//------------------------------// // Episode 48: The Cleanist Fight In History(Not Really)! The Crimson Vengence Vs. Crimson Knight Leader Grey Rebl! (The Final Knights Arc Part 4) // Story: Life of a Wanted Changeling Season 3: Tyrants, Terrorists, and Tiaras, Oh My! // by Down with Chrysalis //------------------------------// You and Grey Rebl stare each other down, both of you giving the other a look that could kill. Yours filled with determination, his full of madness. You both begin to circle each other, neither of you making a move to attack the other. Soon a few seconds pass and it looks like he might attack, so you decide to boast to him. Grey Rebl's Comment "I am the Crimson Vengeance! And I'm very, very angry with you guys!" "Hah! Bet you I'm angrier!" "Bet you you're not!" "No! I am!" "Buck you, janitor sprinkles, I am!" "Oh now you've done it! I'll show how I angry I can be as I. Wipe. You. Clean! "Grrrr! "Hrrrr! Grey Rebl grabs a mop out from his janitor station, and you quickly take out your Boomstick. The two of you continue to glare and growl at each other before Grey Rebl stops and... The Rutherford's Comment He begins to crazily twirls his mop with both hooves. He has some fancy moves. You and Grey Rebl start to charge at one another in the middle of the room. You use your Boomstick like a melee weapon. The next thing you know, you both are clashing in a melee fight that looks so epic! If only you were using real sharp weapons. You and Grey take turns dodging and slashing, blocking and poking, and it doesn't look like it's gonna end for awhile. This stalemate doesn't look like it'll end...until... Grey Rebl's Comment While in a middle of a stalemate, Grey suddenly lays his mop onto your staff by your hooves and twists with a grunt. It effectively disarms you, sending the staff tumbling to the side. Before you can switch to your hooves, Grey roars! ...And slams a bucket over your head! “H-hey! I’m no buckethead!” you voice echoes from within. “Pun not intended!” Grey shouts back, and proceeds to brutally smash his mop onto the bucket! The bucket rings, disorienting you. Again and again, Grey’s mop slams onto your sides, occasionally hitting you in the head/bucket to get you back down again. Whenever you try to strike back or try to get the bucket off, you’re rewarded with either a dodge or a sweep from bitter end of the mop. Suddenly, Selena shouts at you to duck, and you do. And it’s just in time for Grey’s mop to clip the top of the bucket and, naturally, come off from the recoil. The moment you have your sights on him, you snarl and tackle him to the ground. You try for a headbutt, but you are warded off as Grey holds his mop with both of his hooves, pushing it up against your throat. “Grk!” When you can’t take anymore, you back off. So, instead, you shout, “GET OVER HERE!” and shoot your shadow whip right at him, hoping to perform a certain maneuver...only to get thwarted by a second mop! “WHERE DO KEEP GETTING ALL THIS STUFF?” you shout. “ONLY THE JANITOR KNOWS!” the crazy janitor shouts back, throwing a bucket of soapy water of all things! Of course, you can only retaliate in kind. “Would you kindly burn, bucker?!” The ensuing reaction causes a light mist to erupt everywhere. You flinch, realizing that mist is filled with soap, burning your eyes! Turns out that wasn’t the best idea. Closing your eyes breathing through your mask filtration, you instead try to sense his killing intent. Your ear flickers; you can hear his growling voice somewhere. A burst of emotion sweeps over your senses, and you lash out immediately with a Falcon Punch--- “Gotcha, bitc---Grruk!” Only for you to be violently rammed with a freaking janitor's cart out of nowhere! "Welcome to my world, jackass!" And the cart is still moving, accelerating even! "Urrrgh!" you yell as the cart digs into your chest, desperately clinging to the front as you do not want the cart to run you over if your fall off. Of course, Grey Rebl isn’t so kind. Hooves clank on the cart as you realize that Grey is expertly riding on top of it, using his telekinesis to move it along! When you peer up, you squeal at the bucket of what you assume to be chlorine hovering over your. “Here! Have some!” he shouts over the wind, and dumps the liquid over you. Immediately, you fall over the cart and get trampled. However, you fail to notice the approaching wall, crashing and slamming along with cart with a violent clank and thud between metal and your body as Grey simply hops out of the way. You cough hysterically, panting for air. However, Grey takes the initiative and smacks your head with a thwack! You groan, briefly considering the massive concussion and headache you’ll have to suffer after the fight. No, it only gets worse. Grey grabs your head forcefully and wraps something wet around your hurting head: A wet towel---the same towel that he wiped the black Erised muck off with! When you open your eyes, you confirm that by the inky black consuming your vision. Instantly, your body locks up as the voices of Erised