//------------------------------// // Master Prankster // Story: Subject 27 // by Phyrexian //------------------------------// Chapter 60 - Master Prankster         “Lighting Charmer... When were you going to tell me about the Don being Silver’s father?” I walked around aimlessly, not knowing where this Razor was it, let alone who he was.         “It wasn't my secret to share, plus you never asked.” Well played my stow-away friend, well played.         “Any clue where this Razor fellow might be at? I’ve been wondering around these vast halls for like the past ten minutes now; don’t get me wrong, I’ve been enjoying the architecture of the place.”         “I do, he’s most likely in the back training some new recruits.” An idea pops into my head, I won a bet and I aim to collect on my earnings.         “Sounds like you know where you’re going, take the wheel I’ll be right back.” Saying that, I step back from control and slip away to the Darkness.         “Hey Friend, I recall that you and I made a gentleman's bet. And I recall that I won, correct me if I’m wrong.” I walk in to see a lot more furnishing in the Darkness, and Friend at a stove... Cooking...         “Hold on Lad, I’m busy.” I look behind the stove to see Fade sitting at a table eating what appears to be mellowcreme pumpkins...         “Fade... Friend... What are you two up too?” Fade looks up and waves me over to the table; I treck on past the confusing sight of Friend wearing a chef's hat and a apron and set down next to Fade.         “Here you go Lass, your lutefisk is ready.” Friend slides a big heaping plate of pickled lutefisk across the table; Fade stabs it with her knife and digs in.         “Okay Lad, I got a few seconds before I need to get the smoked catfish stuffed with lemon zested baby lamb. Yes, there was gentleman’s agreement, you won... Damn you and your luck...” I look back to see Fade making great progress on her disgusting lutefisk.         “I came to collect it. I want you to absolve me of all  my previous debt.” I lean back in my chair and fold my hands together.         “Okay.” Wow, okay that’s cool... I was already to a big old fashioned showdown with Friend... But he simply agrees, what gives?!         “That’s it? No arguing? No trying to fighting back? Just nothing? What the hell man?!” I feel so disappointed, I hang my head low, low enough for it to rest on the table.         “Sorry Lad. Cooking puts me in a good mood, who knew? It’s just the damndest thing.” He snaps his fingers, feels like a weight has been lifted off my mind.         “Friend, food!” Fade orders, pointing at the stove with her steak knife. Friend turns his attention to the stove with a horrified look on his face.         “My masterpiece!” With great haste, he dashes over to the stove and pulls out his “masterpiece”.         “Please clarify something for me would you? A: Why are you being so nice to Fade? 2: How in the hell are you making all this food without any actual food? And C: Where did you learn how to cook?” In one flawless motion, Friend pulls the lamb out of the fish, cuts and finishes dressing it and serves it to Fade.         “You should already know the answer to the first question, I lost a bet to the Lass and in return I had to be more of a gentleman to her. For two, it’s not real food, it’s merely souls flavored and shaped to what I want. Last but, not least, from you Lad.” As flamboyantly as possible, he slides in another of his creations into the oven and prances back over to the end of the table.         “And before you even ask Lad, yes the soul is supplied by you. No I didn’t take it, you offered a fairly large portion of it before we even came to this god forsaken hell they call a planet. And to simply put it, soul is like tofu, it can take the form of any food and take the taste of anything you want; and it’s healthy too.” I’m left shell shocked by this. I mechanically turn my head like a robot to see only bones left of the baby lamb.         “That was superb Friend.” She licks the tips of her fingers.         “How can you eat so much Fade?” Her eyes lock onto me like a homing missile, she slams her hands down onto the table and stands up.         “You, of all people, shouldn’t be calling me fat!” She yells, Friend hides behind his stove while I slowly sink down into my chair.         “B-But I nev-.” She grabs her steak knife and drive the point of it deep into the table, I continue to cower in fear.         “I can see it in your eyes! I know that’s what you’re thinking!” Her chair freezes into a solid block of ice, my head is the only thing left above the edge of the table at this point.         “I’m sorry?”         “You better damn well be!” The rage burning in her eyes subside. The egg timer on the oven goes off, grabbing Fade’s attention; she turns full body to stare at it, impatiently tapping her fingers on the table.         “The strawberry cheesecake is done!” Friend jumps straight up from behind the stove with the strawberry cheesecake on a silver platter.         “Ohhh! Cheesecake, never had that before!” My eyes are drawn to Fade’s midsection, now that I think about it, Fade has put on a few pounds... Which in all honesty I didn’t think was possible, but this crazy world is hell bent to break everything that’s logical.         Fade attacks the cheesecake with such ferocity it’s scary. I reach over to grab a tiny piece of cheesecake, Fade lifts her knife and impales it through my hand.         “AHHH! HOLY HELL!” My right hand twitches, I go to remove the knife, Fade shoots me an evil look which freezes my free hand.         “Nobody, not even you, touches my strawberry cheesecake.” Whimpering, I bang my horns against the table.         “Fine, I’m sorry! Just remove the knife, PLEASE!” She scoops up another piece of cheesecake before grab the knife and yanking it from my hand.         “T-This will teach me to try to use my sleight of hand against you, Fade... Knife is greater than hand...” She licks the chunk of soul that the knife took with it.         “Hmmm, no matter what your soul will always be tastier than anything else.” She grabs my hand and sensually licks my wound.         “Better?” She makes sure that she gets every inch of my wound, mending it.         “Y-Yeah... Thank you?” She bites my hand, taking yet another chunk from it; but in return giving a small rush of her bliss.         “You’re welcome sweetie. You better get going before that parasite kidnaps your glorious body.” Fade thaws my hand and kicks me out from the Darkness.         “What do you want?” A gryphon with a jet black coat, dull white feathers, copper wings with a sheen to them. His orange eyes fixate on me, it’s hard for me to get a good read on him.         “Razor?” He blatantly blinks at me; I can’t tell if he’s annoyed, pleased, or just has the world’s best poker face I’ve ever seen.         “That’s correct. Speak quickly, I have to get these new recruits into shape before the new shipment comes in.”         “The Don sent me down here to speak with you. That’s the only order he’s given me, I am at your disposal.” He gives me a quick look over, he whirls his index talon around and I spin around for him.         “First, lose the suit, I need you combat ready. Go find Silver Wing’s room.” He orders, I look around cluelessly.         “Go back into the main building, top floor, first room on your right.” He turns his back on me and continues to drill fatigued looking newbies.         I backtrack into the main building, with a little help... with some help... Okay, I really don’t want to take all the credit from someone, or pony that’s inside me; who’s right next to my heart... With a lot of help I manage to find the main staircase spiraling all the way up. I stretch out my legs before climbing the Mount Everest of stairs. Three steps at a time, I conquer the seven flights from hell in record of time; slightly winded but grateful for a decent workout that my body desperately needed.         “Your heart seems to be holding firm after that little workout. Just don’t over exert yourself, you still have a job to do; need you alive and kicking until it’s over.” The feel of my heart beating against my chest tells me that I’ve accomplished something.         “Mind giving me a status report then?”         “Eyes, reconstruction is almost complete. Heart has deteriorated to fifty five percent normal capacity, need to go easy, any further deterioration and I just might have to keep you colorblind until I get your heart functioning condition again. And get your claws sharpened before any serious fighting.” For someone who’s only interested is self gain, he’s awfully taking a lot of interest in my bill of health.         “What’s your gain in all this? Why go out of your way to make sure I’m in fighting condition?”         “Like I said before, after the Don is out of the picture, I can retire.”         “What about Silver? I don’t want her to hate me for taking out her own father... I care too much for her to do that to her.” Finally getting a emotional response from Lighting, not the one I was looking for, but all he gives me is a simple chuckle.         “Not my secret to tell, you couldn’t pay me enough to get me to talk; well you could, but I doubt you have enough bits.”         “Loose lips sink ships. Glad you’re sticking to your principles. She’ll tell me when she’s ready to.” I find the door to Silver’s room, I crack it open to see armor flying across the room.         “No! You can tell the Don he can take his traditions and shove them where Celestia’s sun doesn’t shine!” Silver screams, her voice shaky, she’s near the edge of breaking down, or decapitating someone.         “Mistress Silver Wing, the Don has ordered you to spar with Razor. It will be good for the new recruits.” A young female voice calls out. I quietly slide the door open and creep into the room.         I see the silhouettes of three gryphons behind a white changing screen; another piece of armor is hurled over the wall, it narrowly misses me.         “Mistress Silver Wing, please calm down! You’re overreacting, if you don’t do this the Don will punish us all!” Another young voice pleads..         Tail pokes me on the top of the head, I turn my head to him and he points up at the rafters. They seem sturdy enough to bear my own weight, but one problem they’re about ten feet from the ground; I can’t jump four feet. Tail shakes his tip side to side and points at himself, he fully extends himself upwards. With him fully extended, that adds an additional three feet to my height, I’m sure I can atleast jump two feet without any problem.         “Okay buddy, get ready to grab the beam.” I think to myself, I do a few squats to warm myself up for the jump.         On the count of three I jumped, Tail grabs the rafter with little effort and pulls us up. I stand up and walked toe to heel to keep my balance. A few steps across the beam gives me the perfect advantage to peer over the changing screen. Silver’s wings are fully extended, her face red and the two other gryphons frantically try to calm her down.         “Get out, the both of you! Get OUT!” Her chest heaves heavily, anymore and she might blow a gasic.         “As you wish Mistress Silver Wing.” They bow their heads before leaving Silver alone with her guarding angel slash stalker.         “Celestia molest me...” She falls down on her haunches with a tired sigh.         “I just wish father would just let me be, I didn’t ask for any of this...” Quiet as a cat, I sneak across the rafters past Silver. Tail wraps himself around the beam and I lower myself down.         Blood rushes to my head while I hang upside down behind Silver. Tail easily holds my weight without any effort. This might just be the greatest prank I’ve ever pulled on Silver, it’s hard not to burst into laughter. She just sits there for a few minutes, not saying a word, not even sighing. To make this prank even better, I bring out my dull claws, covering my neck and head in scales and then put on the scariest  looking face possible. Silver finally gets up off her keester and turns around, it takes her a few seconds to process what she sees.         “Rawr!” I playfully swing my claws at her, she jumps back screaming while she rakes her talons across my face.         Her talons manages to remove the scaling from my face, with minor lacerations brings minor bleeding. I probably deserved that... Yeah I most likely deserved that...         “You ASSHOLE!” She slaps me hard enough to send my head spinning. Tail releases his grip from the beams, I land on my feet. I retract my claws and scaling, whipping the blood off my face I look up to see Silver’s face even redder.         “Asshole? It’s been a long time since you called me by that name. What? I thought you enjoyed a good pranking?” I don’t know if it’s the unknown tension with her father, or me scaring the living tar out of her; but Silver finally breaks down; I swoop in and catch her before she hits the ground.         “I hate it here! I-I can’t stand being around my father!” First time I’ve seen her shed a single tear. She wraps her arms around my upper body and I wrap mine below her wings; holding her tight.         “He’s a manipulative, controlling, heartless bastard!” She tightens her grip, letting the rest of her body go limp in my arms. She rests her head on my shoulder, nuzzling against my neck.         I love her scent, smokey like incense. Her soft feathers gently brushing up against my neck the more she nuzzles me. Tail wraps himself around the both of us firmly, he brings his tip up to Silver’s cheek and wipes away the only tear. A hug is a powerful thing, it makes you feel wanted, needed, and love all at the same time. I don’t need to say anything at all, Silver needs me, not sexually, but emotionally for once, and you can be certain that I’ll be here for her in her time of need. I feel her back legs starting to tremble, I look up to see her bed just a few feet away so I gently pick her up; she doesn’t make a sound, she only digs her head deeper into my neck.         