//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Black Cat // by Rixizu //------------------------------// Robin took another long drink from his glass. He wasn’t sure what it was at this point, but he didn’t care. The small group of Cosas was in one of the many small outposts that surrounded Forks. The bar wasn’t packed, but it contained at least a dozen traders, travelers, and adventurers that somehow found their way here on their travels. Robin found the drinks helped numb the pain from his healing wound on his shoulder. The wound was healed for the most part, but it still bothered him a little. It wasn’t just the physical pain he was trying to curb. The disaster of his last mission ran through his head. It looked so simple. They had her cornered, and it somehow ended with Rock Guard dead and the rest of them almost killed. Nightingale took the loss the hardest as he had never lost a teammate before or experienced crushing defeat. He drowned his sorrows even harder than Robin. “Damn that filly.” Nightingale cursed. “She brings trouble to everypony she meets!” Robin couldn’t argue with that. At first, he didn't believe all the crazy rumors he had heard about her, his encounter with her in the Stable made him reassess his earlier judgments. "She's like a black cat!" Nightingale lamented to the room at large. "Bringing bad luck to everypony she crosses!" There were murmurs of agreement. Nightingale blabbed their story to everypony that would listen. Normally, Robin would stop this, but he was too tired and drunk to care. Ray grunted his agreement next to the young Cosas member. There was a large black eye patch over his wounded eye. The doctors said the damage was permanent, but Ray seemed to take this news in stride. He, as usual, was silent and the responsible drinker. Not once was Robin able to recall a time he saw the large stallion drunk. He wasn’t sure if it was the moderate way Ray drank or the earth pony’s large size that kept him always sober. Nightingale cursed the filly again and swore he would just bring the whole building down on her next time. Robin chuckled. That might be a prudent course of action given that cornering her and shooting her didn’t seem to work. He swore he would never give her a chance to fight back next time. There would be a next time. Despite this setback, Robin would not let his boss down. He planned on hunting that filly to the ends of the earth if he needed to. Robin always completed his missions. The door chimed and Spitzer entered the bar. He gave the Cosas members a wave and walked over. "Find anything?" Robin asked. They charged the hunter with the task of rediscovering the filly's trail. Apparently, the hunter's weird power had a time limit on how long it could track something so the hunter had to resort to more traditional methods of tracking. Spitzer waved over the bartender and ordered a bottle of whiskey. “I did actually. As luck would have it, she was spotted going towards Forks.” Robin wrinkled his brow. “Don’t they want her dead there?” “True.” Spitzer nodded. “But a birdy told me the filly lost her leg. And where better to find an artificial replacement?” “What?” Nightingale asked confused. "Makes sense," Ray said, "she was shot in the leg and swam through radiated and polluted water. It got infected and required amputation.” Robin recalled Spitzer mentioning the bullet wound before. "Right," Spitzer confirmed, "given we’re after her, no doubt she wants a replacement as soon as possible." Robin tried to think through his alcohol addled brain. Didn’t Forks have a renowned prosthetic limb specialist? The town wasn't too far away from here, about a day and a half travel from his guess. It would take time for her to get the limb attached and receive the psychical therapy needed to gain some proficiency with the new leg. She might be there for weeks. It might cause trouble with Stones, but if they were quiet, they would never know. "We are leaving as soon as the tab is paid," Robin ordered, "we are not going to let her slip through our hooves again." The Cosas members nodded not perturbed at all from being torn from the bar. Even Ray seemed renewed with energy at this new purpose and it seemed to revitalize the rest of his teammates. Robin stood and steeled his resolve and all his worries and lamentations melted away. He planned on finishing this hunt and she would not get the drop on them this time. --- Break raised a hoof to slow down the ponies following her in the hallway. There were 21 ponies she rescued in total. She didn't like that she had to take point, but she wanted a cooler head to lead. She suspected and worried that one of the former slaves might try something. The tension was palpable, and they looked ready to exact violence on their captures. Break refused to let this turn