Imbalanced: New Age

by Nameless Narrator

Love and Hatred: Expedition

[Blazing's Entry]

My hooves are sweaty, knees weak, legs are heavy. Something something- damn it, I already did that one.

Doesn't matter, I'm having trouble breathing.

We are approaching the Corrupted territory spreading around Drachenberg. The Blackbird is full of extremely well-trained Black Ops agents as well as Imperial Guards. Nicolai ensured me that after the elites guarding Cassius within the Holy City, these griffons are the best the Empire has to offer. Nicolai himself is here accompanied by Flora who wanted to visit her old post, and who is now his personal assistant. She got pretty far from the low-rank agent she was when we met for the first time, looking for dirt on the mob boss... what was his name again? I don't know. Now she's flying side by side with the second best griffons. It just goes to show that all Black Ops members are full of potential and worth their weight in gold. Everyone is stocked with supplies for survival and fully equipped with projectile sidearms, melee weapons, and those big-ass beam rifles. These fifteen griffons could conquer a small country in a military conflict.

...and then there's me. I feel like I don't belong here, but the usual sense of inadequacy is being trampled under the heavy boot of reality. I am here and I made this happen. This is all a fight for love and hope, which I now realize is all I've been fighting for.

I've never fought for my own survival, I simply didn't care enough to do so. That will never change. If I am alone, I might as well not be at all. For years, I have chased the faint glimmer of hope, the tiniest chance that somepony would love me. The hardest part? I found them. Rejection after rejection, failure after failure, I thought I gave up, but some immeasurably small part never did. That was what allowed me to return so many times, what never stopped clinging to hope. The fact that I hated... or maybe even still hate that part for not letting me drop and finally be in peace speaks volumes about me.

I wanted Chokey. She refused me.

I wanted Chokey to have a life instead of being a sacrifice fueling Sombra's revenge. She gave me a chance.

I forgot Chokey. She didn't forget me.

I died. She gave up, choosing to forget me because the memories caused her far too much pain.

She forgot me. I returned, being a toy used for a cruel joke.

I gave up fully and completely. Cromach found me.

He fell in love with me... well, not exactly, but it grew. I didn't fight to survive, I fought to live WITH him.

Chokey returned to my life. The two fought over me.

I won. I won the hardest a pony ever can win. I did everything that was in my power to be with them both.

Harmony tore us apart.

I'm not fighting for survival, I'm fighting to regain Cromach, I'm fighting to save Guiding.

I might even be fighting to one day bring peace to Joy, one way or the other.

The reason has always been love, either existing love, or hope for one. I will keep fighting until I die or lose all reason to fight. Those things are equal. I fight for THEM, and fighting for THEM is fighting for ME, because without THEM, I am not ME. Without them, I am nothing. Without them, I don't exist. I might breathe, but I don't exist. I am nothing, but they make me into something. Without them, I have complete freedom, I can do anything to anyone including to myself. With them, I have a purpose.

That is why I'm here.

If all goes according to plan, we will touch the ground west of Drachenberg, some way away from the sewer entrance we originally used to escape. The goal is simple - use the known route to get as close to Cromach's last known location as possible. Unless he became one of those strange roaming Corrupted, he should be in the area where his family used to live or somewhere close. Once there, we set up a targetting array used as a navigation beacon for some strange griffon scanning devices hovering so high up that Corrupted flytraps can't reach them. Those should show us Cromach's precise location. Then, we find him and capture him in a stasis cage. The royal brothers offered me a laboratory in which to communicate with Cromach within the Empire, but I chose the underground Silver Sun facilities in Manehattan. After that, I'm on my own. If Crom doesn't come to his senses immediately, I...

...I haven't really planned that far forward. I wish Heavy was here to offer advice. He's great at pointing out things I missed. Alas, he's in the Holy City with Cross and the rest of Shadowstep's company.

I am trembling.

Is it anticipation or fear?

It is a silly question.

[End Entry]

The Blackbird hovers a meter above ground as we all jump outside. The familiar dry soil with barely any vegetation filling most of the Empire surrounding the Great Southern Desert crunches under my hooves. However, the black, soft corrupted land is spreading far and wide some distance away. Could it be that corruption has the power to revitalize even the magically dessicated deserts? Granted, there's no forest in sight, but there's dark grass and some bushes dotting the landscape. Somewhere far ahead must be the entrance to Drachenberg sewers.

Any movement around other than the fifteen agents plus Nicolai? No. That's about to change.

"Nicolai, we'll be starting to draw all Corrupted in the vicinity to ourselves as soon as we step on the dark ground."

The Black Ops boss currently landing behind me shakes his head.

"No, the mufflers of the suits should take care of that. They suppress any tremors we make, so unless we pass directly by a Corrupted we should be fine in that regard. They will see us long before they can sense us."

"Cool tech," I look at my legs covered by the dark green uniform, "Kinda wish I had these sooner."

"They were originally designed to avoid tripping certain vibration-based alarms. When you told us your experience with Corrupted senses, few bright minds had the idea to try these mufflers out. They work."

