//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: A Displaced Spectrobes Master // by The Dark Brony //------------------------------// “Where are we going?” Jen asked as she and Jack followed Sweetie Drops out of the ship and onto the Pony Planetary Patrol HQ. She was still clinging to Jack like her life depended on it, but at least she wasn't still curled into a ball and refusing to move from her pod anymore. Jack then smiled at her and says “Do I look like I know?” Sweetie Drops then looks at them and says “you are at the PPP headquarters on the planet Equis, I was asked to search for a disturbance on Daipon and that's when I found the pods you were in.” “Wait, were at your HQ?” Jen said as her eyes grew the size of dinner plates. “Jen, don’t push it” warned Jack Sweetie Drops then smiles and says “Our commander wanted to debrief me on what happened and I decided it would be easier to have you help me explain to him what happened. We know little about that Krawl that attacked the ship and you both seem to have experience with their kind.” “Is your commander's name Grant by any chance?” Jen asked, stopping suddenly. Sweetie drops then looked at her and said “How? How did you know that?” “Jack… Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Jen said, starting to hyperventilate again. “that this is similar to the first game… Yeah” admits Jack Sweetie Drops then looked at them and then asked “game? what game?” “Nothing!” Jen shouted before continuing to follow Sweetie Drops. Sweetie Drops then looks at her and says “I could reveal your secret if you don’t tell me.” Jack then glares at her and says “and I could set Pinorska on you if you did.” A look of terror then appears in her eyes as she say “I would prefer not to, I’ll keep quiet.” Jen gained a depressed expression as she started to walk behind Jack as she clung to his shirt. “I dont want to remember…” She sniffed. Jack then kneeled down next to Sweetie drops and whispered “Could you get her some sort of tech to try, it may calm her down” She then smiles and says “I can try and get her something after we meet with the commander.” Jack then smiles and says “or her own prismod. That would distract her.” “My own prismod?” Jen asked, her mood doing a complete 180. Jack then smiles and says “If we can find one.” as they stop in front of a pair of large double doors with the PPP symbol on it. Sweetie Drops then looks at them and says “This is Grant's office, don’t say anything stupid, and don’t touch anything.” Jack then smiles and say “I hear you Sweetie.” “Darn it…” Jen groaned. Jack then smiled and said “Jen behave and we will find you some tech to tinker with later.” “Fine…” Jen said. Sweetie Drops then nods to a guard in front of her before the doors begin to open. As they look around the room there are many ornate pieces of art and along the walls there was large copies of the PPP logo spread around the room. In the center of the room there was a large desk that covered the majority of the front of the room with what looked like an elderly anthro gryphon sitting behind it. But out of all those things the griffin was what drew the most attention, His feathers were faded, grey and he had a short down pointed beak like an owl. Jack then looks towards Jen and says “Is it just me or is this Commander Grant even less human looking than the ponies we’ve met?” “Rallen, were not in kansas anymore…” Jen said as her eye began to twitch. “Without a shadow of a doubt” agrees Jack. Sweetie Drops then looks at Jack and says “He’s a Griffin, so don’t annoy him, the last pony who did that didn’t last long after” Jack then smiles and says “what did he do? Outstare someone to death?” Sweetie Drops then looks at him and whispered “Umm no he… cut an artery in the poor mare hooves she bled to death.” “He WHAT!?” Jen said in disbelief. “WHat rumors are you spreading about me this time?” Commander Grant asked from his desk, sending Sweetie Drops a ice cold glare. Sweetie Drops then tries to walk away as she mutters “sorry sir, won’t happen again.” “You're not getting off the hook so easily this time young lady, now report.” Commander Grant says as he stands up. Sweetie drops then takes a deep breath and they say “Okey sir, well after i arrived near the site of the disturbance i found two strange pods crashed into the ground. Once we got them back onto the ship we were attacked and the pods opened releasing the creatures you see behind me from the pods.” “I see… Tell me, what attacked your ship?” Commander Grant asked. Sweetie Drops then says “We were told they are called the Krawl, from what we were