“A better offer?!” Serpent Superior snarled, simultaneously raising his crossbow and aiming it at Destroyer. “When I came to you for weapons when COBRA first started, you assured me of your loyalty!”
“I did,” agreed Destroyer, aiming his crossbow at Serpent Superior. The guards to either side of him were silent and motionless as they let the conversation play out. “I’m loyal to whomever pays me –”
“Whoever,” corrected Serpent Superior.
“What?”
“It’s whoever,” Serpent Superior repeated.
“…Whatever,” said Destroyer. “I’m loyal to whoever pays me more – and in this case it’s Royale.” He took a step forwards, entering the room from the sewers fully. For whatever reason, it seemed that he was happy to prolong the inevitable task of shooting Serpent Superior for as long as they were talking.
“So help me stop these guards then, and we can split the loot between us,” Serpent Superior suggested, briefly tilting his crossbow to the guards on either side of Destroyer. “I doubt that fool Royale is paying you half the contents of his vault!”
In response, Destro threw back his head and laughed loudly. Which actually looked weird with his metal faceplate remaining still as it happened. “Serpent, please, don’t insult my intellect. Even if you and I could take out all of these guards and somehow get away with all that money – a hard task, by the way, since Tomax and Xamot are already in custody – we both know that once you’d replenished COBRA’s funds, there’d be barely enough for either of us. And besides, I don’t trust you.”
“…Perhaps this is for the best then,” said Serpent Superior coldly. Immediately, he twisted his leg with the crossbow attached to it, triggering its firing mechanism. In less than a second the loaded bolt flew through the air and slammed into Destroyer’s shoulder, burying itself deep into the flesh.
“Aargh!” cried out Destroyer, placing a hoof to the injured spot instinctively. Finding blood on his hoof as he withdrew it, he said, “You –enough fooling around! Fire!” The guards behind him, having been awaiting this command for several minutes now, immediately opened fire. Unlike Destroyer and Serpent Superior, their crossbows were of the weaker, laser-shooting variety, and everypony was soon blinded by the sheer volume of lasers being fired at Serpent Superior.
In spite of the momentous task before him, that of defeating all of the guards and Destroyer, Serpent Superior, for once in his life, didn’t follow his organisation’s motto of Retreat. Instead, he calmly took the opportunity to reload his crossbow with another bolt, aim, and fire at the first guard he saw. The impact of the lasers was affecting him, of course, and although he would never admit it, least of all to himself, he doubted that he could last long enough to defeat every guard.
Nevertheless, even as his tuxedo began to fall apart and he felt his skin beginning to bruise, Serpent Superior loaded another crossbow bolt and fired once more. He didn’t have the luxury of checking how accurate his shots were, so he assumed that the bolts were landing in the heads he was aiming them at, and that each bolt fired meant one less guard to worry about.
It was midway through his third reload that Serpent Superior felt a heavy impact in one of his front legs, as though an entire cart had hit him in the one place. Dazed, he took a moment to look at the area – a large piece of metal was sticking out of him. Serpent Superior looked forwards, the pain in his leg becoming white noise amongst all the other injuries his body was receiving. There, of course, was Destroyer, who had shot the bolt at him. It was going to be that way? Fine. Serpent Superior had been planning on saving Destroyer for last, but if that was the way it was going to be played, Serpent Superior was ready and willing.
The leader of COBRA finished the reload he had been in the middle of, and then slowly raised his crossbow to his former weapon supplier. Why was his hoof moving so slowly? When did it become such an effort to partake in such a simple action? Serpent Superior fired his loaded bolt, but even as he did so, he felt one of his back legs collapse from strain, sending the bolt flying in a completely different direction from where he had aimed it, namely, Destroyer’s neck.
Serpent Superior tried with all his might to reload his crossbow again, but as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t even reach for the next bolt in his tuxedo. Every little action hurt, and he hadn’t even made a serious dent in the quantity of guards. Why not just lie down and give up now…?
Relinquishing what little control of his muscles he had, Serpent Superior allowed himself to collapse to the ground, only wincing slightly as the impact caused more damage to his body. By this stage, doing anything other than breathing was too much effort, and even that felt difficult.
“Cease fire!” called out Destroyer to the guards, seeing that Serpent Superior posed no threat. The metallic masked stallion slowly walked over to his former employer, his crossbow at the ready in Serpent Superior tried anything.
