The Big House

Hidden away in the deepest underground reaches of Spekrog there exists the last prison designed to hold the living. This is where the Grand Resilient Underground Kingdom puts those people who won't comply with their laws, because against the Lich Lord Havengul there isn't room for crime or dissent. It's a huge fortress built of stone and metal that sits in a giant cave. How the GRUK have kept such a vast location from the undead armies is a mystery along with many other facets of the prison. This place has been aptly named The Big House.

And it was here in a two person cell where the dwarf Punch Rockgroin had been cooped up for the last three months. He was a burly looking dwarf with a fairly short beard for a dwarf. He wore a tattered black and white stripped jumpsuit with no sleeves to show off his tattoos, a couple of Oriken tribal bands another prisoner had done for him.

"Prisoners breakfast in five, no funny business," a passing guard bellowed clattering his baton along the bars. He was armored in aluminum plate with a helmet that obscured his features. His race seemed to be human but that was just a guess.

"You know what I hate," Punch groaned rising from his bed. "Outside there's people and they're cool, and there's undead and you get to clobber them. But here the people suck and you can't do anything about them."

"Five minutes...." his cellmate mumbled pained. He was a Dalmatian cainood still laying morosely in his bed. He put his face in his hands and choked. "Shit."

"Look on the bright side Crash," Punch chirped over to his sobbing roommate. "Today's breakfast is brown slop. It could be green slop day, or worse gray slop but brown is nice and chewy."

"Chewy...." Crash trailed off. "That'll take so long to eat."

"All right convicts front and center," a human guard appeared outside they're cell twirling his baton. "Time for your daily serving of zombie shit."

Punch sidled over to the cell door and stood at slouched attention. Crash stumble lethargically out of his cot and amble over beside his friend grumbling. The guard gave them a quick glancing over to make sure he didn't see any weapons but no these were the model dimwitted prisoners. They were far to lazy and incompetent to try anything. Extracting a key from his belt he unlocked the door and ushered them out.

Punch slouched out into the main corridor of M block with Crash bringing up the rear. With their guard behind them fingering his baton Punch kept a pretty quick pace while Crash lagged behind.

"Morning Slish," Punch called brightly to a thin Abyssinian shir'van being let out of her cell by another guard. "How's it going, you looking forward to the brown slop?"

"No you idiot," Slish replied acidly. "When have I ever eaten breakfast in this hell hole. I've been here a month and you don't get that I haven't eaten breakfast the whole time I've been here."

"Yeah I guess," Punch rubbed his head idly. He glanced at her bony form enshrouded in her stripped jumpsuit. "But the brown slope's so chewy, if you ate breakfast you'd like it."

"Not gonna happen," Slish decreed. "Besides there's more interesting things going on today than you eating cold shit. We got a new block mate."

She gestured ahead of them to where three guards were standing outside a cell Punch had thought was empty. Now that he was paying attention though he noticed that there was a forth person just getting up from the cell's bed. One of the guards was in front of the cell trying to coerce the new prisoner out and the other two were on either side of the cell door. Punch knew this was the normal way to greet new prisoners from when Slish was brought in. This time though the guards were surprised by the prisoners chamber pot being hurled at the middle guard.

From out of the cell charged a massive Ostrich avorial with black skin. She was over 8 feet tall (2 of neck alone) and had a shapely form with rippling muscles. The guard was preoccupied with the shards of broken chamber pot in his face and the woman was able to grab him by the wrist and in one fluid motion flipped him over onto his back. The other two guards upholstered their batons and closed in on her from either side but she was to quick for them. One of them swung at her but she blocked his wrist and hit him across the face with her balled up fist. The other came at her from behind perhaps trying to get the drop on her but a swift back kick from the red head sent him back a few steps. But it was the first guard she should have been watching, while he may have been on his ass with pottery in his face he still had his baton and was in reach of her ankle. He gave her a jab in the calf and an arc of electricity rippled through her body.

Her beak clattered and her muscles spasmed as the electricity surged through her giving the other two guards time to get in a couple good hits with their batons. Each hit caused her to jump anew, within a dozen hits she was on her knees with all three of them beating her over the head. The beating lasted a couple of minutes and by the end the girl was nearly unconscious and the guards took a step back from her huddled form.

"Prisoners pick her up and take her to breakfast," one of Punch's guards prodded him in the back and he stepped forward. Slish followed rubbing her butt where she'd been likewise prodded, Crash received similar treatment but didn't respond. The guard was used to his apathy and didn't punish him further.

The bird was trying to rise to her knees when Punch and Slish each took an arm each and heaving were able to pull her to her to her knees. And then using their shoulders as handholds she was able to push herself to her talons.

"You're in the Big House Babe," Punch replied. "Don't worry no one ever remembers getting here. The GRUK love knockin people out and bringing em somewhere different. It's like a hobby. You gotta watch getting hit with those batons, their made of ancient technology. Those were nice moves, I don't think I've ever seen a special fight so well."

"Don't call me Babe," the woman shot down to him. Her neck alone made up two feet of her height. "My name is Feather Hardbody. My uncle taught me how to defend myself and I learned well. Who are you two?"

"Thrilled to meet you Feather," Slish said sardonically. "I'm Slish Stauboon, and that lummox is Punch Rockgroin. Oh and the slowpoke about to get zapped is Crash Kettleblack." A yelp punctuated her sentence as the Dalmatian was in fact electrocuted into a faster walking speed by one of the guards. Feather glanced around at Crash but her gaze strayed to all the other the empty surrounding cells questioningly.

