//------------------------------// // 224. Mighty Backup. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Ponyville, Sugar Cube Corner, Silver Stream- “Zampony…. Zampony… Zampony…” Gallus was rocking back and forth hugging himself just saying Zampony over and over again, Pinkie Pie gently patted him on the head and put a birdseed special below his beak. One sniff and Gallus took up the snack, but he still wouldn’t stop saying that word. “Why is he going on about a Zampony?” This was directed at Sandbar who was the one to find Gallus in this state. “… also what is a Zampony?” “Well he had a training exercise with his adoptive big sister, but I have no idea why he would be freaking out about something so unthreatening. Zampony’s are used for paving ice skating rinks, which are usually run by reindeer or a pony with good enough ice magic, otherwise the method for keeping the ice rinks cold enough can be expensive.” Okay, Sandbar just taught me something today, I didn’t know what a Zampony was until now. “It just makes me wonder how you can traumatize someone with something so slow moving, because a Zampony can’t even outpace a crawling foal when in motion.” “Not the way Jade uses it.” Fluttershy stated as she sat down. “Gallus, if you need me to somehow make everything feel better, blink three times in quick succession.” “By the way, I have recently decided that Ponyville needs to out weird Airship Mauled!” Pinkie Pie stated while thrusting a hoof into the air. “To that end I brought in this big guy!” “Spoon!” Said a big blue... bug... guy... with tiny antenna. “This world is so wonderful and colorful, now if only I can find its dark seedy underbelly in this land of wonderful cotton candy cuddles. I will make them ride the bicycle of rehabilitation into being the nicer cute and cuddly beings I know they can be, with my fists!” “I learned interdimensional magic from watching Oleander.” Pinkie said simply afterwards. “Defcon five, Ponyville! Pinkie, could soon be an Alicorn, not a drill!” I shouted to everyone while waving my limbs wildly and ponies throughout Ponyville started panicking, screaming and running around like lambkins. We learned a lot about lambkins from Twilight trying to make nice with them, they were all so jumpy and skittish… it was really adorable! “I so wish I could take the blame for this one…” Discord stated as he calmly stuck a straw of wheat into a drink and started sipping at the wheat and the fluids in his drink started swapping colors with that of his body the more he sipped. “Is this blue berry? Feeling a bit blue now, I’ll ask for purple next time I prefer feeling envious to feeling sad.” The Green Smooze just wobbled in a friendly manner and smiled at us as he encased his chair at our table. I think that was how he sits down. “Oh come on, you break the dimensional barrier a teeny bit and everyone treats it like something bad is going to happen!” Pinkie Pie grumbled. “Can I get a strawberry milkshake Ms. Pie?” Said a giant sighing white… rabbit… or is it a moth? Moth, he had wings. “Sure thing Mr. Moth Man!” Pinkie stated in a pleasant tone confirming it was a giant bipedal moth. “Zampony…” Continued Gallus with a blank expression on his face. -Earth WDCCT, Downtown San Fransokyo, Ocellus- “Oh come on guys, not the mall! Not after what happened the last time we did hero things in one!” Fredzilla whined as we were retreating into the parking lot of said mall. We don’t know what Team Possible is doing. I just hope we didn’t leave them to their deaths, but since one can use magic and the other could dodge laser fire, I think they would be fine. Seemed to be doing well enough from what I last saw. “Yeah, we’re not good at leaving malls standing, we kind of have a record for it.” Plasma Paladin muttered as he looked towards me. “Thankfully car insurance now works with acts of mad science… do we really have a choice, we’re kind of getting surrounded here.” “Best place to get cover and find a janitors closet for some backup chemicals.” Bazooka Bunny stated calmly as we found the place was mostly abandoned, but the doors were opened. She was keeping watch on our backs. "The civilians must have reached the shelters." “Surprisingly not the first time I’ve heard about a janitor’s closet being referred to as a weapons stockpile….” Muttering this as a medical kit dropped in front of our path by a Skymax, along with a canister of chemicals for Bazooka Bunny and what looked to be an energy source for