The front door pounded with a frantic beat. The noise jolted Doc awake from his slumber. He sat up to turn on the dentist chair’s light, but his head met with the lamp’s case first. The lamp casing hummed from the blow in tune with Doc’s newly acquired headache. He fumbled around in front of him and found the light switch.
The pounding continued and awoke Manco. The zebra slid off the examination bed with a pistol already in his hooves. He crept to the door.
“You sleep with a gun?” Doc whispered as he rubbed his head.
“You’re a Trotter, why don’t you?”
Doc raised an eyebrow at the question, but had no inclination to argue. “Fair enough.”
He put on his glasses and turned on the AR imaging as he walked toward the waiting room. The camera feed from outside the front door came into view. It was his neighbor, Martha. She wore only a bathrobe and her mane was a complete mess.
She shouted a muffled ‘Doc, wake up!’ from the other side.
Switch came down stairs with silent steps. She held a bat over her shoulder. “Expecting company?”
“I wasn’t,” Doc replied, “But it’s just my neighbor. I think she’s got some trouble.” He motioned for Manco to stand aside before he unlocked the door.
Martha stumbled in and almost collided with Doc. Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were wet with tears. She reached out to hold him. “I need help, Doc!” she cried. Her hooves were shaking.
“Entra,” Manco said. He pushed Doc and the mare to the clinic, then shut the door.
Martha stopped at the clinic doorway. She looked at the two strangers around her. She turned to Doc; a sniffle escaped her snout. “Who are these ponies?”
“It’s alright. They’re friends,” he assured her. Doc sat her down on the dentist chair. He began a cursory examination for any injuries. “Where are you hurt? Did that gang come back looking for you?”
“Please be specific when you ask that,” Switch requested in a hushed tone.
“No, no!” Martha shouted in reply. “It’s my roommate, Kat! Something happened at her job and she’s in real trouble! I don’t know what to do!”
Doc took a deep breath. “Everyone has got problems in this city, but whatever you do, don’t think to call the police,” he muttered to himself. He fetched Martha a cup of water at the sink, then sat down on his stool after he gave her the plastic cup. “Alright, let’s start with some background. What does Kat do for a living?.”
The red-coated pony drank down the whole cup in one gulp. She put it down and brought out her commlink from a pocket. “Kat is a night-shift security guard. She doesn’t talk about it, but she likes her job and it pays her well. She always texts me goodnight on her way to work.”
“Alright, and where does she work at?” Doc asked.
Martha slumped in the chair. “I don’t know exactly. Like I said, she doesn’t talk about her job. Any time I ask, she either avoids my question or told me not to pry. All I could figure out was that it’s something dangerous because she wore a lot of body armor and carried a rifle.”
“That describes the police in any major city,” Manco said as he sat on the counter.
“Well, I did follow her once with a toy drone she bought me on my last birthday. The office she’s at is somewhere off the 520 in Ridemond, near Maremoor Park.”
Switch leaned against the doorframe. “She works in the Ridemond barrens? Doing what, guarding a condemned building?”
“Más importante,” Manco interrupted, “How can we help you? Do you want us to find her?”
Jackie and Mirror came downstairs. Switch moved out of their way into the clinic. The pegasus yawned and looked around. She squinted at Martha. Mirror stayed behind the doorway and watched the group from the shadows.
“This a late night dental appointment?” Jackie asked Doc.
“No, this is my neighbor, Martha. Something happened to her roommate,” Doc explained. He returned his attention to her. “Sorry, Martha. Impromptu sleepover; please continue.”
Martha held out her commlink. “Kat called me minutes ago. She never calls from work! She sounded so terrified. I kept asking what was happening and how to find her, but she kept telling me to be safe and take the money from her account to move someplace better. I don’t… I don’t know what happened! I tried to record the call, but I didn’t get much.”
Doc picked up the commlink. He clicked on the last call recording and hit ‘playback’.
< “—can’t tell you! Martha listen to me! You can’t come find me, okay? I’m gone. I left you a good nest egg. I was… I was hoping to make a better life for us together, but, at least you’ll be cared for.”>
<“Kat, you’re not making any sense! P-Please tell me what’s going on!”>
<“I’m sorry, Martha. Y-You can’t know. I’m sorry. I love you.”>
<“Kat! Don’t hang up! Please talk to me!”>
<“I gotta go. It’s coming.”>
<‘Kat, wait! Kat? What’s coming? KAT!!’>
The recording ended on static. Doc felt a cold shiver down his spine. He looked around at everyone’s expressions; furled brows and downcast eyes surrounded him. Martha’s eyes were full of tears. He put a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her.
Switch stepped forward and picked up the commlink. She fiddled with the controls. “How long was the call?” she asked.
“I-I don’t know. A minute or two, I guess?” Martha answered.
“Hmm, not long enough to trace a call.” Switch watched something on the commlink screen intently. “If we can get close to Kat’s commlink, I might be able to pick up it’s wireless signal.”
Doc’s ears lifted up high. “Oh? You’re wanting to come along?”
“Well, I mean, if Martha here is hiring us to find her marefriend, sure,” Switch said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “I just don’t want to go running through the barrens for nothing.”
“Kat could be seriously hurt,” Doc stated. “It ain’t like we’re asking for a lot of effort to find her job site.”
Martha jumped to her hooves. “I can pay!” she shouted. “Kat left me a lot of money. I’d gladly trade all of it just to have her brought back safely.” She shrank away from her stance.
“How much is a lot?” Jackie inquired.
Manco stood up. “¿Sabes que? I’ll do it for free. Our señorita here is begging us to help find her lover, and we look like burros talking about money!”
“Agreed, we can argue about payment later. Time is critical,” Doc stated. He hurried over to the cabinets and pulled out an assortment of medical items. “If you’re coming, go grab your gear. I still have the rental car from earlier, so we can pile into that.”
“Fine,” Switch grumbled. She gave Martha back her commlink. “You’re lucky I’m curious to see what the hay is in the barrens that’ll cause trouble for an armed security guard. I only know of hobos and third-rate gangers out in that slum.”
Doc scooped the medical supplies into a black bag. “Jackie, Mirror, either of you coming?”
“Bah, I suppose so,” the pegasus replied. “As long as I get paid for me troubles.” She stomped her way up the stairs.
Mirror stared a while into Doc’s eyes. He gazed back with bated breath for her to chime in.
“Well?” he finally asked.
“No,” Mirror softly replied. “I will stay here. You need room in the car for Kat.”
Doc nodded. “Yeah, reckon that’s a good point. Alright, let us know if Kat calls back. Martha, I’ll text you when we find her workplace.” He took out a tongue depressor and wrote his commlink number down on it. He put it in Mirror's hoof. “Here, just in case.”
“In case of what?” she asked.
“I dunno, use your imagination,” Doc explained. “Maybe you and Martha decide to come follow us. You can now call me instead of blindly searching for the one group out there in the barrens that thinks they know what they’re doing.”
