I Fought the Law

A loud buzz sounded throughout the block as every cell door opened, the double doors at the end opening at the same time. A row of guards swept through the bottom floor, herding the inmates, fake and real, toward the double doors. Two guards were stationed at the aforementioned passage, giving each inmate a quick frisking before they walked through. After that, it was a short, barren hallway to the yard. They can frisk me all they want, they’ll never find the stuff in my inventory, John thought, regaining some confidence as he walked through the checkpoint.

After being given the go-ahead, he searched the crowd for Ixlius, and spotted him over in a corner with his previous breakfast cohorts. John walked toward him slowly while surveying the yard. It was a massive cube with chain link fence on every side except the ground, which was gravelly dirt. Even the way he had come from was sealed off by a moving chain link fence that a guard on the opposite side was closing. Looking around the yard he found that the inmates were mostly human, though a few groups of other races such as dark elves and moon elves clustered together along the outside walls talking to themselves. I guess it makes sense that the sky would be closed off too. Even though we’re not supposed to have access to magic, there are probably plenty of races in the Abyss that have biological flight, even if there aren’t any here… at least I think.

Looking to his right, John noticed the female prisoners were being let into a yard next to theirs, separated by a thicker fence. He noticed Abigail talking to the timid girl from the briefing, and gravitated toward the fence for a moment. The fiery martial artist didn’t notice him, but the timid elf did. She pointed him out and both of them walked toward the shared wall.

“Abigail, I’m working with Ixlius to get us out of here. He can get our collars off,” John whispered, leaning his back against the fence. Abigail and Andor were facing each other a foot or so away, as if they were talking to each other and not him. “Though I’m open to other plans, do you two have anything?”

“Well…” Andor was the first to speak, “we were actually hoping to ask you the same thing. They really restricted our access to any useful information. I wish I had paid more attention when she was showing us the display of this place,” the blonde elf looked down and kicked a small pebble.

“Getting my collar off is no problem,” Abigail replied. “I can transform any part of my body except my head into fire. After that, the collar should come off on its own. It will be useful for you two though. What’s the plan?”

“I’m going to start a riot over here, should distract the female guards too. After that, Ixlius deactivates my collar with some electrical magic, and we escape,” John explained, feeling even less faith in this extremely simple plan now that he had said it out loud.

“Well… that really isn’t a lot to go on,” Andor replied, “but it’s worth a shot! We should try the same thing over here! Divide them even further!”

John was about to reply when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He was about to turn to the side, ready to sock the eavesdropper and start the riot then and there, but he noticed it was Ixlius out of the corner of his eye.

“Hey bud! What’re we talking about over here?” Ixlius questioned; John felt a little jolt in his arm and it locked up.

“I’m getting Abigail and Andor in on the plan,” John replied, rubbing his arm to soothe the stiffness. “They’re going to cause a riot over there while I do the same over here.”

“Now that’s what I like to see! Taking initiative! We may as well be out already!” Ixlius said a little too loudly, causing one guard to give them a dirty sidelong look.

“I’ll cause the distraction over here. Melee fighting is my element!” Abigail happily whispered, bouncing on her heels.

“Great, you two cause a couple of riots, I’ll destroy the fences, zap your collars, and we’ll be out of here,” Ixlius said with a toothy grin.

“Alright, I’ve got an idea,” John said, walking toward the group of dark elves he had seen before. He deliberately walked past the group of moon elves he had seen, who paid him little mind.

“Woah, what did you guys just say about dark elves? That they’re inherently inferior because they live underground?” John said loudly, when he was halfway between the groups, causing every dark elf to look in his direction. “You’re all disgusted that you’re breathing the same air as them? Isn’t that a little excessive?”

John felt one of the dark elves stare through him, and he matched the man’s piercing gaze. In that moment, John knew that that dark elf was no illusion. There are real prisoners aside from us!? What the hell!?

“It would seem that the moon elves yearn to be put in their place yet again,” the tall, tattooed elf said, just loudly enough for John to hear. “This human has clearly been bound to one of our sisters; we should consider him an ally for bringing us this information.” With that, the shortest dark elf of the group, barely taller than John, lunged at the closest moon elf. John dodged out of the way, and all hell broke loose the second the first punch was thrown. The two groups charged at each other, and soon many of the prisoners joined in on the fun.

