Pierce Network waited out at the side of the school building where students didn’t normally go to, looking at his phone as he stretched out his injured leg in front of himself, leaning back on the bench he was sitting on.
Most of the students would’ve probably cleared the building already, only leaving the ones who still had activities to go to.
“What have I gotten myself into…” Pierce mumbled and rested his head in his hand.
Everything had been going almost smoothly the last two years. Sure, being a teacher wasn’t easy, but no one had bothered to look twice over here for him until now. He knew the tales of Mirror Match. Hay, he’d seen them first hand back when he tried to take her down when he was still in the Brotherhood.
He had asked the Assassins to meet him here, but now that he thought about it, perhaps Canterlot High wasn’t the best place to meet. He could’ve always picked somewhere less populated or perhaps somewhere out of sight from the regular joe, but he had already sent out the message, so it was too late to fix up a new meeting point without risking someone going to the wrong spot, that is, if anyone got his message at all.
He opened the weather app on his phone, looking up the forecast. Thankfully, it looked like it was going to be clear skies all day, so he didn’t need to worry about waiting out here in the rain.
“So you really are still alive, huh?” a female voice said close behind him.
Sitting up straight, Pierce turned his head to see a familiar woman with white and green hair tied up into a braid, standing just behind his bench, her arms folded across her chest. She had on a blue jacket over a black tank top and pink shirt. Pierce wouldn’t have normally wanted to see her again, but like it or not, she was exactly what he was looking for: an Assassin.
“Morning Blade,” he nodded his greeting. “Nice to see you. I heard a lot of what happened on the news. Glad to see you’re still alive. Things had been pretty bad in the recent months, huh? How-How has everything been? I hope these years haven’t been too hard on you.”
Morning Blade glowered at him.
“What do you want?” she asked with her eyes narrowed.
Pierce sighed. He knew things weren’t going to be easy with her.
“Morning Blade, I need your help in a matter,” he explained. “It is of utmost importance that we succeed. To do that, I really need your help.”
“You didn’t seem to need me two years ago when you ditched us.”
The statement cut right through to the heart of the matter. Morning was still angry at him for leaving the Assassins.
“Now, Morning Blade, look, maybe I shouldn’t have, but right now, none of that matters. Mirror Match, she’s still alive and she’s coming for me, and if I don’t do as she says… You can guess what happens.”
“But Mirror Match is dead,” Morning protested. “They said so on the news.”
“Well, she isn’t. She’s visited me and I have the injury to show,” Pierce rolled up his pant leg to show Morning the bandages around his knee. “She wants me to return her funds and her home to her or else… Wait, that’s right. You were a student here. Right here in CHS. I remember High Noon telling me something like that. It’s a pity that cowboy didn’t make it. He was a good Assassin-”
“Pierce,” Morning interrupted. “Quit rambling and get to the point.”
“It’s Principal Celestia. It isn’t just my life on the line, it’s hers. Mirror Match has been pretending to be her and the real Principal Celestia has been captured and put somewhere I cannot locate. If I don’t get these for Mirror, we’re both in trouble.”
“Wait, what? Mirror’s impersonating Principal Celestia? Do you realize how mad this all sounds? How can she be doing that and not get caught? I mean, the two look nothing alike.”
“I didn’t even know it was her until she shot me in the knee. She’s clever, always has been. I’ve come to learn never to underestimate Mirror Match. You shouldn’t either.”
“Look,” Morning said crossly. “Even if I believed you about all this, which I don’t, by the way, you still haven’t told me what you want me for. You’re a traitor and should be served as a traitor deserves.” Morning punctuated this by unfurling her hidden blade menacingly.
Pierce frowned, then looked around wearily before focusing back on Morning. “Until I figure out a plan to stop Mirror Match, I have to buy time by doing what she wants. This is where you come in. I need someone to climb up the real estate office building and the Manehattan Central Bank to plant bugs so I can hack their systems. With my leg in this condition, I’m in no position to climb.”
Morning Blade looked skeptical.
“So you just want me to… climb a building? That’s your angle?”
Pierce shook his head disappointedly. “That’s all I can do for the moment… Will you help me, Morning Blade?”
Morning looked uncomfortable.
“Look. If you really are telling the truth, then Celestia’s really in danger, is she?”
