//------------------------------//
// Strike 6- Searching for Clues 
// Story: When lightning strikes... 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//


When Lightning Strikes- Searching for Clues




Power Pony HQ

        Lance’s day so far had been through many ups and downs. First, there was meeting Blood Cleaver earlier that morning and finding out a few things involving the ghoul incident. Then, there was the encounter with Freddy. The one that traumatized his young breezie partner and made her very timid and scared. Now, The Masked Matterhorn had opened up to him, telling the Adept who she was. Twilight Sparkle. The name sounded catchy. Almost like a soda brand or some sort. But still, there were quite a few things to catch her up on.

        But after a few minutes, The Alicorn's best advice was for him to take his mind off of the situation involving the spirit of madness and focus on something else. One idea came to mind. But it required some extra assistance. “Twilight. Could I possibly request your help in something?”

        “Oh? What kind of help?”

        “I need somepony to stay in contact with. Earlier today, I met somepony who's… a spirit medium… earlier today” Lance corrected himself. “She was able to contact the Spirit of Milano and also told me of a possible location of where her attacker might have been staying. I was going to check it out after my training with Solaria. But then again, it happened.”

        The Masked Matterhorn nodded in understanding. “I see. That case has been… troublesome. An incident occurred involving the suspect the other night. We don’t have much details on it right now, so an investigation might help us out. There’s a rumor that she’s not on her own.”

        Lance remembered something like that. Blood Cleaver mentioned a “Mare Do-Well” figure earlier which referred to the mare in purple clothes that was said earlier. “The location is a hotel room that’s closed off to the public. My best guess is that our Ghoul is in a room close to the roof so she could escape if she was attacked or chased.”

        “Good idea. I’ll open up a com-line and scan the building while you make your way over there.” The Alicorn told her. “If anything occurs, use your communicator.”

        Lance nodded as he made his way towards the elevator, but before he went up, he asked the pony one last question. “Hey… One last thing… Can you make sure that Lumen is okay? She’s a real good friend and I just want to make sure she’s doing alright.”

        “I’ll have Solaria look after her. She’ll be fine.”

        Lance let out a sigh of relief. He was thankful for her help. Really thankful.



Unknown location

        Somewhere, in the foul unknown slums of maretropolis, a group of individuals were meeting. Gathering together to discuss recent events that have occurred. There were quite a few of them. Each one with different looks and appearances that varied depending on the individual. But all of them had gathered for a similar purpose.

        “Thank you everypony for coming.” One of them spoke to begin the meeting. “As you may know, some… unfortunate events have occurred that serve as the reason why we are meeting here. Our attempts to obtain a new location for a base for the League have failed.”

        Many murmurs and whispers could be heard throughout the enclosed compound. Some voices expressed anger and rage while other tried to shush them out and tell them to shut their traps. To let the speaker continue.

        “However, it was not the Power Ponies that defeated our fellow comrade. It was a rather… strange figure.” The speaker now had a slideshow running, showing his first image of a young boy with a strange weapon, hair and lightning being released from around him. “According to the media, this individual is known as The Azure Striker and has been working with the police in recent cases. It seems like the Power Ponies have also been thinking of him being a good team member. Something that MUST not happen.”

        A few cheers and roars echoed through the room, in agreement as they supported the Speakers beliefs. “Now now… there is one other figure that must be addressed. Some of you might have heard about the case involving a mare being eaten alive. Well, it has come to my attention that this individual… may be more of an issue than we thought.” Another slideshow image was presented, this one of the female Ghoul with it’s Kagune released around her. Murderous intent in her eyes. 

        “As of right now, we are to keep an eye on these two. We have other matters to attend to.” The speaker soon changed to a Unicorn in a full body suit that was the color of ash and fire with their eyes being pure white. It’s mane was combed to the side and was a dark fire like color. He voice was rasp and edged.

        “Well, everypony. You probably know who I am. I am Hot Spot… and right now, we are going to talk about how we’re going to break Mane-iac out of prison.”



Downtown,

        On an outdoor luxury balcony of the Hoof-Star Hotel, Lance was slowly making his entrance inside, The nearby doorway was the entry point the Masked Matterhorn said was the safest since the other would set off emergency alarms and attract the police. Opening the door, Lance used his newfound senses to make his way through the compound. His abilities as an Adept of lightning allowed the boy to feel multiple sorts of electricity and use those senses to point out objects, people and other things around the place. Still, right now wasn’t the right floor for him to be on. Especially since he still had a few floors to go.

