//------------------------------// // 39. Toxic Heist // Story: Spider in Equestria // by DarkSpider //------------------------------// "I'm home!" Lightning Dust called out, closing the open door behind her and locking it. Dragging herself towards the living room couch, she threw herself onto it and laid down, raising an arm to cover her eyes from the living room's light. "Welcome back," Indigo Zap called out, walking into the room and looking down at her with a curious expression. "Isn't today your day off? Why are you so tired?" The peach furred pegasus questioned. Lightning sighed. “Ran into the Spider and a friend of his earlier and dealt with some cult or something.” “The Spider?” “Yeah. Why?” “What was he doing here today?” “Hay if I know. Might've been on a date with that friend of his, though they denied it. Without actually seeing their faces, couldn't tell if they were lying or not.” Indigo shrugged. “Well I gotta go to bed. Night cos.” With that said she went to her room. Lightning sighed as she laid on the couch. After a few minutes, she sat up and looked at a nearby picture which showed her and Indigo as young fillies, in the arms of an aged stallion in a WonderBolt outfit, a green coat, light green eyes, and a mane and tail that was a dark blonde and white. Lightning sighed again as she looked at the picture, the memory of the day coming back to her. “Sorry Grandpa…” she muttered. “Oh, you look adorable in that picture,” Lightning suddenly heard the voice of a filly say. She immediately stood up and looked around. “Who said that?” “Sorry,” the voice said, its source nowhere in sight. “You seemed like you needed some cheering up.” Lightning paused as she started to realize that the voice wasn't being heard from her ears, but inside her head. Tensing up a bit, she asked, “Where are you?” “Um...inside your body I guess.” “How?” Lightning asked, trying not to be too loud in case her cousin woke up. “I...don't know how to explain it. Best I can understand is that I bonded to you and now you can hear me.” “Bonded to me?” “Yeah. Back on the street. Thanks for saving me by the way.” “Saving you? When did I save you?” “You don't remember? It was only a couple hours ago. You had that pegasus break the container holding me.” Lightning's eyes widened in shock. “Wait, you mean you were that weird slime that got out?” “Yup. And while my daddy seem to like the other mare a lot, you were closer and you seemed nice enough so I bonded to you.” “What are you, some kind of parasite?” Lightning asked. “Wait, your “daddy”?” She suddenly felt a small amount of sadness, though it wasn't her own. “I'm not a parasite. My...older brother Carnage is more a parasite than me and Venom. I'm a symbiote. I help my host. Which you are now.” Lightning blinked, slowly calming down. “So...you're not gonna eat up my body or force me to go nuts?” What? No!” The voice said, sounding horrified. “Why would I do that?” Lightning shrugged. “I don't know a thing about you. Not even your name.” “Oh, my name is Toxin,” the voice said, Lightning feeling its happiness towards said name. “Okay…” Lightning said, unsure how to react to that name. “I'm-” “Lightning Dust. I know. Daddy seems to like you quite a bit.” “There you go again. Who's this dad of yours?” “You call him the Spider.” Lightning did a double take. “What? How did he have a weird slime thing as a kid?” Toxin chuckled. “He's not my actual dad. I just come from his blood and have some of his memories.” Lightning blinked. “What do you mean?” “Somehow some ponies got his blood and made me and my brothers. And somehow we all have some of his memories. Though I don't have much compared to the others.” Lightning paused for a moment. “What kind of memories?” “From what I can understand, I have all his good memories. Not a single bad feeling from any memory of his I have. Carnage seems to have all his bad ones, always talking about how much he hates Rainbow…” Lightning did another double take on that. “Wait, Rainbow? As in Rainbow Dash?” “Yup. No idea why Carnage hates her though. I have so many memories of her and daddy having a great time together.” “So the Spider and Dash are friends?” “Well yeah. Heck, you saw them together earlier.” “What? When?” “When you freed me. Rainbow froze that guy behind you and tackled the other one.” “Wait wait wait, so you're saying that Frost Vapor is really Rainbow Dash?” “Yeah. Surprised you didn't know. I mean, she doesn't hide it very well. How many mares do you know with that voice, who can keep up with you in speed, and who would know about the events at the WonderBolt Academy and be bitter about it?” Lightning's eyes widened in realization when she started connecting the dots, before she sat back down on the couch and looked at the floor. “Well...that explains why she was so hostile to me…” Toxin stood silent for a few moments. “You really do feel bad about that, huh?” “Yeah…” “Well...how about I help you make up for it?” Lightning blinked. “How?” “My brothers and I are a special