“I’m afraid so,” Pierce nodded. “As a staff member here at Canterlot High School, there’s no way I’d let Mirror Match harm the principal. She has to be stopped, but the only way to do that is to buy time to come up with something. We cannot let injustice win. That was the reason I started being a Vigilante back in Chicoltgo. I couldn’t just let all these bad things happen in front of my eyes without doing something. Sometimes, it’s necessary to do something bad to prevent further chaos, but as an Assassin, you already know that.”
“Right, whatever you say, Pierce.”
“Hmm…” the teacher put a hand to his chin. “Is anyone else around? Perhaps with numbers, we can come out triumphant. Is Frigid Night available? If anything, that kid had resolve and fighting skill.”
“Pierce,” Morning said quietly. “Frigid Night is dead. The rest of the Assassins besides Keila, they’re all dead.”
“All of them?” Pierce asked, his mouth hanging open.
“It’s just as well anyway. The Assassins are finished anyway, without the artifacts to protect.”
Pierce rubbed at his chin vigorously. So much for his plan of assembling an attacking force. Now there were just two left and Pierce had never spoken to Keila before. When he had left, they still had her in the medic wing, on the verge of death.
“It’s a shame. I heard about High Noon and Dewdrop over the news, but to think Frigid Night as well… This changes things. So are you in, Morning Blade? Can I count on you for this job?”
Morning snorted. “Spare me. I know you; you’re not sad about anything.”
Pierce was slightly taken aback. Slightly. “It doesn’t matter what I feel. What matters is whether you can help me and take Mirror Match down.”
Morning Blade folded her arms and looked away. “Fine, I’ll join. But just remember, I’m not doing this for you. This is for Principal Celestia and only Principal Celestia. I couldn’t care what happens to you.”
“Very well,” Pierce replied. “As long as I can buy enough time to come up with a plan, I don’t care what you think of me. I just need you to get the job done. That’s really all there is to it. It’s us and Mirror Match. This Keila, do you think she’ll come? I sent out the message to all Assassins.”
“If she still has her phone, she’ll come,” Morning grunted. “Now tell me, what exactly is going on here?”
“We should find a better place to talk,” Pierce kept looking over his shoulder, anticipating Mirror Match to be watching him from somewhere. “A more comfortable one at that. I can’t really sit very well with my leg like this and she just refuses to heal it for me to do her work for her. I don’t know what her problem is, but I intend to find out exactly what she’s trying to do here.”
Pierce slowly pushed himself up and shuffled forward, beckoning for Morning Blade to follow him to his car. Perhaps he did have a slight chance of coming out of this alive after all.
Morning Blade scaled the rooftops of the tall Manehattan buildings, jumping from pipe to pipe, testing their steadiness before making her climb up. She looked down, noticing the few bustling vehicles down on the streets. It was already close to midnight and most people were already home with their families or on the way.
Morning sighed as she grabbed a ledge to the side and shimmied over. She’d only just gone back to be with her family for a few months when all this Assassin business caught up to her again. She had brought out her hidden blade from her cabinet just in case. Maybe if it was Frigid Night calling her back out, she’d gladly come, but it had been that traitor, Pierce Network, the one who left them two years ago when they really needed every help they could get.
Morning Blade shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to think about that. She put her hand into her pocket, pulling out a tiny bug that Pierce had given her to plant onto the antennae of the real estate office.
Looking up, Morning groaned internally as she looked to the top of the building; she still had at least ten meters to go.
They sure have a really big building…
Morning Blade shimmied along a ledge, hauled herself up an overhang, and continued her climb upwards. She had taken the elevator to the highest floor and proceeded up from there, but it was still an impressive distance to the antennae.
“Morning to Pierce,” she grunted into her headset. “You’re sure this is the right building?”
“Of course I’m sure,” the computer teacher’s voice came out on the other end. “I’m no amateur in this line of business. I’d do it myself, but you know what happened. I always do my research beforehand so that I don’t hack the wrong database. Getting the right place is very important in hacking.”
Morning Blade tuned out the rest of his explanation on hacking as she grabbed ahold of displaced bricks, making her way closer to the roof. Soon, she found herself staring up at the antenna tower, watching its blinking red and green lights as the winds blew around her, tossing her white and green braid around.
“Pierce, I’m almost there,” she said as she placed one hand on the metal tower.
