//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Rising From The Shadows // by Aurora Steel //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Walking into the expansive but dark Operations Centre, Stratus looked around for his teammate, ready to kill the Skyborn for interrupting his lunch. “Charger! Where are you hiding?!” He shouted to the seemingly quiet centre. “Who said I was hiding?” Charger grinned, walking over to his superior with two mugs of coffee in his hands. “I was just getting your coffee.” He held out the charcoal black mug to the pale ‘Bolt. “Whatever.” He grumbled, accepting the godly liquid. “Now, what the Tartarus did you want from me? I was enjoying my lunch.” He followed up, taking a huge gulp of the steaming substance. “Team Chrome messed up their latest assignment.” He replied gloomily, leading the Second in Command over to the centre, large and circular, deep mahogany table in the middle of the room where the Teams Arrow and Shade were working vigorously at countless maps, jotting down various coordinates to try and pin down Team Chromes’ possible location. “And now, we’re trying to find out where they are so you can go and get them.” He gestured to the table covered in paper after and countless empty coffee mugs. “Who said anything about me going to get that mess of a team?!” Stratus almost spit took, earning several glares from the two teams. “Nightshade did.” “Motherbucker…” He hissed. “Why me? Chrome and Song are your problem, not mine.” He pointed at him, his glare getting harsher by the moment. “I know they are but do you really expect me to argue with Nightshade? She’s scary enough even on a good day.” Charger argued back, walking over a small Nightborn by the name of Cocoa. “Fine.” He sighed in defeat. As much as he was used to going up against their Captain, he didn’t feel like arguing during his lunch break. “But I’m not making any promises that I’m bringing their arses back alive.” “Wouldn’t expect any less.” Charger grinned. “Now, where are we on finding Team Chrome?” He asked to the two slightly scared teams. “With the information we’ve got, we’ve made the assumption that they’re heading to the train station at the edge of the Canterlot forest.” Starry Dusk from Team Shade started. “From there, we believe they’re going to go to Ponyville where they’ll continue on by foot through to the Everfree.” Red Shade continued. “And where do I pick the shits up?” Stratus butted in, crossing his arms over his chest. “…We haven’t figured that out yet, sir.” Dusk replied hesitantly, scared that the Second in Command would explode into anger at any moment. “Well figure it out!” Stratus shouted, slamming his hands down on the circular table. “I’m not going to pick up a team of useless shits blind!” “Hey, calm down Stratus.” Charger shook his head, resting his arms on the table. “Even with Mages who specialise in locations,” He gestured to the four Mages. “It’s hard to find a team of Skyborn and an Earth Dweller when they have different magical signatures.” “Wait, wait, wait.” Stratus shook his head, slamming his fist on the table once more. “I’m picking up an Earth Dweller?!” “Yeah.” Charger nodded, a grin making its way back onto his face. “Your picking up an Earth Dweller.” “Bucking hell!” Stratus yelled, running a hand through his hair. “I am going to Nightshade about this! And your head is gonna be rolling!” He threatened to Stratus before storming out of the centre, his hawkes blue wings flaring out dramatically to accentuate his point. The room was left silent for a few moments after the Second in Command left until Charger broke out laughing. “I win.” He managed between laughs as he extended his hand out to Spark from Team Arrow who simply groaned and handed over four gold bits. “How the Luna did you know he’d storm out so quickly?” She asked, glaring at her team who’d started laughing. “Because I’m amazing.” He smirked at her, grabbing his coffee before taking a sip. “Now, let’s find Team Chrome before Nightshade has our asses on a silver plate.” “Yes Sir.” Everyone nodded, the Mages’ hands lighting up in a rainbow of hues as the Skyborn started plotting on various maps, trying to get the general direction of where the team was heading. Meanwhile, Stratus zoomed out of the O.C and down to Nightshades’ office where Charger had just been a half hour ago. “Nightshade!” He shouted, barging into the room. “Stratus.” Nightshade nodded, completely unfazed by the Shadowbolts’ explosive anger. “Why the bucking hell am I picking up an Earth Dweller?!” He demanded to know, slamming his hands down on her wooden desk. “Because I said so.” She stated. She didn’t even bother to look up from the document she was working on. “Don’t play games with me! You know I hate Earth Dwellers!” He snapped, slamming his fists on the desk once more to try and get her full attention. “Well it’s about time you learnt to accept them because whether you like it or not, you are collecting the team and the Earth Dweller and bringing them back to the base.” She explained calmly, furrowing her brows at the document where she’d come to an issue with it. “I won’t do it.” Stratus shook his head, pushing himself away from his desk, his wings rustling loudly as he tried to contain the last drop of his anger as well as he could. “Is that so?” She raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Yes