Chapter three: Fox hunt
Aiden stood atop his vantage, watching the goings on from above. He rarely ventured out in the daylight to conduct business such as this, but this latest development had caught his interest.
Let's start from the beginning.
The past few days had been as rotary as they could get for the Fox; vigilantism could hardly be called a boring vocation, but things had been quiet these last days. A good sign, in Pearce's mind, but it also sparked his inevitable paranoia; if things were quiet, did that mean that the criminals here were easier to scare than back in Chicago, or was there something going on underneath it all.
Take one guess which option he'd gone with.
The whole of the past few days had been spent patrolling, stalking the rooftops like the shadow he was. No convoys, no vulnerable hideouts, not even any muggings. Perfect silence. Today, however, he'd been woken up a few hours before scheduled by a light trilling that informed him of a hit on the Profiler; the ctOS-esc scanning program had picked up three individuals with a history of violence all moving past the building he'd been camped atop of, away from the prying eyes of the ponies below. It was evening, the bronze glow of the sun signalling that the end of the day was fast approaching, and these ponies seemed to be taking advantage of it.
He'd followed them, waiting for what was mathematically probable to happen today to happen; he'd watched them trot into a bank, and not three minutes later alarms had started blaring, ponies had started galloping for their lives and the gold-plated guards had shown up, spears at the ready. Pearce had set up too, pulling the small, laptop-sized bag from his satchel and putting together the sniper rifle in there.
Now, he was on his stomach, watching the goings on through the scope of the rifle. He was listening in to the negotiations below, picking out shouted words from the stallions; 'hostages', 'no escape' and 'not afraid to die' were the key phrases Aiden picked up on. Suicidal bank robbers with hostages only made the equation of 'battle' in the vigilante's mind. Innocent ponies would die. He needed to get in there and stop them before things got out of control. He looked up from the scope, getting an angle of his surroundings and made a simple plan. He looked back down the scope and spied the spokes-pony of the thugs, blaring out demands and threats. Aiden didn't listen to his words as much as he didn't listen to his screams as a chunk of his leg was taken by the high-calibre bullet that fired from the silenced rifle.
It was confusion for a second. The guards all lunged for cover, their spears or swords held in offence as the civilians galloped for their lives. None of them noticed the bipedal shape leap between two buildings, run across the roof of the second before dropped to the ground and opened on of the windows with a magic they didn't understand.
Inside, there was a tense calm. Aiden dropped to a crouch, moving within the shadows cast by the setting sun. He was in a filing room of some sort, draws four shelves high packed with pieces of paper that recorded just how wealthy or poor the inhabitants of this place were. He wondered for a second just how useful this could all be to him, before he shook the thought away.
'Another day, Pearce.'
He stalked forward, his phone hidden in his coat to reduce lighting, and made his way to the door. It was unopened but not locked, so he eased it open and stepped into the hall beyond. He could hear voiced coming from his right, likely the robbers arguing over what to do. He frowned. He counted five voices, which meant either the hostages were involved or they had already had ponies planted inside. He moved forward, taking his time to step lightly, and soon came to an alcove, forming so useful cover either side of the arching doorway. He hid in the shadows, his coat, hat and face-concealing scarf hiding him in the gloom. It dawned on him in that moment just how redundant covering his face was here.
There were definitely four robbers here, confirming his prior suspicions of planted goons. They were dressed in raggedy hoodies, bandanas concealing their faces, a bat, sword or knife in their grips as they meandered around. It was almost though provoking, just how similar the criminal were here when compared to back home.
He shook the though away, keeping his mind on the job. They were mainly regular ponies, the one outside without wing nor horn, while the four in here were two regulars, a Unicorn and a Pegasus. Beyond them were around fourteen cowering hostages, all sat in a neat row against the far wall. Easy to control and out of the way. Perfect.
Pearce wasted no more time. The lights were on, any access point from outside was closed, asides the one their shot ally had gone through, and they were all busy bickering over whether to make an escape, stand their ground or surrender. Pearce decided to alleviate the decision from them.