Switchblade snorted. “Yeah, they’ll never find us that way.”
[]-----[]-----[]
The Ridemond Barrens was a scar on the edge of the greater Seaddle area. Doc avoided the barrens like corporations avoid taxes. The last market crash many years back killed the area’s economy. Businesses never recovered and instead shuttered for the final time. Residents moved out for other neighborhoods to find work. The barrens were what most ponies thought of when the term ‘Urban Wasteland’ was discussed.
The one perk of such a run-down area was that traffic jams didn’t existent out here. This suited Doc well as the rain began to fall over the city. He wasn’t comfortable driving in bad weather, but the lack of a working Grid Guide system or traffic lights meant that the rental car’s computer wasn’t any better equipped to take over.
Doc exited highway 520 at the first Ridemond exit. The AR road map on his glasses flashed a message that he was now outside the app’s range for directions. He pushed a button to turn on the windshield wipers. “Alright, here we are… the lovely barrens.”
“Turn right at this light,” Switchblade instructed from the seat behind him. Her attention was on her commlink. “Maremoor Park is gonna be the next left.”
Jackie leaned forward in her seat. “Think someone will try and mug us out here?”
“Like who, an awakened squirrel?” Doc asked.
Manco chuckled. “Too open out here, and rarely do muggers want to attack you in the rain.”
The small road curved through the unmaintained park. Trash and uncut weeds blanketed the ground. A large object in the road ahead forced Doc to stop the car. The headlights illuminated what appeared to be a body.
“Eww, please tell me that’s a drunk hobo,” Jackie said with a grimace.
Doc put the car in park. “Reckon I’ll go find out.”
“Iré contigo,” Manco said as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
The two stallions got out of the car. Doc opened an umbrella for them to share and they approached the body. It laid face down on the muddy road. The body’s clothes were torn and stained with dark splatters. Manco pulled out a pistol and held it under his sarape. Doc tapped the body.
“Hey! You alive?” he shouted to the unknown pony.
“Odd question to ask,” Manco remarked.
Doc shrugged. “Well if they answer ‘yes’, then they’re alive. If ‘no’, then they’re drunk.”
The body didn’t answer, so Doc turned it over. It was an earth pony, and he wore a mangled gray uniform with the words ‘Alicorp Security’ on a badge. There were long gashes through the ballistic vest under the shirt which penetrated the pony’s body. There were two empty gun holsters around each side of his hips. Doc took in a deep breath as he stepped back.
He closed his eyes and summoned forth his Astral Sight. Doc looked down at the body again. There was no aura of life on him. Only a still shade of dark gray.
Manco looked at him. “We’re getting close?”
“Yep, we’re getting close.”
They returned to the car. Doc dismissed his magical sight and shook the umbrella before he got inside the vehicle.
“Well, it’s a dead security guard,” he told the mares. “Torn ballistic vest, lost two guns at some point, and his badge said Alicorp. I reckon we ain’t too far from Kat’s workplace.” He drove the car around the body.
Jackie turned around in her seat to look out the back window. “So, we’re gonna leave that body there?” she asked.
“Why, you want it?” Manco questioned in response.
“Bucking hell,” Switchblade muttered. “Just our luck that Kat works for a biotech megacorp.”
“Biotech, genetic engineering, cybernetics, nano-construction,” Doc listed off.
“Yeah, I know,” Switch hissed. “Shut up and park the car somewhere. I’m picking up commlink signals.”
Doc drove the rental car into an abandoned auto garage. He popped open the trunk and everyone got out to claim their gear. The rain fell hard outside the garage doors. It kicked up the smell of mildew in the air. Doc scrunched his nose and pulled out a tarp to cover the car.
“Alright amigos, what are we looking for?” Manco asked. He poked at a pile of junk car parts.
Switch pointed at a small box that hung halfway up a rusted electrical pole. “There. That’s a wireless security camera, and it’s powered.”
Jackie flipped on a nearby light switch. Nothing happened. “Yeah, that seems legit. Hey, is that another one across the street?” She pointed out to another pole with a similar box on it.
“So what are looking at?” Doc queried as he rejoined the group. His glasses found no AR icons in the area to interact with.
Switch angled her commlink to show him. “I've noticed an inordinate number of working security cameras around here.”
“Yarr, so someone has something to hide,” Jackie postulated.
Doc shrugged. “That or Candid Camera is in town pestering hobos. Did we get spotted?”
“Not sure,” Switch answered. “These two weren’t pointed at us, but there could have been more in the park.”
“Hmm, vámonos entonces,” Manco suggested, “Before Alicorp arrives with bigger guards.”
“Agreed,” Doc said. “Switch, can you pick up Kat’s commlink?”
Switch held her commlink up and walked around. “Picking up another signal of sorts. Not a commlink this time. Could be where Kat works. This way.”
Doc and the others followed Switch through a decrepit office. The rain dripped down from holes in the ceiling. A pair of old desks flanked a backdoor on the far side. A broken water cooler sat in the corner. The rest of the room was covered in trash and more broken car parts. Switch stopped and looked at the door ahead.
“Hold on, picking up something new. I think we’re real close,” she announced to the team.
Manco stepped forward and opened the back door. “How close is real close?”
A large, spherical drone on tank treads stood out in the rain. A camera on the top dome swiveled towards them. Jackie reached forward and yanked Manco back. The door slammed shut, then the drone opened fire with a shotgun. Chunks of door blasted into the office.
“Is that close enough for you, chummer?!” Jackie shouted.
A second shotgun blast shattered a hoof-sized hole in the door. Everyone jumped back from the shower of wooden splinters. The drone advanced on their position.
Switch tapped several commands into her commlink. “Okay, mystery signal explained! I’m jamming it from calling anyone. Take it down quickly!” She backed away into the previous room’s doorway.
Doc put his shoulder to a desk and shoved it into the doorway. “Right, and we stop this thing how?” He waved everyone to back out into the garage again.
Manco dropped the saddlebag on his back. He reached in and pulled out a small tube, loaded a cylindrical device in the breech, then tossed it to Doc. “Amigo, I’ll draw it’s fire, you shoot it with this!”
“Okay?” Doc hesitated as he looked the device over. He unfolded a scope. “How does it work?”
“It's a fire-and-forget grenade launcher,” Manco explained. “Pull that trigger to fire, then forget why you didn’t choose a safer line of work.”
Jackie donned a pair of clawed gloves on her forehooves. “I’m faster, I’ll draw its fire.”
The drone shoved its way through the broken door and overturned desk. The unblinking camera on top scanned around the room. Jackie picked up a piece of metal and tossed it at the drone. The object clanked off the armor with a loud hum.
“Oi, point that gun at me, you tin can!” Jackie insulted. She leaped into the air and flew up to the ceiling.
