here."

He pulled out his tools.

She ran up.

He took a few seconds and managed to get the scanner out of her arm.

"Whoa...did you just make that on the spot?" she said.

"I can make some stuff just out of my body. The rest I have to amp up like anyone else, but it comes in handy sometimes." Forge shrugged.

"Well, that's way better than most of us," Bolts said. "If we could do that, we'd have busted out of here ages ago. I'll get the door. You get the vent open."

She ran for the door and did something to it to make it stick shut. It looked like she just could make metal out of her fingers, in small amounts, like some mutants could shoot spines.

Forge realized that mutation seemed to have evolved a little more in this future...weird.

He managed to climb the wall using a different machine and pry open the vent.

"We have, like, 3 minutes," he called.

Bolts came running and crawled up after him. He climbed into the vent.

It was lucky he was such a beanpole, for once. One of the big, beefy mutants with enhancements couldn't have fit in this. Bolts was skinny too. She had to be 15 tops.

He pulled her in after him, and they crawled along.

The other end of the vent was only about 40 feet through the wall, and it opened into an outside yard, but they were in luck--it was between two large walls and out of sight of the guards. It looked like it was just a draining area for the indoor waste.

Forge got the door off, with about 30 seconds left.

"We'll have to jump," he said.

The drop was at least 10 feet.

Well, at least he had metal body parts.

He jumped and landed in some mud.

It seemed like it was from oil, thankfully, not...something else.

He helped catch Bolts as she came out, then they heard the explosion, and heat streamed out of the vent, but they were all right.

"That was close," Bolts said, a little unnerved. "So where are we going?"

Forge mentally checked the schematic he'd looked up before.

"There's a loading dock just around the corner. They put weaker mutants on it and ship them off."

"The Serfs?" Bolts said. "Yeah, I'm one step up from that. If I hadn't shown them I could work on machines, I'd have been on one of those. I was lucky. One of my friends ended up on that.... Her mutation just made her not need to eat for like weeks on end. Big thing to envy if you're one of the starving levels, but not really combat or work useful." She shook her head.

"I could use that mutation. I always forget to eat anyway," Forge said. "So...did you ever hear what happened to her, eh?"

"No one hears what happens to anyone who goes to those Plantations," Bolts said. "Or the breeding houses." She made a face. "They never leave, ever. They just work them to death...or...like...harvest them or something. I just know rumors."

Forge didn't even want to begin to unpack that.

"Right...so...but it's not heavily guarded."

"I guess it wouldn't be. Who'd be afraid of them? But you still can't just go in there," Bolts said.

"You want to try to sneak out of here without more help? I think the gate is that way," Forge pointed. 👉 "You're kind of in this now, kid."

Bolts saw he was kind of right.

"Fine, but it's crazy," she said. "After you, Captain."

Not gonna lie, Forge actually kind of felt like getting called Captain was cool...even if it was sarcastic. No one ever referred to him by any kind of title.

He crept slowly around the wall.

No guards were paying attention to this spot--all of them had run to see what the explosion was anyway.

Fire alarms were going off.... Funny, even in post apocalyptic death prisons, some things never changed.

They slipped around to the loading dock yard, which had random transport vehicles in it that looked like they were for cows or sheep, not humans, but of course they were actually for humans.

There was some kind of holding pen that had the weaker Serf Mutants in it, and they were all in prison garb and looked pretty dejected.

The guards were playing cards outside their cell, ignoring them, though one of them was having some kind of panic attack from the sound of it.

Bolts bit her lip. "You have a plan here, Cap?"

Forge made a partial gun out of his arm. "Well...I thought I could just shoot them."

Bolts smirked slightly. "Maybe this plan isn't as bad as I thought."

Forge, of course, wasn't using a lethal gun, but it still packed a punch, and both guards were flattened.

At least he hit both of them. His aim really wasn't always that good...but they were pretty close.

"More of them are gonna be here now," Bolts said.

"Can you tie those two down somehow?" Forge asked.

"On it, Cap, but better hurry with those sheep." Bolts ran.

Cute kid, Forge thought to himself sarcastically.

Oh well, at least she was helping.

He ran to the door of the pen.

https://youtu.be/Q0UTRoSVvZA

["Overture/Worksong"-- Les Miserables]

Most of the prisoners in here looked half starved and like they'd not be much help in a fight.

Domino was sitting in the back, looking as moody as usual and ignoring the ruckus.

