Rainbow Dash was the first out of the liset, sprinting forward a few meters before launching herself over the railing on the far side, reaching the second floor in a single leap. “Come on! We need to hurry!”
“Not all of us can fly like that…” Fluttershy mumbled under her breath, but did her best to push her legs ahead.
“Don’t strain yourself, Fluttershy,” Trinity let her partner know. “If you are tired, I can take over. We Tenno do not tire the same way as you humans.”
“It’s okay, Trinity. I can manage…”
Sunset wasn’t having any of it. “Rainbow, could you slow down? At least do it for Fluttershy.”
“Alright, alright,” she replied, but immediately wished she hadn’t stopped. A Corrupted creature burst out from one of the doors, knocking her off the railing with a bash. “Agh! Incoming!”
Zephyr took over and flipped her back on her feet, akstilletos flipping out into her hands instantly. Bullets were fired, pelting the Corrupted until it stopped moving.
“They know we’re here,” Zephyr said. “We need to move quickly. Trinity.”
The shy girl’s Tenno suddenly took over, maximizing her movements. “I’m sorry Fluttershy. We need to help the Lotus.”
“It’s f-fine, Trinity,” she squeaked as her Warframe ran up the wall vertically, grabbing the ledge and jumping up to meet Rainbow. The others soon followed behind. “I trust you. We can do this.”
Without warning, Fluttershy was wrapped in a sparkling later of magic, gaining the wings and ears like when she played her music, along with the extra length of pink hair going down to her boots.
“Woah, Flutters!” Rainbow patted her on the back before readying her guns again, pointing them to the doorway in front, which was oddly quiet. “You got your Maximum Drift before I did! Maybe it really is voice activated like I thought.”
“Voice activated?” Flash Sentry asked, unsheathing his nikana.
“You know,” Rainbow began. “Like ‘open sesame’. You just need to mention how awesome you are before you get your awesomeness?”
“I’m not sure I follow…” the guitarist scratched at the back of his head where his hair stuck out.
“Wait, wait… Let me try. Hey, Zephyr. You with me?” the rainbow haired girl stopped.
“Of course, Rainbow Dash! We’re doing this, you and me. Together, nothing will be able to stop us!”
The next thing the four of them knew, the athlete grew wings, pony ears and more hair, immediately taking to the air with a loud whoop. “Let’s do this, Zephyr!”
She rocketed off through the door, just as a new squad of Corrupted ran in, knocking them all back with a blast of wind.
“Oh… That’s what she meant,” Flash smiled and joined in, electrifying two Corrupted Grineer with a shock. "I wonder what it looks like on a guy..."
Sunset created a ring of fire around herself with fire blast, at the same time, casting an accelerant on the Corrupted closest to her, causing them to burn faster. Trinity took over for the meek girl, tossing herself into the fray, beating down at the enemy with her bo staff. With the added wings, Trinity found she could glide across the battlefield, using the staff’s range to her advantage without needing to touch the ground. The occasional blessing was cast in the area, rejuvenating Fluttershy’s friends and their Tenno partners when needed.
“We owe you, Trinity,” Zephyr replied as Rainbow Dash tossed an empty magazine at a Corrupted charger before reloading her guns.
“You always owe me,” Trinity responded as she bashed another Corpus helmet in. “I’ve been doing this since day one.”
Flash ran along under both of them, slashing away at the Corrupted with his nikana. Volt was starting to let him take more control, seeing as the guitarist was getting familiar with the sword. “Not bad, Flash Sentry. Perhaps I misjudged you. You’re getting better.”
“Of course, Volt,” Flash grunted as his blade tore through a Corrupted Grineer’s armor. He turned and shocked another two soldiers. “What good am I if I don’t learn?”
“Good question, Flash Sentry. Thankfully, you’re of better use than that. So far.”
Sunset fired her glaxion, freezing many enemies to the ground as they made their way into the next room. It was a circular room with a drop in the middle, which housed some kind of plant. Creating two fireballs, the fiery haired girl tossed them at the new ice sculptures, breaking them into a thousand pieces.
