//------------------------------// // Hax! (The Asad Tamir Safeena) // Story: The Smokeless Flame // by BIGBLACKINTOSH //------------------------------// Vito’s house was a mile away from Dustown, on the west side of the mountain. We walked a dirt road that was exposed to open mountainside. Though nothing happened on the walk there, aside from the sun going down, the view of the world below was still astonishing. I wouldn't call Vito’s house a house per say, more like a roman villa compound. The building had two wings, separated by a huge courtyard. The grass was black and dry, like all plant life I’ve seen here. We all stood in the courtyard, looking around. I was mostly admiring the architecture, while everyone else were looking out for surprises. None of the boys trusted Mastodon yet, and I didn't either. But one thing Asad taught me when faced with a possible enemy, never show fear and be ready for anything to happen. Mastodon didn't help our anxiety.  All throughout the walk here, he was nervous. Every step was tentative, and he kept looking to sky as if something might drop on us. I stared at him, curiously. “What’s wrong with you? You're acting more paranoid than I was when my ex was stalking me,” I asked him. Mastodon shook his head, uncertain. “Vito is paranoid as he is greedy. Theres supposed to be at least a dozen traps on the way here. Not to mention he never lets his dogs or the special orders on contracts without him. To say this is unusual is to say my metal  arm isn't a part of my body,” he joked nervously. He scanned the left and right balconies of the villa, searching for any movement “I’d advise we start by banging on the front door,” he suggested casually. We started moving into the courtyard; weapons out and slowly. I had my revolver and ospian knife out, keeping the barrel trained at the door. We were halfway through the yard when a bit of movement caught Gh0st’s attention. “What the hell was that?” he asked, whispering. I looked at the spot that he was looking at. There was no movement, not even a shadow. Crow stared at Gh0st angrily. “Theres nothing there, lets move,” Crow ordered. Gh0st took one more look at the spot he was looking at before catching up to us at the door. “Everyone take cover on either sides of the door, then I’ll kick it down,” I ordered. Mastodon gave me a sceptical look. “Why would we do that?” he asked confused. I shook my head and groaned. “Don't you know how to breach a door? Just do it,” I ordered, annoyed. We separated in front of the door, The boys taking positions on either side of the door. “I’m going to blow the door open, be ready,” I whispered to them. They all nodded and tensed up, getting ready for anything inside. I held my knife under my revolver and took aim at the lock. I fired and kicked in the door, hard enough to knock it off it’s hinges and onto the floor. “Go! Go! Go!” I yelled softly, going in first. The boys moved in one by one behind me, with Gh0st covering the rear.The inside was decorated Roman style like the outside. Low couches and tables filled the room, illuminated by a huge window to the right of the room and the ceiling. Mastodon flexed his arm and called back his blade, looking around the room nervously. “This is definitely not right. Theres at least 10 guards on post in this room alone. Vito’s definitely a greedy bastard but he’d never sacrifice his safety. And where in Tartarus is his bodyguard?!” he shouted. He got his answer. There was a creepy disembodied giggle that came from somewhere in the room. We all went on the alert and started scanning the room. The giggle sounded again, this time close enough that it sounded almost next to me. I put my back to the wall next to the door and almost shot Crow when he bumped into me. Next came a flop and a crash made us turn all our heads to the center of the room. The center table was covered in a mass of white feathers and blood. I moved closer to the broken table, slowly. In one dramatic movement, the feathers lifted to reveal... A cat with wings? I lowered my gun and took a line from the Gh0st handbook and said, “Dafaq is dis shit?” The cat was 4 foot nothing with black fur. Her eyes were dark pink and had pink fur lining her eyes to match the pink sundress she was wearing. She was emitting a purring noise as she stretched, flicking the broken glass off her body. At that point I realized her body was an udder cluster-fuck of parts. Her left arm was that of a dragon and her right leg looked like a cheetah's. Her left leg was that of a lion, while her right arm seemed like the only thing that was naturally a part of her, as it was black like the fur on her head. She was also wearing something that resembled a square animal tag on her ear, but it was gold. She gave me a warm smile and said, “Hiiiii! I’m Kitty Kat, what's your name?” I looked around the room to see the boys looked just as confused as I was. Well, Ghost and Crow looked confused, Mastodon looked scared shittless. I leaned over to Mastodon. “Um is that Vito’s body guard?” I asked him. He nervously nodded. I gave my attention back to Kitty. “Um...Well, my name is Idilah Blood and-,” I was interrupted by Kitty’s very loud gasp. “Oh my gosh! You're not