But the person panicking had stopped. All of them were listening to see what the gunfire was.

Forge had to rewire the keypad on the door to get it open, and that took longer than he wanted it to. Bolts came back. "More of those overgrown meat sacks are coming," she said. "Your gun's not exactly the quiet type, is it?"

Domino finally came up to the wall.

"Forge, is that you?" she said. "I can't see anything through this blasted wall."

"Yeah, it's me," Forge said.

"Well, that is a miracle," Domino said. "Can you get this thing open?"

"With a little luck, maybe," Forge said.

"Maybe I should put my hand on it or something." Domino might have been joking, but it was hard to tell.

"Hey, whatever helps!" Forge was losing his cool.

"They're getting closer," Bolts said.

"What do you expect me to do about it?" he said.

Then the door finally clicked open.

Domino was leaning on it and reeled back. "Well, that was graceful," she said dryly. "But what do ya know, it worked... Who's the junior?"

"Name's Bolts," Bolts said. "And what are you supposed to be? A playing card?" She pointed to Domino's birthmark.

"Her manners are about the same as every other jerk around here," Domino commented. "What's the idea of this?"

"No time to explain. We ought to get out of here before the guards get us," Forge said. "Anyone want to join us? There might be a rescue happening."

The Serfs looked at him dubiously.

"Mister, even if you think you have a prayer of getting out of here, the rest of us don't," they said.

"Fine," Domino said. "Stay here and be turned into human cattle by these b-----ds. I'm sure it won't hurt that bad. Maybe they'll even breed you and then take your kids...or  you could at least try to get out." She frowned at them.

They stared at her.

"Hey, there might be food if we get past the gate," Bolts said. "Captain Forge here, he's got some connections on the outside."

She seemed to have misunderstood the nature of the situation.

But a few of them perked up a little.

"Maybe it's worth a shot," one said, a younger guy.

"You risk your neck, but it's not worth it, and the punishment is worse for you to get away than for just staying put," said an older one, turning his back.

A couple of them stepped out of the pen though.

"Cool," Forge said. "Now...this was kind of as far as my plan went."

Domino grabbed his arm and used the gun to shoot three guards who were coming at them but still at least 100 feet away.

All of them went down.

"We could start by getting some of their weapons out of their registry," she said, without missing a beat.

"Whoa..." Bolts gaped at her. "How did a Serf learn how to do that?"

"I'm not a serf you idiot, I'm just captured," Domino said. "Do I look like one of you half dead zombies?"

"Maybe be a little nicer. She's kind of helping..." Forge said.

"You want to waste time coddling people? We're in one big prison," Domino said. "We have to move fast... So where are the others?"

"Well, uh, this is kind of it," Forge said. "I couldn't find them. I don't get it, but they weren't... All except Rogue. She was in the Re-education Center."

"Oh. That place," Bolts said. "You don't want to go there. They say the people who come out never act the same. They get all funny in the head." She pointed to her temple. "Don't care about anything but following orders. They break you."

"Rogue and I have had our differences," Domino said. "But, we both know, if they break her, we're all dead. I say we go get her."

"I'd be happy to do that, if I had a clue how we could. I'm literally making this up as I go," Forge said. "I just have to stall till the backup arrives."

"Yeah, well, counting on that is stupid," Domino said. "For now we're on our own, but luck may be on our side." She winked. "So let's use it. Step one, getting weapons."

"Okay, I kind of like her after all," Bolts said.

"But we don't know how to use weapons," the guy who'd come out said. "I'm Roach, by the way."

"Great name," Bolts said.

"Yeah, well, us grunts don't usually get the cool names," Roach said. "My mutation just lets me compress my body real small and fit through spaces. It's not really useful."

"That sounds useful to me," Forge said. "I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've been working on the plane, and I wished--"

"What about you?" Domino cut him off and addressed the other person who'd come out. This one was a girl.

"Spray," she said. "All I can do is release these chemicals that kind of make you itch and have a rash, maybe, but it's not strong enough to hurt the enhanced fighters, so..."

"I'm sorry...Roach and Spray?" Domino said. "You're serious?"

"We're actually siblings," Roach said.

They did kind of look it, now that he said that.

"It was the neighborhood kids' idea." Spray shrugged. "It stuck. You know how it is. Who cares anyway? It's just a name. We can't fight, so..."

"You know, there's probably some practical application for your power," Forge said. "I bet I could make some kind of shooter that could condense it and add something to it to make it more effective, if I had the equipment here..."