Nightshade, I will get the arse wipe of a team but I refuse to get an Earth Dweller. Send some other shit to get them, because I’m not.” He spat. He would not retrieve an Earth Dweller, he down right refused. “You will retrieve the Earth Dweller Stratus.” She put her pen down and slowly glared up at him. “No I-“ He was cut off by Nightshade flinging her fountain pen straight at his head, narrowly missing the right side of his cheek as it sped past him and embedded itself in the dense, deep grey cloud wall. He slowly turned to the fountain pen embedded in the wall then back to his Captain who had a bemused smirk playing on her lips as she reclined back in her dark purple, leather chair. “What will you do?” She asked calmly. Too calmly for his liking. “Retrieve the Earth Dweller.” He replied in defeat, knowing he would never win the argument no matter how much he screamed or yelled. “Good, now go.” She dismissed him with a shoo of her fingers. She picked up a second fountain pen and started to write on the document once more. “Yes ‘Captain’.” He rolled his eyes as he turned to leave the office as quickly as possible. “What was that?” “Nothing.” He gulped, mentally slapping himself. “Good.” Stratus stormed back out of the room just as he’d entered but less angry rather, more frightened if anything. Nightshade sure knew how to be scary when she needed to be and no one dared anger her even more when she was already angry. Though everyone else feared him on the base, his Captain was the only one who he feared. He would never admit it to anyone but it was true. “Can it be? Is Stratus scared?” Starry Skies. Stratus snapped his head around to see the tall and slender Starry Skies walking over to him, her high heeled boots clacking on the marbled floor as she gracefully strode forward. His mouth contorted into a twitching thin line as his eyebrows furrowed at the sight of his team mate. She adorned her usual ‘uniform’ of skin tight leggings and a long but form-fitting coat that flowed from the hips downward. In his eyes, her uniform was a disgrace to the Shadowbolts as her clothes were made from a different material entirely that was softer, cosier and accentuating than the regular uniforms. Yes, they were the right colours and matched everyone else’s uniforms but she’d altered hers’ to the point where it looked more fashionable than practical. “Starry.” He growled a form of greeting. He crossed one arm over his tattoo’d arm and planted his feet firmly to the ground. “Stratus.” She returned the greeting with condescending tone and smile. “What the Tartarus do you want?” He asked, watching her start to slink around him, judging him from every angle though she was just shorter than him even with her high heels. “Oh, there are many things I could want in this world but right now, I’m wondering how your ‘meeting’ with our illustrious Captain went.” Her voice was calm and calculated as if she were planning out their conversation three sentences ahead. “As if I’d tell you.” He snapped, trying to bat her warm purple wings away from him. She’d started brushing her glimmering primary wings over him whilst she circled around him and he didn’t like it one bit. “You know I will eventually get the information I want anyway so you might as well save me the time and just give me what I want now.” She cooed, making it a point to brush her seemingly gold shimmering feathers over his tattooed upper left arm. “Then you’ll be looking for the information for a long time Skies.” He stood his ground, forcefully pushing her away from him with his much larger wings. “You’re no fun.” She sighed. She stopped in front of him and simply stared into his lime green eyes, making his gaze meet hers’. “But alas. What you want to keep private won’t stay private for much longer. I’ll know by dinner.” She shrugged her petite shoulders, her primary feathers brushing under his chin only to aggravate him further. “How someone hasn’t tried to kill you yet shocks even me.” He spat down at her as he stared straight back at her shallow, royal blue eyes trying to piece his mind. “People tried. People failed.” She brushed him off, looking away. She pulled away her wings from him. “Then they need to try harder or I’ll do it myself.” He threatened, visibly clenching his fist in front of her to accentuate his threat. He then stomped past her, shoving her out of the way with his shoulder. “Is that a threat Stratus?” She raised an eyebrow. She watched him walk away from her with the same bemused smile Nightshade had adorned a few minutes earlier. “Scared Skies?” His voice rang in the spacious and silent hallway as he marched off back to the O.C to finish planning his retrieval mission. “Never.” The corners of her mouth curved upward, replacing her bemused smirk with one of a competitive smile she was frequently known to adorn. _________________________________________________________________ Coming to an abrupt holt, Ember hid himself and Ace behind a large tree in an attempt to hide from the flood of Royal Guards chasing them. He frantically looked around, trying to find his team mate and the Earth Dweller. He watched Astral hop up into a tree with a pistol in each hand whilst Aurora was sprinting ahead to find cover under a large boulder. She was surprisingly fast, he had to give her that. “Damnit Ace, wake up ya lazy shit.” He grumbled to