2769037 The hair on the back of Backup's neck stood up. ...You might be onto something, Aqua. Backup stands up, his wings slightly extended. "Care to explain what I'm missing then?"

2769037
"Wait if you don't know where he is then why did that Invoker creep say he was out exploring the planet?"

2769037
At a certain someone's suggestion.
It's not my fault you can't handle a little cold water!

But he wasn't angry. Gold was more peeved that after all that he still didn't figure anything out. He didn't learn anything new. "Y-yeah. Not my b-best idea in hindsight."

2769094 "Oh, Gold..." She leans down and hugs his cold form.

2769088 Everyone freezes. The robotic stallion shuts his eyes and bows his head. The Librarian slowly turns to look at the pyro. "Did you say... Invoker...?"
2769058

2769070 "You're missing the big picture, Sub Backup." His ominous demeanor doesn't shift at all. If anything, it intensifies.

2771044 Backup takes an involuntary step backwards. "Care to help me see it?"

2771044
"Yeah he showed up at the house about an hour before you abducted me," Willow said. Realization struck her and she massaged the base of her horn as she took a deep breath and let it out, "Let me guess, he's one of the people working for this other organization. Rutting Tartarus. And he knows where Sub is."

2771044 He wraps his hooves around her warm body, grateful for both the warmth and the love that radiated from her. The remained like that for a moment, but something was nagging at Gold's mind. "How did you get down here without any light? This place would be impossible to get around without one." He had his helmet to get around, which miraculously still worked, but he didn't see anything on her. Not even a candle or a lantern.

2771044
2771171 Willow jumps to her hooves. "We've just left them all alone! You need to send us back, we need to check on the others while you try to search for Sub with your freaky super magic technology. Once we have everyone we know the location of, we go after Sub."

2772960 There is a long pause. "...Agreed." There is a bright flash of light, and the ponies find themselves in the foyer of the house, along with the Librarian, the Agent, three other Rho figures, and the strange stallion.
2771171 "...They are not just an organization." The Librarian speaks, facing away from them.

2771192 Ice inhales deeply. She seems relieved to see him. She pulls back and looks at him strangely. "Wait, what? I do have a light." She points back toward the entrance toward a lantern that looks like it was carelessly dropped. "As soon as I saw you dive in, I... ran over to you..."
Gold shudders as he is reminded of his coldness. He feels a little weaker.
Drip...

Drip,
Drip,
Drip,
Drip,
The drops start falling faster.

He turns to face them. "...and the Invoker does not work FOR them..."

2771053 "Hm. Oh, trust me... you will. And when you do... you will be ready."

"...He founded them..." He makes a sighing sound.

"...The Rho Syndicate."

2773828 Backup was expecting him to attack, but was surprised when he did not. "Ready? For what?" He was still wary, but not as on guard as he was before.

2773828 Gold scrambled back to his hooves. It was much more taxing than it should have been, and he continued to shiver violently. "We should get out of here. We both need to dry off before we get sick. Did you see Alt on your way down?"

2773828 "... what?"

2773828 2774022
"Yeah, that's great," Willow said not really caring what the enemy was called, "Willow you go start looking through the basement to make sure anypony down there is okay. I'll be down to help you once I check to see if anypony is up here. Oh you might want to cover your ears for this." Willow took a deep breath and called upon the years of her and her family shouting conversations to each other through walls, floor, and over gunfights, "SUB, GOLD, ICE, ALTERNATE, IF ANY OF YOU CAN HEAR ME GET YOUR FLANKS UP HERE. NOW." And who said only royalty could use the royal Canterlot voice?

2774753 Willow, unable to react quick enough, is shaken by Pyro's shout. "... I'll go check the basement..." she walks off, towards the basement.

2774753 She gets no response.

"Sir Agent...?"

2774022 The armored stallion is suddenly beside Willow, and he touches her hoof. Everything goes quiet. The black metal hoof feels... familiar. She hears his calm voice in her head. You don't recognize me... do you...?

"I... cannot identify him. There is interference." A pause. "...I have seen this pattern before."

2773887 Sub can nearly feel the smirk beneath the figure's helmet. "...For the final act of the play." The wind picks up, and the clouds move a bit faster, increasing the overcast.