“Yes! Burn them all!” Ember screamed. “Light them all on fire!”
“Ember, really,” Sunset rolled her eyes. “Must you always talk about fire?”
The four pilots and their Warframes made their way through the next few rooms, following the tiny blip on their radars, pointing them towards their mission objective. None of them knew what this Neural Sentry looked like, but they knew what they had to do.
Rainbow Dash led the way forward, being the fastest of them all. Combined with Volt’s speed boost, the athlete and her partner shredded their way through the Corrupted forces, clearing a straight path for the other three behind her. Sunset froze and burned the enemies along the way, while Fluttershy and Flash worked away using their melee weapons.
Soon, the path ahead began leading down. The four traveled down slope after slope, proceeding from room to room, but all the while, following the descending path. After the next room, which was a long slope with a few doors to the left and right, the rest of their way seemed to be dimmer, like the lights had been put out.
“Odd,” Flash looked to the ceiling. “Are we close?”
“Affirmative,” Volt replied, slightly irritated. “Just look at the radar, Flash Sentry.”
True enough, the small round radar at the corner of their vision showed that the next room was a large one, circular in shape, and that was it. There wasn’t anything else ahead except for the large circular room.
“This looks like it,” Sunset lifted her glaxion onto a shoulder. “That Neural Sentry should be just ahead.”
“Umm…” Fluttershy raised a hand. “Is it g-going to just let us walk in?”
“Let’s find out,” Rainbow muttered and stepped to the door in front, which was almost two times the size of all the other doors they’ve been through. As soon as she got into proximity of its reflective surface, the split open, drawing itself up and to the side, revealing a dark room; the entrance was the only part of it lighted up from the dim lights in the corridor. “Well, it’s unlocked. Let’s go!”
“We should be-” Sunset began, but Rainbow was already gone, jetting off into the unknown darkness ahead. “Careful… Great. Come on. We better follow her before she does something we’ll regret.”
The three others sped into the dark room, weapons raised, ready for anything. They’d already lost sight of Rainbow, but they could still hear her zooming around the room, somewhere ahead.
Without warning, a small golden cube rose up from the ground, or at least they thought it was the ground, just a few meters from their position. It floated there for a good three minutes, spinning and bouncing as if waiting for them to move closer.
“What is that?” Sunset tilted her head, but kept her weapon pointed forward just in case.
“I’m not sure…” Ember focused the crosshairs on the golden cube and zoomed in on it. “It appears to be a Cephalon, a kind of artificial intelligence core.”
“It’s very old,” Trinity added, joining Ember in scanning the cube. “Older than any known or recorded Cephalon.”
“Artificial intelligence?” Rainbow asked Zephyr. “Does that mean this is the Neural Sentry we were looking for?”
“We don’t know what the Neural Sentry is,” Mag admitted. “But this could very well be it. Stay on guard. I don’t expect it to go down easily. Cephalons are crafty programs.”
The cube continued to bob up and down in the air, glimmering gold and watching the Warframes and their pilots.
“So, uh, what do we do?” Flash eventually said. “Do we just need to cut it down? Cause that looks easy enough.”
Rainbow Dash was already there, standing before the cube. Pointing her akstilletos at it, she opened fire, her gunfire lighting up the immediate area around her.
The bullets whizzed right through the holographic cube, but there was an immediate reaction. The entire hologram lit up as an angry red, and smaller cubes formed around the central one. At the same time, the entire room brightened as panels in the walls and floor slid open to reveal hordes of Corrupted and laser plates.
“Rainbow!” Sunset raised her gun and backed away from the Corrupted forces. “Too soon!”
“Sorry!” she raised both machine pistols. “I thought it would work.”
“Oh dear…” Fluttershy squeaked and backed up between Sunset and Flash. “Th-That’s a lot of bad guys.”
“Well, we didn’t think this would be easy,” Sunset grunted and primed a fireball. “Simple plan. We take out everything in this room.”
