(OOC: Don't forget everyone, there are still a few Shadow Stalkers skulking around inside the camp walls, and cloaked. Not everyone will run into them, but a couple should. Remember, if you're an inmate, you'll likely need help from one of the Resistance members to take them on.

I'll delete this after another few posts.

Hades had taken stock and headed off into the camp, he was passing a group of buildings when he heard screams, he phased into the wall and peaked out the other side, in time to witness one guard literally explode, and the fate of three more unfortunate guards. He saw the mutant, his headset matching a photo of him with that of the inmates list and matching is name in microseconds as Acer. Hades came out of the wall and solidified, he was not in a good mood and so decided not to use his guns, and instead he whipped out two combat knives and attacked.

He reversed the knife in his left hand so it was pointing downwards, did a low sweep kick spinning with it with is right leg, pivoting so that he swept one guards legs out from under him. The guard fell back in time to meet the reversed combat knife in Hade’s left hand; the knife pierced and kept going up. This was a almost monomolecular edged blade, and with Hades above human strength it met the neck and kept going, finally exiting the top of the skull. The body hit the floor with the top half split in two. A few guards turned but Hades was already in motion, what happened next was brutal.

Hades came out of his spin to jam his other blade through the jaw of another guard, it went though the soft skin at the underside of the jaw, through the pallet and into the brain, with a flick of his foot Hades kicked the dead guards legs from under him and proceeded to launch the body across the room at another guard. His left blade flipped and he whipped it under his extended right arm to slash open another guards stomach. There was silence in the room aside from the breathing of two mutants and the sound of blood dripping down from Hade’s knives. He calmly whipped the blood off on one of the bodies, sheathed the knives and walked over to Acer. Seeing he was unconscious, he hardened two fingers and proceeded to hit a series of pressure points that was guaranteed to aid Acer regain consciousness. He saw the mutants eyes flicker open to regard him.

Hades looked what he was, an efficient killer. Attired in black combat armour with what looked like a cross between a sniper and an assault rifle in his back, two Glock G11’s in back holsters and two combat knives. He extended a hand to Acer, “My name is Hades, you ok? If so lets get you out of here.”

guard count for Hades 3 killed

A black car came to a screeching halt behind the line of APCs and tank. My Gosh, where the heck did they get a tank? One thing was certain, that just like Zeke the mutant assault group had come prepared, they had a tank for goodness' sake! Zeke threw open the car's door and jumped out.

There he stood, black shirt and pants, black belt and chest strap, gun holster and ninaj stars. Ready for action. He sprung into it. He headed straight for the wall which had just seemed to crumble. As he spotted a zone that looked unoccupied and went that way, he took a moment to look up at the carnage. In the distance he spotted a group of mutants taking on a ton of Stalkers, closer to this side of the camp mutants were killing guards left and right. Fire was everywhere and the scent of smoke filled the wind, of which there was very little naturally.

Zeke pondered the fact of all the guards being murdered. As much as he hated what had been going on here, he couldn't condone murdering guards. He had killed a man three years ago, and regretted it everyday of his life. It had been what had cost him Evie to this point after all. He couldn't condone murder. Straight up. He tried to ignore all the killing and walk past it, but it wasn't that simple. He had to distract himself if he wanted to come off it.

Easily done. As he raced past the crumbled wall and charged up a heap of dirt that seemed unaturally out of place, Zeke ran smack into something, something he didn't actually see. Strange. He heard indistinctively the whir of electronics and the whiz of a blade. Stalker. He had heard reports of them on the news, but never faced one before. Here was his shot. He jumped back and felt the wind from the Stalkers invisible blade narrowly miss his left cheek.

It's hard to fight an invisible enemy, Zeke knew that much. He used the good 'ole fashioned powder the invisible and make it visible trick, and it worked. Unleashing sulfuric gas toward the direction he believed the Stalker to be in, it's outline appeared before him. Without hesistation he drew his Desert Eagle and put two slugs in the Stalker's hull. The bullets dropped harmlessly.

