When Lightning Strikes- Centrail City
Parking Lot (Max’s domain)
When Lance woke up, it was about half an hour until sunrise and Aurora was currently asleep, tired out from when they were watching Big Hero Six the other night. Getting out of the car, he soon stepped inside Sugarcube Corner to find all the girls passed out on the floor. Tiptoeing through them, he soon began to hear a strange sound. It sounded like someone was crying. Slowly, he opened up a door that was hiding the person who was shedding tears. To his complete surprise, it was someone that he knew.
“Max?” He said, rushing over and placing his hand on my shoulder. “Max?! My god, what happened!? Are you okay?” He turned to look towards me, jerking at the touch of the Adept’s hand to his shoulder and stumbled a little as he rose to his feet, his eyes expressing fear.
“N-no, please, stay away,” He murmured, backing up towards the door in the back of the room. Now Lance was beginning to worry. What the hell exactly happened in the few hours that he was with Aurora? The proud displaced that he was going to marry was now a nervous train wreck.
“Max, What’s wrong? Please, talk to me!”
“I-I don’t know, I just- I….” Lance then, trying his best to comfort Max, stepped closer and embraced him in a hug. To the Azure Striker, he was trying his best to calm down Max. He then tried asking her what happened, but then realized that the two of them probably needed someplace private for them in order to talk. Moving to the door in the back of the room, he opened it and the two of them were now outside in an alleyway by Sugarcube Corner.
“Now that we have some space, what’s gotten you so scared? The Max I know is brave regardless of what she’s facing.” Max himself just shook his head, throwing up in his hands. Lance himself got a paper towel and handed it to him. “Max? Talk to me please. You’re scaring me.”
It was then that he got close and whispered to the Adept. “I... raped her. I-I couldn’t do anything but watch.”
“W-what are you talking about?” Lance asked, unsure of what Max was rambling on about. “Did someone possess you?”
“I-I don’t know, I couldn’t stop thinking of you and Celestia or-or Sephiroth herself.... I-.... I tried my hardest to keep her out of my lust, but-....”
“But what?” He asked, desperate for Max to try to come to his senses. “Please Max, I’m here for you. Just don’t give out on me now.” Trying his best to comfort him, he soon got down on his knees and spoke to Max softly as he tried to overcome what was inside his head. “We can go home if you want. I can just leave a note for Twilight and we can have a doctor help you.”
All he heard from Max was some rambling that were only bits and pieces of a story that Lance couldn’t put together. The Adept put Max’s arm over his shoulders, helping him walk all the way back to the mirror portal that was at the base of the statue that was at Canterlot High, leaving a note for when the Alicorn Princess would eventually return to the statue.
Once they re-emerged from the portal back in Max’s home world, the Adept immediately called Sol and Mun. Both Zenith’s responded quickly, offering their assistance in any way they could. The Adept cleared his throat, noticing Max’s tired eyes as he looked back at the two of them. “Sol, help get Max to her room. Mun, get a doctor. Something’s wrong with her and she needs help right now!”
Seconds after he said that, Max slipped from the Adept’s grip, falling to the floor. Unconscious. Lance was now on high alert as he got down to the floor by Max’s side. “Max? Max?! MAAAAXXX!!!!”
A few hours later…
“Matterhorn, I need a little more time. I’m sorry, but some things have cropped up recently and now Max is in a coma.” The Adept was talking to his world’s Twilight by the com-links of his wrist communicator and now was when he could see the shock on her face when she heard about Max’s current condition.
“Oh my goddess, what happened?!”
“I don’t know, but I’m trying my best in order to help. How long has it been since I’ve left?” He asked, trying to put together all the important pieces of information that he needed in order to process the current situation.
“You’ve left only eight hours ago. In that timeframe, Cody and Humdrum are trying to crack the firewall on the USB that Cody acquired at the Police Department, Zapp and Mistress Marevelous are cleaning up some of the crime in the east sector of the city and Pinkie is still recovering from her accident earlier.”
“Well, that’s different from here. It’s almost been twelve hours in Max’s world and she hasn’t woken up yet.” The Azure Striker sighed. “I’m going to send Aurora over to your end real fast. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Will do.” She replied as Lance ended the call. Closing the screen that appeared on his wrist, he turned to see Lucky trotting towards him. He kneeled down to get to the colts level, noticing the expression of worry on his face. The rest of the fillies soon came over to where he was, with Rainbow sitting in his lap.
“Is mom going to be okay?” One of them asked.
“I hope so, Lucky,” The Adept replied honestly. “I’m just as worried about your mother as you are.” Soon, after a little bit, The Adept got up, letting Spike be able to take them somewhere and get their mind off of things by playing a board game or reading some comics. For him though, he just quietly entered Max’s room, softly closing the door and taking off his jacket. Max was stretched out on the queen sized bed that was in the back of the room, a white blanket covering her as Lance got closer and sat down on the bed. He still felt in the dark about what exactly happened to Max. How was he suppose to help his wife if he didn’t know what had occurred?
Then, he remembered something. An ability he had. He used it before with Button Mash in order to find out about what happened to his mother. Could that same ability work here somehow? Closing his eyes, he placed the first two fingers of his right hand on his forehead and took a deep breath.
“Hey Max. I think it would be best if you head home soon.”
“Maybe. I just need to get you the… What was I looking for again?”
“Actually sandals aren’t that important. Why don’t you return to your universe, like right now? You were away for almost a full day and we still don’t know if there is a temporal difference between our universes.”
“I... don’t know how. I know there’s... something we’re supposed to do... Ugh, I need someone to **** me.”
“Well that certainly can’t be me. So what about this thing we need to do to send you back?”
“I... can’t… Please, help me.”
“Max! What’s wrong?! Talk to me!”
“I-I... Too long. Too much.”
When Lance snapped back to reality, he had witnessed the reason why Max was freaking out earlier. He couldn’t believe it and originally thought that it was some sort of sick trick. But he then had to accept the fact that this wasn’t a trick. This was real. And Max was scared to death over what she had done. The Adept soon leaned back, trying to think clearly about everything that had just happened. Until he felt some motion on the bed and saw Max’s head move along with the rest of her body.