“Destroyer…you fool…” coughed Serpent Superior. Most of his tuxedo had been destroyed, and from what could be seen of his coat, he was in terrible condition. One of his back legs was positioned in a way that made it clear that it had been broken, and all over his body scars and bruises could be seen. If Serpent Superior survived this, it would be a long time before he could do any physical action, if indeed he was ever able to.
“Any last words?” asked Destroyer, pointing his crossbow at Serpent Superior’s helmet.
“You’re killing me?!” spluttered Serpent Superior.
“What? Oh, no, I meant any last words before we take you to prison,” explained Destroyer. “The crossbow’s for if you try anything.”
“Destroyer…why did you sell out?” Serpent Superior asked weakly. “Why did you betray the ideals upon which COBRA was founded?”
“Spare me your criticism,” sneered Destroyer. “You seem to be under the impression that COBRA were freedom fighters, that we meant something – but we didn’t. All we ever were were terrorists, plain and simple.”
“We did mean something!” Serpent Superior retorted. “We were going to overthrow Celestia and Luna…let ponies get by on their own merits, rather than the class and status they were born into! Let ponies make their own choices, rather than being forced into the choices made by foolish politicians who care only about impressing the masses! What’s so bad about that?”
“Anarchy has its merits, but I think you’ll find that few ponies could adjust to a society like that,” Destroyer countered. He leaned in closer. “And between you and me? Following that path won’t get me the power I crave.”
“Destroyer! You-” Serpent Superior’s words were cut off as Destroyer removed his helmet and clubbed COBRA’s commander with the butt of his crossbow, knocking him out.
“Mission successful, gentlestallions,” said Destroyer to the guards, who until now had been standing at attention. “At ease.”
“Sir?” asked one guard, awkwardly stepping into the room. “Weren’t there another two ponies in here earlier?”
Destroyer scanned the room, only noticing now that a certain grey mare and her unicorn marefriend were missing. “Vinyl and Octavia,” he muttered, clicking his tongue in annoyance. “Well, I needed to take care of them anyway…”
“Sir?” asked that same guard.
“Take care of Serpent Superior, and bring him to the Manehattan guards,” said Destroyer. “I’ll deal with our little runaways…”
===============================
“Rolling!” declared Vinyl.
“Nice exposition, Vinyl,” agreed Octavia, pulling herself up from the floor. The two mares were in front of the elevator leading back up to the casino floor. Aside from the unconscious guards the two had knocked out earlier, there didn’t appear to be another soul in the vicinity, which suited the mares just fine. “Whilst we had to sacrifice some speed by sticking to rolling, I think that the stealth it afforded us was worth it.”
“Yeah!” agreed Vinyl, also having gotten up. She pressed the elevator button with a hoof. “I doubt that they’ll need us for the rest of that scene, and this way we don’t look too conspicuous on camera. And if we get paid for the time we’re not in the scene because nopony notices…well, I’m not complaining!” She winked at Octavia.
Octavia smirked. “Vinyl, you are as devious as you are beautiful,” she remarked. She pulled the mare close to her. “If anypony noticed we’d snuck away, they surely would have found us by now. What say we head back to our apartment and –”
A tiny, high-pitched whizz! noise sounded, followed closely by a slight rush of air that rushed past one of Octavia’s ears. She frowned, and after a moment of deducing what had happened, looked behind her. Sure enough, there was a small crossbow bolt embedded in the wall, cracks spreading out into the concrete from its point of impact. Vinyl gave Octavia a quizzical look as the grey mare looked past her marefriend and into the corridor, where Destroyer stood, his crossbow already reloaded.
“The next shot won’t be a warning,” growled Destroyer.
“That’s…a little bit of an overreaction for leaving the set early, don’t you think?” Vinyl asked, having turned around to see what Octavia was looking at. As she spoke, a small ding! sounded and the elevator doors opened.
“I suppose that he’s just going with our improv and continuing the scene,” murmured Octavia. “We should probably get away.”
“Agreed,” said Vinyl. “Dramatic jump into elevator?”
“Ooh, alright then,” agreed Octavia. As Destroyer’s impatience grew beyond the point where he could contain it, and he fired the next bolt from his crossbow, Octavia and Vinyl both leapt sideways into the open elevator, landing heavily on their stomachs and ribs.
