//------------------------------// // X against Z // Story: We will catch you if we can // by proto-alpha //------------------------------// Chapter 32: X against Z Fernando made his way slowly through the labyrinth. He was holding his hands in front of him to avoid any unwanted collisions, and it had worked well so far. This maze, unlike the other one, had an hexagonal pattern to its walls, and it had many more turns than the first one. He knew that Fluttershy would have noticed that he was gone, and it was only a matter of time before she decided to show up. He had reached a dead end for the third time when Fluttershy appeared to his side. He didn’t notice her, and she would have easily captured him if it wasn’t for the solid wall that separated them. She tried to break the glass, but the transparent material proved to be too resistant for her inhuman strength. Her attempts at shattering the wall made Fernando turn and notice her. He jumped a little in surprise, but sighed in relief soon after he noticed that he was safe. For a little more than a hour, the pony and the human wandered around the maze. Fernando remembered the trick he learned in The Simpsons about always walking to one side of the path, while Fluttershy randomly teleported. The mirrors had fooled them quite a number of times by now, sometimes hiding them from each other, or creating an illusion of there being more than one Fluttershy or Fernando. “This is not getting us anywhere” thought Fernando. He couldn’t shake the feeling that anytime now Fluttershy would appear right in front of him, and there wouldn’t be a wall between them. There were two ways that he knew about that could save him. The first one was to reach the other end of the maze, of which he didn’t know the size, and the other was to reach a RPUD (Random Power UpDown) that he had seen some time ago, but every time that he went to get it, it was either a reflection or a glass wall was blocking his way. After another half an hour, he finally reached the RPUD and he repeated the process of touching it. The arrow spun and landed, luckily for him, pointing mostly upwards, and it started to morph into a nice hammer. Fluttershy, meanwhile, was behind him; without anything to block her from catching him. This time, however, she was a little angry at him for faking his death, so she didn’t ask for permission to immobilize him. A tentacle wrapped around Fernando’s waist, and pulled him back at the same time that he grabbed the floating hammer and a familiar music started to play. Fluttershy paid no attention to the music that came from nowhere and instead started to ‘glare’ at Fernando. “How dare you! I was genuinely worried back there! That was just a mean trick. What would your mother say if she knew what you did, huh? Do you think she would be proud?” Fluttershy continued to scold Fernando while he stared at her with the hammer held in his hands. He looked between the weapon and Fluttershy and mentally debated if he should or should not do what he had in mind. “On one hand, I don’t know what or if it will do anything to help my situation, but on the other one it’s my only chance.” Fernando pondered this for some seconds, that is until he remembered the orange timer above both of them. “Meh, I have done worse things” he thought before lifting the hammer. Fluttershy stared quizzically at what he was about to do, and didn’t react at all when the human brought down the hammer on her head. They stood motionlessly for five full seconds before Fluttershy fell over, knocked out, with some tiny pixelated versions of Fernando running around her head. When he was free, Fernando stared at the fallen form of the parody of Slenderman for a few seconds and then looked around, a mischievous smile appearing on his face before starting to smash his way out of the labyrinth. If Fernando had stayed for a little longer, he would have seen when Fluttershy disappeared in a poof of smoke. Fluttershy reappeared in the same room in the sky where she was disfigured some hours ago. She was woken up by a pair of claws shaking her shoulders, and saw Spike, Lyra and Pinkie Pie next to her. “Where am I? What happened?” she asked, and noticed that she could feel her mouth moving again. On further inspection, she saw that she was once again a normal pegasus and sighed in relief. “You were chasing around Fernando, but you couldn’t catch him and then you caught him, but he had this cool hammer that he got from a RPUD and he hit you with it on the head and you were all like ‘Ow’ and then you fell over and then went ‘Poof’ and then you appeared here!” resumed Pinkie in one breath. Fluttershy stared confused at her and turned to her other two sane friends searching for a simpler answer. “You were defeated” said