//------------------------------// // 128. Breakaway Bridge. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Pandora, Oleander- “Why does your Boomacorn keep saying stuff like ‘Buck Yeah’ and ‘Horsepower’?” I had a new traveling companion by the name Buttina Stalliona, also yes she was still very much answering to Butt Stallion. The Saddle Arabian sized living pony that resembled a crystal pony unicorn that had two horns glanced at me and Fred while levitating her Boomacorn shotgun around. Butt’s species were basically this worlds version of pony’s on Equus, otherwise known as the Pandoran Bicorn and they had evolved to survive all the crazy stuff that is going on in this world. Apparently Buttina Stalliona’s species had a lot of untapped magic, which can be seen all around Pandora in a condensed form they called Elerium on this world. That they can even weaponized magic crystals here was interesting, but none of my business. Despite having two horns, Butt’s people only had the same capacity of an average unicorn, from what I tested each horn had half the strength. It would allow her to multitask with her magic at least. “Because it’s awesome like that. Also these guns are living entities that can breed to make more Boomacorns and they have something like the living souls of equinoids, ones that have watched one too many action movies in them. All Boomacorns are like this.” The gun was cocked and Butt fired at a large yellow robot that just turned the corner, the multiple elemental blasts overloaded its armor and it immediately fell over dead. The shotgun just shouted ‘radical’. “So can I come with you to help you find this… Pom was it? I tire of being a sideshow attraction and wish to see other worlds.” “Please say yes Ollie, SHE’S TOTALLY AWESOME!” Of course Fred liked her, she was both nice and violent like me. That and we were already quick friends when I showed her how to levitate something. “I AGREE THAT BUTTINA STALLIONA IS AWESOME!” The explosions guy named Torgue wouldn’t stop trying to sell us on explosive weapons being cooler than lasers. “I WISH TO WORSHIP YOU FHTNG IN THE NAME OF EXPLOSIONS!” “Oh goody! I will absolutely accept you Torgue, go forth and make things blow up in awesome displays! My other commandments are make nice looking statues of Oleander and my awesome visage, got it?” I could see Fred’s eyes smiling. “NOW CARRY OUT MY ORDERS GRAND PRIEST OF BOOM! Also only use my real name when you need me to listen in, otherwise call me Fred.” “I OBEY MASTER FRED, I WAS GOING TO DO ALL OF THAT ANYWAY!” Ugh, Torgue was absolutely going to create a cult devoted entirely to Fred, not like this planet didn’t have enough of those already. “Now that you’re done chatting…” Smiling at Butt as she spoke and loaded shells into the Boomacorn, I held the End of Pain aloft in my magic. “Shall we get on with this robot wrecking rampage?” “We shall!” We both charged around the corner into a horde of evil yellow robots. It was about five thousand to four, unless Overlord Song Ender wanted to sit this one out. The odds were mostly in our favor. -On a train approaching a destroyed bridge in Colorado, Dolly- “Huh? But Pom! I… okay. I’ll do it.” I did tell Bolt, Mittens and Rhino that we had a magical bond that we could vaguely send ideas and image to each other, it wasn’t the same as actually talking and we couldn’t get the finer details across. The big picture was still enough for me to work with, she wanted these animals out of harm’s way right this instant. “We need to detach it now, get the animals off and start running. We’ll meet up with Pom once she’s done figuring out how to save the three up front and finds a way to safely shake the mercenaries, she also doesn’t want me to be seen or they might fire on us too.” I really didn’t want to be blown up, also I had no better ideas on how to deal with those vehicles that were out of range, had the high ground on us and the guys inside were definitely armed with guns. Once the car was detached by Bolt and Mittens, it slowed down and the rest of the train continued onwards to the bridge. I pulled the brakes and we waited until our train car came to a stop. “Okay everyone, we can’t stay here, we need to move it!” I hopped up onto a horses back and motioned at the sliding door that wasn’t facing the mercenaries. Hopefully they weren’t watching this car specifically after we released it. Once outside I got the idea that Pom was in trouble and looked to see there were fires preventing her from getting off the bridge with the people she was with. I had no choice but to leave that situation to Pom. -Pom- “Uh… what do we do?!” Thumper was panicking and the shell shocked cat he had over his shoulder shivered, still aware enough to know that he should be afraid despite being in shock. We were already over the bridge and I really doubted I could float everyone to safety, too much weight for all of them, I could manage maybe Thumper or Figaro alone as animalistic tended to lighter in weight. Floating down with a full grown biped like Horace was going to be impossible. I gave it some thought and turned to the vehicles lining up in the distance. “Well I have an idea, but it’s going to rely on the fact that the mercenaries are relying on some false notions about me.” I received looks from Horace and Thumper, Figaro was a bit blank even if he was still breathing. “What false