The drone swung its shotgun upward and opened fire. Buckshot filled the air and then rained down around the room.
Doc crouched down and aimed the launcher at the drone. He pulled the trigger as soon as the crosshairs were over the target. A potato-sized grenade popped out of the tube with a resounding ‘fwump’ and arced through the air.
A deafening explosion threw the drone sideways. Doc fell over backwards from the concussive force of the blast. The room filled with smoke and dust. The drone whined and sparked.
Manco darted forward into the smoke and grabbed the machine’s weapon. Jackie dove down on the machine. She impaled the drone’s eye with a clawed hoof. The machine sparked and sizzled, but then went silent.
“Did you hurt yourself, Doc?” Manco asked. He removed two bolts that held the drone’s shotgun and removed the weapon entirely.
Doc fanned the smoke away from himself. “Yeah, my ears are ringing,” he choked out between coughs.
Manco stood up. “And that’s why you always bring grenades, Doc!” he proudly stated with the shotgun over his shoulder.
“Maybe next time teach him not to fire it so close?” Switch suggested. She approached the group with her commlink out. “Alright, this thing is dead. The building next to us should be the source of the big signal I’m getting.”
Jackie peeked outside the now open doorway. It was still pouring out; a cold wind blew inside the dilapidated office. “Looks clear,” she told the team with a shiver.
Doc looked out into the narrow alley. The back door to the adjacent office building sat across from him. Manco pushed past them and kicked the door in.
“Subtlety is lost on that zebra,” Switch remarked.
“I reckon you’re the only sane one,” Doc said. He ran over to the other door and entered the building behind Manco.
The room that the team found themselves in once served as an office kitchen. A dining area stood a bit further in. It contained scattered tables and chairs, but none of the chairs were tipped over. The trash cans were full of what appeared to be recent garbage. Doc opened one of the microwaves. A light turned on inside the appliance.
“Well, this place has power,” Doc spoke out. He looked up at the ceiling for cameras.
“Sure does,” Switch agreed. She opened up an electrical fuse box. Instead of fuses there were wires and several blinking green lights. “This is the signal. Those cameras outside feed through this network box and into a security office I guess.”
Manco opened the cabinet drawers. He reached into one and pulled out a bag of corn chips. “Hay comida aquí.”
“I suppose this is the place?” Jackie asked. She grabbed the chip bag from Manco and opened it. The smell made Jackie recoil. “Blech, not a fan of sour cream.”
Switch snatched the bag from her. “Gimme that. If you don’t want it, don’t open it.” She stuck her muzzle into the bag and chomped down on the snack food. “This has to be the place we’re looking for; abandoned neighborhood, working security, and armed drones. Someone doesn’t want solicitors in a big way,” she said while chewing her food.
“Didn’t Governor Buckhaven say he was going to rebuild these abandoned areas?” Doc asked the team as he continued to look around. “Thought his platform last election was urban renewal.”
Manco shrugged. “No sé. I haven’t lived in Seattle long.”
“Pfft, Buckhaven is a corporate sellout,” Switch spat. “I wrote in ‘sack of potatoes’ for my vote.”
Doc snorted. “Yeah, I wrote Charles Horseton on my ballot.”
“At least you voted for an actual pony,” Switch said.
“But he’s been dead for quite some time!”
Jackie interrupted the conversation with a loud kick against a large, metal door. It looked out of place in a break room such as this. The pegasus pushed some buttons on an adjacent keypad, tugged at the doors, then kicked them again. The stainless-steel doors didn’t even dent from her blow.
“¿Que pasa?” Manco asked her. He trotted over to the freezer.
“Yarr, this thing is locked pretty damn tight,” Jackie answered. “Any of you got a crowbar?”
Doc took a closer look at the keypad. All of the numbers on the pad appeared to be worn, though unevenly. “Heck of a way to stop coworkers from stealing your lunch,” he commented. “Switch, can we get your expert opinion on this?”
The unicorn held up her commlink to the pad and typed in several commands. “Hmm,” Switch mused aloud. She put her commlink in a pocket and shrugged. “It doesn’t seem to be working. I could open the pad up and—”
Manco produced a crowbar from his bag. Jackie grabbed it and shoved the business end between the freezer door and frame.
“—be ignored for a tool,” Switch completed in a dull tone.
Doc joined Manco and Jackie to force the fridge open. “Alright, we go on three; one, two, three!”
The trio of ponies pushed hard against the crowbar. They moved forward, and both the crowbar and door frame bent under the force of their combined strength. A loud metal snap rang in the air and the trio fell forward into a pile. The door swung open and revealed an elevator shaft.
The ponies got up off one another. Jackie held out the ludicrously bent crowbar to Manco. “Here’s your, uh, boomerang back. Heh.”
“Oh. Gee. Thanks,” the zebra replied. He tossed the useless tool on the kitchen counter.
Doc pulled out a pocket-sized flashlight and illuminated the shaft. The team stood at the highest level the elevator reached. Down below, he saw the roof of the elevator itself. It was a good twenty-five foot drop down. Doc noticed a service ladder to his left. Several splotches of dried blood painted the edge of the floor he stood on. He looked over his shoulder at his team.
“Remember that Alicorp guard we found outside in the rain?” Doc asked.
“I’d rather not,” Switch muttered.
“Well sucks to be us, cause I reckon this is related.”
Manco stuck his head into the shaft and looked down. “¿Entonces, vamos a bajar?” He pointed to the ladder.
“Well yeah, we’re climbing down,” Doc confirmed. “Unless you’re wanting to just sit around up here and make out.”
A smirk crept up on Manco’s lips, but Doc gently pushed him toward the service ladder. “No, no we’re not,” he told the zebra. “Now let’s get a move on and see what they hid in their basement.”
Manco climbed down the ladder and stepped onto the roof of the elevator. Doc climbed down next, but the zebra opened the maintenance hatch into the elevator and climbed inside without delay.
Jackie let out a snort. She jumped down and unfurled her wings to glide past Doc onto the elevator’s roof. “That two-toned jackass don’t learn from running off ahead,” the pegasus complained as she slipped down into the elevator.
“Look who’s talking,” Doc countered. He looked up at Switch. “Come on, we need to stick together.”
The unicorn let out a soft whine from her nostrils. “I hate basements,” she muttered. “You can’t get a good signal and that always makes me feel anxious.”
Doc glanced over at his glasses’ AR. A small red icon in the corner told him there were no wireless signals down here. He waved the mare to come down. “Well, we’re gonna need your expertise to break into any computers we find down here. I can’t pay you if you’re gonna sit this out.”
“Mmm, fine.” Switchblade grabbed the ladder and descended.
A red mote of light on the wall adjacent to Switch caught Doc’s eye. He squinted at it, but couldn’t make out what he was looking at. He momentarily turned off his glasses’ AR program, but the light was still there. “Hey, do you see that speck of red light to your left?” he called out.
