64 vs. The Slava’s Part 3
3rd Person POV (Smokey Mountain Caverns)
Ghost awoke slowly, feeling the aches and pains of the injuries he received from Shura’s thugs. He rubbed his hoof on the back of his head and felt the large cracks in his chitin, now plugged up with dried blood.
“You’re awake, which means you can work… Take this and start breaking the boulders. You even think about turning on us, you’ll be dead before you can take the swing.” A muscular stallion said, throwing a hammer at Ghost’s hooves. “Get to work.”
Ghost tried picking up the hammer with his magic so he could bash his face in, but for some reason he couldn’t channel any magic. Feeling up to his horn fearing the worst, he was slightly relieved to discover that he had an Inhibitor Ring around his jagged horn.
“No magic, can’t risk one of you little shits trying to escape. Use your mouth.”
Ghost scowled at the thug and did as he was told, knowing that if he didn’t comply then thing would only get worse. He swung the hammer at the rocks in front of him, and saw that with every swing, he could see sparkling pieces of Enchanted Gems encrusted in the stone.
“Collect those in these buckets, at the end of the day, we’ll come and collect. Don’t even think about trying to sneak any by us.”
“Wasn’t planning to…” Ghost muttered back, as he felt the thud of a whip hitting his armored side. He feigned pain so the guard wouldn’t have any ideas about hitting him again.
“You will not talk back to me!” The thug growled, motioning to the boulders in front of Ghost. Ghost growled back and picked up the Hammer he had dropped, continuing to hit the rocks in front of him. Whenever a shiny piece of rock was dropped, he carefully picked it up in his mouth and dropped it into the bucket next to him.
“Hey! Gene! We need ya over here! Small collapse we need ta clear out!” Another male voice called out, as the thug standing over Ghost slowly turned and walked into the dark tunnels. Ghost began to look around him to try and see if there was any form of escape he could use, but along with the pristine shackles around his hooves, he could find anything that would help him escape.
Ghost dropped the hammer and began to pull and tug at the chains, but felt them give no leeway.
“Dang it… c’mon Ghost… think. What would 64 do?” Ghost mutter to himself, tapping himself a few times in the head.
“64?” A voice next to him said. He quickly turned in fear of another Overseer being behind him, but instead he found a pair of Amber eyes staring back at him. It was a yellow earth pony filly with a brilliant red mane, and a torn up red bow on her head. “You know 64?” She asked.
“Yeah... he’s my mentor… how do you know him?” Ghost questioned.
“We… we were tryin’ ta catch the pony behind all this stuff...but ah got caught by him tryin’ to run away. Ah remember wakin’ up here an’ jus’ tryin’ to not get hit by them like they do the other kids...” The filly explained.
Ghost noticed that her shackles weren’t nearly as well kept as his own, and the gears in his head immediately started to spin.
“What’s your name?” He asked slowly, as the filly gave him a smile back.
“Applebloom, mah name is Applebloom.”
“Nice to meet you Applebloom, I’m Ghost.”
She looked at Ghost strangely, her eyes trailing up and down his body. “Ya… aren’t a regular colt are ya? Yer one of them… Changelings…we learned about in school.” She said, tilting her head in curiosity.
Ghost nodded slowly and rubbed his leg with his hoof, feeling a bit embarrassed for some reason. “Yeah, but I don’t live with a hive. I train under 64 as his apprentice, so I know a few things that should help us get out of here.”
64 POV
“Hey! Wake up, I need you for something!” Grey yelled, shocking me out of my slumber. I groggily rubbed my eyes and looked out of the small window in the room, seeing that Luna’s Moon wasn’t even down yet. Looking at the clock, I saw it was only 3AM.
“Damn… what the fuck do you need? Another question about the Blades?” I asked annoyed, wondering what the hell he needed to wake me up for.
“Not really, they’re actually done, I must need to fit them onto you.” He explained, as I blinked in surprise.
“Done already? I thought you were bluffing about the whole ‘done before the sun comes up’ thing.”
“Hey, when I say something I do it. Now hurry up, quicker we do this the quicker you can go do whatever it is you need to do.”
