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// Strike 63- Not Alone 
// Story: When lightning strikes... 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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When Lightning Strikes- Not Alone




When you are a hacker, there are many tools that one could use at their disposal to get what they are searching for. Some use complicated algorithms, malware or viruses to be able to get into places that no one else is supposed to be allowed inside and take what they want. Though, for one particular person, the most dangerous tool that any hacker can use is often the most simplest. Something that one may not exactly see as deadly until it is too late and their well guarded secrets were exposed for the public to see. 

To the vigilante hacker named Sombra, that dangerous tool was information. Specifically, information that someone would not want for anyone else to know. Whether that be corrupt politicians who would used forbidden spellcraft to stay in power, CEO’s that cut corners at the expense of their workers, crime lords that exploited minors to make ends meet or famous celebrities that profit from the success of others, Sombra used the information they would try to hide to her advantage and then release it to the public. All while staying in the shadows and hidden from society. It was her way of being able to deliver justice to the victims that were affected by the actions of her targets, without having to reveal who she was to the world.

Yet, despite all her triumphs against each of her targets, the latest task that she put her mind to was tougher to try and solve. About a week ago, she found out that the criminal organization named Sumeragi were using radio and cell phone towers to send out and receive messages. At the time she found out about this, Sombra was tempted to pass along the information to a particular contact that she knew. Though, since there wasn’t anything that seemed to be of use at the time, she decided to leave behind what would be considered as the code equivalent of a spider web. If anything were to pass through it, it would catch it and Sombra would know.

Earlier today, just before noon, something got caught in the web. When the hacker had the chance to take a look at her catch, she was surprised about the extent that Sumeragi went too in order to try and hide it from prying eyes. Not only was it protected with state of the art encryption, but the message itself was coded. Something of this nature made Sombra think that whatever it was, it must have been rather important if they were going this far to keep it a secret.

They might have been good… but she was better. Despite the lengths that Sumeragi took in order to try and keep this message secure, Sombra had no trouble breaking the encryption. As for the message, running it through her database led to her discovering that the coded message bore similarities to that of Morse Code from back on Earth. Once she took the message and ran it through a translation program, the hacker was finally able to uncover what exactly Sumeragi was trying to send out in such a hurry.

However, the only problem left now was trying to make sense of it. Originally, Sombra thought that what she had intercepted was some secret orders of some kind or a message that was directly from their leader, Nova. Yet, what the message contained was neither of those things. Instead, it was a list, one that contained several different locations and cities that were all across Equestria. Some of the locations on that list included Power Pony HQ, Solace Asylum, and the Zero Zone. 

Though, there was one location that caught her attention immediately, “Belle Red Correctional Facility?” she asked herself, before beginning to do some research as Sombra opened up another holoscreen and pressed a few keys. Once she had satellite footage of the facility in question, the hacker began to inspect it from all possible angles and see if there was anything she could find. Yet, the more that Sombra continued to investigate, the more that the vigilante began to feel that she had seen this somewhere before.

Then, it hit her. This place was not just an ordinary facility, but it was the same place where her friend Aster was being held at along with the rest of the ‘Suicide Squad’ that she was forcefully apart of. Though, what was it doing on a Sumeragi document of all places? Was this a list of places where they had possible agents? What sort of interest did Nova have in a place that was run by that mare Lauren Order? There was a piece of this puzzle that was missing and without it, nothing here would make sense.

Unfortunately for Sombra, as she was trying to make sense of the document she was looking at, tragedy struck. From her refuge, she heard a loud boom and the ground began to quake under her feet. When the vigilante activated the feed from the security camera outside her hideout, her eyes widened in shock as she stared at the burning crater where Power Pony HQ used to be. 

“Que carajo?” she cursed. At this point, the hacker needed answers. There was no way that something that was almost as tall of one of the office buildings in Maretropolis could’ve been taken down so fast. As she pushed the two open tabs that she had off to the side, Sombra pulled up a third holo-screen and connected it to the television news networks.

What she found though was horrifying to watch. Hours after Sumeragi had attacked the Summer Sun Carnival in Maretropolis as well as other locations around Equestria, the existence of a large Sumeragi structure called Babel Tower emerged off the coast of Baltimare and fired a large blast that was able to destroy Power Pony HQ in a matter of minutes. Local and national leaders have called for a state of emergency and mass panic was beginning to set in. Many creatures feared that their families and communities would get erased in the blink of an eye. Even the Royal Guard was called in to try and take down the tower, only for its defenses to block anything that they threw at it.

It was in seeing this chaos that Sombra realized what she had intercepted. The message that she happened to obtain had Power Pony HQ on top of the list. Only one possible conclusion came to her mind as the vigilante looked over it again. This wasn’t just any ordinary list, but a list of targets. Places that Nova wanted to wipe off the face of Equestria, and with Babel Tower, he had the firepower to do so. “Ese bastardo!”

Upon realizing this, her first instinct was to try and contact the adept hero that was known as Gunvolt. Yet, for some reason, her call wasn’t able to get through and was dropped mere moments after Sombra tried to contact him. Which, to the vigilante, seemed ridiculous. Why would a hero of all things make it to where it was almost impossible in order to contact them in a time of crisis like this? Her attempts at reaching out to the base of operations of Gunvolt’s team yield similar results, for no one was there to pick up.

“Oh, for the love of-” she grit her teeth in frustration, “Who in their right mind would let their calls go to voicemail now of all times?”

At this point, Sombra was running low on both options and time. There was no telling when Nova would possibly strike again and the military that were trying to attack his base on the news weren’t going to keep him distracted for long. She needed to reach out to at least someone and warn them of what was happening and that Nova was planning to eradicate all who opposed him. The only question now though was who?

It was as she was pondering this that the hacker decided to try something. Power Pony HQ might’ve been destroyed, but it was entirely possible that they were still able to use their communications. If she could acquire some kind of signal, then she can zero in on it and get a hold of whoever was on the line at that time.  This might have not been the most ideal choice, but it was the only one that Sombra had at the moment.

Without a moment to lose, the vigilante closed all of the open holo-screens that she had except for the translated list and opened a new one to conduct her search. Using a map of Maretropolis as a reference point, Sombra activated a program that would scan the city for any sign of communications. Not just things like day-to-day phone calls or police radio chatter, but specifically the types of communications used by the com devices that superheroes such as the Power Ponies would have as part of their equipment.

Moments after activating the search algorithm, Sombra got a hit. Two signals on top of a building that was not far from what was now the ruins of Power Pony HQ. The first one that she listened in on seemed like a superheroes version of a call to arms. That the current threat that Nova posed was being treated as a Code Red emergency and that all heroes must head to Baltimare immediately. 

The second signal though was much different. As the vigilante listened in, she could make out two voices. The first one that Sombra heard was the Masked Matterhorn, leader of the Power Ponies, while the second voice seemed a bit familiar. Her current guess was that it belonged to the Displaced that was on Gunvolt’s team. The same one that was able to find out where she was located for the original meeting between her and the Azure Striker. However, it did not seem that their conversation was on the pressing matter at hand. Rather, it was about something entirely different.

“No way. So, y-you’re telling me that-?”

“That’s right,” the voice of the Masked Matterhorn echoed now, “Everything that Lance fought for. Everything that he swore to protect as a hero was in Power Pony HQ. Including the only way to reach the family that he had and the people that he wanted for you to meet, including Max. The people that he was going to start a family with and more than likely wanted you to be a part of. All of it gone in a matter of seconds. He probably doesn’t even know that we managed to escape before Nova destroyed everything.”