supposed to be here!” She shouted spreading her wings. At that point noticed that both her wings had pink feathers at the end of them. “I’m really sorry, but you're gonna have to die!” I shouted taking flight. Faster than any of us could track her, she flew up to the ceiling and started shedding feathers. Well, more like she started shooting feathers. At me. “Shit!” I yelled instinctively, running to my right. I took cover behind a couch, which wasn't really helping since it was lower than my waist. The feathers were like tiny, sharp ku-knifes and were tearing up my cover. I couldn't see the others but I did know that the moment Kitty took off, they scattered. Kitty kept pouring on the feather fire not giving me a chance to move. “Gh0st! Little help!!” I yelled. “Oh. Sorry!” Gh0st shouted. “Hey, little furball! Over here!” he yelled. There was a sound like water being splashed that let me know Gh0st cloaked. “Oh, why thank you! I’ll make your death quick and painless for being so nice!” she cutely yelled back. There was a break in the sound of feather fire and I got up from behind cover. Quickly taking aim, I started taking shots in Kitty’s general direction, hoping to get a lock on her. Kitty quickly recovered from the dIstraction, putting all her attention back to me. Before I could get back in cover, a feather embedded itself in my gun-hand. It had somehow cut straight through my plate skin and started digging into my flesh.  The hand immediately went limp and I couldn't feel anything in the arm in general. I dropped the gun and just as quickly dropped back into cover, clutching my arm. “Dammit, I’m down! We need to get out of here, we don't have the weapons to take her out!” I yelled. I heard Mastodon chuckle. “Speak for yourself!,” he shouted camly. There were two plucking noises and a loud shriek. I tried to get up without the use of my left arm (which is very hard to do by the way) and see what had happened to Kitty but kept falling back down.. Mastodon ran up to me, still looking worried. “I got her arm and wing, but she’s not going to stay down. She a tough kitten,” he said before lifting me with his mech arm and over his shoulder. Crow and Nightheart were right behind us, but I couldn't see Gh0st. Mastodon started running towards the door, making me bounce on his shoulder. We exited the house, still running when. A shriek sounded from the building along with the sound of broken glass. I looked up to see Kitty flying down at us in a spinning nose dive. Crow dived behind a bush to avoid fire, while Mastodon and Nightheart kept running. “We need to get in cover! Now!” I yelled, Kitty was closing in. Kitty pulled up at the last second, releasing a torrent of feathers on her way up. Mastodon jumped, dodging most of the feathers, but only one single feather got him in the leg and he tripped, sending me flying. I landed on the grass, hard and looked up to see Kitty hovering in the air, smiling. “This has been sooo fun! But now, you're gonna have to die,” she said, bending her wing for another wave. “NOPE!” yelled Gh0st, who had somehow made his way to the balcony. In one jump, he cleared the gap between him and Kitty, holding his sword at the perfect angle to Kitty’s neck, and sliced her head clean off. Her body dropped to the ground, her head landing on her back, with a blissful smile on her face. I leaned on my right arm, trying to look for Crow. Gh0st dropped from the balcony with the smuggest look on his face. “Oh yeah! Who just saved your asses?! Me!” he cheered while doing some sort of victory dance on his hind legs.  Crow came out of his bush, searching any signs of Kitty and noticed her on the ground. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Glad thats over,” he said smiling. Gh0st turned to him, still looking smug. “And nice moves bird. Why didn't you fly up and attack her?” he asked. Crow pawed the ground nervously. “Um..-” “Hey, in case you guys didn't notice, Idilah’s paralyzed,” Nightheart interrupted flatly. “Me too!” Mastodon chimed in, his face to grass. Nightheart and Gh0st ran to our sides, Gh0st helping Mastodon up, letting him lean on him and Nightheart gave me a hand to get me on my feet. I walked over to Kitty’s body and took a minute to examine it. What was weird about Kitty wasn't the fact that she was a cat with wings or her mich-match body parts, it was the fact that all of them looked as if they were sewn together. At each joint of every limb, there would be a black stitch circling the joint. Then there was the animal tag on her ear. After Gh0st sliced off her head, the tag started sparking. I ripped it of her ear and turned it around in my fingers to see a small ruby embedded in the gold. The ruby looked strange though, almost cloudy and corrupted. I handed looked over to Crow and tossed the tag over to him, surprising him as he caught it. “Could you take out that ruby for me?” I asked him. He nodded and extended his eagle claws and started digging out the ruby. “Damn this thing is in there. Why do you want this again?” he asked, struggling. “Its a ruby. That means it’s money. I want least something to go back to town with,” I said, annoyed. We had come out here looking Vito and ended up getting two of us paralyzed. Needless to say, I was pissed. Damn, I feel like Bad Luck Brian. Went to friends house, got paralyzed, I thought.  