The cell door opened, bringing light back into the cell. Ash turned her head slightly to see a pair of guards standing outside.
"Ash Graven, Devlin Dewinter, Melvin Dewinter, get moving. You're being transferred."
All three of them glared at the guards momentarily but were in no position to give them attitude. They prepared to stand back on their feet, though not before Ash whispered to Meowlapeño, "We'll be back for you."
The three were walking down the halls again escorted by two guards, being taken back to the entrance to where they were first brought in. It was going to take a while due to how far into the prison they had been taken.
"Melvin," Ash whispered.
"Boss lady" Melvin whispered back.
"Devlin," Ash whispered to the other.
"I hear you," Devlin whispered in response.
"Let's do it."
As they all continued walking, Ash closed her eye, focusing her attention on her hands still contained within her cuffs. She started out slow, carefully generating the familiar miasma of dark energy from her hands which instantly activated the cuff's systems to suppress them with crystals. However, even after her hands got the crystal treatment, Ash generated another aura, using her powers again. The cuffs predictably suppressed them again with crystals. Ash repeated a third time, and a fourth time, then a fifth time, and many more times, each time a little quicker and sooner than the last. In fact, she was regenerating her dark powers so fast that the cuffs couldn't keep up, her power eventually overtaking the cuffs and shorting out their systems. Ash blew the cuffs loose from her hands with a bang.
The guards standing in front of them turned around to face the source of the loud noise, finding themselves facing an Ash Graven without her cuffs on. "You –!" they tried pointing their guns to shoot Ash when she instantly zipped right in front of them and grabbed their guns by the front ends of the barrels, her hands aglow with dark Tenebrus energy.
"We Tenebri are free now," Ash declared lowly, her darkened eye holding a stare that pierced into the guards' own eyes, "I'm not letting the foundation do what they want with us anymore." With that said, she let out a blast of void matter, sending the guards flying down to the end of the hallway. She rapidly turned to Melvin and Devlin. "You guys go and free everyone and then meet me back at the hangar," she instructed the two while using another blast to destroy their cuffs and even levitate the anti-matter rifles the guards dropped to throw into their hands, "I'll hold them off!"
"Thanks, boss!" Melvin smiled as he readied himself to use his new weapon.
"You got it!" Devlin armed herself as well before both she and Melvin turned to run back the way they came, back to the cell blocks which they knew contained their Tenebrus brethren.
As soon as they left, Ash looked back to the end of the hall where she threw the two guards to see even more guards rushing in to replace them, apparently bunched together in an attempt to swarm her. Ash cocked her head and smirked with a huff. 'It's like they don't watch TV!' she thought as she shot a lightning bolt-shaped blast straight into the group of guards, splitting up said group and sending bunches of them on both sides of the hall, then wrapped them all up in the same nebulous miasma and tossed them in all directions – on the ceiling, floor, left wall, and right wall – before shooting them back down the same direction from where they came. When some of those guards tried getting back up along with another set of guards coming down from another direction, Ash generated walls of the same energy on both sides of her, both ends of the hall she stood in, and launched the barriers down the hall in both directions, slamming them into the approaching guards like an oncoming vehicle and pushing them away from her.
One guard, however, managed to slam a fist on a button on one wall, triggering the prison's alarm.
Meanwhile, Devlin and Melvin were racing from cell to cell, using their powers to pry open, even pull apart, each and every door. Each time they opened a door, they were greeted with the surprised faces of their fellow imprisoned Tenebri who didn't seem to expect to see two of their kind so…free.
"Let's go!" Devlin announced to all the prisoners inside. "We're getting you all out of here!"
In one newly opened cell, the old man – Clarence – was visibly gaping. "Y-you!?" Clarence stammered after having found his speaking voice again. "But how – "
"Simple science," Melvin answered for him with a proud grin. "Breaking out of nullifying cuffs is easy-peasy for boss!"
That being said, the other prisoners didn't take another second to get on their feet, carefully skipping out of their cells while looking in all directions for any guards, and they did see guards…covered in the same nullifying crystals that were originally used on them; Melvin checked the ammo gauge on the rifle he still held. One by one, the newly freed prisoners were huddling behind Melvin and Devlin.
