Chapter 4: How it Gets Tough
Chapter 4: How it Gets Tough
Trixie decided inside the span of a single look at the minotaur, Iron Will, that she didn’t want to be in the same zip code as him, let alone the same room. He radiated a combination of raw aggression and eager menace that set off all of Trixie’s danger senses almost instantly. In her brief and struggling private eye carrer Trixie had developed a feel for how dangerous a certain pony or other person might be. It told her when she could get away with bluffing a street thug, or when it was time to throw up an illusion and slip away before things got ugly.
Iron Will fell into the extreme end of the later category.
Unfortunately there was nowhere for Trixie go flee to, and she didn’t want to risk casting a spell for fear all she’d do is draw the minotaur’s attention, which for the moment hadn’t quite fixed on anypony in particular. He was instead surveying the room with his massive rotary shotgun held in one meaty fist, while his other hand, a metallic chrome monstrosity sporting a massive fixed blade that looked like someone had married a chainsaw to a katana and fed their bastard offspring steroids, was resting on his hip. His ready, commanding grin made him look like a king observing his realm, and the gleam in his eye suggested he was contemplating unpleasant fates for the subjects of that realm.
“Alright listen up kiddies!” he bellowed, slapping his massive rotary shotgun down into fists of chrome, leveling the barrels at the terrified lab staff, “Iron Will’s and his fun friends are here for some good old fashioned vandalism! Keep quiet, stay down, don’t cause any fuss, and you’ll come out of today with fewer holes blown through you than you’d otherwise get if you decide to be stupid.”
To either side of him Iron Will’s other team members took up positions, the teal pegasus with the orange mane heading left, and the blade wielding griffin to the right. It only took the minotaur a second to notice that, along with the cluster of frightened lab ponies, there were others in the room who clearly weren’t Aurora Heavy Industries personnel. Seeing Lyra’s team, the big minotaur frowned and looked left at the griffin.
“Hey! Gilda, these the punks you and Lightning Dust tangled with up top?”
Gilda, beat curled in a small scowl, looked like she was already prepped to pounce, wings tense and blades up, “Yeah, same dweebs. Honing in on our payday.”
The pegasus, Lightning Dust, heaved out an aggravated sigh her own guns trained quite specifically on Raindrops. Raindrops was returning the favor, keeping her heavy machine gun steady in her chrome hooves as she gave the other pegasus mare a cold stare. Trixie gulped, realizing just how fast this could turn into a horribly violent drek-storm (moreso than it already had anyway) if somepony didn’t try to defuse the situation, or at least delay things.
“Hold on a moment!” she called out, “No need to get hasty, we’re all professionals here, right?”
She cast Lyra a searching look, hoping the other unicorn could take the lead, but Lyra seemed less willing to talk. Lyra had moved defensively in front of Ocatvia, balancing on her hind legs as she aimed her sniper rifle squarely at Iron Will’s head. Her stoney, hard expression said she had no intention of allowing anything to stop her from getting her friend out of the facility. Still, she hadn’t fired, and she returned Trixie’s look with a small nod, basically saying this was Trixie’s show if she wanted to talk things out. From Lyra’s stance Trixie surmised the mint unicorn would be willing to back whatever play Trixie made.
Trixie felt her mouth go dry as all eyes were on here. She usually loved attention, and a chance to get on a stage to perform. But she didn’t like trigger happy audiences with heavy ordnance.
Iron Will, for his part, tapped one hoof heavily, slowly licking his lip, and then heaved out a hard laugh, “Iron Will’s a reasonable professional, but you already look like you’re after the same target we are, so Iron Will ain’t seeing anywhere this can go other than seeing which team shoots faster.”
Trixie glanced around, pointedly not looking at Octavia, and held up a hoof in a shrug, “Well let’s confirm that first, shall we? What are you here for?”
Iron Will wagged a thick metal finger at her and the barrels’ of his cannon started to spin, “Ah ah ah, you first, little Miss Gabby Gums. You want to talk, you offer the first olive branch. What are you here for? Iron Will’s already got his guess, but why don’t you go ahead and confirm it.”
Trixie bit her lip, hesitant, but unable to think of any reason to bend the truth here. They needed to walk out of here with Octavia in tow, and to do that without a fight they couldn’t very well try to play it off like they were after anypony or anything else. Taking a deep breath, Trixie said, “We came to extract one of these ponies.”
That seemed like a nice, safe, unspecific answer that still answered the question. Iron Will wasn’t having any vagueness, though.
“Iron Will’s gonna guess your package is an earth pony mare, mid-twenties, gray coat, black mane and tail, violet eyes, cutie mark of a music note? Sort of looks like the one hiding behind your sharpshooter over there?”
Trixie grimaced, How did he know...? Oh drek on the sun, they have the same description we do. They are here for her!
“Maybe,” she said after a moment, slowly edging towards the nearest lab table, having a sinking feeling it’d offer feeble cover against the kind of firepower arrayed towards her and the rest of the team.
Iron Will’s face turned into a mock crestfallen shake as he grinned in a false front of understanding, “See there, that’s the problem Iron Will knew he’d need to ‘iron’ out. Just knew if there was another team here they had to be after the same target we were, ‘cause Iron Will, you see, got told by a little birdie that’d be the case. In fact, might look at it like we were sent here specifically to make sure that particular mare never sees the light of another day. Real sad. Iron Will usually ain’t in for assassination. Likes a fight too much for wetwork. But when the money’s good enough...”
“You’re right, Iron,” spoke up Cheerilee suddenly, “Assassination isn’t your usual style.”
She’d been keeping inconspicuously off to the side, but now strode out into the open, giving Iron Will a clear look at her. Trixie gulped as she noticed the minotaur aim his weapon towards the magenta mare, though his prominent eyebrow rose as he looked at her, a light of recognition gradually dawning in his eyes.
“Blackcherry? Hah, stripe my chrome and call me a fleshbag, didn’t think I’d be seeing you anytime ever! Hadn’t heard anything about you cropping up in the shadow biz since the slotted-up run against Appleosian Arms. Thought you’d dropped the biz altogether girl!”
He’d completely lost his third-person speaking pattern, Trixie noticed, and for all that he still held a tension in his massive frame bespeaking of the capacity to instantly leap into violence, he had cracked a wide grin at seeing Cheerilee. She returned the smile, and Trixie had to give the mare credit for not only staying calm and frosty in this situation, but Trixie couldn’t even tell if the smile was fake or the genuine article.
“Oh, you know me Iron, I can’t give up the shadows. Just too much fun,” Cheerilee said, tilting her head up at the minotaur, her eyes lidding slightly, and a giving a small side flick of her tail, “Would’ve dropped you a line sometime, but I think you understand why I might’ve wanted a change of scenery after Appleosian Arms. Didn’t just need a low profile, needed a new profile. Kind of surprised to see you out this way, you said you had no interest in doing runs anywhere other than the Hoofington ‘plex. What gives?”
Iron Will shrugged, “Offer I couldn’t refuse. We’re talking serious bits, Blackcherry, the kind you can retire off of if you want. This payday gets done and I can pick which part of the world I want to build a mansion in.”
“Since when does Iron Will, baddest fragger in the Hoofington sprawl, care about retiring to a life of opulent boredom?” Cheerilee asked.
“Since he realized he wasn’t getting any younger and maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to take it easy for awhile, as long as he had the bits to make it plenty comfy,” he paused briefly, considering, “You want in?”
This caused the teal pegasus mare, Lightning Dust, to snap her eyes towards him, her mouth twisting in a snarl, “What drek is this!? Iron, the splits even between us three! Period! We ain’t bringing in any slitch at the last second!”
The griffin’s feathers had ruffled, tail twitching behind her like a snake, “I’m with Dust on this. We’re wasting time talking. Every second we screw around is another before security reinforcements show up.”
“Can it you two,” Iron Will snapped, “If Blackcherry comes on board on our side, I’m just splitting my own share with her. Still more than enough for a solid retirement, and one less loose end we’d need to tidy up here.”
