Episode 2: The heart of the Prison
Board 8 Penitentiary. Located in the forgotten plains of Northern Contest Stats. A land where the evil rub shoulders with the trapped, the reformed with the confused, and the tortured souls with those filled with regret. Once inmates open the door to Heroic Mario's courtroom, they close the door to Justice.
thud
"….A bloody Klondike bar?" commented Turn in disgust at his "meal" as he slid his tray along the counter in the Prison cafeteria.
"..What would you do for one?" said the tall muscular man behind Turn as he reached out and snatched the Klondike bar from Turn's try.
"Bloody hell!" snarled Turn in frustration. "Oy mate. Where do ya think yer going, eh?"
Turn instinctively launched himself forward towards the thief but was obstructed by a body in the cafeteria line in front of him. Karma quickly turned his gaze away from the seating area to see the sight of his confused roommate rubbing his eyes in a daze at the situation.
"What is it now, Limey?" he said annoyed that his concentration had been disturbed.
"This bloody geezer robbed my ice cream sarnie!" roared Turn flapping his arms rapidly.
Ignoring this self humiliation from his exuberant roommate, Karma directed his attention towards the far corner of the seating area where a youthful looking girl sat there alone, looking worried and disturbed at her surroundings.
"….Who's the bird?" questioned Turn finally calming down.
Karma was examining her closely. The concentration was visible in his intense stare and Turn noticed a quiver of excitement in his facial expression which concerned him a little.
"…I think she's part of the shipment you came in with the other day, Boy." Karma whispered not averting his gaze.
"…So wot. It's just a bird. Big deal." Said Turn sharply turning his attention back to his missing snack.
Suddenly Karma noticed the burley inmate drop his tray containing multiple Klondike bar's on the young girl's table. Karma watched the girl's worried expression with anger as the burley inmate seemingly introduced himself. Impulsively Karma grabbed Turn's arm and pulled him the direction of the table.
"..Wot the bloo.."
"I don't know what things are like in Limey country, boy. But here in Board 8 the chances of a kid being born a girl is a mere 1 in 20. When one comes along, you can be sure I won't let it slip away." Explained Karma as he dragged Turn through the crowds to the table.
Karma relaxed on to the bench and pushed Turn into the seat beside the large inmate.
Turn quickly noticed the Klondike bars and who was sitting next him. "BLOODY ROBBING SON OF A… ".
"Greetings, the name's Karma" he interrupted smoothly looking towards the new girl.
"..hi" she responded quietly relieved she wouldn't have to converse with the thief.
The thief showed no signs of hiding his anger as he rose to his feet, gesturing towards Karma to join him.
Karma smugly grinned at the girl and also rose to his feet squaring up to the thief.
He was visually outmatched in both height and strength by the thief but after he whispered a few un audible words to him, the thief nodded, picked up his tray and left the scene.
"Wise move, Icehawk." said Karma triumphantly as he retook his seat.
Turn noticed Karma passing something into Icehawk's hand but thought against mentioning this.
"Sorry you had to deal with that guy" Apologised Karma.
"Myself and the boy here are different. We'll look out for you." He continued smoothly.
"So what's your name, sweetie?"
Something triggered with the girl at these words. She grabbed her tray and shed her nervous uncomfortable expression for a look of sheer determination.
"My name is pikaness, and I don't want you looking out for me, ok? " she answered sternly before she left the table swinging her long blonde hair violently with her movements.
Letting others look out for me? That's what has me in this awful place. From now on I'll look after myself. I don't want to feel like I owe anybody anything…again.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSH
"Live together, die alone?" suggested Mega Mana.
"Puuulease, Locke's quotes are waay better!" pikaness responded laughing.
"Heh. Yeah, what was I thinking picking Jack?" accepted Mana oblivious to stingers at the other end of the table.
"sigh So what now?" questioned pika disappointed that their LOST discussion was ending.
"You decide." Smiled Mana at pika.
Pika thought for a moment about what she and Mana could do next before a loud cough reminded her that they weren't alone.
"H..How about we go to the Coliseum." Suggested stingers nervously.
The duo thought about this for a moment as stingers watched on awkwardly.
"Hey yeah, it's the contest season." Said Mana positively. "You got the schedule, Pika?"
"Yep, right" she said checking a pocket timetable. "Today is…. Yoshi versus Dante. Sounds fun."
Stingers clenched his fist in anticipation. "So we go to watch a Dante victory. Right, pika?"
"…Yoshi victory." Corrected Mana quickly.
"Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with that." added pika nodding.