told conventional weapons won’t do much to them.” “So it was the Krawl…” Commander Grant mutters, too quiet for anyone to actually hear. “Then we will need to get the research and development team working with whoever was able to repel them.” He told Sweetie Drops. Sweetie drops then looks at him and says “actually, Jack here said that only creatures called Spectrobes are able to defeat them.” “Oh?” Commander grant says before he turns to Jack. “Are you certain of this young one?” He then asked the human. Jack then looks at him and says “as sure as I can be sir.” “Actually, there are some types of weapons that work on the Krawl. there just not as effective as using spectrobes.” Jen said, reminding Jack and informing the Commander at the same time. “Oh yeah, guess I forgot that, never used the sword or guns much during the game.” replies Jack. “Game?” Commander Grant asked, raising an eyebrow. “You really don’t want to know” replies Jack. “It's a secret.” Jen says as she grins at Commander Grant. “Well, we all have them." Commander Grant chuckled. Jack then says “Thank you for being so considerate.” “Your welcome, now back to business...” Commander Grant said, returning to his serious expression. “Agent Drops, in light of the current situation I want you to accompany these two humans and help them with whatever they need. If we are to get through the coming challenges, were going to need all the help we can get.” Jack then looked to Commander Grant and says “If you need our help you have it.” “Good, then I want the three of you to go to planet Neyssa. our outpost there has gone dark and our last report mentioned creatures that I believe may be Krawl.” Commander grant said. Jack then looks at him and says “One problem with that, we have no way of getting there.” “You have Agent Drop’s ship do you not?” Commander Grant asked with a smirk. “And we didn’t know about that, but may we ask for one request.” asks Jack. “Im listening.” Commander Grant said as he interlocked his fingers before placing his elbows on his desk and resting his head on his hands. “If we are going to try to fight the Krawl, both me and Jen are going to need to be armed in some way. If my spectrobes get taken out, i’d be a sitting duck.” says Jack “You have a point, what would you suggest then?” Commander Grant asked. “well from what I remember, some effective weapons were swords and guns.” says Jack “Then I will see about getting her a sword then.” Commander Grant said before he dismissed the trio. Jack smiles and says “Thank you sir.” as he leaves the commander's office. “So which ship is yours?” Jen asked as the trio exited HQ. Sweetie Drops then smiles at them and says “You’ll see” “Come on! Tell me!” Jen whined as she looked at all the different spaceships that were docked around the entrance to PPP HQ. Jack then smiles and says “Jen we’ll know it when we see it” “Fine…” Jen grumbled as she took out the energy lance that she had been given shortly after they had left the commander's office before starting to tinker with it. Jack then smiles and says “I did say i’d get you some tech Jen.” Jen stopped tinkering as she blinked owlishly at Jack. “Wait… You got me this sword for that reason?” She asked, her mouth hanging open from shock. Jack then smiles and says “well that was one reason but it was because I knew we’d need some weapons to defend ourselves” “Uh Huh… whatever you say~” Jen said with a smirk before kissing his cheek and running off to try and find Sweetie Drops’s ship. Jak then turns to Sweetie Drops and says “Should we shout her and tell her she’s gone too far?” “Well I think it’s for the best the ship is right here.” Sweetie Drops says whilst pointing to a ship along the dock we were next to. Jack then smiles and shouts “Jen the ships over here!” In the blink of an eye Jen was standing in front of Jack and Sweetie Drops again. “Where?” She asked looking around. Jack and Sweetie Drops then points towards a nearby ship and as Sweetie Drops says “this is my ship” Jack then smiles and says “looks like the Marine Cruiser fr-” before being cut off by Jen elbowing him in the gut. “Yes, its a very nice ship.” She said, eye twitching as she tries to keep herself from fangirling. Jack then looked up at her then muttered “what the hell Jen.” “Do you really want them to start asking us questions that could enact Murphy’s law?” Jen hissed at Jack, quiet enough to not be heard by Sweetie Drops who was walking toward the ship. “Not really, that's sort of what got us into this mess” admits Jack “Good.” Jen replied before walking into Sweetie Drops spaceship. Jack then looked