Seesaw

by MintLynx

3: The Mall

Owl hid behind a pillar, cheek still bleeding and his utility jacket and pants somewhat sliced up. This mare had bionic limbs, he was certain of that, she could surpass him in speed making approaching her without a gun seem suicidal. His skill in stealth might never have been so useful as it was now, as he skillfully used the environment to his advantage to keep out of the mare's sight. All the while the blade mare walked around in a casual search for him, whole all the others stuck inside of the mall hid wherever they could. She was an earth pony dressed in a red shirt depicting two sirens among a digital pixel pattern, together with revealing skirt and frilly socks. The mare cleaned off the blood from her claws to prevent them rusting later, having hit him once in the cheek and intending on hitting him in other places as well.

Owl looked to the mare as she walked and went on the approach toward the stairs from hiding, flying quickly and silently. He was intent on getting his gun back as it was his only chance of fighting this deadly cyborg given he was basically trapped with her. Personally cursing the black market, as cybernetics with deadly attachments were naturally illegal, he snuck his way up the stairs. He moved quick, no telling if she would attack or try to take hostage one of the many ponies also trapped in here. He heard the mare's voice say in a cutesy whine voice.

"Oooh come on big colt~ You wouldn't wanna keep a mare lonely, she just wants some looove~" she said, in the familiar seductive tone he heard from the pole dancers in Battania. If they weren't going to seduce him a deadly cyborg mare with razors for bionic fingers wasn't going anywhere close. Owl flew up the stairs hoping to Luna and Celestia she wouldn't quickly search the stairway, he would however run into a surprise not much better. Sure enough he ran into desk goth, smirking as he held both pistols.

"Goooing somewhere?" said the goth, Owl proceeded to not speak. The Goth then whistled out to the blade mare who smirked as she hopped some floors before reaching their floor.

"Well well, sneaky pony aren't you. What's the matter, afraid to talk to a mare~?"

"Shut it slutwear!" Owl blurted out, by personality he was a bit bold at times. The mare laughed as she grabbed him by the neck by both hooves, barely enough that the blades didn't cut into him. She pushed him over to the railing before pushing his back along it and saying.

"You're bold for the one who's unarmed and at the mercy of Miss Succubus~"

"That some alias or you just a wannabe villain from a comic." Owl shot at her, who smirked to him and replied.

"The former~ Aren't you just a brave stallion, I like you already~" The mare said seductively, while Owl scowled and replied to her.

"Not in the mood for touchy feelly crap, came out of a bucking divorce!" He said jerking his head back and pushing himself off the edge. The mare looked over to see him gone and pouted with disappointment. Looks like he was completely immune to any seduction, seemed she'd have to break his limbs and wings if she was to have any of that strong stallion flank. Sighing the mare looked around, while the desk goth looked around taking some time to stand and aim both his guns.

Owl stalked them from his various hiding places, at least he knew what his threats were, he thought so anyway. The bat began to formulate a plan, long as the Goth wasn't smart enough to stay close to Miss Succubus he had a chance. From a stealthy strike he could likely be able to knock out and disarm the somewhat lanky stallion with ease. Approaching from hiding place to hiding place he approached ever closer, while using his ears to track Miss Succubus so he wouldn't have another surprise.

"Come on out sneaky bastard, you can't hide forever, not like you can escape cause the electronic locks to the maintenance ladder are locked. Stuck with us, you might as well come out."

Owl approached, soon taking a chance as he flew toward the Goth, putting all his speed into a kick which knocked him out instantly. The clatter of the guns echoed thanks inconveniently to the acoustics of the mall interior. Miss S looked and ran to the sound, as Owl scrambled to grab the guns and enter cover. She however managed to spot him enter cover behind a pillar and smirked a she moved around, pretending to not know he was there.

"Yooohooo~ Come on, I'm feeling lonely. Just give up, I might have my way with you and let you live." Said the mare as she walked along the mall floor.