"Wait so if this is the famous Big House," she said. "then where are all the other prisoners."

"Oh well there's Jet and Blitz ahead," Punch answered pointing out a Gnome and Oriken walking further ahead of them with their own escort of guards. "And theres a buncha other cellblocks with a bunch more."

"No you idiot she means all the empty cells," Slish said sharply. "When you here stories about how the Big House is big on the outside, they never tell you just how big it really is. This is all of block M, just the five of us, six now that you're here. We have like a hundred extra cells that never get used, wait till you see the cafeteria that could seat probably a couple hundred prisoners, And our exercise yard is like a half a mile across. And that's just block M which means there are at least 12 other blocks. Blitz has been here long enough to be transferred a couple times and he says the other blocks are all the same with a half dozen prisoners and hundreds of vacancies."

"That is completely absurd," Feather cried. "How can the GRUK have the resources to build a place so massive while the people of Spekrog barely get enough to eat to keep from joining the Lich's army. And they don't even use a fraction of it, those cells look more comfortable then where a lot of people sleep."

The procession came up to a gated corridor with a guard stationed behind the bars. The prisoner's escort nodded and the gate swung open to let them through. They were in a small connecting corridor between the cells and the kitchen. Here there were windows and at the sight of them Feather's beak fell open. Outside the window was a jumble of structures which was the rest of the prison, but above it all you could see a sliver of sky. At least it seemed like sky, it was dark like the blackest night without any stars. But there was something that resembled the sun. High up above the prison walls, to far to be clearly seen, sat a tremendous ball of fire casting light down upon the desolate brickwork.

"Yeah it makes you feel kinda queasy the first time you see it," Punch said shaking her back to her senses. "I don't like looking at the sky and I guess nobody likes talking about it cause you never hear about it on the outside. The guards say we are in a cave and that's just a big torch made of old technology on the wall to give us our light."

"That's impossible," Feather said. "In order to cast enough light to illuminate the whole prison it would have to be incredibly massive. And the cave ceiling must be miles away, to be that high up it would need supports. But I don't see any pillars so how does the ceiling stay up?"

"You're pretty smart," Slish said stepping close to the avorial and placing an arm around her. Due to their differences in height the shir'van's arm was actually around the shapely avorial's waist, with her paw resting on her hip. "Most people around here don't understand how impossible it is that this place exists. And the fact that it's all secret from the Lich's army is the most impossible thing. How can you hide a place so big from a whole army?"

"I know right," Punch agreed putting his arm around Feathers waist as well. Just a little lower than Slish's. "It's like wow man."

Feather stepped away from the two groping arms and walked off down the corridor keeping her eyes away from the windows. Slish shot a venomous glare at Punch before hurrying after the ostrich.

The procession continued down the corridor and through another gate into a large mess hall that looked capable of seating a couple hundred inmates. The wide open space seemed wasted on a bare six prisoners. The guards filled the room out more as there was about two dozen of them stationed at all the exits and around the rooms perimeter.

Slish lead Feather to a table in the middle of the room already occupied by the two other prisoners. Punch and then Crash joined them and a group of guards brought out bowls full of brown gruel for each of them. Once each was served the guards fell back to the perimeter to leave them to their meal.

"Hi there," said one of the other prisoners. She was a gnome with a muffled squeaky voice. She stood at two and three quarter feet and was wrapped in so much clothing that it wasn't clear that she was a gnome at all. Her head was wrapped up in scarves while her body was wrapped in blankets and several sizes of prison jumpsuit. "My names Jet, who are you?"

"This is Feather," Punch replied before the avorial could. He picked up his spoon and began shoveling the gelatinous brown slime into his mouth. "She's new," he gasped between gulps of food.

"I figured she was, since I haven't seen her before," the oriken said sardonically. He had a full set off four arms and wore no shirt showing off a full ody of oriken tribal tattoos of the same design as the ones on Punches arms. His face and scalp was likewise covered. "So what do you do that made them put that collar on you."

Feather touched the cold steel ring around her neck. "My powers? Well the Procedure increased the density of my muscles by two hundred thousand percent. So I'm super strong, and super durable when I'm stabbed I break the blade. What are you called, and what can you do?"

"I'm Blitz," He responded putting his fists up in front of his face. "My fists fire blasts of force, I can crack a skull from forty yards. I'm also the prison tattoo artist around here so if you want something to remember your time here by come to me."

"Well I can phase," Slish volunteered. "You know walk through walls and people and hordes of killer undead."

"I hate this collar," Jet piped up. "I have pyrokinetic feet so I'm used to being so nice and warm all the time. It's freezing without my powers I can't seem to get warm ever. It's really terrible."

"Craabbble ocst graah peeedle," Punch garbled through a mouthfull of slop. Everyone stared at him as he swallowed his food and started again. "Crash had super speed before they put the colar on him. Now look at him he can't even eat he's going through serious power withdrawl." Since sitting down the dalmation had been staring at his food and attempting to lift his spoon. "Oh and I can turn my body into anything I touch."

"That's terrible," Feather looked at the drooling Crash. "He's going through super power withdrawl, his power must create so much adrenalin that his body has lost the ability to function without it. And they just don't care that hes in agony?"

"No," Blitz chuckled. "They don't give a shit."

"What are they," Feather asked. "They're all the same height and have the same stature. Whenever they talk you can hear it's almost the same voice and they move the same. How can they be so alike."

"I dunno," Punch blurted out.

