//------------------------------// // Team Green Bean, Activate! // Story: The Winds of Change // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Team Green Bean, Activate! This chapter name definitely stands out, that's for sure. Jason rose through the sewer exit, carrying a very uncomfortable looking white maned, purple coated unicorn stallion. Steve, if he remembered correctly. Dash was already in the process of setting down another stallion in the small maintenance room as Jason landed. The other two pegasi came up with the other two flightless stallions, completing their small group. "Listen," Jason said, "they're hopefully mostly asleep at this point. The castle gate is to the right out of this door, then down another corridor to the left. If something goes wrong, beta team, you guard this exit and stay hidden." He gestured to a large grey earth pony and a smaller blue unicorn." Tank, Potato, D-, I mean Blur, and I are going for the gate. Everyone ready?" They nodded. Jason quickly walked over to the door, slowly pushing it open with his hooves, much slower than he had the last time, when the door had decided to squeak. After the door was finally opened about a minute later, they all piled out and split up. Luckily the hallway was unoccupied, and they were able to start the plan in motion. Something was actually going right for a change. They carefully walked around a corner, coming into a room that neither Jason or Dash recognized. Quickly ducking behind the doorway, they realized that there were griffins inside. After a few moments of complete silence though, they peered around the corner to see the griffins again, which they now realized were asleep. Jason swung a hoof, gesturing for them to follow him as he carefully made his way over to a griffin and carefully slit its throat, covering it's mouth with a hoof. The other three did the same with haste, not wanting any of the griffins to be able to fight back before they were killed. Jason stepped back and surveyed their work, wincing slightly at the sheer amount of blood that literally covered the floor. They searched around before leaving the room and walking down a different passageway, hopefully the one that led to the castle gates. They turned another corner, quickly hiding behind some pillars as a pair of griffins walked by. They jumped out and stabbed the griffins as they walked by after realizing that they were on track to the room they had just cleared, dragging the bodies back to lie in the room with all the others before closing the door. Three more turns in the halls, and they were still no closer, it seemed, to finding the entrance. Jason was having trouble figuring out why exactly the castle needed this many hallways. Another griffin pair walked by, meeting the same fate as all the others. Two more turns and they slowly emerged into a large room, with two thrones at one end and a large door at the other. Tank recognized where they were, having been called in for an audience with the princess at one point, and directed them through the large door, showing them that the gates were just across this next room, past more than a few griffins. Jason pulled them back behind the door. "What's our plan? We can't exactly go in there and make noise, we need to be quiet so that the army can move in unnoticed." "So that rules Flash-bangs out," Dash said. "Ooh! What about the smoke? We have a bunch of those, that would be quiet and they wouldn't know that it was an attack right away. They wouldn't know what to think." "Okay, so we're going to throw a couple of these," Jason took a smoke grenade out of his belt, "and then quietly run in there, sneak up behind them and slit their throats. That's the plan anyway. We don't want them screaming in pain and alerting the other guards. Same with us, if you get stabbed, be as quiet as you can." "Jason, you ready?" Dash had moved towards the door, cradling one of the bombs in her wings absentmindedly. "Ready as I'll ever be." He pulled the first pin in time with Dash and tossed the first volley of smoke grenades across the room, hearing a soft popping noise as they landed near the griffins. They primed another set and threw them closer to the door, making a path of smoke to the group of griffins. He gestured to Tank and Potato, silently telling them to follow him as he and Dash dove into the smog, quickly becoming silhouettes and then disappearing entirely. Dash and Jason stuck close together as they ran straight across the room, quickly coming into view of the Griffin silhouettes. Dash took one out as they passed by, nearing closer to the main group. Two more griffins came into view, the first dealt with in tandem by Dash and Jason, the second one taken out by Potato before either of them could react. Tank punched a griffin, sending him into the wall and watching him slump to the floor unconscious. One of the griffins, becoming slightly aware of what was going on, came out of the haze behind tank and thrusted his spear. The griffin missed his mark, but still managed to get the spear completely through Tank's upper back leg. Potato took out the griffin while Dash held a hoof over Tank's mouth, muffling his scream as Jason quickly pushed the barbed spear the rest of the way through and preformed a rudimentary healing. While Dash jumped back into the fight, Jason dragged Tank to the side of the room, not quite out of the haze. "Sit tight." He passed him a spear before turning around and rushing back in. The smoke had started to clear by now, and Jason watched as Potato cut down another griffin at the cost of a deep gash on his side as the griffin's spear went under his armor. Maybe he should've given someone else the name Potato...Nah. He was pretty badass though. Jason ducked under a spear, breaking it as it passed by his shoulder and watching as another spear appeared out of the griffin's chest. Jason quickly cut the griffin's throat before turning and bucking another onto the ground in front of Dash. A massive weight hit his side, sending him skidding