Darn shields. Zeke understood that the problem with shields is their ability to overload, so Zeke focused on this angle. He spun to his left and avoided a laser blast by the yellow-fogged-up Stalker, and then created a massive block of sulfur above the Stalker's head, and dropped it instantly. The twenty-ton block of greenish crystal fell out of the sky and landed on the Stalker directly, and the sheer weight made the Stalker collapse to one side.

Now it was naturally visible, as it's cloaking device had just dropped offline. That makes it easier. Zeke had to move in for the kill before it had time to react. It seemed to be groggy, trying to pull itself out from under the block. Zeke didn't wait, he grasped his Eagle with both hands and put three more slugs into the Stalker's neck. Pinpoint accuracy, the wiring jammed or cut, the Stalker stopped moving. It looked disabled at the least, completely useless at the most. Time to move on...

Zeke's mind started to take over. He needed to find Evie fast... if at all possible. It wasn't a side trip, it was the trip. The reason why Zeke was here was to find Evie. After all, Zeke was beginning to believe the humans were justified in their fear. I mean, look at all this. Mutants are dispatching humans left and right without remorse. This is horrible. They have every reason to hate us. He pushed that from his mind and started to search.

A central building that seemed to look important stuck out to him. Maybe if that woman he had spoken with on the phone was here, he could convince her to find Evie for him. It was going to be very difficult to do so otherwise, with all the chaos going on.

Lord... please help her be all right. He breathed a silent prayed for Evie and made his way in a dash to the building, gun in hand.

OOC: Going off to side-thread, "Unlikely Allies... I Mean Enemies"

((ooc: Continued from an earlier-in-the-day thread with Lee, Fancy Meeting You Here))

Rupert had been sitting in his office, his feet propped up on his desk, the smell of a recent coffee spill in his nose. The sounds of the Camp had filtered in through the glass of his window in muffled tones. Muties working, guards not exactly helping the muties to work, everyone just going about their usual monotonous evening in this government-funded hell hole. In his hands had been a small black remote. He'd been turning it over in his hands, not really thinking, not really not thinking. Just... waiting.

There was nothing exceptional about that night, right up until the Stalkers suddenly kicked it into overdrive. He could hear them firing volleys towards the sky. It was the deafening noise of nuts hitting the fan. Rupert didn't bother turning to look out the window as a clutter of excited, scared voices began talking in the wake of the Stalkers' fire. His finger started tracing a lazy circle above the various little buttons on his remote.

He could hear the Stalkers moving off in pursuit of something. He gave it thirty seconds, and then he chicken-peeked in the series of presses that the instruction manual had made purposefully long, tedious, and hideously complicated. Wouldn't want the supervisor sitting on his remote and deactivating all the collars in the Camp, after all. His pointer finger settled on the last button. His remote gave a warning chirp, and then the deed was done. A chirp? Seriously? He could have gotten a chirp by just using the remote on his keychain to unlock his car. All in all, it was a pretty d**n anticlimactic moment. But what the hell: the freaks were freed. Fanfare optional, apparently.

Rupert gave a lazy stretch, and tucked the remote back into his pocket. He'd still be needing it. The freaks were freed; now he could get down to business. Lee had promised she'd take care of getting Raina out. That left him to concentrate on more important matters: keeping a certain little ribbon-haired girl in. He stood up.

That's about the point where a series of explosions rocked the Camps. Rupert was knocked off his feet with the first one; just as well, since the next two set glass shards from his window flying across the office like crystal shrapnel.

"What the ****?" He eloquently coughed, carefully getting back to his feet. Glass shards fell off of his back, tinking against the ground with feigned innocence. The Stalkers couldn't seriously be bringing out the big guns inside of the Camps, could they? He knew some of them carried missiles, but even if they didn't care about the muties' lives, there were still guards--

Rupert looked out his window, and froze. The targets had been the main power grid and two backup fuel tanks. That explained the sudden darkness in his office. It didn't explain much else, though. "What the ****?" He repeated. Did those Resistance freaks seriously just use friendly fire? Seriously? There were far, far more mutants in the Camp than there were guards. Even from his window, he could see forms lying that had been tossed like rag dolls by those explosions, cast into brilliant shadow by the flames that were still burning. Some of them were groaning; some were shakily regaining their feet. Odds were, none of them were the "bad guys".