"If you don't know don't answer," Slish snapped at him. "There was a prisoner here, a cute little human girl with dimples, she said she thought they seemed to be clones. Apparently high command has been trying to clone people for years, then they could have whole armies of our strongest warriors to fight the Lich. But they never perfected the it. Except they lie all the time about everything so it's possible these guys are clones."

By that time the prisoners had all eaten what they could stomach and the guards saw that. A half dozen of them descended on the inmates with commands to stand and follow along. In a single file line they were lead out of the empty cafeteria through another couple of barren corridors.

At last they emerged into a courtyard surrounded by forty foot high walls topped with spikes. Beyond the walls rose massive watch towers and beyond those rose even higher walls. And above it all rested the great fireball in the 'sky'. The yard itself sported several benches with weights beside them, a number of balls and fields set aside for various games, and a structure of parallel metal bars that could be climbed.

"Sweet," Punch called grabbing Crash by the arm. He dragged the cainood to the center of the ball court and snatched up a ball beginning to bounce it. "Lets play some hoops Crashman."


The others stood back and watched as the dwarf made a big show of ducking around the pitiful Dalmatian to score a point. While Crash stood immobile in the center of the court Punch ran circles around him bouncing the ball and doing cartwheels. All the while he hooted and laughed while Crash merely groaned and shuffled his feet.

"They really are the biggest idiots," Slish said with mild disgust.

"What did they do?" Feather asked watching the pair of friends. "They don't seem like hardened criminals. I know the GRUK imprison people based on their own twisted whims. So where do they fit in to the master plan."

"They're in for cowardice and desertion," Jet piped up. "Apparently they were both on an important mission to protect a psychometric trying to locate one of the Lich's phylacteries. Punch being the dozy guy he is overslept during a critical stage, the group was attacked and without his help they were overrun. Things looked grim and Crash didn't want to die so he ran away. High command was extremely upset that they lost an entire team because those two were incompetent."

"So they sent them here," Feather replied. "Even though they're just idiots."

"You know High Command loves to set examples," Blitz replied. He had picked up weights in each of his four arms and was steadily lifting them. "I'm here for killing my superior officer. He was an oriken as well and the two of us were competing for a stunning female oriken. She was amazing, breasts to big to be believed, and she braided her pubes and wrapped it around her waist like a belt. By oriken custom I should have been hers and then if id been able to survive her we would have mated harder then you can imagine. But because of the GRUKs racist command structure I never got a chance to feel her teeth in me."

Slish stared at the weight lifting oriken a look of revulsion on her face. "That's disgusting, don't ever talk about your sex life again."


"What about you Slish," Feather asked.  "What did you do?"

"Nothing," she growled.  "Just for being me.  I got these powers and joined this stupid end of the world army to help my family.  But it's not just about fighting, I came through the Procedure with an extremely intact reproductive system.  And because I'm a successful test subject they want me to breed and make them more little soldiers that'll also take to the Procedure well.  But I'm sure you can agree that penises are the ugliest things in existence and males are the most useless lumps of shit I could imagine."  She gave Feather a hungry leer her eyes sliding over her tall shapely body.  "Girls on the other hand are heavenly beings, and I'd do anything to please one."

Feather smiled sadly at the cat girl and took her hand tenderly.  "What they did to you is monstrous.  When will they let you out?"

Despite the affection she was being shown Slish looked away at the question.  "I get out whenever I decide to procreate for them.  So I have a life sentence pretty much."

"I'm only in for two years," Jet piped up squeakily. During the talk she had made her way up the bars and was currently hanging upside down by her legs.  "I used to steal stuff all the time.  I'm kinda a kleptomaniac and just take anything that isn't nailed down.  Since you've been here I've stolen three of your feathers Feather."  And to prove this she pulled three black and white feathers from out of the folds of her numerous garments.

Feather looked down at her butt and noticed for the first time the bald spot.  "That's pretty good," she declared surprised.  "I've had awareness training I should have noticed you pulling things off my body.  How did you ever get caught?"

"Well I was in this base," she explained.  "And I was just walking around and there was this jar in the middle of a room just begging to be taken.  So I pick it up and put it in my bag and I'm walking out in a corridor and it starts screaming.  I pull the jar out and there's a head in it!  A severed avorial head, looked like a chicken, and it's screaming and asking where it is.  And as if that wasn't traumatic enough some woman runs up and starts choking me with her mind until I lost consciousness.  I woke up in here."

"Well at least you did something that's generally considered morally wrong," Blitz remarked.

"Killing people is morally wrong too," Slish shot back at him.

"Not for two oriken males trying to attract a mate," Blitz argued.  "It's like High Command doesn't want another generation of orikens.  I'm telling you they do everything they can to destroy our culture.  First they took away our bloodsports, then they prohibited our axe throwing practical jokes, and now they're trying stop us from getting it on."

"So what did you do Feather," Jet asked.

"I protested the war," Feather said strongly.  "I brought the idea to High Command the idea that we don't need to fight the Lich's armies.  They send operatives across the seas all the time, if they put their minds to it they could evacuate every living being on the continent.  The Lich has an army of undead sea monsters at his disposal that he rarely ever uses since he decimated the old steel navy.  If he wanted to invade other lands he could have done that decades ago, obviously he's only concerned with Spekrog.  If we leave he won't follow us."

The other three regarded her in stunned silence for a moment while Punch and Crash finished up their game.  Punch was the winner.

"So you said all that," Blitz said incredulously.  "And they didn't execute you on the spot?"

"Like I said," Feather replied.  "My uncles high up in command.  He probably protected me."

