//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: The Runners // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// “Drek! Drek! Drek!” Twilight cursed, slamming the doors to the van behind her once Gem’s unconscious body was loaded into the back. Candy, bleeding from two bullet wounds, even as her armored drone began firing grenades into the pursuing security. “Come on, baby, start for Mama!” Candy said, before turning out the window. “Come on Rocky, we need to go!” The machine gun-armed, lightly armored drone puttered on, following as fast as it could. Between the damage to its left track, the numerous bullet holes, and the fact that it was carrying Steel—whose hind legs were now nothing but oily stumps—it was a miracle it was moving at all. Steel, barely holding on to consciousness, fired shot after shot from her leg-gun at the encroaching Gold Star, a fairly prominent privatized police force. Rocky puttered on beneath her, trying to make it to the dented van. Wingmare limped just in front of the street sam, her front left leg broken in two places, both wings hurt and useless, while her back right was fractured as well. The Van roared to life, and Candy revved the engine. “Let’s go!” “Come on!” Twilight yelled form the open door. “We have to go!” “Really, now?” Wingmare yelled, dragging Steel up and into the van before leaping in herself, and dragging Rocky in as well. “Let’s go!” Wingmare roared, before the van’s tires squealed. The van shot forward, roaring across the parking lot of the Holtstein LTD building, before it pulled onto the street, slamming into the side of a sports car that was passing by before it pulled into the traffic. “Rookie,” Candy called. “Rookie, do you know any healing spells?” “I know one, but I’m nearly burnt out. Why?” Twilight asked. “Because I need something or I’ll pass out at the wheel.” Twilight didn’t need to be told twice. She ran up, and cast her spell, hoping that she would pass out as the mana began reversing the latest wound Candy took. “Oh how did it go this poorly?” Twilight thought to herself. Gem had called a meeting just three days ago with a job for them. “Just a little Milkrun, Darlings,” she said, “a little something to keep us busy while we wait for Web to join us again.” Instead, here they were, shot to drek and barely holding on. Holstein, a small tech company, had a unicorn that was moments away from developing a new communication device that would have propelled them ahead of every single communication company in Equestria. The developer had to be put down, but he was in a lightly-guarded facility, and Holtstein wasn't big enough to arm their security well. It should have gone without a hitch. As it was, they barely had time to shoot the developer in the center of mass before they had to book it. It shouldn’t have been this hard. “I’m calling Web,” Twilight said. “We need a healer and a doctor.” “I have a street doc,” Steel said. “Can you trust her?” Wingmare asked. “Until they post an award for us,” she said, looking down at her oily stumps. “Calling Web!” Twilight yelled louder as her comm rang. The shaman picked up. “What? What is it? Is Ahuiztech coming after me?” “Web! It’s Tw-Rookie! We need a healer!” There was silence on the line. “Web, please! Gem’s unconscious, Candy’s bleeding—” “Did you just call me to be your doctor?” Web asked. “DocWagon exists!” “You know none of them have a subscription! Look we need somepony to heal us, and I don’t trust Steel’s streetdoc.” “You know just talking to me can bring Ahuiztech down on me, right? If they get even the slightest whiff—” “Please, Web! Please.” Web sighed. “Fine. Go to the Final Regret. I’m not bringing everyone down on my safe house at the very least.” “Alright, we’ll meet you there, thank you so much.” “If I get hunted down and die, I’m haunting you.” “That’s fair.” Web hung up, and Twilight turned to the mare behind the wheel. “The Final Regret, and step on it!” “I’m already stepping on it!” Candy yelled, still bleeding. Twilight turned back to look at the other three ponies in the back. Steel had grabbed her legs, trying to keep the oil from spilling all over Candy’s van, while Wingmare had fallen into some kind of trance. Gem stirred. “Wha...what happened?” Twilight carefully took Gem in her hooves. “Everything went awful!” Twilight almost yelled into the decker’s possibly-concussed face. “That’s