“Now this is certainly interesting. You would dare threaten me to save that young woman? Is she a friend? A lover? A stranger? ...I feel like I've seen you before somewhere, but I can't seem to read your heart. Why is that young lady?”
“Shut up! I want answers! Why are you turning humans into Changelings? What do you have to gain from all of this?!”
“I simply desire nothing more than to save this planet from the emotions that plague it. Emotions cloud humanity's judgment. Emotions prevents humans from pursuing their true desires. Emotions cause humans to do odd and irrational things. Humans are slaves to the shackles of their emotions and as their queen, I only want what's best for them. I am curious though. What drives you, hm?”
“Their queen?! Who or what the hell are you?! You some kind of alien that wants to take over the planet or something?!”
“...I see...it's that armor you are currently clad in. It's preventing me from seeing the real you. I'd like to see the human that lies underneath it.”
“How do you reverse it?! How do you change them back to a human?!”
“I see...so I have freed someone you once held dear. Fret not little one, I can set you free as well. I can rid you of those cursed emotions of yours.”
“SHUT UP! JUST TELL ME HOW TO CHANGE MY FRIEND BACK!”
“There is no way to reverse the change. Their emotions and feelings will twist and bend until the heart can no longer resist the metamorphosis. There's no way to stop the process. Why not simply join her? There will be no more suffering under the pain of your emotions.”
“Fine then! I'll just kill you instead! If you're the source of this, then killing you should put a stop to it!”
“Hmhmhm. How cute. We will meet again my little human.”
“No you don't! ...Dammit! ...I'm sorry Bon-Bon...”
---
Vinyl awoke at 1 PM to a hand pushing at her shoulder repeatedly. Finally annoyed enough to acknowledge the issue, she sat up to see Lyra giving her a curious, slightly disapproving look. “How were you still asleep? It's already one in the afternoon.”
“Forgive me for having a crappy night and sleeping at three in the morning.”
“Fair enough I guess,” Lyra stood up and made her way to the kitchen. “You like pancakes?” Vinyl responded with a tired moan. “Perfect. Pancakes it is.”
Vinyl got up and stretched a bit. She looked over at the kitchen area. Lyra was wearing nothing more than a pair of briefs and a simple full-cup bra. “Do you normally dress like that when you have guests over?”
Lyra raised an eyebrow and looked down at herself. “Oh...I guess this is a little too casual to be walking around someone I just met... Sorry, I'll go change, be right back.”
The two had a quiet breakfast, the TV was currently on a news channel, though neither were paying any particular attention to it. They were only listening to see if any news regarding the Cover Page incident, the Riders or Changelings happened to come up. Lyra took their plates when they were done and gave them a quick wash. She walked over to the TV and turned it off. “Alright, let's get some training in today. It'll be nice to have someone to actually work with.”
“Alright, where we goin' to practice?”
“The Ship Shape Pier. It's pretty out of the way for most people and we should have a small amount of people potentially seeing us make our way there.”
“Whattya mean?”
“Remember, we can't stay in the same place after we transform. There's bunch of stores all clumped together about a mile or two away from it. We'll transform behind one and head to the pier by roof top.”
“Okay, now you said people potentially seeing us. Does that mean you've been seen before?”
Lyra nodded casually. “Yep. It's hard to avoid when you're doing this in broad daylight. But it's less risky than doing it at night and risking running into that woman. But the people that do catch a glimpse of me usually don't have their phones on hand to snap a pic of me and those that do get crappy photos. Theirs already rumors started about me on the internet. But as long as there's nothing remotely concrete to connect the images and rumors to me, then we'll be fine.
“Gotcha.”
---
The Doctor threw hands up and leaned back into his chair. “Oh, that's just perfect!”
Ditzy entered the room with two steaming mugs. “What's the matter Doctor?
“Music and Noise just went live together. Looks like they've met up with each other. Which means Noise most likely knows how to evade us now! Going after either of them is going to be incredibly difficult now.” He took a mug from Ditzy, raising the mug up for a brief second as a sign of appreciation.