Cheerilee’s eyes narrowed slightly, “Just so we’re clear, Iron, your job is to kill this mare over here?” she gestured back towards Octavia, who gulped and paled under the attention, every inch of her coiled tensely as if ready to bolt.
“She matches the description of our target, yeah,” Iron Will admitted, tone going stone cold, “No confusion in our instructions. Get in, do as much damage to the lab as possible, ice the lead scientist, and get out loud and messy. The client really wants this place shaken up, but the main target’s the gray mare. Sorry Blackcherry, our payday is her corpse. Now you mares can stand aside; I ain’t getting paid for a body count beyond our target. But she ain’t leaving this building breathing.”
Cheerilee sighed, head drooping, and ears flattening as a look of sad acceptance on her face, “It was worth a shot to see if we could talk this out.”
Her tail flicked again, only this time Trixie saw the hint of matte black metal amid the two toned pink locks of hair, and without warning there was a screech of pain from the griffin as a throwing knife embedded itself in her shoulder. The entire room exploded into motion then, Trixie first among them, diving for the table she’d been edging towards for cover.
Iron Will’s rotary shotgun spat a roaring hail of destruction at where Cheerilee had been standing, but the mare had sprung from that spot like a magenta frog. She landed by a lab table that she turned around and bucked straight up towards the minotaur with surprising strength, the metal table sailing through the air only to be batted aside by one of the minotaur’s burly cybernetic arms.
Lightning Dust had sprung forward, her wings flapping full speed, her SMGs throwing a stream of rounds at Raindrops. Raindrops in turn dropped down, diving past the line of gunfire. With a single powerful sweep of her wings she shot forward to meet Lightning Dust, blocking bullets with one foreleg. While sparks danced off the chrome of that leg, she swung with her machine gun, using it like a giant metal club. It clipped Lightning Dust’s left wing, sending her spinning, but the mare was quick to recover and turned in mid-air, flying backwards and upside down. Before she could fire she had to roll away from Raindrops’ follow up attack, the machine gun barking and cutting the air with tracers.
Meanwhile the griffin Gilda had torn the throwing knife from Cheerilee out of her shoulder, growling as she dove down towards Lyra and Octavia. Lyra stood her ground, aiming her sniper rifle. The soft, suppressed sound of the rifle firing was all but lost amid the sound of gunfire and the ponies of the lab staff screaming. Gilda juked to the right, a few of her feathers clipped off by the near miss of the rifle round, and then she was all but on top of Lyra. However Gilda wasn’t aiming for Lyra, but instead was going for Octavia, her monofilament blades slashing out from above at the gray mare.
Octavia had ducked, covering her head, and at that moment Lyra instantly shouldered her rifle and sprang into the air like a nimble ballet dancer, pirouetting in the air. Her hooves snapped out with blinding speed, slapping the flats of the monoblades, deflecting them away from Octavia. Gilda growled, landing on a table and nimbly twirling her body around, using the momentum of her flight to hurl herself back at Octavia once more, blades thrust out, only to find Lyra there again with her hooves expertly redirecting the attacks with fast hoof slaps that were fueled by the Adept’s inner magic.
“Outta the damned way!” Gilda snarled, refocusing her attention on Lyra, her twin swords becoming a hazy blur as she swiped dozens of times at the mint unicorn as she dove in and out of range.
“Not a fraggin’ chance!” Lyra growled back, golden eyes all but blazing. In fact, Trixie was certain part of that glow was coming from Lyra’s Adept magic, which continued to power her supernatural speed and toughened hooves. Lyra ducked and tilted her body sharply, her hooves matching the tempo of Gilda’s swords. Even with Lyra’s magic flowing through her hooves, they were not immune to those wickedly sharp blades, and blood coated her forelegs from several cuts when Lyra couldn’t quite block at a safe angle.
Trixie, breathing hard, terrified, glanced back towards Iron Will. The lab ponies had scattered towards the far side of the room, leaving the main lab all but empty save for Trixie, and Cheerilee. Up on the catwalk Iron Will remained a stationary statue of gleaming metal, raining down destruction on the lab with his shotgun seeming to have an endless supply of ammunition. Cheerilee dove and scrambled about, using every piece of laboratory equipment available to give her cover from the unrelenting stream of bullets. Beaker’s exploded, computers shattered, and potentially priceless artifacts were torn apart under the rain of slugs, all the while Cheerilee staying one step ahead of the death dealing hail. She wasn’t even bothering to shoot back, and Trixie didn’t really blame her. Iron Will not only had enough metal built into him to be considered practically a tank, he also wore thick enough combat armor that even if he wasn’t cybered-up Trixie doubted that Cheerilee’s little machine pistol would do more than tickle him.
“Anytime you want to pitch in, hun!” shouted Cheerilee as she ran by Trixie’s hiding place, and she tossed Trixie a wry wink.
“Huh!?” Trixie responded with a bewildered blink, before realizing that Iron Will’s proverbial waterfall of destruction was sweeping by her own hidey hole beneath a flimsy lab table.
Trixie threw herself away just in time, rolling up against a fallen computer terminal as the table she’d just been under got nearly torn in half by the gunfire while it chased after Cheerilee. Trixie, lungs heaving and heart trying its best to crawl out of her throat, glanced up at the minotaur to see he wasn’t even paying attention to anything other than the fleeing magenta mare.
Right, do something. I should do... something.
Trixie took a second or two, working out her plan, and went to work after breathing deeply and finding her center of calm. Or mostly calm. Pretend calm. Primarily mortal terror, with a light blanket of calm covering it up. Made casting somewhat more difficult, but not outside her ability. Instead of drawing on the Astral Plane she instead dipped into her unicorn magic, pushing her innate magic through her horn, causing it to alight with a azure glow.
Weaving threads of magic, shining silver strands merging in her mind's eye with verdant green and misty blue, Trixie wove together a spell and cast it towards the minotaur who was bellowing over the sound of his rotary cannon's deafening blasts.
"Didn't have to be this way Blackcherry! Made you a solid offer, and you spat it back at Iron Will's face! Now Iron Wills got to turn you into paste!"
However right on the heels of his threat Iron Will found his entire head was bathed in a mirrorsheen bright aura of what looked like liquid moonlight. He roared and shook his head, flailing about with one hand to try and clear the light away, but Trixie's spell held fast. Iron Will's gunfire went completely erratic, sweeping around the entire room.
Cheerilee gave Trixie a happy grin, nodding her approval, at least until she had to duck to the floor as a rand hosing of errant shots flew above her head. Trixie, already back in cover, such as it was, shouted, "That's not going to last long! If we're running, now would be a good time!"
Even as she spoke she realized her error, as Iron Will laughed in a dark, menacing guffaw of triumph, having heard her clearly and picked out Trixie's position. Trixie felt her blood run cold as Iron Will casually raised his left arm and pointed in her general direction. Not sure what was coming but quite certain she needed to promptly relocate, Trixie rushed from the busted up computer terminal she'd been using as cover at about the same instant that a hatch on Iron Will's cyberarm popped open.
"Have a taste of Iron Will's patented Assertive Armor Shredding Micromissiles! Satisfaction guaranteed or your money, and internal organs, back!"
Trixie didn't even think the sales pitch made sense but didn't exactly have time to criticise the minotaur on his technique. Mainly due to the fact that a pair of small missiles streaked out of the launcher built into Iron Will's cyberarm and flew towards Trixie's cover. She scrambled away at full speed, desperately throwing up a makeshift magic shield with a few fast arcane gestures and power words. The Astral energies surged through her, hitting her hard with the drain of the unfamiliar spell, one of her least practiced among her repertoire of mage spells. But her unicorn magic was even less suited to form a barrier. The missiles hit the floor where Trixie had been hiding just a few seconds earlier, and detonated in a devastating swarm of armor piercing fragments and concussive shockwave.
