When Lightning Strikes- Dancing with the Devil
Power Pony HQ
“Hey girls, have you seen Twilight anywhere?”
It had only been a few hours since the power ponies had encountered the creature who was known as “Majin Buu” and now, most of them were talking amongst each other in the room that they use for Rest and relaxation. Mostly referred to by Humdrum as The Den, Mistress Marevelous and the other power ponies were inside, trying to make sense of the events that have occurred throughout the day. Everypony had mixed reactions on the matter, even Solaria when she came into the room with a well rested Lumen by her side, who was expecting to see Lance in there with them.
“Can’t say that Ah have, Sugarcube.” Mistress Marevelous replied to the Masked Matterhorn’s “Number One Sidekick”. “Ah haven’t seen that new guy either… What’s his name again?”
“You mean Geeves?”
“Zapp, that’s only the nickname that you call him by.” Solaria reminded him. “His field name is Gunvolt.”
“With his actual name being Lance.” Lumen tacked on to the Unicorn’s comment. “What exactly happened while I was asleep anyway?”
“We ran into one of those things Gunvolt called them… Displaced I believe. Looked like an inflated piece of Strawberry gum.”
“Gum that could destroy planets!” Zapp rasped. “Don’t worry though, he was a good guy once we got to know him.”
“Says the one who picked ah fight with him in the first place.”
“AJ!!!”
Lumen herself had a bit of mixed reactions to hearing about this other Displaced. Especially after still feeling the effects of tangling with Freddy. But from the sounds of this, this wasn’t exactly the same. For one thing, this individual was a lot nicer and didn’t play any tricks or illusions on them. Additionally, from the way Filli-Second described this “Buu”, he sounded like he was capable of a lot of things and wondered something. If Lance helped him clear things up with the girls, could he have gotten something in return? If so… what was it? For now though, she dismissed the thoughts. The Breezie thought it would be better if she did not think too much on the subject.
The subject of Lance though soon came up again, but in a different sense. This was because they heard the Masked Matterhorn soon shouting from the Command Center frantically. “Gunvolt, do you copy? Gunvolt? Gunvolt!? LANCE!!!”
“Sounds like trouble.” Solaria said as the girls soon got up from where they were sitting and galloped over to where there friend was. They found their Alicorn companion frantically trying to work with one of the monitors.
“Come on, WORK!! GODDESS DAMNED MACHINE!!!”
“Whoa whoa whoa, Twilight. Calm down for just a sec…” Zapp said, only to be cut off by an Alicorn that looked like she was having a panic attack.
“Calm DOWN!!? I can’t right now. This is bad!”
“Twilight, tell us what happened.” Lumen spoke now, catching the Masked Matterhorn’s attention.
“Lance wanted me to help him with a possible lead he found out before we encountered our… Visitor earlier today. I was in contact with him until a few moments ago, where the com-lines were disconnected. Any tries to reconnect with him have failed and all I heard before this happened was what sounded like Lance encountered somepony in combat.
While the Masked Matterhorn was trying to explain everything though, Solaria was looking at a nearby Television that had the news on and bit her lower lip. “Uhh… girls? We got trouble.”
Before anypony from the Heroes of Harmony could say anything, Solaria points towards the Screen as the new report began to play.
“Shots fired from atop a Taco Shop in the Everfree Community Mall. The individuals that seem to be involved in the current standoff look to be the Azure Striker and some hooded Assassin’s Steed Motherbucker…”
Twilight had only one reaction to this as she looked at her friends. “GET HIM ON THE PHONE!!! GET HIM ON THE PHONE!!!! I WANT HIM ON THE PHONE, NOW!!!”
During this though, Nopony happened to notice that Lumen was nowhere in the vicinity. For she had one other objective on her mind. Return to her Partner.
Everfree Community Mall (Rooftops)
As soon as Copen pulled his weapon and aimed it at Lance’s head, The Adept responded with the same motion as both of their energy based shots collided into one another and cancelled each other out. However, the Adept Slayer was not going to let a blond haired boy interfere with his goals. He first planned on taking out the so called Ghoul before focusing on the Adept. With her friends and that Pesky Unicorn out of the way and the dog flying off to take the young foal it was with to safety, the only ones who were left were the hunter…… and the hunted.
Taking aim with his shield, the bottom end of the buckler soon formed a crossbow as a powerful charge was beginning to form, only to be let loose as a powerful beam. “ARROGANT RADIANCE!!”
