We followed the 87 up over a small bridge that crossed over a ridge of flagstone. The sun had cleared the horizon to the east and from the bridge we could see the small airport in the distance to the west. A large army cargo plane burned on the field and the tower was non-existent at this range, the silhouette of the prison was visible to the south.

Seeing nothing else of interest I urged Kaia forward and chatted with Junipher as we travelled. The desert sprawled around us, in all directions as we charged forward. In a few short minutes we had devoured the 3 miles to the entrance of the prison. “Time to armor up.”

“This is where you work?” Junipher asked as her bark armor covered her ample green tinged breasts. “Very utilitarian.”

“Yeah, it’s not meant to be a nice place.” We stopped and I gave her the rundown of the complex from the roadside. “On the left is the Coronado Unit, that’s where the low custody inmates stay. The building on the right is the Complex Unit, basically where the head administrators work, The one on the other side is the Kaibab Unit, that’s where the real assholes are housed. Those are the ones that I’m worried about. Motorpool is closest to us on the right.”

It was a good 50 meters between the highway and the gate shack. From the distance I could see the orange shape of inmates out and about on the fields at Coronado. At the gate were three officers, one I recognized, the others were new and I had never met them. Several people milled about at the far end of the administration building, black smoke rose from the south side of Kaibab. I’d suspect CB4 is definitely burning. The parking lot was eerily empty though the vehicles present were oddly not smashed and burning.

I urged Kaia forward and approached the gate shack slowly. A man I worked with often stood behind the concrete half wall that concealed the shack ‘patio’ with a rifle on his shoulder at the ‘high ready’ position. Another man I knew rounded the corner dressed in desert tactical attire and also brought his rifle up to his shoulder but didn’t point it in our direction. Yet. Probably should have had Junipher sit behind me for this. The giant coyote was probably enough to set these men on edge, add in the strange looking plant girl and… boom! I thought to myself.

“Slowly raise your hands, palms out and give them a winning smile.” I whispered quickly as I raised my right hand and reined in Kaia about 10 meters from the duo.

“Hey guys, what’s shakin’?” I greeted with a smile.

The older man behind the concrete cover lowered his rifle slightly and craned his neck forward and a small smile began to crease his face “Shit, Brunette? Is that you? Who’s that you got with you? How the hell did you tame the dog!?”

“That Brunett? Lieutenant said to expect him, that was hours ago.” The other man called out and eased his posture a bit.

“Want to see my ID?” I said smugly as I fished my wallet out of my back pocket and offered it to him. Then I nodded a greeting to the other man, “Hey Foster, how’s it going?” The other man smiled and finally lowered his rifle but kept his eye on Kaia and Junipher.

He saw the humor on my face and scoffed, “Hell, We’ve all changed so much since those messages popped up. Then the giant wildlife” He waved a hand at Kaia, “Doubt you look anything like your ID now.”

“Foster’s right, we were told to expect you and that you’d be bringing friends. I wasn’t expecting this. And how’d you get so big!?”

“Well Dennis, that’s a long story, I’ll give you the short version though.” Dennis and Foster stepped around to hear what I had to share and I picked their brains on the situation inside. I introduced Junipher and explained how I met here and gained Kaia as my companion. There were multiple looks of astonishment and curses abound as I relayed the highlights of my adventure over the last two days.

I learned from them that Coronado was being run with two staff because for the most part the inmates there had all grouped up by race and staked a claim to each corner of the yard. They didn’t seem to care what the officers were doing and several times the four heads and their lieutenants would go to the center of the yard and talk then return to their people. They were clearly plotting something but so far had been relatively non violent.

Kaibab was another matter altogether. Shortly after the system began handing out skills and powers several inmates on the north yard leapt the fence. They didn’t get far though as they dumb asses chose to leap the fence right as the perimeter truck came around, the officer on duty didn’t hesitate to empty his shotgun into the first two and emptied his pistol into another three. He was also the first officer to gain a level.

As time went on, the inmates attacked the staff and broke into the control rooms and took two of the female staff and one of the male staff hostage. I didn’t know the staff members because there were a lot of new ones running around. Those three are dead or wish they were. I thought to myself. Much like Coronado the inmates started segregating themselves by race and each had claimed their own corner of the yard.

Of course, to make matters worse, the man in charge had died when the system initialized. As did several other administrators and non uniformed staff. After about 16 hours staff didn’t get relieved and had been constantly pushing back inmates and monsters alike. They of course got restless as most of them didn’t have access to the internet on the yard and the only information they would get was every few hours from the arrogant and entitled supervisors that remained.