"In your wet dreams." Owl said in his head as he got one gun ready, being trained he knew attempting dual wielding would be the least effective manner in using his guns. As she passed along Owl waited till she passed the pillar before he popped out and aimed for her, she was by now a code red as of his training. If the suspect attempts to assault you with intent to kill, code red is authorized, aka lethal force. Aiming out with his gun he was unaware of her watching the pillar in the corner of her eye. Owl let off multiple shots, while Miss S proceeded to move around and approach him quickly. She wasn't fast enough to dodge bullets, but she could dodge his aim if narrowly as the bat was not poorly trained in the use of a sidearm.

The cyborg mare would draw close and Owl would let off the last shot in his clip, which would hit into her shoulder and made her yelp and prevented her slash. Owl quickly flew out and discarded the gun as he drew the other, this time focusing less on rate of fire and more on accuracy. The mare quickly moved and hopped up from the railing flipping around as bullets grazed and tore away some artificial skin to reveal the bionics underneath. He stayed in the air to make getting to him harder, wings and guns were handy against a killer cyborg earth pony.

The mare would move around and jump off another toward part of the railing to try to grab onto him, fortunately for him the mare fell short as he flew back, and fell through the space to the bottom floor. He attempted some shots at her as she rolled along so the floor above gave her cover. He would reload the pistol thinking "Bucking hay I did not think I'd fight some femme fatale cyborg tonight, job's not predictable but this is something I could not see coming."

Meanwhile outside a commotion was to be found, multiple police autocarriages surrounded the mall building while plenty of EPD officers stood at the door with guns ready while pegasi officers were perched at the top of the building. Data would be trying and failing to get in contact with Owl. "Buck.....Buck.....Buck.....BUUUUCK COME ON!!" she said, then trying to access cameras. Night vision would look to her and say.

"Night Cyber Security is taking care of things there's no point in-"

"Well they better bucking hurry their flanks up! I don't like the look of this Owl and lots of ponies are trapped in there! Buck if only that building had windows!!"

Owl would be sneaking around once more, seeking to gain another chance at ambush, she was really good at avoiding gunfire and it made him consider buying a select fire CWtech ACS-412 machine pistol so that if there was a next time he would encounter a deadly cyborg quick enough to avoid gunfire. Miss Succubus quite shockingly seemed not angry and still remained flirty, seemed she was not only seductive but resistant to pain given bullets normally did not feel like a mere pinch. The mare looked around, more cautious as she knew he had a weapon. The Miss S would speak and say.

"Come oooon, you gotta be stressed after all this. I can help make you feel better, I even got some healing injections to heal the cut. They won't know, just give in~" This drove Owl, who was on another floor, to shoot at her quickly before heading to another cover. The shot grazed her shoulder as it was not well aimed.

Owl whispered "Bucking crazy slut I ain't giving into crap." he was not very polite to those he deemed criminals, whether mare or stallion. He would sneak around some more, at one point sitting and waiting before she reached his floor. The mare would whine a bit saying

"Come on, just quit fighting back against me. I don't want to kill you, you seem like you'll be too much fun~"

Owl popped out of cover and fired at her, scoring two shots to the torso before she started moving and zig zagging toward him. He decided to take advantage of the multiple floors through flying up between them. He used this advantage so well to the point where he found it a good alternative to stealth. Miss S found this frustrating, and stuck herself with a healing injection as she thought up a plan. Healing injections were useful little things bought from hospitals and partially reducing the need for trips to them, both lawless and lawful ponies used them.

Unfortunately Owl, being in a unit not meant for direct confrontation was without any. Outside the police forces were fixing to bring some equipment to get the door open. All the other I&I ponies were present there as well, not knowing what exactly was happening. Given there was over three hundred ponies inside there was no telling if there was hostage taking. the CyberGuard went to great yet strangely futile efforts to access security cameras in the Mall.

The hackers at play seemed to be anything but the kind of hackers the CyberGuard ever dealt with before. Media coverage was regulated heavily to prevent a panic, mentioning that any and all threat was contained and that whatever would happen the Guard would be ready to deal with it the moment it did. Miss S would then have an idea and grinned, if he used stealth, wonder what he would do if she attempted it.

Owl would fly between floors down the center of the building, looking around for the mare. "Come on bucking out, are you hiding now?? From a non bionic??" he was getting annoyed, and that was what Miss S was counting on. The mare hid behind a screen board on the railing, waiting for her moment to strike. She wasn't exactly a skillful stealth pone, so she did things as basic as possible. The other ponies remained hiding, some watching the fight take place.