“Max?” He said, thinking that she was awake and could hear him. When she lifted her head and saw him, tears began to flood her face like the Hoover Dam had just given way. Crying into his undershirt as she released her sadness. All Lance did was hug her close to him, trying to comfort her after the nightmare that she had just been through. A few hours had soon passed until she spoke again. This time, in a whisper.
“You should go see if your universe needs you.”
All Lance did was shake his head a little and looked back at her, hugging her to try and express comfort. “They can wait a bit. I wanted to make sure you were okay first.”
The next part for him was hard to say. “You seemed to be in some sort of nightmare. Are you okay?”
“I’m... f-fine.” She told Lance. “You have responsibilities over there.”
“And one of my responsibilities is to take care of my family. I already talked to my Twilight; explaining what happened and she told me that it’s only been a couple hours since I left. She wanted me to make sure you were okay first above all else. I even let Aurora go back home. That way, I can help you.”
Max took a couple of moments to process this, but soon, she spoke again. “I-I just need to wait until I summon Seph. I.... I just hope she forgives me.”
“I understand that… I saw everything…” Before Max could interject, Lance turned to her and began to explain again. “My lightning powers allow me to see what someone else has seen based on the neuro-electricity in your brain. I’m sorry, but I just needed to know why you were so distressed. I wanted to do everything I can to help and the only way I would know is if I saw what happened.”
Max just shook her head, rubbing snot onto his shirt accidently, which he cleaned up using a wipe. “I don’t mind. I wasn’t in a good state to explain anything. Please, may I be alone for a while?”
Nodding his head, Lance replied as he put his jacket back on, “I can do so. I adjusted my communicator to let Sol know me if there are any changes that I should be aware of. Otherwise then that, I’m good to go. Got something to deal with on my end anyways.”
He saw Max smile, rolling over and adjusting the blanket that was over her as he came over and kissed her on the cheek, resting his hand on her shoulder. “I love you.”
“Love you too.” He heard her reply softly as Lance slowly walked to the door. Upon reaching there though, the Adept turned back around to look at her one last time. Noticing the pistol that he had given her when they first met, he picked it up and softly set it down by her pillowcase.
“Stay safe.” He muttered as he quietly left the room. Slowly walking back towards the portal that connected with his world, he sighed a little as he stepped back through the gate. Praying for Max’s safety.
As he came back though, he found Twilight and the girls in the main section of the base along with Cody and Humdrum. “Ah Lance, welcome back. You’ve arrived just in time.”
“Just in time for what exactly?” He then heard a beeping from his wrist as he pulled up a screen to see Aurora again.
“Humdrum and your friend just cracked the security code on the USB. We’ve retrieved the data that it tried to erase. I’ll let Aunt Twilight and the others explain.” She stated, turning his attention back towards the others.
“Everypony,” Cody spoke first, catching their attention. “We’ve uncovered some data from this flash drive that may surprise you. Recently, some prisoners from the Zero Zone have been moved from their prison cells. After some digging, Humdrum and I found out that they, along with a series of other individuals have been assigned to a team that is codenamed “Task Force X”. But it doesn’t stop there. The real name of this group is known… as the Suicide Squad.”
The name caused everypony to gasp. “Why would they be called something so vicious!?” Rarity exclaimed.
“The group is composed of former criminals, assassins and other individuals that have had previous run ins with the law. Given their backgrounds, these candidates have been seen as “fully expendable” and are tasked with going on missions that others would deem as Suicidal,” Humdrum clarified for Rarity. “Furthermore, we have gotten some identities on who’s on the team that was previously from the Zero Zone and other members on the squad. Including the Griffon that attacked Pinkie.”
Pressing a few keys, Cody showed the first series of images that began to illuminate on the huge screen behind them. The first being an Ent while another one being a female Earth Pony. “From the Zero Zone, Treebark and Anarchy have been acquired for this task force and the possibilities of others joining are unknown with some villains being scheduled for rehabilitation.”
“Sorry for interjecting, but what exactly are they capable of?” Lance asked.
“To answer your question, Treebark is an Ent capable of manipulating nature, advanced healing, and producing toxic spores that can release massive clouds of poison gas,” Humdrum replied. “As for Anarchy, her powers are different. She has levitation, like more unicorns, but also has the power to manipulate paint, use it for camouflage and turn into paint.” The dragon motioned his talon and asked Cody to bring up another image. This one from the day before when Lance rescued Pinkie.
“Traffic cams in the area caught Anarchy working in league with these other individuals. Through data records, we have some information on Pinkie’s assailant.” The Hunter replied, putting up an image of a gryphon with a scar over one of his eyes.
“This is Deadeye. He is a master of multiple methods of combat and assassination and is named Deadeye because of the fact that he is blind in his left eye. The only thing that we got on him is that he has a healing factor that heals any injuries that he acquires in combat.”
Now though was when Lance interjected. “When I was there, I saw three of them. One of them being a human. Do you have any sort of information on him?”
Spike nodded, pulling up a camera image of the same incident with Pinkie, but from another angle. “This one is a strange case. Appleloosa PD records say that this individual is dubbed as “McCree” and that he was found seven years ago. He had a successful surgery to replace his left arm and a few weeks later, started taking up bounty hunting contracts. Which of course, in most of Equestria, is illegal.”
Seeing the face of the person though caused Lance’s eyes to widen. This can’t be right. There’s no way it could be. Then, he remembered something that Deadeye had said to him.
You must be the Azure Striker then. Who knew that the son of McCree has this kind of talent?
“Oh my god…”
“Is something wrong Lance?” Cody asked him. “You don’t look okay.”
“I’m fine… It’s just-.” Lance thought through what he had to say before speaking once again. “I figured out who he is.”
Everypony’s eyes now looked at him, confused. Lance sighed, clearing his throat. “When I found Pinkie, Deadeye told me something. He said “Who knew that the son of McCree has this kind of talent?” before escaping. Plus, I’ve only seen that face once before and that was before I thought he died because he stabbed himself in the left arm before killing himself.”
