EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE, EUROPE SECTOR
June 6, 2770
With only its running lights operating, the Bacon Princess came to a floating stop above a set of crumbling buildings. Two objects transmatted from the ship, and with that, the Bacon Princess rocketed off, to who knew where.
“You sure the ship’s not going to leave us behind?” Sunset asked her Ghost.
⟪Of course not!⟫ Dawn explained, her voice filling the audio pickups in Sunset’s helmet, as the AI had slipped into the subspace storage pouch all Guardian outfits had. ⟪The ship’s autopilot will keep it in the area until you call for extraction or it runs out of fuel, which would take weeks. Honestly, the only way it’s going to disappear is if a dog ship shoots it out of the sky.⟫
“That’s comforting,” Sunset muttered as she slowly and quietly made her way to the door. She tested the knob, then asked, “Think you can get this open?”
⟪It’s just a simple mechanism. Piece of cake!⟫ Dawn answered as she hit the keyhole with a beam of light, causing the door to slide open, revealing stairs. ⟪Guess we should get going.⟫
“Yeah,” Sunset agreed, summoning her scout rifle in a flash of cyan light. “We should.”
The two made it down the stairs with no effort, emerging into what looked like the ruins of an old store; from the size of it, it was a large one and either a supermarket of some kind or a department store. In the dim light of sunrise this far west, she could see rusted items, blades of grass pushing through the store’s broken floor tiles and a small pile of bones; a closer inspection indicated that the human had died naturally ages ago and not of anything else.
Sunset picked up a metal box that, amazingly, hadn’t rusted away or crumbled. Reading the cover of the box, she voiced, “Gedenkschachtel Pralinen, um die Weihung des Tempels der sieben Seraphim zu feiern.”
⟪Which means?⟫ Dawn asked. ⟪I didn’t take the time to download a German-English dictionary, sorry.⟫
“It means, ‘Commemorative Box of Chocolates, to Celebrate the Consecration of the Temple of Seven Seraphim.’ But I shouldn’t be able to read any of this.” Sunset looked around, seeing the other faded lettering and reading it as she recognized what was going on. “Wait – there’s sympathetic magic here!”
⟪Sympa-what?⟫
“Sympathetic magic. It’s a branch of magic that’s largely used for healing and communication, like first-aid heal spells and basic magic translation. But that should be impossible!” Sunset told her Ghost. “If what Luna said was true, then there shouldn’t be any magic anywhere in the world save for Guardian and Black magic. Furthermore, sympathetic magic has to work when two sources are in resonance.” Sunset holstered her weapon and stood up, thinking about it. “Luna says I’m the last font of true magic left in the world, so I could be one source….”
Dawn realized it instantly. ⟪Then there’s a piece of pre-Collapse magic or magitech present!⟫
“It has to be this Temple this box is talking about. We gotta find it.”
Sunset and Dawn then heard the stomping of something metallic on the ground. Both turned to see a huge, heavily-armored pony applauding them as they stood there; his armor was a mix of jade green and tarnished silver and he had a minicape covering his right flank. “Well, la dee fucking da. Found you two. Don’t know if I should shoot you for being so fucking stupid or congratulate you for finding a piece of the puzzle. I’m Safford, your babysitter.”
Sunset nodded in response. “Sunset Shimmer. And I guess you heard about that, huh?”
“Yeah. Zavala and I go back some ways, so we talk about everything. And I mean everything. And you know? He told me this wild story about a second alicorn and shit.” The pony’s tone was dangerous and there was anger in his eyes. “He said that you caused an explosion in Tower North and threatened the Speaker. And I take a very dim view of that.”
“I’m sure you do,” Sunset said, tensing. If she had to, she could prep a fireball, if she could remember how. If not, hopefully her reflexes were faster. Against an experienced Guardian, right.
So it was to her surprise that the stallion then removed his helmet, revealing an earth stallion with a beige coat and a short orange-and-brown mane that enhanced the pony’s golden eyes. He then stated, “So I spoke to Speaker Luna herself, and she told me something that I don’t know if I believe: she said that you’re the Queen’s missing daughter, the one all this started because of her death. But I honestly have to ask: are you her? Sunset Shimmer, Daughter of the Sun, the Wandering Princess?”