intensifies. Oh, the black! You struggle, swinging your limbs fruitlessly as you slowly start to lose control before you shout, with whatever remaining air you have, a half-hearted “Fus Ro Dah!” It is weak, but it is enough. It pries off the crazy janitor as you head butt him with whatever motor ability you have available to finish the job. You immediately gasp! Upon the wet towel’s removal, you feel the sweet relief of air for a scant second...only for Grey to jam a bar of soap into your mouth…or he tries to. "Chill on thi-Hey!” he shouts as the soap mashes against your mask" “Forgot the mask didn’t ya?!” you shout as you uppercut the janitor away from you. He flies through the air and lands back in the puddle of Erised muck from before. You glare over at Grey Rebl, who just chuckles at you before he... Takes out a wet rag and wipes himself off of the black muck that originally made up Erised. It sounds disgusting as the muck just sloshed from the wet towel he used to wipe it off. "Seriously? We're in a middle of a fight!" you say irritated. Grey retorts, "Yeah? Well, I like to be sanitized before doing anymore flank kicking." "...You'll just get dirty anyways." "Tch! Didn't think you'd understand. Oh well." He then pulls his hat away, revealing his mane---his grey mane. He cranks his head side by side, loosening his neck with a few pops. With sudden burst of killing intent, he points another deadly mop right at you. "I'll just make you." You swear you see his eyes start to glow red. You gulp at this, but his eyes soon go back to normal before he says, "Well this was fun, but you are clearly out of my league,” he says in a condescending manner, causing your eye to twitch. “So I'm just gonna let some lower peons handle you." You look at him suspiciously as you ask, "What do you mean? You and I are the only ones here." Grey Rebl smiles evilly before he says, "You'd think that, but..." Kersey's Comment "You see it's just you, and me, and my MINIONS!" As soon as he says this two minotaurs appear next to him, as well as plenty of other crazies and goons that must have been hiding in the shadows. You glare at the surrounding ponies and creatures and are about to say something....when you get team-clotheslined through a wall, and then are picked up by some unicorn’s magic and are thrown through some of the wrecked weapon machines. You climb out of the machine rubble to see the two minotaurs staring down at you. You start to think you're in trouble when you hear, "Hey, you found my booze yet?" Looking up, you see Doctor Quacksalver wobbling around. How the heck did he get down here? "WHO DARES INTERRUPT US?!" The minotaurs roar as they whirl around and throw a punch... only for both fists to get intercepted by Quacksalver's hoof who doesn't even flinch. "Whoa! This looks like a serious case of grumpus-violentus. Better sedate the patients before it spreads." With his hoof still effortlessly holding the Minotaurs struggling fists, Quacksalver takes out his "Burknomic Scapel" (i.e. a hammer) from his lab coat pocket with his other hoof, jumps up, and hits the Minotaurs with an arcing swing that hits the first minotaur under the chin and the second in the head with the "scapel" with enough force to knock both minotaurs unconscious. Daaaaaang! Who knew Quacksalver could kick flank! you think with your jaw dropped. To be fair, he did manage to render you unconscious with one blow. “Now…what was I doing again? Oh yes. Do you have my booze?” he says obliviously. Grey just rolls his eyes at this. “Doctor! You’re interfering with my mopping!” he yells. “Oh, my mistake! But I need it for patient evaluation.” “Well then, take care of these you Quack..." Grey Rebl says as he uses his mop to flick up a lever opening a door revealing more lunatics with various improvised weapons. "The syndrome is spreading!" Quacksalver declares, "I need to perform an Oldboy-ectomy STAT!" With that he charges into the hallway full of lunatics and proceeds to "treat" them. “OK, it’s official, do not give Quacksalver booze.” However he misses a few and they managed to surrounded you with Grey Rebl in the middle of them all. He looks at you cockily, when suddenly… Master of Shadow's Comment One of the crazy henchmen spits his gum out onto the ground. Grey freezes in place as his eyes wander slowly to the stallion and back to the gum on the ground and back. “One moment please,” he says to you, before proceeding to wrap the mop handle around the pony’s neck and start choking him out. “NOOOOO LIIIITTTTEEEERRRRIIIINNNNGGG!!!” he screams as the poor peon is violently choked. As their boss chokes out their team mate, the others decide to rush at you. Frustrated, you call out. Grey Rebl's Comment "Sorry, but I don't have the time to deal with you guys. Let me show you my...my...WHERE IS MY LUNA PLUSHIE?!" Well, so much for that idea. MEANWHILE OUTSIDE WITH NIGHTSHADE AND AQUA "Hmmm," Nightshade mutters as she looks at the gathering Royal Guards before her, "Should I use it?" "What is it, Nightshade?" Aqua asks, nervous of the