across the floor as a particularly huge griffin appeared out of the smoke, cackling to himself. He walked towards Jason, pausing to brutally knock Potato out of the way without much effort. He got closer and reared up, spear in his talon as he thrusted his arm forward. Jason rolled to the side as the spear glanced off his armor, chipping part of it clean off as it became imbedded in the ground where he had just been. He couldn't fight this guy if he could just be taken out in a single strike. Potato had been thrown aside like a rag doll, and was slumped against the wall nursing what appeared to be a broken leg. Jason couldn't get him back into the battle either, that would mean healing him, which meant standing still for an extended period of time. For obvious reasons, that wasn't going to work. He sidestepped another attack, watching as Dash cut down the last of the smaller, less dangerous griffins. Another spear thrust came by, glancing off his other side and throwing him off balance. He turned to see a talon flying at him, smacking him into the far wall. Dash flinched and jumped onto the griffin, burying a knife in the middle of it's back. The griffin, without so much as a cry of pain, picked Dash up by a fore hoof, smiled slightly, and gripped it tightly as he dangled her just off the ground. A few cracks were heard before she screamed in muffled pain and was hurled across the room, landing next to Jason in a heap. In the only success of the night, the gates suddenly opened, much to their surprise. Next to the gate winch sat a proud looking Potato, huffing from the exertion of dragging himself over through the pain. Jason took another look at Dash and shot off of the ground, ignoring the spidery cracks on his chest and back that were already streaming with blood as he quickly ran towards the griffin, who had preoccupied himself with Potato and was currently holding him by his head using one of his talons. Potato's body was swinging about as he tried to pull the talon off of his head. The griffin saw Jason and quickly shook his arm, watching as Potato's body went limp. He threw it to the side and made a fist, punching at Jason, who quickly dodged to the side, only to get hit with another talon fist and slam back into the wall. He tried to get up, but the griffin had already pinned him to the ground, holding the spear poised in his arm, ready to strike. "You four have given me a lot of trouble, you came the closest to besting me so far, and therefore I almost have respect for you. But you're still weak, and now you're going to urk--" Jason watched in awe as a spear ran itself through the griffin's neck, making him fall to the side into an already forming pool of blood. Tank was sitting against the wall, grimacing as he watched the griffin bleed out from the injury inflicted by his spear. Jason slowly pulled himself to his feet as the first of the guards started to march in, a few of them grimacing at the amount of blood on the floor that they had to step through and all the corpses littering the floor. Jason checked Dash's pulse and found that she was still alive. He let out a loud sigh before limping over to Potato, checking for a pulse even though he already knew the result. He hung his head, mourning his death before reaching out and closing his clouded over eyes. Dash had woken up while he had been checking Potato's vitals, and was now fighting the urge to scream out in pain as she gingerly held her shattered fore-hoof up with one arm. Jason stopped in front of her. "Lay your arm flat on the floor, and I'll heal that and those bumps on your head as best I can. It might hurt to heal you while you're awake, I don't really know. Here goes nothing." He sighed and focused power into her arm and the area around her head trauma. She grimaced as her leg bones shifted back together. "It doesn't exactly hurt, but it's not a good feeling, that's for sure." Jason watched as the swelling in her leg went down, the color changing from dark blue to bluish-green to normal sky blue as the bone healed completely and the bruising disappeared. She tested the leg by putting some weight on it, before deciding that it had been healed to her satisfaction and trotting over to Jason to kiss him. "Thanks, Jason, how are you feeling?" "It hurts, but it's nothing serious." Jason sighed. "I'll live." "If you say so..." She looked at him worriedly for a moment before turning and trotting over to Potato while Jason started working on Tank's leg. Tank and Jason both tottered over to join her a few moments later, mourning their fallen comrade. "If I may," Jason started, "He was definitely a good soldier, fighting to the end. I doubt this plan would've worked without him, and we would've probably died if he hadn't opened that gate, one way or another." He paused. "I just realized that I don't even know his name, that I never got to know the guy before he passed, and that makes me feel worse than if I had known him for years." He paused, tears coming to his eyes. "I just-- I should've tried harder." "It's not your fault." Dash said, trying to soothe him. "I ordered this operation, it's COMPLETELY my fault." "Yeah, but if you hadn't ordered this operation, the griffins would still be fortified in the castle." "I guess you're right, it needed to be done." He sighed, still deep in thought. He flagged over a few medics and directed them to the body, briefly whispering to them before they hurriedly took the body away. "What'd you tell them?" "It doesn't really matter right now, does it? We should go see what happened to the other four." "Oh man you're right." They retraced their steps, quickly coming upon the maintenance door and several pools of blood, along with a few trails going around the corner. A few guards were present in the hallway, trying to move a bloody pony onto a stretcher. Jason walked by curiously, stopping when he recognized the pony. "Steve?" Steve coughed, getting some blood on his hoof. "What happened?" "A bunch of griffins came by, and we fought off a bunch of them, but