It had been a long time since Sunset had heard those words, written by some unicorn poet trying to curry favor with her mother. And the sound of Safford’s voice was far less gruff than it had been just seconds before. She removed her helmet, revealing her two-tone hair and cyan eyes. “What do you think?”
“I think I need to know the truth about whatever’s going on, whatever it is.” He looked at her intently. “Is it true?”
Sunset looked into Safford’s eyes, to see if there was any sign of insincerity or deception present. Despite his earlier demeanor, he had the eyes of a pony that wanted to believe in something, though she wasn’t sure what. Still, she took a chance and with a flash of aqua energy, the girl was gone and before Safford stood the alicorn mare. “Yes, it’s true.”
“I didn’t believe it.” To Sunset’s surprise, Safford bowed deeply. “Before I was chosen to be a Guardian, your highness, in my last life I was an Amity priest – one of Queen Twilight’s clerics. But with the exception of the Unconsecrated, all clerics serve the alicorns save for the Taken Queen. Please, your highness, forgive my ever doubting you.”
Sunset returned to her more familiar form and recalled her formal training. “Rise, holy one,” she said, her voice even due to her training from long ago. “Neither Princess Luna or I have need of priests. We need brave souls willing to fight for the survival and safety of all. And that is why you were clearly chosen to be a Guardian.”
⟪Smooth talking, Sunset,⟫ Dawn commented, but Sunset ignored her, kneeling to grab Safford’s left foreleg.
“We are Guardians, Safford. There will be time later to be whatever else there is, but right now I need help to stop my mother before she returns to destroy everything. I need to bring her back from the brink and I need all the help I can get. Can I count on you?”
Safford looked up at her. “You have my sword, my Princess.”
“I’d prefer it if you called me Sunset, instead.”
Safford nodded. “If that’s what you prefer, then that’s what’s gonna happen. Well, you’re in charge, here, so where do we go?”
Sunset looked at Safford. Dawn had explained the informal ranking system to her, and sure enough, Safford was gold-class. Slipping on her helmet, she inspected his gear and found that it was a mix of the highest quality pieces possible.
⟪Wow, is that a SUROS Regime?⟫ Dawn asked, looking closely at his auto rifle while Safford’s Ghost pop into view. ⟪That thing’s amazing, Sunset! Only thirty models were ever made, and they were said to be the best auto rifles ever! Type One or Type Two?⟫
⟪Type Two, dummy,⟫ the other Ghost retorted. ⟪Type Ones were made for hands, not hooves – learn to read the database! I swear, KinderGuardians….⟫
“Cornerfire, behave yourself,” Safford told him. “We are in the presence of royalty. May I introduce to you Princess Sunset Shimmer and her Ghost.” Cornerfire, apparently embarrassed at his admonishment, lowered himself and nodded in a sort of bow, but said nothing else.
“Well, we’d better get searching for this Temple,” Sunset told him, “plus there’s the matter of the missing Guardians. I’ll bet if we find the—” A loud roar above them suddenly cut off her speech.
“Oh, shit,” Safford said, slipping his helmet back on. “That’s the sound of a skiff, or my name isn’t Summer Rose or some shit.” Both Safford and Sunset moved just out of the store to see a trio of skiffs flying above, with the rearmost one being the most disconcerting. “Oh, fuck me sideways,” he swore. “That last skiff is carrying a walker – heavy armored tank, only with legs instead of treads. Heavily armed and they don’t fuck around. The dogs love their toys. But why are they here? C’mon, we’ve got to get out of here.”
The two slipped across the way, out of the view of the skiffs and into the relative safety of another building. As they did, Sunset asked, “Why is your name Safford, anyway? I would have expected Summer Rose, or at least Summer Thorn, since you’re a stallion.”