        “Make a right in the next hallway to reach the stairwell. It’ll take you to the next floor.” He heard Twilight’s instructions, following them precisely. Lance was someone who would prefer to make sure to follow any instructions that were given to him. But sometimes, he preferred to give instructions rather than take them. But in this case, he had to take them if he were to get a lead on the Ghoul and her possible companions.

        “Okay, what exactly am I looking for?”

        “I scanned the building and it showed that there was some electricity used on the top floor last night to power a television set. Look for Room number 993.”

        ‘Right… since 993 is 1000 minus 7. Should’ve thought of that.’ Lance told himself, remembering Ken Kaneki when he was fighting Jason in Tokyo Ghoul. The Azure Striker continued through the hallway and up another floor of stairs, soon coming across the top floor. Lance paid attention to the room numbers, looking for the one that he needed while going through the hallway.

        ‘985… 989… 993… Bingo!’ 

        Proceeding with caution, Lance pushed the door open gently and waited a few seconds. Wanting to make sure that there weren’t any unsuspected traps waiting for him. Inside, the entire room looked completely trashed. Debris was everywhere and some things were shot to pieces. Now, the boy began to have a look around and see what could be useful and serve as possible clues. 

        The first clue was something that Lance found on the windowsill. It was a Centipede. Alive, but only moving in small twitches. Must’ve been from the ghoul if she went Kagune on whoever attacked her. Finding a small jar, The Adept carefully contained the insect and kept in in there. That was one piece of evidence. Now to find more.

        Looking around a little, the boy soon came across samples of hair. Three kinds. Azure, White and Lavender. The White and Lavender hairs were a lot longer than the azure ones, so it lead the Adept to presume that it could be hairs from a person’s head or a pony’s mane. The Azure one’s he presumed to be fur. But something else came to mind now that he thought of it.

        “Hey Masked Matterhorn, can you hear me?”

        “Loud and clear, Gunvolt. Is something wrong?”

        “No, I found the room, but some things are more strange than wrong. I found possible hair samples. But some are the same color as your mane.”

        “T-that’s impossible.” She told the Adept. “I haven’t been to the hotel since a few years ago when the city was chosen to host the Grand Galloping Gala.”

        “Let me guess, a huge party for rich ponies?”

        “Something like that. Anything else.”

        “Well… some things might freak you out more than you think.”

        “Really? Like what?”

        “A Centipede.”

        “Eeegh!! Seriously!?” He heard the Alicorn screech from the other end of the com-line. “How does a bug help you find this ghoul?”

        “Well, it’s no ordinary centipede. It’s a Kakujas. A sign that shows that a ghoul has been pushed to her limits and possibly close to death’s door, resulting in a transformation called a Kagune. The room is trashed, so it looks like the Ghoul and whoever she was with were ambushed. Additionally, judging from the specimen, it seems like it’s a Half-Kakujas.”

        “And what does that mean?” The power pony asked over the intercom. A tone in her voice that was filled with disgust.

        “It means that the transformation for this ghoul is incomplete.” Lance said, taking a moment to pause and realize something. “I was right. It doesn’t have control over it’s abilities.”

        “What else can you find?”

        The Adept continued to look around a little more, noticing two other things. One of them looked like a membership card while another looked like shards of a crystal that faintly glowed upon Lance touching it. “Some pieces of crystal-…… Oh dear god, no.”

        “What? What’s wrong?”

        “We got a bigger problem. We don’t have one ghoul in the city. We have two.” 

        Lance could hear The Masked Matterhorn gasp on the other end of the com-line as he told her the possibility of a second ghoul that was in this city. “Two ghouls!? How?”

        “The Shards of a crystal I found is the shards of a second Kagune. One that acts like a tool that can form any weapon. It’s like a cape; but it can act like a shield, be fired like a gun, or used like a sword. The weapons are literally unbreakable unless they were damaged or broken by another ghoul.” Putting the shards away, Lance looked at the final clue that he found. One that could possibly seal the deal with his little investigation.  But looking at the front of it, the saying was one that caused him to raise an eyebrow.

        The League of Vigilante Justice!! Join now and you get free tacos!!!

        ‘O...kay?’ Lance thought to himself. Turning the card over though, he found two things that helped him more than what was on the front. A name and a return address.

        If found, please return to Sonata Dusk at 307, Buckingham Way. Thank you and Happy Taco tuesday!!