I obliged and pushed myself off of the floor, making sure to roll up my sleeping bad before I left the room. Grey led me towards door revealing a small staircase, which led to a small workspace underneath the shop.
“Alright… when you told me compact… I’m really took that to mind. I wanted this to be a weapon you can carry with you at all times and not even have anypony suspect. To do this, I designed these…” Grey enlightened, motioning to a worktable with some sort of small contraption on it.
I could see where the blade would pop up, which was a small box that contained the 8-Inch Blades I requested. Connected to this box was a small metal mechanism which splayed out into 5 parts, which looked like a skeletal hand. On the fingertips of this metal skeleton hand were round pads, which I could only identify as the trigger mechanism for the blades.
“Alright, here’s the lowdown. This thing is what I like to call the Skeletal Blade, mainly for the shape of the design. Hope you don’t mind, but in your sleep I examined your hands a bit more to see how your bones worked.” Grey said, making me stare at him in slight discomfort.
“Ok… why would you need to do that?” I asked, take one step away from him.
“Ok, I’m not gonna sugar coat this. I’m gonna need to cut open your hands to get these things in there.”
My eyes widened as a sudden image of Silent Knight flashed in front of me, holding large butcher shears. I lept back away from the Metal Worker defensively and conjured a Gladius in my hand.
“You are getting nowhere near me with a blade!” I shouted, my hands shaking a bit in fear. Grey sighed and looked at me with a pathetic stare, before reaching for something on the desk behind him. It was a small metal tube, which he quickly put to his lips and shot a small needle at me. It struck me in the right arm, which caused the shield I had to crack around that area. When it healed back up, I saw the needle had still dug far enough to pierce skin.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a mild sedative. I have experience in digging things out of ponies who got injured, what’s stopping me from putting something like this in?” Grey asked casually, shrugging his shoulders and putting the blowpipe down.
“What the fuck are you talking about!?” I yelled, all of a sudden feeling really groggy. “you… dumbass…” I felt myself fall to my knees and gasp, all of a sudden losing the ability to breathe.
“Oh don’t worry about the no breathing part, the way the drug acts is it cuts off oxygen to the brain long enough for the target to fall unconscious, but wears off after a few minutes. Nothing fatal. Don’t worry, all I need to do was get you down here so I could implant the Skeleton Blades, then by the time you wake up, they’ll be all set!”
I gawked at Grey who was starting to become fuzzier, as the corners of my vision began to blacken. I was out before I hit the ground.
Ghost POV
I was using a piece of stone I bashed from boulder I made into the shape of a small spike, and was preparing to force open the locks on Applebloom’s shackles. The guards were alternating once again, and this meant I had a good 5 minutes to pull it off.
“How do ya know how to do this?” Applebloom whispered, cautiously looking over my shoulder for any incoming thugs.
“I learned from 64, but we always used proper tools. Kinda hard to do this with a makeshift Pick.” I answered, as the first shackle came off of her right forehoof. “Got it, but now we have to wait for the next shift. Wrap the chain around your hoof for now, and pretend that it’s still locked.”
She nodded and did as I told her, picking up the hammer in her mouth and continuing to work. These gems were in such large quantities, I couldn’t imagine what Shura was planning to do with all of these. I had been hearing talks of something called a Megaspell… but I haven’t heard enough to understand what they were talking about.
“Hey, time for a Gem Count, step away from the Buckets you two.” A new thug said, his coat masked by a thick jacket. I looked towards Applebloom who had a nervous look on her face, and I immediately knew why. The chain I had asked her to wrap around her hood had begun to slide off, and if she took a step back, it would come off completely.
I had to act quick… “How about you just take the buckets away for a few seconds?! We don’t have to move from here you know!” I argued, trying to force his attention towards me. It worked, because I felt the harsh blow of a Police Baton come down at the top of my head.
“How about you talk back again, and I bash your skull in!? Move back!” He screamed at me. I slowly got to my hooves and looked up at him, before spitting into his face. He yelled and began to lay into me with the Baton, striking me in the head and legs repeatedly.
“You like this huh!? You want me to keep going?!”
I just brought my hooves over my face and tried to block the hits, but whenever they landed I felt new cracks in my shell beginning to crack. My body was constantly repairing these injuries using my love reserves, which meant all of the food I was storing up was being used up.