“What about Claw? Has it done anything yet?” Ditzy asked as she sat down and put a headset around her neck, ready to work.
“Not since it's first activation. Trixie's in the general area where it first went live right now. I want you to keep her informed of any further activations today Ditzy, including Music and Noise if they activate again. Don't bother Bolt today unless one of them activates nearby. I want him to take a break today. I'm going to be out today.”
Ditzy turned around. “Where are you going Doctor?”
“The candidate for the Lunar Driver will be arriving tonight. I'm going to run a few small errands around Manehattan and then pick her up at the airport. Here's hoping the AI accepts her. If not, then this will all have been a huge waste of time and money.”
“Do we know anything about her?”
“According to the intel we have on her, she's quite the intelligent young lady. She's helped in developing some of the Drivers as well. She might even be able to help us figure out a way to zero in on Music and Noise,” The Doctor stood up and made his way for the door. “Her name is Twilight Sparkle.”
---
Lyra and Vinyl had made it to the pier. She was certain one or two people may have seen them, but like Lyra said, it was inconsequential. “You really do look like a ninja when you're transformed like that. I really like the face mask too.”
“I'm glad this thing has the face mask too or I would have been in trouble last time. I kinda wish I had something to cover my eyes as well,” She froze for a minute, replaying Lyra's initial statement in her head. “Wait...ninja?”
“Yeah. That's what the people at the event that saw you described you as.”
“Oh yeah. I'm okay with that.”
“Closest I have is the visor over my eyes. I can make them appear solid or see through if I want. Doesn't affect my vision.”
Vinyl shrugged. “Aright, so what did you have in mind for training anyway? I've already gotten my ass handed to me twice by that yellow Rider. I'd like to not get completely wrecked by anything else.”
“Yeah, I saw. I was going to help you too, but you got away. That trick with the records was pretty cool.”
“You were there for that!?”
Lyra smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. I wanted to see how good you were. Sorry. I mean, I was going to save you near the end there. But you managed to get away so, I just kinda followed you for a bit and then...you know the rest.”
Vinyl sighed. “Aright, well, what's first, sensei.”
“First, we work on your focus issues. With these armored suits on, we're pretty much super human. I noticed whenever he fired a lot of shots at you, you were focused entirely on dodging them and stopped paying attention to him. Never ignore your opponent like that. Another thing, he was right about the whole relying on one trick thing. That attack you used on him that first time, that was pretty good, but don't just assume that fight's over just because you got him with it. He's a Rider too. He can take a beating. Keep attacking and stay on your guard.”
“Wasn't expecting an in-depth analysis on why I sucked. That was good to hear,” Vinyl responded, feeling a little crappy now.
“That's what we're here to work on, don't worry. Just keep what I said in mind and we'll go at it a bit.” Lyra was holding a lyre in her hands that Vinyl now recognized as her Driver. A long guitar-like neck suddenly grew out of the lyre at break neck speed, creating some kind of guitar/lyre hybrid. She grabbed the neck of the 'guityre', kicked the side of the lyre half and let it spin in her hand until the lyre half came around and was caught by her other hand. “Ready?”
Vinyl materialized two records in her hands. “Might as well be.”
“Just remember what I told you.” Lyra brought her hand to lyre's strings and started strumming wildly, floating speakers materialized over her shoulders. The sound of a wild guitar solo emanated from the speakers as Lyra strummed her instrument, causing dozens of music note shaped projectiles to fire at Vinyl from the floating speakers. Vinyl kept the advice in mind and dodged through the hail of fire, taking a few shots in the process. “Come on! I'm not gonna stop anytime soon if you don't give me a reason!” Vinyl shifted gears and started hurling records at Lyra as she continued to dodge the hail of musical projectiles. Lyra dodged them, taking two hits in the process. She grinned a little at Vinyl's quick learning as she continued her barrage. “Alright, now you're getting it. Find a way to put me on the defensive and don't let up!”