Rupert had known he'd have to watch out for his own skin when the Resistance rolled in. He hadn't thought for a second that he'd have to watch out for the inmates'. He shook his head, half in shock, half in disgust. It's their own problem, now. Not mine. He left his office to the sound of tanks pulling up outside of the gates. Tanks. Something hit his gut about then:

This could not possibly end well.

It's not my problem anymore. He had his own mission to complete.

((ooc: Continued in I Would Do Anything For Love.))

What the hell was that?? Ted leapt out of his bed as an explosion sounded, and the other mutants in the barracks followed suit. Then most of them were knocked to the floor again as something much closer exploded. Ted was able to keep his footing, and burst out of the door as a third explosion shook the camp. There was chaos. Guards were running in panic, and Ted saw what they were looking at. There appeared to be a group of large cars formed up outside, headed by a tank. Ted blinked. A tank!? Ted knew the fabled resistence was well equipped, but he didn't expect anything like this. Then he saw where the explosions had hit. All power to the camp was gone, thanks to the plant being destroyed. But there were bodies sprawled near it. He could smell blood, and burnt flesh. Members of the resistence were rushing through the destroyed wall, killing guards left and right. It was hell.

(continued in another thread. I'll come back and edit this once I've decided which thread ^^)

An explosion rocked the barracks where Streak was sleeping. He was shaken from a deep sleep. It took him a minute to register what was going on. Yes, there here! Streak thought, ecstatic that he was finally going to get out of this place. He jumped out and raced out the door. It was pitch black outside except for the fires and frequent explosions. Wow they got a tank. Streak thought as he saw a gigantic flash from the tank go off again and again.

There was chaos everywhere, with guards running around trying to figure out what was going on and they had no one in charge. Streak ran around for a little bit trying to get his bearings and see where all the mutants were and which way he was eventually supposed to go. After a little while Streak ran into a guard when he ran in front of one of the fires. "Hey you get back where your supposed to be freak and stop running around." "No." Streak retorted and cold cocked the guard who went straight to the ground and was out cold. He continued running except this time he was actually looking for some guards to fight. He was tired of their cynicism and abuse that he had endured throughout the his entire time in the camps.

Streak met a few guards and they all jumped at him without any noise or warning. However, Streak was ready for them this time. the three guards surrounded him and instantly moved in like they were a pack closing in on a wounded animal, of course Streak wasn't wounded and was ready for the fight. Two of the guards grabbed Streak by the arms and shoulders while the other guard tried to "Knock some sense into him", that didn't work very well because even though it was dark Streak could still see better than the guards could.

Streak saw the guard coming and kicked him in the stomach. It took the guard a minute or two before he could get back to hitting Streak. While the guard was recovering Streak was struggling with the other two guards. In less than a minute he had freed himself from one of the guards and spun around and kicked the guard in the leg and punched him right in the face and broke his nose. The guard instinctively let go of Streak and covered his face. At that moment Streak kicked the other guard that was holding him and started pounding on him until the guard stopped moving. "Hope he's not dead." Streak said half sarcastically and half seriously. The guard wasn't dead he was just out cold.

The third guard came at him with a with a taser. Streak took one look at it and thought, 'This will hurt. But I've got to try and use my powers.' He used to be able to make a shield and Streak wondered if he could still do it. The guard shot the taser and immediately Streak formed a shield as if it was second nature to him. The taser hit the shield and Streak didn't even feel a shock from the bracelet around his arm.

"Oh, your in trouble now." Streak said to him. The guard panicked and pulled out the button and pushed it. Nothing happened. Streak smiled sadistically and made a weapon out of his powers just like he used to be able to do. The guard went down with out any fight after that, and Streak felt much more satisfied at having his powers back. "Yes, I'm finally back to normal." Streak said out loud and left the guards where they laid and went on to find more guards and other mutants that might need his help.

