Chapter 15: Punishment

These prisoners when they were free were basically apex predators of their area, killing whoever and stealing whatever and few could do jack shit about it. That's what it meant to land yourself on level 5.

There were fewer cells in the section, in favor of each cell being heavily reinforced, and quite a few were customized for the specific villains that were contained in them. Now more than ever though, these guys hoped to god, that they were strong enough to keep this monster at bay.

This was because they could feel his killing intent, and knowing that he had already achieved something they couldn't by breaking out, while no one wanted to admit it they knew he was well above them in power.

One wasn't happy feeling so powerless, so he spoke up. "Don't worry guys. The only way he could get these cell doors open is by forcing a mass override, which frees all of us at once. So once he does that, we could all jump him together."

A few of the other inmates cheered for this, but that cheering soon faded as Jack walked up to the inmate that spoke up. He was a shark man, a solid 8 feet tall and hulking with muscle mass and destructive power. His mouth filled with teeth that could probably rip through entire vehicles in a single chomp.

Jack placed his hands on the bars, and simply pulled. That's all it took for the bars to slowly bend outwards, much to everyone's disbelief. Every cell had a smaller scale version of the hydraulics he had down below, so force was applied to counter his own.

Completely pointless is all it ended up being though, he had already beaten the stronger version, so the weaker version was a joke and a half at best, a waste of tax dollars at worst. Much like the last one, they gave in all of a sudden in an instant, and he ripped the cell wide open and just walked in.

The shark man no longer felt killing intent. Just death itself, knocking on his door. And despite his instincts saying that it might be better to just let go, he forced himself to act and charge at Ghost Rider.

Sidestepping the panicked charge, Jack swung his leg out wide, caught him in the chest mid charge, and slammed him into the back of his reinforced cell, cracking it heavily as small chunks broke off and fell over him.

Deciding to make a proper show of this, he carried the struggling shark man out of his cell, and into the middle of the prison hall, before pulling him down and looking him in the eyes. "Time for you to get a taste of your own medicine, you can no longer hide from it in your cell anymore."

This shark man had started out just a normal goon, and only killed a couple cops in small fights. But one time in a panic, he had to bite a hero in order to win, ripping their head right off their shoulders. And he liked it. So he went from goon, to full on cannibal.

Heroes, police, civilians at the beach, he ate whoever he could whenever he could. And now he was feeling that in full. It was like a horde of himself was tearing him apart, piece by piece, and relishing it. He died screaming in agony, terrified, like all his victims did before him.

Looking around the prison, Jack made sure to give a proper explanation. "That, was my Penance Stare. Basically, it lets me show you all of your sins, and you feel every single one of the before you die. So go ahead, and think about it now. What you've done over your entire lives, every bit of agony you've caused. And think about how it's all about to come back to you. Because you're next. You're all, next."

"Well, not all of you." Looking around, he found two men with fairly minimal sins for this level, they were strong but accomplices at best. But they'd still be worth killing. So he decided to give those two an option.

"You, and you." The two he pointed to got really excited, and he rained right on their parade.

"I'm still gonna kill you, but you've got a choice. Penance Stare, or-" Walking over to one of the unconscious guards, Jack picked it up and looked at it, before choosing it and charging it with hellfire, shifting it's appearance to one charred and flaming, looking like it was forged in the depths of hell itself.

"Shotgun blast to the face. Sounds quick and painless enough. If it's good enough for the guitarist of a major rock band, it's good enough for you." All the other prisoners jeered at this, hoping the other two wouldn't pussy out and take the easy way.

To no one's surprise, shotgun to the face sounded nice compared to suffering the pain of several deaths, if not dozens. So both prisoners just stuck their heads as close to the bar as they could and closed their eyes.

Obliging them, he quickly strutted over, stuck the shotgun in one's face, and pulled the trigger, repainting the entire cell red, and putting a few holes in it as the shells went cleanly through. Not wanting to leave the other one waiting, he quickly went over and did the same.

He could have been way more sadistic about this. Take his time, make them guess and anticipate when he was gonna pull the trigger. But he was torturing enough criminals today, so he was merciful on those two lesser ones.

Everyone else though, he'd make them pay properly. Trying to do this quick, he ran between the cells, and didn't play around anymore. If they resisted, he'd break whatever bones he needed to before they stopped.

One particularly stubborn bastard got his arm broken, then his other arm, and then both legs, and he still tried to fight. "You were named the Black Knight for a reason. You were cruel and disgusting. Your code, your determination. They mean nothing attached to a soul like your own."

