Strike 47- The Search Part 2
When Lightning Strikes- The Search Part 2
Canterlot (Suicune’s domain)
After his time alone with Celestia, Suicune himself finally felt at peace. After four thousand years, he had finally found a mate to call his own. But even though a few minutes had passed since Celestia had left for an important meeting, he decided to catch up on his studies. ‘It would seem I still got it after all these years.’
Everything was quiet for the Pokemon as he read his book on Equestrian History. At least it was quiet until he heard Exuberant shouting down the hall in a panicked state of emotion. “Urgh… I can’t relax for even a little bit!”
“Lord Suicune is going to be so upset…” He heard the android panic, all while Luna stood next to her and watched her work in her frantic state.
“I’m sure that he’ll understand-.”
“Understand what!? That we accidently sent Lance into a red zone! Only one digit on the coordinates was off and who knows where we sent him! Both you and I are equally responsible for this and we need to get him back before-.” Just as she said that, the android froze up, finally noticing the Pokemon opening the doors. “L-lord S-suicune?! I-i-i d-didn’t see you there-!”
“What did you two do?” Suicune said, glaring at both Luna and Exuberant.
“I-it was an accident! We sent Lance through the portal, only to realize that one of the digits for the teleporter’s coordinates was off. We’re trying to find a way to regain contact with him, but it was only a few moments ago that we found that he’s in a red zone.” Exuberant told him in a panicked state, looking at the screen she had as the android was analyzing the world itself. Then… something began to flash. “Oh no… it’s getting worse.”
“Bring him back here, now!” He ordered, frightening the android as she immediately began to open the portal once again to summon the Adept. Only for it to not work as he commanded.
“It still needs t-time to recharge, Lord Suicune. I n-need ten minutes, tops!” Exuberant told him based on what he knew. “Can you try contacting him? Letting him know that we need to pull him back as soon as possible?”
“You do have that mental link with the adept,” Luna then mentioned. “I pray for his safety, but we need you to help him… He is your student and you are his mentor after all.” Lord Suicune just growled at this, annoyed by all of the bad luck that has transpired recently. But hopefully, they could be able to bring the Adept back here safely. But he will soon realize what exactly his student was up against… and the horror that had broken free from the prison that it was thrown into.
‘It couldn’t be… Could it? Damn if it is… I’ll have to step in immediately.’
Few moments earlier…
Just as the new figure arrived in the room, all Lance could do was stare at this… Zamasu figure in utter disarray. Something told him that this guy was flat out crazy and from the sounds of calling himself a god, that would tie in very well with the whole crazy theory. So, taking the time to breath a little, he asked one question off the top of his head to the newcomer. “Uhh… Who or what the hell are you suppose to be?”
All that did was cause the white haired being to look at him with a grin on his face as he turned to face the Adept. “I can see that you must be a new Displaced… I understand if you don’t know me. I am Zamasu, the most powerful being in the universe and it’s one true god.” However, the Azure Striker personally saw this as a sign of pride, arrogance and overconfidence coming from him… and what he was demanding from Celestia and Sunset earlier was not that of justice, but that of spreading fear and having people submit to him to stay alive.
“Yeah… hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong on two things… one, I’m not what you say as a new displaced… two, do you honestly think that justice is forcing others to bow before you? If so, then that is not the kind of justice I pursue.” He told the visitor truthfully, shocking the kai that floated above him. He must have hit a nerve seeing that Zamasu’s face formed a scowl as he stared down at him.
Lance had barely any time for him to react to that as a white halo soon began to take shape around the shinjin as his gaze narrowed immensely. “Hehehe… Speaking to a God like that…” Just then, a blade of red energy began to form from his right hand as he used the blade to quickly fire off a barrage of energy blasts in his direction. “… will not go UNPUNISHED!!!”
This move caught the Adept off guard and gave him barely any time to react, thinking that he was going to get hit by the blast only for a gold barrier to form around him before the energy blasts got close enough to hit him. He turned to his right to watch the magic around Celestia’s horn glimmer as it formed the barrier that was around him to protect himself. The alicorn’s emotions immediately changed as the Azure Striker could now see anger in her eyes and in her tone. “I shall give you only one warning, Zamasu!” Celestia warned the intruder, pointing the battleaxe that she had with her towards him. “Leave this world now or face Judgment!”
All that caused Zamasu to do though… was laugh hysterically as he looked at the Alicorn. “Foolish Alicorn… can’t you see the stupidity in that statement?” He questioned, rechanneling the red energy blade around his right hand again. His energy flowing around him and surprising everyone in the room by the enormous amount of power all around him. “I AM JUDGEMENT!!” Shortly thereafter, both Zamasu and Celestia charged towards one another, her weapon clashing with his blade as it set off a ripple effect that caused many of the pictures and items hanging around the room to fall. Causing Lance to plant his feet and try to hold himself down as best as he could as he watched both of them take their fight to the skies above Canterlot.
Watching the fight originally made Lance think that both of them were equally matched. But as they clashed, the Adept could tell that something was off. Like Zamasu was just toying with the Alicorn and waiting for the right opportunity to strike. His constant barrage of attacks were too fast in order for Celestia to keep up with and because of this, a single slash of his energy blade caused the axe she held to shatter to pieces. Followed up by a kick to the stomach that send the Alicorn plummeting to the ground.
While the alicorn was struggling to stand, all the Kai did was look down upon her and dust off the debris on his clothes as he stared directly at her. “Foolish Mortal… you defied a god and now look at you… helpless.” He mocked as his power increased again and soon began to crackle around one of his hands. “Justice shall be delivered by my hand…”
It was then that Lance noticed that the energy forming around one of Zamasu’s resembled that of lightning… and if he learned anything from his encounter with Monster X, then there was a possibility that this form of electricity could be absorbed by him. And if this were true, it would put him on the same exact playing field as the Kai above him. Quickly, he used Instant Transmission to place himself in front of Celestia just as the lightning was close to killing her. Coughing up a cloud of dust as he got a power boost from the energy he absorbed. Turning to the Alicorn, he had only one thing to say.
“Run… leave him to me,” The Alicorn was speechless, but nevertheless listened to his words as Lance looked back at Zamasu as he had his own energy form around him.. “Hey dumbass… who said I was going to let you do whatever you pleased? I don’t care what you call yourself… but it doesn’t make what you are doing right…”
“What I do is Justice, you simpleton! I am a God and I will not be denied!” He roared, preparing to fire his holy wrath at the Adept. Yet, Lance gambled at the possibility that Zamasu himself needed to charge his attack and used Instant Transmission to warp behind him and grab hold of his head before throwing him into a mountainside far away from Canterlot.
‘That way no Civilians will be caught in the crosshairs…’ The Azure Striker thought to himself before chasing down the self proclaimed god. Hopefully, if Celestia had listened to him, she would urge an immediate evacuation of the city and any other cities near it. Now, as he was coming across his opponent, Lance was personally surprised to see Zamasu struggling to stand up after landing.
“Tell me something…” The Adept then said, shortly after catching the Kai’s attention. “Do you feel pain? If you are truly a god, then you would be just brushing the dirt off your shoulder like it was nothing… and yet, you struggle to have yourself stand upright. You talk about being a godly being… but that’s all you do…” In an essence, Lance was right. All he had heard from Zamasu in the past few minutes was nothing but talk. Nothing to demonstrate or show to backup his claims at all as he looked back at him. Now he waited to see what the Kai would do in response.
