Edward was in the jailhouse now, well actually he was far below it. He and thousands of other prisoners toiled away in 20 hour blocks of manual labor before getting a few pitiful hours of leisure in the dark and musty cell blocks. Here he lay on a few strands of straws and a bed of bugs. It was a life sentence with a newly installed heart that hurt with every pulse.

The word on the street that had drifted down here through radio broadcasts was that the official royal charges were serious capital crimes that included being too freaky, feral, depraved, and devoid of the culture of humanity. The judges in the capital city had judged him harshly and it was looking like the end of the line. He was also extremely burnt out, and had his royal genes removed for a black and white striped institutionalized uniform. A charming place where all prisoners in the bowels of the company had become equally worthless, yet very profitable.

Edward and the rest of the chain gang he was attached to hit rocks with pickaxes. There was no escaping from the Killin company mines without dying, all employees please wear your hardhat declared the signs plastered all around them. A soot filled, damp job site coated with hairy black mold wrapping the steel frames on the ceiling above that made it difficult to think and tell the real bugs from the hallucinations.

Hundreds of prisoners toiled away in the main wide open cavern with a metal staircase that led to the overlooking office fastened to the rocks high above them. The glass was tinted, but one could always feel the presence behind it watching.

The walls rumbled from heavy machinery operating that knocked dust loose coating everything in grime. A nearby conveyor belt was in motion peppered with crystal chunks and guards every so often. They watched the ores with killer eyes, under sloppy uniforms. A senior officer trotted his horse while proudly swinging a stun button equipped with weaponized electric crystal. The sound of rocks being hit all around him had become uniform in what sounded like a swinging rhythm. The makeshift beat had begun to be accompanied by chants from the prisoners as they took up the song of gang vocals, and humming. A faint bassline mirrored the rhythm section from somewhere inside the walls.

“Jermey was a dealer who thought he was too lucky to lose

He tried to cop a feeler on a princess and ended up without a jack, or arms

Now he's rockin below the jailhouse

Loose and holding a different Ace up his sleeve” they sang.

An old timer with wrinkles deep enough to smuggle contraband and a hunchback so bad he was always touching his toes began to yodel. A hidden banjo started country picking while A loud screech of electricity feedback reverberated through the area knocking out lights . The earache was overpowering and cut deep into the skulls of the guards who covered them. The horse was spooked and bucked the screaming rider who was dragged away kicking and screaming. An electric guitar came to life with the hardest tone ever heard on Tenare. Edward had dropped his mining equipment and picked up the minor pentatonic scale. A guitar made of bones, and crystals he had secretly constructed after teleporting to the core and back again with smuggled rocks. Electricity surged from the live wire directly into his heart, and the chains burst into fire frying the other unfortunate souls attached before unshackling.

“Hey, you're supposed to be hitting rocks down there, not playing them!” screeched Lady over the intercom.

“Make them obey authority!,” yelled Simon, barging from the guard house.

The guards poured from all directions, as the blues riffing intensified. The majority of the enforcers came down a ramp that constricted them to double file march. The gang were boxed in, as a colonel named Klink rode in on a donkey cart with riot guards from behind. The colonel hid behind the extended shields of his men who formed a tight wall that blocked spit, and airborne rocks. He chuckled as he.reached to pull out the chord from the illegal instrument and canceled the show. The riot guards advanced, beating anyone in their path, and forming a circle around the troublemakers.

“You can’t keep a good monster down,” Edward laughed, hitting a power chord that amped his eyes wide open and heart into gear like a motor.

The colonel's body became a skeleton as he sizzled like an egg cooked on a radiator. The nearby rock wall exploded, sending the surrounding guards' bodies flying towards the moon. The feedback caught them off guard, splitting eardrums, and causing the dogs to flee the scene. The opening created revealed a hidden stack of amps 10 units tall, a demon playing an upright bass next to an opened portal to the core. Skeletons, and zombies burst from it playing fiddles, banjos, and each other's skulls. In the next room a prisoner had broken free and took up a dusty grand piano in the guards rec room. He hit the out of tune keys like a madman shaking off the dust with boogie-woogie jam on the ones not yet broken. Hearing their lockers were in danger of being looted, guards swarmed inside as someone took up a saxophone that shrieked like a banshee.

“Let’s make this a funhouse now boys” goaded the piano man dragging his arm down the keyboard.

The riot cops rushed towards the noise to put a stop to it, but they were interrupted by a loud whirring of a cut cable coming loose above.

“Smash!”

A fallen chandelier had been the perfect trap laid by those hiding behind a curtain. Now anarchy erupted throughout the entire mine as the riot kicked into overdrive. It was set to furious hardcore bluegrass music. The warden watched in horror as a man directly below got a lobotomy with a pickaxe while another was knocked out by a falling extra large energy drink.

Simon slid down a ladder that threatened to detach under his gravity. The giant warden grabbed hold of a chain gang and easily tossed the ten men attached over the edge screaming. Next he punched a prisoner so hard it knocked over 11 more like candlepins. His eyes locked onto Edward duck walking up a conveyor belt as electricity shot from his guitar frying guards along the path. He jumped onto the ledge where Simon was, and they faced each other down. Seeing the distracted warden a prisoner attacked from behind and began strangling the big brute with a chain around the neck. He was picked up and Simon began to shake, rattle and roll until the little man was crushed. Simon’s vape hissed like a cat being fried in a fuse box as his massive lungs filled with juice. The fruity flavored smoke engulfed the area driving out everyone but the two remaining with the toughest lungs.