Switch leaned closer to the odd object. “Looks like a Canternese character. I—wait, that’s not in AR?” She reached out to touch it.
The light exploded in a shower of bright red sparks. The force threw Switch off the ladder. Doc jumped under her and was flattened between the unicorn and the elevator roof upon impact. He grunted as the air was knocked out of his lungs.
“Switch? You alright?” Doc wheezed. He rolled her carefully off himself and checked for injuries.
“Ugh… fraggin’ hell,” she moaned.
“Okay, that’s a start.” He only found some bruises on her legs.
Manco poked her head up from the hatch. “¿Hey, Que pasó?”
Doc held Switch steady. “I think she triggered a magic trap. Stunned her right off the ladder.”
“Magic trap?” Manco reiterated as he climbed out of the hatch. “Doc, shouldn’t you be looking out for those?”
“Yeah, but I’m not an expert at it. I wish Mirror came along because she’s good with magical wards and spirits. Specifically in banishing them.”
Manco raised an eyebrow. “So the spirit doesn't move her, she moves the spirit?”
“In a spiritual sense, yes.”
“Despite my impairment,” Switch growled, “I will hurt you both.”
Doc took a solid cuff of her hoof against the back of his head. Manco backed away from the unicorn’s reach. The two stallions smirked at one another.
“Yar, you ponies done playing around up there?” Jackie called from down below. “I got the elevator door open, but there’s a bigger door in the room beyond it.”
“Yeah, let’s move on,” Doc agreed, “But be careful not to touch anything odd. I got a bad feeling we’re gonna put two and two together about what Alicorp’s got down here and get six.”
Manco tilted his head. “Six?”
“Yeah, more than we want.”
[]-----[]-----[]
The heavy steel door groaned as the team pushed it open. Switch jammed a screwdriver under the door’s gap to hold it in place. Flashlights illuminated the dark and silent corridors beyond; plain brick walls painted white, pale linoleum-tiled floor, and a flat concrete ceiling where light fixtures and wiring hung.
Doc took three steps before his flashlight revealed several splotches of dried blood. He knelt down and studied the smear patterns. “Whoevers blood this belonged to was running toward the elevator.”
“From the guard we found in the park?” Manco asked.
“Probably,” Doc replied, though he wasn’t sure.
He led the group further down the hall where doors on either side could be seen. Doc took interest first at the door labeled ‘Meeting Room’. A dim light glowed from under the door’s gap. He grabbed the handle and tested the lock. It turned for him. Doc pushed the door open at a snail’s pace.
The stench of blood and bile struck the party. The partially lit room was in complete disarray; chairs were tipped over, bullet holes pierced the central table, and the far wall was covered in several blood splatters. There were six corpses on the floor; three earth ponies, one pegasus, and a unicorn, all dressed in lab coats. The final body was a hairless, gaunt earth pony with pale pink skin and jagged teeth.
Jackie jumped back at the sight of the last corpse. “Eww, where’d its fur go?”
“I reckon that one’s a ghoul,” Doc responded. He drew a small pistol and stepped into the room.
Manco followed Doc inside and the two stallions took a closer look at the corpses. Doc checked them for any kind of identification on the lab coats while Manco prodded the hairless body with the barrel of his gun. None of the bodies responded to the prodding.
“These ponies were the senior staff,” Doc calls out. He holds up one of the badges to the dim light. “This one was a supervisor. They all appear to have broken bones and bite marks. Hmm, three of them look like they were also shot.”
Manco pushed the ghoul body over with a hind-hoof. “Can’t tell what killed this thing.”
Switch leaned against the doorframe “Maybe it was looking for brains and starved to death?”
“What is it doing here is my question,” Doc stated. He walked over to the only other door in the room and put his ear to it. He heard nothing beyond silence from the other side. Doc then looked around the meeting room using his Astral Sight. The only auras he picked up were from his team.
This was the first time he noticed Switch’s aura—a vibrant yellow and orange swirl with some bluish-white motes near the top that orbited around the aura. Everyone’s aura was unique, but the motes were a new sight entirely.
“This is a lab, si?” Manco asked. “Maybe they had infected ponies locked away in cages down here and some got out?”
“Yar, my sense of adventure just threw up,” Jackie complained. She stepped into the room, but kept her distance from the dead ghoul.
Switch walked over to the door beside Doc. She frowned at her commlink. “Ugh, there’s no wifi down here. I hate the dead air.”
“Well, power’s out to everything,” Doc commented as he turned off his Astral Sight. He opened the door and found an office. It looked roughed up, and there were trails of blood on the floor in several directions.
“Switch, you like loot, aye?” Jackie asked the unicorn. She held up two commlinks. “If these are execs, then maybe they got notes on what was going on down here.”
The unicorn walked over and rummaged through the commlink interfaces. “Sure, it’s at least something with a signal.”
Doc walked over and watched her work. He witnessed Switch run some unusual apps that he didn’t recognize, but the programs appeared to bypass the password screens on the commlinks. A few screens later, he and his team were looking at several stored documents between the two devices.
“So, do we know what they were doing down here?” Doc asked.
“Kinda. These are research notes on a virus called Krieger,” Switch answered.
Doc’s ears lowered in concern. “Oh crap,” he muttered.
“Krieger?” Manco asked. “That’s the disease that turns ponies into ghouls, no?”
“Yep,” Doc confirmed. “Also known as the type three Pony-MetaPony-Vampiric Virus.”
Jackie pointed to the exit. “Just so we’re all aware, the exit is totally not blocked to us at the moment,” she reminded the team. “That said, how badly are we screwed?”
“Well, as long as you aren’t scratched or bit, you should be alright,” Doc advised in an even tone. “The virus only spreads through bodily fluids, so, keep your distance and shoot to kill.”
“Es más fácil decirlo que hacerlo,” Manco stated. “Ghouls can be smart. They could pick up a gun and shoot back.”
“Doc, we’re gonna have to negotiate hazard pay when we’re done,” Switch added. She browsed several other files on the commlinks. “There’s a stairwell to a lab at the end of the hall, after a security station. Might be the place to search for Kat’s body.”
“Yeah, I reckon we’re not recovering a survivor down here,” Doc replied. He took in a deep breath and waved for everyone to move onward.
The team walked past three more offices. Doc lit up the rooms with his flashlight while Manco poked around for bodies. They found none, which bothered Doc a bit. He wondered if this facility was lightly staffed this night or if more employees had fled into the night before his team arrived. Worse yet, what if they were still here and in hiding? How would he deal with that problem?
The security station ahead was better lit than the previous rooms. It consisted of a crescent-shaped steel desk with two still-active computers that sat on top. Behind the desk was a personal storage locker, to the left was the hallway for the bathrooms, and to the right a set of glass doors, one after another, that formed an air-lock designed entrance to another elevator.