“Good. Now when you reach the top, there’ll be a rectangular power box you need to access,” Pierce said as Morning easily began climbing up, using its metal rungs as handles to quickly pull herself up. “Simply pull it open and place my bug against the bottom wires, attaching the plugs to the two black wires that should be there. Once that’s done, I should be able to hack my way into the real estate agency’s database and do what I need to do from here.”
Morning placed both feet on the top support and pried open the fuse box with her hidden blade. “Gotcha. Attaching the wires now.”
Back at Canterlot High, Pierce Network and Celestia were gathered around his computer, watching as the bug did its work.
“Syncing at one hundred percent… bypassing firewalls… and we’re in,” Pierce reported. “See? What did I tell you? It’s like child’s play as soon as you get the bug in their systems. People don’t know how to create secure firewalls these days. Even this school didn’t have a good one when I first started my job here. If not for me, I don’t know how many people would’ve hacked their way into the school’s systems.”
“Just stop talking and do your job,” Celestia hissed, glancing over her shoulder at the window in the locked door. “I don’t like having to do it here. It’s too exposed. Couldn’t we do this with a laptop in some net cafe?”
“I only work from my own computers,” Pierce said stubbornly. “Any other computer is inferior and insecure. So it’s either here or from my house. I built these up myself. I’ve made sure no common hacker will be able to get into my systems and steal my information. I don’t make it easy for people to do what I do. Some people think they’re untouchable behind their computer systems, but if you really want to be secure, you should build something like mine instead of buying or using one that you can randomly find in stores.”
“Remind me why I give a damn about your computer recommendations,” Celestia said coldly. “Now that you’re in, you can get my penthouse back, yes?”
Pierce pulled down a list of files, opening one into a black screen with green words and numbers scrolling down the screen. “We just need to find the right data and change it. Now, this is where I need your information. Without it, I won’t be able to find the right house and file it under the right name.”
“Information’s all right here,” Celestia pulled out a thumbdrive from her pocket and tossed it onto the computer table. “My new name, my new identity, everything. So don’t mess up.”
Pierce grumbled and plugged the thumbdrive into his computer, watching as a new folder popped up on his screen.
“Ivory Wings…” he read. “So this is also the name you want me to transfer your money to as well?”
“Obviously.”
“Is this in any way a reference to Ebony Wings, the famed actress?” Pierce raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to be like her, perhaps? Start up a life of acting like she has and earn your money and fame through normal means? I would think that that’s a much better idea than all this.”
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion,” Celestia growled. “And I can’t stand Ebony Wings. Why anyone would make a hack like her an academy acclaimed actress is beyond me. Let’s see how she feels when she finds out there’s someone with a similar name, but much better at everything. Ivory Wings is my new chosen name, so hurry up and get me my penthouse back.”
Pierce got back to work and rubbed at his head as he searched for the penthouse under the list of properties. Finding Match Mansions, he tapped away at the keys, adding two lines of code, opening a new window. In this new window, he inserted Ivory Wings’ particulars and details, registering the building under her name.
“There, your home is yours once again,” he cracked his knuckles and closed the tabs. He placed a hand to his earpiece and said, “Tone, you may go. Our job is done here. The next building is Manehattan Central Bank. Do you know where that is? It’s close by. You just need to follow the road and make a left turn at the next junction. You shouldn’t miss it. They have their name built across the roof. Silly people. If I were the owner, I wouldn’t display my name like that. It really gives you away.”
“I think the point is to attract business,” Celestia observed sourly.
“Well, it makes it easier for Tone to find,” Pierce shrugged and pulled out his phone. There was no better way to speed up time than this. He opened up a news app and scrolled down the front page, looking out for interesting things that have happened recently. He didn’t know how long it would take Morning Blade to get to the next building, but hopefully this false Celestia would let it be. He had told her it was an old associate from Chicoltgo, after all, not an Assassin.
There was an article about a fire just here in Canterlot a few weeks ago that just mysteriously vanished. That had caught the computer teacher’s attention, but once he read that it might’ve been the shopkeeper’s imagination, he flipped to the next one.
“Some people…” he mumbled to himself. “They think something’s happened, but in reality, it was all a figment of their imagination. They should always check if it really happened before posting their findings to the newspaper. That would save them the time and disgrace. Magical fires that disappear. If I ever find something like that, I’ll be sure to record it on camera so that I have proof.”