growing number of forces. “Got an idea?” "Well...I have a knock-out plushie that I took from Daddy." "What? Woahwoahwoah wait! That’s actually pretty useful, but how come I haven’t seen it all this?!" "...it lets me visit mommy whenever I wanted to. It ends up being used up most of the time, and Daddy doesn't seem to use it much. So, I took it." "Uh, and you didn’t think to return it to him since he’s probably in mortal danger right now?" Aqua asks, not quite sure what the kid meant. Nightshade blinks innocently. "Nah, I'm sure he's fine. Here come the guards to talk to you," she points out. Aqua turns and sees the leader of the response unit coming towards her. She lets out a sigh before saying, "Here goes nothing." BACK WITH YOU Kichi's Comment "Die, Die, Die!!!" Shouts one of the crazy ponies as he begins to throw fireballs from his hoof. You manage to evade them only to see another of the crazy ponies with a black jacket sitting down and watching the fire balls nonchalantly, before deftly dodging them. "Wow, Sick dodge you psycho,” you congratulate, before using bucking bronco and launching him. You are then struck from behind by a metal ball of some kind, so you turn around and see a few crazies/experiments of ponies looking like Neightendo characters. One is a pony wearing a green hat, another has a red hat with a pokeball as a cutie mark, one is an oversized pony in pink that starts shoving stuff in his mouth. “OK, getting a weird case of déjà vu here…but why?” you ask aloud as you whip out your air shot gun and shoot the pink blob into the other two. These appear to be the doppelgangers of those we fought in the otherworld. You flash back to your brief skirmish with Luna’s videogame army and shudder. “Well they’re no more frightening here,” you say as you powerslam another crazy. You are then are hit in the back by a pony wearing a gas mask, with a flamethrower on his back. Followed by a pony in a lab coat kicking you. “Oh sure, the Pyro and the Medic, why the buck not?!” you roar as you push out two shadow whips and fling the ponies off of you. “I’ve had it with you mother bucking cosplayers in this motherbucking asylum!” you shout You then look back up to a smirking Grey Rebl as he leans on his mop over the unconscious form of the pony that spat the gum out. “I don’t know, I think they’re quite endearing,” he quips. “Alright, enough of the minion bullspit! I still owe you one for the cart and bleach!” “Oh if you insist,” the janitor smirks, his braces showing and you both rush each other. You start dodging his mop swings, and even are able to get a few quick jabs on his nose and body, but he changes up tactics and starts going for speed. SnapDrakeGame's Comment Though you were confident going into the second fight (I mean, come on, name one pony who could look threatening with that dental work! Even Sombra would be hard pressed to pull off that look), the battle has quickly spiraled out of control. Gray Rebel is ridiculously quick and his reflexes are almost ninja-esque; he'd probably snag a fly out of the air with his bare hoof, and then drown it in a vat of bleach. You've always been more about power than speed, but he just weaves between your Falcon Punches and retaliates with very Zebra-esque whacks. Also, something you noticed before, that is no normal mop. The whacks are hard and leave a mark so you deduce that the cleaning implement has to be reinforced by titanium or something, a hit from it feels like being struck by a blunt bull. You duck under one of his swipes, jump out of the way of a second, and in turn he dodges one of your blasts of plasma. You charge at him, hoping to catch him off-guard, but he sticks the mop in the ground and vaults over you, sweeps your legs out from under you and swings his mop like a golf club, launching you across the room. You crash into a pile of defunct weaponry; thinking quickly, you hurl everything within hoof's reach at him, though to little effect. "Did you really expect that to help you?" Grey taunts. "A little," you shrug back. "I mean, I made a mess. Look at it. It really needs to be cleaned up." "Ye gods, you're right!" the pony screams. With a sweep of his mop, he swats the mess away, into the garbage bin. Is he really that OCD? "Well, glad that's taken care of." Without another word, he grabs some sort of canister from his belt and chucks it at you. The thing explodes in a spray of chemicals. "Yaah!" you scream, as some of the stuff gets in your eyes, "Cleaning detergent! It burns, it burns! What’s up with you and my eyes?!" Grey Rebel rushes forward, striking you multiple times with his mop. Trying to ignore the fact that it feels like fire ants are gnawing on your corneas, you try to juke and jive, but you get hit to the ground, right next to your… “Not enough blood to clean, need some of yours,” he says with a swing when, *CLACK* You have recovered your Boomstick, and you block his attack, before striking him in the face, knocking him back a bit. You crack his lip, and then he really gets excited. “Oh boy…” You start