"Are you guys sure you're okay to handle this?" Danny asks LaFontaine and Laura, who both nod.

"All hands on deck, right?" LaF replies, winking at Laura, who nods.

"Okay, look, if Carmilla's leading the charge, she'll be where all the inmate cells are."

Danny points at the schematics Laura is projecting. "The prison cellblocks A through D are all over here. Reports show that inmates have gathered in cellblock A and are planning to break out that way, since it's closest to the forest. Cellblock D is closest to the guards' station."

She looks around the van.

"Perry and I will assist in getting the guards out of there and will rendezvous with LaF, who will be with the armed forces waiting near cellblock A to prevent inmates from escaping. Laura, Kirsch, Mel, and Theo, you guys will try to stop the rioting from within. We'll communicate through headsets and it'll all be monitored by LaF."

"Reports also show that there are at least a dozen other villains in there with her," Theo adds, glancing up from his phone. From what Laura can remember, these villains working for her don't have powers, but enjoy doing bad deeds for her just for the benefits.

The prison is coming into view.

"Laura," Danny says gently as the projections disappear. "Are sure you can do this?" She gives her a small smile. "I'm not saying this because I'm being overprotective or whatever. It's just, Carmilla is in there, and you're still recovering from a very recent attack from her mother..."

Laura takes a deep breath. "I can do this, Danny."

That's all the tall redhead needs and pulls her into a small hug. "I believe in you."

The van doors open and the team goes to work. LaF slides into the driver's seat when Kirsch leaves. The cops holding down the fort at the front gate let the team pass through. Danny and Perry split off in cellblock D, where guards lay scattered about. Laura and Kirsch walk side by side behind Mel and Theo.

"Let's kick some inmate ass," Mel declares as they quickly circle through cellblock C. Mel and Theo swiftly fire projectiles at two of the Dean's lackeys who were searching for any stragglers.

They enter cellblock B and the cacophony from cellblock A gets louder as they reach an intersection.

Mel points at Laura and Kirsch. "You two––"

She's interrupted by gunfire, and they turn to see four of the Dean's employees and half a dozen inmates armed before diving back behind the wall.

"Scratch that. Laura, shrink yourself, fly straight ahead to draw their fire. Theo and I will take care of them. Kirsch, follow after her."

Theo gives them a thumbs-up. "We'll meet up with you guys at cellblock A as soon as we can. Be careful."
"You, too, bro," Kirsch says.

Laura takes a deep breath and feels herself shrink to about a foot tall. She flies past, slow enough so their attackers can see her, but fast enough to avoid being hit.

Sure enough, the thugs all follow her with their fire and are completely unprepared for Theo and Mel to start blasting their own projectiles at them.

Laura returns to her normal size and hears Kirsch behind her.

"Alright, bro, let's do this!"

Laura smiles at his enthusiasm.

"You've had my back this whole time, it's time I've had yours."

As if on cue, a giant pipe slams into the wall. Clearly, the inmate wielding it overestimated the height of their intended victim, because it hits at least a foot above Laura's head.

Laura smirks and snaps her wrist up, connecting with his nose. He clutches his face and groans, and Laura delivers a blow to his kidney. She side steps and Kirsch makes the final move, smacking the inmate's head into the wall, and he's down for the count.

They do a small high five and continue down the hallway.

Two of the Dean's flunkies stride down the hall towards them, toting beams that appear to have been torn from the wall.

"My turn to go first," Kirsch announces. They both strike at him with the beams, but he holds up his arms and braces himself, and the beams shatter on impact. One seems less fazed than the other, and immediately punches Kirsch in the face.

"Dude," Kirsch says, barely recoiling, "so not cool!"

Laura goes after the other guy, dodging a swing and grabbing his arm, using the momentum to drag him towards her. She flips over him and winds up clutching onto his back, and uses that position to push him into the wall. His head connects with it hard, and he crumples to the ground.

"Okay, guys, all the guards have been accounted for and are out," Perry says into the headset.

"Dammit. Guys, the cops are getting reports that a bomb just detonated near the courthouse in the city," LaFontaine says. "Will's there causing absolute chaos."

There's silence for a few moments while Laura waits for one of the more senior superheroes to come up with a plan.

Danny's voice crackles through. "Theo, Mel, Laura, Kirsch–– what's going on with you guys?"

"We're almost done taking out these mooks that had us pinned down in cellblock B," Theo says into the headset, gunshots echoing.

"Kirsch and I are almost at cellblock A," Laura replies.

Another pause in communication follows before Danny voice comes through again. "Here's what we do. LaFontaine, Theo, Mel, and I will take the aircraft and go help out in the city. Perry, stay here in the van with Kirsch and Laura and make sure those inmates stay contained. Pause for questions."

No responses came.

"Awesome. Let's go!"

Laura and Kirsch continue down the hallway and the shouts are getting louder. Laura gestures for them to duck behind a wall, out of sight from the prisoners in cellblock A.

"I'm going in there to get a look. I'll be right back."

Kirsch nods. "Don't get squished, little dude."

Laura gives him a smile before shrinking to a fraction of a foot and flying close to the ceiling. She spots a few dozen inmates and about a half dozen of the Dean's pawns. And then she spots Carmilla.

Laura pauses. Carmilla, clad in a leather jacket and leather pants, is standing on a guard's desk, giving orders and having the inmates get ready to bust through the wall.

She's really doing this, Laura realizes sadly. She snaps herself out of it. No. There has to be a reason.

