//------------------------------// // 55. Dog Days // Story: Spider in Equestria // by DarkSpider //------------------------------// Garm lazily watched the pair in front of him fight, the sounds of steel clashing against each other echoed throughout the yard. The diamond dog sighed in boredom, finding the one sided fight, or rather the “sparring session”, to be dull. “Poor Twig… I’ve seen pups give a better fight than him.” He said, shaking his head and turning away from the fight. Upon hearing his words, the white furred filly besides him snorted, trying to hold back her laughter. Turning his head towards the small unicorn that sat across from him, he raised an eyebrow at her. “Something funny?” “Just find it sad that a couple of puppies can fight better than Monkey Boy over there.” The white filly said, pointing at the flailing human, his clothing full of cuts and holes from the armored pegasus fighting him.  “Yield! I yield!” The human cried out, staggering backwards as he clumsily blocked another strike. He gripped the blade tightly, trying his best to not let go. “Come on Val! Take it easy on me, I’m still recovering!” He cried, trying to summon up his super strength to push his foe’s sword away. The armored knight scoffed, using her own strength to push the human back. “I am taking it easy! If I went any easier on you then you’ll just end up like all the other royal guards in Canterlot!” She yelled, pulling her sword back and striking the human’s blade again. “You told me you wanted to be better than them didn’t you? Well you can’t do that without getting some bruises! So suck it up and raise that blade. We’ll take a break as soon as you land a hit!” Turning away from the fighting, the white filly sighed. “I don’t know why she wastes so much time mentoring him. Monkey Boy is a lost cause. Poor guy isn’t much better than those guards sis always complained about.” The diamond dog only hummed, not being able to think up a good response to the filly’s thoughts. Reaching over for one of the sandwiches, he grabbed it and popped it in his mouth. “Well as much as Twig likes to use it as an excuse, he really is just recovering.” He finally said, “Can’t really expect much out of him like he is right now. I’m sure by the time he’s fully recovered he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.” The raven haired filly rolled her eyes, dismissing the idea. “Oh yeah I’m sure he’ll be really strong in no time.” She said sarcastically. “Why, I bet in just a few months, Monkey Boy here will be strong enough to take over all of Canterlot!” Garm chuckled at the filly’s joke, shaking his head slightly. 'Oh if only you knew…' The diamond dog looked back at his two partners, his eyes narrowing at the human. While initially unimpressive, he knew there was more to the seemingly harmless human than meets the eye. After all, if he really was as weak as everyone thought him to be, there would’ve been no way for him to survive the encounter with Sköll. He frowned, ‘If only I could figure out just what you said to him… what you did…’ He shook his head, preferring to not think about the monster dog. A sharp cry shook the duo from their thoughts, turning back towards the fight the pair watched as the human fall backwards, his sword being thrown to the side. Grimacing, he rubbed his back and got up, his knees shaking slightly. In front of him the armored pegasus sighed and sheathed her weapon. Shaking her head, the pegasus walked past him and picked up the discarded sword. “This isn’t working.” She said, surprising the human. “No offense Kaito, you have power no doubt, but you lack skill, and really it’ll probably take us a bit longer to get you into shape.” The filly broke out in laughter. “So much for becoming a master of the blade!” Kaito turned towards her and glared.  “Astra, leave Kaito alone.” Valor scolded, taking off her helmet and putting it on the ground. “Anyways Kaito, there isn’t anything to be ashamed about. Learning how to fight and weilding a weapon efficiently takes time. Learning how to do it all in a week just wasn’t a realistic goal.”  The human sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “I know, but we were supposed to leave for Manehattan today, and I didn’t want to be a burden for the job.”  Valor walked up to him and placed a hand on top of his shoulder, smiling gently. “Hey come on, you aren’t a burden. You just need more practice. For now, it's best if you just focus on your strengths rather than learning new skills.” “Valor is right.” Garm said, walking up to them. “It's better to focus with what you got than with what you don’t have.” He closed one of his fist and punched his open palm. “So why don’t we practice a bit with your powers? You’re pretty new with them right? Well we still have some time before the train leaves, so why don’t we train a bit?” Kaito nervously backed away from the old dog. “While I would love to, I’m feeling really tired from the sparring with Val.” He laughed nervously, raising his hands in a placating gesture. “Besides I have to save my energy for the job we have, right?” Astra slowly made her way towards them, looking up towards them in confusion. “What’s this job you guys have anyways? And why does it require you guys to be gone for several days?” The white filly asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.  