//------------------------------//
// Low Level Villains 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

"Fly that way. There's a clock tower about three blocks from the closest forest; take the road away from the woods and go until you see a chartreuse house. Know what color that is?" The forepony raised an eyebrow high enough to nudge his hard hat. "Yellow-green that's bright enough to make your eyes hurt on a sunny day. The next building down was built as an office or something, but now it's divided up into an apartment block. You'll find him there, or at least someone who knows where he is."

Gerardo momentarily blinked, the sky behind him pristine and the rest of the pipe workers wandering around on their break. "Well, that's quite useful and to the point. I suppose I was expecting-"

"Hold on, I'm not finished," the stallion continued. "The kid you're looking for is Max. That's his name, and before you ask, he picked it out himself. Tell him to get his priorities straightened out and spend his time doing something actually useful. And then when you see those Firefly Sisters, tell them to knock it off with their concerts. All they're doing is encouraging dumb stunts like this!" He huffed, looking away. "I had to break up a fight over it a month ago. Public nuisances..."

"...A tragic backstory," Gerardo finished, "and I was doubly expecting you to interrupt with one. Nevertheless, fear not, because we will pass on your message!"





Moments later, everyone was hovering a distance away in the air, floating in a circle out of earshot of the ground.

"Well, that was helpful," Maple remarked. "It sounds like they had a lot more history together than he told us, though. It makes me wonder what their story is..."

Gerardo waved a talon, identifying the distant clock tower and beginning to glide toward it. "The fascinating thing about stories is that absolutely everyone has one. There are those who devote their lives to hearing as many as possible, though the only reward one could gain from such an endeavor is any enjoyment or edification it provides. I myself am always in favor of a good yarn, but in this case, I think we should merely be grateful that the trail is hot and say theirs is a tale for another time or audience. Barring, of course, the rare circumstance in which the subjects are colluding to conquer the world, in which case we are obligated to intervene..."

Slipstream chuckled, matching his pace. "I think your train of thought got away from you there!" she giggled, Jamjars clinging furiously to her back and not looking down. "What I'd like to know is what he has against those sisters. We've certainly been hearing a lot about them, and there's definitely something going on..."

"Well, if you wanna know that badly, you could've just asked him," Valey pointed out, barely remembering she had a passenger in time to avoid doing a lazy barrel roll. "This doesn't have to be a big, spooky mystery. That said... eh, I'd need to meet them again now that I can focus to see if I care. They're singers. It's a concert. How much bad stuff you guys feel compelled to fix can there be?"

"You shouldn't ask that..." Maple groaned. "Do you want us to look for trouble? I'd just as soon sit around and enjoy my vacation. Something is suspicious with Chauncey and those sisters, but it's not like we have to get involved."

Gerardo pointed at the rapidly-approaching clock tower, and Starlight guessed she could see the apartment building the stallion had described. "Ah," he proclaimed, "but isn't looking for trouble exactly what we're doing right now?" He raised an eyebrow. "First off, a nice bit of flair and adventure without any stakes on the level of Ironridge is exactly what I enjoy as a passtime, and second, you're far too compassionate for any fishy funny business to simply be ignored, are you not?"

"You all are terrible at not tempting fate!" Slipstream laughed.

"Eh, don't worry." Valey sniffed, then nodded. "No danger tingles this way."

Starlight, for her part, kept quiet as they touched down in front of the target building. She figured the nervous discussion on getting into trouble was some sort of group way of coping for having gotten roped so heavily into the deep political mess of Ironridge, keeping themselves light and happy so they didn't get paralyzed from fear of risks, and that was perfectly fine. At the same time, no one had asked to be involved that deep in Ironridge...

The apartment building really did look like it had once been an office of some sort, sitting completely out of place in the loosely-spaced countryside township that surrounded Izvaldi's capitol. Several clotheslines hung out front, alongside some unused foals' toys, two tiny fillies chased each other around supervised by a watchful teenager, and several of the windows were covered from the inside by stickers and decals, but the two-story building still had a neat construction that was far too repetitive and formulaic for any house. It briefly gave Starlight the idea of an eccentric developer who thought they could build anywhere they wanted, made something to prove it, and then abandoned the project as soon as it was completed because there was nothing useful to do with it.

Valey stepped back and shrugged, waiting to provide backup as Gerardo marched to the door. "Excuse me," he asked, catching the bored-looking teenager's attention and holding up the wanted poster from the job board. "Can you tell us if you know this pony?"

Starlight wondered if there might have been a safer or more tactful way to go about finding him, such as not mentioning they were there to arrest him quite so freely, but the filly just blinked at him and nodded. "Yeah, one second. Don't let those two wander off. Hey, Max!"

Hollering, she barged into the entrance hallway, leaving the door swinging in her wake. Gerardo blinked. "So far so good, I suppose?"

Everyone watched, listening, and after a moment there was the sound of a brief, noisy commotion. Another minute passed, and the filly came slouching back out the door, a dark stallion's body slung over her shoulder. She flung him onto the ground before Gerardo, a large welt visible on his face, and looked disappointedly at the stunned stallion. "They came with a wanted poster on your head," she told him unceremoniously. "I told you you shouldn't have made so many enemies. Bye, Max."

"Eh heh heh..." Max groaned groggily, opening his eyes as the teenager went back to tending the two younger foals. He suddenly blinked, realizing Gerardo was leering into his face. "Hi there?"

Gerardo snapped his talons, and Valey patiently stood behind him, flexing. "I believe you have something that belongs to me."

Max's eyes crossed. "Really? Out of all the things, I'm in trouble for an empty coin pouch?"

"And a wedding ring," Gerardo informed him, taking steps to match as the stallion scooted back along the ground. "And a very important locket belonging to a friend of ours. Perhaps you remember stealing it in a hospital, of all places?"

"A friend of yours?" Max looked offended, then vindictive. "Enemy combatants. I knew it! I'll never tell! Not to a member of the inferior team, team losers!"

"Well, don't you sound pleasant," Gerardo growled, lowering his beaked face toward Max's. "It would very much behoove you to repent for your misdeeds and return it and all other stolen belongings before-"

Max suddenly smirked. "You're open!"

POW!

"Whuh...?" Max blinked, suddenly straining, his sucker punch at Gerardo having been interrupted in a flash. Valey held her hoof blocking his own, grinning back and nudging the griffon away, and pushed a little harder, watching as his foreleg trembled under the effort of holding her back.

"Wrong move, chump," Valey lectured, blocking another sucker punch with just as much speed. "Bananas, I haven't gotten to clean anyone's clock in forever. This is gonna be amazing. Remember, you struck first!"