//------------------------------// // Issue #3: Nemesis! // Story: Magic Comic Task Force! // by Eyeswirl the Weirded //------------------------------// It was time. Standing at the edge of a rooftop overlooking Maretropolis Bay, Batmane could see the Mane-iac's ship, a behemoth of steel plates crudely bolted together, the vessel shaped not unlike a rubber ducky; the E.S.S. Shower Drain. Spike had filled him in on the details, from local mailmare Ditzy "Derpy" Doo triggering the comic she was delivering last week to somepony in town with an early order not unlike the one he cancelled a week before that, to the Mane-iac's plan to use some manner of super weapon on the city. He glanced to the two-hundred-meter-tall, shimmering laser curtain that had been raised with the help a series of plasma rings held by air balloons piloted by the Mane-iac's henchponies to encircle all of Maretropolis, trapping the citizens inside as they awaited whatever the Shower Drain in the bay had in store for them. He had to stop the Mane-iac, obviously, but as he was contemplating whether to try to take down the laser curtain first or go straight out to the boat and risk fighting her head-on, alone, a bright light flashed behind him. *Wump!* Quickly turning, he saw the pony that had tumbled haphazardly to the floor upon landing... Ditzy Doo as Super Mare again? He tilted his head a bit. "How did you get in this time, Miss Doo?" Getting to her hooves and shaking off the dust, she frowned a little. "There was another order this week. It goes to a filly's house, and I was thinking; what if she had gotten pulled in instead?" He raised a brow. "So you decided to check on purpose this time, opening the package to make sure the comic inside wasn't enchanted and possibly endangering an innocent foal?" She grinned brightly, nodding once. "Yup!" There was a short silence. The Wall-Eyed Wonder looked around for a moment, smile slowly fading as her surroundings sunk in. "Oh. My bad!" Batmane smiled a little. "Don't worry, I'm actually glad you're here." He motioned to the Shower Drain, floating in the bay, with a hoof. "That vessel, do you think you can use your frost breath to freeze it entirely?" The busy mailmare hadn't exactly found time to study the role she had played in the last week. "Frost breath?" He nodded. "Whatever the Mane-iac means to use, I doubt it works when frozen over and likely sunken to the bottom of the bay. Well?" Her confused little frown told him clarification was in order. "Super Mare can breathe a cloud of chilling cold, our target is already in the water, we could likely finish this just by sinking the ship by covering it in ice, rendering the super weapon threatening the city inoperable." The cheerful little grin was restored, and nearly contagious. "Great! So we just have to find Super Mare!" There was another long pause that did nothing to diminish the pony playing Super Mare's vacant sort of happiness. "You," the Caped Crusader deadpanned, "You are Super Mare." "Oh!" she exclaimed, eyes widening in comprehension, "Then, do I just...?" He opened his mouth to answer, only to realize he had no idea how one kind of breath would deliberately be used as opposed to any other. "Ermm," he muttered, "Just, uh, breathe hard, I guess?" She took a deep breath before Batmane frantically held up a hoof. "AWAY FROM ME, AWAY FROM ME!!" Super Mare staggered a bit, catching herself before unleashing the respiratory assault on her fellow crime fighter. Smiling apologetically as much as she was able, she instead turned to the empty space off the edge of the roof, and quickly breathed out, the force of the wind slamming her into, *SMASH* and through, the door to the staircase that led up to that rooftop. Not terribly surprised, Batmane called into the pegasus-with-a-cape-shaped hole. "Miss D-err, Super Mare?" "I'm ok!" She came clattering up the steps with a piece of the door still stuck around a hind hoof. Right then, plan B. "Don't worry, I have another idea of how we can stop this thing. You still know how to fly, no?" She nodded rapidly in perfect rhythm with shaking the broken wooden ring off her leg, looking like she was doing some bizarre little dance. "Good, I have a new plan; Do you see those balloons, the ones holding the big, glowing rings...?" --- Splitting up didn't seem like the safest plan, but it was probably