That was enough to make Sombra’s heart skip a beat. She remembered the hero saying that he had family that were displaced, but nothing along the lines of someone that he was planning to start a family with. The thought of losing the only way to reach someone that he cared for that much must have been painful for him to bear. It reminded her of when Sombra thought that she had lost them back on earth. Only this time, there was no way in order for him to see them again.

“So that’s why he took off straight towards that Sumeragi Tower? He’s got nothing left to lose?” the other one asked.

“Not exactly,” Masked Matterhorn corrected her, “Don’t you remember what he said before we got attacked? That Nova kidnapped Aurora? Lance made a promise to her that she would not have to be in danger anymore. In a sense, she’s like a daughter to him. One that he would try to rescue by any means necessary.”

“B-but he doesn’t have Lumen with him! Without her help, charging in at that tower alone would be suicide!”

“I know… that’s why I had Humdrum issue out the Code Red everywhere. The Power Ponies and QUILL aren’t going to be enough in order to handle a threat like this,” the power pony continued, “I mean… we don’t even know the full extent of the threat that Nova is. I mean, who knows if our HQ was not his only target?”

That was the ideal moment that Sombra needed in order to introduce herself into the conversation, “Perhaps I can help with that.”

The reaction from both of the people on the other end of the line was almost instantaneous. “W-what the hay? Who said that?!”

“Wait a minute… I know that voice,” the other one with the Masked Matterhorn was quick to speak, “You’re the person that nabbed Lumen and Lola that one time-!”

“Now before you start trying to get on my case for that,” Sombra interjected, moving the list over to the window she had open for the com line and prepared to drop it in, “I’m not here to try to pour salt into the wound that was just inflicted on you. If anything, I’m here to help.”

“Help? You’re a vigilante that hides from the shadows and doesn’t even show their face,” Masked Matterhorn told her, “Why would we want to accept your help?”

“Because I’m the only one who knows what Sumeragi’s targets are.”

Moments after she said those words, any particular objections fell silent on the other end of the line. Sombra had a feeling that this would happen, especially given the current situation. Though, Masked Matterhorn was not one to immediately be convinced just from that line alone. “How can we be so sure that you’re telling us the truth? Unless you have something that proves your claim-”

“Let me show you something I found then,” That was the cue for her to place the list in the conversation, having it show up as another window on Masked Matterhorn’s communication device. The only difference being that it would show up as an untranslated list of dots and lines, “I have been keeping tabs on Sumeragi’s use of radio and cell phone towers for communications and was able to catch this coming through a short while ago. Now, watch this.”

With a swipe of her hand, the list that she placed was being translated right in front of the heroes. She could hear the shocked gasp from Masked Matterhorn, but the downside was that Sombra was not able to see the look on the hero’s face while this was happening. “When I first got this, I thought that it was a list of operatives that they had hidden. Then, I witnessed that bastardo destroying the place you would call your home and the devastation that was left in your wake. Which leads me to this,” Sombra then pulled the list out of the comline and stored it away, making it disappear on Masked Matterhorns end as the vigilante continued to speak, “Unless Sumeragi is stopped, nothing will prevent Nova from wiping every single one of those places off of the map like they never existed at all. Nothing would be left behind to oppose an Equestria built under his image.”

It took a bit for the heroes on the other end to process what the vigilante said. Though, when one of them did speak, they had both optimism and doubt in their voice, “W-well, if we stop this Nova guy, that’ll mean he won’t be able to destroy everything… right?”

“In hindsight, yes,” Sombra said, getting up from her seat as she went over to the toolbench where she kept her weapons and gear, “Though, in reality, it’s not exactly simple. Given how Nova seems to pride himself in being a genius and the brains of his organization, he would have likely seen this coming. That tower's weapon systems could be triggered remotely or even worse, Nova might have a dead man’s trigger placed on him. So in the event that he ends up being defeated, it will continue to fire on targets as planned.”

“So, what you’re saying is not only do we need to stop Sumeragi, but shut down the tower too?”

“Exactly,” Sombra smirked as she picked up her SMG as well as her translocator device and began to make sure that everything was functioning properly, “Now, if I were you, I would bring on someone who has the equipment and the skills to not only infiltrate such a place, but also properly dispose of that tower before it does some real harm… what do you say, amiga?”

The only thing that she heard was the heroes talking among themselves as she began to step outside of her hideout and breathed in the fresh open air. Followed by the sound of Masked Matterhorn clearing her throat as the leader of the Power Ponies began to speak, “Well, it’s not like we have any other options at this rate. If you want to help us stop Nova, then feel free to do so. Though, if you try anything at all, we will not hesitate to capture you and turn you over to law enforcement. Do I make myself clear?”

“Ooh, a friend who knows how to get fierce. I definitely like that,” she teased and activated her cloak as she disappeared from view, “I’ll be in touch then… Masked Matterhorn.”



Baltimare

What started off as a few officers of the Baltimare Police Department investigating a disturbance at the city’s seaport along the coastline rapidly began to spiral out of control when an unknown structure that bore the Sumeragi logo emerged from the sea. The sighting of the Tower, and its subsequent attack against Power Pony HQ caused a mass panic among its citizens. Many of them tried to flee as quickly as possible while others tried to hunker down inside their homes and local businesses. Everything was escalating out of control to the point that the commissioner of the Baltimare Police Department had to call in the Royal Guard to take control of the situation, while most of the police were trying to help the civilians anyway they could.

The Royal Guard was quick to establish a blockade all around the port of Baltimare, going as far as having several soldiers on standby actively watching the structure. Moments ago, ordnance crews were brought in to fire artillery at the tower to see if it could possibly be destroyed. However, any attempts to damage the tower led to their shots being blocked by a protective forcefield that surrounded it, shortly before they were redirected back towards the blockade.

Luckily, they had one pony on the scene that was able to stop them in their tracks before they could do any real harm. The Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, was the one in charge of the deployment that was called in and his magic was able to create a protective ward around the blockade that protected his troops from harm. Yet, the unicorn himself did not know how long it would hold. The threat that was out there was unlike anything Shining had ever seen and the unicorn was unsure if they were even capable of holding them at bay.

“Captain Armor, come in,” He heard the voice of the commissioner, Due Process, over the radio that was on a table, “What was that noise just now? Some of my officers are reporting a loud explosion as they were trying to help some civilians held up in the local library.”

The unicorn picked up the radio with his levitation spell and brought it over, pressing the push-to-talk button on the side of the device before he spoke, “I had some of my ordnance crews fire a warning shot at the tower to see if it could be damaged, only to discover that it’s protected by a forcefield that sent it back towards us.”

“Dear Celestia, are you alright-?”

“We’re fine, commissioner,” the captain insisted, “I placed a barrier around the port to protect us. Though, as a precaution, have your officers make sure that no civilians are anywhere near the coastline. I rather not take any chances since we don’t know the full extent of what this… thing is capable of.”

“My officers are working on that right now and trying to safely move them further inland. From there, we’ll-”

Before the captain could hear the commissioner finish speaking, the ground underneath their hooves began to quake violently. Sea water began to splash along the magical ward that Shining placed and some of the guard ponies that were there slipped and were knocked off their hooves. “Captain, that tower is doing something! Please respond-”

“Heads up, we got incoming!!” One of the guards yelled, before pointing towards the tower in the distance. At first, Shining Armor thought that it was going to unleash a counter attack against them for their earlier attacks. However, what actually happened was quite different. In a matter of seconds, several pillars rose from the sea in a straight line, along with a heavy metallic slab that stretched out over them. They watched as they heard the sound of machines begin to weld everything together, constructing what was now a giant bridge that connected the port the Guard was occupying to the tower in the distance.

