Home Run sat at his study table, stumped on his science homework. The only thing he remembered from class was the splintering chocolate, which didn't help him one bit.
"Do you know the answer to this question, Vauban?" Home Run asked as he put on the Warframe.
“What’s this? A test of field and combat intelligence from your learning facility?”
Home Run had to think of what to say. "Umm... no. It's just a question about atoms."
Amused, Vauban brought up a set of schematics on his visor. “I know plenty about atoms. In fact, the nukor is completely nuclear powered. We should build one. All we need is some detonite, morphics, salvage, and forma. And a foundry.”
"What? No I don't need to build a nuker or whatever you call it. I just need to finish my homework and I was just wondering if you knew the answers."
“So you just want me to answer a question that has no bearing on whether you can fight or not. Well, since Zephyr seems to be fine with it... sure. Uploading answer key to your HUD right now.”
Home Run watched as text filled his visor. "Thanks, buddy, but... what does Zephyr have to do with this? Is she your boss or something? You have to get permission from her to help me with my work?"
“Not at all,” Vauban replied smoothly. “I was simply talking about her helping her pilot finish her ‘quiz’ the day before. She and her pilot are very close, and they both want to be the best they can be.”
"Wait... what you're saying is that Rainbow cheated on the quiz? I knew a hundred and two percent from her was too hard to believe!"
“Well, you’re cheating on this worksheet with me, so unless you want to turn yourself in as well, just let it slide. The less time you spend on pointless tasks like this the more time you can spend on learning how to use your Warframe effectively.”
Home Run looked at his homework paper. He didn't like it, but Vauban was right. He was about to cheat. "You know what, Vauban? I think I'll do this myself..."
“Suit yourself.” The answer key’s upload was cancelled. “But if you end up in trouble because your score was not high enough, don’t come crying to me.”
Princess Celestia left her secret room once again after finishing her observation. Excalibur had a close call earlier, but thankfully he made it out unharmed. He'd also managed to disable the Grineer machines, giving the others more time to boost their skills.
She emerged from her study, only to be once again stopped by Luna, standing outside the door.
“Busy night, dear sister?”
“Luna!” Celestia said, almost surprised. “How are you tonight?”
“Well enough, Tia,” Luna replied stiffly. “I might ask you the same. You seem very overworked as of late. Mayhap I could be of assistance?”
Celestia gave her sister her best smile. “Oh, no need, sister. I think I’ve got it all under control.”
Luna didn’t look convinced. “Hmm. You have odd marks around your face, sister. I was not aware you wore glasses.”
Celestia’s hoof jumped to her face and smoothed down the fur that had no doubt been unsettled by her Lotus mask. “Y-You don’t say? It must have ruffled up when I was looking through my books.”
“It was never a problem before,” Luna countered.
“Oh you don’t have to worry about my fur, Luna. It’s perfectly fine now. I… should be getting to sleep. It’s been a long day.”
The moon princess’s mouth worked as though she was about to say something else, but in the end Luna just nodded and let Celestia pass. “Sleep well, Tia.”
Luna watched as her sister headed away, going to her chambers to retire for the night. As soon as she was out of sight, Luna signaled with her hooves. A soft thump later and a bat pony in what looked like altered Lunar guard armor landed in front of the princess. She tapped her metal clawed front hooves against the floor to dislodge a few stray chunks of plaster.
“Agent Eclair,” Luna said conspiratorially. “What have you learnt about my sister? What is she hiding from me?”
“Princess,” the guard said in a Prench accent. “Pardon, I have not been as effective as I would like. Your sister is a very paranoid mare.”
Luna sighed. Celestia was never paranoid unless she had a big secret to hide. “Well, what did you find out? Maybe I can learn something from the little information you have.”
“Oui. The sun princess locks herself in her study and, how do you say, uses some kind of secret passage to enter a sanctuary of some sort. I hear voices, but no one but her ever goes in or out. It is very… deconcertant, Princess Luna.”
“Secret passage you say?” Luna contemplated. She opened the door to the study and looked inside. “Do you know how she accesses this secret passage?”