Spike, recounting even more of what had just happened. “What? How?” asked Fluttershy. “When Fernando hit you with that hammer, he knocked you out right away,” explained Spike. “Bu-but why couldn’t I just wake up? I mean, it’s not that I liked hunting somepony but we’re supposed to win this game and...” “You can only be defeated if you’re unable to do anything for more than the remaining time, so it would be useless if you were still there,” interrupted Discord “and to be knocked out for more than sixteen hours, Fernando’s power up must be something good.” To emphasize his point, he pulled a fifty inch screen from Fluttershy’s ear (who quickly checked for any possible damage to her ear) that showed how Fernando was currently wrecking the maze. “Hey! That thing was hard to draw!” complained Spike “Instead of whining you should choose where to send him now,” suggested Discord. They all turned their attention back to the map, which showed that the pony closest to Fernando was Rarity. Back in Las Pegasus, Fernando was able to get out of the maze, and with his hammer he was able to return to the surface. He was a little discouraged when his hammer disappeared, but he continued to wander around in the search of a place where he could hide. “I must be prepared for everything,” he thought to himself while walking, “and I need to survive for more than half a day.” Looking around, Fernando saw that he was in a more sophisticated part of the city, with casinos taking up a big part of the scene and demonstrating why this city was the equivalent of Las Vegas. There were even some casinos made entirely from clouds in the skies, and some others that were modificated so earth ponies and unicorns could easily walk on them without falling through the floor. Fernando was still busy looking at the scenery when he heard a weird, yet familiar sound, and a blue beam shot past to his side, almost hitting him. “Darn, I still need to get used to this” He faintly heard. Fernando turned around and he spotted his assailant. It was Rarity in her X infected Chozo Power Suit, and she was aiming at him with her right front hoof while stabilizing it with her left front hoof. Luckily, she was too far away for her to easily hit him, but that didn’t stop her from shooting a barrage of lasers that missed by two meters (kinda like Star Wars). Fernando gulped and ran to take cover behind a fountain at the front of a casino. He stopped there to regain his breath and to think. “Okay,” he started, “she probably doesn’t know how to properly use the suit... But the X might know” that last part was confirmed when lasers started to fly through the fountain, with some improved accuracy. “YIKES!” Fernando started to run again, this time to hide inside of the casino. Rarity saw that he wasn’t hiding anymore and she too began to run, but then the Speed Booster kicked in and she ended up running past Fernando, and since she couldn’t control her speed, she ran straight through the walls of the casino. Fernando saw how Rarity crashed through the walls of the building and he changed his destination to the next casino. He entered the casino through the main entrance and looked around. There was a bar, several tables for the different games and a section dedicated to slot machines. Noticing the lack of plasma beams flying through the air, Fernando took a few more seconds to calm down. “At least she doesn’t know how to use-” His thoughts were interrupted by an explosion that opened a hole in the wall. “The missiles,” he finished. The missile that impacted the wall didn’t come alone. Soon, a barrage of explosives started to collide with the casino, and some of them managed to get through the holes that their companions made. With a dramatic mental shout of “Incoming!”, Fernando jumped behind the bar counter and covered his head as the missiles continued to wreak havoc in the room. When the explosions died down, Fernando peeked over his cover. The front wall of the casino had more than fifty holes the size of a pony eye, and a few tables and slot machines were destroyed. Fernando sighed in relief and proceeded to jinx himself. “It could have been worse. She could have gone for the super missiles... wait,” and as soon as he noticed that he was jinxing himself, the whole front wall was destroyed along with most of the ceiling and floor now also had cracks because of a sudden explosion created by a super missile. Once the smoke cleared, Fernando saw that Ra-X was standing there; the helmet on her head blocking the sight of any facial expressions and only letting the iris-less eyes to be shown. “Now, I’ll count to three and you’ll let yourself get captured, you understand?” she said, her voice somewhat distorted by the helmet. “One...” she lifted her right hoof and