“Hehehe… I shall admit you took me by surprise, Mortal… But I am a god and what you’ve done was just luck… It’s a mistake I won’t let happen again!”
In the blink of an eye, Zamasu charged at him, catching the Adept off guard. ‘Sh-!’ He mentally cursed as the Kai grabbed hold onto his foot before proceeding to crush it with only his energy. It made Lance growl in pain, but also woke up the breezie that was in his hair at the same time. But he was thrown straight into the ground, before he could say anything to his friend. Zamasu was about to deliver a final blow, but what Lance saw his partner do really caught him off guard.
Lumen was getting in Zamasu’s face, biting into it and causing the Kai to lose focus. Trying to swat at Lumen like it was a fly in someone’s face. It was surprising yes… but it did provide time for not only his foot to heal, but also for him to prepare an attack while Zamasu’s back was turned.
“Back off, you bully!” He heard from Lumen, using a small bright flash to blind the Kai as she came back to him. “Whoever this guy is, he’s a real jerk.”
“Agreed… Let’s pull off this next one together.” The Adept got a nod from Lumen as she activated her Septima, Anthem, so the two of them could combine their strength was together. After some time though, his attack was fully charged as he planted his feet and moved his arms forward. “Ka… me… ha… me… HA!!!”
The blast of energy that he fired directly as Zamasu was twice the size of the Kai himself and also just as fast. As it closed in on him, Lance originally thought that this guy would use one of his own attacks to push it back… but instead, he used his hands to deflect it after trying to block the entire attack. This told Lance something crucial in his head, but in the meantime, he just heard Zamasu speak as he stared down the Adept.
“I’m surprised you were able to… conjure up energy in such a short amount of time…” He heard Zamasu compliment him as he looked back towards Lance. The Adept was personally surprised at one thing… even with him using only thirty percent of his strength with the added on boost to that, he was still able to push the self proclaimed god into a corner. Which went along with what he noticed earlier… but decided that before assuming everything, he would try to poke around a little for information. “What is your name, Displaced?”
“Why would I tell you? Are you an Elder Sibling?” Lance growled, glaring at the Kai as the memory of what happened back in Quicksilver’s world was still fresh on his mind. “You are just as strong as that punkass Cobalion… are you trying to kill me because you want the traitor for yourself?”
“I have to say that I’m surprised you know about the Elder Siblings and I may not know who this Traitor is, but he isn’t my concern-.”
“BS…” The Adept interjected, feeling that his last statement was somehow a lie as he shot back. “You just want to make Lord Suicune suffer just like those two other siblings Ozai and Elysium now, don’t you? With your talk of justice, I would think that you would want to deliver some of that justice to the one that the Elder Siblings call a traitor…… or are you just a puppet like The Warden Eternal?”
He did see the Kai’s ears twitch a small bit from the sound of the Warden Eternal’s name, but nevertheless, Zamasu remained composed as he looked back at him.
“Hehehehehe… So that’s who the Traitor is? Honestly I could care less for him… My score is with the head of the Elder Siblings Lord Yasha! He denied my right to rule over the Displaced, but now that I found this world… I can remake it in my own image… Once my full power returns I shall cleanse the world of all mortals and once I’ve completed that I shall reach the title of A DISPLACER!!!” He shouted raising his power even more as he laughed maniacally. What he was talking about was beyond absurd. Someone like him? A displacer? There was no way in hell that he or any other displacer he knew for that matter was going to let this madman become one.
Still, despite Zamasu’s dialogue… Lance was paying attention to one other thing that Zamasu still seemed to keep on doing. “So are you going to keep monologuing or are you going to actually do something? Because like I said earlier… you just talk. Not act.”
“We’ll meet again… Once my full power has been reached… But in the meantime…” He soon looked down and saw the small town of Ponyville and grinned as he pointed two of his fingers in it’s direction, unleashing his Holy Wrath upon it. Destroying the town. Before disappearing with Instant Transmission.
“Get back here, you bastard-!” Lance shouted out, wanting to go after him… if something else already didn’t get to him first.
‘Lance Walker, we’re bringing you back now!’
‘What-? No, just-!’ But before Lance could even have the chance to respond back, he was soon whisked away by a portal as the buildings around the area slowly began to crumble and fade away.
Back at Canterlot
By the time Lance got back, the Adept was sent flying into a wall behind Celestia’s throne as he was struggling to try and get back up to his feet. When his vision was back and his hearing was in check, all that he heard next was Lord Suicune shouting at him. “Lance Walker! Why didn’t you alert me of your situation?!” Suicune glared at the Adept as Exuberant helped him too his feet.
“God… give me a chance to get my senses back in order first…” He groaned, looking at him. “Besides… Luna told me not to disturb you while you were with Celestia… I just thought that speaking mentally was also disturbing you as well.”
“He’s got a point.” Lumen added on to his statement to show support.
Suicune let out a sigh, before looking back at Lance and Lumen. “You were lucky I brought you back with my powers rather than wait for Exuberant’s teleporter to finish charging.”
“Yeah… just why the hell did you bring me back anyways?” The Adept then asked in confusion. “I was looking for that Nathan Phoenix guy like you asked, but then-.”
“Lance you were in a Red Zone… that’s the last place you want to be right now!” Exuberant explained. “I accidentally… put in a wrong digit.”
“The hell is a dead zone?” The Adept then asked in confusion, followed up with Lumen asking the same exact question. “It sounds like a dead universe or something. Could you please clarify on what that means?”
“Okay well, after we got back from Quicksilver’s world, I made some adjustments to the portal and added a universal map with different zones.” Exuberant began to inform him as she pulled up a hologram of different worlds to serve as examples. “It shows where we’ve been and where not. The green zones mean that those area’s are safe. As for the red zones, well those are area’s that are either taken by the Elders or aren’t safe to be at.” She explained.
“Hunh… Well, that explains some things…” The Adept scratched his chin as Suicune and Exuberant looked back at him, noticing him take off one of his shoes to see if his foot was healed before putting it back on.
“What happened in that parallel world, Lance?” Exuberant asked. Lance scratched the back of his head for a moment as he looked back at both of them.
“Well, immediately after landing, I ran into that world’s version of Celestia along with an Alicorn version of Sunset Shimmer… however, shortly after arriving, the sky began to darken and some jerk claiming he was a god shows up, beats the sh*t out of Celestia and then he and I fought before turning to wipe Ponyville off of the map.” The Adept told them, causing the alicorn’s in the room to gasp a little. “I believed he called himself… Zamasu.”
“It’s what I feared… He finally did it… He’s broken out from his prison.” Suicune said. “I don’t want you going back to that world… do you understand Lance?”
“Well, for breaking out of prison, he’s relatively weak…” The Adept told Lord Suicune in response. “When I did clash with him, he didn’t have the energy to conjure massive attacks and when I unleashed a fully charged Kamehameha at him, he deflected it instead of coming up with one of his own attacks to counter it… Besides, how long was he in this… prison for?”
“Zamasu… only shows his true powers to true threats… you may have just caught him off guard. Zamasu’s power is equal to that of my own, but I do wonder how you were able to harm this Kai?” Suicune asked, curious to hear the Adept’s response.
“Well, for a finisher, he tried to strike down the Celestia in that world with a lightning based attack. So, similar to the encounter with Monster X sometime ago, I put myself in front of her and used my powers to absorb the electricity from the incoming blast. It put me on the same level playing field as him, but by the time he disappeared and you pulled me back, the power boost wore off.” Lance told him. “Even with the boost, I was only using a good third of my total strength so that way I still had something if the fight were to drag out longer than expected.”