nice dear,” Gem said, nodding sagely. “No, it’s not nice! We all nearly died!” “Good job, Rookie! Way to hit the monkey!” Twilight sighed. “Just don’t die, please.” A few tense minutes passed in the back of the van before Candy finally pulled to the van to a stop. “We’re here!” she said, before Twilight slammed the door open. “Woah, what’s going on?” the orange pegasus bouncer asked as the team all limped from the van. “Scoots, help me carry Steel,” Wingmare ordered, and the younger pegasus obeyed, grabbing the chromed-up pony can carrying her inside. Candy and Twilight both carried Gem inside, only to be met by the young, white Unicorn that Twilight only vaguely remembered meeting. “Rarity?” she mumbled, surprised. “Sweetie, we need a room.” “Uh...yes, yes!” she called, shocker from her stupor. “Tap! Tap! Lock my room down! I’m not taking anymore customers tonight.” The earth pony who ran the bar nodded but didn’t comment. “This way!” the younger unicorn called, leading them up a set of stairs in the back of the bar. “Hurry!” The team followed, climbing the stairs as fast as they could carrying a pony with two missing legs, and an unconscious decker. The younger unicorn opened a door to a room that reeked of air fresheners. “Put her on the bed,” she ordered. “I think I have something for y—” “Don’t worry about me,” Steel said. “All I need is a workbench and some oil.” “You’re going to need to some hemofluid too,” Candy said. “Probably,” Steel admitted. “Web will be here to take care of us all,” Wingmare said, taking a moment to find a comfortable spot on the wall to lean up against. “Alright, I’m going to nap over here now.” Candy sighed and slid to the floor. “I’m sorry I’m leaving blood on your floor, Sweetie.” “It’s alright, Novableach takes it all out,” she said. “Okay,” she mumbled back before she began to snore. The ponies all shook, taking a breath for the first time. They slowly began to droop as Wingmare slowly bandaged the worst wounds on some of the others. “Alright, food, soycaff, anything?” the unicorn asked. “I could go for a soycaff, actually,” Wingmare said. “Alright, I’ll watch them, you go ahead and get them stuff, Sweetie,” Scootaloo said. “Sure,” she replied. “Do you mind helping me?” she asked, turning to Twilight. “Hm? Oh, of course,” she said before following along. The two descended the stairs, quickly coming back down to the bar. “Tap, I need some soycaff and something to eat.” “Alright, Sweetie” the earth pony said, “I’ll have to take it from your paycheck, I can’t afford to hand out free food.” “I can pay for it,” Twilight said. “No, it’s fine,” the younger mare replied. “I drain Tap’s funds enough anyway.” “Really, why?” She looked up at Twilight with a knowing look. “I’m a joyfilly.” “Oh…” Twilight said, “Oh! I uh…” she stammered, now unsure how to talk to the mare that so openly admitted to being a prostitute. “You’d think this kind of job would bring in more money than it does,” the young mare continued. “Unfortunately, with how many options are available to your average pony, they tend to overlook somepony that’s only young and beautiful,” she said with a laugh. “More often than not, I just eat Tap’s food, and sleep in my ‘office.’” “Don’t remind me,” Tap muttered, as he prepared a tray of steaming soycaffs and trail mixes. “You know, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” the mare said. “I’m Sweetie Belle.” “They call me Rookie,” Twilight said. “They say I haven’t earned a proper street name yet.” Sweetie nodded. “Yeah I can see Gem saying that.” The door to the bar opened, and Web slipped into the bar. She looked exactly as she always did, except for her hood, which somehow seemed deeper than normal. It was as though she were desperately trying to hide in her own clothes. The only other difference was the knife at her belt. “Rookie, Sweetie. Where is everyone?” “Upstairs,” Sweetie answered. “Come on.” Twilight took the tray, while Sweetie led Web upstairs. The rest of the team was waiting for her in various states of pain. “Alright,” Web said, before calling on an earth elemental. Covered in living vines and flowers, the elemental stood no larger than a housecat and hopped up onto Web’s waiting withers. “We need to get to work, Rokrak.” The elemental nodded, and together they began work, knitting flesh back together as they began to work. “Rookie,” she called. “Yes?” “I’ll