“Finally, someone to talk to,” Switch muttered as she sat down behind the desk. The unicorn pulled out her commlink and began entering commands on one of the computers.
Manco fiddled with the locker behind the desk. Doc and Jackie glanced around before their eyes stared down the hallway to the bathroom. The dim light above the hall flickered.
“Yarr, think anyone hid in the bathrooms during the emergency?” Jackie asked.
Doc raised an eyebrow. “I think that’s for tornadoes, not… loose ghouls in the office.”
A burly earthpony guard burst out from the stallion bathroom door. “E.F. Five, motherbuckers!” he shouted with a pull of his shotgun trigger. The blast caught everyone by surprise.
Doc dropped backwards to the floor; dozens of painful buckshot balls cut into his armor vest. Jackie stumbled to the side and rolled on the ground behind the corner.
Manco responded first in kind. He leveled the shotgun he acquired from the drone earlier and fired back at the guard. The earth pony ducked back into the bathroom under a hail of buckshot.
Switch ducked down behind the desk. “Doc, get behind some cover!”
“Ugh, that’s not easy when you’re bleeding all over yourself,” Doc responded. He rolled over and crawled around the opposite corner from Jackie. “Make sure he’s not calling for backup!”
The earth pony popped out of the bathroom again. His right forehoof crackled with electrical energy. He discharged an electrical bolt at the desk. Sparks erupted in all directions from the computer monitors and Switch’s commlink on the desk. All the electronics on the desk fizzled in a spark of scorched circuitry.
“He’s a fraggin’ dirt-horse mage!” Switch shouted in fury.
Jackie charged the guard. “Hold still, you special snowflake!” She stabbed him in his outstretched foreleg, then took a wild swing at his face. She missed with the second attack, but placed herself as an obstacle against the bathroom door.
“Hey, nothing special about him!” Doc complained.
“I don’t see you shooting lighting bolts up his ass!” Switch countered.
Doc drew his pistol. “I’m a doctor, not an electrician!” he yelled back. He took aim at the guard, but Jackie was in his way. “Jackie, move!”
Manco dropped the shotgun and drew out his pistol as well. He leaped forward to the hallway corner and then fired at the guard. His bullet struck home in the shoulder. The guard flinched from the hit, then shoved Jackie to the floor. The pegasus kicked the bathroom door wide open with her hind-legs.
The guard lost his cover. Switch popped up from behind the desk and fired her shotgun. Doc pulled the trigger on his gun twice.
The guard stumbled to the ground, gunshot wounds bleeding profusely. He cast a spell that formed a small ball of bluish magical energy in his hoof. With force he throw the ball in an arc at Switch. The magical orb landed on the desk and burst in a brilliant white light.
“Ugh, frag all…” Switch sputtered. She dropped down under the desk.
Manco fired again and landed two shots into the guard’s barrel. He slumped to the floor and stopped moving. Manco approached the down guard, gun still trained on him.
Doc staggered to his hooves and shambled over to Switch. Several balls of buckshot fell off his jacket. He felt sharp pains in his chest. “Hey Switch, you alright?” he asked.
“Ugh, head’s spinning,” Switch replied in a weak voice. She pulled herself up onto the desk chair.
“I reckon that was a Stunball spell,” Doc explained. “Sit tight, you’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
The unicorn huffed out loud. “Damn it, if another freakin’ spell comes my way, I’m going to lose my shit! Manco, dibs on his commlink! Mine’s fried.”
Or, she’d be fine in ten seconds flat.
Manco poked the body, but it didn’t respond. “Amigos, we killed him.” He put his pistol away and rummaged through the dead guard’s personal effects. He unbuttoned the armored shirt and checked the body’s wounds. “He might have been injured before we found him. He’s got some old cuts.”
“Yeah, I stabbed the git,” Jackie pointed out. She stood up and collected the guard’s gear.
“In the leg, but he has cuts here on his stomach.”
Doc unzipped his jacket and inspected his own wounds. He was grateful that he wore armor, otherwise a lot more than two pieces of buckshot would have penetrated. He rummaged through his medical bag for the tools to clean out the offending bits of metal.
“You, uh, need help with that?” Switch asked, though she didn’t move from the chair.
The pain of picking out buckshot made Doc growl, but he retrieved the pieces. “Nah, I—grr, I got it.” His breath was heavy and exhausted. Doc used some medical glue to hold the wounds closed. He finished his work with a healing spell to mend the tissue together. He was ready for a nap.
“That looked painful,” Switch pointed out.
“It would be great if digging out bullets tickled,” Doc quipped. He took his time to repack his medical bag. “Anyone else, hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Switch dismissed with a wave of her hoof.
Jackie sauntered over to the pair. She pointed at a cut on Switch’s leg. “Tsk, tsk, Switch. Ya could go to Tartarus for lying. And for theft. Oh, speaking of which, got ya some loot.” She placed the dead guard’s commlink on the desk in front of the unicorn.
Switch shrugged, then she snatched the commlink. Manco picked up the shotgun he dropped in the fight and reloaded his weapons behind the desk.
Doc stood up. “Alright, hope we don’t have another fight like that.”
“Yar, in case we do, have this.” She grabbed Doc’s hoof and placed the late guard’s pistol in it. “Happy birthday or whatever.”
“Oh, okay,” Doc stated. He felt the weight of it and then counted the remaining ammo in it—seven rounds.
“Vamanos,” Manco commanded. “Our time is short.”
Doc nodded and put the gun away. “Yeah, good point. Switch, any way you get those doors open to the lab elevator?”
Switch looked at the two fried computers on the desk. She then pulled out a crowbar from her bag. “Time for another team building exercise, I guess.”
[]-----[]-----[]
The party used the stairs to descend down to the labs. There appeared to be power on this level, but the lights were all out, save a few emergency lamps that still worked. The hall was decorated in blood stains and torn clothing. The dim lighting made every look like the set of a horror movie.
The first lab’s door was left open. Doc led the way inside and looked around. He could tell by the medical equipment lying about what this room was once for.
“This is a cybernetic lab. I recognize some of this stuff from surgical rooms I worked in,” Doc explained as he looked around. He picked up a small device. “Oh, I been wanting one of these. Diagnostic tool for—”
“Focus,” Switch warned. She trotted over to the computers. “There’s power to these workstations. Might be a backup generator still working down here.”
Manco glanced down at a particularly thick splatter of blood on the floor. “For something important?”
“Likely, but heck all if I’d wager a guess,” Doc answered. Once again he peered into the Astral plane. This time he saw something; thin wisps of faded colors that drifted in the air. He remembered these wisps were sometimes seen at the hospital he worked at; the vestiges of life, particular when several ponies died in a given area. Unfortunately glass was opaque in the astral, but he believed he would have seen more in other rooms adjacent.
Jackie looked through a glass window at the next lab over. “What’s in the tubes there?”
