The sky above Canterlot was wet and grey. It seemed to drain the color of the city beneath it and emphasized the sterile blandness of the concrete walls and pathways. It wasn’t raining, but the air was so harsh and thick with water vapor that it might as well have been.
Outside the infamous Canterlot City Bank, the two security guards didn’t mind the weather too much. They were wrapped up tightly in their scarves, gloves and hats, and the coffees they’d picked up from Sugarcube Corner helped to warm their innards. They only had an hour left of their shift before the next guys took over and the banter they shared helped them pass the time.
“So what’d you reckon about all that stuff in Whitetail?” one asked to the other.
“You mean the break-ins?” she replied, already knowing what her co-worker was talking about. “Think they need to tighten security down there. Four houses in one night? That’s some Wet Bandits stuff right there.”
“Wet Bandits?”
“You know, from that movie? The Christmas one?”
“With Schwarzenegger?”
The female guard shook her head.
“Never mind. How long have we got left?”
The man glanced at his watch.
“Forty minutes, not bad.”
The woman rolled her eyes.
“How’re the kids doing, anyway?”
As they went about their conversation, they failed to notice the air around them slow down. The nearby lamppost began to flicker ever so slightly. If it had been a sunnier day they might have stood a chance, but with the visibility at an all-time low they were none the wiser to the storm that was about to descend upon them.
KRAC-CROOO-OOOM!
With an ear-shattering bang and a flash a light, the two colleagues fell back against the wall. They released their coffees to try to steady themselves, with the boiling hot liquid splashing into their shoes.
“What the shit?!” The girl shrieked.
The man’s hands shot down to his waist to grab his weapon, ready to challenge whatever had just happened. It had been a long day, he was wet and cold and not above trying to shoot a lightning bolt.
But the man found himself grasping at thin air. A look down confirmed his thoughts. He didn’t have his gun on him! He must have left it in the changing room; he could lose his job for that! What if something happened and he was caught unarmed!? He glanced over to his partner and found her staring back at him with an equal expression of shock and confusion. His eye line traced down her arm and saw her hand also grasping at nothing. She also had come out unarmed.
“Wha…?” he spluttered out.
Click, Click
Click, Click
A white wash of dread seeped over the two as the familiar sound met their ears. They looked forward, and took a step back in shock at what they saw.
Walking towards them through the smog was a woman. They couldn’t make out her finer details as she wore a large hood covering her face, but her body shape was definitely female. She and the air around her was illuminated in a purple glow, originating from two objects levitating beside her.
Their guns.
The male guard blinked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Within seconds the woman was at the base of the staircase leading up to the bank, and had both the floating weapons aimed at them.
“H-Hold it right there!” The female guard shouted, holding her hand out in a defensive posture.
Getting swept up in the rush of reality, the male guard spluttered out, “Put your weapons down and your hands up!”
The woman begin to walk up the stairs towards them, completely unfazed by their demands. Normally at this point he’d draw his weapon and take aim, and it felt wrong being unable to do so. He shuffled around awkwardly, unsure of what to do with himself apart from shout again.
“If you take one step further we will be forced–”
BANG!
The guns fired simultaneously and shattered the glass doors behind them. The guards dived to the floor as a shower of broken glass enveloped them. The screams of the general public inside were quickly drowned out by the alarm siren beginning to wail.
The woman and her floating weapons passed the two fallen guards with ease and through the broken entrance. The glass crunched loudly beneath her dark purple high-heeled boots.
The serene calmness of Canterlot was interrupted by a distant ruckus. Far away sirens, growing ever close. Cars mounted the pavement to avoid them, heads turned in their direction and camera phones flashed. There was a high-pitched screeching sound as a black transit van rounded a corner and took off down Canterlot’s main road. Seconds later two police vehicles followed hot on its tail.
The back doors to the van swung open, revealing Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk wielding shotguns.
“SAY ELLO TO MA LITTLE FRIEND!” Sonata shouted over the sirens.
The two girls began shooting at the following squad cars. The cars swerved to avoid the oncoming fire, and only narrowly avoided having their windshields hit. The passengers in both cars wound down their windows and began to return fire.
Aria and Sonata dove to the sides of the van to avoid the oncoming barrage. The bullets shot passed them and embedded themselves in the stolen sacks of money at the former Dazzlings’ feet. One lucky bullet made its way to the front of the van and cracked the windshield, startling the get-away driver.
“Watch it!” Adagio snapped at them while fighting with the wheel.
Sonata and Aria cocked their weapons and quickly dove back into sight, resuming their firing at the cars. The police ceased firing and retreated back inside their vehicles. Aria hit a bulls-eye and fired a shot directly at one car’s driver-side of the windshield, which cracked but didn’t break.
“Dammit,” she cursed.
The glass was bulletproof. The officers seized their chance and began firing at them again.
“Punch it, Chewie!” Sonata yelled to the front.
“They’re gaining on us, Adagio!” Aria shouted.
“I’m going as fast as I can!”
“Well, go faster!” Aria shouted in-between shots.
“She’s giving it all she’s got, khaptin!” Sonata replied in a husky voice.
A shot whizzed past Aria’s eyes, forcing her to take back her position in hiding.
“We can’t lose em!”
“Then get rid of them!” Adagio shouted back.
Aria shook her head.
“I’m not strong enough!”
“Do or do not, there is no try!” Sonata contributed.
Another shot made its way to the front, and this time only narrowly avoiding hitting Adagio’s mass of hair.