Trixie felt herself lifted off the ground by the force of the blast, propelled through the air to slam into the top of a laboratory table that was thankfully beaker free, or devoid of any other sharp, pointy objects. Still hurt like a mule kick to the face, through. Fortunately either through sheer luck or the effectiveness of her magic shield the missile shrapnel hadn’t torn her apart, just given her a few nasty cuts here and there.
“Ugggh... Trixie now realizes that she is not being paid nearly enough to be here,” she said, laying on her back on the lab table, bleeding and dazed. She then blinked and shook her head, “Did I just speak in third person?”
“Iron Will isn’t impressed with either stealing his speech method or surviving his missile barrage!... Actually Iron Will admits its kind of impressive you’re not a bloody stain on the floor after that, but hey, second times the charm!”
Iron Will, the spell that Trixie had thrown up on his head having gradually faded by this point, locked his eyes on the prone unicorn and aimed his cyberarm once more. She tried to roll off the table, knowing she wouldn’t be able to get off a second shield spell, or even if she did that the chances of it working against a direct hit would be nill. Iron Will grinned, but the expression vanished as Cheerilee, taking advantage of his distraction, leaped up to the top of the walkway he was standing on and galloped straight up behind the minotaur. Jumping onto his back she wrapped hooves around his neck and jerked back, forcing the massive metaled up behemoth backwards. Similarly his arm jerked up as his second pair of missiles fired, the of track explosives detonating along the ceiling.
This caused not only glass and plaster to rain down, but the sprinkler system to activate, bathing the laboratory in a downpour of water.
Iron Will reached up with his free hand with a annoyed growl and gripped Cheerilee’s hooves, “If you wanted to ride Iron Will again Blackcherry, ought’ve just took the deal! Ain’t in the mood now, through if you wanna get slammed, Iron Will abides!”
With that he heaved himself backwards, smashing his bulk, Cheerilee along with it, into the wall. Cheerilee grunted in pain, but kept her grip as she aimed her machine pistol with her mouth and fired at the shoulder joint of Iron Will’s massive arm, sending sparks flying as the bullets tore at the cybernetics. Iron Will roared and slammed his back into the wall again, hard enough to leave a dent in the metal surface, and this time Cheerilee lost her grip on the minotaur, slipping to the ground in a battered heap.
Trixie had managed to get off the table, landing lightly on her hooves, teetering slightly. Seeing Cheerilee’s slumped form, not knowing if the mare was unconscious or worse, but knowing full well her intervention had saved Trixie from becoming this room’s new coat of paint, Trixie felt a hot ball of anger flare inside her at the brutish minotaur.
“That is it!” Trixie snorted, planting her hooves and aiming her horn at Iron Will, “I have had quite enough of you!”
Iron Will scoffed, hefting his rotary shotgun with one arm. His other arm was twitching erratically from the damage Cheerilee had done to it, but Iron Will seemed more than able to hold the gun steady with his remaining good arm. Even as the barrels started to spin Trixie channeled magic through her horn. From the elevator there was a chime and the doors slide open, revealing a half dozen security ponies that came charging out, guns blazing. Iron Will, more surprised that intimidated by the arrival of the security force, turned around, and after only a second of hesitation leveled his weapon at them and fired away. In doing so he’d turned his back on Trixie. The security ponies didn’t stand up to Iron Will’s gunfire, but then they didn’t have to, because they weren’t really there. The illusions vanished in bursts of blue smoke as Iron Will’s gunfire tore up the wall behind them.
The minotaur blinked, having to take another slow second to figure out that he’d been fooled by an illusion, before turning around to face the unicorn he knew had to be responsible Only she wasn’t there anymore. Looking left and right he didn’t see any sign of the azure mare, and he snorted in frustration.
----------
Meanwhile Lyra and Gilda’s close-range duel had taken them in a winding path across to the back of the laboratory. Gilda had apparently given up on attempting to target Octavia and was now thoroughly engrossed with trying to overwhelm Lyra, the griffin’s eyes narrowed to a slits and her beak twisted in a set scowl of outrage. Gilda made full use of her wings, swooping up and down, using height and momentum to try and land anything resembling a decisive blow on the ever moving Lyra. For every slash and thrust of Gilda’s swords they were met either by air as Lyra smoothly rolled away from the blow, or by a expertly timed hoof that would slap the blade away. However for all that Gilda seemed to have no ability to land a solid hit, Lyra was so occupied by defense she didn’t seem to be able to work up a counter attack. Both were moving with fluid speed, Lyra graceful and light on her hooves as a ground clinging mist, and Gilda moving with the savage, fast ferocity befitting her predatory blood.
Gilda rose into the air and flipped over Lyra’s head, turning around and diving down, both blades slashing horizontally from opposite directions. Lyra spun away, taking a slight tear on her shoulder with a shallow cut to her hide, and she tried launching a sharp kick with one of her back legs, but had to retract it to keep Gilda from lopping the limb right off.
“Actually giving me a workout here,” Gilda said grudgingly, pressing her attack, swiping and catching a few locks of Lyra’s mane, “Congrats, you’re the second wimp pony to make me actually break a sweat.”
Lyra didn’t bother to respond to the griffin, her face still with focus as she cartwheeled out of the way of one of Gilda’s thrusts, jumping up on top of a long metal table lined with lab equipment, including a trio of robotic arms that swiveled over a portion of the table apparently made to contain an item for the arms to manipulate with whatever magic-tech apparatus was installed in them. Lyra didn’t care what they did, she just grabbed one and ripped it free of its housing to then spin around and launch at Gilda’s face.
Gilda snorted contemptuously and swatted the robotic arm out of the air, only to find the second and third arms already torn free by Lyra and launched at her at enough speed to almost match bullets. Gilda had to twist and turn at awkward angles to avoid getting clobbered, and only when she landed on the ground, unbalanced, did she realized that Lyra hadn’t been trying to hit her with those improvised ballistic missiles, just put her off balance.
Before Gilda could fully recover she found the mint unicorn instantly in her face, both fore legs snapping out like vipers. Now it was Gilda on the defensive, forced to scramble away from Lyra’s powerful blows, one of which made a solid dent in the metal floor as Gilda rolled away from it. Growling, the griffin scrambled to get airborne again. Lyra was having none of that, however.
Ignoring danger to her own safety Lyra sprung into the air as Gilda rose, snapping her leg out in a flying kick. Gilda slashed with her blades, and Lyra deflected one barely while she had to use her arm to shield her body from the blow, taking a horrific, deep gash. Despite the wound it did nothing to stop Lyra’s momentum as her kick landed firmly on Gilda’s chest with a loud cracking sound. The griffin’s eyes widened and a gasp of air escaped her beak, along with a bit of blood, as she was knocked cleanly from the air and landed on the floor, bouncing once before slamming into a table.
Lyra landed as well, wincing as her injured leg almost failed to support her weight. Gilda slowly started to crawl back up, glaring at Lyra as she spat blood out of her beak.
“Y-you...” Gilda’s voice rose into a roar, eyes flaring with fury, “ARE DEAD!”
Gilda launched herself at Lyra, blades swept out to her sides, berserk rage bristling from every inch of the griffin’s body. Lyra braced herself, her injured leg hanging limply as she balanced on her hind legs, readying to fight with her remaining good fore leg up in a ready stance.
Only before Gilda reached Lyra there was a blast of wind that swirled around the lab, causing papers and loose debris to fly everywhere, followed by a deep, melodious thrum of sound that cut right at Lyra’s heart. It was a familiar, nostalgic sound for Lyra, who looked to her right to see the source of the sound and the sight took her breath away.
Octavia Philharmonica was standing on her hind legs, her previous fear still showing in the tear stains under her eyes, but now her face was a focused, hardened mask as she had her hooves raised before her, cradling an instrument and bow before her. The tall cello was carved from beautiful dark mahogany and along its surface intricate and meticulous etchins of magical symbols joined together to form pictographs of owls. A black cello case lay empty next to Ocatavia, through where it had come from wasn’t clear. On Octatvia’s shoulder as she pulled the bow across the cello’s magical strings an image of an owl appeared from thin air and alighted upon Octavia’s shoulder, white and translucent, with piercing blue eyes.