Lance dodged the beam as he barrel rolled to his left, only turning back to see how the Ghoul reacted to the blast. Kaoru summon her kagune to protect her from the beam heading towards her. To her surprise it didn’t hurt her as much as when the Hunter shot her in the chest, but it did cause her to be pushed back a bit. After seeing this, Lance returned to the Task at Hand and charged up his Septima to perform a skill that costed him two of his three skill points.
Seconds later, a claymore of electricity was shot forth in a piercing motion, striking Copen along the chestplate. It left a brutal scar, but did minor damage to the Adept Slayer’s body. Lance himself still couldn’t personally believe that this individual was actually one of his best friends.
Back home, their plan was to attend Anime Los Angeles for all three days. However, the first day of the event was when he came across the merchant and how he ended up here. If Cody were here now, then something must’ve happened on one of those other days. And to do that, he needed to snap his friends out of this crazed trance he was in.
“I don’t know who you are, and right now I don’t care. All I do know is that I’m so gonna enjoy eating you for what you did to me at the hotel.”
“Kaoru, don’t. I know this guy.” Lance told her as he looked over his shoulder and switched to another clip, The Technos clip. “He’s suppose to be my friend, but something is causing him to not be himself. It’s like…… some kind of mind control.”
“Oh great, as if this wasn’t hard enough. So we just have to knock some sense into him then?”
“Maybe? I’m not quite exactly sure at this point. Are your friends okay?” Lance asked, only pausing for a moment to jump back to avoid an incoming shield bash from Copen.
“They’re fine, it’ll take more than that to hurt them.”
“What about the Unicorn? Your ghoul friend did land on top of her.” The Adept then began to fire using the Technos clip. Despite it not having as much tagging capabilities as his other clips, Technos fired his shots in two separate directions. Lance thought of it as a good way to distract Copen and prevent him from firing his revolver.
“Ghouls skin are as hard as steel.”
“I wasn’t talking about it like that-.”
“GET THE HAY OFF OF ME!!! YOU’RE CRUSHING TRIXIE’S RIBCAGE!!!”
“I CAN’T CAUSE I’M STILL SEEING STARS AFTER YOU WERE THROWN AT ME!!!”
“AND YOU WERE THE ONE WHO LANDED ON TOP OF ME!!!”
“Well, I guess Gravity’s a b*tch in this scenario.” Lance muttered before noticing Copen aiming his rifle towards Kaoru. “GET DOWN!!!”
Copen pulled the trigger as his shots went towards Kaoru. His intentions for this were to acquire the powers that came with Kaoru’s Kagune form. But that plan failed when Lance used a few tricks he learned from Buu to create a whip of Ki and yank her out of the way like a cartoon character getting yanked offscreen.
“What is with your friend coming after me?” Kaoru asked.
“That gun of his allows him to nullify an Adept’s Septima, or someone’s powers and possibly take it as his own. Something tells me that after seeing you use that form of yours to protect yourself, he wants it.”
“Wait but wouldn’t that make him into a ghoul just like me?”
“Not quite. The character that he is right now is a human that uses stolen adept powers acquired from fallen adepts. Something tells me that with him being with us in a world filled with Superheroes and Ponies, the rules of the game change.”
Lance was quick to react again as he switched his guns clip again. This time, it was back to the Orochi clip. The one that he used to corner the Mane-iac with. As he began to shoot, a tiny drone the size of a teacup began to fire a spray of bolts that kept Copen on the move. The Hunter noticed the Drone though and used his weapon to turn it into scrap metal while preparing another attack.
This time though, the attack was a lot different. Purple energy formed around the Adept Slayer as several Doppelgangers began to form from his shield.
“Oh COME ON!!!” Lance hollered as he was knocked back against a brick wall due to the rushing attack that came with no warning whatsoever. Kaoru was also struck by the sudden attack, but her Kagune reduced the damage she would’ve taken.
“You know for a so called hero, you’re not doing a good job at it.” Kaoru said to the Azure Striker.
“Honestly, the media took it too far. Masked Matterhorn gave me a week to prove myself before she has the final decision on if I become one or not. Today’s day two.” Lance struggled to stand again as blood dripped from his forehead.
“Figures those heroes would do that… Hey is that blood dripping from your head?”
Lance wiped his forehead and gritted his teeth. “Sh*t. Give me a second…” Before the ghoul could do anything, Lance used one of the recharged Skill points from earlier to activate Galvanic Patch.
“Damn was hoping I could taste some of it.” Kaoru stomach started to growl. “....Don’t judge me, I haven’t eaten anything in the past three months. And drinking nothing but water & coffee isn’t helping.”
