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// Strike 1- Bad Hair Day 
// Story: When lightning strikes... 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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When Lightning Strikes- Bad Hair Day




Location: Abandoned Factory (Outside Maretropolis), 12:15 am

        As the peaceful moon shined over the city of Maretropolis, a cool breeze calmed the ponies walking in the cities streets. It was awfully quiet this evening besides the sounds of civilians talking, carriages rolling the streets and the sounds of music from the local theater. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on since the city was under the watchful eye of it’s guardian protectors.

        Well, not yet anyways.

        Outside the city, the light of the moon was the only thing that lit the darkened terrain that lead to an Abandoned Factory outside the City. It was originally a factory that provided power to Maretropolis, but after a freak accident a few years ago, it was closed off to the public due to the building being unsafe and on the risk of collapse. Still though, it didn’t prevent some individuals from exploring the empty facility.

        Tonight though, something different was about to happen. Out of nowhere, the clear evening skies started to form storm clouds over the building. A high powered bolt of lightning struck through the top of the factory, making a hole appear in the roof and letting in the light of the glowing moon. Moments later, the smoke that was coughed up from the lightning strike began to die down. But what was inside the crater created by the lightning strike wasn’t exactly what you would normally find in an abandoned factory.

        “Ugh…… My head…”

        It was a figure that nopony had ever seen before in the flesh. A tall tale that was only a legend in ponykind history. Some have believed in it’s existence while historians believed that traits of this species were passed down to other creatures like dragons, centaurs, minotaurs, and diamond dogs. The creature had tan pale skin, cyan eyes and a yellow like mane with a long braid in the back. It wore a Azure cloak that stretched down to its feet and matched the rest of it’s outfit along with a strange weapon not familiar to those that were in Law Enforcement.

        It was a human. A young human. He was only 16 years old in age and was close to five and a half feet tall. Based on his physical appearance, the creature was a young teenaged boy, and right now, he had exactly no idea what just happened.

        His name was Lance. Lance Walker. A young high school student who wanted to grow up and become a graphic artist so he could help with making comic books. The teen was also one to dress us as the characters that he liked to play as in video games or draw in his spare time. Right now though, he was one of those characters.





        Lance himself was still trying to understand what was going on. All he remembered was attending an Anime Convention in Los Angeles, meeting up with a group of friends who were also attending the event, spend some time with them and then going home. Though, one other thing occurred during the time he spent there. 



Convention Sales Pavillion, Los Angeles (A few hours earlier)

        “Come on, Lance. Hurry up!!”

        The sound of his friend Cody nagging him was irritating the Blond Teen as he was browsing the numerous shops that were there. There was a weapons vendor that had real life replicas of the Masters Sword from The Legend of Zelda and Sasuke’s blade from Naruto, multiple manga and comic vendors and others who were trying to sell their wares by the end of the day. All of these did not attract Lance’s attention because of two things. One was his friends telling him to hurry up. The second was that he didn’t find anything that would be of his interest.

        “Cody, just go on without me. I can meet back up with you guys for lunch.”

        “You’ve been looking at all this stuff for too long. Plus, we still got a bunch of other things to see!”

        “We’ve only been here for ten minutes.”

        “Who cares!? We’re burning daylight!!” The teen dressed up as Renji from Bleach told him as he ran off. Lance sighed, facepalming himself as he continued to look around. Soon, he came across a vendor that he didn’t notice on the way in. The guy running it was dressed up like the Exotic Vendor Xur from Destiny. Hood, eyes, and everything. In fact, the teen was quite impressed by how accurate the costume was. 



        “Welcome to my emporium.” The hooded individual greeted Lance, his eyes glowing just like the character in the game.

        “You have an impressive costume.” Lance complimented the vendor.

        “So do you.” He replied. “Gunvolt from Azure Striker Gunvolt, am I right?”

        “Guilty as charged.” Lance chuckled, impressed that the merchant recognized the costume of one of the characters that the teen liked. Mostly because the same studio that created the game was the studio behind the Megaman Zero games. Something he spent hours playing when he was a child. “So, can I see your wares?”

        “Certainly. In fact, I have something that might interest you.” The hooded man said as he turned around. This merchant had a variety of items in store. Weapons from animes and Games, necklaces and charms, even a couple of books that resembled Tomes from Fire Emblem: Awakening and a Silver Pocket Watch that was the same watch seen in Fullmetal Alchemist. Not a moment too soon, the vendor returned with something in one of his hands. “Did you happen to make the weapon that your character uses?”