He tapped an icon. The lights went out. The four thugs cried out in shock, looking to the ceiling. One had cried 'what's going on' while the others just looked scared in the dim light. They heard the sound of muffled step heading towards them, a 'clickclickclick' sound following it. Right after, the Unicorn felt a blinding pain on the back of his head, a grunt and a scream mixing together as he felt to his front, another burst of pain rocking his system as he fell unconscious.
Then, the lightly flickered back to life terrifying the thugs and bugging their mystery assaulter somewhat. They all looked to their downed friend and looked at what had downed him. Then they screamed. They all made moves to try and get away, the Pegasus flapping his wings while the regulars turned and galloped.
There was a weird noise and then the Pegasus couldn't hold himself up anymore, falling to the ground with a thud and the dull crack of a metal object meeting the back of his skull. The other two ponies turned to find him pursuing them; the thing lunged for one, tackling him to the ground and beating him senseless while the other went deeper into the bank.
Pearce looked up to find the last thug galloping around a corner, leaving his friends to his mercy. He looked slowly to his left, finding the hostages all cowering away from him. He simply straightened up and collapsed the baton against his leg before marching after the escaped thug. As he went, he activated the security measures behind him, closing and locking the security door to the foyer from the halls towards the back of the bank. He then took a second to hack directly into the lighting and overloaded the fuses, shutting them off for good.
He sunk into a crouch again. Pearce stalked forward, as silent as ever, and hunted his prey. His eyes quickly adjusted to the low lighting, dim outlines made apparent with it, and he made his way forward. He could hear the sound of the panicked and scared thug, cowering somewhere ahead of him, and he towards the sound. He looked left and right when he came to a cross junction in the halls.
He didn't have time to think before a dark shape lunged at him with a nary a grunt. Pearce quickly raised his arms to defend himself, but he was already on the ground and the knife to his neck.
"By order of Celestia, you are under arrest." Aiden raised an eyebrow. A trap? Light suddenly flooded the hallway they were both in, Aiden looking around to find Unicorns, Pegasi and regulars galloping towards them with their horns aglow, weapons raised. None of them said anything as they surrounded him, their armour not clanking or groaning; they wore black armour of fear-inducing angles and proportions, weapons of complementing styles in their glows or hooves. Once they were close, every weapon and horn was aimed at him.
The guard let him up, his knife still to Aiden's throat.
"Come quietly, and we can do this the easy way" the guard told him. Aiden looked him in the eye; he let the guard looking at the narrow space between his hat and scarf watch his narrowing eyes, but before the guard could react to him his knee had already shot into his groin.
Under the light of the guards around him, Aiden sprang to his feet, his hand whipping to his coat pocket and gripping the baton there; his hand whipped to the side, the telescopic baton extending. Before any of the guards could react, he had beaten the pommel into the guard's temple, putting him out, and turned to the others.
With a baton in his right and his phone in the left, Aiden Pearce took the fight to a small platoon of guards.
They held their ground and advanced with strategy and caution, but none of them could match the creature's speed. Before they could act, his claw-like appendage had moved around the glow and the Unicorns all felt a painful contraction around in their horns and foreheads, stunning them and cutting off their illumination charm.
In the dark once more, Aiden moved forward, on the attack. He swung the baton in the direction of the guards to his left, feeling it connect with a pony's skull. He moved again, swinging it back and feeling it hit another across the jowl. Another step to the right and he brought it down on the top of another's skull by the tip, sending the guard's chin into his chest and his body to the floor.
By the time his third foe had fallen, the guards had managed to react and had returned his attack. Light flared around them once again, illuminating the creature as his weapon swung into the horn of one of the Unicorns amongst them, cutting off his glow and throwing him into his allies behind. The creature spun again, beating the baton across another guard as the rest lunged for him. The fight quickly devolved into a scrap on the floor, grunts, shouts, curses and the sounds of ponies in pain.
