Three more sunrises passed over the camp. Two days prior Carpenter had arrived and already situated himself and began working. FeatherTune found himself becoming increasingly more impatient as the days dragged on. His team needed to address the Hybrid outpost in the west, but CharmingRhythm insisted to wait until the ponies he recruited came into camp.
Feather couldn’t wait any longer. He set out to search for Rhythm around noon. He found the Unicorn talking with Carpenter. After he landed, he stared at Rhythm and waited for him to turn around, which he only did after Carpenter gave a confused glance.
“Rhythm, we need to address that outpost. It’s been days!” Feather asserted.
“I know but…” Rhythm began to protest.
“We won’t be gone too long if we do,” Feather told him. “Whatever ponies come to camp can wait for you. It’s not like they’re gonna leave if you aren’t here to greet them.”
“You’re right,” Rhythm sighed. “Okay, we’ll attack the outpost. Get everyone together.”
Feather nodded and took to the air to find the rest of their team. They collected at the west edge of the village, their cab with them. EchoBeat had gathered with them too, intending on joining, but Rhythm asked Echo to stay behind to look after the camp.
“Can I come with?” Jet requested as they were about to set off.
Rhythm looked between his teammates to get their approval. They hadn’t taken another recruit outside their team on a scouting mission yet.
“Let him come,” Hyper insisted. “I wanna see what he’s got.” He gave the younger Pegasus an intrigued smile.
“Alright,” Rhythm determined.
HyperBlitz led them in the right direction. After some time traveling, they arrived at the outpost. There was a shed with a fence surrounding a clearing. A short tree stood next to a node and behind the shed was another node, it’s top just visible above the roof.
“Looks like there’s two nodes,” Rhythm observed. “Hyper, I thought you said there was one!”
“I thought there was one!” Hyper shot back.
“Maybe they set up the second after Hyper flew over,” Spinning guessed.
“More reasons why we should have attacked earlier!” FeatherTune exclaimed.
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter.” Rhythm shook his head vigorously. “We’re here now, so let’s figure out how to tackle this.”
“Well, shit,” Blazing let out. “It’s another one of those fuckers.”
The stallions gazed towards the tree on the left. A familiar Hybrid shape roamed around the node; bulky, with a saw foreleg.
“It’s mine!” Hyper growled through clenched teeth, attempting to keep his volume low.
“Hold up,” Rhythm warned. “It’s better if we work together. Let’s think up a plan.”
All of them were silent for a moment, pondering what could possibly kill the heavy Hybrid,
“I’ve got it!” Spinning declared, and the rest of them turned to him. “We take one of the energy canisters out of a node, put it under the Hybrid and explode it!”
They all blinked in dismay. Rhythm stammered, “That’s um.. A very creative solution.”
“But we’ve gotta distract them while somebody disables the node,” Blazing said.
“That’s such a waste of energy though…” Feather complained.
“Jet and Feather, you distract the big guy. Spinning, you try to disable a node. The rest of us will take care of the remaining Hybrids,” Rhythm spelled out.
Feather shot a glance at Jet and tilted his head forward. The two of them circled over the outpost. With blasts of electric energy, Feather got the attention of the heavy Hybrid. Jet flew near the ground to tease the Hybrid into a chase. Another Hybrid had taken notice and sought after them, firing its own gun.
Rhythm, Blazing and Hyper rushed into the middle of the clearing to distract the remaining Hybrids. Blazing slammed into an Earth Pony Hybrid, which then was sent crashing into the ground. While Blazing stood over the Hybrid like prey, it began slashing its claw against his chest. The first slash hit against Blazing’s breastplate. The second carved a shallow gash between his chest and shoulder. Lifting his EPD, Blazing blasted fire energy into the Hybrid’s face.
SpinningNote slipped through a gap in the fence as the Hybrids were being distracted. He set himself between two of the node’s legs and broke out his tools. Nodes were difficult to disable quickly, and especially carefully if one wanted to harness the energy inside. Spinning used energy from his weapon to weaken the paneling of the node.
Both Hyper and Rhythm had their eyes set on a Unicorn Hybrid. As they fired energy at the cyborg, it began shouting very loudly. Its mask muffled its voice, only something along the lines of “poor ponies” was audible. Rhythm couldn’t understand why it was making such a ruckus, perhaps to get the attention of other Hybrids. A magic shield formed around the creature, reinforced by a device attached to it’s horn. Neither Rhythm or Hybrid could bust down the shield with their energy.
“FeatherTune!” Rhythm called out with an amplification spell. “Over here!”
Feather swirled around in the air and gazed past the Hybrids chasing him. He saw the shield and knew exactly what to do. Raising his foreleg, he aimed for the shield. Electricity crackled as a bolt shattered the shield and a second bolt struck the Hybrid. As the enemy was stunned, Hyper and Rhythm finished it off with weapon shots.
Spinning had made his way through the paneling of the node and was beginning to unattach the barrel inside that held energy. Through his focus, he didn’t take notice of a Hybrid which had appeared out of the shed behind him. Suddenly, a hoof and a claw snatched Spinning around his neck.
All of the other stallions stopped what they were doing when they heard Spinning’s scream. Rhythm saw the sight of him struggling in the forelegs of their enemy. The other Hybrids began gaining on the recruits as they stalled. Rhythm’s mind whirled.
“Hyper, come with me! Blazing, you stay here and keep fighting!” Rhythm commanded and began galloping towards the shed.
“What do we do?” Jet called out to Feather.
“Keep doing what we were doing. Let’s get that smaller Hybrid!” Feather decided.