Plasma Paladin’s weapons. The kit was mostly for Dolly, but other injuries might occur. “Mini-Max contact Dormarch, I need his help. He isn’t going to want to talk to me.” My decision almost got Pom, Shanty and Ms. Shuttle killed, at least I knew Smolder and Dormarch would be fine. Dormarch, with enough energy and awareness, could easily survive taking lethal injuries… but he would be regenerating at a cost and could only do it so much. “What is it?” Dormarch muttered grumpily, he and the others likely just made it to Basemax and they wouldn’t be doing anything else for the foreseeable future unless Dormarch came out to help us personally. “I still have to ask knowing your there Ocellus, is Shanty being able to use her blood in a magical attack considered exceedingly bad?” “Yes, but it probably supercharged whatever attack she did, considering her water manipulating abilities.” I really needed Dormarch’s help to patch up the unconscious Dolly I’m carrying. “Mini-Max is sending you Dolly’s current state and what I have available. What do I do?” “Well first find a good place to take cover, you’re not going to patch up my big sister out in the open with that many hostiles converging on you.” One could almost feel the anger Dormarch was giving off. Glad I wasn’t currently within emotional range of him. “Also Shanty will be fine for the most part, eating those snacks before we got into a fight is helping her with the blood loss.” “We’re entering a mall, mostly to find cover and run around in while fighting off the encroaching robots. I’m sure I can find some time and a decent hiding spot, we’re in the middle of a lull of being attacked right now.” Most of the shots weren’t aimed at me anyway, but I really didn’t want to test if they’d shoot at Dolly while I’m still holding her if they got an opportunity. “Is Pom alright?” “Yes, we were lucky her life support didn’t falter for more than a few seconds, we hooked up Ms. Shuttle’s mostly destroyed body to a power source here at Basemax to keep that life support running. Some guy named Roddy is here, says he’s Big Hero Six’s auxiliary member and is being really helpful.” Dormarch sounded upset and why wouldn’t he? Ms. Shuttle was like his best friend and closest to him in age. “I’ll try to stay in contact, I’m working on Shanty’s injuries now. She’ll live, but she’s far worse off than she was at the end of the Saint Canard Crisis.” “Entering the mall now.” I passed through the doors carrying Dolly and Fredzilla was carrying the medical kit as Plasma Paladin and Bazooka Bunny turned to blast back a contingent of red robots that tried to rush us from behind. “Yeah, the robots in the city are all converging on you.” Announced Dormarch from Mini-Max. “So you’re ploy is still working at least…” He sounded pretty bitter, he largely had good reason to. As soon as we entered we headed straight to the food court, because the hairless rat from Team Possible was insistent and when we got there… he ran straight for the area around the restaurant labeled Bueno Nacho. Apparently the little guy felt a disturbance in food not being eaten, he’d get along so well with Shanty. “Isn’t Bueno Nacho the Kim Possible team’s favorite restaurant?” Don’t look at me Bazooka Bunny, I don’t know anything about them. I clambered over the counter with Dolly and motioned to Fredzilla to toss me the medical kit. “Cheese!” I ignored Rufus eating some chips and cheese just left sitting on the counter, trying to not remember that Twilight Sparkle had a strangely humorous phobia of Quesadillas. Twilight had said it was because they were too cheesy or greasy, but the rampant fear I felt about the subject wasn’t specifically ‘disgust’ or ‘distaste’, don’t honestly know why Twilight would try to lie in front of a changeling. Also Quesadillas could be made with less cheese or grease. Not that I really ate solid food for sustenance to truly comment on cooking preparations, but I could still taste food. Ponies really shouldn’t have introduced chocolate to changelings. “Okay we’re as safe as we can get. What do I concern myself with first?” I asked and waited, the response was frighteningly quick as Mini-Max acted as a communications device for me. “Her right ear, is the burn deep or light? Is the skin bubbling or is it lightly singed?” At Dormarch’s behest I looked at Dolly’s ear and responded with what I saw. “Okay, some torched fur and light bubbling… not deep, but not light. Okay here’s what you do…” I soon had