Chapter 2: Breaking Bars
“Owl, are you sure this is the way?” a dark skinned woman asks, her eyes vividly gold to contrast her lush, dark brown hair and her brown cloak.
“That’s what the map is saying, Sparrow. Unless you’re telling me that the Crystaline Communications Terminal is wrong,” says a spectacled, middle-aged man with a pale complexion and hooded in dark green.
Owl holds up his hand for Sparrow to see a small disc-shaped object with a flashing green gem in the middle.
Owl resonates with the object, with which the green gem flashes brightly, and produces a three-dimensional map of the entire prison from its projection.
“Tell me I’m wrong or tell me I’m wrong, Sparrow,” Owl says with a flat face.
“I– I’m just saying that we’ve been walking through these dingy and claustrophobic halls for hours and we still haven’t reached the maximum security block! Maybe you read it wrong?”
Producing the projection again and lifting it up to his face, his eyes slowly scan from left to right of the holo-prison in his hand. He shakes his head.
“Nope,” he says with a pop in the p, “this is definitely the right direction.”
But then Owl pauses, his lip turning into a line when he is forced to come face to face with a truth.
“… Although I think we took a few wrong turns here and there…”
Sparrow groans loudly, “Gods above…”
Owl chuckles softly, “Don’t worry, Sparrow, we’ll get there eventually–”
“There, intruders!” they hear a voice yell from behind them.
The duo turn their heads and see a platoon of knights rush at them from the end of the hallway.
“Owl,” Sparrow says sternly, drawing her dual daggers from her hips.
“On it.”
Owl turns tail and dashes through the hall, eventually turning a corner out of sight, leaving Sparrow behind.
“It’s twenty to one, lady. Give up,” the knight at the front gloats, brandishing his claymore on high.
Sparrow raises her daggers in response, “Try me.”
The knight rushes forth with two companions in tow, Sparrow does the same and engages in a bind with the knight.
Sparrow smirks as he sees the two other knights sweep in from the side to catch her off guard.
She ducks, dodging the blade and mace homing for her head.
She kicks away from the engagement and swiftly dashes right back into the fray, catching the knight on the right off guard.
Too fast for the knight’s eyes to see, a single slim dagger slips through metal plates, and the sound of piercing flesh resounds throughout the tight hall.
No blood taints the small blade as Sparrow withdraws from the knight’s neck. She quickly jumps away, letting the knight drop to the floor, as if sleep had simply overtaken them.
“Y– You devil!” the claymore wielding knight at the middle sputters furiously.
“Don’t blame a bird for using their claws well, it’s how we survive~” Sparrow teases.
“You–! I’ll end you!”
The knight charges with a sweeping slash– which Sparrow dodges with a jump –and he continues charging, planning to pierce the bird’s wings with a pointed blade– yet again Sparrow gains distance from him.
“What’s the matter, birdy?! Come fight me!”
“Fight you?” Sparrow huffs, “Fine. Personally you’re not even worth my blades, but since you asked so nicely~”
She breaks into a sprint directly towards the challenging knight. The knight readies his claymore and points it directly at the charging bird.
Until–
Sparrow jumps to the left, feet to the wall as she runs across it like it's nothing.
She jumps again, this time having her feet land directly against the right wall
Finally, she jumps for the last time, hitting the ceiling running.
“Wha– what the?!”
Before the claymore wielding knight knows it, she’s right above them.
“Bingo!”
The knight screams as she pushes against the ceiling, daggers in hand.
Sparrow crashes and stabs against the knight, killing him instantly with two daggers breaching his airpipe.
“Woo! What a workout!” Swallow cheers as she gets up from the knight’s limp corpse.
Her eyes land on the rest of the knights in the hallway.
They’re shivering, she notices.
“So,” she says with an eerie glint in her golden eyes, “who’s next?”
----------------------------------------
A verdant cloak swishes along with the stagnant air as Owl rushes through corridor after corridor.
With each turn of the corner, a chill runs up his spine as he feels the phantom pain of a blade going through his neck, which only makes him run faster through the complex as the slow dread of gaining paranoia devours him.
‘Have I made a wrong turn? Is Sparrow going to be ok? Will I be ok?’
Drawing the CCT from his pocket, he produces the projection of the prison again, making sure he has turned exactly 11 corners, gone up 4 stairs and run past 3 armories.
‘This is definitely the right way!’
Huffing and puffing as he races through the halls he just barely runs past a particular steel door.
‘There it is!’
The door has neither knob nor handle, in its place is a red crystal gem glowing idly in the cold embrace of iron.
Kneeling to its level, Owl produces his CCT and starts resonating with the magic within.