Vinyl was getting fed up with the onslaught. Although, Lyra was still right. Vinyl was doing minimal damage and with her still on the defensive, Lyra had no reason to stop. At this rate, Lyra could just blast her way to victory. Vinyl needed to stop relying on one attack and start finding a way to deal with the current problem, and she was more than ready to improvise. She remembered her practice yesterday, though she had yet to apply it in combat. Vinyl ran toward the warehouse next to her and used her boosted agility and speed to run along the wall as she closed the distance to her opponent. Lyra grinned again, finally stopping her solo and strummed the strings of her guityre one more time. “Machine Gun String!” Separate threads of string seemed to branch out from the lyre end and all launched out in prediction of Vinyl's run path. Vinyl leapt off the wall towards Lyra avoid it. Lyra recalled the string back to her guityre as Vinyl prepared a dive kick to capitalize on the recovery of Lyra's failed attack. Vinyl tossed two more records to stun Lyra as she began to descend towards Lyra at an accelerated speed. Unable to counter in time, Lyra was struck and sent sliding back a considerable distance from the impact of the kick. Vinyl tossed a fist up in the air. She was finally getting a feel for real combat. Lyra got up to her feet and clapped a little as she made her way towards Vinyl. “There ya go! Now you're getting it. You're pretty good at adapting on the fly. Now then, let's keep going.”
Vinyl nodded and took a fighting stance. “You got it.”
The two spent around two hours sparring with each other. Vinyl had shown considerable improvement over her first two performances against the yellow Rider. They disengaged their transformations and sat for awhile at the edge of the pier to relax. “Sorry to bring up last night but, this friend of yours. The one we're trying to save. Is he your boyfriend or something?”
Lyra responded with a silent chuckle. “Was it really that obvious?”
“S-sorry. My guess was it was either a lover or a close friend. I just took a shot in the dark. But, I have another question.” Vinyl took a quiet breath. It wasn't an easy question to ask, but she wanted to know. “How...how do you know he's still alive? Like...I mean, how do you know he hasn't changed into a monster yet or anything?”
Lyra took no time responding, evidently expecting the question. “I've been tracking him the same way I started looking into Changelings. Internet posts, articles, pictures people posted, and so on. There have only been a few Changeling sightings before you showed up and none since. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the report on the news from the Cover Page incident. I was glad to hear it wasn't him. I have been seeing sightings online though. It looks like...like he's just wandering aimlessly at the moment but I can never find him. Every picture I see of him though...it looks like he's suffering. I don't know how much time I have left. But I have a feeling that...together, we can beat that woman together and stop her from doing the same to anyone else.”
A tiny smile crept onto Vinyl's face. She still had no idea if defeating that woman in the alley would be enough to save her boyfriend or anyone else for that matter, but it was the only thing either of them could think of at the moment. It certainly wasn't a bad idea by any means. Eliminating her would be a great service to everyone. She just hoped that they could do it in time. Vinyl felt a drop of rain hit her head. Looking up, she noticed it was getting very cloudy. Lyra stood up. “We should go back home. We can pass the time until night. That lady is usually sighted at night, so that'll be our best time to find her.”
“Right. Tonight, we'll put her down!”
---
Vinyl was having trouble waiting for night to roll around. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but without her laptop on her, the task was proving quite difficult. She proposed to wait the rest of the time out outside somewhere. Lyra had no issues one way or the other and agreed to wait the time out at a small plaza where she worked. Vinyl would at least be able to check out the different places and pass the time. Lyra was new to riding as a passenger on a motorcycle, or on a motorcycle in general. The experience was a little scary for her at first, but she was slowly getting used to it. As Vinyl approached the parking lot, it started raining hard. The two parked and ran to the nearest building, the Starry Brew cafe where Lyra worked. “Jeez, we sure picked a great night for this.”
“Remember, this was your idea.”
Vinyl found a booth and sat down. “Yeah well...it was gonna happen either way. So, whatever, let's just wait the rain out.”
Lyra called out to a woman behind the counter. “Hey Rarity! Can I get a small coffee. Whole milk and caramel please.”
The barista winked in response and began preparing her drink behind the counter. Vinyl watched in curiosity. “So, you work here right?”
“Mhm. We're a bit slow during the summer, so we'll probably be the only ones here for awhile. Especially with this rain.”