countering his staff attacks by blocking with your Boomstick. When that inevitably fails again, you settle for just slamming the thing on the ground, blasting Grey back with the shock wave. Logically speaking, the smartest thing to do here is to follow up with your fastest attack and hope he can't dodge. Leaping forwards, you cry, "No-Shadow Kick!" Your leg darts out like a striking viper, nailing Grey several times while he's still in midair. Then, out of nowhere, his forelegs clap together and grab your leg in the middle of the attack, before he tackles you to the ground. "Oooh boy," he grins, "I am going to mop the floor with you." With a growl, you throw him off of you; he twists in midair, landing on his hooves, before rushing at you, mop raised. You raise the Boomstick to block, but with a powerful swing he tears the staff from your grasp, AGAIN! It clatters across the floor, and slides out of your reach. He then lays into you with a series of blows so quick you can't even tell which direction they’re coming from, each landing like a piece of space debris crashing into a satellite. With a final hit, he sends you tumbling backwards; you manage to steady yourself, still a little dizzied by his raw speed, when your hoof catches a bar of soap and you're flung head over heels again. Grey Rebl catches you, bringing you into a head lock. "Mmm," he murmurs, staring at your outfit. "This calls for complete sterilization!" He spins around and dunks your head into his bucket of soapy water, "Mmmpllggggfff!" you blunder, struggling to get some leverage. "Pffffflemmmmmmmmp!" "What was that, boy? I can't hear you over all this sanitation!" Finally, your hooves find solid purchase on the ground. With a heave, you break Grey Rebl's hold, flipping him over your head like a wrestler and slamming him into the ground. "I said, you forgot about the bucking mask again. Would you kindly TELEKINESIS?!" Snagging him in your telekinetic grip, you fling the janitor all over the place, slamming him into walls, benches, tables, the ceiling, the floor, the ceiling again, more walls. Finally, you kick the bucket into the air and then telekinectically hurl it at Grey. It knocks him to the floor, drenching his janitor uniform. "Would you kindly FREEZE!" you scream, as the Power Glove encases Grey in a hunk of frigid ice. Galloping towards him, you bring your fist back, before striking the frozen lunatic with as much strength as you can muster. "Falcon... PUNCH!!!" The ice shatters around him as he's tossed backwards, slamming into a wall so hard that he makes a decently-sized dent. Grey Rebel pries himself from the wall, panting a little. "Alright, you've had your fun, but I'm afraid this is the last time we'll be meeting like this, my friend." The janitor does an acrobatic pirouette, somersaulting through the air to land by some huge object covered by a loose tarp. With a flourish, he tears the tarp off, revealing an enormous and incredibly threatening laser. "Allow me to introduce you to the Spotmaster 3000!" With another leap, he's on top of the laser, pointing out various components. "Notice! The microwave-powered laser particle beam. Notice! The laser-guided high-pressure water cannon. And notice! The special metal alloy ingeniously combined with state-of-the-art cleansing materials. I call it Steel Wool! And it comes with a laser! Any last words?" "Eh, I've survived worse," you reply. "Besides, can't I just dodge out of the way?" You attempt to do just that, but you step on another bar of soap and flip over, lying prone on the ground. "Oh buck," you mutter as the laser lights up. "Power on!" Grey cries, and a green laser shoots out from the cannon, one which you only barely block with your shield spell. "Water cannon, on!" he continues, and your shield is suddenly assaulted with a powerful torrent of water. Seeing you holding strong, Grey mutters, "No effect. Steel Wool laser on!" The laser strikes your shield and you almost buckle under the power, though you manage to stay strong. The room is aglow with the power of the Spotmaster 3000, a strobing green light, and Grey Rebl seems insistently more dumbfounded that you're still holding out against the weapon's power. "Okay, you asked for it," he growls. "It may end life as we know it, but I am crossing the beams!" In a blatant violation of the laws of physics, the three beams twist together to bore into your shield like a drill, with the side effect of filling the air with a hideous noise. "More power!" Grey screams, and you feel the shield begin to wear thing. "More power!" he cries again. "More power!" You can't hold on. You can feel something inside yourself begin to give. "Maximum power!" The shield fails and the whole world is engulfed in a fiery blaze of green... You open your eyes. You stand up. You smell like roses and strawberries. Your clothes are light and fresh and beneath them, your carapace shines to a polished finish. "You know, this actually isn't that bad." "I know, right?" Grey says. "Most ponies, they don't understand the value of