//------------------------------// // 610 - Razor's Edge // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Dark Streak knew immediately that she’d failed to strike a fatal blow. There were some assassins who relied on sheer strength to get the job done, coming at their targets with overwhelming force until they’d hacked or bludgeoned them to death. That wasn’t her; even if she’d wanted to, she didn’t have the build for engaging in that level of brutality. Instead, she preferred to use finesse, attacking a target’s most vulnerable points in order to finish them off as quickly as possible. In the case of Lex Legis, she’d been aiming for the back of his neck. If everything had gone according to plan, the blade of her dagger would have slipped directly between his fourth and fifth vertebrae, severing his spinal column and causing instant death. But something had alerted him to the danger, causing him to shift in place at the last possible second. She didn’t know if it was because of those ioun stones he had circling him (supposedly their functions could be identified by their cut and materials, but Dark Streak had never studied those), or some spell he’d cast before coming inside, or if he was just stupidly lucky. All that mattered was that he’d moved a fraction of an inch right before her blade had struck home, throwing off the precision behind her attack and causing her blade to sink into the meat of his shoulder rather than his spine. Worse, her invisibility spell had just worn off. She didn’t know why that spell was designed to abruptly terminate when an attack was launched, only that it did, and that was a problem because while Lex Legis had clearly felt that attack – his mouth opening in a strangled hiss of pain – his eyes were already turning toward her even as the aura surrounding his horn flared violently. Dark Streak didn’t hesitate. Her right talon twisted the blade in his shoulder in an attempt to deepen the wound, and hopefully throw off whatever magic he was using, even as she brought her left around, her second dagger aiming directly for his heart- The attack never reached him. Instead, she was forced to break it off as black crystals erupted from the floor. They came up at a low angle, and would have slashed her legs to ribbons if she hadn’t managed to leap into the air – tearing her dagger from Lex’s shoulder – dodging the spikes by a hair’s breadth. Launching herself backward with a single flap of her wings, she landed several feet away from him, knowing that if she hadn’t studied up on him that likely would have gotten her. Looks like Willow was right, she smirked to herself. And not just about his powers. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Lex’s counterattack hadn’t gone for any vital points. But then again, that wasn’t a surprise, since according to Willow he couldn’t bring himself to kill his own kind. And thanks to the magic in her hat, she looked just like his pegasus maid at the moment. She could almost see the confusion in his eyes, hesitating as he looked her over before his eyes slid to the bound figure hanging a few feet away from him, trying to figure out what was going on. It was an opportunity that Dark Streak didn’t let pass her by, wings beating fast as she rushed forward, darting around the spikes he’d raised with a hard curve, rolling in mid-air as she lashed out with her daggers. She saw him grit his teeth, his horn lighting up again just before she struck home…only for an expression of shock to cross his face as nothing happened, causing her to grin as she sank her blade into his side halfway to the hilt. Surprise, she snickered inwardly as she pulled the blade along his chest in a savage cut. No turning into a shadow for you. That was thanks to the incense she’d whipped up with the materials she’d bought in Canterlot. It was just one of the recipes she’d taken after killing the alchemist who’d scribed the spells into her brain, creating a “phasic disruption” that made insubstantial creatures solid while within its vapors. While it had taken quite a few sticks of the stuff to fill the entire warehouse, the price had been eminently worth it. After all, Dark Streak noted as she brought her other dagger around in an arc that would open Lex’s throat, you have to spend money to make money. But to her surprise, Lex didn’t try to avoid the blow. Instead, he bent his knees and lunged toward it, tucking his head as he did. The result was that, rather than slicing his neck open, the blade of her dagger cut a deep groove across the top of his head, skittering across the roof of his skull in a laceration that was likely very painful but did very little damage…save for slicing his horn off near the base, the red prong hitting the ground with a trickle of blood. The sight made her sneer. Idiot. What good is saving yourself if you let me cripple you in the process? While she wasn’t sure how much a spellcaster like Lex needed his horn to use his magic, she felt sure that losing it would do something to impede his- That line of thinking came to an abrupt halt as Lex’s horn suddenly grew back, causing her eyes to widen in alarm. Willow never said anything about that! Unable to help herself, her eyes shot downward to where the severed appendage had fallen, checking to make sure what she’d seen hadn’t been