kind of symbiote. We can give our hosts power. And with my help, you can be a hero!” Lightning hesitated. “You're serious?” “Yup! I just need to come out.” “Um...how?” Toxin didn't respond. Before Lightning can ask again, however, a slime-like substance appeared on her back and started enveloping Lightning's body. Within seconds, Lightning was completely covered in the substance and looked a lot like the Spider, but a more orange red color at the upper half of her body and a bluish black color for the lower half. Lightning's eyes widened as she looked at herself, before turning over and seeing that wings were gone. “What happened to my wings?” Lightning asked, her voice at a different tone, which sounded a bit like a combination of her and Toxin's. “Don't worry, you still have them,” Toxin said. As if to prove her point, a pair of wings suddenly sprung out of Lightning's back and flapped a couple times before returning into her back. “Figured we should have them hidden. Makes it harder for others to find out our secret.” Before Lightning can react any further, she immediately heard Indigo groaning nearby and started to mentally freak out. The next thing she knew, she immediately jumped into the ceiling and stuck to it. She saw Indigo walk into the room, tired, and look around before shrugging and leaving. When she heard the door to Indigo's room close, Lightning dropped from the ceiling and landed perfectly on her feet easily. It was then that Lightning processed what happened and looked at her hands. “How did I do that?” “Sorry about that. You were worried about your cousin seeing you so I had us jump to the ceiling. You'd be surprised how often no one looks up.” Lightning blinked again. “You said you can give me powers... What powers are we talking about?” “Same as my daddy. Wall crawling, web shooting, super strength, and a few others.” “And you know how to use them?” “Completely!” Lightning took a deep breath. “Okay. Let's give this a shot.” “Great!” Toxin said excitedly. “Just jump out a window.” Lightning immediately stood up straight. “Seriously?” She asked in a strained whisper. “Just trust me.” Lightning hesitated before approaching the closest window. After opening it, she climbed onto it and looked down. She took a deep breath and jumped forward. When she nearly reached the ground and started to fear she'd die, she felt a strange sensation in her head and her arm immediately pointed towards a nearby building, a web coming from the back of her wrist straight towards the building. The web struck the side of the building and stayed there, somehow being able to support her weight, Lightning Dust bit back a scream as her arms started to shoot out more webs on their own, causing her to swing from building to building. Slowly the fear she’s been feeling started to go away, seeing as she how the symbiote hadn’t killed her yet, slowly being replaced by excitement as she was swinging, and jumping around the city. “Well this is certainly different from flying,” The pegasus whispered to herself, looking down at the ponies and shops below her. Suddenly she begun to feel an emotion that wasn’t hers again. Slightly confused she realized that it was the emotion of the symbiote creature, she felt joy and smugness emitting from the creature. “Isn’t it exciting!? And you can’t say it's not, I know you agree!” Lightning chuckled slightly. “Yeah it is… kinda scary at first though, you had me worried for a second there.” “Sorry about that,” She felt the symbiote’s guilt at the apology, “Didn’t mean to scare you like that, I just wanted to surprise you… I wouldn’t hurt you, really.” Finally shooting one last web at the closest building next to them, the two landed on the side of a three story building. Lightning Dust felt her body start to crawl up the wall of the building until they reached the roof. Once on the roof and jumping onto the top of a water tower, she regained full control of her body. She then took another look at herself. “Celestia, this is actually pretty fun.” She then looked down at the streets far below her, before her mind started to wander to other things. “Well now that that's done with, I have a few questions.” She felt the creature’s anxiety spike up. “Alright then… I’ll try my best to answer any questions you may have.” The symbiote said, a bit unsure. “What exactly can you tell me about the Spider beside his connection to Dash?” Toxin hummed, “Well… he’s not a pony for one, he’s actually a human.” She answered, Lightning felt a bit of confusion emit from the symbiote. Lightning did a double take. “I'm sorry, what? A human? You're kidding right?” She felt confusion again, “Why would I be kidding? Daddy’s a human from the planet known as Earth!” She explained happily, “He also calls himself Dark, but that’s not his real name, it's actually Tito. His favorite color is also blue!” Lightning immediately waved both her hands as if she was talking to someone in front of her. “Hold up. So the Spider is some alien from another world? And