Desk Goth would awaken with a concussion, seeing he was unarmed he would look around to see what was happening. Seeing Owl looking for Miss S the stallion would try to contact DK. Owl would Make his search before Miss S seized the opportunity and leaped up, tackling him from the air and sending them both falling to the ground. Fortunately for Owl the cyborg took most of the impact, unfortunately he was now pinned down by the cyborg. He struggled against her, as the mare looked down at him and smirked. She released the hoof not holding the gun and extended her blades out in front of his face.

"Now now, don't try anything, I have you now~" Said Miss S, in her seductive yet venomous tone. Desk Goth would look down on them from one of the upper floors as he said.

"Well, 'bout time you stopped him shooting at us." he said, looking to Owl and smirking. "DK has got a plan to show just how futile your efforts to stop the unearthing of the underground are. Glad " Suddenly the shutters on all the places in the mall would close, trapping many ponies inside of them. Owl watched as this happen wondering what they were doing and in a panic. Outside suddenly the screens which nearly covered the mall switched from being out to depicting what was happening inside. All the while the CyberGuard struggled to try to do anything, and ponies in that section of the Guard facility began to panic. Owl would try to punch Miss S to get her off only for his hoof to be caught, he demanded.

"WHAT THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING???"

Miss S smirk as she said. "Ooooh it is not us doing it, it is DK~"

Owl would notice smoke coming from a few of the places and floors, followed by the sounds of ponies screaming. He would panic and try to struggle harder to get his armed hoof free only for Miss S to take the gun out and toss it away before holding him down again. "Not gonna shoot at me again~" soon enough the spritedrones would show themselves once more and generate the hologram of what Owl assumed to be the 'DK' who called Desk goth. The mare in the mask would laugh disturbingly as she said.

"Well Well, looks like you can't do a thing now Mister Officer Talon, ponies are gonna burn and you're gonna be witness to it without being able to stop it. This is just a preview, a trailer, a demo, a mere taste of what is to come~" Said DK as Owl started to scream out as he struggled. "It's not like even if Miss Succubus let you go you could do anything, you've no bionics judging by how you couldn't take her on face to face so good luck opening those shutters."

"Sector 4 WHERE ARE YOU???" Owl yelled out as Miss S grabbed his face and smirked as she asked him softly.

"Isn't it stressful holding the burden of protecting other ponies on your shoulders, come on have fun with me~ I can help with the stress, keep your mind off it-" she was interrupted when Owl spit at her and cried out once more as he thrashed. "Come ooooon you know it's futile~" she said softly only to receive from Owl.

"Shut your bucking trap! SHUT IT!!!!!! SHUT IIIIIT!!!" Owl cried out at the top of his lungs, the screams of ponies in fear dug into his mind and ears as if an ice pick was being shoved down his ear canal into his cranium. He hoped to Luna they would start breaking things down and getting into here, it felt like a century of time in Tartarus for his mind. He refused to hear the crazed words of DK, nor the incessant attempts at seduction by Miss S. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping him from tiring out as he thrashed. At one point things almost seemed to blur, and enter slow motion. His mind furiously combated doubt in his faith in the force, the Guard WOULD stop this and WOULD bring these ponies to their proper judgement.

Ponies trapped stood back doing their best to keep back from the fires that started and the various hazardous electrical appliances. Owl let out another cry, he didn't know what to say anymore, psychotic was ineffective in describing these ponies. It was like they were the next Sombra, Chrysalis, or Tirek, akin in their madness to the villains of old if not even worse. They didn't even have powerful magic, they somehow had the power to turn the very mall into a weapon of terror and destruction. He wondered if they were broadcasting this out to others, trying to shove their sick 'truth' down other ponies throats and making them choke on it.

As the sinking feeling that the guard and police might not break things down fast enough to prevent lots of charred bodies from being recovered at the end of this, a deep dark pit of despair opened opened in Owl's mind, it opened in his heart. He began to fall down that pit, that dark and seemingly endless pit. Were these ponies, with their hackers and whatever other capable ponies they had, just too strong and clever for the Guard to be able to stop them and their evidently destructive plans? Were they really destined to break down the social order through violence and terror?