“If you want anything, just let me know and I'll get it for you.”
The barista returned with Lyra's coffee and brought a nearby chair to the booth. “Sorry to be upfront but Lyra, dear, I'm worried about you. No one see's you outside of work anymore and when they do you just completely vanish. I think I'm starting to figure out why too. You're still looking fo-” Lyra coughed in an exaggerated manner, glaring at Rarity. “Ahem, my apologies. But really, I don't think it's such a big deal. It's probably just a simple error in communication. In any case, I apologize for the intrusion dear. My name is Rarity. Who might you be?”
“Name's Vinyl. What's up.”
Rarity looked a little concerned. “Lyra sweetie, please tell me this isn't what I'm thinking this is. I understand how much it must hurt, but you can't jus-”
Lyra shook her head, feeling slightly irritated by the insinuation. “It's not what you think Rarity. She's just a friend I met recently. Would you please stop with this already.”
“Sorry, sorry. So how goes your day?”
“Vinyl here was helping me look for something until it started pouring and then we ended up here. Not much else to say about it.”
Rarity pouted, resting her arms on the table and her head on her hands. “Oh please Lyra, I still have hours to go before we're allowed to close up and with the place being an absolute ghost town right now the least you could do is make your story entertaining. Honestly I'd even go for absurdly elaborate lie right now.”
“Come on, you're alone with two co-workers. How could you three possibly not be talking up a storm or cracking jokes or whatever to pass the time.”
Rarity response was deadpan. “Darling, I'm closing with Gyro and Fluttershy. One of them says absolutely nothing and one of them attempts to awkwardly hit on me or awkwardly ask me personal questions for the sake of awkwardly trying to hit on me. What do you expect me to do?”
“Aw come on. Like...I can understand Gyro, but Fluttershy's just a little shy and still getting comfortable here. Also, if you want Gyro to stop without hurting his feelings, you could always try playing the lesbian card.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow at Lyra for a few seconds before responding. “Funny, but no. I don't want any such rumors spreading nor am I going to fake a boyfriend or any of your other absurd ideas. I don't want to make him feel bad. I'm just not remotely interested in him. I just wish he could grasp subtlety.” She glanced over to the side at Vinyl and quickly sat up straight. “Oh my! I'm terribly sorry, we keep launching into conversation and I keep forgetting you're here.”
Vinyl waved her off, smirking all the while. “Naw don't worry. This is pretty entertaining to listen to. Don't mind me. I'll be cashing in my free drink while I enjoy the show though. Hot chocolate please. Put a little bit of cinnamon in there too.” Rarity nodded and called out the order to an employee from the behind the counter. The girl behind the counter tensed up immediately and began preparing the requested drink. A little bit of idle chatter later and the shy girl brought Vinyl her hot chocolate, bowing slightly and quickly walking off back behind the counter.
Rarity sighed. “Honestly, I don't think it takes more than a month to settle into new surroundings. I'll try inviting her to join me at the spa, on me of course. If that doesn't get her to relax then I don't know what will.”
The time passed quickly as the three continued to talk, Vinyl chimed in a few times, but for the most part just listened contentedly. Rarity bid the two farewell as she returned to work to start closing down the shop. Unfortunately the rain still showed no signs of slowing it's assault. Lyra led Vinyl quickly to the back of the shop. Both of them made sure their were no prying eyes about, and transformed. They made a hasty exit from the plaza to avoid any unwanted confrontations before setting off to search for the mysterious woman.
---
A car came to a screeching halt as a strange woman blocked the lane. “HEY! GET THE FUCK OFF THE ROAD LADY!” The woman mumbled something, but her voice drowned out by the rain. “I WANT TO FUCKING GO HOME! FUCKING CROSS IF YOU NEED TO ALREADY! COME THE FUCK ON ALREADY!” The man screamed, honking his horn to accentuate his anger.