At the same time, he slowly closes the gap between his device and the red crystalline lock until they start touching.
Owl’s dark green eyes cautiously look to either side of himself. ‘Coast is clear, proceeding with the lockpicking process.’
Silently, Owl resonates with both devices in front of him, feeling their warmth, their light, and those little spots of dark.
Until finally, he hears a heavy click.
‘There we go!’
Owl pushes against the iron door, which gives with a loud steely squeak, letting him into a room of drawers and papers.
‘This is where the capital prison keeps all of their documents.’
Owl begins sifting through folder after folder, document after document, until he finally reaches a particular folder shaded in black and red.
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‘Maximum Security… This is it!’
He begins flipping through the papers, skimming through the worst that this prison has to offer from A to Z.
‘Here it is!’
Owl opens to a particular document; the face of a brunette man with a dark complexion reveals himself to Owl’s clinical eyes, dark oak eyes glares back at him from the page, unforgiving in their sentenced solitude.
‘Block-MS-2… Cell-MS-0992… Good.’
Owl puts the document down as he once again produces the CCT from his pocket, “Time to shoot a message to Sparrow–”
“No need, I’m right here.”
Looking up to the open door, Owl sees a figure dirtied with splotches of blood and viscera, her dark brown hair and her once clean face soiled by the red of others, but the gold in her eyes is as perfect as it had been since they parted ways, if a bit tired.
“What do you want to tell me, Owl?” she says through heavy breathes, her chest heaving.
Owl shows Sparrow the document, “It’s regarding our client’s cell. I found it.”
Sparrow nods, letting the sweat from her forehead fall to her neck, “And we’re en route towards that particular block, right?”
“Yes. We’re on the quickest route.”
Sparrow cracks her neck with an audible pop, “No time to waste then, let’s move.”
----------------------------------------
“Raven, to me!” Swallow shouts as she bashes away another charging knight.
“On it!” Raven responds, jumping back to Swallow’s side with a bloody knight’s claymore in hand.
In the midst of battling knights and revolting prisoners, the two birds are stuck in the middle of both, backs against each other as they fight off enemy after enemy.
“We need to get out of the chaos!” Swallow yells through the sounds of battlecries and clashing metals.
“To where?!” Raven yells back.
“Where else but the rest of the Flock!? They’re probably fulfilling the commission right now in maximum security!”
“Well what are we waiting for!? Let’s get to them!”
Swallow scans the ensuing chaos that surrounds them until she finds an open door to her right.
“Follow my lead, Raven!”
The duo fight their way through other smaller fights, paving the way through soldiers and prisoners until they reach the door, which opens into a long hallway.
Opening up her CCT, Swallow looks at a projection of the prison momentarily before shutting it off and turning to face Raven.
“This hallway will take us to another block of the prison, and from there we could take a shortcut to the confiscated equipment section,” she explains.
“We could probably retrieve your stuff from there, Raven!”
Raven scratches the back of his head, “Do you think that’ll be fine while the other two are out there in maximum security?”
Swallow waves a hand, “They’ll be fine! But you need your proper weapon back! Plus, while the black cloak looks good on you, you still need your old outfit to match!”
Raven sighs, “I guess you’re right… Lead the way, Swallow.”
Swallow nods as she does as she intends: shuffling quickly through the hall, leading Raven to another block of the prison in the midst of chaos.
“Over there! That door behind bars close by the prison entrance! That’s where your stuff will be!” Swallow points.
“Alright prisoners, get back to your cells!” a shrill mechanical voice declares.
Suddenly, the birds feel the atmosphere of the fiery prison turn ice cold, as they see prisoners fighting with might and fury turn tail, their roars of defiance turning into piercing screaming.
Finding the source of the dread, the duo spots a hulking mechanical knight, easily standing a foot above the average man.
Splendiferous steel makes up its body, and a shining core of gold beats at where its heart should be. Claws replace fingers on its left hand, and on its right a colossal blade embodies its forearm, stretching to the agonizing sight of a prisoner impaled upon its wretched sword.
It spots them, red mechanical eyes glares through the slits of its helmet, bloodlust in their intent.
Swallow raises her hammer up in defense, the meshing cogs within whirring.
“Raven, that is a KGT Security Model, a manually controlled golem.”
Raven nods in understanding, “I’ll find its master then.”
They watch as the KGT slowly approaches them, dragging its bloodied blade across the ground, painting red in its tracks.
“Go! I’ll distract it!”
Raven nods, rushing past the blonde girl and away from the golem in front of them and diving right into the crowd of panicked prisoners until he has blended amongst the shackled men.