notions?” Horace asked while watching the vehicles adjust their next shot in our direction. “That I’m a hero and I would never abandon people who need help.” I really wouldn’t abandon someone who needs my help, these three currently did and saving them was going to be an impossible task unless this bridge was built sturdy enough. If the train could absorb some of the damage then maybe… “You wouldn’t still be here trying to help us if you weren’t a hero.” Horace coughed a bit more. “Ugh my lungs, I think I inhaled too much smoke.” “Common misconception, a hero seeks to do these kinds of things on purpose. I’m doing it only because I’m incidentally present and I don’t actually go out of my way to look for people to help. I just find them trying to get by.” Still wasn’t going to leave them on a bridge that’s about to be collapsed, I’m fairly sure they knew this or I would be gliding away from here already. “I’m definitely not the hero in this situation, because I’m basically the root cause of it and all the damage they’ve done to the train and this bridge. Damage of which I’m…” “So you’re a hero that’s being hunted and beaten down until nothing is left and you still stop to help people even in as crazy a situation as this? These guys still seem like they were going to rob my train regardless of whether you were on it or not. So we would probably be dead from smoke inhalation if you hadn’t shown up, you were just likely an excuse for them to even try pulling this.” Horace still coughed and wheezed, but he was smiling at me in a friendly manner. “You didn’t have to come help us and you did so anyway. Besides, you’re not the one who gets to decide whether or not you’re a hero! It’s the people you meet and the impression you leave on them that will do all the talking, I’d say you’d definitely would have left us for dead already if you didn’t think you can manage to somehow save all three of us from this.” “I’m also the one that caused the log cars to catch fire… got caught in two separate blasts getting here and it set my wool on fire.” The looks I received from Thumper and Horace were amazement. “You survived being near the impact of two artillery rockets?!” Wasn’t about to tell Horace that it was my wool that handled most of the issues with survival, but my body was still hurt by the concussive shockwave both times and even before that my body was failing me when the boulders started falling onto the train. “Pardon my French, but what in this beloved world of ours are you made of?!” I probably resembled the fumes that I barely had in me to think this through. “Flesh and blood, same as any of you three... I think I have an idea of how to get the mercenaries to think they killed us while making sure none of us die.” While I couldn’t float down, there was another way. “I was blinded by the explosions both times I got caught up in them… so I have to ask and I know this might be a loaded question given the circumstances, but can you guys find it in your hearts to trust me?” -Shred Tread Mercenaries, Rocket Artillery Unit- Through a pair of Binoculars they could see they had Leap Lamb trapped on the bridge and she looked like she wasn’t going to leave the civilians and save herself, well she was welcome to die with them. “Marked target!” The voice called out as all five rocket artillery readjusted a second time. “Load and shoot!” Several voices called out, Leap Lamb looked up at the arcing rockets coming down on her and the train. She wrapped her hooves around the three people with her and closed her eyes, not willing to leave them. Like sentiments like that will save her or the people she’s with, they were acceptable casualties. Some respect had to be given to the supposed super hero though, one that looked both badly disheveled and burnt, since she was willing to go down with them instead of saving her own butt. The binoculars fell as the rockets neared and the bloom of five explosions tore apart that section of the train leaving no chance to have missed Leap Lamb unless she leapt to her death. Aside from the bridge remaining standing due to the train taking the brunt of the rockets, there was no way that Leap Lamb could have survived that. So we’ll call it a confirmed kill even if we can’t find the body. “Call it in boys, we have a train to ransack and a bonus for bagging that bleating heart!” Several cheers rang out. “Now let’s see if we can find Caper Canine anywhere nearby and make it a twofer, she was not confirmed at the site of the blasts and who knows what a dog like her can do!” -A fair distance away, Dolly- The bridge didn’t immediately collapse, but I felt Pom struggling when it started to. We were in a forest a distance away from a few portions of the bridge catching fire and another fuel car going up in flames. Thankfully Pom was nowhere near there when that happened, but she wasn’t in the woods with us yet. “There is no way she survived that!” Mittens stated wide eyed with her worried paws on the side of her face. “Also my poor agonized ears!” “Not the only one Mitten… I hope I don’t go deaf from all this, but she’s still alive!” I confirmed Pom was among the living, but she was going to need a good long rest after this. “Hey big guy, do you think you and your friends can carry my friends to the nearest bit of civilization?!” “Sure, you helped us, so it’s only fair we return the favor!” The stallion stated as he watched