The woman shambled slowly towards the front of the vehicle, her wet two-toned hair covered her features. She muttered again to herself as she approached. Ignoring the man's continued complaints, the woman slowly raised her fist, holding it up in the air for a few seconds and slammed it down into the hood of the car, creating a fist sized crater. She slowly pulled her hand out of the crater and muttered some more incomprehensible words to the driver. The man was shaken by the woman's display of strength, quickly backed up and quickly sped around the woman. She collapsed to the ground, staring at the ground beneath her.
---
The two searched for an hour, scanning about from rooftop and venturing into narrow alleyways in an attempt to encounter the mysterious woman again to no avail. Vinyl suggested that the woman may have gone somewhere to take cover from the rain. Lyra was silently cursing herself for not considering the weather at any point and decided to return home and try again tomorrow. On their way back, Lyra stopped abruptly as something catching her eye. Vinyl stopped to see what was so interesting. Further down the street from them, a strange human figure was slowly shambling down the road. Vinyl grew tense. “You think it's her? Should we rush her down?” Lyra didn't respond. Her gaze was fixed on the figure. It seems at though it was staring listlessly at the ground as it made it's slow approach. She started to walk towards the figure. “Woah, wait! Lyra! Did she get you with that eye thing? Snap out of it!?'
“...it's...her...it's Bon-Bon...”
Vinyl stared at Lyra with a clueless expression. “Who now?”
“My...my friend...”
“What!?”
Lyra stopped at the middle of an intersection of the road, as did the figure, now identifiable as a female. “Bon-Bon. You're still alive. Please, just hold on a little longer! I know how to save you! Just hold on a little while longer!”
Bon-Bon's head raised, her eyes blocked by the wet hair covering them. “Is she your new squeeze? You replaced me just like that?”
Lyra shook her head. “No! She agreed to help me save you! All we have to do is stop that woman creating all the Changelings and you'll be back to normal! We can beat her toge-”
“And then what!? Go back to the way things were? Save me and then dump her? Is that how it works!? You just break hearts everywhere you go until you finally find one your satisfied with!? IS THAT HOW IT WORKS!?
“Bon-Bon, relax please! It's not like that! It's twisting your heart right now! You have to hold on just a little bit longer! I'm so close, you can't lose yourself now! Please!
Vinyl looked between the two, extremely confused. “Is this your friend? I thought you said she was a dude.”
Bon-Bon put a hand to head, clutching it hard as her face contorted a little in pain. “Lyra...it...it doesn't work that way... I'm sorry Lyra. I can't fight it anymore.”
Lyra was starting to tear up, her face still holding on to a faint smile. “You can do it, I know you can! You can't give up now Bon-Bon, not when I'm so close! Just hold on a lit-”
The skin on Bon-Bon's hand was slowly starting to flake off. “It's too late. I can't do it anymore Lyra... I can't stop it now...”
“No Bon-Bon please don't! WE'RE SO CLOSE, YOU CAN'T GIVE UP NOW!”
The flaking was slowly continuing, creeping down her arm, revealing a black chitinous, hole riddled exoskeleton underneath. “I'm sorry Lyra... I...I never should have... I....I-I...” The flaking reached her shoulder and was now flaking the skin off her head and moving down her chest. “I'M SO SORRY LYRAAAagggnnnnggh-” Bon-Bon's arm went limp and dropped to her side.
Any sign of hope in Lyra's expression were now gone. She fell to her knees, dropping her Guityre, mentally begging and praying to some unknown god for a miracle. “BON-BON PLEASE, NO! PLEASE DON'T! NOT NOW!”
“...you rejected me Lyra...it hurt so much...all I wanted was your love...but we can still be together...” The black figure that was once Bon-Bon threw her hair back with her hand, revealing her chilling blue eyes. “I'll kill us both! Then no one can ever come between us again!” Vinyl put herself in front of Lyra. She had a feeling Lyra wouldn't be doing anything productive for awhile. “I won't let you get in our way. You're not allowed to die with us either! I'll leave you bleeding on the street!” The Changeling made a beeline for Vinyl, her now incredibly sharp fingers poised to stab. She grabbed the Changeling's hands and attempted to toss them to the side, but found herself now contending with impending impalement. The Changeling was certainly stronger than it looked. The last one she fought transformed into something bigger. This one however kept it's same body shape and yet seemed much stronger than the last one. Her eyes shrank a bit as all thoughts of protecting Lyra were immediately pushed to the side, all her brain power focusing on figuring out a way escape getting stabbed in the neck. All possibilities Vinyl could come up with required her to let go to free up her left hand, which would also result in her death. She fought as hard as she could to slow the Changeling's hands as she slowly came the realization that she had no chance to escape. The Changeling's crazed grin grew as it continued pushing towards Vinyl neck, also aware that she had no way to escape.