Astral energy coursed from the cello’s strings, and a shimmering field of force appeared in front of the earth pony mare that crackled with arcs of lightning. With a low, violent chord from the cello the lightning surged forward like a raging whip, a coiling bolt of electricity that slammed into Gilda and sent the griffin bouncing across the lab until she hit the far wall, smoking. A throaty, resonate sound of the cello echoed over the sound of gunfire from the other battles in the room, and Octavia gave Lyra a look as she stepped forward, still holding the spirit foci, for that was what the cello was, close to her chest.
“I do not know what this is about, Lyra, but I am going to... to trust you. But you will owe me answers once we’re away from here.”
Lyra nodded, glancing to make sure that Gilda wasn’t getting back up before heading over to Octavia. The griffin seemed down for the count, wisps of smoke trailing up from singed feathers. Lyra didn’t know, nor particularly care, if the griffin was alive or dead.
The sound of gunfire above tore Lyra’s attention towards the sight of Raindrops and that teal pegasus, Lightning Dust, still thoroughly engaged in a battle of blazing gunplay in the limited space above the laboratory.
Lightning Dust was unquestionably the faster flier, darting circles around the signifigantly slower Raindrops. Again and again bursts of fire from Lightning Dust’s SMGs pelted Raindrops’ form, but Lyra just needed to watch for a moment to realize just how much Lightning Dust was underestimating the second most dangerous member of Lyra’s team.
Much of Raindrop’s jasmine coat was intact, but that only hid the extent of the cybernetics and bio-tech alterations that made the mare a machine of destruction. Her chrome hooves were really just the tip of the proverbial iceburg. Thick layers of dermal plating and armor weave built into her muscles made Raindrops a living tank, even if she wasn’t wearing a heavily armored coat designed to stop point black assault rifle fire.
Lightning Dust’s SMGs were loaded with armor piercing rounds, which were chipping through Raindrops’ defenses, but not nearly fast enough.
“Ha! This all you got!? You’re so slow, you can’t even dodge, let alone hit me!” Lightning Dust didn’t seem to notice that the way her opponent was slowly gliding around, shielding her face with one hoof while firing short bursts with her machine gun with the other, was neither really trying to dodge or hit her opponent. Raindrops was just waiting for her moment.
Her eyes were focused unblinkingly on Lightning Dust’s movements, the other pegasus perhaps being fast, but not fast enough to escape the digital tracking of Raindrops’ cybernetic eyes. Raindrops slowly banked left, making it look like she was trying to avoid the bursts from Lightning Dust by interposing the giant spherical object in the center of the room. Bullets bounced off the magical wards protecting the sphere, but Lightning Dust just laughed as she easily kept pace with Raindrops’ lazy maneuvering, a confident grin plastered on her face.
“Can’t run, can’t dodge, and can’t fight!” Lightning Dust taunted, “I feel real sorry for your team, stuck with a loser like you that can’t hit anything. How many times have I nailed you so far, slowpoke?”
She flipped upside down, looking for all the world like she was swimming backwards at she flew above Raindrops’ slow banking turn, firing her SMGs in another pair of bursts that pelted Raindrop’s back and wing. Raindrops let out a small cry as her hit wing folded and she spun out and crashed on the ground. Lightning Dust laughed and dove. She dove so fast that there was no chance at all to pull out of it as Raindrops, far more nimbly than she’d been moving before, sprang up and jammed the barrel of her machine gun into Lightning Dust’s sternum.
Lighting Dust gasped, the air blasted out of her lungs, stunned, and unable to defend herself as Raindrops’ hoof smashed into her face with bone shattering force, knocking the other mare’s jaw loose. Lightning Dust hit the ground, dropping her SMGs, and tried to crawl away as Raindrops’ stalked towards her.
“How many times you hit in a fight doesn’t matter,” Raindrops said, smashing a hoof down and pinning Lightning Dust to the ground, and shoving the barrel of her machine gun into the other pegasus’ mouth, “All that matters is the last hit.”
“Raindrops,” Lyra said, not shouting, but not having to.
Raindrops didn’t glance Lyra’s way, but eased off, sliding the machine gun out of Lightning Dust’s mouth. She snorted and smacked Lightning Dust hard across the face, knocking the other mare out cold, “Relax Lyra... just thought I’d give her a good scare.”
From the dry, even tone Raindrops used, Lyra wasn’t so sure, but no point arguing results. Two of the enemy runners were down, which just left the big minotaur to deal with before they were free and clear to get the frack out of this place. Then Lyra could find out what Aurora Heavy Industries had done to Octavia, and hopefully find some leads that would finally lead her towards her goal. Towards her Bon Bon.
Coming around the large, strange metal sphere that took up the center of the lab, Lyra and Octavia joined Raindrops and looked towards the end of the laboratory with the elevator.
They did so just in time to see, through the falling water of the recently activated sprinkler system, Iron Will swinging his rotary shotgun around, firing random bursts around the lab. By now the lab staff had long since fled to the furthest corners of the room, staying well out of the way of the line of fire. Lyra could see Cheerilee unconscious on the ground behind Iron Will, but she didn’t see Trixie anywhere. Carrot Top’s medical drone was hiding in cover behind a few overturned, shot up tables, and Lyra heard Carrot Top’s voice through her comlink.
~Lyra, Raindrops, good to see you two are okay. We kind of have our hooves full with this muscle head. Cheerilee is down, but my scanner reads her bio-feed as still in the green. I think she’s playing possum. Don’t know where that Trixie mare is at. She vanished into thin air.~
Lyra knew where Trixie was, however, as let her eyes slip into Astral perception and saw the lines of mana that made up Trixie’s being. Lyra suspected Trixie was using her unicorn magic to be invisible. As she watched Trixie, slowly sneaking up the stairs to the platform Iron Will was on, aimed her horn at a computer terminal and knocked it over with magic, which caused Iron Will to snap in that direction and blast the computer apart.
“Iron Will is not amused by the ghost tricks! If all you can do is sneak around all I got to do is wait for you to run out of magic,” he grinned eagerly, “And the second you appear, Iron Will’s got a special way of dealing with folk that get on his bad side.”
Lyra’s gunshot rang out to punctuate his speech and chipped one of his horns as the large rifle round smacked into the wall behind the minotaur. Iron Will’s focus immediately went to Lyra and the mare’s beside her. He started to raise his rotary shotgun but Lyra saw his eyes flick about the room and the hesitance cross his previously confident features.
“If you’re looking for the rest of your team, they’re down,” Lyra said. Iron Will snorted in anger and she saw the veins on his forehead pop out, so she decided to add, “They’re not dead. I don’t think. Only way you’ll get to check is if you back down.”
“Iron Will doesn't back down; he throws down!” the minotaur proclaimed loudly, but Lyra could see the hesitance. He knew the odds had just shifted heavily against him. That and he might actually be genuinely worried about the health of his teammates. Wasn’t entirely unknown amongst shadowrunners. Lyra knew she was worried about Cheerilee and if it hadn’t been for Carrot Top’s assurance that Cheerilee wasn’t badly hurt Lyra’s first round might’ve just been aimed for Iron Will’s head instead of his horn.
“Fine by me,” she said nonchalantly, “Fight, if you want. You might get one more of us, but you’ll still go down, all the same. Or, conversely, you stand aside, weapon slung, and let us walk. Then you can collect your fallen teammates and maybe get out of here before A.H.I sends reinforcements to clean this place up.”
“And ruin my reputation by failing this job?” Iron Will asked with grinding teeth.