Doc returned his sight to normal walked up to the window. The dark room held half a dozen large beds in glass tubes. They appeared to be well-maintained, though splatters of blood were visible on the floor and no the tubes. Each bed had wires that ran criss-cross through the tubes to a dedicated computer, although none were currently powered.
“Those are autobeds--used in ERs to stabilize patients. I suppose Alicorp was doing a bunch of cyber-surgery experiments.”
“Oh, I’m sure they’re doing experiments,” Switch spoke up. She pointed at the computer screen in front of her. “I found some project files; cybernetic experiments on ghouls and magically active critters.” As she scrolled down the list, Manco tapped the screen.
“¡Para! ¿Que es esto? What is this?” he asked.
Switch accessed the file. Several documents appeared on the screen as gibberish characters. Her eyebrows furled. “It is, uh, encrypted. Give me a minute to crack it.” She typed out commands into the computer, then on her commlink.
“Madre de Celestia,” Manco muttered with a hoof pointed at Switch’s commlink screen. “You see this?”
Jackie looked over at Doc, then to Manco. “Uh, I wanna guess it’s a cake recipe, but it ain’t cake, is it?”
“It’s never cake,” Doc stated. He walked over to the commlink and studied what Manco was looking at. Seconds later his eyes went wide. “Yeah, no. That’s not cake. That looks like data on changelings.”
Switch wrinkled her snout. “A’ight. For those of us that aren’t versed in cryptic lab notes, either of you colts wanna explain what this creature is and how badly it’s gonna screw us over?”
Doc cleared his throat. “Take a bug, make it as big as a bear, and give it the ambitions of a military dictator. I mean, that’s oversimplifying it, but yeah. I’ve read rumors on the matrix that they’re nasty creatures. There’s a popular conspiracy theory the nuke that went off underneath Whinny City fifteen years ago wasn’t a terrorist act, but a government attempt to destroy a changeling nest.”
“I’ve heard tales of pony-eating insects back home home in Mexicolt,” Manco added. “They wear your face and talk in your voice to fool your family.”
“Okay, those tales sound a bit much,” Jacked stated. “Wearing our face?”
The zebra stared her down. “If it is a changeling down here, it will trap us with it until it eats us or we kill it. If we’re lucky, there might be a rescue party for us. If we’re very lucky, there might be something left to rescue.”
Jackie crept away from Manco.
“Can we just find Kat and go?” Switch interrupted. She brought up a map of the labs on this floor. “Here, there’s a comm signal I been feeling from this room. It’s down the main hall and the second lab on the left. The signal’s ID matches what Martha gave us.”
“Good enough,” Doc stated. “Lets go, cautiously. We don’t know what else might be around, and we were attacked by a crazed security guard only minutes ago.”
“Well, was kinda doing his job,” Jackie muttered.
Manco nodded. “Es verdad.”
“Not helping, you two,” Doc warned. He led the way down the main hallway as Switch pointed out.
The floors were splattered with blood and small chunks of flesh. Doc’s flashlight panned over bits of anatomy as he stepped around them. He recognized most of the pieces despite their mangled state; a hoof, leg muscle, an ear. His brow furled at the death painted around him in red. Yet, what concerned him more was that there wasn’t enough here to reconstruct a full pony. Most of the bodies were missing. Were they eaten by ghouls? Stashed away in a freezer?
He heard Jackie dry-heave behind him. Doc stopped and looked over his shoulder. “You alright?”
Switch rubbed Jackie’s back to calm the pegasus’ nerves. Manco stood nearby, his attention appeared focused on the blood stain patterns that painted the walls.
“I-I’ll be alright, Doc,” Jackie answered. She rubbed the bridge of her snout. “I’m just not used to seeing this much blood, you know?”
“Yeah, I understand,” Doc agreed.
“Thanks, Switch,” Jackie added. She patted Switch on the back with a wing.
“You’re welcome, I guess,” Switch said. “I'm not good at this… touchy-feely stuff. In my gang we punch each other and laugh it off.”
Jackie retracted her wing. “Yeah, maybe try that another time. Like never.”
Manco walked ahead several steps until he came to a door. “Should be this one?”
“Yeah, second lab on the left,” Doc confirmed.
“The blood smear on the floor looks like someone dragged themselves in,” Manco pointed out.
Doc looked at the blood pattern. He saw what Manco was talking about. “Hmm, reckon it could be. Pretty perceptive of you.”
“Si, not the slowest microwave in the break room.”
Manco pushed the door open and swept the room with his flashlight. The lab looked like a triage; several gurneys were lined up to one side with biomonitor screens beside each one. On the opposite side was an examination table, an X-ray machine, and shelves of medical equipment such as gauze, syringes, and saline IV bags.
Two dead ghouls laid on the floor near the middle of the room. Doc approached the bodies and examined them visually. He noticed several bullet holes in each one.
“These two were shot dead,” he told his team.
Switch pointed to the far end of the room. “Is that her?”
A dead pony was curled up against the back wall. It matched Kat’s description; the curls in her mane, her build, and fur coloration. Clutched to her chest was a heavy caliber revolver.
“Pobrecita,” Manco whispered as he walked up. He pulled Kat’s commlink out of the mare’s pocket and gave it to Switch.
“Know what got her?” Jackie asked Doc.
“Trauma from her wounds, pretty sure of it,” he replied. He analysed Kat’s injuries; several deep abrasions, bite wounds, and possibly a leg fracture. Doc’s guess was that Kat fought off the ghouls until she expired from her injuries. The thought of dying alone down here disheartened him. He picked up Kat’s heavy revolver. “I expected she was dead, but it still hits you hard all the same.”
A soft scratching noise echoed from a metal door in the corner of the room. Doc shone his flashlight at it. Manco raised his shotgun in the door’s direction and Jackie crouched, ready to spring forward. Switch stepped behind a bed for cover. The scratching sound continued in what sounded like a pattern.
Doc reached for the door handle and pulled it open. A blast of cold air rolled out into the room. On the floor of a walk-in freezer laid a griffon. Much of his scarred body was replaced with cybernetics. He shivered, but reached up with a clawed hand to Doc.
“Help me get him out of this freezer!” Doc commanded. Manco and Jackie both hurried forward and the trio pulled the griffon clear of the freezer.
“Well, that’s something ya don’t see everyday,” Jackie commented.
“Unless you’re us,” Switch added. She pulled off several blankets from the gurneys and threw them over to Doc. “Here. Hope he doesn’t attack us like the other guy did.”
Doc examined his injuries. “I reckon he won’t. He’s injured pretty bad, doubt he could fight us for long.”
“But he could fight us, right?” Jacked questioned.
“If shouting profanity at us counts, sure, he could do that,” Doc replied.
He gathered some medical supplies from his bag to treat two deep gashes in the griffon’s chest. Whatever killed Kat got this one pretty bad as well. Doc noticed that much of the cyberware the griffon had was quite new. He hadn’t seen such quality ware like this before.
