The elevator doors creaked open and Spark stepped out along with Dawn, their hooves marking the carpet as they trotted out the door. As the door shut a small cloud of dust kicked up, lifting into the air and disintegrating.
"Hey, I know you think this whole place is a dump but it gets the job done." Her eyes caressed the building with a mother's touch to a newborn foal.
"How long have you been here?"
"Didn't anypony tell you it's rude to ask a mare her age?"
"I didn't ask that."
With a whip of her mane she walked off.
"You had better catch up. A new colt like you’ll get eaten alive here."
With a bounce in his step and a slight grin he caught up with her, and the time between his steps increased.
"Listening to me is the first step to survival." Coming from anypony else he would have disregarded the phrase. In light of his recent endeavors he had learned the choices were not always his to make.
"You have anything interesting to say about yourself? It's going to be a long walk if you don't." She looked into his mechanical eyes and waited for a response. Legitimate or not she didn't care, as long as there was something to do.
"I used to be a fighter." He stated blankly. The night sky was much more intriguing than silly stories or learning experiences. Looking at it through the battered city managed to increase its beauty, particularly due to the contrast of soft glowing signs and sharp, bright stars.
"Were you just re-engineered ?" Her irritation was starting to show. "I mean jeez, you have the attention span of some 8 bit A.I program."
"A few hours ago I was. By Clockwork himself."
"And you're thinking about how different things are going to be now?"
"Yes." He continued watching the stars, who were always watching back.
"It gets better don't worry. All depends on you though, the decisions you make, the ponies you meet, all that stuff."
"What's that light up ahead?"
"That there, is your ticket to the real Subscape."
The "ticket" looked no different than the buildings in sector 86, but stood out like a infected hoof. It was small, about 3 stories tall and easy to spot from its glowing red neon. Pulsating music seemed to escape the small building accompanied by brightly flashing arrays of pink, blue, green, and red light. They flashed with such frequency and speed that they’d probably send an epileptic into a massive fit. Outside of the building however things were far more orthodox, perhaps a bit too orthodox.
The crunching of glass and plastic got louder and more prevalent as they approached it's doors, along with a steady thumping sound. What was it? A club? A training center? The generic black exterior and the grime caked floor outside didn't provide any decent explanations, just statements on how atrocious the city was.
They walked up to the steel doors, and Dawn swung them open like the gates of the Tartarus. A flood of light consumed them and a wave of sound blasted through their eardrums leaving a ringing afternote.
"Scared?"
"No, just curious." Spark answered, yelling to be heard over the noise.
The two stepped inside and the door shut. The entire interior was abuzz with ponies, griffins, bass heavy music and pastel colored laser lights seemingly changing at random and swinging about the club like hyper fairies. The strobes responsible glistened like disco-balls mixed with speeding cameras. There were three floors; the topmost being the VIP section where anybody from neighborhood gang-heads to incognito celebrities looked down upon the moshpit of sounds and bodies drinking and lounging in luxury. The second floor, where the door was and subsequently where the two had come from was a simple stainless steel floor with a bar placed in the corner. Tables and hopping waiters and waitresses indicated this was the bar and grill.
The 3rd and final floor was below them. A combination of stripper poles, a stage, loud music, and writhing bodies gave it a chaotic new-age feel as hundred of ponies, griffins, changelings, and what-have-yous all danced, thrashes, and head-banged to the beat. The four poles where suspended in midair by pulsar technology, and on each one was either a skimpily clad pegasus or griffin, grinding, swinging, and winking at the moshpit below, driving the males and females crazier than they already were.
“What is this place!” Spark shouted above the cacophony. Dawn smiled deviously as she stepped up to the small balcony overlooking the literal moshpit.
“This here? Just call it paradise!” Dawn shouted back.
Spark followed up the stairwell and looked back at the ongoing madness below. It may not have been paradise but it sure was something.
Other ponies watched inconspicuously, as the two made their way to a table and sat down.
"Obviously we're not here to party, I brought you here to give you some background of the sector." The playfulness in her voice fading.
"And that would be?"
"I'd rather show than tell." She pointed a mechanical hoof at the third floor. "There are at least twelve different criminals down there, with most of their bosses being on the upper levels. You see how some of them are cy-techs and others aren't right?"
"Yes."
"A majority of them will be killed by us."
"Us? As in you, Skyfall, Sharpshot Arthur and I?"
Dawn pursed her lips and snickered.
"No, just you and I. And occasionally Sharpshot."
One of the dancers stepped off her pole and walked into one of the more private rooms, teasing the ponies with swaying of her hips and seductive winks as she walked by them.