On the floor, covered in ponies dressed in metal, Aiden was hardly having fun. He struck out with fist and weapon, breaking the ponies limbs where he could, his legs and knees meeting the ribs and groins of no few of the guards. He wasn't used to such long melee fights, quick takedowns were more his forte, but he knew how to handle himself. But he also knew that against so many opponents, he hadn't a chance if he couldn't find an edge. He struggled and fought, elbows, fists, arms and legs all landing in the joints, ribs and faces of the guards piling on top of him. It was starting to get hard to breath under all this weight. This wasn't good, but he had to escape, at least stand up. With a fist breaking a guard's jaw and a forehead into another's muzzle, he managed to get his boots under the guard on top of him, a big bastard if Aiden had ever seen one, and pushed with all his might. Years of running and fighting had left Aiden with strong muscles, but this guy still made him work. Yet, with a burst of adrenalin, he heaved the pony off of him and managed to scramble to his feet.
He took off.
Aiden shot down the hallway he and the first guard had come down, feeling a trickle of blood run down his forehead from beneath his cap and a dull soreness developing in his back, gut and right leg. He had to escape, rest and heal, and he couldn't do that with an army of guards on his tail. He tapped the lock/unlock icon on the screen on his phone, the security door ahead 'clunking' open as he barrelled through. He was met with more guards.
He vaguely recognised the 'hostages' from before, stallions and mares all dressed impromptu in their armour, sheaths that were empty hanging from their belts while the stared down the vigilante. Aiden cracked his neck left and right, tightened his grip on his baton and tapped another icon on his phone. He lights went out for a fourth time, only to flicker back on as the Unicorns amongst the guards flared their horns in light, but Aiden had already acted. His right arm was raised, a contraption in his hand that the ponies didn't recognise. He pulled the trigger, there was a flash and a sharp bang and one of the guards fell with a scream, clutching her fore-leg.
The guards all turned to their fallen comrade, finding the mare writing on the floor, clutching her wounded leg. Before they realised what was happening, they heard yet another short-lived bang and heard a window smash to their left. They looked back to the creature only to find him galloping for the cracked window and leaping out. They all galloped over and followed him out. He'd gone into a dead-end alley, so they followed it to its exit, coming out in the main street that the bank was on. There were guards everywhere, Princess Luna herself conducting the trap, but no creature. Luna spotted them before long, frowning at them as they cantered towards her.
"What happened? The vigilante" she demanded. A higher ranking guard spoke up.
"No ma'am, but we found…something else in there" he answered.
"Found what" Luna requested shortly. She didn't want her time wasted with this. The guard looked back at his comrades for support, not exactly in the best of confidence around the Princess of the night, but none of them had a better idea than him.
"Well, I don't know. It was about as tall as Princess Celestia but stood on its hind legs. It also did something to the lighting and private Hay in the foyer" he reported "we were-"
"Did what to her?" The guard frowned again.
"It seemed to shoot fire or something from its hoof, or claw, and something hit her in the leg." Luna looked to the bank and trotted towards it, the guards towing behind.
"This thing, what did it look like?" The guard looked at his comrades again before he answered.
"Well, I think it was wearing clothing, it seemed intelligent and had this strange glow around on its hoof, or claw." Luna turned her head back slightly.
"It used magic?"
"I'm not sure, I sure acted like magic but it was no Unicorn magic I've ever seen" he answered. Luna nodded and flung the main doors to the bank open with her magic. Golden Hay was lying in a pool of her own blood, clutching her fore-leg with a pained expression on her face as the other guards attempted to see to her.
"Private Hay" she called into the mass of guards. The mare groaned a little, the rest of the guards moving aside for Luna. She cantered towards the downed guard and crouched besides her. "What happened to you" she asked, trying to be a little more gentle with the wounded guard.
"I-I'm not sure. It just-ah-did something to my leg. I can still feel it in there" she hissed through her pain. Luna frowned and let her horn glow; a few strangled cries escaped the mare as Luna gripped the foreign object in the mare's leg and wrenched it out with a small spatter of blood before she closed the wound with her magic, a soft sizzling and the smell of burning flesh escaping the mare's leg as she writhed in quiet pain on the floor, tears welling in her eyes.
Meanwhile, Luna held the object to the light and frowned again. A small piece of lead. Her eyes snapped open as she made the connection, her head whipping over to the guard who had reported to her.
"Guard, where did you last see this creature." The guard blinked.