The white furred pegasus sighed, raising her hand to move her curly red mane away from her sight. “We took a job as security in Fortress Construction. Apparently a duo of supers robbed the place sometime ago. They didn’t take everything but a ton of things were trashed and are missing.” “And with the three of us around, they’re hoping that we’d be enough to stop any thieves from taking whatever's left in there.” Kaito chimed in, interrupting the knight’s explanation with a smug smile.  The filly snorted. “Well it makes sense why’d they hire Val and Garm here.” She began, a smirk forming on her face. “Sis used to be one of the best guards in Canterlot, and Garm is just plain scary looking, but why the heck would they hire Monkey Boy here?” Astra chuckled, pointing at the human. “What? Did you guys give them a really good deal? Hire two professional security guards and get a third rookie guard free?” She laughed, ignoring Kaito’s annoyed glare. Valor pinched her cheek and glared lightly at her. “Be nice.” She scolded, ignoring her yelp. Rubbing her cheek, Astra frowned and looked back up at her sister. “Sorry…” She mumbled, glaring at the ground before looking back up. “If they really wanted the place to be well guarded, why didn’t they just hire that new superhero in Manehattan? Toxin.” The three of them briefly shared a look at each other, before Valor looked back at her sister with a smile. “That’s simple, she’d be too busy patrolling the streets and fighting villains to really be doing guard work.” “Besides, how would they even get in touch with her? Not like she left the public with her address or something.” Kaito added, waving his hand dismissively.  Astra rolled her eyes. “With an ad on the paper, duh!” She then sighed, crossing her though. “Though I have to admit, it would be tough to get a hold of her, and I doubt she’d accept the job.” “Which is why they hired us.” Valor said, clapping her hands. “Anyways shouldn’t you be heading to school now? Classes should start in about forty minutes.” Astra groaned, slouching as she stared up at her sister. “Oh come on Val! Can I please just stay home today? Please?” She begged, clasping her hands together. The pegasus smiled, patting her head. “Sorry, but no. Just because I’m going to be gone for a few days doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want during that time.” She said, pushing the small filly towards the house. “Now go get your stuff and go, you don’t want to be late.” Astra sighed, glaring at the house as she slowly made her to the door. “And I will be checking in with the school when I come back to make sure you actually went! So don’t think you can just ditch class either!” The filly groaned loudly, walking faster to the house and stepping inside. Garm hummed, turning towards the other two. “We should be getting ready to go too, the train comes in just an hour.” Valor nodded, agreeing with the diamond dog’s suggestion. “You’re right, we don’t want to keep our boss waiting.” With that the odd trio began making their way to the house, intending to pick up their suitcases and leave.  Running past the others, Kaito grabbed his suitcase and set it down on the living room table, propping it open and taking out a bright silver watch before putting it on. Grabbing the dial of the watch, he turned the dial a few times and pressed down at the center of it. Suddenly his body began glowing in a blue light, before leaving behind an earth pony stallion, the pony possessed peanut brown colored fur with his mane being a much darker shade of brown. The pony turned back towards the other two and grinned, giving them a thumbs up. “Stage Troupe is ready to go!” He announced turning back and putting on a trench coat. Garm snorted, “I still think your Diamond Dog disguise looks better.” Valor rolled her eyes. “Come on boys, we can argue about Kaito’s disguises later in the train.” She said, waving her hand as she walked past them to the front door. “Though if you ask me, I prefer the pegasus disguise.” The train attendant slid the door opened for the odd trio and stepped aside, giving the three enough room to enter the private room. “The private cabin you requested miss.” The pony said, bowing at the three.  Valor briefly looked around the private room and nodded. “Thank you, that will be all.” She said, handing the pony a couple of bits. She entered the room and set down her stuff near the bed, the other two behind her doing the same.  