“Now, Aria!” she demanded.
Aria gritted her teeth and obeyed.
“Give me your hand,” she told Sonata. Sonata leaned her hand forward and Aria grasped it tightly.
Aria stepped into the center of the van and held out her hand, which began to glow purple. The bullets that would normally have torn through her began to slow mid-air, eventually coming to a solid halt just short of her hand. The bullets were illuminated in a purple glow, and that glow began steadily to extend backwards.
“Eat this!” Sonata cheered.
Aria scrunched up her face and gritted her teeth against a slowly rising pain, and the grip around Sonata’s hand began to tighten.
The purple glow shot out and completely enveloped the closest car. Its wheels locked up, but the car continued forward. Its back end lifted into the air and the car performed a perfect somersault... It smashed back down to the ground, shattering its windscreen and throwing the passenger out. It was then immediately crashed into by the other squad car, which skidded to a sudden and abrupt halt. Within seconds the scene of their accident was nothing but a spec on the horizon to the Dazzlings.
Aria let out a moan of exhaustion and fell forwards. If not for Sonata’s hand, they’d have to be picking parts of her up off the road. Sonata pulled Aria back and the two of them collapsed onto the piles of money behind them.
Sonata brushed Aria’s hair out of her face.
“That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”
“What’s going on back there!?” Adagio asked.
Aria regained consciousness and brought a hand up to her head.
“We lost em?” she croaked.
Sonata beamed brightly and clapped her hands together.
“Oh, what a day! What a lovely day!”
The Dazzlings’ apartment had not only been completely rebuilt since the ritual that gave them their powers destroyed it, but it had been improved. All the furniture had been replaced with the most expensive the store was offering, a flat-screen TV hung on one wall, all available surfaces in the kitchen had been replaced with marble and their fridge was, for the first time since they lost their magic, fully stocked.
The door to said apartment swung open.
There was a flash of light and any lightweight objects in the room that hadn’t been nailed down were suddenly thrown from their resting places. Sonata appeared in the center of the room and dropped one of the bullet damaged sacks of money down onto the sofa. Another flash of light and she was gone, returning a mere second later with a second bag. Satisfied with her work, she gave herself a smile and skipped into the kitchen.
Aria entered the room next, absently texting on her phone while her two bags floated in the air behind her. She released her magical grasp on them and they fell beside Sonata’s. She plonked herself down on the sofa and continued her texting.
There was a few seconds of nothing before Adagio waddled her way in last, heavily grunting, and straining to hold up the two large bags of money in her arms. She trundled her way into the room and dropped the bags onto the floor with a groan, then fell onto the sofa.
“It’s fine, I didn’t need any help or anything,” she snapped.
Aria looked up from her phone.
“Hmm?”
Adagio scowled and rolled her eyes.
“Never mind.”
Sonata returned from the kitchen with a sandwich she super-speeded together. She kicked the living room door closed and joined her sisters on the sofa.
“That was soo much fun, we should do banks more often!”
Adagio smiled at Sonata’s optimism.
Since the ritual two months ago they’d been living the dream. They’d began by robbing houses, then convenience stores, and then museums. Museums were Adagio’s idea and by far her favorite, because she was able to flex her negotiation skills selling the items on the black market. Within these two short months they’d built a criminal empire bigger than anything they’d done working for Ahuizotl.
Now they were right up there with the big boys of the crime world. They of course had an advantage over everybody else – rival criminal or victim – which had allowed them to rise to power so quickly. The ritual they had performed two months ago had blessed the girls with special abilities.
The word 'blessed' being a matter of opinion, though. Keeping Sonata focused on one thing had difficult enough at the best of times, but now they would struggle to keep her even in the same room, now she had the power to zap herself to the kitchen the second she felt the slightest pang of hunger. It had taken her sisters two months and every last drop of their patience to help her gain control of her powers. Luckily the number of broken bones, dents in the walls and awkward conversations with cops as to why she was suddenly in the middle of Canterlot wearing only her bathrobe, began pile up to the point that her powers had become and annoyance even to her. Thank Neighptune as well, because if Aria's superpower was despairing, she'd be ruling the world by now.
Aria had been given the power of matter manipulation... whatever that was. She suspected Adagio had simply made the term up rather than be forced to admit that she didn't know. As long as she got to blow stuff up, Aria didn't much care what she called it. Levitation, telekiensis, weather manipulation... it seemed jack-of-all-trades, whatever-you-need-I've-got-it seemed to be Aria's place in their trio. And at the risk of ringing false victory, she showed to be becoming quite talented in mind control as well.
She chuckled to her self, thinking of the possibilities.
Sonata can't annoy you if Sonata forgets how to talk.
The stunt they pulled today was a well-rehearsed one, they’d done the same technique at every place they’d hit and, as of yet, no one had figured out their routine. It was likely due to the fact the victims’ claims were difficult to believe. Adagio often wondered why the police had never been contacted about the events revolving around Sunset Shimmer and her friends at CHS, but now she knew. The police simply scoffed at the idea of magic or superpowers, which they used no end to their advantage.
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist, after all.
They’d begun by hitting places they knew didn’t have security footage, but the trio had quickly grown arrogant with their skills. Who cared if the police knew about them? They had superpowers, they could take on the entire Canterlot Royal Police Force if they wanted to.
Or, most of them could.
The sirens were over two-thousand years old, and since their birth Adagio had always been the group mother. She cared for her sisters, and in return her word was law.