“We moved to another world,” he explained, “and when our world was destroyed, we couldn’t go back. The old ways were dead, and we adjusted. Nowadays, most ponies have mononyms based on human surnames, unless you’re from one of the few noble families that stuck with the Trues, in which case you’ll end up with a binominal name that still sounds more human than traditional pony.” Safford shrugged. “It was gone long before I was born, and I never knew it.” A massive sound of metal impacting the ground rang out, followed by the building shaking briefly. “Looks like they dropped off the walker, but what would it be do—”
⟪Widow’s Court!⟫ Cornerfire suddenly shouted through their helmet pickups. ⟪The Court is just a few blocks away, and with the training going on, it’s making enough noise for them not to hear it! The walker could fire artillery shots from here and kill the Guardians and their Ghosts!⟫
Safford didn’t have to be told twice. “Tower, this is Pillar of Autumn. Patch me through to Crucible Command, pronto!” The sound of static filled his comm channel. Shit – there’s something interfering with the signal!”
⟪Skiffs have engaged Bacon Princess and Pillar of Autumn. Per safety protocols, both craft are moving out of the danger zone,⟫ Dawn stated, and Sunset knew what that meant. Without their ships to relay their comms, the Tower would have no way of knowing that their training ground was about to become a slaughterhouse.
“Okay, here’s the plan,” Safford told her. “I’m going to take down that walker. You get into the Crucible zone. They’re designed so that in the event that someone unauthorized ends up on the training field, all combat stops immediately. Once you do that, drag them all over here.” She could practically hear the smile in his voice as he added, “Who knows? I might not have killed the damn thing by the time you all get here.” With a jaunty salute he unsheathed his shotgun, rushing off in the direction of the walker.
Dawn gestured towards the northwest. ⟪The Crucible zone should be back this way. C’mon!⟫ Sunset didn’t need to be told twice, and as the start of gunfire started to roar in the distance as Safford engaged the walker, the alicorn-as-human started to race down the street, hellbent on getting towards her objective.
Gunfire rang out around them, and Dawn immediately jumped into Sunset’s subspace storage. ⟪Oh, no – they’re behind us!⟫ With a natural ease that Sunset couldn’t explain, she whipped out her scout rifle, turned and jumped through a hole in the side of a nearby building, firing as she did so. The rounds flew true and two diamond dogs felt to the ground as their wire rifle shots went wild, blasts of azure energy flying well past Sunset’s location.
⟪Two down!⟫ Dawn sang out. ⟪Go up the stairs, and we should be able to hop the roofs the rest of the way!⟫ Heeding her Ghost’s advice, Sunset rushed up the floor and kicked the aged door in, the rotting wooden frame giving way to the blow, allowing them to reach the roof.
In the distance, Sunset could hear the sounds of gunfire from two directions: the first behind her, and as she turned around she could see Safford holding his own against the dogs and their walkers, though their airborne drones were moving around to flank him. Sunset wasn’t about to have that.
Calling up her sniper rifle, she looked through the scope and, standing as stock still to brace the weapon, fired three shots. Red bolts burned away from the muzzle as it belched flame, spitting the trio of bullets down at supersonic speeds. The rounds did their jobs and connected with brutal power and speed, lancing through the three shanks as if they were made of tinfoil. Minor explosions ripped in the air, followed by three combat drones falling harmlessly near Safford’s hooves.
Without taking his eyes off his target, he spoke through the mic, “What, felt the need to show off, Sunset?” His voice sounded as gruff as usual, but she could hear the undercurrent of gratitude from him. Waving at him, whether he could see it or not, she then started hopping the roofs, pushing forward.
⟪Sunset, I’m picking up additional acoustic signatures,⟫ Dawn warned. ⟪Things might get really hairy real fast.⟫ Sure enough, two more dog skiffs roared through the air, and one of them carried an additional walker. The two skiffs dropped off their payloads, and a second later, another nearby street was filled with diamond dog soldiers, shanks and a walker; additionally, a huge orb, glowing with violet magic, floated nearby.
⟪This is not looking good! They’ve dropped a second walker, which they rarely do. And they put a servitor down there as well!⟫
“Servitor?”
⟪The purple sphere down there. Servitors serve as support units for dog forces, doing broadcast power charging and can lay down heavy suppression fire on their own.⟫ As if to prove Dawn’s point, the servitor noticed them and started firing immediately, huge bolts of void magic tearing through the air, slamming into the buildings and tearing great chunks out of the structure. Sunset cleared one building, just to see the perch she was on crumble to the ground a second later.