“Question, does one bite help?” Lance asked.
“Depends, why you ask?”
“I can heal faster than normal. Which means if you do bite me, my flesh regenerates a few minutes later and be good as new. If you think eating will help restore your strength and help my friend snap out of it, then I’m planning to take any risks.”
“You do realize that once I bite you, I might go berserk right?”
“DON’T… try to lecture me about consequences. My partner right now is suffering from nightmares after a Displaced Spirit of Madness broke her spirit.” The Adept told her as he rolled up his sleeve, showing his free arm. “Do what you need to do.”
“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Kaoru warned, sinking her teeth into Gunvolt’s arm taking a chunk of his flesh off and swallowing it. A mask formed around her right eye, and her centipede kagune appeared along with her normal kagune. She then focus her attention onto the Adept Slayer, and vanish in split second. Lance’s flesh, like he had said before, was slowly restoring itself, but just for an added measure, executed Galvanic Patch again so he was healed. He knew what to do and if the Ghoul tried to eat him again, he could shock her with the lightning that he can channel from his skin.
Also, he knew a few things a few things about The Adept Slayer that Kaoru didn’t. He was quick on his feet, clever and crafty. He saw this as Ravenous Flies began to form around him as he shot his hand forward.
“FLESH EATER!!!”
Kaoru appeared behind the Adept Slayer, using her kagune to knock him straight into one of the air conditioning vents on top of the building. Copen was quick to get back up though. When he ganged up on her before and shot the ghoul, he obtained a regeneration skill that worked similarly to Gunvolt’s Galvanic Patch. This allowed him to get back up quickly and shield smash Kaoru’s face near milliseconds before she could strike her.
“You can’t eat if you don’t have teeth.” The hunter taunted as he watched the ghoul struggle to her feet. A new sound though attracted Copen’s attention as he now looked at Lance, who had unsheathed the blade that Humdrum made for him and used it to cut down the swarm of flies around himself.
“Well, I never thought you would have any new toys to play with.”
“Cody, knock this sh*t off. This isn’t you.”
“And I told you before, I’m Copen. Not this boy that you speak of.”
Lance sighed. Guess talking was not going to help any. Only chance he had now was to-.
“RRRRAAAHHH!!!” Kaoru rocketed forward towards Copen. This time using her centipede kagune to attack him and her normal kagune as a shield to protect her from any attacks the slayer had.
As Copen knock Kaoru back though, Lance noticed something. A new figure, emerging behind Kaoru and her Kagune. “Sorry about this kid, but at the rate you’re acting you’ll end up killing someone.” The figure said as it grabbed Kaoru and slammed her on to the roof with brute force, knocking her out.
Lance was startled by the new voice. “Kaoru!! Who the bloody hell are you!?”
“The one who’s going to kill you both.”
Lance felt his blood freeze, but he didn’t. The Adept saw this before. “You’re… The One Eyed Owl. Just what the hell do you want with her? Will she be okay?”
“Hehehe… That is for me to know, and for you to find out little boy.” The Owl lifted Kaoru up from the ground and swallowed her whole. “But then again, you’re in league with the Power Ponies so I might as well take you with me as well.”
“How about her friend?”
The Owl looked at the Blond Adept in confusion as Lance spoke. “Kaoru had a friend with her that’s also a ghoul. I’ll let you take her if you leave the two of us to take care of some… Unfinished Business. Plus… you have a limited amount of time anyways.”
“What are you-?”
“I sent a beacon signaling my position to my Mentor back at Power Pony HQ when Kaoru bit my arm using a pain sensor in my gear that has those tracking my Com-line also track my vital signs. If I’m right, you have three minutes to make a choice before they show up.”
“Smart kid, I give you that. Fine, we’ll leave for the time being.” The Owl tossed him a card with something written on it. “This is the new location for the league if you want to come after Kaoru, but know this human… If you and your Power Ponies do come after her to bring her to “Justice”. Me, the Ghoul sisters, and Arima will not show mercy to you all if you try to hunt her.”
“First off, I’m an Adept. Not a Human. Second, I’m not trying to hunt her or bring her to justice. I’m trying to help her. She sees herself as a monster for what she has become and I wanted to help her know that she isn’t that. Third, if I do come, I will come alone. I want to help her and not have her locked up. Because right now, she’s like a scared dog. No sense of direction or guidance on how to do things right.”