the bridge start collapsing even more. “Can we wait until my ears stop ringing?! It would help with my balance when carrying people!” “What’s your name?!” I asked. “Spirit and my mate over here is Rain, I’m actually kind of glad that this happened!” The stallion stated as he looked towards the bridge. “Always did want to run free, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be heartless in leaving your friends behind!” Okay, we had some animals that can carry our various weights, good to know. -Pom- I was sweating as I continued to climb down the structure, the weight of three people and my bag full of stuff pressing against me. Right, I had all the food for Dolly and our traveling companions. If what I just did hadn’t worked, then they could have starved to death. Not that I would have much to worry about if I were dead. I’m glad my bag wasn’t damaged. “Are you okay Leap Lamb?” Thumper asked from my back. Horace was straddling me and making sure both Thumper and Figaro were staying secure to my back. “No.” I stated through my gritted teeth as I slowly climbed down the support structure of the bridge with it slowly breaking apart above us. How long did we have to make it to the bottom? Swimming or wading through the water beneath the bridge was going to be as much a challenge as getting away from it collapsing on top of us. Neither Horace nor the cat named Figaro were capable, at least Thumper might be strong enough to swim with Figaro on his back. Thankfully the river below us was slow flowing at least, but getting through it with everyone safely was going to be a bit of a challenge. “Don’t bother her too much thumper, let her concentrate on however she’s doing this.” Stated Horace, I would thank him if I wasn’t doing as he said and concentrating on making sure they weren’t falling to their deaths. I was quite certain I could survive a fall from this height with sure certainty, but I still had a healthy respect for gravity and the injuries it can cause. I continued to move my hooves one after the other in a downwards motion, making sure not to lose my grip as I placed them down. Hoped that the mercenaries bought us dying and were watching the upper portions of the bridge more closely than where we currently were, at least we were out of their direct view for the moment. We could be spotted trying to swim for shore. If these guys were as greedy as Horace thinks they are then they would go after the stuff on the train, we had to be gone by the time they came to investigate things. Halfway down it now. “Ugh…” A rock hit me in the face and I lost grip on three of my hooves, thankfully Horace prevented Thumper from Screaming by covering his mouth and I carefully got my hooves back on the structure. “We don’t want to give away that we avoided the rockets Thumper. Can you go faster?” Horace sounded hoarse. “The bridge is going to come down on us.” The upper portions of the bridge were slowly collapsing. At least the lower portions seemed sturdier, but that wasn’t going to help much if the upper portions fell on us while we were trying to swim away. “Do you think you three could survive a fall from this height if I take the impact with the water?” I asked as I continued to maneuver my hooves in a pattern of slow methodical downwards movement as I stared up at the bridge and could see it begin to start falling downwards. “Possibly, but get as low as you can before jumping when necessary.” Horace had a decent grasp of our situation. Thumper was panicking and whimpering, clutching to all of us. “It’ll give us better chances if we aren’t immediately crushed.” I felt Dolly send me a mental ping and I quickly got feel of her location, I looked over my shoulder to see the Dalmatian waving her skateboard over her head on the nearby shore with some friendly looking animals as I continued my descent. It looks like we had some help thanks to Dolly, all we had to do was get to them. A large chunk of the bridge above started falling at us and I quickly threw myself to the right while letting go of all my hooves. I reached out with my left hoof and grappled the structure to use our falling momentum to swing around the corner. “Oof.” My body hit the support structure roughly and the debris slammed by us and into the water below. Actually that was a good thing that just happened, that chunk of bridge just created a platform for us to reorient ourselves on at the base of the support structure. Now if only it extended in the direction we needed to swim in, beggars couldn’t be choosers though. “You okay?” Horace asked with a whisper, he was shivering with fright at my recent maneuver. “I’ll… be okay… when I can finally get some rest after all of this.” I grunted out and started climbing down again, while turning my wary gaze upwards. Large sections of the bridge started to fall, but thankfully those pieces weren’t falling near us. Once I got everyone safely onto the chunk that fell past us earlier. I looked to Thumper the innocent looking animalistic rabbit. “I can get Horace across, but can you get uh… Fig... across?” I had forgotten the animalistic cat’s name already. “We'll swim right besides each other Thumper.” “I think I can do it, Figaro is not too heavy.” He coughed a bit, but Thumper still looked okay. “This may exacerbate you’re broken leg Horace.” I turned to the biped horse on my back. “I can always get to a hospital