Hades woke up. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that awareness returned to his body. He was careful to maintain his previous posture, the slumped back, the slow ambling gait, the listless look, the almost drooling face.

Slowly taking stock of his surroundings he surmised that he was in a mine. He was among others chained to an ore cart pushing it uphill out of the mines along old and rusty rails. The others chained to the cart looked listless and vacant, as if most of their brains no longer functioned, only good for grunt labor spurred on by the liberal application of whips or batons.

How had he come to be here? Before turning to that question, Hades examined himself. He was mildly under nourished, but functional, definitely not in peak physical condition but satisfactory. Most importantly he detected no physical handicaps. How long had he been in this stupor? Who was he. Parts of his memory were clear, but parts seemed to be hidden behind a wall of pain that intensified the harder he tried to reach for them.

He remembered a plane, yes a plane ride. It started to return to him. he had been on a plane. He remembered warning sirens and the plane going down. The some vague recollections of white rooms, injections and lights that were far too bright, then.... nothing.

Caught up in his thoughts Hades was shocked out of his reverie by a sudden drop in temperature. Suddenly the ore cart and its slave propulsion burst out into sunlight. It was cool, not yet cold but with sufficient bite to tell Hades that winter was on the way.

Hades continued to play dumb and keep his ears open and over the next few days he heard enough to start to piece things together. To begin with he was in Russia, near the Russian Mongolia border, near a place called Lake Baikal.

He was in a prison camp, a camp for mutants and spies. They were sentenced to work as slave labor in a mine. Not the industrial mine, but a smaller one nearby. One that was officially "mined out". There was an arrangement with the government that any thing of value that the prisoners dug up would not be officially reported and could be used as the Warden so desired. All mutants were injected with some sort of compound that would permanently nullify their powers unless the antidote was administered. Also every so often one of the prisoners would get selected at random and tortured for information. those that came out, never seemed quite in their right mind.

One thing was for certain. Hades had to escape and soon.

In the end it took a mining accident to create the necessary diversion. One that Hades and a number of inmates may or may not have helped. There was a rumble and a plume of dust erupted from the mine entrance that Hades has just exited. The guards all took off running, and one ran past Hades tripped him up, he did not stand a chance. The prisoners were on him like a flash, and he went down fast. Hades managed to get his hands on the key, the next moment he was free, he passed it on to the next person. He tested his powers, Dam! Nothing, perhaps the guards were right after all. a parting nod the the rest of the prisoners and they scattered. Hades ran towards the guard shack, he would have but moments to enact a plan, one of a number he had started working on as soon as he regained consciousness.

Hades tore into the guard shack all senses amped up to the max, there was no time for stealth. He would only have but seconds to grab what he needed then flee. There, a knife with a sheathe, Hades grabbed two and strapped one to each thigh. There on the wall, a pack with a sling that goes diagonally across the chest, into that went a few tins of food, a blanked and medikit. Then Hades was out the door.

A riot had broken out, some of the prisoners had gotten their hand on weapons, while others had evidently worked on freeing their fellow prisoners. It was chaos, in the midst of that there was an explosion somewhere and the lights went out. Hades took the chance, rapidly scaling a guard tower, he vaulted onto the the roof and took a running leap, aiming to clear the electrified fence. He almost made it.

He was in mid air when the lights came back on, they highlighted the inevitable, time slowed down. Gritting his teeth Hades aimed to hit the electrified barb wire fence with the flat of his feet. Propelled by electricity, Hades spring boarded off the fence, ripping his pants in the process and jumped further than he had ever jumped before,. or might ever jump again. He landed in a heap, still twitching slightly. He squinted and fought to remain conscious, if he failed this would all be for naught. Already he could hear mounted machine gun fire. The guard towers were back online. Self preservation took over, Hades staggered to his feet and took off running, well as best he could with machine gun fire licking at his heels.

Hades blasted out of the clearing and into the jungle, his pace slowed below a sprint. A blance between the need to cover ground and the need to pace himself. Hades vanished into the forrest.