“So what else are you hiding, Home Run?” Sunset quizzed after they had all recovered from the blind. “What else do you know?”
“Hey, I could always ask you the exact same question,” Home Run answered back.
“It’s alright, Sunset,” Twilight stepped in. “I told him not to tell anyone. It’s not his fault.”
“When did you two meet?” Rainbow asked. “How did he know about all this?”
“Home Run was the one who found one of the keys needed to power the Warframes. Unfortunately, he threw it to the Grineer.”
“Home Run, what were you doing?” Rainbow asked loudly, raising her hands above her head.
“As I’ve said before… I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was so important,” Home Run apologized again, a blush rising in his face.
“I’m sorry, Home Run,” Sunset added in. “Really… a lot of things have been going on. I just don’t know what any new students could be hiding.”
Home Run huffed, but decided to stop the accusations. The fight should be focused on the Grineer. Not each other. He raised a hand towards her. “Yeah, me too. Sorry I got mad. You were right to be suspicious. Still friends?”
“Sure,” Sunset smiled, shaking his hand.
“Party time!” Pinkie shouted, jumping out from under Home Run. “What do you guys want to do? I think we should have a big party! We need confetti, balloons, and steak!”
“Sounds like a plan,” Applejack seconded.
“Ummm…” Home Run uttered. “Is there a point for this party?”
Pinkie put a hand to her chin and thought about it. “Nope!”
“Well, parties are awesome!” Rainbow said. “So let’s have a party! We can celebrate getting better at this work.”
“If everyone’s in, then I guess… why not?” Home Run replied. “So where to?”
“No idea!” Pinkie said happily, but still bounded off, the rest following her.
Princess Celestia exited her inner sanctum, returning her Lotus mask to the pedestal before leaving. She sealed the doors behind her as she reentered her study. She smiled to herself as the floor returned to its natural state, looking as though there was no secret entrance there at all. She had to make sure her sister wouldn’t be able to spot the difference if she entered the study. Lately, Luna had been questioning her as though she had been hiding something from her sister. Luna was right of course, but Celestia couldn’t tell her the truth. Not yet. She couldn’t pull Luna into this dark world at the moment. As for Twilight and her friends, they were progressing well. True, they still needed training, but in given time, they should be able to have the skills and power necessary to stop the Grineer from getting to Equestria. Home Run was an extra piece on the board. When she had met him, she knew he would be an important player on the field, and she was right. He had saved the Rainbooms from the Grineer on his first run.
Celestia left her study, heading towards the meeting room, remembering that she had a meeting with some delegates from Manehattan. Unknown to her, a shadowy figure watched her from the dark, using its claws to grapple itself to the ceiling. As soon as the princess was far enough, the creature followed, lifting its claws silently as it walked upside down behind her.
“See you guys!” Pinkie waved as the others left her house. “That was fun! We should do it again!”
The others waved goodbye to Pinkie as left, deactivating their Warframes as they stepped out the door. In the end, Pinkie had suggested having a Tenno party. They all wore their Warframes and partied while Vauban linked the processors of the Warframes together, allowing the Tenno to talk amongst themselves. The Tenno had enjoyed that very much, though their conversation was often tinted with odd words and energy pulses that none of them understood. Home Run had learnt more about the others during the party. What they did besides school, and where some of them came from.
“That was awesome!” Rainbow said approvingly. She was the only one to keep Zephyr’s Warframe active. “The food was great, and I loved hearing all your war stories! Especially the one where you held off a dozen Grineer manics with only a tipedo, Zephyr.”
“Glad you enjoyed it, Rainbow Dash. I consider that one of my finest moments.”
“Ah think mah favourite part is Twilight’s dancin’!” Applejack laughed. “She ain’t improved a bit since the Fall Formal!”
“Whaaat?” Twilight asked in disbelief. “I’d like to think it got better.”
“Well, Nyx didn’t seem to like it,” Rainbow reminded her. “What did she say again? Something about shameful display of her Warframe?”
“It’s not my fault,” Twilight reminded. “Nyx is just mad she can’t move. Back in Equestria, this is how most of us dance.”
Sunset snorted. “I’m pretty sure even back home, your dancing style is one of a kind.”
“Well… I gotta go,” Twilight quickly said. “Duty calls. I’ll see you all tomorrow?”
“See you, Twilight,” Sunset chuckled, waving her friend off as she headed in the direction of school.
The rest said their goodbyes as Rainbow got herself ready. “Time for me to go too! Let’s see how fast I can get home now!”
Rainbow took off in a flash of wind, jetting up into the air and then forward, whipping leaves off the trees as she made her way home at high speeds. The others started making their way back, Sunset and Rarity going off in one direction and Applejack in the other.