2773907 Ice opens her mouth to respond, but is distracted as her ears rotate toward the pool. The dripping has turned into a steady stream, and the pool begins to glow. The stone dust laying on the metal rim begins to shift...

2776113 Backup slowly backs away from the figure. This is bad. Bad, bad, bad. VERY, BAD! "Sorry, but I'm not an actor."

2776113 Completely abandoning any notion of leaving, Gold remains rooted to the spot. He watches the transformation with rapt attention.

2776113 Should I?

2776113 2775604
Willow listened for any grumbles, returning shouts, or other noises that usually resulted from a loud unexpected shout. Hearing none she shrugged, "Hmm, nopony up here, but what would they all be doing down in the hive?" Willow turned to join her batpony in the basement when she saw the armored stallion next to her marefriend. Then she saw he was holding her hoof. Willow snarled sparks shooting from her horn as she came up behind the stallion.

She didn't care if he was somepony the Rho seemed nervous around, nopony hit on her marefriend without receiving, at minimum, an ear full. "And what, might I ask, are you doing with my marefriend?" Willow asked glareing razor sharp, poisonous, flaming daggers of pain at the stallion.

2776227 Willow looks at her. "... I think I know him. He feels... familiar. He was just asking me about it pretty discreetly..." she smiles, "but anything that I can be told, you can be told."

2776227 He doesn't seen to react to any of the voices around him.
2776197 It would make sense if you don't know me yet... I was just making sure... But there is something you must know. But first I must ask a question... And you must answer truthfully—do NOT tell me what I want I hear. Do you trust me?

2776131 The Invoker doesn't move, yet Backup feels like he isn't getting any farther from him. "Are you sure, Sub Backup...? You've put on many faces... The changeling from the emerald kingdom... The test subject from the Ruby kingdom... Damon, the alter-ego... Sub Backup: Sector-54 Rho subject. Patient R-54b. Then finally, there is you. The confused intelligence. The question is... Which of these are but masks... And which is really you?" The wind picks up still. "...And will you be able to figure out in time...?"

2776139 The metal rim begins to rotate, brushing the dust off of its sleek surface and causing the glowing pool to swirl. The humming increases with the luminosity, and the stream begins to glow.

2776708 Backup stopped mid step. He was confused by the questions but they struck an odd chord inside of him. ...Who am I? "...How do you know about all that? Especially the...Rubies. You're obviously not with the Rho, and I never told them about the Rubies. Who are you?"

2776708
Gold, what's going on?
I... I don't know...

He continued to watch, but he subconsciously repositioned his body to shield Ice in case he needed to defend her.

2776708 "You... feel familiar, but do I trust you? I can't say I do... not yet."

2776708
"Hey pal, don't ignore me. What are you doing holding her hoof like some love struck foal?" Willow jabbed the armored figure lightly with her horn a couple times trying to snap him out of whatever trance he seemed to have locked himself in. She didn't know this ass from Adam, but she knew she didn't trust this yutz as far as she could throw him. Which she was forced to admit wasn't far.

2776971 "He's talking to me in my head."

2776793 Backup can feel the smirk break into a wicked grin. The shadows on his faceplate continue to loom ominously. "...You wanted to know why I'm here...?"

2776809 The swirling of the pool speeds up, and it grows brighter. Finally, the stalactite's tip glows as well, and a bright beam of light bursts straight down into the pool, throught the stream of water and causing the cave to shake. The swirling vortex turns to an icy silver, with a strange aura within it. Gold recognizes it from somewhere...

2776849 Good. Then your opinion will be unbiased. Now, listen ca--
WARNING. Dimensional-Slipspace rupture detected. A new voice interrupts.
Delta takes his hoof away. His head raises and his robotic eyes widen.
"What was that?!" The Agent exclaims.
"I felt it, too..."
2776971

"...I'm here to stall you, Sub Backup."

2779850 Backup's face scrunches "Stall me? Stall me from what? In case you haven't noticed, I'm really far away from anything and anyone."