“Oui, your majesty,” Eclair bowed. She headed over to the nearby shelf and pointed with her clawed hoof. “She opens this book and inside, there is a… machine. I do not have to words to describe it another way. It makes a… how do you say, a light on her eye and the floor opens up. I dare not follow her down; there is nowhere to hide.”
“You tried your best, Eclair,” Luna commended her agent. She picked up the book and flipped it open, arriving at a strange metallic object, that looked similar to a clipboard. “Now… what is this?”
Home Run lay in bed, snoring away as he dreamt about getting home runs in baseball with his jat kittag. Just as he was about to start running, a shrill sound pierced his ears, forcing his eyes open as he searched for the noise. It was his phone, ringing on his bedside table. He sighed before slowly reaching his hand over to pick it up.
“Yes…? Hello?” Home Run mumbled. “This is Home Run speaking…”
“Yo! This is Dash!” Home Run groaned into his pillow. Of course it had to be her. “You still sleeping? Come on, it’s like almost noon already!”
He slowly got up from his prone position. “It’s the weekend… we don’t have to get up early. Anyway… what do you need?”
“Welllll, Twilight just wrote over and asked if we wanted to get in a little more practice with our partners before the next attack. Y’know, learn how to kick some more butt. You with me?”
“I guess… that makes sense.” Home Run put a palm to his face and pushed up his hair. “Wait. How’d you get my number? I don’t recall giving it to you.”
Rainbow chuckled. “Zephyr hacked into your cell phone yesterday. Got all of your particulars. Neat, huh?”
“Wow… that’s…” Home Run didn’t know what else to say.
“Just kidding. You gave me your number at the tryouts, remember?”
Home Run tried to recall, eventually remembering the sign-up sheet for the baseball team. He had to write his name, contacts, and his address on the piece of paper. “Oh… right. Silly me. Yeah, now I remember.”
“So hurry on back to school! The rest of the girls are already on their way!” After that, Rainbow hung up.
“Fine, fine. Give me a break, would you…” Home Run washed up, got dressed, and was about to head downstairs when his attention was caught by his clock. “Seven fifteen?! Dang it, Rainbow Dash!”
Home Run cycled towards school, finally seeing the shining building across the road, along with a lone Rainbow Dash standing next to the front statue, practicing her soccer moves as usual.
“Hey there, Home Run!” she laughed. “Nice to see you here early. You travel back in time or something?”
Home Run grunted in reply, still sour about being woken up early. "Very funny, Rainbow. What was that for? I really thought I had slept in till noon. I didn't think it'd still be this early."
"Just a joke, Home Run! I didn't think you'd actually come. I mean, all you had to do was check your clock."
"Joke?" Home Run couldn't help but laugh. She was right. He was a little too gullible. "Ha, well... Nevermind. You owe me though. I could've slept a little longer."
"Alright, alright. Sure. Whenever you need something, come find me. I'll do my best!"
"Definitely," Home Run nodded with a smile. "What are you doing here this early, anyway?"
“Meh,” she shrugged. “Just wanted to see if you would show up or not. And you did. Ha!”
“Well, since you’re here, I’d like to check with you on something.”
“Alright! Let’s hear it!” Rainbow folded her arms.
Home Run thought of the best way to ask her. “Did you know that our Tenno are really smart? Vauban knows all kinds of things about engineering I never even knew existed.” He hoped Rainbow would take the bait.
"Well, of course I know that!" she waved him off. "That's how Zephyr and I did the quiz together. She knows loads of things that don’t have to do with fighting.”
"Don't you feel bad about that at all?"
“Let me think…" Rainbow said, touching her chin with a finger. “...nope, not really.”
"But you know... cheating can get you in big trouble," Home Run told his captain.
Rainbow Dash eyed Home Run beadily. “It’s not cheating, not really. I’m just making sure I don’t have to worry about little things like grades when there are aliens out there who want to eat us for breakfast. See?”
"But aren't you awesome enough on your own? Why do you need Zephyr's help? All you had to do was read the pages Mr. Loregiver gave us. Right? It wasn't that hard."
“Ugh… there’s just no talking you out of this, is there?” Rainbow strode up to the statue and was engulfed in a howling gale as Zephyr activated. “Look. I didn’t ask you out here so we could talk about priorities, I asked you out here to train. So are we doing this or not?”