Without incident, I manage to get us both onto the bed. I set down with Silver on my lap, she lazily slumps against me, bearing her full weight onto my chest. With stay silent in the bed for a long time, not speaking a single word to each other. My legs eventually fall asleep and so does Tail, but I don’t care, I simply ignore the tingling feeling. I try to wiggle my toes, but to no avail, the tingling feeling has fully spread through the entire lengths of my legs; Tail on the other hand just feels like dead weight.         “Can we stay like this just a little while longer?” Silver is the first to break the stale silence.         “Anything you want, let me just reposition myself first.” She lifts herself off of me, I take my jacket and shirt off, placing them on the side of the bed with the utmost care.         Giving my legs a few good kicks to get the blood pumping again, I lay down on my side, Silver snuggles up close to me and we lay there in each others embrace. Silver has my right arm pinned to the mattress with her head, her beak digging into my chest; we just lay there with me stroking her, not muttering a single word. The late summer’s breeze rolls in through the open window, warming us with the sun’s heat. I look down to see Silver’s eyes closed, the coloring in her face has returned to normal, her breathing is now even and steady. She digs her head deeper into my chest, I pull her closer to me and decided to join her in the nap. I close my eyes, listening to Silver’s soft breathing slowly lulls me to sleep.         “Wake up Arkis.” Ice hollers out, my eyes rip open to see him sitting across from me with a cigarette in hand.         “Sorry, where was I?” I look down to see a manilla folder open up on my lap.         “You’ve never started, you open the folder and dozed off.” He takes a long drag from his smoke.         “Wish you wouldn’t smoke on the plane...” I bluntly say.         “Deal with it.”         “Let us get started so I can go back to sleep, it’s going to be a long flight from New York to China.” I hand him the folder, he thumbs through the documents in the folder, giving each one a skim over before starting.         Date: 11/20/2018          Age: 25.          Gender: Male.          Occupation: Biological Warfare Weapons Specialist/Engineer. Background: Grew up in the middle lower class, both mom and sister were murdered by some freak, other siblings are unknown. He bounced around foster homes for a few years before his father finally came into the picture. Had a lot of trouble in school with other students, fights and what have you, was expelled from a local school because he ended up sending some kid to the ICU. His grades were outstanding in spite of his violent streak. His father was really never around due to work with the military. Warwick ended up in some boarding school, his father “donated” a small fortune to keep him in the school, the day he turned 18, he went into basic training. He barely made it through basic training, was never a strong fighter; more of a bookworm though. From there, he climbed through the ranks; becoming a Master Sergeant before going private; working for Dr. Freeman, a.k.a his father. “After he went private, our friends lost all track of him. That is until now, since he resurfaced. This document is almost two years old.” Ice rubs the butt of his cigarette into the ashtray after reading the document, he grabs his pack and lights another one. “I see, so our friends want you to do what?” “Take care of him, those are my orders. But first we have to go meet up with Alex in some bar in China so she can tell us where Warwick Freeman is at.” “Alex? As in Alex Orlov? The pretty little slave girl from Russia?” He leans forward in his chair. “The one and the same.” The corners of his mouth curls up into a smile. “The thing you two got going on, you hitting that?” He jabs at me. “I never kiss and tell. Now, if you’re going to keep on killing yourself, I’m going to get some more shut eye.” I recline my seat, resting my head against the cabin of the plane and shut my eyes. “You’re no fun Arkis.” He pouts, the last thing I hear from him before falling back asleep.         I come to Silver still sound asleep in my arms; the circulation in my right arm hasn’t occured for quite some time, making my arm literal dead weight. Silver’s wing is covering the both of us, acting like a soft blanket; the warmth radiating from her body feels nice. I shift my weight to get closer to Silver, she starts to stir from her sleep; she doesn’t bother to open her eyes.         “Just a little while longer, please?” She whispers, nudging the top of her head against my chin.         “Okay, just a little while longer.” I whisper into her ear, I pull her closer, firmly pressing our bodies together.         