//------------------------------// // Tower Fall // Story: The War of Champions // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Black metallic walls with golden magic coursing through them met the eyes of the two saboteurs as they gazed up in awe at the massive tower from the shadows, both of them starting to wonder how in the heck they were going to get in there. From the shadowy shelter behind a number of rocks, they spotted two patrols of guards in the armor that had nearly killed them both, telling them that a frontal assault was out. "Starting to miss Batson right about now," Ryan whispered to Batmare, who barely nodded as she watched the patrols with patient eyes, studying their every move carefully. "I thought it was just a certain number of guards that wore that armor, but to think that their whole damn army has it? This is suicide." "If you don't be quiet, then they'll hear us and it will turn into a suicide mission," Batmare muttered to Ryan after one of the patrols walked by them, both of the hidden saboteurs wondering why they hadn't bothered to check the rocks. "I think we can slip around the patrols, but then we still have the issue of the two guards at the doors. Of course, with electro-hooves I should be able to knock one of them out and prop him up. Can your baton take the other?" "Be a waste of time, they'd know that something was amiss," Ryan said with a shake of his head, pointing to the green bar on the ponies' backs when Batmare gave him a look. "See those bars? Those tell each other how their friends are doing. We knock them out, the bars go from green to yellow. If the bars go from green to yellow, then the other guards know shits up. And if they know that..." "Then we have the whole tower coming down upon us," Batmare muttered with a growl. "You have any ideas on how to get in, then?" "Why don't you do what your teacher does?" Ryan asked her, once again getting a look of both confusion and annoyance in response. "You know, just Batman yourself inside. He does it all the time in the stories I read." "Sorry, but it doesn't work like that. There's actual stealth that's involved with this kind of stuff," Batmare muttered with a roll of her eyes. "Wow, some student you turned out to be," Ryan snarked before a massive flash of lightning made the two of them and the guards jump, all eyes looking off into the distance where it could be seen. The guards moved away from their posts to watch the flashing lightning while a dark smile looked at them. "That be our cue to enter the tower. Let's not waste it." Without a sound the two dashed across the ground from the rocks to the tower, making sure to use any shadow cover they had during their run. Ryan pressed his back against the wall so he could keep an eye on the door while Batmare pulled a number of tools out of her belt, beginning to work on getting the lock open. "Please hurry it up, I don't know how much longer they'll--" "Done." Ryan turned to see the door to the tower slightly cracked, with Batmare already inside. His face asked the question for him as he slipped inside; Batmare gave him a smirk for an answer as she closed the door behind them. "Guess I just decided to Batman ourselves in. Now according to the data, the orb is at the top, so..." she trailed off as she looked at all of the stairs. "We go up." Ryan and Batmare both ascended the stairs as quietly as they could, Batmare slightly surprised that Ryan was keeping up with her step for step while not making any sound. The two reached the first room in the tower, where they immediately spotted two guards with their helmets lowered. As the guards turned to look at them Batmare let a batarang fly, nicking one of the guards before his helmet could go up. The anesthetics covering the edges put him out almost immediately, but she spotted four dots line up on her body. Yet, before the guard could pull the trigger a vicious right hook to the side of the head brought him down, staggering him long enough for Ryan to reach up his sleeve and pull out a steel wire, which he then wrapped around the guard's neck twice before yanking it tight. The guard had the idea to buck once before the baton in Ryan's backpack was in his left hand, which he then drove into the helmet. Ryan kept an eye on the bar on the pony's back, waiting until it was in the red before he released the wire and let the pony breath again. The helmet retracted as the guard began to pant for air, but he had only gotten a breath when Ryan drove the baton into his head and knocked him out. "Jeez, that was brutal," Batmare said with a half-disgusted, half-impressed look as Ryan wound the wire back into his sleeves. "Care to tell me where you learned some of those moves?" "When I was kicking the hell out of Rainbow Dash," Ryan muttered with a smirk while he studied the floor far above them, not noticing the glare that Batmare gave him. "Seems that none of the others heard us, but it's just a matter of time before we're found. Trixie, you got that teleportation spell ready for us when it all goes to hell?" 