“Who?”
Lance took in a deep breath before expelling it. He needed a LOT of confidence in order to say the next two words that were on his mind. “... My father.”
A scratching sound emanated from Lance’s bracer, and Aurora was seen scratching her head, “What a coincidence. Commits suicide, and then joins a Suicide Squad…”
“Joined may be a bit of a stretch.” Applejack interjected. “If he’s been bounty hunting for seven years, then he would more likely have to be persuaded to join rather than just say “Sign me up”.”
“Applejack makes a good point.” Lance replied back to Aurora. “Still, what do you think about all of this right now?”
“I remember Anarchy, but Treebark was before I was adopted. As for your dad, I’ll help you get to the bottom of this!” the filly said with a brave face.
“That’s what I like to hear. But first, let’s let Humdrum and Cody finish talking before we jump the gun on anything.”
“Fine…” Aurora sighed.
“Anyways, our current objective is to focus on rounding up all the Sumeragi criminals before preparing to go up against an experienced team such as this one. You are dismissed.” As the rest of the ponies in the room left, Humdrum called out to Lance as he saw him walking towards the door. “Hold on, Lance. You have been tasked with a different assignment. Detective Whooves from the Powers Division requires your assistance.”
“My assistance?” Lance asked.
“Yes. Several reports have claimed suspicious activity in Centrail City, the city north of Maretropolis. He wants your help in trying to figure out what exactly is going on up there as well as check on the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
Lance flinched for a minute, raising an eyebrow. “The what now?”
“They’re a team of heroes that comprise of our youngest members. We haven’t gotten any form of contact with them for the past few days, so we need you to try and re-establish contact while you’re up there.”
Lance raised an eyebrow. A few of the details that he had just heard had left him with some concerns. “How young exactly are we talking about?”
“Around my age and possibly lower.” Humdrum said specifically. “After Stopwatch’s demise, we decided to form a team of fillies and foals with special gifts in order to help comfort one of the remaining daughter of his that is alive. Scootaloo, or as her alias states it, Bioware. However, one thing to keep in mind is that the full extent of her powers is currently unknown.”
“So we have no clue what exactly she is capable of?”
“Simply put, yes.” Humdrum explained. “Still, she’ll probably be happy to see Aurora. Right now, the Detective and his partner, Derpy, are waiting for you at the police station. You might want to get a move on. He isn’t exactly a fan of people who are late.”
“So I get to see my sister? Woohoo!” Aurora yelled.
“Yeah, but like Pinkie, she doesn’t know that you’re alive. She’ll probably be shocked by that as well.” Lance told her as he walked out the door, pulling up the screen so he could talk to her. “Same might go with the Detective because the entire department thinks you’re… well… You know… gone.”
Upon hearing that, Aurora’s ears drooped down a little before standing back up as she looked at him. “Well, today is the day to prove otherwise. And I don’t think I’ve met Mr. Hooves.”
“What about his wife? Derpy Hooves?” Lance asked as they entered an elevator and pushed some buttons so they’ll go to the roof. From there, Lance was able to use Instant Transmission to the top of the police station.
“I met her once. Daddy used to take me and Scoots on playdates with her and Dinky before she and Mr. Hooves became higher ranks… I’ve been surfing the history of Maretropolis.”
“Interesting-.”
“Lance, who are you talking to?” The Azure Striker turned around, surprised to see that Derpy was standing there right behind him. The grey pegasus looked at the Adept in confusion, before noticing the screen on his wrist. “Are you calling somepony? I’m sorry if I-.”
“No he isn’t. I’m a new AI system given to Lance by a Displaced.” Aurora interrupted with a lie.
“Wait… Where have I heard that voice before…?” Derpy asked. “Why does it sound like… Wait a minute. Lance, why does your gizmo sound like a filly I know named Aurora?”
“Well… That’s the thing…” The Adept sighed, extending the screen and turning it around so he could show her. “It’s not that it sounds like her… it actually is her.”
Aurora sighed, “I was trying not to make a scene… Hello Mrs. Hooves! I’m back from the dead!”
Derpy’s eyes widened while looking at her. “A-aurora?! B-but how?! W-we saw you get killed by those mean crooks-!” Lance stopped her for a moment, taking a chance to explain everything shortly after her husband trotted on the rooftop to find his wife speaking about a filly he thought was dead. After some time though, the Adept was able to clear things up and explain how Aurora was stuck in her Soul form and sticking with Lance until they could find a body that she could call her own.
“I guess that’s everything… Why don’t you tell Mr. Lance what’s up… Ooohh, what’s this!?” Aurora said, “I’ll be checking this app out, but I’m still listening…”
“Right… So Detective, I was told that we needed to go to Centrail City?”
“Yeah. Up there, we need to help Chief Spitfire. Recently, they’ve been getting a string of incidents that have been unsolved and somehow is also confusing.”
The Adept raised an eyebrow. “Confusing as in what exactly?”
“Confusing as any evidence that is found refers back to some failed government projects that are over ten years old and have said to be decommissioned.” The Earth Pony replied. “She’s asking for our help given your track record of being able to solve certain cases. Specifically, the Ghoul Incident.”
“Ghoul?” Aurora asked, “What’s that?”
“One of the first cases I had to deal with. A girl was Displaced as a ghoul, which meant that she could only be able to feast on living flesh and couldn’t eat actual foods. As of now though, I last heard that she was cleaning up crime on the streets.” Lance explained.
“Right. Back to the original topic though,” Detective Whooves paused for a minute, handing a file to Lance. “The small details that we know on the projects are code names. We only found two of them. The first being “Marionette” and the second being “Doppel”, which we knew as a cloning operation that Stopwatch and the power ponies uncovered three years ago. How they are related, I don’t know, but the chief wants our help in getting to the bottom of this.”
Lance’s bracer vibrated, “Ugh, I remember Doppel… It was a cloning project that made abominations like Brokenwatch and Hybrid. They made both of my sisters. They call themselves Hollow Science or something…”
“You are quite right on that, Aurora. My only concern is how this “Marionette” relates to it. We should get going though,” Derpy replied, motioning them to a chariot that was by the rooftop. “We’re traveling by air. Better hang on.”
