SPD Emergency

by cyberlord4444

Case 39: Capture the Bomb

A-Squad was in the training room, practicing the techniques that Gilgamesh had taught them. They had mastered the basics, but they still wanted to polish them a bit more before they used them in actual combat.

“Can’t believe he beat us like that,” Dash grumbled as she launched low power Hadokens at a target.

“At least you managed to get a few hits in,” Pearl said as she spun up a few corks.

“Well, next time you’ll get your shot,” Dash said as she blasted a target to pieces, “assuming there’s anything left after I’m done.”

Suddenly, the base’s intercom crackled to life, “wow, that is some confidence you’ve got there, Dashie. How’s your shoulder?” A tinny replication of Gai’s voice asked.

“Why don’t you come down here and find out, I could use some practice.”

“Trust me, as fun as it would be to ‘displace’ your shoulder again, I need all A-squad bitches to come to the command center because...” The base’s alarms went off “... that just happened.” Dash could almost hear the smug grin in his voice.

“Come on, let’s get moving.”

When A-Squad arrived in the command center, it was chaos. Almost every monitor had the same logo as Gai’s ship, and the central podium was projecting Gai himself.

“Welcome to the thunderdome!” Gai said, chuckling, “like what I’ve done with the place?”

“Guess you are one of those evil Displaced Cruger told us about,” Dash said, cracking her knuckles, “now, why don’t you tell me where you are so I can arrest you?”

“Aww, but then we wouldn’t get to play the fun game I had in store for us today!” He whined, channeling his inner Pinkie Pie before reaching up and pulling down a curtain with a video of an overhead shot of a building streaming on it, “this was a building in Ponyville a few seconds before I hacked every system in your base,” suddenly, the building was consumed in a fiery explosion that bloomed from the inside, “can you hear that? I think I just heard Michael Bay swoon,” Gai said, holding a hand up to his ear and sighing.

“What did you do?” Dash scowled.

“I believe I just showed you, I blew up a building in Ponyville to show you that I was serious. Now I’m going to explain the game we’ll play!” A lavish throne suddenly appeared behind Gai, who immediately reclined on it, his head resting on his fist.

“You know Manehattan, right? The most densely populated city center in Equestria? Well, I’ve hidden several of my ‘presents’ throughout the city, the biggest of which will take out the entire planet. All the others are capable of covering a city block in the fineries of yellow and red.”

“Why you-” Dash growled before being silenced by a raised hand from Gai.

“There are rules to finding them, however. Violations of these rules will result in immediate detonation of all explosives, including the planet-buster.”

Dash growled, “Alright, we’ll play your little game, for now. What are the rules.”

“Rule one: Cruger can’t help in any way, shape, or form. Not that I have anything against your boss, but he’s a bit too OP for this game. Besides, he’s preoccupied right now.”

“Rule two: No transforming, I’ve hacked your morphers to make sure you follow this one.”

“Rule three: only ONE member of A-squad can participate in this game, and you can’t change once you’ve made your selection.”

“Rule four: the remaining members of A-squad can’t help once the selection has been made.”

“Rule five: Any move to evacuate the citizens of Manehattan is a big no-no. Wouldn’t want them to miss the party, right?”

Gai clapped his hands together, “that should cover it! The participant will be taken directly to where he or she will receive their next instructions, so will the participant please step forward?”

Dash stepped forward, “Consider your game won, you bloody pirate.”

Gai sighed, “honestly, how predictable can you cops be?” He snapped his fingers, and the next instant Dash was swallowed by a portal that snapped shut as soon as she cleared it.

“As for the rest of you, get comfortable, because I’m sealing you all in.”

---

Dash fell to the ground, tucking into a roll so she wouldn’t damage anything and took a look at her surroundings.

She was in an alleyway, brick buildings on either side of her. Trash heaps lined the walls awaiting collection. Getting up from her crouch, she approached the alley’s exit, squinting as daylight hit her eyes.