afterwards, right now we need to avoid being crushed.” With how broken his leg looked I’m surprised he managed to keep what should be immense pain out of his voice, this old guy was made of some stern stuff. “Figaro is not going to be a bother with water before you ask. He has a rather lovely girlfriend, some aquatic animalistic called Cleo. You’d likely never see a weirder pair than them.” “Trying to get your mind off how painful this will be when we get into the water huh?” Not receiving a response, I proceeded to dip a hoof into the water to get an idea of how deep it was. At least deep enough that I couldn’t wade through it. I carefully reoriented Horace on my back and looked to Thumper with Figaro over his Shoulder. “Keep his head out of the water when we start swimming.” Once I slipped into the water, I shivered, feeling like I had run a marathon and my body giving me an agonized ache. Still I kicked my hooves and started swimming, Horace aided with his hands and tried not to move his legs. Thumper was surprisingly doing a good job and staying right next to me. Looking around in the water we didn’t see any problems as we made our way to shore to where Dolly was waiting nearby. I quickly helped Horace drape himself over the back of the stallion and helped Thumper, with Figaro, up onto the mare. The stallion motioned to me and Dolly to hop on, we quickly made it to the nearby forest where the rest of the animals were waiting. “Horace, do you or Thumper know the area or where the nearest town is?” I still had some worries that someone was still tracking us through Dormarch even if he had disabled his map function. “No.” Thumper’s ears wilted. “Bolt, pass me Dormarch.” Just because I had worries didn’t mean I wasn’t going to ask for help. Taking up Dormarch from a disturbingly quiet Bolt who was looking at the bridge as it completely collapsed into the river. I looked at the Dalmatian with fish tails on the screen playing that minesweeper game again, he looked to be covered in soot from numerous explosions. I noted he was playing it on the easiest setting and he was still failing horribly despite how simple the game sounded from what was explained to me about it. He looked up at me from his current game. “Are you alright, is everything okay?” Dormarch looked at me and I could tell he was getting a scan of me. “You really need rest Pom and to get away from any more stressful situations for at least twenty four hours, also you need to clean your wool of all the blast and burn marks. I’m not even sure I want to know how close you were to those explosions…” “We managed to get away Dormarch, but we’re a bit lost. We were on that train for an hour or two, now calculate our likeliest location, the closest town to us and how long it would take us to get there if we were to walk there slowly.” Because I didn’t feel like I could do any running today. “Working on it… are we still on the east side of the river?” We didn’t cross it and we swam to the side the train approached from so… “We’re east of the river and north of the tracks.” I answered confidently. “Ten minutes, to the north away from the bridge. Not a large town, but it should do for our needs of getting hospitalization for the injured horse biped. He seems to be in immense pain, but he hides it well and the water isn’t doing much to aid in his current state.” Dormarch seemed relieved to see me smile at him despite how tired I was. “Aside from Dolly, all the other animals seems to be highly stressed, but will otherwise be okay. We will all be okay provided you managed to keep those mercenaries from following you.” “What about the cat animalistic.” I pointed Dormarch at Figaro. “Physically he’s fine, aside from a mild smoke inhalation issues. Psychologically… yeah, I don’t know anything about him.” Well that was a fine kettle of fish Dormarch. “Should we really be sitting here talking, that horse biped needs a hospital! Also does anyone find it a little awkward that he's riding a horse?” -Seven minutes and fifty seconds later- We made good time, I helped Thumper get Horace and Figaro to the hospital before going my own way wishing them luck. The animals that followed us here chose what to do with themselves, both Spirit and Rain happily went off on their own to find greener pastures together. “Good luck to you too Pom, thanks for saving us!” Thumper was happy that Figaro and Horace were going to be okay, he was a brave young rabbit and could certainly handle things from here. We needed a hotel and I was going to take a long thirty minute hot shower and then sleep for the next twelve hours afterwards, Dolly was honestly okay with taking care of the others. -The next day, morning, outside the hotel- “So where are we going to next?” Dolly asked me as we wandered down the street. Bolt, Mittens and Rhino were still a bit shaken up by the harrowing mercenary attack. “Well I’ve talked with Dormarch. If we want to make it to Hollywood in a timely manner, then we’ll need to pass through Mesa City Vegas in Utah. From there it can take about six hours to get to Hollywood via quiet hitchhiking.” They recently opened a Waffle World in Mesa City and I took a liking to the restaurant chain for having decent food. “Since we’ve ditched the mercenaries, and so as long as I don’t have to do anything too big, we will be able to keep a relatively quiet lifestyle over the course of the next day.”