Strike 52- The Underground
When Lightning Strikes- The Underground
Canterlot
Every one of the Power Ponies and M.I.S.T. who were in attendance that evening was caught off guard when Detective Whooves told them of what they had just uncovered. At first, it honestly seemed impossible to commit a crime… matter of fact murder somepony with how heavily guarded Canterlot Castle was this evening. Lance himself was trying to think of if there were any witnesses or someone they could question as to if they saw anything, but the Adept’s idea was shot down once the detective told them that they had already thought of that, but none of the guests tonight saw something… or somepony being suspicious.
“Figures… I wonder how the news are going to react that two super powered teams failed to stop or even catch an assassin…” Ash grumbled, blowing a lock of her mane away with a sigh.
“To be fair, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at all and the body was found after the Gala… So right now, we’re calling this as a police investigation,” Detective Whooves spoke up, cutting off Lance and Twilight before they could even speak. “And before you ask, only the police departments are going to be involved in this case. Unless there is any evidence or possibility of somepony with supernatural abilities being the one who murdered the victim this evening, we’ll take care of everything from here.
“Ugh, figures…” Ash grumbled, rolling her eyes. At that moment, Lance noticed Aya and Twilight Mist leaving the ballroom. Remembering something off the top of his head, he soon caught up with them and spoke up to get their attention.
“Hey Aya, Mist… Can I talk to you about something for a moment?” He asked them, “I mean, aside from what just happened.”
“Sure.” Aya replied, turning to Lance. “What’s the matter?”
“Well, there was something that we came across recently that might relate to something you guys are investigating back in Manehattan,” The Adept replied to them as he looked at both his Aunt and also the pony next to her. “Are you guys familiar with the missing pony cases going on in your neck of the woods?”
“New Yoke’s the most crime ridden city in Equestria just above Maretropolis… There are a lot, but I keep tabs on most.” Mist stated.
“Well, according to something we uncovered… there may be a connection to some of the missing pony cases and also the rumors of a hidden Sumeragi facility in some… stratacombs under Manehattan.” He explained, showing them the images and more information that they uncovered from the file that Teal had… acquired from Sombra most recently. “We don’t know much, but according to this, there's something here about the use of manipulating souls and necromancy… which from what I know is a very forbidden form of magic. I was wanting to look into it, but since I know that you guys are more familiar with the area then I am, I thought I would ask to see if you wanted to assist me with this.”
Aya seemed a bit shocked at that, but nodded. “Alright… But you’ll be under our supervision. Authorities there aren’t as… Friendly with outside heroes as Maretropolis. Since only more recently have they been getting the help they’ve needed.” She added.
“Thanks for the heads up. With Katy and Teal helping us with Comms, we shouldn’t have any trouble with-” However, before he could finish his sentence was when Mist soon interjected and cut him off.
“Who are Katy and Teal…?” Mist asked, raising her eyebrow.
“Katy’s a displaced and Teal’s her helper. I met them most recently and they have been wanting to help. She’s like Blue Beetle and Teal’s been helping us with advanced communications.” The Adept explained simply.
Mist stared at Lance for a moment, before nodding. “Alright, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. We’ll meet you at the M.I.S.T. base. There are some new faces around, too.”
“I was going to ask when you wanted me to come by, but given how this may seem rather urgent, we have no time to lose,” Lance told them as he looked back at them. “Gimme a bit of time to get changed out of these clothes and geared up. Once that’s out of the way, I’ll head directly to you guys.”
“Alright. Oh, and try to ignore Miles!” Aya added as she and Mist left. The Azure Striker was… unsure about how to comment on that statement, but just let it slip as he turned to go back to where Ash was waiting for him.
“What… Was that about?” Ash asked, tilting her head in confusion as her mentor walked back over to where she and the rest of the power ponies were.
“Well, I was asking if they could potentially help us with what we uncovered the other night and…” He said, before looking down for a moment and chuckling a small bit. “Well, let’s just say I’m going to need my work clothes.”
Shortly after going back to Power Pony HQ to change clothes and make sure he had everything he needed in advance, Lance soon arrived at the front of where M.I.S.T’s base was. And true to what Mist had informed him about earlier, there were definitely some new faces moments after he walked through the door. Some in which he was curious about… while others he was downright intimidated by. Which included the “Miles” person that Aya had mentioned previously as he went looking for Mist.
Mist was with two other ponies, one of which was a newer face. A stallion with a grey coat, white mane, and blue eyes. The other was a female griffon with a lighter grey coat and black feathers on her head and the end of her tail. She looked a bit thinner than ones he’d seen from time to time.
“Oh, hello Lance. The personnel here are mostly normal police officers who… Specialize with taking care of the weaker threats. They mostly handle the Mitochondria threat.” Mist stated. Though Lance was a little confused by what she meant my mostly normal and by weaker threats, he decided not to question it as Mist continued to speak. “This is Professor Bill Neigh and Giselle AKA Mattermane and Flash-hook.”
“Nice to meet both of you,” He addressed them kindly as they turned to face him.
“Oh! You must be Lance Walker, the ma’am’s nephew.” He spoke with a tint of british in his accent. “The pleasure is ours.”
Giselle stared at him for a moment. “S-sup…” She murmured in a shy manner. Almost reminding him of Fluttershy back in Maretropolis is it wasn’t for the faintest hint of german in her voice.
“Why thank you both… how are you this evening?” He asked both the stallion and the griffon casually. He knew that there was a mission to do, but it didn’t mean that he had to completely avoid any social interaction with them.
“We’re fine, but I’m afraid we have other matters to attend to. I wish we could stay, but there’s an incident over on the twenty sixth.” Neigh said. “We must speak afterwards though, I’d be happy to converse with any relative of the ma’am.” He said, before trotting off with a smile, Giselle following behind.
Mist stared at them momentarily. “He’s very upbeat, even when others are in danger… He was a teacher, but he was affected by the chemical that gave Ash her powers.” Mist remarked plainly. “Some of the ponies here have taken to calling them Inponies…”
Lance was honestly surprised from that. Something other than the Lifewave gave some individuals powers? That was new to him in many ways. Especially with how soon the events in Sun Fransokyo were.
“It’s an odd occurrence. Clearly you remember the Countess? Her powers were given by that chemical.” Mist added, clearing things up a bit as he looked back at her.
“I see what you mean… for me, the thing I found that was funny was the timing of all of this. Ash and Sparkler back in Maretropolis were helping me out because we have been finding several ponies becoming adepts after what happened in San Fransokyo.” He told her before looking back at Mist. “But let’s not get ourselves too distracted by that. You ready to go? Or is Aya coming to help us?”
“Aya’s already out. She’s waiting for us. You said tunnel, right? Where should Aya meet us?” She asked for clarification as Mist turned to face Lance.