Lyra shrugged, seeing Trixie had managed to sneak up close to the minotaur, the azure unicorn low to the ground and looking terrified, but determined to be ready in case negotiations broke down. Lyra smiled. She knew Trixie could handle herself on a run; she’d been a good pick. Her attention hadn’t left Iron Will, however, and she turned her smile into something encouraging.
“Any runner knows not all jobs go smooth. Glitches happen. Its not going to ruin your rep, and any professional runner knows when its time to walk away, especially if its the lives on teammates on the line. You can’t win them all.”
“You can’t win them all, huh?” Iron Will parotted thoughtfully, “Never heard that one before...”
Lyra watched the gears turn in Iron Will’s head, could imagine him trying to work out just what his real odds were of taking her, Raindrops, Trixie, and Octavia on all at once. She saw the moment of decision in his eyes before he lowered the barrels of his shotgun and clipped the weapon to his back, stepping out of the way of the elevator, hands held out at his sides. Lyra let out a breath.
“Good choice,” she said, and quickly looked at Carrot Top’s drone, “Go check Cheerilee. Trixie, you can stop hiding.”
Trixie appeared, letting her invisibility go, and scuffing a hoof while giving Iron Will a wary sidelong look, “I was not hiding, I was tactically positioning myself using the time honored method of stealth and guile!”
Iron Will, hands still held out in a gesture of surrender, gave Trixie a deadpan look, “There’s a word for that. Hiding, I think.”
Trixie turned her nose up, but quickly turned worried as she watched Carrot Top’s drone fly up to where Cheerilee was. Trixie trotted towards the fallen mare just as Lyra, Raindrops, and Octavia joined them by the elevator.
“She’s going to be alright?” Trixie asked. Before Carrot Top could respond Cheerilee herself snapped her hooves up and pulled Trixie into a tight hug, nibbling playfully on Trixie’s neck.
“Raaar! Sudden zombie sneak attack!”
“Gggaaaah!” Trixie scrambled out of Cheerilee’s grip, which the other mare didn’t fight as she was too busy laughing. Trixie, eyes wide, pointed an accusatory hoof at Cheerilee.
“You crazy mare! You don’t do things like that! Do you want me to have a heart attack!?”
“Heheh, oh, that was good,” Cheerilee said, wiping her eyes, “Figured since I couldn’t surprise Iron Will I might as well surprise you. A mare’s got to find her fun somewhere, right?”
Trixie still looked shaken but Lyra smoothed things out by putting a hoof on the other mare’s leg and giving Trixie a small smile, “Good work, keeping Iron Will occupied. Glad I brought you along, Trixie.”
Trixie went from glaring at Cheerilee to beaming at Lyra’s compliment and Lyra’s smile deepened. She remembered that with Trixie a little praise could go a long way. Raindrops had already opened the elevator, while covering Iron Will with her machine gun.
“Time to go folk,s” Raindrops said, “I think we’ve more than overstayed our welcome here.”
Lyra nodded and motioned for Cheerilee and Trixie to get on the elevator. As they did Cheerilee gave Iron Will a parting look, blowing him a kiss, to which the minotaur just snorted and rolled his eyes, waving one of his hands as if trying to waft the kiss away. Cheerilee just chuckled, “Don’t be a sore loser. Next time we meet I might give you a consolation prize.”
Iron Will perked up slightly at that but otherwise showed no reaction. Lyra shook her head and turned to Octavia, who had a worried, almost haunted look on her face as she looked back towards the laboratory. The mare had her cello case strapped to her back now, seeming having no difficulty in carrying the large instrument.
“There is something in me that is screaming at me that I’m making a mistake,” said Octavia, and she looked at Lyra with confused eyes, “I can’t believe that you truly don’t remember our contact all these years, or that there’s some manner of spell on me as you claim.”
Lyra saw Octavia gather her strength, calming herself with a single, controlled breath, the same way she had in all those many practice sessions they shared together before playing back in college, “I am trusting you Lyra Heartstrings. I... I have to, if I’m to believe you’re the same mare I thought I’ve known for so long. Please, don’t prove my trust misplaced.”
Lyra offered her hoof, and after a second Octavia took it and Lyra led her onto the elevator, “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
----------
Going back through the hallways of the facilities’ ground floor Trixie was left feeling rattled, both by the fading of the adrenaline in her system and by the disquieting, eerie silence that dominated the empty halls. After all the deafening sounds of gunfire from the fight minutes ago it was strange just to hear the dull echoing of her own and the other’s hooves. Trixie was tired, feeling a tad sick to her stomach. Even with Carrot Top’s drone having patched her leg, a gunshot wound was a gunshot wound. Pain meds could only go so far, and Trixie knew that between blood loss, her heavy spellcasting for the day, and just physical exertion that she’d need a nice, long rest after this.
But first they had to escape. The tension clear in the alert, ever searching gazes in the rest of the team’s eyes. None had put their weapons away, and looked more than ready for further trouble. Trixie, reluctantly, drew the Timberwolf IV she’d been given, disliking the feel of the bulky pistol in her magical grip. The last thing she wanted to do was be forced to use the weapon, but if it was a choice between that, or dying...
“Ditzy should have contacted us by now,” Lyra said worriedly, her features grim, “Its not like her to remain quiet this long.”
“Carrot Top?” Raindrops asked, giving the medical drone a side-long look.
~Her vitals still seem good, though though fluctuated a bit during the scuffle in the lab. She hasn’t responded to me, but that might just be because she’s got her filters and buffers going full tilt. That or she’s diving hot, which means she can’t respond to us.~
Carrot Top’s voice also held a strain of concern over the com link. Cheerilee was quick to pipe in, “We know where she hid herself.”
Lyra nodded, “We grab her, whatever conditions she’s in, then we’re out. Carrot, the skies still clear?”
~For now, but it’s already been near twenty minutes since this show kicked off. It won’t be long before the cavalry arrives, and we really don’t want to be here when it does.~
Lyra led them on a different route than they took on their way in, and Trixie could only assume she was following the maps of the facility they had downloaded to their comlinks to find the room Ditzy Doo had hidden herself in. The route took them past the front lobby, which all of them had to pause and stare at for a moment. The entire small lobby was shot to pieces, the glass front doors exploded to shards, and the front desk a burning hulk of shattered wood. Several bodies of guard ponies lay strewn about the devastation and Trixie had to gulp down rising bile at the sight.
While the runners were grim faced at the scene, Octavia looked as if she had taken a blow to her chest, gasping and holding a hoof to her mouth. Shocked eyes looked towards Lyra, but the mint colored mare looked at Octavia with unblinking eyes and spoke with an unwavering voice of sincerity, “This wasn’t us Octy. We came in quiet and intended to get out quiet. This was the other groups work.”
“And that makes this better, how...?” Octavia breathed, her shock soon turning to burning fury, “Is this the kind of life you’ve chosen, Lyra!?”
Raindrops growled, “Save the sanctimonious accusations until we’re out of here. Where’s Ditzy?”
“This way,” Lyra said, giving Octavia one last, sad look before leading them on to a side hall that was lined side by side with many doors, one of which was a clearly labeled utility closet.
It was locked, but that didn’t last long between Raindrops and Lyra’s efforts, after knocking didn’t work, nor did calling for Ditzy over the comlink. The reason why was soon obvious as the door opened. Inside the closet was larger than its purpose might suggest, consisting of half a dozen cubby’s in the wall for maintenance and cleaning drones and a single control desk with computer terminal situated at the back.
Ditzy Doo at at this desk, slumped over the terminal. Her eyes were closed, and through Trixie saw no visible wounds, a trickle of blood was leaking from the gray pegasus mare’s nose. A single cable ran from the port in the datajack in Ditzy’s mane to the computer terminal, a faint bit of smoke wafting up from the machine. Trixie’s heart leapt into her throat in fear for the mare, but her fear lessened somewhat when she saw the rise and fall of Ditzy’s chest.
