I couldn’t believe it...
I was clearly unable to trust these fools with anything, let alone my tech. Rainbow Dash flipping cars and almost overloading her suit in a day? Sunset hurling grenades at a government building?
I can only imagine what Fluttershy and Applejack have to offer.
After the attack, we had no choice but to move operations to another compound, an old Kingpin drug-running bunker... it was massive enough to comfortably house the six of us, but the rather... fascinating smell made conditions quite distracting.
Rainbow was enjoying herself, though...
“Oh, sweet! Looks like Sombra left some of the stuff behind... Flutters, you want some?” She asked, holding up a sealed bag containing a white powdery substance...
Before she could answer, Sunset swooped over on her repaired glider and pulled the bag from Rainbow’s hand and threw it onto the rafters.
“Hey! What the hell--” Rainbow didn’t get to finish her sentence as she set her hand on her throat and flew her against the wall.
“Now... is not the time for a high!” Sunset screamed.
Before any of us could say anything else, Applejack got between them.
“Okay, okay—that's enough! We’re supposed to be a team, a... a sextet, a sinister six, remember?” Applejack asked.
“Oh, of course the one nickname you remember...” Rainbow gagged.
“Y’know what? I think we all need a breather, maybe a few drinks? I know a spot downtown, or at least... I think I know a spot. It was the... the Bar--”
“The Bar with No Name. That could work...” Fluttershy interrupted Applejack.
I simply rolled my eyes and sighed.
“Fine. Drinks... but first, you’ll all need disguises.” I said as I manipulated my arms to walk over to a storage room and thoroughly searched for a certain set of technology...
“Here-- put these on.” I said as I handed out white masks to the group, who all looked on with confusion.
I set one on myself and tampered with the settings, the mask’s holographic technology activating, turning me into an ordinary citizen.
“Audio test—1... 2... 3.” I said out-loud, my vocal tone changing into one completely alternate from my own...
The others were shocked and I felt the need to explain the masks to them.
“Chameleon Tech— it turns out that my mother did a few deals with Kingpin, including holographic technology... apparently Sombra took a few, most likely for himself and his girlfriend, Chrysalis... I don’t know if you recall her from the Battle of the Bands.” I said to them as they all transformed.
I turned to see Sunset walk away, finding a mirror inside a separate room and messing with the settings...
The projections engaged and, to my shock, her normal, non-goblin self was projected. She slowly, hesitantly rested her hand on the mirror and what seemed to be a tear started forming in her eye...
Needless to say, I decided to leave her alone.
As for the others, they transformed into normal citizens—people who wouldn’t really spike any suspicion.
“Damn... I could get used to this tech.” Fluttershy’s disguised voice said.
I let out a chuckle as Sunset came out of the separate room, now morphed to a high-school student.
“Well? Are we just going to sit here and admire ourselves, or are we gonna go out?!” Sunset excitingly asked through her barely-disguised voice.
The Bar with No Name was exactly what I thought it would be—a mudhole, populated with what could be best described as cannon fodder for the mob bosses and what one could call... “bigger fish”.
Rainbow and Fluttershy—there Chamelion masks off, now that we were all in a safe area-- were trying their luck with the other bartenders, but most of them cleverly kept to themselves, save for a couple who heard the stories about the Scorpion and Electro.
Applejack and Pinkamena were sharing a drink—soda, since apparently criminal psychopaths respect drinking laws...
Pinkamena was a fascinating case... her symbiote friend seemed to simply be an extension of her personality, aside from a sentient being, unlike Venom, when I took him from Oscorp and transferred him to Flash...
He was quite talkative.
As for Sunset, she was sitting alone at the barstool, keeping her disguise on, fiddling with an empty glass, most likely having downed more than a few.
I sighed and decided to take a seat next to her, turning to the bartender, who was standing in place due to my mechanical arms releasing from my harness and climbing up the wall.
“I’ll just have a lemonade, please... I wish to keep my senses sharpened.” I said to him as I turned over to Sunset, who glanced up at me and sighed.
“Why the long face? I wouldn’t call this day a success, but it wasn’t exactly a failure.” I said to her.
She sighed and turned to me, her eyes somewhat puffy.
“Have you ever strived for something, Twilight? Power? Respect? A lover?”
I smiled and shook my head.
“All of the above, my dear...” I said, taking a sip.
She let out a snicker and disabled her disguise, revealing her scaly green skin...
“Well, I did, too... and I felt that power—it was incredible... All of this planet and Equestria, in the palm of my hand... and I managed to lose it to Spider-Man!” She said as she slid her glass onto the floor in rage.
Everyone in the bar turned to us, leaving absolute silence as Sunset shook her head and rested her head onto the table.
“Look, I get it... before I built this neural interface, it was always ‘yes, mother’, and ‘I’m sorry, mother’, and ‘please, mother’... I grovelled before that woman, Sunset Shimmer... she took me away from my father and brother when I was just a child, and you almost got me expelled from CH, so my mother sent me to Crystal in attempts to... improve me. Instead all she did was isolate me, and treat me like a leper. So... I refused to attend her funeral.” I said, now glancing at my empty glass.
Sunset turned to me, shocked by my statement.
“What? How about your parents?” I asked her.
She chuckled and shook her head.
“My brother was quite the expert in magic. My mother was overbearing, but she loved me, y’know? Celestia took me in along... the other you, and I saw that I was made for more. I... learned more than a few forbidden spells, and I ran through the portal.” She said without a care in the world.
I let out a hum, unphased by talks of magic and other versions of me, if anything, that was common place by now.
