The weapon echoed loudly in the empty concrete building and all three rounds smashed into Little Dick like a sledgehammer. He tumbled over backwards the warning still on his lips, dead before he hit the floor. I worked my bursts across the stunned group of inmates and managed to drop another random asshole before First Guy and New Guy were moving in opposite directions for the cover of the cells. Junipher stepped up and chanted a spell and roots broke through the concrete floor and snatched at the group's legs. Three were ensnared by surprise attack while one managed to activate a skill that increased his speed and charged for the stairs leading to the control room we had used to launch our ambush.

Junipher moved to intercept Speedy with her spear and I continued working on the entangled assholes. Bursts smashed into two of them as the third brought up an energy barrier when I targeted him. The barrier didn’t stop my bullets but it did slow them down enough that they didn’t penetrate his skin. He produced a shiv from his waistband and began sawing at the roots. I fired two more three round bursts but his barrier held and the rounds did little more than make him flinch.

I spared a glance at the fight between Junipher and Speedy but was forced to duck as a steel cell door flew through the air towards my position and smashed through the window frame by my head. I shifted my position to the far corner of the control room as the improvised projectile clattered noisily to the floor behind me. I popped my head up and saw New Guy ripping another door free from its hinges. This mother fucker, try this. “EXPLOSIVE AMMO” I stood by the window frame and pulled the trigger.

The weapon was still set to burst and jumped as three rounds barked out of the barrel. The first round was the one imbued with my mana and struck the door in New Guys hands as he brought it up to protect himself. The round exploded against the door and my enhanced perception barely made out the impact of the other two rounds in the burst before the force of the explosion shoved New Guy back into the wall behind him. I began searching for First Guy when another projectile of the magical nature smacked me in the face and sent me sprawling to the ground. “Fuck!” The mask took the hit and absorbed the lethal energy but that was still enough to put me on my ass and shave my health by 100 points, which was already regenerating slowly as I shook the stars from my eyes.

Moving back up to the liberally abused window sill I took a peek to see that Junipher hand stabbed Speedy several times and left him to bleed out on the landing between floors. She was now running along the top floor dodging energy bolts flying from the hands of the inmate who was previously ensnared. I fired a burst into his back but the barrier absorbed the kinetic energy of the rounds. He flinched anyway as they still had enough speed to sting. During this, First Guy took the opportunity to attempt to sneak out. Good luck asshole. As he exited the building I sent a message off to the Major, Lieutenant, and Bradley. The muffled sound of gunfire was heard a moment later and I returned my attention to the fight with the magic slinging rapey asshole below me.

Junipher leapt over the railing and landed in front of the inmate that had been harassing her with energy bolts. She landed in a tight crouch in front of him and swept her spear up. The strike sank into his crotch and he squealed in terror briefly before the attack continued its path up through his stomach and out his left shoulder. His body separated and his organs made a noisy wet plop when they landed on the ground between his two halves. I spared him no more attention and found New Guy laying against the wall laughing.

His hands and lower legs which were not covered by the door were now mangled and useless. He looked at me and spit blood on the ground. I stood in the window and looked at him with disgust. I really fucking hate inmates. I brought my rifle to my shoulder and he stared at me in defiance. Before I could pull the trigger pain speared through the back of my left shoulder and I was spun through the window impacting the cement floor below hard. Junipher was crouched by my side as I rolled over.

“Ooooh *cough* shit. Heheh *cough* Now you have to deal… *cough* with Boz.” New Guy tried to force through the blood in his mouth, “You’re fucked.”

Junipher began her healing song as I rose to my feet. I looked at New Guy slumped against the wall, then looked back to my shoulder and saw a spike of ice sticking out of it that was beginning to melt. I reached up and removed it through a hiss in my teeth and Juniphers healing song took hold and began closing the wound. I could hear laughing from the other side of the control room in the other pod. Without looking back I drew my plasma pistol and pulled the trigger. It hissed and snapped and the bolt of plasma smashed through New Guy's chest.

