Chapter 5
A Stunning Encounter
Dr. Drake knew that he should be terrified, or at the very least, nervous. For God’s sake, the two creatures leading the three of them away were the sons of the God of Chaos himself! In actuality, he was almost catatonic with fear, but two decades’ worth of derision from his peers throughout secondary school, college, and his career, he had learned to master his emotions; to acknowledge, but not react to them.
As it was, he allowed a small amount of fear to sharpen his mind. Thinking rapidly, he realized that he still had an experimental weapon in his satchel. Maybe as a last resort…. He ran a mental inventory of his belongings. He had the Elemental Sweeper, his laptop, a lead-lined container, some water, and a random AA battery. I’m doomed....
Dr. Drake started. No, that wasn’t all he had. He also had a small device with an antenna and a single button. He checked his pockets; sure enough, it was still there. As stealthily as possible, he pushed the button.
A small ping alerted him that his ride was on its way. Now he just needed a diversion.
“What was that?” one draconequus—Despair, Dr. Drake thought—hissed.
“What was what?” Destruction demanded.
Despair paused. “I must be hearing things.”
At that moment, a small roar became audible, and was rapidly getting louder. Dr. Drake broke into a run, and vaulted onto his Jet-Pack Motorcycle 3000. Thankful that his radiation goggles were still on, he quickly extended the wings and spun around.
Having been caught by surprise, the Sons of Chaos were too dumbstruck to retaliate. Seeing that Twilight was the closest, he veered toward her and held out a hand. Seeing it, Twilight held out a hoof, and Dr. Drake swung her up and over into one of the twin sidecars.
Turning around so fast that he saw stars, Dr. Drake headed in to rescue Pinkie Pie. Twilight, regaining her senses, charged up her horn for an attack on the two draconequi.
Unfortunately, Destruction and Despair had also regained their senses, and began surrounding themselves with a cyclone. Vague memories from flight camp when Dr. Drake was fifteen suddenly kicked into sharp focus as he swerved around the cyclone. Twilight began to shoot beams into the cyclone, attempting to disrupt the wind rip.
In his desperation, Dr. Drake remembered the weapon in his satchel. Reaching inside, he pulled out the high-power stun grenade capable of reducing a grown man to a gibbering imbecile for a full week. He primed it and closed his eyes as tightly as he could, and then threw it toward the giant wind rip. “Close your eyes!” he shouted at Twilight, and yanked her down.
A powerful flash of light erupted from the cyclone, bright enough to be visible through the metal hull of the JPM. As soon as he was absolutely certain that it had died down, he leaned over the side to examine what had happened. He immediately registered two things.
(1) The two Sons of Chaos were heavily dazzled, possibly even blinded, and
(2) Pinkie Pie appeared to be having a conniption.
As it finally dawned on him what he just did, the JPM was suddenly sent hurtling through the air, crashing down next to Dr. Drake’s hut. Both he and Twilight blacked out on impact.
When he woke up, Pinkie Pie and the two draconequi were gone.