“Ouch!” exclaimed Vinyl. “Man, that always looks much cooler when other ponies do it!”
Octavia chose not to reply, instead getting up as quickly as she could and pressing the button to send the elevator upwards. The magical circuit within the elevator did as she bid, and the doors closed, followed shortly by the upwards acceleration of the elevator.
“There,” Octavia said confidently, choosing now to speak, “that should be the end of that chapter. In a propaganda film such as this, I doubt there is the need to show what happened to two ordinary troopers such as yourself and I after we escaped, so we should be finished for all of tonight’s shooting.”
“Does that mean it’s time for sexytimes at the apartment?” Vinyl asked enthusiastically, picking herself up from the elevator floor.
Octavia grinned. “Your one-track mind really should annoy me, love, but instead it-”
BOOM!!!
Octavia stopped talking as a loud explosion sounded from below, which only moments later sent a force rippling through the elevator. Both Vinyl and Octavia gasped as they felt the elevator shaking violently, knocking the two of them off their hooves. It shook for several moments longer before stopping.
“Ouch…any idea what that may have been?” asked Octavia, rubbing her head where she had hit an elevator wall with it.
“I guess Destroyer isn’t taking us leaving for an answer,” said Vinyl as she telekinetically lifted the emergency exit hatch out. The elevator had stopped moving after the explosion, and being the smart mare that she was, Vinyl was looking to see what she could do about it. “I should be annoyed at him for taking the film so seriously, but damn if I can’t respect that level of dedication to the job! Also, the cable’s on fire.”
“What?!” Octavia asked, rushing over to Vinyl and looking up through the hatch. Sure enough, one of the cables holding up their elevator had flames ignited all along it, no doubt fuelled by the grease of the cable.
“I guess I should have mentioned that first, huh?” commented Vinyl.
Another explosion sounded below the two mares, the force of it rocking the elevator they were standing in and threatening to give both of them heart attacks for a few moments. Above them, the cable swung back and forth, looking more frail than ever.
“New plan: get out of the elevator,” said Octavia, kneeling down to allow Vinyl to climb onto her back.
“Agreed,” said Vinyl as she used Octavia to reach up to the elevator hatch. As soon as she had secured herself and pulled herself up to the roof of the elevator, the unicorn reached a hoof down and helped to pull Octavia up, ignoring the strain it placed upon her shoulder.
“Alright...now, I guess we’ll-” Octavia stopped talking as the third explosion sounded, instinctively causing her to grab Vinyl, for all the good it would do her if the two ponies fell from the elevator. She looked over the edge.
“What the hay is Destroyer trying to blow up the elevator door for?” Vinyl asked, simultaneously looking upwards for some sort of convenient, previously unmentioned platform that could carry her and Octavia up to safety. (There wasn’t one).
Octavia stumbled backwards from the edge of the elevator as she answered, “It appears that he was trying to get the doors open so that he could get in. He’s now climbing up the elevator cables below us.” A moment later a bolt flew through the space her head had been occupying a few moments previously.
Vinyl frowned. “Isn’t that like, super dangerous? Once these cables burn through he’ll be crushed.”
Octavia shrugged in response. “I never claimed to understand the way his mind works, darling. Any sign of how we can get out of here?”
“Yeah, but it’s probably even stupider than just sitting here,” Vinyl said. She pointed a hoof upwards. “See the fire on the cable? It hasn’t spread to the other three cables holding the elevator up yet, and they should still be pretty strong…”
Octavia cringed. “Any alternatives?” she asked.
“Yeah!” said Vinyl enthusiastically. “You remember that time travel spell I-”
“Climbing the cables it is,” Octavia interrupted. Wincing, she leapt to the nearest cable, wrapping her hooves and body around it. Slowly, awkwardly, she forced herself to let go with a hoof and reach upwards, pulling her body with just that hoof once if felt sufficiently secure.
Octavia felt terribly scared climbing. The last time she had been doing this, she had been working with gravity to go downwards, which had been infinitely easier. Here, she had to work against it, and whenever she relaxed her grip even slightly, she felt the rough metallic texture of the cable rubbing against her, an unpleasant feeling which reminded her that the strength of her muscles were all that allowed her to defy gravity in the manner she was. To be perfectly honest, Octavia didn’t feel confident that she and Vinyl would be able to make it even twenty metres up the cable before giving up, but it was better than not trying anything.