'Yes, but you had better hurry. Banner, or rather the Hulk, is already battling with Black Adam and from how it sounds, he's losing,' Trixie's voice said in the back of both their minds, Ryan shaking his head as he headed to the stairs. "Son of a bitch, what kind of monster does Adam have to be to kick the shit out of the Hulk?" Ryan asked as he and Batmare climbed even higher up the staircase, reaching another level that looked like living quarters for the guards. All of the beds were stacked two high and were arranged so that a number of paths could be walked between them. Ryan and Bats spotted the guards, all of whom were in the center of the room playing cards, none of them looking over at where the two were hiding. Batmare motioned for Ryan to stay put as she slipped ahead. She slid behind a bed before sliding underneath of it, never making a sound as she rolled behind a chest that housed the personal items of some of the guards, waiting until they were engaged in their cards again before rolling over to the next bed and leaping towards the stairs. She then motioned for Ryan to take the same path, yet Ryan gave her a smirk before he climbed to the top of one of the bunk beds, waiting until the guards roared with delight or rage as a hand came to an end, before he leapt from bed to bed, the noise made by the guards drowned out the squeaking of the beds and the sounds of Ryan's boots as he hit the floor next to Batmare on the other side of the room. "And just what was that all about?" Batmare growled at him as they began to climb again, the size of the floor above them indicating that it was the final floor of the tower. "I had a perfectly planned out path and you decided to risk the entire mission by jumping on the beds! You voted me leader, so I expect you to follow my orders." "And I believe, I said I didn't give a shit who was leader, I'm doing my own thing. Besides, my way was way faster," Ryan muttered as he picked his head up to get a quick glance of the next floor, motioning for them to move when he spotted that it was empty. "Save your yelling for later, we're at the thing." Batmare grumbled to herself as the two of them slowly walked across the open circular room, seeing rafters above them that supported the roof, while on the other side of the room was an extended space. Inside of it was a pedestal with an orb at its center, sending out a beam of magic through a window off into the distance. "So this is the orb, huh?" Ryan asked as he and Batmare walked over to the extended part of the room, both of them eyeing the orb with interest. "We should remove and destroy it," Batmare said as she reached out for the orb, but Ryan slapped her hoof down with a glare. "Didn't Batman train you better? Of course, the damned thing is booby-trapped somehow," he grumbled as he picked up a small piece of wood that had fallen off of the rafters, tossing it at the orb where it was immediately vaporized upon getting close. "Let me handle this, thank you very much." Batmare wondered what he meant, before her eyes went wide as Ryan stuck his left hand right into the field. She was about to cry out for him when she saw the black glove vaporize immediately, but his hand beneath it was perfectly safe. His hand was a strange, bluish color with strange markings all along it, and a strange magic running through its fingers. Those fingers wrapped around the orb and yanked it out of the pedestal, Ryan smirking as he tossed it up and watched as it shattered against the floor. "Alright, one down," he said to Batmare with a smirk before he followed her eyes to his hand, which caused him to roll his eyes. He reached into his backpack with a sigh as he pulled out another left-handed glove. "Look, it wasn't anything that important. Just played with a lightsaber and hacked my hand off, Luke Skywalker style. I know you didn't understand a thing I just said, so all you need to know is that this hand is a fake. Yo, Trix! The tower's down. Can you hear me?" Batmare shook her head but avoided asking Ryan any other questions about his hand, because the moment the both of them turned to leave they saw that they were no longer alone. A solitary figure stood on four legs that supported a completely armored frame, the suit being similar to the guards except that it seemed slimmer and the slots where the eyes looked out were a crimson red. "You're one of those fucking judges, aren't you?" Ryan asked. The figure reached behind it and pulled out a metal rod that extended upon its touch, letting the action answer for it. "Yep, you're one of them. Alright, if you want to do this, then don't complain when two martial arts masters shit-kick you into next week." Ryan drew his baton again and lunged at the foe, switching his grip to reverse, to surprise the foe while simultaneously throwing a foot to their helmet. To retaliate, the armored foe caught his leg with a staff while leaping over the reverse baton strike, spinning in the air as their front hooves delivered three very quick but powerful strikes to Ryan's chest, hurling him across the room and into one of the walls, where he slid down to the floor with a groan. The