2779850 Gold slowly started backing away from the swirling vortex. He had seen it before. Without taking his eyes off of it, he said, "Ice, I need you to get out of here. Go get the others as fast as you can." His voice changed, become gruff and authoritative. The warrior he had been rose to the surface once again. They needed to get out. The swirling object looked like a portal, but he wasn't afraid of the portal itself. He was more worried about what could come out of it. He closed his eyes and flipped the switch in his mind. When he opened them again, he saw...

2779850 Willow takes a few steps away from Delta, pressing herself to the Pyro's side. "What do we do..?"

2779850 2780733
Willow continues to glare at the armored pony, though she allows herself a smile since Willow had chosen her over this seducer. "Go explore the basement, find out where the others are. Same as before."

2779989 Gold sees The portal emitting a blinding bright light and a flowing aura upwards, striking the stalactite and spreading over it-- only the stalactite has been replaced by a metal pillar hanging down, with its razor-sharp tip shooting a blue beam through the wispy aura, down into the swirling bright vortex. tendrils seep out of it and latch onto the ground nearby. Gold thought for a moment he saw a faint glow in the corner of his eye, over towards the fallen rocks, but he isn't sure.

2780733 2780896 Delta darts over to the front door with surprising speed, quickly running out and looking up into the sky.

2779888 "Precisely, Sub Backup..."

2787123 What does-- His eyes widen in sudden realization and he tries fly away from the Invoker. Run Subby Run! Aqua yelled at him.

2787123 That's not good! The tendrils of aura latching onto the rocks put him on edge. This was clearly something he shouldn't mess with without support. All he had was Ice, and he wasn't about to risk her life or risk her freezing up again. He edged away from the vortex.

Gold! The rocks!
Following her advice, Gold quickly pulled his attention to the faint glow that he caught out of the corner of his eye.

2787123 2780733
Willow grumbled as she noticed the armored stallion run outside and the reactions of the Rho. "Willow you go ahead and start looking for the others, make sure they haven't gotten themselves stuck in a pod or something. I'm going to go see what has our knight in shining armor so flustered." Willow walked after the stallion at a much more leisurely pace thoughts of geldings dancing in her head.

2787738 Willow nods and heads for the basement.

2779989 Suddenly, a blur of white leaps from the portal and lands in front of Gold. Several more follow, landing all over the cave. Each blur materializes in front of the ponies' eyes, revealing arched backbones, menacing claws, buzzing wings, chittering pincers, and pointed tails. Blood-red eyes snap open from all of them, and soon more of the creatures spill out of the portal. They look around, then lock their eyes on the ponies.

2788440 Willow makes it down to the basement foyer, with a closed door on the left, and the utility room door on the right wide open, revealing another open door at the other end of the room. It looks like someone came through here in a hurry.

2787738 The Pyro can see Delta looking up into the sky.
There is a sound of thunder.
2787156 Backup watches in awe as the nearby colossal tower reveals its true purpose in a flash of divine light and a boom of a thousand bombs. A bright white bolt of energy rockets out of its tip, arching upward... at a massive bulbous object flying down... straight towards the cabin. An enormous portal stretches across the sky above it, and from it, several other of the objects emerge, accompanied by hundreds of smaller ones. The bolt strikes the object, exploding in a white flame and causing it to spin, its structure slowly disintegrating. The second tower, off in the distance, then fires, hitting another object. By this point, the two smaller towers a while back have started firing upon the smaller ones, at a much faster but inaccurate rate. Backup realizes that the wind is coming from the portal.
The Invoker looks at him. "You'd best run, Sub Backup. If you do not get there in time... your friends... and your sister... will die."

2790579 Lunar's eyes widen in abject horror. "No." is all he says before flying as fast as he can towards the cabin, pushing his muscles far past their limits, causing them to burn and ache.

2790579 Gold slowly edged away from the portal, trying to keep as many of these... well, they looked a bit like changelings... in his sight as he could. Getting out of there would not be easy.

2790579
Willow looked up and saw a glowing portal overhead and what looked like meteors falling from it. It really was just like preschool. Willow sighed before kicking the armored stallion to get his attention. "Will you go get your Rho friends and take care of this? I'm going to be waiting in the basement for the bombardment to end, probably in a narrow path so I have an easy shot when the ground forces show up."

2788440 Willow turned and trotted back inside the house. "Come on Willow we're under attack." Willow trots down into the basement. "Sure wish I still had my armor and some weapons."