Lyra brought herself to her feet, walking to the side of the current struggle, dragging her Guityre along the ground. Stopping just behind the Changeling, Lyra picked up her instrument, wound up a powerful baseball swing and let loose. The Guityre slammed into the Changeling's neck with all her might, sending the Changeling careening towards the curb. Vinyl was fortunately unharmed. She had only lost her balance fell to her back. She glanced at the now active Lyra. Her visor completely tinted white on the outside, obscuring her eyes, but despite and the rain, Vinyl could see a torrent of tears streaming down her face. The Changeling had trouble some trouble regaining it's footing. It's hand was clutching it's neck tightly while the other worked to help itself to it's feet. “Y-you... I-I thought you still loved me... I-I thought you said she was nothing...”
Lyra's Guityre found itself being held by the neck in one hand again, the bottom end resting carelessly on the ground as she replied to the Changeling, her voice filled with sorrow. “I'm sorry...I wasn't fast enough Bon-Bon... This was all my fault and I hope you can forgive me.” The tone of her voice abruptly changed, now cold and brimming with anger. “But you're not her anymore and I won't let you kill my friend. Despite everything that's happened to her, she went out of her way to help someone she didn't even know until yesterday, knowing full well that she could have died. I honestly don't know if I would have done the same if I were in her shoes. I still barely even know her, but I can already say I would consider her one of my closest friends...and I will do everything I can to protect my friends.”
The Changeling's face was writhing with pain and hatred. “How dare you... You heartless bitch!” It released it's grip on it's neck and charged towards Lyra, it's speed and stability were severely hindered from Lyra's attack. “YOU BELONG TO ME AND NO ONE ELSE!!!” The Changeling leapt into the air and stretched it's arms out in front of it as it began to descend towards her.
A large speaker materialized on the ground in front of Lyra's feet, facing towards the sky. “And I'll make up for my mistakes while I'm at it!” She lifted her Guityre up and cradled it in both hands, casually lifting her right foot up high and stomping down on the speaker as the Changeling was above it. The speaker responded by emitting a loud electric guitar screech. The sheer volume and power of the speaker launched the Changeling high into the air. Lyra continued her attack, placing the Guityre on the speaker and bending the neck back as she held the bottom in place against her foot. The strings on the bottom lyre end broke down the middle and all the strings fired up in the air towards the Changeling, piercing it's chest and stomach in multiple areas, one string piercing it's heart. “I'm sorry I tried to hide it in public! I was an inconsiderate idiot! But let me make it up to you! I won't hide it anymore! I'll tell the whole city!” She lowered her head down towards the speaker underneath her heel to avoid the looking at what she was about to do. She screamed at the speaker as loud as she could “I LOVE YOU BON-BON!” Her screaming caused a loud reverberation to blast out of the speaker and sent out an electric pulse through the strings of her Guityre, flowing all the way through the strings piercing the Changeling. The Changeling screamed out in pain for a few seconds before exploding violently. The speaker vanished and strings returned to the Guityre retracted, fixing themselves quickly. She fell to her knees shortly after.
