//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 // Story: 64 vs. The Underground // by Jman9877 //------------------------------// Chapter 22 64 POV The examination was done pretty fast after my mini episode, with the doctor jokingly snapping on a glove to his hoof and asking me to bend over. Luckily he said it was a joke before he was hanging out of the window by his coat. Some spare clothing of mine was left in a drawer next to the bed, along with my communicator charm. The clothing looked as if it was brand new, and upon inspection of the tag, I saw Rarity had made me some new threads while I was out. “Damn, I have to thank her later.” I said, pulling the new White Hooded Long sleeve over my head. I found in one of the pockets a note was left, and I chuckled upon reading it. “You really do wear too much Black 64, you must learn to invert your colors to put a bit of flair into your fashion.” I could easily tell it was also written by Rarity, so I put it back into the pocket. The pants felt as if they were made up Kevlar, which was incredibly hard to come by these days. It was Colored Dark Grey, making a sort of outfit with the Long sleeve, but I thought about the practicality of the clothing. They were very light colors, and I often liked to stick to the shadows. “Not all of my jobs are stealthy I guess…” I muttered, getting a feel for the new clothing. I walked out of the hospital room and proceeded to the front desk, checking myself out with the Doctor’s permission. The light still stung my eyes a bit, but that was a given for being unconscious for 2 weeks. “So 64, if you continue to feel dizziness, migraines, or any other sign of head trauma, don’t hesitate to come back.” The nurse at the desk told me as I checked myself out as a patient. “Don’t worry, I’m made of thicker stuff than it looks like.” I joked, turning around and walking out of the front doors. I was apparently checked into the Canterlot Medical Center instead of the Ponyville one, throwing me off a little bit. "I thought I was in Ponyville…” I shook off the feeling of slight confusion and continued towards the Palace, which I could easily see in the distance. With Discord gone, everything looked like it was back to normal, with the Canterlot Hedge Maze fully regrown, and not a single pink cloud in sight. If I ever saw the bastard again, it would be too soon. I eventually made it to the Palace Bridge, walking over the moat and into the actual Palace itself. The first thing I did was head towards the Barracks, where I wanted to speak with the Royal Military Police, who were in charge of tracking down the Slava family. Even though I had been out the past 2 weeks, doesn’t mean I forgot about them. I found the Chief Investigative Officer, Crossroad, sitting at her desk rummaging through papers. She was still wearing her battle armor, and her red mane was down from her usual pony tail, cascading down her white coat. “Yo.” I said lazily, walking into the office. “Project 64… I had heard something had happened to you. Something about assisting in the defeat of Discord. I’ll tell ya, only you are stupid enough to rush at the Spirit of Chaos head first.” Cross scolded, with me wiping away the remark with a wave. “I survived, albeit barely, in the end. Anyway, before any of that happened, there was a case in progress regarding the escape of a gang from the Underground Prison. The Slava family. I need to know if any progress has been made.” I said sternly, not caring if Celestia told me not to pry. Crossroad leaned forward onto the desk, rubbing her temples. “I’ll tell ya, we’ve searched high and low for them all over Equestria. We’ve found 3 secret hideouts and raided them, but we found absolutely nothing. They were all cleared out with surgical precision, not leaving anything behind. And after a while, more cases built up, needing to be dealt with. Unfortunately, we are at a dead end with the Slava’s.” I groaned, this being exactly what I was afraid of. There had to be something that we could have found, maybe I could go back and do a more thorough search. “I see that look in your eye 64, and I’ll tell ya right now it’s no dice. We had the finest sweepers search those hideouts, and absolutely nothing came of it. So all we can do is wait for something to pop up, then we’ll hit with all we got.” Crossroad said, making me slump into a chair and rub the bridge of my nose. “I can’t just sit on my ass and do nothing about it. They are a dangerous family who experiments in Alicorn Magic, we can’t just ‘wait for something to pop up’.” I argued, making Crossroad scowl at me. “Listen 64. We don’t have the time to pursue just one case. We need to focus on all of the other case we get. Now get, I’m working on a Missing Foals Case.” I complied and got up from the chair, walking out of the room. I couldn’t change how to MP’s worked, all I could do was help if something came up. I proceeded back to my quarters, mulling over how I could at least try and do something. I could ask Celestia if I could be assigned to the case, but then that would probably piss of the officers already working on the job. I opened my room to find that it had been cleaned and dusted in the time I had been hospitalized, making me remember something. “Holy shit Blu!” I gasped, wondering if she was okay after what