The attendant smiled and nodded. “If you need anything please just ring the bell.” He said, sliding the door close, leaving them to their privacy.  Kaito immediately threw himself onto the bed, bouncing once before settling down. He let out a pleased sigh and dropped his “Stage Troupe” disguise. “You know, this bed is a lot more comfortable than the one I got back in Canterlot.” He waved over the elderly diamond dog. “Hey Garm feel this bed, pretty sure it's better than the one in your hotel room.” The diamond dog placed his paw on the bed and rubbed the surface of it, letting out a short hum. “Certainly feels softer.” Valor rolled her eyes. “Come on boys, you can play with the bed later, right now we need to talk business.”  “What’s there to talk about?” Kaito asked, raising a hand lazily. “We can’t really come up with a plan for the job right now, especially when we haven’t even received our tools yet.” “He’s got a point, those tools we’re getting could make the job a lot easier and just make whatever plan we make now completely unnecessary.” Garm added, sitting down on the soft mattress, sighing contently. “You know, before we head back to Canterlot, we should take this bed with us.” “Now that's a plan I can get behind.” Kaito said, smiling. “How are we going to sneak it past the attendants though?” “Easy.” The dog began. “We brute force our way out.” The human rolled his eyes. “Brute force? Come on Garm! There’s no style in doing things that way! We should sneak it past them. Maybe one of us leaves the train and waits behind this cabin’s window, and whoever’s inside tosses the out for the other guy to catch it.” He smirked. “Trust me it's full proof and best of all, no heat gets tossed at us.” Valor let out a frustrated sigh, placing her palm on her forehead and shaking her head. “Can you two just be serious! I want to have a serious conversation about our employer before we have to meet him again!” Garm raised an eyebrow in confusion. “The Kingpin? What about him? You having second thoughts about this?” He asked, leaning forward to give her his full attention. Kaito got up from the bed, and gave her the same confusion expression.  Valor shook her head. “Second thoughts? No. But something about him just doesn’t sit right with me. I don’t like being indebted to that man.” “I know what you mean.” Garm spoke up. “He’s been generous with us, too generous. We’re new, we don’t have a reputation, and he has no way of knowing if we’re worth it. He’s making a big investment by giving us those gadgets we’re picking up free of charge.” Garm gritted his teeth. “I don’t know what game he’s playing, but I don’t like being a part of it.” He hated being led around. At least with Kaito he knew what to expect, but the crime lord was nothing like the human. Kaito hummed, closing his eyes in thought. Letting out a sigh, he voiced his thoughts. “You guys are being too paranoid about this. Even if the Kingpin is just using us, we’re using him too. And if he does have something nefarious planned for us, we’ll just fight our way out.” He turned towards his allies and smirked. “Remember, we’re the Fenrir Mercenaries, as long as we work together, there isn’t anyone we can’t beat.”  Valor shook her head. “I wish it was that simple, but this guy is a crime lord. He has the largest gang in the city backing him up.” She sat down on the sofa across from the bed and sighed. “Not to mention he’s a dragon, that alone makes him more dangerous than all of those flunkies of his combined.”  Kaito scoffed. “So what? We got Sköll with us.” He said, pumping his fist. “The big guy alone could take on all of his flunkies with no trouble, I bet he could take on the Kingpin all on his own as well.” He stood up and punched the diamond dog’s shoulder playfully. “Isn’t that right Garm?” The diamond dog blinked, before humming in thought. “Well… Maybe? I’m not really sure what Sköll is really capable off, just that he’s strong.” Kaito shrugged, accepting the answer. “Good enough.” He glanced at Valor. “As I said before, as long as we stick together, we can’t lose.” She sighed and leaned back in her seat. “You sound like Princess Twilight.”  Kaito raised an eyebrow. “Is she cute?” Beside him, Garm let out a small chuckle.  Valor narrowed her eyes, seemingly glaring at him. “Well… yeah, if you like the nerdy bookworm type.” He nodded, closing his eyes and humming. “So like super cute, got it.” Kaito smirked and opened a single eye to look at the glaring pegasus. “You think she’s hiring? She’s a princess so she must have a personal guard. Maybe I can be the head of the guard.” He said, chuckling at the end.  “I doubt she would hire a twig like you.” Valor said, crossing her arms. “Besides, I don’t think she’s hiring. None of us in the guard ever got moved to Ponyville, and last I heard she hired two newbies to be her personal guard after having none for years.”  “Just two rookies?” Garm questioned, sounding a bit shocked. “From how smart everyone makes her out to be, I would’ve thought she would hire at least someone with experience.”  