really? Blue? I'd have guessed black since that's what color most of his costume is.” “Black is his second favorite color.” Toxin answered, before feeling a sense of smugness and excitement again. “And he’s totally an alien! Earth is the name of his planet… it's actually a bit similar to this place… only without the magic and monsters.” Lightning flipped off the water tower and landed on the roof before folding her arms and pacing. “Then how the hay did he get here?” Toxin hummed. “Well it's a bit blurry… but I remember that daddy was sent here because of some items he got from someone.” Lightning felt Toxin’s confusion. “I really only remember him getting the items and saving a bunch of fillies from some Timberwolves. After that it's a bit of a blank for a little while. I can only remember the positive memories, so I guess what happened after wasn’t so good.” “When did he first end up here?” Lightning asked. “About three to four months ago... Two weeks after showing up in this world, he met you.” She answered. “Wait, then...how did he know about me and the academy? Sure he's friends with Dash but I doubt she'd be so willing to bring that up.” “I’m not so sure I should answer that one…” Lightning felt Toxin’s anxiety spike up again. “Not sure if it's something you’ll be able to handle…” Lightning Dust frowned, “Hey don’t worry, I’ll be fine just tell me.” “...If you say so…” Toxin answered her reluctantly. “Just… try to stay calm, okay?” Suddenly Lightning Dust’s mind was filled with images and sound, all of it relating to the events of that day. Lightning saw what looked like Rainbow Dash in the Wonderbolts Academy, as well as herself in creating the tornado as well, everything looked so different yet similar. Her legs gave out as she knelt down onto the floor, her hands grasping her head. “Wha-what was that?” “I… showed you some of his memories… of how he knows…” Toxin felt concern for the pegasus, “Are you okay..? I promise the headaches will go away soon! After the first time it shouldn’t hurt to view his memories anymore.” “What...what was that?” Lightning asked as the pain subsided. “That...thing. And why did we look...different?” “The thing he used to see you? It’s something called a television… doubt you guys have something like that here.” Toxin commented, seeming to be a bit confused. “And the reason why you all looked so different is because… well… that’s just how you guys look like in that TV show.” “TV show?” She felt nervous, “Well… its kinda complicated… but basically think of it as a play, or a comic book that moves on its own.” “Wait, like a movie?” “Right! Just like a movie!” Toxin yelled excitedly. “I forgot you guys had those… Except shorter and many more.” “So, let me get this straight. The Spider is not only an alien, but his world has something that shows him stuff about me and others?” “Actually it's more about Rainbow and her friends, but yeah basically that's it!” Toxin let out a nervous giggle. “It sounds really weird and crazy saying it all out loud, but it's the truth!” “If I didn't see it, I wouldn't believe you. But...this is insane.” “Wait til you learn about Displaced…” Toxin muttered. “Dis-what?” “Not important right now. Let's just say he can meet people from other universes and go back to that later.” “That sounds crazy.” “Meh. If we end up with half as crazy as a life as his hero, you haven't seen nothing yet.” The symbiote said with a small giggle. Before Lightning Dust could say anything in response, she froze, her head buzzing in alarm. The strange sensation didn’t hurt but it did take over all of her senses, Lightning Dust looked everywhere around her trying to figure out just why she was feeling this way. “Hey Dust! Calm down! You’re not in trouble! Nothing bad is gonna happen!” Toxin cried out in alarm. Lightning Dust took a few calming breaths, the feeling was still there but it wasn’t filling her entire head like in the beginning. “What was that?!” Toxin stood silent for a few seconds before finally replying, “That was your, or rather my, Spider-Sense. Daddy has it too and since I came from him, I have it as well, and since we’re bonded I guess you can feel it too.” She went silent again, Lightning Dust could feel her anxiety again. “Something is happening… It usually warns us of danger, but sometimes it can warn us when someone else is in danger or try to urge us to go somewhere with danger.” “So it went off right now because something is happening somewhere else?” She questioned. “Yeah… I’m not gonna force you to go, if you don’t want to go we can just go back to your home and ignore it.” The symbiote offered. Lightning Dust stood silent for a moment before shaking her head. “Thanks, but I’m a cop. If someone’s in trouble then I have to go. Doesn’t matter how dangerous it is.” Lightning Dust then felt another emotion come off the symbiote bonded to her, pride, joy, and of course a small amount of fear. “Alright then! Hope you don’t mind, but I’ll take over a bit!” With that, Lightning Dust felt all