Crow finally worked out the ruby, tossing it in the air in victory. He caught it and noticed a fine detail about Kitty that we all neglected... “Um, why isn't her neck bleeding?” he asked.  He too, got his answer. Kitty’s body started moving, getting to it’s feet and started stretching in one swift movement. We all jumped back. Well, Gh0st couldn't because of Mastodon trying to keep balance. Kitty’s body brushed off her dress and picked up her head, twisting it back on her shoulders like a screw. She opened her eyes and yawned. “Oh wow, I haven't been beheaded in a long time,” she said casually. She looked around at us and stared straight at Gh0st. She smiled warmly and started purring. “Thank you mister nice pony! That tag was kind of messing with my head,” she explained. Gh0st chuckled nervously. “Heh, no problem,” he said. Nightheart was about to club her, but she somehow sensed the hit coming and caught the hammer mid-swing. She then swung the hammer (along with Nightheart) and threw it into the west wing wall. Nightheart went through clear through the wall and got buried under debris. Kitty gasped and held her hands over her mouth in shock. “Oh I’m sorry Mr. Dragon. That was on instinct, I promise!” she shouted to him. Nightheart punched a piece of wall from on top of him and sat up, his face red with rage. “I’m gonna kill that cat!” she shouted, running at her at top speed. Just before he was about to hit her, I pulled on the faulty cloth he called shorts. He immediately stopped knowing that they were going to rip if stretched. Kitty stayed calm the entire time, not even moving a muscle. She giggled almost as cutely as Pinkie does. “You sound like my friend Gatuar. He-,” she gasped. “Where is everybody?!” she yelled in a high-pitched voice, looking left and right in a vain attempt to find her friends. I looked over to Mastodon and he shrugged. “I think she’s talking about the other special orders. They’re a close nit group and Vito never let them go on contracts without his supervision,” he explained. Kitty gasped deeper, making me finally wonder how the hell she was alive. “Where’s Mr.Vito?! Oh, he never lets me go off alone. What if he’s hurt? What if my friends are hurt? What if-” I interrupted her, placing my palm over her mouth. Which didn't do anything as she continued to talk into my hand.  I sighed. “Thats why we’re here Kitty. We’re looking for Vito and wanted to talk to him. Do you know where he was before someone put that tag on you?,” I asked. Well I technically wasn't lying. I just wanted to know what Vito knows, Mastodon wanted to kill him. Kitty looked as if she calmed  down and I lowered my hand. She started tapping her nose and tapping her foot, thinking. Mastodon was still paralyzed and I still had a messed up arm. Crow was taking the initiative to look in the demolished room Nightheart got thrown into, while he was still staring at Kitty murderously. Kitty’s face lit up with a smile and she snapped her fingers. “Oh yeah, Mr.Vito was in his cellar talking to his new friend Ms. Jill. They were arguing and there was a crash and-,” she groaned, holding her head. “I think thats when I got the tag put on me. I can't remember anything past that,” she said sadly. Mastodon groaned and shifted his foot. “You got the antidote for that poison of yours?” he asked firmly. Kitty pulled out a vial from behind her and tossed it to Mastodon. “Drink that, Mr.Vito made me make a antitoxin after I pricked him so many times,” she joked. Mastodon downed the vial and passed it to me. I downed the last of the drink immediately felt better. Aside from the taste of what I could only describe as pure ass, my arm could move again. Mastodon backed off Gh0st and stretched his leg. Gh0st twisted his back, trying to shake off being used as a table. “Everyone! I think I found something!” Crow yelled from the room. We all looked in the room to see a cellar door on the floor. *                                                *                                        * After retrieving my gun, we descended down the latter, one by one, with Crow climbing down last. The latter led down to a large hallway lit up by torches on the walls. Kitty led the group with me right behind her, Nightheart behind me, with Gh0st and Mastodon in front of Crow. While we walking, Kitty kept alternating between hovering and skipping. I walked right next to her and grabbed her shoulder, urging her to calm down. I kept staring at her, trying to figure out how the hell they almost killed me. “Kitty, I have two questions; 1. What are you? And 2. How are you still alive?” I asked curiously. Kitty beamed. “Oh I’m an Abomination silly! I have a my own nervous system in my head so if it ever got cut off, I could stay alive until my body can find me,” she explained casually before gasping and running ahead of us. In front of us, acloves of wine were filled right to left, along with a griffon speared to the wall. The griffon was white feathered, with blue fur and crest.  