Blackjack, not much was actually known about the prisoner, yet everyone who was in the prison knew his name, and the reason for it was simple. Right in the center of the prison, everyone had witnessed him taking on the Warden and attempting to escape.
Many had tried to escape before, and the Warden had quickly dealt with them all. It didn't take much for everyone to quickly figure out that they had no chance against the Warden.
On top of that, the Warden made it quite clear, even if they could make it past her, what were they going to do then? Go past the hundreds of White Rose Agents that were in the base.
Escape was impossible from the Prison, which is why most of those in the prison made it their whole way of life.
As for Blackjack, his name was spread because everyone had witnessed the fight he had with the Warden. It was the first time they had seen the Warden on the back foot. Eventually, just like all those that had gone against the Warden, Blackjack ended up losing, but people thought it was close.
So close that they thought that Blackjack might attempt another escape or another match against the Warden, but he never did. It had been years since then, and still not another attempt.
Similarly, no one had attempted to go against Blackjack either. After watching the fight, they all had an idea of his strength. Both the North and South groups had attempted to recruit him, but his answer was always the same.
'He didn't want anything to do with their stupid games.'
Blackjack's actions felt strange to most of the prisoners. He didn't want to better his life in prison, climb to the top, nor was he trying to escape again, so what was he doing? Was he just biding his time until his sentence was up, or until he died in this place.
That was not how most people wanted to live their lives.
Stinger, going through the prison, knew exactly where Blackjack would be. He was always in the same place ninety percent of the time, in his cell.
Walking down the wide hallway, Stinger walked past several of the prisoners that would just stay in their cell, but further down, he could hear a bunch of noise and cheering going on.
"Hey, so that means tomorrow, you need to give me your meat from your meals, alright!" A voice said.
Stinger took a turn, and he looked into the cell. The bed had been moved into the center of the room, and there were four people inside. There were cards on the bed that the group had been playing with.
When they saw who was standing by the cell door, three of the four men stood up and almost immediately left.
'It looks like I still have some reputation in this place,' Stinger thought.
"Do you care to tell me why you came here and soured the room and atmosphere in here, you smell like sh*t," Blackjack commented as he started to pile the cards together.
Blackjack looked like a middle-aged man. He had his top off and was covered in body hair from head to toe. Strangely, he had almost no facial hair, since all of his hair seemed to go all over his body.
Stinger didn't know how one could have the confidence to walk around with their clothes off with a body like his.
"If you keep staring at me like that, I'm going to have to charge you," Blackjack said as he looked around the cell and found his top, slowly putting it on.
"Look, I'm here on important business," Stinger explained.
"From Carter or Calvin?"
"Carter," Stinger replied. "With the new guy here, he's starting to think about making moves. I've agreed to help Carter out when it gets messy in here. If the two groups clash, you know it will be too big for you not to get involved.
"At the same time, whichever group wins will absorb the other, then there will only be one group in this place. They will be too big for anyone to do anything, including you and Ice. So I think you should join the South group. Join the winning side, and you can continue living in your peaceful cell.
"If you don't do anything, then when the South rules the whole prison, Carter won't speak to you as nice as he does now."
This was the plan Stinger had come up with, and he was quite impressed with himself. He felt like he was quite convincing in a lot of ways. Still, he knew it wouldn't be easy convincing Blackjack.
"All right," Blackjack replied. "I'll join."
Stinger's eyes nearly popped out of his head; he was so surprised to hear the answer. The other groups had tried for so long; did they just never give a convincing reason for him to join them.
"On one condition, you need to just call this correct, heads or tails," Blackjack answered, holding onto a coin.
Before Stinger could say how ridiculous it was, Blackjack had already flicked the coin in the air.
"Heads!" Stinger shouted out.
Blackjack stepped, letting the coin land on the floor and then stepped on it. Moving his foot off, the result could clearly be seen.
"Unlucky, it's tails; that was a 50/50 chance, better luck next time," Blackjack said.
"Are you messing with me!" Stinger shouted. "Clearly, you did some dirty trick to make it land on tails. If you didn't want to join, then just say so; you don't have to cheat!"
Blackjack threw one of the cards he had in his hand that skimmed right past Stinger's face, cutting his cheek.
"I never cheat," Blackjack said.
A trickle could be felt down the side of Stinger's face; it was blood, and his rage had reached boiling point.
"I'll kill you and force you to join!" Stinger shouted, as he started to transform; his tail was growing out from behind, but when it grew, moments later, it retracted back in, and the throbbing pain in his shoulder was felt.
"What the…"
*****