Chapter 1: Birds of a Feather
“All units in position!” he heard them say, from the confines of his steel cage, preparing to ferry him off from prison to prison.
Cold air rushes through the imprisoned Raven’s dark hair as the cart carrying his cage rushes through muddy tracks.
His violet eyes dull with boredom, and his lips thinned to a line; Raven simply sits still, chained to his cage like the obedient bird he is.
Soon, day turns to dusk, and eventually the atmosphere turns from fields and forests to towering homes and paved roads as the capital city of Gran slowly begins to devour him.
Eventually, his cage is opened, and the black bird is transported into a colossal prison of grey and steel, with guards surrounding him at every angle.
“JC Chamber 08,” he hears the guard at the front say, as he and the guards march in unison through the throbbing heart of the capital city’s detention center.
Soon, they reach a rickety, disc shaped elevator powered by cogs and chains, transporting them deep below ground and into a dim and musty hallway studded with double steel doors on both sides.
The group marches onwards, past one… two… seven sets of doors, eventually reaching the eighth set, and then opening them wide.
Raven is pushed into a cold, circular, steel room before the guards lock the steel doors behind him.
Raven notices a chair at the center of the dim room, with bindings to lock him.
Sighing loudly, Raven walks over to the chair at the center and carefully takes his seat. The bindings activate, locking his arms, legs, and neck in place.
Raven does not struggle under the binding’s cold grip.
Violet eyes narrow as Raven looks up to see three thrones shining under artificial light at the back of the room, and upon these thrones sit two judges and a king– or at least there was supposed to be, gods knows where the actual King of Gran is at now. For the meantime though, one of his retainers has taken his place.
No witnesses, no attorneys. Just Raven and his executioners.
“So, shall we carry this trial along?” the royal retainer says, looking to the judges at either side, who both nod in agreement.
“Well then, court is now in session!”
Three sets of eyes glare down at the chained Raven below, huffing blazing smoke in anger against “the most dangerous mercenary in the kingdom.”
The Raven sighs and rolls his eyes, “Shall we get this over with already?”
The retainer rolls his neck and shifts through the stack papers in front of him, reading:
“Raven. Young, infamous mercenary Raven… You are accused of the unjust decimation of the Doe Gang, a gang that acted as a double edged sword for the Kingdom of Gran. So long as we gave them what they wanted, they would provide extra resources and security. But now they’re gone… thanks to you, do you admit to this crime?”
“Guilty as charged,” Raven replied flatly.
The judge to the retainer’s left lifts himself up from his seat, and shifts through his own papers, and from them he reads:
“A hit was placed on a particular noble from the Rakaza Family, sliced a dozen times by a slender weapon, with only an arm left on his corpse–”
Raven yawns loudly, turning all heads towards him. “Skip the formalities and get straight to the point.”
The judge grunts haughtily and sifts through the pages faster, eventually slapping the page of interest onto the table and shouting, “Do you admit to the killing of Baldar Rakaza and the slaughter of ten of his guardsmen!?”
“I admit it, but frankly, he deserved it for being in the sex slave trade,” Raven says with a smug smile.
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“That’s not the point,” the judge says, roughly rubbing his forehead in irritation.
Next, the judge on the right slams his stack of papers down and points an accusatory finger towards the Raven, “Do you also admit to the total destruction of the North Gran Guard Base!?”
Raven huffs, “With help from my employers, but yes, I am not only affiliated with the now destroyed Polaris Gang but I also destroyed the base you speak of.”
The magistrates, one by one, get up from their seats with each and every accusation thrown at the chained Raven.
“The triple murders of the Taris Nobilities!?” the judge on the left shouts.
“The theft of the Malignant Diamond!?” the judge on the right yells.
“The annihilation of Melar Village!?” the retainer exclaims.
“Do you admit to all of these charges?!” they all point in unison.
But Raven simply shrugs.
“Yup,” he says nonchalantly.
Grabbing his gavel, the royal retainer raises it up on high, shining like a holy scepter of judgement about to cast a great evil down to the vilest pits of hell, as he says hotly,
“So be it. I hereby sentence The Dreadful Raven of Gran to–”
“You seem to have forgotten a crime, your honors,” Raven says coolly as the binds that once held him slip loose from his wrists.
Soon, a humming resounds in the retainer’s pocket.
He carefully dips his hand into his pockets and fishes out the source of this humming with flimsy, quivering fingers: a small disc shaped device made of steel with a single large gem at its center.
The gem in the middle of the device glows a soft green as the shivering man resonates with the magic within. Eventually, the green gem flashes, shooting a ray of light outwards, and slowly the projected ray shifts and transforms into the shape of a man wearing a knight’s helm.
“Retainer Oswald, Retainer Oswald! The entire prison… It’s been compromised!”
“Wha– what do you mean, Captain,” Retainer Oswald stutters.
“He means,” Raven announces, getting up from his seat unbound, to which the judges react by doing the same.
“My crime, the crime you have yet to announce.”
Raven smiles a toothy grin and his violet eyes flash with a glint of wild glee.
He speaks slowly, as he exclaims exactly what the magistrates suspected and most feared: “Prison Break.”
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From above, the prison has erupted into a facility-wide rebellion as each and every prisoner has been released from their cells.
The guards, with their swords and halberds, are rushing in to restrain and eliminate.
The prisoners, armed with makeshift knives and sickles, fight for a total prison takeover.
But one morsel sized girl, blonde and sharply dressed in a black suit and golden tie, and armed with a colossal bronze hammer composed of meshing cogs, simply struts by the chaos, massive hammer weighing on her shoulder like it's nothing as she hums her favorite tunes.
“Hmm, Owl really outdid himself,” the blonde girl says, her voice sharp yet swelling with sweetness, as she scans the many fights going off all around her, “completely compromising the security matrix of the prison must’ve been a hassle, maybe he should’ve gotten that extra cut of pay after all…”
Right in front of her, the girl sees a prisoner get their head bashed in by a knight’s shield, causing her to scrunch her face up in phantom pain as she sees the prisoner get dragged away.
She shakes her head, ‘Don’t lose focus, my mission is to retrieve Raven. To that end, a Swallow’s wings must spread!’
Swallow races past the havoc and finds her way towards the elevator; where Raven is supposed to be.
Once she hits the last floor, she dashes past room chambers 1 through 7, and once she finally reaches 8 she leverages her hammer and pulls it back for,
One.
Big.
Swing!
The iron doors crash open, and when Swallow enters the chamber… he sees Raven standing calmly amongst three corpses.
“You’re late,” Raven says with a smirk.
“And you’re an idiot for getting yourself arrested during our operation,” Swallow replies with a huff.
“And what? Let the rest of the gang take the fallout? At the very least with my arrest the enemies would be distracted enough to let you all get away scot free,” Raven argues.
“Which wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t get caught! It was a stealth mission and yet your dumbass got spotted! And now we’re here breaking you out!” Swallow exclaims in annoyance.
“That’s not the only thing you’re doing,” the dark haired young man points out.
“You released the entirety of the prison, which means the gang is also here to free somebody else.”
Swallow snickers, “Always the sharp one, Raven.”
Swallow produces a folded, tattered but soft looking black cloak from her pocket, “Also, you look horrible in those ragged old prison clothes, don your wings, Raven.”
Raven does as he is told and folds the familiar black cloak over himself. He feels a small smile rub across his face.
“There’s the Raven we know!” Swallow cheers.
Raven chuckles, “Yeah, it’s good to be back, Swallow.”
“Now, what’s the gang’s commission this time?”