Lance groaned internally. The last time he remembered riding one of these was when he met Jason Hughes and his Ormagoden form knocked him out of the sky. Hopefully, this ride would not be like that one… That was, until five minutes after they took off.
“Oh! I downloaded a new song a bit ago!” And the music started.
Twenty minutes later…
“You shut up!” Aurora yelled.
A Pegasus growled, “You little brat!”
“Dumb colt!”
“Spoiled filly!”
“Both of you KNOCK IT OFF!!!” Lance told them. They had just arrived in Centrail City and things would’ve gone smoothly… If Aurora didn’t pick a fight with the Pegasus pulling the chariot. “Sorry sir, my friend at times can be quite… defensive about certain subjects.” With that, Lance added a small extra amount of bits to the normal fair that an escort was given. “Here, for your troubles.”
“But he called me unwell! Calling me that just because I played Matchbox 20’s 'Unwell' five times.” Aurora whined.
“Yeah, but you need to be able to respect other people's likes and dislikes. Which includes songs. I don’t think anyone other than you would like to listen to the same song over and over again.” He pointed out. “Maybe there’s a way to get you some headphones so you can listen to yourself or something.”
The filly spirit sighed, “Sorry…”
“I’m not mad,” He assured her as he followed Derpy and Detective Whooves to the front of the station.. “Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen again. We’re about to meet the chief.”
“Understood…” Aurora replied. As they entered inside the room, the “chief” noticed them and soon zipped to the front of the room, leaving small puffs of smoke behind from her tail.
“I’m so glad all of you can make it. I hope that the flight over wasn’t that much… troubling for you now… was it?”
Aurora groaned a bit, but tried to keep quiet. Soon though, the Chief mentioned something that caught her attention. “I was wondering because my assistant Soarin just told me about an argument that he got into with a ghost like filly on a computer screen.”
The screen on Lance’s bracer went black and silent.
“Yeah… Aurora can be a bit… offended at times.” Lance sighed.
“Aurora? You mean Stopwatch’s daughter? I thought she was dead.” The Mare replied, unaware of the current circumstances.
“Right… About that… It’s not quite that easy to explain.”
“Why don’t we talk about it in my office?” The Pegasus offered. All three of them nodded, soon following the Chief to her office as she closed the door. “Now, as you were saying?”
“I’d like to keep the ponies who know about my existence to be as few as possible. I’m not sure if my life would bring the meanies back.” Aurora’s voice echoed in Lance’s head.
“It’ll be fine,” He told her mentally. “Plus, if they try to get to you, they’ll have to go through me first.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about…”
“Is it your sister?” Lance then asked.
“Her, and all of my friends. Daddy did a big blow to them, and if they think they didn’t get their revenge…”
“Well, we can’t just lie to Spitfire now. But we can tell her not to tell Scootaloo until we personally encounter her. Not only that, but I could ask her to make sure that whatever is said in this room… Stays in this room.” Lance told her, sighing a little. “So Spitfire, can I make sure of one thing first before we continue?”
“Of course, what is that?”
“That whatever is said in here, stays in here.” He said, putting emphasis into the words he said.
“I can work with that. Now… What was it that you want to tell me?” The Pegasus asked, putting her two front hooves together on the desk she was sitting at.
“Well… Maybe it’s better if you see it for yourself.” Lance explained, pulling up the screen from his communicator and turning it around. “Aurora? If you may?”
The screen flickered to life, and Spirit’s face graced the screen. “Aurora Spirit’s, at your service, Miss Spitfire.”
“Interesting… Did you happen to design this?” She asked. Lance sighed. She didn’t realize that this wasn’t a computer program and assumed for Aurora to be an AI. Like Cortana.
“Wow… This is a first. No, I’m really Aurora. Stopwatch’s daughter and ex-Power Pony trainee… When I was alive…” Spirit said, “I’m a ghost.”
“Aurora’s powers involved being able to physically step out of her body in order to possess objects or other contraptions,” Lance clarified for the Chief. “On the day that she “died”, Aurora used her powers to leave her body before those criminals killed her. Now she’s a wandering soul and is helping me so we can find a new body for her.”
“I…… See. That is indeed quite a story.” Spitfire replied. “Anyways, I’m glad all… four… of you are here. I am to presume that you know the reason why?”
“Yes I believe we do. I was even going to ask you something, Chief.” The Detective said. “Could it be possible for Lance and Aurora to investigate the crime scenes where these incidents occurred? Maybe there is something that they can see that we can’t.”
“That does sound promising.” Spitfire replied, nodding her head. “Very well, Detective. You and your wife will help my assistant Soarin and Lieutenant’s Thunderlane and Fleetfoot go through all the current evidence we have and piece everything together. Aurora… I would like you and… umm…”
“I’m sorry. My name is Lance. Lance Walker.” The Adept apologized.
“Okay, Lance, to have a look at the crime scenes for any clues that we could’ve missed. I’ll also give you the location of the base of operations for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Are you ready?”
“Totally!” Aurora squealed.
“Then it is settled. You’re all dismissed. Let’s get to work, everypony. Aurora, Your first location for you to look at is a few blocks from here at an alley behind the local arcade.” Spitfire told them, giving Lance an SD card that had the coordinates for each of the locations. “You can use the data on there to record the locations on your device.”
“Thanks Chief.” Lance said, taking the card.
“It’ll also include a roster list of the ponies on the Cutie Mark Crusaders. That way, you can recognize who’s on the team. I hope to hear from you soon.” He heard Spitfire say as he left the room. Soon, he plugged in the SD card into his device and opened the files. And Aurora moved to the side.
“Here’s the coordinates, Aurora. Which one is the closest one to here?” Lance asked her as she opened the file to have a look.