“Fine then kid, I’ll make a deal with you. If you can convince the Power Ponies to see her as a person that needs help, then I’ll have you and your “heroes” train her along with the league. But if you can’t and if this is some kind of trap…… Well let’s just say you better have some fighting experience with a SSS type ghoul then.” The owl lifted it’s hand at Gunvolt as if it wants to shake his hand. “Agreed?”
Lance began to think things through. It seemed like a difficult task, but not an impossible one. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere anytime soon. “Agreed. But for right now, I’ll let you hold onto her. I still have to gain some more experience and also the trust of the other power ponies before I could convince them of anything. The Masked Matterhorn and Solaria trust me, so that’s a start. But I still have a long ways to go. When I gain their trust, I’ll come to the hideout for a “visit”. Fair enough?”
“Fair enough kid. Till then, Arima will keep an eye on you during that time. You have a month to do so, and if you haven’t done so by then. Then I’ll hunt you down kid along with your team, and eat you.”
“So one month and then I visit? Sounds fair.” The Adept said. “Quick question though, where’s the guy that was here a moment ago… You know… the one with the shield?”
“Arima should of taken care of him right now, don’t worry… He only knocked out. Whatever or whoever it was that was controlling him should be off of him now.”
In front of Lance now laid the unconscious body of Copen. He was knocked out cold, probably due to whatever this “Arima” did to him. “Thank you. I appreciate your generosity… I’ll see you in a month.” With this, the exhausted Adept used what energy he had left to sense the current location of The Masked Matterhorn, who was halfway across from where he was and performed an Instant Transmission to teleport himself out. Leaving the Owl alone with Arima watching in the shadows.
“So… what do you think of this… Adept, Arima?”
“..........”
“You’re right. He can be trusted, but I want you to put him and his team to the test. Words mean nothing if he can’t back it up.”
“..........”
“You can beat him and his team, but don’t kill them. After all if he does tell them where we are you can kick their ass when one of them sneaks in to HQ.”
“.........”
“No, I’m not gonna ask him if his friend is single!!! I’m not gonna date him, plus I have the body of a seventeen year old so that would be awkward!!!”
“........” With that, Arima begins to walk back to HQ.
“Hey, get back here you jerk! I’m not done talking to you!!!”
As they left, what the owl did not know was that the part where this “Gunvolt” was going to back up his claims was going to happen sooner than they thought.
Empty Field (Not far from HQ)
While flying towards the signal that was set off by one of Lance’s pain sensors, the Masked Matterhorn did not notice to see somepony land in the fields below. The other thing she didn’t notice was for that somepony to be Lance of all people.
“Gunvolt!!”
“Down here!!!” He hollered as the Alicorn set herself down. The first thing she did though seconds after landing was smack Lance with her right hoof.
“Oww!! What the bloody hell was that for!?!”
“THAT… was for making us worried! When the pain sensor went off, we thought that you were close to getting killed.”
“Felt like that after tonight…”
“No time for jokes.” By now though, Twilight had noticed the individual next to him. “Who’s he?”
“He’s my friend, Cody. But earlier tonight, he was acting very strange. Almost like he was possessed. He even tried to kill Kaoru and I.”
“Kaoru?”
“That was the Ghoul’s name.” Lance explained. “Anyways, can you use your magic and try to figure out what caused him to act crazy a few moments earlier?” The Alicorn nodded as she started to cast a spell on him that covered the body of Lance’s friend. After a few moments though, he eyes widened. “T-that’s impossible!!”
“What? Is something wrong?”
“Yeah. What happened was that your friend was possessed by a villain we call Puppeteer. He is capable of using Magic to make others do his bidding. I need to remove him of any residue that might be still lingering around his body in order for him to be fully free from his control. Stay near me, I’m teleporting up to HQ.”
“Yes, Madam.” Lance responded, but before they could leave, a tiny voice was calling out.
“Wait for me!”
“L-lumen!?” The Adept was shocked to see her. “I thought you were still recovering.”
“My nightmares are gone now. I should be fine. Let’s go!”
With that, Twilight teleported the three of them and one unconscious body to the infirmary inside HQ. The sudden arrival startled Humdrum, who was in there looking for the bottle of Aspirin to give to Mistress Marevelous for a headache she was getting shortly after the freakout back at base earlier in the night.
“T-twilight!! You’re back-!”
“Not now, Humdrum. We got an emergency. Get Solaria in here, I need her help.”
The young dragon gave the Alicorn a Salute as Lance set his friend down on the examination table. He removed him of his hood so that way Twilight could see his face.