control of her body disappear as Toxin took over again. The duo ran towards the edge of the building and jumped off, just like before, Lightning’s arm raised by itself before shooting out a web to allow her to swing towards their destination. Finally, after a few minutes of swinging across the city, the duo landed in front of a large six story building, there was a large sign next to the entrance of the building. Feeling control return back to her, Lightning Dust slowly walked towards the entrance of the building, stopping to take a look at the sign next to her, eyes widening as she read it. “Fortress Constructions? Who’d be crazy enough to cause trouble in his building?” She shook her head briefly, and looked around the front of the building, not finding anything odd about it. “Whatever caused our Spider-Senses to go off must’ve come from inside…” The symbiote said, feeling a rather large amount of anxiety. “Be careful Dust.” “Don’t worry, I will be.” The pegasus slowly opened the door in front of her, noting how the building seemed to be unlocked. Stepping inside, Lightning immediately saw a group of security guards tied up in the middle of the room, all of them blindfolded. Lightning Dust felt her throat tighten when she noticed how none of them seemed to be moving, quickly running up to the group, she sighed in relief when she noticed that they were all just unconscious. “Thank goodness.” She whispered to herself. “Hey Dust, what’s that in front of them?” The pegasus pony took a step back and saw the item Toxin found. “It's a card…” Picking the card up she flipped the card to the front and frowned at what she saw. “A tarot card… ‘The Fool’.” She read, scowling. “What’s wrong? It's just a card, isn’t it?” Lightning Dust shook her head, “It's not just any card, it's a Tarot card depicting ‘The Fool’.” She answered. “There isn’t a single pony in Manehatten who hasn’t heard of him by now. He’s a thief who breaks into ponies’ homes and businesses and empties them out, not leaving a single bit behind. No one has ever seen him, but he always leaves behind these calling cards.” Lightning Dust felt a smirk slowly form on her lips. “Well… no one’s seen him… till now that is, and with you by my side, we’ll finally be able to catch this thief!” She said, pumping her fist up in the air. “Yeah! That fool won’t know what hit him!” Toxin yelled, feeling excited. Feeling encouraged by her partner’s words, Lightning Dust walked towards the next room, leaving behind the group of unconscious ponies. Upon reaching the next room, she saw that it was a trophy room, all around the walls she saw framed photographs of Manehatten’s personal hero in front of one the many buildings he helped build. Next to the photographs were several display cases of model buildings and future projects. “Huh… hey that guy kinda looks familiar… just can’t put my finger on it.” Toxin commented, looking closely at the pictures. Lightning was about to answer Toxin until a new voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts. “Ugh, awful photos, aren't they?” Taken by surprise, Lightning spun around and jumped away from the source of the voice. Her eyes widen when she saw just exactly who addressed her. It was a stallion, a unicorn to be specific. The violet furred unicorn wore a baggy orange and yellow jester outfit, the outfit had small yellow and orange stars littered across it. His hands were covered by a pair of similarly colored gloves. Covering most of his orange mane was an orange and yellow jester’s caps with two tails, complete with small bells at the end of the tails. Covering the upper half of his face was a white mask, the eyes of the mask was curved upwards, with two black stars under the eyes. “Fool…?” Lightning Dust said, a bit uncertain as this was the first time anypony has seen him. The stallion gave her a large grin, jumping up onto the display case, and somehow not breaking it. He then gave her an exaggerated bow. “Greetings!” He called out, excitedly. “Are you perhaps a fan?” He asked, leaning forwards to get a better look at her. Raising a finger, he pouted. “But your costume is all wrong! That’s not the costume of The Fool! That’s more similar to that new upstart! The Spider!” He sat down on the display case and folded his legs, resting his head on his hand as he continued to stare at her. “I swear ever since that little insect appeared, ponies all around the city has forgotten all about me!” He jumped down from the display case and raised an arm to cover his forehead in despair. “Not only that, but the streets have become littered with silly little fillies and colts playing dress up! Why, just the other day I saw a toad-like creature fighting against the leader of the Black Hound gang; Prowler!” Lightning had heard about that too. Apparently the gangs of the city were being attacked by some newbie with frog powers trying to make a name for themselves, and according to some of the reports it's another villain. A shame, really. From what she’s heard, they could’ve