into a bloodbath. Break put on an aura of confidence. She straightened her back, put on a face that told everypony around her she was ready for anything and acted like she was large and in charge. Inwardly, she sighed and hoped she didn't look as ridiculous as she felt. Break opened the door to the back hallway she exited earlier and gave the all clear. She reminded them they needed to be silent, and they entered. Break winced at the amount of noise they were making going down the corridor. She wasn't used to sneaking around in a group. They tried to stay quiet, but several of the former slaves were fidgeting with nervousness. A smaller mare in the group looked like she would drop dead in fright and nervousness. Another stallion was so big his hoof steps were loud and booming. Every step he took had Break cringed. Take heart. Break thought. Remember you aren’t helpless. She summoned her green ghost for reassurance and she felt a lot better knowing it was there to protect her. As usual, it appeared to be invisible to all but her. It hit her she never actually gave her power a name yet. It seemed silly to keep calling it green ghost. But this wasn’t really the time to think on that. That was a matter for another time. “What the hay?” The accented pony exclaimed making Break jump. Break looked around to any threats her power at the ready. “What is it?” The accented pony pointed to her white leg in shock. “What in blazes is that? You have another pony’s leg!” The others got a good look at her and also exclaimed various exclamations of shock. "Quiet down!" Break hissed, and they also seemed to get the clue and watched around wary that they alerted somepony. “I have to tell you love that I ain’t seen anything like that before.” The accented pony said. “It’s a long story.” Break said a bit peeved. “We don’t really have time for this.” The stallion shook his head. “It just ain’t right.” The others looked just as perturbed as he was. They eyed her warily unsure what to make of her now. Great. Break complained. More complications. Stupid white stallion cursing me with this damn leg. “What the?” A pony from behind a door in front of them exclaimed. “The slaves are escaping!” He shouted to somepony out of their sight. "Oh, ponyfeathers!" Break cursed. She gave the accented pony a nasty look, and he wilted under her gaze. They dropped all pretense and stealth and rushed forward with Break running far ahead of the group. She spotted a red drop coming their way on her PipBuck. Break wasn’t quite sure what to do. She didn’t want them to see her powers, but maybe it would be okay if she used it in secret. She unholstered her gun ready for anything. There wasn’t need for much waiting. A guard appeared in front of her as she turned a corner and aimed his rifle at her. He fired, but Break out of panic used her power to push herself towards the wall and out of the way of the bullet. She made her green ghost punch him the face several times, and the guard crumpled to the ground. “What the hay happened?” The accented pony exclaimed as the others rounded the corner. “I just got the drop on him.” Break explained. "Nice work." One slave nodded. The accented pony gave her a strange look but kept quiet and they moved forward. ` Break knew they weren’t too far from one of the emergency exits. Her plan now was to escape into the city and check the state of the ponies guarding the gate. If they were on high alert, their best bet would be to lie low for a while and escape when things died down. They could leave in small groups or singles at a time and avoid any suspicion with disguises of course. Or if the guards weren’t on alert, they could split into groups and leave right now. The guards only seemed to pay attention to ponies entering. They never cared about anypony leaving. First, however, escaping the casino was their priority. Break motioned for them to slow down as she approached one of the security doors that led into the underground corridors. She opened the door a crack and peered through to see outside. She froze. At least a dozen ponies were guarding the exit she planned on using. Break cursed and closed the door. She hadn't expected them to move this quick. She didn't want to force their way through so many armed ponies. They probably had guards on the other exits as well and would flood the corridors soon. They must have heard the gunshot. Not good. But, it didn’t seem likely that all the exits were well guarded. There had to be one they could push through. They had to move and get out of these corridors at least. She knew from experience this place was a maze. They couldn't cover all of it, right? She tried to push back her fear. The slaves looked at her and expected leadership and guidance and Break wasn’t sure she was the pony for the job. “We can’t go