Laying there, an idea comes to mind, I wonder if the camera function still works on my PDA. Pulling it out I hit the power on, the screen flickers to life, I enter the necessary codes to get to the picture folder and tap on the camera icon. A loading bar appears on the screen, only taking just a second before the screen portrays the wall I’m aiming my PDA at. I turn the camera towards Silver, still sleeping peacefully. Unable to see the screen I take the picture, with excitement I take a look at the results; surprisingly I was able to capture the peaceful expression. Admiring the picture, Tail yanks the PDA from my hand, he stretches above me and takes a picture. He drops the PDA and I catch it, looking at it, it’s a great shot of Silver sleeping soundly next to me.         “That’s just scary that you’re just that good with a camera... Come here so I may pat your tip.” Tail brushes against my cheek before letting me pet him, Silver’s eyes crack open, just barely showing her ruby red eyes.         “W-What are you doing?” Her voice is groggy, and slightly audible.         “Taking a picture, couldn't resist, you looked too peaceful.” She opens her eyes a little more, she raises her talon for the PDA.         “Let me see.” I place my PDA in her talon, she takes a look at the picture, her beak curls up into a smile.         “This bauble of yours is just too cool.” She purrs, handing it back to me.         “Forgot it could take pictures until now. A face will fade in a memory, but a picture will always speak a thousand words.” Silver runs her index talon down the scars on my chest, tracing some.         “So many scars, so many battles fought, so many stories; shame that you can’t tell me any of them.” She sighs.         “Ironic if you ask me, scars are meant to remind us of how we survived, like a history lesson.” Not wanting this comfortable moment to end, I run my hand through Silver’s soft feathers.         “Care to share with me why you have such a burning anger towards your father?” She pushes herself away from me, breaking the warm embrace.         “Help me get my armor on, we’ve spent too much time laying around.”  She gets up from the bed, looking around the room to find her armor.         “Why do you keep on dodging the question?” She ignores me, continuing to find the armor she flung across the room in her rant.         I get up from the bed, she clearly doesn’t wish to talk about her feud with her own blood. I walk over to her, she hands me a long silver blade-like plating; the sun’s ray reflects off its blade; it hurts to just look at the thing. She extends both of her wings, I equip my claws to make sure I don’t cut myself. I tie the blade down with its leather straps on both wings, she then points at a rather large silver breastplate. Tail grabs it and holds it in place for me to tie it down.         “You should get dressed too, don’t want you to ruin your fancy suit during some sparring. I’ll be outside waiting for you when you’re ready.” Unable to get a word in edgewise, with two powerful flaps of her wings, she soars out of the open window.         “I just don’t get here, before she was all sentimental, now she’s locked up tighter than a catholic virgin.” I pathetically laugh to myself.         “I can’t help you there, ain't my secret to tell. She’ll tell you when she’s ready to.”         “Thanks for the advice Lighting Charmer. Now, how would I go about getting my pants back?”         “Take a deep breath, it’s about to get uncomfortable for the both of us.” My horns lightly hum with power, the blue veins turning a dark emerald green.         My feel my ribs part again, my bowels twist into knots, my throat closes up, my stomach feels like it’s about to explode. I can feel Lighting Charmer shifting around inside my chest, he presses something against my skin, and out come my pants in a blink of an eye.         “Now that’s all said and done, anything you like to put in here while I have my magic channeling through you?” I reach into my pocket, I fish out my medallion.         “Might as well hide this in there, don’t want anyone snooping around my stuff; my cover hasn't been blown, yet.” The medallion goes into my chest ‘safe’ a lot faster then my pants.         “Mind explaining to me how you managed to keep my pants bone dry? Hell, not even a single blood splotch on them!” I unfold my pants, inspecting them thoroughly.         “Don’t worry about it.” I put my trust into Lighting Charmer, I simply ignore the fact that my pants are stain-free.         I take off my suit’s pants, folding them up nicely; fearing the wrath of Gramps if I soiled his masterpiece. I put my camo pants on, exchange my PDA from suit to camo pants and went down the seven flights of stairs and headed outside to the sparring area.         