Once past Kami, issuing her warning of the next corner, she darted a head of him, guiding her army just behind her and she was running on her own. Around the next corner she uses a set of mosquitoes to take out the three guards vision, because no one can concentrate when bugs are trying to drink from their eyes. What happened to those men after that wasn’t her concern. She had two objectives at the moment. To mark the stalkers, and to make her delivery.

On her way she manipulated her insects to bump into the stalkers to mark them with the stuff that Hades had given her. He told her she would be assisting someone named Shogun this way and anyone wearing UV scopes.

(My next post will be Here Pix will be returning to this thread shortly if someone has use of her.)

(OOC: Continued from Wrong Place, Wrong Time)

After Sara left, Neena took a few moments to center herself. Up until this point, she had hidden herself behind a facade of klutzy goofiness, never taking anything seriously and, for the most part, acting clueless.

Time to drop the act.

Despite the chaos reigning outside, Neena calmly went about her business. She unfolded the black blindfold and tied it tightly around her head, in Zorro fashion, so her hair wouldn't get in the way. After months in the light, darkness felt SO good to her tired eyes, fresh and cool. She took a deep, happy breath. Had she more time, she would have taken a nap, just to enjoy the blackness.

But the nap would have to wait.

Behind the blindfold, Neena blinked. The world took on a totally different appearance. Looking through her eyelids and the blindfold was like looking through a sheet of plastic; not totally clear, but close enough.

With a bit of needle and thread, and some scraps from recycled uniforms, her dress now had pockets, pockets filled with lots of fun little surprises. She'd wrapped several bits of gauze around on of her wrists, just behind the bracelet, to hold several small tubes in place. A closer look showed they were the ends of hypodermic needles, capped to keep from stabbing her. Her other arms was completely wrapped in gauze, like a sleeve. The straw hung around her neck, also secured by a bandage necklace. The dagger she had secured on the blunt end of her makeshift spear.

All in all, she looked like a Raggedy Ann version of a guerrilla. Quite comical actually, as was her nature.

She turned and headed for the door. She paused, a sly smile forming. She tapped James unconscious body lightly with the end of the spear.

"Don't go nowhere, m'friend. I'll be back as soon as the kids are safe."

She stepped outside, and closed the door easily behind her. Looking around, she headed for the barracks. The younger ones needed to be looked after first, before taking care of business.

(OOC: Continued for Neena later.)

Raina jossled awake and nearly fell from her bunk. This was the moment they'd been waiting for. She hurried to her feet and out of her bunk bashing on every door and yelling whenever she could to let others know what was happening. She didn't even see any guards yet, they were likely fleeing or outside. They hated the mutants, but probably not enought to get killed by one.

She hurried down the halls in nothing but a camp issued night gown- she caught sight of her reflection on a passing mutant- streak. Her hair was shoulder length and black. She'd fix that first thing when she got out. She wasn't seeing nearly as many fleeing mutants as she would have liked. But for now she had to find where the new exit was. Or could they perhaps leave the way they came in?

She caught up with Streak just in time to see that the collars didn't work anymore. Perfect. She also caught sight of the gaping hole "STREAK" she called out grabbing his upper arm. "Wait up!" she was almost smiling. Freedom was so close. "We're some of the stronger mutants, we gotta be sure the younger ones get out." She continued running- she wasn't leaving yet. Not till she knew theyd got every last person out- human or mutant. Raina hated the guards as much as the next mutant but didn't want to see them all dead. But if she could just get outside to see everything going on.

"We need to be faster." she stated. "Streak, let's hit the ice!" she let out an explosive note that would have shocked someone not used to Raina's gifts and a long line of slippery ice shot out in front of the pair. It was close to the wall so hopefully it would melt quickly and not slow anyone else up. Raina took a running start and skidded out onto the ice rocketing toward the hole.

ooc: hope ya don't mind streaky-poo! lol

Flloyd felt her fears before he saw her emerge from the hole sliding on ice. His face turned red ashamed of invading her privacy upon their almost reunion. He reved the engion wondering if Naveed saw her yet and wondered what would happen next. All those around seemed to have their own mission. His was Raina's. After hearing about the cop he considered taking him out too- but Naveed really deserved that reward.