“We should take him with us,” Doc added. “He’s got some real advanced cybernetics in him. Might be more a project than a guard.”
Switch snorted. “I'm pretty sure that trying to keep an experimental cyborg as your pet would violate your lease.”
“Pfft, probably. Manco, help me lift him up.” Doc hoisted his new patient up to a sitting position with the zebra’s help.
The griffon let out a pained moan. His eyes fluttered open, but he made no other movements. Doc watched him scan the room until those cybernetic eyes laid upon him.
“Alright,” the griffon wheezed, “You got a wolf by the neck. Now what, eh?”
“I was hoping introductions would be amicable. My name’s Doc,” he answered. “This is Manco, and over there are Switchblade and Jackie.”
“Springboard Jackie,” the pegasus corrected.
Doc rolled his eyes, but continued. “We came down here to check if a specific employee was alive. Unfortunately she ain’t, but since you are, I’m offering to extract you from this place if you wish.”
The griffon leaned into his own shoulder and let out a weak cough. “Well, since you’re politely offering to drag me out of this Tartarus-stinkin’ hole, sure,” he answered with a wheeze. “You can call what’s left of me Snowfire. So… what’s the situation down here?”
“You tell us, amigo,” Manco said. “Everyone else was already dead or missing when we arrived.”
“Except for that one guard upstairs who could shoot lightning bolts from his hooves,” Switch added. “We had to put him down.”
Snowfire tilted his head. “Lightning? Oh, him. That was my boss.”
“It were self defense, mind you,” Jackie pointed out.
“Yeah, it was,” Doc added. “We would have tried diplomacy, but he was a bit determined to kill us.”
Snowfire shrugged. “Eh, I owed that stallion money. Screw him.”
An unseen metal object in the hallway clattered on the floor. The group turned to the door and clutched their weapons. The trailing silence deafened the room, broken only by Snowfire’s labored breathing.
“Maybe another survivor?” Jackie asked her group.
“Could be a ghoul,” Switch responded. “No new comm signals out there.”
Snowfire coughed. “Or that thing we locked up down here,” he said. “Heard it was from South Equestria.”
“Bueno, how should we find out?” Manco asked.
“Somepony lob a stun grenade into the hall,” Snowfire answered. “That’s the safest way to check.”
Manco pulled out his grenade launcher and a white cartridge. “Mi tipo de amigo.”
“Oh yeah, we’re gonna be fast friends,” the griffon commented with a smirk.
Another clatter of several objects caused everyone to jump. The noises in the hall grew closer with a slow, shambling echo. Manco and Jackie took up positions by the door. They opened it a sliver and watched the hallway outside the room.
Switch fiddled with her commlink. “Can’t do anything from here. Might have to just charge past it and make a break for the exit.”
“Snow here could barely walk, let alone run.” Doc opened his medical bag and checked what medicines he brought with him. “Can you move?” he asked Snowfire.
“I don’t know. Hard t-to breathe right now. Damned asthma, ya know?”
“This might help.” Doc offered up an inhaler with a generic anti-inflammatory.
Snowfire jammed the inhaler in his beak and took two deep breaths. He returned the device to Doc. “Thanks. I don’t suppose you got a gun in that bag I could borrow?”
Doc looked at the contents of his bag. It was an obvious ‘no’, but he remembered that Jackie gave him the pistol from the guard earlier. Doc pulled that out of a pocket and offered it out to the griffon.
“My kind of prescription,” Snowfire remarked.
A tall, lanky creature darted into the doorway. A gnarled, hairless hoof grabbed Manco by his sarape. The creature’s hairless skin was hard and black, but it’s face was a dull green with blood smeared on its cheeks and forehead. It pulled the zebra closer to its glassy, unfocused eyes.
“Please let me in?” it asked him with a hollow smile.
“The buck is that?!” Doc blurted out.
Jackie fought to keep the creature out. “Jus’ shoot it you fools!” Her muscles bulged out as she pushed the door hard against the creature’s attempt to come inside the room.
Snowfire opened fire at the creature. It screamed in pain, then dropped Manco on the floor. The zebra scrambled for his shotgun and fired up at the monster. Jackie covered her head as buckshot tore into the door she pushed against.
The creature yanked itself away and the door slammed shut. The sound of an unsteady gallop faded off into the distance.
“Okay, we’re done here,” Jackie muttered. She shook splinters out of mane and face.
Doc nodded. “Agreed. We have our objective and time’s up. Jackie, help Snowfire walk. Manco lead us out. I’ll cover the rear with Switch.”
“Why only Manco in the front?” Switch asked.
“My instincts tell me that creature won’t try attacking us head-on with our guns,” Doc answered.
Snowfire got up and limped towards the door. “Stupid monster needs to stop skulking and confront us, face to face.”
“It wore somepony’s face!” Manco interjected. “Don’t want that anywhere near us!”
“Less talk, more move!” Jackie added.
The team hoofed it with all deliberate speed back through the laboratory halls. They clamored up the stairs and past the security desk. The dark hallways appeared more sinister to Doc now. The only sounds around them were their own hoofsteps and Snowfire’s labored breathing. The griffon stumbled to keep up. Jackie stopped to pull him over her back. The large griffon draped over the small pegasus looked awkward.
A hiss echoed in the dark shadows behind the team. Doc saw a pair of dull green eyes stare at him. The eyes advanced toward the team at gallop.
Switch fired her shotgun at the charging creature. The eyes darted back into the darkness. “Carry the damn bird!” she commanded.
Manco shouldered some of Snowfire’s weight to help Jackie. The team trotted towards the exit beyond the large metal door. The screwdriver jammed under the door took on a sickly green glow. It wiggled back and forth, then popped out from its spot.
“Aw frag it, that thing has magic?!” Jackie shouted.
The screwdriver flew through the air and clattered on the floor. Doc darted forward and slammed into the door to keep it from closing, but the door’s mass was overpowering him. Jackie pushed out from under Snowfire and joined Doc’s effort. The two halted the door’s closure.
Manco dragged the griffon through the doorway. “Amigo, pull yourself through!”
The creature hissed from the shadows. Switch fired twice into the darkness behind the party. She then slammed into Snowfire and shoved the large griffon out through the doorway. Jackie grabbed Doc and dove outside behind the others.
The team pulled the door closed. The hissing sound continued until the door shut tight and muffled out the noise completely. They collapsed onto the elevator floor, breaths loud and fatigued.
Doc looked up the small access hatch in the ceiling and sighed. It was going to be work to drag Snowfire through that and then up the elevator shaft. “Switch? Any response teams incoming, Alicorp or otherwise?” he asked.
“Not feeling any signals,” she replied as she glanced at the ceiling, “But signals are weak down here. I’ll know better once we get topside.”
“Ugh, I hate elevators,” Snowfire gumbled.