“Hmm… This one, I’ll put it up on the GPS app I got.” A map appeared with a purple line leading to what he asked for. “I put it on silent, so just follow the purple brick road!” Lance himself was quite impressed with the feat. Like how he could only see Aurora, it seemed like he could only see the projections that Aurora could cast. Hence, the purple line. He followed the line outside, making a right hand turn as he continued to walk down and across a street. Before stopping at an alley next to a place called “Bit Wave Arcade”. Upon first look, the thing that he noticed was that there were a LOT of trashed electronics and cameras. Like someone had purposely put them there.
“Aurora, can you salvage any data from this?” He asked, looking at each piece of junk individually.
“I think… Gimme a second…” After a moment, there was a ding, “Wireless transfer complete. Replaying last moments before loss of data.”
The screen turned staticy, then an image appeared. It seemed to be a punk like grey mare, trying to compute something off of a hastily set up computer station. But the lighting made it almost impossible to see. But they did hear only brief set of Audio before the mare set the entire place to detonate using some… Smoke powers.
“Ash, hurry the BUCK up! We’re going to get caught-?”
“Shut your trap-! I just finished hacking the mainframe. The boss will be pleased at what I just got. Now, let’s make sure not to leave any evidence behind.”
“Ash? Who could they be talking about?” Lance asked Aurora.
“I don’t recognize them…” Aurora shrugged, “They’re not professionals though. The camera’s should have been the first to go. This is just sloppy...”
“Something tells me they were in a hurry. Somepony was telling them to hurry up and finish whatever they were doing.” Lance set the stuff down, soon looking back at Aurora. “So we got a name. It seemed like that Mare had powers though. Can you tell what it was?”
Aurora was silent, then, “Ash? Her name was Ash, and maybe that’s her codename… Wait, what’s the crime? All I see are trashed cams, and those aren’t enough for Chief Spitfire to call heroes and other cops.”
“Maybe she was hacking into a database. Otherwise then that, with the explosion that happened, maybe Arson?”
“Makes sense…”
Before Lance had the chance to walk out of the Alley, he began to hear a series of hooves nearby. The sound of hooves hitting pavement made him think that it had to be either a filly or colt. But then, he also heard a dog barking and realized who exactly it was. “You have got to be bucking kidding. Aurora, we might be getting company. Can you set yourself in standby or something?”
“You mean like turning my screen off?”
“Yeah, just-.”
“Hey, Iggy. Guess who I found?”
“Too late.” But the screen shut down anyway. Lance turned around, only to soon get tackled in the gut by a overexcited colt that he remembered from a few months ago.
“Hi there, Button. I honestly did not expect you to be here.”
“Same here. How did you know that my father and I live in Centrail City?”
Lance was taken back a bit by that statement. “You live here? I thought you lived in the Everfree community?”
“We moved a few weeks ago. Iggy has been a major help now since you gave him to me.” Upon saying that, the boston terrier went over to Lance and licked his face a little. Before noticing the communicator and sniffing it a little. Pawing at it like he thought something would pop out like a jack in the box. “Hey, guess what?”
“What is it?” Lance asked.
“Thanks to Iggy, the two of us are now part of the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Don’t tell my dad though, it’s a secret.”
“Will do,” The Adept thought mentally.
“Get this mutt off of me!”
“Who are you calling a mutt?!”
“Oh… right. I forgot to mention that Iggy is a Displaced. He can basically hear you Aurora.”
“I don’t care. He better not get slobber on me. I’m allergic to dogs!” Aurora cried. A few moments later, she soon realized that it wasn’t the slobber she had to worry about as she heard something that sounded like a whoopee cushion. Only to realize, that it wasn’t one.
“Iggy! I thought I trained you to be better than that!” Button said. “Sorry about him farting on your arm, Lance.”
Lance’s wrist sparked, and he swore he heard sneezing and coughing in his head. “It’s okay. Mistakes happen. Oh and I might get to be seeing you later too. I was asked to check on the Cutie Mark Crusaders by The Masked Matterhorn.”
“Yeah… about that… we’re trying to deal with a situation back at the clubhouse. Scootaloo’s gone missing.”
Now that caught Lance’s attention. “Aurora? Did you catch that?”
“I’m still processing… What does he mean by missing specifically?”
“Can you explain what you mean specifically?” Lance asked. “I’ve been trying to look at a series of incidents recently and if Scootaloo is somehow all caught up in this, I need to act fast.”
“Well, she was taking a breather earlier in the week and going to someplace called… Memory End Lane or someplace like that. But she never came back afterwards. That was five days ago and now, Applebloom, Dinky and the others are getting worried.” Button soon cleared his throat and looked at Iggy, shortly before looking at Lance again. “If it isn’t too much to ask, could you please help and find her? I know it may sound difficult, but if there’s anypony I think I can trust with finding her, I know you’re the right Adept for the job.”
Lance got down to Button’s height and nodded. “I’ll make sure she comes back safely.” With that, Button thanked him and the two of them left. Redirecting his attention, he pulled up Aurora’s screen again. “Aurora, when was this footage taken?”
“Five days ago at 9:30 pm.”
Now Lance’s eyes narrowed. Something about this didn’t seem right. “And when did Button say Scootaloo went missing?”
“......... Five days ago… Wait… Are you insisting that-?”
“It’s only a possibility, but I think that the two events are somehow connected. The only way we can tell is to put all the pieces together from the other locations.” Lance said. “It’s like solving a jigsaw puzzle.”
“I hate those…” Aurora mumbled.
“Same here. But something makes me think that this puzzle won’t be so difficult.” Lance said, pulling up a street map of the city. “Now, if the first location was here…”
“I’ll get it…” A blue beam pointed the Adept to the next location. “Walk, five point three miles the sandwich!”
“Sandwich?”
“It’s a joke my daddy told me from earth. GPS starts saying random stuff.”
The Adept cracked a smile, but instead of walking, he used Instant transmission to reach the second spot. After looking and not finding anything, Lance moved to the third location, only to find it empty as well. Upon arriving at the fourth location though, The Adept uncovered something that could be the key to figuring this out.
It was an undamaged cell phone. It looked like someone tried to throw it against the wall and break it, but failed to do so. “Well, looks like we hit the jackpot. Aurora, can you look through this and find any phone records inside it? Something tells me Derpy and the Chief will be pleased to find out about this.”