"Forge." Domino snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Weapons, now."

She was already in charge.

Well, Forge didn't really like being in charge anyway, too much pressure, so he was kind of glad someone else was calling it now.

They all ran toward the inside room where the guards picked up new weapons from. It was locked, but the lock didn't even have a key code. It was just a regular lock.

Forge got it open quickly enough.

Roach was looking out the window. "More of those guards are coming. I'm not even sure how many there are on duty at a time. I've never seen that much of the outside."

"How did you kids get here?" Forge asked. "I mean, you're so little... Isn't this a prison?"

"It's a prison and a plant," Bolts answered him. "Some of us get lifted off the streets just for fun. Others of us come from the nurseries, once we're big enough to work. Average age for that is 13 or so, once your mutation manifests. Unless you're born with it, like some people are. Until then, they don't treat you so bad. They don't want to damage your body or anything before it's ready. But after that, it's brutal training and enhancements, if they think it's worth it. But that stuff is expensive and hard to pull off, so only the people with really good potential powers get enhanced. Then, if they do well enough, they get made into the Riders and work under the Horsemen generals, who work for the Lord himself. Most of us hardly ever see them, not from in here. You're not from this timeline, are you?"

"How...? Wait, how did you know that?" Domino sputtered.

"Some of the Enhanced Soldiers aren't, they say. There's two of them, sometimes," Bolts said. "Some of the Prisoners, they saw them. And, in the barracks, some of us get these visions...of other places, another life, kind of.... I heard it's called the Confusion. Sometimes they talk like they don't know us."

"I thought that was just the older Prisoners, and they were just going a little senile. Being cooped up here would do it," Roach said.

"It is mostly only ones who are like...over 25," Bolts said. "Not so many of them, but a few. But I heard some of the overseers talking about how some of them were acting funny too. They don't want us to know, but it has them spooked. But there was this rumor ages ago that the reason the Lord took over so fast was 'cause he has some power to see the future and the past and change things. It was never really proven, but it makes people scared to defy the government. There was also something about people disappearing. Some said it happened a long time ago, but I heard about people who could use telepathy, and teleporters, and they were disappearing, and that was just in the last few months."

"I hear that too," Spray said. "But none of them are Serfs or Grunts--they're too useful. I hear one of the guards say that one of them in the intelligence deck up and vanished, though. Spooked him."

Domino and Forge exchanged a look.

"And no one's gotten any explanation about it from the big man himself?" Domino said.

"Are you mad? He never would explain anything to anyone," Bolts said.

https://youtu.be/cYQDkO4nYr4

["Hometown"-- 21 Pilots]

Domino picked up two smaller-scaled guns and strapped them on.

"Well," she said after a moment, "it looks like all that stuff they told us was right. I thought it sounded crazy, but... So, Stud, the people coming to help us, are they the ones who wrote the note?"

"Yeah, I think so," Forge said. "I saw Mystique...the same Mystique that was with them, not the one who captured us."

"How can you tell?" Domino frowned.

"She wasn't wearing pants," Forge said, meaning it as a joke, because she actually just looked different enough structurally anyway. Somehow he thought that was more weird to say.

"She what?" Domino said.

"No, I mean..." Forge floundered. "Not the same outfit, that's all, and she looked kind of different. I don't know how to explain it. Besides, why would she be going around disguised as Morph? They were looking for Morph, I guess. I don't know why. I barely remember the guy, and he wasn't really that powerful, I thought. I have no idea what he's doing with their alternate X-men team."

"Did you say the X-men?" Roach said suddenly.

All three teens looked at them strangely.

"No one is allowed to talk about them," Spray said in a tiny voice. "They're only rumors, really. I never thought they were real."

"But I am an X-man," Forge said.

They looked at him like he was some kind of god.

Boy, was this a new feeling for Forge.

"Really?" Bolts gaped. "You never said...but...what are you doing here?"

"Trying to save the world, you know." Forge leaned on one of his guns.

Domino rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, you're a real hero. I'm not an X-men, but I got taken along for the ride. I'm not really the hero type, but, when the world is ending, you kind of have to pick a side."

"The world is ending?" Roach said.

"Looks like it," Domino said. "All of you are gonna not exist...or you're going to but be even worse off than you are now."

"Can't imagine that," Bolts said.

