//------------------------------// // Chapter 108 - Hostage // Story: Quest For Harmony // by destinedjagold //------------------------------// With simple analysis of his current whereabouts, he easily decided to walk forward from the door that leads to the washroom. Nobody seemed to mind his presence, which suited him just fine. He passed by the large sets of stairs leading to the second floor of the mansion, where he got a glimpse of the maid she spoke earlier was walking down from the stairs that were connecting the third and second floors. Reaching his destination, he grabbed the doorknob, twisted it, and pushed it open. The moment the door opened, he heard the mechanical hum of the generators which were standing in the middle of the large garage-like room. The air felt warmer here than back in the spacious living room. With a determined smile, he closed the door behind him and walked around the generator slowly. From what he could see, it looked like two generators standing side-by-side. It's deep-blue metallic body vibrated as it let out a mechanical hum that echoed in the room. It stood almost twelve feet in height and almost seventeen feet in width on all corners. On the walls of the closed room were metallic tables where tools, papers and other uninteresting items were sitting on them. There were also a few boxes stacked. Xilfer stared at the generators, as he figured out how to shut this thing off. As his eyes fall on a small screen with a few buttons before them, he momentarily recalled the reason why he wanted to shut this thing off. He remembered hearing his younger brother, Kronz, saying something about ‘Claire's’ father's scientists were behind all of those monsters back home. He remembered him saying that they were controlling them by their computers. He wasn't really paying that much attention though, so he might have missed a few points here and there. But those aren't important now. If these creeps do control those monsters back home with their computers, then it would be obvious that they'd lose control if they lost power, right? Right, he nodded to himself. With that in his head, he read the labels on each buttons as he searched for a way to shut this large piece of metal junk down. After a minute, and already read the labels a few times already, he sighed, as he failed to located the right button to shut the generators. He looked at the large metal block in front of him, and wondered to himself if generators really do run with only buttons. A quick glance to his left, and he found a lever that was firmly leaning against the metallic surface of the generator. It blended well, so he thought that maybe he missed seeing that while he was walking around the generator earlier. He stood in front of the lever, and grabbed it with his hand. After creating a gap, he finally manages to get a good hold on the warm metal rod. He smirked as the feeling on his grip made him remember a few fond memories. Sweeping those memories aside for a while, he took a breath and— —the door opened and a middle-aged man wearing a lab coat walked in, and quickly stopped—surprised—to see one of them in this room. “Excuse me, sir...” he trailed off as he didn't recognize the messy-haird guy who was grinning at him while holding the lever. “...but uh, what exactly are you doing here?” Xilfer grinned wider. Things are going to be exciting. “Light's out, doc!” He yelled as he pulled the lever down, instantly killing every lights and electric-depended devices in the mansion. The scientist gasped as his vision went pitch black. As soon as he stepped back, a powerful fist hit his face and threw him back. The maids gasped at the sudden sound of a man collapsing on the floor. Xilfer quickly went out, slammed the door closed, pulled his gun, and fired at the knob to jam it. The loud bang echoed all around the mansion, summoning fearful shrieks from the female maids as they brought their hands over their heads and kneeled down while others fled to other rooms. He quickly ran towards the stairs, and as soon as he took his first step on the second floor, a door was slammed open from the ground floor, and he took a quick glance to see a few more scientists emerged with flash lights. He fired at them, intentionally not hitting anyone but the floor as he skipped towards the higher floors. From what he remembered, Claire's father owns the place, and that maid mentioned a ‘young miss’, so perhaps he could use her to lure the guy he's looking for. “What was that noise!?” the black-suited man yelled so his voice will go over the shrieks of his maids. “Probably from a gun, sir!” a female scientist spun to face him with a terrified look. “Damn it,” he cursed as he looked around, “damn that lazy son of a bitch! I should have hired more—” “AAAAHHHHH!!!!!! DAAAADDDDYYYY!!!” He choked as his pupils shrunk. He sharply turned his head up towards the stairs. “ROSE!!!” He yelled in horror as he ran towards the stairs, while other scientists tried to call him as others ran after him. Everything inside the mansion was dark, but his vision was slowly becoming darker as terrible thoughts began to dance around his head. He heard his daughter shout for him again, and he pumped every energy he has on his feet to run and climb stairs faster. Finally reaching the last floor, he heard his daughter's shout for help one last time before he tackled the door open, slamming it loudly on the wall. As he stopped, and as if on cue, a powerful lightning flashed, allowing him to see the scene