armored one landed elegantly on its hooves before it turned its head to face Batmare, motioning for her to 'bring it'. "Fine. Your loss," Batmare muttered as she attacked as well, but with more caution and planning than Ryan had. She feinted a right hoof that the foe went to block, but with a flick of her wrist the hoof electrocuted itself, electricity that didn't bother her suit but caused her opponent to leap back when her hoof connected with its limb. "What's the matter, don't like electricity? Tough, because we're going to see if electro-shock therapy can help fix whatever would cause you to join Adam." Her armored foe advanced towards Batmare once again, but this time just as cautiously as Batmare had approached it. Batmare was debating if she should make the first move or not, before a blur of motion caught her in the side of the head, her armored cowl saving her life as a loud crack could be heard from the impact. Batmare leapt back as she shook the stars from her eyes, those same eyes fastening themselves upon the staff that spun in her foe's hooves. 'When did they swing that at me? I never even saw it--' Another flash of motion met her eyes, but instead of pain this time a metallic clang could be heard as Ryan's baton intercepted the staff. Beneath the helmet, their foe narrowed its eyes as Ryan smiled back at them with the face of a lunatic, chuckling to himself as he performed an odd maneuver that knocked the staff out of their foe's hooves. "I wondered what the hell hit me, and why it felt so familiar, and then I remembered that I spent nearly a year of my life getting my face kicked in by those same moves daily," Ryan said with a sinister laugh as he spun his baton in his hand, the electricity from the baton making the smile on his face look downright evil while he and his foe circled each other. "Pressure point strikes, quick and precise beat down with unbelievable amounts of pain. Care to tell me where you picked up those tricks, you damned zebra?" Ryan's words seemed to momentarily stun the two foes, giving Ryan a chance to take to the skies as he hurled himself at the zebra and tackled it to the ground. He struck the helmet with a left and a right before he realized he was damaging his own hand more than he was the helmet. The zebra regained its senses and placed a hoof to his jaw, kicking the human off and giving it a chance to regain its weapon, which it spun once as it turned to face the two again. "What did you mean by what you said?" Batmare asked Ryan, who never took his eyes off the zebra as he smiled in response. "The fighting style that this striped bastard is using is eerily similar to the one used by the zebra that taught me," Ryan said, and it seemed like even his foe was listening in on their conversation, meaning that they never noticed Ryan slip his left hand into his backpack. "So...here we have this version's reality of the same zebra that taught you?" Batmare asked, noticing what Ryan was doing. "Hell no! If this was, we'd both be a bloodstain on the floor right now," Ryan responded with a loud laugh, glad to see that demeaning his foe caused them to slowly spin their staff again. "No, this zebra here knows the steps to the dance, but can't do them moves right. That's why we can take 'em." The zebra almost laughed at that statement before it lunged at the two, Ryan's smile growing even wider as he plucked a small sphere from the bottom of his bag and hurled it at the zebra while diving for cover. The sphere detonated in the face of the zebra with a massive explosion that hurled it into and through the wall, leaving both Batmare and Ryan on the floor--and trying to remember if they had their hearing. Ryan said something to Batmare that she couldn't hear, followed by what she guessed was him swearing as he forced himself back to his feet and moved some of the debris caused by the explosion over the stairs, hoping to buy them a moment of time. "Can you hear me yet?!" he yelled at Batmare, who finally could hear something other than an annoying ringing sound in her ears. She nodded at Ryan, who growled as he raced to the other side of the room and glanced out the window to see all of the guards now surrounding the base of the tower. "Man, I hate using those things, but I love the effect that it has on those who bother me. Trixie, the mission's done. Time to get us out." 'Give me just a moment. I had to get Hulk and the others out, so my spell is presently recharging,' Trixie's panicked voice rang out in the back of Ryan's mind, making him growl in frustration while he saw what little barricade they had being moved by telekinesis. "Well that's fine, I mean, we're having such a great time here! Lot's of new friends, plenty of interesting items to look at. I mean really, it's just so fan-fucking-" Ryan's words were struck dead as the sound of thunder could be heard, turning both his and Batmare's eyes towards the window where the sphere had previously projected the magic, to see thunderous clouds. And from the clouds, like a dark angel something descended, a being that radiated godly power with a golden lightning bolt on its chest and a black cape swirling in the wind behind it. But if the two of them were afraid, they were terrified when the being turned its gaze to look upon them, and then they both knew what it meant to be under the gaze of a god. "Trixie, get us...the fuck...out of here," Ryan said in a dead whisper as Black Adam began to float towards them, lightning crackling in his hands as his thundering eyes narrowed at the sight of the two. 