So it had driven her up the absolute wall that she wasn’t gifted with powers like they were.
Sonata had been given super-speed, Aria had been given matter-manipulation, Adagio had been given… nothing. She didn’t know why, she was just as much a part of the ritual as either of them. At first she was convinced it was a mistake, and her powers just hadn’t revealed themselves yet, but two months had passed since, and now she was certain. For whatever reason, Adagio hadn’t been given any powers.
That put her at a tactical disadvantage to her sisters. Luckily they’d become so ingrained to the way things worked they hadn’t abandoned her like dead weight. That, and she was still their legal guardian, so they kind of couldn’t. Adagio had been the leader before their new powers and she remained the leader after for one very good reason: she was best at tactical. So Adagio would be the mastermind behind it all, with Aria and Sonata doing her bidding.
Together the three of them had become unstoppable.
“Yo, what’s for dinner?” Aria asked, peaking up from behind her phone screen.
“Dunno,” Adagio said, still trying to reclaim her breath. “Wanna order in?”
Aria wrinkled her nose.
"I want a meal.”
“Well I don’t have the energy to make food tonight. You do some cooking for a change.”
“I don’t wanna cook, you know I’m crap at it,” Aria turned to their youngest. “Sonata, wanna go super-speed us up something?”
“No!” Adagio butted in before a response could be given. “She’s not allowed to cook.”
Aria sighed, “Well, what then?”
“I already said, you make something.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Because I’m tired.”
Aria scoffed.
“We did way more work than you today.”
Adagio sent an angry gaze her way. She wanted to argue but couldn’t find the energy.
“I don’t have superpowers, Aria. I was nearly shot today, I could have died.”
Aria shrugged.
“And that’s made you incapable of cooking because…?”
Adagio rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Go to hell, Aria.”
“I think we should order in too,” Sonata jumped in quickly. “I’m in the mood for Indian.”
“That’s two against one.”
“Ugh, fine," Aria sulked. "Whatever."
“I say we should hire a butler,” Sonata prompted herself up, “he can make us food every night. It’s not like we don’t have the money to, now.”
Adagio shook her head.
“Why not?” Aria asked. “Sounds like a good idea to me? And that’s two against one.”
Adagio growled at Aria’s smugness.
“If we get a butler we have to give him his own room. Either of you two willing to give up yours?”
The two girls shook their heads.
“There you go then. For now we have to keep a low profile. When we get the bigger house, maybe. Until then it’s fast-food. And all of this,” she gestured to the bags of money, “is mine. I reckon we just need to hit one more place and we’ll have enough for that villa in Manehatten.”
“And then we can get a Geoffery?”
“And then we can get a Geoffery.”
“Yay!” Sonata smiled.
“We can get pretty much anything we want, then,” Aria grinned.
At the mention of this, the edges of Adagio’s mouth flicked up into a smile.
“Yeah, we can.”
“Ice tea imported from England?” Sonata asked.
Adagio grinned and nodded.
“Lifeguards imported from Spain.”
“Towels imported from Turkey?”
“And Turkey imported from Maine!”
Adagio and Sonata shared laughter, while Aria simply rolled her eyes.
“Losers.”
“Oh cheer up, Aria!” Adagio laughed. “We’re all in this together!”
“Get lost.”
Adagio laughed again and shook her head, shaking off Aria’s comment. She threw her arms up in the air and pushed herself off the sofa.
“I’m gonna lock up and go for a nap. Wake me when food's here?”
Sonata nodded, snatched up the landline and began to dial the number of Canterlot’s local takeaway, The Tasty Treat.
“Who’s paying?” Aria asked.
Adagio took one look back at her sister and then looked over to the literal pile of money on their couch.
“Fair enough,” Aria laughed.
“Ello, thiz iz the Tasty Treat, 'ow may I take your order?” The woman on Sonata’s phone asked.
“I’ll have a two number nines, a number nine large, a number six with extra dip, a number seven, two–”
“Sonata, where are the keys?”
“One sec,” Sonata told the woman. “What?”
“The keys.”
“What about them?”
“You let us in, where are they?”
She shrugged.
“Door was unlocked when I got in.”
Aria and Adagio both slowly turned to Sonata.
As the realization of what she just said dawned on her, she gulped.
“I… That was something important to mention… wasn’t it?”
Aria rolled her eyes.
“You are the worst.”
Meanwhile at the Tasty Treat, Saffron Masala frowned, hearing a ruckus on the line.
"'Ello? 'Ellooo?"
The taste of alcohol and pennies was the first thing that hit her. Her stomach churned and she forced out a raspy cough that burned at her throat. She tried opening her eyes, only to discover they were already open and she was in complete darkness.
“Wakey wakey eggs and bakey…” A familiar voice spoke to her.
Adagio turned her head to the sound of the voice, hoping to be able to catch a glimpse. It was now she felt something touching her face. She had some type of fabric sack over her head. She tried struggling free, but couldn’t pull her hands free of the restraints behind her back.
Suddenly she felt a pair of strong arms swoop her up. She tried to wiggle free, but her struggles were nothing against the strength of her kidnapper. The man lifted her onto her knees and released her.
“What do we have here?” he snickered.
“Well, given that I can’t see, I don’t know,” a feminine voice said in a sarcastic tone.
Adagio’s head snapped to the side.
“Aria?” She asked into the darkness.
“Adagio?” The voice returned.