the best one. With Super Mare flying about taking down the balloons -all she'd have to do was fly through them, something he felt she had proven her aptitude at- and him sabotaging the weapon directly, the two-pronged attack should be enough to thwart whatever the Mane-iac was scheming. He just wished it didn't mean doing what he was about to do. Standing on the roof's edge with bat-noculars, he confirmed for the fifth time that there was a deck on the beak of the Shower Drain that he could likely glide to, it would make the perfect landing pad provided somepony wasn't there with a big weapon to intercept him. Near as he could tell, the coast was clear. Batmane practiced the motions he had seen in non-magical comic books countless times, stretching out his cape with forehooves extended outwardly at his sides. Then again. And again. And again. Jumping from a tall building with intent to land on a relatively small spot in a large pool of water seemed- "Will you get going already?!" Startled by Spike's surprise broadcast, Batmane slipped off the roof, flailing his legs inelegantly as he plunged toward the city streets for a few seconds before saying a silent prayer to Luna -as only made sense with it almost always being night time in Maretropolis- and stretched out his cape again. It took a second or two of panicked, desperate motion on his part, but he managed to pull up enough to catch the wind, speed from his fall sending him sailing upwards and toward the Shower Drain. Spike's voice was heard again, sounding faintly contrite. "Haha... Sorry about that. Great recovery, though!" While Batmane was annoyed about his brush with a splattery death, Blueblood couldn't help being proud of himself beneath the mask. "Thank you. How is Super Mare getting along in her task?" --- *Zap!* Ditzy was a little confused. On the one hoof, it was pretty easy figuring out where she needed to go, the big old balloons were brightly colored with random lines of paint all over the... Big, gas-filled, makes-it-float parts. It looked a bit like some of Dinky's drawings, only on big, round, floaty paper! *Zapzap!* On the other hoof, there were ponies in the baskets on the balloons flashing lights at her, lines of light that hurt just a little when they touched her fur. She guessed that meant that those ponies weren't trying to guide her to the balloons as she'd first hoped, like a long-range version of an air traffic controller's glowy wiggle-sticks. Putting two and two together, the Pony in Black wanting her to fly through those balloons, which she was pretty sure would pop them, and the ponies in the balloons shooting at her with stingy, zappy flashlights, she guessed that that meant the ponies in the balloons were the bad guys again. Flapping her wings as fast as she could, Ditzy shot through the air like Rainbow Dash when she was late for work again, maybe even faster! She closed her eyes instinctively when the realization that she was about to do the last thing a pegasus should ever reasonably do popped up in her head; fly straight into something. Still, the Pony in Black was counting on her, and she was pretty strong when she wore a cape, right? Tearing easily through the balloon's floaty-bubble part, Ditzy determined that; #1, It was dark in there, #2, it was easier than popping a normal balloon usually was, -not that she popped balloons on purpose, things just kindof happened- and #3, she would have to tell Dinky never to fly through a balloon later. It was just as she was starting to feel proud, forehooves on her hips in a heroic pose she'd seen on the cover of one of these comics as she hovered in the air, that Ditzy noticed a pair of *POMF* sounds from below. Looking down, she saw two white circles, looking a lot like parachutes. "Oh," she uttered aloud, "there are ponies in these things! Guess I should be extra careful not to-" *Zap!* Ditzy yelped in surprise as a light stinging sensation spread across her flank for a few seconds. It looked like the other balloon guys were mad about the first one going down. That was fine, because she was getting mad about getting shot at! "Hey!" she shouted in the direction the shot came from, "you could really hurt somepony with-" *Zap!