We moved through the open sallyport to the other pod and got our first look at Boz. Who turned out to be Gregory Boshannan. A notorious serial rapist and murderer. He stood at nearly six and a half feet tall and was as muscled as I was now. He was shaved bald and currently only wearing boxers. His bare chest was covered in only the best of the white-power chic tattoos that prison can offer. The tattoos traveled up and down his arms and shoulders, they ended just under his jaw and wrapped around the back of his head and formed an inked crown over his forehead.

In his left hand he held a steaming spike of ice that was pointed at Junipher and I, in his right hand he firmly gripped the naked body of the final officer we had come to rescue. She hung limply in his grip, a vacant expression on her eyes. Dried tears, blood, saliva and sex covered her from face to foot. I vaguely recognized this girl, I thought maybe her last name was Pill, but I couldn’t be sure.

“You’re interrupting my fun.” Boz stated flatly from the second floor cells with a voice that had no small amount of gravel in it. He shook the girl as if to emphasize the fun he was referring to.

“It’s what I do…” I said evenly as I casually moved to my left. I took the pause to analyze him carefully. Ice Blade Reaver Lvl 12. Shit, this guy is almost as high level as me. I don’t particularly like fair fights.

“Throw down your weapons and leave, I’ll consider letting her live.” He swung her by the back of the neck over the railing and shook her again. Her eyes rolled up in the back of her head and began to flutter.

I considered her state of being for a moment and came to a decision I hadn’t wanted to make. “I don’t think so.” I looked at Junipher and saw the conviction in her eyes. She knows what I know, but she’ll still follow my decision to it’s conclusion. “In fact, you can go fuck yourself.”

“OH HO HO… big man has big words does he? I. WILL. KILL. HER!” His hand on her neck turned blue and her eyes shocked wide open and her body began to convulse in his hand. Power surged in his eyes, her skin paled and her pink lips were starting to be tinged with blue.

“I know.” I silently activated MAG DUMP and CRIPPLING SHOTS then drew my 9mm and began to empty the magazine into the dead girl's body. My first round struck her in the stomach, and my second took her life as surely as Boz had promised to do himself when it smashed up through her forehead and out the top of her head. The third shot achieved the goal I had been intending and punched through the soft flesh of her neck and buried itself in Boz’s hand. He flinched and dropped her from the second floor and began jerking back as the rest of my rounds smashed into his body, legs, and arms.

The officers body hit the cement floor below Boz with the sickening snap of the bones in her legs, then her body slumped forward and her frozen head smacked with increased momentum and shattered into tiny pieces that scattered towards me. In the intervening second Boz managed to form a thick shield of ice that stretched from the floor to the height of his person. It absorbed half of the remaining rounds and he released the ice spike he had been holding back at me.

It moved almost too fast to see and I flinched just in time to catch a wicked wound across my right shoulder that spun me back. The spike continued past and exploded into the wall showering me in icy splinters from behind. I spun my plasma pistol from my holster and continued shooting from my left as CRIPPLING SHOTS’ timer wound down. The superheated plasma punched through his shield and he yelped in pain to my satisfaction.

“IS THAT IT!?!? YOU BROKE MY TOY!!!! HA HA HA HA HA!” Boz roared and leapt from the second floor and landed in the scattered shards of the dead officers head. A vicious sneer formed on his face “I’m going to BREAK YOUR BONES! WAAAAAAAAAAAH!” A wicked curved blade of crystal blue ice three feet long formed in his right hand and a circular shield formed around his left arm.

Junipher took the opportunity to dive in for an attack with her spear and he turned with his left arm outstretched towards her and a massive column of ice shot out and smashed into her mid leap. She was forced back into an open cell on the second floor and then he was launching a ‘spartan kick’ at my mid section. I was rocked back into the concrete wall behind me and felt the bricks collapse as my mass crushed into them. I coughed as several bricks broke loose and landed on my stomach.

Boz’s eyes flared and he made to lunge in with his ice sword when Junipher recovered and made a swing for his neck that he redirected with his shield. He countered her attack and the two lunged back and forth trading physical and magical attacks. Columns of ice sprung forth and thorny roots speared and the duo danced around the pod common area.

