Chapter Five: Jack Takes Flight! The Assassin Hopp Strikes!
Frieza never imagined that Jack, a human would access his full power, let alone control it. It was unorthodox for a mere human to unlock amazing power with some kind of mutation or was born gifted like he was. However he no longer awed his fellow frost demon and smirked. Seeing Jack was now tapping into his full potential meant he’d be able to transform.
Jack on the other hand was still in awe at his own strength, seeing how he was the cause for so much destruction, it was truly astonishing for him. Looking down at his hands, he couldn’t help but wonder what else he could do? “It feels like I can barely keep my powers under wraps. And this is only the first form.”
“Hahahaha! Try not to think to hard on it young Jack. You are merely grasping my unrivaled power, so it is only natural that you'd be stunned.” Frieza replied, as he chuckled, before his grin vanished as the frost demon turned away. “Boy, I suggest you stop gawking and pay attention… I’m sensing someone with a high power level.”
“Who?” Jack asked as he turned in the direction Frieza was facing only to see someone or something leaping from the trees before stopping.
“Whoa… What happened here?” The figure stopped, observing Jack from the distance. “Hehehe… Didn’t think there’d be another like Lord Frost.”
“Lord Frost?” Jack asked out loud as looked at the figure, clearly able to tell from the sound of the voice it was female. “I thought I’d be the only frost demon here.”
“Jack, eliminate her… now. She’s not here to just idly talk to you.”
“What?” Jack asked, but before just as he looked at the figure again, he saw a pair of claws unsheath as they pounced towards him. Knocking him backwards as one of the claws almost hit his shoulder. When Jack backed up to try and dodge her strikes, the attacker had her claws extend outward to try and reach him, but leaped into the air, jumping over her and landed a good distance away from her. ‘What the hell is with this chick?’
“Her speed is impressive, but if you unleash your full power, you’ll send this weakling to the afterlife.” Frieza suggested to him, but Jack groaned as he glared at his mysterious opponent.
“Who the hell are you? And Who’s Lord Frost?!” Jack demanded as he charged the figure, trying to strike her with his fist. Only for her to block with both of her claws before looking back at Jack.
“Why should I answer the questions of a dead man?” She smirked, before headbutting Jack and using what looked like a tail to pull Jack’s feet from under him and have him fall to the ground.
“Gah!” He yelled as he rubbed his face, feeling blood trickle down from his nose, before wiping it away and glared at the mysterious women. Using his tail, he wrapped it around her claws and pulled her towards him and he grabbed hold of her from her neck, strangling the female as he attempted to pull off the cloak surrounding her. “Time to get some answers!”
Though, before he could do so, part of the cloak soon tore off as the claws she had scratched Jack around the side of his chest. Making him flinch and giving his attacker the moment to slip out of the cloak before knocking him backwards. Though, it was in that moment that Jack finally got a look at who… or more likely, what was attacking him.
Before him was a tall feline women with with black hair and purple skin and yellow piercing eyes. She had a tight black colored outfit that stretched across her arms and upper chest while also having tight black pants, metal cuffs around her wrists and what looked to be black heels alongside her blood red nails. “Well, well… looks like you found me.”
“Who the hell are you? And why are you attacking me for no goddamn reason!?” Jack demanded as he began to focus ki into his and fired off a single orb of energy towards the feline only for her to dodge it easily. ‘Dammit! Well… At least I was able to shoot a ki blast.’
“I wanted to see if your skill was just as strong as Lord Frost… However,” The next comment she said… didn’t really settle well with the voice in Jack’s head. “You’re just mediocre at best.”
“Mediocre! That insolent whelp! If only I’d have my body back, I’d make her grovel at my feet and beg for her life! If you want to carry out your revenge against the merchant, then I suggest you kill this wench NOW!!!” Frieza yelled in anger as Jack began to feel annoyed again by his voice.
“Mediocre eh? Well how about I go up to full power… Then we’ll see who’s mediocre!!!” Jack grinned as the vain’s in his forehead began to strain as his entire body was surrounded by bright purple aura. “Let’s see if you can handle a power level of… 530,000.”
That… had his opponent blink for a moment, before she look back at him. “If that’s the case, then why didn’t you do that from the beginning?” She asked, a small smirk on her face.
“Well… I didn’t expect to be getting into a fight this soon after defeating that mindless ape Raditz. Let alone fight a girl…” He said with a smirk as he vanished from her view and reappeared behind her and struck her back with his foot, sending her flying into the air. Now feeling control of Frieza’s power, Jack felt like this was the time to test out if he fly or not. Stomping his feet to the ground he launched himself into the air and for a brief moment he was flying, clasping his hands together in a tight fist he struck the feline in the chest, sending her crashing to the ground.