“Still, that was only a temporary boost… you wouldn’t have stood a chance if the fight did drag out longer. You could barely move when you fought me.” Suicune
“True, but unlike you, Zamasu seems to be easily distracted if you insult his pride… Plus, I don’t think you would actually have any lightning based attacks for Lance to drain,” Lumen pointed out as she floated next to Lance. Which in turn caught him by surprise. “What? I do notice these things every once in awhile.”
“Even so… you are forbidden to return to that world until the Elders are taken care of.” Suicune stated. “Do you understand Lance Walker?”
It pained for him to agree to those terms, but the Adept nodded in response to acknowledge Lord Suicune. “I understand… I’m sorry for not contacting you on the matter sooner.”
“Hey… this may seem off topic…” Lumen then interjected, taking a sniff of the air around her as she floated around Suicune and Celestia. “Why does Lord Suicune smell like Celestia and Celestia smell like Lord Suicune?”
Both of them blushed intensely as they both avoided looking at the Breezie. “It’s… nothing at all Lumen.” Celestia answered, trying to hide her blush. All this caused Lance and Lumen to do was sigh as they looked at her while Exuberant was giggling. Soon though, Lumen then spoke up as she looked at both of them.
“Really? Because from the circumstances and some of the sweat that’s on your bodies, it looks like you two-.”
“Lumen…” Lance interjected, wanting to make sure that the breezie did not say anything stupid. Yet, despite the small interjection, the breezie still went on with the statement that she was previously saying. Not even deciding to go as far as to pick her words carefully because of the fact that nopony else was in the room.
“Oh come on… and with all the times you were with Max and Seph, I would think that it would be obvious,” The Breezie pointed out, flying away for a bit towards where their room was to confirm something before coming back. “Because right now, our room reeks of sex.”
“Our old room… I need to remind Luna that I need a new one now.” Lance sighed.
“I want her out of here… Now!” Suicune shouted as ice shot out from his mouth, almost hitting the breezie.
“Hey, I’m sorry!!! Please don’t kill me!!” The frightened breezie whimpered. “I’m too young to die!!”
“Maybe that’ll help you think twice on what you want to say before you say it,” Lance groaned as Lumen retreated into his hair, shaking a little as he felt some of the fibers tug at his skull. “I apologize for Lumen’s behavior… sometimes, she’s too curious for her own good. It’s a bit hard for her not to get in other people’s business… especially if it’s private.”
“Could you do us a favor you two?” Celestia asked.
“Uh… sure what do you need princess?” Lance asked.
“Both you and Lumen stay perfectly still for just a brief moment,” She said, only for the duo to look at the princess questionably.
“Why would we-” Before Lumen could finish asking, Suicune froze them in a block of ice, preventing them from moving an inch. Celestia and Suicune began to laugh as they exited the room.
“I hope you’ll learn that kissing my princess will have big consequences you two,” Suicune said with a smirk, before closing the doors. Exuberant couldn’t help but laugh as tried to thaw them out with a heat gun, but taking her time to amuse herself. Before Lance released a wave of energy that solved the problem already.
“We already learned that lesson…” Lance groaned. “Speaking of which… Shouldn’t we start looking for the one who tripped me at the party?”
“Yeah… about that…” Lumen mentioned, speaking up so they could hear her. “After what happened in that… red zone thingy… I think I remember something else on the mare who tripped you.” That… was good news. But Lance really did not want to get his hopes up just yet.
“You did?”
“Y-yeah… there was somepony else who was with her,” Lumen mentioned. “A unicorn stallion. Blue shaggy mane, weird moustache, unicorn and his name was Fancy Pants after I heard him greet Celestia last night. He also had another pony with her… who he introduced as Fleur… something.” Still, even if that wasn’t a full name, it was still a clue for something.
“Hey Exuberant, where’s Luna right now?” He then asked.
“She’s in a meeting right now… but I believe you made me a promise~” She said, gleefully.
“Ah… right,” he remembered, looking at the breezie that was his partner. “Lumen, you can stay here and wait for Luna then… I have a promise to keep with Exuberant right now.”
“It’s fine… but I’m not waiting for Luna… I’m going hunting for whatever’s left of that cake!” She said, flying to a drawer and pulling out what looked like a small daring doo hat before flying out the window. Lance mentally facepalmed, but it at least kept her occupied and besides… The room he once had did reek of sex… but what he didn’t notice was that Lord Suicune and Celestia definitely wrecked the place.
“So… where would like to go for our… date, Exuberant?” The Adept then asked her.
“Hmm… I don’t know… Surprise me!” She said, smiling at the Adept.
“Well, I just thought you had a… particular preference.” He replied back.
“Well I hear that there’s a carnival in Ponyville happening… we could go there if you want.” Exuberant suggested to him. It was a… good idea to say the least. Because strangely enough, even with the amount of time that he had been with Max, Seph and trying to help Chrysalis since she was a fellow adept, he had not gone on a formal date with… anyone. It will be a new experience… and hopefully, Exuberant doesn’t go extremely overboard with anything.
“Sure, I’m all for it. Lead the way.” He insisted.
“Okay… but first… I think we’re going to need a ride and some bits… I didn’t exactly bring any form of currency.” She said sheepishly.
“I can work with the currency. As for the ride, we have been there before, so I can teleport us there.” The Adept told him in response.
“You know we can’t always use our powers to make things easier… besides a girl would prefer a ride. That way we can sit together.” The Adept didn’t know how to respond to that… after all this was technically his “first” official date.
“I suppose we could ask Celestia or Luna for a ride? But are you sure we can’t just teleport? It would make things a lot easier…” He said, but from the pouty face Exuberant was making said otherwise as he sighed a little bit. “Alright… I see what I can do.”
‘Pouting works every time.’ Exuberant thought as she suppressed her giggling.
Few hours Later...
Back in the halls of Canterlot, Suicune, Celestia, and Luna watched as Lumen, Pinkie, and Quicksilver play with cards. So far things seemed smooth… yet, Lumen at times seemed to be confused with what they were actually playing.
“Okay… do any of you guys have twos?”
“Lumen, this is blackjack, not go fish,” Quicksilver reminded her for the third time so far in this game. “Besides, why can’t you just say hit me like how Pinkie and I do it?”
“Because that… can come out wrong.” She gulped, glancing at Celestia and Suicune for a brief second before redirecting her attention back at the game.
“Fine… hit me Pinkie!” Pinkie then handed him a nine and that only frustrated the speedster as he threw his cards into the air. “Oh, Come on! I broke again!”
That just made the Breezie feel relieved. “I can’t believe I’ve won the last three games without even knowing what the rules are like!” She said joyfully as she looked at Pinkie Pie, who was giggling at Quicksilver right around now.
“No kidding! And you won all 735 Twinkies he brought with him!” Everyone simply glanced at the enormous pile of treats that the earth pony was referring to, almost causing one of the princesses mouth’s to hang ajar as Lumen’s mouth watered and her eyes sparkled. Nothing could stop her from jumping into the pile and start munching away.
Well, nothing except for the door being kicked down as they heard Exuberant shout from the other end of the hall. “Honey, I’M HOME!!!”
“I take it you enjoyed your date, Lance Walker?” Suicune said, staring at him with unusually large bear in his hands. He was doing the best he could to hold onto the Ursa Major plushy that Exuberant won from some of the carnival games that she participated in as the Adept was barely catching his breath.