“Easy…” Aurora soon got to work, and dinged a minute later. “Sorry, password stopped me. I’ve got five caller ID’s, and only ten calls I can recover. The caller ID’s are Psycho, Ash, Weeping Pegasi, Bomb Voyage which personally to me reminds me of the Incredibles and lastly Master…”
“Something tells me that these ID’s are code names.” Lance guessed. “What’s this about a password though?”
“Some phones have passwords, and this one did. Burner phones don’t, and those don’t have information on them, but luckily this isn’t a burner.” Aurora clarified. “The password was Puppets though.”
“Hmm…” Lance thought to himself for a minute before asking Aurora something. “Marionette… Puppets… That doesn’t seem like a coincidence. Playback the most recent call. Maybe there's something in the audio we can use.”
There was a click, and a voice came on. It was a male, but sounded deeper than usual. “Was the mission successful?”
“Y-yes master… However, there was a slight… complication in the matter when we were finishing up, sir.”
There was a pause. “What?”
“It wasn’t anything t-too serious. Psycho found a filly from the Cutie Mark Crusaders spying on Ash and captured her. She’s unconscious now.”
“Hmm… What to do, what to do… Bring her back here, maybe she can be of use.”
“Yes, Master. Which Location are we returning to though? The old base or the Maretro. We still have the equipment in the old base we can use to run some tests on her and see what exactly she is capable of.” The second voice suggested, shortly followed by telling somepony else to shut up whoever was trying to speak. However, the voice sounded like someone being hogtied.
“The Maretro. And don’t say the name out loud, you’ll inform the filly and any onlooker.”
“We’re inside the transport van and everything here is airtight. I’ll be trashing this phone though before I reach the Maretro. That way the authorities can’t trace us.”
Before the first voice could say anything, the sound of a quick turn and somepony yelling, “Get off the phone, dumbass!!”
“......... See you in an hour, master.” The phone call ended, with Lance looking back at Aurora. She now seemed worried. VERY worried.
“What’s next?” Aurora asked.
All Lance did was sigh, priming both of his guns. “Where’s the Maretro?”
A red beam pointed the Adept in the other direction. “Alright… Let’s go. We got a Crusader to save.”
The Maretro
In the tunnels under Centrail City, a pony named Sparkler, A.K.A. Psycho, was glaring up ahead with her friend Ash by her side.
“I can’t believe Steelwing got me in trouble…” Psycho mumbled.
Ash, a grey earth pony with a black winter hat rolled her brown eyes, “Leader ignores team, team does something stupid, leader gets punished for letting it happen… Circle of life…” Psycho just let out a heavy sigh as she listened to her friend continue talking.
“And now there’s this ape in our city. If he get’s close to the family, I’ll kill him…”
“Girl, you’re messed up…” Ash whistled. “Wait a second… Ape?”
“Yeah, some creature called Grence or something. Supposed to be a part of the Power Ponies.” Psycho rolled her eyes. “What’s he even doing in the city anyway? I thought Spitfire wouldn’t let an animal into her investigation.”
“Hey, that’s a bit rough. It’s not like he’d be a problem, just dangle a banana in front of him…” The two stared at each other, then burst out laughing. As they laughed though, the two of them began to hear a noise that almost sounded like rolling thunder. Only to realize that it was getting closer. After looking at each other, they soon looked at the door to Maretro and seeing that the doors hinges were beginning to lose their grip. Something was coming. Coming towards them.
“DYNAMIC ENTRY!!!”
The door soon broke off as both pieces of it were really close to hitting both Psycho and Ash. The two mares, who were previously laughing before now looked up to realize that the “ape” that they were talking about was right in front of them.
“Sorry ladies, but it’s time I have to crash your party.”
The two started backing away, then Ash smirked.
“Are you kidding? The party’s just started,” Smoke began to encircle the duo, and expand, “And you’re the guest of honor!”
Several bolts of ash shot at Lance in quick succession as the Adept used his Flashfield to block them. This before he used his weapons to unload a series of bolts from the Orochi clip he had currently equipped. Because of it, Lance was able to tag up to eight targets at once and have a small drone come out that shot in all directions except in the direction that had the adepts current location. His gameplan was to use these bolts and his powers to stun his opponents and not kill. Therefore, he could question them later.
But it seemed like both mares were not going to go down without a fight. The ash that surrounded the two protected them from the Adept’s current attacks. The earth pony sent a barrage of ash made weapons directly towards Lance. However, to their surprise, one shot from the Adept’s gun caused the weapons to disperse. The next move that he did was that upon noticing the fire alarm sprinklers above him, he blasted the cap off of the sprinkler heads and caused water to pour down from the ceiling. For an ash user, this was bad news.
Psycho stepped in using her powers, which had her mentally attacking Lance while Ash retreated. Noticing this, Lance used his Ki based abilities to form a pair of rings around Ash’s feet to try and cause her to trip. “You aren’t going anywhere!”
Ash cried out, “Help! Intrud-!”
Once the pony hit the ground, Lance now focused on dealing with Psycho, who’d recoiled from seeing a certain golden bear flash right before her eyes.
“What was that!?” Psycho yelled, narrowing her eyes.
“Well, seems like you activated Freddy’s trojan horse…” Lance smirked. “I have to admit, you’re just as clumsy as Derpy sometimes. Capturing you is going to be easy-.”
Lance was cut off as a stone pegasi rammed into him.
“Stay away from Psycho, monster!” It screamed in anger.
“What the-?” Lance cocked an eyebrow, shortly putting his hand in front of the pegasi’s face. “Back off!”
Lance then unleashed a powerful Ki Burst straight into it’s face, knocking the creature backwards into her partner. Getting up off the floor, he brushed the dirt off of his clothes. “So we got Tremor, a wannabe Delsin Rowe and Psycho Mantis… Just my luck.”
“Weep, get off of me!” Psycho yelled. The stone mare sat up and glared at Lance.
“Intruders aren’t welcomed here!” Weep growled.