Home Run found out that Fluttershy lived near his place, so they decided to walk home together.
"So..." Home Run started. "How's all this Warframe stuff going for you? I mean, you don't fight, do you?"
“N-no...” Fluttershy tried to hide behind a lock of soft pink hair. “It’s just so scary, and I don’t like hurting people.”
"I see, I see," Home Run nodded. "Yeah, it's something... different. I guess healing’s pretty good too. I mean, you're the one that keeps us alive out there."
“I suppose,” They walked in silence for a few minutes. “Trinity says I need to learn how to fight though. I don’t want to let her down, but I don’t know if I can.”
"Well, even if you don't learn to fight, I think it'll be alright. That's what we're for. We take the front lines while you take care of us from behind. I'd say that's more than enough already."
The shy girl gave Home Run a smile. “Thanks... I just wish Trinity felt the same way.”
"I guess you just have to show her that support is what's best for you and the team. She sounds pretty reasonable. At least she's not Nyx. That is one Warframe I'm thankful doesn't work with me."
Both of them cringed. Nyx had been neither merciful nor quiet during Twilight’s display of dancing, and since Vauban had been neurally linking them all, everyone had heard it until Twilight had shut off her Warframe in retaliation.
"I feel sorry for Twilight... To have a partner l-like that... I don't know if I would be able to do anything at all with someone shouting d-down my back..."
“Yeah. I hope they get along better in the future, it’s hard enough fighting Grineer without having to fight our own partners.”
Fluttershy gave a small nod. Soon, they had arrived at her place. "Well, this is my stop. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
“Yeah. See you.”
Home Run waved goodbye to his new teammate, then kept on walking.What a day. Hopefully the Grineer would be nice enough to hold off any further assaults until Saturday. He had a baseball team to try out for.
“Oh no.” he said. “I left my homework at school!”
The Excalibur pulled the last of the fallen Grineer together, taking out the special agent from his side pouch. Earlier, he had been on the other side of town, quelling a different Grineer force. After he and Mag had taken them down, he proceeded to dispose of the bodies before leaving for the school. Once again, he had to clean up the battle, making sure no one would see the dead bodies and damage. Sprinkling the substance on the bodies, he stepped back as they slowly dissolved into nothing but little black spots, easily concealed in the field's grass. He then proceeded over to the Grineer drop pods to do the same.
“So…” Excalibur asked his pilot. “What do you think of all these new additions to the Lotus’ defence? You think they’ll be of any help when the real problems come?”
The pilot took a deep breath before starting. “Who knows for sure. We’ll just hope they will be. We need them to be. Once Captain Vor arrives with the main force, one Warframe alone will not be enough.”
“True. Perhaps we should train them? Get them to be better pilots. It might not take them as long since they stand naturally on two legs.”
“No. The Lotus specifically instructed us to only watch over them. We can’t reveal ourselves just yet.”
“Well, you can’t. They already know who I am. Especially my Tenno brothers and sisters.”
The Excalibur sprinkled the acidic agent onto the pods, watching as they slowly dissipated into nothing. Since the pods were bigger, they took a little longer to melt down, but in the end, nothing remained except for the black bits. “That’s right. We still have much to do. This field sure took a beating today.”
“You know, when all this is over, perhaps you should become a gardener instead. You’ve gotten good at replacing the grass and plants. You’ve had years of cleaning up after all.”
“Very funny, Ex. Let’s just get this over with. I still have some work to finish tonight.”
“Still… it’s only a matter of time for the captain to come down personally. We’ll have to make sure we’re ready to face him and his army.”
“Yes,” the pilot nodded. “I believe these were only scouting parties. They haven’t setup any kind of forward operations yet. They’re planning something big, and they’re waiting to make their move.”
“Whatever happens, we have to protect the Lotus at all cost. We cannot let them reach her.”
“That’s right. We live to serve her. Nothing more.”
Thankfully, Thursday passed without any incident. Home Run watched the skies as he headed home, ready for any pods to crash to the ground, but nothing came. His bruises had been getting better, hurting less as the day went by.
The quiz for history class wasn’t too hard as well, thanks to the reading he got done. He had finished the paper and handed it in in approximately seven minutes. From his sneaky peeks around after he handed in the paper, his attention was drawn to Rainbow Dash, who seemed to still be at the top of her quiz. Every now and then she would get up and go to the bathroom, then come back and fill in a few more. She was the last to hand in her quiz.
After school, he had followed the Rainbooms to the Warframe obstacle course to practice his movement. He performed to the standard, slightly better than Applejack, but slower than Sunset and definitely Rainbow, who held the record.