“How about Flash? How did you meet him?” I asked, darting my eyes at her.
She let out a dragged-out laugh and asked for another drink.
“It was Sophomore year, almost right after you left. I encountered him in a hallway and my journal dropped out. Sure enough, he read it, learned... what I was into. The next day, he was assigned as my tutor, and... I saw potential in him, mostly why I didn’t deny him when he made his move. I... saw a pet project in him.” She smiled, most likely reminiscing on old times...
I chuckled and turned to my arms, resting on the ceiling, away from the public eye, still controlled by my neural interface.
“I never really talked to Flash in the very short time we’ve met, but I have quite the lists of experiments I have for him and his symbiotic friend... who knows? Perhaps I’ll take Venom for myself, once I know how to tame him...”
Sunset let out a chuckle and rested her foot next to mine...
“Now, that, I’d like to see...” She chuckled, I joining along.
A moment after, Sunset finally deactivated her disguise, and one of the drinking criminals rose up and cleared his throat.
“Everyone-- give it up for the Green Goblin!” He cried as he started clapping.
Loud applause ruptured from the bar as Sunset simply lifted her head, astounded at the appreciation.
That shock and awe soon faded as her signature smile returned...
As I suddenly felt a warm, tight grip on my hand.
I didn’t do much, I simply allowed her gesture as my mechanical arms landed onto the ground and the harness reattached to me.
“So, what’s the plan, Doctor?” She asked me.
It was time they knew...
“Well, the portal won’t open for another year, but in that time, your Geodes need to be reclaimed from S.W.O.R.D, Spider-Man—along with the others-- needs to be squashed, Venom needs to be captured, and this world needs to be conquered. Then? When all of Earth bows before... what did Applejack call us, the Sinister Six? When that happens... Equestria is next.” I smiled, fantasizing about not one, but two worlds on their knees for us...
For me.
Sunset was awestruck and shook her head...
“How about you? You need a Geode, as well...” She said to me.
I smiled and shook my head.
“Sunny... Technology is it’s own magic...” I said as I used my arms to once again raise myself above her, my hand freed from hers.
She chuckled and stood on the table, smiling at me.
“Very true... but why not have both?”
Another day... another trafficking ring destroyed.
The walk back to my van was extensive, especially with the dark atmosphere of the deep city at night. The shady pedestrians on the sidewalks, the flickering street lights—everything was a red flag for me.
I kept my hand in my purse almost the entire venture.
As I trekked on, I noticed three men standing by a dark alleyway, one of them signalling towards me...
“Hey, cutie!” I heard, blocking out the rest of their creepy pickup lines.
I walked right past them, and they continued throwing lines at me.
“Wanna say no to us? Suit yourself...” I said as I heard footsteps behind me.
It was almost too easy, they forcibly grabbed me and angrily dragged me into the dark alleyway, me “screaming” out in “fear”.
As one of them ran to grab my purse, I reached into it and grabbed my silenced pistol, letting out a shot directly next to the man wrapping his arms behind me, him letting out a scream as I kicked the one in front of me and threw him to the other two, who were now holding up their hands and on their knees.
“Hey... let’s just take a breath, ‘kay...?” One of them whimpered.
“Shut up and listen—I’ve spent the last 5 months looking for scum like you lot—the sacks of shit who’ve gone unpunished for far too long.” I said, pushing the barrel against the ringleader’s head.
He started crying, the pathetic coward. He thought he could rob me, possibly assault me? He couldn’t even take being held at gunpoint.
“Look, I’ve just wiped out a human trafficking ring, and I’m tired... that, and I don’t want to waste my bullets. If I ever see you out here again—and I’ll be watching—I won’t hesitate to gut you three like a fish, do you understand me?”
They anxiously nodded, refusing to move...
“And why the hell are you still here?” I asked them.
They ran into the street, out of sight, as I sensed I wasn’t alone. I turned around and saw a shadowy figure on the rooftop above the alley.
“Ah, Spider-Man... I know what you’re going to say, and you cannot convince me to come back home.” I said to my brother as I holstered my pistol and started walking away from the alley, collecting my casing as I went...
“Octavia...”
I froze—that was not Pip.
I couldn’t even turn around as I felt my throat begin to burn and my eyes begin to water.
“You’ve been watching me?” I loudly asked so she could hear me.
No response, just the flicker of the light above us...
“So are you back, or just visiting?” I asked, hoping to get an answer out of her.
Nothing. I started feeling agitated and turned around.
“I didn’t want to be safe, okay?! I wanted you! I... I wanted you...”
Still no response.
“Say something! Please...” I begged her.
After a moment, I sighed, knowing that she was gone, and turned back around and continued walking away...
“I’m sorry, ‘Tavi... I had to leave. It wasn’t safe for me, anymore, not after...” She started, stopping soon after.
I stopped, hoping to actually see her—face-to-face. I turned once more to see her, a few feet from me, donning her dark red uniform with horns attached to her helmet...
“Vinyl...” I said, approaching her slowly.
She did the same, a faint smile forming on her face.
I held her in an embrace, and she returned it, my tears no longer restrained.
“I missed you...” I whispered to her, kissing her neck and returning into the hug.
She patted my back and held the hug tighter for a moment and pulling away, much to my disappointment.
“I promise, Octavia... I’m never leaving again. I’ll see you around.” She said as she shot out the top half of her billy club onto a piece of the roof and rappelling herself towards the roof, leaping into the darkness once she reached the roof.
And like that... the love of my life was gone yet again, and I continued on to my van, noticing that my kevlar vest was visible, rebuttoning my shirt, concealing the skull painting on it...