“Y-yes… I-i… did.” He panted as Exuberant yanked the bear out of his arms and began hugging it.
“IT’S SO FLUFFY I FEEL LIKE I’M GONNA DIE!!!”
“Let me guess she won it because you failed to do so? Am I right?” Suicune asked. Only causing Lance to sigh and shake his head as he noticed that Lumen was in the pile of Twinkies nearby.
“Actually… she’s the reason why the test your strength challenge is broken. Somepony dared her to do it, she did and won the grand prize from it,” He panted, taking a much needed seat in a nearby chair. “I tell you, she has the stamina of a six year old who’s had too many cookies… Strangely enough… I considered this as training. Speed for keeping up with her, strength for carrying the bear… and agility for every time she almost threw a baseball at my head near the dunk tank.”
“Well… you… at least had fun,” Lumen said, munching on a Twinkie.
“Yeah… we did…” He said, finally catching his breath as he looked back at Suicune and the Princesses. “On another note…… I don’t exactly mean to be that guy right around now… But Lumen remembered something from last night that could help with the search that Luna’s guards are doing right now.”
“She already told us while you were out… there’s nothing we can do about it now. Besides I’ve already forgiven you for … what happened. The pony responsible was Fleur de lis and right now she’s leaving with her husband on a luxurious cruise to the hay-hamas islands.”
“Oh… well, sorry about bringing it up again.” He scratched his head in response. “Anyways… I know it’s late and... everyone’s having fun,” He stated, watching as Quicksilver looked in disbelief as Lumen somehow managed to eat the final Twinkie. “But I think we should address the fact that what I found in the… red zone… may make things slightly more difficult.”
“I’ve already told you… that area is forbidden… you and Exuberant shall head off to find Nathan Phoenix tomorrow and that is final! Now I suggest you take a seat and watch these three play. It’s quite amusing.
“I understand… yet, there was something Zamasu said that really makes this whole thing… bad,” Lance insisted, remembering something from his encounter earlier. “He wants to become more than just a god, but also a displacer… someone who has people become displaced. I know that you might not care so much for him, but don’t you think what he’s striving for is worth some concern at least?”
“Zamasu will never become a Displacer… I should know since the laws were written. Only an Elder Sibling can have such a power. Which is why he’s trying to draw out the elders from our realm. Mainly Yasha, but no one has the power to defeat him which is why everything Zamasu says is only insane.” Suicune explained.
“Hunh… And I did think that he was all talk for a reason…” Lance mumbled to himself before looking back at Lord Suicune. “Nevertheless, is there anything I should do in preparation for meeting Mr. Phoenix? I understand that I will be with Exuberant, but is there anything I can do to get ready. I felt caught off guard when I encountered Zamasu today, so I want to feel prepared for when we meet him tomorrow.”
“Only to remain calm and try not to startle his kids… Now I suggest you take a seat, it looks like Quicksilver is about to lose it.” Suicune and the princesses began to laugh as Quicksilver lost another 200 twinkies to Lumen.
“This has to be the best day of my life…” Lumen said as a single tear fell from her cheek as Quick began to hit his head against the table.
“In all honesty he shouldn’t have been cheating… cheaters never win,” Celestia said taking a sip from her teacup as she snuggled closer to Suicune.
“I’ve… never seen Lumen this happy before,” Lance smiled, watching as Lumen was trying to dance on top of the mountain of Twinkies as he set something down by Suicune’s side of the table.
“What’s this?” He asked.
Lance just chuckled as he looked at both of them. “It’s the key to the room I was in… previously. I may not be needing this anymore since I did ask if I could switch rooms.”
“Very well… you shall be staying with Exuberant from now on then,” He said, only for Lance to gulp as he looked back at Exuberant who had recently joined in their little game. “Just try not to do anything naughty with her… after all, you did just started dating and that should take time.”
“I went on a date with her so she could stop calling me a pervert.” Lance deadpanned after his forehead fell forward onto the table. “Plus, you do realize that she already knows the kind of relationship I’m in since Lumen told her right?”
“Not a wise choice on your part, Lance Walker,” Celestia said. “When you take a lady on a date, it means you’ve just started a relationship. Besides, what’s wrong with Exuberant? She’s a nice girl with a good heart… even if she’s a bit flirty.”
“My fiance’ Max is the same way… in her world, she’s the one who has to raise the sun and moon after the Royal Sisters died to save her life. Most importantly though, there’s Seph… who has been through a lot of stuff and is similar to Max in terms of power. Lastly though… We’re already raising kids.”
“Well… if they're okay with you marrying two of them… I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a third to this little harem you have. I may not have my niece’s understanding of love, but I do know that love is something that can take shape in all forms. Whether it’s with one partner or multiple.” Celestia explained, kissing Suicune’s cheek, causing the Pokemon to blush.
“Yeah… We have four kids now and Max is pregnant with our fifth. Two of them, Light Sweet and Golden Spark, she had on her own while two of them she adopted-.”
“Then there shouldn’t be a problem… I’m sure your future wives will understand, Lance Walker… besides Celestia and I had something similar”
“… You said that just as I was going to mention that one of the fillies that she adopted was Rainbow Dash.” The Adept sighed, before looking back at the two of them. That… surprised Celestia for a minute as she raised an eyebrow before looking back at Lance.
“Well… you’ve certainly been busy haven’t you?” Luna said with a smirk.
“A bit yes… Oh and if you were confused on why Rainbow is a filly, Celestia… in Max’s world, Spike is the element of loyalty instead of Rainbow. I know… it sounds weird, but trust me… some worlds are different from others.” The Adept told them as he was given a glass of water from one of the servants that came to their table while Lumen and Quicksilver were still playing their game.
“Lance I’ve seen a Displaced that is literally a puppy that wears a crown and multiplies… but I would like to hear more about your world.” Suicune said, with a light chuckle, Lance never thought of some being displaced as a puppy.
“Well, to start… It’s almost similar to some things here… but instead of Ponyville, there's a city called Maretropolis and in it, Twilight and her friends are a group of superheroes… each one with their own form of powers besides their respected form of magic,” Lance began as he looked at them. “You with me so far?”
“Keep going… tell us more,” Luna said, Suicune on the other hand simply laid his head on the ground as Celestia rested hers on his.
“Each one of them got their powers in one way or another and later on formed a superhero team called the Power Ponies. Over time, they had faced many threats and put many villains behind bars. But when I first got there… they were unsure what exactly I was because of the fact that I knocked out one of their villains in defense before I had to run out of there. Yet, they soon had me recruited and had Sunset Shimmer train me… if you consider training trying to dodge wrenches that are thrown at you.”
“Sounds like Ozai’s last wedding, before he got divorced.” Suicune said.
“Suicune… your people have some weird customs.” Lumen said.
“Well that’s only with Ozai’s region,” Exuberant said as she placed a full house on the table. “Ha, try and beat that Lumen!” Lumen countered that with whatever she had in her tiny hooves… which turned out to be a royal flush. “How are you doing that? You don’t even know what we’re playing.”
“Sheer luck I guess?” Lumen shrugged. “Now hand them over!”
“So yeah…” Lance sighed as he watched Lumen try and wrestle for the Twinkies that Exuberant was trying to hide from her. “With my world, there are a lot of things there that I have to deal with, including different groups. A lot of them are teams associated with the Power Ponies, including the Heroes Association in Sun Fransokyo and my aunt is in New Yoke with another team. And the main thing is… I’m not the only displaced in that world… and one of them is a pony.”