        “Of course.” Lance replied with a edge of confidence, showing the piece he made based off of Gunvolts in game weapon. “He isn’t exactly Gunvolt without his gun, am I right?”

        “Heh… Good point. Well, I might have something for it.” 

        The vendor soon laid out a few cards that looked like normal sized SD cards. However, these cards were not exactly ordinary. Each one had a symbol on it that represent one of seven weapon clips that the player could use in the game. Cerberus, Naga, Mizuchi, Technos, Orochi, Vasuki, and the secret clip; Dullahan. Something that Lance never expected.

        “Not only can I sell these to you, but I can modify your prop so it could resemble the actual weapon.”

        “Would that cost extra? Matter of fact, how much are each of the cards?”

        “Four bucks. Also, the Upgrade is free if you purchase all seven of them.”

        Free? Now that caught his attention. Without even thinking twice, the teen took out his wallet. He had around eighty bucks on him and enough money for lunch later, so he paid the merchant the required amount of money he asked for and handed him the prop he had. Two minutes later, he got his weapon back.

        “The cards are inside the blaster. Pressing the knob will allow you to switch clips. Have fun with it.”

        “Thank you very much.” Lance said as he rushed out of the Sales Pavilion. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the chance to look for his friends because the moment Lance stepped out of the room, the teen felt like he got the wind knocked out of him as the boy’s face hit the floor.



Back to the Present…

        Lance’s eyes were beginning to readjust as he now saw himself in an unknown environment that looked like an abandoned testing facility. It was really hard to see since the only light that was in the room was the light coming from the hole in the roof. When he tried stretching his arms though, he noticed the gloves of his outfit were beginning to glow like neon lights. 

        “That’s… new.” The teen spoke lightly as he looked at himself. He didn’t remember making the outfit to where he had his gloves and boots light up. Not to mention, his weapon was also partially glowing as well.

        “Okay… Let me rethink this. First, I was in Los Angeles for a convention, inside the sales pavillion… Then, I saw that Merchant…”

        The thought of that soon made him remember the last words he heard from the vendor as he looked at his weapon again. Pressing the round circle button on the side of the blaster, the color of the light changed. The original color of Cyan blue, the color of the Cerberus bolt, now turned into a Sapphire blue, the color bolt that represented the Naga bolt. Pressing it again, the color changed to Red, then green, orange, and so on to represent the other bolt clips.

        This now had Lance be a little more curious on what was going on. Switching back to the Cerberus bolt, the adept aimed his weapon at a nearby metal box. Thinking that the weapon was still a prop, Lance pretended to fire the blaster like it was an actual gun. However, to his surprise, a metallic bolt was launched out of the other end of the gun and created a dent in the steel box.

        “Holy-!”

        Now that was surprising. Whatever that merchant creep did made his weapon prop become real. It may come quite in handy when he needed it, but then again, it was when he needed it. Now came the real test. The clothes he wore had come alive, his gun was now a real weapon, but one other thing had to be tested. With his right hand, he stretched out his fingers and soon gave a quick snap. A spark of lightning flew from his hands and died out once it reached the floor. That was the first try though. On the second try, Lance tried to act like he was holding lightning inside his hands as he held his hand close to his heart. The lightning that was once a single spark now formed a barrier around him called a Flashfield.

        Flashfield was the primary septima trait or power of the protagonist in Azure Striker Gunvolt. It was where Gunvolt was able to form an electrical shield to protect himself from harm. Also, any bolts that he tagged enemies with get a huge dose of lightning. Multiple tags deal more damage. Also, Flashfield allowed the adept to slowly hover while in the air. It could even block most projectiles.

        Again, most projectiles. Energy attacks like Fireballs and Lasers had no effect on the shield like bullets, bombs and missiles did. Additionally, the bullets of the Adept Slayer named Copen couldn't be blocked by the shield. Also, if he performed the ability too close to explosives, he might feel the backlash of the device hurt him.

        Still though, Lance had a lot to take in right around now. First off, he was a freaking Adept now. A human with psychic powers. Second, he had powers that he would only dream about. Third, he had no idea where he was right now. It all looked like a dream, but also too real to be a dream.

