//------------------------------// // Chapter 42: Icing on the Cake // Story: Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis // by Jasper77W //------------------------------// "Why you looking so down, aye?" Val asked Blithy, bored. Blithy shook her head, looking down at the ground. She didn't say anything. Val sighed, stood up and walked around her throne. She leant back onto the back of her throne, and waved a hand in the air. Sensors detected her gesture, and the huge wall she was facing flickered to life. It treated to the both of them a view of the COLOSSUS, from the bridge's perspective. The high-tech screen simulated the sunlight, and cast a long shadow behind Val that stretched across the throne room. She placed a hand above her eyes to shield them from the light, since the sun was slowly peaking over the edge of the huge cruiser. But Blithy wasn't watching that. She had her eyes on the small holographic screen that Val didn't bother put away, still hovering above her throne. It showed the massacre from various perspectives, both Colgate herself and the science faction troops getting slaughtered. "I... Caused this, didn't I?" She said, shaking her head. "In my thirst for revenge... I created you, didn't I? And now... You've taken over... And everyone, whether or not they're on your side.." She buried her face in her hands. "Damnit, damnit... It's all my bucking fault." "I wouldn't argue with you." Val said. "But... You sound so depressed! Don't you like what's happening here?" "You do, huh..." Blithy sighed. "Oh yes I do." Val said, and chuckled. "And you don't. I find that odd, just like you probably do find me. The freedom, the control... The darn power..." She flexed her fingers before her eyes, the metal gleaming in the orange sunlight as she admired them. "All of this... Makes my heart itch just thinking about it. It's all so exciting." She giggled. "And you make others suffer for it?" "Haha! What makes you think I care, eh?" Val laughed. "Nothing. Nothing at all, really." Blithy said. "I just keep thinking- hoping- maybe you'd still have some good left in you. Sometimes I look back... Back then, I was exactly like you. You were me, we were the same- in our body and our thoughts. But now I look back and- I just can't believe it. Was that what I was like back then? So bent on revenge... So very blind..." She said, still looking down at the ground. Val was silent for a moment. "'Good', aye... You still believe in that, don't you..." She said, nodding slowly. "And where was this 'good' when we needed it? No where to be found. We were alone. And then we got ourselves noticed, and this supposed 'good' showed up?" There was an angry growl in her voice now. But then it faded away in an instant as she snickered. "Alright, alright. Believe what you want, really. Doesn't matter to me much." "I know." Blithy said, eyeing the shadows that stretched across the throne room and reached the far door. Then she chuckled at herself. "I don't know where I wanted to go with that. Achieved nothing, but I suppose I was expecting that anyways." "Well don't you bloody know me too well." Val laughed. "Oh wait... Well, you know." Blithy chuckled at that. "And yet we're still so different." "We are, aren't we..." Val sighed. "Calibrations complete. Stage two is ready to commence." HEX suddenly reported, interrupting the conversation. "Halt the project. I don't need it yet, therefore I don't want our enemies finding out. Hold stage two until I say commence." Val said. "It's already done." HEX said. "Well, I guess you're a bucking genius then." Val laughed. "No more than that who has programmed me. You." HEX said simply. "Stage two? The hay is this?" Blithy suddenly grew more alert- and Val didn't need to look at her to notice. The readings getting sent to her through the torture device on her neck was giving Val all the information. "Penumbra was the first alicorn, the original ruler of Equestria." Val said, leaning on her throne. "But she wasn't the first being. No- far from it. She didn't create Equestria, but someone did. It's still impossible to trace back to who or what, but she was far from the first to have stumbled across the powers of the Sun." Blithy narrowed her eyes. "And what powers, exactly? Is that why you have ships around it?" "Powers, basic ones." Val said simply. "The basic principles of the universe- construction and destruction. This happens constantly, the two things that keep this world going on." She chuckled as she spotted Blithy's lost look. "As I mentioned earlier, Penumbra wasn't the first living being. We recently found traces of an age old race, similar to us- but far more advanced, as they had millions of years of development in their technology. We only have several thousand, and yet we've come so far. I guess it's true when they say the youngsters will always be brighter." She chuckled again. "Back to the point. These aliens, or Ancients as many of my researchers have decided to call them, deciphered the basic principles of this universe. The two elements I mentioned earlier, they found out what controlled them. What fueled them. And by controlling that source, they could control the universe itself. As far as my researchers are telling me, the Sun is something called the Genesis chamber, one of many others. I still don't understand much of it, but all I know is that it is the basic script of the local area. Our solar system, our galaxy maybe- everything is yet to be certain. But it sounds grand, doesn't it? Imagine that all you have to do is pinch your fingers, and whoever was your problem would be reduced to dust." Val grinned, making a pinching action with her fingers, her mind obviously imagining the power that would come with this so called 'Genesis Chamber'. "That's not possible- there can't possibly something that powerful in existence." Blithy growled. "Val, you're chasing after a ghost." "Am I now?" Val grinned. "Thermals with an X-ray filter revealed a temple to be inside