“Well it seems that even Displaced can become ponies… but tell me does your world have enemies?” Suicune asked the Adept.
“It does, but their focus is on the world we’re in… and when I mean by one of them is a pony… I mean that a pony was actually displaced.” He clarified, looking at them for a moment. “Have you heard of the name Derpy hooves?”
“Yes, she’s actually the mother of one of my students in Ponyville,” Suicune said, as his paw began to glow and summon a corn for the Breezie. “You shouldn’t eat too many sweets or you’ll turn fat and juicy for the crows.”
“I said I’M FINE DAD!! I can fly JUST fine, GOSH!!!!” Lumen said in a sugar filled daze as she flew over to Lance’s hair and passed out.
“Well uh… take what I said before… then think of this. There are two Derpy Hooves in my world. One that works for the Maretropolis Police Department… the other got displaced and has the strength to defeat any monster or anything she comes across… in one punch.” Lance told them, adding a photograph to what he said as he let them observe it. “Her family members also got displaced too… Dinky is insanely smart and has a backpack filled with a crazy amount of gadgets while her niece Amethyst is a cyborg.”
“I see… I’ll be sure to check your world, but for now I think you should keep your friend from any sweets for a very, very long time,” Suicune said, at least until his eyes began to glow, causing everyone to shield their eyes, before reverting back.
“What happened, Suicune?” Celestia asked.
“Two more worlds are being invaded… Nathan’s world… and another I’m not sure of.” He replied, before turning to the Displaced. “You will have to leave a bit earlier than I anticipated Lance.”
“Wait what’s the other world?” Lance asked.
“It appears to be a world shrouded in darkness… I can’t imagine why they would go there? Lance I need you to find Nathan and bring him here! I fear that he doesn’t stand a chance on his own.” Suicune explained. Lance nodded, looking back at Exuberant, who dropped her oversized Ursa plushy on top of Quicksilver as she raced over to him.
“Ready when you are?” She said, pulling the Adept close as she giggled.
“I’m ready.” With all said and done, she opened the portal and they raced off to find Nathan Phoenix.
Ponyville
When Lance and Exuberant arrived what they saw was just horrifying. Corpses of ponies filled all of ponyville and many of the buildings as far as they could see were destroyed. Lance hasn’t seen this much destruction before, it was painful to even look. Lance was about to head towards what remained of Twilight’s Castle until Exuberant pushed him into a building as a small ship passed by and three Promethean soldiers and two knights, dropped in the center of the town.
“Stay quiet, if they see us they’ll alert the others,” She said, laying on top of the Adept as she looked to see where the prometheans were doing. Lance couldn’t help but blush at how close she was to him. Especially with how she normally acted around him at times.
“Search the area for any survivors! We need more prisoners to work in the mines!” A Promethean Knight ordered as they began to spread out, Exuberant’s arm soon began to transform into a plasma gun as one of the Promethean soldiers passed through where they were as Lance pulled her back.
“Wait just a second…” He whispered, having her move back to where it was out of the Prometheans possible line of sight. “One of them said something about working in the mines… do you think their ship has the location of where they are?”
“Of course they do, besides I wasn’t going to do anything… I was only going to engage if they approached any closer. I’m not an idiot!” She stated quietly, before looking over to see where they were headed.
“The area is all clear! Let’s return to the mine shafts with the prisoners we already have!” One of the soldiers told the knight as both of them watched the four Prometheans drag a cage of prisoners behind them.
“So are we going to follow them and let them lead us to the mines or do something now?” The Adept whispered, waiting for Exuberant to tell him of a plan before they pull off anything risky.
“We need to find Nathan… We can’t risk following them, we were barely able to escape from them last time. Our best option is to find Nathan Phoenix and get the heck outta here.”
“And how are we supposed to know if Nathan Phoenix is not in one of those cages?” Lance whispered. “Because if the Warden Eternal is the one behind this, then they’re ordered to capture Displaced because of Ozai.” He reminded her as the Prometheans began loading up the cages.
“I looked up whatever information we had on Nathan Phoenix and trust me if he was a pony than he’d already be dead. He’s supposed to be one of the seven gate guards within the Displaced for the north region. Trust me if he was captured than we wouldn’t have come here in the first place.” Exuberant explained as they quietly slipped their way into the remains of Sugar Cube Corner, surprisingly it was the only building that was left standing.
“So why exactly are we hiding here? Wouldn’t we be spotted if they do another sweep of the town?” Lance asked Exuberant in response.
“I’m pretty sure we’re safe here, besides it looks like they're heading back to their ship.” Exuberant said, closing the blinds to the window. “I’d say we should get some rest before we continue our search.”
“I can agree… but should one of us keep watch if they do happen to come back around?” Lance then proposed to Exuberant. “You can’t be too sure when you are dealing with Prometheans right?”
“True… I guess I’ll take the first watch,” She said while Lance tried to clear some things off of the floor and look around to find something that would be used for a bed and pillow. But as he was looking around, he soon came across something that looked to be hiding behind some flour crates.
“Hey, Exuberant… I think I found something you might want to see.” The Adept told her, ushering her over to come see what he happened to discover.
“Ah, I see you’ve found one Nathan's Infobots, I haven’t seen one of these things since the third war,” She said, picking up the small robot, judging from it’s condition it was definitely in need of repair.
“Maybe this could provide a clue on where he possibly is?” The Azure Striker suggested as he looked outside for a brief second to see that the coast was clear. “Is there a toolkit somewhere-?”
“You do realize that I’m an android and tech is my thing right?”
“Oh right… must’ve overlooked that. I just thought that there were specific tools used to repair these kinds of bots.” He replied back, scratching his head a little in embarrassment.
“You can be real dense you know that?” She said with a sigh. “I can probably download it’s memories into my data bank to save us time, but that’ll take some time… Also just so you know… I find it quite charming when you are clueless~”
“Well, I’m not familiar with many of the things outside my world, so I’m still learning I guess.” Lance told her as Exuberant worked to download the infobot’s memories into her databank while he took her role on keeping watch for the most part.
“Dang it!” She shouted as the infobot literally began to fall apart. As it fell apart though, the Adept then noticed something as the mouth of the bot began to extend and form a tv. When he took a closer look, he was curious as something that caught his attention.“I was able to recover some of the data, but everything else was encrypted with a virus. I can play what I was able to get on the screen if you want?”
“Give me a second and let me try something,” Lance said, using his right hand to place it on the infobot while he put his left hand on Exuberant’s shoulder. Closing his eyes, he began to use his powers for two main reasons. First, it was to bypass the encryption and the virus. Second, it was to serve as a link for him to transfer the information he was able to retrieve to Exuberant. Afterwards, he looked back at her as his powers died down. “Did that help?”
“Oh, Yes~.” She said as her face was completely red and for a moment Lance thought he had short circuit her with the steam coming off her. But nonetheless, she still played the video that she managed to get.
November 24, 2026
“Alright another day here in Equestria… Okay so how should I start this? Well it’s been almost a thousand years since me and my family left the Displaced and made a home here in this Equestria… I do wonder how’s the boss doing now? Anyway getting off track… So what else is there to say? I’ve been living the good life and today is actually me and my wife’s an-” Before he could finish what he was saying a loud explosion could be heard outside of the Bakery and the sounds of screams was all that could be heard in the background. “EVERYONE GET OUTTA-”
The video ended and the screen cracked. “That must have been when the Prometheans attacked.”
