//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty-Three:Hostiles inbound and The Nonborn // Story: Gleaner Chronicles: American Monsters // by sevenofeleven //------------------------------// Gleaner weapons lab Again Margot felt like she was being watched. The feeling was getting more intense. No only that, she felt that something was happening at the edge of her vision that she couldn’t see. Tibbs kept grimacing more than was even possible. Scootaloo kept her head straight and just looked ahead. The group just trudged down the hall to weapons lab 5c. Margot wanted to do some scans for necromancy, but she worried that it might piss off the unseen watchers. Finally they arrived at 5c, it was like the other labs in the area. Windowless and with just a white door and a keypad. Margot hacked the keypad and they were in. The room was twice as long so the light spell didn’t illuminate the whole room. That bothered Margot, something could be hiding in the darkness. She added more power so the whole room could be seen. There was nothing there but a beige wall with bits of tape and two chairs. Each chair had a cell phone lying on the seat. Margot turned her attention to the items on the four tables. Mackie looked over the equipment. “Looks like we all get to be beasts of burden.” Tibbs grimaced again. “I hope there won’t be time for sympathy for the Devil.” Margot nodded. “Maybe we could get some shelter or at least some brown sugar?” Scootaloo licked her lips at the mention of sugar. Mackie divvied up the task of carrying out all of the weapons and equipment. Even Scootaloo had to carry ammo and batteries. Margot saw some annoyance in her eyes. She didn’t care, it looked like their mission was almost over. Now to bring this stuff home. Then one of the cellphones rang. The I’m sexy and I know it ringtone first seemed funny, but then Margot wondered who knew where they were. Then the other phone rang. This time a chill raced down her back. Tibbs and Mackie exchanged glances. Scootaloo turned to look at the back of the room. Margot looked back too. More phones began to ring. She looked over the tables and saw each one had a phone. Margot figured that she had been too focused on getting the weapons to notice cellphones. Suddenly the ringing stopped. Tibbs looked around. The cellphones suddenly flipped on one side with a clack. Even the phones on the tables stood on their sides. Margot noticed it was like the phones were watching them. Tibbs grimaced again. “I don’t like this Mackie.” Mackie nodded. Text appeared on the chair’s phones, it read “Come with us.” The phones on the tables just said, “follow them.” Scootaloo gulped. “Why?” The first phone said,”we need to talk in a better place.” With a creaking of legs, the tables moved to the side. The chairs started walking toward the group. The group stepped aside to let them pass. Margot still couldn’t sense what was animating the chairs and tables. It was like she was totally oblivious to that kind of magic. She followed Scootaloo as they followed the chairs. When the group left the room, the tables returned to their previous position with a loud creak. As she walked down the hall with the chairs leading them, Margot thought about how strange the situation was. It was like she was in a parade with ponies and metal chairs. A more morbid thought surfaced, maybe it was a dead mare walking procession? Maybe they were being led to their deaths. She pushed that thought away to look at her allies. Scootaloo tried to look brave but Margot could see the fear in her eyes when she looked back. The chairs led them to Lab 7A then they stopped. Margot began to wonder but then she heard hooves. The rhythm of the hoofbeats was irregular like the pony had issues. A dark brown pony with a black mane and tail shambled up to the door. At first, Margot thought the pony had a cellphone on its eyes, but a closer look made her wish that she didn’t look so closely. The cellphone was actually pushed into the pony’s head. It didn’t help that Margot could see dried blood around the edges of the phone. The undead pony tapped the code to the keypad with a shaking left fore hoof and the door opened. Tibbs looked into the dark room and grimaced. “I don’t like this.” Mackie nodded. Scootaloo whispered, “Help me Oonte.” Margot got some spells ready as they headed into the room. There was a locked door to a small room to their right. Past that was a bunch of dead ponies lying on the floor. For some reason, Margot could only smell a little dry rot. The left side had a bunch of unrecognizable junk. In front, there was a darkness that resisted Margot’s light spell’s attempts to illuminate it. Thin silvery lines started to sparkle in the darkness. The lines got thicker and Margot could see that there were cellphones connected in a network of silvery lines. Each cell phone began to shine with a silvery glow. Then a voice that sounded like a cold wind in the lonely wilderness spoke. “Why are you here first life?” Scootaloo gulped. Tibbs peered