That was not the only thing that caught them off guard though. In the middle of the bridge, there was what looked to be a bipedal blue haired figure. They were standing in the center of the bridge, looking towards where the Royal Guard was stationed at. They didn’t exactly look to be a danger at first glance, but Shining Armor was not taking any chances, “Somepony, channel a listening spell. If they’re talking to somepony, I want to hear it.”

Two unicorns that were part of the deployment nodded, before they combined their magic together and cast the spell that the captain asked for. In a matter of moments, they began to hear a new voice echo around the encampment, “… do we really have to handle these creatures here? Can’t they just, I don’t know… go home and just forget about all this?”

“Merak, you know just as well as I do that the moment Master Nova decided to have Babel Tower rise, we were going to be attracting attention,” Another voice was heard, presumably over a communication device.

“Yeah, but the only ones that are here are just some soldier ponies that fight with sticks and stones,” Merak yawned, “Do we have to waste our time on them, Jota? My guild in Filly Fantasy XIV has a raid in an hour and I’m their only other tank-”

“May I remind you the extent to which Master Nova went for you to even be here right now,” the other voice snapped at him, “After your previous failings, he could’ve just left you to perish. Yet, instead, you were brought back from death’s door and given a second chance. Is this how you choose to repay his generosity? With cowardice-”

“Fine, fine, fine… I guess I do owe him for that,” Without warning, a blue wormhole tore open behind the figure as what looked to be a hovering chair with a giant set of mechanical arms attached to both sides. One of the arms picked Merak up off of the ground and seated him in the chair as a few more wormholes began to form behind him as squads of mechanized Sumeragi Soldiers and a crimson mechanical behemoth emerged from the other side. “Let’s make this quick. I got things to do. Just… wipe them all out or… whatever, I don’t really care.”

The moment Shining Armor heard that, he quickly looked at everypony around him, many of whom were already getting prepared for what was coming. “Everypony, get to your stations now!! We’re under attack!!”

Immediately, the soldiers and machines that were summoned onto the bridge began to open fire on the barrier that was held together by the captain’s magic while the infantry of the royal guard tried to return fire. Yet, despite using both the weapons they had on hoof as well as magic, their attacks did little to slow down the encroaching threat. To make matters worse, the barrier that the captain put in place was beginning to break down under constant pressure and gunfire from their attackers.

The captain himself focused his magic on maintaining the barrier to try and keep his comrades safe. However, the longer that this firefight went on, the more magic he had to expend in order to keep it up. To make matters worse, the weapons that the Sumeragi forces had were breaking down his spell faster than he was able to maintain it. Several shots even went through the barrier and ricocheted off of the nearby structures, some of them injuring his comrades as they ducked for cover.

“Captain, what’s happening-!?”

Shining Armor didn’t even have the chance to respond as one of the incoming shots that got past his barrier spell flew past his head and struck the radio, destroying it immediately. Now, their only line of communication was gone and they were cut off from anypony that could potentially help them. In the captain’s mind, this was the worst case scenario. They were out armed, their defenses were coming apart at the seams and they could not call for help. If this were to continue any longer, they were going to be overrun.

It was as they were struggling to hold their ground that the machine behind the Sumeragi soldiers began to cease their gunfire. The Royal Guard were not entirely sure why they stopped, but it was then that they immediately realized that the ‘head’ of the machines opened and something was glowing. Before they could act, the mechanical contraption fired off a laser beam that struck the barrier with overwhelming power and caused the port to shake under their hooves. The captain himself tried to keep it stable, but the sheer force of the attack was enough to break through and destroy the barrier completely as he was thrown to the ground like a ragdoll.

“Captain!” One of the members of the guard cried out, hurrying to check on the unicorn, “C-Captain, are you alright!?”

Shining groaned as his comrade extended him a hoof to help get him back up. He felt pain coarse throughout his body as he tried to channel his magic. Yet, trying to keep his comrades safe left himself almost out of mana. Any spell that he would try to cast won’t work properly unless he recovered somehow. Yet, given their current situation, that was rather unlikely.

“C-captain, we need to get you out of here and quickly,” the soldier that helped him up, a earth pony stallion named Spearhead told him, “We can’t hold our position here for much longer-”

“INCOMING!!!”

Both stallions immediately turned to the bridge and saw that the Sumeragi mech was now firing off artillery into the air that was coming straight for them. With no shield to protect them and barely any magic left in order to help his comrades retreat, Shining thought that this was going to be the end. That they were going to die here and not be able to make it back home to their loved ones. That nopony was coming to save them.

However, at one point, the artillery that was fired changed their flight path. Instead of coming straight for them, they immediately moved upward and converged on something above them. The sound of electricity could be heard in the air as the artillery exploded, knocking back a few of the guards as smoke scattered everywhere. “W-what the hay just happened-?”

He couldn’t see through the smoke, but Shining could still hear something going on. Crackling electricity, the sounds of gunfire and something cutting through metal. As his vision began to clear, the captain saw a new figure on the bridge. A bipedal figure with a blond mane and long ponytail that was dressed in a dark blue cloak with electricity circulating around them as the broken forms of the Sumeragi soldiers were scattered around him. They had a weapon in hand, one looked like a smaller version of the weapons that Sumeragi was using. As it turned, the captain and the rest of the royal guard saw his azure colored eyes as it spoke.

“Get out of here while you can. Leave this to me.”

Before any of the Royal Guard could say something, the figure turned back around and immediately began to race down the bridge, attracting the attention of the Sumeragi mech. Though, it was as they were fighting it that Spearhead asked a simple question. “Who… was that?”

“I… think that was the Azure Striker, Gunvolt,” Another soldier, Broadsword, replied, just as Spearhead was able to get a place for Shining to sit down.

“Wait, that was the Azure Striker?” Another pony, a pegasus named Guardian Angel, asked, “What’s a hero all the way from Maretropolis doing all the way out here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s here to stop those Sumeragi guys? They do seem to be more focused on him than us,” Broadsword told them, before looking back towards Spearhead and Shining Armor, “We should use this chance to regroup. Is somepony from the medical corps here? We should get the captain patched up and have a few others stand on watch just in case.”

It may not have been the most ideal plan, but it was one that Shining Armor could get behind, given their current situation. As soon as he nodded his head, two ponies came over with medical saddlebags raced over to tend to Shining Armor’s injuries while Broadsword and a few others returned back to their posts to get themselves ready in case something happened.

Spearhead though, stayed with the captain as he looked back at his friend, “Captain, are you sure that this is a good idea?”

The unicorn slowly looked towards his friend, before raising an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“Forgive me if I sound blunt, but Broadsword’s plan is essentially having us put the fate of all of us on a single hero that just showed up out of nowhere,” the earth pony said, “Wouldn’t you think of that as a bit risky? I mean, it’s only one guy.”

“Spearhead, given our situation, I don’t think we have any alternatives,” the captain told him, “We should take this chance. A lot of lives are counting on us. Besides, I highly doubt that he’ll be the only hero showing up here.”



After Lance had arrived at the bridge to Babel Tower and saved the ponies that Sumeragi were attacking, the adept began to put all of his strength and focus into taking down the forces that were swarming on the bridge. Whether they were soldiers that were armed with various weapons and armor, the azure striker had to push forward. In his mind, he wasn’t going to get anywhere if he just continued fighting on the bridge. If the adept wanted to save both Aurora and Lumen, then he couldn’t afford to waste anymore time.

Yet, there was also another matter at hand. The sight of Merak, one of Sumeragi’s Adepts, meant that Nova was not exactly keen on letting him just walk on inside. Especially since he was the one who was bringing all of Sumeragi’s troops to the bridge to try and slow down his progress. But the sight of the adept didn’t make sense at all, especially since he was presumed to be dead. 

Though, that did not matter right now. If he or the rest of Sumeragi’s adepts intended to stand in his way, then he was going to fight through each one of them. After all, Aurora and Lumen were counting on him.