sanitation, but once they actually give it a try they realize-" he's cut off as you grab him with your shadow whip and fling him across the room, slamming his face into a wall. He pulls back and you see one of his braces appears to be hanging. However this appears to only make him madder as he... Erised the ink-moth's Comment Charges at you with duel mop scythe's! Your eyes widen in surprise as you turn around and begin to duck and weave through a gauntlet of now defunct mechanical equipment and half-assembled weapons. Picking up your boomstick on the fly, you try to avoid his attacks, because even with a hardened shell and healing factor helping you out, Grey's relentless and hits like a damn truck, even more impressive considering he's just a regular pony. Hate is powerful. It fuels you, consumes you, makes you strong. Give in to your hate... give in to- I do not have time for this! you mentally shout. You've found maybe one advantage against him so far; Grey might be able to dish out a ton of hurt, but he sure as heck can't take it. You managed to land a few hits during your fight so far. He might have tried to hide it under a sadistic sneer, but you can tell it hurt a LOT. You've just gotta open up some more opportunities, knock him out before he finishes whittling you down. *Th-wack* You yelp and jump to higher ground as something wacks your forelegs. Then you see Grey emerging from beneath the machinery, his face and mane covered in grease and looking like something out of a Neighponese horror movie. But again, his braces just kill the image. "Just look at the mess we're making. It's going to take forever to clean this up," he says mournfully before his eyes snap onto you again. With nothing more than a feral growl, he pounces at you again. You stumble backwards, dodging not only the end of his broom but also his hooves as both wood and flesh break apart the metal conveyor belt underneath you. Finally you stumble on a roller, and grey wastes no time in preparing a finishing blow. Desperately you grab onto whatever's nearest object and use it to shield yourself. You hear the whir of an engine and the sound of wood being cleanly chewed through. Looking up you see Grey's broom in pieces. Then you notice what's in your hooves. "N-no way..." you mutter. In your hooves is a metal chainsaw leg attachment. It looks like the one...Pinkamena had... You don't have much time to ponder over this though, as Grey floats all the little pieces of his broom before him and into place. With a muted flash his weapon is whole again and brimming with a magic glow. You're about to chew it up again with the chainsaw, but he effortlessly swats it away before pummeling you with the cleaning end. "This is my cleaning device! There are many like it but this one's mine! Without me my cleaning device is nothing, without my cleaning device... I'll have to mop the floor with you instead!" "Mmmmrrrrpphhhhffglll!" you scream as the filthy end of the mop smothers and strangles your face with it's tentacle-like fibers. You break free from the mop and knock Grey Rebl away with a solid punch to the ribs, and you know he feels it. But you don't have long to rest as he charges at you with a mop spear ready to stab! BrownDog's Comment Dodging the attack from the insane janitor, you again realize just how incredibly fast he is. You can hardly get a bead on him with your projectiles, and when he gets close, he hits hard. You decide you need to slow him down, so you come up with a solution. You grapple to the gargoyles above, far from the reach of his mop. "OI! Get down here!" he yells as he pulls out a grenade launcher. "EEP!" you squeak as you grapple to another gargoyle, the one you were just on turning into dust. He keeps firing a weapon up at you, destroying several of them. But once you get to a secluded one and have a second to breathe, you take our your Electric Flesh Tonic and down it. Immediately, sparks start running through your body, causing your hair to stand on end. Again, rewriting your dna is not a pleasant experience, and you scream in pain and fall to the floor. Grey immediately sets upon your form, but it’s all part of your plan. You get out one of the bottle of booze that you took from Quacksalver and pour the contents over you. “Stupid idea 737 is ago!” you cry out as you grab hold of Grey. A moment of shock reads on his face as you say, “Would You Kindly Buzz Off?!” and you send the lighting coursing through the both of you. Oh it still doesn’t feel good, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the times when you shocked yourself in the Delta suit. Your Electric Flesh dampens the pain, he on the other hand. “GGGGRRRAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!” he cries out as he is shocked. You hold on for as long as you can, but he eventually blasts you back and starts panting and slumping to the floor, smoke lines coming off his coat, and patches of burnt black hair line his silver mane. “Oh you cheeky little bucker. I actually felt that,” he says with a sadistic smile. Now