into the silvery light from the phones. “More crazy magic.” Mackie nodded. “Um, we are first life?” “Yesss.” “I’m sorry if we disturbed you. We just wanted some items that were left behind,” Mackie said. “You sserve the glowing one that brings even more pain! The glowing one who promissed freedom from pain but gave more!” “No, we don’t serve the glowing one. We fight against him and his allies,” Mackie said then nodded. Scootaloo turned to Margot. “Glowing one?” Tibbs turned to Scootaloo. “What? Were you asleep at the briefing? The glowing one is Dr. Geist.” Scootaloo’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t see any picture of h-” Margot broke in. “Guy’s we are going to be judged by an unhappy alien being. How about we don’t distract Mackie.” The wind like voice thundered. “Who is thiss Geissst!” Margot wanted to cover her ears, but the echoes died down almost instantaneously. Mackie peered into the darkness and silver. He swallowed and gulped. Tibbs stepped up. “Hey, we’re sorry that we disturbed you. We came here for equipment to help us fight Dr. Geist and his friends.” This time the voice that replied to Tibbs was at a normal volume. “Is Geist really the glowing one, first life?” “Yes. Help us or let us go,” TIbbs said. “Geist is the ssource of my pain. I wass brought here and I burn and ache!” Then the voice started screaming unintelligible words. The force of the screams pushed Margot and the rest of the group to their knees. Scootaloo gulped and walked up to the glowing silver and darkness. “Most merciful Oonte might help you with your pain.” She raised her right forehoof and a blue glow covered it. A silver and black tendril wrapped around Scootaloo and before the group could do anything, she was brought into the darkness. Mackie stuck out his left fore hoof. “Scootaloo!” Margot and Tibbs walked up to the darkness. Tibbs turned to Margot. “Do something!” Margot tried to scan the swirling silver shot darkness but her spells failed. This being was not scannable by Margot’s magic. Tibbs turned to Mackie. “Can you do something?” Mackie’s horn glowed a rainbow’s worth of colors before he stopped. “I can’t do anything. I mean I can but I can’t sense this thing magically. If I can’t sense this thing, I can’t protect us from it’s magic. I don’t want to piss it off. It’s like being blind and picking a fight with a prizefighter.” Tibbs grimaced. “If you’re blind you can still hear the guy.” Margot faced Tibbs. “We’re blind and deaf and can’t sense vibrations either.” Margot felt something touch her back. She turned around and saw a dead pony with a cellphone over its eyes. The message on the cell phone screen said, “Others come, are they your friends?” Tibbs grimaced. “I doubt that.” Margot turned around and pointed to the room behind them to the left. “Maybe we can access the security cameras from there?“ Mackie nodded and they headed to the room. Behind them, the dead ponies rose to their hooves and headed for the door. It took Margot just a little bit longer to hack this keypad, but she did it and the door opened. Inside was a black cube shaped computer and the usual desk with a keyboard and pedestal. Mackie pointed at the computer and Margot walked over to add power to the computer. This time she felt a feeling of urgency and didn’t dribble power to the computer so slowly. When the computer started up, Mackie saw the familiar prompt. Tibbs glanced at the screen. “Are you sure you can access the security cameras from here?” Mackie shrugged. “I hope so. Dr. Geist is pretty savvy, he might be able to check on who is spying on him. Damn.” A red dialog box popped up on the screen. “Sorry, I can’t switch the language from Gleaner to English.” Margot looked at the screen. She knew it was possible to access the power and data lines on the cameras, but she didn’t want to waste a lot of magical energy. That power she might need later. “Mackie, I’m going to access the camera’s.” “Go for it,” Mackie said. Margot focused and extended her magic senses into the power and data lines for the camera in the hallway then she traveled and powered up the other cameras. It felt like something that took hours, but it was just a few seconds, then she added some controls and made a screen. Mackie grabbed the screen and started going through the feeds from the cameras. “I hope our guests don’t know that the cameras are on.” For a few seconds, he just saw pictures of empty rooms and hallways until five ponies in battle armor appeared. The bright green glow of their eyes told Margot what type of enemy they were. Tibbs peered at the screen. “I bet you they’re going for the weapons research labs. If they don’t find anything they will head here since Geist is a leading researcher.” Mackie nodded. Margot grimaced. “If they find our dark friend or dead ponies, they might decide to collapse this universe while we are still here. That won’t be good for us.” Tibbs faced Margot. “I need some solutions fast.” Margot nodded and began to scan the intruders. Tibbs faced