"Disengaging primary cryo field," a voice intoned as Twilight felt her awareness returning.
"Nnn...we don't do cryo sleep..." she mumbled as she slowly opened her eyes. She could then only stare as she found herself hanging upside down by her hind hooves, electrically bound to some sort of suspension device. "Oh hell no," she grumbled.
"I feel I should complain about your language as a parental figure," Alister commented dryly as he hung from a similar position, "but I'm feeling much the same way."
"Uncle!" Twilight called out. "Are you alright?"
"As well as can be expected when we've been kidnapped, kept in cryo-sleep for an unknown period of time, and hung upside down," Alister replied. "What about the others?"
"A little help here?" Qwark called out as he was lowered down, his entire body bound up like a pretzel and wrapped in an electric coil. He gestured to the device he was hanging from. "I think mine's broken!"
"...perfect," Alister grumbled. "Can this get any worse?"
At that point, Nefarious lowered down, similarly bound up like Qwark. However, he seemed to be in a programming lock, as he did not move and an unusual song was playing, rather than the usual snippets of soap operas.
"...BBBFF?" Twilight called out. "Would you?"
"I dunno," Qwark replied, bouncing as best he could to the beat. "I kinda like it."
"Excuse me!" a young, feminine voice called out. "Whatcha doing up there?"
Twilight glanced down at the source of the voice, a short blue girl dressed in orange and pink. "Oh, you know," Twilight replied. "Just...hanging around." Twilight paused as she caught sight of the gadget the girl had with her. "Ooh! What's that do?"
Grinning, the girl hefted the device. "Lemme show you!" Turning the gadget towards another device, she pulled the trigger. A massive suction was generated until it pulled part of the device part way out of its locking point, causing all four of them to drop to the platform below. Twilight and Alister landed gracefully, Qwark and Nefarious less so.
"Ugh...not the most comfortable way I've ever been snapped out of one of those," Nefarious grumbled, pushing himself to his feet.
"Aww..." Qwark complained as he rose, rubbing his back. "I liked that song..."
Twilight quickly rushed up to the device the girl was holding. "It looks like the old suck cannon, but it seems to have different features..."
"No time for that!" the little girl proclaimed. "You need to get out of here before she finds out I released you?"
"She who?" Alister demanded.
"No time!" the little girl countered. "Head through the Sector 7 air vent! We'll rendezvous on the South side! A Galactic Scout never leaves before her mission is complete!" Using her gadget to manipulate another device, a launch pad unfolded. "Get going!"
"Do we trust her?" Qwark asked Twilight worriedly.
Twilight looked the girl in the eyes for a time, then nodded. "We do," she confirmed.
"Good enough for me!" Qwark proclaimed, leaping onto the launch platform.
"If you're certain..." Alister grumbled, stepping on more hesitantly.
"I don't know," Nefarious began as Twilight stepped onto the platform. "I feel like I've been getting a bit too buddy-buddy with you good guys..."
"Nefarious, if you had a facility like this and had prisoners hanging upside down like that, what sort of experiments would you conduct on them?" Qwark asked curiously.
"Wait for me!" Nefarious screamed out exactly 0.68 seconds later, leaping onto the launch platform.
As the platform prepared to launch them, Twilight called out, "What's your name?"
"Susie!" the little girl replied as the group was propelled across a gap to a new platform, a door irising open to allow them to progress.
"I like her!" Twilight stated firmly as the group raced ahead, seeking a way out.
"How come you trusted her so readily?" Alister asked curiously.
"I scanned her with my magic, and I got apples," Twilight replied readily. "That told me I could trust her."
"You realize that makes absolutely no sense, right?" Nefarious pointed out as the group got on an elevator.
"Yeah, my magic's like that sometimes," Twilight replied. "But as far as I can tell, in my magic apples equal honesty."
"What do oranges equal, then?" Qwark asked curiously.
"No idea!"
As they spoke, the elevator stopped as a device scanned them. "Organic lifeforms detected," the device proclaimed in a somewhat feminine voice. "Reroute to creature pen for probing and experimentation."
"I need an adult!" Twilight squeaked out.
"Twilight, you just turned 18," Alister pointed out. "You are an adult!"
"We're not test subjects!" Qwark shouted out. "We're...uh...new trainees?"
"Very well," the computer replied. "Rerouting to training lab for gadget certification."
As the elevator started up again, Twilight turned to stare at Qwark. "That...was oddly brilliant, BBBFF. Not only are we not going to be experimented on, but we're going to get new gear!"
Qwark grinned widely. "I have my moments," he boasted modestly, rubbing his knuckled on his chest. A thoughtful look crossed his face. "Say, Twilight...since you needed an adult and I saved you, does that mean-"
"No," Nefarious interrupted firmly. "No you're not."