“Ditzy!” Lyra was there almost as fast as Raindrops, and Carrot Top’s medical drone was right behind the pair. Cheerilee, smiling face now turned deathly serious, took up a guard position outside the door with Octavia, while Trixie stood just inside, unsure of what to do that would be of any help.
“Carrot Top, I thought you said her vitals were good?” said Raindrops, giving the drone an accusing glare.
~They are!~ insisted Carrot Top as the drone hovered close to Ditzy, a plethora of medical tools descending from the bottom of the drone like a bizarre crab’s legs. ~I don’t know why... oh drek, somepony’s pipped in a false feed through my own filters! Hold on, I’m scanner her directly now..~
Just as Carrot Top’s drone started to bath Ditzy in a soft red glow of a scanning device the smoking terminal’s screen popped and fizzled, but a clear image began to appear on the small screen. A light yellow stallion with a cocksure grin, red mane and moustache, and gleaming green eyes.
“Well well well, so good to see some ponies giving a care for their own teammate. Warms your heart, doesn’t o’ brother of mine?”
Another stallions voice answered from somewhere off screen, “Indeed it does, dear brother o’ mine, indeed it does. Makes me shed a tear to see. Such camaraderie is sorely lacking in the common dregs of shadowrunner society these days! Speaking of comrades, brother, do you see ours about anywhere?”
The moustached stallion’s head bobbed on the screen in a nod, “Not at all brother. Now isn’t that discouragingly disconcerting? Seems our errant enormous egotistical employer and his deadly dynamic dunderheaded duo of frequently ferocious fliers have been soundly put down by our rambunctious righteous rivals in crime!”
“What are we to do about this most perilous of predicaments, o’ brother of mine?” came the sarcastic reply.
“Who are you two and what have you done to my teammate?” Lyra in a cold, measured tone.
“Such a good question! A good question indeed!” said the moustached stallion, “Brother would you like the honors this time?”
“No, no, no, dear brother, I believe its your turn to have the pleasure!” said the off-screen voice.
With a wide, oily grin the moustached stallion looked at the ponies gathered around the monitor and the unconscious Ditzy, “Then it is with great pleasure and personal acclaim that I introduce you all to the most superbe sibling shadowrunners! He’s Flim, and I’m Flam, and we’re the world famous-”
“I don’t actually care about your names, just tell me what you did to Ditzy,” Lyra interrupted, voice hard and edged as a sword.
Flam’s eyebrows rose and his eyes flashed with insulted anger as he calmly snorted and raised a mocking hoof, “Some ponies have no flare, do they dear brother? Why don’t you tell them what they want to know while I prepare a proper response to their rude behavior?”
The moustached stallion’s visage vanished from the screen and another’s appeared, nearly identical to the yellow coat and red and white striped mane of the previous stallion. The only difference was this stallion appeared slightly younger, though that might be due to his lack of a moustache that made his youthful grin easier to see.
“Well howdy’d do, Flim here, and before anypony there decides to throw more of a hissy fit and upset my delightfully debonair brother Flam, allow me to enlighten you as to your query. You see the sassy little gray number there was poking around inside this place’s systems, easy as you please. And so was I! Seems we were both after controlling the building’s central control node, and well, there was some disagreement over just who was going to be doing that. I’ll give her credit where it’s due, she nearly had me a half dozen times before I managed to smack her good with a little Blackout program. Painful but theoretically non-lethal bio-feedback. Don’t think I fired her brain, just gave her a nasty headache. Matrix combat isn’t for the faint of heart, even when we play with foal’s gloves. Maybe she’s alright, maybe she’s a vegetable. Just the way the cookie crumbles when you duke it out in cyberspace.”
Raindrops’ hoof slammed onto the desk and she pushed her face right up against the screen, her eyes blazing as she borred a glare straight at Flim, “If you believe in a higher power, start praying to it, chummer. I get my hooves on you, I’m not making your end fast. And that’s if Ditzy turns out to be alright. If she isn’t... I won’t kill you. Not even when you beg me to.”
The sheer, burning intensity of her tone, combined with an unblinking stare that made her words a promise, was enough to make even her teammates look at Raindrops’ askance. Trixie felt the hair on the back of her neck rise and her tail twitch, her natural pony instincts telling her to flee the dangerous predator in the room, even if said “predator” was just another pony. But Raindrops radiated menace at that moment, and even Flim, safe transmitting from wherever he was, gulped.
“Yes, well, that’s a lovely threat, but you might find it hard to enact with us up here and you down there! Be seeing you soon, my dear suckers!”
The monitor cut off and Raindrops smashed her hoof through it, smashing it in a small burst of glass and sparks. Lyra put a heavy hoof on Raindrops’ shoulder and Raindrops rounded on the other mare, eyes flashing.
“Calm down,” Lyra said, voice steel, “We look to our own first, then worry about them if and when we have to.”
Raindrops and Lyra both held each other’s gaze for a long second, the former trembling from mane to tail in bristling anger, the later still and silent as a carved statue of marble. Only the soft groan from Ditzy broke the pair from their standoff, both instantly looking towards the gray pegasus mare as she made another quiet moan, her wings twitching.
“Ditzy!” Raindrops reached for her, but was stopped by Lyra holding out a hoof, who then looked at Carrot Top’s drone.
“Is she okay, Carrot?”
~”I think so. Neural health is a little outside my area of knowledge, but I’m not detecting any of the tell tale signs of a stroke or other similar issues. I think the biofeedback from whatever hit her in the Matrix gave her system a nasty shock, but didn’t fry anything badly. Her heart rate is stable, and she’ll probably wake up on her own soon.~
“We need her moving now,” said Lyra, “Can you give her anything?”
~”I can, but I’m not sure its a good idea. I don’t want to rattle anything in there that doesn’t need rattling. I’d rather give her something to keep her under and resting, quite frankly.”~
“I’ll carry her,” Raindrops said.
Lyra nodded, “Then grab her and let’s move.”
As Raindrops carefully grabbed hold of Ditzy and gently rested the mare on her back the team filed out of the utility room and started to make their way back to the lobby. When they reached it Cheerilee and Lyra took the lead, motioning for the others to hang back for a moment. The pair then slowly crept out through the front doors and into the area where part of the second floor of the facility overhung the front entry. Lyra had her sniper rifle out and gripped in her magic, while Cheerilee had her machine pistol armed in her mouth. Trixie waited alongside Raindrops, Octavia, the still prone Ditzy, and Carrot Top’s quietly buzzing drone.
“What are they doing?” Trixie asked nervously, shifting around on her hooves as she gave an anxious glance towards those around her.
“Use your head,” Raindrops said, “Those two flankholes are obviously part of that minotaur’s team, right?”
“Yes, that part they made pretty clear,” Trixie said, “So? Are we worried they’re hiding in ambush for us?”
Raindrops sighed, “Not an ambush. Not hiding. Think, little miss private eye. How did that team arrive?”
Trixie narrowed her eyes at the disrespectful tone but let it go as she thought it over, and quickly realized what Raindrops was getting at, “The VTOL!”
The flying machine had done quite the number on the A.H.I facility when it had arrived, blasting many of the smaller surrounding buildings with missiles and gunfire. If Flim and Flam were the pilots on board that VTOL they could make getting away quite the challenge, assuming it had any ammunition left after flattening so much of the facilities’ secondary buildings.
Trixie ducked down a bit more behind the potted plant she’d been using for cover, watching Cheerilee and Lyra strike out of the protective overhang with trepidation.
Just as they did so Carrot Top’s voice shouted over the team’s comlinks, ~”Watch out! Those jerks were hiding between the wall and the back of the main building!~
Her words were punctuated by the sudden sound of the VTOL’s engines and the whine of rushing air. Lyra and Cheerilee rushed back inside just in time to avoid a firestorm of autocannon fire, rounds designed for use against other vehicles, not ponies, tore at the ground around them. Trixie caught sight of the matte black VTOL streaking by the sky outside and turning around, bringing its guns to bear again as Lyra and Cheerilee galloped back into the lobby.