“But the date can’t be right? When we were in Canterlot, the invasion happened only a few minutes ago.” Lance said, looking at the timestamp and the scenery around them. Something seemed off about this place… like there was something that he wanted to hide from the enemy.
“The time zones are very different, what seems like days here is only a few minutes passing in Suicune’s world.” She explained.
“I figured that… but look back at the clip.” He told her, slowly rewinding it a bit. “The window in the background shows that it was broad daylight outside… now it’s almost pitch black. This must’ve happened earlier in the day… if those Prometheans were still looking for survivors, then it was possible that somehow he might’ve escaped with a few of the survivors.” Looking around back in the room, he noticed something hidden behind a supply shelf and looked around to make sure they didn’t miss anything.
“Well… the attack obviously happened a few days ago… They must have left somewhere and those Promethean’s are still trying to track him.” She said.
“You think there might be some other clues in some of the other buildings? That ruined castle looked to be somewhat important.” He pointed out. “I mean, the Prometheans landed there like they were guarding something while they sent the soldiers to get the cages. Maybe there’s something there that’s making it easier for them to come back here in such a hurry.”
“Look I know you want to find Nathan, but that was only a search ship and those guards were only looking after the ship. That’s only a search ship and nothing more… Those troops are nothing more than a bunch of backstabbing scavengers!” Lance noticed that there was a pitch in Exuberant’s voice, making it sound a lot angrier than normal as he looked back at her in concern.
“Exuberant, are you okay?” He asked, worried that she was overdoing it somehow.
“Look… I’m fine, just a little… irritated is all,” Exuberant assured him, but Lance had a feeling that she wasn’t telling the truth.
“Irritated about what? Exuberant, you're making me worried…” The Adept told her, placing a hand on her shoulder as a way to show he was concerned for her. “What’s wrong?”
She took a deep breath, before looking back at Lance. “Remember I was only a monitor when we met?” He nodded his head for a moment, allowing her to continue speaking. “I was a nurse during the two wars and some Prometheans that weren’t imprisoned worked on the staff with me… but they… they were always mean… always grabbed me and used me as ball… I was working on a body similar to this one… but they destroyed it and attacked me… Suicune was there to stop them during an inspection and destroyed them… the worst part of it all is that every last one of them are my brothers and sisters!”
Lance was shocked to hear this, surprised to hear these horrible things that happened to her. “I-i’m sorry Exuberant… I never knew that these kind of things happened to you.”
“Because of them… I had problems controlling my emotions when I was still a monitor… I just wish I could have been something different… maybe they would have liked me if I wasn’t this…” She said, crying for the first time. That was when Lance spoke up and placed his hand on her cheek.
“You are different… you aren’t just a ball like your siblings thought of you to be… you’re more than that and have helped both Lord Suicune and I get this far… and for that, I am thankful to have you be by my side.” He told her, showing his appreciation for everything that Exuberant had done for them. “You are not like them… you are different and I like that…”
“Really? You like me for me?” She asked, clearing her eyes as she looked at Lance with hope. “Do you really mean it Lance?”
“I do… I like you for who you are, Exuberant.” He said, straightening up so he could look at her around eye level so he can look directly at her before speaking. “And I would not want for you to change at all.”
“Thank you…” With joy, she pulled the Adept in and kissed his cheek, before hugging him. It was the last thing she did before powering down to rest. Lance himself smiled as he looked back at Exuberant as he noticed that there was a smile on her face when she powered down. That, to him… told him that he was definitely doing something right as he fell asleep.
“Young Displaced… why are you here?” A voice called out to him. “Why help a traitor… when you can take… his powers for yourself? Don’t you desire power to… protect your family?” Lance looked around, noticing that the area around him was no longer what remained of Sugarcube corner, but what looked like a dark cloudy horizon.
“Who are you?” Lance asked, looking around to see where the voice was coming from, only to not see anyone around him
“Someone who has existed for before the universe was formed… I’ve gone by many names… but for you child… you can call me… a friend.” Lance saw what looked like an old pale creature who concealed himself in a black cloak as he slowly approached him. “Are you afraid of me child?”
The Adept looked at the person, but then told him a response that even the cloaked figure didn’t expect. “I’m not… I have seen many things… some a slight bit stranger than normal… but nothing really that would make me afraid.”
“You should be… for I can do anything… I’ve created worlds beyond imagination… and I can tell that deep down that you are afraid… I’m a deity… Tell me, Lance Walker… Do you honestly trust Lord Suicune, and this female you lay with?” The stranger asked as he summoned an image of him laying with Exuberant and another with Suicune talking with Celestia.
All Lance could do was nod his head. “I do… Unlike some people, like Zamasu, who would betray the Siblings for power… Suicune only betrayed them because he wanted to choose what he would do with his life… he wanted the freedom to choose instead of being told what decisions to make… in a way, he reminds me of myself.”
“Ah… but answer me this… did he make you his apprentice?” He asked, as the Adept nodded in response to the figure’s question. “Well… did he tell you that once you’ve… completed your training you’ll become an Elder like him?”
“In terms of strength… or do you mean something else?” The Adept then asked, looking back at the figure. “My choice for having Lord Suicune teach me is my own… I want to protect my family, my world and everyone I care for and I’m not going back on my decision.”
“Tell me this… can you protect them from aging? Why do you think Lord Suicune hates Displaced… why he hates the Elders?” That made the Adept think to himself as he looked back at the figure.
“Because he had no family left to return to… They were gone.” It took Lance a while to figure it out, but after some time, he realized why Suicune was happy to be with Celestia.
“Now imagine when he gives you… the same gift… you’ll suffer the same fate as him… watching as all of your friends and family fade away like dust in the winds.” The Figure said, placing his hand on the Adept’s shoulder. He thought it over, as the Adept closed his eyes. “Immortality can be a curse.”
“You don’t have to suffer that fate… Gunvolt… All you have to do is kill Suicune with this dagger and he shall be reunited with his family and you’ll have his powers… and the best part is that you can die peacefully with them,” He said, placing the dagger in his hands, until Lance’s eyes began to glow. “What is this?”
His powers glowed as his hair slowly began to change colors. From yellow, it turned into a light blue as his eyes glowed as he gripped the dagger… and used it to strike the stranger in the shoulder. “NO!” He roared, as right in front of the figure’s eyes, his body began to change as he was now towering over the cloaked figure… in a new form.
“Hehehe… yet you fail to realize that they are turning their backs on you… You’ll see in time, Lance Walker… ” The Stranger soon began to turn to dust as this new form destroyed the darkness around the Adept… bringing light into the dream that he was in. But what the Stranger did not realize… was that he messed with the wrong displaced.
“THIS IS MY CHOICE… MY DESTINY… THINGS MAY HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT WHEN YOU CAME INTO BEING, BUT TIMES HAVE CHANGED. UNLIKE YOU, THERE ARE PEOPLE I CARE FOR… AND THEY WOULD NEVER TURN THEIR BACK ON ME!” With a roar, he released a powerful blast of lightning that actually left a stinging burn on the figure as the cloak turned to ash. “YOU ARE WRONG!!”
“You are wrong-” The figure turned to ash and Lance suddenly woke up, sweating as he saw Exuberant snuggled closer to him with her cheeks still stained with her oily tears, but she was still smiling. But Lance felt something within his hand… and it was the same dagger the stranger had given him. With a deep breath, he decided to step outside, using his right hand to channel some electricity to form a blade as he cut the dagger apart.