aimed directly at Fernando. “Two” she loaded the missiles while the sound of something breaking could be heard. “Thr-” she was interrupted by the ceiling falling on top of her along with any furniture that happened to be there. Rarity didn’t feel anything thanks to her suit, but it took half of an energy tank to sustain the damage, and she was still halfway buried in the debris and furniture. She tried to lift herself up, but even with the extra strength that the suit gave her, she was unable to do so. Fernando saw that in her struggling, she accidentally activated the morphing ball, completely burying herself. “At least she doesn’t... You know what? I won’t even finish that sentence!” Fernando thought and he started to run to try and put between himself and Rarity as much distance as possible. He was in the middle of the section of the slot machines when a Power Bomb exploded and obliterated most of the things in the room. This explosion also happened to power up the electronics in the room, including the slot machines that weren’t destroyed. Fernando was left panting after his adrenaline rush left him. He managed to hide behind some slot machines, and he was contemplating how to flee from the place. “If I recall correctly, Sa-X was a little too stupid, and an obvious hiding spot was enough to get away from it,” he thought. He heard the heavy steps of Rarity getting closer until they stopped a few meters away. “Mmm... I guess he’s not here anymore...” Rarity said out loud to herself and she started to walk away, until a high pitched voice cried out of nowhere. “Hey! Listen!” It was Discord, and once again he looked like Navi. “It’s time for a mini-game!” Fernando panicked at the sudden apparition and the loudness of the draconequus, and he quickly caught him with both hands before peeking over the machines. “You son of a... Why the bloody hell do you always have to show up?” he asked angrily. “Relax,” responded Discord calmly, flying through his hands and over his head “Right now Rarity nor any other pony can move, so you’re safe”. Fernando didn’t really trust him, but when he saw that Rarity was frozen in mid trot he decided to believe him. “Okay, I believe you,” he said resignedly. “Good, now back to the mini game...” Discord finished his sentence with a snap of his fingers and two of the nearest slot machines in the room approached them. “You’ll just have to play with these slot machines. The result of what you get determines the effectiveness of a Random Power UpDown” Fernando looked skeptically at Discord “And if I don’t get anything?” “That’s the best part! If you fail one time, you’ll get another chance, and if you fail twice you will get a Random Power UpDown pointing directly downwards and all of the ponies will come directly to your location!” Discord exclaimed cheerfully. Fernando’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance at how Discord seemed to make a fool out of him. “What if I refuse?”. Discord chuckled a little. “I just made you an offer that literally you can’t refuse!” as if on cue, two boxes appeared in front of Fernando. One said ‘Accept’ while the other said ‘Don’t refuse’. With an annoyed sigh, Fernando touched the Accept option and then he turned to face the first slot machine. He pulled the handle and the slot’s three slots stopped on random pictures; none of which were the same. “You still have one chance~” Discord said in a sing-song voice. Bracing himself, Fernando pulled the handle of the second machine and to add to the already dramatic moment, the slots spun in slow motion. The first one stopped on a bright seven. Fernando didn’t get his hopes up. The second slot came to a stop and it showed the next seven. Now Fernando started to actually care for the mini game. The last slot continued to spin for a few more seconds, and when it started to stop, the seven came into view. Each second the slot moved slower and slower, and as the seven approached the middle of the rows, it made Fernando get a silly smile full of hope on his face. Finally, the seven finally stopped, forming a perfect set of sevens. “AW YEEEEEE-” But, with a final jerk, the seven moved aside to let a cherry take it’s place. Fernando looked at it for a few seconds; disbelief written all over his face and quickly turning to the most pure form of anger ever seen in Equestria “OH, COME ON!” in his rage, Fernando punched the slot machine, causing it to spit out a RPUD, only that instead of pointing down, it was perfectly directed to what remained of the ceiling. Fernando stared at it in disbelief along with Discord, who really didn’t expect something like this to happen. Then, time once again was set into motion and Rarity turned around, the sensors of her suit telling her that something that