The spear was in his stomach, connecting Vito to the wall. “VITO!” Mastodon yelled, rushing past us. Vito groaned in acknowledgment. Mastodon stood next to Vito, while Kitty was next to him, crying. “Hey...what’s wrong Kitten?” he asked weakly. Kitty sobbed. “Mr.Vito you're hurt,” she replied softly. Vito looked down at the spear in his gut and smiled. “Oh this? Tis but a flesh wound,” he said casually. “Hey Mastodon, do you think you could patch this up?” Vito asked. Gh0st moved closer with bandages in his mouth but Mastodon blocked him. “You are going to tell me why you sold us out or you're not getting a damn band aid,” he hissed. Vito sighed painfully and stared at Mastodon in confusion. “What are you on about?” he asked. Mastodon’s temper flared and he stepped to Vito’s face. “I’m talking about how you sold out all of our dogs and some of the powerful beings on the planet for some pony!” he yelled. “Hey!” Gh0st  shouted, offended. Vito shifted on the spear again. Blood was pooling on the floor from the wound. How he didn't bleed out yet was beyond me. His face went from confusion to surprise. “That...Bitch. She showed you a contract yes?” he asked. Mastodon nodded. “She must have used Kitty to forge my signature. You know I wouldn't do that Mastodon. I’m greedy but I’m not a traitor,” Vito said firmly. Mastodon shook his head in disbelief. He let out a frustrated yell before he punched the wall next to Vito. He took a breath and looked at Gh0st. “Patch him up,” he ordered before he walked away to a corner. Kitty put her hands on the spear in Vito gut and stared into his eyes. “Mr.Vito, this gonna hurt,” she said. Vito smiled weakly. “Better out than in kitten, just do it slowly,” he replied. Kitty nodded and started pulling on the spear, trying to work it out in one clean pull. Her efforts were almost undone when she flinched at Vito’s screams. After two tugs, she finally worked out the spear, clean of any organs. Gh0st moved in with his bandages and quickly wrapped up Vito’s stomach using his magic. Vito hugged his new bandage with a smile on his face. “Thanks friend. Now, how about we get introductions out of the way,” he said looking at me. We got all the introductions out of the way and Vito explained what happened. Turns out that Vito’s way of recruitment was based off contracts. Every dog, griffon, or minitaur, (and rarely, pony) signs a contract to join the gang. Jill wanted all the contracts for every dog in the group. Figuring she just wanted dumb muscle, Vito said no. Jill was not happy with that answer and had one of her bodyguard impale Vito to the wall and incapacitate Kitty with an animal tag specially made for her and the other Abominations. They were made in place of contracts because they were erratic. Jill programmed Kitty to do guard duty until Vito came out of the cellar. We all stood in the cellar listening intently to Vito’s explanation. Mastodon had calmed down and was leaning against the wall. Kitty was at Vito’s side, sitting with her legs crossed while Vito patted her head. I stretched my recently unparalyzed arm, spawning my gun repeatedly as I spoke. “So thats all well and good but, what was Jill doing here in the first place?” I asked. Vito smiled and got up, disappointing Kitty. “The reason, is the fact that Jill is looking for the Asad Tamir Safeena, the lost ship of Obar,” he replied. My ears perked up. For some reason, just by uttering those words, every part of me, for the first time, felt on fire. I somehow knew that he was talking about my brother.  “What did you say?” I asked quickly. Vito chuckled, holding his bandage in pain. “I wouldn't expect everyone to know SaddleArabic. See, Omar was an ancient SaddleArabic city. History lesson time!” he announced dramatically. “Way back when, the SaddleArabians wanted to invade Equestria because the former main city of SaddleArabia, Omar, had dried up its water source. Long story short, they lost. BUT, not before leaving a few goodies if they wanted to reattempt taking over again. A certain goody, was the Asad Tamir Safeena. Thats a mouthful, I’m gonna just call it the ATS.” “Anyway, the ATS was hidden somewhere in this mountain and guess who knows where it is?” Vito asked obviously. Gh0st raised his hoof. “Is it you you?” he asked flatly. Crow snickered. “No, its the other asshole with a house on the mountainside,” he retorted. Vito smiled and turned around to the wall behind him and pressed a tile on the wall. The wall slid to the side to reveal a small rectangular room. What made the room so special was the huge golden wall. We all entered and stared at the wall, every single one of our mouths agape. I walked right up to the wall and put my hand on the door. I felt oddly drawn to this door, bound to it even. I turned to Vito. “What is this?” I asked him. Vito regarded the wall with a smile. “This, is the door to the ATS. I’ve been trying to open this thing since I had this place built. Explosives, magic, explosive magic. No matter what I do, the damn thing won’t open,” he said, frustrated before punching the wall of gold. He shook the pain off his hand and turned back to me. “Thats honestly why I didn't let Jill know where it is. After a certain amount of time, she would have killed me just to let out some frustration,” he explained. I