up and muttered “what have I gotten myself into?” With that he followed Jen and Sweetie Drops into the ship. As soon as everyone gets onto the ship Sweetie Drops turns around toward them and asks “right before we head off to Neyssa is there anything you need?” “Do you have any fossil excavation gear and quantum electronics?” Jen asked. Sweetie drops then looks at her in confusion and asks her “what? Why would we need those?” “It's… Complicated…” Jen said fidgeting slightly. Jack then sighs and says “The gear will be for minerals and fossils to help train our spectrobes. The electronics serve another purpose, but it still has to do with the spectrobes.” Sweetie drops then looks at them and asks Jen “Wait fossils? What’s so important about them?” “When child form spectrobes feel threatened, they go into a hibernation like state where they turn into fossils. But they can be revived by a spectrobes master if said master has the right equipment.” Jen explained while shrugging. Sweetie Drops then looks at her and says “Wait back up a bit, did you say you can bring these Spectrobes back from the dead?” “They aren't dead, just sleeping. I think… I don't really understand it myself honestly.” Jen replied. Jack then sighed and said “but let's just ignore the whole confusion about how it work just leave it at if we have the equipment we may stand more of a chance against the Krawl.” Sweetie Drops then sighs and says “Okay, I will try to get you what you need, but how will you find those minerals?” “That's what we need a child spectrobe for they are capable of finding fossils and minerals” replies Jack Sweetie Drops then looks at Jack and asks him “and do you have a child Spectrobe?” “He does.” Said a voice. Jack then looks around and then realises something “that voice, You're the one who sent us here.” “So you remember, good job.” The voice laughed. Jack then reaches for his sword and shouts “who and where are you? Come out here!” “You don't need to know my name just yet… But as to where I am? Its simple, I’m everywhere.” The voice laughed from all directions. Jack then shouts “I think we should know the monster who forced us away from our families!” “I am no monster. And it's not my fault you accidentally accepted the ticket.” The voice snapped. “I said I wanted proof my cousins were a similar situation and instead you sent us here” Sweetie Drops then looks at me and says “what's going on, what do you mean forced away from your families?” “They were sent to this dimension to be its guardians after that one asked about his family. And you will see your cousins, you just have to find their tokens.” The voice replied. “you're acting as if you know who they are, if that is the case what are their names?” asks Jack “Craig, Daniel, and Helen. Although the last two now go by Kirito and Asuna.” The voice replied. Jack then looked at Jen and then said “he’s right and my aunt's here as well” “They aren't actually in this dimension though, that's why I said you need to find their tokens.” The voice added. Jack then looks around in confusion and says “What even are these Tokens?” “You will have to find out yourself, I have reached the limit of how long I am allowed to interact with mortals for now.” The voice said. Jack then turned to Jen and says “do you want to get back?” “Back where?” Jen asked as she stops trying to find where the voice was coming from, her hair slightly disheveled. “Back to our real reality, you didn’t want this life, you were forced into it. Do you want to go back home” replies Jack. “To be honest? I don't care, as long as I’m with you.” Jen sheepishly replied. Jack then looked at her in surprise and then says “Wait really?” “Yeah. after all, all I had back there besides you was my uncle… And I hadn't heard from him since the accident…” Jen said sadly. Jack then looked at her and said “I thought we’d agreed never to mention that accident, but I thought he had contacted since?” Sweetie Drops then looks at us and asks “what accident? What happened” Jack then looks at her and says “I don’t want to talk about it, Not again” She then looks at Jen and asks “are you gonna tell me about it?” “You already know what we are talking about…” Jen said as a tear ran down her face. “Send the supplies below deck when you get them…” she added before she disappeared below deck through the elevator. Jack then sighed and says “Miss Drops from here on out if you ever ask us to talk about our past I will be sending a spectrobe on you.” She then gulps and says “I understand” He then shouts “and to whoever you are, when we hear from you again we want answers.”