The mystical and technological missiles continued to rain through the air, and as Sunset kept pushing forward, briefly pausing to take out a dog sniper or two, Dawn continued her line of thought. ⟪Something very big is going on here, Sunset. A walker is when they get serious. Two walkers are unheard of. But two walkers supported by a servitor is bad news.⟫ The AI halted in thought with a pause pregnant enough to have twins. ⟪I think they might be here on an assassination operation,⟫ the Ghost announced.
“You think they’re after me or Safford?” Sunset asked.
⟪I don’t think so. You’re too new to have any reputation about you spread to the enemy. And Safford is a big deal, if my gleaning through the newsfeeds are enough, but they wouldn’t use that much hardware on him. No, whoever they’re after has got to be the best of the best – one of the top Guardians in all of the Vanguard. Let me check the Crucible Roster.⟫ As Dawn checked her theory out, a copy of the information flashed on the HUD in Sunset’s helmet:
WIDOW’S COURT CRUCIBLE MATCH // MAYHEM CLASH
Current Score Standings // Time Remaining 5:37
NAME RACE/TRIBE SUBCLASS TEAM SCORE
Lily Diamante Human Voidwalker Alpha 324550
Arv Crossack Awoken Striker Bravo 161110
De Souza Unicorn Sunsinger Alpha 160050
Gonzalez Pegasus Bladedancer Alpha 158900
Sunset ignored the rest of the names; it was pretty obvious who was on top in that match. “What’s Diamante’s profile like?” she asked.
Dawn quickly read through her record. ⟪She’s one of the best, needless to say. Activated as a Guardian 150 years ago somewhere in the Western US Sector. Veteran of over a thousand missions. She’s been through the Trials flawlessly sixteen times, and has the highest kill record at the Crossroads Crucible Zone. Full gold layout, prefers to use a handcannon she built herself called “Style and Grace”; Tex Mechanica apparently wants to buy the rights from her so they can make a mass-production model, if the newsfeeds are correct. She blasted a skiff out of the sky with a single axion bolt, so she’s seriously powerful. And, if Ikora decides to step down, she’s one of the leading candidates to be the Warlock Vanguard.⟫ Dawn let out a whistle and commented, ⟪If they’re here for someone, it’s her.⟫
More engines sounded out in the distance; Sunset didn’t even have to look. “Another walker?”
Dawn did a scan. ⟪What makes you think that, besides the obvious?⟫ she asked.
Sunset continued to race along the building, while the walker and servitors targeting her from making it to Widow’s Court continued to fire, leaving massive holes in buildings where Sunset had been just a few seconds before. Sunset continued to fire when she could, moving in acrobatic patterns while firing that would have inspired a circa-2000s action film director had he ever seen these moves.
As Sunset fired her scout rifle, cutting down a dog sniper, completed her somersault and then caromed off a wall before it could be vaporized in servitor fire she shouted out, “What am I looking for?” Sunset continued to zigzag back and forth, moving from one spot to another and practically running along the walls to confuse her opponents.
⟪A block away; you can’t miss it. Huge, meter-thick walls made out of starship hull plating, pretty much designed to keep any fire from the Crucible accidentally getting out.⟫
“I really doubt it’s going to hold up against sustained fire from these walk—” She heard the roar of another set of engines and turned to look. “Okay – four walkers? That’s gotta be some kind of overkill!”
Dawn immediately scanned them. ⟪Those last two walker sets are Kings,⟫ she explained. Knowing Sunset wouldn’t be up on the politics of the enemy, Dawn continued with, ⟪Most of the dog clans don’t get along. For example, Earth is mostly overrun from Dogs from the Devils faction. The Kings are also on Earth, but they tend to focus on attacking the City more than focusing on the rest of the planet. There are other factions out there as well – the Exiles on the Moon, for example – but none of them work well together; Nightmare Star made sure of that. So for one faction to even back up another is a very bad sign.⟫
Sunset didn’t answer, but continued to pour on the speed, especially now that she had the Kings firing at her. They certainly appeared to be better trained, given that their shots were closer to the mark than the others were; they were also smart enough to start firing at her with the main batteries from their skiffs. One thing was for sure, she wasn’t going to be able to dodge much more of this.