"Fine by me," Home Run surrendered, equipping Vauban. "But I won't let it slide just yet. I'm just putting it up for later."
“You don’t give up easy,” Rainbow admitted. “But that’s good. You’ll need that kind of attitude if you want to be on my team. Now where’s Sunset? I told her to be here by now.”
"Well, we sports players are hardy," he smiled. "How does it work? We have to wait for Sunset? The second time I went in, I didn't have anyone with me. I just walked right in."
"Depends if they've opened the portal on the other side or not," Sunset said, appearing behind them. She looked at the blue boy. "Home Run. Didn’t think I’d see you here this early.”
"Me neither," Home Run shook his head, then looked at Rainbow Dash, who was whistling innocently. "But you know... sometimes, duty calls. Especially the athletic, windy ones..."
“Well, whatever. Twilight says the way is clear for us, so we may as well go through now. The rest of the girls can join us later.”
The two athletes nodded and followed Sunset through the portal, emerging back in the obstacle course.
"Alright! Time to become more awesome!" Rainbow shouted, running straight for the obstacle course.
Home Run looked around, noticing someone was missing. "Where's the princess? Shouldn't she be here?"
"Oh right," Sunset remembered. "She has something to attend to today, so she left the portal open for us before heading out."
"Right. Well, a princess has duties I suppose," Home Run shrugged. "Vauban. What do you think I should work on today?"
"Well, you don't have a firearm, so why not try sparring? You can try it with Sunset Shimmer. Linking to Ember now."
"Hey, Vauban!" Ember greeted. "How're you holding up?"
"I'm all good! Home Run here's not a bad human. Anyway, I was suggesting he spar with your pilot. Up for it?"
“I don’t see any reason not to be. Sunset Shimmer, are you up for sparring?”
Sunset looked at Home Run before nodding. “Yeah, I want to see what he’s got.”
“Okay then…” Home Run headed to the dueling ring, leaping down into the lower arena. “Let’s have a go.”
Sunset gave him a wide grin before activating her Warframe, the orange and bronze armor folding over her form in an instant. She pulled out her glaxion and held it in her hands. “Ready, Homey?”
“Sure… Sunny,” Home Run sneered, lowering his helmet just to show Sunset.
“Don’t call me that,” she said. “It sounds dumb.”
“Well, so does Homey, in case you didn’t know. It makes me sound like some sort of street thug.”
“It isn’t just me who says that,” Sunset laughed. “You’ve got a lot of people to talk to if you want them to stop calling you Homey.”
“Huh… yeah…” Home Run sighed. “Great. Nevermind then. Forget it.”
He raised his helmet again and waited for Sunset to enter the arena. As soon as she entered, the both of them walked to the center of the floor.
“May the best fighter win, Ember,” Vauban wished.
“That’s right,” Ember agreed. “Loser gets burned!”
Home Run readied his jat kittag as a digital countdown appeared in front of his and Sunset’s faces. As soon as it hit zero, he charged at the fire girl, getting his hammer in a swinging position. Sunset pointed her ice gun at him and fired. Home Run raised his hammer to block the beam, watching as the frost slowly wrapped around his weapon, but without reaching him.
“That’s right, Home Run,”Vauban encouraged. “When you block the glaxion, it prevents the ice from reaching your body. That is… until you don’t have the strength to continue blocking.”
“Wait, what?” Home Run started feeling it. His arms were getting tired as the ice beam continued to force its way through his hammer. “Aagh! I can’t hold it! I’m about to drop the hammer!”
Home Run lost his grip as the ice pushed through, encasing his Warframe in an ice block.
“Ah… I was sure we would win first round,” Vauban said disappointedly. “No matter. Try again.”
“Home Run looked around, unable to move. “Umm…”
“Right. Ember, would you please release us?”
Sunset walked over and conjured a fireball, slowly melting the ice as she brought the flame around Home Run. “Sorry, Home Run, but it is training after all.”
“No problem. As long as you don’t leave me in there like Rarity.”
"Don't worry. I gotcha." Sunset stretched her hand forward. Home Run took it and pushed himself out of the melting ice. "Not gonna let you skip out on school."
"Wouldn't miss it."