“I’m sorry, but you only have yourselves to blame. I’m here to rescue the filly you kidnapped. Now we can do this the easy way or-.”
“Get him!!!”
“And they took the hard way.” The Adept grunted, using his speed to get to the other end of the room before Weep could even hurt him. However, he soon realized that the entire scuffle had caused him to attract the attention of the entire base when an ear piercing alarm began to sound off.
Several robots came from different directions holding laser rifles. “Alert: Target Acquired!”
“So you want to play hardball? Very well then!!” Lance growled, channeling three of his skill points as electricity began to violently crackle around him. Right before Weep and Psycho’s eyes, the bolts of lightning soon began to take form in massive chains that quickly spread across the room.
Multiple explosions went off from the destroyed robots as the Adept was the only one left in the carnage. “Now… Where is Scootaloo?”
“Respect the secret identity bro!” Yelled Ash, “Bioware!”
“Whatever. Where is she!? You idiots kidnapped her and now I’m bringing her back home. And if you even try to get in my way, you’re going to end up looking a lot worse than those cheap security bots!” Lance snarled. “Aurora, try accessing the facilities camera’s. I’m not so sure that they are willing to listen to reason.”
“Okay! We’ll give her up, just let us go! We’re teenagers, it was a prank!” Psycho cried out in fear.
“Kidnapping a filly is considered as a prank to you? You guys are just sick.” Lance spat in the dirt below him.
“We didn’t want to! Steelwing thought she’d squeal our first pranks, so he thought we could try messing with her!”
“Your stupidity is just as bad as you trying to lie. Besides, I already have evidence against you that says otherwise.” Lance then took the phone that he had uncovered and pulled it out. “All the data from it I’ve already pulled and lead me straight to here. Now, I want to know where the filly is and who is this master that you were talking to.”
Psycho’s eye twitched, “Don’t call me stupid…” Her horn glowed, and the remains of a train went flying towards Lance. “I’M NOT STUPID!!! I’M NOT STUPID!!! I’M NOT STUPID!!!” She continued throwing things at the Adept, and Weep got the sprinklers to stop, allowing Ash to reform her original attack.
Lance just sighed as he watched all the debris fly by. But he soon noticed something. Anytime he looked at the Unicorn, he began to see a silhouette of Derpy Hooves. Calmly, he just stood there as all the projectiles that were flying at him did not hit him at all. “You know… for some strange reason… you remind me of a pony I know in Maretropolis. One who told me was once misunderstood as well. Now I must ask… Why do you remind me of Derpy Hooves?”
Her eyes widened, then hardened, “That ditcher has nothing to do with me! She’s a bucking moron! I’m NOTHING like her!”
“Sparkler! Now!” Ash yelled, and Psycho teleported away from Lance.
The three mares stood together, “Everything's secure. Time to get out of here!”
Lance smirked. He knew that despite what they said, not everything was secure. “I’m counting on you, Aurora.”
Aurora hovered through wall after wall, looking for her sister. She had just started, and she was already a little scared. The base was broken down on the outside, but go deeper, and it’s a chilly echo of an old foe of her father's… One who Aurora feared, even to this day.
The walls were metallic with blood stains covering the majority of it. Plungers were scattered the floor along with scorch marks, and cookbook pages were pinned to the wall.
What really scared her was the menacing chuckle from behind her. Whirling around, she saw a pony she only saw once…
“Equilis…” She whispered. Luckily for her, only Displaced could see her soul self, but that didn’t stop her from shivering in fear.
A stallion with a black coat and blue eyes was ordering his minions to move crates to a teleporters. She saw a cage with her sister in it, and an idea came to her. She jumped an unsuspecting battle droid and possessed it. She turned to the cage and picked it up and walked out with an unconscious filly. She went over to a computer and jammed her fist into it and began downloading.
“What are you doing AL-34?” Equilis asked in his calm voice, “I ordered you to execute the runt, no evidence… AL?”
He jumped when the available hoof turned and began shooting. He disappeared and reappeared to Aurora’s left.
“Ah, the little survivor’s come back to play~” His soft voice whispered in her ear. Spirit turned and began firing. Equilis vanished again, and his voice came from behind her.
“I thought you were dead. Guess that just means I’ll get my own chance!” Aurora turned back around only to see nothing. A download complete sign appeared in her vision, just when a hoof went straight through the robot's chest.
Before he could finish, another robot came in. “Warning: We do not have enough time!”
Sighing, Equilis crushed the robot’s head before pointing his hoof at the computer which proceeded to melt into a pile of liquid. He hurriedly galloped out of the room, to which Aurora’s spirit sighed in relief.
‘Ugh, that was close… A couple more seconds and I woulda been a gonner…’ Aurora thought. She turned to the cage Equilis seemed to forget. Focusing hard, she picked up Scootaloo and grunted her way towards the exit.
Outside, Lance was waiting on Aurora to find Scootaloo and meet back up with him. Of course though, he did not expect for the Spirit to emerge from the facility in the form of a headless robot that was carrying the filly in her arms. The Adept chuckled to himself a little as he put his weapons away and turned to look at the mechanical droid. “Okay, when I said I was going to help you get a body, I didn’t think this qualified.”
Aurora grunted a little as she set the filly down, who was just beginning to wake up. The first thing that she could see though was Lance as Aurora returned back to his gauntlet. Dazed and confused, she posed a question. “D-dad?”
“Oh boy… This again.”
“What again?” Aurora asked.
“The notion where I’m assumed to be your dad.” Lance replied before turning to Scootaloo and waving a small hand to see if she is awake. “Hey, are you okay?” He heard the filly groan as she tossed and turned a little, trying her best to open her eyes.
“Hey, before you came along, Daddy was the only male human… Well, Roach was another, but he had this evil essence.”
When she did, her eyes widened in surprise. “U-uh, y-y-yeah! I’m fine! Who are you?”
“My name is Lance, but back in Maretropolis, I’m called Gunvolt. Are you Scootaloo?” He asked her, noticing the look in her eyes. Believing that she was scared of somehow intimidated by him, he tried to speak calmly to ease her mind. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I knew your father.”