the sleeping giant on his back. Several guards passed through the trees and past him, seemingly taking no notice of them as they ran and flew with spears clenched tightly in their hands. “Go to Tartarus!” He heard Astral behind him along with several muffled gunshots then thuds and branches breaking. He knew exactly what’d happened behind him which gave him a chance to start running forward again, only without the Royal Guard on his ass. “Greyscale!” He called out as he passed her hiding spot. “We gotta keep movin’!” “Where is there to move?!” She retorted, springing to her feet. “Forward! Songbird’s got our arses covered!” He smirked, nodding his head in Astrals’ direction behind them. More gunshots rang through the otherwise quiet forest, making his smirk only grow bigger as he jumped over a low hanging branch. Aurora nodded as she sprinted to catch up, avoiding rocks, roots and any other foliage that would trip her up. She’d always been light on her feet and now was her chance to put her ‘skills’ to good use. She noticed her ‘companion’ was having trouble keeping up with her speed but she had to give him credit as he was maintaining a pretty decent speed even with another person on his back, crushing his chance at using his wings. Suddenly a blur shot past them, spiralling like a bullet did in mid-air whilst it barrelled straight forward and into the Guards ahead of them. She then came to a sudden holt by flaring out her wings and dropped to the ground a spit second later, sheathing her purple wings then sprinted forward with a new pistol in her hands. It was a lot larger than the two that’d just been in her hands and was a constant burst fire, making it easier to take out the threats in front of them. “Oi Songbird!” Ember shouted forward, “Leave some for me!” “You’re too slow!” She yelled back, leaping upward to a branch with the help of her wings where she pushed forward and off it and into an unsuspecting Guard. “Yer just too fast!” He tried to pick up his speed to no avail as Ace was a pretty good anchor. “Why are you arguing with her?” Aurora found herself asking, pivoting over a large root on one hand. “Who said we were arguing?” He glanced back at her before having to suddenly sidestep out of the way of a large tree directly in front of him. “I didn’t hear no arguing.” “It sounds like you are.” She shrugged. “We aren’t!” Astral called back to them, leaping onto another Guard in the process. She pressed the muzzle of her gun against the Guards’ head and pulled the trigger expecting a burst of bullets to pierce his helmet but instead all she got was a click from the barrel. She’d forgotten to change the magazine. The Guard she was on top of, flipped around and shoved his spear in her direction, clipping her just next to her right deltoid. She fell off of him, holding her shoulder out of agony to try and stop the bleeding as soon as she could manage. She tucked her gun away with her free hand just before she hit the ground with a great ‘THUMP’. “Songbird! Quit screwin’ around!” Ember barked, catching up to the Shadowbolt with Aurora in tow. “Fight me Chrome!” She shouted back, barrel rolling out of the way of a dive attack from the Guard. “You don’t have a busted shoulder!” “Just get on with it!” He ordered gruffly, running straight past her as best as he could manage. “Ass.” She muttered. She quickly barrel rolled the other way, dodging another attack from the Guard. She didn’t know the best way to deal with the attacker so she simply did what she knew best. Improvise. She kept rolling until she rolled onto her feet then broke out into a run, ducking and jumping over anything she could to confuse the Guard in any which way possible. She pulled a gun from one of the pockets of her baggy pants then fired shot after shot after shot in random directions, hoping to throw off the guys’ sense of where she was or maybe even hit him. Whichever happened first. To her relief, she shook the Guard off her feathers, allowing her to catch up with Ember and Aurora, though she was displeased with her mistake by allowing the Sun-loving Guard to land a hit on her. She knew that she would never hear the end of it from Ember if they got out of the forest alive, she knew that at least. “Took ya sweet time.” Ember acknowledged her as she caught up to them. She tucked her gun back into her pocket, the pain proving too much for her to take. “You didn’t make it any easier.” She grumbled as her hand shot back to her bloody and agonising shoulder, clamping over the wound as tightly as she could tolerate. “What happened?” Aurora asked, pivoting over another high root with both hands this time from the fatigue of running for so long. “We may or may not have a Guard still chasing us.” She turned back to see the Guard trying to catch up to them from being distracted for so long. “Damnit Songbird.” Ember groaned in frustration. He then suddenly dumped Ace on the ground and crouched down allowing him to free his giant, deep grey wings and flare them out to their fullest extent. A dark, demented smile creeped its way onto his face before he took off, directly at the Guard with a long, silver dagger gripped in his right hand. In a matter of seconds, he intercepted the Guard, plunged the dagger through his chest plate then flipped over the Guard and landed on the ground, letting his wings drape over him as the beautiful