been a great hero. Well at least Shocker’s still in prison. Lightning Dust shook her head, glaring at the clown in front of her, she took a step forward. “Fool I am placing you under arrest! You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to consult-!” She was caught off as the Fool groaned. “Oh come on now! Don’t give me that!” He said, frowning at her as he wagged his finger side to side. “Besides I don’t think you can even arrest me!” He leaned forward and pointed at her chest. “Just look at you, you’re not even a cop! Unless…” He stood up straight and smirked at her. “You actually are a cop.” Fool gasped, slapping his face with both hands. “But officer don’t you know? Vigilantism is a illegal! Just what kind of example do you think you’re setting here?! Just think of the children!” He bemoaned. Lightning Dust gritted her teeth in anger and annoyance. While it was a mistake to reveal that part of her, she didn’t quite like the way Fool was talking to her. “Now you listen here-!” She was cut off again when Fool put a finger right on her covered lips. “Now now deputy, getting angry won’t solve anything!” The jester said, wagging his other finger. “Why I have half a mind to take away your badge right now! Honestly officers promoting illegal activities, what is this city coming into?” He said sadly, covering his forehead with his hand as he shook his head. “He sure does like to talk…” Toxin commented. ‘No kidding…’ Lightning thought to herself, getting annoyed at how much the jester was talking. “Look, I’m really not in the mood right now. I found out there’s some evil cult out there that wants to take over Equestria, ran into somepony I had a falling out with a couple years ago, and learned more about the Spider than I probably should. So are you gonna surrender or do I have to kick your flank? Please pick the second option because I’m sure beating you up will make me feel much better.” The jester threw his head back and let out a booming laugh. Fool had his arms spread out as he laughed, acting as if he had heard Lightning say something hilarious. Finally calming down, he leaned forward again with a large smirk. “My my, how generous of you! Offering me a chance to surrender?” He suddenly jumped backwards, landing, and somehow balancing on the head of the horned statue of Manehatten’s dragon-like hero. The Fool bowed, “My little pony, the Fool does not surrender! Especially when he has the winning hand!” He took out a pair of dice and rolled them around the palm of his hand. “Tell me little filly, are you ready to take such a gamble with your life?” Lightning's eyes narrowed in a deadpan expression behind her “mask”. “You getting tired of this too?” “Yup.” “Okay then,” Dust said before firing a web at Fool's face. The masked jester grinned, raising his glowing left hand towards the path of the web. Glowing brightly, the web disappeared into the palm of Fool’s hand. “I’ll be taking this if you don’t mind.” He said, much to the dou’s shock. Jumping high up in the air, he tossed the pair of dice at the pegasus. “Duck!” Toxin cried out. Lightning Dust tilted her head in confusion. “It's just dice…?” She said before suddenly having their ‘spider-sense’ go off. Acting on pure instinct, Lightning Dust dropped to the floor to avoid the pair of dice. Her eyes widen in shock as the dice exploded in size, suddenly becoming even bigger than her body, the die flew passed her, just barely missing her. Getting up from the floor, she looked back and gulped when she saw the die crush the displays without any effort. “Eyes on me, silly filly!” The Fool yelled, rushing at her with a pair of daggers on each hand. Acting on the spider-senses again, Lightning Dust dodged the incoming knives. Continuing to step away from the Fool’s attacks, the pegasus shot a web at the statue behind the clown and yanked it towards them, intending to hit him with it. The jester chuckled, his horn glowed brightly and suddenly the incoming statue shrunk into the size of a chess piece. Catching the statue with the palm of his hand, he jumped backwards and toss the tiny statue at her. Seeing that Lightning Dust was gonna dodge again, Fool right hand glowed as he toss out the web he stole right at the pegasus’ feet. Lightning Dust cursed as she now found herself stuck by her own web, seeing as she wasn’t able to dodge she raised both of her arms to protect herself from the incoming attack. The small statue suddenly exploded in size, somehow becoming even bigger than it originally was. Lightning Dust yelled in pain as she was pushed back and crushed by the giant heavy statue. “Lightning Dust!” Toxin yelled out in concern. “I’m... fine!” The pegasus gritted out, using the symbiote’s super strength to push the statue off of her. She was panting heavily as she got up, she glared angrily at the laughing clown. The Fool clapped his hands, howling in laughter. “I have to admit, you’re doing better than I thought you’d be!” Reaching into his satchel, he took out a fist full of marbles. “I