"It can't be, IT CAN'T BE!!!!" Owl screamed mentally, entranced in his despair and the many floors of terror and screams above him. "They'll come, they'll come and you'll bucking pay for this!!!" He shook and teared up as his face was locked into one of terror and despair like a pony turned to stone by a cockatrice. He clung to the rapidly fading hope in his mind, fighting to try to stop it's fading. His attempts were futile, and only slowed the progress, deploying a parachute on the way down his fall down the pit of despair.

Everything seemed to slow down even more as his hope burned out, despair flooded his mind and heart like a black tidal wave, and he just lay back under the smirking gaze of Miss Succubus. She could read the emotions in his eyes, spectate the maelstrom of emotion as hope and despair clashed together like a cold and warm front forming a tornado. DK Cackled once more as she said to Owl..

"See now? See!? The future is not one governed by ponies trying to control others out of some bullcrap attempt to 'protect them'. The world ain't a safe place, it's a crazy and bucked up on. This veil of deception and hiding ponies from the true nature of the world will be torn, torn to pieces and then BURNED!" Said DK as she reveled in the power the hackers with ambition had.

Owl reached the darkest depth of despair and trembled in terror at this, the smallest inkling of hope and faith put up a stubborn resistance to not be snuffed. It had lost most of it's ground however and was outnumbered like the losing side on a warzone. All seemed lost, he was going to bear witness to a horrible massacre and be helpless to stop it nor inform those that could....

....and then....

Suddenly the lights all went out, DK looked somewhere and gasped, presumable their computer screen. The hologram could be seen trying to type things. As this happened she said "Hey hey what the buck!!! Guys somepony's jacking it stop that bucker before they-" suddenly the emergency sprinklers activated throughout the Mall.

The droplets of water distorted the hologram as it showed faintly DK slamming on something as she angrily yelled "What the Buuuuuccccckkk!? Nooooooo!!!!!!" fires were put out and the electrical hazards were cut off from power. Miss S would be shocked at what was going on as she looked around. Suddenly Owls wrist computer activated a call, and from it a soft partially digitized voice spoke through it's speakers.

"I'm here to help."

Up to now the screens were showing a red background displaying the white text depicting the message. "They can't protect you, not from the future." only to shut off suddenly. They would turn back on a minute later as everypony outside watched as a white background with purple text telling the message.

"Don't worry, they are safe now." The entrance into the mall would open up, police would rush in armed with SMG's and Shotguns. Miss S would get up and book it, the police forces yelling for her to stop before shooting at her, seeing the bleeding Owl there as a reason to not spare the cyborg some lead. The Sprite drones would deactivate suddenly and drop to the floor with a clatter. Owl would simply be laying there, the wave of despair washed away by the sprinkling water of the sprinklers. Seemed the CyberGuard finally broke through and stopped this.

On the one hoof he was glad miss crazy edgelord had her plan foiled, on the other hoof jabbing at the back of his mind was the fact that the massacre that could have occurred was not far from happening before this stroke of luck. Owl simply lay back, not speaking nor moving as he stared to the distance ceiling. A policemare checked his pulse, thinking him possibly dead, noting a pulse he shook the bat a bit.

"Hey, you awake, come on now it's over." said the police mare as officers pursued Miss S. He sluggishly turned his eyes to the mare, who smiled and looked to his cheek "You've got a badly sliced cheek, lemme fix that." The mare pulled out a healing injection and stuck it into the side of his neck. The slices healed, but left scars in the accelerated healing. Owl sat up and looked as his friends ran to him.

"OWL! OWL WHAT HAPPENED!! LOOK AT YOU YOU LOOK LIKE YOU WERE ATTACKED BY A FOOD PROCESSOR!" Yelled Data as she ran up to Owl. Owl looked to her, not so much looking like he saw a ghost so much as he looked like he saw a demon straight from Tartarus.

Night Vision would look to Owl and ask him. "Owl what happened....Owl? Owl!" Owl did not respond, he was shaken on the outside from the fight and the inside from the trip down a pit of despair. Night would try a slap on the non scarred side of his face saying more firmly. "Owl!" Owl would look more directly to him, and barely struggle to mumble out the words.