This caused the ones who did drive to work to promptly leave and abandon their posts. After the entire vanpool to Flagstaff left the only remaining Deputy Warden ordered all state vehicle keys locked up and that everyone remaining would be required to stay until properly relieved. This didn’t sit well with most of the staff but the ones that remained were from even farther away. Further compounding the situation for the staff was the leadership team that remained was decidedly lacking in either intelligence or common sense.

To make matters worse for those that remained within the unit, the inmates started a full on riot and began killing each other. Crowd control munitions were used to little effect. It was clear from the description of the chaos that the many of the inmates had taken magical classes as the DART and TSU teams were pushed back into the central building. As it stood on Kaibab, the inmates controlled the place and that would only last til one group remained and decided they were bored and it was time to leave.

It was also clear to me and Junipher that the inmates were far stronger than the staff who only had to kill the occasional monster incursion while they inmates were killing each other for sport. I thanked them for the honest assessment and then Dennis notified the complex shift commander I was coming and not to shoot. I thanked him for that also.

We stayed on the back of Kaia as we approached the remaining administrators and their heated argument died down when they saw us. What I could gather before their jaws dropped at the sight of Kaia and Junipher, and maybe me, was that the Major was pushing for simply releasing the Coronado inmates and the Deputy Warden was refusing until she received direction from the central office administration in Phoenix. Which had gone silent over a day ago.

“HOLY SHIT! IS THAT YOU KARL!?!?!” A bald hispanic sergeant called out to me from the side with a giant grin.

I looked over and smiled “Yeah, it’s me, Gomez” Leave it to this guy to still have a positive attitude while the place is collapsing around him.

“See you got a new ride. And apparently made a friend, finally.” I laughed at that.

“Yeah, how’s it going?”

“Oh, you know, about normal.”

“Hey Karl, how you doing?” The Major greeted me in his usual way.

“Well, still in Winslow, but having fun finally.”

“I can see that.” He looked pointedly at Junipher and walked up with a cigarette between his lips and used both hands to scratch Kaia’s neck which he greedily leaned into. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Junipher, long story short I rescued her out by Clear Creek where some nasty goblins and kobolds had been attacking from. She’s been with me since.”

Kaia settled down so the Major could get behind his jaw and ear easier and Junipher and I leapt to the ground and were greeted with whispering murmurs as I rose to my full seven and a half foot height. Really got to get in front of a mirror damn it.

The lieutenant came out of the building and walked over taking in the sight of the coyote then stumbled when he saw Junipher, regained his composure, looked me up and down and finally spoke. “Bout time you showed up, Shit…” he mumbled the last as the Deputy Warden decided that since the Major and Lieutenant were in one spot it presented a good opportunity for her to be heard.

Even though my group was the biggest attraction in the area she pointedly ignored me and began to argue with the Major and Lieutenant. The Deputy Warden was seemingly swinging her new found authority like a battle axe and making unreasonable demands of the gathered leadership and staff. She wanted them to get the inmates locked down and back in their cells, but wouldn’t authorize the use of force.

This of course wasn’t working because, you know, fucking superpowers. I analyzed the group standing around me and no one was over level three. As the argument circled around to the beginning of why they can’t do what she wants them to do I took a moment to check some notifications that had come in early and nearly shit my pants.

LOCAL AREA QUEST AVAILABLE: DEFEAT AND CLAIM THE LOCAL DUNGEON: KAIBAB PRISON CELL BLOCK 4. As the inmates above riot, murder, and rape, the energy released from such dark emotions has tainted a newly formed dungeon. Dungeon Rank III. Level 15-25. Modifiers: Dark Emotions - Nightmare mode enabled. Suggested Party Size: 7-10. Rewards: 25000 Experience, 10000 UMC, 1 Legendary per party member.

“... INMATES ARE GETTING STRONGER!” The Lieutenant pleaded loudly.

“Fuck…” I spat. The arguing trio stopped and stared at me.

“Yes, this is not good.” Junipher said flatly.

“What is it Karl, don’t keep us in suspense.” The Major asked and took a long drag from his cigarette.

“You guys didn’t get that notification?”

“They are too low level, you must be within 5 levels of a dungeons minimum suggested level to get the quest notification.” Junipher supplied for clarification.

“This isn’t a prison anymore. It’s a dungeon.”