“See, he gets it,” Switch pointed out to Doc. She flopped onto her back. “Ugh. Next time, I want payment up front.”
[]-----[]-----[]
The news of Kat’s death hit Martha hard, as Doc expected. He presented her with Kat’s commlink and heavy revolver, along with the heartbreaking explanation of how Kat died in the facility. Martha didn’t reach out for the objects, nor did she speak. She slumped to the floor and bawled her eyes out.
Doc gave Kat’s things to Switch. He sat down by Martha and comforted her with a hug. Manco sat down on Martha’s other side and put a hoof on her shoulder. Switch looked down at the commlink and appeared to be thinking, or reading the screen; Doc didn’t know what she was doing.
Jackie had turned away from the scene, while Snowfire remained emotionless on the examination table. Neither of them reacted to the scene. Mirror, on the other hoof, walked up beside Doc to offer him some comfort.
“I’m sorry, I truly am,” Doc whispered.
Martha sniffled into his shoulder. “You tried. I-I sort of figured she was gone. At least I know for sure.”
“¿Qué harás ahora?” Manco asked. “What will you do now?”
Martha glanced to the zebra. “Well, I don’t know,” she answered. “She left me enough money to take care of myself for a while, but… I don’t know what else I’m to do. I feel so empty.”
Mirror spoke up. “Your heart will hurt for a time, but that time will also heal your pain.”
Switch held out Kat’s commlink to Martha. “In addition to the nest egg, Kat left you a life insurance policy for twenty-five grand. Could start yourself a better life with that.”
Martha picked up the commlink and stared at the screen. Doc leaned over her shoulder to read the policy. It was already in process of paying out. He wondered if Switch started that.
The grieving mare hugged the commlink. “Oh Kat!” she cried in a soft voice.
“Is the company gonna pay that?” Jackie asked from her corner. “I mean, Kat worked in a secret lab. Wouldn’t Alicorp just erase her existence?”
Switch shook her head. “Whatever disaster happened in that lab, it killed a lot of employees. Loved ones are going to demand answers, and that’s going to generate bad press and nosy investigators. It’s easier to pay for Martha’s silence by faking a generic work-related accident to cover up the mess. Most ponies won’t question it when they’re getting a crapload of money.”
“Seems a bit dark to say that of someone losing a loved one,” Doc stated.
“I ain’t wrong in a general sense,” Switch responded with a snort.
Martha stood up on shaky legs. “Thank you, Doc. I-I won’t keep you and your friends up any longer. I have a lot to think about. How much do I owe your team?” she asked.
“Reckon that’s a good question,” he answered. Doc looked at his teammates. No one met his gaze. He turned his attention back to Martha. “Well, tell you what; forward me a grand for the expenses my team incurred.”
“Alright. You’ll have the payment in the morning.” She took Kat’s revolver from Switch and gave it over to Doc. “I think you will find this more useful than I would. Thank you, again. For everything.”
She gave Doc a firm hug, to which he returned in kind. Martha straightened herself and left his clinic in silence. After she closed the door behind her, Doc leaned his head against a wall.
Mirror ran her hoof through his mane. “You did better than anyone else could. Will you be alright?”
Doc looked up and gave her a weak nod. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. It never gets easier to tell someone that their significant other is dead.”
Jackie let out a sigh. “Alright, well, now that we’re done working for peanuts, can I go take a quick shower in your bathroom, Doc? ‘Cause we just ran through a lab of dead ghouls and I don't wanna wake up with a craving for flesh. Your family avoids you. Your employers stop calling. It ruins the rest of your week.”
“Uh, yeah. Good call,” Doc answered. He waved her away to the stairs. “Take a long one, just to be sure.”
Manco pointed at Snowfire, who had fallen asleep. “What of our new amigo?”
Doc walked over to the cybernetic griffon. He put the heavy revolver on his stool and inspected the multitude of machine parts that replaced Snowfire’s flesh. He poked the griffon gently to awaken him. “I reckon we should have a chat with Snow here. Find out what he knows of the experiments in that lab.”
“I did grab some files when I was snooping around their network,” Switch stated. She walked over and held up one of the commlinks she acquired from the lab. “Soon as I can crack the encryption, I’ll let you know if there’s anything useful in them.”
Snowfire stirred on the exam table. He opened his eyes and slowly turned his head to face Doc. “Why does it smell like rubbing alcohol in here?” he wheezed.
“It’s the disinfectant I use,” Doc replied. “Can’t be a respectable doctor without a clean clinic.”
“Huh, so that’s what competence smells like, eh?” the griffon mused. “Well, guess you ponies aren’t all stupid. You saved my life and got, um, clean standards.”
Mirror frowned. “Doc, big bird called us dumb. I say charge him and then kick him out.”
Snowfire coughed into his arm. “Listen, cutie pie; when you get most of your meat replaced with chrome so you can be competitive in an equine world, your idyllic outlook gets cut apart too.” He reached at the bandage dressing around his torso to scratch.
Doc gently swatted away his clawed hand. “Don’t pick at those. You’re gonna need a good bit of time to heal up.”
“I understand your pessimistic view, Snow,” Manco spoke out. “You lose a piece of yourself with every surgery, just to pay the bills. ¿Es verdad, Doc?”
“Well, if you’re talking about essence, I agree in principle,” Doc affirmed. “There are numerous magical studies about the severing of one’s ‘soul’ from their body when extensive cyberware is implanted. It affects your astral aura; diminishes it. Lose enough of yourself and you could go insane from cyber-psychosis. Death isn’t far behind from there.”
Snowfire rolled his eyes. “Ugh, eggheads.”
Switch shuddered at the explanation. “Yeah, I rather not have metal of any kind stuck into me; bullets, cyberware, or otherwise. Can your essence be regained if you take out the hardware?”
Doc had to browse through memories of his college studies for that question. “No, it isn’t that simple. There are theories that months of gene therapy and cellular regeneration could repair some of your lost essence—”
“Pah, I’ll just steal the essence from foals,” Snowfire barked.
“I-I don’t think it works that way,” Doc hesitantly corrected.
The griffon chuckled. “I’m kidding. Maybe. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna study the inside of my eyelids for a few hours. You can prod me in the morning with whatever.”
“Aright, then. I need to get some sleep anyway,” Doc stated. He agreed out of fatigue from the day. He turned to leave, but looked at Kat’s heavy revolver. He picked it up from the stool. He could feel the weight as he aimed it at the a wall. “Been years since I used a gun this heavy. What do y’all think, is it my style?”
“If breaking your wrist is a style, sure,” Switch replied.
“I can handle it,” Doc argued in self-defense.
Switch snorted. “Fine, we can hit a range tomorrow and you can show us how you handle your hoof-cannon.”
“Psst, buy the colt dinner first,” Snowfire suggested to the unicorn. He wiggled his eyebrows.
Manco laughed. “I like Snow. Can we keep him?”