need your help. Open my bag and prepare the medkit, there’s only so much magic can do to heal.” Twilight nodded and obeyed, grabbing the large white box marked with a red cross. She opened it quickly, and the mechanical arms inside the box whirred to life. “Running Diagnostic,” it said in a robotic voice before Web spoke up again. “Alright, Rookie, repeat after me. Override Diagnostics.” “Override Diagnostics.” “Subject has a fractured left scapula and has taken a small puncture wound to the left subclavian vein. There is bruising to the surrounding muscle tissue. Additionally, she has a concussion, and bruising of her jugular vein on her right side.” Twilight repeated it to the medkit, and it readily took the information. “Place onto the subject,” the Medkit demanded. Twilight obeyed, and it immediately went to work the second it touched Gem’s body. “Alright,” Web said. “Rokrak and I have gotten Gem out of any immediate danger. The Medkit can take care of the rest. I’m going to get Candy back on her hooves, and she should be able to help Steel with her legs. Once I get her up and check on Wingmare, I’m leaving, because I don’t need to get caught out here.” Twilight nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair.” “Glad you agree,” Web said. “Now let’s get Candy off the wall.” <><><|><><> After a few long hours of work, the team was finally on the mend, and ready to get back into some semblance of work. Web had already taken her leave, which left only the five mares in the Final Regret, cursing and limping as they went. The team, all nursing their sore bodies, slowly made their way back down to the bar. Sweetie Belle helped her sister down the stairs, who still wobbled on her own legs as she descended. “Okay,” she mumbled as Sweetie got her to her seat. “That one didn’t quite go to plan.” The others mumbled their consent as Gem tried to lead them with her injuries. “So, the question is, what do we do now?” “Let this all blow over,” Steel said, holding her leg in place as Candy used a ratchet to get a spare prosthetic on. “Obviously,” Gem replied. “I mean once we re-emerge.” Wingmare sighed. “We’ll need time to recover.” “I know, Wingmare, I mean once we re—” “No, no,” the pegasus interrupted. “We’ll need to recover from the loss. We’ll need to do more than physically recover, we’ll have to take it easy, and take some low-paying jobs.” Steel grimaced. “A tight wallet ain’t why I started doing this business.” “No, but we did well for ourselves for the past few runs. We can ride that cash until we get back on our hooves.” “That was surprisingly well thought out, Wingmare,” Gem said. “Though that may be the concussion talking.” “One of us needs to think,” she said with a shrug. “Besides, I’ve had enough broken bones to understand recovery.” “Besides, we’re still getting paid for this job, right?” Twilight asked. “We killed the pony, right?” “We don’t know,” Steel said, “but considering that we got the job from RENUMA, it’s probably not a good idea.” “Why not?” Twilight asked. “RENUMA’s a perfectly respectable business.” “When dealing with other businesses, sure,” Wingmare said. “They are tough on Runners. If you do a sloppy job, they will hunt you down and kill you. At this rate, it’s better to just disappear and hope they think we’ve died.” “They hunt you down?” Twilight asked. “That’s too much effort.” “It’s better than those Ahuiztech meanies. They sacrifice you in a blood ritual,” Candy said with perfect authority that she honestly had no right to. “They have an ancient Eastern Unicornian Bushido code to follow,” Wingmare said. “So I’ve heard anyway.” Twilight shook her head. “So, we don’t get paid, we run, we hide, and when we get back into Running, we stick to some street jobs?” Gem asked. “That sounds like a plan,” Steel said, finally getting a leg under her. “It’s going to cost me a fortune to get these legs replaced.” “How long do we hide out?” Twilight asked. “Holtstein LTD isn’t a big corp. We don’t need to worry about them too much. It’s RENUMA that we need to worry about.” “Three weeks, I would say,” Steel said. “By then either the bullet we put in the developer does the job, or they’ll have sent another team to do the job. If they get it done, the heat’s off us, if they fail, then they’re the target of RENUMA’s coming hissy fit.” Gem laughed. “Hissy fit. That’s good.” “So three weeks?” Wingmare