It was slow-going up the cable at first, but as Octavia and Vinyl found a technique which suited each of them, and adjusted to the pressure the exercise placed upon them, they soon found that climbing up the cable was…well, actually, it was still slow-going, but it put a bit less of a strain on them.
“Can you see up the top?” Vinyl called up to Octavia.
Octavia looked downwards to answer. “I can see down your top,” she replied in turn, grinning in spite of the danger they were still in.
“What? I’m not wearing clothes. That doesn’t even make-”
Vinyl’s protest was interrupted by a bolt whizzing past her, skimming her tail and taking out a few hairs in the process.
“Vinyl! Octavia!” called out Destroyer, who had managed to climb up to the elevator cart. “My vengeance shall not be denied! Neither of you will escape!”
“Dude!” called back Vinyl. “What the hay is your problem?! We’ve got bigger crap to worry about at the moment than you!”
“You would say that, wouldn’t you, Vinyl?” replied Destroyer. “Soon you’ll both realise that I am your biggest problem, and I-”
“Oh my Celestia,” sighed Vinyl, ignoring the rest of Destroyer’s speech. “Octavia, baby, I’m going to go deal with our former weapons dealer.” Without another word, she let go of the cable and let herself fall down towards Destroyer.
“Vinyl!” shouted out Octavia. “Dammit, why does she not give me proper warning before doing things like that? I’d enjoy fighting Destroyer too.” After a moment of this introspection, Octavia realised that there was nothing forcing her to hold onto the elevator cable, shrugged, and also let go.
Vinyl had done her thinking well, and positioned herself so that she had landed upon Destroyer, knocking him to the ground. Whilst Octavia hadn’t the foresight to do so herself, her more durable Earth pony body absorbed the impact of landing much more easily than Vinyl’s would have from a similar height. The downside to this was that the larger impact caused the elevator to rock quite seriously, causing the three ponies upon it to struggle to maintain their balances for a few moments.
In spite of the combat experience Vinyl and Octavia had, it was Destroyer who managed to balance himself soonest, adjusting quickly to the changed tilt of the elevator. He fired his crossbow at Octavia – a tranquiliser dart, as he had run out of bolts – before drawing a knife from his belt and slashing it at Vinyl. Fortunately, the changed angle of the elevator caused Vinyl to slide back just far enough to avoid the blade, and moments later the elevator had dissipated the energy from Octavia’s impact.
What followed was a frenzy of action, packed into less than a minute. Vinyl made a feint in the hopes of avoiding Destroyer’s knife, but Destroyer had already spun around to address Octavia’s threat as she removed the dart from her chest before it could start to seriously affect her. Octavia dodged Destroyer’s knife, losing a few strands of her mane in the process, but he in turn dodged her right hook, leading to Octavia accidentally punching Vinyl to the ground.
Octavia immediately helped Vinyl up, but in that time Destroyer had reloaded his crossbow, and managed to get another dart into Octavia. In response Vinyl ‘s unbridled rage caused her to dive at Destroyer and punch him in the mask repeatedly, but mere seconds after she started she had to retreat as she saw an elevator cable, weakened from the fire, flying down and nearly crushing her body. All parties breathing heavily from the surge of violence, the fight was temporarily paused.
“Why are you fighting us, Destroyer?!” Octavia asked.
“Yeah!” Vinyl agreed. “This makes for an exciting action sequence, but it feels like it’s just here because the story of the movie requires it.”
“The movie?” Destroyer asked. He let out a loud, hearty laugh. “The movie?! Don’t tell me you two actually thought…you two weren’t just pretending?”
“Pretending what?” Octavia asked, frowning. She wanted to look upwards to see how the elevator cable was doing, but Destroyer would likely notice if she was distracted and take advantage in that brief instant.
“What in Celestia’s name do you two think you – COBRA wasn’t a film studio!” Destroyer said, his voice turning threatening. “We were never actors, or exterminators, or whatever other crap you made up to yourselves to excuse what we did!”
“Then…what were we?” Vinyl asked, confusion in her voice. She felt like she knew the answer already, but didn’t want to think about it.
“We were terrorists, you idiots! All the crossbows, the attacks, that fantastic voyage when we shrunk down and went into Serpent Superior’s bloodstream – it was all real!”