“Aria!”
“Adagio!”
“Donkhey!”
Sonata was also here, apparently.
A large hand grasped at the sack over her head and pulled it away. Adagio was able to catch a sight of the bag, and was amused, but not surprised, that it was a large garbage bag. What else could fit her hair in, after all? She glanced to her side, seeing Aria and Sonata kneeling and restrained beside her, but with considerably smaller bags over their heads. The hand appeared again and retrieved the bags. Adagio looked up at their kidnapper.
She growled.
“Ahuizotl.”
An unusually tall foreign man stood before her, dressed in a dark blue suit and wearing copious amounts of jewelry. In one hand he had a cane that used a gorilla’s hand as its top. He looked down at them with his beady eyes and smiled a toothy grin.
“Ooooh, so you do remember me? How nice.”
Aria groaned, “What do you want, you blue freak?”
Ahuizotl laughed gently and theatrically fixed his blazer.
“Why, what you owe me, of course. You recall…. before the three of you became deserters, I sent you on a mission to retrieve something for me.”
It was now that Adagio was able to take in her surroundings more. The three of them had been drugged at their apartment and been brought… somewhere. They were in a large indoor space, some kind of warehouse? The only light in the room came from a harsh bulb a couple meters above them, which didn’t illuminate more than a few feet.
“We don’t have your stupid statue!” Sonata yelled at the man.
Ahuizotl lifted his cane up and began examining its fingers.
“Now, that I believe. Clearly you discovered its value and decided to sell it on yourself. You then retired with the money and dropped off the map. It’s fortunate that after much digging I was able to find you so we could have this little… reunion.”
Adagio rolled her eyes at this, which Ahuizotl noticed.
“Oh, am I mistaken, my dear?”
“We didn’t steal your artifact, Ahuizotl,” Adagio stated. “Go check, it’s still in the museum.”
This seemed to annoy him.
“Then I wonder why the AWOL? I was very hurt by that, you know. I picked you girls up out of the gutter, treated you as my own, and this is how you repay me? By a complete betrayal? Did you even consider my feelings as you stole my property for your own selfish needs? Such a shame, really. I thought the four of us had become close friends.”
Ahuizotl tutted and shook his head like a father scorning a child.
“It's terrible when you can't trust the people closest to you.”
For a brief second, Aria and Sonata glanced at each other from the corners of their eyes.
“Go to hell, Ahuizotl,” Adagio growled. “We didn’t steal from you.”
Ahuizotl continued to pace back and forth between the three of them, monologue to himself.
“Lies, deception!” he shook his head. He knelt down in front of Adagio and leaned in uncomfortably close.
“Listen, Dagi,” he smiled. “I like you girls. You were a cool breath of fresh air, compared to the usual buffoonery I have to deal with. Trouble is, you knew how good you were, and wanted you independence… but I can understand that. So I have a proposition for you, if you’re interested?”
“Don’t call me Dagi.”
Ahuizotl winced and smiled through his teeth.
“Of course. Are you willing to listen?”
Adagio took another glance around. As far as she could tell it was just the four of them in the room, but she doubted he’d have been able to drug and drag the three of them here unassisted. He probably had armed guards standing feet away from them, hidden in darkness. They weren’t in any position to try anything.
“Don’t think we’ve really got a choice.”
Ahuizotl grinned and stood back up, crossing his arms.
“I’m willing to make this more of a group effort than I did before. You girls are good at what you do, you’re worth the effort of keeping. All I need is a little… reassurance... that we can trust each other. Once I have that, I’d be happy to stand next to you as your equal… as opposed to your boss.”
“Don’t do it, Dagi!” Sonata shouted.
Ahuizotl pouted and pointed his cane at Sonata.
“So she’s allowed to call you Dagi, and I’m not?”
Adagio ignored Sonata’s plea and Ahuizotl’s comment and gritted her teeth.
“What do you want us to do?”
Ahuizotl smiled like a fisherman with something on the end of his hook.
“My property. Retrieve the Sapphire Statue from whoever you sold it to, return it to me, and I shall consider us even. Then we can take things from there. I believe that’s reasonable of me.”
“It would be reasonable,” Aria butted in, “only, to repeat a point brought up by Sonata... we didn’t steal your damn statue!”
Ahuizotl opened his mouth wider than should be possible for a human and let out a bellowing laugh.
“Silly girl!” he waved her off. “We took you from your apartment! You honestly expect me to believe you were able to live like queens on street gutter salary?”
We.
Adagio glanced around again. So he definitely wasn’t alone. She couldn’t risk them trying to force their way out, on the off chance they were outnumbered. She would have to talk her way out of this.
“Okay, okay!” Adagio took a deep breath. “We’ll get you your artifact. But they’re telling the truth, we didn’t take it from the Museum. If you want us to steal it, we’ll have to reorganize another heist there.”
Ahuizotl smiled at her words. Then his shoulders stiffened up suddenly and he frowned.
“Then… how did you afford all that furniture? And the bags of money?”
“Because we’ve got–” Sonata began.
“–REALLY GOOD AT OUR JOBS!” Adagio butted in.
She sent a death glare in Sonata’s direction, who shut up.
“Idiot,” Aria mumbled.
Ahuizotl simply laughed their awkward exchange off and chuckled to himself.
“Clearly you are very good at your jobs. That much is obvious. I’m glad we could come to an easy solution. I missed you girls."
Adagio glanced down to Aria and Sonata and nodded to them.