“I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to speed this up?” Celestia asked drily, examining her fingernails.
“Actually, there is something…” Pierce said, not looking up from his phone.
“Hmm?”
Pierce produced his wallet and drew out a pair of one dollar notes. “Go to the vending machine and get me a box of those caramel candies. Should be on the second to last row. They’re actually quite tasty if you ask me. I don’t know why the students never touch it, but it doesn’t matter. More for me.”
Celestia looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and disgust on her face.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Once you try it, you’ll know,” the teacher answered. “Besides, you want to take your mind off this waiting time? This’ll do just that. It never hurts to have a walk after a long while of sitting down at the computer. Normally, I’d go do it, but after what you did to my knee, I’m going to have to settle with sitting here. So why don’t you go get those candies for the both of us? I’ll sit here and coordinate your monies.”
Grumbling under her breath, Celestia snatched the money from Pierce’s hands and stomped out of his room to the vending machine. Pierce sat back and pulled up a video on a speech from the new mayor of San Franciscolt, listening to the man drone on and on as he waited for either Celestia or Morning Blade to get back to him.
“Tone,” he whispered into his earpiece. “What’s your location.”
“Getting there. Don’t rush me,” Morning Blade replied him. “Besides, what’s with this ‘Tone’ deal?”
“Just roll with it. It’s a name of an old friend back in Chicoltgo when I was still a vigilante there. I don’t want to give away your real identity yet. Our… friend might not take so kindly to your real name if she knew. You know how it is. She’s a tricky one, so we’ve got to play by our own set of rules here.”
“Riiiight. I guess she would remember me from the Assassin days.”
“Exactly why we need to be careful about this,” Pierce nodded his head, even if Morning couldn’t see it. “She might suspect something is up if I let her know you’re the one helping me out. So for now, you’re Tone, from Chicoltgo. It’s no problem. Tone was a good hacker. He taught me some things I never knew.”
“If you say so,” Morning grunted as she began to climb the side of the bank’s wall. “What happened to the real Tone anyway?”
“Oh, uh, he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. That’s the story most people think, anyway. I helped him get out, but no one else knows that. I thought it was pretty clever to do that. Now no one’s looking for him.”
“Is that so?” Celestia’s voice came from over his shoulder and made him jump. She threw a small box onto the table, where its contents rattled. “Here’s your bloody candy, now how are you proceeding with my money?”
“He’s on his way,” Pierce explained. “Said not to rush him. I guess that’s a decent idea. He might get into an accident if he doesn’t watch where he’s going, but I can tell you that he should almost be there, okay? The buildings aren’t that far apart.”
The computer teacher pried open the caramel candy box, gazing at the round lumps of sugar inside. He picked one up and tossed it in his mouth, feeling the chewy caramel flood around his mouth, sticking to his teeth as he ate it.
“Here, help yourself,” he lifted the box to the fake Celestia. “I did say you should try some. They are rather delicious. Not the healthiest snacks, but they taste nice. It’s really a wonder why not many people at school get this from the machines. When I get them, there’s always plenty left.”
Celestia skeptically picked up one of the candies from the box and popped it into her mouth. “Awfully sticky, aren’t they?” she said, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping her fingers.
“That’s what caramel is like,” Pierce said as he licked his fingers and put his hands back on the keyboard. Celestia looked at him disgustedly, but said nothing.“Sticky. It’s the stuff it's made of. But forget the stickiness. It’s the taste that matters. I’m sure even someone like you knows how to enjoy something as simple as this.”
“Eeeh, they’re okay, I guess. How’s your man getting on with planting the bug? Is he there yet?”
“Tone, what’s your location now?” he asked his companion again. Now that he thought about it, he should’ve tracked Morning Blade’s number, but it was too late for that.
“Finding my way up the building,” Morning Blade replied in his ear. “I can guess the cleaners here haven’t cleaned the higher floors. The windows are grimy and the pipes are really too rusty.”
“Got it. Be careful. Don’t want you falling now. Falling from that height might not only kill you, but you’ll probably break every bone in your body too. Don’t push yourself. Just go as you see fit.”
“Wait, you’re telling him to slow down?” Celestia said through her chewing. “No, tell him to hurry up. I don’t have all day.”