some sort of illusion. It was only as she caught sight of Lex’s sudden grin out of her periphery that she realized she’d just fallen for the same trap she’d sprung on him, looking away from an enemy while in close quarters. Swearing, she turned her eyes back toward him just in time to see his horn light up… And the horn that she’d cut off of him suddenly changed into black crystals, lancing upward. Again, Dark Streak lurched into the air, but Lex was apparently ready for her to try that this time, and the spike of black crystal – long and thin like an oversized needle – shot higher, carving a bloody groove across her belly as she twisted in mid-air. Choking down a cry of pain, Dark Streak prioritized falling back, thankful he hadn’t hit the enchanted goggles she was wearing that allowed her to see in the dark. Wings beating harshly as she put more distance between herself and Lex, she saw him turn back toward the bound pony, eyeing the chained maid cautiously. Oh no you don’t! Even if she’d somehow missed that Lex could apparently regrow lost body parts, Willow’s description of his personality had been spot-on so far. Which meant that, once he got over his confusion about whether or not the Feather Duster hanging in front of him was the real one, he’d almost certainly try to get her out of here. That couldn’t be allowed to happen, since otherwise there was nothing keeping him here in the kill zone she’d readied. Fortunately, she’d prepared for an extended encounter. Winging upward, a single swift motion was all it took for her to sheathe the dagger in her right talon. It was one of her primary weapons, enchanted to be unnaturally sharp, and so was too useful for her to easily discard. The same couldn’t be said for the unenchanted one she drew a second later, aiming and throwing it at the lever on an overhead catwalk. Her throw was perfectly aimed, knocking the lever into its upper position. The effect was immediate, as down below Feather Duster suddenly shut upward, the chain she was hanging from suddenly retracting. Dark Streak watched as Lex, visibly startled, tried to grab the pegasus with his telekinesis…only to apparently realize that for her to ascend that fast must have meant that there was a corresponding counterweight coming down. It was with a twinge of irritation that Dark Streak watched him throw himself to the side just before the metal table she’d spent so much effort dragging up there crashed down onto where he’d been a half-second prior. Cursing inwardly, she flew upward to land on the catwalk in question, taking just a moment to throw the coupling link she’d put there earlier around chain right above Feather Duster’s hooves, connecting it to the catwalk railing…just as the rest of the chain suddenly went slack, causing her prisoner to dangle in place rather than fall. Glancing over the railing, Dark Streak smirked; sure enough, just like she’d expected, Lex was standing there with a short length of black crystal in his telekinesis, having just cut the chain she’d tied around the table. He knew that without the counterweight, his maid should have come falling right back toward him. Too bad I knew that too. She watched, waiting for his next move…only to cock her head as his eyes scanned back and forth blankly, not locking onto Feather Duster or her. No way. It can’t be. But when he didn’t try and so much as tug on the hanging pegasus with his horn’s aura, she knew it for certain: he couldn’t see them. I thought he was supposed to be some sort of incredible wizard, but he can’t even see in the dark? laughed the griffon silently, watching as Lex turned and moved deeper into the factory, apparently looking for a way upward. The place was crowded, and some of the clutter left behind was stacked high enough that he quickly moved out of her sight. Not that it mattered too much; the dim glow from his horn – which he was apparently using to see – meant that he’d never be able to sneak up on her, even if she hadn’t had her goggles on. Silently snickering, Dark Streak spared one last glance for Feather Duster – still unconscious thanks to the oil of taggit she’d made her drink – and moved to follow Lex. But her movements were relaxed now, knowing that she held a powerful advantage. After all, Lex wouldn’t leave before recovering his maid, and with what Dark Streak now knew, he’d never find his mare before she got the drop on him. Now I just need to figure out how to deal with that regeneration of his. Or maybe I won't have to, she mused to herself as she flew through the hazy air. With any luck, the deathblade poison that I coated my daggers with will finish him off for me. “…until the break! Of! Dawn!” Sonata and Aria stood on their hind legs as they sang the last note of their song, hooves held wide. Ahead of them, the ponies they’d enchanted whooped and hollered as they continued forward, heedless of the fact that they were leaving the Sirens behind as they continued toward the more populous parts of Las Pegasus’s lower city, still looking to party. In less than a minute, they’d disappeared around a corner, though the sound of their continued laughing and cheering continued to hang in the air after them. Falling back onto all fours, Sonata gave a cheer of her own. “Alright! Mission totes accomplished!” “It won’t last until morning, but they