Once he had finished with the soldiers, Lance was quick to engage the Mantis Legion mech that blocked the way forward. A mechanized weapon of war that can move rather quickly, had mounted guns for arms, and heavy compartments on the shoulders to fire homing rockets. To make matters worse, it was able to fire concentrated blasts of energy when it opened its mouth, something that the azure striker couldn’t defend himself from with his septima. It forced the adept into a position where he needed to stay on his toes and wait for an opening to exploit.

Yet, such an opening was not exactly easy to come by. When Lance tried to tag the Mantis Legion, his shots would bounce off its armor and drop to the ground. Not to mention that it was hard for him to determine what exactly he could defend himself from given the vast arsenal that the mech had at its disposal. Though, the azure striker did not let that stop him as he continued to fire at the mech, hoping that one of his shots would connect and give him some kind of weak point to focus his efforts on.

As he switched to his Orochi bolt and sent out the aerial drone that was with it, the adept found what he was looking for. The drone itself was programmed to fire out shots similar to his in several different directions, and one of those shots happened to attach itself to the Mantis Legion’s head. “Got you,” he grinned, before aiming his weapon and quickly firing off two more shots that hit their target as he activated his septima. Lightning crackled around him as it surged into the mech’s head and began to overload its systems.

The Mantis Legion tried to attack the azure striker as it unleashed a barrage of rockets from its shoulders. Yet, the flashfield had enough power to stop them before they could get anywhere close to the Adept. After a few more seconds of concentrated electricity, the Mantis broke down and slumped forward.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly done just yet. As the mech was on the ground, a glowing orange canister emerged from the back of the machine “SYSTEM INTEGRITY: CRITICAL. INITIALIZING CORE REPAIR PROCEDURES. PLEASE WAIT-”

“Yeah, no,” Lance retorted, before jumping up and activating his Luxcaliber skill and shattering the canister with a giant electrical blade. Once he hit the ground, the adept backed away from the Mantis Legion as it exploded and turned into nothing more than scrap metal. Yet, despite the fact that he won that fight, the azure striker began to realize a problem. The septima that he expended from his attacks wasn’t recovering as quickly as before. Lumen’s absence must’ve been the reason why.

“Really now? You’re still not dead yet?” he heard the other adept on the bridge, the slothful conjurer named Merak, speak up as he moved closer to him and looked down on Lance from his chair, “Don’t you heroes have… like, better things to do than just fighting or whatever? Like rescuing cats out of trees?”

“You know exactly why I’m here,” he shot back, “Your boss has gone too far and he took something valuable from me. Now move out of the way or I will make you move.”

“Look, I-” For a moment, Merak paused. From Lance’s perspective, it looked as if someone was speaking into his ear as the sumeragi adept had two fingers over his left ear like he was speaking into an earpiece, “Seriously now? The boss said that-?” Whatever he was hearing, Merak didn’t entirely seem amused by it. “Okay, okay, I get it.” He then dismissed the call, shortly before letting out a deep groan. “Well, congratulations. You’re becoming even more of a pain in the neck now.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?” the azure striker asked.

“New orders from up top. Wants you to make sure you don’t get in by any means necessary,” Merak groaned, before snapping his fingers as a few portals opened up from behind him, “This isn’t exactly the kind of ‘party’ I had in mind, but Nova did bring me back from the brink and what not so… I kind of owe it to him.”

Back from the brink? Merak wasn’t referring to what he thought was referring to now… was he?

“Oh my~. Is that who I think it is trying to crash through our front door?” An all too familiar voice was heard as Elise was the first one to step out through the portal and onto the bridge. She had already transformed and both the dominant and submissive counterparts there, the latter standing behind the first and shaking in place while the dominant one stood proudly, “Oh hoh hoh, it is! I’ve been waiting forever for this reunion~.”

“How the hell are you still alive?” Lance retorted, “After the Stratacombs-”

“Oh poor boy… did you really think that we would be defeated so easily~?” The adept that was known by Sumeragi as ‘the eternal envy’ teased, “Defeating us once doesn’t mean that we are dead. The glaives that we wield have an emergency recall feature that sends us back here if the wielder is critically injured. As long as they’re intact, all I had to do is use my septima and I can bring them back from the brink of death.”

That… was definitely a problem. If what Elise said was true, then no matter how many times that he would fight them, all she had to do was use her Septima and they would be back from the dead. Like nothing even happened to them. Though, Elise just saw this as amusing as she narrowed her eyes, “Now… how am I going to toy with you-?”

“Don’t even think about it, you undead wretch!!” A third voice erupted as the next adept emerged from the portal. One of the first adepts that Lance had ever encountered when Lee was here a long time ago. Viper, the burning wrath. Like with Elise, he already transformed as well as he exhaled smoke from his mouth, “We had a deal! You bring me back from the grave and I get the chance to pulverize this jackass into the ground where he belongs!! You trying to go back on that now?!”

“Oh, come on now, Viper~” Elise chuckled, “That kind of pleasure doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. We all got a score to settle with him, don’t we?”

“For once, Elise is right,” A fourth voice was heard as the next adept emerged from the portal, shortly before it closed. This one though was one that Lance had heard about, but had not seen before in person. Jota, the prideful silhouette. An adept with the septima to manipulate particles of light and use it to move at Lightspeed, Jota was an adept that Cody and Zapp had encountered in Seaddle when the adept was attempting to hijack the iconic Space Arrow building and turn it into a radio transmitter for Sumeragi propaganda. After being defeated, he was said to have disappeared. Now he was standing before the azure striker, in his transformed state no less, “If we are to follow Nova’s orders and make sure he carries out his plan, then it would be wise for us to work alongside each other instead of going at each other's throats.”

“Yeah yeah,” Viper snapped, flames circling around his hands, “This isn’t the place for flowery speeches. So, how about you shut up with your ideological rhetoric already and help us kill this guy already?!”

Jota did not say anything, but instead fired off two blasts of light towards the azure striker. It forced him to duck out of the way, though when he looked behind him, Lance realized that the pre-emptive strike was intended to cut off any chance for him to fall back for a giant section of the bridge was now missing. The only way he could go now was forward, straight towards the four adepts that were waiting for him to make a move. Which was difficult, since only a small portion of his stamina had returned after fighting the Mantis Legion.

“What’s the matter? You got cold feet or something? Why don’t we fix that?!” Viper mocked. In the blink of an eye, the sumeragi adept launched himself towards the azure striker, not even providing him the time to react as he struck Lance in the chest with a burning aerial kick. The force of the blow knocked Lance backwards as he fell off of the bridge… only to find himself back on it again and one of Merak’s portals above his head.

“Well, crap,” he thought, just as he heard Viper’s battlecry from behind him. The adept tried to turn himself around and ready himself, only to feel a surge of pain as something bit into his left leg. A quick glance down showed that Elise had thrown one of her kunai while his back was turned, transforming into a cobra as it dug its fangs into him. His leg was now starting to turn into stone from where the bite was applied.

“You’re not going anywhere, hero~” Elise teased as both her counterparts prepared a few more kunai to throw at him. Lance was beginning to lose the feeling in his leg as he looked back to see that Viper was about to slam a volcanic axe down on top of him. With nowhere to move, Lance could only think of one thing to do to get himself out of this predicament.

“Crashbolt!!”

Immediately, a powerful bolt of electricity crashed down at where he was. The attack was enough in order to destroy the cobra that cling to his leg, reversing the petrification and allowing him to roll out of the way of Viper’s attack. 

However, he did not get very far. As he was getting up, several blasts of light from Jota’s spearheads forced Lance to backpedal directly into Viper’s path as the burning wrath grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the bridge. The impact was enough for him to cough up blood as the Sumeragi adept loomed over him and placed his foot next to the azure strikers head.