“More like a possible underground facility,” A voice came from the Adept’s gauntlet as he looked at for a moment beforehand. “Oh, Hi! I’m Teal by the way. You must be Mist right?”
“Yes…” Mist stated. “I’ll repeat myself. Where should Aya meet us?”
“Well, according to what information we have, it’s possible that where we are going is underground since a scan of the building shows a facility underneath a warehouse that’s not on public records… Yet, given the fact that the corridors are tight and also the entrance to the place is well hidden, I’m going to need this… Aya to help with something else.” Teal said for a moment as she took a deep breath and spoke up. “Making our own entrance.”
“Care to be specific?” Lance asked.
“How much more specific can I get? With the steel warehouse that you two are heading to, it’s easy to punch a hole through it with the right explosives. If we have your aunt blow open a hole at a specific point in the warehouse, that could open up a tunnel that leads to the facility underground. Which will allow for both of you to drop in rather quickly.” She explained… even though that seemed like the most obvious way to draw attention to themselves.
“Alright, I’ll relay that to Aya and she’ll meet us there!” Mist announced. “Do you think the three of us can handle this?”
“I believe so…” Lance replied as he followed Mist. “Lead the way.” With that, the two of them left the compound in order to go meet up with Aya as they followed the navigational directions that Teal had provided for them. It took them a short while to make it since they were traveling by running from rooftop to rooftop, but eventually they were able to successfully make it over without drawing any possible attention to themselves.
Once they arrived, Lance saw something… Strange. Aya was waiting for them, but was wearing an odd looking suit. One that… he honestly never expected at all as the two of them made it over there and landed next to her. “Hey, we made it… Nice choice of clothes, Aya.”
“Elegance made it. She thought I needed a hero costume instead of casual wear.” Aya remarked in response to the Azure Striker’s compliment. The outfit himself reminded Lance of the original outfit that Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII would wear. Only difference being that Aya’s hair wasn’t dyed pink in order to play the part and she still had her firearms in place. He was tempted to make a silly joke based on it, but decided to restrain himself from doing so as he looked around the area. There was a strange smell to the area as he looked to see where exactly would the explosives that Aya was to place be found. That question was answered when he looked into the nearby hallway and found a few blocks of military grade C4 with a remote detonator attached to it stuck near the middle of the hallway on the floor and to the base of the wall nearby.
“So I guess we’re primed and ready?” He asked, looking back at Aya for a moment as she turned back around and walked over to where they were with the detonator for the charges in her hand.
“Pretty much. What are we looking for?” Aya asked.
“Possibly any ties that could be related to the missing people… but also be on the lookout for anything related to something called ‘Project: Nyx’. We don’t know what it is, but if it’s something Sumeragi was working on… it’s possibly something that isn’t good… Not to mention that if there is a link and if there are some people still alive, we’ll need to rescue them.” The Adept told them after processing it for a moment… before then thinking of something as he had his bracer out. “Teal, what do the city records say about this facility?”
“Well, according to these records, there hasn’t been any activity through the last few months, but it seems like this used to be some medical facility… something with giving patients Mare… i… juana… Did I say that right?” After hearing that, the Adept groaned a bit as he rolled his eyes. Now he knew why there was a strange smell in the air. It was because of the plants used to make the drug that was being distributed here.
It was also then that he realized something… something that they should take some precautions about before detonating the charges. “Yes you did… and it also tells me that we’re going to need to control the size of the explosion. Anything too big and those plants might catch fire and set off alarms… Got any idea’s Mist?”
“I could create a force field around the explosive.” Mist suggested, which… upon giving it some thought, seemed like the best way to approach the situation.
“That… actually might work. Go for it. Once the fields in place, Aya’s all clear to set it off.” The Azure Striker told them, hiding behind a corner and peaking out to see the explosion go off once Mist had established the force field.
And with that, the plan went off flawlessly. Lance watched the smoke and the flames from the fiery explosion be encased in the dome as if it were the crystal ball of a fortune teller. Keeping it under control as it died down shortly afterwards. “Nice job… I recommend having the smoke and everything set around the place and hop on down. Careful though, it’s one very long drop. Have Lance go first though.”
“May I ask why?” Lance then asked in response as he looked down at his bracer.
“You’ll see the reason why you drop down… Just trust me on this one.” That was a bit of an odd response from Teal as he looked back at both Aya and Mist before dropping down feet first, letting his Flashfield slow down his descent as he landed on the ground… and everything around him except for a series of lasers and a panel on the wall was glowing bright red. “Did you make it?”
“Yeah and I can’t see a damn thing down here… did they kill the power?” He asked, looking around as he then heard the next response from Teal.
“There hasn’t been power to this place in a while, but my readings indicate that those panels on the wall allow for you to interact with the lights in the corridors. Just zap it with your lightning and you should disarm the lasers… Though, bear in mind, it seems that these switches and lasers are color based. The color switch you shock disarms that particular color laser.” Teal told him in response as he did what she told him. “It’s clear right now… not picking up any motion readings other than some security bots.”
“Security bots? What kind of place has security robots?” Mist asked as Aya pulled out what looked like binoculars and peeked through it. After a second, she gave them to Mist.
“I only have two guesses… either they don’t want anyone getting in… or don’t want what may be in here getting out.” The Adept thought as he switched the bolt clip in his pistol to the Orochi Bolt, only noticing the binoculars that she was holding afterwards as he then asked both Aya and Mist a question. “What are the binoculars for though?”
“Heat vision.” Aya said simply.
“Hunh… Are you picking up anything?” He then asked her, carefully holding onto his weapon just in case something came too close to them.
“Nope… Nothing… I’m a bit worried.” Aya stated. That was definitely concerning. Either there was no one inside, the enemy was trying to suppress the heat… or they were dead. The last one he honestly did not want to think about as the three of them began to proceed forward. Mist being right next to him as Aya covered him from behind. Watching the floor for any other laser barricades that they might come across.
They soon found one… but it was with a blue light. Not a red one. “The switch for that is up ahead… but it’s guarded. Take out the machines that are there and hit the switch to go deeper into the facility.” Lance nodded on that, noticing the robots that she was talking about as the adept dashed closer. Firing one shot from his weapon had a small drone pop from his weapon, releasing seven different tags in a 180 degree angle as he used his septima to put them out of commission before hitting the switch. Turning the surrounding lights blue instead of red.
“Alright. Laser hatch should be clear. Let’s move down.” The Adept spoke up as he made his way back over to where his aunt was along with Mist. However… as they slowly descended deeper into the blackened abyss, that was when they began to see some of the damage that was present.
“What the… hell?” The Adept asked as he could only see a small extend of the dimly lit hallway that was torn to shreds. “What exactly could cause something like this?”