the sun itself, built there and accessible through the various sun spots. Once you go through the first outer layer, you're in. The temple itself hasn't been touched yet- I'll be the one to step on it first." "We'll see." Blithy folded her arms, and shook her head. There was no way- there had to be something else Val wasn't telling her. "Yes, we will." Val laughed. * Terra watched as Colgate tore apart the science faction troops, studying her fighting style. She often travelled in a zig-zag pattern, and it would seem that she is only capable of initiating sudden bursts of speed instead of being consistent- also highly agile. The only pocket for attack would be when she stops to catch her breath, otherwise it would be near impossible to hit her while she was moving. Then Colgate spotted him and the others, her eyes wide and a maniac grin on her face. Blood dripped from her mane and blades, but it wasn't hers. Then a split second later she was gone, in her wake a small dust cloud. Terra managed to track her trails, large lines of dust being thrown into the air as she ran across the street in a zig-zag motion. Terra timed it, estimating where she would be- then slammed a hoof into the ground. Colgate ran straight onto the piece of rock he aimed for, which suddenly sprung up high beneath her hooves. Terra scanned through the hundreds of rock shards in the air, searching for her- and there she was, thrown up by the sudden uplift of earth. She rode the attack's energy, and was about four meters off the ground. She kicked forward, hitting a small piece of rock. That energy sent her backwards into a much more stable and larger piece of earth in which she landed on, coiled her blacklegs, then sprung them out in full length; sending her flying across at Terra. Terra quickly stepped to the right and ducked down, seeing a flash as Colgate brushed past him and feeling the disruption of air as one of her blades went millimeters over his head. He quickly rolled back, but Colgate wasn't giving him any time to recover. She was already right in front of him when he straightened up. He quickly slammed a hoof into the ground before she could do anything, a huge rock column lifting up and catapulting her away. Terra quickly turned to look at where she went- but she wasn't in the air as expected. He quickly directed his attention back at the column. Colgate had stabbed both blades into the rock column, anchoring herself to it so she wouldn't get flung away. She ripped them out and darted at Terra. Terra quickly swiped across and knocked the blades away. He didn't even see them- it was just an instinctive move. Colgate slid back several meters then came to an abrupt halt as she found her balance, then with a silent shifting noise she was already charging straight at Terra again. Terra punched the earth, and a huge rock spike sprung out of the ground. Colgate almost charged right into it, but turned her body just in time. The tip of the spike dug under one of her armor platings, and her own momentum forced it to be torn away. Now her right shoulder was exposed- not that it was going to make much of a difference. She twirled through the air, dashing past the rock spike. A second later it crumbled into evenly sliced pieces. Terra had landed the first strike- but he was barely keeping up. He sent a huge block of earth flying up in front of him, and slammed a hoof into it. It went flying across the road at Colgate, who ran a blade down the center of it. The two halves flew by either side of her, and with loud booms ran straight into several buildings behind her. The old and worn structures went down like bowling pins. Terra quickly slammed a hoof into the earth before Colgate could get to him, and the ground beneath his hooves suddenly lifted him up into the air. It was like an elevator, except for every single detail. Colgate followed him, scaling the vertical column by digging her blades into the rock sides. Terra made the column curve down so it straightened out, and jumped on the bridge formed. Colgate swung up top, and darted forward. The narrow bridge kept her restrained- she couldn't perform zig-zags anymore, as she would fall off the edge. This gave Terra a straight direct trajectory. He stomped on the bridge, his horn glowing. A chunk of rock flew out of it, and he slammed a hoof into it. Colgate didn't bother slowing down, and did the same thing- she sliced the block in half. But the moment the blocks parted she realized it was a trap. The block was a diversion- Terra had made a huge spike pointing straight at her while the block had disrupted her line of sight. She turned her body and wrapped a blade around the spike, her momentum sending her spinning off the side and coming back up the other end as her blades slid into the rock. A second later the entire section they were standing on got completely severed, and they were left falling towards the earth on a large peice of rock- still standing however. Terra slammed a hoof down, blue sparks exploding outwards as the chunk of earth suddenly had rock tentacles springing outwards from its sides. Most of them curved down and slammed into the earth, stopping them from falling- the rest curved up then came back down again to crush Colgate. Colgate was way too fast for that though. The rock tentacles came back down and smashed the earth were she was a second ago, but didn't even put a scratch on her. She back flipped into the column, and kicked off. This time it was Terra that had nowhere to go. But just as Colgate reached him, he swung a hoof directly at her. Lightning flashed, and she went flying back again- but before his hit landed, she managed to put a shallow cut on his cheek, which was bleeding. Colgate flipped through the air, landed with her hooves on the column and flipping down onto the ground. She ran forward again, one of her blades raised high above her head. Terra was about to attack again when there was a loud bang, followed by a metallic clink and a flash- and Colgate