'I told you, my spell is-' "Now, Trixie. Now. Now. Now now now now now!" Ryan panicked as he slowly backed away from the window, Black Adam's eyes flashing as he raced forward with his hand outstretched. His fingers had just touched Ryan's throat when the whole world vanished in a flash of azure, restoring itself a moment later to show the two of them that they were back at the base. The moment the spell ended, Ryan had his usual reaction to any magic that was used on him, but he shivered in place while staring at the floor for a much longer time, even after the sickness had worn off. "He had me. I...felt his fingers around my neck," Ryan whispered in such a quiet tone that none of the ponies around him heard it, placing his own fingers on his neck to feel his skin tingling with the electricity. "Dear God, that...that was bad. Okay, locking that away in my mind," he muttered as he closed his eyes, shaking his head once after a few minutes before standing up. "I am glad to see that you are alright," Luna said from behind him. Ryan spotted Billy and the Hulk behind her as well when he turned to look, with the Hulk looking slightly beaten up. "Batmare told me that you completed the mission and that you had a run-in with...Adam. I am glad to see that you are both alright." "Alright. Yeah, alright," Ryan muttered as he closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, using the techniques that Zecora had taught him to calm his heart rate. He opened his eyes again to glare at Luna, sticking up both middle fingers as he walked towards his room. "I know that there's more to this than you want to tell me, but fuck it, I'm done for today. Whatever it is, you can save it for tomorrow! I'm going to bed." "What's got him so shaken up?" Hulk asked from behind Luna with a smirk. "It was only a being that controlled the lightning and could lift the mountains. I would have beaten him if I wasn't feeling so nice." "You may make fun, but I remember the first time I saw Black Adam's power up close," Luna whispered with her own memories flooding back into her mind. "And trust me when I say, he is handling it better than most." S=H=A=Z=A=M Black Adam sighed as he descended into the castle halls once again, wishing that he could have come here first, but he was glad that he had checked on the tower. Now he knew the identities of two more of his foes. 'Yet, it was strange that a pony dressed like Batman and a regular human would dare to fight against me. There was nothing special about the human and I have defeated Batman before without even trying. Why bring those two to fight me, when there are so many stronger?' 'Could it be what Banner said was true? That the mare is bringing them together to defeat the sphere of destruction and the monster within?' Black Adam asked himself with concern, for if he was telling the truth then Adam would have far more pressing concerns than Luna and her attempt at an army. 'No, there is no evidence of that besides the words of a murderer. I shall deal with her and her champions first before I investigate the sphere.' Adam entered the main throne room to see that Celestia was not there, but her advisor Willow and his apprentice Windy Days were hard at work. "Black Adam!" the old unicorn exclaimed as he bowed slightly at the appearance of the Dark God, his apprentice following his master example. "We did not expect you back so soon. How did the battle with our foes go?" "Not well, my old friend. It seems that the champions which the silver one had gathered were more powerful than I believed," Black Adam said with a shake of his head before reading concern in his friend's eyes. "Do not worry yourself, I can defeat them. This I know. But what I do not know is if I will be able to do so before they have destroyed all of the orbs. And since it takes nearly a year to make more..." "What would you have me do, Adam? I will help in any way I can!" the old unicorn said with a fire in his voice, getting a small smile to cross Adam's face as he shook his head. "I do not need you to go into battle for me; all I need of you is to summon the Judges and tell them to meet me in the garden," Adam said as he turned to see that the sun was going down, the first day in this new war having ended. "You will find Doroca in the hospital nursing his pride, after the Bat and the human defeated him. Spike will probably be on patrol. As for the rest, well, that is where I need you to show why you are the chief unicorn." Adam flew off as he said this, leaving Willow to nod with pride as he activated his tracker spell, calling out for his apprentice before racing off into the darkening city of Canterlot.