//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: Corrupted // Story: Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis // by Jasper77W //------------------------------// Colgate abruptly woke again, and now she seemed to be in some sort of lab. She tried to think back to what happened, but couldn't remember most of her life. A good ten years was missing, from what she could tell. She felt much more in control of her own body than before. The feeling was odd and indescribable- so she tested something out. It seems she could cut off her own blood stream to her hoof just by thinking about it. She thought about something else, and poked herself in the arm. She couldn't feel a thing- just like she told her body to shut off the sensory systems. She grinned. This was certainly interesting- she could fully control the functions of her own body. Slowly she began taking an interest in the world around her, seemingly new. She wasn't on much of a bed really- it was more of a metal desk on wheels. An array of needles and sharp items where held on stands on a small table next to her, and bright lights shone from above. Looks like an operation room. She hopped down from the desk, and felt something cold splatter onto her hooves. She looked down to find a pool of blood- long cold. Tracing the crimson trail she found a dead body. Looks like the body of a science faction officer- Or half. There were other bodies in the room too. Seemingly torn apart. For the first time Colgate noticed the blood splattered up her arms and down her body. It astonished her that she didn't seem scared in any way. She looked at herself, trying to figure out what was different- but standing in a pool of blood with a bunch of shredded dead bodies seemed perfectly normal to her. Maybe even more comfortable than a normal environment. She slowly walked towards a door. It was closed, but not locked. It would seem a gust of wind closed it- because she could still hear it whistling under the inch thick metal. She tore it in two anyways, like ripping paper. It was easy when she could fully use the power in her muscles. She let the heavy metal slam onto the ground either side of her, and walked into the darkness beyond. The lights of the corridor she exited to seemed out of order. It was as if an EMP strike had occurred here- lights dangled loosely from the ceiling via sparking and fizzing wires, the glass cover already broken and lying shattered on the ground. Colgate walked past one of them, and saw the dark corridor light up for one brief moment as another blue spark struck the air. From the smell and what she saw in that brief moment, there were more of those torn bodies in this corridor. She grinned. Oh, that lovely smell of decay. She vaguely remembered being a dentist- but that was all. It didn't seem like anything of particular interest to her right now. She almost tripped over somepony's limb. She kicked it away, and was interested to find that it wasn't connected to the rest of the body. Still she walked on down the corridor. Blood splatters were all over the walls. Where the hell is this, anyway? She continued walking, her own hoofsteps echoing down the hallway. It seemed the darkness stretches on forever- with no light in sight. Then there was talking, with an echoey quality to it. She couldn't quite distinguish words yet, but instantly knew what to do. Or rather, knew what she wanted to do. "That bucking monster is in here somewhere..." somepony said, accompanied by a cluster of hoofsteps. They seemed to be some science faction infantry. The flashlights mounted on their rifles cast long beams of white light across the corridor- and Colgate avoided all ten beams. "How the hell did she get loose anyway? Again? I thought we finally got her and were here for clean up!" somepony said. "Hell, we had a whole battalion guarding that piece of crap!" Then, from the shadows, Colgate darted out from cover. And just like she tore that metal door apart, she tore every single one of them open. * The light blue earth pony was in a deep sleep- and the loud chirping of the birds were barely able to make her wake from her dreams. For some reason everypony in her dream called her Magnum- so she'll stick with that as her name for now. She couldn't quite remember the details, but it really was more of a nightmare. Something about Hearth's Warming Eve. She was in a tent of some sort. Sunlight shone through the thin fabric, and the gentle morning breeze sent slow waves through the tent. Still the birds chirped, and the trees rustled. She tried to get off the small old mattress she found herself lying on, only to collapse onto the floor, exhausted. "The hay...?" she muttered, pushing off the floor- but her back legs