“Lance, please step out of the room. I need to concentrate so I can help him.”
The Adept nodded, closing the door behind him. When he walked outside, he saw Radiance and Zapp waiting outside as Solaria passed Lance. “Darling, you’re okay!”
“You can say that.” Lance said. “I think we got other issues though.”
“Oh? Like what Geeves?” Zapp asked. Lance sighed as he walked alongside the two ponies and then sat on the couch in the Den.
“My best friend tried to kill me tonight, had to help a ghoul that was starving to death as he tried to shoot us and then… It’s best you don’t know.”
Lance stopped there because he was taking the Owl’s warning seriously. He told him of a figure named Arima watching over him. So, he needed to keep his trap shut about the meeting if he wanted to live.
“What about the pain sensor of yours?”
“That was me helping the ghoul.” Lance said, showing the left behind imprints from Kaoru’s teeth. “But enough about me. I’m worried about Cody.”
“Cody?”
“My friend. Masked Matterhorn said that he was under the control of somepony called The Puppeteer.”
The name had the ponies in the room gasp. But it also made them wonder…… How is The Puppeteer able to do his magic. Last time that they remembered…
He was in Solace Asylum.
Solace Asylum (One hour earlier)
Inside the Maximum security prison, guards stood at every door for the purpose of maintaining order. But for the guards in the prison… and the inmates for that matter… Things were going to get a little loud. It all started with a simple security check. Two Unicorn Stallions that were part of the Royal Police went up to the entrance for what some would call “The Villain Vault”. It was a section of Solace Asylum where the Power Ponies locked up all the prisoners that they have accumulated over the years that the heroes have been on the streets. This time though, the guards at the check in were surprised to see what the guards were bringing in.
The newest inmate looked like a bipedal hairless minotaur. It had a mane that was Spiked everywhere with a section that had a sliver of white resemble a crescent moon.
“Err…… Who is this?”
“Newest Inmate,” One of the guards said. “Tried to attack a caravan on the side of the road and demonstrated signs of powers, so we’re putting him with the others.”
“I’m sorry… But this one doesn’t seem so… Threatening.”
Now was when the unknown figure looked at the guards, a glint of violet in his eyes. “Is there a problem, Officer?”
Soon, both guards were standing up straightly. Acting like they were in the presence of a General. “Oh no no no… There’s no problem. Guards, escort this… thing to his cell.”
The guards pressed a few keys with their hooves and soon let the two of them inside. Shortly after the door closed though, the bipedal figure lifted a hand at the two of them
“Thank you, officers.”
Two energy balls soon ran out, striking the two guards in the head and having them drop to the floor. “Good job you two. That was quite an act you pulled off, Hot Spot.”
“Hey, whatever works. Let’s break out our comrades. Third Eye? How many guards do we have?”
Soon the second Stallion closed his eyes, channeling his magic. Then, his eyes reopened. “They’re in the break room. The officers are there due to some kind of work celebration.”
The bipedal figure, which you may think was a human, now smiled. “Time to go to work.”
He walked under the guard rails and out of the sight of the security camera’s. Soon, he was close to the Break Room. Where he saw the guards celebrating and drinking steins of Cider. He then stepped in.
“Evening, Gentlemen.”
Before the Guards could react, the individual’s hands began to form mystical energy around his hands as they surged around him.
Multiple shots of energy rang out, striking the guards and causing them to lose control of themselves and pass out on the ground. Striding towards the head guard, he picked the keys from his harness.
“This could be useful-.”
BOOM!!
“If Hot Spot actually had some self control.” The Adept sighed.
He then went out into the center of the Vault, where all the villains there gathered. It looked like twenty to thirty of them, give or take. But it didn’t really matter. One of them though, a tall pony with a crazed mane looked at him.
“Who the hay is this guy?”
“He’s the one that not only set up the plan to get you out, but helped reorganize the League Mane-iac. Something that you were never able to do.”
“Why you little-.”
“Enough!! Both of you!!!” The Adept’s voice boomed as it attracted everyone’s attention. “While it is true that I got you out, I did not get you out so you two can bicker pathetically like children. Which is why, from now on, I am in charge here. One need a compass to guide them while on travel. For you right now, I am that Compass.”
“Very well,” one other pony snorted while everypony else murmured in shock and awe. “What should we call you?”
The boy smiled as he turned to look at the Villain. “My name is Nova. But you refer to me as Nova, the Mighty if you wish. And we… will be known as Sumeragi.”
End Strike 8
