[color=red]"...So I ask you this, where do your loyalties lie?"[/color]

Chris stared at the guard. He was overwhelmed by the sheer power of fight-or-flight that was pressing down on his brain, and unconsciously began fidgeting with his bracelet again. This... this [i]man[/i], did not deserve to have his head attached to his body, and on the other hand, suggesting a mere nudge in his direction put Chris's body in physical pain. He exhaled forcefully and turned to move towards the other guard and his victim, sprawled on the floor and choking on insults that somehow flowed out of him by themselves.

The guard, intent on silencing the broken young man forever, stopped in mid-swing. His eyes challenged Chris to react, and his body was tense like a spring, his hand ready to modify the swing vector to hit either of the prisoners. The man on the floor was shaking slightly with the pain, his breaths raspy and shallow as his lungs forced against cracked ribs. And as Chris's eyes move from the prisoner to the guard, all he could imagine was grabbing the baton from the guard's hand and smashing it against his half-helmet with all his body's augmented might. The man caught the look for what it was and slammed the baton against Chris's shoulder as a warning, not enough for a fracture but for an impressive bruise.

The draw was set. Crouching, the young man found the other prisoner's neck with his hand, and sent the strongest signal that he could muster that would accelerate biological repairs beyond the body's natural limitation. But he read this body first, and realized even as he proceeded that this would be useless - the prisoner was completely drained of energy, which his body consumed in an absurdly high rate. The body would not repair itself without a price.

Chris rose to his feet. His banded wrist was completely numb now. But the pressure on his mind was gone. When it wasn't only about him, the choice between fight and flight was obvious. He tried each of the muscles on his arms, chest, legs, made sure his shoes were comfortable. Then, he straightened his gaze at the guard.

[color=aqua]"Your move."[/color]