With that, he finished him and the rest of them off, and moved for the next floor of the prison, Sector 4. Because yes, they made the design super annoying so you could only go up one floor at a time, specifically so escapees would have to go through every single sector above them and all their guards.

'It must suck having to come into work in the morning and go through every single Sector down to 5. That must take way too damn long.' In fact it was, which was why Sector 5 was actually understaffed. He'd figure this out the hard way when he jumped up the stair well, jumping from railing to the opposite higher railing, all the way from 5 to 4; and came to face with an entire line of armed guards all along both the first and second floors of the sector.

"You're making it really hard to not kill any of you, you know that right?" Jack said this and started running at the middle of the room. Before focusing on something. He could manipulate hellfire, and he could enhance weapons with hellfire. So, couldn't he just make those weapons purely out of hellfire instead?

With this thought in mind, he made a chain, an extremely long chain that glowed a fiery orange. And he whipped it around the room, to smack it into every guard along the first floor. Most were knocked down onto the ground, groaning in pain. The few that hit the deck to dodge, just had their buddies fall on them and keep them down.

Throwing his chain around the railing of the second floor, Jack yanked and pulled himself up there, right at a guard who he landed on and kicked into the ground. Unable to efficiently use the same trick twice, he had to do this a little more normally, and take them out a couple at a time with hand to hand combat.

With his experience of fighting the assassin and people trained by him, he was actually a match in skill for the well trained guards, and combine that with his superior physical abilities, and he was able to drop most of them in one or two exchanges.

After leaving yet another pile of guards in his wake, Jack made like the last sector and set about killing all the inmates. Giving the lesser ones the option of shotgun to the face, and all others getting the Penance Stare. As the fact that they were on a higher level implied, these guys were weaker than the ones before, so they gave him even less trouble.

Through the cameras placed on each sector, all the wardens, the ones of each prison and the Island Warden, watched this escape play out, the one in charge of that specific prison punching his desk. "Dammit! Can't those bastards do anything right!?"

"It's not like they're up against a guy who took out several pro heroes, oh wait they are. Calm your tits, it's not like we really expected them to put up much of a fight. They're just there to buy us some time. Besides, the only people he's actually killing are the inmates, so when you think about it he's just saving the tax payers money. Millions, might I add."

The warden of the all female prison, spoke vulgarly but with a weird sense of dignity to her. Her clean business suit did wonders for her curves, but the warden knew better than to be caught staring at her. Last time someone did, they found out what high heels could do to a man's crotch.

Which is part of the reason she's warden of the female prison, because if she was running a male prison, before you knew it the whole prison would be into that shit. If some of them weren't already, that is.

They heard another loud thud coming from the security cameras, and they all guessed at the same time. "That must be Sector 3."

Turning their attention back to the female warden, the Island Warden tried talked some sense into her. "No matter your personal opinions, please remember your official position as the warden of the best all female prison in the state, on the best prison island in the country."

Speaking over the gunfire and fighting that was going on in Sector 3, they simply focused on other matters, having accepted that that prison was pretty well fucked. Any fighters would a damn, would basically level an entire sector in their clash with the Ghost Rider, so it was better to just wait until later for that whole encounter.

It's one thing to rebuild broken cells, it's another to rebuild an entire collapsed prison. As for the inmates themselves, nobody actually cared about them. Sure, the 'shame' of having that many die will be an issue, but in actuality that just freed up a ton of their budget, and cleared a ton of headaches.

They just weren't allowed to say that, hence the Island Warden's statement earlier. Hearing an odd silence, they looked over to see that Sector 3 was clear already, and he was moving on to Sector 2.

"Are the welcoming mat preparations ready?" The Island Warden inquired, as this was their ace in the hole to end this without further issues.

"We'll need some more time sir, but it should be ready by the time Ghost Rider reaches the outside." Looking out into the prison yard, the warden's couldn't help but mentally apologize to all the landscapers that would have to clean up later. Craters were an absolute bitch to clean, and so was blood.

With that, all the wardens signed off the call, and those uninvolved with the planning just went back to their work until further notice. Surprisingly enough, the only one that went on to flirt with their hot secretary, was the female warden. Because of this, no one would hear from her for the next couple hours, no matter how much they called.

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Meanwhile, Lyn was rushing to put her coat on in a panic, having just received the call about Rikers Island. In her mind, all she could think about was the fact that Jack called it. Grabbing her gun, she left in a hurry, and on her way there she called Jack's phone, only to receive no answer. In a huff, she pocketed the phone and groaned.