Vinyl’s mind was spinning. They had been working for a real Equestrian terrorist? The anti-Celestia rally…the attack on Canterlot…the casino robbery…now that Vinyl thought about it, it explained a lot about COBRA. Still though, what was wrong with her that she hadn’t realised any of it was real? And on a side note, what was it about Destroyer that seemed so familiar to her?
“But what about the-”
“Sorry, ladies, but that’s enough questions for now,” said Destroyer, raising his crossbow and pointing it at Vinyl. “It’s the end of the line for you two – and if I’d realised that you genuinely were oblivious all of this time, and not just using COBRA as I was, it would have been the end a long time ago.” He began twisting his leg to trigger the firing mechanism of his crossbow.
“Wait a minute – I’ve got it!” announced Vinyl. Destroyer paused, confused. “Your voice…your fighting style…the weapons you use… I know who you are, Destroyer!”
Destroyer lowered his crossbow leg slightly. “You…do?” he asked, hesitation in his voice.
“Yes! Give it up…dad!” said Vinyl.
Octavia gasped. “Vinyl! Destroyer is really your father!”
“What?” Destroyer asked. “No I’m not.” He raised his crossbow again.
“But I was sure you – actually, now that I think about it, dad never tried to kill me,” Vinyl said thoughtfully. “Carry on then!” she added cheerfully.
“No argument here,” muttered Destroyer, firing his crossbow at Vinyl. He was a second too late, however, as Octavia had already been halfway through tackling Vinyl to the ground when he fired. In spite of the dart’s incredible velocity, the Earth pony had been just a bit too quick, and it missed the two ponies as they slammed into the elevator’s roof.
“Destroyer, please!” Octavia protested, picking herself up as Destroyer reloaded yet another dart from his seemingly-infinite supply. “We’re on a burning elevator that will collapse any minute and, and- whatever your qualm with us, deal with it another day! Do you really want to die in this fruitless attempt to kill us?”
“It’d be worth it to kill you two,” Destroyer snarled. At some point since he had climbed to the elevator his Scoltish accent had disappeared, and although his voice was now vaguely familiar to Octavia, she couldn’t place where she had heard it before.
Without any hesitation, Destroyer fired his crossbow for the umpteenth time – only for it to be surrounded by a telekinetic field and snapped in half after a moment of strain. Growling, he drew his knife from his belt, only for that too to be surrounded by a magical field, wrestled from his grip, and tossed over the edge of the elevator.
“Hey guys,” said Vinyl, oblivious to the murderous glare no doubt present behind Destroyer’s mask, “did you know my horn can move things at a distance? I can’t believe I’ve never noticed that before!”
“Shut up, you idiot!” roared Destroyer. With his weapons removed from the equation, he had only one option – he leapt at Vinyl, attempting to pin her down and choke her from there. Unfortunately for Destroyer, he’d completely forgotten about Vinyl’s partner, who once again tackled Vinyl to the ground to avoid Destroyer’s attack. And without Vinyl in the way of Destroyer’s leap –
“What th-?” Flying over the edge of the elevator, those were the last words Vinyl and Octavia heard from Destroyer before he descended into the darkness. The two, still lying on the roof of the elevator, took a few moments to hold each other, ensuring that he wasn’t going to ascend out of the darkness for vengeance once more. Feeling each others’ heart beats…being able to have a brief moment of calm after an intense evening… it felt good. But it had to end, and Octavia was soon up and looking over the edge of the elevator.
“What-what do you see?” Vinyl asked, her voice coming out more hoarsely than she expected.
“Nothing,” said Octavia, trying to make something, anything, out. “There’s too much smoke. He might have fallen to his death, or he might have somehow grabbed onto a cable and slid down to the ground. I can’t see anything.”
“But doesn’t smoke rise?” Vinyl pointed out. “And the fire’s on the elevator cable.”
Octavia opened her mouth to rebut that, then realised that Vinyl was completely correct. “Whatever,” she said. “Let’s get out of here. As far as casino heists go, this is nothing but a large disappointment.”
===============================
Half an hour later, Vinyl and Octavia were at the one place the Manehattan and casino guards hadn’t bothered to search thoroughly – the casino roof. They’d been fortunate enough that the elevator cable had started working again halfway whilst they were climbing up it, and after making it up to the casino proper, had snuck up to the roof for sanctuary and the opportunity to relax for a bit. After the night they’d been through, who could blame them?