John had to dodge under a haymaker thrown at him by a bald human, who quickly disregarded him to join in on the attacking the single orc inmate. Several humans were attempting to beat him down as he laughed at them, swinging his arms in a wide arc and sending them all flying around the yard. Whistles blew as the chain link fence that blocked the yard from the prison was hurriedly opened, guards pouring in to stun the angry prisoners.

John looked for Ixlius, who was hard at work zapping the fence around them. Running toward him, John noticed the metal of the fence had glowing runes that lit up every time Ixlius tried to cut it with his lighting blades. “Sorry, kid, looks like I have to go this one on my own,” Ixlius laughed as he created a lightning spear and threw it through one of the gaps. “I can’t actually remove that collar without frying your brain, thanks for the help though!” It landed in the ground outside, and Ixlius was gone.

“You son of a bitch!” John called after him, putting one hand on the fence. This earned him a nasty burn, and he recoiled as he saw the small damage notification. “Shit!” John exclaimed as he noticed four guards making a beeline toward him.

Taking the coffees out of his inventory, John splashed both on the face of the first guard, causing enough of a distraction for John to disarm him with Gun-Kata, which activated as John fell into a dodging stance as the three other guards surrounded him. He clocked the guard he had stolen from on the head with the pilfered stun baton, knocking him out. Nice! That was a real one, John thought, trying to memorize the guard’s face as two more guards approached him on either side.

Taking the plastic tray from his inventory, John blocked a baton swing from the guard on his left while slapping the hand of the one on his right, who had taken out a gun. Putting the stun baton in his inventory, he dove for the gun and simultaneously kicked the disarmed guard in the face, launching the tray at the guard whose blow he had blocked.

A stun baton impacted his right leg as he recovered, and he had to put his weight on the other as he stood back up. Three quick shots to the head of each guard around him silenced them as six more finished with nearby prisoners and joined the fray. Four took out guns, and John dove out of the way as they fired upon him. Two more ran toward him with their batons out, and John shot three gunmen and one of the baton guards as he recovered the tray. He heard the gun click as he tried to fire at the other baton guard, and threw it at him instead.

The baton guard deflected the thrown gun as John took the baton back out of his inventory, though it mattered little as the melee fighter swung at him. John’s dodge was mostly successful, and instead of the electricity discharging in his head, it merely hit his left hand.

You attempted to use Reflex Mode but cannot because of the Magic Suppression Collar!

You attempted to use Mind Over Matter but cannot because of the Magic Suppression Collar!

Fuck fuck fuck, John thought as he slammed his plastic shield with all his might into the nearby guard, knocking him out and snapping it in half. Most of the shield went flying and he dropped the other piece. He felt two bullets graze his torso and looked back at the two remaining gunmen, who were being joined by ten more guards. Across the fence, he noticed Abigail fighting off twice as many, though she hadn’t yet removed her collar. Abigail and I are both going to lose. There’s no way we can fight off every guard in the prison.

As the guards in front of him reloaded, John slowly raised his arms into the air. Glasses took the opportunity to run in front of them and bash his head with a stun baton, knocking him out.

John awoke to his limp body being carried by a guard he didn’t recognize and Glasses. “Smart of you to surrender. You’re lucky you didn’t fail then and there… though I have no idea what your plan is now. Either way, you’re spending the rest of your time here in Solitary Confinement,” Glasses said as John tried his best to look around.

John tried to respond but found he couldn’t move his mouth. He wanted to use his neck to survey his surroundings but found it still numb as well. He could still move his eyes, and so he looked around the dark, damp corridor he was being carried down. One side was barren, while the other was lined with metal doors that had slots at the bottom.

“Should take you an hour alone for the numbness to wear off. After that, well, good luck,” Glasses said, as he and the other guard threw John through an open door. John landed with a thud inside, the door slamming shut behind him. Looking around from the floor, he noticed that the room had nothing but a light in the ceiling which was surrounded by a metal cage and currently off.