“Whatever they were working on… And I have a feeling I’m out of my depth.” Aya noted, pulling out her gun. Lance could see Sumeragi’s emblem on one of the nearby walls… and what looked like a series of small drones that were floating around the room. An idea came into his head, pointing his gun at one of them and firing a shot at the tiny robot to tag it.
“Lance… What was that?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. He held up a finger for a moment, asking for her to wait a second before sending a bit of his electricity to the drone. When the lightning reached it, the robot emitted a high powered flashlight around the area as it illuminated the area for a small bit… and revealing some of the bodies that were on the floor as the Adept looked back at his companions.
“I figured that the drones in the area were there for more than just floating around… however, I did not expect for them to do that…” He said, looking back at his comrades and seeing the sight of the poor pony’s dead body laying on the ground. “Whatever did this… must be extremely dangerous if it left behind a body count.”
“We should head on and take care of the threat as fast as possible.” Aya stated, rage clear on her face.
“The type of drone Lance just tagged should temporarily light the path ahead while you’re searching for the next panel at the end of the hallway.” Teal advised them as Lance saw what she was talking about. However, it was also when he noticed that there was a rather… lack of security in this particular section. Something that Lance was concerned about as they made their way closer to the panel that was farther down. Upon finding it, he tagged the panel… but did not shock it just yet as he turned to Mist and Aya.
“Guys… watch my back… I have a bad feeling that once we turn the lights on, something will be stirred awake and come after us.” He said to them.
“Quit your yapping, we’re already on it, right Aya…?” Mist said, only for no response. “A-aya...?”
“Boo!” Aya shouted, causing Mist to scream in such a high pitched manner that it echoed. Which also caused Lance to zap the panel due to her startling him too… But as the lights came on, it was followed by the sound of a growling noise that caught their attention rather quickly. But what it was coming from was another story.
It was the bodies that they had just passed… but they were on all fours, had no color in their eyes and were looking downright predatory. They… were undead. And coming straight at them. “You have got to be kidding me…” The Adept said, opening fire and tagging the first one that came at them and shocking it in midair as it lunged towards Mist. Turning to ash upon it’s death as it let out an agonizing screech. “Just when I thought Mitochondria gave me the creeps… This though… seems completely different.”
“Honestly the Mitochondria have these things beat in the creep factor…” Aya stated coldly. “You only saw the lesser ones…”
“Whatever the case, let's watch our backs in case more of… whatever those things are, show up.” Lance advised them, readying his weapon as he looked around for a moment. “I think there was a blue laser gate back on the opposite side of where we came in at. With the field down, it should be dismissed.”
“Lance is right on that. Though, be careful. Whatever you just encountered, I wasn’t able to pick up on my motion tracker. So keep your eyes open.” They heard Teal advise them as they kept moving. Which surprised him because even though Teal was not able to pick up any motion of the zombies that just attacked them, she was able to detect the security forces earlier. Eventually, the three of them made it back over without any major difficulties as they approached what was once a gate blocking the path forward and was now leading them into another room. Yet, it was in getting to the other room that they also heard the sound of a siren above their heads… and a few mechanical constructs that were armed with chainsaws now emerged from the floor and were marching towards them.
They quickly worked to dispatch the bots and disable the alarm above them as they made their way towards an elevator door. Which… mostly looked functional as Mist pushed the down arrow and the doors shortly opened a few seconds later. “The lights are out, but the elevator is still working? How does that make any sense?” Lance thought to himself as they descended down and the doors were open upon reaching the bottom floor. Met with even more pitch black and a blue laser gate to the left as they walked in.
Shortly after they left the elevator, Teal patched back into their comm unit and then spoke up once again. “The panel for that should be farther down… activate it and come back for what’s behind that gate over there.”
“Uh… is there anything behind that gate over there?” Lance then questioned, hearing a short sigh from Teal in response. “What? It was just a question.”
“Yes, but behind that gate is some supply canisters. And it might be possible that they contain some things that Aya and Mist might find helpful. Like ammunition, rations, something to restore magic… Whether or not you decide to do that is all up to you.” She told him as the Adept looked to his two comrades.
“I’m full.” Aya stated.
“Combat ready.” Mist added with a determined glare. Lance chuckled a bit as he got back on the comline while they proceeded forward.
“Teal, we’re already good to go. I think we’ll pass.” The Adept spoke, which lead to them moving forward and proceeding to find the panel farther down into the facility. At one point though, Lance had to place his arm out in front of Mist and prevent her from taking a step forward. Which, not only caught her by surprise, but also confused her.
“What was that for?” Mist asked, staring at Lance with a sceptical stare. The Adept himself looked back at her for a moment before sending a spark of electricity to another wandering flashlight drone in the area directly above them. The light illuminating that there wasn’t any kind of floor in front of them… and if Mist had taken one more step… she would’ve fallen into a pit of spikes.
“I saw a faint glimmer of something sharp ahead… and from the looks of it, the damage to the facility has caused several pits like these to come out of the floors-.” Just as he finished that was when the drone he just zapped earlier flew into another set of spikes farther down that was from the ceiling. “... And also form above our heads… great…”
“Well... Not it!” Aya called out.
“Not it!” Mist added.
“Seriously?” The Adept deadpanned, only to backtrack a bit and get himself a bit of distance before he began to ran forward. “Well, sometimes the only way out… is through!” Just as he jumped, he air dashed across the chasm without any problems while also finding a sturdy flat wooden board nearby as he laid it over the gap so Aya and Mist could cross.
It was also then that Teal had something to ask. “Hang on… If Mist is a unicorn, why can’t she just teleport across the gap rather than have to wait for Lance to form a bridge to cross?” That was… actually something that had dawned on the Azure Striker after the fact as he looked towards the Unicorn and waited for her response.
“I… Never used that spell. I never found a use for it since we always had Surprise around or one of the other thirty teleporters.”
That… caught Lance by surprise. From what he had known about Mist, he thought that she would be able to teleport with ease just like Masked Matterhorn would. Yet, given this newfound statement, it turned out that was not quite the case. Then again, he was not sure what kind of missions that Mist would go on without Surprise either since he didn’t want to be nosy. “Well, given the fact that there is likely to be more of those and less wooden boards to use for walkways, maybe you can use it so you and Aya can cross these gaps safer… of course, I’m just a mechanical beetle and don’t have a clue on how magic works, so I’ll let you decide on the matter.”
“I can make a ramp and then hover over the spikes once you two are across.” Mist said, channeling magic through her horn as a bridge made of light appeared over the spikes. It was small and there were parts that weren’t entirely stable looking, but they were few and small. “I’m a destruction magic user. In my training I wasn’t a support mage, and I never needed magic other than the basic, average, advanced and master battle spells with necessity spells like levitation and one practical spell which allows me to make a computer in my mind.” Mist explained.