He supervises the deployment of everyone, walking around, checking equipment, and ending at me again.

"We've got everything. Do you understand all your equipment?"

I nod.

"I know where the night vision button is, I tested the noise amplification, I got my radio ready, and I absolutely love the sword and gloves you gave me. I'm still not sure how well all those things are going to work against Corrupted, but it's a lot better than walking all the way here alone with a cloth saddlebag. Can I keep the suit when we're done here? I don't know what it's made from, but I haven't felt so cool and fresh this close to the desert even when I wore nothing."

"Let's talk about that after we cross that bridge," Nicolai drops the visor of his helmet, and I hear his voice in my ears again, this time from my earbuds.

"Radio test. Report, everyone!"

I hear every single griffon's voice, although I can recognize only Flora's.

"Agent Flora reporting in!"

Sliding down the visor as well, the from outside completely opaque hardened plastic proves to darken my vision only a little, which isn't really helping in the late evening gloom. A single click of a button on the bottom of the helmet later, my view brightens up considerably.

"Blazing Light reporting," I mutter into the microphone, unsure about the other griffons' volume settings.

"You can speak up, Blazing. The microphones have automatic boosts and mufflers."

"Alright, alright," I say normally, "Got any idea where to set the scanners up?"

"Flora will explain on the way. Let's go. We should be reaching the corrupted territory after nightfall, and our weather stations estimated that moon will be heavily obstructed within Drachenberg area tonight."

"Won't that hinder your flying scanning thingies?"

"Strangely enough, it won't, considering we're mapping the location from extremely wide angles. We should be able to see most of Drachneberg's signatures, and if we don't find Cromach then we'll know he's in the city center... or deeper underground. Move out!"

The griffons assume a triangular formation, and we start running. The sun slowly drops over the horizon, and complete darkness covers the land.

Well, I have to try how good the night vision really is, right?

Complete pitch black. I stumble and immediately reactivate the night vision.

Cities are never like this, but we're too far away from civilization. No distant lights, no stars, no rays of moonlight, nothing, only silent crunching of the dry ground under our muffled boots, and I can hear even that only thanks to the helmet's sound amplification system.

We are shadows swiftly moving across the landscape.

"Alright, listen up!" I hear Flora's no-nonsense voice, and my visor lights up with white lines similar to me using my magical vision, only these are overlaid on the real world, "Blazing here is THE expert on Corrupted. We have our observational data, but it won't hurt to listen to some talons-on experience. What can we expect?"

Pain, honestly. There is no way this can be easy, no matter Nicolai's gadgets.

"I expect you know about kinds of Corrupted and all the general stuff, so I'll make it quick. Don't take it the wrong way, but Corrupted griffons are dumb. VERY dumb. They aren't stronger than pony Corrupted, at least not by a lot, but they are feral and as soon as they find prey, they can go completely berserk. However, as I said, they will go after you even if half of their body is missing, ignoring everything around."

"So we shoot on sight?" asks some agent.

"I... don't think so, although I have little experience with griffon Corrupted. Female Breeders should be more curious than hostile even as griffons, and Hunters will just call for a hunt and no amount of camouflage will help us. I think that if we attract Hunter attention, we should back off until they attack."

"Didn't you mean unless they attack?"

"Heh, no. In short, let's try to avoid conflict as much as necessary, but as soon as someone proves clearly hostile, obliterate them as quickly as we can."

"Understood."

It's a strange feeling, having running griffons salute me with their wings. I almost feel important.

We press on as our surroundings change from the barren landscape dotted with solitary bushes into softer land covered with short grass. All of a sudden, my helmet bleeps quietly, and a white circle appears in the distance with an arrow pointing to it and a number reading 1235 slowly ticking down.

"Uhhh, my visor is showing a timer or something," I comment on the new phenomenon.

An agent's voice answers:

"Point guard here. I set up a marker to the sewer entrance. The number measures how far we are."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

I wonder, can I do the same thing with my tracing spell?

Everything turns bright white.

"Whoah-" I trip, surprised by how completely useless my vision spell is inside a helmet. Thankfully, we're not galloping, so I don't turn into a living tumbleweed, and regain my balance mid-step.

Alright, let's not do that again.

The distance measuring device counts down, the white circle overlaid on my visor grows larger, and I'm getting tired. Running really isn't my thing. Hopefully, we won't be rushing through the sewers.

The panorama of Drachenberg lights up with more targeting white lines, and another marker appears, pointing to the tallest building I can see from this angle. Flora's voice follows.

"According to the sewer blueprints, there should be an exit right by that building's entrance. There are better places we can use, but this one is tall enough for the beacon to work AND saves us from using the streets too much and risking an encounter."

Keeping track of two numbers is confusing, so I ignore the second coordinate and focus only on the closer one. Eventually the countdown to the sewer entrance reaches two hundred.

"Movement to the right," I recognize the voice of our point guard.

Everyone slows down a little, which is a fact I appreciate from the bottom of my heart. There indeed is a tall black griffon matching our pace, his tentacles swaying in the air.

His beak opens wide, and I order on reflex:

"Fir-"

"Cover."