The sound of metal clashing against metal rings out. I turn the corner to see Silver fighting with Razor. The overprotective Horror in me emerges from the deepest parts on my mind, seeing Silver fight; even if its just a sparring match causes my blood to boil. I quicken my pace from a slow walk to a brisk jog, Silver swipes at Razor with her bladed wing, he ducks and slashes at her unprotected neck; seeing this I drop down to all fours and charge in head first. Silver jumps back, his attack doesn’t connect; but I don’t care, all I’m seeing is red right now.         With claws ready, I’m in Razor’s blind spot, he doesn’t see me lunging at him. I slam into with such force it sends the both of us sliding across the ground; his bladed wing slashes across my stomach, opening a small gash with blood oozing from it. Tail binds his front talons as I pin him to the ground; he tries to move his head but I grab him by the beak, slamming his head back down onto the ground.         “Horror! Down boy!” Silver calls out, my brain ignores the command though.         He drags his wing across my stomach again, creating another small gash. I open my mouth before rearing my head up; I go to bite down on his neck, but Silver grabs me by the horns and yanks me off of Razor.         “I said down!” I land on my back, Silver wraps her talons around my throat; squeezing hard enough to choke me.         “When I give you a command, you listen! Do I make myself CLEAR?!” My tunnel vision fades away, I push the urge to create scales on my stomach to close up the wounds into the deepest part of my mind.         “Do I?!” She yells, tightening her hold around me.         “Crystal.”  I finally cover my lower torso in scales, the bleeding comes to a stop.         “Thought you had a better leash on your pet.” Silver gets up from off of me, I look up to see Razor just now dusting himself off.         “I do, or did... I don’t know what’s gotten into him.” She turns her back to me, I get back up onto all fours.         “I’m very disappointed in you, Horror.” She bluntly says, her words hit hard, like a brick to the family jewels.         “What took you two so long to get down here?” Silver freezes on the top, with my brain already in overdrive mode, I’m able to think a mile a minute.         “It was my fault. I was tired and insisted on taking a nap. Silver disagreed but I wouldn’t hear it, I spent the last two nights awake doing guard duty; I’ve been sleep deprived for the past forty eight hours.” I let out a long, drawn out sigh, Razor gives me a quick look over before turning his attention back to Silver who silently nods.         “False truth, clever; for a pet.” The scales on my lower torso open up; venting out the pooling blood. The scales close when the blood comes to a trickle; I can already feel my wounds back up so I decided to stand back up on my own two legs.         “Your form is sloppy.” I might aswell get my jabs in while the gettin is good.         “Excuse me?” I lock eyes with him, his left eye barely twitches; found his weak spot.         “When I tackled you, your first action should’ve been to use your wing as a better blocker; but you didn’t.” His eye stops twitching, he looks behind me at Tail; who’s just wagging around aimlessly.         “You’re the first thing to call me out on a mistake, either you got a pair of brass ones on you, or you’re confident enough in your own technique.” He pauses for a brief moment before continuing on. “Your tail though, needs refinement; when it bound my talons, it took too long.” Tail stops whatever he’s been doing, he turns to face Razor, tilting his tip to the side.         The raging storm in my head clears, I calm down enough for my other side to go back into hiding. Then it hits me, I don’t know how I didn’t notice it until now, but Razor stinks with Cloud’s scent; he’s been in contact with Cloud recently, as in the past day. If anyone knows where Cloud is, it would be him. I must keep my cool, I can’t blow my cover, I hate to say this, but finding Cloud can wait.         “Horror, Horror!” Silver’s voice breaks me out of my deep thought.         “Sorry, something got me thinking.”         “Don’t interfere with Razor and I sparring match, or else.” Still hurt from earlier, I’m unable to look her in the eyes.         Razor whistles, I look up to see him pointing at the recruits. “Train with the recruits, only using your tail; if I catch you using anything else, I’ll punish you myself.” He orders, not wanting to disappoint Silver again, I merely follow Razor’s command. Credits Editor frieD195