"I'd watch out about talking about that in here," Slish said.  "The guards listen to us to see if we're repentant about our crimes.  If they hear you talking like you think that's a good idea they can still kill you in here."

"Be quiet guards coming," Jet whispered.  

Two of the guards had rounded up Punch and Crash and were bringing them over to the rest of the group.  In no time they were surrounded again by a dozen guards and shepparded through the corridors again.

This time they were brought to a workroom of some kind.  It was filled with tables and benches and against one wall was a couple barrels filled with tools and some piles of wood.  Standing prominently `in the workroom was a burly dwarf sporting a huge mustache.  

"Welcome to manual labor convicts," He bellowed as they filed in.  "For those of you who are new here, I'm Beebop Brackish.  Here you will do petty work until your fingers bleed and your brains turn to mush.  It's believed by High Command's head shrinkers that doing meaningless tasks aid in rehabilitation.  Today you will be building birdhouses."

From under a table he produced a simple birdhouse displaying it to them proudly.  "You will all try to imitate my pristine example of a bird house," He gestured over to the heavily guarded tools.  "Everything you use will be checked out by a guard, and when we're done here you will return everything that you've used.  We'll even count the nails you use.  If anything goes missing you will all be locked in solitary.  If any of you want to start any funny business while you have the tools, remember that our guards outnumber you five to one."

Feather stepped forward an indignant sneer on her face.  "And what is the point of making birdhouses?  When's the last time anyone saw a bird that didn't try to peck your eyes out?"

Beebop looked at the guard who had escorted her into the workshop.  He stuck the tip of his baton into the small of Feather's back and with a zap dropped her to her knees.  

"The point," Beebop yelled.  "Is to do everything the G.R.U.K. tells you to because the future of all life as we know it depends on us defeating the Lich.  That monster decimated our former glory, a glory that could have brought the entire world out of the darkness.  We need to give this fight one hundred and ten percent, and your the ten percent that's holding us back.  That's why this place exists."

Feather glared at him like she wanted to snap him in half.  The guard tightened his grip on his baton ready to get her again if she showed any resistance.  She hung her long neck down, head bowed in surrender.

"I'll make a birdhouse," she mumbled.

"Good now get to it," he shrieked.  Each of the prisoners got a shock in the back to move them toward the tool wall.  

"I'm gonna make such an awesome birdhouse," Punch declared stepping over to pick up his tools from the guard.

"I love how positive you are Punch," Jet squeaked walking up to another guard.  "Is there any paint?  I want to make my birdhouse red and orange."

"No paint," the faceless guard grunted to her disappointment.  

They all got their tools and some wood.  Blitz helped Crash collect his supplies and get back to his seat.  Again the guards gave them space by keeping to the periphery of the room.  Beebop watched their progress from the front of the room drinking a mug of coffee.

"This place is horrible," Feather muttered to the others.  "We need to get out of here."

"You can't escape," Blitz whispered back.  "Like he said the guards outnumber us just in this room.  And we'd have to go through a lot more on the way out.  And because there's so few of us it's not like they'll ever lose track of you long enough for you to sneak out."

"If we had our powers we could break out easily," Feather whispered.  "I've been looking at you guy's collars, the lock has the makers mark of the Abzan.  Their a family of locksmiths fairly high up in G.R.U.K. command.  One of my friends growing up was an Abzan and we used to play with the family locks all the time.  I think I could open the collars."

"You played with locks," Slish asked skeptically under the banging of her hammer.  "What kind of kid plays with locks?"

"The son of a family of master locksmiths," Feather replied.  "I'll need a bit of time, privacy and a tool."

"And how are you gona get that," Jet whisper.  "We're being watched while we use this crap.  And you can't take anything to your cell."

"I have an idea,"  Feather replied.  "But I'll need you guys to make a distraction to get the guards attention."

"We'd get electrocuted so much," Blitz refuted.  "I'm not getting my ass beat for some crazy escape scheme."

"Yeah they shock us enough," Punch said skeptically.  "And you know there are supposed to be even worse guards if you get outside."

"He's actually right," Jet replied.  "You can sometimes hear the stomping of giant feet if you lay on the floor at night."

]Feather opened her mouth to say something but stopped as Beebop walked toward them.  He surveyed their work critically but stopped behind Crash to frown at him.  While the rest of the prisoners had half constructed birdhouses in front of them Crash had a single board with a single nail sticking out of it.  He was slowly tapping his nail with great difficulty.

"What the fuck is this," Beebop growled at the puttering dalmatian.  "I told you to build birdhouses.  Not sit around with your thumb up your ass."

"Hey man," Punch mumbled.  "He can't do much of anything with that collar on.  If he can't even eat theres no way he can make a good birdhouse."

Beebop glared at the dwarf before turning to the guards.  "Shock em."

Without any further encouragement two guards marched forward and buzzed the two friends.  The other prisoners watched the two spasm with grim looks on their faces.  Blitz glanced over at Feather, he studied her shrewdly for a moment then look back at the display of power going on before them.  

"I hope you can do this," he whisper so only she could hear.  He stood up with a grunt picking up the saw he had been using.  

"Hey jack ass leave them alone,"  he bellowed brandishing the saw.

Beebop and the guards whipped around to face him.  As one all the other guards in the room converged on him with their batons drawn.  Blitz spun around trying to keep track of them all.  He lunged and swung at one of them only to have the guard in question blocked it with his baton.  Two guards took that opportunity to buzz him in the back and drop him to his knees.  They didn't stop at that and proceeded to beat him about the head neck and shoulders till he was huddled on the ground.