“Papers! Get your papers here!” A voice cried out from a newsstand across from the alleyway entrance, “How about you, miss SPD? Hear about the explosion in Ponyville yet?”

Dash’s eyes widened and she approached the newsstand, leaning over the counter to the familiar face inside.

“You just gonna stare at me kid? Or are you gonna buy a paper? The Captain doesn’t have all day.” An older version of herself said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“So this is how it feels,” Dash said, “guess I can’t make fun of Twilight for this any more.”

“How is she anyway? Haven’t seen her in ten years, she kinda died on me.” Older Dash said, “or Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack...” She shook her head, “enough of that, you sure we should be wasting time? The planet doesn’t have much left after all.”

“Yeah yeah, there’s a clue in there right?” Dash said as she tossed a coin to her.

“How did you guess?” Older Dash said, handing her a rolled up newspaper. Dash could feel something else inside, “you probably shouldn’t open that here.”

“Yeah yeah… hey, why you with him anyway? He’s trying to blow up the planet!”

Older Dash sighed, “was I really this arrogant...? Look, I may be from another world, but I’m still the Element Bearer of Loyalty, and right now my loyalties lie with my Captain.”

“Whatever, we’ll continue this after I beat this little game,” Dash said before pulling out her morpher, “hey Fetch, I need your help with something.”

Static crackled from the other end, causing Older Dash to grin, “sorry kid, but the Captain did say that only one member of A-squad could participate.”

Dash just grinned back, “Yeah, that’s me, Fetch is part of R&D, not A-Squad, I could use his brains for this.”

“Sorry, but I think he hacked your morpher for more than just your fancy suit.”

Dash looked to see that the communications screen read ‘No Signal’. “Fine, I’ll just use a public phone and call Twi.”

Older Dash shrugged, “See how well that goes for you, he did say only one member of A-squad could participate, I don’t think you wanna try his patience.”

“Dang it, thought I had a loophole, better get moving then.”

“Did you forget who’s judging this game?” Older Dash said, opening the side door to the booth and walking towards the alley, “I’ll see you if you survive. Then we can have our talk.” She waved before diving into a portal that opened up inside the alley.

“Oh we’ll talk alright, although it’ll kind of hard for you since you’ll be speechless,” Dash said as she opened the paper. Inside was an old-fashioned phone with a lanyard attached and a map of Manehattan. The map had a grid over it displaying the city’s various locations in coordinates marked in groups of three numbers. Suddenly, the phone rang.

Dash fumbled for the pick up button, “hello?”

“Did you have fun talking to yourself? I should warn you now, this phone will trigger the planet-buster if you hit the ‘hang up’ button, so you’re kinda stuck talking to me.” Gai’s voice said, “point 8-6-2, you have thirty minutes. Go.”

Dash smirked as she brought up the map, “Please, I was head of the weather patrol before I was a Trooper, maps are no problem.”

“If you don’t take this seriously, I might be tempted to just trigger the bomb now and cost you your first clue to the planet-buster’s location,” Gai said, “to say nothing of the civilian lives lost on your conscience. You were right, you are too arrogant for your own good.”

“Like Cruger sometimes says, it’s not arrogance if you can back it up, see you soon.”

“I remember dislocating your shoulder and knocking you out without even getting serious, and you call that backing it up? My trigger finger is getting itchy and you only have twenty eight minutes left before another kaboom.”

“Don’t need it,” Dash said as she closed the map and took off. After a minute, she arrived in front of a large field in central park with a small, grey box sitting in the middle with a red button on top. “That button could either disarm it, or trigger it, mind giving me a clue?”

“What? If I made the bombs too complex, you’d never get any of the clues! Just push the damn button.”

“Fine, but if it blows up, I’m coming for you,” Dash said as she used a stick to press it from a distance.

Suddenly, the box popped open, causing a spray of confetti to blast Dash in the face, a small, spring-loaded Jack-in-the-box Gokai Silver holding a card and a slip of paper.