They looked around in confusion so I clarified for them what had happened to me in the last few days and why the prison becoming a dungeon was not a very good thing. I made sure to iterate that we shouldn’t destroy the dungeon core if it can be avoided. The Deputy Warden was getting irritated when she realized I was basically not including her in the discussion.

“This is still my unit, Officer Brunett.” I quirked an eye when she stressed Officer.

“I’m sorry, but it’s really not, especially if the system says so.” I responded and turned back to the two people with a measure of sense.

This brought her hackles up much to my amusement “I’m sorry, but I’m still the Warden here and we still work for the State of Arizona. As such I think it’s time for you to go relieve staff at Kaibab so they can get a break.” Then she stepped past me to stand in front of the others. You uppity little bitch, think you can dismiss me with that attitude and turn your back on me.

The Major’s eyes rose “The Warden now are you?”

“Essentially, yes, I’m the highest designated authority here, now you all need to stop standing around discussing it and carry out my directives.”

Junipher began to hum lightly behind me. She must have been picking up on my emotions because the tune that emanated from her lips wasn’t the soothing, healing song she had sung before. This song became more of a chant. A battle hymn. It was laced with anger and... regret. And it demanded satisfaction. Respect.

The Lieutenant and the Major moved away from the diminutive and arrogant self promoted Warden with their eyes locked on mine. They could see the rage warring on my face. She took their silence as obedience and turned to walk away only to find me fuming over her. Rather than recoiling at my presence, her forced professionalism broke and her self absorbed arrogance allowed her mouth to charge ahead of her brain.

“I thought I told you to go relieve staff at Kaibab!” She hissed. “I’m tired of everyone’s excus.. HURCK!!!”

My hand snapped around her neck and I brought her flailing to my face. I held her so close we had to be sharing the same oxygen. She struggled vainly in my grasp and glared at me in defiance.Her face turned red and she began sputtering obscenities “PUT ME DOWN! SOME… ONE…!”

Her eyes rolled in her head as she searched for someone to save her from my wrath. No one moved as I held her by the neck, not enough to kill her, though my grip was like a vice and there was nothing she could do to free herself, she just hadn’t realized it yet. I hadn’t meant to let her get under my skin. I just knew in the instant I snatched her up that she was an obstacle to my survival that needed to be removed.

“We can’t allow the inmates in Kaibab out. We need to find our people that were taken. We need to clear the dungeon underneath CB 4. We should cut Coronando loose. Does anyone disagree?” I still held the annoying woman aloft.

The Major took a long draw on his cigarette then slowly nodded his agreement. “No, Karl, I think that covers the major points, how do you propose completing those objectives?”

Before I could respond the Deputy Warden began protesting “WE CAN’T! WE DON’T HAVE THE AUTHORITY…uRgHkL!” I kept my grip firm and jerked my arm back and forward in one smooth motion. Her body flailed and I thought I heard some bones separate from tendons. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as the millisecond induced concussion took hold.

Some of the staff assembled before me turned pale, someone behind me threw up. I didn’t let her drop yet as I continued to answer the Major’s question. “Before I was rudely interrupted I was going to say, I can do the first with just my party here. And probably the second, though I think you guys would want to help with that.” I paused and the Major added “We would.”

“I think I can ease the last with just me and Kaia. I’m going to need extra bodies however to take the dungeon. Your highest levels.”

“You can’t… it’s our responsss...bil..ty.” Wet tears pooled across the hand I held her by and I brought her close to my face again and her eyes tore open in horror. Steely Glare activated and she squirmed again then the smell of piss and shit assaulted my senses. She went unconscious and I tossed her to the side like the trash she was. God I hate people like her… One of the non-uniformed types moved to check on her, confirmed she wasn’t dead then left her where she was as the poor girl caught my side eye locked on her.

“Now, back to what I was saying.” Everyone shifted uncomfortable, though many looked relieved. Junipher seeing the obstacle in my way had been removed ended her chant in a smile. Kaia had apparently risen behind me and was daring anyone to move to help the woman while I held her, now that the tension was released he padded over to the Major who moved to step back when a large pink tongue slapped him in the face then turned expectantly for a scratch behind the ear. This got some chuckles, especially when the Major wisely obliged the massive coyote.

I detailed my plan, and was met with a few polite objections, which I could respect because it was clear the argument was no longer circular. All the staff present to include Junipher would head to Kaibab and wait for me there, I would take Kaia and place the fear of… me in the Coronado inmates and give them their options. The staff watching them would then be freed to assist with the situation on Kaibab. The details hashed out we all moved to our designated tasks.