"Pick him up you scum and take him to the showers,"  Beebop roared at them.  The guards empathized the this with another round of shocks for all the prisoners.  "Make sure no tools are missing."

It took them some time to all get to their feet.  Feather ended up having to support Blitz as they were again lead out throw the corridors and to the shower rooms.  There were two showers beside each other for the men and women.  The guards took up positions outside the shower doors.

"Ok so you did get what you needed right," Jet asked turning on a few showers to cover up any noise.

"Yeah look," from out of her plumage she pulled the top half of a nail.  "While they beat Blitz I scored this nail in half and cracked it with a hammer.  Then I hammered the end into my birdhouse so they wouldn't notice."

"That's genius Feather," Slish praised her.  "You know before we open up these collars we could take a shower together.  Jet never wants to."

"I told you I get to cold," Jet replied.

"Maybe after we get out," Feather laughed prodding the lock with her nail.  She wiggled the nail around inside the lock for a few minutes pressing in strategic points.  With a definite click the lock popped open and Feather's collar fell to the ground.  

"You did it," Jet cheered.  "Now unlock ours."

"I don't need to use the nail anymore,"  she said stepping up to Slish.  She reached out and wrapped her hands around her collar and with a quick twist tore it off with ease.  She turned to Jet and just as easily broke her collar as well.

"Wow you are strong," Slish marveled.  "That's pretty hot."

"Hot," Jet said dreamily.  "I'm warm!  So wonderfully, incredibly warm that I could burst!"

As if on queue her feet burst into flame, dissolving her foot wraps in no time at all and catching to her pants.

"Jet you're on fire," Feather exclaimed.

"Yeah I know it's great,"  she squeaked.  She pulled down the five pairs of pants she had been wearing and began throwing off jackets and scarves and gloves.  The bundle of burning clothes at her feet grew and started to fill the bathroom.  At last she stood in nothing but a pair of prison issued under shorts and a tank top.  Underneath it all she was revealed to be a petite girl with curly auburn hair freckles and green eyes.

"Wow I don't think I've ever seen you without you're winter gear on," Slish purred.  "You look really good."

"Thanks," she smiled back.  Suddenly the door burst open and two guards barged in.

"Fire," one yelled.

"They don't have their collars on," the other cried drawing his baton.

"Nope we don't," Jet cried happily.  Her feet erupted into a blaze the heat cracking the tiles beneath her.  She jump up and kicked at them with both feet sending a wave of flame at them.  The blast wave engulfed them both blowing them back through the door.

"Can you guys distract them," Feather asked.  "I'll go free the guys."

"You know you could not free them," Slish said.  "We could escape just us girls."

Feather smiled.  "I'm going to get the boys."

Slish sighed and ran over to the wall a couple meters down from the door.  She didn't even slow down and barreled through it like it wasn't even there.  She emerged out into the corridor to see the guards flanking the door to the girls shower as fire belched out.

"Hey," she called to them.  "I'm not supposed to be out here!"

"Get her," a guard cried.  Two of them rushed at Slish intent on tackling her to the ground, but when they dog piled on her they passed right through and wound up in a pile on the floor.  Slish stepped over and gave them each a swift kick between the legs before turning to the rest of the guards.

Feather watched her go through the wall and smiled at Jet.  "That looks like fun," she cried.  She too ran toward a wall but the one connecting the girl and boy showers.  She went through the wall nearly as easily as Slish did leaving an ostrich shaped hole behind.  In the boys shower she found Blitz cleaning up the cuts on his face, and Punch was brushing Crash's teeth.

"Wow man you annihilated that wall," Punch cheered.

"Guess what else I can annihilate," she reached out and snapped his collar in two.  "How's that feel?"

"Woah thanks babe," he said feeling rubbing his neck.  "Do Crash next, he really needs to get that collar off."

"Ok hold still Crash."  The canine had been standing there with his tongue lolling out and toothpaste dripping down his front.  When the collar came off a violent shudder went through him and he looked around as if it was the first time he'd ever seen the place.  He opened his mouth to speak and coughed up some fluoride.  

He turned and was over at the sink with the faucet on before anyone else could blink.  Two seconds of high speed gurgling and spiting later he was back in front of Feather with a minty fresh mouth.  

"Hi Feather, I never actually said hi because I was a zombie trapped in a never ending hell of sluggishness but now I can finally greet you,"  he said in a rush.  "Also I just want to say thank you, thank you so so so much, I feel so incredibly better now it's like a huge weight has been lifted off my brain, there's so many things I can do now, wait I'll be back in a bit!"

And just like that he was gone in a whirlwind pushing a guard down on his way through the corridor and stealing his ring of keys.

Four of the guards broke off from trying to hit the un-hittable Slish and strode into the boys shower.  Feather looked up from breaking Blitz's collar and grinned at the guards.  "Good, I wanted a good warm up."  She leapt toward them delivering a strong kick to the side of one guards head, landed and spun to deliver another kick to a second guard.  Both guards flew across the room until they met their respective walls cracking the tiles were they hit.

A third guard pulled his baton back to take a swing at her when Blitz raised his fist.  He made a punching motion at the guard and a beam of force shot out of his fist with a deep THUUM.  It struck the guard in the chest sending him tumbling backward into the wall.

The last guard backed up toward the door.  Punch grinned over at him and grabbed the edge of the stone sink.  From the tips of his fingers his skin turned the same grey as the sink, it spread across his entire body in a wave until not an inch of skin was left.