Upon landing, she coughed for a moment as she wiped her mouth. Blood on her hands as she looked back at her. “Well… It seems like I was wrong about you then.”
Landing back on the ground on his knee, Jack couldn’t help but feel a little confident in himself as he saw his opponent pick herself off the ground. “Now… If you don’t want to piss me off anymore then I already am… You’ll start talking.”
Adjusting the cuffs on her wrist, the figure let out a sigh for a moment as she said one thing. “Hopp.”
Looking at her confusingly, Jack couldn’t help but raise a brow. “Hopp? That’s it? Your seriously telling me that after all this fighting and you trying to kill me. That’s your name?!”
“You were the one that wanted to know so badly…” She replied back, letting out a sigh. “Sheesh, for someone who’s trying to get stronger and not attract any attention, you’re really messing up left and right.”
“Well I wouldn’t say that… As far as those ponies in the village know… I’m a stranger who saved them… And I’d say were a good distance away from any settlements that I was free to test my own abilities… All I have to do is take care of you and everything will be fine for me.” Jack said as he began to crack his wrists and smirk at Hopp.
“That won’t stop the bacon haired one from seeing you in her sleep…” The cat like figure told her, before saying something else as she smirked. “Or for that matter… you getting blindsided.”
Before realizing what she means, a massive ball of fire was hurtling towards Jack, consuming his body in flames. “Hopp, why are you wasting your time flirting with this fake!” Another voice came from the tree’s in the distance.
“Oh come on now, this guy isn’t my type anyways,” Hopp shot back. “Let’s ditch this place!”
“Insultent… WORMS!!!!” Jack roared in anger as his ki blew away all the flames, his body covered in scorch marks that he was soon levitating off the ground, glaring at the pair in front of him. “I don’t care… if you think I’m a fake… But I can promise you… That you’ll SUFFER THE WRATH OF LORD FRIEZA!!!!”
Feeling his power bursting within him, Jack began to shatter his own armor with only his ki as he felt his limbs extend outward, increasing in mass and length, his arms growing first, then his legs, his feet, his whole body began to grow as his entire body was consumed in a bright light, blinding both of his assailants.
“What the hell did you do, Hopp?” Chappil asked as his own cloak was blown off, revealing a metallic like dragon.
“Don’t look at me! You were the one who set him ON FIRE!!” Hopp shot back at Chappil. “I was trying to find out more about him to see if he was like Lord Frost or not.”
“Well I’d rather not wait to see what happens… We need to leave now!” He ordered, taking flight into the air as Hopp followed, however once the light had disappeared, the only thing that remained was Jack… In his second form.
“Well, that confirms one thing…” Hopp said to herself, before taking off to join up with Chappil.
“Now… Shall the nightmare begin? Hm?” Jack asked as he watched the two fly off, but he could only smile to himself.
Princess Luna only looked with envy as the villagers picked up the remaining pieces of their shattered town, she wasn’t expecting to find so many ponies slaughtered. It was awful to look at, but from the looks of some of the surroundings, it looked like a battle had taken placed, but that begged the question? Who was fighting here? “Lieutenant… How many of my little ponies… were killed?”
“According to the reports… around twenty or more,” The batpony told her. “With many more suffering life threatening injuries. We’ve set up an infirmary to treat those who were wounded as well as try to figure out what exactly happened here.”
“Have your unit continue treating the wounded. You and I, Lieutenant, shall continue the investigation from here on out.” Luna ordered.
“Yes, Princess.” The lieutenant nodded, saluting Luna as the two of them continued to trot down the street. Despite all the destruction in their wake, nothing else seemed to be out of the ordinary, until the lieutenant spotted a corpse of a strange creature and then turned to one of the other guards inspecting it.
“Hey, Corporal. Did you have a team inspect this one?” He asked, as the other pony looked at them for a moment.
“We did so earlier, but we’ve gotten reports from survivors that this… whatever it was, was the being attacking the town,” The fellow guard replied back. “It shot out some kind of strange… energy from… well, whatever is at the end of it’s forearms and was clashing with another creature. One of the other ponies said that this guy had some kind of contraption over the left side of his face, but the other creature took it with him before they left.”
“That… all just sounds strange to me…” The lieutenant said, looking at Luna briefly before asking a different question. “Who was the pony that you were talking too about this?”
“It was a mare named Melody Heart. She not only saw what happened, but actually gave us a description of the other creature that was here and told us it’s name,” The corporal replied back. “She’s currently helping out the medics in the infirmary since we’re short on hooves right now.”
“Take me to her immediately.” She ordered as the corporal bowed in response and began to escort the princess to the infirmary that was set up by the guards. However before she could enter, she felt a powerful magic surge miles away from where she stood, taking her completely by surprise. “W-What on Equus was that?” She mumbled to herself.