“I don’t care what you try to tell me… Lord Suicune is who I trust… Not a stranger such as yourself.” He growled, letting the broken pieces of the dagger burn to ash as he walked back inside to return with Exuberant. But as he returned to his sleep… the ashes slowly began reform.
‘Hahahahaha… you can’t change the path I’ve set for… Lord Suicune… You are all ponds in my little game,’ He heard the figure speak once more after falling asleep again.
“Screw your path…” Lance shot back, a bright aura forming behind him as he was blinding the figure as he heard him holler in pain and agony as his voice disappeared from Lance’s head. “I forge my own destiny… Not you.”
The Next Day
Lance felt a cold chill as something was poking his cheeks, waking him from his slumber. When he opened his eyes and began to prop himself up, he soon happened to notice what was exactly poking him this time as the Adept was now fully awake. “M-morning Exuberant…”
“Morning Lance… Y-you ready to get going?” She asked, moving of the Adept so he could stretch his limbs. It took him a moment, but he soon hopped back on his feet as he got up and looked back at the android, offering a hand to help her up so she was ready for the journey as well.
“Yes I am… Let’s see if there’s anything useful we can find in that old castle first before going to find Nathan,” He suggested. “Maybe there’s some more tech you can interact with inside.”
“Yeah maybe… if I can make a suggestion… our best bet is to head towards whatever remains of Ponyville's castle,” She said, pointing at the ruins of Twilight’s castle, with a simple nod, they both began to make their way there. “If Lumen were here she’d have something funny to say… or at least keep us distracted from all of… this.”
“I know what you mean… but she’s back at the Canterlot with Suicune and Celestia… I still can’t believe that your Elder Siblings would be responsible for so… much destruction.” Lance informed her as they got closer to the castle. On the way, they happened to find a small locket with a photo of a young family inside. Husband, wife, and two foals that were very young. It almost made him feel sick because of what the prometheans did without a second thought. He set the locket back down and stood in front of the home before closing his eyes for a moment. “Rest in peace…”
Shortly after muttering the small prayer, he returned back to Exuberant as they began to move some of the debris out of the way of the entrance to the castle as they made their way inside. Trying to observe anything that might just be out of place… or out of the ordinary.
“I think I see something over their, buried under all that rubble…” Exuberant pointed out, seeing what looked like a small hand. Lance rushed over there immediately and began removing the debris as Exuberant used her plasma gun to melt away the difficult pylons that have seemed to collapse on whoever… or whatever, was underneath the rubble. “It looks like another infobot… maybe this time it will have more information.”
“If that’s the case, let me extract it and transfer it to you like yesterday at Sugarcube Corner,” He insisted, performing the same process as he finally pulled the infobot out of the rubble. Once again, he used his powers to safely decrypt and transfer the files that were encased inside the tiny robot so Exuberant could access them. “Alright, that should do it. And the transfer was a lot shorter than expected-.”
“Your so forward, Lance~ Just warn me next time okay?” She said, winking at the Adept.
“ … Are you going to be a tease every time I do that?” He then asked, raising an eyebrow in response to the Exuberant’s flirty remarks.
“Do you even know what you're doing when you do that?~” She asked, leaning towards him as she whispered something very inappropriate, causing the Adept to blush intensely for a moment. Causing him to now regret asking the question he said previously as he looked back at the android.
“Well… that’s something… Did you get anything that follows up from yesterday?” He asked, trying to change the topic.
“Well… this is only an audio recording and from what you’ve recovered, but I think what’s in the audio itself could be beneficial to finding Nathan Phoenix,” She told him in response as the android pulled up a holoscreen with the audio recording encased in it as Exuberant soon hit the play button to the audio sample.
October 12, 2026
“Well I managed to have finished building-” The Audio went fuzzy as Exuberant tried to restore the connection. “- An underground tunnel just in case of emergencies-”
“Damn… that’s all I could get… unless you want try and… transfer more data~” She said, sticking her robotic tongue out at Lance, who simply groaned as he looked back at her and took a deep breath before looking around a little.
“Exuberant, we need to focus… if that audio was correct, then Nathan built a tunnel to escape out of here… Let’s look around to see if the entrance is somewhere within the castle.” He told her in response as the Adept went back to examining the room around him and looking to see if there was anything that was hiding a possible secret entrance to the underground tunnel they just found out about.
“Maybe I could use my scanner to locate any secret passageways or something,” Exuberant said, as her eyes began glowing, scanning the room.
“You can try… but if Nathan did not want to be followed, he would possibly have something in place to fool scanners… But go ahead and try if you want. If you find anything unusual, point me towards it and I can take a closer look.” Lance insisted as he let Exuberant begin scanning the main hall of the castle as she began to walk around and continue her scan throughout the rest of the building.
“AH, HA! I think I found something!” She said, standing in front of an empty bookshelf, which she lifted off the ground with ease and threw it across the room.
“Woah there! Are you trying to get people’s attention? That could probably be heard all across town.” Lance sighed for a moment before looking back at her. “But what did you find?”
“Well one, there’s a doorway here, but it’s locked and needs a code that only Nathan knows… not to mention a hoof print from Twilight. Also Lance, you should eat more protein and minerals… seriously no wonder why you had a hard time carrying a stuffed bear~” Lance thought this over… but then did something that Exuberant originally thought was… strange. He took some time going through the trash to find what looked like an empty milk carton. Tearing the sides off, he soon pulled out what looked like a small clear sheet of plastic that he first pressed firmly against the scanner.
But as he slowly lifted up the clear plastic sheet, it now had the hoofprint that they were looking for. He originally thought that in order for it to see if it worked, Twilight would’ve had this entrance tested multiple times. Meaning multiple different times she placed her hoof on the scanner and multiple times that she left a hoofprint. Including one recent one. Flipping it over, he looked around to find a mannequin of a pony nearby as he took the mannequin’s foreleg and pressed it against the plastic sheet. The machine beeped for a few seconds… and then asked a question to the two of them.
‘Please enter your security code.’
Lance smirked. That was step one out of the way… and now to step two. Recalling the infobot from the other day, he remembered that Nathan said something about the date being very… important for him and his wife, so he placed in the first code that came to mind.
“I think I could figure out the code… but I could use a little help.” She said, hooking a cable to it and trying various passwords.
“Yeah, if Nathan finds that the machine has been tampered with, he might get suspicious.” He replied, going to the machine and pressing the number sequence 1124. The machine beeped once again… and then said this.
‘Access granted. Welcome, Mr. Phoenix and Ms. Sparkle.’
Soon the door began to open, revealing what appeared to be a stairway. “We should probably get going?”
“Yeah, agreed.” Lance replied, reattaching the foreleg he had back on the mannequin and leading the way for both of them as the door closed behind them. It was originally pitch black in the tunnel, but some of the electricity around one of Lance’s hands served as a light so the two of them could be able to see through the tunnel. “I wonder where this tunnel leads too…”
“I don’t know… but the scans say that it keeps going down, Seriously how much time did this guy have to make this?” Exuberant asked, looking at the Adept who didn’t know how to respond.
It took a few minutes, but they had finally made it to the bottom of the staircase and saw a long dark hallway with scraps of metal scattered across the floor. “Exuberant, how much time has passed since we got here?”
“Well… we’ve been here for 18 hours…. So about eighteen minutes have passed in Suicune’s world… So there really isn’t any rush unlike Quicksilver’s original world.” Exuberant told him as the Adept sighed in relief. Still though, he did not want to delay any time they would use in order to prepare for Elysium and Ozai’s potential arrival.
