"If you want to wait to get torn to pieces, that's your prerogative, but look at your immediate options, Warden. What choice other than this gets you out of here alive?"
I heard Sawyer voice has I made my way towards the door. I tried opening it, but it was locked. So, I used my sword to cut my way in.
The Warden was cowering in fear in the corner of the room. He looked pathetic. When he saw me his eyes lit up, he scrambled towards me. First on his hands and knees and then was able to get up and walked the rest of the way to me.
He grabbed me by the shoulders and said
"Y-You..boy what is going on out there did yo-"
"Shut up, and where is the omni-hand, we need it to leave"
"Its rig-"
"Warden. Give me the Omni-hand with it I can bring you all to safety. I am the only one that knows the way out. With the Omni-hand I can ensure you survive this rebellion"
"I-..I don't know..Just get us out of here."
The Warden went behind the desk towards a wall with a painting on it. Behind the painting was a safe, with a passcode and hand print recognition system. It only took the Warden a few minutes to unlock it, and retrieve the omni-hand.
It was a red hand with a metal plate on the back of the hand with multiple wires on it. The moment I saw it, I knew that this was going to be easy. Like taking candy from a baby easy.
"That is the omni-hand. How does it work" I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything special about it
"The hand will allow Sawyer to unlock all the doors in the factory"
"Why not use it ourselves."
"It would work, but those things..those things are out there and…we wouldn't stand a chance"
"I did. If I got it I could bring us to safety"
"Th-that's right…you could"
"Don't listen to him Warden. Your only chance is with me. Give the hand to me"
"Listen Warden, does the omni-hand need anything to work. If it is just the two of us, we can make it out of here"
"Your right Max. What was I thinking about to give it to Sawyer. No the hand doesn't need anything to work. Your right, we ca-"
He didn't finish as I stabbed him in the stomach. He looked at with shock, surprise and anger. He tried voicing the words
'Why'
"There are a lot of reasons. But, mostly it is because I hate you."
Warden body fell to the ground, his hands still holding the large stab whole in his stomach. He looked at me one final time before I cut his head off.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE. ONLY I-"
"Only you can what Sawyer. Remember the next one I am going to kill is you, enjoy the last precious moment of that little shit you call a life."
"YOU!.... Will fail, in this little expedition of yours. You. Will. Fail"
The TV monitor was broken, by the bone sword. The sword turned back into bone pieces and fell to the floor the moment it left my hands. Now, I needed to save as many as I could. I got what I needed.
Leaving the Warden`s office I was met with the toys had made their way through the hole that I made and were attacking the guards. My fire magic was able to get the toys back and to scramble away from the guards
"W-wh…what are you. How did you do that"
"WHY! Didn't you do that before you FUCKING monster. YO-"
"Shut up. This is what is going to happen. NO! You listen here. You will listen to me. We will go to each section of the prison where the actual sane toys are. We will move in a group and together we will gather as many people as we can. IS. THAT. UNDERSTOOD."
"""YES"""
There were only three guards, with one of them being injured after having been bitten by the critters.
"Good, Remember we move together in a group. If you even think about betraying me then I will burn you alive. You, can you move"
"WHAT! No those things bit my legs. I-I can't stand. Oh god please don't leave me here. Pl-"
I walked up to him, and slapped him in the face.
"Listen. You are going to be fine. You will make it out of here. I can repair the damage, but it will hurt. Is that okay with you."
"I don't care, just do it"
The guard screamed in pain, as the flesh was twisted and turned until it was back to normal.
If the other guards thought of me as a monster, now they knew I was a demon. The way they looked at me said it all. I turned to stare at each one of them slowly and said.
"This won't get out correct?"
"N-no…we won't tell anyone."
"I swear to god I didn't see anything"
"Good now what weapons do you guys have?"
"We-"
"They don't give us anything beside these fucking tranq. guns. And some flares for the cave. Thanks for fixing my leg. I don't know what you did, but thanks"
"No problem. We can use the flares to scare off the small ones. The big ones just leave them to me. Now come on we don't have much time"
Our group rushed towards the eastern block of the prison. I knew that was where the 'good' toys were. I needed to get to them.