wasn't there anymore. "Hit." Inkie muttered, lowering her rifle which had smoke coming out of its barrel. Colgate got hit in the leg, but the armor there protected her and stopped the bullet. It was still quite a punch though, and send her tumbling off the bridge. She recovered in mid air, and turned to face where she would land- and by the looks of it it would be on the side of an old concrete building. She stabbed her blades into it and landed with her hooves, stopping dead on the vertical surface. Then she noticed a loud rumbling noise, and the earth was quivering. It was even more evident as she was up here. She turned around and looked behind her. A giant fist made of rock stretching thirty meters across and twenty meters high came out of the earth, and was heading straight for her at ninety miles an hour. "This certainly is interesting." Inkie shrugged as the fist plowed into the building. It was like watching a giant baby knock down a tower of building blocks- but it didn't end there. The fist kept going, plowing through all the buildings in the local area and reducing them to individual bricks and pieces of concrete. Finally it came to a rest, and by the time that happened a huge dust cloud had formed across the city. "Can somepony come get me now? HALP." They heard Neon say through the mic- although for some reason, her voice was less robotic. * "Damnit..." Melony said, trying to free herself. "Good idea, Neon. Switch back to me so my size'll be smaller, and I'll be able to get through. Not working very well." "At least you don't have several hundred tons of rock baring down on you." Neon's voice said in her head. Finally she got her right arm free, and was about to claw her left one out when she realized her current state didn't have one. She cursed, and continued tugging at her left arm the old fashioned way. Eventually she got free, and stumbled back. "I thought this only happened in cartoons." She raised an eyebrow. "Evidently not." Neon said, joining her as they both stared at their own impression of themselves in the rock with the same eyes. "Alright. Time to switch back." Melody sighed, turning and walking out of the cave she created. Neon sighed, and started taking over her body again. * "Everyone's bloody left or dead. The pirates are retreating- I don't know if they've got what we need or not." Vinyl cursed, looking around her. She could still hear battles going on in the background, and around her the pirates were scurrying away. She was hidden in a building, peering out a small window. "Find the boss." Frostbite said. "He'll know what's going on. Just look for anyone with more expensive accessories- never mind. Found someone." He said, and Vinyl heard him take off through the mic. "Alright. What do I do?" Vinyl whispered as a squad of pirates ran past her location, yelling at each other as they dragged several crates around. "Look for anything heavily guarded while I go interrogate the head. Those are often important." "....yeah...." Vinyl sighed, then ran further into the building. She ran up the stairs, going for a higher floor to get a better look. She was just entering a room with a window when she felt the entire building shake, and she could see other buildings outside trembling as well. Dust fell from cracks in the ceiling, and she frowned. "What the hay is-" a loud rumbling noise cut her off, and the tremor almost took her off her hooves. "WHAT THE HAY!" In the distance she saw something rip across the city, tearing down structures like blocks. A huge dust cloud started rising into the air, and she stared incredulously at the destruction. Almost a fifth of the city had just been wiped out. "Frostbite! Did you feel that?" "Not quite. Was in the air- but definitely saw it. Just the wardens fighting- get on with searching." Frostbite replied. "Quite selective on their targets if you ask me. The local area was cleared already- there was nopony except whoever they're fighting right now." "Damn. So how did we lose the last war again?" Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "Not certain, but from history books I've read there are two reasons: one, Wardens didn't exist until after the second war and two: Celestia led us." "I don't see what the problem is with Celestia." Vinyl said. "She was the ruler in the previous universe, and did a darn good job of it." "In the second war she tried to make peace with science before declaring war. She didn't even have a plan when everything kicked off. The war only lasted a few weeks- it was a short one." Frostbite said. "Canterlot head quarters was the first to fall. Then Cloudsdale, then Manehatten." "You certainly know your history." Vinyl muttered. "Simple details. Easily memorable." Frostbite said, and Vinyl made a 'pssshhh' sound. * "My my. I thought Colgate would've been enough. Clearly not though, hmm." Val sighed, resting her head on a hand. "She's still alive, but clearly not winning. This is starting to annoy me." She stood up and stretched. Several of her bones made loud snapping noises as she did so, and she let out a relieved moan. "Gah, better." She said, and yawned. "Been lying down for too long." She said, stretching her legs a bit. "I'm gonna go for a walk. Probably to the food court to get a cake." "That totally eliminates the purpose of walking there in the first place." Blithy said. "Yeah, yeah." Val said. "I totally don't care. Although, I am feeling a bit full." "Ever considered the part where you may have just had dinner a few minutes ago?" "Yeah... Forgot to leave space for desert, didn't I..." She said, and with a loud pop a serrated knife sprung into her hand from her ankle. She stabbed herself in the stomach, then ripped her large intestine out. She threw down the bag of half-processed food, and her stomach started healing again. Her flesh merged back together, and inside a new large intestine started growing. She yawned again, cleaned the knife by licking it and put it back in its socket. "Better." She said.