happened. Manehatten had gotten hit by a spaghetti twister, much more violent than all of the other occurrences in Equestria. I was about to go rushing to the Throne Room to ask Celestia if she had returned, when I found myself face to face with the pony in question. “Oh thank goodness Blu… I thought something bad happened.” I sighed, as she shook her head no. Blusa signed to me that everything in Manehatten had gone back to normal after a day, and the only thing that was severely damaged were a few of the shipyards. “Well as long as your safe… let me guess, you also heard of what happened between me and Discord?” I said deadpanned, as she nodded angrily. “Ok, Ok… I get it. I was reckless, but I don’t regret a second of it.” She simply rolled her eyes at me and flashed the words ‘brother’ and ‘fine’. “So Grey wasn’t hurt either?” I asked, making Blusa shake her head no again. I was just glad that Blu wasn’t hurt. I didn’t want me being the reason she was hurt because she just happened to be in Manehatten because I asked her. We said our goodbyes as I turned back into my room and sighed, looking around at how empty it fel without Ghost. I decided I needed to occupy myself, so I opened one of the desk drawers to reveal unfinished schematics that I had brought home from Manehatten. I pulled one of them out and started to make a few more notes in the designs, with this one needing some sort of gauntlet which would keep it strapped to my forearm. “Hey, I heard you were discharged from the hospital today.” A voice said, as I turned in the chair I was sitting in. Shining Armor was standing there in his Battle Armor, minus the helmet. “You really put a scare into some of the other guards. Based on your records, a lot of them think you’re invincible.” “I’m just thick skinned and hard to kill, but not invincible. I guess the one thing that can beat me now is a Spirit of Chaos and maybe Celestia.” I joked, returning to my notes. ‘So what do I have the pleasure Captain, need me to do something?” “Maybe. With you gone, all of the quick jobs which can be completed in a day started to pile up for the MP’s, and they are all having trouble completing them. We may need you to jump right back into the game and getting working again.” I sighed a bit, but I realized that my vacation was officially over, so I had nothing to complain about. “Alright, but I’ll take on the bigger stuff first. What’s the case you’re having the most problems with right now?” I asked, seeing a flaw in the spring mechanism of my gauntlet. “It’s a Missing Foals Case, as in multiple cases across Equestria. They’re too close together in a time frame for them to be a coincidence. We have multiple reports from all over Equestria talking about foals all of a sudden disappearing all within 1 hour of each other, with no sign of why they disappeared. I of course wouldn’t be able to assign you the job right away, but I could put in a recommendation to Princess Celestia.” That sounded like a tough one. I wasn’t a detective of any kind, and this case sounded like something Police teams would work together and try to catch the group doing this. I already knew it couldn’t be more than one pony, due to the time frames being so close together. “Alright then, go ahead. I’ll look over the details if I get assigned.” I said, kicking my feet up onto the table lazily, finishing up the blueprint for the Gauntlet. I really didn’t have a need for it, due to the fact that I would be able to conjure one with magic, but maybe if I wanted to I could build it and give it to Shining or something. “Now don’t go finding something else to fight while I’m gone.” Shining joked as he walked out of the room, making me chuckle a bit. I felt tired all of a sudden, bring my right hand to my face to rub my eyes. I pulled my hand back and nearly jumped up when I saw it was now completely covered in blood, going all the way down to the middle of my forearm. “what the fuck…?” I muttered to myself, shaking as I went to the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror. Where my eyes should have been were two burning orbs of fire, and tears of blood running down my face. My immediate reaction was to open the faucets and try to get water onto my face, but when I turned on the spigot, viscous red liquid began to seep out of the sink. I turned into the toilet and vomited bile into the bowl, feeling light headed all of a sudden. I closed my eyes and shook my head a little bit, looking back towards the mirror. My face was back to normal, and the faucet was now running clean water. I sighed and sat down with my back to the wall, taking in deep breaths to try and calm myself down. “It was just from being out for two weeks… I haven’t even eaten yet…” I muttered to myself, getting up off of the ground and heading straight for the Mess Hall. They were serving lunch at the moment, and I was glad to see that nopony else was inside at the moment, it would give me some time to think quietly. I had already had three freak-outs already, one I couldn’t even remember. I just sat down with a bowl of vegetable soup in front of me, taking a few bites. I ate slowly, my mind still wracking itself on how I acted out so strangely. “Probably just stressed out about what happened with Discord… that was the closest I had ever come to actually