you know for sure you've hurt the bucker. As he gets up, you even notice that his movements aren't nearly as fast. Stupid Idea 737, Success Although his strength hasn’t lessened any, as evidenced by the smack of his mop into your ribs. "AGH!" you yell. "Don't celebrate just yet!" he screams and brings up the grenade launcher, pointing it at you. Thinking quickly you throw up your shield, and are blown back into the Plasmid room's open door, striking the wall, and spilling a few, causing a small fire. He appears in the doorway, chuckles and throws in a plasma grenade, and closes the door. “BUCK!!!” you yell as you look for a way out. An explosion in here is going to be huge. Taking the unstable case off your back, you reach in and pull out… “A Gravity Hammer?! Okay, fine, save me!” you yell as you pound the side wall. The hammer makes a sizable hold before it fades out in a red pulse. You look back and see the grenade reach its peak, You throw up a combo magic and ice shield as you back towards the hole, and the explosion sets off, throwing you through the hole painfully widening it, as you are tossed through several rooms as the explosion rocks the warehouse. After rolling for who knows how long, you groggily look up and see cracks forming in the ceiling and a giant blue misty cloud coming from what was once the Plasmid Room. “Sweet Luna, that psycho almost blew me up,” you gasp in surprise. “I’m not done yet!” comes his voice as you look towards him holding another weapon, and you realize you’re on a shooting range. “Oh Come On!” Outside with Aqua and Nightshade Again “So the crazies are running the asylum and have an arsenal of weapons supplied by these Knights?” asks an incredulous response guard. “Yes! They’re trying to lead you and the princesses into a trap!” Aqua screeches. “If they’re stupid enough to call out Princess Celestia herself, then they clearly don’t know who they’re messing with.” “Yes they do! We’ve been taking down these buckers for the last couple of months, and in that time I’ve seen the arsenal they’re packing. You guys won’t be ready!” Aqua growls. “Ma’am, if there are Crimson Knights in there, we have a duty to…wait, what do you mean you’ve been taking them down?” “Oh for, I’m Aqua the bounty hunter! You know, partner of The Crimson Vengeance?” The guard’s faces all pale at this. “Wait, you’re THE Aqua?” “Buck yeah she is!” Nightshade chimes in. “And right now, she’s trying to warn you dumbflanks from doing anything stupid, while the Awesome Crimson Vengeance is inside trying to take them down!” Some of the guards wince at being chewed out by a child, but a few of them get worried looks. “Wait, the Crimson Vengeance is in there alone?! And he’s surrounded by armed mental patients and two Crimson Knight Leaders?” “Yes!” “Then surely we have to give him some back up right?!” a guard declares. “Yes, but we can’t go in there like a guard would, they’re expecting that!” Aqua shouts, getting them to focus on her again. “Then what are we supposed to do Ms. Aqua?” they ask deferring to her. Aqua is a bit taken aback by the tone shift they take with her, becoming more subservient, but at that time, a large explosion is heard and felt by them. Turning around they see a massive Blue Mushroom cloud exit out of the ground, and the front of the asylum begins to crack as the ground swells. Suddenly, much of the front crumbles, revealing… A whole lot of inmates poised and waiting, like they were just waiting for the guards to come through the doors. Amidst the army of crazies, a pale changeling angrily shouts, “Damnit Grey!” The guards see this as both sides stare at each other over the hoofball field distance. “Orders Ma’am?” the head guard asks Aqua. Taking out her whip, Aqua yells. “OK, we don’t play by their rules. Fight them in the open only when they attack and keep them pushed back to the asylum. Don’t enter it yourself. Unicorns keep spamming magic, and don’t kill anyone, they’re being mind controlled by one of the Knights, they’re just pawns. We’ll hold the line here at this gate! And someone go for reinforcements!” she yells to the small response team of about 40. A pegasus guard nods and flies back to town. “And if they get close, kick ‘em in the nards!” Nightshade declares. The response unit nods, and form a defensive position at the entrance gates, as they stare down the horde of crazies. Aqua creates some blockades of ice, and declares. “Hurry up CV…” NEAR THE RUBBLE Erised the ink-moth's Comment An Erised clone shoves his way out of the rubble, out from under the two inmates he used as shields. Around are several others emerging, each looking in tandem at the force of guards gathered outside the asylum. But there are at least a few clones that didn't survive, as evidenced by the giant splatters of ink-blood under sections of wall. Darn it. I only made a few dozen clones to begin with. Better pull most of them back for now. While one clone stays behind to witness the force of guards begin their march down the hill, for some reason spearheaded by a