“Really? These things have a payload for an instant explosion the size of a city block, and you think you’d be able to escape?”

“All I needed was a bit of distance to catch the shockwave and get clear. So, where’s the next one?”

“Even with your speed, I doubt that… Anyways, my little buddy there has your clue and your instructions.”

Dash grabbed the card and the paper, turning the card over she saw the number eight on the back, “Is this the number of bombs remaining or something?”

“Nope, it’s a clue.”

Dash pulled the paper open, revealing the message inside: Congratulations! You’ve found the first normal present! Three more left! Although now things will get more interesting! You’re no longer allowed to fly/use magic anymore! The next present is located at point 4-7-1! You had twenty five minutes from when you opened the first present! A chibified Gokai Silver was holding a banner with the words: Good Luck! Written across it.

“Knowing how many left makes things easier,” Dash said as she checked the map, “looks like I’ll be done with this before lunch.” Dash then ran off, using her wings to boost her speed while staying on the ground, before arriving at the Manehattan Sports Stadium… in the middle of a hoofball game. “Sweet, the Cruisers are up, now to make sure they can win the whole thing.” She then sped towards gate 8, to find nothing there. “Better hold onto the card then,” she muttered before heading inside and checking the stands.

It took her a while, the cheering crowd was certainly not helping her cause at all, but eventually she found the bomb under a seat with a rather large and excitable stallion sitting on top of it with ten seconds to spare. Luckily, she still had the stick from earlier and was able to press the button without any trouble.

The second box opened, revealing a second chibified Gokai Silver holding a mask, a card, and a slip of paper.

Dash snatched the card, which had an upside-down triangle on it, before looking at the note.

Congratulations! Two presents left! Time for a new rule! You have to wear that mask for the rest of the game now! Failure to do so results in BAD THINGS, so be sure to wear it over your face! Also, use of alternate transport is now off limits! A silvery band shot out of the box and attached itself to her leg, So this GPS tracker will make sure you don’t pass a certain speed! Point 6-2-8 is the next location, and you have fifteen minutes from opening your present! The same chibified Gokai Silver held up the “good luck” banner.

Dash frowned before looking at the mask, which looked like a pair of panties. She growled before putting it on, then glanced at the map before running off.

Dash ran as fast as she could, the next set of coordinates leading her to the Manehattan Museum of Art. Dash just shook her head as she had never been one for art before heading inside. The second she entered the door however, shutters over her eyeholes slammed down, cutting off her vision. “Oh, you bastard.”

“What? I couldn’t really call it a game if it didn’t get harder for you.” Gai’s voice said, belying the laughing he had been doing seconds before, “you still only have six minutes to find the present in this huge building, so use your imagination and find it before bad things happen.”

“Well, joke’s on you,” Dash said as she closed her eyes beneath the mask, “I already learned how to fight without my eyes.” Listening closely, she heard a faint but noticeable beeping sound, similar to that of the other bombs.

“Uhh, miss? I think you’re in the wrong section of the city for… that sort of thing.” The voice of the museum security guard said, obviously as embarrassed as Dash was to be wearing the mask in the first place.

Dash simply flashed her badge, “SPD business, don’t ask.” Using other sounds, mostly other people chuckling at her, she reached the source of the beeping without incident and felt around for the bomb, her hands passed over several things that the previous bombs didn’t have, “what exactly am I touching…?”

“That would have to be the nude bust that forms the centerpiece of the collection you should be in,” Gai’s voice said, barely containing his laughter, “if I gauged your reach just right, you’re probably fondling the chest area.”

“That’s it, I’ve changed my mind. Instead of going straight for you when I finish with the last bomb, I’m going to grab the biggest hammer I can find first.” Dash then used her wings to create a gust of wind, then used the change in sound to find the bomb, which she then disarmed.

“How kinky,” Gai said as the shutters over Dash’s eyes opened, allowing her to see the shocked faces of everyone in the gallery. Dash just groaned and grabbed the clue and the note before leaving.