I managed to dig myself out of the bowels of the control room and activated CRACK SHOT. The plasma pistol hissed and snapped as the green energy bolt flashed into Boz’s back. He spasmed in pain and flashed me an angry glare. A wide wall of ice sprung up between him and Junipher, then lunged at me with another kick. This time I was ready and I sidestepped the attack and brought my left fist down on his knee with a CHEAP SHOT. The skill transferred extra energy into his knee which snapped with a sickening sound.

“GAAAAH! FUCKER!” Boz screamed in pain and fell flat on his back. The ice sword and shield dissolved in an instant.

Junipher spun around the wall of ice and brought her spear down to take Boz’s head, though he managed to roll away from the attack and her blade sparked on the cement. His hands formed an ice splint around his knee and he rolled up onto his left leg and began furiously flinging spikes of ice at us. Junipher’s spear spun and deflected the spikes and I summoned my ballistic shield and absorbed the attacks.

All of a sudden he grabbed his head and groaned. I wasn’t going to let an opportunity pass, I activated VITAL SHOT and fired. His head was there and then it wasn’t. No blood sprayed as the plasma had cauterized the stump of his neck, then his body slumped over sideways and flopped on the cement. I looked around and my eyes locked on the other headless body in the room. I entered the cell closest to me, pulled a sheet off the bunk, stepped back out and covered the girls body.

Junipher stepped up to me as I stared at the covered body and gathered my emotions. “I am sorry Karl, she was already dead. There was nothing to be done for her.” She placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and squeezed. My hand went up and clasped hers. I didn’t speak for a long moment. I heard the sound of boots on cement clomp in behind me and Junipher turned to the new arrivals.

“Major Robyn, Lieutenant Steve.” Junipher greeted them but I didn’t turn.

“Jesus, who’s that under the sheet?” Robyn asked.

“I don’t know. I think it was Pill. Not sure.” I responded blankly.

“Shit.” Steve said followed by the Major asking “Did you find the others?”

“We did Major Robyn, another group of inmates had just finished… abusing them. In the next room over. We couldn’t save them.” Junipher took up the task of delivering the bad news to the two leaders.

Steve walked up and placed a hand on my back. He didn’t speak for a minute then added, “We know you did what you could.” Then he joined the others. I chewed on my emotions for several more minutes before I turned from the carnage and exited the building. I was met by Robyn and Junipher in the “front H” of the building. The rec field was covered in blood and gore wrapped in orange inmate clothing. A half dozen officers with rifles, shotguns and even one who was unarmed with bloodied sports tape wrapped around her hands and wrists walked through the swampy blood soaked field and delivered finishing shots to any inmate that remained living. Can’t say I don’t approve. Fuck these dudes.

I looked at where the firing line formations had stood and saw a few bodies of officers that didn’t make it through the scrum. It was mostly a one sided affair. Kaia lay on the warm cement sidewalk opposite me and was chewing happily on an inmate’s leg. Drop that you gruesome bastard, I promise I’ll find you a giant Elk or something. He looked up at me and dropped the leg then bolted across the field to join us, he looked at me then at Robyn and went to lick Robyn.

“NO! You’ve been chewing on human. Do not lick me.” Then he stepped up to give a big two handed scratch behind his ear. Since this is what Kaia wanted anyway he halted his assaulting tongue, licked his chops and whined in pleasure at the Majors ministrations. “We’re done here on this side. The inmates on the South Yard made a move to attack our line there. They weren’t as many so they got pushed back hard. We should have everything clear except for building four. And you said that was going to take our best. Lemme know when yer ready for that, I got you some volunteers to pick from.”

“Sounds good. Gimme a minute to sort myself, I’ll leave Kaia to you” I sighed, then laughed as Kaia’s will shattered from the Major’s careful attention.

I looked at Junipher and she beamed back. “My warrior seems to be ready for battle once again. Shall we?” Then she fell into step beside me and we all walked together back to the main administration building.