        “Okay, now this is just comical.” Lance told himself as he rubbed the card in between his fingers. To his surprise, that one card, split into two. Looking at the second card, this one more resembled an Identification Card.

        League of Vigilante Justice Membership Card: Mare Do Well

        ‘Well, this could be useful.’ He thought to himself. “Hey Twilight, can you look something up for me. I just got an address for a location I need to look into.”

        “Okay, tell it to me and I’ll track it down-.” The Masked Matterhorn though, was soon interrupted by the sounds of a few other voices coming in around the same time. Lance himself was getting an ear splitting headache because of the distortion that was happening. All he heard was The Masked Matterhorn speaking to him one last time before the line went dead.

        “Gunvolt!! Return to HQ immediately!!! We got ourselves a situation and need all hooves on deck!!”

        “Roger that!” Lance said, making his way to the top of the building before using his powers to softly glide over the tops of the buildings.



Power Ponies HQ

        The sight that Lance returned to was not the one he exactly wanted to see. He found the Masked Matterhorn scrambling down a hallway with Saddle Rager and Solaria. Following them lead to seeing Radiance, Filli-second, Mistress Marevelous, and Zapp all beaten up and bruised. 

        “W-what happened?!” The Masked Matterhorn was the first to speak once they entered the room. Humdrum was trying to apply bandages on Zapp, but the Pegasi’s pride lead her to push him away with a hoof and speak to her team mate.

        “We got clobbered, that’s what!! Clobbered by a bucking marshmallow!!”

        Lance looked at Zapp with a puzzled look on his face. “A… marshmallow?”

        “Yeah-.” Mistress Marevelous said as she took off her mask so the bruises on her face could be attended to. “It could talk and knew how to fight. It even turned Radiance’s crystals into candy.”

        “TASTY ROCK CANDY!! OOOHH!! Maybe that could be something I can add as a treat to my next party!!!!”

        Twilight sighed. “Filli, now is not the time for that. You can’t be thinking about throwing a party while you’re hurt. You need to rest.”

        “It’s alright, Masky.” The Earth pony cheerfully replied, ignoring the pain of her bruises and calling the Masked Matterhorn by a personal nickname she came up with. “These BooBoo’s don’t got anything on me!!” Afterwards, she went into a constant giggle fest that had the Adept wonder what was causing her to laugh so much. Solaria honestly thought it was Filli-second being…… Well, Filli-second and the Masked Matterhorn was thinking of the same thing. But Lance pressed on.

        “What’s so funny, Filli-second?”

        “Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!! Booboo!! It’s almost just like what it called himself!! Just with one less boo!!!”

        Booboo but one less… Oh boy. If Lance was thinking of what exactly Filli-second was referring to, then this could be a problem. “Okay, besides what Filli said, does anypony else remember anything else about this… individual?”

        “Well, it was Pink and big. Like gigantic beachball big!!” Zapp spoke this time. “But when I called it out on that, it thought I was calling it fat.”

        “Don’t forget, it knew who we were, darling.”

        Now that had Masked Matterhorn’s ears twitch. “It knew… what?”

        “It knew our real identities!! Almost exposed who we were in public!!! Oh THE HORROR!!! WHAT IF IT RUINS MY REPUTATION!?!!” Radiance screeched in a miniature panic as collapsed on the nearby sofa. Lance watched as the white Unicorn began crying in a pillow. Who knew that she could get so hard on herself.

        “So… Let’s recap…” The Adept began as he started counting fingers. “One, It was big like a marshmallow. Two, it turned Radiances gems into candy. Three, it was Pink and four; it knew who you guys were. And something tells me that Pinkie caught the figures name.”

        “How is this so important?!” Radiance wailed from her face down position on the nearby couch as her face laid on the tear soakened pillow. “This thing wasn’t like anything we’ve seen before and even then, was able to surprise us. What do you think is going to change that, Gunvolt?”

        “I was not like anything you girls have seen before. Yet, here I am now. This calls for a different approach and I believe that I can help.”

        Masked Matterhorn turned towards Lance with an expression of concern. “Are you sure? Whatever this is, it defeated four of us. You should have some back up at least.”

        “Don’t worry. I think I got a pretty good idea of who this individual is. You girls helped me put together all the pieces of the puzzle.” The Azure Striker said as he walked out of the room. Making his way to the roof, Lance decided to take the stairs this time. This gave him time to think inside his mind as he was walking up five flights. Going through everything that was said and everything that he knew about who he was thinking about. 