So he did what he would in a situation like this and sped to meet her with a wave. The bike came to a stop and he removed his helmet. She looked like he imagined. A little thin, a little pale, but beautiful.

"Need a ride sweetheart?" he asked with a devious grin as if nothing were going on around them.

It was then that the two humans came running at him with large batons. They woudln't ruin his moment. He lowered his gaze to them and suddenly they were rolling around on the ground- one believing he was covered in ants the other believing he was on fire. He turned his attention back to Raina hoping she hadn't noticed. As far as he knew she didnt know about his powers or Naveeds.

Naveed hadn't actually noticed Raina yet. The first thing he did when Flloyd stop was notice a flash of what he thought was Vibe. He flashed back to meeting her and wondered if she was going for her sister. He was very curious and even stepped off the bike to follow her and that's when he heard Flloyd adress Raina. He spin on his heels to face her.

"Raina!" he bellowed in what could have been understood as a 'happy' tone. He leapt toward her and scooped her in his arms in the biggest bear hug. Amongst the chaos this was the most rediculous looking thing. He gave her a shake and put her down. "Thank God. I'm glad your ok." were those tears behind his eyes? His face was a little red. he glanced back at Flloyd sitting cooley on his bike. "You should get on the bike now with Flloyd." he motioned forgetting that she'd be surprised he was there. He took her by the arm and started to pull her. "We need to be fast. You leave with Flloyd, Im going to take care of anyone who tries to follow." he looked to Flloyd. "get her out of here and I'll come behind. I can get out on foot. I may even know others here who can help." it was a borderline order. But Flloyd happened to be wearing sunglasses.

Streak had just finished with the three guards and started running off when he heard Raina scream out his name. He looked at her as she ran over to his side and grabbed his arm. "What. Whats the matter." he said calmly as she ran over to him. He saw her look down at his side and noticed the gaping hole in his abdomen. "Oh, would you look at that." He said kind of amused and shocked that he didn't notice the hole earlier, but then again he had been busy. 'It must have been while I was fighting one of the guards.' Streak thought. Even though he had seen the wound it didn't seem to hurt, yet.

Raina continued holding his arm and he hurried away with her to wherever she wanted to go, since she was moving faster than him he figured he had no choice but to follow her. She created some ice and they went sliding on it so that they could go faster. They headed towards the hole. Streaks feet automatically formed some skates so that he could keep up with her. She seemed to be moving a lot faster than he was if he was just running. 'She must be able to move faster on the ice because she created it. ' Streak thought as he moved along the ice towards the giant hole.

They stopped when two other people showed up and started talking to Raina. Streak was about to jump at them until he realized that they knew Raina. Since Streak didn't know what Raina had in mind, but he figured it had something to do with saving people, he was going to follow her until their self assigned task was complete.

"Look, I don't mean to be rude but were obviously going somewhere very important." He said to the two mutants that were ordering Raina to get on the bike. He didn't move from Raina's side and waited for her to make up her mind. Since he was just standing there and didn't have anything to keep his mind off the gapig wound he started to feel weaker from loosing blood and he started to feel the pain. He pulled a few inches away from Raina and brought his arm to his side and some silver film covered the wound. 'There that ought to keep it from bleeding to much while I'm here. He moved back to Raina and leaned on her a little for support while his body began to heal the wound.

When the explosions hit the Camps, Isabel was out an about, though she was not on her own. She had two escorts on her left and right. Both seemed to be unnecessarily muscular and each, of course, carried with them a remote to her bracelet in case she decided to misbehave. After the little incident with Em in the guards' barracks, the Camp's higher-ups had decided that she needed more supervision than she'd originally had. Apparently killing a few men was severely frowned upon by the humans running this place. She'd been carted to and from Isolation for approximately a week by now and only two or three times was she brought to the infirmary for a quick patch-up. Being a favored target wasn't all it was cracked up to be, especially when there were no fun tools lying around that she could use to bleed anyone out. It hadn't been any surprise that her rough treatment only became rougher and any unnecessary force became more forceful. The mental and physical abuse was beginning to wear her down again and a trip back to the Infirmary was sounding very good to her, though they made her wonder how long it would continue before they stopped playing with her and finally decided that it had lost its novelty. It wasn't any wonder the inmates had to bury so many bodies.