should stay enchanted long enough for Lex to make short work of whoever snatched whatshername,” agreed Aria. Sonata clapped her hooves in excitement. “Ooh! Speaking of which, I wanna be the one to tell him we took care of our part with no slip-ups!” Covering one ear with her hoof, she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Princess Hot Plot to Chief Red Horn. Come in Chief Red Horn. The beagle has landed! I repeat: the beagle has landed!” Aria stared at her sister, brows rising. “What exactly are you doing?” “Um, reporting in. Duh.” For a moment, Aria could only work her jaw soundlessly, needing a few seconds to process just how much of an idiot Sonata was. “You do realize that we’re out of range for Lex’s whisper spell to work, right? And even if we weren’t, he couldn’t hear you because of what happened with that ritual you made me screw up?” “Oh yeah!” giggled Sonata, sticking her tongue out as she playfully bopped herself on the head. “I was so excited about him asking us to help that I totes forg-…wait a second! What do you mean I made you screw it up?!” “And for that matter,” continued Aria without missing a beat as she turned around and started heading back the way they came, “it makes no sense to say ‘the beagle has landed’ since beagles can’t fly, you dimwit.” “Oh yeah…would it have worked better if I had said weasel instead?” “Ugh!” The playful bickering continued as the duo made their way back to the apartment building they’d just cleared, but both of them fell silent as they saw that there was no one there to greet them. “Oh, he did NOT!” snarled Aria in sudden rage. “Huh?” Blinking, Sonata looked at her sister, confused. “Who didn’t what?” “Lex!” bellowed Aria in a rage. “He was supposed to wait for us here, and instead he ran off to go save that stupid maid on his own while we were taking care of that crowd!” “No way!” whimpered Sonata, her ears folding back. “He said he wanted us to help out this time…” “He was probably just telling us what he thought we wanted to hear,” spat Aria bitterly. “After all, we’re so messed up that we need someone like him, who’s so much smarter than we are, to make all of our decisions for us, remember?” She kicked a rock angrily, sending it skipping across the sidewalk. “It’s just like what happened with that scry-spy thing or whatever it was; he pushes us away and we’re just supposed to accept that it’s for our own good! How we feel about it doesn’t matter!” “I really thought he got it that time,” sniffled Sonata, before shaking her head. “You know what? Maybe we’re, like, jumping to complications! There could totes be another reason he’s not here!” Snorting in disgust, Aria didn’t even bother to correct her sister’s mangled idiom. “Like what?” “Well, um…” Biting her lip as she tried to think of something, Sonata suddenly perked up. “Ooh! I know! Maybe he’s still here now, but he’s just hiding!” Aria gave her sister a disgusted look. “Are you kidding me?” “Come on, it’s not that crazy!” insisted Sonata. “I mean, think about it! He said he’d be hiding while he watched us get everyone out of the building, so maybe he’s still hiding now!” Looking around hopefully, Sonata waved a hoof in a random direction. “Lex! We totes did it! You can come out now!” Shaking her head, Aria gave a mirthless laugh. “Give it up, Sonata.” But the other Siren would not be deterred, trotting over to look behind the scraggly shrubs planted along the front of the apartment building they’d just emptied. “Lex! We, like, admit that you’re the best there is at hide and seek! Come out come out wherever you are! Olly olly-, hey, what’s this?” Picking up the discarded piece of paper, Sonata turned it over, examining the single line of writing for just a moment before her eyes widened. “Um, Aria?” The mare in question barely stirred, staring at the ground with a miserable expression. “What?” “I think I know where Lex went.” The worried tone in her sister’s voice got Aria’s attention as much as the words themselves, rousing her from her funk as she glanced over at where Sonata was trotting toward her, holding the crumpled piece of paper out toward her with a tense expression. Snatching the paper, Aria looked it over…and her eyebrows shot upward, a flurry of emotions rushing through her. Relief that there’d been a good reason why Lex had run out on them. Embarrassment at how she hadn’t had enough faith in him. Irritation that Sonata of all ponies had been the one to figure out what had happened. But the one that came through the strongest was worry. Something like this hadn’t been part of the plan, and while Lex was the strongest pony – the strongest anything, really – that she knew, Aria was keenly aware that he was far from invincible. She’d seen him be seriously injured too many times to think that. And with how much he’d been fretting over that failed ritual – something she knew was her fault, as much as she wanted to deny it – the chances of that were higher than normal if things came down to a fight, the way they so often seemed to with him. Dropping the letter, Aria looked at Sonata and scowled, pointing at the location written on it. “What are you just standing there for?! We need to go help Lex right now!” Without waiting for an answer, she turned and started galloping toward the factory, Sonata right behind her.