must say you simply must do something about your anger issues, it wouldn’t be good for anyone if you suddenly lost your marbles!” He yelled, tossing the marbles her way. Already over half of the marbles became huge. Lighnting Dust gritted her teeth, feeling the spider senses try to guide her, she followed her instincts and jumped into the incoming wave of marbles. The pegasus jumped on top of the closest marble before jumping off of it, midair she spread out her wings and flew towards the clown, making sure to dodge any of the marbles coming her way. “I got you now!” She cried out, tackling the panicking Fool onto the ground. The two rolled around for a second before stopping. Lightning Dust quickly fired off a bunch of webs on the downed Fool, covering his entire body in webs. She got up to admire her work, “Looks like today’s your last heist Fool, you lose.” Lightning Dust’s smile went away when she heard the jester laugh. “Darling, you celebrate much to early! After all…” His smile turned sinister, “I can do anything!” Feeling her spider senses go off, Lightning Dust’s jumped into the air, spreading her wings to keep her airborne. Her eyes narrowed when she saw dagger fly past the spot she was in earlier, turning towards the source of the dagger, her jaw dropped when she saw another Fool waving at her. “There’s two of you?!” She heard laughter all around her. “Two?! Little pony, didn’t you hear me?” Lightning Dust paled at what she saw. “I can do anything!” Surrounding her was an army of Fools, all of them brandishing their knives. “Where did they all come from?!” Toxin yelled out in panic. “I didn’t even hear or sense any of them!!” “REALITY BENDS AT OUR WHIM!” The army yelled, all of them throwing their knives straight at her. Lightning Dust flailed around, trying her best to dodge the wave of knives, her spidersenses being surprisingly unhelpful as it tried to get to her to only dodge the ones in front of her and jump into the ones behind her. “Toxin! Any ideas?!” Lightning Dust yelled, her eyes wide in fear as her fist went through one of the Fools, the Fool then disappeared, only to be replaced by two others. Toxin stayed silent, serving to fuel Lightning Dust’s panic. “Hey don’t go quiet on me now! Toxin!” She screamed when she saw a wave of knives come at her again. Without a single word, control of her body was seized once again. Lightning Dust screamed louder when she saw her body run towards the knives, she closed her eyes shut. “Lightning Dust! Look!” “I’m not opening my eyes you psycho!” “I’m gonna ignore that for now, but seriously look!” The pegasus’ eyes opened on their own, only to see a knife coming straight at her, before she could scream the knife flew right through her. “The knives aren’t real! Heck the Fool clones aren’t real either! They’re an illusion!” “They’re… not real?” Lightning Dust whispered. “That’s why your spider-senses was trying to get you to jump into the knives behind you! None of this is real!” “None of this is real…” The words soon began to sink into the pegasus. Suddenly being filled with anger at being tricked, she seized control of her body back. “That bucker! I bet he’s laughing at me right now!” She looked around the area, ignoring the knives and Fools impaling her. “Toxin where is he?!” “He’s trying to escape! He must be going to the front entrance! I heard the door open a few seconds ago but I wasn’t sure if that was a part of the illusion or not!” Nodding, Lightning Dust immediately took off towards the entrance. Slamming the door open, her eyes narrowed at the shocked Fool making his way to the exit. “YOU!” She shouted, her voice sounding different, but she didn't care. She bolted at the clown and grabbed the front of his costume. “N-now now darling, let’s not do anything hasty!” The Fool stuttered, suddenly becoming scared. “It was just a joke! You know how we fools are, we just love a good joke!” “That wasn’t funny!” She yelled, throwing the costumed stallion at the wall next to them. Just as the Fool was about to run away, Lightning Dust wrapped his legs and the rest of his lower in a cocoon made from her webs. Grabbing the cocoon, she hung the Fool upside down, using her webs to hang him from the ceiling. “Lightning are you okay?” Toxin asked, feeling concerned about how angry her friend was. “I’m fine!” She snapped. She frowned when she saw the Fool pale even further when he looked at her. Turning towards the mirror next to them, she stepped back in surprise when she saw a mouth with strange teeth forming on her “mask”. “What the… What's going on?” Lightning asked. “All of your anger, I was feeling it too… and I guess because I was feeling angry too, I just sort of unconsciously made us look like this...” After Lightning took a few deep breaths, the mouth returned to the mask she had earlier. She then looked at Fool and glared at him. “W-what are you?” He asked, scared. Lightning hesitated for a moment before saying, “Call me...Toxin,” she said, her voice back to the way it was