The Freezing Hell, Part III

The freed prisoners that resided in level five-point-five rarely bothered to venture out of their little paradise, unless they intended to free more prisoners or an unexpected event in the prison prompted them to take the risk. Today might be the first time both circumstances happened at once.

In fact, today might be the last day some of them departed level five-point-five. It all depended on how things went now.

There was no point in hiding as they advanced through the frozen wasteland that was level five. The cameras had showed them no conscious guards were left anywhere in the level.

They had all been very startled when the prison had first shook, aware that no creature outside of it was powerful enough to affect its structure. When they had gone to the control room where they monitored the prison's hacked security systems, they had been surprised to discover the prison appeared to have lost all control of level six. Not even the cameras remained in a working condition, so nobody had known what was going on until the doors that led from level five to the hallway that connected it to level six had opened.

Seeing Fire Fist Ace and the Knight of the Sea Jinbe walk through them, free and patched up from their injuries, had been a surprise. The other two people who had walked into level five with them had taken a little digging through wanted posters to identify, but watching them fight had made it clear from the start they were no weaklings.

Watching Silvers Rayleigh and Whitebeard walk into level five after those four had sent level five-point-five into chaos, quickly followed by action when Ivankov had claimed this might be the sign they had been waiting for. It wasn't Dragon, certainly, but one didn't see two of the world's greatest legends —one of whom was supposed to be dead— working together to assault Impel Down every day.

Clearly, the world outside the prison was finally stirring.

This was worth checking, and thus everyone who wished to abandon the prison had followed Ivankov out into level five.

The group had separated at some point since Inazuma had last checked the level's cameras, and thus neither Whitebeard nor Rayleigh were present when their parties met.

Fire Fist Ace reacted immediately, moving to attack them, but the blond kid their people had identified as Marco the Phoenix —Strawhat Pirates, a hundred million beli bounty; would've been sent to level five in this prison along with his captain, Monkey D. Luffy, three hundred million, who was also present— stopped him.

"Wait," Marco said, raising an arm to block Ace's path. "These don't look like guards."