"Imagine it," Domino said. "Which is why we need these idiots who are coming to save us, and they had better be coming, and we have to get Rogue, and we have to find what's causing this and blow it up."

"No one ever said we were blowing it up," Forge said.

"What? You want to tinker around with it?" Domino said. "Make it even more dangerous?"

"Well, no, but we should probably be careful with it," Forge said. "I mean, we have no idea what we're dealing with here. The experts on it are the people we're waiting for to find us. Otherwise, we're all dead."

The teens stared at them in disbelief.

"But if we pull this off, Apocalypse won't be in power anymore," Domino said. "You'll be free."

"That's not even possible," Bolts said.

"No one can defeat Apocalypse," Spray said in a tiny voice.

"The crazy people who tried got boiled in oil or something," Roach said.

"I thought you wanted to be free," Domino said.

"Free and alive," Bolts said. "I'm not a crazy rebel."

"And you might get away with it, maybe," Domino said, "if you're insanely lucky, but for how long? How long before they snatch you back up again? No one really escapes this dump, do they? You just cycle around it. That's really better than taking the one chance in a million that you might have to stop it and make everything different?"

The teens exchanged looks.

"Well, no time to bat it around," Domino said. "Either you're with us, or you can surrender to those creeps out there, but we have to get out of here while we still can. Any more bright ideas, Stud?"

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Forge asked.

"You have metal body parts..." Domino said. "What's your question?"

That didn't answer his question at all, but he ignored it.

[I mean, you have a hand that can turn into a gun, and her mutation is being a good shot, among other things... Maybe she's just into that, Forge.]

"Maybe it's better to help them than to just go back," Roach said to Spray. "I mean...I'm sick of this. Even if we die, what are we really living for?"

She sighed and then nodded.

Bolts didn't care to go it alone.

"Fine," she said. "So how do we get past those guys?"

"Easy." Domino hefted a gun. "With a little luck."

"If there's a computer out here, maybe I could schedule Rogue for transport or something," Forge said. "It depends... The hack-blocking is really not that advanced."

"Yeah, because only robots use those computers," Bolts said. "Actual people aren't allowed to, unless they're the programmer, but no one knows who they are. How did you do it?"

"Well, I do have a metal arm..." Forge said. "Kind of, anyway. But if you guys can just buy me enough time."

"Just do it," Domino said. 

Spray picked up a gun nervously. "How do you fire this thing?"

Domino cursed.

* * *

Forge and Roach found the computer room. It wasn't that far from the weapons room. 

It took only a few minutes to put Rogue's name on a transport power list. And then to arrange a transport for that day.

After he finished, he wasn't sure what else to do, so he just blew the computer up. Hoping no one would figure out what happened till it was too late.

"Dang, dude," Roach said. "How do you make those guns? They just come out of you?"

"Some of them," Forge said. "I've...not really shot people that much though."

"Your girlfriend seems like she's trained for it," Roach said.

"Well, she was kind of in this group, but it's a long story. Also, she's not my girlfriend," Forge said. "You know, just because two people are working together doesn't make them a thing." He chuckled nervously.

Roach raised an eyebrow. "Well, she's hot, so if she's not taken, you know..."

"Hey, this isn't the time to talk about this," Forge said. "Funny, though...I guess some things really don't change about people either."

"What's that old saying? We're enslaved, we're not dead," Roach said.

"And that's enough of that," Forge said. "We have to get over to the Re-Ed center and catch Rogue. Here's hoping they don't call it off because they know something's up."

"I doubt they'd see a few of us Serfs escaping as a big deal," Roach said. "This Rogue, is she cool?"

"Uh...well..." Forge didn't know how to say kind of unbalanced in a nice way. "I guess once you get to know her..."

"Are you two done cozying up yet?" Domino kicked the door open farther than it already was. "They're sending in these robotic animals. Guess they figured the others weren't getting the job done. I'm not sure guns are going to affect them."

"Oh no, the hunting animals..." Roach said. "Only really tough mutants can handle those. We're dead."

"Or we could run out the back." Forge blew a hole in the wall. "I feel like Wolverine right now."

"All right, go on." Domino shoved Bolts and Spray through the hole and then ran after them.

Forge and Roach followed.

They ran for the far corner of the building.

The metal hunting dogs' paws scratched at the floor as they followed them.

Domino attempted to shoot them off.

"It's just bouncing off their hides," She said angrily.

"Well, this is just an idea," Forge said, "but what if you could shoot something to block their path?"