won't respond. That's when she remembered- they must've been broken in whatever accident that occurred before she remembered nothing- probably the same accident that caused her to lose her left arm and eye too. She looked down- bloodied bandages were wrapped around her wounds, over a bloody stump on her left shoulder and across the left side of her face. Some wooden sticks were tied to her legs to hold the broken bones together. She sighed, falling back and lying on the ground; staring at the ceiling. "Morning." a voice said from outside, and the fabric parted. Babs Seed walked through, chewing on a straw. She seemed to be wearing some sort of home made camouflage- the clothes were ripped, and her hat had holes through it. "Are we still in that forest place?" Magnum made a random hoof gesture that she had no idea what the meaning to it was. "Yeah. You passed out from blood loss." Babs said, looking around the tent. Magnum lifted what was left of her left arm, which was just a bandaged stump attached to her shoulder. "Thanks for saving me." she said, sighing. "Probably wouldn't have made it if you didn't step in." "You're welcome." Babs said, as if it were nothing. "And welcome to home. Not much, but it's all I have." "This...?" Magnum cast a gaze around the interior. There weren't many furnishings, just a small wooden table, a chair, and the small mattress from earlier. There were several guns stacked up in one corner, with small boxes of salvaged ammunition lying next to them. Static constantly flew out from a small handheld radio that sat firmly on the table, next to a gleaming machete. "I know it ain't much." Babs said, helping Magnum crawl back onto the mattress. "But I've been here for most of my life time now. Ever since those darn spaceships came outta the ground, I've been hiding here." she smiled friendlily. "No worries. It's safe here." "Spaceships? I don't even know what you're talking about..." Magnum grunted with effort as she tried to get up to a sitting position. "Hell, I don't remember anything. Do you know who I am?" "I don't think I know anypony else other than myself." Babs sighed. "Although, I don't know where from... But these extra memories just popped into my head." she stared at the far wall, seemingly lost in her own world. "Do you know what happened to me... Or anything?" Magnum raised an eyebrow. "Ten years in a forest by myself," Babs chuckled, "doubt I know anything about the outside world." she gestured at the radio on the table. "I only got messages from some random Haven place. Supposedly it's safe there... You know, from the spaceships and all." Magnum nodded slowly. Haven sounded familiar. Maybe if she somehow goes there... She might recover something about herself. Time to start a little salvage mission. * Spitfire was in the Captain's private suite, a table with various wooden blocks placed across it before her. The blocks represented Magic and Science faction troops- she had been running simulations all night, and still couldn't get anything of use. There was no winning strategy. The Science Faction troops severely out numbered those of Magic- and no matter what spells or ambush strategies were used, Science could still win with relative ease by sheer numbers. They weren't exactly on home turf either- after all, Science did take over. Basically, if they started the war now- their chances of winning would be close to zero- and that one percent depends on some random anomaly happening that wipes out the Science Faction on its own- an undependable source of victory. She roared, frustrated- and swiped an arm across the table, knocking off all the wooden blocks. It just wouldn't work- this had been the fifty seventh loss already. She launched a kick into the table, flipping it; then slumped back onto the sofa. She felt the cold leather tickle her skin, irritating her more. But she managed to control that. She buried her face in her hooves, trying to control her breathing. There were three gentle taps on her door, and it clicked open. "Did I give you permission to enter?" she asked in an agitated manner as Soarin entered. "No, ma'am. But your mood did." Soarin saluted. Spitfire ground her teeth together, then sighed. Being angry solved nothing- Soarin was here to help, and she knows she will need it. So she didn't say anything, and Soarin gingerly stepped through the mess and came to sit down beside her. "Spitfire, you need rest." he said, putting an arm around her and hugging her close. "I tried using what we knew. I tried everything. But every time once the Cyclops goes down, we don't have anything to-" Spitfire started, but Soarin placed a gentle hoof on her mouth. "Ssshh, sshh." he said, giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "How about I sing you a lullaby, eh? That'll probably help." "I-" Spitfire was about to protest, but suddenly started feeling the effects of being awake for twenty-four hours straight. Her eyelids dropped, and she tried to stay awake- but Soarin's warm arms were more than welcoming her to the bliss of sleep. He started a gentle 'Hush now, quiet now', and she must admit- he didn't have a bad voice for a soft lullaby. She didn't know when, she didn't know how- but slowly, she fell asleep in his gentle arms. * Nopony talked on the car as Octavia drove through the wasteland. There was nothing to be exchanged. Daring had killed their only source of intel after all these days, and even she wasn't speaking about it. The least expected member of the car decided to break the silence. "What's with the awkward silence?" EDI asked, in her monotoned computerized and emotionless voice. Nopony replied. "Music?" she asked. "Not the time, EDI." Rainbow sighed, but the AI had already started playing a tuba version of 'Pink Panther'. "Turn it off!" "As you wish." EDI said, switching the music player off and throwing the car back into silence. Daring kept staring out the window. What she saw in her reflection was the first thing in a decade to frighten her- the look she gave herself still sent shivers down her spine. What have I become? She was an adventurer, in many ways a hero. A treasure hunter, a collector. Never a murderer. Never a brute. But what had the wasteland turned her into? In these long abandoned worlds of pasts, it was hard to keep the animalistic side away and stay sane. Lily and Dainty sat in the back row, squished against the right side door. They were giggling and laughing a bit earlier, but stopped when Rainbow gave them a look. It wasn't an aggressive look, nor was it angry in any way. In fact, it was quite caring and gentle- as one would expect from a big sister. It simply told them to stop. "The Everfree forest is up ahead." Octavia sighed. "We'll have to go around. Or we could ditch EDI." "Negative." EDI said. "Just go around. Although, stick close to the edge... I want to see it." Rainbow said, which was followed by silence as no one replied. All they could hear was the grounding of tires on the rough gravel roads. "Unidentified electronics detected. Approximate location: X-76.89 Y-183.40. 9 kilometers at 3 o'clock." EDI said, a cluster of red dots appearing on the radar exactly where she plotted it. "Great. Er, analyze?" Octavia tried. "Judging from signals I am receiving from the external microphone, I hear relatively light footsteps. I estimate a small squad of scout walkers." Octavia stopped the car. "Buck. They're blocking our path." she growled, studying the radar scan. "Don't care. Destroy them." Rainbow waved impatiently. "I could perform a long range missile strike, but the dense local forest biosphere is proving to be a difficulty I cannot bypass as of yet." EDI said. "I could perform the missile strike in a clearing, however that leaves us vulnerable to the barricade for an estimated seven minutes." "Shuck..." Rainbow buried her face in a hoof. "You got any alternative plans other than putting us out in the open?" "Head on combat is always an alternative." "Then let's do this." she sighed, hopping out of the car and slamming the door shut. * The walkers were completely unaware of what was happening when one of their own started shooting at them. "What the-" one of the scout walkers exploded as one of its teammates sent a dozen bullets into his fuel tank. The burning carcass of the giant robot fell sideways, leaving behind an arch of flames. It crashed through the vegetation, before resting in pieces on a long abandoned road. The road would've been perfectly usable for it not the cracks caused by growing tree roots and other plants that overran the gravel surface. A walker turned around, the pilot already resting his hoof on the trigger. Then suddenly he heard a loud crack and metallic groan behind him, and turned around. "Oh sh-" he started, but Rainbow cut him short. She leaped through the hole she cut in the back of the walker, and stabbed the cleaver through his chest. She then slid the handle forward and pulled the trigger, destroying the walker's control and communication systems. "Good work." Silver Dash said, from inside the walker that started open firing on its teammates. There was a loud crack that echoed through the comms as Octavia snapped somepony's neck. "Got one." she said soon after. The remaining two walkers started turning towards their downed teammates, missile silo safeties flicking off. "So much for stealth." Octavia muttered, leaping out the door as a missile was fired at the walker she was in. Suddenly the missile was