Friday was almost just as uniform as the day before. Mrs. Harshwhinny had lectured to them about Song of the Trees, and how there was a deeper meaning to it. Mr. Pierce’s class was the same as usual. The computer teacher just droned on and on about photo editing and how simple it was. Home Run almost fell asleep, but steeled himself throughout the rest of the class. Math class with Mr. Bray went by without any problems, even from Jetstream and Lightning Rain, surprisingly. Then came Art class. Most of the students discovered that Charly wasn’t half bad at painting, getting high marks for his work.
Science class was a little different from the rest of the week. Mr. Discord had started on about atoms and how splitting an atom would cause a nuclear explosion. He tried to demonstrate with a bar of chocolate but it just ended up exploding nougat all over the front row. They spent the rest of the class cleaning up. Then came PE. Home Run felt well enough to finally return, joining his class as they played some soccer. Soarin and Spitfire were aces at the sport, but that was hardly a surprise. History class was pretty average. Mr. Loregiver gave a speech about King Dawn Saber and the Knights of the Round Table. Home Run knew the legend well, how the king had received the sacred sword, Excalibur, from the Lady of the Lake and how he led his kingdom to victory until his death, but that was only the legend. Apparently, as Mr. Loregiver said, there was no real Lady of the Lake, although whether Excalibur had really existed was still a mystery to this day. Then he had handed back the quizzes.
“Wow,” Home Run said to Sunset as they left the class. “What a story! I guess that if Excalibur was real, I’d like to wield it if they could ever find it. You think our, uh, friends, could help us look for it?”
Sunset gave the boy a mysterious look before shaking her head. “I don’t think it’s worth looking into. After all, it’s just a legend. Anyway,” she changed to subject. “how’d you do on your quiz? I forgot to study the prehistoric era, so I missed the bonus question.”
"I did alright. The more important question though... How did Rainbow do?" Home Run decided to ask. "I kinda saw her struggling with the questions."
“How’d I do?” Rainbow butted in, holding her quiz above her head triumphantly. “Try a hundred and two percent! I even got the bonus question. I’m awesome!”
Home Run took a while to process everything the girl just said. "Wait... what? Top marks? I thought you were struggling, being the last the hand it in and all."
“Pfft, no! I just had to check all my answers to see if they were right. It’s little tricks like that which make me top of the class. Anyway, Home Run... Are you ready for the tryouts?”
"Oh, most definitely!" Home Run grinned. "Been waiting for this the whole week!"
“Cool. Get yourself ready then meet us on the field in an hour. I’ll get the rest of the team.”
"Right, see you later, captain," Home Run saluted. "Well, off to prepare now. See you later, Sunset."
He waved to the fiery haired girl and headed to his locker to dump his books, creating a mental reminder to collect them later, unless he wanted to repeat what happened on Wednesday. After closing his locker and changing into his gym clothes, Home Run headed for the baseball field.
The team was already waiting, along with Coach Whiplash and a few other students, probably wanting to try out like Home Run.
"Hey, coach," Home Run said as he walked towards him.
"Ah, Home Run," he returned. "I'd knew you'd be here. Ready to show us what you got?"
"You know it, coach."
"Alright, good to hear. We still have some time before we begin. Why not get to know the others?"
Home Run nodded and went over to the other students, here to try out as well. There were two of them. A boy with blue hair and tan skin, and a girl with grey hair and peach skin.
"Hi there," the girl waved. "You here to try out too?"
"Yup," Home Run replied. "The name's Home Run."
The boy shook Home Run's hand. "I'm First Base."
"And I'm Shortstop," the girl said, doing the same.
"Cool," Home Run laughed. "So we're all made for baseball, huh?"
"Yup," Jetstream said, walking in on their conversation. "You guys will be good additions to our little team! We're... A little short on members if you've seen."
"If you lack the numbers, how are you all still that good at baseball?" Shortstop asked.
Jetstream smiled and said one word. "Skill."
"Alright, alright!" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "Let's get this started!"
The rest of the baseball team walked up join the newcomers.
"I'm the captain of course, Rainbow Dash. And here we have Sundown, Jetstream, Lightning Rain, Heavy Wind, and Cold Wind," Rainbow continued. “Today, we’ll be seeing how good you are at this game. Just so you know, you’ll probably make it on the team, since we’re missing some people.”
“Sounds awesome!” First Base smiled, putting his fists together.
“Not as awesome as me, though,” Rainbow added. “Alright. Let’s start with batting.”