⟪There!⟫ Dawn called out, and ahead of her was a massive steel wall, easily fifty feet tall. The emblem of the Crucible was painted on it, along with several lines in several of Earth’s languages that trespassing was dangerous and to see the Assistance Station in the south … which the markings explained was at least another kilometer away.
“Hang on,” Sunset snarled, “we’re going in.”
⟪That’s gonna be kinda hard to do. There’s not a building left that’s high enough to jump from, and even in the best of situations, you’re not going to be able to get even halfway up much less over!⟫
“Who said anything about over? We’re going through!”
⟪What? How? ⟫ It was clear that Sunset’s idea had completely confused her Ghost. Even with all process threads firing, Dawn couldn’t comprehend that comment, even if it were metaphor. ⟪Look, blinking doesn’t work that way and your suit doesn’t have transmat capabili--⟫
The hunter rocketed forward, nearly becoming a blur of khaki and dark gray, moving towards the boundary walls of Widow’s Court at a blinding speed, rounds of various energy and metal just inches behind her. There was a massive flash of energy—
—the ordnance slammed against the barrier wall with enough force to make it ring like a bell and shudder, though it still held—
—and a corresponding blast of energy spat Sunset out on the other side, where she crashed painfully into two other Guardians, bowling the three over, sending weapons, arms and legs flailing in all directions.
As a crumbling brick wall cushioned her stop – by means of her colliding with it with enough force to crater the façade, Sunset forced herself to her feet, ignoring the ringing in her ears and the sensoria in her eyes.
Meanwhile, on all frequencies, Shaxx’s booming voice rang out: “Unauthorized presence in the Crucible! Match immediately ended – Victory to Alpha Team. All Guardians are to clear the field immediately while the problem is investigated.”
⟪How … how did you do that?⟫ Her head still spinning, Sunset hadn’t even noticed that Dawn had moved out of subspace storage and was now scanning her for medical issues. ⟪There’s no way we should have been able to do that! It’s impossible!⟫
“Blind teleport,” Sunset replied, gritting her teeth as her headache still remained; sooner or later her suit would pump some analgesics into her system – hopefully. “Extremely dangerous, because it requires a huge amount of superluminal speed to quantum tunnel. Controlled teleports, like transmatting I assume, can be done slowly and carefully, or at least with a sense of familiarity. But with a blind teleport, you don’t know what’s on the other side, so you’re essentially jumping to light speed and decelerating while still just starting the jump. Rips your molecules apart, so it’s nearly lethal.” She then risked opening one eye and said, “But it got us here, right?”
“Yeah, but if you’re not a pony, then how the fuck did you do it?” a voice to her side said. Sunset turned to see a warlock dusting herself off. She wore a black, featureless helmet, silver bracers, black robes that had an iridescent spiderweb design on the front that changed color across the cool shades of the spectrum, and black boots. In her hand she held an ornate platinum-plated handcannon upon which purple gems were inlaid. Lastly, she stood there with a stance that seemed to utterly emanate the concept of irritation. “And what the fuck was so important that you had to ruin my streak?”
Another person, a titan of either human or Awoken origin, patted the woman on the shoulder. “Yeah, because you weren’t completely embarrassing my team, were you, Lil?”
The woman pulled her arm away from the titan’s gesture. “Go fuck yourself, Arv.” She then wheeled on Sunset. “You just ruined an important bet between me and this girl I was going after. So, unless you plan to spread in her place, start talking.”
Sunset paid attention to the attitude-filled woman in front of her. “You must be Lily Diamante.”
The woman shook her head, then turned to the others. “Wow, hey guys, we got a regular genius here – practically the second coming of Queen Twilight! Tell me, O Wise One, what made you come to that difficult realization?”
⟪Wow, has she got an attitude,⟫ Dawn muttered.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Sunset replied to her Ghost, then crossed her arms as he looked back at Diamante. “You know, I’m almost tempted to let the walkers come and kill you, but your ego’s so big that it probably acts as a deflector shield of its own.” She then looked to the rest of them. “The rest of you, however, might want to get ready. There’s four dog walkers inbound, and they’re all here to kill Ms. Humble here.”