snatched out of the air by a light brown blur, and disappeared off into the woods. "What the hay?" Octavia rolled onto the dirt ground and looked up, but the missile nor whatever took it was nowhere in sight. "Damnit! Don't let them escape or attract attention!" Rainbow yelled as the walkers started backing off, loading new missiles into their silos. "I have their comms jammed. I predict they will change frequencies once they notice, so be quick." EDI said. "Will do." Rainbow said, stretching her wings out and darting towards one of the walkers; covering about ten meters in less than a second. She got under one of the walkers, and slashed up with her cleaver. Two of the same moves cut off the walker's weapons systems, letting them clunk loudly to the ground. The next to go were the legs, and the main body collapsed and fell sideways. Rainbow kicked down the hatch, and was immediately tackled down by the pilot. They struggled over control of the cleaver, rolling over the grass covered gravel road. The pilot gained control of the cleaver, and kicked Rainbow away. Problem is, he could barely lift it up. Rainbow rolled backwards, diverting her momentum into the ground. She got back to her hooves, sliding a bit on the ground. Then she ran forward, leaping up over a bullet from the cleaver and landing on the blunt end of the blade. She slammed a back hoof down on the tip of the cleaver, digging it deep into the ground. She then ran along its length, and swung a kick into the side of the pilot's skull. He fell sideways, rolled several meters across the road, and eventually stopped in a bush. He didn't get back up. Rainbow jumped up, landing on the handle of the cleaver. Her weight tipped it, ripping the other end out from the ground. It spun through the air, and she caught it by the handle. One walker left. She looked towards where the last one was, expecting to be met with gunfire. Instead, she found the walker already taken care of and fallen over on the ground. She tilted her head to one side, studying the downed walker. The forest took out most of the sunlight, leaving everything in shadows- and the walker wasn't on fire, so she could barely make out anything. Then she heard a loud buzz behind her- not that of an animal's wings, but of energy. She spun around, raising the cleaver. All she could see was a dark figure and two energy discs- one blue and one orange. One of the discs hit her cleaver, sending a shower of sparks into the air. Rainbow pushed the figure away, spinning and bringing the blade back around. The figure ran one of her discs along the edge of the cleaver, sliding the disc forward and forcing Rainbow's cleaver up. She swiped across at Rainbow with her other disc, which made that buzzing noise as it burned through the air. Another cleaver blocked the strike as Silver Dash joined the fight against their unknown enemy. She flicked the cleaver, taking the figure off balance. The figure seemed to be startled by the appearance of another of the same pony, and backed off a step. There were two loud clicks as both Rainbow and Silver entered firing mode, and simultaneous bangs and flashes as they took turns at pulling the triggers. The figure spun the discs, blocking their bullets- the small amount of metal from a bullet would instantly evaporate into air once it touched the blazing energy of the discs. She threw one of the discs at Silver, who flipped the cleaver and put the round handle through the hole in the disc. She swung the cleaver's handle down into the ground, lodging both weapons into the gravel. Just to be sure, she kicked the trigger and the recoil forced the cleaver and disc even deeper into the ground. Rainbow slid the handle back, returning to cleaver mode. The figure darted forward, kicking off the ground and spinning through the air. Rainbow rolled forward as the figure landed behind her, the disc sending sparks flying as she slammed it into the ground where Rainbow was seconds ago. Rainbow got up, turning and swinging the cleaver at the same time. The figure slammed a disc into the side of the cleaver, knocking it away. Silver jumped in, and grabbed the figure's arm. She turned violently to the side, thumping the figure down to the ground. Rainbow put the tip of the cleaver through the hole in the disc, and flicked it away from the figure. Then there was the same light brown blur that took out the missile, and this time it tackled both Rainbow and Silver across the road. Rainbow felt familiar claws dig into her flesh, but soon after that sensation was gone as they let go. They tumbled over the gravel, their bodies clipping against exposed tree roots and a road sign. "Buck- we got ourselves a griffin!" Rainbow cursed, scrambling to her hooves.