"Alright Home Run. Time to try again. This time, don't stay static. Get moving. Use that hammer of yours and close the distance fast."
"I'll try, Vauban, but no promise I'll win," Home Run told his partner.
The two pilots moved to the middle again, watching as the digital countdown started.
“Woohoo!” Rainbow cheered, returning from the obstacle course. “Show me how awesome you guys are!”
As soon as the timer ended, Sunset shot the cold gun at him again, but this time, Home Run moved forward and swung his hammer at the beam before starting a spin, creating a wind aura around him, negating the effects of the ice beam.
“Woah!” Home Run said, surprised at the power of his hammer and his movement. “I didn’t think it would work this well.”
“Well, I did,” Vauban said dully. “Now go and finish it before she gets over it and fires again.”
Home Run proceeded forward, his wind aura blocking the ice from reaching him. When he was close enough, he spun again, swinging his hammer as fast as he could, breaking the wind aura and smashing Sunset across the room.
“Home run!” Rainbow shouted from the corner.
Home Run stowed his bat and moved to catch Sunset as she started falling back to the ground.
“Sorry about that, Sunset,” Home Run apologized as he caught her. “I hope it didn’t hurt too much. Very sorry.”
Sunset coughed a few times, but let out a small laugh after. “No problem… Homey. It’s sparring. You’re meant to fight like you mean it. Thanks for the catch anyway.”
“Yeah, did you guys see that?” Rainbow entered. “If this was a baseball game, you’d be the MVP! I mean, after me, of course.”
Home Run set Sunset on the cool floor. “So are we done with this duel? I say it’s a tie.”
“Agreed,” Sunset nodded, lowering her helmet. “But… I think I’m done for the day if it’s okay with you two…”
Rainbow walked into the arena to join them. “Are you sure you’re alright, Sunset?”
Sunset waved her off. “I’m fine… Just… winded.”
“Good one, Sunset Shimmer,” Ember added in. “But I think saying you’re… burned out would be the better play of words.”
“It doesn’t matter, Ember,” Vauban joined in. “Not every pun has to be about fire.”
“Yes it does.”
“Then shall we call it a day?” Home Run asked the girls, interrupting the Tenno’s argument.
"Yeah, my stomach could use some food!" Rainbow agreed, lowering her helmet. "How about we go grab some?"
Home Run thought about it, but the rumbling in his stomach decided for him. "Yeah, I'd like some food."
“Maybe we can get some bananomachines, son,” Vauban offered. Everyone stopped, awed by the sheer lameness of the pun.
“Do us all a favor,” Ember advised just before their Warframes collapsed. “Never try to be funny again.”
Captain Vor allowed the corner of his mouth to curve up after his most recent discovery. Utilizing the void key's power, he had repaired the gate parts that the Excalibur had cut down, surprising himself. The pieces now lay in an organized pile in the armory, ready for transport to the planet below.
"Tenno! You thought you would delay me?" he shouted to the air. "I will show you delay! Strength to the Grineer!"
He turned to review his troops. Earlier, he had called down every arm he could spare to the armory. His men stood in formation, each block containing twenty Grineer. Vor smirked again as he counted them all. He had enough. They were ready. All they had to do now was craft their landing zone. He would use the learning center that his forces have attacked repeatedly, but this time, they would hold it.
"It is time, Grineer!" Vor shouted, lifting the void key. "The Lotus think she has slowed us! We have the element of surprise! We will strike now while we have the time! When the gate is built, we will find the Lotus. We will kill the Lotus! And all will bow before the might of the Grineer! Nothing will stop us now!"
A synchronized cheer arose among the Grineer as they saluted their captain.
"Prepare yourselves! We move now!"
Vor headed past his soldiers and back to the bridge. The helmsmen got up and saluted him as he entered.
"Captain," the lead helmsman greeted.
"At ease," Vor grunted, returning to his chair.
"Are we moving in, captain?"
Vor nodded, placing a sly grin in his deformed face. "Go. Time we pay the Tenno another visit, but this time... we'll be here to stay."
Captain Vor looked out the front window as the galleon began its first descent. It didn’t matter if their existence became known now. The only thing that mattered was to find the Lotus and kill her once and for all. Without her, the worlds would belong to the Grineer, and the Tenno will fall.