they took Archer, knocked Hunter unconscious and then took him, and I think they killed Plasma." He paused. "I don't know why they let me live." He coughed again. "Hold him still." Jason briefly healed him somewhat before starting to feel weaker. "That should slow the bleeding, I think. It definitely helped, I know that much." "Alright, well some guards went after them about two minutes ago, but other than that I don't know anything." "See ya later than Steve." He sighed as the two ponies carried him away and turned to Dash. "Don't you just like how everything gets more complicated whenever it seems like it might end?" "I think the universe just hates us." "Well it definitely hates Archer and Hunter. I really hope they aren't being tortured or something." "Well what the hell are we waiting around for? We have a perfect trail right here!" She pointed to the smears of blood leading away and around the corner. She followed the trail around the corner before Jason could respond, so he simply limped after her without a word. "Hurry up Jason!" He buzzed past her a few seconds later. "I can't walk that fast right now and I'm tired, just slow down. Steve said a bunch of guards went by here already anyway." "Yeah, but what if they couldn't handle it?" "Then we get there thirty seconds later. I'm not going to be much good in this fight anyway, so hopefully there aren't that many left, and--" His jaw dropped as they turned a corner and looked into a large room filled with battling guards and griffins. "So there's a few left, nothing we can't handle." "You keep thinking that." A couple more guards ran past them, immediately entering into the action. Jason and Dash walked into the room, still slightly in awe before a griffin jumped towards them and made them jolt out of their stupor. Jason blocked the spear thrust while Dash shoved a knife into the griffin's chest, knocking him onto his back with a thud. A guard hit the ground at about the same time with another griffin hovering over him, but Dash pushed him off and onto Jason's waiting knives. They took out a few more griffins before the room was finally cleared, leaving more than a few corpses, guards and griffins both. Dash had started to follow the blood trails again, trotting out of the room, with Jason trying to keep up behind her. He gestured to the guards to follow and managed to get Dash to slow down. They carefully made their way around another few corners and into a room where they found Archer and Hunter tied up and in the corner. They slowly walked over and untied them,expecting some sort of trap. When they managed to get them both out of the room without any traps being sprung, Jason turned to Dash. "Did something actually just turn out to be easier than it should've been?" "I think it actually did." She sighed. There was a growl as a griffin about the size of the other large one they had fought walked out of one of the doors in the room. "Shit... another one?" "Well at least we kinda know how to fight it." "We were saved by a stallion with a hole in his leg." "You have holes in your legs." "Yeah, but these are supposed to be here!" The griffin walked towards them, swatting a guard out of the way. "Everypony, scatter!" Everyone ran towards the walls as the griffin looked around, picking it's next target. A guard ran up behind the griffin and buried a spear in it's hind leg, although the griffin didn't seem to notice, simply swatting him aside like the other guards. Jason nudged Dash and she took off, flying overtop the griffin as Jason caught it's attention. A spear whistled past his shoulder, followed closely by a talon as Jason jumped backwards. Another attack came as he sidestepped. He tried to do the same with the next attack, but was hit before he could react, sent sliding across the room. Dash came down from behind the griffin, raking a knife from the back of his neck to his mid back before she was forced to fly backwards to avoid another strike. Tank readied a spear and threw it at the griffin. He missed the griffin's neck and instead hit him in the side, causing him to yell out in pain. A knife struck slightly closer, imbedding itself near the griffin's collarbone. Jason readied his other knife, levitating it in the air as he prepared to catapult it forward. The knife made a whoosh noise as it was accelerated and released, hitting the griffin in the upper shoulder. Dash dove again, managing to nick the front of the griffin's neck as he turned to Jason. "Why won't you die?" Jason yelled, peering over at the multitude of spears and knives sticking out of the griffin. Another spear throw flew true, embedding itself into the griffin, who still refused to die. Several more guards ran back into the room and threw spears, many of them hitting the griffin. At some point amongst the volleys, the griffin fell over on his side, panting heavily. Jason walked over and pulled out one of his knives, immediately running it across the griffin's throat. Dash landed next to him, putting a hoof over his shoulder and leaning her head against his. "Well, we did it." "Assuming this is the last of them then yeah. I honestly don't think I have much more fight in me anyway." "You know, your healing doesn't exactly get rid of fatigue that well. I feel like I could sleep for three days straight." "Once we go meet Shining we're free to go back to base and rest, then hopefully everything goes back to normal, no more griffins in the way to screw that up." "It's about time we're done with this. It's only been a week here but it feels like I've lost three years of my life." "Let's hope that's not true. Come on, lets go." They made their way out of the castle without getting lost again, slowly passing under the castle gates and through the pools of blood. They walked under the stars as they walked across the castle grounds. Entering a large building across from the gates, they quickly came across Shining Armor, who winced slightly at their appearance, although he kept his smiling expression. "Looks like Team Green Bean succeeded."