Dolly’s ear tended to and wrapped up, I bandaged the various reopened cuts after rubbing stuff into Dolly’s fur to deal with the nasty bruising. I have to say that Abigail had some really soft paws, might use this form again sometime in the future. After mostly taking care of Dolly and being protected by Fredzilla, I carefully laid Dolly off to the side and looked up to see that both Plasma Paladin and Bazooka Bunny were being pressured by at least ten robots coming in from the far western side of the food court from my position. A similar number coming in from the north from direction we came from, that Fredzilla literally leapt to engage while wielding his odd spinning shield weapon. “What’s the situation with the unknown forces from the south?” I asked because I didn’t see any robots coming from the south side of the mall. “Team Possible just got an assist from the space capable aerial vehicle, destroyed the large robot with several shots. Team Possible is now fighting their way towards your position.” Despite his grumpiness, Dormarch was still willing to keep us up to date on the situation. “Mental Magnet and Baymax are capturing out Professor Nimnul and Baron Von Steamer at the same time as we speak to the west. The two scientists totaled the robots in their area, but their machines are down.” “Monkey Fist and Motor Ed are still trapped in the chemicals I fired, the robots and the large lizard are rapidly approaching. Also another tall gangly lizard has appeared with another contingent from the west, he has anomalous energy signatures similar to the ones Magica gave off. The guy has magical abilities given he’s wielding a staff and is floating off the ground, looks ancient, but no less a threat for it if he’s quite capable in magic. As for the south… the unknown forces are apparently tearing through the robots with their armored personnel carrier and the robots seemed to be focusing heavily on slowing them down.” Ms. Shuttle chimed in with a slightly less cheerful and more worried tone. “The armored ground vehicle will be there soon, I suggest staying where you are. You can consider the unknown forces allies as they seem to be focusing primarily on the robots encroaching you and seem to be enemies with the lizards. The two lizard’s forces have like one hundred and twenty robots between them, you have more than a hundred already surrounding the mall as we speak. The number of robots destroyed so far is up to at least fifty, those lizards seemed to be completely geared for war when it comes to catching AC actual.” “Look… Dormarch… I’m sorry, but I felt like making a call and I’m still hoping it was the right one. We haven’t heard from Wheel Cat since she engaged Phantom Blot’s group and the Power Pets are untested for real world threats with projectile weaponry. One of the Power Pets team was a friend of Dolly’s, it’s how we even got their help with watching AC actual and I’m sure you know the hotel we ended up at considering Dolly knew a secret way out of there.” Ducking as a blast ripped across the counter, I sighed audibly. “Can Roddy take care of Pom? He just needs to change out her drips right? You can come out to pick up Dolly if you want to and get her out of the battle zone, I can also leave her hiding somewhere, but if something collapses on her… well I’d rather stick to carrying her in case the robots target her even if she isn’t hostile.” “Give me a minute to consider that…” Despite being obviously angry Dormarch sounded like he had cooled down a bit. “Might not have that much time, but I’ll try to keep Dolly as safe as possible.” It wasn’t exactly hard for me to carry Dolly, she wasn’t a very heavy dog. “Don’t mind if we join you right?” Plasma Paladin popped behind the counter and started firing blasts of energy from both gauntlets, next to him Bazooka Bunny shoulder her chemical purse cannon thing and fired a large sphere of chemicals that exploded on impact and took out three of the robots. We still have seven firing on us. “More robots entering the mall from the north and west, the robots from the south are depleted and the armored vehicle doesn’t look like it’s going to stop to park. Expect it to come crashing into where you guys are.” Ms. Shuttle was less spiny than Dormarch. “So three hundred robots, wow… these guys are throwing a lot at AC actual.” “Never a good sign when this many resources are being used Ms. Shuttle.” I was actually getting worried that I didn’t have near enough protection