Vinyl watched the entire spectacle silently. The rain continued to pour throughout it all. She found the scene tragically poetic. A woman, fated to kill her lover in the dead of a cold rainy night. It was like a scene ripped right out a hard boiled detective story. Her silent musings were cut short by the sound of sirens. She had completely ignored how loud and explosive Lyra's last attack was. This was going to be a hornet's nest within minutes. She rushed over to Lyra and shook her a little to get her attention. “Lyra, we gotta bail now! The cops are about to swarm the place!” Lyra didn't respond. Vinyl shook her even harder. “Come on dammit! I know it hurts now but you can't just give up everything like this! Get up and let's go!” There was still no response from her. Vinyl took a quick look around. The police weren't in sight just yet. “You have to keep moving dammit! I know it sucks to have to say it like this, but grieve later when the police aren't coming after us and then make it up to her by staying alive! I'll carry your ass if I have to! Either way I'm not leaving you here!” Lyra slowly picked herself up and nodded. They ran off the streets and made their escape across the rooftops.
Vinyl returned to Lyra's apartment. There was little issue with the police on the drive back. She made a simple excuse about returning home from a party. Neither spoke a word on the drive or in the apartment. Vinyl got out the shower in Lyra's room and found her sitting on her staring at a photo. Vinyl wanted to try and comfort her somehow. She took a seat next to her and took a glance at the photo. It was a picture of Lyra and another girl, her hair blue and pink split down the middle. The two were standing on the Manehattan Statue of Unity, their backs to the ocean. Lyra made no attempt to hide her tears as she finally spoke up. “I wish I could have at least had a chance to apologize to her... I was an idiot. I always tried to hide our relationship in public because I was scared of what others would think... I never once considered how much it was hurting her...”
Vinyl took a deep breath. “Lyra...I'm so sorry. I...I got nothin'. I wanna say something, but I can't find any words... All I can think to say is, I'm sorry...”
“It's okay. I'm just glad you're here. It means a lot to me Vinyl.”
“I know I said I didn't want to be some kind of selfless hero of justice or anything...and I still don't want to but...I'm going to keep this Driver. I'm going to find that woman and take her out. I'm going to take out any Changelings that get in my way. I don't want anyone else to have to go through what you had to...” She gave Lyra a hug, which Lyra gladly returned.
---
The Doctor had been waiting for almost half an hour. He had been considering taking a quick break to get a snack at one of the fast food shops in the airport, but he didn't want to risk Twilight finally arriving with no one to greet her. The thought continued to resurface in his mind every few minutes. Fighting with another bout of deciding to abandon his post for a snack when a voice interrupted his inner struggle. “Hello. You must be the Doctor.”
“Oh! Oh yes, I am the Doctor. Sorry about that. Twilight Sparkle correct?”
Twilight bowed politely to the Doctor. “Pleased to meet you. Sorry I took so long, it took forever for my luggage to come through the line.”
“Not a problem. It's nice to meet you too. Unrelated note, would you like to make a quick pit stop through a drive-thru?”
The Doctor now had two tacos to satisfy his hunger and he drove down the streets of Manehattan. Twilight was enjoying a grilled chicken salad as well, an unspoken agreement hung through the air and neither spoke for awhile, allowing themselves finish their food first before continuing conversation.
“That was delicious, thank you.”
“You're very welcome. I'm guessing you didn't have much to eat on the plane.”
“There was some food, but I spent most of my time reading and enjoying the view. I was busy doing a little bit of research before I boarded.”
“Fair enough. While we're here, I took the liberty of bringing you your Driver.” The Doctor reached into a backpack he had set next to the driver seat and pulled out a large belt buckle with a moon emblem on it. “Feel free to get acquainted with it. You may have heard of the sentient AI built into it. If it doesn't like you, it won't let you use it.”
“I read about that, the AI in the Solar and Lunar Drivers developed an odd mindset upon completion. If they didn't like the person wearing the Driver, they wouldn't allow the user to transform with it. I'm looking forward to getting to know it.”
“Her.” The Doctor corrected.
“Her? It's a female?”
“Sort of. Both of AI's have been very adamant about being identified as females. We're still not quite sure why they've developed the quirks they have but as long as they deliver results, we don't particularly care for now.”
“Interesting. Oh! I also have something for you as well. I'm assume the higher ups have given you information on the Eclipse Regalia that you were to be receiving soon correct?”
“Yes I have. I'm still not sure how we're going to be dealing with that when we get it. I'm not sure if the higher ups have told you about the current user for the Solar Driver.”