“What’s the matter? I thought you would put up more of a fight, but this is just too damn pathetic,” Viper mocked him, “Is this really who you are? A weak ass piece of trash?! I expected a lot more considering how much of a threat our boss sees you as!”

“To be fair,” Jota interjected, “Nova saw him and his team as a threat. Not him specifically.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is? You can’t put up a goddamn fight unless you have someone helping you?!” Viper snapped, “That’s even worse! How the hell can you even consider a hero when you can’t even fight your own battles, huh?! That’s just pathetic!!”

“You don’t need to worry about that anymore,” Elise snickered, “There’s no way he can fight back in his condition right now. Not only that, but he’s too far away to call for help. As far as we’re concerned, we’ve broken him… and no one is coming to save him.”

In Lance’s mind, he felt that this was the end. He failed to save those that were counting on him and there was nothing the adept could do to fight back. He had very little strength in him to do so and even if he tried to fight, it would be four against one. Matter of fact, five against one if you count both of Elise’s counterparts. It was an stupid decision to think that he could storm this place on his own and he was only realizing it now. He watched as Viper conjured another volcanic axe and approached his weakened state, eagerly wanting to finish him for good.

In that single moment, only one thought went through his mind, “Aurora… Lumen… I’m sorry.”

Though, despite Lance’s predicament, fate had other plans in store for him. As the burning wrath was about to bring down his axe on him, a loud shot could be heard as it went through Viper’s hand, forcing him to drop the weapon and back away as he roared in pain. Before the other Sumeragi adepts had a chance to react, a cloud of smoke began to quickly spread across the bridge.

At first, the Azure Striker had no idea what was happening. Though, that was until he heard a voice that was all too familiar to him.

“I’m only going to ask this once! Drop your weapons, put your hands in the air and get on the ground!!” Aya Brea, Lance’s aunt shouted, while holding a hunting rifle and wearing riot gear. “And get the hell away from my nephew! Now!”

“A-aya?” Lance croaked, before hearing a second set of footsteps land nearby. 

“Lola, activate medical procedures,” he heard the voice of his friend, Cody, tell the drone that flew by his head. In a matter of seconds, the adept felt his injuries beginning to heal as he was helped up to his feet.

When he was standing again, the azure striker found himself surrounded by his friends and comrades. Cody, Aya, Masked Matterhorn, Katy. Even Vixen and Zapp were here too with Hiro and BAYMAX. It was a sight that made him stare in disbelief. “Y-you’re all here.”

“Well, obviously,” he heard Katy say as she landed right next to him, “We’re not going to just sit here and let these guys just trample everything now, are we?”

“I tried rounding up as many heroes as I can to help us out,” Masked Matterhorn added as she was flying idly in the air, “Many of them are helping the civilians in town as well as the guard, but we got a good team covering us here.”

“T-thank you,” he told them, looking at the rest of the heroes that were able to make it. At first, he felt like apologizing, but now wasn’t the right time for that as the smoke began to clear. All of the Sumeragi adepts were equally caught off guard by the surprise rescue, but none more so than Viper. Smoke was burning from him as he glared at every one of the heroes that had made it, especially at Aya.

“To hell with your demands, lady!! You were the one that screwed up my chance at making this jackass pay!!! If I have to kill you to get to him, then no amount of armor will prevent me from turning your body to ash!!”

“Uh… Gunvolt?” Vixen now took the chance to speak as she stood nearby Aya, “Care to give us some insight on who these people are?”

“They’re adepts like you and I,” the adept told her. A response that seemed to have surprised her at first, before Lance began to  “Though, they’re Sumeragi Adepts and have used tech to enhance their abilities. To make things quick; the lazy one uses portals, the one with the halo can manipulate and move at the speed of light, the angry one is a pyromaniac while the last one can resurrect the others and has multiple personalities.”

Even though Lance tried to keep the explanation as simple as possible, some of the things that he told the others that were with him still caught him by surprise. Though, the only one that actually spoke was Katy as she let out a deep breath and readied her suit, “Wonderful… So, what are we going to do? Does anyone have a plan?”

“We do!” Lola then spoke up as she sat on Cody’s shoulder and looked back at him. “Right, daddy?”

Cody nodded his head, before looking past the adepts that stood before them and towards the door to the elevator that would lead up to the center of the tower. “Yeah and it’s simple,” he explained, keeping his voice down so that the others wouldn’t hear him, “If everyone else can try to keep these guys occupied, then GV and I can make a break for the door and have Lola override the controls so she could get us inside.”

He then looked to the others, before taking out an ammo clip and emptying it, before giving three bullets to both Aya and Katy. In addition, he handed Katy a pistol to hold onto. “Make sure to hold onto this and use it sparingly. I made these based off the ammunition that my weapon uses. So, if you are able to hit an adept with this, it can cancel out their powers. I was only able to make this many, so if you have to use it, make your shots count.”

“I appreciate it, but would it be necessary?” Katy then asked, before motioning to the suit that she was wearing.

“Keep it just in case,” the azure striker said, “Given who we’re up against, there’s no telling what might happen.”

“We’ll buy you the time you need,” Aya added. “Now get your tush in gear, and don’t you dare die out there.”

That just had Lance smirk, before giving his aunt a reassuring nod. “Wasn’t planning on it.”

“Are you people done yet?” They heard Merak complain, letting out a yawn as he tapped his chair, “You’re really beginning to irritate me. The longer this goes on, the longer I have to wait before I can finally get some rest. So, could you just hurry up and-”

Before Merak could even finish speaking, Lance and Cody started to push forward. A move that caught him and the other Sumeragi Adepts by surprise. Only fools would charge directly towards an opponent, especially those that were ready for them. Though, as they were about to find out, stopping them was not exactly going to be easy now that they were up against a team rather than just a single person.

“You dare think you can set foot inside!?” Jota proclaimed, arming his spearheads and aiming towards them. “I’ll stop you right where you-”

Yet, the one thing that the prideful silhouette was not paying attention too was the flying pegasus that was behind him, “Zapp to Storm Alpha, I got a target. They’re airborne and attempting to stop Gunvolt and Copen. Go for the spearheads around the target’s head.”

Before Jota could even realize what was happening, his spearheads were getting shot at by distant gunfire. It prevented the Sumeragi Adept from being able to hit his targets as he swiftly turned around and saw the hero flying in the sky. “Why you! You will pay for your insolence!!”

“I will like to see you try.”

Back on the bridge, both Lance and Cody used this opportunity to push forward and continue to their objective. Viper was the next one to try and stop the two as he conjured an explosive orb and threw it towards them, hoping to destroy the ground underneath their feet and disrupt them. However, before he had the chance to throw it, Aya quickly shot it with her hunting rifle as it exploded in Viper’s hand.

“AGH!!” The sumeragi adept cried out in pain, before swiftly turning towards Aya as he glared at her, “What the hell is wrong with you, b*tch!?!”

“My problem is you, tantrum boy. You’re forgetting which hero you’re fighting!”

Viper grit his teeth, before turning around to face Aya as he began to form a volcanic axe in one of his hands with flames forming in the other, “Oh now you’ve done it! You pissed off the wrong adept, lady. There will be a special corner for you in Hell when I’m done with you!!”

“I’d read you your rights, but I have a feeling you wouldn’t care either way.” Aya let her rifle fall to her side as her offhand began to glow cyan. “I’ll be sure to teach you some manners before I haul your ass away.”