She shrugged. “I don’t really know the details, I left before I got to meet them. They apparently were at Canterlot training with the rest of the guard for a while.” “Up in Canterlot huh?” Kaito mumbled, staring at the ceiling for a moment before shaking his head. “Well we probably won’t have to worry about them for a while, after all they’re stationed in Ponyville, and I doubt we’d be going there anytime soon.” Valor nodded. “You’re right, for now we should focus on the threats we’re almost certain to meet.” Reaching towards her bag, she took out three beige folders. “According to the dossiers that Kingpin prepared, the most likely resistance we’d face is the solo hero Toxin, that new villain duo calling themselves Blob and Toad, and if we’re unlucky, the Spider.” She laid down the folders in the table in front of them. “It's best if we stay prepared, so any of them you want to discuss first?” Kaito hummed, picking up with the dossier of the Spider with some interest. Opening the file, he quickly looked through it. Most of the papers inside were speculations, newspapers, confirmed abilities, and reported sightings. Picking up one of the newspapers, his eyes narrowed. “You know… I don’t think this guy is a pony at all…” He spoke up, catching the other’s by surprise.  “What makes you say that?” Valor asked. “Most ponies agree that he must be an earth pony with powers, or at least a unicorn cloaking his features.” Raising a hand, Kaito rubbed his nose. “There’s no snout, no horn, and his ears aren’t in the right place to be a pony.” He shrugged, passing the file to Garm. “It's pretty obvious really. Besides, his body type is all wrong to be anything else. And if he really was a pony, his legs are also all wrong. They don't end in hooves, and they aren’t bent in the right position. If this really was a unicorn disguising themselves, then they’ve picked one weird looking disguise. After all, it looks practically human to me.” Upon receiving the file from the diamond dog, Valor carefully looked through all of the photographs, her eyes narrowing with every picture she looked at. “You’re right. He’s not a pony, his body type is similar to yours.” She facepalmed and groaned. “How did I not catch that before?” Garm snorted. “So we got two monkeys around now?” He laughed, ignoring Kaito’s annoyed look.  Valor smiled, letting out a small chuckle. “Seems like it. Though it seems to me that we got the newest model.” The other two turned towards her in confusion. “Kaito showed up in Equestria at around the end of December. This guy? He’s been here since November, possibly longer.” She said, flipping the newspaper to show them the paper’s date. Kaito’s eyes widened. “A whole month earlier? How did he even survive that long…?” He said, whispering the last part to himself. “New doesn’t mean best though.” Garm commented. “What about the guy’s powers? We know they both like to use the Spider motif, but is there anything we should be worried about?” Valor flipped through the pages once again, humming in thought. “I don’t think so. This guy just seems to have the same powers as Kaito… Though Kaito does have one thing that this Spider doesn’t have.” She said smiling widely. “Care to guess?” “Is it my dashing good looks?” Kaito guessed, running his hand through his hair. “Or perhaps my amazing sense of humor?” Valor shook her head. “Pretty sure you don’t have that either. Besides, I was talking about your stingers.” She said, pointing at his wrist. “None of papers ever mention him pulling out a pair of metal stingers from his wrists.” “Huh.” He responded, looking at his wrists and popping his two stingers right out. “Neat.” Garm hummed, rubbing his chin. “You sure he doesn’t have any special powers different from Kaito’s?” “It's entirely possible he does. After all, he's only been sighted four times in the last few months.” Valor pulled out the newspaper that was at the front of the dossier. “His very first sighting had him webbing up a couple of gang members.” Pulling out the second newspaper, she pointed at the masked webbed up villain. “Second sighting was with him fighting against our objective.”  “So that's how Shocker landed in prison.” Kaito commented, picking up the paper.  “The third sighting was the most interesting.” Valor continued on, taking out the third paper and setting it down at the table. “A fight against somepony labeled "Vulture" in Canterlot. Apparently that name came up because some witnesses heard the Spider call him that. This one confirms the fact that he doesn’t only operate in Manehattan, but likes to travel around.” Kaito smiled, setting down his paper and grabbing the new one. “I remember this one. Big Bird here was attacking some drug company or something like that. I was about to step in, but Blue beat me to it.” Valor nodded, remembering the attack, the best she could do at that day was lead the others away from the attack. “A good thing he stepped in when he did. Someone could have gotten seriously hurt.” “Aren’t we supposed to be villains?” Garm commented, looking between the two. Kaito scoffed. “We may be villains Garm, but we’re professionals! We have standards.” “And attacking civilians is too low for you?