* She was caught on the snout, which stung considerably more than the shot to her behind. Letting out a strangled sqeuak, she drew both forehooves to her face, rubbing the pain away before glaring at the ponies in the balloon... And also the sky to her upper-left. Ditzy couldn't remember the last time she was so mad, she was actually seeing red! *FREEEEEM!* ...Why was the balloon that she had been looking at on fire? Why were the ponies with the mean flashlights jumping out and pulling the strings on parachutes now...? --- Spike chuckled. "I think she's figured out heat vision." "Splendid," Batmane replied as he touched down on the beak of the Shower Drain, "is there any way we can contact her when that task is finished?" "Nah... We should probably get Ditzy a communicator like yours, just in case this becomes a regular thing." Batmane would have chuckled at that, but such an action would have implied a sense of humor. "Perhaps so," he said stoically, "if only to stay organized when in these comics. Moving in to halt the operation of this contraption, please maintain radio silence." "Aye-aye!" *beep!* Keeping low, he slid along the beak toward the door on the giant, metal duck's head. Why nautical doors tended to have valves he could only guess was to keep water out, but he turned the handle a few times and slipped in, quietly closing it behind him. Quickly checking the metal patch-work hallway, he found himself alone, apart from the many pipes, thick and thin, running in virtually all directions throughout the corridor, steam hissing from various valves and bolts. A few minutes of exploration showed that the rest of the ship seemed to follow a similar interior design protocol, but he didn't see anything he could identify as a weapon, let alone one large enough to threaten the city. He did, however, come upon a familiar tendril of green hair lying partially through a doorway. Approaching it slowly, he peeked his head into the doorway, seeing many more tendrils wrapped around switches, valves and levers strewn about what seemed to be a control room of some sort. At the center of it all, of course, was the Mane-iac. Her purple, gold-accented suit and black boots had always looked somewhat silly to him before, but now, apparently operating this entire vessel on her own? It had a vaguely regal feel, and a much more intimidating one at that. Moreso when she was giggling maniacally with a twisted smile on her face. When she wasn't looking in his direction, Batmane silently swept into the room, leaping over the first tendril he'd spotted and under another one, darting to the side of a third before flattening himself against a wall largely in the shadows. This is a bad time to be giddy, but I've never felt so agile! I wonder if Miss Doo is getting as good a hold on her role here? --- There was one fun thing about being Super Mare so far; she could fly like a Wonderbolt! ...Kindof. She had already smashed through a few things that weren't balloons, but she did it while soaring, spinning, and zig-zagging through the skies so fast she could hardly tell where she was going! Moreso than usual! The ponies with the stingy flashlights weren't even hitting her anymore, but she remembered that she was supposed to be stopping the balloons with the glowy rings to make the glowy wall around the city go away. Super Mare figured it would save time if she could make that fire-eyes thing happen again, but wasn't sure how to do it. She tried staring at the balloons, glaring at them, winking at them, even closing her eyes altogether. The last one got her stuck in a wall for a few seconds. Flying around doing tricks to not get shot at, she tried to drum up a plan. Alrighty, flying through the balloons one by one might work, but they're ALL AROUND the city, and I should probably figure out how to do the eye thing on purpose so I don't do it on accident. I'd hate to set Mr. Black on fire, even if he does look like a bad guy. Come to think of it, it's not very nice to set bad guys on fire either. I should know, I've had my tail catch- *CRASH!!* And she kept getting distracted by stuff! Like buildings! Being a hero was kindof frustrating. Wait, that gives me an idea! Planting her hooves on a rooftop, she looked at a distant balloon, scrunched up her face, and thought angry thoughts! Lemons! Unmarked mail! Heavy packages! Paper cuts! Lemon juice in paper cuts! Flim and Flam! Bad cider! My- It was working, she saw red! With her best Angry on, Ditzy stared straight at the balloon... And a random cluster of stars in the sky. *FREEEEEM!