out this way.” Break said trying to sound calm and confident. “I know another route we can use.” This was a half-truth. She didn’t know all the Stones’ movements and many of the paths had risk attached to them. They needed to move now before they blocked every exit to the underground corridors or cornered them. The group turned into a different direction and Break thought to try the kitchen area. She saw a sign that pointed that way earlier. Break saw that red dots were gathering in her Eyes Forward Sparkle. There were a lot of them. It appeared they were planning on attacking from every major entrance. Celestia, even with her powers she couldn’t deal with that. They approached the door to the kitchen and Break grabbed the knob as soon as they approached it. She discovered to be locked and sealed shut. Break eyed the door. It looked enforced, and she doubted even all their weight and strength could bring it down. There was a terminal, but it contained nothing but a black screen. She tried it, but there was no power. “Now what?” One of the slaves complained. Well, they won’t be expecting us to break through this way. Break thought. “What the heck.” She wanted to keep her powers hidden, but no point in hiding it now if she might die. She summoned her power and punched the door with all its strength. The door bend where she hit it. She hit it again and again until it burst open and the door crashed into whatever was behind it. A pony groaned in pain. It seems an unfortunate pony was behind it. Everypony gapped in utter bafflement. “I have super powers now.” Break explained. “It’s a long story. Not really anything you need to worry at this moment.” “What?” They all exclaimed. They all stared at her with various degrees of stunned disbelief. “The door is open.” Break said trying to get them moving again. “We need to get going.” She waved her hoof in emphasis, it didn’t work. Break resisted the urge to facehoof. “Now.” It was a simple word, but Break put everything she had to make it stern and commanding. They all nodded and rushed in. It was a corridor much like the previous one but made of brick that was crumbling and looked almost unsafe. She pushed them forward, and they soon found a door that led into the kitchen. Cooks and various other workers panicked at the sight of them, but they ignored the group and focused on their work. They pushed through the group of ponies towards the door on the opposite end. Nopony tried to stop them as they exited into a dining room with tables full of ponies eating or chatting to each other. The room was elegant despite the wear with rich wood tables and a stunning chandelier with sparkling gems. Some of the ponies at the tables were Stones goons. “Hey!” One of the guards shouted in surprise. “Take cover!” Break yelled and the former slaves spread out trying to find something to hide behind. The Stones thugs were already taking out weapons, and the slaves fired on them before the Stones were able to do anything. Most shots missed, and the Stones flipped over the tables to use as cover. Break’s shot didn’t even come close and noticed only two of the eleven guards were down. The ordinary ponies panicked and flee the room scrabbling over each other to escape. Break and her teammates took cover with whatever seemed available to them and Break hid behind an overturned table. Break tried and failed not to scream as the table she was hiding behind got riddled with bullets. It turns out that wood isn’t good at stopping bullets. Thankfully, none of the bullets hit her, but she was showered with painful bits of wood. It was mayhem. Both sides fired on each other and Break concentrated on not being shot. The Stones ignored her for the moment and opted to fire on the ponies firing back at them. She tried her best to steel her courage. When she peered over the side of the table, she saw that she was near to one the Stones. Perfect. She ordered her ghost to punch out the guard, only for it to fade away when it approached the thug. Break tried again to similar results. She noted that while the guard was close, it wasn't exactly near to her and was about 10 hooves away. Oh, of course. Break thought mentally facehoofing. My ability has a range it can’t exceed. Break wondered if her power got weaker the further it got away from her. Well, shoot. Now what? Break noticed a wine bottle roll near her and she picked it up. She had an idea. She waited for one the thugs to expose themselves and used her ghost to throw it at them. Her aim was true as usual and the bottle exploded when it hit the pony. Break winced at the blood, but it didn’t look like the pony would get up soon. Only five of the Stones remained. Break used her ghost to pick up another object this time an ash tray. She downed another guard with a blow to the head. Break