“Stop it! Please stop!” I heard Applebloom yell, as the blows to my body suddenly stopped. I slowly turned my aching head to see the Thug now standing over Applebloom, his Baton raised threateningly.
“You want some of this too!?” He yelled, bringing the Baton down. I looked away in terror, not wanting to see her being hit. Instead I heard a sound as if glass was being shattered, and saw that there was a glow of Yellow over Applebloom. The Police Baton that the thug had in his hoof was now broken in two, with one piece on the ground, and the other still in the thugs hoof.
“What the fuck?” the Thug said recoiling, as I saw my chance while he was focused on Applebloom. I gripped the loose chains on the ground with both my hooves and leapt up towards the stallion, throwing the chain around his neck and pulling with all of my might. He gasped in shock, but no oxygen entered his lungs as I focused on constricting his air as quickly as possible.
He tried to grab a hold on me, but I made sure I stayed behind him until he finally passed out, and collapsed on the ground. Applebloom stared wide eyed at my act of violence, putting a hoof to her mouth in shock
“Whadya do that for?” She whispered, as I ignored her for a moment. I rewrapped Applebloom’s leg with the chain and the picked up the Thug’s body on my back, walking as far away as I could with the shackle on my leg. I could feel Applebloom’s wide eyed stare at the back of my head, surprised that I would be able to carry the stallion’s large body.
I tossed the stallion off on my back and walked back to my station.
“Hey! Guards! Your guy fell asleep on the job!” I yelled out, picking up the hammer in my mouth before I got in trouble for not doing the work. Applebloom did the same as another masked stallion walked into the cave, growling at the unconscious thug on the ground.
“HEY! DUMBASS!” He screamed, as the Unmasked Thug groaned in response. “You wanna knock off during your shift?! Shura’s gonna have a fuckin’ field day with you!” The masked stallion grabbed the unconscious Thug by the collar of his jacket, before pulling him out of the cave.
“Ok... that gives us a bit more time…” I whispered, picking up the makeshift pick and continuing to work on Applebloom’s other shackles.
“Why didja call another guard? We could have bought more time if ya left him there.” Applebloom asked, as I shook my head no.
“If I did leave him, when wouldn’t know when he would’ve come to. If he woke up while I was doing this, then he would kill us. I had to get him out of here, and by calling another guard, we’re eliminating him from the picture for good.”
Another chain unlocked on her shackles, as I wrapped her leg in the chain.
“What are we gonna do once ya get all of the chains off? Are we gonna sneak out of here?” Applebloom whispered, as I sighed.
“No… we have to wait for the right moment. Plus what about all of the other foals in the mountain? We have to find a way to try and bust them out too. The only reason I’m breaking you out is so you can run away if things get too dangerous. “
Applebloom sighed and nodded, picking up the hammer in her mouth and continuing to smash away at the rocks. I did the same as a new guard came in, scowling at us. I looked towards Applebloom and nodded encouragingly, not wanting her to lose her resolve. She nodded back as we both worked at the rocks.
I suddenly felt a painful rumbling feeling in my stomach.
64 POV
I woke up in a daze, not exactly remembering where I was. My arms felt numb, but there was a cold sensation in my right arm. I slowly turned my head to see that there was a Blood Pack attached to a needle in my shoulder, and my hand had bandages around them.
Looking at my other hand, I saw that there were also Bandages wrapping it, as I slowly realized that Grey had in fact implanted the Skeleton Blades. I tried calling out to him, but my throat felt too dry to speak. I looked to my feet and saw that there was a metal tray on a small table, so I kicked it off, making it clatter to the ground in a noisy heap.
A few moments later, Grey Streak came in through a door to my left, his hooves wet with water, as if he had just watched them.
“Whoa! Good thing I finished when I did, you might have woken up durin’ the surgery.” Grey explained, poking at my left hand with his hoof. Even though my arms were numb, I felt a small sting with each poke. “Hmm… still sensitive. More healing salve it is then.” He opened a small chest at the side of the room, pulling out a jar of green goo. Using a small spoon, he scooped out a glob and smeared onto my left hand, covering the bandages in the green goo. He repeated the process with my right hand, as I felt the cool slime start to work its magic.