“Y-you knew dad?” Scootaloo spoke, surprised.
“It’s a lot to explain, but we should get out of here first before we continue,” Lance told her, trying to comfort her. “Do you know someplace where we can go?”
Scootaloo lit up, “Yeah! The clubhouse! I’ll show you where it is, c’mon!” Lance nodded his head, letting the little filly guide him back into the city. As he followed her, the Adept soon began to notice what kind of powers that she was capable of just by her demonstrating them in the field. She burnt a tree, whistled so loud it broke glass, manipulated her feathers, pulled blood from her body and controlled that, and even told him she could talk to machines.
“I use a version of nanobots to evolve my body. I haven’t figured out all my powers because I get a new one every year or so. I don’t use all of my powers though, since most could hurt me. Some are even self inflicting powers. I mostly just use fire and whistling.”
“And the whistling is loud enough to break glass?”
“Yes, but I’ve learned how to not damage my surrounding.”
“I see…” He said. “Scootaloo, can I please tell you something… and please don’t think I am crazy when I tell you this.”
Scootaloo tilted her head, “Why would I? You’re not a crazy person, are you? Cause if you are, I can’t take ya to the Clubhouse. I don’t think the team would like me doing it again...” She giggled nervously.
“I’m not… I’ve just seen many things and been on a lot of crazy adventures… Maybe instead of telling you about it, I’ll show you instead.” Lance soon brought up the screen on his gauntlet to life, which wow’d the filly at first. But soon, Scootaloo was about to get the shock of her life. “Aurora?”
“SURPRISE!!!” The ghost filly shouted, “Heya sis!”
Aurora’s smile faltered when she heard a thump, and opened her eyes. Scootaloo lay unconscious on the ground.
“We should have waited until we got to the base…” Aurora said, “At least there would have been a bed or couch or something.”
“Well, we’re close now, aren’t we?” Lance wondered. “I mean there’s a floormat that says Club entrance.”
Aurora looked closely, “Where’d that come from?”
“I don’t know. I just stepped on it and POOF! There it is.”
“That’s cool… Well, elders first. Let’s meet the team- but wait to explain before you unleash me out into the room.”
“Yeah… I was thinking of maybe waiting until Scootaloo wakes up. She did say that she was going to show us the clubhouse.” Lance reminded the spirit. “Not only that, but since the mat is in front of a brick wall, I’m thinking that there’s some sort of “Secret Knock” that’s needed in order to go inside.”
Laughing, Aurora jumped outside of Lance’s bracer and went into the wall. After a moment, the wall moved away to reveal the inside of a superhero base.
“Umm… Aurora… There was a reason why I told you to wait-.”
“INTRUDERS!!!”
“And that’s why. Dang it!!”
The soul jumped back into the bracer. The loud noise caused Scootaloo to slowly wake up from her daze as she struggled to get back on her hooves. Once she realized what was going on, she turned back to Lance, jumping in between him and the door. “W-wait!! It’s me, Bioware!!”
“Oh really?” An unknown voice spoke. “Then what’s the password?”
“Double Sundae.” She replied angrily. Her reply was soon met with a unexpected motion as a pony soon proceeded to dive and tackle her in the chest. That pony would happen to be Applebloom, one of Scootaloo’s newest friends.
“Scoots! Yer okay!” The yellow filly cried out. “Ah thought Ah’d never see ya again!”
“Applebloom, why did you have to tackle her like that?” A filly Unicorn asked as she stepped out. “Matter of fact, who is this and what the hay caused the alarm to trip!?”
Scootaloo was helped up by Applebloom and replied, “Uh, Lance. He’s from Maretropolis. You work with the Power Ponies, right? Well, he saved me from some bad guys…”
“To answer your question, yes. I’ve been working with the Power Ponies. Humdrum asked me to come check on you guys since he hasn’t heard radio contact in the last week and also needed me to help Detective Whooves and his wife Derpy with a case.”
“Uhh… Yeah, about that communication thingy… Ah kinda spilled mah soda on the control panel. Bioware was the one who kinda fixed that thing.”
“Well, maybe Aurora can take a look at it and see what else needs fixing.” He suggested. Unknowingly, him saying Aurora’s name brought up confusion amongst the three fillies.
“Wait a minute…” Sweetie Belle interjected. “Isn’t Aurora the name of Scootaloo’s sister? I thought she was dead.”
“Well that’s rude! I thought she was dead. Really!?” Aurora yelled through the screen on Lance’s bracer.
“Yeah… It’s a lot to explain and it’s going to be tricky unless you have an understanding of Aurora’s powers,” Lance cleared his throat as the four of them went inside. The fillies led the Adept to a nearby table, where a lot of things were at the time. Since the three girls all sat in elevated office chairs, Lance just decided to stand so he wouldn’t give the impression of him looming over them. “Now Scootaloo… Aurora told me that her powers were revolved around her “Spiritual Form”, am I right?”
“Y-yeah,” She replied, “She loved scaring everypony with it.”
“Well, that’s the thing. She technically isn’t dead because she went into her spirit form moments before the crooks hurt her. The only problem now though is that unless she can’t find someplace to be in like my gauntlet, she’s trapped in that form. Until we can find a body for her, she’s basically a ghost.” The Adept explained.
“Right… maybe we should get to fixing the control panel.” Applebloom suggested, nudging her head in the direction of the console. “The sooner that you get this done, the sooner that you can get to… What’s the detective’s name again?”
“Detective Whooves. His wife, Derpy is also there with him-.” Unknowingly though, the mentioning of the pegasus caught the attention of one of the fillies in the base at the time. A small Unicorn with a blond like mane and lightish colored fur.
“D-did you just say… Derpy?” She squeaked, catching Lance’s attention as he turned around. The Adept got down to his knees so he would be the same height as the little Filly and nodded his head.
“I did little one. Why, is something wrong?”
What he heard next really caught him by surprise though as the filly looked back at him with the most innocent of eyes.
“C-can I see her? Please? I-i’m her daughter, Dinky.”
End Strike 24