First Base was the first to have a go at swinging the bat, followed by Shortstop, then Home Run. Shortstop wasn’t too good at the bat, but she was amazing at catching, even having Lightning Rain walk over just to tell her. She could time the almost exact area the ball would fall and be there before it did, her hand raised up to grab it as it dropped towards her.
“Taking up an apprentice, Lightning?” Jetstream smirked. “Don’t you think you should graduate to a master before that?”
“Don’t start, Jetstream,” Lightning warned, narrowing his eyes.
As for running, they were all pretty fast, with First Base being the fastest. He could run through all the plates a second faster than Home Run.
“Good job, First Base,” Home Run panted as they arrived back at the home plate. “You’re fast.”
“I’m smaller in size,” he said. “So maybe that’s it.”
“Still, Base, that’s very fast,” Shortstop added in, also trying to catch her breath from the quick sprint.
“Guess we all have our talents in different places,” First Base smiled.
“Good job, guys,” Cold Wind told them. “Even if you didn’t do this well, you’d still be on the team, so I’m glad you’re all skilled at something.”
“My sister’s right,” Heavy joined them, taking out his phone. He took a picture of the three new baseballers. “I’ll be putting this on MyStable.”
"Ya know sometimes... Ah wonder if you're phone lasts as long as Mr. Pierce's..." Sundown joked. "Ah mean, ya always have it with ya, takin' pictures an' all."
"I have my resources..." Heavy Wind said, his attention still on his phone. “Maybe I’ll tell you someday.”
Coach Whiplash blew his whistle and trotted down the bleachers. “Alright, kids. That’s baseball for today. Time to pack up.”
Home Run caught up with Rainbow Dash after he was done putting his things away.
“Hey,” he said. “Think I made the team?”
“I guess so,” Rainbow said airily. “I mean, we do need more players. Hey,” she said, stopping. “Want to get in some practice with our Warframes? I haven’t flown Zephyr at all today.”
“Right,” Home Run agreed. He had barely gotten any training in, since he had forged a pact with Vauban. “I’ll need to practice to be able to kick some Grineer butt. Let's do it."
“Then let’s go find Sunset. We can ask her to get Princess Twilight to open up the dojo again.”
The Liset silently encompassed the galleon, waiting for the right moment to enter the Grineer ship. Excalibur emerged from the underside of his stealth ship and floated down to the top of the galleon. He pulled out his skana and cut a hole just big enough for himself to fit through, making sure to watch out for any nearby Grineer underneath. He found a vent system, following it towards the location he needed to get to. The armory. He had to find out what the Grineer were preparing. Vor had the void key. Anything could happen.
“Careful, Excalibur,” Princess Celestia told him, communicating to him via his HUD. “I’m reading a lot of Grineer near your position. They’re heading somewhere…”
“Right,” Excalibur replied.
He soon arrived at the end of the vent, deciding to enter the ship by once again cutting his way down. He dropped with barely a sound, quickly scanning his surroundings, just in case the aliens saw him. A patrol of Grineer passed by in front of him, forcing him to duck behind a metal container to conceal himself. They were carrying a piece of metal, looking like it was to be part of something bigger.
Excalibur scanned them carefully. There were only five Grineer, and four of them had their hands full with the piece, while one had his shotgun out.
"We can take them," Excalibur reasoned. "There are only five. We've dealt with more."
"Right."
Excalibur left his hiding spot and jumped right into the middle of the patrol, spinning and cutting two of them down at once.
"Tenno!" the one with the shotgun grunted.
Excalibur quickly took him out with a slash dash, covering the the distance quickly. The last two dropped the metallic piece and pulled out their rifles, training them on the Warframe. The Excalibur was faster, deflecting their bullets towards the first one, tearing up his armor. The second one moved to a console, trying to set off the alarm, but that just let Excalibur finish him with a backstab.
"You're still in the clear," the Lotus alerted. "No detection from enemy sensors."
The pilot walked to the piece of metal, bending down to inspect it. "Excalibur. Anything on this?"
"This looks like a piece to a warp gate..."
"Excalibur is right," Lotus updated. "This is what I feared. They are going to construct a gate, and with their torsion beams and the void key..."
Excalibur realized the threat. "... They could open a portal between dimensions. A rift between worlds. Straight to Equestria."
“What do you want to do?”
The Excalibur stood up and cut the piece of metal into three parts. “We need to stop them, or at least slow them down.”
“Warning,” Lotus reported on his HUD. “I’m detecting a large assault force heading your way. It’s the Grineer. Get out of there. I've also detected that the other gate pieces are in the galleon's armory.”
“Right…” the Tenno slurred. “It’s the Grineer. I never would have known, you know?”