“Yeah, yeah… Easy solution… so you can let us go now, right?” she asked.
Ahuizotl silently laughed and nodded.
“Of course. Gentlemen!” he clapped his hands.
Two armed guards entered from the darkness, confirming Adagio’s suspicions. She glared at Ahuizotl while Sonata shied away from the men behind Aria. The men lifted the girls onto their feet and began to cut them loose.
“Mmmm, by the way,” Ahuizotl said, polishing his cane on his blazer, “we will be taking the quite-obviously-stolen money we found in your apartment off your hands, as compensation for the time spent tracking you down.”
Aria’s head snapped up and glared daggers at Ahuizotl.
“That wasn't part of the deal, blue boy.”
Ahuizotl grinned a shit-eating grin.
“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”
Aria’s temper flared and she pulled herself away from the mercenary. He reached out to grab her but she was nimble even in her restrained state. She turned back to Adagio.
“Come on Adagio, let’s just waste these guys!”
“Aria,” Adagio pushed through her teeth. “Behave.”
Aria scoffed and regarded Ahuizotl with a disgusted glance.
“No way! I passed out getting us that! I’m not gonna just roll over and let him take it.”
“Aria.” Adagio seethed.
“No!”
“Let’s let her speak her turn, shall we?” Ahuizotl grinned. Even now she was standing he towered over her. “What’s wrong, little girl? Do you find my generous offer of forgiveness too much to ask?”
“We worked hard for that! We’re not gonna just let you steal it!”
“I mean, technically we stole it first…” Sonata muttered under her breath, which got her a chuckle off one of the mercenaries.
Ahuizotl let out another bellowing laugh.
“My dear, you seem to be overestimating yourself,” he mocked, bearing down on her. “You’re still tied up.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Aria, I’m warning you,” Adagio hissed.
“I’ve seen quite enough,” a new voice entered the scene.
And suddenly the whole room paused.
Adagio looked around, squinting into the darkness for the owner of the voice. Ahuizotl’s face dropped and he backed away from Aria, locking his hands together in front of him like a security guard. The mercenaries all stiffened up, suddenly standing straighter and keeping a tighter grasp on their weapon.
Ku-lunk
Ku-lunk
There was a piercing glare as the floodlights in the warehouse were turned on and temporarily blinded the group. Aria and Sonata shied away from the harsh light, while Adagio forced her eyes into a squint trying to get her bearings.
They were very outnumbered.
At least twenty armed mercenaries surrounded them in a circle, all wearing bandanas and similar tribal masks. They looked more like Indiana Jones villains then any kind of street criminal you’d find in upper-class Canterlot. They each bore a submachine gun, thankfully none of which appeared to be pointed at them.
But Adagio’s eyes were soon drawn to one corner of the room in particular. Wooden crates had been placed in a rectangle on the floor, and then a smaller amount on top of those in a similar shape, and then an even smaller amount on top of them. They were arranged into a rudimentary dais, a structure Adagio and her sisters had seen more than enough times living through the medieval age. A structure that was usually reserved for royalty.
And tradition that had been carried on, as on the top of this dais was a giant red and black throne.
“President Sombra,” Ahuizotl bowed.
The scariest-looking human(?) the Dazzlings had ever seen in their long lives sat on the throne. He had long black hair, skin that looked grey and dead, sharp fangs jutting out from the corners of his mouth. He wore metal shin and elbow pads, and a large burgundy velvet robe draped across his body. He watched the three girls before him with hungry eyes. Upon his head was a silver crown, that had a large red spike on the top, almost resembling a horn.
“Holy crap…” Aria mumbled.
“Isn’t that the unicorn we–”
“Both of you PLEASE just… Shut. Up.” Adagio demanded.
“Your honor,” Ahuizotl bowed and began to address the gothic man. “We have been able to work out a deal with the young ladies. It appears the methods we discussed are now unnecessary.”
The man looked down at Adagio from his throne and let out a deep, throaty growl. It took a lot to make Adagio feel uncomfortable, but somehow he’d managed it.
“Yessss...” He hissed. “But… the purple one has a mouth. She could use ssssome… disapline.”
His tone of voice was more than enough to send chills down all the sirens’ backs, never mind the implications of what he meant by disapline. Even Ahuizotl shuffled around uncomfortably, fiddling with his hands.
“Your Presidency… Aria is a little rough around the edges… but she’s a hard worker,” he smiled nervously. “She’s not in need of any disapline.”
Aria scoffed at this and held her hands up in defense.
“Yeah, yeah,” she laughed nervously. “I’m cool big guy, don’t gotta worry about me.”
Ahuizotl hissed at her.
“Aria!”
“You dare talk to your President in such a tone?” Sombra asked. He sat forward in his chair, causing the group of four to instinctively lean back. “A street-trash emo like you should be on your knees, and blesssssed to be in my presence.”
“Actually, I’m Goth.”
“ARIA!” Adagio and Ahuizotl snapped identically.
“What?”
“I’m Goth, not Emo,” Aria put her hand on her hip. “Just sayin.’”
Sombra stood up.
“You dare…?”
Click
Click
Click
Click
Click
Click
Suddenly all the weapons in the room were cocked and aimed at them.
“Aria, will you shut up for Neighptune’s sake?!” Sonata snapped.
“On your knees this instant!” Ahuizotl howled. “Or you will be put to death for disrespecting the throne.”