sound of metal clashing with rocks rang in his ears. He started to stretch his aching wings as he hastily made his way back over to the group, cleaning his dagger by running over the blade with his thumb and forefinger and flicked the blood off when he got to the tip. “You looked like you were just showing off, Chrome.” Astral teased. She watched him put away his dagger into his slim backpack before hoisting Ace back onto his back, crushing his huge wings once more. “I was showin’ ya how ta get the job done.” He shot a glare at his teammate. “Ruthless.” Aurora breathed, breaking into a run once more. The group ran through the slowly thinning forest, making it to the outer edge where there were noticeably less trees grouped together and they could start to see the morning sky through the thinning, dense canopy. It had taken them a good couple of hours to get through the forest whilst dealing with the Guard and the rough and rocky terrain making it almost impossible to run fast and in one direction for more than a couple of meters. Ember had no remorse for his actions in taking down the Guard and letting Astral deal with the rest as he knew it was better to kill than be killed while Aurora on the other hand silently prayed to anyone listening that the bloodshed would stop. She knew they had no other choice and that they would die if Astral didn’t take care of them but she still felt guilty all the same. Astral had been thankful her shoulder had slowly stopped oozing out such a large amount of blood and was glad when she heard the sound of a train off in the distance, giving her hope that everyone would make it out yet. They soon broke through the clearing and out onto a wide and expansive field sprawled out over the quiet landscape before them. They turned back to take one last look at the forest they’d just clambered through and took a collective sigh of relief that one of the hardest parts was over. Ember looked to his left to see the dauntingly tall Canterlot mountain looming over them with a gigantic waterfall cascading down the time-smoothened rocks, giving the waterfall a seemingly crystalized effect. He knew from experience that the waterfall was very much deadly, if not lethal though it seemed so peaceful and calm. “It’s… amazing.” Aurora gaped in awe at the sight of the waterfall. She’d never seen anything so beautiful in all her nineteen years of being moved from city to city, country to country. “We have ta keep movin’.” Ember sighed, tearing his eyes away from the waterfall himself. He admired such a natural masterpiece just as much as anyone else did but he knew they had to keep moving if they wanted to stay ahead of the Royal Guard. “I know.” She nodded, not daring to take her eyes away from the waterfall in fear of it disappearing completely. It amazed her to stand at the edge of a forest and an expansive golden field where the wind blew through her hair and tattered clothing, stinging each cut, each scrape, each tear in her clothing. It caressed across her face and sent a shiver down her spine, making her feel more alive than she had ever felt. It made her feel free. “Let’s go.” Astral added, placing her hand on the Earth Dweller’s bag and gave her a gentle push forward to get her walking like Ember already had. The waterfall was nothing to her compared to the rainbow falls she was accustomed to throughout the massive city of Cloudsdale. The trio started to walk through the golden grass field as the sun started to make it’s way over the north-eastern mountainous ridge to the right of the Canterlot mountain. The sunlight washed over each one of them, filling them with warmth to forget the freezing temperatures of the mountainside and the Manticore infested forest. Ember and Astral did their best to shield their eyes from the sun by pulling out a pair of tinted goggles from Astrals’ backpack and proceeded to strap them on to provide some relief from the blinding sun. Aurora couldn’t help but stare at the goggles they donned as they were just so different from any other goggles she’d seen before. The goggles were sharp, drawn-out, cat eye like, raindrop shaped goggles tinted in yellow glass to match the lightning bolts on the uniform with the framing being the same colour as the deep purple clothing with the straps matching to the dark grey. They fit perfectly with the uniform and helped make the Shadowbolts’ look generally more frightening than they already did with the sleek, dark and bold uniforms intentionally mirroring and contrasting the Wonderbolts’ uniforms to make them seem like the bad guy to put it one way. The Wonderbolts’ goggles were large and round with blue tinted goggles to make them seem warm and inviting and that was what they were going for but the Shadowbolts had a completely different agenda, it seemed. “What are ya lookin’ at Greyscale?” Ember suddenly asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. “I- your- nothing.” She stumbled over her words and quickly diverted her eyes away from the goggles to the crystal river they were coming up to. Fed from the towering, glistening waterfall, the giant river flowed through the golden fields, across the southern train line and down past Ponyville and the Everfree then kept on going until it spilt out into the Southern Luna Ocean. It was the lifeblood for most of Equestria. The river provided clean drinking