Chapter Eleven: Ranger Freedom
The cold, dark, stone room was still sealed behind the giant stone door that held it closed. And so Nathan sat, his head resting on his hand, waiting.
And waiting…
And waiting…
“God damn it! Am I ever gonna get out of here?” But unfortunately, the silence around him did not hold the answer. It merely told him to wait.
And wait…
And wait…
He could've been asleep. Yes, he most certainly could've just laid down on his cobblestone bed, closed his eye, and fallen asleep. But something told him he needed to be awake. Something told him he needed to be ready. But as to why he felt this way, he couldn't be sure. After all, not even the greatest blast of magic could burrow into the walls, and not even the loudest bell’s sound would resonate in these halls. The outside world in its entirety was closed off from this place, and Nathan was regretting his choice to make that so. And he could only leave if he was needed, yet another choice he regretted making, especially since they were all still out and about. With this in mind, he doubted that his services would ever be required.
Even so, as he began to ponder just what exactly he was going to do for the next millennia, he heard a loud noise.
CRACK!
‘... what was that?’ Nathan wondered as he looked about.
CRACK!
‘There it is again. What is that?’ Stepping away from his bed, Nathan rounded the only corner in his chamber, and looked at the door that kept him trapped here.
There was massive crack down the middle.
CRACK!
The crack spread further down the stone gate’s center, creating a jagged line from the bottom to the top. Seeing his chance, Nathan immediately ran at the exit of his self-imposed imprisonment and slammed into it at full force, causing it to crumble like dust. As the rock shattered around him, Nathan quickly came to a stop, and gazed upon the first bit of sunlight he had seen in centuries.
He breathed in the fresh air, and sighed in relief. But then he remembered, that door would come unsealed should he be needed. So why was he released?
“Take them all!” Nathan looked around at the sound of the vicious voice, and saw that not all was peaceful as he had first believed. Ponies were running in massive panic, chased by bug like creatures Nathan knew only as changelings. The chitin covered ponies were grabbing civilians left and right, and Nathan knew he had to stop them.
Charging forward, the loud footfalls of his feet drew the attention away from the innocent, and onto himself. The invaders saw him, and before they could react, Nathan punched one in armor, presumably a commander, out of the sky and into a wall. Without a second thought, he raised his left arm, the cannon that replaced his left hand immediately firing shot after shot of pure energy, annihilating anything they touched.
Finally getting over the initial surprise of the new combatant, the Changelings charged the intruder with the intent to kill. But for as powerful as they were, their magic blasts, powerful attacks, and swarming tactics did nothing against the metal giant. Soon, the changelings were forced to retreat, and Nathan stood tall, victorious.
“HRRRRAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
This was bad. This was very, very bad.
Thane rolled under another magical beam from his opponent and took cover behind another column. Chrysalis laughed triumphantly as her opponent hid from her.
“What's the matter Thane? Can't face the queen?”
“You're no queen of mine,” Thane muttered, taking a pot shot at the insectoid alicorn with a combuster, but Chrysalis merely deflected the bullet with a small, magical shield.
“Ha! Is that the best you've got?”
“No, but I do have this!” A fusion grenade formed in his hand, and Thane tossed it back, straight at Chrysalis. She easily blasted it out of the air and turned her attention back towards her opponent.
But he wasn't there.
Chrysalis looked around hurriedly, her back to the marriage alter as she tried to find the robot she had just fought against. However, no matter where she looked she couldn't find him.
Well, not until she looked up.
Somehow Thane had gotten above her, and was coming down, full speed, an omniwrench in either hand. Reacting quickly, Chrysalis stepped back, just barely dodging Thane’s surprise attack, before delivering a decisive kick to his head. Thane flew across the temporary nave, sailing over benches and tumbling down the aisle till he hit the large wooden doors at the entrance.
“Thane!” he heard a voice call as one of his comrades, Krystal, rushed to his side. “You okay?”
“Yeah, damn bug is harder to kill than I thought.”
“Thane!” cried another voice, as the last two members of his team, Zane and Katie, rushed to his side. “Here, let me heal you.”
Zane placed one of his gun like hands against Thane, and from the barrel came these little pinpricks of blue light. They surrounded Thane, and immediately the leader of the group felt better.
“Thanks Zane.”
“No problem.” The four of them stood up. Side by side, they were ready to fight. They were, after all, the Phoenix Rangers.
“HRRRRAAAAAAHHHH!!!” The mighty bellow caught them all off guard. While Chrysalis rapidly looked about, the Phoenix Rangers froze. That roar. That war cry.