“Plan enough for me,” Rainbow smiled and launched herself headfirst into the hoarding crowd of Corrupted, her akstilletos already blazing.
Home Run spun one more time, parrying the Stalker’s scythe before sticking a tesla grenade to the Tenno’s body. The electric stunned him for a split second before he kicked out, knocking Home Run down to the ground. The boy spun himself on his feet and swung his hammer a few more times, all of them deflected by the Stalker’s lighter and faster weapon.
Activating the jets on his jat kittag, Home Run pounded down as fast as he could, catching one of the Stalker’s feet. The metallic floor cracked as the hammer connected with it, but the Stalker seemed unfazed. He lashed out with the foot Home Run had attacked, knocking the baseball player down again, spinning his scythe a few times from hand to hand.
“This is not going well,” Home Run complained as he rolled away from the Stalker’s vertical slash. “Not well at all…”
“We just need to hold him back, Home Run,” Vauban cajoled. “At least until the others destroy the Neural Sentry. Trust me, we’ve gone through worse.”
“Really? When?”
“What I mean *brzzzt* is I’ve been through worse. You probably haven’t.”
“Oh, that’s really reassuring,” Home Run muttered, gripping the shaft of his hammer and charging back into the fray.
Mr. Loregiver and Eclair were on the other side of the room, closer to the Warframe pods, facing off against Duality. The pony had gone straight for their history teacher, seeing as she wanted the Warframe armor back. Their teacher had mastered the new Warframe quickly, able to use it to its maximum ability, keeping up with each and every attack Duality could throw at them. Eclair herself kept her distance, but being a Eclipse Guard or whatever she called herself, she seemed to be able to adapt to the battle well. She would occasionally throw a soul punch or use her scythe when she saw her chance.
Duality was fast, flying in and out, dodging attack after attack. She had weapons all over her body, but thankfully, Mr. Loregiver and Eclair were watchful enough to avoid most of them.
Applejack and Trixie had moved up to deal with the scythe wielding killer, but he parried them away as Home Run arrived back, delivering a huge strike to the Stalker’s chin. The Stalker was launched clean off his feet and slammed into the ceiling, but on his way down he threw a handful of throwing knives at Trixie.
“Watch out!” Home Run called out, preparing a few grenades.
“Let me,” Limbo said before casting rift walk, the Stalker’s knives flying right through them. “Simple.”
Applejack formed up an iron skin before charging straight for the dark Tenno as he landed, ramming him straight in the chest with her shoulder. The Stalker slid back a couple of feet, but stopped himself before slashing out at the cowgirl, cutting a clean gash across her arm.
“Agh!” Applejack cried up and hopped back a few steps, clutching her arm. Blood was already seeping through the armor, running down her arm.
“You alright, *bzzzt* Applejack?” Rhino asked and took over. “Let me take over for a while.”
“Thanks, partner,” she said, trying to hold back her pain.
From the corner of his eye, Home Run noticed Rarity nocking another arrow, while Pinkie and a few of her clones worked to move Princess Celestia to safety and to free Princess Luna from the remains of the doors. Twilight flew on her wings above the battle, firing psychic bolts and her sybaris whenever she could. The Stalker shrugged off most of their attacks, but the Tenno noticed he was weakening. His shadowy barrier could only take so much damage. Home Run could see it. They could do this.
Sunset and Ember kicked away a Corrupted ancient and fired their glaxion right down its gaping mouth, freezing it solid. In an instant, Volt slid in and swiped at it with his nikana, cutting the creature clean in half.
“Excellent, Flash Sentry,” Volt praised, taking over for an instant, spinning around to cleave a Corrupted Corpus in two. “With more work, perhaps you will become skilled like I.”
“Glad to hear it! I think we almost got ‘em all!”
It was true. With Zephyr’s mighty wind blasts and Trinity’s frequent blessings, the four of them were cutting through the Corrupted like a scythe through grain.
“Man! This Maximum Drift is awesome!” Rainbow whooped, flying circles around the Neural Sentry, taking down more Corrupted while trying to find a way to attack the Cephalon directly. “Zephyr, any ideas?”