even with the friendly unknowns and Team Possible being around. I was willing to be captured though, provided it would save someone’s life. I heard a distant shattering and looked to the left, while both Plasma Paladin and Bazooka Bunny ducked as shots rained down around the counter. I was mostly safe in standing up and looking for them to see a large white tank like vehicle on six wheels swerved around the corner and immediately started to fire its cannon, not on us, but on the robots. This took down a number of the incoming red robots quickly with each shot and tore up a good portion of the food court doing so. Surprisingly the Bueno Nacho counter was holding up to the various robots shooting at it and made me wonder if all Bueno Nacho’s had armored counters. There were still two or three left that Bazooka Bunny and Plasma Paladin laid into with fire from their respective weapons, two went down in short order and then the last one was stomped into the floor and had its head taken off by Fredzilla’s weapon. “That can’t be right…” Dormarch stated drawing my attention to Mini-Max hovering nearby. “What can’t be right?” Glancing about I saw Fredzilla, Bazooka Bunny and Plasma Paladin eyeing the duck mask faced tank warily as it started forward towards us, but it held its fire. “They’re coming out of nowhere from above, I think there’s some kind of invisible ship above the mall dropping more of those robots right on top of you. How many do they have?!” Enough that they were spending them all on me Dormarch. Whatever they wanted Abigail for… it was something big and ‘no’ clearly wasn’t an answer they’d respect at this rate. The shattering of glass and several of the red robots landed on the tank and were attacking it point blank as it swerved and stopped before it could reach the food court. “Grin, Nosedive, get out there and get them off the Migrator!” A female voice shouted as several more robots plowed through the ceiling sending large chunks of rubble smashing into the floor quickly wrecking the food court. The tank quickly started picking them off as more fell through the holes in the ceiling, Plasma Paladin and Bazooka Bunny joined in. “Ah, come on, not the noodle burger boy, it was so young!” Looking over to Fredzilla, he was kneeling in front of a now drestroyed food kiosk that a robot was stomping its way out of. He quickly stood up and started to batter the robot down in a rather vicious display of his weapon spinning against its limbs and head taking them all off in quick succession. “No more mister nice Fredzilla, you’re all getting a kaiju sized beating now!” “Not the most concerning thing happening here Fred!” Plasma Paladin shouted as the Bueno Nacho stand came under heavy fire trying to take out my protectors. “What is this kiosk made of BB?” “Triple plated, heat resistant steel alloy stronger than titanium… not exactly normal for a restaurant, but this counter is a perfect place to hunker down behind. The energy weapons the robots are using can’t penetrate it at least.” This world doesn’t stop getting any stranger after hearing that Bazooka Bunny. “Now keep pushing them back, they are almost literally dropping a wave of them right on top of us. Why do they want Abigail so badly?!” “I have a few ideas, none of them good.” Answering that, I held Dolly close and watched as our unknown allies sent out two guys and one was a large duck… huge really. Since when were duck bipeds breaking twelve feet in height? There was also a smaller younger looking one next to the big guy armed with a strange weapon that seemed to be firing flaming fast moving disks that looked oddly like hockey… one smashed into a nearby robot and bounced off it behind the counter. He was also unnaturally large for the duck bipeds of this world. “Huh, that guy is shooting hockey pucks…” “As projectiles? That has got to be expensive!” Muttered Plasma Paladin as they continued to fight back the growing horde of machines intent of grabbing me. It was getting bad enough that Fredzilla was moving back towards us while trying not to take to many hits to his suit. “No less effective for it though, something that size given the momentum of a bullet… reloading!” Bazooka Bunny dropped down and started to mess with her chemical firing weapon. “Hey Rufus, get me some of that cheese! I can use it.” “Kay!” Rufus hopped up and went to do that the robots ignored him and continued to shoot at Plasma Paladin or Fredzilla. “Hey there, so you must be