He'd seen that in a movie once. Treasure Planet, his favorite. [Underrated, if you ask me.]

Domino glanced at him and then looked up.

There was some metal shaft overhead in this hanger, probably for air filtration.

"I don't have that kind of firepower in this, but you might," she said.

"That's kind of a hard shot for me..." Forge said sheepishly. "I...well..."

"Oh, for the love--" Domino snatched his arm. "Try it now, and hurry--they're not slowing down."

Forge tried.

He actually hit it.

Half the air duct came tumbling down in front of the metallic dogs, making them slow a little bit.

"Let's time this other one a little better," Domino said. "On three."

She waited till they'd come just a hair closer and then said, "Three."

That one actually hit the animals as they were running, and they tripped over it.

The mutants ran for it again.

"So you can transfer that to other people?" Forge said.

"If they're close enough," Domino explained. "And I try.... Otherwise it has the opposite effect. What? Can't you aim?"

"I can aim, but it's not like it's easy," Forge said. "I mean, these things are hard to calibrate to exactly the right target. They're kind of just for big blasts."

"That figures," Domino said. "I guess precision is too much to ask for when you could have explosions. Men."

"I have no idea what you guys are arguing about," Bolts said. "But do we have a plan?"

"There's a transporter." Spray pointed to where one was parked on this end. "I can't drive, but if one of you could, could we maybe use that to go without being stopped?"

"Hey, that's not a bad idea," Forge said.

They raced up to it.

"I'll drive," Domino said.

"Uh, no," Forge said.

"What? You think I can't drive?" Domino said angrily. "I can fly a plane!"

"No, you're wearing the prison outfit. Don't you think someone is going to think that's weird?" Forge said.

He himself was wearing a different kind of outfit, same as Bolts. It designated them as workers.

Domino frowned, but then she rolled her eyes and got in the back.

Forge was pretty sure this thing wasn't that complicated, as long as no one shot at them.

"Can one of you guys unlock those trackers?" he asked, tossing them his tool. "It's not that hard. It's kind of magnetic. You just have to slide part of it down and pop it out of your arm."

"That makes no sense?!" Spray said.

"I got it. He already did mine," Bolts said, taking the tool. 

Domino pulled the tarp cover over the transporter to hide them more.

"This better work," she said.

"I got it!" Bolts said, sounding surprised. "It just popped out.... It was that simple?"

"Ow," Spray winced. She took the tracker and crushed it. "The dog things won't be able to trace us now, right?"

"They'd have better luck with real dogs. There's always some irony about these kind of things," Domino said.

Bolts got out Roach's and then hers.

Tossing them out the side of the transport, they saw the metal dogs ran after them and started clawing at the dirt. They didn't know, of course, that the targets weren't there.

The actual mutant guards soon caught up with the dog and were puzzled by how they were thrown off. The scanners were clawed into oblivion by then.

The others safely drove the transport right around the yard and down to the far end, where they intercepted Rogue as she was being escorted into a different transport, all by herself, by other guards.

Domino shot them, and then they all jumped out and switched to that transport. 

"Dom? Forge?" Rogue was stunned.

"Get in," Domino said. "We're busting out of here...if we can. We might get lucky."

"Are you guys workin' together still?" Rogue climbed in.

"What part of getting kidnapped and taken to this dark future annuls the deal of the last few weeks?" Domino asked, shoving her into a seat. "Hang on."

"Who are they?" Rogue asked.

"New recruits," Domino said. "Now stay down."

Rogue was still in her old costume.

"Guys, they questioned me," she said. "I think I talked.... My head's fuzzy from it still. I got the feeling there was something strange going on.... But they asked if I knew someone named Gambit.... Does that name sound familiar to y'all?"

"I think Wolverine mentioned someone named that once," Forge said. "When he got the mutation-blocking collar."

"I wasn't there for that," Rogue said.

"The X-men have that kind of tech?!" Domino said.

"Not really important right now, is it?" Forge said.

"If we live through this, that's coming up later," Domino said. "That's not right."

"The goal was to find a way to fight it," Forge said.

"Oh, like how you turned over mutants to the MRD for their own good?" Domino said.

"Didn't you guys work for Magneto, and didn't he try to blast his own island of mutants?" Forge said.

"Enough of this," Rogue said. "I can't figure out why they asked me about it. What if there's more prisoners here...ones like us...out of time?"

"I'd count on it," Domino said. "Let me fill you in..."