“Well, that’s… Damn, I have to admit. Even though I don’t use magic, that sounds pretty cool,” Lance complimented her as Aya used the light bridge to cross one of the gaps ahead as they proceeded. “So is magic based on the type of mage or how it’s used?”
“Would you… Care to explain what that means?” Mist asked.
“Well, based on what you’re saying about not being a support mage, I would think that there are other classes of it. Like different types…” He asked, before using his Flashfield for an example. “For example, when it comes to Septima’s, mines mostly defensive since the Flashfield I have around me is used to protect me. While, something like the Sumeragi goon we ran into named Merak has a utility based septima that can create wormholes from the fabric of space.”
“It depends on what spells you’re able to main. Imagine a tree, and there are different types of branches.” Mist began to explain to him while the three of them continued to go through the darkened hallway and search for the switch they were looking for. “To exercise one type of spells, casual, alteration, destruction, defence, support, and miscellaneous. Though there are some trees that grow branches faster and stronger than the rest in all fields, like Twilight Sparkle and Starswirl, though usually they only happen once in a generation… Most Unicorns stick with casual, or the occasional mage that comes along with a prefered magic like support, which study that for most of their lives.”
“Hunh… That’s rather interesting… and different from Adepts…” Lance told them as they approached one part of the hall with the switch they were looking for. “For Adepts, whey they find out about their powers, they sometimes don’t get a say in what kind of powers they get. But with practice, they can find ways to work around it. Like even though my powers are defensive…” To show an example, he turned on the next switch for the emergency power and when the zombies that were awoken soon after lauched towards the Adept, Lance executed his Luxcaliber skill and had a huge claymore of lightning tear through them rather quickly. “They can also be used offensively…”
“Mostly Unicorns don’t really care about offence in this time period other than a few vigilantes, government agents, and the military. Other magics are rarely ever used besides studies and experiments. Making new spells, etcetera.” She told him as they now were able to move forward since they now had light to see and did not need to rely to shocking anymore bots in the area.
“That’s intriguing… How about we pick up on this conversation at M.I.S.T. base after we finish the mission? Rather not get distracted and have one of those leapers ambush me while my back is turned.” The Adept suggested to the Unicorn as he looked back at her and noticed something in the distance that surprised him. It was a floating platform that was hovering over another bed of spikes.
“Right- oh come on! Is this a platformer or something!?” Mist growled. Aya sighed, already tired.
“Analyzing…… Based on structural integrity and appearance, it seems to be that way. It can only move one direction though and it seems to operate based on electrical currents.” Teal then spoke up. “In addition to that, there’s a secret shaft that can be used by Mist and Aya to cut the travel time down. Of course, Lance himself will have to figure out his own… approach.”
“Which means I’ll be going the long way around… That sounds about right…” He said, before looking over to where they were as Aya busted open the vent entrance. “Why can't I use the shaft though?”
“Now where would the fun be in that… Also, the air shaft has electromagnetic sensors that if you go through it, it can disrupt my communications with you guys. I get major interference when I come to anything with a source of magnetic energy.” Teal informed them as he looked back over to where Aya and Mist were upon hearing that small detail.
“What?” Aya asked.
“She’s saying that if I go down the tunnel the same ways you guys do, it’ll disrupt communications,” He clarified for her. “Meaning that I’ll have to take the long way around so she can still help us the farther in we go.”
“We’re not splitting up if that’s what you’re getting at.” Aya said, narrowing her eyes at her nephew.
“Well, if you’re gonna do that, then I’ll just disconnect for the moment and come back once you're out on the other side… or done with the mission, whichever you prefer.” Teal replied, cutting the comline as Lance looked back at Aya and Mist. He let both of them drop in through the vent first before coming down afterwards, using his flashfield to slow his descent as he soon landed on the other side of the vent. Noticing three switches now that were colored red, blue and green, he tagged all three of them and shocked them as now the whole place was lit up completely.
“Let there be light…” He said to himself with a chuckle… before they all heard something… or someone speak.
“W-who turned the lights on?” They heard a weak voice speak farther down the hall. “I-is somebody there?!” Whatever it was sounded rather scared and terrified, but it also came not that far down the hall as both the Adept and the Unicorn looked in the direction where it came from… before noticing Aya in a frozen trance like state.
“Aya? Are you okay?” Lance looked to her, even waving a hand around her eye level to see if that would have her snap out of her trance, but with no such luck.
“Maybe we should help the damsel?” Mist suggested.
“You got any ideas? Aya looks like she just saw a ghost.” Lance pointed out, before thinking of something.
“You know… I’ll stay here for a bit, you go make sure the owner of that voice is safe.” Mist grumbled. Ironically, that’s what he was thinking… But he wasn’t quite so sure if Mist was entirely up for staying behind. So, the Adept turned around and proceeded down the hall… looking to find a young white haired girl that was almost trembling in fear. Even backing away from him when he first came into the room.
“W-who are y-you… are you with t-them?” She asked, which, upon response, was not like what he had expected. He honestly thought that he would find some kind of filly or lost child, but this wasn’t what he expected.
Getting in character though, he then introduced himself to try and calm the mare. “Easy there… My name is Gunvolt. My companions and I are here to help.” Lance told her, using his hero identity to introduce himself. Yet, he still needed to figure out what the hell exactly happened to her. “Are you okay? What’s your name?”
“T-those people… that called themselves S-sumeragi kidnapped me… but w-when I woke up, I was all alone… What did I deserve to be taken like this? I-i didn’t do anything to t-them!” The girl cried, making Lance feel sorry for her as he turned to see if Mist and Aya caught up with him. He was also curious as to why she was all alone… but more importantly, he wanted to find a way for her to get out of this place without being harmed.
“For now, let’s just get you someplace safe.” He suggested. But unexpectedly… the girl replied afterwards.
“T-there’s a path up ahead that c-can lead straight to the surface… But I-i can’t get past the barrier blocking the path forward…” She said in a low and upset pitch while the Adept looked ahead to see what she was talking about.
“Alright… We’ll get the path cleared up, just give me a moment,” He assured the young mare as he walked over to where Mist and Aya were at before speaking to the Unicorn. “Is Aya going to be okay? I just got done talking with who was the owner of the voice.”
“I’m… Fine! It was nothing!” Aya responded in a hasty manner. Though, to Lance, it didn’t seem like it was nothing as he sighed for a moment and looked back at Mist and Aya.
“There’s somepony here that was taken by Sumeragi and says that she knows a way out. She’s rather timid like Posey and Fluttershy, but she told me that there’s a path that leads to the surface once we clear the blockage ahead.” The Adept informed the both of them so they could be brought up to speed on the current situation.
“Posey isn’t that shy… She just has a stutter…” Mist rolled her eyes as she floated over to his side. Aya sighed, ignoring Mist.