Dash turned the card over in her hand, revealing the greek sign for “omega” before opening the note: Congratulations! ONE PRESENT LEFT! It’s at point 3-0-7, better hurry because you only have TEN MINUTES! The chibified Gokai Silver once again held up the “good luck” banner.

Dash cursed under her breath before glancing at the map and running off, performing feats of parkour that would turn the head of any athlete. Despite this it took her five minutes to reach the final bomb’s location: Mane Central Station.

“Seriously!?” Dash gasped as she beheld the behemoth of a building with the multitudes of ponies milling about in their usual daily routines.

“And just in time for the lunch rush hour too!” Gai’s voice chimed in from the phone.

“I don’t need your sass!”

“But you do need to find my present.”

Dash groaned and began pushing through the fresh crowd of ponies coming out of the building, frantically looking for the bomb. Dash spotted a set of scaffolding left by a group of painters on their lunch break, and used it to get up and over the crowd, spotting the bomb tucked beside a garbage bin.

Just as it’s timer was counting down from sixty seconds.

With a cry, Dash leaped off the scaffolding, roughly pushing through the crowd and tackled the trash can, causing its contents to spill out onto the floor. Dash scrambled to her hands and knees, slamming her hand onto the ‘disarm’ button with seconds to spare.

The box popped open, revealing a final chibified Gokai Silver holding a single card.

Dash snatched up the card, and turned it over, revealing a blank side with nothing on it, “what?” She said, panting slightly, “where’s the clue and the instructions!?”

“You already have them,” Gai said calmly, “you now only have one minute to tell me where the planet-buster is hidden.”

“What do you mean one minute!?” Dash shouted into the phone, waving the blank card around, “I’ve got no clue where it is!”

“No you have four, and forty seconds to figure it out.”

Dash pulled the rest of the cards out of her pockets and laid them out in front of her, scanning them intensely, “come on, Dash. Think! What would Twilight do in this situation?”

“Probably freak out, thirty seconds.”

“You’re not helping!”

“Obviously not, I’m your ‘bad guy’, remember? Twenty seconds.”

The eight was the only card that made any sense, but the triangle, omega, and blank cards all completely confused her. There has to be a pattern here somewhere! She thought as she began rearranging the cards in a variety of orders, trying to figure out what the secret to these clues were.

“Ten seconds...”

Dash scratched at her mane, ruffling it.

“Seven seconds...”

“Aargh! Just tell me!”

“Eenope, four seconds...”

Tears began to leak out of Dash’s eyes as she looked at the cards that still eluded her.

“Three...”

Dash began to cry out in desperation, clawing at her mane, c’mon Dash, THINK!

“Two...”

Dash sat in silence.

“One...”

It was over.

“Zero.” Gai said, as a white gloved hand scooped up the four cards in front of her, “time’s up, Dash.”

Rainbow Dash looked up to see a figure in a green suit with a gold chestplate standing over her. The figure glowed green before the light faded, revealing a stone-faced Gai standing in it’s place.

“You just made a big mistake,” Dash said, before launching a punch at his face.

Gai knocked the fist aside and slammed a palm into Dash’s sternum, causing the brash young pegasus to keel over to catch her breath, “can’t say I’m surprised,” he said, snapping his fingers to bring a portal into existence, “come on, Cruger’s waiting.”

“Wait, what?”

“This was a test, you failed. Now come on.” Gai said as he slung the protesting pegasus over his shoulder and carried her through the portal.

---

“Welp, she managed to meet all my expectations, including failing where it really mattered,” Gai said, walking through the portal before setting an exhausted and out of breath Dash down on the floor of Cruger’s office in SPD. “Her athletic abilities aren’t really anything to sniff at, but she lacks the one thing that separates a Deka from a regular Mall Cop.”

“Hey, the detectives are their own division, and even I had no idea what that clue meant,” Cruger replied.