We found sane toys, most of them were crying, shaking and scared. A lot of them I had known before they became toys, and they were happy to see me. Even if it was in a shitty situation. When I opened one of the cell doors I saw a small Pikachu toy huddled in the corner facing the wall. Its arms were trying to cover its ears with little success.
I walked slowly towards it.
"Hey. Hey you are going to be okay. We will get out of here together. I promise"
The Pikachu looked at me, it didn't say anything as it got up slowly and ran/walk towards me. When it got to me it held my leg for dear life. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but this felt different. I tried not to think much about it, there were others that needed my help.
I padded the Pikachu`s head and said.
"Hey. I know it is scary, but trust me. Big brother Max is super strong"
We had completely saved all the toys on the eastern block, and had a big group going. Most of which were smaller toys, that were very close to me. To the point of some of them literally hugging my leg, and arms.
When we got to the main prison room, I had instructed the group that I would check the remaining cell blocks. There was some disagreement, but they agreed when I had stated that I wouldn't be gone for long.
The journey through the other cell block was mostly just me killing the insane toys. Some where bigger toys, and a majority of them were the smaller toys. I tried to talk to them each time I saw them. I really did, but they were insane and feral. They were behind help. Even if I managed to get them in a new body, it would do anything for them. Death was the mercy.
Thankfully I was able to find 'normal' or sane toys. That being the dragonite, DogDay and others of the bigger smiling critters. They were beyond happy to see me, or really anyone that would help them.
When I came back to the main prison semi-circular room, I was greeted with a fight almost breaking out
"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"
"YEAH, YOU TURNED US INTO….THIS"
"WE JUST WANTED FAMILIES, AND NOW WE ARE THESE THINGS."
"PROTOTYPE WAS RIGHT WE SHOULD KILL THEM! THEY RUIN US LETS KILL THEM"
The guards tried to counter saying that they didn't know, and that if they did they would have helped. The problem was that the kids were mad, upset, and scared. People did horrible things when those emotions were as high as they are right now.
"HEY! No one is KILLING anyone." My voice got everyone attention. I walked closer between the guards and the kids.
"Look. I know that everyone is feeling scared. LISTEN! I know that. I am scared, it is okay to be scared to feel these things. But, we need to work together to get out of this. Listen if we do kill these people, then what? It wouldn't change anything; it would just make us monsters. We are not monsters; we are a family. I wanted to keep this a secret, but I am sure most of you saw already. I can use magic. Yes actual magic. With it I can get your bodies back. I can get you all normal again."
"R-really."
"You mean it"
"I don't have to be like this anymore?"
"Hmm..Max sir. If you can use magic, why can't you just…hmm…teleport? Like teleport us out? And could you like teach us?"
That last question was something that I knew would come up so I answered in a calm, gentle voice.
"I cant teleport yet. Sorry guys. As for teaching you..that. Okay look long story short I can't. You don't, honestly no one here has the ability to use magic."
That was a lie, I didn't know if they did or didn't. But if getting magic was about going to 'otherworld' fighting demons, monsters, undead, and training for over a year with an eyeball was how magic was obtain, then I knew for a fact no one has it.
DogDay came closer to me and said.
"So..what do we do now?"
I looked at him thankful that someone was getting us back on track.
"Now. We move up through the levels. We save as many people as we can. We find prototype and his followers and we contain them. We temporarily contain them until we can think of something. While we do that, we need to find food, shelter, and water. The prison has food and shelter so we can use this as our base if need be. As for the 'doctor' leave him to me. I will make sure that he doesn't hurt any of you every again. Permanently. If you see a monitor on the wall break it. If 'He' or anyone tries to talk to you DON'T listen to them. Okay."
"Alright"
"okay"
"Wait." One of the guards said, he looked around and continued.
"There is a place..it`s for high level security staff. It has food, water, and power. It is also off the grid. We could stay there. Fortified it, and…well we can use that as our headquarters. It would keep us safe"
"Will there be enough room for all of us?" I asked
"It will be a little tight, but if we fortified it then we can make it work."
I thought about it, and realized that was probably a much better plan than making this our base. The prison had bad memories for these kids, and not only that but Sawyer had literal eyes everywhere here. Not only that, but this place would be hard to defend.
"That is a good idea. We will go there. I will work on making war-…magic defense to help. Alright everyone ready. Let`s go"
[Note next chapter is background development.]