“No time for jokes, Ex,” the pilot replied. “Let’s go. We need to stop them.”
The Excalibur headed off, looking for the armory, but also to avoid the assault team heading his way. So far, they still didn’t know he was on board, but it only took a slight mishap for them to find out, so he treaded carefully, making sure to check every corner before he continued on. One Grineer lancer stood in his way to the next door. The pilot waited until the lancer’s back was facing him before approaching him in a low crouch. As soon as he was near enough, he spun himself and inserted his sword through the small of the Grineer’s back. The alien didn’t even utter a sound as it slid down to the hilt of his sword. Excalibur dumped the body in a supply room before continuing his espionage.
"The armory's a level below you," the Lotus informed. "I'm reading Grineer. Lots of them."
"Sounds like a challenge for us."
"You know it," the pilot smiled behind his helmet.
The Excalibur looked for a staircase or drop leading down to the next floor. He eventually found it; three Grineer lancers stood between him and the stairs.
He unsheathed his blade and got into form.
"Let's do this."
He dashed to the first one, taking it completely by surprise, knocking the upper half of its body down with his blade. The second and third began backing away, firing their guns. As usual, he parried all their shots.
"They never learn do they?"
Before the pilot could answer his Tenno, a Grineer heavy gunner entered the room from the opposite door.
"Great," the pilot muttered. "Just what we needed, eh?"
He cut down the second Grineer before getting behind cover as the heavy gunner started pelting the floor near him. He took a few bullets to his foot, but his shields took the damage for him. Unfortunately for him, the surviving Grineer got to the alarm box while the gunner pinned him down, setting off sirens throughout the ship.
The Lotus’ voice came on again. “They’ve spotted you. Get ready for a fight.”
“No kidding…”
Excalibur took his chance and got out of cover while the heavy gunner reloaded. With a massive charge of energy, he slammed his blade into the ground, releasing a radial javelin, pinning the two Grineer to the walls. The lancer died instantly, but the gunner struggled to get off the wall. He quickly ran up to the heavy gunner and finished her before she could recover.
“We gotta go. They’ll be ready the more we stay here.”
“Yeah.” Excalibur leapt down the stairs, avoiding all the steps and landing at the bottom. He rounded the corner and stuck his skana into the chest of a butcher as it attempted to cut him down. He dropped the body and rushed on, slicing another alien in half as he kept going.
"The armory's on the left," Celestia told her agent.
"Got it," Excalibur nodded, opening the door.
The armory was a square room, stocked to the brim with weapons and metal structures. At least twenty Grineer populated the room, all turning to see Excalibur as he entered.
"Time to get to work, my friend."
The pilot smiled as he lifted his skana. He blocked the first wave of bullets as he jumped into the middle of the crowd. He charged his energy in-flight, and stabbed his skana into the ground when he reached it, spearing most of the Grineer with another radial javelin. Those who weren’t pinned to the walls covered their faces, blinded by the sudden flash of the skill. Safe behind his polarized visor, the pilot casually picked up a fallen grakata and disposed of the rest with a burst to the head each.
"Excellent work," Lotus congratulated. "All enemies in the area are now dead. Get to work on destroying the machines. You need to stall them."
The Excalibur headed over to the gate pieces, propped up against the wall, and slashed them all, one by one, until each block was five pieces more.
"Good work. This'll put a wrench in their plans."
The Lotus appeared back on the HUD with a new warning. "You've got a large security force headed your way. It's the Grineer."
The Excalibur finished the last of the pieces, watching the metal fall to the ground with resounding clunks before more Grineer entered the room, followed by a furious looking captain.
"Tenno..." He sneered. "What have you done? Do you think this will stop me? I have more resources. You have only delayed the inevitable. Your Lotus... will die."
Excalibur didn't answer, instead charged the captain with his blade, aiming straight for the Grineer's body. Vor smiled and peeled the void key from his chest. Holding it out like a police badge, a golden stream of energy flashed from the key and caught Excalibur’s charge midway.
“Power levels are fluctuating, shields at 17%.” Excalibur read out. “I don’t think we can win this.”
Vor’s face twisted in a laugh as he drew his pistol, taking careful aim. The seer discharged a single shot straight at its target’s skull, but just before the bullet made contact the Excalibur swiped at it with its skana, deflecting the bullet at the window. The glass broke and air began rushing out into space.
“What?!” the captain exclaimed.
Wasting no time, both Warframe and pilot threw themselves at the broken window and out into the vacuum of space. Vor could only watch and shake his fist as the Liset pulled up outside and jetted his enemy out of reach.
“Good work,” said the Lotus with a smile. “Now get to extraction.”