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow. Kaito nodded, not even taking a second to think about it. “Yup! We don’t hurt bystanders. They have nothing to do with the fight, so why target them?” Garm stared at his teammate, stunned. While they were villains, it was comforting to know that his leader had some morals, even if they are a bit backwards at times.  “Kidnapping is totally okay though. Especially when it comes to princesses, and especially the cute bookworm types.” Garm deadpanned, shaking his head. “Of course.” “Moving on!” Valor interrupted, sending a quick glare to Kaito before giving them a neutral expression. “His final appearance was at Hearts and Hooves Day in Manehattan. While it wasn’t on any newspapers, he was spotted in the city with another masked pony. Possibly another hero given how friendly they were. The new hero hasn’t been spotted since though, and no one has any idea what they’re capable off.” “Well that isn’t good.” Kaito said, narrowing his eyes. “Rather not deal with any unknowns.” “Neither would I.” Valor put down the folder of the Spider and frowned. “Overall, not a lot of info regarding him… We do at least have an idea of his powers, they’re practically the same as Kaito’s.” Garm scratched his head. “So we have two humans in Equestria, both with very similar powers…” He hummed and turned towards Kaito. “Hey Kaito! You got a brother you didn’t tell us about?” Kaito leaned back for a second, surprised at the question. “Well I do have a brother, and two sisters, but I doubt any of them became the Spider.” He put down the newspaper at the table and threw himself onto the bed. “Besides, last time I checked, everyone in my family was still back home. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one here.” “So it's likely this guy isn’t related to Kaito, and the similar powerset is just a coincidence.” Valor shook her head. “Hopefully the Kingpin buys it. Not sure anyone else will believe that story.” Garm stared down at the several photos laid before him, frowning. “Well, one thing I did notice, this guy is much healthier than Kaito is.” Kaito jumped up from the bed and looked down at the photos, his eyes narrowing. “Kaito’s thin, too thin. Tartarus when we met the Kingpin he looked like a strong breeze could knock him down at any moment.” Kaito looked down at his stomach, feeling a bit self conscious at the comment. “I know you’re recovering, but there’s a good chance that the Spider is stronger. Not only is he healthy, he’s been here much longer. Heck most of the time he isn’t even in public, this guy could be training the entire time for all we know.” Valor sighed. “That’s a good point, it's best we assume that compared to Kaito, he’s much stronger.” She began picking up all the papers and started reorganizing them. “Better to overestimate him than to underestimate him.” Seeing the look on Kaito’s face, she decided to move the conversation along. “I assume we’re done with the Spider, right?” She continued when the two nodded. “Well the most likely threat we’ll face on the job is Manhattan's newest hero; Toxin.” Valor opened up the file and took out a police report. “First appearance: Stopping a robbery at Fortress Construction. What makes this more interesting, is that the building was being robbed by The Fool. No one’s ever seen him before that day. Toxin not only laid eyes on him, but she managed to defeat him in battle and get him to retreat.” She passed the report over to Garm. “An impressive first outing I take it?” Garm said, giving the pictures in the report a glance and passing it along. “Certainly seems like a ton of important stuff got smashed.” She nodded. “Very, especially when you consider just what the Fool is capable off.” She said as she took out another report, a logo of a red hexagon was at the top right corner of the page.  Kaito took the report and whistled after reading it. “Those are some pretty impressive abilities. Though why do so many villainous jesters have reality warping powers?” “It's not reality warping, they’re illusions. Though his size manipulation abilities are very real.” Valor corrected, pulling out a newspaper. “Toxin has to be very versatile, if not strong, to be able to defeat someone like Fool in her first day. Her second outing, while not as grand, was something that made it on the papers.” She showed it off, revealing a photo of Toxin punching out a green armored pony wearing a purple mask, four insect wings stuck out from behind the pony, the general aesthetic of the costume was that resembling an insect. “On her second sighting she fought against the Swarm’s Beetle and won. Unfortunately for her, the Beetle did manage to get away from the police.” Kaito looked at the picture and frowned. “Where did he get the armor from anyways? Seems a bit too high tech for him.” Valor shrugged. “Probably from the Tinkerer, which is who we’re getting our gadgets from.” She set down the newspaper and sighed. “Unfortunately while there have been a few confirmed sightings, not all of them are newsworthy and were mostly just her beating some random gang members.” She said, passing the file to Kaito who was reaching for it.  