dying…” I told myself, knowing that I felt more death while fighting Discord than I did fighting Super Nova. I continued to slowly eat the hot soup in front of me, although I found it to be really bland. I was already feeling calmer, which had to be some sort of good sign. “Ugh… who the fuck am I trying to fool…” I grunted, burying my face in my hands with my elbows resting on the table. I sat there for a good long while, trying to clear my head of the images I had seen today. The disfigured face of Vi was still fresh in my mind, and all I wanted was to scoop it out with a spoon. Knight was even scarier, with me being nearly defenseless in that moment. After a few moments of deep breath, I cleared my head by remembering that I was the one who killed him, I was the one who chopped off his head and threw it a Super Nova. I took the spoon in my hand and took another bite of the soup, nearly spitting it out at the cold vegetable water. I looked at it confused, seeing it was no longer steaming like it was just moments ago. “Hey buddy, it’s almost closin’ time. You gonna get outta here? Or are you just gonna keep sittin’ there?” The stallion standing behind the cafeteria line yelled out, making look at him in bewilderment. I looked at my watch and s wait was now 11PM. I had sat there in my seat for over 8 hours. “Uh yea, I’m… I’m gonna go…” I said, getting up out of the seat and making my way towards my room, wondering what the hell was going on with me… Ghost POV I sat at the same table I was seated at the last time I came to this sleazy club, watching the bar. It was Now late into the evening, nearly 1AM, and there hadn’t been a sign of the dealer in 2 weeks. After the near bust which I attended before, the dealer completely stopped coming to the club, waiting for the heat to die down. Across the room I saw Reggie, who was nursing a Soft Apple Cider. He kept them same look upon his face as every single undercover cop did in the club, one of intense concentration and focus. We scanned for the dealer, who was a Red furred Diamond Dog, who wore a Golden Spike collar and a Black vest. “Dammit 65… there hasn’t been hide nor hair of the damn guy for two weeks. I’m thinking you are leading us for a wild goose chase!” Reggie said in my communicator, making me roll my eyes. “Wrath was telling the truth about the dealer… he was one of the dog’s transporters. Plus I had a lie detector spell which my mentor taught me, and Wrath passed. There’s no way the guy was lying.” I said quietly through my communicator, as I took a sip of the Cola I had. “I still have the authority to lock you up for Obstruction of Justice Agent 65, if this doesn’t pay off within the next few days, I’m gonna make sure you rot.” “Don’t worry, it won’t. Let’s pack up for the night, and then I can do some digging tomorrow morning. I’ll find out where the dealer is hanging.” I replied back to Reggie, who got up and walked up out of the club. All of the undercover cops all left in a specific order, leaving in different directions to not arouse suspicions of anyone who might be watching. I thought that they were being extra paranoid, but I guess it was better safe than sorry. As always, I was last to leave, walking out and heading towards the Hotel Room I was staying at. I dropped my Fonix disguise and sighed, rubbing my horn at all of the energy which it used up in prolonged periods. “Ugh… let’s just get to bed! I wish I was back at the Palace, they always served the most delicious snacks for breakfast.” I said happily, licking my lips at the memories of the tasty treats I always I had back home. Due to me being a Changeling, any food I ate was simply disintegrated in my stomach, not providing any nutrition of any kind. It was all for pleasure, which is why I always loved to binge on the cupcakes which I always ordered to my room. I made it back to the hotel and changed back into my Gryphon disguise, walking towards the front desk to extend my stay. The Gryphoness currently working at the desk had her face in her talons, messing up the white feather on her head. “Umm, excuse me?” I called out, apparently shaking the Gryphoness out of her stupor. “Yeah, what do you want? It’s not even today anymore! It’s tomorrow!” She scolded me, making me confused. I shook away her remark and continued. “Well I’d like to extend my stay. I believe this should cover it.” I said, pulling out a bag of bits I had at the ready. I wasn’t even close to running out of the cash 64 gave me, but I didn’t want to be spending too much of his money. “Well alright then… Fonix Duce, I can give you a 2 week extension.” The worker said, writing something into a book she had on the desk. I nodded in thanks and looked towards her name tag. “Why thank you… Gilda.” I said turning away, as I heard her huff in exasperation. I made my way to my room and threw myself onto the bed, ditching the disguise and rolling myself up into a burrito with the blankets. I sighed happily as I felt the warmth around me, grinning with contentment. I hoped 64 was alright after what I heard happened, knowing the damage which could have happened in Equestria. Discord was THE God of Chaos, and 64 just ran in head first to fight him. That was a mentor I was proud to have. I knew 64 would be alright… there wasn’t anything that could stop him. Anything.