“You forget,” Gai said calmly as he folded the four cards lengthwise so that all the symbols were folded in half, “that your ‘A-squad’ aren’t soldiers, they’re elite cops that are specially trained to deal with especially violent and cunning criminals.” He held up the three symbols, tossing away the blank, revealing the set of numbers: 3-7-2. “The whole purpose of this elaborate setup was to test them for real-world action against a serious threat.”

Gai tossed the cards over his shoulder, allowing them to flutter down to where Dash was still slumped on the floor, “and you’re the one who agreed to this test.”

“Only because it was an exercise,” Cruger said as a map came up on the screen behind him, “if this were real, Dash would have played along, while satellite surveillance found the bombs and you, and members of B and C Squad came after you in full force. In my SPD, you don’t get to face just one of us, you face all of us. To be honest, when Dash left, in addition to telling the rest of SPD that is was a drill as we agreed, I enacted my own drill for everyone else on standard protocol.”

Gai chuckled, “The only things that weren’t real here were the supposed ‘civilian casualties’ from the explosion and the bombs in Manehattan. The hack attack never ended after Dash left, and to her, it was all real.” Gai shoved his hands into the pockets of his long coat, “and if I were Basco, you’d be lying on top of a mountain of dead SPD by now.”

Gai looked up, his eyes going misty, “there was one thing he said during our last encounter, one thing that didn’t make sense until after you explained the whole ‘Displaced’ thing.”

“What was that?”

“After he reappeared after two days’ disappearance, he told me he had gotten stronger ‘through the blood of our compatriots’, he wasn’t lying. Don’t you get it? He’s turned this whole thing into a blood game spanning dimensions, one where he gets stronger every time he wins, and it’s not a matter of if he’ll show up here, it’s a matter of when.”

Gai returned his attention to Cruger, “and when he does, he’ll have done his homework and he will have a game plan ready specifically to end you. Whether or not he has to destroy the planet to do so is irrelevant to him.”

Cruger grinned, “He can try, but just so you know, I’ve got a contingency.”

Gai facepalmed, “Now is not the time for bravado, Cruger. I don’t know how many other Displaced he’s killed, but I do know that each murder makes him stronger. Eventually he’s gonna surpass you or anyone that’s brave or foolish enough to stand up to him.”

“Anyone, maybe. But I happen to have the Tokens of several super powerful Displaced, including a Majin Buu, a guy who knows a technique that can kill anything, and Deadpool. Besides, I happen to be rather powerful myself, and I don’t plan to just wait for him to come to me.”

Gai sighed, “Nothing I say is gonna change your mind?”

“Nothing personal, but I could beat you without Morphing. As soon as we’re done here I’ll put out an APB on him, if someone spots him, I can take him down before he gets to try anything.”

A wicked Grin sliced across Gai’s face, “Well then, count me in. Basco is my baggage, no one gets to him without me there. I may not have my full crew yet, but the Gokaigers can help, because I seriously doubt anyone’s gonna see him unless he wants them to.”

“My rival Gilgy might disagree, his hobby is wandering between verses, plus there’s this Dark Magician Displaced I know who’s got an all seeing eye, you underestimate the power of networking.”

“Maybe, but consider this: did your ‘networking’ help prevent the murders of god knows how many people from home? The Free Joker has just as much stealth tech as the Galleon. At least with my help you can move without him knowing about it.”

“I found you didn’t I? With paint no less. In all seriousness, I’m betting on him doing the one thing all bad guys do.”

“What’s that?”

“Get cocky and slip up. And before you say anything, I know this from experience.”

“Get cocky? Maybe, but he never does anything without a game plan or a hostage. And about the paint… I wasn’t exactly expecting most of my ship’s optic camo to fail as a result of dimensional travel, and you’re gonna help me clean it off. Pink? Really?”

Off in the distance, a certain Pink Pony screamed in rage.

“Don’t worry about it, all you need is a mixture of Citric acid and water, and it’ll rinse right off. By the way, it was loaded with micro trackers, so even if you extended the cloak to cover it, it wouldn’t have done much.”