“Ready?” taunted Edward, waving a finger at his foe.

“Rrrrrrage” growled Simon puffing up his muscled chest that glowed with veins overflowing with raw energy.

“Fight!” yelled Lady over the intercom.

Edward charged his guitar with a fast combo of advanced jazz chords that shot forward a ball of energy.

“Hahahaha” laughed Simon, absorbing the shot that signed off his chest hair and overpowered the fruity stink. The floor shook as the brute of a warden jogged forward towards his target. Edward transitioned from an f barre to a sussy d69 chord, and then started hitting the g string in panic. Sparks flew from the instrumental weapon into the charging giant who had caught on fire, but only continued to gain momentum.

“Hahahaha” he laughed, charging up a special move.

“DRAGON FIST!” Simon yelled, jumping towards his target with an extended arm.

“Wham!”

Edward’s guitar splintered into pieces as he was knocked off the edge screaming. Simon strutted to the edge in a victorious dance, and cracked his knuckles while searching for the body among all the others below. His eyes squinted at movement, but it was only a rat feasting on a toe.

“Haha I win” he laughed, before instinctively reaching for a victory puff.

“Bang!”

“Yeow” Simon cried as the vaping device exploded in his face. He stopped, dropped and rolled trying to extinguish the blue flames he was finally feeling.

Below Edward had rolled from the dead that had cushioned his fall, and was carried by more of them from the core. The zombies entered the lunch room, and set him limp on a table. They argued, and pushed each other around while grabbing items in a panic. A skeleton grabbed a vat of cold slop and splashed it over him. The rest of the ghouls had dragged out an entire workshop full of tools that they sorted through. They hooked jumper cables to an electric crystal, and then Edwards nipples.

“ZAAaap!”

He came alive again gasping and coughing for air. The dead continued tinkering, screwing, operating with another body on the lunch table parallel to him. Edward coughed and hacked up a mess of his guts while sweat had soaked his prison jumpsuit.

“Thanks for saving my ass boys” he said, patting a zombie on the back.

The creature turned, and handed him his repair instrument of death that looked like a relic.

“, now outfitted with 12 gauge stringsThese shouldn’t break this time sir” said the undead guitar tech.

“Thank you Jarvis, and company” said Edward now on his feet again.

He shook hands before turning on all three pickups, and volume to maximum.

The outnumbered jail guards on the lower floors had been backed into a corner. Those boxing them in were bleeding but filled with adrenaline. The air smelt sickly sweet like only red iron, and more would soon die. A stream of blood connected the bodies on the floor, some of which were missing limbs and crying out for their absent mothers. A prisoner had grabbed onto a fire hose and battered the shields still standing with the highly pressurized spray.

Edward ran out and jumped onto the conveyor belt behind them. He played a surf riff down the E string and sparks shot into the puddle of riot guards fried them all to death. It smelled like barbecue and tropical mango banana when he reached the ledge that he had previously been knocked off.

“Hmmmf” said Simon, turning for round 2, and cracking his burnt knuckles.

His features had been blackened except for rainbow colored scars covering his face where the vape had exploded. The enemies locked bloodshot eyes, and waited for the other to move first.

“KILL HIM KILL him.. Simon what are you doing he's going to run away” shrieked the voice over the intercom.

“RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAGE” screamed the brute stomping forward.

Edward began to solo on the twelfth fret back and forth with three fingers bending the lower strings before sliding back to the third, then the fifth. Simon closed the distance with every note. He had almost reached Edward who didn’t look up from the funky palm muting he was doing with a middle finger barre across all the notes. The warden raised his hand to strike while Edward was back to the 12th and his fret-board was humming with energy as the playing was too fast to comprehend.

“Dragon pu…”

“WOOOF!”

A pit-bull made of electricity had been conjured by the instrument. It shot forward on the attack leaping fearlessly towards Simon who yelped like a bitch as it bit him in the nuts. The warden ran faster than the notes back towards the stairs to his office and smacked head first into the supporting pillars. The electric dog let off its vice grip, and Edward smirked as he shot fireballs at the metal holding up the office high above. It wobbled and shook as the ceiling rained debris all over the mine. The lady inside ran for cover as the outer office came crashing down and smashing the giant warden who was defeated.

Upstairs Lady began to barricade the door with filing cabinets. She sprinted out of the area on heels so high her head smacked against the next doorway. She ran to where the elevator was, and was waved at by the guards who were already escaping a hundred feet above her. It was time to find somewhere to hide.

She sprinted back to the mail-room, barricaded the only door behind her, and hid underneath a desk before remembering the vault. After cranking back the lock, and hiding inside there was no way they would guess the code on the reinforced door that was explosive proof.

“Phew” she said to herself whipping away beads of sweat like a windshield wiper.

Low sounding growls accompanied by loud clanking noises came through the vent as something advanced. As it got closer she readied her electric whip.

“Pop” the vent toppled and the pit-bull emerged drooling sparks.

“Bad dog” cried the lady hitting it with her whip.

The dog being electric was immune to the attack. She extended blades from her heels and went to stomp on the creature but they went right thru in shocking fashion. The beast bit off a heel and chomped it down like a sword swallower at the carnival. Lady couldn’t stand on one leg and toppled over unbalanced. Her shrieks pierced the reinforced vault as the pit-bull went for the throat.