"Well, if this new change of pace is for real, I like it," Clarence commented and then held out his cuffed hands to the two, "if you would be so kind…"
"No time," Devlin turned away, keeping her rifle pointed at every empty part of the hallway for any sign of new guards, "right now, we got a ride to catch and a friend to meet."
In another part of the prison, Ash was living it up fighting even more guards who were coming her way. She was in a more open area, a tall chamber with catwalks scaffolded above and other crisscrossed ground-level footpaths, where guards were pouring in from even more sides. They pointed their rifles at her from every direction and fired down a collective rain of anti-matter beams. In response, Ash threw thick swathes of dark energy around herself, blanketing her body in fleeting and circling curtains of void that absorbed the blasts shot at her. Right before they dissipated, Ash then blew the protective energy away from herself in every direction, sending a bubble-shaped shockwave that knocked the surrounding guards off their feet.
Ash looked in one direction to spot a turret unfolding to aim directly at her. She immediately used her powers to trap it in another bubble of her energy and with a closed fist, crushed it like a wad of crumpled paper. When another turret showed up, she did the same thing but not before forcing it to point at other turrets and even pathways where guards were running and shoot at them all, destroying a good chunk of the prison's defenses and blasting away the guards' means to get to her.
"Ha! Eat it, punks!" Ash proclaimed as she was doing it all. "Shudder under my unstoppable shadow!"
The prisoners followed Devlin and Melvin closely as they all went down the halls as quickly as they could. No one was exactly running though; due to the extent of some of the prisoners' injuries along with how little energy they seemed to have left, most were relegated to treading quickly, even power-walking at best. Devlin and Melvin tried the best they could to stay patient, only increasing their awareness of their surroundings.
"Can you all go faster?" Clarence griped, unclear if he was saying to Devlin and Melvin or his other fellow inmates.
"Shh!" Devlin hissed without turning around.
Suddenly, several guards flashed around the corner, reacting quickly when they spotted the escapees. Already hearing the guards yell to one another to get them got Devin and Melvin shooting, silencing them with crystal rounds before things could get worse. It didn't go in their favor though as guards still kept trickling in. The two Hooblots kept firing away until Melvin's rifle was reduced to clicks, now completely empty. Melvin cursed under his breath when he realized this and got ready to throw his gun at the guards ahead.
"Wait, don't!" Devlin stopped him before he could throw it. "Hand it over!" Melvin briefly gave Devlin a strange look, but nevertheless tossed the empty weapon to her. Devlin held both her rifle and Melvin's in both her hands and aimed them at the guards.
Unleashing her dark energy, she channeled them across her arms and wrists, through her hands, and then around the rifles, which she pulled the triggers. Now instead of firing crystallizing anti-matter, the rifles shot out blasts of the same dark matter energy characteristic of a Tenebrus, and since they didn't shoot out crystals anymore, they didn't rely on ammo as they were infinitely replenished by their current Tenebrus user.
"Wu-hoa! New trick?" Melvin asked in awe of what he saw.
"Nah! Old trick but first time ever used!" Devlin answered loudly over the blasts she was making.
Progression towards the exit for both the Dewinters and the prisoners was getting much better this time, as the area was becoming more recognizable to Devlin and Melvin. Most of the prisoners were following close behind them very well, at least until Meowlapeño ended up stumbling, falling onto the floor despite having been supported with one of his arms over the shoulder of a fellow inmate.
"Oh, what now!?" Clarence blurted out when he and several other inmates noticed what happened. Melvin turned to notice Meowlapeño's collapse as well and immediately rushed over to the injured Ventrexian. The prisoner who had supported him the whole trip was down on one knee examining him until Melvin came over.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Melvin tried to ask him directly. Meowlapeño was too tired and pained to answer, but the inmate next to him was more than willing to explain.
"I tried to hold him all the way, but he's too injured, mostly in the legs. I don't think he can keep walking like this unless I drag him."
"Then don't," Clarence barged in again, "do we need to be planning around dead weight?"
"Hey!" Melvin growled, certain that his patience was at an all-time low at the moment. "Not everyone can run like you can! Get in front if you wanna go so bad!"
He looked back at Meowlapeño, who was trying extremely hard to push himself back onto his feet despite freezing from the pain he was feeling in all four limbs at the moment. Knowing he was running out of options and time, Melvin called out to Devlin, "Dev! We got a problem!"