Mackie. Mackie looked at the monitor one last time. “I know boss.” Then he started to check out the room. Margot noticed that she could sense the radio traffic and play it for the group. “Here’s their radio transmissions.” A moment later when she finished the spell, they could hear them. “Recovery group one what is your status?” “We’re near lab 2c. No hostiles yet. Why did they abandon this place again?” “Recovery group one stick to mission parameters. I’m not authorized to answer that question.” “With all due respect Command, you’re treating us like mushrooms. We would be more effective if properly briefed.” “No can do, recovery group one. Focus on the mission. Get the Eraser equipment.” The transmissions went to a different frequency. Margot adjusted the spell. “What the hell? Did you hear Command? Something really weird happened down here. Even the glowing bastard bailed. We’re walking blindly into somethi-” “Hicks, I’m warning you. Stay frosty and focus. We won’t survive if we’re distracted. Focus on the mission and we will get back.” Margot did a deeper scan of the intruders. They had equipment that scanned their vitals and transmitted the info to a remote location. She had to think about how to deal with that. Mackie tapped Margot. “Tibbs and I are going to check the pile of junk to see if anything useful is there.” Margot nodded then she went back to trying to get more info from the recovery group. Margot did a hoof pump when she found that each pony had a computer on them with info on the mission. After a few minutes she was in. Margot left the room to tell Tibbs and Mackie. They had moved the junk around and found a keypad and some sort of shiny black pedestal. The comms spell started squawking again. “What is your status recovery group one?” “We are near lab 4a, one more empty hallway and we will be near lab 5a.” Mackie pointed to the pedestal. “I don’t know what this is.” Tibbs grimaced. “We’re losing time.” Margot checked the info from the ponies computers. “There is a dimensional collapse override in 8a. If we can get there, we can stop them from collapsing the pocket dimension remotely. The soldiers have to come to 8a to collapse the dimension.” Tibbs looked at the darkness and back at Margot. “That means that Command can’t collapse things on us?” Margot nodded. “Yes, we can take out the soldiers.” Mackie faced Margot. “What happens to us before we get to the override?” Tibbs grimaced. “Let’s get to the override now.” Mackie looked back at the darkness. “What about Scootaloo?” Margot looked at Mackie. “You wait here for her. If we need you, we will call.” Tibbs started cantering toward the door. “Let’s do this!” Margot followed Tibbs. He looked back. “Wait, you can’t go.” “How will you get inside security room 8a?” Margot asked. “Well, you’ll give me the key code. Right? It makes no sense to have Mackie fight by himself,” TIbbs said then looked down the hall. Right before Margot could answer, the intruders started talking again. “Okay, Halloran, go inside and get the Erasure equipment.” “Yes Sir.” There was a creak and then a loud crunch. A pony coughed weakly for a few seconds. “What the hell? Did you see that? The freakin tables smashed Hallie. Let’s light them up!” A machine gun started rattling then other guns started going off. “What the fuck? Ponies with cell phones stuck in their heads are shooting at us? What’s going on here?” Gunfire went on for a few minutes. “I vote we get the hell out of here now!” “Cool it Hicks!” “Hicks, got a point, suppose there are more of those things here?” “Recovery group one, what is going on? One member is flatlined.” “Command, this is Wallace. Halloran is dead. It seems that the tables crushed him.” “What? Did they fall on him?” “No Command. Somehow they met in the center of the room and crushed Halloran. I’m down a team member and would like reinforcements.” “The tables just crushed him? Did the enemy use telekinesis? Did Collins sense anything?” “No Sir. Can we get more units?” “No can do on the extra units. Did you get Eraser?” “No Command, the area was cleared. Please advise.” There was a delay. Margot quickly went through the intruder’s computers to get the keycode. “We advise that you go to Dr. Geist’s lab and get the hard drive from his computer and head back. Eraser is compromised. The area is compromised. Send one or two to the dimensional collapse override in room 8a. Have the unit contact us when the room is secure. Execute protocol Delta Alpha Tango.” Margot’s eavesdropping spell failed. Tibbs looked at her. “The spell doesn’t have any support for decrypting their messages anymore. Here’s the keycode, 6998,” Margot said. Tibbs nodded. “6998, got it.” “Good luck.” Margot gave Tibbs a hug then he left. Mackie looked at the silver shot darkness then back at Margot. “How do we do this?” “Very carefully,” Margot looked at the darkness at the end of the room. Soon the half drained soldiers would be there. There was definitely going to be a firefight. She hoped that they could handle the soldiers.