“The point being that if we can clear the obstacles ahead, we may be closer to finding the heart of the facility and the way out of here,” He spoke just as he returned to where the young girl was standing.
“Then let’s not waste time and get a move on.” Aya remarked, priming her Glock. Upon joining up, both Lance and Mist were able to combine their abilities to clear the path forward as they moved further in. However, it was when they did move further in… and they got to a certain room in the facility that the anxiety of the girl was growing even more unstable.
“W-what is this place?” She said to herself, trembling a bit as they ventured farther in. However, it was when they reached a particular room… one that resembled a testing facility… that mood suddenly changed… and was going through a psychotic breakdown. “Ah… Ah! M-my head… my head hurts!!”
“Are you alri-?” Before Lance was able to finish his sentence, the girl bolted off into another wide open area, screaming in pain. “Hey, wait!!”
“What in Equestria’s wrong with her?” Mist asked. Lance wasn’t sure, but what he did know was that they needed to help her however they could. As all three of them approached where she had ran off too though, they saw that the mare was not shaking as much… but they were not prepared for what happened next.
“I…… r-remember now… I… We…” Before the Adept or any of his companions could say anything, they watched as a purple glow formed from her hand materialized into something that Lance was far too familiar with.
A glaive. “Oh sh*t… This is bad.” Just as he said that, the girl was consumed by a dark purple and black energy as it swirled all around her. Transforming the mare’s appearance… and causing this single mare… to split into two.
“So she’s an Adept. Should’ve guessed.” Mist stated, glaring. “Sumeragi, right?”
“Yeah… and real bad news…” Lance spoke, now seeing the two ponies in front of them. The first one was shaking a little… while the other one was standing firmly on her hooves.
“Phew… I’m finally out of there.” the second person spoke, sounding more serious than the first… and even going as far as to glare at the first one and hit her over the head. “Hey dummy, how could you go and lose your memory like that? You worthless vessel…”
“I-i’m so sorry…” The first one whimpered in a scared tone, sounding rather terrified of the second. The second one meanwhile now glared towards Mist as she had a devilish grin on her face.
“And to answer your question, little one, you’re correct. I… no, we are Elise…” The second one spoke.
“So wait… you were an experiment to Sumeragi?” Aya asked, confused. “Yet you… Work for them… And I thought Miles was backwards.”
“Well, you see… the plan was for me to take place of this useless girl… wanting to replace her submissiveness with a more… aggressive persona.” She smirked, causing the first one to start apologizing again as Lance then asked a question now.
“What happened though? Where are the personnel?”
“Oh? Didn’t you see them on the way down?” She asked… only for the next detail to shock all three of them. “You know, the living corpses?”
Or at least, she thought all three would be shocked. Only Lance was. “Honestly, what a dumb question, Lance. Undead are my specialty, and you’re a sloppy necromancer.”
“Yet, these are corpses that have been risen with no magic required whatsoever… Unlike one such as yourself, little wretch,” The second Elise growled. “I know you are undead… and I know something else too.”
“Oh…? You know nothing, you psychotic little brat.” Twilight’s eyes turned red as an unstable grin formed on her face.
“I know that you lost someone dearly… I can tell because of the act you put up…” She smirked. “Our power can reverse the touch of death… and it was something that Sumeragi was rather eager to get their hands on… So that’s why we ‘gave’ it to them… fulfilled their purpose.”
“You mean massacred them…” Lance growled, gritting his teeth before the first Elise jumped onto a pole behind Aya… and had a series of Kunai’s form in her hands.
“Call it what you like… but do know this…” The Second Elise threatened, getting on the pole behind her. “Once we kill all three of you, we will have you be discarded like the rest… but boy… Oh, we are going to turn you into our new plaything.”
“And the creepiness just went from zero to a hundred in less than ten seconds…” Lance sighed, priming his weapon.
“Eh, I’d say a cannibalistic pedophile would be creepier.” Aya added, lighting her hand with a red-ish glow with a thought, surprising Lance.
“After we eat the other two.” Elise then laughed as she readied her kunai to throw at them.
“You were saying, Aya?” Lance asked in response to that additional comment their opponent made.
“Still, not pedo creepy yet.” Aya added. “Well, at least I can test out my plasma.” That just had Lance raise an eyebrow in confusion as he looked back at her. Wondering what exactly was she talking about. Aya sighed, “I’ve learned a few tricks.” She then emphasized this by sending a plasma bolt into the second girl, forcing her off of the pole due to the force.
Shortly before the girl used one of the part of her hair, that served as a whip, to pull herself back up.
“You’re outclassed. Surrender now, and you’ll live.” Mist threatened, glaring at the second.
“Talk is cheap,” The second Elise said as they threw a series of kunai’s at the three of them. Though, even though they dodged the projectiles, once they touched the ground, the knives soon turned into snakes that went immediately after them.
Mist vaporized half in a second, and Aya took out the rest with an odd weapon that looked like Kaoru’s Kagune, but it was in Aya’s hand and took the form of a red spike. She used it to stab through the snakes heads in the blink of an eye. Afterwards, Aya used her pistol to shoot the first Elise through her chest as she looked for cover.
Yet… despite her thinking that one of them was done for… she was about to find out that taking them down was not like what she expected. “Resurrection!!” Shortly after the second Elise called out the name, the first one was soon back up. Alive and breathing as they were still attacking them. The two of them noticed that Aya’s spike shaped weapon was beginning to be a problem… and had a plan to try and take it out of the picture.
“Gorgon’s Gaze!!” Lance himself had a bad feeling about this and as soon as he realized what they were doing, tackled Aya out of their line of sight. However, since the hand that held held red spike was caught in the gaze, it slowly began to turn to stone… while leaving the rest of the woman rather pissed off.
Mist shot a shadowy energy spike from her horn, which impaled the second Elise in her chest, but refused to vanish.
Meanwhile, Aya grounded. “What… Was that for…?”
“I was trying to help you… Look at your hand,” Lance told her, trying to help his aunt however he could. “She tried to go all out Medusa on you and if you looked directly at her, you’d be nothing but a stone statue.”
“You might want to help Mist, sweetpea.” Aya said kindly. Which… in Lance’s mind, was rather off. He did not remember her aunt trying to use motherly nicknames like that. However, it was something for him to worry about later as he turned to Mist and hurried over, just like what Aya told him as he tried to help formulate some kind of plan for getting out of this mess right now. Because right now, even with anything that Mist tried, their opponent was shaking off some of her spells like it was dandruff due to them reviving each other.
“Damn it! Hold still!” Mist shouted.
“Mist, hold on a second!” Lance told her, dodging a few kunai and using his flashfield to protect himself from the snakes that followed. “Going in like that isn’t going to help! I’m coming up with a pla-.”