"-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

A beam of orange light pierces the night, burning my eyes. I can't see anything, tripping and unable to stop my disoriented fall this time. A wing wraps around me, steadying me for the moment I need to recover.

"Blazing, look at the ground when we're firing," I hear Nicolai.

"Cover," the firing agent says again, making me lock my eyes at the ground under my running hooves.

This time I only see bright shimmer at the edge of my vision.

"Target eliminated."

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" an unnatural, terrifying screech of an eagle made deeper by the tentacles in its throat sends shivers down my spine.

The multiple responding ones make me long for a toilet... and an underground bunker... somewhere on the other hemisphere.

"What?" asks the same agent, "Damn it, from the left this time! Three and counting."

"I'm counting seven," Nicolai takes charge, "Get to the sewer entrance ASAP, we can't fight on an open plain!"

Nicolai's wing shoves me forward. I'm still fighting with the white line burned into my eyes, and running faster isn't something I wanted to do, but the growling and screeching of Corrupted quickly closing in does the work of an energy drink enema crossed with a mountain of cocaine and a pool of coffee.

"Mine!"

A deafening boom, or something that would have been one without the helmet's muffler, comes from behind, and a small shockwave pushes me forward.

>53<

>52<

>51<

The circle marking the sewer entrance is so close.

"They're gaining on us again," I hear, "and there are more in the distance."

Another screech pierces the air just as we rush through the concrete circle into the enclosed space of the now dry sewers.

"Drop more mines and assume firing position," orders Nicolai, "Five check and cover the way deeper into the tunnel."

A single griffon tosses a bunch of flat disks out onto the open field towards the approaching Corrupted before bolting back to us. Nine more agents form two lines, the front ones kneeling with aimed rifles and the back ones standing up with beam weapons ready to fire. Shoulder to shoulder, they barely fit into the tunnel. Thankfully, there's nothing flowing through the sewers anymore, so the lowered center where water and waste used to be is safe to stand in. The agents designated by Nicolai to scout ahead are moving away as we're getting ready to face the charge.

Having been taught the lesson of pain before, I turn the night vision off, drowning everything in black, and wait. The first corrupted griffon steps near the prepared mines and I thank the sound dampening system of the helmet yet again.

When the chain reaction of shrapnel and hellfire ends, I open my eyes.

The trap was was less effective than I hoped. The first four Corrupted got disintegrated, but there are still twenty or so now torn between looking in confusion at the charred mess between us and them, and growing rage.

"This looks bad," I hear Nicolai over the radio, "Back off deeper into the sewers. Advance guard, any sightings?"

"Looks safe back here, you can come in. Do you need us to help you?"

"No, keep scouting ahea-"

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The Corrupted charge, answered by the rattling of assault rifles.

I'm not very useful in this situation, am I? No projectile weapon training, no magic, no divine ability which wouldn't basically kill us immediately.

How can I help, how can I help?

Not get in the way, or be a liability to protect.

Damn it!

With that in mind, I move further away from the group.

Three more Corrupted drop and immediately turn into goop which drains into the solid yet tainted floor. More and more, however, flow into the tunnel.

"I really didn't want to waste the beam charges this early into the expedition. Alright, ready, aim-"

The ceiling bubbles, strings of black goo enveloping the Corrupted. Suddenly, like a mouth snapping shut, a waterfall of dark, tainted slime fills the tunnel from the entrance nearly to us.

Nicolai's agents freeze, and I can't blame them.

Then, as if nothing happened, the goo completely blocking the tunnel dissipates, leaving no Corrupted anywhere around, with those outside the sewer fleeing in blind panic.

We are untouched. Shaken, but otherwise unhurt.

"Blazing... any explanation?" I hear Nicolai in my ear.

"D- divine intervention, heh heheh?" is all I can stutter out.

I feel like we're being watched which, after what just happened, we probably are.

Something just devoured seven Corrupted, terrified twenty more, and left us alone. Maybe some evolving type of vegetation preying on the new species?

A single thick glob of goop splashes from the ceiling onto the floor.

"Do we... continue?" asks Nicolai.

"Do you want to go back that way?" I nod towards the suspicious entrance, "What if the Corrupted just woke whatever it was up?"

"I feel like we're walking into something's stomach now."

"Then we're lucky," I chuckle, still stunned.

"How come?"

"It just ate- ow!" Flora smacks me with the butt of her sniper rifle.

"Well done, agent," says Nicolai, "Everyone, we're here for a capture mission. We've seen enough insanity in our lives already. This is nothing new."

"Funny, I've been eaten by a dragon, but never by a tunnel- ow! Stop that, Flora!"

Nicolai chuckles.

"Aiming for a promotion, agent. Let's go, I want to be as far from the 'mouth' as possible. In the meantime, we might need to rethink out escape plan."

As we move deeper into the sewers and shadows start moving around in the absence of any light, I know I'm not being paranoid.

We ARE being watched.

Comments

[Anonymous Critic]

We ARE being watched.

Dun, _dun duuuuunnn!!!

[Shadowshame]

We ARE being watched.

Hello Cromarch