kept running my hand over the cool gold wall until I saw a small symbol. The symbol was like a triangle, but each point were separated. The moment I saw it, I put my hand to it and was forced into a memory.... *                                                *                                                * I sat in a classroom full of rowdy students, all of them throwing paper balls and otherwise being a bunch of loud twats. I looked down to my arms to see I had my human skin back but was still in my PJ’s. The teacher finally stepped in and everybody in the room stopped dead in their tracks. No one moved a muscle. The teacher was none other than Burijas himself, standing proudly in a red double-breasted coat with a turtleneck sweater, along with a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. He stood in front of the class behind a desk. He turned around and a chalkboard suddenly appeared on the wall. He picked up a piece of chalk and drew the same symbol that was on the ATS door. He turned around to the class and smiled. “Now class, todays lesson will be on Signs. Can anyone tell me what Signs are?” he asked the class. Considering the fact that everyone was frozen, no one answered. I just didn't know the answer, so I stayed quiet. Burijas shook his head and sighed. “Alright then, Signs are the ancient symbols of power that were once used in magic by the Saudi Arabians. But, because of “culture clash”,” he explained using air quotes. “The europeans stole the Signs and implanted them into their own lore,” he explained sadly. He pointed straight at me with his chalk. I shrunk in my chair nervously. I hated being called on during high school. “What do you think this sign is, Ms. Blood?” he asked me. I regained my courage and sat back up in my seat. I shrugged. “I don't know. Care to tell me, Mr.Burijas?” I retorted. Burijas smirked and turned back to the board. “Very well. This symbol is that of fire,” he explained, writing the word, “fire”, under the faux triangle. He turned back to the class, this time, holding up his hand, showing me his palm. “In order to call upon the Signs, ancient Arab magicians would form different signs with their hands,” he continued, doing “devil horns” with his fingers. I chuckled, but was now interested. “What other signs are there Mr.Burjas?” I asked curiously. Burijas turned back to the board and drew 4 more Signs. Most of them were triangles, but with each new Sign, he would write a different word under it. Force, trap, shield, and hex. He explained all of their uses and showed me each of their handSigns. While he explained them, I practiced them in my seat. None of the effects happend, but I could feel myself getting weaker. “I.D.!” a disembodied voice said. I scanned the room in search of the source, but Burijas clapped his hands to  get my attention. “That concludes the lesson children. Remember, I want a full report by tomorrow!” he shouted before my vision blurred. *                                                *                                * I opened my eyes to see a worried Crow standing over me. I was laying on my back, uncomfortably remembering how I woke up in this fine land. I got to my feet and immediately put my hand on the golden wall. I suddenly remembered that I had changed my hands into that of a turian’s, and promptly changed my left hand back to five fingers. I smirked and looked back at the worried faces behind me. “Prepare for awesomeness people,” I declared before forming “devil horns” on the wall. My hand lit up with fire on the symbol on the wall and lines of power spread from the Sign. The lines spread throughout the wall, covering it in the same style my runes were. The wall disintegrated to reveal a dark room only illuminated by the faint glow off my body. “Someone get a torch, we’ll need-,” I got cut off by Kitty passing me a torch. I stared at Kitty, utterly confused. Yup, not even going to question that, I thought, moving into the dark room. I couldn't tell any details from the room but the glint on the far side of the room that looked like glass. Vito appeared next to me, complete wonderment painting his face. “This is amazing! A room on the Tamir Safeena! This is a dream come true. How did you do that? he asked. I rubbed the back of my head nervously. “Well, about that-” I was interrupted yet again by rumbling. The whole room started shaking, almost making me lose my footing. Everybody in the vault was busy examining the new room before the rumbling started and were flopping all over the place in order to stay still. That was the moment I noticed that the room that we were just in, the walls were cracking. That was also the moment I realized we were moving away from the room. “What the hell is going on!?” shouted Gh0st. Vito gave him a shaking smile. “Can't you see it?! The Safeena is awakening!” he announced before possibly the loudest cracking sound in the history of man sounded and there was finally light in the room. Light coming from a sunset in a window on the far side of the now evidently large room. I ran to the window, well, we all ran to the small window, pressing our noses and beaks it. We were staring at the now destroyed villa, 1000 feet in the air.