Devlin paused from her shooting to run over to where Melvin was. When she saw Meowlapeño, she knelt beside him as Melvin told her the situation. For a second, Devlin scrambled her brain for what she could do. She then turned to Melvin. "Okay, new plan. Mel, you take these." She placed the two rifles she had initially been using into Melvin's hands. As soon as she did, she then went over to Meowlapeño and put one arm under his knees and the other behind his back, lifting him up to hold him in a bridal carry.
"How did you do that trick again?" Melvin asked Devlin as they switched places.
"Use your imagination," Devlin answered.
Melvin rolled his eyes as he turned back to face more guards. Though it took a moment, he recalled what he saw when observing Devlin do it, and in a short time, transferred his energy through the rifles and fired. "Ho-ho yeah! Now we're on all cylinders!" he exclaimed excitedly, now firing more frequently and with greater ferocity as he blocked the guards' access to the prisoners.
Devlin kept her eyes peeled as she stood at the back of the group keeping watch, all while keeping Meowlapeño secured in her arms. Another group of guards dashed around the corner and charged at the prisoners behind her, even raised their rifles and readying to shoot. Devlin knew she had to act now. When she saw that the guards were already getting dangerously close to firing their weapons, she did the first thing that came to mind. She threw a foot up and spun around on the other in an impromptu kick, sending a wave of dark energy flying at the guards, knocking them away just as effectively. Devlin paused momentarily, taking in the fact that she just performed a kick, used her foot, to release her powers. "Hm, if you've got no more hands to give, use your feet," Devlin thought as she tried doing some more kicks, continually using her feet to channel her offense.
More guards continued to appear, and despite their extended and persistent use of their powers, Devlin and Melvin were beginning to feel the fatigue catch up to them. Their moves were getting sloppier and the guards got bolder. Everyone was slowly becoming more uncertain about a successful escape but were then soon greeted by Ash having caught up to them, appearing to them right after having made an explosive shadowy entrance. Ash looked around to see that everyone was okay and both Devlin and Melvin found ways to successfully hold their own while defending the others.
"Good job, guys! Keep going! I'll hold them off!" Ash said to the two Hooblots as she threw another sweep of void matter at more of the guards. The amount of waves of guards never seemed to cease, but she nevertheless continued to keep fighting her way through in order to keep a clear path for the prisoners she, Devlin, and Melvin were escaping with.
Everyone managed to reach the final stretch when Ash was stopped by the sight of a security vehicle, one that was a little larger than the hallway everyone was running in, suddenly zipping in and squeezing through the passageway. It seemed that prison security was now getting desperate in their attempts to mow Ash down. (not that she could blame them; they were, after all, dealing with the leader of Mad Tenebri)
"Geez, are you guys for real?" Ash scoffed out loud before taking off into a sprint, running directly head-on at the oncoming vehicle while firing several little blasts of energy from her hand. She and the vehicle got closer and closer together…and then Ash dropped down, sliding directly under it. Charging up the energy in her hands, Ash let out a substantially more powerful blast, punching a hole through the vehicle from bottom to top, sending it careening out of control and flipping over. She got back on her feet once she was clear and used her powers on whatever was left of the vehicle to tear it in half, clearing the path for the others.
"We're all clear!" Ash called to everyone. They had been hiding around the corner of the previous hallway, behind the one Ash was standing in just near the front entrance. "Let's go! Hurry!"
Everyone finally made it outside and in a short time, all got aboard the first available transport vessel that was present in the hangar. Melvin was in the cockpit commandeering the controls while Devlin was with the rest of the newly freed prisoners, with Meowlapeño still being held in her arms, in the back of the vessel in the holding bay. The door to the vessel's holding bay closed as the ship took off and moved to leave the prison. Surprisingly enough, Ash was not on board the ship, but still standing on the landing pad in the hangar.
But she wasn't staying behind.
Using her powers again to generate a dark aura around herself, Ash levitated off the ground and with a burst of explosive energy, rocketed out of the prison's hangar and into the outside world once again, flying higher and faster until she caught up with the transport vessel carrying everyone else, even flying beside it before she then overtook it and flew on ahead. All the escaped Tenebri flew off into the distance across the wild Yarno landscapes, following Ash Graven as she began to lead them to their newfound freedom.