Diamante started to laugh. “Look, I know I’m good, but that’s just bullshit, little girl. Do you really think the dogs are going to waste that kind of hardware trying to take little old me ou—”
The boundary wall suddenly exploded, and a second later, a pony in heavily-damaged armor collided into the same spot Sunset did a second earlier; the wall gave way this time and collapsed on him. Out of the smoky remains of the steel plating a servitor floated through, and with mechanical precision fired a blast of void energy, slamming into Safford. The stallion barely had time to scream before his body vaporized into nothing.
“SAFFORD!” Sunset screamed, not noticing that Cornerfire appeared above where Safford had died, splitting apart and turning into a sphere of energy.
“Holy fucking shit,” Diamante replied, seeing the first walker and the silhouette of the second one close behind. “You weren’t kidding.”
“Glad to see you were paying attention,” Sunset said, rushing for cover, unlike the rest of the clearly experienced Guardians.
“Sonnuva….” Diamante, clearly the senior person on station, began barking orders. “Alpha Team! You have first walker. Do not let it get onto the Crucible grounds. Bravo Team, use the emergency transmat emitters to get out of the zone on the south side, then flank the farthest one.” She looked at one of the members of Alpha. “Giovanni, pick up Safford, or else he’ll be there for a few seconds reconstituting, and that’s time we don’t have.”
“I take it you guys got the middle ones?” Crossack asked.
“Don’t you know it.” Diamante went over and grabbed Sunset’s butt, earning a glare from the former unicorn. “Me and this cute little piece of tail here especially got the third.” She then turned to Sunset and said, “You know, you were brave enough to dodge the firepower of all that hardware while it was coming this way, which means you’re probably hella quick and nimble. You like that in bed, too?”
“Can we not have that kind of discussion right now? And for fuck’s sake, I’m straight.”
“Oh, every woman says that until they’re with me. Trust me, one night with diamonds, and you’ll want to be my favorite jewel.”
“Wow, you know what ‘Diamante’ means. So you have brains.”
“And a stamina and libido to go with it, too,” Diamante cooed. “Seriously, though, I know Safford, and if a walker just melted him like that, they’re sending top of the line equipment. This is not going to be easy.”
Safford immediately joined them. “That’s the thing I hate about being rezzed by another Guardian,” he grunted. “The energy shock sends a spike to your head and voila! Migraine city. Anyway, how you doin’, Lil?”
“Oh, you know me: Always ready for a fight and always ready for anything else. You free later? Thought you and me could take her for a spin,” Diamante said, hooking a thumb at Sunset.
“Trust me, Lil, she’s a headache you don’t want. Tell you later, but you do not want to mess with her.”
Though it was still unclear due to the featureless visor of the helmet, apparently Diamante looked at Sunset with new interest. “Oh? Now you really have my attent—” A servitor fired at the warlock; she deftly sidestepped the blast and pulled her handcannon. “You know, it’s rude as hell to interrupt someone while they’re flirting!” she yelled at the machine. Fanning the hammer, she sent a swarm of void bullets right back at the servitor, turning it into an explosive set of metallic chunks. “Stupid piece of shit. Wonder how dangerous they would be if the dogs gave them brains like they do their Prime models.
“Anyway, as I was saying: if you’re that interesting, then let’s go make some music with that dog toy. Then afterwards, we can make more music and I’ll make you sing like a soprano.”
“You’re not listening to me, are you, Lil?”
Diamante shrugged. “Do I ever listen to anyone?”
“Ikora?”
“Because I haven’t cracked that nut yet – working on it still,” she replied and Sunset could almost hear the grin. “Anyway, serious business time: Safford, you take the second walker. My new bed partner and I will deal with the third.” Before either of her companions could object, she added, “Okay, enough chitchat. We got a job to do.”
“‘Bout fucking time,” Safford said, pulling his auto rifle while Sunset switched her scout for her pulse rifle. With that the three rushed off, heading towards their targets while they watched Alpha engage their own. As they passed by, they briefly strafed dogs transmatting in to support the walker; each one met a bloody doom at the end of the trio’s gunfire.
