//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Start of a Mission // Story: When The Night Crawls // by Hoppa_21 //------------------------------// POV: Narrator Location: Warehouse 13 Time: 21:46 “GIRLS!” screamed the voice in Steamie’s ear and he flinched visibly. Bad luck has it that he just introduced himself to the goons. It were two in fact. A stallion and a Griffon. The stallion was dressed in the stereotypical blue henchmen suits with yellow outlining the Mane-iac dressed up all of her people. Steamie had to wince imagining to wear such a spandex suit the whole day. It was really form fitting, but certainly lacking more in fashion than his own terrible attire. The additional cape this goon spotted didn’t help this matters, although it still looked rather neat, compared to the rest of his attire. He also wore a green and purple leather choker that was strapped around his neck, the silver padlock was dangling from it with a big "M" carved into it. It was the universal sign that marked someone as a goon of the Mane-iac. The coat color of said stallion was cream, while he had an orange mane. The Griffon on the other hand was wearing a black sturdy looking jacket. Possibly leather from Steamie’s point of view. But she was missing a choker, making her probably a freelancer or mercenary Her lower half was brown, while the feathers on her head were a pure white. The Griffon gave him a suspicious look. “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you are freaking out now, dweeb.” Steamie gulped audibly. “No, I’m not. Just nervous is all.” And nervous he was. Nervous that they might tear him a new hole. So it was no wonder that sweat slowly began to form on his brow. In his nervousness he completely missed Zapp’s comment, on how the voice seemed familiar to her. Saddle Rager meanwhile offered a quiet apology to the now dubbed Dweeb for bringing him into this situation. He appreciated the notion, but would have preferred if it didn’t happen in the first place. This was his first mission and things normally were more likely to go wrong on a first mission, when on a second or third, since he had no experience in this. Not that he wanted any experience. He loved his normal peaceful and boring life. The second goon, a pony, smiled at him. “I can imagine that. Our boss can be rather intimidating. Especially so if she is not happy with the services of her suppliers. So I can only advise you not to disappoint her. Not only for your sake. I shudder at the thoughts of what happened to the last supplier who couldn’t satisfy her,” as if to reinforce that statement he started to shudder, “I will never look at hair products the same way ever again.” Before Dweeb could think of the implications of that statement, he continued. “But first we have to check you for hidden weapons. Don’t worry though. It’s just a standard procedure.” He looked at his companion. “If you would be so kindly?” She threw a glare at him. “Um, if you don’t mind that is?” She smirked triumphantly at him. “Fine, you dweeb.” She turned around to Dweeb One or Steamie, depending on which nickname you prefer, and he could see Dweeb Two frown at the Griffons comment in an indignant manner, but held his tongue. He probably didn’t want to anger her which made Dweeb One rather skittish. He shuddered involuntarily as the sharp and cold claws of hers touched him from the upper body to his lower section. He tried to distract himself from the unwanted but necessary body check as he laid his eyes on a very special feature of the Griffoness. They seemed so soft and tender and ever loving. Their natural curves were a sight for sore eyes. Nothing could beat something like this in Dweeb’s opinion. His jaw lowered a bit, as he took in every fiber of her majestic, smooth, gentle- “Huh. He is drooling. Seems like our newcomer here has a thing for Griffons, Gilda! Not that I blame him, one of the guys once told me they have some really nice thi-” Suddenly the now dubbed Gilda turned around her claw around the neck of the pony. “Finish that sentence and you might experience firstclaw how these powerful thighs will snap your neck.” Steamie had to shiver in fright at this open display of violence. He was new to this, or at least he was never that close to it. His instincts told him to run away from this dangerous Griffon but he couldn’t. He had a mission to fulfill. He was also frozen in fear. So it couldn’t be attributed one hundred percent to his conscientiousness. His troubled thoughts were at least distracted as Zapp suddenly shouted obscenities as she heard the name of that Griffon. “Gilda! That rotten piece of horseapples!“ followed by a few more graphic descriptions of what she would do to her and how she would shove a specific green spiky thing in a place it certainly doesn’t belong. Dweeb One flinched at this, but the both goons were too focused in their little argument to notice. The pony goon meanwhile nodded hastily. Gilda then relaxed her grip on his neck, letting him slowly glide to the ground. He coughed a little before composing himself again. But it was still easily recognizable that he was now more wary of the Griffoness. Said Griffoness seemed to revel in his fear, as she ended her check on the supposed weapon dealer. “He is clean,” she exclaimed shortly. She then leveled a glare at Dweeb One. Her glare seemed to harden the longer she held it at him and it quickly developed into a death glare. Dweeb One begun to wilt under her stare. “And you. Don’t you dweeb even DARE to think about it, or I rip off your horn and shove it so far down your throat that you have to access magic from your flank in the future!” He gasped and held onto his horn with both his hooves in terror, as if his life depended on it. He was almost shitting himself. Ears flat against his skull. Tail tucked between his legs. “Did I make myself clear?” came the vicious question of the merciless Griffoness. Vigorous nodding followed. “You should give him a break,” sounded the pony goon, seemingly recovered, but still rubbing his throat, “Or he is done with his nerves before