They knew that war cry.
A loud thumping, like the footsteps of a giant, began to approach.
THUMP…
THUMP…
THUMP…
Chrysalis slowly turned around, a look of fear dawning her face, as a massive shadow eclipsed the stained glass behind her. Then, without warning, a massive fist burst through the sunlight colored window, shattering it into countless pieces, and ramming into the insect queen. Chrysalis was sent flying but quickly caught herself in mid air, and landed amongst the broken wooden seats where observers of the interrupted marriage once sat.
Smoke from the collapsed wall prevented her from seeing just what had attacked her, but as the wind from the outside world blew, her assailant quickly came into view.
All she saw was a giant, orange, oval surrounded by dark gray steel.
Just as she was about to question just who, or what, this intruder was, the wall to her left collapsed as a massive arm cannon forced its way inside. The blaster began to charge up, and Chrysalis had barely enough time to move out of the way before a huge blast of pure energy fired from it, completely vaporizing the wall on the opposite side. And before she could recover from her emergency dive, the same hand from before reached in and grabbed her, bringing her outside.
By this point, Chrysalis was terrified. Who was this iron giant, and why was it attacking her? Looking at it now, it merely looked like a massive version of the Phoenix Rangers. But that couldn't be right, the Phoenix Rangers only had four members.
Right?
Well whatever the case, this thing was here, and it was attacking her.
“SURRENDER.”
“What?”
“SURRENDER OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.”
Surrender or suffer the consequences? Okay, this thing may have been big, but no way was it going to make Chrysalis surrender, not when she was this close!
Using a burst of magic to force the giant to release her from his grip, Chrysalis flew up above the darkly colored titan. She began to force energy through her veins, grunting as she prepared to enact a massive transformation.
“Haven't taken this form in a while,” Chrysalis muttered as strange markings began to cover her body. “But it should do the trick!”
Her eyes glowed green as the symbols covered every inch of her, starting from her hooves and spreading to her wings. Chrysalis grunted in pain as a sickening crack rang out, the sound of her own chitin breaking apart. Nathan immediately took note that this transformation was not like any other he had seen a changeling perform, and stood ready to meet the new threat.
Another crack rang through the air, and all of the changelings suddenly came to a stop. The queen began to shiver violently, almost in agony, and the changelings did the same. Cracks also began to show up on each individual insect pony, and from those crack green light shown through, and they twitched and and cried out as foam built up in their mouths. The invaders started to scream, a horrid, eerie noise that made one's blood curl. Then, just as quickly as their suffering began, they all went quiet, and fell to the ground.
There was an unnatural silence as the many bodies of the changelings landed on the earth of which they attacked. Their eyes were dark and lifeless, like every single one of them had suddenly died. Chrysalis herself fell from her position in the sky, and her head was impaled on the spire of a nearby tower, the pole piercing her jaw and skull. Again the silence reigned, but then cheers of joy and laughter came from the populace of Canterlot city, celebrating the end of the attack. But those who were wise enough, kept up their guard. The changelings had come to invade.
It couldn't be this easy.
And they were right in their suspicions. As the ponies of Canterlot cheered and hugged, more cracks appeared on the corpses of the invaders. Then, from one of the bodies, sprang a long, singular appendage. Everypony froze in horror as the corpse was ripped apart from the inside out, and when the shell burst open, all that was left was a monster.
From the changeling bodies came large, black insects. They each had long, thin bodies, six legs sprouting from their sides, and large wings protruding from their backs. Their faces were horribly deformed, having lengthened a bit and their jaws splitting into dual mandibles lined with sharp teeth, and their eyes now caps for hundreds of smaller pupils that saw everything. They were covered in green blood and gore, and to top it all off, long, menacing stingers protruded from their rear ends.
These were no longer changelings, they were bugs.
The bugs took flight, the sound of their large wings creating a buzz the clouded the sound of everything within its range. Orders from captains to their men were difficult to hear, and the time wasted while they tried to relay orders allowed the insects to descend upon the fearful populace, and collect. The attackers were fast, and the clicks and pheromones which were now their language allowed them all to communicate faster than any other living creature. And they had one mission: attack, collect, and protect the queen.