She's hovered a bit too long and a prisoner spots her. "Hey! Who the hell is that?"

Carmilla's head shoots up and she sees Laura. Her strictly business attitude shatters and her face drops.

Laura's eyes widen and before she can figure out a route to fly out of the room of people rapidly noticing her, part of a broken chair flies at her and strikes her from the side.

Still weakened from her earlier encounter with the Dean, she loses focus and falls out of the air, returning to her regular size.

"Get away from her!" a voice yells out from the hall, and Kirsch barrels in, throwing a huge chunk of a wall that he appears to have ripped out, and hurls it at the prisoners approaching Laura.

He's got their attention as most of them turn away from Laura and approach him. Laura takes the opportunity to push herself up.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Carmilla hisses, grabbing her by the arm.

"Me? What are you doing here?" Laura pulls her arm away angrily. "I pass out for a couple hours and wake up and you're causing a friggin' prison break!"

Carmilla's face softens. "Laura..."

"What did your mother promise you if you went back to her, huh?" Laura frowns. "Did she say she'd welcome you home and all would be forgiven?" Carmilla shakes her head. "Did she say you'd be allowed more minions?" Another head shake. "A bigger apartment? What, Carmilla? What did she promise you? Because I thought that you were committed to––"

"––She promised not to kill you, alright?" Carmilla blurts out.

Laura's frown deepens.

"My mother was ready to kill you after she knocked you out, and she said she wouldn't if I came with her and did as she asked."

Laura swallows hard and watches as tears fall from Carmilla's eyes.

"I panicked, but I knew I couldn't just let her kill you, so I agreed to go," Carmilla says, her voice cracking.

Laura grabs her hand. "Carm..."

"HELP!"

The two girls glance over and see that, although Kirsch has knocked out about a dozen guys, he's quickly losing the battle.

Laura huffs and lets Carmilla's hand go before darting over to help him.

She grabs the first two guys she sees and knocks their heads together. She sidesteps to avoid an inmate swinging a metal bar, grabs the bar, wrenches it from his hands, and smacks him across the head with it.

She reaches Kirsch, who's backed up against a wall.

"Thanks, bro," he says.

Laura gives him a small nod before blocking a blow from a particular large man. She chops him in the ribs and delivers a strike to his throat, before giving a nice roundhouse kick. He drops to the ground.

"Laura, look out!"

She doesn't have time to react as a metal beam blurs by in her periphery and slams against her skull. She lands on the ground and watches as a figure stands over her, ready to hit her with it again.

Suddenly, the attacker is soaring out of the room and lands with a thud in the hallway.

Laura blinks to clear her vision and sees Carmilla, who offers her a hand to pull her up.

There's a slow clap heard from the hallway.

"Wow, Carmilla," it says, and all fighting ceases. "I have to hand it to you. You made it, what? Three hours? Three hours before letting me down." The Dean steps into the doorway.

Carmilla swallows hard.

"In what way does helping me start this prison break translate to helping the enemy?"

Her mother takes a threatening step towards Laura, but Carmilla steps in front of her.

"I have had enough of your plotting and scheming, Mother."

Suddenly, the ceiling caves in, cutting off the Dean from them.

Laura and Carmilla glance up and see Perry piloting an aircraft.

"Let's go!" she orders.

Carmilla looks at Laura, confused, until Laura points at her Bluetooth earpiece.

"Pushed it as soon as we heard your mother's voice so Perry would know to make some kind of way for us to escape," Laura says smugly.

Carmilla smiles. "What a smart little creampuff."

Laura shoots her a wink before pushing the inmates out of the way and grabbing Kirsch. "That's our cue! Coming with?"

Carmilla nods. "Of course."

They both push off the ground and fly towards the bottom of the aircraft.

Carmilla enters first and Laura lifts Kirsch up. Carmilla helps pull him in.

"Welcome back," Perry says brightly in the cockpit, getting ready to make their escape.

The aircraft starts to pull away and Laura begins to enter it before she lets out a loud yelp.

Carmilla's eyes widen as she sees a beam of light behind Laura hitting her. Laura falls away from the aircraft towards the ground below.

"No! We have to go back for her!" Carmilla screams, watching Laura collapse back into the cellblock.

Perry cringes and closes the door. "If we don't leave now, we're not leaving!" she replies, her voice cracking. "I'm sorry!"

"Let me out of here!" Carmilla yells back as a beam blasts by her window.

"I can't open the door when we've started to take off," Perry responds, tears in her eyes. "We'll come back for her." The aircraft narrowly dodges a few more beams before clearing the area.

Carmilla darts to the cockpit. "Go back for her. Now."

The intercom system on the aircraft crackles. "Update," Danny commands.

Perry swallows hard. "We-We got out," she begins. "We, being me, Kirsch... and Carmilla."

There's a moment of awkward silence.

"No Laura?"

"The Dean got her. We couldn't go back without all of us risking getting capture or taken down."

Danny sighs. "But you have Carmilla?"

"Yes."

"She won't kill Laura, then," Danny says, although it sounds like she's trying to convince herself. "Meet us back at headquarters."

Carmilla lets out an exasperated groan and kicks the wall.

"Whoa, hey!" Kirsch goes over to her and gently pats her. "I know you're upset about Laura–– we all are. But we can't just take apart our own plane."

Carmilla huffs and stares out the window. She knows he's right. Hell, she knows Perry's right, too. But none of that matters knowing that Laura is in the hands of her mother.

She just wants Laura back.