“Move! Head for the west side of the building!” Lyra shouted.
As the team of ponies turned and ran Flam’s, or maybe Flim’s, laughing voice could be heard from some external speaker on the VTOL.
“Hah! Where are you running off to? Can’t stay here much longer, can you? I think Aurora Heavy Industries will have its fine security ponies arriving soon in droves. Not a good spot to be in. But thems the breaks, either hide in the building and wait for A.H.I’s inevitable retribution, or brave a run for it and get torn up by our Gloriously Gratuitous Gunship Galore 4000!”
If Trixie wasn’t busy being running for her life as another barrage of cannon fire ripped apart the lobby she was fleeing from she might’ve appreciated the flare of those two stallions, especially their naming conventions. She almost tripped, halfway stumbling as blasted plaster pelted her, but she felt a stabilizing nudge behind her and glanced back to see Octavia right behind her, having kept her from falling.
“T-thanks,” Trixie stammered as they got into the deeper hallways of the building, away from the now thoroughly trashed front lobby.
“Think nothing of it,” Octavia replied with a small nod, “But do try not to fall again. Please. I’ve seen enough ponies be hurt this day.”
Trixie found herself nodding, fully intending to keep her hooves under her. Getting shot to pieces was not on her agenda for the rest of her day. No, her agenda involved copious amounts of running, followed by finding a soft bed to collapse into, go comatose for a few hours/days, then proceed to beat her payment out of Lyra Heartstrings then promptly forgething that she’d ever heard of shadowrunners!
First, however, the running.
The group made short work of the A.H.I hallways, their previous caution tossed aside in favor of speed, and in less than a minute they were at the door they’d previously used to get inside.
~”I’ve got backup moving in!~” said Carrot Top’s tense but hopeful voice, ~”Fear not my friends, Rabbit Buster is on the way!~”
“What’s a Rabbit Buster and why should I find it comforting when we’ve got a heavily armed gunship trying to kill us?” asked Trixie as they gathered around the door.
Lyra had a wan smile on her face as she gripped the doors handle in her magic, “You’ll see. Now when I open this door, we’ll head for the main gate. We can’t scale the wall like before, we’ll be easy targets.”
“Won’t we be easy targets going for the main gate as well?” Trixie pointed out fearfully. She wasn’t too worried about herself, honestly, as one invisibility spell and she’d be golden. But what about the others? She might not have known any of them very well, but that hardly meant Trixie relished the notion of any of them getting gunned down or otherwise coming to harm. Just looking at Ditzy’s form, still unconscious and occasionally moaning in pain as she lay on Raindrop’s back like a limp, wet blanket... it made Trixie’s heart clench. The gray mare had been so bouncy, easily smiling, if a tad off kilter. What if she’d truly had her mind fried earlier? Trixie couldn’t imagine the happy and energetic Ditzy as a brain-dead vegetable, and the mere thought made her want to cringe.
What drove these mares to do such a dangerous job like shadowrunning?
“Its our only way out,” Lyra said in response, “We just have to hope that Carrot Top’s got our backs and can cover us long enough to get to the cover of the tree-line.”
Lyra paused, glancing between Trixie and Octavia, “Do either of you have magic that might help us out here?”
Trixie frowned, her ears drooping, “I have invisibility, but I don’t have enough energy left to cover all of us... I might be able to create some distracting illusions.”
She felt confidence returning as she nodding to herself, “Yes, yes, I know I can throw up enough controlled chaos to made it very hard for those long winded salaud to do anything than to be dazzled into stupefied confusion!”
Octavia, hiding a small smile behind a hoof, merely gave Lyra a solid look, eyes unblinking as she said, “Owl is with me, and can conjure some unpleasant surprises for those who have helped perpetuate this horror on my workplace and cowokers.”
Cheerilee was quick to interject, “Just remember the idea is for all of us to get out of here alive. No silly heroics from either of you,” she winked, “Otherwise I’ll have to punish you when we get back to the safehouse.”
Trixie blinked, trying to shove aside a very sudden and unwanted mental image of whips, and just shook her head, giving Lyra a helpless look. Lyra, face still grim, just gave her team one last look to confirm everypony was ready. At the round of return nods she got Lyra took a deep breath and said, “Here we go.”
The door swung open, and out they went, tearing across the greenery of the facility grounds. Raindrops took to the air, careful to keep Ditzy balanced on her back. Cheerilee took the lead on the ground, galloping ahead around the right side of the building while Trixie and Octavia, alongside Carrot Top’s medical drone followed in a tight pack. Lyra took up the rear, her sniper rifle pointed towards the sky.
Trixie already had her horn aglow with magic, preparing a dozen different possible illusions in her mind by the time the loud whine of VTOL engines filled the air and Flim and Flam’s gunship roared over the roof of the A.H.I building behind the team.
Trixie turned her head just in time to weave her unicorn magic quickly into a wavering stream that then blossomed into a full on burst of bright green, purple, and blue fireworks, complete with rocket sounds and loud explosive pops.
Gunfire still rained down at them, but the powerful line of exploding rounds stitched a destructive path along the group’s path to the left, narrowly missing. As the team rounded the building and the blown open front gates could be seen ahead Trixie put her head down and pumped her legs as fast as she could to keep up. The fireworks would only briefly confuse that VTOL’s targeting, she’d need something bigger, flashier, and a lot more thorough to really throw those candy-cane heads off their game!
Trixie had an idea or two, and despite the terrifying lethality of the situation she had to admit that somewhere deep inside a part of her was relishing the pressure of the challenge. Not so much that she wouldn’t much rather be back at her apartment/office snoozing away the afternoon instead of getting shot at by a military-grade gunship, of course.
The VTOL had climbed higher into the air and was now swinging around to fly in a parallel course to the fleeing ponies while keeping its nose, and impressive weapons array, pointed at them. Trixie began to rapidly conjure another set of fireworks, not having time to stop to work a bigger illusion, but Octavia worked even faster.
“Owl, your strength and wisdom I ask. Let my music be the offering for the protection of your sharp talons and swift wings!”
Octavia’s words were spoken swiftly as she in fluid, practiced motions stood on her hind legs, throwing her cello case open and bringing the instrument out, bow running across the strings in the same instant she grasped the cello balanced between her forelegs. Loud, resonant notes that slowly rose in tone with every strum drowned out the sound of the VTOL’s engines. Quickly a wind kicked up that was clearly unnatural in both its sudden strength and the way it directed itself to buffett the VTOL.
“My my my, you folk are tenacious!” said Flam (or was it Flim?), “A little bad weather and a pretty light show won’t do much to slow down the G4000. Have a generous taste of our patented Showstopper Flechette Burster Special!”
A small hatch opened on the bottom of the VTOL, and despite the harsh, near hurricane force wind swirling around it, a single missile dropped out, spread stabilizing wings, and flared down towards the ponies. Lyra dug her hooves in the turf to rapidly halt her run and turn around, shouting Octavia’s name as she swung her rifle around. Trixie saw the mare’s rifle fire but was too busy running and diving for the close cover of some rubble from a previously blown up side building to see if Lyra hit anything.
Trixie heard the harsh streaking roar of the missile as she threw herself against a burned chunk of former wall, glancing up to see Raindrops also dropping behind the sparse cover with Ditzy Doo held under her, the slightly bigger jasmine colored mare using her body as a shield for the other pegasus.
Instead of an explosion Trixie heard the missile’s screaming engine whine and abruptly grow fainter. Raising her head tentatively she saw the missile streaking upwards and corkscrewing in the air, spinning about to detonate in a shower of metal shards against the far wall of the compound.
“What the!? Brother, did you forget to calibrate the targeting system?” shouted Flam’s voice over the VTOL’s external speaker.
“Why no brother, the targeting is spot on! Or it should be! Wait one money-ticking seconds! What’s this!? What are all these worms doing in my targeting node!?”