She was roughly pulled to a halt as the ground shook, the two men exchanging brief words before one of them took off, presumably to investigate the cause of the explosions. Isabel would have followed after him, were it not for the large hand firmly clamped down on her bruised shoulder. Irritated, she glared up at the man, who had a good few inches more height than she did. He only gave her a fleeting glance, tightening his grip at the look she was giving him, before staring off after his companion. A wince contorted the young mutants expression at the added pressure on her shoulder, though the mild chaos buzzing around her did not escape her attention. A number of guards were all heading in the direction of her escort, and much to her dismay, so were a few Stalkers. She was sure there were more of them milling about that she couldn't see due to a cloaking feature. God she hated those robots. Stalkers meant trouble. Did that mean the Camps were being broken out of? Or maybe they were being broken into. She's heard rumors floating around about some sort of Resistance building up to fight against the bill that had been passed as well as building up their forces in order to free those imprisoned in the Camps. A tentative feeling of hope started to bubble up in Isabel as well as a rush of adrenaline. Defiantly she grabbed at the guard's hand, attempting to peel his fingers back and release his grip on her shoulder.

That's when two things happened. First, her own hand was crushed under the applied pressure of the free hand the guard had used to snatcher hers up. And second, there was no warning beep from the bracelet she wore as she made a subconscious attempt to heal the few broken knuckles that were crushed in the man's grip. Experimentally, Isabel centered her concentration on fully healing her injured bones. At realizing there was no electric shock incapacitating her as a repercussion, a dangerous grin slid across her features as she looked back up at the guard. Confusion flitted across his face before the look was promptly replaced by an expression of pain as he attempted to pull his hand back. Isabel was positively thrilled to see the spines of bone protruding from the man's hand, leaving him unable to remove his grip unless he ripped his flesh apart. Isabel, in a brief moment of consideration, decided to remove it for him. Unfortunately for the man, it rendered his hand completely useless as the muscles were torn apart and bones broken as she ripped her hand from his grasp. His pained scream was music to her ears. How long had it been since she'd been able to use her mutation? In any case it had been far too long in her opinion. She couldn't help but laugh as she looked at her former escort's panic-stricken face while he cradled his destroyed hand, the limb hanging at an awkward angle, bleeding all over his uniform and creating a small crimson puddle on the floor.

Carefully she wiped the malicious intent from her expression, putting on her most innocent look and approached the injured man. His face held a churning mixture of pain, surprise, fear, and anger as he regarded the young mutant that stepped closer. "Aww, I'm sorry. Did I accidentally hurt your hand?" she inquired, sounding every bit as innocent as she looked, though her appearance was somewhat ruined by the smattering of blood that colored her outfit. "Betcha I can make all that pain go away," she continued, getting nothing but confusion from the man. A dangerous element colored her features as she stepped a little closer, a layer of bone forming beneath her skin, as was per usual, and the bones of her fingers growing until they protruded approximately five inches above her fingertips, each equipped with a razor-sharp tip and hardened to prevent any splintering. With seemingly mild interest she inspected each of the spines, occasionally glancing at the guard that stood in front of her and then back again. As soon as his hand made a move for his pocket, she struck. Easily she sunk all five points into the man's stomach and twisted, simultaneously sprouting large thorns from each of the spines, effectively tearing the man's innards to shreds. Pulling her hand away once more she shook the bits of flesh from the spines as the man dropped to his knees, his eyes wide and his mouth agape as he stared at her. "What? You had it coming." Casually she shrugged and just as nonchalantly, she beheaded the man, easily stepping over his body as it dropped and sauntering past his severed head, the protruding spines easily sliding back into her hand and taking their original shapes. She was going to find out the cause of all the commotion, and she was going to have a little more fun along the way.