Swallow slams her hammer down to the ground, creating a web of damage upon its impact and letting the sound of crashing steel echo across the already chaotic block.
“You and me, big boy!”
The golem roars in challenge and charges the short blonde with its blade raised high.
It drops the chop– and the girl sidesteps, the attack having missed entirely.
It sweeps its blade across the ground, and the girl responds with a jump– planting her feet against the blade of its shoulder.
The girl raises a leg, then both her arms, and then–!
“Take this!” she yells out, as she swings and slams her hammer against the golem’s face, knocking it back and sliding it across the room– but it has yet to fall.
The KGT roars again, and rushes with a sweeping blade– Swallow ducks and counters with a strike to the machine’s knee, and it stumbles in response.
Another slash lashes out from the monstrous machine– the blonde sidesteps the attack again.
Then comes two slashes this time– Swallow dodges the first and parries the second – the impact of the blade clashing with her hammer sends the girl drifting backwards.
Her feet to the ground and friction increasingly tense as her right foot slides back, ready to launch.
She leaps, hammer skyhigh–
The hulking golem dodges to the side–
A miss…
Swallow gasps as the shadow of a blade looms over her.
She rolls to the side– a giant blade crashes down right next to her, ravaging the floor.
She smirks. Then–
“Ah!”
A clawed hand swipes across her body, leaving bloody trails in its wake and sending her flying across the block.
The blonde bird crashes into an open cell, her suit torn and bloodied, her body aching in agony, her head pulsing in pain, but despite all that she is awake, alive, and coughing up blood.
The machine lets out a low chuckle as it slowly stalks its way up to the cornered bird’s cage.
‘Get up… Get up!’ Swallow silently screams at herself.
She tries to voice her pain as she struggles to move, but the fluids in her throat only allow her to cough up more blood.
Her impending doom approaches as she sees the blade of the mechanical knight close in on her.
The blade is raised, and…
It kneels, arms prone to the ground and head slowly creaking downwards in a bow.
The red in its eyes seems to have vanished entirely.
“Sorry I’m late.” she hears a familiar young but somewhat low voice say.
Next to the now deactivated machine is a man dressed in full black.
A fluffy but tattered cloak with a jet black suit fit for a baron underneath, and combat boots with straps to match the black combat gloves that the man before just so happens to be adjusting.
They are notably bloody.
“I killed the golem’s controller, so we’re safe… for now,” Raven says through hushed breaths.
Swallow smiles, “Thank you… Raven–”
“Don’t waste your energy by talking, Swallow… We need to get you fixed up,” Raven interrupts as he slowly approaches the wounded girl.
Swallow doesn’t speak as Raven produces some syringes from his pockets.
They are filled with a green fluid, and emblazoned with the emblem of the Capital City; three blades impaling a leaping rabbit.
“You stole those… didn’t you?”
Raven chuckles, “Of course I did. Pickpocketed off the corpses of a few guards I found.”
“Heh, nice.”
Raven carefully inserts the syringe into Swallow’s arm, slowly injecting the green fluids into her veins.
Swallow breathes wholly, but slowly.
“There, those recovery potions should help you up for a bit… But your injuries are pretty bad, so take it slowly for now.”
Swallow chuckles, “I know. This stuff requires a stronger potion… and some stitches.”
Raven nods with a hum, “Agreed. Do you need help to get up?”
Swallow shakes her head slowly, “No need, Raven. I could get up on my own.”
“...If you say so,” Raven replies unsurely.
Swallow hums as she slowly lifts herself up from her painful rest. Excruciatingly.
“C’mon… Raven– Ah!”
Raven catches Swallow by the shoulder just before her legs fully give.
“I’ll help you walk,” Raven says, worry seeping through his voice.
“...Thanks, Raven.”
Raven hums as he helps Swallow limp out of the open prison cell and into the open block.
“Ah, my hammer!” Swallow cries, looking back at her fallen friend.
“Forget it, Swallow. We need to get to a safe place first.”
“But–”
“We’ll retrieve it later,” Raven says with finality, leaving Swallow only to hum in reluctant agreement.
“Hey, you looking for this?” a voice calls out.
Following the sound of the voice, the duo sees a burly looking man in prison clothes dragging Swallow’s hammer across the ground and leading it toward the birds.
“...Huh?” Swallow and Raven say in unison.
“What? Can’t a guy help out?” the prisoner responds with a smirk.
“...Why are you helping us?” Swallow asks.
“You two brought down that thorn in our side the KGT, which helped the prison revolt immensely. Consider this a prisoner’s menial thank you.”
Swallow gives the prisoner a small smile, “Thank you too.”