As the burning wrath charged towards his opponent, Elise couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she looked towards where Gunvolt and Copen were, “Such a shame,” she said, before forcing her counterpart to bare a set of kunai as she looked towards the two heroes, “This is why you don’t send a man to do a woman’s job… let’s see how much I can make my prey struggle~”

However, just as she threw her kunai towards them, they were shot down in flight as the sumeragi adept turned around, “Hey! Tall, dark and crazy!! If you two want to get to them, you’re going to have to go through me first!” Katy proudly declared, her weapons at the ready as she aimed them towards Elise.

“Oh my, how bold of you,” the eternal envy snickered, “You think that those fancy toys of yours will be enough to defeat all of us? How childish.”

For a second, Katy hesitated. What in the world did her opponent mean by that? There were only two of them right in front of her. Surely, there couldn’t have been any others, right-?

“PEEK A BOO! I SEE YOU!! KYAHAHAHA!!”

Immediately, Katy looked up and quickly backed away from what she was seeing. On the street pole next to her, there was a third Elise. Yet, this one was much different. Her eyes looked like that of a venomous snake and her tongue was stretched out like that of a predator. If it weren’t for her appearance, Katy would’ve thought that she was more of an animal than an adept.

“Now, since we’re all here,” the dominant Elise grinned as she grabbed onto another pair of Kunai, “Let’s see how long we can toy with you until you break~”

With Elise now engaged against her own opponent, it meant that preventing Gunvolt and Copen from entering the tower was left to one final person. Someone who not only was a bit distracted, but really didn’t like having responsibilities thrown onto his shoulders randomly. When the fighting first broke out, Merak originally wanted to just support from a distance and not really do much in order to prevent the intruders from accessing Babel Tower. Yet, that did not exactly go the way that he wanted.

Several factors contributed to this, though there were two that would stand out. The first was a unicorn adept with an animal mimicry septima attacking him to try and destroy his chair. The second was that when he tried to create a wormhole trap for both Gunvolt and Copen to fall through, gunfire erupted the coastline and forced him into a defensive posture. Both of these things were beginning to become an annoyance for the slothful conjurer, especially since the longer he had to deal with this, the longer it’ll be until he could finally get some much deserved relaxation.

Fortunately, the sumeragi adept had a trick up his non-existent sleeve. A trap he had hidden in place on the off chance that anyone did get close to the tower. While Merak looked as if he was fighting against the unicorn hero named Vixen, he had an open holoscreen and was beginning to type something. From Vixen’s perspective, she thought that he was trying to activate some kind of command or function with his chain. Yet, to him, it was anything but that.

‘BAD MANE DAY PROTOCOL INITIALIZED. OPENING DOORWAY’

Immediately, another wormhole opened. Only this time, it was by the elevator doors to Babel Tower while Gunvolt and Copen’s backs were turned. They were too busy trying to get the elevator working and did not notice the green mane-like tendrils that slithered out of the wormhole as another villain stepped forth. Their sights were set on the azure striker as the strands of her mane went forth and grabbed onto Gunvolt’s legs, preventing him from moving as the doors to the elevator flew open.

“Crap-!”

“Hahahaha!! Did you truly forget about me, hero!?” Mane-iac howled in laughter as she gazed at the adept, “You might’ve won by a hair’s margin the last time we met, but beginner’s luck will not save you now!”

“Hold it right there!!” the villainess heard the voice of the Masked Matterhorn as she landed across from the Mane-iac with her magic at the ready, “Let Gunvolt go, now!”

“Oh, of course! Whatever you say!” Came the Mane-iac’s sickeningly sweet reply.

“Mane-iac, we have no time for your games,” the alicorn glared. The magic around her horn began to glow brighter as her eyes narrowed, “Let. Him. Go-”

“Or what~? You’ll throw me back in the slammer? You’ll give me split ends!?” The Mane-iac cackled, her eyes spinning around in their sockets as she did.

Masked Matterhorn didn’t respond this time, but instead fired off her magic as it began to freeze the strands of Mane-iac’s mane that held Gunvolt in place. Immediately afterwards, the azure striker channeled his energy blade through the hilt and swung downward, shattering it and freeing it. As he got up, the adept turned around to see that the alicorn had teleported herself in between the adept and the villainess. Magic circulating around her horn again as the leader of the power ponies briefly looked over her shoulder at him.

“Get going!! I’ll hold her off!!” the alicorn told him, prompting the Azure Striker to run as he raced over to where Copen was waiting for him and entered the elevator. Leaving the Masked Matterhorn with the Mane-iac as the doors closed behind Masked Matterhorn.

“Aarrgh! You’ll regret tangling with me, Matterhorn!” The green maned lunatic snarled, retracting her hair behind her head. The hero readied herself, anticipating the Mane-iac to retaliate at any moment. She had already helped make sure that Gunvolt and Copen were able to make it inside Babel Tower. Now the hero had to stop the infuriated villain that was right in front of her while her companions fought against Sumeragi. Yet, Masked Matterhorn had a feeling that somehow, doing so was not going to be easy.

The earth pony used her mane to launch herself at Masked Matterhorn with surprising speed. An action that forced the hero to propel herself backwards with her wings in order to avoid them. Once she was back on all four of her hooves, the alicorn fired off another bolt of magic towards the villain, which she effortlessly ducked. It was a dance of theirs, both too familiar with the other to fall for basic attacks, predicting each others’ moves down to instinct. Masked Matterhorn was surprised with how naturally she picked up on her arch nemesis’ patterns even after all this time.

“You’ve gotten out of shape, Masky! Relying on the ol’ monkey a little too much, are we? Thought he was the second coming of Starswirl just because he caught me with my guard down!?” Masked Matterhorn felt the air pummeled out of her lungs with a swift uppercut with the Mane-iac’s hair, “Quite frankly, I feel like you’ve yanked my mane out. I thought we had something, Masky!”

The Masked Matterhorn fired off an ice beam towards her adversary, to which the Mane-iac just maneuvered her mane to take the hit, hardening it until it became a bludgeoning weapon. Masked Matterhorn had to relearn the hard way how intelligent the Mane-iac actually was, despite her psychotic tendencies, she was far smarter then anypony gave her credit for. Yet, something about this encounter felt different from previous battles with the villain. Something that Mane-iac didn’t have on hoof before.

As she struggled to get back on her hooves, the hero watched as the Mane-iac’s mane was placing something at the base of her tail. From a distance, it looked like an ordinary hair clip that you would find at a retail store. Though, as the villain attached it to her tail, Matterhorn was thrown off guard as the tail began to turn into metal and solidify right in front of her eyes. “W-what the hay?”

“A little product that my little friends at Sumeragi whipped up tailor made for me! Isn’t it fetching~?” The metal tail slinked around her side, morphing into a giant wrench and applying pressure to her ice covered mane, “Reminds me of when I stole your powers! Having the elements on my side again. Oh, wait, this is your gimmick, isn’t it? And I stole it! Heheheheh~”

Masked Matterhorn grit her teeth as she looked back at the villain and had her magic channel around her horn again and launched another blast, hoping to prevent the villain from freeing herself, but Mane-iac used her tail to catapult herself in an arch over the beam and towards the alicorn. The hero did not have enough time in order to get away from the earth pony as the Mane-iac crashed down next to her and struck her with the tail. The alicorn could feel a few of her ribs break as she was sent flying into the elevator doors.

“Hah! You’re already at my mercy, and I’m only using one!” The rest of the Mane-iac’s mane tangled around Masked Matterhorn, constricting her movements. “Oh, oh! I was inspired by one of your teammates when I requested this next one!” Another hairclip was produced from a non-descript part of her outfit, and attached the new, yellow clip to the base of her mane. It took a mere five seconds for the leader of the Power Ponies to understand what she meant when an intense electrical current reached her, coursing through her muscles and tenderizing them as she screamed in agony. 