        He thought that the best course of action right now would be to look around and find out exactly where he was. Turning to his left, the Azure Striker found a door that led him out of the enclosed room that he was in and into a darkened hallway. Lance was thankful that the glow of his boots and gloves provided a little bit of light as he noticed a sign on the door he recently closed. 

        ‘Mare… Tropolis Power Plant? Okay, I’m either stuck in a little girls fantasy land or someone messed up when making this.’ The teen thought to himself as he turned away from the faded sign. He spotted another one that said “Security Room” at the end of the hall and began to follow the arrows. Weapon at his side just in case if someone… or something… tried to get the jump on him.



        The door to the security room had an electronic lock on it that needed a ID card in order for someone to gain entry. Something that Lance did not have. Using his newfound electrical powers, the Adept override the security requirements on the doorlock and was given the green light of approval for him to go in. Personally, he wished that these powers could help him back home when it came to using his credit card back home so he didn’t have to rack up any credit card debt. 

        Inside though was a lot of computers, but nothing like the ones that the teen had seen multiple times before. These ones were a lot different. The keyboards were a lot different and so was the mouse for the computers. In fact, they were a lot bigger than the boys hands. 

        “Well great. Who exactly was monitoring these things?”

        Using a trick that he thought of when watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders with some of the friends he had, the Adept put his hands on the sides of the widescreen monitor and channeled some electricity inside the computer. This brought the machine to life, playing back some of the footage the cameras last had.

        It showed a bunch of stallions and Mares dressed in lab coats and work clothes running for the doors. Some shouted that the reactor was overheating and that it was going to blow. Security guards were directing the workers away from the premises as the generator that was in the center of the room went off like an atomic bomb. An electrical wave of energy pulsed outward, consuming all that was there. 

        It looked like those that were unfortunately caught in the blast were turned to ashes. But to Lance’s surprise, one pony actually survived. A Cyan pegasus. She had electricity pulsing around her as the mare passed out in the remains of the destruction.

        What Lance did not know was that he witnessed the birth of the Power Pony named Zapp. The pegasus that could control the weather and the lightning that formed from clouds. This accident happened only a few years ago, but it was because of this incident that the Pegasus was able to obtain her special powers. Her powers weren’t like Lance’s, but what she had that the human didn’t have was experience.

        As the video clip ended, Lance stepped backwards. He was in another world. One completely different from his own. One with a different set of rules unlike back on earth. 

        One of them being always watch your back.

        A creek from the partially opened door caught Lance’s attention as he spun around, gun drawn towards the door. What he heard though was not like anything he ever expected.

        “W-wait!! Don’t hurt me, please!!”

        It was a small wisp like creature. Almost like a fairy. This one though had wings that reminded the human of a sapphire butterfly. Ponykind knew these creatures as breezies, the spirits of the forest. Normally, they would be friendly to other ponies. But in this situation, the young female breezie was feeling the same emotions that Lance was.

        Shock and Confusion mixed with Caution.

        “What the?” The Adept said to himself as he set his weapon aside for a moment in his waist holster. “What in the world are you?”

        “What am I?” The young fairy asked. “I’m a breezie. Just what the hay are you?”

        Hay? That’s the weirdest insult if he ever heard of one.

        “A human… I guess?”

        “You guess?” The small creature questioned as she floated around Lance’s body.

        “It’s kind of a lot to explain. I’m Lance. What’s your name?”

        “Luminous. But my friends call me Lumen.”

        ‘Well, wasn’t that ironic.’ The Adept thought to himself. Lumen in Azure Striker Gunvolt was an avatar created by the Muse ability that was the Septima of a young girl named Joule. Her powers were with music and in some cases, could bring Gunvolt back from the brink of defeat and power up his abilities with her Anthem. However, when this happened in game was totally random. 

        “So Lumen, do you happen to know where I am?”

        “Hold on? You don’t know where you are?” The breezie said in a puzzled voice. The teen shook his head, explaining that he had only just woken up recently. Lance also mentioned what happened beforehand and how he mysteriously woke up with the powers he now had. 

        “I see… So you must’ve been in that lightning strike!”

        “Wait… Lightning strike?”