"Uh, we were chasing it out of the bank; it went through that window and into the alley but it disappeared." Luna whipped her head towards the window and found the alley the guards had trotted out of. She cantered over to it and found it to be a dead end.
"You fool" she spat at the guard "this is a dead end, it could still be here" she shouted, the guard snarling at her back as she stepped through the broken glass and let her horn's glow drop the piece of lead and focus into a torch-like beam. She shone it through the gloom, finding nothing but over turned trash cans and muck. With a growl she cantered back out into the street, the guards watching her in confusion as she checked the roof tops around the area.
This plan had first been put into place to finally capture the vigilante, Celestia having decided to stop his criminal activities, no matter how useful they were. Luna had suggested the trap, to draw him out, but this latest development put a whole new spin on things. Her eyes caught a shape atop a building, watching the proceedings. She stared for a second before it turned away, prompting Luna to growl as her suspicions influenced her and she took off, flapping her wings a few times before she landed on the roof. The sun was almost over the horizon now, her moon scheduled to come over the horizon as it left, but right now her mind was set on this bronze and shadow coloured rooftop.
"Where are you" she called into the gloom cast by the doorway in the middle of the roof, the ventilation systems and the billboard atop the side of the building. She got no answer for a while, only silence. And the sound of another's breathing. "Come out, I know you're there" she called again, her eyes casting over the darkness.
"I'm not your enemy" came a low, grizzled voice. Luna searched through the gloom in the direction the voice had come from.
"Prove it" she spoke back "come quietly." There was a shift in the darkness as something stepped out. Luna couldn't hold back her frown. It was a biped of some sort, but it was no dragon or Diamond dog, it was nothing she'd ever seen. She was beginning to understand the vague descriptions of the witnesses. It seemed to be wearing a large coat that covered its body, a baseball cap and a scarf that covered its face. Its fore-leg-esc limbs lead into pockets while its eyes glared at her.
"Not going to happen" it answered. Luna glared back.
"I'm afraid I can't allow that; you've killed and maimed no less than fifty ponies." The biped grunted.
"All of them scum" it replied. Luna cocked her head.
"So, you are the vigilante. The Fox." The biped cocked its own head.
"I am." Luna grinned and spread her wings, her horn glowing as she held herself offensively.
"Well then, Fox, you've just met your hunter." Luna darted forward, only for a small explosion to her left to knock her off course. She over shot the Fox, the biped neatly sidestepping her, and she crashed headfirst into a wall. Holding her head and growling, Luna looked up to find the Fox stepping onto the roof proper, its limbs leaving its pockets and letting what looked like a baton extend. She stood with a grin. "So, a fighter are we?" The Fox didn't answer, only stand still with its baton in one hand and a strange glow in the other. Luna stood and stalked forward.
She darted forward, her hoof aimed at the Fox. He ducked back and retaliated with the baton in its grip; the pommel knocked into her horn, at the base, and she quickly stumbled back with another pained growl. This thing knew ponies weak points. She charged her horn for a second and let a powerful beam fire at it. The Fox rolled to the side quickly, its left limb's claws doing something in the glow of its hand. She tried for another spell only to fell a sharp pain in her horn. She couldn't get her magic to her horn, the feeling was all wrong. What had this thing done to her? In the midst of her pain, the Fox had stepped in and its baton came down on her heat again. A blinding pain rocked her system, Luna's head going down, another heavy jolt of pain flared through her system as the baton met her jaw, stunning her. Before she knew what was happening, Luna felt a dull pain on her chest and was falling from the roof.
She instinctively spread her wings, only to gain no flight. Then she started screaming. After six floors screaming and eight of falling, Luna hit the concrete with a terrible 'thwak' leading with her shoulder. Luna heard more than felt her shoulder bone crumbled under the force of the fall, her screaming turning to a squeal for a single second before she pushed the pain down to just grunts. The guards that had been gathered around the building, but loath to interrupt their Princess, all rushed to her aid only for her to wave them away with her good hoof before it went back to her injured leg.
"Get after him" she barked, watching the Fox move away from the edge of the roof as he watched her "this fight isn't other" she seethed to herself.