While all of this was happening, Nathan tried to reach Chrysalis’s corpse. It was clear she too would transform, and he didn't want to see what the queen of these bugs looked like. He aimed his arm cannon at the dead body of the ringleader of the invasion, but the bugs stopped him. They slammed into his gun as a unit, their coordination and strength quickly forcing the massive cannon downwards. Nathan tried to swat them away, but now they were faster, stronger, smarter. They easily dodged each swipe he made at them, and attacked with balls of acid being flung from their jaws. The acid didn't hurt much, but Nathan knew too much of the stuff couldn't be good. He fired his arm cannon, and the bullet of energy manage to vaporize a few of his attackers, but the bugs didn't care. As long as his attention was off the queen, their lives didn't matter.
From Chrysalis’s body, a green sac, almost like a cocoon, began to emerge. It slowly grew in size, hanging off the dead queen’s corpse, the occasional shift becoming visible. The cocoon kept growing and growing, reaching a monstrous size before too long. And by the time Nathan noticed it, the cocoon burst.
Tearing its way out, came the queen herself. A massive version of her subjects, Chrysalis emerged from her cask, and let out a high-pitched screech, deafening the entire city. She stood tall on her six grotesque legs, and faced her robotic opponent.
‘Holy shit…’ Nathan thought. ‘That's a big bug.’
Shaking off the shock, Nathan aimed his arm cannon and fired. The shot landed, hitting Chrysalis in the face. But instead of exploding like it was supposed to, the energy was instead absorbed into Chrysalis, spreading over her body in a coat of pure power, before quickly fading away.
‘Energy resistant chitin. Great.’ Seeing as his gun didn't work, Nathan instead threw a punch, and that did some damage. Chrysalis screeched in pain as the giant steel fist came into contact with her face, and her many eyes glared daggers at Nathan. Though she definitely felt the pain, barely any damage had been done, and Chrysalis was already rearing up for a counter attack.
Before her could do anything, Chrysalis hooked her mandibles onto Nathan’s arm cannon. Acid gushed out of her mouth like water from a fountain, and the giant Phoenix Ranger cried out in pain as his arm began to melt. Another punch threw her off, but the damage was done.
She screamed again, a sound that called the attention of her hive, and their orders changed. Now, instead of attacking, collecting, and protecting the queen, they were to attack Nathan, and kill him no matter the cost. The insects followed their queen’s orders to the letter, and swarmed Nathan.
He tried to fight back, but there were just too many. They crawled inside hole in his arm, and Nathan could feel them start to mess with his systems. He needed to get them out of there, but how?
Well, bugs like heat, but a little too much heat can kill them easily. With this in mind, Nathan shut off his ventilation and cooling systems, and let the heat build up. He quickly went from cool, to warm, to hot, and then to on fire. The bugs inside him started to light up like firecrackers, and the heat became too much for the bugs surrounding him, and so, with nothing in his way, Nathan charged the queen. He gripped her by the neck, and shoved the melted muzzle of his gun, which was now like a hot, jagged knife, and speared Chrysalis through the chest. An unholy wail was unleashed from Chrysalis and all of her subjects as they rapidly fell to the ground. With no queen to direct them, one by one the bugs passed out, littering the city with the bodies of insects.
Nathan dropped the corpse of the queen, and it collapsed. He too, fell to his knees, exhausted. If had been a long time since he fought like this.
Nathan began to shrink, his systems no longer able to compensate for such a massive body, so he shrank down to give them a break. Sitting down on a fallen pillar, Nathan took deep, calming breaths.
“Nathan!” Looking up, Nathan saw the old members of his team running towards him.
‘Oh great, my old paly pals. Yay.’ If he could roll his eye, he would, and he did consider leaving but then be saw Zane and, seeing the state of his left arm, he knew he needed the medic’s nanomachines.
“So, you're free,” said Thane, Nathan’s former leader. Thane was a simple ranger bot, with a dark steel body and red markings on his body, kind of like a secondary color to his primary grey. Unlike Nathan, he had two hands instead a gun for his left, both of which were crossed in something a bit more than distaste, but not quite hate.
To Thane’s left was Katie, and to his right, Krystal. The two looked pretty similar, the only difference being purple for Katie’s secondary color and a green for Krystal’s, and Katie’s left arm replaced with a gun, and the same happening to Krystal’s right.
And finally, there was Zane. Zane also looked like your average ranger, with light blue for his secondary color and both of his arms were cannons, which was odd since he was the least violent out of all his teammates.
“Nathan!” Zane cried. “Christ, here let me heal you.”
Blue little dots of light, Zane’s self produced nanomachines, poured from his gun nozzle and bathed Nathan with their healing abilities. He could feel the little robots connect to his databanks and use his information to rebuild his arm. As his arm cannon began to repair, Nathan glanced down at his former comrades.
“So, who let the changelings in?”