((ooc: *Mod hat comes on* Just as a reminder, there's a one-post-per-day limit on the main threads (Stage 1: the Air Force and this one, Stage Two: the Ground Assault); that's so that folks who can't get on as frequently as some of us won't get overloaded with having to read a ton of posts before they can reply. Folks who want to post more frequently than this are highly encouraged to break off into their own side-threads. Naturally, they are welcome to rejoin the main thread at any point.

And to answer a question I've had PMed my way: yes, the 5 guard kill limit covers ALL of your threads, from the breakout start until the breakout end. Starting a side-thread does not reset your kill counter. This is for the purpose of encouraging realism.

Just a reminder: for everyone's convenience of finding/keeping track of threads, I'll be listing all main and side-threads in "The Registration Act", which is a link at the top of each page, on the left-hand side. When you start a side-thread, please mark it as "open" or "closed" so everyone knows whether or not they can join!))

He was bruised, battered, but not tired. Never tired. Lying awake on his bunk, The Pit Bull found himself being vaguely thankful for the shitty mattress and the freedom to stretch his arms out above his head.

Ask him not too long ago, and he would have told you that things couldn't get much worse. That was before solitary. Before he'd been thrown in that hole and thought for sure he'd die there. Before he was fed barely twice a week. Before he'd nearly gone mad with no one to talk to and no way of knowing the time that had passed. this was his first night out. He didn't think he'd be let out. period. The guards didn't have to torture you in there.

On top of it all, the malnutrition was setting in. He'd long since lost his fighter's physique, and the bruises he'd received during the hellacious beating he got before being thrown in the hole still hadn't cleared up. He ran his tongue across his gum line. ten, he thought. Ten teeth out of my skull. Then, imitating The Count, Ten! Ten teeth, ah ah ah! He laughed aloud. Then sobbed. He'd actually left parts of himself in this damned place. One thing was for sure, unlicensed fighters didn't have the best of dental insurance.

And then he felt it. A distinct change in his biorhythm. Something he had almost forgotten existed. It was as if his muscles jumped to life. Despite the fact his body had been obviously weakened, he felt the old energy again. His eyes sparkled. He was careful, testing the return of his mutation slowly, first stabbing the bony processes on his arms through the wretched excuse for a mattress, then through the wooden bed frame. They slid in almost like a hot knife through butter. He smiled and hopped out of bed as if he'd been asleep for 8 hours and had eaten the best corned beef cabbage his mother could possibly have thrown together. He rolled his neck and stretched out his arms. loosening up. The old fight stance came back like riding a bike. It was only then he noticed the bum's rush of mutants heading towards the exits. He waited for the current wave to pass him, then he began stalking towards the exit.

As he stomped into the open night, rage was building in the fighter. He broke into a brisk jog, then took notice of one young guard cowering in the corner, nearly crying. It was one of the ones who had so severely beaten him before tossing him into solitary. He shook his head and made his way over to where the guard cowered. The young man saw him coming and raised his rifle up, but by then The Pit Bull was too close. He grabbed the barrel of the rifle and forced it away, the shot fired aimlessly into the air. The guard dropped the gun, which Pit Bull threw away, and tried to run. Haddix tackled the young man and sat straddling his torso, past the young man's guard. He felt hot piss on his calves as the man urinated himself. "Oh, you were so confident when you put me away before," Haddix spat in his thick Boston accent.

"I...I ain't done nothin' wrong," the guard stammered.

"Well that's a real good thing," Haddix said, "But you can't seriously expect to almost kill me and have me believe you were just doing your job, you f**k!"

Haddix slammed his fist into the young man's shoulder, the spikes on his knuckles driving deep into the guard's shoulder, sending shrieks of pain through the young man's mouth. The Pit Bull then drove his forearm into the man's throat, blood spurting onto Haddix' face and bare upper body. "Sleep tight, motherf**ker," he whispered as he stood up, letting gouts of blood shoot from the perforated Carotid artery. Haddix took off towards an opening in the fence, sticking to the shadows and avoiding the chaos, towards a group of mysterious cars, and--holy shit, Haddix thought, is that a tank!?

(kill count 1)