“I actually wasn't able to get any information on the Solar Driver's current user. I meant to ask about that as well. How or why is he or she off the record?”
“It's a bit of an odd story. I'll tell you that one a little later. He's a bit of a firecracker that one. But he follows our orders for the most part and has produced results. He's been accepted by the Solar Driver and has gotten quite proficient with it in a short amount of time. Which is why we're still keeping him for now. Personally, I've got no problem with keeping him but I'm not sure how things will progress once we have the Eclipse Regalia. My personal opinions aren't important though, you were mentioning about having something for me?”
“Yes, about that. I was asked to deliver the Eclipse Regalia to you. It's currently in one of my bags.”
“Oh that's wonderful! Alright then, when we get back w-” The Doctor cut himself off as he started noticing police lights ahead of him. As he started to get closer, he noticed that police and various media crew teams were littering the area. The police politely told him to take an alternate route home while they continued to investigate the area. He grabbed his phone and quickly dialed a number while Twilight watched in silence from the passenger seat. “Ditzy, anymore recent activations today?”
“Yes. Flight finally activated today. Claw also activated once, but they were both in different locations at different times. Noise and Music also activated together twice today. I don't think Flight and Claw are aware of each other. I don't think Noise and Music know about them either.”
The Doctor looked at the fading police lights in his rear view as he contemplating something for a minute. “Ditzy, I want you to do a quick search for me. Look up anything about the last few hours. I just drove by a police road block and they've blocked off quite a few streets. I want you to check news sites, local blogs, forums, and whatever else you can dig through. I have a feeling it might concern us. I have Twilight and we're heading back, give me the details when we arrive. Oh! And when you get the chance, if you could, set up mattress I brought in this morning. Twilight will be staying the night there. I'll be getting her a place to stay first thing tomorrow.”
“Got it! You can count on me Doctor!”
“See you in a few hours.” He put his phone in his chest pocket. “Sorry about that. You may have also heard the news about some of the Drivers getting lost and scattered on their way to us. It's been causing us quite a bit of issues to say the least.”
“I have. Noise, Music, Flight and Claw, correct?”
“Yes. So far, Noise and Music have been the first to activate. We encountered Music once but she managed to quickly grasp our limited tracking capabilities. We almost had Noise twice now, but now she seems to have met up with Music and now we're unable to reliably get close to either of them. As of last night Claw went live once. It was too far out at the time so we didn't send anyone to investigate it and it seems that Flight has finally gone live as well tonight.”
“How much do we know about the current users of Music and Noise?”
“Not much at the moment. We have no information on the Drivers or what they look like because some incredibly asinine security concerns. We know both are female and in your age range. That's about it.”
“That 'asinine' security concern was due to a security breach. I don't know if you heard about that incident about a month ago. There was a security breach in our database. Tons of information was stolen. The information was stored on to a single external hard drive and given to the top brass for safe keeping afterward. Nothing has come of breach yet, but it's still a serious concern. That aside, I'd like to look into the Driver issue more when we get to your base of operations.”
“That's fantastic. I'm going to call our Riders in tomorrow as well so you can get acquainted with them. Especially the Rider for the Solar Driver.”
“I look forward to meeting him.”
---
“Doctor, I did some digging. There are some pictures and two videos from an incident on Oat Street and some Twitter post from a guy mentioning something about some homeless woman a hole in the hood of his car with one hand. All of this is pointing towards some kind of fight involving either the other Riders or the other Riders fighting Changelings. The footage and pictures don't really show anything revealing or decisive though except for something exploding about two or three stories in the air. However, there was also an unrelated incident. It happened around the same time as the incident on Oat Street, if not a little earlier. There are three clear pictures of a girl in light blue armor with wings flying above the city. She even posed for one of the shots. I'm certain it's Flight. A new Twitter account was made later that night as well by a female confirming herself to be the one in those photos. The account doesn't have any personal info on it though. Seems like she's at least trying to hide her real identity.”
The Doctor remained silent as he scanned the various web pages laid out on the monitors.
“In her last post for the night, she claimed to be a defender of the city. She called herself, Armored Hero Blitz.”