"Free Rhys Wilder!"
"We stand with Rhys!"
Outside Typhon's Island, several courthouses were currently being bombarded by heaps and groups of people; all of them, thousands of them, holding and raising signs that all pretty much said one thing — Free Rhys Wilder.
This situation would have probably been easily solved just by sending out the military — the only problem was...
...is that half of the military was also on Rhys's side, with all of the Underworld Corps even blatantly showing their support for Rhys by returning to the Surface and joining the protests.
Throughout this entire thing, the President of Amerka kept his silence and refused to address the nation. There is, however, someone who has been completely vocal about the entire thing and is now even addressing the people in his courthouse.
The Mayor of Old York.
[For hundreds of years now, Amerka has enabled this flawed culture to persist! For hundreds of years, we have turned a blind eye to the injustice that is being dealt to Lowborns, to the citizens who needed us the most!]
"Free Rhys Wilder! Free him!"
[And I hear all of you, and I have been saying the same thing but no one listens!] The Mayor of Old York slammed his fist on the pedestal, almost in rhythm with the roars and screams of the people,
[We have become too comfortable, and do you know why...? Because the Lowborns have done the hard jobs for us! Jobs that we would not otherwise do on our own! Lowborns are the bloodline of this country, it always has been! But what did the people who are supposed to lead us do when Rhys Wilder started going up?
They locked him up! They locked him up because they are scared of Rhys Wilder... they are scared of what we, the normal citizens, could do!]
"Down with the president! Impeach him!"
"Free Rhys Wilder!"
[I hear all of you...] The Mayor placed his hand on his chest as he placed his mouth closer to the microphone so he could whisper loudly, [...Even right now, as I join all of you, I am making actions to free our friend, Rhys Wilder. Some of you may not know this, but I have known Rhys Wilder since he was young, since the tragic incident that—]
"What... what is going on!?"
And before the Mayor could continue his words, a group of robed individuals suddenly emerged from the crowd — casually making their way to the stage as the guards had their hands full just trying to prevent the rest of the people from breaking into the courthouse.
"Sir Mayor! We need to get you out of here!" One of the guards quickly approached the Mayor, but the Mayor just shook his head and watched as the robed individuals stepped up on the stairs and lined themselves up one by one...
...one of them holding a pole which clearly had a statue depicting Rhys bound in chains.
The robed individuals then all took off their hoods at the same time, revealing the identical masks they were wearing.
"What the fuck is happening now!?" The people who were fearing for their lives inside the courthouse could not help but curse as they watched the commotion evolve outside. They were already nervous from all the crowd and the mayor riling everyone up, but now—
"...What?" Rhys didn't know whether to also move away from Dominique or just smile.
"Come on, dude... what the fuck?" Dominique returned to his side before hitting him on the arm again, "I'm pretty sure she gives the best head — I mean, we've actually all been betting on this before... but are her teeth real? Because if they are not, fuck...
...she's about to give you some slippery slurpy suck suck bro."
Rhys could really only watch as Dominique started pushing her cheek with her tongue and pretending to be sucking something.
"For a lesbian, you seemed pretty aware of what goes on with... that."
"Bro, come on — I've tried dick," Dominique scoffed and rolled her eye, "That's when I found out it wasn't for me."
"Right..." Rhys then turned to look at the 3 Filled Hearts floating above Dominique's head. Dominique was clearly not attracted to him romantically or even sexually — does that mean she was truly seeing him as a friend? Without any sort of malice?
Someone whom he had really only known for less than a month? Perhaps that was because they were both from the Underworld Corps, there's already a sense of camaraderie between them.
"...How about Mike and Art's gang?" Rhys then just let out a sigh as he and Dominique continued to walk around the prison; all the inmates they walked past greeted Rhys and even saluting him.
"What about them?"
"Do you think the killer could be someone from their ranks?" Rhys asked.
"No idea," Dominique shrugged, "But if I have to guess, I would say no — those guys rule their men with fear and intimidation, they won't just go rogue. Want me to give them a visit?"
"...We can visit them now," Rhys then said as he stopped walking and gestured to Dominique to go ahead, "Lead the way, Ma'am."
"Pft, Ma'am my ass," Dominique just rolled her eye again as she walked to the territory of Mike's gang; not even a minute after entering their hall, however, she and Rhys quickly looked at each other as they noticed something.
There weren't any people there, none at all.
What was there, however, was the exaggerating noise of each of their footsteps echoing and almost wailing in the air.
"Fuck... I have a very bad feeling about this, Rhys," Dominique then hastened her steps as she ran across the hall; her eyes, scanning all the cells on the ground level before stopping at the cell at the end of the hall,
"Ah, fuck... fuck!"
"Oh..." Rhys also quickly followed behind her, and as soon as he saw what Dominique was panicking about, he could not help but just let out a very long and deep sigh before shaking his head,
"...How long do you think they've been digging this?"
It was a Hole, right in the middle of the prison.