“The Neural Sentry is linked to the entire tower. If we do enough damage to the surrounding area, perhaps a weak spot will appear.”
“Attack the entire room?” Rainbow shrugged and swooped back down. “Yeah, I can handle that.”
She began busily shooting at the floor, at the same time, blasting tornadoes at nearby Corrupted to keep them occupied.
“Will this really work?” Flash was beside her, stabbing his blade into the ground and cutting along the ground, lifting it up only to slash a Corrupted moa in two. “I mean, couldn’t we have just nuked this place from the outside then? I mean, this is really weird, don't you think? Just randomly cutting up the floor?”
Trinity spoke up. “This strategy is both wasteful of time and ammunition. We must find a way to attack the Neural Sentry directly. I suggest we start with the pedestal that the cube in on. Volt. Do your thing.”
“Right,” Volt replied and took control. He sped himself and Flash Sentry over to the Cephalon, slicing clean through its pedestal. The program groaned out once before another door in the floor hissed open, filling the room with fog.
As the mist began to clear, the four of them beheld a golden figure striding out of the new entrance, all covered in white-gold armor and brandishing a large disc with three blades.
“What’s that?” Fluttershy pointed out as she and Rainbow Dash used their wings to clear the room of the fog.
“Looks like the Sentry decided to come out and play,” Ember cheered. “Burn it to the ground, Sunset Shimmer!”
“Gotcha,” Sunset agreed, flinging two fireballs at the golden figure, Faster than they would have believed possible, the Sentry threw its disc in an arc, intercepting the flaming projectiles and making them explode.
“Seriously?” she questioned as the golden figure rushed them, catching its weapon along the way.
“Back!” Rainbow floated down and cast a turbulence, creating a barrier of wind before the four of them. At the same time, the army of Corrupted advanced, following the Neural Sentry as it slashed through Rainbow’s barrier. “Well… This one’s tough. But it can’t be tougher than us, Zephyr! Let’s do this!”
She ran at the Neural Sentry, spent shells falling to the ground as she emptied her akstilettos at it. The golden figure held up its disc to block the onslaught of bullets, driving it back a step. A Corrupted Grineer threw itself at the athlete, but Zephyr simply turned and knocked it away with a straight kick to the face. Trinity flew into the crowd of enemies, spinning her bo staff along her back, knocking most of them down. Flash finished one off with his nikana before launching an overload, frying the rest of the Corrupted soldiers.
More began pouring out from the walls while the four pilots and their Tenno quickly took the breathing chance to attack the Neural Sentry. The Sentry threw its glaive at Rainbow, but the shell of wind around her deflected the thrown disc aside. At that moment, Fluttershy cast an energy vampire on the Sentry, stunning it and locking it in place as Flash closed in, nikana swinging. Once, then twice did Flash’s blade pass, both of the Neural Sentry’s arms falling to the ground just in time for Sunset to grab the wayward glaive and cut the Sentry’s head off as she jumped towards it.
“Nicely done, guys!” Rainbow cheered from above. She raised her guns to fire on the Corrupted again, but without warning, each one stopped moving and dropped to the ground. “We did it!”
“Y-Yeah…” Fluttershy slumped to her knees, breathing heavily. “Glad that’s over…”
“We really did it?” Flash placed his sword back in its sheath. He looked around, unable to find another living enemy. “Wow.”
“Yes. Very good, Flash Sentry,” Volt said. “Perhaps we’ll be able to work together more in the future.”
“That’s if we’re still needed, Volt,” Trinity replied the Tenno. “If there is no more need to be around, who knows, we might have to go back to sleep.”
“Already?” Volt complained. “I just got out! And I haven’t got to spend a lot of time with Nyx yet.”
“We should worry about that later,” Sunset stepped to her team. “The others are still trying their best to stop the Stalker and Duality. I suggest we head back and do what we need to protect the princess.”
“Works for me,” Ember took over and nodded. “Let us go, Sunset Shimmer! Blaze home!”