in front of him. Xilfer stood in the middle of the room, with a maniac-like grin as he wrapped his arm around the small girl's neck and limply hung his other hand with the gun on his side. Rainbow Dash lifelessly watched the scene happening before her eyes as she quietly sat on the foot-edge of the large bed. Her lifeless eyes didn't even reflect the fierce light from the lightning bolt. As the light faded, a powerful crackling sound roared, making the child yelp in pain. “Rose!” her father yelled as he was about to run towards them. Xilfer somehow knew that the old man must have forgotten something, so he gladly reminded him about it by quickly pointing the gun and firing at the floor a foot in front of the stunned man. He saw the terrified looks of the scientists at the door, and he grinned further. “Let her go!” “Let her go!” I shouted as the unicorns above the hill were walking down, levitating the struggling filly along with them. The unicorns just laughed at our struggle. Rainbow's mouth opened slightly, and closed, as if mumbling something, but nothing came out. Rose was squirming while crying for help, and Xilfer was growing tired of hearing her whines. “Ain't happening,” Xilfer smiled. “Let's make a deal,” he said, catching the man's attention, for only half of it. “I won't kill her if you convince her to shut the f*ck up and stay still.” He studied the man's expression, and as fun as this was going, he had a tight schedule to follow. “Ten seconds.” “Very good,” a voice from a unicorn who just came out from the forest spoke. I turned my head and glared at the newcomer. He looked older than the unicorns that captured me and Scootaloo. “It seems that the four of you have been trained quite well.” He smiled genuinely at them, but it was an evil smile for my taste. “Darn it...” he cursed. “R-Rose dear,” he said, with a trembling voice, as he desperately tried to force a smile as his daughter stared back at him. “E-everything's go-going to be all right, honey... J-just...do what the guy asked, and stay still and st-stay quiet, o-okay?” I struggled to break free from the magical aura that is pinning me down on the ground. Gah! Rainbow Dash was shivering slightly... Her breath was quietly, but were slowly starting to go fast. Xilfer studied the man as he said all of those to reassure his daughter. The man's eyes...he didn't understand them. They were frightened, that he was certain, but they were also...reassuring... Strangely, it made him feel like a total idiot of doing all of this...just for the sake of his stupid older brother. What is worse, he already knew what his brother would say about this, if he remembers him right. Nonetheless, he needed to focus. “See, ain't that an easy thing to do?” he smiled at the young girl, who was too terrified to even shiver. She was easy to handle now, but he still kept a firm hold of her neck, just in case. He then turned back to the man. “So...let's start,” he grinned. “Ask away.” He noticed a few scientists with phones, probably calling the cops. However, he saw their puzzled, confused, and angry expressions, and he smirked even further as he thought that they couldn't connect. “What shall we do with them, commander?” The tiniest of light reflected on Rainbow's eyes. The man glared at him. “What do you want?” “My...aren't you an unfriendly type...” Xilfer teased. “Very well,” he nodded, “let's go straight down to business, shall we?” He sharply tilted his head left and right, cracking his neck bones in the process. Somehow, his eyes fell on the strange blue dog sitting on the bed as he lowered his hand, that was holding the gun, to his side. He arched an eyebrow at it as he tapped a rectangular metal under his pocket before returning to the man. “Answer me this: what were you doing on Mount Comet?” The man clenched his teeth and his fists. He didn't want to answer, but he's couldn't do anything about it. Would a lie suffice? “My scientists and I were conducting research...” “If you're going to answer vaguely, then I'll be cancelling this deal...” he slowly lifted the gun towards the child, but stopped after the man begged him to stop. “...oh? Sorry, I lost my interest. Maybe you can wind me back to the deal?” He saw the man's eyes twitched, and he grinned. I brought my hooves on the ground, and started pushing myself up, but it's too darn difficult! Ugh... My own sweat is stinging my eye! “Please let me go!” Scootaloo cried. “Sc-Scoota...loo...” Rainbow whispered with a very low voice that even her ears couldn't pick it up. “I am aware of those monsters from your so-called portals,” Xilfer said, breaking the silence as lightning brightened the room with white light. “There, I made things easier for you. Now I want to know is, why did you summon those monsters, and why aren't you doing anything to bring them back?” He then planted the mouth of the gun on the girl's head. The man and a few others behind him gasped. “Like I said, I'm on a tight schedule, and I'm getting bored and tired. So make it quick or say your goodbye.” He shrugged. “Your choice.” “D-daddy...” Rose whispered with trembling lips and with tearful eyes. The higher-ranked unicorn shrugged. “Meh. What makes pegasi ponies special?” The other four unicorns thought about it while Scootaloo was crying in fear and I was trying to free myself. “Their wings?” One of the unicorns spoke. The higher-ranked unicorn nodded. “You catch up fast.” He grinned. “Now here's another question.” Rainbow Dash shivered as she panted slowly and quietly.