irradiated great amounts of energy was behind her. She spotted Fernando and she didn’t waste time aiming at him. Discord quickly noticed that time once again flowed normally, and started talking to Fernando. “If I were you, I would use that thing before it disappears,” and with that he went away. Fernando snapped out of his awe and reached to touch the RPUD, touching it just before a plasma beam connected with him. When he touched it, a force field stopped the beam, and a white light engulfed his body. Rarity watched as his clothes changed from simple fabric to some kind of armor that was thicker in the chest, boots and gauntlets, as well as a helmet also appearing on his head. He grew slightly taller and his hair started to grow too, almost reaching the floor. Ra-X tried to stop it, but the force field around Fernando stopped everything, even a Power Bomb. When the light started to clear, this Fernando could be seen sporting a red and dark purple armor with some white parts and what appeared to be a crystal on the front of his helmet. The remaining light on his hands shifted to mold one thing on each hand. In his right hand he had what appeared to be the hilt of a sword without the blade, and on the other one he had what appeared to be a futuristic looking gun held in his left hand. The last thing to change was his health bar, which was now vertical and had thirty two visible bars that signaled Fernando’s energy. Thanks to the helmet, he appeared to be frowning, and he looked rather intimidating. He glared directly at Rarity and his only thought before dashing to battle was a simple sentence “It’s revenge time!” he stated and then he directed himself to Rarity, his right hand activating the Zero Saber while his left hand fired a quick barrage of buster shots against the X-infected unicorn. Her immediate response was to fire too, but Fernando had a clear advantage over Rarity. While the Chozo Power Suit had great potential and could be upgraded to be even more powerful, it lacked a lot of agility and close range combat capabilities, limiting the moves of it’s owner if he/she/it didn’t know how to use it. That was the case with Rarity since it had been only six hours since she got hers and the X didn’t entirely duplicate the skills of the real Samus Aran. Fernando, on the other hand, had an easily manipulable reploid armor suited for both close and ranged combat, which made him very agile while still being capable of sustaining hits. So basically, Fernando jumped over the beam while Rarity barely dodged the shots that were shot in her direction. While in the air, Fernando positioned his saber and slashed at Rarity when he was close enough, damaging the torso of her suit. The single hit was enough to empty a whole energy tank from her reserve of thirteen and a half tanks. Rarity recoiled a little, and narrowed her eyes until they were nothing but slits on her face. “It. Is. ON!” she said darkly and she then fired three missiles at him, which were quickly evaded by Fernando who put some distance between himself and Rarity. However, Rarity saw an opening and shot him with her plasma beam, freezing him momentarily and lowering two bars from his health bar. “Ha, ha!” mocked Rarity, but Fernando was quick to break the ice that trapped him and he stepped once again into the battle. Fernando took his Zero saber and he loaded it to the Buster Shot; allowing it to charge it’s beam. Rarity noticed that Fernando was being enveloped by a green light and then an orange one, and she fired a barrage of plasma beams in his direction, which Fernando easily dodged. Once he loaded the ice chip that came with the armor, he shot Rarity, freezing her, but not damaging her since she had the Varia Suit. Not missing this chance, Fernando took back the Z-saber and dashed to Rarity, slashing her three times before she could unfreeze herself, and then backstepped to get away once more. Rarity was getting a little nervous. Her easy prey had changed from a harmless human to a war machine, and her energy reserves were taking the consequences. Four of her energy tanks were empty, and her reserve of missiles was down to the half. Considering that the max amount was two hundred fifty five missiles, it was still quite a lot, but seeing how Fernando was able to evade them with ease, she would need to use them with caution. Next came the super missiles. She was sure that landing just two of them would be enough to destroy him... “No, I must capture him, not destroy him,” she corrected herself. “But it’s such a nice word” the X was starting to really take on her mind, and she wasn’t really noticing it nor the cresting desire for destroying and consuming everything. Fernando was getting every chance he had to fire at Rarity. His Buster Shot