* As the colorful floaty-part caught fire and started to sink in the air, ponies with stingy flashlights hopping out and activating their parachutes, she threw her forehooves into the air. "Woo-hoo!" *Zap!* "Yeeouch!!" There were still a few more of them... --- Batmane spent several minutes slowly creeping around the quietly cackling supervillain at the center of the control room, but he couldn't find any indication of what anything in the vicinity did. Even if he could, each and every switch and lever was the grasp of a mane-tentacle capable of throwing whole mailboxes like they were nothing. As he contemplated quietly slicing through a lock of green hair with something in his belt and seeing if he could manipulate what it had been controlling, the Mane-iac began to speak. "Soooon, hahahaha! Soon, I, I, The Mane-iac, will have accumulated enough debris from the bottom of the bay to fire from the Shower Drain's system of pressurized tubes into a great, fishy mass of mussy mess, directly into the city of Maretropolis! MY VENGEANCE! SHALL BE! COMPLETE! Haha! Ha-ha! HAAAAAAAA, HAHAHAHAHHAheeheehohoo!" Something wrapped around Batmane's hind legs, whipping him through the air with a jolt and stopping with him upside down, face dangling about a meter from the Mane-iac's. "Isn't that right, dear Dark Knight?" Stoic. Calm. Humorless. These were the things Blueblood would have to be right now, the things Batmane would be. "You'll never succeed, your henchponies in the balloons are being taken down as we speak." His captor grinned, one eye's iris and pupil seeming to grow larger than the other's. "Ohhh, really?" She looked away, a hoof drawn to her chin. "Then I suppose I should just weigh anchor and shove off? I mean, the entire city is sure to be evacuated within the next ten minutes," her wild eyes returned to him, "isn't it?" The pony currently hanging like his namesake gritted his teeth. "What do you mean?" The Mane-iac folded her forelegs, looking annoyed. "Weigh anchor, it's a nautical term?" A lock of her mane from the top of her head rose up to reveal a navy captain's cap, which quickly sank back down. "Not that it matters, since SOMEPONY stopped my crew from stealing the anchor I would have used from the bank!" The Caped Crusader blinked. "A golden anchor? That's just ostentatious!" Less so than the jewel-encrusted anchors he had seen on the yachts of some of his peers back in Canterlot, but still. She shook her head, which eerily didn't seem to effect anything her mane tendrils had been holding. "No, you salty sea-biscuit! The door to the vault! What better anchor than something really heavy?!" He could not face-hoof hard enough. "I meant with the evacuation in ten min-" She beamed, sing-songing an interruption. "NIIIIIIINE minutes!" "...Nine minutes." She cackled for several seconds. "That is correct! It is already too late for the citizens to flee, for by the time they do, they will already be covered in oceanic gunk! HA-haaaaaaaa, heeheeheeheeheeheehee!" Batmane could only deadpan a reply. "And you would want to do that, why?" The villainess held him uncomfortably close, face fixed in a deranged glare. "Do you have AAANY idea, what it's like cleaning the hair out of my bathtub? Wet hair. SO. MUCH. HAIR!!" The tendrils held him a bit further from her, offering a bit of much-welcomed breathing room as their master cringed and stuck out her tongue. "It's really gross! Ick!" She quickly reverted to insane stares. "So, I will make a watery mess of the city, and ALLLL will know my pain! Ha! Ha-ha! Mwaaaaaa-huff-hahahahahahaha!" Never having to clean his own facilities, or much of anything, really, Blueblood couldn't quite relate to her difficulties, but felt an odd pang of sympathy. It was immediately diluted by the knowledge that the madmare intended to assault the city with massive blasts of projectile filth. "All this because you fell in a vat of chemicals? Really?" She gave him a sideways look, something in her eyes telling him she was thinking of sharp objects. He shrugged, for what he was able, forgetting the threat the Mane-iac posed for the moment. "Don't misunderstand, I'm sure it was a very traumatizing experience, but if you're capable of the cognitive thought it takes to put together a working ship shaped like a giant bath toy, I'd