Aria raised her eyebrow and cocked a hip.
“You know he’s not actually a president, right?”
Adagio shook her head in shame.
“I knew mother should have eaten her.”
“And you need to make your mind up if you’re a king or a president, cause it’s pretty inconsistent,” she continued.
Sombra let out a primal roar, causing Adagio and Sonata to recoil in fear. Aria simply crossed her arms, sizing up to him.
“You’ve sassed your last sass,” he warned.
Aria smirked.
“Oh, I don’t think so.”
She had barely finished her one-liner when the guns around her exploded into action.
The entire area around her was illuminated purple all of a sudden, and the barrage of bullets flying at her slowed to a halt, embedding themselves into it like it was a solid wall.
There was a tearing sound and her restraints fell to the floor. She wasted no time and extended out her now glowing hands at the mercenaries. The purple wall flew across the room, taking the bullets with it and burying them into a handful of the soldiers. The men dropped to the floor and within seconds Sombra’s men had suddenly halved in numbers.
Ahuizotl stumbled back, mouth aghast.
“What the…?”
There was another tearing sound and suddenly Sonata’s restraints dropped to floor as well.
“Sonata, go!” Aria commanded.
With a quick nod, Sonata was suddenly enveloped in lightning and began shooting around the building.
As the remaining men began shooting at her, Aria held out her illuminated hand and began pulling a fist. Seconds before the fist closed, a machine gun was suddenly torn from one of the mercs and flew into her hand. Aria let out a cheer and began firing at the men.
The warehouse was suddenly alive with friendly fire. Sonata ran around disarming and knocking out the men, who in turn tried and failed at shooting her down. The storm of bullets did much worse damage to Sombra’s men than she could as they accidentally shot one another or wasted their ammo by firing into walls. By the time they spotted Sonata heading in one direction and pulled the trigger, she’d already moved out of their range, got behind them and pulled the weapon from their hands.
The men were so occupied trying to pin down Sonata that they didn’t notice Aria quickly move into range and mow them down. Their screams of pain did nothing but thrill her, and this teenage girl quickly made short work of the group of highly-trained criminals.
Adagio dropped to the floor, still in restraints, and tried crawling worm-style to the dais for shelter. She kept her eyes tightly closed as she felt every bullet fizzing through the air above her. She made a mental note to revoke Aria’s TV privileges for at least a week after this.
Ahuizotl let out a cry of rage and pulled a small hand-held pistol from his pocket. He fired two shots at Aria, who was only able to stop the bullets a mere two inches from her face. She flung the bullets back, but missed as he dove out of the way. As he skidded across the floor he fired another two shots.
As Sonata ran she neared Aria, and noticed the two bullets floating through the air towards her. She approached them casually, and marveled at the neatness of them gracefully spinning in slow-mo. She looked back at Aria, and spotted that her eyes were not focusing on the bullets, but were instead looking at where Ahuizotl had just been standing. Sonata frowned at her sister’s incompetence, and gently pushed the floating bullets off center.
Aria winced as a bolt of Sonata’s lightning shot past her, and felt her heart jump into her mouth as two bullets whizzed past either side of her head.
Her neck snapped around and she glared daggers at Ahuizotl. She let out a grunt of anger and used her magic to launch him backwards, sending him crashing into the wooden crates of the dais.
More of Sombra’s men hit the floor. Sonata approached one from behind and kicked his legs out from beneath him. As his body folded up she leaped into the air and tore his machine gun from him. Then, mid-air, she spun around and fired three rounds behind her, which nestled themselves into the crotch, stomach and head of another mercenary. Both men dropped in sync to the floor.
Throwing the gun into her other hand, she then used it as a baseball bat for three mercenaries' heads, hitting them all in a row like the three stooges. The men collapsed like a set of dominions onto each other.
Sonata didn’t like killing people; she honestly didn’t. Adagio and Aria eased her into it by telling her that if she didn’t kill them, they were going to kill her.
That was one reason… another was that she was really good at it.
BANG
BANG
Two bullets getting fired straight into the air suddenly caught every one’s attention.
The five mercenaries that remained stopped firing and turned to the source. Aria dropped her psychic shield and Sonata’s lightning vanished as she came to a sudden halt.
“I hate you guys so much.”
Adagio watched her sisters with a bored expression. Ahuizotl had his arm wrapped tightly around her neck and his pistol aimed at her temple. He cackled.
“Move a muscle, either of you, and it’s bye-bye Dagi.”
Aria let out a growl of frustration, but after a second she obeyed. She released her stolen weapon, which clattered loudly to the floor, and raised her hands above her head. Sonata followed suit, but with more pouting.
“Well done, Ahuizotl,” Sombra spoke, reappearing from his hiding spot behind his throne.
“Thank you, your honor. What should we do with them?” he asked, pressing the barrel deeper into Adagio’s head.
Sombra lifted up a crystal scepter and began to make his way down the dais towards them. As he neared his smile grew wider, sending shudders down Aria’s spine.
“These… are the girls we’ve been hearing about,” he smiled. “The ones sssstealing our territory… the so called, expertsss... But these aren’t experts, they’re just sssome little girls who got their hands on… magic.”
Ahuizotl frowned.
“Magic… your honor?”
Sombra nodded and smiled.
“Don’t tell me you thought we were after ancient artifacts for… profit?”
Ahuizotl gave an awkward smile and nodded, “Of course not… Your Presidency… Magic, of course.”