Though, it was just as Mane-iac had Matterhorn cornered that something landed in between the two of them and exploded. The force of the explosion was enough to separate the hero from the earth pony’s grip as the villain turned around back towards the bridge, “You two timing fool! Watch where you’re throwing those!”

Matterhorn wasted no time in taking advantage of the villains setback as she teleported under the bridge and created a platform of ice on one of the concrete pillars supporting it. “Alright Twilight. There’s no telling what else Mane-iac has in store, but you have to focus,” she told herself as she tried to think, “There has to be a way to beat her. Those clips don’t make her invincible. They have to have a weakness!”

The Mane-iac, by herself, was already a fearsome villain to face. Even though she was crazy, had the tendency to underestimate her enemies and had a silly gimmick that limited her, the earth pony was able to work around those limitations. Heck, before Lance even arrived in this world, she was the most dangerous villain that the power ponies had to face. Quirky sure, but crafty and beyond unpredictable.

The clips that Sumeragi made for her added to that unpredictable nature of here. There was still a lot that she did not know about the villains newfound tools, but there were two things that Masked Matterhorn could determine after thinking it over. The first was that the clips could only alter the properties of the earth pony’s mane and tail separately. The second was that Mane-iac possibly kept these clips on her in case the earth pony wanted to change them.

It was not a lot to go on, but it was enough to get Masked Matterhorn thinking of what to do next. Yet, only two options on how to turn things around began to form in her mind. Either she had to find where the Mane-iac kept them and take it away from her… or figure out a way to turn her newfound gadgets against her. The hero had to make her decision quickly, before the villain realized where she was hiding.

The more that she continued to think on this, the more that Masked Matterhorn began to realize a flaw with the first option. Even if she were able to take away the Mane-iac’s clips, there was no telling whether or not she could keep them away because of how far the villains mane could reach. It was too much of a risk, especially since she didn’t know how many clips the Mane-iac had or how it would affect her mane and tail. The smarter option would be to analyze what kind of clips the Mane-iac had at her disposal, before finding a way to use her gadgets against her and exploit it.

However, just as the hero finally thought of a plan, she looked up and found herself staring directly at the Mane-iac. The grin on her face widening like a predator on the hunt. “Boo!” She whispered harshly, headbutting the heroine and causing her to see white suns in her vision. The shelf of ice that Masked Matterhorn made began to crack under pressure and give way as Matterhorn began to fall towards the water below. 

Luckily, it was just as she was mere feet from the ocean’s surface that the hero's horn began to glow as she froze the water underneath to break her fall. Though, it was shortly after Matterhorn rose back up on her hooves that the Mane-iac gave chase, landing on the opposite end of the ice block as the hero looked back at her. Mere moments after the villain landed, the alicorn’s horn lit up as the edges of the frozen plain began to expand outward and Matterhorn sent out three frozen spikes from the ground towards Mane-iac.

In response, the villain let out a maniacal laugh, before spreading out her mane to catch the icicles in midair, holding herself aloft between them. “Mmm, I can smell your fear~ I think I have the perfect shampoo for that!”

Immediately, her metallic tail lashed out towards the hero, cutting her across her cheek and her legs as Matterhorn tried to fight through the pain. Blood began to drip from her injuries and stain the frozen ground underneath her as the Mane-iac continued to lash out at the alicorn. To the villain, she thought that she had Matterhorn on the ropes. If the earth pony kept this up, then the hero would surely fall to their knees and she would become victorious!

Though, it was as she launched her tail towards the hero to finish her off that something else happened instead. In a matter of seconds, Matterhorn’s eyes changed to an icy blue and her horn lit up again, before a giant claw of ice caught Mane-iac’s tail. When the villain tried to pull her tail back, the frozen claw didn’t budge and continued to hold on. All the while, the hero was doing her best to stand firmly on her hooves as she looked back at the earth pony with a cold, defiant gaze.

As the hero’s horn lit up again, Mane-iac felt herself getting pulled off her hooves as Matterhorn’s creation yanked the villain towards the alicorn with enough force to pull her off of the icicles that kept the earth pony aloft. As the Mane-iac fell forward, she attempted to expand her mane in order to soften the impact of her hitting the ground. Though, just as the villain was about to hit the ground, Matterhorn had the frozen claw move her tail and place it right in front of the falling earth pony. Her electrified mane being the first thing that made contact with it.

The end result was almost instant. As the Mane-iac’s metal tail and electrified mane made contact, a powerful electrical current surged throughout the villain’s body. The earth pony immediately began to violently twitch and scream in pain, before collapsing face first onto the ground. Smoke was coming off her body and her entire costume was singed. As for her clips, both of them had suffered minor damage, yet mostly remained intact. 

As for Matterhorn, her eyes slowly went back to normal as she dismissed the claw of ice she conjured. That battle had her use up a lot more magic than she would’ve wanted. Though, there was something the hero had to check first before she can rest easy. Carefully, she walked over to the villain and placed a hoof to Mane-iac’s neck. After a few seconds, the alicorn closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank Celestia, she’s unconscious,” Matterhorn said to herself, relieved that the villain was just knocked out before using her magic to carefully remove the clips in the Mane-iac’s mane and tail. Afterwards, she placed another spell to freeze over the Mane-iac’s mane, tail and her legs to properly restrain the villain, before putting a hoof to her ear, “Surp- Jumper, can you hear me?”

“Yeah, I can!” Replied the overly hyperactive MIST heroine. The agents of Lance’s aunt had been given codenames by the city to protect their identities, which meant that the leader of the Power Ponies needed to remember that Surprise, one of the ponies from the future, had to be called by her ‘hero name’.

In a matter of seconds, the alicorn was face to face with the remarkable likeness of her teammate Fili-second, but with a pale coat, blonde mane, purple eyes and the addition of wings that marked her as a pegasi. The grin was still as expansive as the ocean, though. For a hero though, she wore a remarkably bland attire similar to that of a riot policemare, helmets and all, with her office’s initials M.I.S.T. emblazoned on her foreleg.

“I’m glad you’re here,” the alicorn replied to her, before motioning her head to Mane-iac’s unconscious form, “Mane-iac’s out for the count, but I don’t have enough magic to bring us back to the docks. Can you teleport us so we can make sure she’s restrained and taken into custody?”

Jumper gave a quick salute, “Say no more! She’ll be back in an asylum lickitysplit!” She then used her mouth to grab ahold of the Mane-iac and blinked away, supervillain in tow. Which had Matterhorn let out a sigh of relief. Though, she needed a moment to rest and regain her stamina first before going to help her teammates.

“Hang on, everyone! I’ll be there as soon as I can.”



Back on the bridge, most of the heroes that were there had little trouble fighting against the adepts that served Sumeragi. Many of them had already figured out a way in order to gain the upper hand against their own opponent or were trying to eliminate a particular variable in order to make their fight more manageable. One such case was that of Vixen, who was working on a plan to disable Merak’s battle chair and disarm the weapon capabilities of the wormhole adept. Every one of the heroes was doing what they could to persevere and overcome the challenge against their foes.

However, there was one hero that was having a lot more difficulty than the others. When Katy, otherwise referred to as the Blue Beetle, originally prevented the Sumeragi adept named Elise from stopping Gunvolt, she thought that their battle was going to be rather simple. Just defeat the adept and their counterpart and she can help everyone else. Unfortunately, things were not as simple as they originally appeared to be.

For starters, Katy quickly began to realize that she wasn’t facing two opponents, but three. Both the submissive and crazed counterparts of Elise were going after Katy by attacking her from angles that she did not anticipate. Even with Teal’s help, she was finding it extremely difficult to know where each one of Elise’s counterparts were at any given time or when they were going to attack. Which was difficult considering she had very little space to move and had to watch out for any crossfire from another fight.