        “A lightning strike occurred only a few minutes ago here, which was weird since the forecast never called for a chance of thunderstorms. You said that you woke up with lightning powers, so I’m guessing the lightning strike was you crash landing in here.”

        “Whoa Whoa Whoa… Back up for a minute. You think I crashed in here?”

        “Well duh, you did say that you woke up here.”

        “Riiiiigggghhhhttttt……” Lance said sarcastically. He wasn’t buying the small pixie’s claims, but it was the only possible conclusion that he was able to make right now. “So, shall we get out of here-?”

        At the moment the boy posed the question though, a sinister cackle could be heard through the hallways of the facility. Whatever it was, had Lumen rush to Lance’s side. She was a little tense and scared when Lance turned to notice her. The teen himself was trying to stay calm and figure out what was going on.

        However, he didn’t have much time to do so. From the door that was left ajar, something grabbed hold of his legs and began to rapidly drag him across the tile floor of the room and into the hallway. Lance was trying to find something to grab a hold of, but whatever this was, it was dragging him too fast for him to grab hold of anything. But then of course, he had a trick up his sleeve that might help him get out of this situation.

        On his left arm looked like a series of three holographic cards that glowed with his clothes. These were known as Skill points or SP for short and allowed for him to use different types of skills in battle. Right now, he only had three. One that would heal him for any damage he had taken, one that would be able to attack any opponents nearby in a spiral of lightning, and one ultimate attack that would be used in emergency situations or as a finishing move. Given his current situation, one of them would be able to free him from his captive state.

        Concentrating his powers and picturing the skill in his mind, he soon called out the skills name inside his mind.

        ASTRASPHERE!!

        A torrent of electricity surged around the Adept as the three balls of electricity formed around Lance, burning whatever took hold of him. A cry of pain echoed through the halls as the Azure striker stumbled into the room that he was being dragged into. At first, he thought that a pair of tentacles were dragging him. Until he realized what actually took hold of him when he saw who attacked him.

        It was a tall female pony with wavy hair that resembled something like seaweed. Her eyes were filled with rage and anger as they stared at him. But then that’s when Lance realized that her hair was what grabbed him a few moments ago.

        “Wow… Someone’s had a bad hair day.”

        “You little BRAT!!! Do you even know who you’re talking to? DO YOU!!?!”

        “Uhh… No, I don’t think we’ve actually met. Just who are you?” The human asked. Turning to his breezie friend though and seeing her expression of fear led to her telling her the assailants name.

        “T-that’s… the Mane-iac.”

        ‘Wow… Ponies have manes, manes is basically a haircut, and this one has a case of a bad hair day. That’s the most corniest thing I’ve ever heard.’ 

        The Evildoer made Lance think of her as a ripoff of the 2099 version of Doctor Octopus in Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions. Just as a pony with an anger management problem. While thinking this though, he was barely able to dodge a few more of the tentacles as they came at him with newfound speed. Out of the ones he saw all around the Mane-iac, the Adept saw eight huge strands of hair that lunged for him. No wonder he was thinking of an octopus. 

        Lance had an idea for how to deal with the situation besides all the dodging and diving expending his stamina. Using his weapon, he switched bolt clips again. This time to the orange clip that represented the Orochi bolt. The Adept chose this clip for a specific reason. Orochi allowed him to tag up to eight separate targets and also deployed a satellite that could be used to provide covering fire since it fired in seven directions. 

        With speed in his trigger finger, the Azure striker dodged more incoming attacks and fired his shots at the incoming hair strands. Once he tagged all eight of them, he unleashed his Flashfield and lightning immediately went towards the bolts he fired and began to electrocute the crazed villain. However, this only lasted for thirty seconds until he used up all his current energy. 

        “Could you wait a second? I need like five minutes to recharge-?”

        Mane-iac didn't allow him to finish his sentence as she used her overgrown mane to chuck a delivery truck towards Lance. It hit him hard. But soon, lightning began to surge again as the object that was tossed at him exploded and he emerged with only a few cuts and some simple scrapes. Electricity surged around the human as his face showed a simple, yet excited grin across his face. His weapon clenched around his right hand. 

        “Never mind… WE’RE BACK IN BUSINESS!!”

        The satellite that was deployed from Lance’s gun was beginning to give suppressing fire as he rushed in and used his flashfield to defend himself from the other wild strands of hair. Each attack that was blocked stunned the Mane-iac with a brief shock of electricity and just made her even more angrier as the mare angrily continued to try and ravage the human. 