"....I-I-I...saw....h-h-h-horrible p-p-ponies d-d-do h-horrible things..."

Data would look to Vision and say. "My Luna he looks more traumatized than a kid learning the birds and bees, Owl are you there? You with us?" Owl would not say anything more, having barely spoken as it is. Looking to Night Vision she said "I think he's gonna need some time to get his mind back together."

Sitting on a bench on the street next to the Mall a couple hours later Owl would be told be police personnel that only a few ponies died of smoke inhalation. More were burned in the fires but were going to be alright, Owl was planning to frankly go to the Sector 5 and go nuts with giving a piece of his mind as to why they couldn't stop the hack on the mall's doors and systems sooner. Data would come along with Night to the Bench after leaving him some time to think. Owl looked to his friends, his mind was still shaken but it had recovered enough that he could speak. "By Luna when I see those bucking Sector 5 ponies..."

"Sector 5....didn't stop the hack.." Said Data, causing Owl to perk up and look surprised. She followed by saying "It was....some other Hacker, I couldn't track them because they were gone quickly as they came. I did know it wasn't sector 5 though.."

"What....they couldn't......they......" Owl stood up and yelled. "WHY THE EVER LOVING BUCK COULDN'T SECTOR 5 DO ANYTHING???? ARE THERE NOT A FEW RECRUITED STRAIGHT OUTTA A LUNA-CURSED DEGREE IN PROGRAMMING???"

Data would recoil back and Night would say. "OWL! Calm down for Luna's sake."

"How can I calm down when PONIES NEARLY-" A slap to his face from Vision interrupted Owl's potential tirade.

"Deep breaths, now!" said the I&I Veteran in a commanding tone. Owl would concede to the command and take multiple deep and rather raspy breaths till he calmed down. Once calmed Vision would say to Owl "You need to calm down, something bucked up happened in there and you're gonna have to tell what you saw. You can't explain things properly and clearly yelling and screaming. Owl would begin to tear up a bit, and his friend would give a hug.

"I was left helpless, right there and unable to help anypony..." said Owl as he trembled, Vision would take him by the shoulders and say.

"Look at me, look at me. You can't do everything you're not cyber security you're I&I. That's why we work as a team, Cyber Security is investigating the CCS around here and interpreting the methods used by the hackers. We will deal with this problem we always have you hear me?? We're the good guys Owl, the ones helping in keeping Equestria safe and those types tend to win in the end. Even if these buckers can match our best CyberGuard we'll deal with them, we're a team and a very effective one.

We're not letting some buckers who sit their flanks on chairs and hide behind screens beat the Lunar Guard." Owl would be somewhat comforted by his older friend's reassurance, looking to him and nodding. Vision would say "Talk about a bad day for you, pulled off leave from seeing your kid now this crap. I'd like to smash their faces into the screens they use myself. For now we're gonna have to investigate what we can for now, after all we are Investigation and Interrogation." Owl smiled a bit and nodded.

"Let's learn what we can from the mall." Owl would get up from the bench and head onto the mall with his friends.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the EQUE-TECH HQ tower it's CEO, a mare named Myriad Heartstrings, was in a call with a certain somepony. Myriad was among a long line of CEO's in the megalith corporation that was EQUE-TECH. There was not a single home in Equestria that was without EQUE-TECH products whether they be computers both regular and wristbound, operating systems for such things, bionics, even weapons were all manufactured. Though Crystal Corp remained a strong competitor to them, making many of the same types of things, the constant development of products helped make sure EQUE-TECH kept up.

One such project involved the sister of none other than Golden Bell, whom the CEO was in current call with. Golden Belle was one of the Harmony council, descendants of the old elements of harmony acting as government alongside the princesses. They did most of the lawmaking in Equestria and also assessed current issues and how to combat them. Golden Belle was a descendant of the figure of Rarity, and was herself a strong businessmare type who interacted frequently with Corporations.

"Hear of the incidents in Everfree?" Asked Myriad.