Abigail.” I almost jumped out of the counter at the fact that the smaller and younger of the two ducks was suddenly behind the counter with us. “Who…” I was going to ask when he cut me off with a waving hand and blasted the head off a robot. “Hi there, I’m Nosedive Flashblade, the big guy over there goes by Grin. The girl in the Migrator is Mallory.” He pointed out his friend smashing those robots with his bare hands. Then the tank that also started firing on the robots as the continued to swarm the middle of the food court, coming from above, our right and in front of us from the western mall entrance. “Our three other guys and girl are trying to deal with The Raptor hanging above your heads, they are Wildwing my big brother, Duke the cool guy and Tanya our resident genius.” “Wait… there’s six of you?” I was asking more for the theory that this world had managed to form multiple harmony instances naturally before we ever came here. Also those names sounded vaguely familiar, Launchpad and Pom talked about this I think… “Yep, and we’re the good guys!” As he said this he took up a spot next to Plasma Paladin and Bazooka Bunny popped up to throw something yellow looking. A number of robots suddenly stopped in place as soon as they were barely even touched by the modified cheese substance. “Did you just use nacho cheese as a grenade?!” “Yes, I think I have enough of a grasp of the materials they are made of to turn these things molecularly into Swiss cheese, but I would need some Gouda to get that process going. Wouldn’t work on a living person though, so don’t worry if you touch that stuff. I try not to be lethal about what I throw around and try not to make an endless cascade reaction with all the chemicals I deal with.” Bazooka Bunny stated before taking up position and continuing to fire on the crowd of robots that were still moving. “I’m never going to cause a grey goo scenario, I’m cute and friendly!” You wouldn’t know it by the way you just shouted that Bazooka Bunny, it’s little wonder people think you have an explosive personality what with your weapon of choice being volatile projectile chemicals. “You are my new favorite person and I think Tanya would like you! She always talked about possibly getting into SFIT or seeing what weird technology she can learn about in this city, but we’re always getting bogged down by random hero stuff. You might know how it is given you guys are Big Hero Six!” He was certainly talkative and cheerful. “I so want an autograph from Kaiju Zilla too while we’re here and doing a team up thing. Also, what I wouldn’t do for a few more of those cheese grenades to deal with Hunter Drones!” “You actually know what these things are?!” Finally someone who knew what was going on and could tell me. “Yeah, robots created by the free remainder of an evil lizard empire that was sealed in limbo, they want you to make a portal let them all out so they can invade this planet and then take over our home world again. We’ve been stuck here for a long time, thankfully enough we just blended in with society easily enough and formed a hockey team on this planet. We’re from a place called Puckworld, beautiful place, lots of ice.” It seems like Nosedive didn’t have the concept of secrecy, good for him I wasn’t willing to tell him I wasn’t Abigail Callaghan. Also he seemed suspiciously motor-beaked. “The Hunter Drones come in two variants normal and… oh-god-it’s-going-to-kill-us-all! I crushed the second type with a weaponized Zamboni once, but there was only one then. Now they are likely making more of them, considering we’ve seen one fielded since we got here. Probably saving the heavier stuff for onboard defenses on their ship. The Saurians, the lizard people I mentioned. You have their nasty big leader guy Lord Dragaunus that can control and spew fire like a dragon. If you see a green shape shifting guy, run, Chameleon can impersonate anyone he sees visually. Then there’s…” “A dark magic using warlock named Wraith and the soldier named General Siege?” I asked because I now knew why this was starting to sound familiar. “You’re the Mighty Ducks… and oh goddesses you’re their element of laughter...” “Well I do like a good laugh and we have a party going on here!” Yep, he was their element of laughter alright and I was stuck with him… I silently contemplated jumping over the counter and getting captured on purpose. “Oh, did you read our comics? To think they said those would never sell... I made millions!”