Stingers glared in frustration at Mana before requesting a bet. "How about we have a little wager for this?"
"I'm not really into betting, but if you insist." Responded Mana without any real conviction.
"We'll discuss the details later" sneered stingers rubbing his hands in anticipation.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSH
"Hey you." Directed a cold stern voice.
Pikaness turned to be confronted by a girl who appeared to her as a strange mix between human and animal.
"You ok?" Inviso questioned softly.
"…There's nothing wrong with me." Pika answered continuing to walk away.
Inviso sensed the anxiety in her tone and chose to walk alongside her, remaining silent for a moment.
"Karma Hunter isn't a bad person." She began. "He hits on girls a lot, yes. His favourite hobby is dishonesty and he's covered in cookie crumbs…heck all the time. But… he's not a bad person, and I guess you need to have friends like that to get through a place like this. I wish I could say all the people in here were as respectable as Karma."
Pikaness stopped for a moment before telling Inviso in a manner intended to end this conversation. "I don't need any friends in here." Before continuing walking away from her.
Inviso didn't follow and proceeded to swing her tail wildly. "Humph, you can't go it alone."
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have, it was stupid of me. Stingers just really.. got to me and…I'm sorry." Apologised Mana.
"You bet that whoever guesses the character battle match correctly gets to be with me?" repeated pika.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have."
"…But the match is only on right now. Why are you telling me this?" pika spoke confused.
Mana bowed his head before speaking.
"Stingers said that he'd make sure Dante won this i at any cost. /i "
"You mean…"
"That's right… vote stuffing." Mana said grimly.
"I've known stingers for as long as I could remember, he wouldn't do that. He.. He just couldn't." pika blurted emotionally.
"There's still time, pika. He's at the Coliseum. You need to talk him out of this before he gets caught. He'll listen to you! Because you know what fate awaits him if he's caught…" ended Mana.
………………
Pika blitzed to the Coliseum desperately clinging to hope that she could find stingers before the mods would. At the entrance she quickly withdrew her Board 8 ID card from her pocket and used it to gain access to the match currently at hand.
Her sifted through the enormous crowds in the stadium cheering on their favourite character. In one corner foreigner had travelled all the way from the distant lands, LUE to cheer on their home grown hero, Yoshi. In the distance she say a man in his late twenties dishing out unconditional praise for Dante's efforts while belittling Kirby for some unknown reason.
After much searching she spotted a door concealing a room at the eastern wall of the stadium. She bustled through the crowds to make her way here, prayed it wasn't too late and opened the door.
"..pika.. why?" questioned a bemused stingers as he vainly tried to hide his proxy machine.
"I came to stop you making a huge mistake." She said gently grabbing his hand.
"Stingers, I've known you since we were kids and there's something I want to tell you."
Stingers swallowed a lump in his throat and waited eagerly.
"I…" pika began before swiftly reaching into stinger's pocket retrieving something and pushing him against the back wall.
"I think you're an idiot. Why the hell would you do this? You know what kind of record you have to the mods. If they find you doing something like this. They…They'll sentence you to be banned." She yelled fiercely.
At the moment the door swung open.
"MOD LAW ENFORCEMENT. We have reason to believe that illegal activities are being carried out by a user logged in as stingers. We are required to check everyone's ID so please…………….What's that? A PROXY MACHINE?" blurted out the mod.
"I won't let that happen" finished pika.
"You two. Show me your ID cards." demanded the low ranked mod Team Rocket Elite.
Stingers picked himself up from the ground and stumbled around in his pocket, at loss for a way out of this situation. He continued searching but couldn't find his ID card.
"uh…."
Stingers looked up and saw his ID card outstretched in pika's hand.
TRE examined the card before exclaiming loudly to pika. "You really thought your obvious Dante stuffing would succeed eh, stingers?"
"I have no regrets." answered pika her head bowed.
TRE gestured to the shocked figure of stingers in the corner.
"He tried to stop me. He had nothing to do with this." Lied pika.
"…Very well then. Stingers I'm placing you under suspension until further notice. You have the right to send an appeal message but if you do it may be used as evidence against you." Explained TRE as he handcuffed pika and took her off the scene leaving the shattered stingers behind.
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
Maybe that furry is right. I don't want to spend my time in here on my own. I can't keep punishing myself for getting close to other people. After all, it's better to have friends so awesome that I'm willing to lay my karma down for, than to have none at all.
"Miss stingers? In your cell, it's lockdown time." Said the mod gesturing for pika to enter her cell.
stay tuned.. .