was capable of take down big amounts of energy if he fired a quick barrage, and he dashed in when she had an opening to slash at her. With every hit that Rarity received, her movements increased a little in speed, but her body in general appeared to be get distorted. Along with her speed, Rarity appeared to get better at aiming, successfully landing another two plasma shots on Fernando. The battle continued for hours, reaching the point where neither of the opponents were able to hit the other one. Fernando, had three quarters of his health and Rarity was down to four tanks. However, when the last part of the Sa-X took effect, she mutated into a real monster. Her armor merged with her body and she grew until she was two times larger than Fernando. On the top of her head appeared some more visors, which now looked like eyes. Her front right hoof began to swell, and some extra, but useless, cannons appeared from the chunk of mutated mass. Her other three hooves divided themselves into short tentacles, as well as her mane and tail too. The last part was her mouth, that was now visible. Her teeth changed to sharp fangs and her tongue appeared to be a giant squirming worm. Fernando had seen something like this before, in Metroid Fusion, but unlike that time, it wasn’t a pixelated change that took less than five seconds, but a grotesque process complete with a gurgling sound that came from the liquid nature of the X. He was glad that at the moment he didn’t had a stomach to throw up, but the image would haunt him for some weeks to come. When the change was complete, the X-infected-pony roared with all of its might and charged at Fernando, now lacking the use of its suit and the intelligence of the pony. Fernando side-stepped and evaded the tackle of the monster and, taking the advantage, slashed Ra-X, but instead of flinching or howling in pain, one of her tentacles from her tail grabbed Fernando and started to flail him around; slamming him against the floor with the strength of a nordic god. After smashing Fernando five times, she threw him against a wall; shattering it. He then fell while, in total, he ended up losing ten bars of health, which brought him slightly below half of his total health. “Ouch...” he thought. He heard the sound of weird steps coming quickly to his position. He jumped to his feet and then jumped to the safety of the wall he had just impacted, a little above the reach of Ra-X’s tentacles, who made a hole with it’s shape in the wall. “Okay, new plan. Don’t let that thing anywhere near you,” he thought as he jumped down and started to charge his Buster Shot while he dashed to the other side of the wrecked casino. Ra-X made another hole when it smashed its way inside again, and she charged at Fernando, or would have done that if she wasn’t hit with a blue charged shot that froze her. Fernando took this moment to dash towards the monster, but he continued to have a glow around him even after having shot his Buster Shot and, equipping himself with the thunder chip, he unleashed a fully charged blow with his saber just as Ra-X broke the ice; cutting her across the face and sending electricity along her body. The muscles in the fake body of Ra-X suffered spasms and she was unable to move once again, but this time she just couldn’t break her prison, and that was enough for Fernando to cut through her, separating the front of the fake body from the back. If the victim happened to be a real pony, there would be blood all around the place, but instead of that, both halves of the body of Ra-X melted in the air and joined again, revealing a simple blue floating liquid. Fernando looked at what now was Rarity, and he couldn’t help but laugh... In his mind, of course. “Ha ha, and you can’t even infect me since right now I’m just a machine.” He stood there as the X made angry movements, trying to send a message in his direction and failing miserably. “If you excuse me, I have to go now,” and with that he dashed away, just as Rarity disappeared. In the sky with the others, Rarity appeared next to Fluttershy once again looking like a normal pony. She was a little dizzy and confused, and then she was being suffocated by a hug. “Rarity, you’re ok!” shouted Pinkie and Fluttershy at the same time as they continued to hug the daylights out of the fashionista. Spike felt a little left out and he too ran to hug her, leaving Lyra alone to draw on the map. She just watched from afar, being barely acquaintance of the white unicorn. She turned back to the map and observed who was the closest to Fernando, thinking of what and who she should send to deal with him. Her eyebrows raised when she saw who was, in fact, less than one hundred meters away. She smiled mischievously as she made a direct path to Fernando.