Nefarious was as funny as ever in this chapter
Also, I can't believe I haven't been keeping track of Twilight's age thus far into the story.
Nefarious, you're not Gohan.
Now all you need is for Qwark and Twilight to have a moment of:
"Daddy would let me go!", "No, he wouldn't! And he's smarter than me!"
The dialogue never fails to disappoint.
7141874 Eh, I dunno... scholar with potential for badassery/fighter with a brain? Honestly, I could see it. I could even see Qwark as being Goku, what with the whole absurdly-strong but lacking in brainpower thing. The real question is: if Qwark is Goku and Nefarious is Gohan, does that make Twilight and Azimuth the group's Bulma and Piccolo?
7141993
He was saying Qwark is Goku and Twilight is Gohan.
7142005 Exactly.
7141993 See? The author got it.
Well, it's easy to guess what other emotions and personalities are represented as.
Keep trying big guy and eventually you will be.
Ah... There are times, especially around finals, where it's nice to sit back, relax, and read something silly. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
7142005 as a curiosity whats your take on the new ratchet and clank game. Not that im expecting it to be any part of this story as its a reboot. But i wanted to know your thoughts.
7142646
Haven't seen it.
Quark gets exactly 0 breaks.
I seriously want Twifarious now, what with all the teasing you're doing for it.
7143045 I think ratchet has the final say in the matter in which case twilight can over rule him if she feels strongly enough
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
7142295 Cant see it. Nefarious, and villains like him, are almost always "All or nothing." types. They follow through with their crazy, and sometimes asinine, plans EXACTLY how they feel they should be. Even when pointed out that "Hey doing X will work better than doing Y!" they usually tend to stick with Y, because "That's how it's supposed to be done." As such whenever they do something, they don't half ass it. They put EVERYTHING into whatever it is they are doing. Completionism/Perfectionism isn't simply a habit, it's a REQUIREMENT of the archtype.
This show strongest in how they deal with even simple things. Use the Doofenshmirtz example that this chapter referenced, Why does Doofenshmirtz have an overly complicated plan for absolutely everything, INCLUDING dealing with something as simple as "X is blocking my light!" Because he's "The Mad Scientist". It's literally what he does with EVERYTHING. Even his daughter's birthday wasn't complete until he tried to kill Perry with an overly complex scheme, despite having spent the entirety of the episode up until they working WITH Perry to set up and run the party to make Venessa happy. Doofenshmirtz HAS to do such things, because it "Wouldn't be proper otherwise".
As such, I can't see Nefarious backing out of 'being good' without making a blatant attempt to do so. Simply working with the heroes does NOT qualify as such an attempt. If Nefarious does try to be good, it will be VERY OBVIOUS. Also likely to be VERY AWKWARD and probably cause more trouble/damage than Nefarious trying to be evil generally does. I CAN see him NOT making such an attempt, and have a rather similar scene happen. However the letter would be MUCH different.
I didn't bother to tailor it to Nefarious' personal style, but I can see something very similar to that happening at the end of this. Nefarious' archtype does NOT surrender, never admits defeat, and refuses to give up no matter how many times they fail/get told no/ect. If he REALLY does decide "She's the one for me." There are pretty much only two possibilities. Either Twilight will end up in a Gender Flipped version of Dating Catwoman, or Nefarious will snap from not being able to get her to love him as he does her. Eventually Twilight will be put in a situation where she will have no choice but to END Nefarious, permanently. That's the darker aspect of the absolutism of such villainous archtypes. IF they do love, they almost always do so utterly. To the point that the idea of the one they love being happy with someone else pushes them over the edge and well beyond any moral event horizon...
Frogs, probably.
Okay, I'm gonna say this now, but I never actually played this game. So I may be jumping the gun when I say Susie has Honesty.
Twilight has Magic. Qwark has Loyalty. Clank has Kindness. Orvis has Generosity. And that would make... and I can't believe I'm saying this... Nefarious has Laughter.
*Snorts* Right. That bit of insanity aside, the real bearer of Laughter would have to be Ratchet.
With their powers combined, they make- *Gets knocked out by cast iron skillet wielded by Twilight*
7147154 IT shOOTs PINKIE! RUN!
7143958 Ok, I see that. Also, I just thought of a scene for when they return.
Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the 0.68 seconds thing was in an earlier scene with Clank - the one where Clank threatens to disembowel him or whatever if he lays a hand on Twilight. Is that a reference, or a subtle running gag, or...?
7247130
It's a reference to Star Trek First Contact. Data says that's how long he was tempted by the Borg Queen's offer of 'humanity', in exchange for betraying the Enterprise crew. When Picard found that amusing, Data replied, "For an android, that is nearly an eternity."
7247150 dude, brony-trekkies unite! *brohoof*
Just wait until she hears what they do after someone gets certified.
Applejack.
7744364
Where dat Brohoof emote at! XD