"We rack up the kills, they pick up the goods. That's how it's been and that's how it’s gonna be." She looked down at the lower floors and examined the several groups of ponies. "We should go."
“Whoa whoa, hold up. You're saying we gonna just go down there, and just... kill them? Just, out of the blue?” Asked Spark, scrambling to get out of his seat. Dawn snorted, her golden eyes twinkled mischievously as she turned and made her way downstairs.
“Eeyup."
Still in shock, he watched her pull out a glowing black .44 magnum. An old version from what he could see.
Firearm detected: .47 Pulsar Tech Oscillatory self-defense weapon. Model: 9302-7B Prototype “Pendulum”
His vision switched back to x-ray detailing the gun.
“Pendulum?” He asked. The onboard A.I responded.
Pendulum: An alpha-phased developmental weapon combining PULSAR technology, and Oscillation technology.
He saw the inside of the gun, and what appeared to be some sort of cylindrical spinning...thing where the bullet-chamber should have been. A chime signaling the A.I’s response alerted him.
That would be the M.A.C or Mass Accelerating Chamber used to hyper-heat and distribute the bullet.
He watched as she lifted onto her hindlegs, using her left foreleg to fan the hammer as she opened fire on the target.
Oscillatory technology uses the power of the recoil to “launch pad” the bullet, extending range, power and accuracy by 50%.
Replied the A.I smugly. He continued to watch as the super-heated bullet struck one of the “criminals” a changeling wearing a dark black-skin suit in the eye. While most, if not everyone saw the head snap back with the force of impact, Spark saw things differently.
He watched as the first bullet tore the eye-socket and continued on through the rest of the brain going at a 45 degree angle downwards, coming in through the frontal lobe, going through the optic chasm, the Hypothalamus, then through the Amygdala, a small bulb located near the Temporal lobe, before carving a path of super-heated destruction through the Cerebellum.
The club flew into chaos, and Dawn fired five more rounds and the vibrant flash of the muzzle lit up her eyes.
"Don't just stand there, fire off some rounds!" She shouted as the goons from below opened fire.
Warning: Hostile Fire detected.
Arming: Disabled
Disabled?
As he ducked for cover behind a table he tried to trigger his defense mechanisms, doing everything from hitting his hoof on the ground to trying to pull the barrel out of his body. It was still no use, he was weaponless.
Magic it is then.
With a telekinetic shove, he sent the table and a few ponies into a wall with a loud crunch. Exposed, he put up a wall of pure magic to deflect the bullets, turning them against their original owners. With a flash the shield turned into shards of energy, and flew through the air like a shotgun blast, tearing through everything in it's path on a massive scale. Bullets pinged and ricocheted off the telescrenes, puncturing holes in the crystal clear glass and sending sparks everywhere.
As the two engaged in their firefight, a changeling on the lower decks began arming an air burst rocket launcher on the floor below them. The “Ball Buster” as it was affectionately called by those on the receiving end. After sliding in the 20 pound projectile she heaved it up on her shoulders and stood up, slightly swaying from side to side. Looking through its holographic sight, she locked onto the two cybernetic ponies and prepared to fire.
“Spark!” Dawn tackled the weaponless cybernetic putting him out of harms way just as the changeling pulled the trigger. There was a thump, and the "ball buster" tore through the floors hurtling towards the two ponies.
Dawn drew her magnum and reloaded it's M.A.C system in ten milliseconds flat. Pulling out a grey/golden round speed re-loader with six shots already sticking upright, she slammed the reloaded into the chamber. The cock of the hammer and the crack of the gun were heard almost simultaneously as the round penetrated the explosive midair; but it didn't stop there. The metal ball exploded, and the round went through the changeling's left eye before snapping her neck and most likely destroying her collarbone with force.
Nice shot. Spark watched as the changeling's twisted body hit the floor with a thud.
"I think that's enough damage for one night, we should probably get back." The revolver slid back into her forehoof and the metallic slot closed.
The floors of the club were riddled with shell casings and a few molten slugs from Dawn's magnum were melting their way through the floor. The battered and bloodied bodies of changelings, griffons and ponies were sprawled across the floor.
"It's a masterpiece." Dawn pointed a cold metal hoof at the floor. "You done critiquing it yet? If you are I'd like to go.
"Yeah sure." His voice trailed off as he stepped over the head of a cybernetic pony. But upon closer inspection, he noticed there was an additional tech piece protruding out of it. A gold claw had pierced it's eyes, and Spark could see a few of the creature's fingers through the five holes it had made in the back of it's seemingly "indestructible" skull.
Wierd.