Sombra turned from Ahuizotl and approached Aria. Even with Adagio’s literal life hanging in the balance, she had to fight the urge to step away from the creepy man.
“We can’t have some trashy little girls running around with magic, now... can we?” he asked her.
Aria frowned and bit her lip.
“Is that a rhetorical question?”
“Oh my god,” Adagio hung her head.
Sombra’s face dropped. Faster than she could see, his clawed hand shot out and sealed itself around Aria’s neck. She let out a loud gasp as the air was forced from her throat and her feet were lifted from the ground. As she began to choke she started frantically clawing at his arm.
As an instinctual reaction, Sonata cried out and leap forward. She was instantly swallowed up by a light blue lightning and crashed into the side of Sombra, who released Aria and fell to the floor.
And with that, the place was instantly plunged back into a war zone.
Sombra’s body was flung out of Sonata's path and she carried on straight into Adagio and Ahuizotl. As her skin made contact with Adagio’s, a loud bang rang through her ears. But Sonata was quick, she snatched up a handful of Adagio’s hair and tore her head to the side, narrowly avoiding the bullet which just breached the entrance to the pistol chamber. Sonata scooped up the bullet in her hand and spinning in mid-air, threw it behind her.
She, Adagio and Ahuizotl all fell to the floor in a pile.
Aria’s hands lit up and both hers and Sonata’s weapons flew into her hands. Using her powers to steady herself, she began rapidly firing on the men with the machine guns in each hand. She let out a cheer of joy and her voice bounced from the vibration of the guns.
These remaining men were clearly the last ones alive for good reason, and they dove to the floor. Aria suddenly had another barrage of bullets coming towards her. Instead of simply reversing them, this time she extended her shield out, absorbing the bullets, and spun in a 360 degree turn. The bullets followed her in her spin, and drew a long circle around her before getting fired back at the mercenaries, narrowing skimming the tops of their heads.
Her fancy theatrics had distracted her, however, and she didn’t see Sombra crawl to a gun behind her and take aim. Before he had the chance to fire, Sonata appeared in a lightning bolt and kicked the gun from his hands, at which he roared.
Aria turned to see Sonata stood back to back with her. Still brandishing her duel machine guns, she grinned.
“Ready, sis?”
“Ready.”
Aria began firing again and Sonata was consumed by another lightning bolt. The warehouse lit up brightly as Sonata ran around the mercenaries, her lighting striking out stray bolts and almost causing a whirlwind from sheer speed alone. Aria kneecapped the nearest mercenary to her and paused his returning fire mid-air, reflecting it back at one of his comrades, who dropped to the floor.
Only three of the original twenty mercenaries remained now. The floor of the warehouse had a makeshift carpet of blood, broken bodies and emptied machine gun shells.
A mercenary dived out of the path of Sonata’s lightning, only to come out straight in Aria’s firing line.
She grinned, pointed both guns at him and fired.
Click, click
She pulled the triggers again and again, before she caught on that she was fresh out of bullets. It wasn’t like she didn’t have enough ammo surrounding her, though. She dropped the weapons and summoned two more.
As the firearms flew towards her, the man finally caught up with himself enough to take aim and shoot. Aria easily deflected the round of bullets, and as one gun landed in her hand she was quick to mow the man down. She was too busy taking pride in her victory however, to pay attention to where she had sent those redirected bullets.
Adagio had only just pulled herself to her feet, and had her back turned. Even Sonata’s super speed wasn’t enough to save her, which made it ironic that what happened next seemed to run in slow motion.
The first bullet hit the base of her back, and the rest of them traveled one by one in a line up her spine, the last one disappearing into her hair at head level.
Her scream was abruptly cut short.
The mercenaries ceased their fire and the room stood still.
The only sound audible for miles was the harsh thud as Adagio’s body hit the floor.
“ADAGIO!” Aria screamed.
Sonata came to a sudden and abrupt halt beside her. She’d spotted the bullets travelling in her direction and had ran to grab them, but hadn’t reached her in time. She gasped.
“No… no, no, no, no, NO!” she collapsed to the floor.
Aria dropped her firearm, which clattered to the floor loudly, and ran over to her. She dropped to her knees beside Sonata and pulled Adagio into a cradle.
“Adagio! Adagio!” She tried shaking her awake. There was no response.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
Sonata took Adagio’s head in her hands then began to crying into her hair. Aria simply looked down at the still body of her sister in disbelief. The bullets had entered her from behind, so she looked perfectly healthy. Like she was sleeping, or simply stunned. But that was sadly a reality Aria wasn’t living in.
Adagio’s last words rung in her head.
“I hate you guys so much.”
Aria choked back a gasp of tears as the realization dawned on her. She’d just watched her older sister, her guardian, her surrogate mother, get gunned down in front of her… and it was her fault. A thousand and one anxieties began to cloud her head. If she had been more careful when she had deflected those bullets… if she’d not got carried away…
“Forgive me for interrupting thissss… touching, family moment,” a voice said from behind.
Sonata and Aria felt the barrels of guns jabbing them in the backs of their heads.
“Step away from the body, and put your hands up… otherwise you join her,” Ahuizotl demanded.
A fire suddenly lit inside. Aria wanted to fight. She wanted to kill. She wanted to turn around and put every son-of-a-bitch in this room on a spike. But she’d just lost one sister and right now, Sonata was still at risk. She fought against the boiling rage rising inside of her and forced a clear head. She nodded, and began to slowly rise.