“One: I already know about the trackers, I fried them during my hack of your base’s systems, among other things. Two: there’s no way in hell I’m cleaning that off by myself. Three: that’s not how optic camo works. And four: you have yet to see me without my limiter on.”

“Your so cute, you think you hacked me when I just let you in.”

“Keep talking, Doggie. The virus isn’t gone yet. I made it using Mega Silver’s computer brain, and I was a CS major before all of this.”

“The only way to access the mainframe is with a direct physical connection, which you wouldn’t have been able to get if you were actually my enemy. Also, your virus might still be in the system, but it’s quarantined. Anyway, if you don’t mind, I’d like to test something out while cleaning your ship if you don’t mind.”

“Fine,” Gai sighed, “I guess I’ll just return all the personnel files I downloaded then.”

“Excellent, even if you just got the public access versions.” Outside the window, a massive blue tanker truck rolled up next to the base, and started using the water cannons on its roof to hose off the Gokai Galleon.

Gai tossed him a flash drive, “There, I also included a little present of Dash’s various escapades throughout Manehattan. I think a few of them are illegal.”

“And who do you think is responsible for that?” Dash said.

“For you bending over a stallion in a very unbecoming manner and fondling the chest of a priceless artwork? That bit was all you, Dashie. I had no bearing on how you moved your own body.” Gai chuckled, “For every member of SPD to have a livestream of the events on their own SP license as well as their own hard copy? Yeah, that was totally me.”

Rainbow Dash paled as Gai began to spasm in a fit of hysterics, tears rolling out of his eyes.

“You know, I’m having a hard time believing you’re the good guy,” Cruger said.

Gai shrugged, “I may not be evil, but I’m still a pirate with a large bounty, and she’s still the leader of the band of merry spandex-clad troopers that rubbed me the wrong way.”

“It’s not spandex!” A voice roared from the direction of R&D.

“You started it.”

“I was trying to prevent a real armageddon in my verse, thank you very little.”

“All I’m saying is that cloaking immediately after sending several volleys at someone isn’t the best way to make a good first impression.”

“I’m not saying it is, I’m saying I didn’t know about this whole ‘I’m in a whole ‘nother dimension’ thing yet. At that point, I thought Baso’s ship was right on my tail. He might have even followed me for all I know.”

“Don’t worry, I only sensed you entering my verse.”

“Well good. That’s one less god-like maniac I have to watch out for right now.”

“Anyway, before you go, is there anything you want to do while you’re here? It’ll take me a bit to do the math to send you home.”

“Maybe retrofit the Galleon so that it doesn’t knock me out from suddenly being thrown across the multiverse and restocking on supplies? I kinda ran out of food three days before I was sent here.” Gai snapped his fingers, opening a portal, “I also have a gift and a request, but those can wait until later.”

“Fair enough, we can discuss your payment then.”

“Dude, stone. Cold.”

“Don’t worry, I have a rather reasonable payment plan in mind.”

“Just as long as the price tag doesn’t include an exorbitant sum or ‘my immortal soul’ on it.” Gai muttered.

Suddenly, a faint roaring could be heard, followed by a large tremor. One that Dash didn’t seem to notice.

“What the hell was that?” Gai asked, pulling out his Gokai Spear in gun form, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.

Cruger looked out the window, “Remember I said that you were the only ones who entered my verse?”

“Yeah?”

“That was true, up until 15 seconds ago.”

“We need to get to Ponyville, now. If it’s who I think it is, they’ll go for civilian targets first.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Cruger said as he pressed a button, causing alarms to blare, “they’re headed here.”

Author's Note:

What just entered the verse? How will Basco fare if he and Cruger face off? Will Dash's escapades go viral? Find out next time on SPD Emergency!

Cross with Gokai... PONIES!? part 2 of 4

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Well crap...

[The Villain in Glasses]

7386782

Indeed...

[DarkSpider]

I really don't like that guy now

[The Villain in Glasses]

7386937

I've been meaning to ask... which one? Gai or Basco?