asked. With one final look for confirmation around the table, the team split up. Steel left with Candy, to have her drop her off at a workshop somewhere, while Wingmare took off on her own. That simply left Twilight and the decker, who still swayed under her own weight. “Darling, I think you’re going to have to take me...take me to my...safehouse,” she said. “I don’t trust myself to get there.” Twilight nodded. “Sure. Come on Gem.” “You better take care of my sister, Rookie,” Sweetie said as they left. “I can’t guarantee your safety if she doesn’t come back to me in one piece.” “I got it, thanks. See you around.” “See ya, chummer.” “Bye, Sweetie Belle, don’t...don’t…” Gem began, stumbling over her words. “Just don’t get pregnant…” “I won’t sis,” Sweetie Belle said with a small grin, “I won’t.” Twilight led the decker away, onto the cold streets of the Canterlot Sprawl. The Sprawl’s labyrinthine roads, sidewalks, and alleys stretched all the way to the coasts, turning Canterlot into a Supercity, worthy of the Megacorps. The sky-scraping, ivory towers looked down at their reach and nodded in approval as ponies left for their homes, like termites to their mounds. The streets, covered in grime and obscured by thick smog, spiderwebbed through all of Equestria. They reached to the farthest borders of the country and were filled with the width and breadth of all kinds of ponies. Twilight wasn’t really interested in meeting any of ponies, nor was she interested in following the long roads to the very edges of the world. Instead, she took the subway. The subway station was dark and cramped, much like how the streets were dark and cramped, leaving the cold feeling of being surrounded by strangers everywhere you went. Twilight especially, hated that feeling, mostly because everyone you knew in your ivory tower was a friend. It was oddly less lonely at the top, despite what so many novelists tell you. In fact, here, in the blackest pits of the city, Twilight felt more alone than anywhere else. The only thing that helped mitigate the loneliness was the concussed unicorn beside her, who had trouble standing, and had to be told three times what was going on. She kept a stiff upper lip about it, best she could, anyway. She did her best to sally forth, even as she tumbled and slipped down every stair. “We need to gettoffon...Canter…” she mumbled, her brain still trying to recover from the blow it took. “Canterlot Station, and take the blue...blue line.” “Blue line got it,” Twilight said. “How’d you know we were getting on the blue line?” “You just told me.” “I did?” “Yes, you did.” “Oh.” With careful directions and some long-suffering sighs, Twilight eventually led Gem back to her little secret hideout, an even smaller apartment with even fewer amenities. The room was bare, with only a small couch, and a cot to sleep on. “Here you go, Gem,” Twilight said, as she carefully let the decker down on her couch. “Thank you, darling. I simply don’t think I would have made it without you.” “You would have been fine, Gem.” “No, seriously, Darling,” Gem said, as she rolled on her couch. “I would be completely useless out there on my own, thank you so much for getting me here.” “It’s fine Gem.” “No, really...It’s so kind of you. I...I need to know, do you have a place to stay?” Twilight hesitated. “I have the warehouse?” she said, though her tone said more about her uncertainty on the idea. “Oh, no, dear, no, no, no…” she muttered. “If you go there, you increase the chances of the whole thing exploding. They’re looking for you now, so if you want your stuff to be safe there, you can’t go there. You need a place to be safe.” “Okay...well, I don’t…” “Just stay, it’ll be fine,” Gem said. “It’s not like you haven’t stayed at my place before.” “It’s fine,” Twilight said, “Really. I can find a pla—” “With what money and what contacts?” “Well, I mean…” “Just stay,” Gem said. “You can pay me back by picking up food.” Twilight sighed. “Fine. Do you have any good trids here?” “Unlimited Trixflix,” Gem said with a smile before Twilight’s comm received an attachment with an account to the aforementioned streaming service. Twilight smiled. “Eh, I’m a criminal anyway.” “That’s the spirit!” Gem said, before groaning. “I’m going to need some Ibuprofen.” Twilight smirked. “Alright, alright, I’ll head out in a moment. First things first, though, I’m queuing up Maredevil.”