water and a constant water source for countless towns and cities and without it, the only means of water would be from Cloudsdale. It was said that the Canterlot mountain was sitting over a huge hot spring that pumped the water up through the crystal caverns but it was just a myth. Others said that the water passed though the mountain from the crystal mountains and the Neighagra Falls. It was a common debate about the true source and yet, no one ever seemed to be wrong. “That’s what I thought.” The corners of his mouth twitched upward as he began to slowly bend toward the ground under the constantly increasing weight on his back. She looked around them, trying to see if anyone was still coming after them because they all needed a break, especially Ember from carrying Ace for so long. “You need to rest.” She found herself saying after a few moments of studying the area. “There’s no time.” Astral replied for the flame head. “There will already be a second platoon after us. When no one reported back, they would’ve immediately called for another platoon to take us down.” “How do you know all of this?” She asked as they came to the edge of the river. “We’re some of the most wanted criminals in Equestria.” Astral grinned. “We get nothing but the best.” She gave the Earth Dweller a wink before taking to the skies to find a bridge or some type of crossing. She started to feel very uncomfortable in the presence of the tall, exhausted and brooding Skyborn and took a small step away from him. She knew they were criminals but she didn’t realise they were that wanted. She’d been too relaxed around them. Too comfortable working with them. She wasn’t a criminal, not for a second. She wondered what would happen if she turned against the two Shadowbolts and somehow managed to hand them over to- “Don’t even think about it.” Ember growled, dropping Ace to the ground beside him to give his wings another chance to stretch before continuing onward. “I might be a criminal but I ain’t dumb.” “But I-“ “Don’t. I don’t even need ta look at ya ta know what ya are thinkin’.” He cut her off once more. “If I was gonna hurt ya or kill ya, don’t ya think I would’ve done it back in the Plaza ta make even more of a point to the Wonderbolts? Killing a civilian would just further my reputation.” He clamped both of his hands together then stretched as far upward as he could, stretching every muscle in his arms before moving on to his sore wings where he slowly furled and unfurled them until all of the stiffness and soreness was gone then set about stretching them up as far as they could reach just as he’d done with his arms. “I guess.” She mumbled as she watched his wings stretch, making her instinctively reach for her dirty and torn bag on her back. She could only dream of how it felt to be able to have wings let alone stretch them. It was almost an impossible thought to have an extra pair of limbs attached to her back, interconnected with muscle and bone, all working on instinct. Astral chose that moment to land with a small thud in between the two of them and furled her wings. “There aren’t any bridges or crossing points as far as I can see.” She informed the small group. “Looks like we’re swimmin’.” Ember grinned as he finished stretching. “You are.” She replicated his grin. “I can carry Ace across.” “Suuuure ya can.” He rolled his eyes. “Because ya don’t ‘ave a shot shoulder at all.” Her eyes flashed to her shoulder. The bleeding had stopped but it was still pretty bad and deep. It wasn’t the worst injury she’d had by far but it still hindered her none the less. “Piece of cake.” She shrugged her good shoulder and went to pick up Ace. “Then ya better make Charger proud.” He patted her bad shoulder before stalking forward to the edge of the river to get a sense of the water depth. He crouched down at the edge and dropped a pebble into the almost crystal clear water and proceeded to wait for it to reach the riverbed. “I always do.” She winked as she set about lifting Ace into the air without making her fresh would much worse. “Wait.” Aurora chimed into the conversation. “Who’s ‘Charger’?” “Mine and Ember’s boss.” Astral replied bluntly. “Not Ace’s as well?” She raised an eyebrow to the two conscious Skyborn. “Nah.” Ember shook his head whilst his eyes stayed glued to the pebble. “Ace answers ta Blueball Blitz.” He then stood up, nodding to himself when he was happy with his general idea of the water depth. “I’m so confused…” She shook her head as she walked up to him to get a full view of the river. It was a lot larger and deeper than she’d originally perceived it to be. It was about double the width of the upper plaza and about as deep as the water fountain before it was destroyed by Ace. “It’s easy.” Astral flared her wings out, crouched down and held Ace tightly by looping her arms under his armpits. “Each Shadowbolt answers to an elite Bolt’. Ember and I just have the same elite.” And with that, she forced her wings down and pulled Ace up, into the sky with all of the strength she possessed. It was a shaky ascent and Aurora could see that she had her jaw clenched as tightly as possible to bite through the immense pain coming from her shoulder wound that started bleeding again. “She’s fine.” Ember stated as he stepped down, into the freezing cold water. He then motioned for her to follow him, “Come on. We don’t ‘ave long.”