think you would realize how futile your plans tend to-URK!" She swung him closer to herself, hardly flinching when their heads collided, her tone low and eyes searching. "Who. Are. You. Question. Mark." The impact did no favors for the blood that had been rushing to his head, sending waves of vertigo through his brain. "P-pardon me?" "You cannot decieve me! Batmane has never cared for the details of a life besides his own!" A few mane tendrils abandoned the controls they had been working to pry at his cowl. "Now reveal yourself, inquisitive impostor!" "Gah!" Not-Quite-Batmane swung his forelegs frantically in an effort to keep the hairy tentacles away from his head, unintentionally slipping free with an accidental elbow the the Mane-iac's face. *Pow!* "Arrrgh!" She stumbled backward, mane and tail twitching for several seconds as the Dark Knight darted about the room in a dizzy, black blur to throw the uncovered switches, press buttons, and turn valves. Anything had to disrupt whatever they were doing, right? "Hahahahaheehee, hoooohahahaha! I will duct-tape your face to my toaster, that I may always remember this encounter!" He stopped, turning to face her with more than a hint of Canterlot Snobbishness in his voice. "That is just vile." It was now that he noticed something in the grip of one of her tendrils; his cowl. Reaching up to his face with a hoof, he learned it had indeed been removed, Batmane was unmasked!! He dove through the air, snatching it from the green hair-tentacle and slipping it back on in an instant. This left him standing uncomfortably close to the Mane-iac. Turning to face her, he adapted the best imitation he could manage of one of Batmane's many combat stances, and prepared for another go at his legendary hoof-to-hoof prowess! ...But the Mane-iac just stood there, staring at him. Her face was completely devoid of emotion apart from wide, oddly-colored eyes. Lowering herself to the ground, she stopped floating on her prehensile mane and tail, walking on her own hooves to follow him as he slowly backed away, eyes locked with his. Her gaze suggested he had very little time to live, not directly, but more a light implication delivered passingly while offering another cup of tea. The look made no sense, but regardless, he scrambled away from her, throwing levers and turning valves at random before she descended on him like a hairy timberwolf on a trapped rabbit. He rolled out from under her, galloping across the control room and almost tripping, twice, over long locks of her mane and tail strewn about the area, all writhing and brustling as she moved to give chase. Right about now was the time for clever plans and crafty use of gadgets, but Blueblood could only flee in desperate panic, cursing the chamber for not pointing him to the doorway he came in. The most terrifying thing about being chased, very closely, by a powerful supervillain? Apart from the *CLANG!* of her thrashing tendrils against metal as she regularly impacted walls and control panels in pursuit of him and the *SSllsss-SSllssss!* of the hair not preoccupied with machinery or violence being dragged along the metal patch-work floor, she wasn't making a sound. Breathing heavily as he circumnavigated the room for the 8th time, he couldn't hear any crazed banter, any dramatic declarations, any insane laughter, nothing! Still frantically trying to find the way out, but not being allowed to stop and look for a single instant, he eventually tripped over a tendril, which immediately locked around his barrel, pulling him close to the Mane-iac. She smiled, the corners of her mouth slowly spreading into an ear-to-ear grin as her tendrils slid along his head, tugging at the cowl again. Before he could activate an escape gadget again, a distant noise was heard. *Ka-thunk!* Halting motion entirely, of herself and her hair, the Mane-iac blinked. "Did you hear-" *Ka-thunk!* "That, yes! It sounded just like pony-sized holes being punctured in a giant, metal rubber ducky!" Red warning lights flashed from nearby monitors, Batmane could see the bold letters. WARNING: PRESSURE CRITICAL. ACTIVATE EMERGENCY RELEASE IMMEDIATELY. "Drat," the Mane-iac shouted, "this is not at all the kind of mess I had hoped to make!" She adjusted several switches and valves at once around the room with her mane. "It matters not! For I may still steer the Shower Drain STRAIGHT, into the harbor! Bwoo-ha! Hahahahahahaha!" *KA-THUNK!