        Flight one: This individual was not human.

        Flight two: Huge in size and Pink in Color

        Flight three: It knew the identities of Twilight and her friends.

        Flight four: Turned objects and individuals into candy.

        Flight five: It’s name…according to Filli-second… was Boo.

        Lance stood calmly as he slowly opened the door. He did not know what he was going to expect. But he did know a thing of two about who the ponies were talking about. When they said Boo, they meant Majin Buu. A villain in Dragon Ball Z that had various forms and knew multiple abilities. It can regenerate after receiving damage, copy the abilities of other warriors, and consume them by turning them into candy. The most common one was what some of his friends referred to as “Fat Buu” or “Stay Puft Buu” due to it’s size. But other forms included Kid Buu, Super Buu, Majuub, etc. The roof was empty, but soon, the Adept heard a small Whoosh! go past him.

        “ … I think I heard a Whoosh.”

        Turning around, he came face to face with the figure that the girls had mentioned earlier. The Pink Marshmallow that turned out to be Majin Buu. Upon seeing Lance, the Majin began to burst into laughter. 

        “You must be the one Filli-second mentioned. Buu right?”

        “Filli-second? Don’t you mean Pinkie Pie?” It asked, still laughing uncontrollably. The Adept folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. Something seemed off. But then again, Radiance said that it knew their identities. Who they really were. All the more reason for him to believe that Buu here could be from another Equestria. One that was very different from this one (And hopefully not the same one as Freddy’s). “I’m sorry, thats still the funniest thing I’ve seen all week. The Elements of Harmony dressed up as super heroes. OH man thats ssssooo dumb.”

        “The what now?” Lance asked, puzzled. “I’m sorry, I’ve been having a rough day and what you’re just saying is kind of confusing me.”

        “You know, Elements Of Harmony? Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity and Magic? Tia and Luna used them to beat Discord and then Tia used them to put Nightmare Moon on the moon?Really, those aren’t a thing here?” he asked, looking just as confused. 

        Lance sighed. “I think I know a little bit about what’s going on. But for you to understand, I would like to know something… How did you get here in the first place?”

        “I’m still messing around with my portal making, so I opened one and just came through. Though I was Fat Buu at the time and well... I’m an idiot as Fat Buu. Then the girls showed up in those stupid costumes and I couldn’t help but laugh my ass off.”

        Lance facepalmed himself. “You must be a Displaced then. Did you happen to find anything like this before you went into your portal?” With that, Lance showed his token to Majin Buu. The hairpin that had a pair of unfolded wings to represent freedom and liberty.

        “Oh yeah, that.” he said nodding, “I got that.” He reached into himself, pulling out a copy of said hairpin. 

        “Well, that’s my summoning token. You see, as a Dimensionally Misplaced; or Displaced for short, you can obtain tokens of other Displaced to have them come assist you in battle or summon yourself to them. My token must’ve affected your portal to where you ended up in my Equestria.”

        He just blinked before laughing again, “I already got this speech from Kat but thanks. I got a couple other tokens as well,” he said, producing a sheathed katana, a green cylinder, a diamond, a strange glass orb and a medallion. “You didn’t happen to find mine did ya?”

        “No. I only got these.” Lance told the Majin, taking out Blood Cleaver’s knife and Freddy’s golden coin. “What is your token anyway?”

        “A piece of me in the shape of a ball with my ‘M’ on it.”

        “Like an orb?” Lance asked for clarification. “Haven’t seen one. But maybe the girls found it. You might’ve dropped it after encountering them.”

        “So, should we go talk to them ?” he asked, moving closer, “Probably tell them I’m not going to blow the planet up or something.”

        “How about we make a deal?” The boy in the Azure cloak said to the Majin as he adjusted himself. “I can take you to the girls if you help me out. I was thinking maybe knowing a few Ki based techniques could help me in future encounters with other Displaced if I run out of Juice to channel my electricity. So, if you teach me some skills, I’ll let you talk to the girls.”

        “I can do that,” he said with a nod before putting his hand on Lances head. A second later, they were in front of the rest of the heroes. “Sup?” he asked, giving a wave. Most of the ponies in the room began to act cautions because of the sudden appearance, but Lance put himself in between them and Buu.

        “Calm down girls. This has all been a misunderstanding. Let me explain…”




End Strike 6