//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: The Red Hood 
// by MorpheustheDream 
//------------------------------//

~~JT~~


When I finally regained consciousness, I could tell that I was strapped down to a chair with bindings wrapped around my wrists.  They weren't wrapped as tightly as they should if you wanted someone to stay where they were. A couple of movements here and there, and they would be loose enough for me to easily get out of the chair.

Another thing is that my helmet hasn't been taken off yet, so thats a plus. I kept my head relatively still as I surveyed the room around me, not giving anyone else in the room any notice that I had awoken.

There were several paintings around the room, with an overlook of the city of Canterlot below. Normally this wouldn't be cause for concern, but the paintings had the man I was trying to take down on it, Sombra. Plus there were several armed guards around the room, carrying one form of weapon or another, whether that be a pistol of sorts or an assault rifle, likely weapons bought from Penguin or some other arms dealer. The armored vest beneath my jacket should keep me protected from most of the damage should they manage to hit me.

Finally, I focused on what was in front of me. I saw the man himself, Sombra, sitting behind a desk, talking to Tirek who was on his left. Guess he paid the bond to get him out and back to working for him. That would make things more difficult for me when it came time to escaping. But what surprised me was Chrysalis standing off to Sombra's right. All three people in the same room, guess it's my lucky day.

I quickly ran a diagnostic on my camera feed, making sure everything was working, both visual and audio. I grinned beneath my mask when everything was operating in the green, and immediately began recording everything in front of me.

"I'm telling you that we should kill him right now! He's been nothing but a thorn in our side ever since he came here, both of you know that as much as I do."

"You forget Tirek that we also have reports that Nightwing is here in Canterlot as well. We'd have to capture him as well to get rid of them both at once without raising any suspicions." Chrysalis said back to Tirek.

Sombra sat in the middle between them, eventually holding up his hand silencing them both. "You both have made your points, and bring up good reasons as to what to do with the Red Hood. While I agree that both he and Nightwing need to be taken care of, it'll be extremely difficult, borderline impossible. They are both part of the Bats, and the last thing we need is any more of them showing up, especially Batman."

Sombra stood up and walked around the desk, coming towards me. "Chrysalis, gather the remaining information you have on who Red Hood might be and bring it to my desk by tomorrow afternoon. And keep trying to get to Shining Armour. He needs to be brought in line like the rest of the Police Force. Do whatever it takes. Bribe him with money, threaten his family, I don't care how it's done, just do it."

Chrysalis replied with a swift nod, gathering her things and exiting the room with several others, likely members of her Changelings. "As for you Tirek, I need you to head to Canterlot Bank and make sure nothing happens to the accounts I have set up. The last thing I need is for whatever payments I have to freeze and not go through any longer." Tirek grunted and left without another word, taking the rest of the guards with him.

And that just left me alone with Sombra. "And you can cut the act now Red Hood. I know you've been awake for some time now." And that was my cue. Lifting my head up to stare him in the face, just waiting for him to respond.

"You've been causing me quite a bit of trouble. Disrupting my dealings around the city, giving people false hope that you protect them. Even working with the one cop that I've yet to crack. Were you anyone else, I would've killed you already and been done with this," He told me, walking all around me as he spoke. "And your most recent dealings at Camp Everfree, that is certainly doing me far more harm than good. So I will ask you nicely this one time. Give me the files you have on what you found, and I promise you won't be badly injured."

"As much as I would like too, I don't have what you're looking for right now. Why don't you ask again in a couple days, and I'll get back to you."

Sombra let a small smirk appear on his face, "A jokester I see. Trying to be funny won't help you out here." He rammed his fist into my chest, causing a lot more damage than I was comfortable, and expecting with as he knocked the wind out of me. "Now I'm demanding that you give me what you found."

As I managed to catch my breath, I looked up and saw him raising his arm and fist again. Catching him off guard, I kicked him in the knee, making him buckle a bit and stumble backwards. I used the space given to spin the chair around, bending forwards on my feet due to still being in the sitting position and ram the legs of it into Sombra's chest. The impact knocked him over his desk and onto his back.

I then pulled against the restraints against my wrists for a few seconds, eventually getting free of them. As I stood up straight, I ducked underneath a wayward fist from Sombra, and sent a right hook into the side of his head. Instead of feeling my knuckles slamming into human flesh, I instead felt like I just smashed my fist into steel, which hurt like hell.

And imagine my surprise when at the source of the impact, instead of his normal dark skin color, it instead looked like a strip of steel used on construction sites. And a few seconds later as I moved my hand away from his face, it returned back to normal.

"Great, you're a meta-human. Just what I needed." I muttered out loud, shaking my hand to get some feeling back into it.

"Indeed, I am a meta-human. And as you can see, my gift is one that grants me a large amount of immunity to physical harm. My skin hardens in response to physical trauma. So fighting me like we are right now is a losing battle for you, Red Hood."

With this newfound knowledge, I immediately went on the defensive, parrying and dodging his strikes and grapple attempts as I wracked my brain for ideas on how to bypass or beat his meta-human ability. I could try to overwhelm him with strikes, overwork his power to the point it no longer works for a while, but I wouldn't know how long that would take, plus I didn't have a weapon on me to help me out. So scratch that option. I could attack him with brute force, as with enough pressure and force even steel can bend. But again, I'd need a weapon for that.