2790872 "Can't we get all our stuff upstairs?"

2790938
"There appears to be a large amount of meteors falling towards the house. I'd rather not risk it myself." Willow said, "But if you want to risk it," Willow paused having trouble saying the next words, "you go right on ahead."

2790872 2790938 Suddenly, a shockwave blows by, seemingly through the very walls. The Rho figures and Delta are each encased in a field of electricity, as if their very attire were short-circuiting. They all cringe and collapse to their knees in pain, clutching themselves. The Agent reaches into his cloak and presses something, and he vanishes. Two other figures do the same. The Librarian painfully looks over at the ponies. "Th-the locker-rs... Equ-quipmen-t... Y-you mmust... fight... th-them... Take... everything... and... FIGHT!!" He then vanishes. Delta crawls in, his shocks the most powerful and dangerous-looking. "He... is... ri-ight... They can b-e f-fought... th-they can be ki-illed... They... can... be... stopped." He then vanishes too, but in a different way... like a hologram.almost as if it wasn't even him...
Through the windows, the Willows see one of the massive objects get destroyed, spinning off course.

As Sub flies away, the Invoker chuckles. "Run on, Sub Backup," He says. His robes shift from silver to a dark gray, and other figures materialize behind him, some rho, others of odd species, but all wear the same style of black robes. "We are the Syndicate. We cannot be stopped. We cannot be fought. And we will not be denied." Soon, a dozen figures stand behind him, and his robes fade to a deathly black. "So you best hope... you are not in our way."

2790605

2790795 You are strong, Sub Backup. He can feel his wings and heart grow stronger. For your friends... and your sister... you will be strong.

2790969 2790938 The Willows are in the foyer. They believe some equipment can be retrieved upstairs from the lockers and closets. Outside, the towers fire upon several objects falling down to the planet, from a giant portal. While they are eliminating most of them, it looks like many will still hit the ground in approximately 3 events.

2790795 Gold and Ice are in the cave with the portal. Dozens of strange skeletal insect-like creatures glare at them, buzzing and hissing. "Gold, run!!" Ice screams. The stallion spots a creature mid-jump towards him as the others begin to mobilize.

2790605 Sub Backup has been blessed with THE GIFT OF THE VALKYRIE! Fly+7, Cmb+4, Will+2

((4/4))

2794133 There were too many to fight by themselves and Ice couldn't fly away in these cramped quarters. It looked like the only option he had was to run... or get really creative...

No time! You can't protect her if you stay here!
Who would have thought that Selene would turn out to be the voice of reason? Gold turned to bolt out of the chamber as quickly as his numb body could manage, he checked to make sure that Ice was safely ahead of him.

2794133 All of a sudden, backup felt like he was flying at a fraction of the speed he could. He tried flapping them, and found he could move faster. I'm coming, alty. He flaps his wings faster and faster, gaining more and more speed.

2794133 2790938
"Okay they seem to be buying us a little time, but I don't want to take any chances with meteors falling," Willow said thinking quickly. "You run upstairs and grab some armor, weapons, and some basic medical supplies from the closets while I grab us some food and watch from the kitchen. We might have to be hunkered in the basement for a while. Just grab me some heavy armor, preferably made out of some magically tough material like adamantine or thuelecite, and a few spears." Willow ran towards the kitchen to start stocking up on food and drink, she wished she still had some bags with her, but she was fairly good at finding ways to carry lots of stuff without any.

2794133 Willow headed upstairs to get the things requested.

2796328 The bathroom door is the only one open. Willow remembers their rooms were on the left.
Then, with her hypersensitive hearing, the vampony detects a faint sound of something shifting in place, coming from one of the rooms on the right.

2795481 She finds plenty of food, and as she exits the pantry, she spots the refrigerator's lock glowing green. The Rocky turtle is in the living room, limbs retracted.

2794736 Ice waits for him to meet up to her before running along his side, the creatures shrieking and following them, crawling on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling.

2795039 Sub can only watch as more and more of the falling pods get decimated by the towers' bolts of energy. The big ones are easily taken out, but several of the smaller ones are managing to slip by...

Enemy ETA: 2 events!
Backup ETA: 2-6 events?
((1/3))