Grabbing one of the reports with the red hexagon logo, he frowned when he read it. “She sounds like trouble. Regeneration, webs, super strength, some shapeshifting there too.” He sighed and grumbled. “Perks of having a symbiote.” “Symbiote?” “Parasitic blob that invades your body and gives you superpowers in exchange for living there.” Kaito responded, putting the report back and picking up another one. “Oh she can stretch her limbs too, nice.” “So it's a symbiotic relationship rather than a parasitic one.” Valor commented organizing the papers again. “Is there any way we can separate the two?” “Sure.” He shrugged. “Electricity can be used to separate them, along with loud sounds, and fire can kill it.” Kaito answered, setting the file down. “Pretty short, even less to go on than the Spider.”  “At least we know Toxin’s weaknesses now.” The diamond dog grumbled.  “Right, and now the final threat we can face.” She put down the third file and opened it up, all of them frowned when they noticed the small number of papers. “Well this is just sad.” Kaito picked up the file and looked it over. “Well they’re certainly smart. They tend to stay out of the public eye, so not much info is spread about them.” He picked up the reports with the red hexagon and read them. “Huh, now we’re going into the X-Men stuff.” He commented, flipping through the pages. “Seems like there’s more info on the Blob than Toad.” “Blob has been around longer and used to be a lieutenant of the Swarm.” Valor answered.  Kaito only hummed, continuing to read the reports. “Pretty standard package for Toad. Super strength, a minor healing factor, can jump really high, and she has a toad-like tongue.” He frowned and moved the paper closer. “Aaand she’s just a kid... Maybe we can recruit her if we get lucky.” He said, passing the report along.  Garm frowned at the paper. “No pictures.” He immediately passed it to Valor, giving Kaito a small glare.  “Oh right... I forgot.” Kaito smiled sheepishly.  Valor frowned. “Seems unlikely to happen. While it's mostly speculation, the Kingpin does suspect this Toad to have some megalomaniacal tendencies. She’s been known to steal weapons from all the gangs, steal money, and destroy all of the drugs.” She shrugged. “Last one isn’t so bad, never did get what the fuss was about them.” “That's because you were a cop, or well, guard, you know what I mean.” Kaito said, fumbling with his words. Choosing to ignore his words, she continued. “Everytime the Toad makes a new appearance she’s usually seen with some new gadget, likely made with the weapons and bought with the money she keeps. She was reported to use bombs, surprisingly no casualties. She also carries a blaster, a shock baton, and wears a pair of high tech goggles.” “So she can create high tech weapons. That’s pretty cool, and dangerous.” Kaito set down the file at the table and laid back down. “Nothing in Blob’s file suggest he has powers. He’s just too fat to hurt with punches.” “He also has above average strength.” Valor commented, picking his file. “His body also protects him from projectile weapons. At this point I’m not sure if this file is right about him not having powers.” Kaito shrugged and waved his hand dismissively. “Eh, let them worry about it. The biggest threat between them seems to be Toad. If anything happens, we can just blame it on them for giving us faulty info.” Garm growled. “Not sure they will see it that way.”  “You guys worry too much.” He said, closing his eyes. “Besides the file says that they only operate at night and usually at the edges of the other gang’s territories.” He raised a finger and wagged it. “Where we’re going to be is nowhere near the docks, so we’ll be safe from the Brotherhood’s attacks.” Valor sighed, putting all the papers away and grabbing the three files. “I suppose you’re right. Well seems like we managed to get through all three dossiers. I guess we can just relax for the rest of the train ride, unless you two have something you want to talk about?”  After waiting for a few moments, Kaito let out a cheer, throwing his hands up in the air. “Finally! If you need me, I’m gonna catch up on my beauty sleep.” Garm snorted. “You should sleep more often then, all that sleep your missing is clearly working against you.” Upon seeing Kaito’s annoyed glare, the diamond dog laughed.