        For Lance though, despite him only finding out about his unlocked gifts recently, was having the time of his life. This felt like an action scene in a movie, but now he was the hero and this overgrown freak was the villain that must’ve been here for her own purposes.

        The Mane-iac, on the other hoof, was stunned beyond belief. She had come here to claim this abandoned factory as her new secret lair after escaping the maximum security prison of Solace Asylum. But this… whatever the hoof he was… was pushing her into a corner. Not even throwing oversized sets of cargo stopped this creature from catching her by surprise and getting hit by lightning.

        “This ends now!!!” He declared as he began to charge the highest amount of electricity in the air. The struggle between both sides had gone on long enough and Lance was losing too much stamina. For someone who had just woken up a few minutes ago, he felt like he was running a marathon in this fight. 

        If he were to survive, he needed to finish this now!



        “VOLTAIC CHAINS!!!”

        Around the entire room, metallic chains of lightning sprang to life from the boy’s electricity

        “Oh… my… mane.”

        “Don’t you mean god?” The Azure Striker asked moments before letting his attack run freely.

        “You worship your thing, I worship mine!!” The Mane-iac shrieked before being overloaded with watts of electricity. Her frail body was coursing all over with pain seconds after receiving the shocking blow as she fell down to the floor. Lance himself was relieved that the fight was over. Beyond exhausted, he closed his eyes and hit the floor again. face first.

        Lumen herself was shocked by everything that just happened. But she now had a new problem to deal with. A friend she had made moments ago was now unconscious in an abandoned facility along with a knocked out psychopath. The breezie had no idea what her little self could do.

        But it wasn’t her that had to do anything. For another pony had seen the entire battle unfold and had decided to help them in the aftermath of their fierce clash with the Mane-iac. She was a Unicorn who had her mane flow like fire and the Red suit, mask and Cape that covered her yellow body and face.



Elsewhere…

        Lance felt like a total wreck. His body was completely sore all over from his first fight with the “Mane-iac” and his face was hurting even more given the fact that he fell on it… again. But right now though, he felt something strange. Like he wasn’t in the factory that he passed out in a few minutes ago.

        “Welcome, young one.”

        The booming voice that echoed around him caused the teen to turn around and reach for his weapon because of instinct. Only to be surprised by two things. One was that his gun wasn’t in his holster. Second was the being that was talking to him.



        “Do not be alarmed, young Displaced. We are in your subconscious. Your body is resting from your struggles with the Monster you just faced and your weapon is with your physical body.”

        “Okay, just who are you though?” The Adept asked the Spectral Figure.

        “I am called the Observer. I watch over the many dimensions in the Multiverse.”

        “And what did you call me? A Misplaced?”

        “Displaced.” The Observer spoke with a bit of edge on the first part of the word to prove his point. “Short for Dimensionally Misplaced. You were brought into a world that wasn’t your own like many other individuals. Of course, each one has their own intentions. But despite that, all I do is watch over these infinite number of universes idly and observe the events that take place.”

        The Observer carried on with his explanation, presenting a few different individuals who had ended up in the same situation as Lance. This included a Tactician with white hair and a black robe with a unicorn as an apprentice, a girl that could control gravity, a blond alchemist, a pair of twins that fought with Swords and Sorcery, A Majin of Harmony, a Mage with a wooden staff and so on. Soon though, the astral deity told him that he would only help with one thing. Making sure that Lance prepare himself a summoning token. That way, other Displaced could call upon him when they needed him and he could do the same. Taking a small badge that resembled the Hairclip on the end of his long braid, the Azure Striker held what resembled a pair of unfolded wings in the form of a badge. 

        Next, the Observer told him to recite an oath or phrase that others will hear when they call upon him. Sighing, Lance began to speak.

        “I am Gunvolt; the Azure Striker. Adept of Lightning. Call my name and when Lightning Strikes, I will awaken and fight for you.”

        With that, a small tear in the void was created and Lance tossed his summoning token into the wormhole. He watched the singular token multiply into multiple items as the void closed. Before the dream ended, the Observer told him that this would be the only time that Lance would see him and that his decisions from here on out will affect how other would see him. Whether they would see him as a hero or not.




End Strike 1