he meets the boss! And she had very specific orders!” Unlike what he thought prior of the goons of Mane-iac, this pony seemed to care somewhat for him and Steamie was thankful for that. He needed some support. And the voices in his speaker were only a weak support, no matter how comforting they tried to be. Gilda huffed meanwhile. “Fine. So, let’s get on with this crap!” she said. The pony goon agreed and pulled a bag over his head. “Follow our lead,” said the stallion. Steamie was about to ask about the chest with the weapons, but then heard him whistle, followed by several hoofsteps and grunts, which indicated that it was taken care of. The goon then went next to him to his left side, while Gilda walked on his right to coordinate his route. He could only follow as he was led on by the two goons. ‘Things could be worse,’ thought Steam as he walked with them. He reminded himself to shut up and keep his eyes to himself when it came to the Griffon though, but other than that he could at least trust the other pony to keep him safe. Location: Power Ponies HQ Time: 21:57 “I’m worried about him. Do you think this was such a good idea?” asked Saddle Rager, visibly nervous at the actions of the Gryphoness. “Of course it was! He will be fine as long as Pinkie and I are here! Remember that he has that wiretap thingy under his hide?” said Zapp, but she didn’t sound as convinced. Truth be told, as soon as she realized they were dealing with the freelancer Gryphon she wanted to fly to the docks to pummel her into the ground. She was calmed down by Filly-Second. Last second no less. But that was not so surprising if you consider her special talent, as well as the power her mutation gave her. “Ah’m not still not so sure ‘bout this plan. It is quite risky.” Mistress Mare-velous pointed out. “Don’t you worry! I’m close to him, if those Meany Pants try anything!” said Filly-Second cheerfully as she threw her own two bits into the conversation. “See? Just like I said,” agreed Zapp, now a bit more confident. “I agree. We made sure to be prepared for every possible contingency. He will not be harmed,” came the reassuring voice of Masked Matterhorn. “We know his exact coordinates, have our two fastest members nearby and are ready to call Officer Turner for reinforcements as soon as we discover the Mane-iac’s lair.” “Indeed! No harm will come to a civilian while Maretropolis is under our protection! You shouldn’t worry yourself too much, darling, all this stress is doing nothing for your countenance.” All this didn’t really seem to comfort Mistress Mare-velous. She simply accepted that she was outvoted by the team and hung her head in defeat. “Ah still have a bad feeling about this.” But all her worries were waved away again by their leader. “We are prepared, Mistress Mare-velous, so trust me when I say absolutely nothing can go wrong.” A sudden beep drew their attention again to the monitor with their radar. The point, which signaled Steams position on the virtual map had vanished. “What was that noise?” asked Zapp meanwhile, wondering what the silence meant. A silence which dragged on for another second by the baffled heroes. “We lost his signal?!” exclaimed a frantic sounding Masked Matterhorn finally. Zapp of course didn’t lose any time and zipped to the last known location of him. Fili-Second was already there as she arrived. But they found nothing of the trio that was once in the docks. They both instantly checked the vicinity, searched warehouses and nearby buildings, but came out empty. “There has to be an entrance somewhere!” Zapp said with a bit of panic in her voice. A panic which was mimed by the rest of the team. Masked Matterhorn was right there with Hum Drum on the consoles as he tried to work in getting their signal again. But in the end he could only shake his head. “It is no use! They cut off the signal! I’m not getting anything in!” With that Masked Matterhorn could only look at the panicked and downtrodden faces of her comrades, of her friends. All expecting positive answers. Answers she couldn’t provide at the moment. “Girls. We lost him.” POV: Mane-iac Location: Secret Hidden Alternative Mane Point Of Operation short S.H.A.M.P.O.O. Time: 22:00 Bwahahahaha! They really are fools. Thinking I wouldn’t check this new weapon supplier thoroughly before making the appointment. I might be the Mane-iac, but madness doesn’t equal to being stupid. Haha! Everything was according to my plan. Even though I didn’t think that they would give me a civilian as a bait. It was planned that I would capture Hum Drum and use him as a distraction, while I take care of a specific business in Maretropolis. Of course now I didn’t need Hum Drum anymore. A bit of a pity actually, since I wanted to get my revenge on that infuriating infant for crossing through my plans last time! But, oh well, I can still take care of him later, so that shouldn’t be the problem. Besides, mane plan first, revenge later. The business I will take over will in any case help me to distribute my very special product. Oh, and how special it was! It was created by my R&D team, who were doing research on my mutation. It would let every being mutate in the same way as me. Everyponies manes would simply go wild! The Power Ponies won’t even know what happened, until they would fall victim to it themselves! Everything was ready now! “How is our other guest upholding?” I asked with with a hint of amusement and curiosity. Another thing I didn’t plan. Then a magical portal first opened, I thought I was under attack. That is until this slim blue figure fell through it unconscious. Right in front of my hooves in fact. I don’t know how it landed here, but that was a question for another time. I had to prepare the mane event after all! “He is still asleep,” answered one of my mutant henchman. I nodded, satisfied with the answer. “Good. Then prepare Steam Gear to be transported to the old power plant. We need to start as soon as possible.” My minion saluted and got to the task. I then turned around to face the door. “I meanwhile have to talk to an old friend of mine.”