screamed and ran when the spot she was hiding behind got riddled with bullets. She almost didn't avoid the shots and winced in pain as she felt herself get clipped by one in the back. It didn't seem serious, but it hurt. While she was running, Break's ghost picked up a chair and threw it at a table a goon was hiding behind. The chair burst into pieces and the table fell on top of the pony hiding under it. The thug tried to push it off, but one of her allies shot through the table and he became motionless. Break hiding behind another table one slave was hiding behind. “Are you okay?” The slave who was a butterscotch mare with a tan mane asked eyeing the wound on Break’s back with nervous eyes. “I’m fine.” Break replied trying to ignore the blood trickling down her back. She saw a guard poke his head out of his hiding spot and Break grabbed a nearby broken table leg and threw it at the thug's head and he collapsed like a sack of potatoes. The mare next to her eyed her with wide eyes. Break gave back a nervous smile. “My special talent makes me very good at targeting.” Break answered. This didn’t exactly placate the mare, but she gave a hesitant nod. Only one guard remained, and she knew it. Instead of fighting, however, she ran for the door getting back up Break guessed. Of course, the gunfight would have already alerted the Stones, but the information she had about them would be dangerous. Break motioned the other escaped slaves to her. She winced when she noticed that three were missing. The solemn faces gave her the answer of what happened to them. “We need to keep moving.” Break explained. “Reinforcement will be here any moment!” The others nodded and picked up any spare weapons they could find from the bodies. Some pocket knives and one of the Stones had a baseball bat on them for some reason and that the eager looking young stallion holstered on his back. Break guessed anything would help at this point gun or not. They moved into a large expansive hallway. Break noticed that it was a fancy one with rich furniture used to appeal to high-class gamblers no doubt, but that didn't matter at the moment. Break EFS spotted some bogeys coming in from several hallways. She pointed towards the three hallways they were approaching from with a hoof and the other nodded. The tension was clear on their faces, but Break could see determination there as well. The quickly moved tables and couches or chair for cover. Break used her ghost to pick up a lamp and readied herself. From her count, they only had a few more seconds. The numbers weren’t promising. Too many red dots to count. This time Break wasn’t able to fight back the panic. They were dead. Her powers were worthless against so many opponents. What was she thinking? Nopony could pull off the crazy stunt she tried to pull. Break felt herself shaking and tears fell down her eyes. She was no hero. A real hero would charge into the enemy ranks, defeat the bad guys, and win the day with nopony on their side harmed. The reality of their situation hit her hard. Maybe she could run and with her powers… filling Break with shame even thinking like that. She wouldn’t abandon these ponies. Even if it got her killed. Come on Break Point. You have to think of something! Anything! Her power was fast and could punch at blinding speeds. Could she hit bullet’s out of the air? Or use her gravity powers to move them away from her? That was a start, what else? Maybe creating confusion amongst the thugs might help? Large numbers might not always be a good thing. Time to do something crazy. Break picked up one of the couches her allies were hiding behind with her ghost and threw into the entrance on the right surprising the ponies behind it. It bowled over the ponies attempting to come through it. Break picked up more furniture and threw it that way as well using whatever she could find. Sure, the unicorns over there would just move the obstacles in time, but it would at least buy them some time. She heard yelps of pain from the blocked entrance. Break made a mad dash towards the middle hallway. It was packed with more goons than she could count. They fired at her as soon as she came into view. Break jumped into the air and flipped gravity so she flew towards the ceiling causing the thugs to gasp in confusion. Much to Break’s amazement, she could punch the bullets out of the air. They deflected into the walls without even touching her and she landed on the roof of the hallway unharmed. She changed gravity again and dropped into the ranks of bewildered Stones punching everypony in her midst as she fell. Half of her opponents were down as she landed on the ground. The remaining thugs gaped at her with wide eyes. Break didn’t give them a chance to respond and charged them. They barely got a shot in before she