“Alright, that stuff is gonna accelerate the healing process of your stiches so you can test out those bad boys quicker. The metal in your hands is made of titanium, meaning it isn’t magnetic, but it will definitely block a blade. Not exactly bulletproof though, so don’t go stickin’ your fingers into the barrel of a gun.”
I nodded slowly, trying to indicate that I was in fact conscious and understanding.
“Good! You aren’t dead. Alrighty, let’s take a look at how they healed…” Grey muttered, pulling back the bandages around my left hand. He nodded happily and continued to pull off the rest of the bandages. “Looking good, let’s get them off and wake the rest of you up.”
Once the bandages were off, Grey took out a small syringe and injected it into my palm, as I gained movement back in my hand. Doing the same for my other hand, I was helped by Grey in sitting up on the edge of the hospital bed I was on, groaning painfully.
“water…” I gasped, still not being able to talk properly. Grey nodded and went to a cooler at next to the door. I caught a brief glimpse of dozens of blood packs as he reached in for a bottle of water, tossing it over to me.
I caught it and twisted off the cap, greedily chugging down the liquid. Once I was done and caught my breathe, I pointed back at the cooler.
“Why the fuck do you have so much blood?” I questioned, staring at him perplexed. He chuckled and walked over to me.
“When I left the Black Markets, Bits aren’t the only thing I took with me.” He said smugly, holding out his hoof. “Lemme see your hands, let’s see if we can get those puppies up and stabbing.”
I put my hands forward and let him poke at them, before he took my pinkie finger and cleared his throat.
“Alright, this is how you activate them. I don’t want these things shooting out every time you grab something, so I made a sort of combination lock to prevent that from happening.” He pushed my pinkie fingertip and pressed it into my palm. “Hold that there.” I did so as he continued, going my fingers as he pressed their tips to my palm. He got to my index finger and looked up at me.
“Alright, moment of truth.” He said, as he slowly pressed my index fingertip to my palm. The instant it made contact, I felt a small pop in my wrist, and feared the worst. “Excellent, all set. Don’t worry, the actual blades aren’t even attached. I made them so you can take them off and put ‘em back on so they aren’t in your way all the time.”
“Then where are they?” I asked, calming down a bit. Grey pointed to another tray next to me, showing two small grey boxes with leather straps attached to its sides.
“The straps are just for a bit extra hold, the boxes connect using small spikes which attach to the mechanism inside of your hand.” Grey took a Blade and attached it to my right wrist, tying it tightly to my arm. “Well go ahead, try it out.”
I looked at the Blade and recalled the mechanism for unsheathing it, pressing my fingertips to my palm slowly. When I got to my index finger, the blade shot out of the box and nearly caught me in the face, causing me to jump back in surprise.
“Holy fuck! This is cool!” I exclaimed, examining the blade carefully. It was nothing more than a punch blade for stabbing, but it was all I needed.
“Have to say, this has gotta be one of the best combat designs I have ever made. Might make myself some later.” Grey commented, as he carefully put the other Blade onto my left wrist. Making sure to bend my hand backward and point it away from anything, I repeated the action needed to sheathe the blade.
Experimenting, I struck the two blades two blade together, seeing sparks fly. “Awesome… and let me guess… to sheathe the blades…” I muttered, reversing the order in which I touch my fingertips to my palm. The blades shot down and retracted, as I took them off and put them into my Satchel Pocket.
“How much do I owe you?” I asked, reaching for a bag of bits.
“Dude, you’ve saved my sister from slavery, and probably saved Equestria from that Discord guy. So that’ll be 78 Bits.” Grey said, as I tossed a small bag in his direction, containing roughly 100 Bits.
“Keep the change. What time is it?”
Grey looked at a small alarm clock on a desk, and called out, “It’s 11AM. Need to get somewhere?”
I stood up and nodded, rubbing my hands together. “Yup… back to Canterlot. Gonna raid a Foal Kidnapping ring soon, so I gotta get ready. Say… that reminds me…” I explained, turning back to Grey. “Can I borrow that Blowpipe?”
“30 Bits.”