“Safford, pull yours down that alley; Sweetass and I will dance with our partner over here,” Diamante barked. “We need to give the warsats enough time to transmat the damaged wall out and shove a new one in. We’re working against the clock, so let’s do this!” Safford summoned a rocket launcher and fired a round right into the wirelauncher to get its attention. The rocket hit true, detonating against the side and setting off secondary explosions as the clusterbombs did their job. All of its weapons immediately turned onto Safford and he barely dodged the volley as he galloped down the street.
“Good, my turn,” Diamante said, and summoned a heavy machine gun. She pulled the trigger, raking solar fire across the hull of the walker. “Let’s see if I got its attention….” As expected, the walker turned on them, and they hustled down the street as the walker, followed by a flight of shanks, pursued.
“Are you trying to get us killed?” Sunset asked as a blast of electric energy hit the crumbling storefront to her right.
“Just getting its attention, because I want to see what makes it tick,” Diamante replied. “On the rare occasions when walkers hunt in packs, the third one is always the command vehicle. Means we’re dealing with a captain- or baron-ranked dog in there. Means if we capture them, we just might find out why they’re after me.”
“So getting it to hunt us down was the option?”
Diamante laughed as a round barely went over her head. “Looks like I got you hot under the collar. Good; we live through this and tonight I’ll make you hot and bothered in the sheets.”
“Do you ever stop?”
“Well if I did, you wouldn’t have as much fun tonight, would you?”
Sunset ignored the vamp and turned the corner…
…only to run into a dead end. ⟪That does not bode well,⟫ Sunset could hear Dawn state.
“Good,” Diamante hissed. “Now the bastards can’t run away. I’ll take the right, you take the left. Go on my mark. One, two, thr—” Diamante’s words were cut out by a massive lance of vermillion energy that hit her hard, slamming her against the nearest wall. Two more shots immediately hit her, and her Ghost immediately appeared, ready to go into reconstitution mode if need be. But a fourth energy blast hit it dead on, dropping it to the floor in a shower of sparks.
Sunset moved to her side. She could see the blasts did serious damage: most of Diamante’s robes were burned away, and Sunset could see down to the skin; she could smell the stench of charred, third-degree burnt flesh.
“Fucking scorch cannon,” Diamante hissed. “Kid, get out of here. You’re not strong enough to….” A deep, booming laugh filled the air and the warlock said, “Too late.” Sunset heard the laughing again and turned towards the walker.
There, standing on top of it, was the largest diamond dog she’d ever seen. Bulky, dressed in heavy armor complete with cape and carrying a pieced-together cannon that glowed like a miniature sun, the dog’s scarred face was the virtual emblem of malice. Sunset could see that its left eye was missing and replaced with a hastily-made cybernetic replacement; it made the dog’s maimed face look all the uglier.
“Vaksis….” Diamante murmured. “I took his eye about three years ago during an op in the South Africa Sector. Looks like he wants payback.” Forcing herself to sit up as much as she could, she reached for her handcannon. “Okay, Vaksis, just you and me, for once and for all.” She then turned to Sunset. “Get out of here, kid.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Sunset insisted.
“He just popped my Ghost. Means I’m not long for this world,” Diamante coughed. “Look, get out of here, go have a happy life, go fuck a girl or two for me, okay? I’m going to make sure this bastard doesn’t walk away.” She turned back to Vaksis. “Okay, asshole, ready to do this?”
Sunset was about to walk away, when Vaksis fired a warning shot at her. The point was clear: either Diamante was going to save both of them, or it wasn’t going to matter. And in the shape the warlock was in, chances were, it would be a very fatal stalemate.
Not taking her eyes off Vaksis, Diamante murmured, “Looks like we’re headed for eternity once more. Sorry, kid.” Sunset almost didn’t hear Diamante’s final words: “She’s got a cute voice, too. Sounds kinda familiar, too….”
Vaksis grunted, charging up his scorch cannon for one final blow.
Diamante nodded, cocking the hammer back for one do-or-die blast.
Both enemies pulled their triggers…
…and Sunset’s eyes burned.
“You made a big mistake using that around me,” she said in a tone that was unnatural as the area filled with solar fire.