“Hey Exuberant… Is there anything you can tell me about Nathan before we meet him? Like what is he like or anything like that?” The Adept asked her shortly after Exuberant finished her original statement.
“Well I only know that he was a gate guard that worked for Suicune for about… 1000 years or more… Not much data on him, but if Suicune trusts him… than he can’t be all bad, right?” She was unsure, but that’s all he had to go by so it was okay for the moment.
“Yeah, I just thought that the infobots would somehow provide a clue as to who we’re looking for. Like an image or something to go off of.” He responded back as they continued to navigate through the passageway. But as they reached a door, Lance tripped over a wire and Exuberant was electrocuted by the trap, shutting down automatically.
“Exuberant!” Before he could rush over to help her, two darts hit the back of Lance’s neck, causing him to fall over onto the ground for a short bit. He heard the sound of something walking towards them and from the sound of it being metallic, he thought that there was a promethean nearby. So, he waited for whoever attacked them to come closer, waiting until whoever it was to bend over and inspect him… as he used the chance for a surprise maneuver. Catching their attacker off guard by blasting some lightning in his face as he used the moment that their attacker moved backwards to pull the darts out of his neck and rush to Exuberant to check on her condition.
“Who are you? How did you get in here? Are you working for them?” A large robot with a single eye and large gun glared at them.
“E-easy… we don’t mean you any harm…” Lance told the robot, honestly surprised at the size of his weapon. “We aren’t your enemies and we aren’t working for them either. We were told to find someone named Nathan Phoenix because a friend of his needs his help-.”
“Who’s asking?” He asked, placing his gun at Lance’s forehead.
“Lord Suicune asked for his help… I’m his… ally and student,” The Adept told him. “My name is Lance Walker and the one you happened to electrocute was my friend Exuberant Witness… We were told to come find you, but is seemed like the Prometheans and the Warden Eternal got to you first.” The robot placed his gun down, before glancing at the Adept and android.
“Answer me this? Is that… killing machine with you?!” He pointed at Exuberant.
“They aren’t and Exuberant is not a killer…” He said sternly. “She’s been helping me so I can find you… we found infobots in Sugarcube Corner and in Twilight’s castle and used them to get us here. I would have Exuberant play them back but… you sort of short circuited her…” He sighed, taking a moment to place a hand on her shoulder as the video clip from the first infobot began to replay on his right bracer, letting the robot see for himself.
“We are not your enemy… we only wish to help you… We figured out how to use the door by using a clear sheet of plastic to place Twilight’s hoofprint on as well as a mannequin foreleg for the sensors to read accurate weight and the passcode was the number’s 1124… the same date on the infobot log that… if I am to accurately presume… was your anniversary.” The information that the adept told the robot caught it by surprise. How he was able to figure out not just the infobots, but also the security door was just surprising.
“Okay, but I don’t trust her… if I was you I’d take her out! One of those Prometheans could destroy a town… they took my wife, my children, and my friends… Don’t trust her,” The robot said.
Lance had nothing to say… but he did have one piece of info that could be possibly helpful… he just needed to know one thing. “When was it that you came into the tunnel?”
“Two days… I’ve been trying to find survivors, but they either have been captured or killed.” He answered.
“When we came here last night, Exuberant and I found a promethean ship that was looking for them. But there was one thing that I heard one of the soldiers say that caught my attention.” Lance told him as he played back another audio sample for the robot.
‘Search the area for any survivors! We need more prisoners to work in the mines!’
With that clip, Lance dismissed it and turned towards the robot. “From this and the fact that we saw them carrying a cage, I’m lead to believe that any prisoners they capture would be somewhere in the mines that they mentioned… if we track one of their ships, it will lead us straight to them… and hopefully, we can find your family there.”
“Tell me something I don’t know… all prisoners have been locked up tight in Canterlot.”
“You may not have been able to harm them… but I can,” Lance then said, showing what he meant as he showed an example by firing a dullahan bolt across the hall, enhanced by forerunner tech. “I can be able to stop them and Exuberant knows where to go… we only wish to help…”
“We’re talking about an army here… not just a few squads… because I can take them with ease, but we’re talking war machines, powerful Displaced, and not to mention an Elder Sibling up there.” The robot explained. “Wait, I almost forgot to introduce myself… names Nathan, but can you put… her outside?”
“Outside where? We’re in a empty hallway underground. The only outside would be at the end of the tunnel… and with what you said… Let’s just say that I’ve been involved to the point where I’ve stolen Yellow Radio’s database, screwed up his Sentinels and been trained by Lord Suicune. Trust me… you don’t know the kind of things I’m capable of until you’ve seen them firsthand.”
Nathan looked closely at Lance’s eyes as he held Exuberant. “Don’t tell me that you’re… with her are you?”
“Define with. I was summoned by Zsoltan and have Exuberant as a companion and a friend. She’s not your enemy. In fact, she hates prometheans.”
“I think you know what I mean? Fine do what you want, but keep your eyes on her… Don’t want her near my stuff… no matter what you say, she’s one of them.” Nathan said, walking back inside to what appeared to be his secret hideout.
“Can’t you just talk to her then?” Lance asked, looking to see if there was anyway to restore power to Exuberant’s systems. “If you give her a chance, then you may realize she’s not what you think.”
Nathan looked back at them, before pulling out a switch, turning the power back on in the halls, waking the android again as power returned to her systems. “W-what happened?”
“I met Nathan… he tazed you because he saw you as an intruder and thinks you are a promethean.” Lance told her, going into detail on what was said before helping her to her feet.
“No… I didn’t, my trap removed the energy from her power core.” Nathan explained.
“Different world, different tech. I did not know how it worked.” Lance shrugged, looking back at Nathan and then Exuberant before returning his gaze to Nathan again. “We should get moving to wherever you’re staying so we can come up with a plan.”
“We should head up to the surface… make sure those things aren’t around and see if we can fix those camara’s in the castle. If you two want to help… than grab those extra camara’s in the corner,” Nathan said, pulling out his gun again. “I’ll look around to make sure they aren’t around.”
“Anything we’re looking for specifically? Like description wise?” The Adept asked, making sure he had all the right information that he needed at this point in time.
“We are trying to at least bring some of our systems online… that way we can know if any Prometheans roll into town. Than we can try to figure out how to free Canterlot, but with an Elder Sibling is up there… I doubt it!”
“I understand what you mean though… the only one I’ve fought with was Suicune and that was a disaster… We’ll have to free your family and get out quickly.” Lance told him in response.
“That could work, but we’ll need a layout of Canterlot… like a map to know where the prisoners are being held.” Exuberant suggested, as Lance picked up the camera’s from the corner.
“Alright… but first you two… lovebirds… go take care of those camera’s. I’ll scout out the town, see if any survivors out there.” Nathan ordered, leading the two of them out of the tunnel. Lance was going to respond, but just ignored it as he followed him out of the tunnel.
Because the sooner they get this done… the sooner they can storm the gates of Canterlot and rescue his family.
End Strike 47
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Thanks for featuring my character man, just a few things though, Nathan may be a big aggressive but he never just puts every one of a species under a stereotype, and he's not one to just hide away, even if everyone else was dead he'd be out causing as much havoc as possible
But still, good job
7767565 Yeah I'd like to apologize for that
I'm the one who wrote Nathan's part in this chapter. Trust me he'll have his moment against one enemy you might be familiar with in Strike 43.
Dang, this is getting interesting!
So ready for Strike 48?
7787192 Not yet
7787273 ok