However, it was just as he was going to tell Mist what they were going to do was when one of Elise’s knives struck him in the leg. Causing him to drop to the floor in pain as Elise proceeded to throw two more kunai to pin down his hands as he screamed in pain. “You’re staying right where you are, Azure Striker.”
Then, in a moment, Aya hand was now back to normal as she pointed her glock to the first Elise, and her AK-47 towards the second. “You hurt my nephew, see how I like that!” And in one moment, shot both of their heads to pieces… causing the rest of the bodies to reform into the black glaive that the little girl was originally holding before it whisked away in a flash.
Yet, for the Adept, he was still extremely weak… “H-help… g-guys…” Mist was at his side a second later, a vial of brown liquid inside.
“Here, this helps with recovering from… Things. Posey never said what, only that it heals you.” Mist said to him.
However, the Adept weakly shook his head as he looked back at him. “T-take out… k-knives. B-blocking… Septima… T-they’re nullifying m-my powers.”
With that, Mist used telekinesis to pull the blades in his hands and right leg out and shoved the liquid in his face. He gasped for a moment, coughing a bit before finally regaining some strength to actually move. Nothing major, but a few motions. “T-thanks… I would’ve been a g-goner if you didn’t help me, Mist…… Looks like I owe you one.”
Meanwhile, Aya looked at her hands as she trembled. “D-did I just… Kill someone…?”
The only response she got was when Lance was able to get up on his legs and shook his head. “No… an adept with a glaive only dies if the glaive is shattered into pieces… Sumeragi must’ve put some sort of emergency r-recall function into their glaives for the wielder to retreat after suffering a certain amount of damage… It’s happened with two other Adepts we’ve encountered. One that Twilight and I fought, the other with Copen and Zapp.”
“But I still tried to without… Hesitating…” Aya said, falling to her knees, an empty look in her eyes. Lance thought it would be best for him to help out his aunt in the present moment. Tried to comfort her.
“You saved me though… both of you did… and I am really grateful for that,” He told her, pulling her in for a hug. “If it weren’t for you and Mist, who knows what would’ve happened to me…”
“I think I see a Sumeragi computer that’s intact… You two stay here.” Mist said, before booking it. Leaving the Adept and his aunt alone as he tried to comfort her.
“I’m… Like her…” Aya said, barely above a whisper.
“Like who?” He asked her, wondering what she was talking about in order to understand what his aunt was saying.
Aya stared at the ground blankly, “My… Torry… Maya… There’s no difference between us. We’re the same.”
“No… Don’t say that…” Lance told her, placing his hands on Aya’s shoulders. “Aya… No… Silvia, I don’t know who this person is, but you aren’t like them… You and still the Aunt Silvia that I remember that would do anything to protect her family, including me. So don’t put yourself down… people look up to you Aunt Silvia… I look up to you… But we all make mistakes sometimes… that’s just what makes us human…” Aya looked like she was about to say something else, but was cut off by Mist.
“Holy mother of Celestia! What in Tartarus were they thinking!?” That had red flags go off in both of their heads as Lance and Aya both turned to Mist upon hearing her say that. Her tone and reaction was anything but good, so this wasn’t to be taken lightly.
“Mist, what’s going on? Did you find something?” The Adept asked as he helped Aya get up on her feet before both of them went over to where the Unicorn was and what she had uncovered from the computer she was investigating.
“They… made their own Adept.” Mist said shakily. “They made a human body with Adept abilities… Oh Celestia, what were they thinking!? A synthetic Adept… And it’s in this facility.” Hearing that immediately had Lance’s concerns burst through the roof as he looked at the information on screen. It was true… Sumeragi had made their own synthetic adept. But what the original purpose for it was beyond them.
“Do they have any data logs in here as to why it was created? There’s gotta be some form of records here.” Lance asked Mist as they looked back at the monitor.
“It seems they wanted to make a mindless Adept that was easily clonable. They must’ve wanted to make an army powerful enough to do whatever they wanted.” Mist stated, staring at the screen and processing everything on there. “Looks like the project was almost complete, but they wanted to prevent anyone here from using it for themselves… They were about to begin mass producing them in a few days from now.” It was then that the Adept noticed something on screen above the reports that Mist was reading as he pointed at it.
“Hey, what’s that up there? Is it… some kind of video file?” He asked, catching Mist’s attention as Aya was catching up with them.
Mist clicked on it, and a black tab with a purple line appeared. When there was sound, the line moved, indicating that there was noise in the recording. It was an Audio file… but what it was about was something that was unknown to the three of them as the recording began to play.
“Okay… This is Doctor Bright Mind… and today is day ten of our work on Project Nyx… today, we found an adept with a powerful gift that would be most beneficial to the project. For you see, in order for the Project to be fully successful, it needs to become a living being… it needs a soul to give Nyx life. The Adept that we brought in, a little girl named Elise, has an incredible gift. Her septima is called ‘Rebirth’ and with it, we can bring Nyx to life. Our only issue at the moment is that the girl is too weak and submissive at this moment. We would need for her to have a stronger will and personality for the project to be a success and for us to please Master Nova… Elise is currently undergoing implant surgery so we can put in a stronger personality and toss out the old-” At that point in the recording, there was the shattering of glass and alarms going off as they heard the sound of thrashing and ponies screaming before the doctor was stuttering. “E-elise? W-what are you doing here-?”
“Oh doctor… I just decided to visit and show you how grateful I REALLY AM!!!” The recording ended with the sound of maniacal laughing from Elise and the screams of agony from the doctor as it sounded like he was torn apart to pieces. Sending a cold chill down their spines as Lance was at a loss for words.
“My god…… That’s just brutal.” Lance cursed under his breath, still processing what he just heard as the line was no longer moving.
“Let’s just clean this place up and gather every bit of evidence. Lance, what were you looking for?” Aya asked. Only to see him stuck in thought before bringing the comline back open.
“Hey Teal… Can you patch in Aurora to us? I think we found something that she needs to see.” He told her, which in return caused his device to sync up after a few seconds as he heard a new voice from the other end of the line. This time, it wasn’t Teal though.
“Yeah?” Aurora questioned. She sounded bored.
“I think we found something that might catch your attention…” Lance told her in response. “Remember that lead in Manehattan we were told the other night? Well, I’m here with Mist and Aya and just found out what it is.”
“Oh? What did you find?”
“Sumeragi was trying to make their own synthetic adept, which they called Project Nyx,” Lance began to explain as he took in a deep breath and tried to give her the short version of what would’ve been a very long explanation. “They had an underground base in here that was ravaged, but from what we found, they were almost complete with the project… but the body was missing one important thing.”