"Dude," Punch called to the retreating guard.  "Brace yourself for a Punchslide!"

He sprinted toward the man his every step heavy enough to shake the room.  The guard swung his baton only to have it bounce off a solid stone shoulder the shock not affecting him at all.  He tackled the guard off his feet but kept moving and crashed trough the door as well.

Out in the corridor the three remaining guards had surrounded Slish and were all attempting to bludgeon her.  So far they had all failed to strike her while each of them bore several slashes from her claws.

"They all slipped their collars," one cried watching Feather and Blitz emerge from the shower.  "Sound the alarm!"

They broke and ran toward a nearby metal box with a large red button on it.  Blitz started throwing air punches at the retreating guards, he nailed two of them but the third had made it to the button and was able to push it just as Blitz sunk a blast between his shoulder blades.  A loud ringing sound filled the corridors from small bells placed on the ceilings all throughout the corridor.

"Oh looks like we're busted,"  Jet declared walking out of the burning shower.  "What are we gona do?"

"Wait who are you," Punch asked confused.

"It's me Jet," she squeaked.  "I'm just not wearing all the clothes I could get my hands on."

"Woah I didn't know you had such a nice body," he leered over at her.  She smiled but flicked her big toe at his face sending a jet of fire up his nose.

"Look what the cannon fodder dropped," Slish remarked crouching down to grabb a couple of dropped batons and giving Jet a long look from a low angle.  "Now we can shock them, paybacks a bitch.  And where's that useless dalmation?"

"I don't know he ran off," Blitz replied.

Crash had been running around the prison using the guards keys to get into every locked door he could find.  Eventually he came to the workroom to find Beebop still there arranging the tools.  He was through the door and standing in the center of the room before the room before the dwarf could turn around.

"What are you doing here slacker,"  he yelled though he was obviously surprised and disconcerted by the lack of guards.

"I came here because you're a prick and you're birdhouses are stupid, and I got my collar off look,"  he displayed his neck showing that his collar was in fact gone.  "Now I can punch you 50 times a second and each of those blows will hit you at 200 miles an hour, that'll liquefy your brain, I know I've done it to people before, well undead but it's the same thing right?"

"Keep away," he yelled and grabbed a saw and hammer and threw them at Crash.  The cainood quickly spun around in a circle, he spun extremely quickly turning into a blur and causing a whirlwind.  The tools disappeared into the winds as the twister started advancing on the mustachioed man.

He let out a shriek and backed into the wall beginning to throw everything he could reach into the twister.  He tossed several boards and other pieces of wood in along with more tools and even a bucket of nails.  None of it even slowed Crash down and Beebop huddled into the fetal position and started to sob.  The twister got closer and closer until it was right next to him and then suddenly Crash stopped spinning.  

He stood over the woodworking instructor presenting the most magnificent birdhouse ever built.  It was a five story bird mansion complete with balconies, expertly carved wooden columns, and a bird bath swimming pool in back.  Beebop did a double take his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

"That's..... beautiful convict,"  he said in awe.  "I didn't think you had it in you."

"Yeah I was thinking something big and elaborate, I almost went with more of a beach house feel, something not as fancy but more relaxed but I didn't have anything to make hammocks out of, and it needs hammocks," he prattled on.  "Though Jet was really right you know, I think it would look better in red."

And with that the birdhouse was slammed down over Beebop's head at nearly the speed of sound dropping the man to the floor.  He laughed heartily and kicked him a few times before disappearing in a blur.

The rest of the group had been running around the corridors trying to figure a way out and not succeed in anything more then knocking around some more guards.  They were debating what direction to take at a crossroads when Crash sprinted up carrying a pot of brown gruel.

"Oh Punch you were so right about this stuff,"  Crash cried spooning some into his mouth.  "The brown is the best, I tried some leftover gray from yesterday but that wasn't as good, maybe just because it was a day old but it had a grainy quality to it that I really didn't like."

"Yeah the gray's awful," Punch replied.  He stepped toward Crash and raised his fist, the dalmation smiled and raised his own fist.  The two jabbed their fists into each other with Crash cramming in a half dozen punches to Punch's one.  Afterward they were both left cradling their hands.

"How do we get out of here," Feather asked the rest of the group.  "Does anyone know where any exits are?"

"No Idea," Jet piped up.  "Everyone is put to sleep when their brought in, or taken to another cell block."

"I ran all around unlocking all the doors and exploring, but there's no doors to any other parts of the prison, I found the guard barracks and their mess hall and solitary but no way out," Crash blabbered.

"Hey how about we just smash through the walls," Punch suggested.  "Between Feather and me those walls don't stand a chance.  We'll be out of here in no time."

"Not to say that Feather couldn't break down every wall in this place with her rippling muscles," Slish replied running her eyes up and down Feather's body.  "But we have no idea where the outer wall of this place is, and it's only a matter of time till we have every guard in the place breathing down our necks."

"Well if we get to the yard I can fly up and see which way the outer wall is,"  Jet piped up.

"Wait you can fly," Blitz asked surprised.  

"Yeah," she replied.  "If I get my fire burning hot enough, and pump it out hard enough I can generate a good amount of thrust and take off."

"Okay lets get to the yard then," Feather declared.  "Crash you know the way?"

"Yeah I passed through it like over a hundred times, come on,"  Crash took off down the corridor going just fast enough to be a white and black streak.  

The prisoners turned away from the prison and started running out across the empty plain. Out here the ground was all solid rock for as far as the eye could see. No one pursued them from the prison but they were still uneasy.