“Your Majesty? Is something wrong?” A young mare wearing a lab coat asked.
“I-It’s nothing… Take me to this, Melody Heart.” She ordered as the young medic nodded and took her through the tent, and sight of so many ponies laying on beds with bandages and IV’s on made the lunar alicorn sick to her stomach, but the pair had soon stopped in front of a young mare with a lime green coat, with a white mane and tail, tending to a little colt.
“Try to get some rest… Everything will be fine.” Melody said, petting the young colts mane. “I’m sure he’ll come back to save us again… I know it.”
“Excuse me,” Luna then spoke softly, waiting for the mare to turn around before continuing what she was saying. “Would you happen to be Ms. Melody Heart?”
“Oh, your Majesty… Um, yes that is me… What can I do for you?” She asked the lunar princess, bowing her head.
“Well… my lieutenant and I had some questions about what happened and the corporal outside told us that you could help… He also mentioned that one of the individuals that was involved in the incident actually spoke to you.” The princess replied back to her.
“Oh, you mean Lord Frieza… sigh… I never met somepony as kind hearted as him. He saved our village and slayed that brute with ease.” Melody replied, her cheeks flushed as she smiled.
In Luna’s mind though, hearing the word ‘Lord’ in front of the name made her think of a powerful being like Lord Tirek. However, she did not want to quickly assume the worst of this ‘Frieza’ just from a single thought. “You mean he defeated the one who was attacking your hometown?” Her question was followed by a small nod from the mare as Luna thought of another one to ask. “Could you perhaps describe him for me?”
“Well… Lord Frieza is unique for a individual… He’s no taller than you or me your majesty, his skin is that of a reptiles but his facial features… just… take my breath awa- Cough, cough… Sorry, I mean to say he’s rather charming. He does walk on two legs instead of four, similar to that beast Raditz that attacked us. He’s truly a noble being whose power, and looks are incredible.” Melody explained, trying her best to hide her blushing features, but the Lieutenant rolled his eyes.
Luna herself was trying to picture what Melody was saying in her head, but some of things that she was thinking didn’t exactly come out right. Especially because there wasn’t a lot of possibilities for walking, talking charming reptiles unless they were a spawn of Discord. “Hmm… Lieutenant, can you get one of the ponies that’s a sketch artist in here? I think it might be helpful if we had a visual reference to go along with what Melody is telling us.”
“Of course, princess.” The lieutenant nodded his head, before stepping out and leaving the two of them alone.
“Is there a problem with how I’m describing him your majesty?” The young mare asked.
“No, it’s just that some ponies do better if you put a name to a face. Since this Frieza isn’t here with us, I wanted to make sure we know who he looks like.” Luna assured her.
“Oh, I suppose that makes sense.” She replied.
After waiting silently for what felt like an eternity for both the Princess and Melody, the lieutenant had returned with an old stallion wearing a painter’s smock. “H-Hooowww… may I help…”
“Hello there,” Luna greeted the newest pony to come in. “I assume that my lieutenant informed you of the situation.”
“As best as I could,” The lieutenant replied before turning towards the stallion. “Sir, we would like for you to do a sketch based on the description of an individual this mare saw earlier today. Can you help us?”
“Draw an elixir for the mare? You young folks have a strange way of-”
The lieutenant just stared at the old stallion, before letting out a sigh and facehoofing himself. “I swear if the others are doing this just to embarrass me…”
“Sir?” Luna now spoke. “Can you help sketch us somepony that we’re looking for?” That was met by another jumbled thought, before the princess looked at the mare. “Melody, would you happen to know who this stallion is?”
“Mr. Pencil… He used to be my art teacher back when I was a little filly… He’s retired now and his son Pencil Junior is his replacement. Why exactly did you get him instead of somepony you know… younger, Lieutenant?”
“My colleagues must have gotten the two of them mixed up somehow… either that or they did this on purpose to embarrass me in front of the princess.” He sighed, before looking back at the elderly stallion. “Mr. Pencil? Would you happen to know where your son is?”
“Well that’s a silly question… The Sun is outside shining in the sky…” He replied as he slowly began to make his way out.
“I mean Pencil Junior, sir.” However Mr. Pencil did not reply, muttering something about potatoes and carrots being the same. Melody and even the princess couldn’t help but giggle, embarrassing the lieutenant more.
“Let’s not worry about it for right now,” Luna replied, before turning back to face Melody. “Would you mind if we come back later? That way you can have some time to tend to the injured?”
“It’s no trouble at all your majesty… But I can promise you that when you see him… you’ll know who he is.”
Luna nodded her head, smiling for a moment as she turned to face Melody one last time. “I’ll take your word for it.” With that, both the princess and the lieutenant of the night guard stepped out of the infirmary. Allowing for her to tend to those who were in need of her care.