Aurora stayed quiet, though Lance could tell she was too invested in what he was saying to speak. So… he finished his explanation with one last important piece. “It’s missing a soul… They were trying to get an adept that could revive the dead under control in order to give their little project life, but the whole thing backfired… Do you think it’s possible that-”
“YES!!!” Aurora cried out in joy so loud that her voice was echoing around the entire facility.
“Alright…” He spoke, before turning to Mist and asking her a question now. “Mist, where is the project at now? Like it’s location here?”
“I’ll get it,” Mist said. “Then I’ll send it to your HQ once I’ve run some diagnostics. Okay?”
“I’m okay with it, but you’ll have to ask Aurora about it too.” He smiled.
“Lance, she’s not going to be thinking straight.” Mist said with a chuckle. “I know what you’re thinking. And until I know that the body won’t affect her soul, I’ll keep it safe.” He sighed for a little bit, but then thought of something.
“Why can’t you just do the diagnostic at HQ? I mean, we have the equipment for you to use back there and it’s better to do it there than in an abandoned facility like here.” He pointed out to her.
Mist glared at him. “You know, I’ll pretend you didn’t say that. The tech at our HQ is better, and closer. Imagine if you went back in time and wanted to do a diagnostic on a fingerprint with the first computer ever made...”
“I know, but I was thinking that maybe the diagnostic is something both you and Aurora could do together… Besides, if you do it by yourself, she might think you're sabotaging it.” The Adept suggested. “How about I bring Aurora to your HQ and let you two give it a diagnosis while I take Aya out for lunch or something? My treat.”
“By Celestia! Just let me do my thing without you breathing down my bucking back!” Mist seethed, massaging her temples with her magic. “It’ll only take a day… I don’t need some filly in my way.” Lance sighed, nodding his head and looking back at her.
“Sorry, I was just trying to look out for Aurora… She’s… really important to me like how everyone is on my team, but it feels like how I’m her adoptive father since she originally saw me as Stopwatch back in the day… I was just trying to look out for her and got all caught up in it.” He spoke apologetically before looking around. “But we can’t do anything until we find it first.”
“I’ll do it, the file has all the information I need to locate it.” Mist said, grumbling to herself. “You and Aya go have your lunch. I’ll be fine… I can call Surprise.” With that, both Adept and Human found their way out of the facility and back topside as they went back into Manehattan. They had been down there for a relatively long time to the point that it was almost noon and now, both of them were getting hungry.
“So where would you like to go eat, Aunt Silvia?” He asked her while both of them were walking down the street. Lance himself was wearing something far more casual this time (Long green jacket, jeans and a white t-shirt underneath) as he looked back at Aya walking next to him.
She was wearing casual clothes as well which made her look… Oddly different and almost normal(brown sweater/jacket, white undershirt, faded blue jeans and sneakers). Well, not too different from how he remembered her before displacement, but something of that degree.
“Um… I don’t know, I usually just eat leftovers that I can eat, or whatever Posey cooks for the group… That I can eat without vomiting. Hay isn’t easily digestible, am I right?” Lance chuckled at that, noticing a flyer for something on a nearby wall as he took a chance to look at it.
“Hey, there’s something here called ‘restaurant row’... says it’s got numerous different choices for food. Why don’t we go have a look and you can choose where you would like to eat?” He suggested, handing the flyer to her after taking it off the wall.
“Alright, looks like a unique place. I’m in.” Aya said with a smile. “Does it have an address?”
“Well… from the looks of it…” he said, before lifting his head up and noticing something. “Oh wow… it’s right across the street… I feel stupid for not noticing that earlier.”
“... I feel even more stupid.” Aya said in a dry tone, though she didn’t lose her smile. “Well what are we waiting for?”
“Lead the way.”
After a while though, Aya had made her decision… and it was one that Lance in particular was honestly surprised about. “So, what exactly made you want to give curry a try?”
“I don’t remember what it tastes like. Memory loss and all that.” Aya said, shrugging. The Adept chuckled as both of them sat down at one of the tables inside the restaurant and began to look through the menu’s that were at the table.
Soon, a waitress trotted over, smiling happily. “Hello, my name is Sugary Cupcake and I’ll be serving you this afternoon.” She had a dark pink coat with green eyes, wearing a waitress outfit and a snow hat that covered her mane, and to Lance and Aya’s surprise, visible scars over her face and one massive one on her forehead, but he decided to not question it as the mare continued to speak. “What drinks would you like to-to-to… Oh my gosh, you’re Gunvolt!”
Aya gave Lance a cheeky grin, all the while the Adept was rather surprised that somepony recognized him.
Within moments though, the mare calmed down. “S-sorry, I’m a fan of heroes… A-anyways, what would you like for a drink?” The Earth Pony asked, pulling out a piece of paper.
“Just some water would be fine, please.” Lance asked calmly.
“Alright.” Cupcake replied, turning around on her hooves, before trotting to the kitchen.
“She seems sweet… Oh my god, did I just say that…?” Aya cringed.
“Heh… Never thought you would say something like that…” Lance chuckled as he continued to look at the menu a few minutes later. Considering what options he would want to have, not even noticing the waitress from a few moments ago arrive at the table until she was close by.
“Alright, here are your waters. You two ready to order?” Cupcake asked.
“Yeah, I’ll take a… Paneer Masala.” Aya stated. Lance looked down at his and then showed the menu to the waitress.
“I’ll like your Curry and White Rice please.” He then told the Waitress. “And I think that’ll be all for now.”
“Alright, I’ll go get your order ready.” Cupcake said, skipping off. Lance heard Cupcake when she was near the kitchen, shouting to the cooks. “The heroes want a Paneer Masala and another Curry with White Rice!”
Lance smiled before returning his attention to Aya. “She seems rather nice.”
“I already said she seems sweet.” Aya replied, a goofy smile donning on her face. The Adept chuckled at that as he took a drink of water for a moment before looking back at her.
Meanwhile, Cupcake was talking to the chief. “Can you believe that two heroes are eating at our establishment!? I mean, this is insane! Saffron, this is the ultimate advertisement grab! ‘Eat at the Tasty Treat -Azure Striker’! Think of the possibilities, Saffron.”
“I know, Sugary…” The pony she was talking to named Saffron replied back. “I just…… I’ve had a lot of things going through my head recently and life’s been rather… difficult as of late. Heck, I’ve been doing everything I can just to get by and help keep the restaurant going… Not to mention I’m worried for my father…”
“All I’m saying is that getting this place busier means more money, which means you can hire new staff, which ends with more time for you and help for your dad.”
“I get that… it’s just that… there have been other things besides my father that have had me well… distracted. Not to mention my father’s next medical appointment is coming up soon and I’m hoping that nothing bad comes up.” She told her back. Cupcake slung her foreleg around Saffron’s neck.