"This plain looks manufactured," Feather declared examining the area around them. "We're not out of it yet we still need to get to the surface."

"That could take years," Blitz replied looking up at the dark sky with its false sun. "We must be miles underground and who knows how far this plain goes."

"Crash can go see how far it is and be back in a minute," Punch said patting the Dalmatian on the back. "Can't you?"

"Sure see you in a sec," Crash replied before disappearing in a blur. The prisoners continued to put distance between themselves and the big house and had been running for about twenty minutes before Crash returned panting.

"What kept you," Slish demanded.

"You won't beleive it," Crash panted. "The edge of the place is a couple hundred miles away. I didn't keep track but at least 800 miles."

"The edge?" Gerjet asked.

"Oh yeah that's the worst part," Crash replied. "At the end of an 800 mile run you come to a cliff. And past that is nothing. I couldn't see a bottom at all or any kind of wall in the distance the world just ends. Oh there was one thing I saw a massive shadow moving off in the distance bigger then the big house and I could feel its footsteps in my bones."

The other escapees listened to Crash's report with grim faces. After hearing their situation they turned to Feather who sighed.

"Ok so there must be a way to get out of here. We should go back to the prison and try to get some answers. Maybe we can free some more prisoners to..."

She stopped speaking and looked up into the sky. A shadow blocked out the fake sun above them and looking up they saw a massive shadowy thing that spanned the sky and disappeared over the horizon. Right above them at the end of the shadow was a glittering thing larger than four of the big houses cell blocks.

They stood there to terrified to move and none of them, not even Crash, were fast enough to react when it dropped out of the sky. The glittering thing hit the ground all around them and the escapees saw that it was a massive glass dome trapping them in.

"Oh shit fuck," Blitz sighed sending a number of concusive blasts at the glass to no effect. Punch crotched down and touched the ground turning his body to rock and tackling the wall and not leaving a single crack and beside him Feather began punching and kicking the wall futily. Crash and Gerjet ran and flew around the entire perimeter looking for weaknesses. And Slish ran head first into the wall and fell back stunned.

"Ow," she mumbled rubbing her forehead. "Why can't I phase through this?"

"When the GRUK put their mind to something they're unbeatable," Feather said. "How about the ground can you phase us through that?"

"Ok first rule of phasing class is to never phase down," Slish replied exasperatedly. "If you go into the ground with no idea of whats under you, you can fall into an underground cavern with no way out, a pocket of poison gas, an ocean full of subterainian aquatic monsters or you know lave."

Before anyone could say anything else another long shadow appeared in the sky with another glittering thing. The ground quaked as it hit the ground beside the dome they were in. It was a giant sheet of glass that the shadow began pushing under the dome.

"Dude," Punch exclaimed. "It's like they think we're bugs."

"They do," Feather replied as the sheet moved closer. "So Slish what's more dangerous to you? Subterainian aquatic monsters or the GRUK?"

Slish took a deep breathe as the sheet neared threatening to cut off their only escape. "Ok everyone hold hands again and hope we don't die."

The escapees clutch one another's hands and just before the glass sheet reached them they fell down into the ground.

For several minutes they fell through absolute darkness. Rock surrounded them and was inside and out and it made them scared to even breathe. And then suddenly they were falling through air.

"Aaaaahhhh," screamed Punch.
"Aaaaahhhh," screamed Feather.
"Aaaaahhhh," screamed Crash.
"Aaaaahhhh," screamed Slish.
"Oh crap," said Blitz.
Gerjet ignited her feet immediately and stopped her fall.

They had fallen through a completely flat rock ceiling and where now falling in what appeared to an endless expanse. They couldn't see the bottom or any walls just one another.

Though as they fell they began to notice strange things happening. Feather glanced over at Crash an noticed his head was growing larger. Punch saw Slish stretch out becoming taller and taller. Gerjet could barely keep herself in the air as if she was growing to heavy for her thrust.

All of a sudden they could see the ground which was terrifying but strangely they could also see a pillar they couldn't see before off to the side and that was getting closer to. They also didn't see the ceiling getting any further away. All of a sudden they were pressed up against each other and the ceiling at the same time and were just a few feet from the ground.

When they finally hit the ground it didn't even really hurt. They were tangled up in a ball of limbs and squished in a narrow space that was open on one side.

"Hey it's the escapees," they heard shouted and saw a guard crouched down staring at them. Though he was different from all the guards they had seen in the big house. All of them had been humans of the same height but this was an equillre. He wasn't armed with a shock baton but was holding what looked like a shot glass in his hand.

Feather was the quickest to recover and still wedged under Blitz's butt delivered a kick to the guard's chest that sent him flying. Slish phased and rolled out of the tangle of body's and found her self in a small room with two more guards guards with small glasses and a stone table which her friends were wedged under.

The guards came at her despite being unarmed and Slish dispatched them with a few strikes of her tazer baton. With them slumped on the floor she turned to the table to help her friends out only to stop and gasp at what was on the table.

"Guys you have to see this," she said with no trace of her usually biting tone.

The others disentangle themselves and rolled out from under the table to stand beside Slish and gape at the table. It was a round table made of stone and supported by a central pillar that looked like it was a part of the carved room. What drew their attention was that in the middle of the table was a complex of tiny walls and buildings barely a couple of millimeters tall. Fleas would barely be able to fit in it it was so small. And among the tiny fortress they recognized one tower among all the others no bigger then a grain of rice that had been knocked over. Feather reached out toward the model but as soon as her arm crossed the threshold of the table it began to shrink and she snatched it back quickly watching it return to its true size.