“If Tone falls, you don’t get your money back,” Pierce said flatly, taking another caramel treat and licking his fingers. “If you want your money, you’re going to have to let him go as he sees fit. He’s not a very good climber, so give him time. If you want to blame someone, you can blame the Manehattan Central Bank. Apparently they don’t clean the outside of their upper floors. Terrible. Imagine looking out the window and seeing grease and smudges. I’m guessing the people up there don’t do that very often.”
Celestia gave him a look that could have curdled milk, but nodded all the same. She raised one hand to her chest and inhaled, breathing out slowly, wincing as she did so.
Pierce noticed it and turned to face her. “Something the matter?”
“No. Everything is fine.”
“Huh. If you say so,” Pierce said and went back to looking at his phone.
"Pierce, I’m at the top. Opening the antenna box now,” Morning Blade said in his earpiece. “So what happens after this?”
“We’ll see…” he said as he snuck a look at Celestia, who was busy taking another candy from the box, examining it up close. “Let’s just deal with this one first. I just need the bug in place and I can do my work from here. It’s all child’s play, really. These bugs really make it easy to get what I need.”
In just three seconds, Morning Blade relayed the green light back to Pierce, finished with planting the bug. The computer teacher cracked his knuckles and accessed the bank’s databanks from his computer, making his way into their transaction screen. He rapidly typed in a few codes, opening a new window, asking for some personal information. Entering Mirror Match’s new identity, he watched as the money from her old account quickly transferred to her new name.
“There you go,” Pierce pulled at his cap and leaned back. “Money’s yours once again. So what happens now?”
The brown haired man put his hand into his pants pocket, gripping on tightly to a taser he had hidden in there earlier. From the outside, it looked like any old phone or wallet, but as long as the fake Celestia didn’t know what it really was, his plan was working. He had no doubt that now that he was finished with his task, she was going to finish him off, but at least he had prepared something, at least, to slow her down.
“Well, now I need your help with something else,” Celestia leaned back and smiled. “I want to organize a Valentine’s Day dance, and you’re going to help with the advertising.”
“A Valentine’s Day dance?” Pierce relaxed the hand in his pocket. “Why on earth would you want to do something like that and what has that got to do with me? I’m a hacker, not a dance organizer. Besides, I think Valentine’s Day is a waste of time. People don’t need to be dancing when they have better things to do, like studying or even sports.”
“I’ll do the dance organizing,” Celestia said firmly, putting a hand on Pierce’s shoulder. “Seeing as I’m the principal. All you need to do is advertise it. Capiche?”
“Advertising seems easy enough,” Pierce flipped his phone in his hand. “I simply need to gather the students in an assembly and convey the event to them. Seeing as they’re kids, they might like this sort of thing, especially if they have special partners already. I don’t, so I haven’t been particularly interested in these sorts of things in my life. They just waste your life away when you could be doing something much more productive.”
Celestia clucked her tongue disapprovingly.
“Not quite that kind of advertising. I want everyone to know about this dance. From here to Fillydelphia to Trottingham. Think you can do that?”
“You want…” the teacher wore a shocked face for a second, but that soon returned to his usual frown. “You want people in other cities to know about this? You’re not planning on inviting non-school students to this dance, are you? It’s not safe for the kids. Who knows what kind of people you might bring in from the other cities. And why do you even want to do that for? What are you trying to do?”
“Never you mind what I’m trying to do,” Celestia reached into her jacket and pulled out her crooked black dagger, its length hissing with toxin as it made contact with the air. “If you don’t want me to stick this somewhere uncomfortable, you’ll help me advertise this dance.”
Pierce grumbled and folded his arms, but nodded his head. “Tone, you can leave Manehattan. We’re done there.”
“Alright. I’ll see you back in Canterlot. Do… Do try not to die yet.”
“I’ll be trying my hardest, Tone.” Pierce powered off his computer and pushed away from his table on his roller chair. “Well, Principal Celestia, there’s nothing more I can do about that tonight. You’re going to have to wait till tomorrow so that I can make some calls to some advertising companies to help out. You’ll need to get your hands on some banners and posters. Are you able to manage that? I don’t know where you’re going to get the resources for that, but I’ll leave it to you. You seem resourceful enough.”
“I’m sure the student body will be willing to help out,” Celestia said confidently, sheathing her dagger. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, Mr. Network. Good work today.”