before. “And you're going away for a long time.” It took Fool a few seconds longer to react to her words, likely still shaken up from seeing Toxin’s more monstrous appearance. “G-going away?” The Fool gulped, shaking slightly. “Now now doll, this isn’t how you play the game!” Lightning raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? I’m not going to kill… you?” She whispered the last part as her eyes narrowed at the sight of red smoke coming out of his hands. “Get down now!” Toxin yelled. Feeling their shared senses go off again, Lightning Dust quickly dropped to the floor, putting her hands on her head, Toxin shifting their hands to completely cover them. Suddenly, to everyone’s shock, both Fool and the cocoon exploded into nothing more than red smoke, small flaming webs scattering all over the place. Lightning Dust slowly got up and turned towards the spot Fool was in, her throat dry. “What… what just happened?!” Before Toxin could respond, all of the smoke and flames in the area began to gather and merge into a large ball of smoke. Slowly all of the smoke began to disappear, leaving Fool in its place. The unicorn looked terrified at what just happened, his face pale and covered in sweat, his eyes darted around all over the room until they finally settled on Dust. Fool stared at her for only a second before turning into a smoke cloud. Before Dust could do anything, the cloud of smoke dashed away, disappearing inside the air vents. Lightning stared at the vent for a second, processing what just happened. “So guess she's not the only one…” Toxin muttered. Lightning blinked. “What are you talking about?” “Later. We need to go before the cops come.” “Why? We did nothing wrong.” “We are in a building that was broken into with the security tied up and the culprit escaped. Plus we don't exactly look that friendly, even if we're not angry anymore.” Lightning blinked. “Touche…” Dust went to the guards and ripped off the bindings before she ran out the door and swung away. After a few minutes of swinging, she landed on a roof and crossed her arms. “Now, you seem to know what the deal with that was. Spill.” “Well first off, his fighting, using illusions to fool you, is a lot like a villain my dad knows about.” “Who?” She was then exposed to a memory of a guy in green with a cape and a fish bowl looking helmet over his head, fighting someone that looked a lot like the Spider, but a few differences such as being red instead of black. When the memory was done, Dust blinked. “Okay, I see what you mean. Maybe with those memories, we can beat him next time. But what did you mean “she's not the only one”?” “You remember when Rainbow said she had a gene that let's her control water?” “Yeah…?” “Seems that Fool has the same gene. I remember what a smoke Conduit's abilities look like.” “Mind telling me what he can do then?” “Shoot smoke from his arms in blasts, turn into smoke to travel, throw smoke bombs that leave the victims in coughing fits, and...the Orbital Drop…” Toxin finished, sounding worried. “Huh?” The next moment, she saw a strange hairless creature in a vest and red hat flying into the air before diving to the ground and exploding upon impact, the creature reassembling from the smoke similar to Fool earlier, but far calmer. Dust's eyes then widened in shock. “O~kay, I see why that worries you.” “Yeah… And that's just someone who had the power for a week. And he was unconscious during most of that week.” Lightning took a deep breath. “Any good news?” Toxin paused for a moment before saying, “Well, he only had that much power thanks to absorbing some materials that was scattered around the city. And the only ones who know that those things are useful for Conduits are my daddy and his friends.” Dust sighed. “Well, that's something…” “Plus, we have a way to cancel out his powers.” Lightning immediately stood up straight. “Wait, we do?” “Yup. If my memory is right, a Conduit is powerless when their arms are completely covered.” Lightning blinked in confusion. “Seriously? That's it?” Lightning felt herself shrug. “Meh, not like anyone can guess that. And besides, not as ridiculous as an alien being weak to a rock from his world.” Lightning nodded in response before a thought came up. “Wait, speaking of weaknesses, you have any?” “Yeah. I'm weak to 3 things. Loud noises, which can make me separate from you, same with electricity. The third thing is fire, which straight up hurts.” “So we just have to avoid that.” Lightning then stood by the edge of the cliff. “So...how was your first night as a hero?” Toxin asked, worry evident in her voice. Lightning shrugged. “Nuts. But I believe we'll get used to it.” “Wait, so...you want to continue?” “Well yeah. While our first night was far from the best, I say we make a pretty good team. And besides, since “Tito” isn't around, somepony needs to watch over this city in his absence. Now come on, let's go home. Celestia knows I need some sleep.” With that said, she began swinging to her apartment, feeling Toxin's joy.