dispatched them and the bullets didn’t even come close to hitting her. “I can’t believe that worked.” Break said out of breath. She thanked Celestia and she stared in disbelief at her handiwork. How could she be this powerful? What did that white stallion do to her? The sounds of gunfire interrupted her reverie. Right, this wasn’t over yet. She reminded herself to be careful. A lucky shot or carelessness would still kill her. Break ran forward hoping there was a way to get behind the thugs remaining in the left corridor. She changed gravity and landed on the roof. That way she could ambush them since she doubted they were expecting an attack from above and it would reduce the chance of incoming attackers noticing her. It surprised Break when she noticed the guards still hadn’t reached the end of the corridor yet. They were hiding behind the wall taking pot shots at Break’s companions. She noticed that, while some of ten guards were stone-faced, some looked concerned. They must have heard the commotion and were wondering what the heck was going on. Two of the Stones were arguing. “I say we stay here and wait for the signal.” An important looking Stones said. He was a green earth pony stallion with an orange mane. The other Stones member crossed his legs. He was a unicorn with dark yellow coat and magenta mane. “My gut tells me something ain’t right. We should retreat to a better position. You heard the hubbub, who’s to say there’s a pony to give the signal anymore?” “There’s 34 heavily armed ponies with us total.” The other argued. “You telling me a bunch of slaves with pee shooters can take on that? Come on.” The unicorn put out a breath. "I know it seems crazy, but I'm not hearing any more gunshots except us." The earth pony considered this and looked uneasy. “They say the hero of Foalsome prison is behind this escape attempt. With that crazy mare around, any logic seems to be thrown out the window.” “No kidding, I…” He trailed off when he looked up and saw Break on the ceiling. He pointed his gun at her and fired not freezing like she expected him to. Break dropped as she changed gravity and fell back to the ground just missing getting hit in the chest. She winced in pain as she hit the ground. The guards around scrambled in confusion for a moment and moved to get some distance from her. The unicorn trained his rifle on her and Break soon stared down the barrel of a gun. He fired, but Break’s ghost punched the bullet out of the air. The group looked shocked for a moment, but this didn’t deter the unicorn in the slightest and his rifle fired at her again. “Keep firing. She can’t deal with all of us.” Break tried to hit all the bullets out of the air, but there were too many of them. The unicorn she guessed was their leader was hovering his gun in the air and firing at odd angles making it difficult to counter especially with several other ponies firing at her She howled as one clipped her side. She wanted to fight back, but right now her ghost was the only thing at the moment preventing her from getting shot. Break knew she had to do something, it would only be a matter of time before one of them got lucky. Her ghost might be pinned down, but she wasn't. Break unholstered her gun a pointed it at the guards. She fired into the crowd of them. As usual, her shots were terrible and didn’t end up hitting anypony, but it was enough to scatter them. This reprieve gave her the time she needed to launch a counter attack. She punched the nearest guard with her ghost and he collapsed in a heap. The Stones tried to fight back, but it was too late and Break made quick work of the rest of them. “That was too close.” Break sighed in relief. She touched the place where the bullet grazed her and winced. It wasn’t deep, but it sure did hurt. She really didn’t like these close calls. A bunch of slaves clambered into the hallway. They eyed her then the collapsed goons and viewed her with awe. Break squirmed at their admiration. One of the slaves, a large black earth pony stallion with a purple mane grinned at her. “Look at her, she took down thirty ponies all by herself! She’s invincible!” The rest of the slaves cheered. Break didn’t celebrate with them. She didn’t feel invincible at the moment, just tired. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, she slumped against the wall. She really didn’t know if she could keep this up. “With her on our side, nopony can stop us!” The pony continued. "Er, what?" Break wondered out loud baffled. “The lad is right!” The accented pony grinned at her. “I already think I know what he has planned.” Break had a bad feeling about this. “And that is?” “I say we should forget about escaping.” The black pony announced. “We should bring down the Tact Coat and take the city for ourselves!” “Wait, what?” Break’s jaw dropped.