"Of course I have, we always make sure to monitor the news feed that comes up. They are of great concern however the RLG and RSG are on the case and investigating things." replied Belle.

"I'm aware of that, but what I come to inform you some concerns I have on the containment of Project Anomaly and some of what she has been up to."

"My sister? What could she be doing? She hasn't been up to any mischief surely."

"Not exactly mischief, but rather some 'unwanted involvement' in the incident at the Wild Wings Mall which only just now has been resolved. We managed to catch her escaping her contained network, and getting into systems before involving herself with the situation. Would have been fine if she just stopped the cyberterrorist attack, but she just up and decided to pull a message so ponies wouldn't just think the Cyberguard took care of it."

"Hmmm, well there is a slight issue of potential revealing, but I don't see much need for concern. In fact if she is good enough with manipulating programming to quickly deal with hackers who gave the Cyberguard trouble than it speaks wonders for her abilities."

"Indeed it does, however there's the possibility she might expose her somewhat unorthodox method of being made part of the project. Faking her death so she could be kept in stasis was a risk, but one that has proven fruitful despite her 'resistance' to the idea."

"She'll understand eventually I had it done, if not with her permission, for the betterment of future advancement and so she could directly be involved with a major part of it."

"What if she does not? What if she is still angry, from what her online handlers could say she may harbor some 'issues' with our organization."

Golden sighed as she said "I might come along and talk to her, see if I can get her to see some pragmatic reason."

"And we'll see about making sure she doesn't break out of her contained server, might have to cut out some InterNet Access."

"Please don't do that, if she's bored it might make her even more troublesome, at least try to monitor what she browses. It's not like she's a child who will be swayed by punishment and reward. She is a brilliant computer mare and highly intelligent after all."

"Fine, but if she keeps breaching steps might need to be taken to keep her from doing anything risky. We were lucky she could be pulled back before she revealed anything in that incident."

"How do you know she might have tried to exposed things? How do you know she wouldn't have just helped with the situation and left afterwards."

"Don't want to take chances, especially given the assets and programming at her disposal."

"I warn you, she's better with computers than any one of your Cyber Sec staff. With such tools at her disposal like the brain augmentations she has she could be very difficult to deal with."

"And that is why limiting general access to the InterNet space might be what needs to be done."

Golden sighed as she said "Can we at least give her a chance?"

Myriad replied taking the elevator "We can't take too many chances, not with tech like this."

Brain augmentations were digital devices implanted into the pony's brain usually used for the purposes of enhancing mental functions such as memory, thought, thinking speed, some even existed to make operation of computers and wrist devices totally hooves and magic off. They were very popular, often erroneously called brain bionics, and used by ponies of many occupations ranging from teaching to Information Technologies fields. These particular set of brain augments were ones installed in a mare named Anomaly, Golden Belle's sister and an employee of EQUE-TECH with a strong talent for computers and programming.

She was involved with the development of a project for creating a new form of brain augmentation which basically turned the brain into a computer. A new advancement to potentially render Wrist computers and even computers themselves obsolete in the near future, or so was said by the ambitious minds who developed and pitched the concept. Anomaly was involved with a lot of the coding and programming that would go into the new augmentations, and was thus though to be the best candidate to become the test subject.

Now she lay in a sort of large stasis tube, her body kept alive and in a medically induced slumber while maintained mostly through medical tubes connected to her. Wires connected to a port built into the back of her head and allowed her progress and tests to be monitored closely. Though effectively a guinea pig in the experiment Golden Belle made sure that she was not put into any potential hazard.

Myriad would take a walk into the room where the stasis tube was located, looking to the white colored unicorn mare with purple and black mane and tail inside. She said to Anomaly, thinking her not hearing it.

"Much as you don't like your situation, you'll be well rewarded in the end of things and will be directly credited for a major future advancement, after all....we did name this project after you....Anomaly." Little did Myriad know, she was indeed heard and seen, from the nearby camera the mare in stasis just hacked into.

Author's Note:

A more action packed chapter in the beginning, with some new characters.

(UPDATE) Did some more splitting of paragraphs here, hopefully it'll help the mobile users.

Comments

[Pathious]

Owl got got fucked up..... I feel there is a rather huge meaning behind all this