* The ship's engines died as quickly as they'd started, the Mane-iac looking tiredly at Batmane. "Oh, nevermind." He activated the cape-blades with a light of his horn, cutting free of the hair that had grabbed him and thankfully landing on all four hooves this time. The instant he did so, however, a familiar red blur fired into the room with a resounding *KA-THUNK!* He called out to her. "Super Mare!" She stumbled for a moment, golden eyes dizzily dancing in their sockets. "Hey, Mr. Black! Duckies are a LOT harder than balloons!" "We have to get out of here, the ship won't hold together much longer!" The Mane-iac lunged at him, but was immediately pulled back, her mane tangled around various panels and pillars from the chase earlier. Noticing this, Batmane tried to pull her free before Super Mare acted on his suggestion of a few seconds before, zipping past thick, green bands and grabbing hold of him before pointing a hoof at the ceiling. "Hold on tight, Mr. Black!" He quickly looked back and forth between the oblivious heroine and the trapped villainess, time seemingly slowing down as he looked the latter in the eye. She was trapped, her long, wild mane and tail tangled on things all around the room, and yet, calm. Her green-and-red-ringed eyes held him in that instant, wide and staring. In the distorted seconds it took for Super Mare to fly him through the roof and out into the night air, he swore he saw her begin to smile. Things rushing back to normal speed as they sped away from the massive bath toy of doom, a rumbling noise was heard from it, followed by laughter. "Heh-hahahahahahahahaha, Hue-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! AAAAAAAHAHA-HAHA-HAHAHAA, HAHAHAAA!" "Super Mare," he called out, "we have to go back, she's still-" *KRAK-BOOOOOOOM!!* "...Nevermind," he uttered. They touched down on a bay-bottom-bile-free rooftop in town as Batmane watched the flaming hunk of scrap metal sink into the water, his partner cheerfully sounding off from behind him. "We did, hurray! ...Right?" He glanced to her, shoulders slumped. "We might have saved the city, but heroes aren't supposed to let ponies die, even utterly mad ones." Super Mare drew her forehooves to her face in horror. "That was a pony?!" The Dark Knight gave a wry grin, about to explain the Mane-iac's standing before being interrupted. *Bwoo-deep-bdeep-bdeep!* He answered it, holding the screen where the pony without her own communicator would be able to see and hear. "Hello?" "Great job, guys! That should be the last we'll ever see of the Shower Drain!" "And the Mane-iac," he replied, paying no mind to Super Mare's confused muttering about the tiny dragon in the box. Spike blinked once before laughing. "Blue, don't you remember Power Ponies issue #43, the thing with the laser seals? And the ending to #21 before that? She's been through a LOT worse than exploding duck-boats." He scratched his head with a hoof, having forgotton he was dealing with a fictional character. "Oh. Suppose everything is fine, then?" Spike chuckled. "I wouldn't worry, the Mane-iac's a tough old bird." Super Mare drew her forehooves to her face in horror. "That was a bird?!" Rolling his draconic eyes once, The Commissioner smiled. "Hey, Derpy! Stop by the library when you get back, ok? I've got something to make things easier if you get drawn into the comics again." She tilted her head. "Like what?" "I'll fill ya in later," he slyly looked away from the screen, "I think the muffins are almost ready..." Ditzy "Derpy" Doo beamed. "I'll be there!" *beep!* With the communicator deactivated, she noticed the Pony in Black looking around the sky. "Balloons are all down too, it looks like. It seems I was wrong in thinking it mattered, but well done none-the-less." She grinned. "Hey, what's your name?" He turned to face her, an eyebrow raised. "I've been calling you Mr. Black, Spike called you Blue. It's only polite to call ponies by their name, so, who are you?" He returned the smile, flapping his dark cape once as he turned to face the city, speaking away from her, but loudly enough to be heard. "I am vengeance... I am the night! I! Am!-" he threw his forehooves upwards, cape splaying out like bat wings. Or a certain show-mare. "BATMANE!!" There was a short silence. "Okie dokie!"