“Look, just let loose and go with the flow. My mamma always told me that things happen, and worrying about them only made things worse. Like… If things are going to happen one way or another, they happen.” Cupcake said with a laxed voice.
“Yeah… I guess you're right… I just don’t want anything bad to happen to this place…… Uh… Cupcake… are you paying more attention to me or the food you’re trying to cook?”
“You’re the chief, sweetheart.” Cupcake snarled, letting go of Saffron. “I have a bathroom to clean…” Cupcake said, trotting off. Saffron did so, making sure that the meals for the two were properly cooked fully and placing them on plates as she used her magic to set both dishes on a tray. Preparing them to be served as she went out the door of the kitchen to the table where the guests were sitting as she brought them their meals.
“One Paleer Masala for you, miss… and one Curry and Rice for you too.” Saffron replied. “Enjoy your meal. Sugary will be back in a moment.”
“Thank you.” Aya said, looking at her food.
“Thank you very much.” Lance also commented in response before the two of them began to eat. Since Cupcake said that she had a bathroom to clean… and there were no other customers here at the moment, Saffron thought she would check on Cupcake and see if she could offer a hoof and help her.
After a while, Cupcake and Saffron came out of the bathroom just as Aya and Lance were finishing their meal. Cupcake was just about to ask if they wanted anything else to eat anything else, but it was them where a very scruffy unicorn stallion burst through the door to the establishment, pointing a pistol at Cupcake. “Nopony move!”
“Bucking hippies…” Cupcake groaned.
“You talk like that to me again and I’m putting one in your skull, Pinky,” The stallion snapped, before noticing Saffron walk out and growling at her. “Hey! I told you not to move-”
It was in an instant that the unicorn’s brain clicked… and she was forced to reveal her secret. Everypony in the room could notice several different images that resembled animals form around Saffron, before one of them was next to her. That animal being a cheetah… and in a matter of seconds, Saffron dashed at the stallion so quickly that he couldn’t even process how to react as a hoof smacked him so hard in the face that it caused him to drop his weapon.
Next… there was a different animal now… an elephant. As Saffron placed her hoof down over the weapon, the sheer force from it turned the once perfect weapon into a useless pile of scrap metal. Finally, the last animal that was seen was a tiger as she threw a punch that sent the stallion flying out the door.
Yet… when Saffron realized what she did… her eyes could only widen in horror as she looked back to her friend and guests. Before darting off through the back room and disappearing out of sight as Lance was trying to process what he just witnessed. “Holy sh*t…”
“We should go after her.” Aya said.
“No… Aunt Silvia, that’s not what you think it is…” Lance told her, trying to have her see what he was talking about for a moment.
“You mean the fact that she has powers?”
“More like the fact that those powers were triggered by her emotions and instinct…” He said, before saying three words that told Aya what he meant. “She’s an Adept.”
Aya stared blankly at Lance. “I don’t care… She just stopped an armed pony with abilities. I want to talk to her, that’s it. Did you think I wanted to arrest her?”
“No… My concern is that since her powers are synced with her emotions and that since she’s currently distressed, she may accidentally use her powers on you…” Lance told her in response. But before he could try to reason with her, Aya cut him off.
“Yeah, and the ponies she runs into know that! Lance, if she’s in distress and you think she could accidentally hurt me, then that applies to everypony on the streets! We need to talk to her and calm her down!”
“That…… was actually what I was trying to suggest, but you took the words right out of my mouth before I could even say them.” He said, scratching the back of his head before looking at Cupcake. “Ms. Cupcake, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, don’t worry about me. I’ll see to the customers.” The earth pony then replied back. Though, Lance had one other request upon remembering the unconscious stallion outside the door.
“Okay… Could you also call the police so they can arrest the stallion that just barged in here? We’re going to see if we can help your friend.” He asked politely.
“I’ll take care of him, and tell Saffron that I’ll close the shop for her!” Cupcake added. Aya nodded, before rushing out of the shop’s back door as Lance followed her. Leaving the earth pony to switch the sign on the front from ‘OPEN’ to ‘CLOSE’ as she looked at the stallion that was on the ground.
“I don’t like guns pointed at my head… I’m sorry, I can have my normal fun with you, but I’m on a time constraint.” She said, before using her hooves to break his neck. She then dragged him upstairs before dumping him in a bathtub and dumped a ton of chemicals into it. “Thank Celestia you’re a skinny one…”
After about an hour, she drained the bathtub and washed the chemicals down the drain. Afterwards, she left the shop with a smile and a skip in her step.
As she went on her way, she bumped into a bald stallion wearing a suit and red tie. “Oh, sorry mister assassin!” She said happily, before going on her way.
Once she was home, she sighed and entered the basement where a Pegasus mare made of stone laid on her floor, torn apart and barely moving.
“Oh, you’re still kicking Weeping Pegasi? Wow, you’re tough!” The mare weakly struggled, but ultimately failed. “You know, I’m a fan of heroes… They’re so fun to tear apart…”
Weeping Pegasi sobbed, closing her eyes.
Cupcake chuckled before she spoke. “You ever read the story of Little Red Riding Hood? Adorable story… A little girl, delivering sweets to her granny. I wanna do a little roleplay with you… You can be Little Red, Gunvolt can be the Woodcutter, and your friends can be Granny!”
Cupcake picked up a sledgehammer as she turned on a radio where an upbeat song played. “Only the Woodcutter doesn’t save you… Or your Granny…”
With that, Cupcake brought down the sledgehammer onto the screaming Weeping Pegasi.
End Strike 52
"This secluded prison has fallen prey to a two-headed snake with no regard for the laws of life and death..."
-Pre Mission text, Underworld (Azure Striker Gunvolt)
"We're not alone here..."
-Opening moments, Outlast II
So yeah... this one was a bit harder to pull off for multiple reasons. But with time, patience... and having to edit a previous chapter so all of this made sense, I give you this. One of the things that I decided to do (with help of BronyParasite) is have a situation where even though Lance is very strong on his own, he'll still need help from his teammates, family and friends. Case in point, what we got here today with regards to what happens here.
Most of the chapter is based on the "Stratacombs" mission in the original Azure Striker Gunvolt, just with a few subtle differences for during and after the mission is done. But some of the other elements afterwards are from something rather... different.
Also, here's something for you guys from BronyParasite.
BP: Hello everyone! Hope you enjoyed the ending there, because there's more of that to come~ And it'll get worse before it gets better. Hehee~
On that lovely note, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and have fun trying to figure out the abilities of Saffron. Enjoy!
Parts of the song were inspired by this song by A Day to Remember.
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Holy hell cup is brutal.... Gunvolt needs to watch out.
8142708 Most definitely
Merciful Emperor....
8148825 Define who you are being merciful too... Your emperor or someone else?
8148843 It's basically the 40K version of "Oh my God"
8148895 And I'm just messing with you xP