Spinning squirmed to get free. His horn shimmering with magic, yet he couldn’t find a source to attack behind him. The Hybrid used her left foreleg to clamp tight on the Unicorn’s neck, making it difficult for him to breath. With her claw, she quickly forced a small metal chip into the back of Spinning’s neck.
“Looking for your friend?” The Hybrid said in a rough, but feminen voice. “Care to join them?”
Blue energy pelted Spinning’s captor. She bared her teeth at Hyper, but refused to let go of the Unicorn. Cyan magic lifted up a metal barrel, and Rhythm bashed it against the Hybrid’s head. She fell to the ground just as Spinning did. Disoriented, he attempted to get to his hooves. The Hybrid got up first, and forced her forehoof onto Spinning’s back, trapping him on the ground.
Rhythm continued to fire energy at her while Hyper circled around the outpost. Foreleg outstretched, he readied his dive-bomb attack on the Hybrid. The cyborg didn’t see it coming, for she was too focused on Rhythm in front of her. Hyper’s momentum flung the female Hybrid into the fence, several meters away from Spinning. The crash was enough to knock her out. Hyper began to help Spinning to his hooves.
Over on the other side of the outpost, Feather and Jet continued to shoot at the first Hybrids. Yellow energy bursted against the small gun Hybrid, stunning it with electricity. Jet charged a surge of energy in his EPD and released it. The Hybrid collapsed after the energy hit it. That left only the heavy Hybrid in the outpost.
As Spinning stood up, he glared around, dazed. Rhythm noticed his eyes were starting to look distant and confused. Hyper spotted the bleeding slit on the back of his neck.
“Fuck. I think she chipped him,” Hyper let out.
Rhythm cantered around the Spinning to observe his neck. He used his left forehoof to feel around the skin to locate the chip. He pushed it downwards towards the slit and used his magic to rip it out the rest of the way.
After a few moments, Spinning began to respond again. He shook his head and peered at Hyper and Rhythm. Luckily the chip was not in him long, so he had the ability to recover quickly.
“You okay?” Hyper asked, concerned.
“Yeah... “ Spinning sighed. “That bitch.”
“Hey! We still got this guy to deal with!” Feather yelled out.
“The node!” Spinning exclaimed.
The purple Unicorn swirled around and sat back between the legs of the node. Hyper and Rhythm observed him as he began to pry at the insides of the machine.
“What about the other node?” Hyper questioned Rhythm, and flicked his muzzle in the direction of the second node.
“We’ll get it when we’re done with the last Hybrid,” Rhythm said.
“I want my piece of that fucker!” Hyper growled and took flight.
Fire energy lit up around the large cyborg, sent out by Blazing. Jet and Feather still glided around it. The heavy Hybrid swung its head side to side, attempting to choose a target to take.
“You aren’t getting your friend back,” it grumbled.
“What is he talking about?” Jet shot at Feather, who only shrugged.
Hyper shot useless blasts of energy and the cyborg. Spinning and Rhythm ran through the clearing towards the flight.
“Wait,” Feather alerted. “I don’t think we should explode that energy!” He pointed a peach color hoof at the node’s canister wrapped in Spinning’s magic. “If we all shoot at the Hybrid it could be enough to kill it.”
“Alright,” Rhythm sighed. “You’re right. It’s a huge waste. That energy could recharge all of our crystals, plus some.”
“Aw. But I wanted to go with my plan!” Spinning pouted. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
All six stallions rained down energy on the heavy Hybrid. A mix of blue, red and yellow swarmed around it as it shook its head, blinded by all of the light. It fell to the earth and began thrashing it’s legs around. Soon enough, it’s screams were no more.
They all took a break while Spinning began pulling apart the second node. Hyper had returned to the first node and was beginning to shake it at the top. With a creek, it toppled over, one of the legs breaking.
“Hey, Rhyth,” Feather said as he approached their leader. “The big guy said something about not getting our friend back. Do you have any idea what that means?”
Before Rhythm could reply, Spinning remarked, “Oh yeah. The one that attacked me also said something about a friend.”
Rhythm went on the hunt for clues around the outpost. He rested on the shed behind the node Hyper had collapsed. Without a word, Rhythm cantered towards the entrance and slipped inside. After a few seconds, he reappeared.
“There’s a pony in here!” He reported.
As Spinning took the canister out of the node, Rhythm budged a pony out of the shed and into the clearing. She was a green Earth Pony with a maroon mane. Spinning set down the canister and inspected the new pony. He levitated a scalpel out of his bag and searched for her chip.
“Could I push over this node?” Jet wondered as Hyper hovered towards it.
“Yeah, sure. Go ahead.” Hyper nodded.
As Jet shook the large structure, Spinning led the refugee up the hill to the cab. Rhythm instructed Hyper and Blazing to help him move the dead Hybrids into the shed. However, none of them could move the heavy saw Hybrid. They left it there and retreated to the top of the hill. Jet flew between Hyper and Feather once he was done with his job.
“Hope I did alright,” Jet said.
“You did fine,” Hyper assured. “I know, it might not seem like you did enough, but that’s because you're working on a big team.”
“Honestly, it’s better that way. We each take a share of the work, so we don’t end up worn down,” Feather added.
“I guess that makes sense,” Jet responded, but kept his eyes locked on the cab ahead of them.
In the back seat, Rhythm carried one energy canister in his lap. He patiently watched the pony they had saved readjust to her surroundings. She blinked and stared at Rhythm.
“What’s going on?” She muttered.
“It’s alright. You’re with the Resistance,” Rhythm told her in a comforting tone. He placed a hoof on her shoulder. “You’re safe from the Hybrids now.”