Sonata continued crying as though she hadn’t heard the command. Aria bit her lip in frustration and wrapped her arms around her sister’s chest to pull her up.
“No, NO!” Sonata refused to let go of Adagio’s body.
“Get. Up.” She commanded.
Hearing the sound of her sister’s voice soothed her, and Sonata obeyed. She stood, but didn’t allow Aria her arm back, and instead pulled her into a reverse hug as she cried into her arm. Together the two of them moved away from Adagio’s body and out into the centre of the room.
There were only two mercenaries remaining, but with Sombra and Ahuizotl also taking aim at them, they were now completely boxed in.
“Maybe we could find some use for you girls…” Sombra chuckled, before continuing in a darker tone. “We are low on men now, after all.”
Ahuizotl nodded.
“They’re good soldiers, your highness. They just have a few kinks to be worked out.”
“Clearly,” he nodded.
He then smiled, baring his fangs.
“I shouldn’t worry… I know just how to break them down.”
Aria winced at his words, and Sonata’s tightening on her arm was not oblivious to her. She wrapped her arm around Sonata’s waist and pulled her in closer, trying to offer reassurance.
“You girls are going to be magnificent when I’m done with you,” Sombra smiled.
Aria swallowed and took a deep breath, ready to comply.
But as she opened her mouth, a new noise interrupted her.
“Owwww…..”
All eyes in the room shot over to where the sound originated from. Even from this distance, Aria could make out the noise had come from Adagio. And it was only now she noticed she was still breathing. She let out a half-gasp, half-cheer.
Ahuizotl and Sombra locked gazes, before Sombra tutted and rolled his eyes, gesturing to Adagio. Ahuizotl nodded, and proceeded to cock his gun and in a few short steps was stood above Adagio.
BANG
BANG
“NOOOOO!” Aria let out a blood-curdling scream.
The two sisters broke down and fell to the ground, howling out like wounded animals. Aria keeled over forwards, wrapping herself around Sonata like a turtle shell. Ahuizotl returned to Sombra’s side, and winced at the sight of the girls.
After a moment of nothing but the sounds of the crying sisters screams, the voice returned.
“That really huuuuurt…” it whined.
Aria and Sonata’s heads shot back up.
“Oh for goodness sake!” Ahuizotl shouted.
From his position, he took aim and fired at Adagio’s fallen body.
BANG
BANG
BANG
Sonata and Aria screamed identically, making Sombra turn away from them in annoyance. Ahuizotl blew the smoke from his gun and lowered it.
“As we were saying…” He gestured back to the weeping girls.
Sombra nodded, resuming himself in the moment.
“Yes… After I’m d–”
“Please stop shooting me.”
Aria and Sonata’s cries stopped again, and this time they too stared at Adagio’s body in equal confusion.
With a grunt, Adagio pulled herself into a sitting position and turned to them. She rubbed her head, and pulled a stray bullet from her hair. She held it close to her eyes, examining it. It had been flattened, which meant it had definitely made contact with her. The cogs moving in her brain were almost audible to the entire room.
Oh.
…
Oh.
Oh.
Adagio’s face light up like a child’s on Christmas morning.
“YEEEEEESSS!” she cheered.
She leaped to her feet and threw her arms in the air.
“I’M INDESTRUCTABLE!” she shouted to the heavens. “I TOOOOLLLLD YOU I HAD SUPERPOWERS!”
She pointed at Aria and Sonata and laughed loudly at them.
She began dancing in circles, throwing her arms in every direction and leaping from one foot to another.
“I’VE GOT POWERS, I’VE GOT POWERS. I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, KNEW IT, KNEW IT, KNEW IT, KNEW IT! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Adagio skipped around the room like a ballerina.
Despite the tears still freshly falling from her face, Aria’s mouth curled up into a smirk.
A purple glow suddenly illuminated all the guns in the room. The two mercenaries, Ahuizotl and Sombra had only a second to react before the weapons were suddenly smashed into their faces. They stumbled back in pain. Aria’s face grew into toothy grin, and she threw herself off Sonata and into a roll across the floor.
Sonata leaped up and disappeared into a bolt of lightning, and systematically shot over to every enemy in the room. Before they even had time to hit the floor she had arrived back at Aria’s side with all four of their guns tucked under her arm.
Aria ran forward and wrestled the still-dancing Adagio down into a hug. It took Adagio a second to calm, and she was initially confused, before she caught onto the meaning behind the hug. She wrapped her arms around Aria’s waist and pulled her close.
“I’m so sorry,” Aria whispered.
“Shut up,” Adagio laughed, then continued more seriously. “No, really. Next time I tell you to shut up, please just do it.”
Aria chuckled and nodded. She released Adagio, who was then met with a hug from Sonata.
She turned out to see the men all on the floor, each of them holding their heads in recovery from their stunning. They were looking around, dazed and confused. Sombra was nursing a broken nose, but when his eyes settled on her he let out a menacing growl.
The purple magic entrapped Sonata’s stolen weapons and levitated them up in front of Aria. She chuckled. With the four weapons now pointed at him, Sombra suddenly seemed a lot less scary.
Sonata and Adagio joined her at either side.
“What shu’ we do wit' ‘em, boss?” Aria asked in her best Italian accent.
Adagio watched as each of the men’s faces grew their own unique looks of fear. At the sight of this a pleasure grew inside her, one she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
She performed her trademark villainous chuckle.
“No survivors.”