“So I guess that’s the end of our career as COBRA Troopers,” Octavia said bitterly. She was lying next to Vinyl and watching the stars – or at least, she would have been watching the stars if the city’s light pollution hadn’t all but eliminated them from the skies. Damn cities.
Next to her, Octavia felt Vinyl shrug. “Well, we weren’t ever really good COBRA Troopers anyway. Hay, was anypony there? For a terrorist organisation they sure did love using non-damaging firearms.”
Octavia couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’s certainly true,” she said. Silence fell between the two ponies.
Vinyl bit her lip. She hated silences like this between herself and her marefriend. Was Octavia silent because she had nothing more to talk about at the moment, or because she was waiting for Vinyl to say the right thing? Not wanting to say the wrong thing, Vinyl opted for the safer solution, and asked, “Octavia, what’s wrong?”
“I just…it…” Octavia started, waving a hoof around to illustrate her point. She sighed and let it fall. “Doesn’t it seem stupid to you, that we worked for a terrorist organisation for Celestia-knows how long?” She was standing up now and pacing irritably along the roof. “Does that… are we bad ponies, or are we just stupid?”
“Hay, we’re not the ones who advertised a secret terrorist organisation with bright posters,” said Vinyl, getting up and giving Octavia a hug in an attempt to calm her down. “On that note, no guards seemed to find COBRA with the posters, so I hardly think we’re winning the stupid awards here.”
Octavia let out a short, sharp laugh, unable to disagree with Vinyl. Especially not when her fur was so soft and warm and huggable as it was right now. “What do you think will happen to COBRA now?” Octavia asked, her voice slightly muffled by Vinyl’s fur.
Vinyl gave a shrug. “I dunno. Tomax, Xamot, Destroyer, and the commander are all out of the picture, so maybe it’ll fall into disarray? Maybe Destroyer gave up COBRA’s base before the casino assault and they’ll all be taken out in a raid? I don’t think they’ll last for very much longer.” It might have been Vinyl’s imagination, but it seemed to her that Octavia hugged her a little tighter for a few moments after that. Shortly afterwards, the hug was relinquished. A silence fell between the two mares once more, but this time Vinyl let it persist. Octavia was gazing off into the distance, her mind clearly thinking.
“What do you think we should do now?” Octavia asked, suddenly remembering something she’d heard earlier that night. “I’ve got an idea in mind…”
“Me too, but you say yours first.”
“No, no, you go first,” Octavia insisted.
“Bah. Classy mares,” said Vinyl, sticking out her tongue. “Alright, so COBRA’s got no leaders, which means we’re out of jobs in Manehattan since as I said it’ll probably fall apart. I think it’s obvious where I’m going with this…”
Octavia nodded. “I had a similar idea myself,” she said.
“Really? You agree that we should take over COBRA then?!” Vinyl asked excitedly. Octavia glared at her. “I mean, what’s your idea?”
“In all of the chaos of tonight, I didn’t get the opportunity to mention it, but I bumped into an old friend of mine; Frederic Horseshoepin,” Octavia began. Vinyl gestured with a hoof for her to continue.
“Vinyl…how do you feel about moving back to Canterlot…?”
===============================
Scarcely a kilometre below Vinyl and Octavia, a body shifted slightly. It was in tremendous pain, but shifted again, forcing itself to fight past the agony and to stand up. Wincing, it looked around the area it was in – there were no ponies here, at least as far as it could tell through the pain in its head.
The pony examined his body, checking for serious injuries. After a thorough few minutes, it detected that all that was there were some bruises and scrapes. That was good. Once he had hit the side of the elevator shaft with his head, Destroyer had completely lost track of everything that had happened to him, and had, in his last few moments of consciousness, naturally assumed that things would be worse than they currently were. It looked as though the protective spell on his costume really had been as effective as it was supposed to be.
Still, there was a time for costumes, and a time to unmask – and with his role in COBRA thoroughly finished, Destroyer felt that it was time for the latter. Slowly, Destroyer removed the mask which had covered his face for longer than he could recall, allowing his face to breathe properly for the first time in ages.
“Vinyl and Octavia,” he muttered to himself, spitting to the ground. “Once again, you found a way to involve yourselves in my plans. Enjoy it whilst you can. For the next time you meet Baron von Darkhoof, it will be the final confrontation.”
THE END?