blue-garbed mare and a little filly, the rest withdraw to start preparing the later waves and protect the office. What an unfortunate mess that bounty hunter has caused. Grey is distracted with him, and the grunts are all trapped down there with the bulk of our weapons. Erised sends out a thought, directing a few clones to try to unlock the elevators to the lower levels and get them back in the fight, but the power is out and they don't work. Stupid lockdown system. Well if it's not the all-out bloodbath I wanted, at least I can turn this into a siege; those pathetic guards will need to fight room to room... hallway to hallway... spilling blood for every inch they want to retake. And when they think victory is theirs... THEN I'LL FINALLY- "You need to chill out buddy," comes an inebriated voice, interupting Erised's mental rant. The pale changeling looks to his left and sees a Doctor Quacksalver, holding a dented and bloody hammer, with a few cuts and bruises over his face, and ripped clothes. "Mmm hmm, I can see it all in your face. You've got stereotyipicitis. Pretty soon you'll be laughing maniacally and taunting the heroes while they work out a way to foil your plans." Erised narrows his eyes at the 'Doctor'. "Didn't I fire you, you quack?" "I don't know did you? That's what another you said down the hallway there after I had to crawl through the air vents," he says pointing back towards the way he came, and there is an entire section of crazies all bonked and knocked out on the floor. There's even a large black stain amidst them. "Then again when I went Old Boy on the other you, he kind of exploded..." Erised's eye twitches at that. "Why the buck would you do that?! ? That was one of my clones! Those don't grow on trees you know?!" he growls. "I can't find my booze, and I have achy breaky heartus!" he slurs, before noticing a few of the patients milling around. "More Old Boy Times!" he yells as he starts bonking more patients, causing them to yell and charge outside at the guards. "NO! Don't fight them in the open you idiots!" Erised shouts, but a majority of them are already outside in the courtyard getting magic spammed by the guards. Erised facehooves at this as Quacksalver continues to indiscriminately bonk patients over the head. "You've got to be kidding me...Okay, it's alright. There's still more patients, the guards will still bleed...they have to!" MEANWHILE BACK WITH YOU Kersey's Comment Grey Rebl's Comment As you run and juke and jive on the firing range, you find a surviving BFG 9000 and a RYNO V! "Ha hah!" you proclaim triumphantly as you grab both weapons (holding the RYNO V while levitating the BFG 9000 above you with your horn magic) "EAT ROCKETS MOTHERBUCKER!" "Oh shi-" With a Rambony roar you proceed to unleash a barrage of rockets at the janitor as the minigun/rocket launcher blares Tchaikopony's Overture. When the rockets run out, you drop the RYNO on the ground, drop the BFG 9000 into your hooves, and declare, "SAY HELLO TO MY NOT-SO-LITTLE FRIEND!" YES! SPLATTER HIM ALL OVER THE ASYLUM WHILE HE'S WEAK! Bugze wait! You then unleash as massive ball of green plasma that obliterates the area Grey Rebl is standing in. Fortunately, before any regret can kick in, the smoke clears and it reveals Grey Rebl unharmed and messily downing a can labeled Bonk! Atomic Punch while glowing and vibrating. "Blah! Always hated that 'Blutonium Berry' flavor," he says tossing away the can, "Supposedly, this stuff'll liquefy your esophagus after just one can. But, y'know- it's also very handy when you feel like... not getting blown up." "That's not very fair!" you whine. "Listen motherbucker..." Grey Rebl says getting out and twirling another mop, "I never play fair." Angry, you rush him now that his ranged weapons are gone and try to hit him with a barrage of moves, "Shoryuken! Falcon Punch! Falcon Kick! No Shadow Kick! PSYCHO CRUSHER! Uh... eye pok- *thwack* OW!" But none of them are having any effect before Grey Rebl starts wailing on you with his mop again. Fortunately, thanks to what you're guessing is a combination of the lighting hug and a sugar crash, you notice that Grey Rebl's starting to move more sluggishly. "Guess all that sugar's coming back to bite ya in the flank!" you taunt. Says the bug who eats junk food and candy for every meal. Selena quips. Not every meal, only every OTHER meal, you quip back as you look to Grey and yell, "Would you kindly Mix-It-Up?!" With this you activate the "Mix-Up Smash" function on the Power Glove and quickly set the dials to "Bucking Bronco" and "Incinerate!" as you easily dodge Grey Rebl's more sluggish mop swings. "I don't care how slow I get, I'll still clean the floor of your blood!" "Oh Would You Kindly GO INTO BUCKING ORBIT?!" you declare as you point the open Power Glove at him, causing a geyser of lava to erupt below Grey Rebl and launch him through the ceiling... [b]OUTSIDE We see Guards and Inmates fighting in the courtyard in a rather large brawl, but they are holding the line, not entering the Asylum. As Aqua uses her