In honor of A Few Bad Men turning 4 years old, let's put some Spotlight on Everhold Prison! Today, I'll be taking a moment to discuss the Security Staff of Everhold Prison, their Wispons and Wisps
But first, a quick exposition! Everhold Prison is a highly-secured prison that was introduced in issue one of the Sonic IDW Bad Guys Mini series, A Few Bad Men. This is the prison where Starline formed the Deadly Four with Zavok, Mimic, Rough & Tumble while causing a mass firery jailbreak in the process. We can basically compare it to a Maximum Security Prison without Deathrow.
Everhold Prison is run by The Warden. A fluffy dog man who would have his life screwed over by Starline (twice), but this post isn't about him. This post is about the guards, most of which seem to be some non-specified mammalian species.
All the guards share sevral things in common : Design, Purpose, Wisps, & Wispons
I am here to discuss their Wisps & Wispons. All the prison guards use Hover Wispons, which are powered by Green Hover Wisps. For a long time, I never questioned why they all used this particular weaponry until today, and I think I've figured out the background behind this little detail.
We know by default that the Hover Wispons can launch shockwaves of air when triggered. In Sonic Forces, our avatars used this to send badniks flying and knock them out. Knowing these devices can take down large tons of metal mass, the idea of what it can do to an organic being is intriguing to think about. If you triggered the Hover Wispon upon an organic being, it would send them launching back by an impressive distance. Especially considering that Mobians are (usually) smaller than Eggpawns.
Having a device this powerful as a prison guard would be VERY beneficial. One trigger of the button, and you can break up fights, part crowds, and put rowdy troublemakers back in line. Now, the shockwave receivers may suffer some physical pain if they get sent into a wall or door so we can take this as a sign that the guards would ONLY use these wispons of absolutely necessary.
The fact that these guards even have weapons in pretty lucky. Some Max Security Prisons won't allow guards to carry weaponry because if a prisoner gets a hold of it, it's going to be a bad time for everyone involved. We actually witness an example of this when Mimic transforms into the Warden and "borrows" a guard's wispon. The wisp inside wasn't conscious/aware of who was welding them until it was too late.
So Everhold Prison must be holding some really dangerous nasties outside of our well-known villains to constantly be this on guard. Especially considering the risk that shines when these Wispons are stolen. Thankfully, once a Green Wisp leaves the wispon and gets a glance of who's welding it, they'll refuse to get back in. We saw something similar happen in issue 3 of Sonic IDW.
But being taken advantage of isn't the only risk with the Hover Wispons. Wispons are not EM-sheilded, meaning they can easily be manipulated by Zeti. We see this happen when Zavok manipulates a hall's worth of Hover Wispons, causing a mass bouncy-ball-esc panic for the guards.
What surprises me about this, is we witness two Green Wisps leave their wispons after Zavok takes control of them, and they're dizzy. And likely uneasy.
This could imply that being manipulated by Zeti not only affects the device but its power source, in this case, the wisps. This makes me wonder if the little animals inside of Eggman's Badniks also become dizzy from Zeti control.
But to conclude this analysis : Everhold Prison is full of horrible and dangerous mobians that perform as a constant threat to their guards, resulting in them being heavily armed with alien guns- I mean wispons. Also, the guards did NOT have a good time the day A Few Bad Men took place.