There was also one other problem that made this battle rather problematic. That being Elise’s septima. Taking down one of her counterparts, or Elise for that matter, didn’t mean that they would stay down. Like what Gunvolt told her, the adept was able to resurrect her counterparts, bringing them back from the dead without so much as a scratch on them. Katy tried to figure out ways to prevent this from happening, but they kept on coming back. With each revival making them even more dangerous.

“How much longer do we have to toy with you until we break you~?” Elise grinned, before calling upon two handfuls of kunai and throwing them towards Katy as she tried to move out of the way. A few of them passed by her arms and legs, while one of them struck her right shoulder blade and damaged her wings, making her stagger in the air briefly. By that point though, the effects of the kunai were already beginning to kick in as she found it much harder to maintain flight in the air.

“K-katy, we can’t stay up here,” she heard Teal tell her, “I-if we take any more damage, we’ll be forced to-”

However, despite her sister’s plea, Katy ignored her warning and tried to continue fighting. With her left hand, she did not hesitate to pull out the kunai before her suit created an arm cannon on her right arm as she fired towards Elise. The adept just grinned, taking it upon herself to carefully move out of the way and avoid her attacks altogether. As if the attacks did not phase her.

“You’ll have to try harder than that if you want to get rough with me~” she taunted, before giving off a devilish grin and tilting her head. Almost as if she knew what was coming, Katy immediately moved to the left and avoided a kunai that was thrown at her other shoulder. In a flash, she quickly turned around and aimed her arm cannon at Elise’s submissive counterpart.

However, she made one fatal mistake, “Katy, look out-!!”

Before she realized what happened, the crazed counterpart of Elise threw her kunai and struck her twice. The first one hit her other shoulder, while the other kunai struck Teal. With her body damaged, she wasn’t able to keep Katy in the air or maintain her suit. The hero was forced to crash onto the ground as the pain from the kunai and her landing surged throughout her body.

“KYAHAHA!! I CLIPPED HER WINGS!!” the crazed one howled as she approached Katy from behind. With Teal damaged, her suit had faded and she was now seen in her regular body. The only thing that could protect her at that point was the clothes that she was wearing and the Blue Beetle on her back. “OH MY… WHAT’S THIS SHINY BUG DOING HERE?”

Immediately, a frigid chill went down Katy’s spine. There was nothing that she could do to fight back and now this psychotic freak was focusing on her sister!? She tried to get up, but immediately felt the crazed counterpart forced both of her feet onto her injured shoulders to keep her pinned to the ground. Before she even knew what was happening, Katy felt a sharp surge of pain throughout her entire back as Teal was ripped off of her without a care in the world.

“Hey, HEY!! Put me down!! K-katy, help!!” She heard Teal cry out, watching as the crazed counterpart throws her like an object towards the original Elise. Who could only smirk as she loomed over Katy, with Teal in hand. The grounded human tried to reach for what Copen gave her, but it was knocked away and tossed it aside. “K-katy, please!! Do something-!!”

“So, this is how you were able to fight? Through relying on someone else instead of yourself?” the adept asked, her grip around Teal tightening, “How pathetic… No wonder you couldn’t stand against us. You were just using this thing as a tool.”

However, Katy herself was not going to just let this Elise treat her like some kind of object, “P-put her down!! L-leave her out of this!!”

“S-sis…”

All Elise did was just give Katy a grin, before dropping the Beetle onto the ground, “If you insist~”

CRUNCH!!

Immediately as Teal touched the ground, her body was crushed underneath Elise’s heel right in front of Katy’s eyes. “KYAHAHA!! METAL BUG GO SPLAT!!!” the crazed counterpart yelled, before jumping off of the girl’s shoulders as all three of them stood by each other.

“W-why!?!” Katy screamed, tears flowing through her eyes as she looked at the Sumeragi Adept and her counterparts, “Y-you said y-you would-!!”

“Let her live?” she asked, before shaking her head and giving off a sinister smile, “Oh no… I only agreed to put her down on the ground. Like you asked. I never said I was going to spare her~”

The submissive counterpart only shivered in place while the crazed one howled in victorious triumph. “I WANNA PLAY WITH THIS ONE MORE!!”

“Save your energy,” the adept snapped at the crazed counterpart like a misbehaving dog, “This one isn’t even worth the trouble anymore.” Though, as she looked towards the tower not far from her, a predatory grin emerged, “But nothing can stop us from making him all mine~”

In that moment, a spark was lit. Through the grief of losing her sister and the pain that she was feeling in that moment, something ignited inside Katy. As she slowly moved her arms and forced herself to stand up, her rage towards the one who murdered her sister in cold blood fueled the feeling inside her and caused it to grow. Her silver hair was slowly beginning to change color to a golden yellow as she grit her teeth, her gaze focused on the trio.

It was then that the submissive one noticed what was happening, “M-ma’am…?”

“Ugh, what is it now-?” As Elise turned to look towards Katy, she looked at the woman in a state of disbelief. At this point, small bolts of blue lightning could be seen coursing throughout her body. Yet… only one person she had faced had something like this before, “What the hell-?! That’s impossible!! When did she-!?!”

In an instant, Katy let out an ear piercing roar as Lightning cracked throughout the sky and crashed around her. The electricity in the air coursed through her body and out of her hands. “I’M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE!!!” 

Before any of the trio could properly react, Katy charged forth in a blind rage. The lightning in her hands began to take form like a sword as she put all of her rage into this. With a blinding strike, she cleaved through her foes. Tearing both the submissive and crazed counterparts in half and striking the main Elise and sent her tumbling across the ground. Yet, Katy felt as if this wasn’t enough. She wanted to do more to make her suffer. Force her to go through the same pain that she was feeling.

Unfortunately, as quickly as that spark was lit, it was soon put out. Katy had used up too much of her newfound power too fast and now she was exhausted. As she collapsed to the ground though, her opponent was only merely shaken.

“You think that is going to save you?! You might have awakened as an adept, girl, but you don’t have the power to finish it!!!” Elise snapped, “You’re a fool to think I can be defeated. Now, return to me my sisters!! Resurre-!!!”

At this moment, a shot rang out as the Sumeragi Adept’s eyes went wide. Slowly turning behind her, she found herself staring face to face with Vixen. Who was armed with the pistol that Copen had given to Katy as smoke was coming from the end of the barrel. Elise thought that she was fighting against Merak, only to notice that several of her animal spirits were keeping him occupied. “Stay the buck away from my teammate, you monster!!”

Elise was going to react, but it was then that she felt something that she never felt before in a long time. Pain. The bullet that Vixen had fired was nullifying her septima and without it, she could no longer fight. Her septima that kept her alive this long after so many years. Yet, in that moment, death had finally caught up with her.

She fell to her knees, her body faintly glowing purple as it began to dissipate. With her final moments approaching, Elise took in one last breath and said her final words. “I feel… cold.”

As the Sumeragi Adept faded to ash, Vixen dropped the weapon, before hastily rushing over to Katy’s side. She didn’t know what exactly happened back there, but something was different. For a moment, it felt like Katy was using the same power that Gunvolt had. Yet, that was not important right now. 

What was important was the injuries her friend had sustained. In the unicorn’s mind, if she wasn’t treated immediately, who knows what would happen, “Hero down!! I repeat, we have a hero down!!” the QUILL adept called out, “Jumper, I need a medic, quickly!!”

As the earth pony from M.I.S.T. warped in to take her friend off of the battlefield, Vixen could only tell Katy one thing as her friend began to lose consciousness, “Stay with me, Katy. Everything’s going to be okay.”




End Strike 63