waterbending to whip an inmate with a pipe wrench away from her, and Nightshade Falcon Kicks the nards of a Minotaur in a tutu, she ask-yells to Nightshade. "What's taking CV so long?! What could he possibly be do-?" *CRASH* "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" They, a few guards, and even a few inmates turn at the sound of screaming and see a pony in a torn-up janitor outfit getting launched through the Aslyum roof and high into the air. "That! That's what he's doing," Nightshade replies. BACK WITH YOU "Looks like team Crimson Knight is blasting off ag- Wait, he's coming back dow- Hey, a trampoline!" Focus you fool. Ignoring Selena's glib, you run over to a nearby trampoline and start moving it into position. When you think it's just right and you see Grey Rebl begin his descent through the hole you sent him through, you use your grappling hook to grapple onto a broken piece of ceiling, drop down towards the trampoline, and bounce off it, launching yourself through the warehouse ceiling, and into the Asylum proper. As he falls back through the ceiling, you meet him halfway "Oh son of a-" and strike him while declaring "SHORYUKEN!". Your spinning rising hoof smashes into Grey Rebl's falling jaw with a mighty *CRACK* as his jawbone shatters under your hoof and sends him flying backwards through the hall, knocking over a gathered group of inmates, and embedding the unconscious Crimson janitor into a wall. After performing a superhero landing you quip, "Cleanup on aisle crazy!" And as his head slumps while embedded in the wall, you can't help but feel accomplished. "What now buckface? What now? That's what you get for all the mop whacks! In fact!" you race up to his unconscious form, pick up his mop and burn it. You laugh maniacally as the cleaning instrument turns to ashes, and you shove them into his mouth. "Choke on that Clean Freak." You then begin to search him and you pull out a can of the soda you saw him drink earlier. "Could come in handy," you declare. 1 can of "Bonk! Atomic Punch Cherry Fission" (Gives you brief invincibility, but will make you lethargic and slow afterwards) added to Inventory When this is all over, I better check how much stuff I have left in my Inventory... With that, you look down the hallways of the asylum and hear the sounds of battle. "Oh crud, the guards have shown up! I've got to make sure they don't get overwhelmed!" you declare. You decide you'll help out then come back for him, but you then take one look back at Grey “Remind me to never mess with crazy janitors ever again. Like, ever.” You then turn and get ready to gallop towards the battle you hear, when suddenly you hear. "Oh no need to worry about that bounty hunter..." You stop dead in your tracks. A wave of killing intent thunders behind, causing you to freeze in terror. Then, there is laughter, LAYERED and hysterical laughter. It is ripe with madness. You hear Grey stumble out of the wall and back to his hooves, a sickening crunch can be heard from one of his broken legs, but he is laughing. However, it isn’t Grey who is the only one laughing, it seems. You know. You've heard that type of laughing before and, along with your personal trauma, you can hear that same laughter echoing in your mind. The same voice you have been hearing ever since you ate that mucky soup at lunch. The same voice you hear when a certain pale changeling bursts into that same black muck. And it is laughing right now unison with Grey. You turn around. “...Erised?” The sight that beholds you isn't Erised. It's Grey Rebl, or rather, someling puppeteering his body. His eyes are pure black, and the voice he speaks is duel. "Poor stupid Grey. Even you had to eat sometime," Erised declares through Grey's mouth. "Dude! That's sick, get out of there!" you yell at the sickening sight. "Oh no can do, this flesh has a little bit more fight left," he says while ash mixed with drool falls out of the pony's mouth. "And you are not going to ruin the bloodbath I've waited so long for! True Heroism must be shown to that Fat Flanked False Goddess!" "Don't make me laugh!" you declare. "Grey's already down, and not even your mind control is going to fix that! It's just you and me!" "You're right about one thing, Grey is pretty out of it, but you are wrong. It isn't just you and me, It's you and me..." "And Me," comes another Erised voice. "And Me," comes another. "And Me," another chimes as you look around the hallways and doors, and you see about 7 Erised Clones smirking at you. The possessed Grey says, "You'll be learning the hard way what it means to be a TRUE hero..." The line is being held outside, but they could probably still use your help, and you have 7 and half of the other Knight you've been chasing closing in on you. It's pretty terrifying their laughter, the same laughter you can hear in the back of your head, but you decide to put on some bravado. "Oh I see, Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right. Here I am, Stuck in the middle with you..." you sing as you get ready. WHAT DO YOU DO?