Backed into a wall, I ducked and moved behind him just in time to see him pull his fist out of the hole in the wall he made. Running out of plausible ideas, I had one last idea that I could test out right now.

You see, most metals are conductive, some more than others. Depending on how Sombra reacts, will help me figure out how to beat him down and escape to fight another day. I pulled out a spare knife and letting him grab me, I stab him in the adbomen as much as I can, acting as an extension to help direct the flow of electricity that began flowing from the bat symbol on my armor. Watching how he's reacting right now, eyes shut and teeth grating against one another as he gets shocked in pain, it's letting me get an idea as to what kind of metal his body transforms into.

After a few more seconds of him getting electrocuted, I pull my knife away from his body and smash my fist into his head, noting that his power is no longer working as I knocked him down onto the ground as he sits on the edge of being awake and falling unconscious. Knowing he wouldn't be getting up for a while, I put my knife away and grab my pistols which were on his desk, holstering them as I stop the recording.

And seeing this as the perfect opportunity to get more information against Sombra and those who works him, mainly Chrysalis and Tirek, I hop onto the computer on his desk.

Thank god for utility belts, I pulled out a flash drive and stuck it into the open slot, downloading and copying any information I can find. And boy did I find a lot. Names of his henchmen, people he works with, names and locations of future targets, an entire list of his illegal operations ranging from running a drug operation all the way to human trafficking. The list just goes on and on. And the best part of what I found is the names of all the people that have gone "missing" over the past decade, which Dick and I found at the bottom of Lake Everfree.

Getting everything I needed, I took the flash drive out and pocketed it, immediately heading out of the room and promptly leaving the building as quickly as possible and dealing with any opposition along the way.








The Next Day

~~SA~~

"Over the past several hours, we have recieved more and more details on the updated Missing Persons cases from the Canterlot Police Department that started over 15 years ago. We have more details on our website on the screen right now."

The news station was going on in the background, having interrupted the normal schedule for the station across the city. I was heading over to the Apple Farm that was a little out of town after just having given the news to my father. My grandfather had been found along with many more thanks to Red Hood and Nightwing, but breaking the news that he was murdered along with the look he had on his face was heartbreaking. Thankfully, my mother was there to comfort him, as Twilight was unable to since she was at school at the time.

As I approached the farm I turned into the driveway, making my way up to the house that sat in the middle of the farm. As I parked the car and grabbed the folder in the seat next to me, I saw a red truck pull up beside me.

As I exited the police cruiser, I saw a girl with blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail down to her back with a stetson hat on top of her head. She must be the second child of the Apple family, Applejack. And beside her was a younger girl with bright red hair and a bowtie on her head, the youngest of the three siblings, Applebloom.

"Is there a problem officer?" Applejack asked me, to which I shook my head.

"Not at all, miss Jack. Please, call me Shining Armor. Is it all right if I come into your home for a bit? I have some news for you and the rest of your family to hear."

Applebloom looked up at Applejack in concern, to which she nodded her head. "Sure, I guess. Bloom, take Shining here tah the front room while I get Mac and Granny, will ya?" I saw her nod and grab my free hand, taking me into the house. As I entered the main room with her, I saw several pictures line the wall. One of them being a family picture the Apple siblings, alongside with their mother and father, Bright Mac and Pear Butter.

I turned away from the photo, steeling myself for the news I would bring upon the family. A few minutes later, I saw man a few years younger than me from the looks of it with orange hair helped an elderly woman into a rocking chair with Applejack behind them. Big Mac and Granny Smith respectively.

"So now that we're all here, what was it ya wanted tah tell us?" Applejack asked, to which I handed the folder to her.

"I'm sure you have all heard the news about the police getting updates on the missing people, correct?" They all nodded their heads, which made me continue. "Amongst those missing people were two members of your family, Bright Macintosh and Pear Butter. The good news is, we found them."

I saw a large smile appear on Appleblooms face. "You found them?! That's great, when do we get to see them come home?" Hearing the excitement in her voice, it made me wish I would be able to tell her that they were on their way home right now. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be that way.

"You said that that was the good news. Usually that's followed by bad news." Applejack said, only to have her eyes widen as realization dawned upon her, tears forming in her eyes, "No, don't tell me..."

I watched as Big Mac wrapped her in a hug as she cried into his shoulder, a few tears escaping from him as well. Applebloom looked on confused, not sure why her brother and sister were crying, including Granny Smith who was holding her head in her hands.

Watching the commotion, I sighed and spoke the rest of what I had to say. "The bad news I'm afraid, is that they've been murdered. Their bodies were found amongst several others at the bottom of Lake Everfree." This broke the dam, as the cries from Applejack increased with Applebloom now included, who was swiftly brought into the hug by Big Mac.

"The folder that I gave you contains both information that I can give you at this time about what happened, alongside whatever personal belongings that we found on them back to you. Open it whenever you wish too, and I promise you we'll bring whoever is responsible to justice."

As I turned to take my leave, and let the now grieving family be, I was halted by Granny Smith who asked  a question, with a small trail of tears going down her face. "If you can tell me Officer, may I know who... who found their bodies so that we may thank them properly?"

I answered her question with a soft smile on my face. "He's wanting to be thanked by multiple people right now ma'am. As for who he is, most in this city know him as the Red Hood."