All of a sudden Punch doubled over began laughing hysterically. "Guys look," he called nearly crying with laughter. "It's the 'Big House'."

A small bunny twitched it's nose sniffing to try and detect an unseen danger. The bunny's home was an idyllic meadow which it shared with a cocophany of other adorable woodland creatures. It's neighbors included a pair of chipmonks, a quartet of squirrels, an old beaver, two elegant deer, and three doves nestled in the branches of an oak tree. It was the perfect patch of natural beauty, except everything was dead. Every little woodland creature was a rotting corpse shambling through it's idyllic settings which was mostly made of blacked grass and blood tripping trees. The Litch had preserved the Meadows beauty in twisted death.

In the center of the meadow sat a large boulder and as the zombie bunny looked around for whatever had triggered it's instincts the boulder rolled aside revealing a ramp into the ground. From out of the ground stepped Blitz squinting in the murky twilight that passed for day on Spekrog. The woodland undead all turned from their arbitrary roaming and hissed at the living rorakin.

Blitz slowly spread his arms to encompass the growling zombies that surrounded him. Not willing to wait Blitz balled his fists up and launched four concussive blasts that cracked four skulls before any of the furry little monsters could move. The zombies responded by bounding toward the rorakin as he spun flinging more blasts with pinpoint accuracy at the slobbering hoards. Four more critters crumpled in on themselves in mid bound to be followed quickly by four more dropping to the dirt. Only the bunny still hopped on barring it's fangs and getting a solid kick for it's trouble before being cratered with a blast.

"Oh sweet man you already caught dinner," Punch declared pating Blitz on the back as he and the others emerged from the ground.

The rest of the escapee's roose out of the bunker glancing around at the bleak world that surrounded them.

"Oh good the outside's still an apocalyptic hellscape I was worried things would have changed," Slish muttered sarcastically. "Are we sure we're not better off in the Big House?"

"You didn't have power withdrawal like me and Crash," Jet retorted. "I'd rather be torn apart by ravenous zombies then be eternally freezing."

"I had power withdrawal when I first got there," Slish replied. "For the first few months I walked headfirst into so many doors, I had to relearn to use them. I hit my head so much that the prison doctors had to rebuild my skull with a metal plate right here." She pointed to the middle of her forehead.

"Yeah but you got over it," Crash exclaimed. "For me every single day felt like a decade of slow monotonous suffering. I counted every heartbeat just to pass the time, yesterday it was seventy-eight thousand eight hundred and sixty-two. If I tried to move my arm or take a step my body barely twitched. I had to focus for so long just to take a single step. I don't ever want to have one of those collars on again."

"Don't worry man," Punch said putting his arm around his friends shoulders. "We won't let the GRUK recapture us, we're free and they can't lock us up anymore."

"Exactly Punch," Feather smiled. "We need to stick together and avoid the GRUK at all costs. It'd actually be better if the Litch's army caught us but I'd rather not be undead either. First we need to find someplace to regroup before it gets dark. Jet and Crash, I need you guys to search for a shelter. The rest of us should start moving."

Jet and Crash each nodded before disappearing in a blur and a blast of fire.
"Hey we should grab some of these critters for dinner," Punch suggested.

"You eat zombified meat," Slish exclaimed in disgust. "You'll get a plague."

"Nah you'll see," Punch replied. "You just need to char it to a crisp and it's safe to eat. Old Grammy Rockgroin taught me everything she knew you'll love it."

"I could certainly go for some charred flesh after all that prison gruel," Blitz added.

"Ok we'll bring some but Blitz you should keep your hands empty to blast any undead we come across," Feather told Blitz who nodded. She slung the two deer over her shoulder while Punch and Slish gathered up armfuls of the dead things. The four of them set out in the general direction the other two had flown and run in leaving the entrance to the big house behind.

The four mismatched companions stomped through the forest avoiding the grasping rotten brambles. The sound of their passage attracted a number of shambling horrors intent on devouring their living flesh. Nothing got within thirty yards of the group though before Blitz split them in half.

"This is just like old times before they locked me up," he said after exploding a skeletal muskrat. "Dispatching the dead with the utmost efficiency. No more boring days in a concrete box."

"It is nice to breathe fresh air again," Slish wrinkled her nose. "Love that smell of rot and decay."

"Yeah it's pretty great," Punch smiled oblivious to her sarcasm. "I'm super excited to be a part of a team again."

"Are we really a team," Blitz mused as he blasted a hawk diving toward Feather's head. "Or are we just a bunch of strangers who happened to escape together?"

"Well we are fugitives from the GRUK, it's not like there's anyone alive or dead we can trust anymore," Feather replied. "It's not like we can defect to the Lich without being eaten alive first. We're all one another has so we need to stick together closely.

"I'd love to stick real close to you Feather," Slish said seductively pinching her feathery ass.

Feather smiled taking hold of Slish's wrist and pulling her hand away from her butt. "Slish please stop. I'm really not interested in that," she said causing Slish's face to fall. She then grinned mischeiviously. "Unless you get me drunk."

She winked and walked off leaving Slish gaping after her. Punch sidled up besides the stunned shirvan and elbowed her.

"Dude she totally has the hots for you," he said smiling at her.

"Yeah maybe," she mumbled smiling down at her toes. The a small monkey missing it's face dropped down at them and was blasted out of the air by Blitz.

"Hey you two should keep up," he called back to them.