The VTOL pulled up sharply, letting loose another missile, which rather than targeting cleanly straight down towards any of the ponies below it, streaked off randomly to explode harmlessly dozens of yards away.
Trixie cocked her head curiously, “Well, that’s convenient.”
“Heh...heheh...that’s why you always...watch your backdoor...” muttered a small, tired voice with a cheerful lilt.
Trixie and Raindrops both stared in open shock as Ditzy Doo opened her eyes, fluttering them in a few hazy blinks as she smiled, “Of course I... ugh... should’ve probably been more focused on defending myself. My head hurts.”
Raindrops ran a hoof over Ditzy’s mane, and Trixie was surprised at how much the pegasus’ normal disdainful or hard expression could so quickly and completely vanish to be replaced by pure tear brimming relief, “Ditzy, are you...?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, just got a tambourine band inside my skull right now,” she said, trying to stand, but Raindrops held her down, “Really Raindrops, I can walk. If enough damage had been done so I couldn’t walk, I wouldn’t be able to talk either.
“We don’t have time to argue it,” said Trixie, seeing the VTOL repositioning itself behind the group. Lyra was firing off a few shots at it, which harmlessly sparked off what had to be a hardened cockpit, and Octavia had redoubled her strumming on the cello, blasting the VTOL with more concentrated bursts of wind and lightning, summoning up a veritable storm above the craft... but credit had to be handed to the Flim Flam brothers, they built one solid piece of aerial combat technology.
“Well if normal targeting won’t work then we can still do this the good ol’ fashioned way,” said Flam, laughing, “You ponies put up a good, stiff competition, but our superior skills (and firepower) will win out in the end!”
Cheerilee, who’d gotten furthest towards the gate, spoke over the teams comlink.
“Trixie, if you have any big flashy illusions to pull off, now would be the appropriate time I would think!”
Trixie nodded to herself and swallowing fear as the VTOL opened fire at Lyra, forcing the mint unicorn to cartwheel away in a series of fast evasive flips, she left the protection of cover and began to weave another unicorn spell. Blue strands of smoke curled from her horn, expanded with the pulsing of a heartbeat, and in seconds took the shape of a life sized, full-grown black dragon.
The illusion was as thorough in detail as Trixie could make it and its audio component was as solid as Trixie could conjure with her vivid imagination, letting the fifty foot tall and eighty foot long illusionary beast let out a ear jarringly loud roar followed by a blast of swirling, bright green flame.
Everypony paused to look at the illusion, and the completeness of the phantasm was such that it exuded into every one of the little pony’s instinctual pores the primal fear all such magnificent predatory beasts generated. Even Trixie, who created the illusion and knew without a doubt its fake nature felt the stab of primal fear upon looking at the dragon’s deadly form and hearing its hungry, triumphant roar.
Suddenly her team didn’t seem to need further motivation to run, Raindrops and Ditzy taking to the air, the former sticking close to support the shaky flight of the later, and all the ponies on the ground scrambling for the gate, Octavia throwing not bothering to put her cello away and just carrying it along in one hoof as she hopped along with her other three legs.
Flam let out an exclamation of fright and the VTOL banked sharply away, the guns mounted on either side of its nose sending a burst of fire at the apparition of the dragon. Trixie, while running, focused and crafted changes in the illusion, making it look like the bullets were bouncing off the onyx scales of the dragon instead of just passing through, while at the same time sending it diving at the VTOL>
She had taxed her magic a tad too far, however, and couldn’t maintain her focus on the illusion and gallop effectively at the same time, and the illusion wavered as the dragon sprang onto the VTOL. The dragon burst like a soapy black bubble, puffs of blue smoke wafting away in the residual wind of Octavia’s summoned storm. The VTOL wavered about in the air for a few moments before it stabilized and Flam’s voice shouted over its speakers.
“W-why that was quite the convincing performance! Were circumstances different I’d be thinking of offering such a fine illusionist an opportunity to spend her talents elsewhere, but alas I think my ire is up and this game is near its conclusion! Brother is our targeting system cleaned out yet?”
“Just about done brother! A few measly worms and virus’ won’t last long against my countermeasures. We’ll have our missiles bak lickety-split before you can spit!”
The VTOL surged forward, chasing after the fleeing team, which had just passed the threshold of the facility ground’s gates and into the open road that led towards the dark trees of the Everfree Forest. Safety was literally in sight, but Trixie could tell the VTOL would easily catch up to them. Out in the open, with no cover, and her own magic near depleted, it seemed like there’d be little chance for them to make it to the treeline without being blasted apart by the recovered VTOL. Trixie started to consider using what little magic she had left to turn invisible and just dash off to the side, leaving the rest of the team to their fate to save herself, but she couldn’t do it. Not after seeing Ditzy get back on her hooves.
Trixie didn’t know what she could do, but abandoning the team wasn’t going to be it.
Fortunately she didn’t have to consider anything further, because as the ponies galloped across the open grass, leaving the road and heading for the nearest trees, there was a deep guttural roar of an engine and something came flying out of the treeline towards them. Carrot Top’s voice spoke happily over the comlink.
~”Go get ‘im Rabbit Buster!”~
The thing that tore across the field towards them looked to Trixie like some ridiculous cross between a armored dune buggy and a robotic dog, four canine legs mounted with huge thick wheels that led the drone skid and change direction on a hairpin as it bounded towards them. Its thick, bulbous main body was mostly taken up by a swiveling pair of turreted cannons, the rest being a low tapered head with a pair of gleaming robotic and slanted red eyes and floppy metal ears.
Trixie couldn’t even guess where Carrot Top got the time or parts to make such a thing and didn’t honestly care, as the drone Rabbit Buster opened fire upon the VTOL with a flying fusillade of gunfire that forced the VTOL to sharply bank away from its pursuit or risk getting one of its engines torn clean off.
The drone’s intervention bought Trixie and the others more than enough time to finish their full speed gallop across the open terrain to the treeline, where Carrot Top waited where they’d left her, the mare’s eyes closed in focus as she controlled her drones.
Ditzy landed alongside Raindrops, her eyes unfocused, her breathing labored, and sweat matting her yellow mane. Carrot Top’s eyes opened and she was quickly on her hooves, coming over to Ditzy.
“Take it easy Ditzy, I got some stims if you need ‘em.”
Ditzy shook her head, “No, no, I’m wiz. Perfectly wiz,” she wiped some blood from her nose, “Just looking forward to sitting down for awhile once we’re home.”
Trixie glanced back, watching the VTOL swing around and fire both its own heavy guns and a pair of missiles towards the speedily darting Rabbit Buster, the drone returning fire and blowing one of the missiles out of the air and narrowly avoiding the other that exploded right behind it.
“Leaving now would be good,” Trixie said.
Carrot Top frowned slightly, “RB’ll keep them busy for a bit, but he’s not equipped for prolonged fighting. He’ll buy us a few minutes, at most.”
Lyra shouldered her sniper rifle and gave Octavia a brief affirming look, which the other mare returned with a solemn nod. Lyra then turned to all of them, “Then let’s move. We get through the forest to where we left our van and get ourselves lost in the ‘Plex. Everypony stay frosty and focused; this run’s not quite done yet.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.015 seconds
Total duration
976 users online
254,500 hits today, 2,364,530 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Ha! I was wondering if Cheerilee's knowing Iron Will was going to come up, and I'm glad it did.
Side note...I really hope you write your own stuff, too, and don't just spend time on the Lunaverse. You are far too talented an author to be slumming here
4160242
Thank you for saying so, though I hardly consider it slumming; its a pleasure to write these fics, and the Lunaverse is cool.
Wow, action packed or what!
Adept Lyra is pretty scary, I hope you manages to find Bon Bon.
Nice use of the Flim Flam brothers as a Rigger / Decker team, I didn't see that coming (although I should have remembered the VTOL)
Rabbit Buster was fun although Angel must be practically a cyberzombie if Carrot Top needs that beast to keep him out.
Eagerly awaiting the next part.