Chasing Treasures

by Yukito

16 - Nothing Can Stop...

The soldiers fired immediately, not taking any chances after the hell that they had just suffered, but their bullets were rendered useless against the old woman's barrier. Shining Armor moved to give the jewel back to Aria, but a spell grasped it out of his hand and moved it into the old woman's.

"So this is what you use to cast your magic. A garnet, is it? Yes, and very potent, at that." The old woman pocketed it and snapped her fingers again, summoning a cauldron besides herself. Purple liquid bubbled from the top of it, making Aria gasp. "Pardon me. I haven't introduce myself, have I? My name is Hydia, though you need not concern yourselves with your names. No, I'll just refer to you as Subjects One-through-Nine."

"'Subjects'?" Shining Armor asked, reaching slowly into his pocket for his second jewel.

"Shining Armor! Stop her!" Aria shouted, panic seeping from her voice.

"You there, young lady," Hydia said, pointing to Aria. "You and the other girl, you are sirens, aren't you? I recognised that melody that you sang, and I can smell the magic coming out of both of you. How curious. So sirens really do exist." Hydia reached into her robe, pulling out a vial containing a green, frothing liquid, and grinned. "Too bad. There are about to be two less, now!"

"SONATA!" Aria cried. "DON'T LET HER DO IT!"

Sonata pointed the grenade launcher at Hydia and fired, but the shell was surrounded by a blue aura, and then failed to go off. She fired two more shells, but the same fate befell both of them. "She's defusing them in midair!"

Hydia cackled as she held the vial over the bubbling cauldron. "This will be the first time I've summoned him! I wonder what will happen? Come forth, my ultimate creation: the Smooooooze!"

Shining Armor reached for his magnum and fired, but found the barrier to be too strong even for that. The vial fell into the bubbling cauldron, and the room fell silent for just a few moments. And then, just as quickly as the silence started, it ended, as the cauldron began to shake, and then quake, and then, the liquid inside burst out, forcing everybody but to retreat into one of the corridors leading out of the room.

Inside, the purple liquid began to expand and solidify. Eyes and mouths appeared all over it, and a strange song echoed throughout the compound. Slowly, that goop began to rise, and it looked everywhere. It caught sight of the group hiding just outside of the room and began to move towards them.

"RUN!" Shining Armor shouted, and unnecessary order as everybody had started to bolt long before he had even gave it.

"KEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!" Hydia howled, watching as the intruders ran. "RUN! RUN AWAY! IT'LL MAKE NO DIFFERENCE! The Smooze is the ultimate in witches' brews! Run or fight, you're guaranteed to lose!" Hydia cackled once more. "NOTHING can stop-" She gasped. A pair of those eyes were staring down at her. The Smooze was still expanding out towards the intruders, but now, it had also started to move towards Hydia.

"N-No! Stop it!" she ordered, yelping as she felt something grabbing her leg. She looked down to find that the Smooze had taken her, and that it was starting to make its way up her body. "STOP! I'm your master! You're supposed to obey me!"

Hydia's cries were silenced as the Smooze encased her completely, and then flattened, almost as though it had swallowed her whole. The Smooze then continued its expansion in all directions, singing its song the entire time, refusing to let anyone, or anything, stop it.

---

As Tirek's helicopter approached the site, he felt the vehicle suddenly turning and his pilot muttering something incoherent. "What is it?" he demanded.

"Sir, we have reports that Hydia's experiment is loose and causing heavy casualties on both sides!"

Tirek sighed. He opened the door to his right and peered out of the helicopter. Ahead of them was the site of the battle, once in a lush, green jungle, now covered in a bubbling, singing purple mass. All fire was being directed at the creature, but nothing seemed to work.

Pulling himself back in, Tirek took out his phone and dialled a number. It rang three times before being answered by an unknown voice. "L-Lord Tirek, sir!"

"Where is Hydia?" he asked in a cold tongue.

"Sir, Hydia has been killed by the creature!"

Tirek closed his eyes and resisted the urge to crush the phone in his hand. 'Hydia, you fool. I told you to save the Smooze for a last-case scenario. Unleashing an untested subjects here of all places… It's a good thing I never gave you the final ingredient. Without it, I should be able to…'

"Sir, the warhead is secure. The creature has been unable to penetrate the bunker's doors."

"Good work. At least I can count on someone. Now, open the ceiling and prepare for extraction."

"What?!" the pilot shouted. "Sir, with respect, we can't lower our altitude right now!"

"It will be fine," Tirek said, putting his phone away. "Tell all jets to blast the creature with the napalm they are carrying. But tell them to not strike the base, no matter what."

"Napalm? Will that really be enough to-"

"Are you questioning me, pilot?"

"O-Of course not, sir! Uh…" The pilot opened a channel to the nearby jets flying with them. "Orders from Lord Tirek! Prepare to engage. Focus suppressive napalm fire on the purple mass, but take extreme caution not to strike the bunker! Repeat…"

---

Shining Armor fired round-after-round on the mounted minigun turret, but the rounds only seemed to go right through the creature as it continued to cover more of the land around it.

To one side, soldiers were firing rockets at the thing and preparing mortars, but they only seemed to bother it for a second each strike. To the other side, Aria and Sonata were conducting a joint-spell to push the creature back. It slowed it down, but didn't stop it.

"How long will it continue to grow?!" Shining asked the sirens.

"Until there's no more planet for it to cover!" Aria answered. "Or until it's defeated, but in my world, the only things able to stop it were a magical artefact and a dead tribe!"

Shining gritted his teeth. "We need more firepower!"

Sonata heard something and looked into the distance. There, she saw the approaching army of fighter jets. "Like that?" she asked, pointing.

Shining Armor followed her finger and frowned. "That's Tirek's… So we're too late." He stopped firing and watched. The jets passed overhead and dropped something onto the creature. Upon hitting the creature and exploding into a sea of flames, he knew what it was. Thankfully, they were at a safe distance.

The napalm made the Smooze howl, and it took swats at the planes in an attempt to stop them. It caught one of them, bringing it down to the ground, but then the rest of the jets unleashed a second salvo, one that caused the Smooze to flatten and stop its endless singing.

Shining Armor brought his binoculars to his eyes and watched as the Smooze collapsed in on itself and bubbled mildly, eventually settling. Those eyes and mouths disappeared. It had been defeated, and yet, it still remained, coating the landscape in something that would be difficult to cover-up.

"Helicopter inbound!" one soldier reported.

Shining Armor saw the helicopter over the bunker. He gasped as he saw who was inside of it. "Tirek!" he shouted. "Sonata, take a shot!"

"I get to kill the Tirek!" Sonata practically jumped for joy as she skipped over to her rifle, ensuring it was loaded, and got into a position to aim at the helicopter. She lined up her sights, thankful that the helicopter seemed to have stopped.

Shining Armor wondered why he would be sitting still like that, and noticed a wire hanging below. He followed it down.

Sonata took the shot, but nothing happened. Tirek was still alive. "What?! Awwww! He has bulletproof windooooows!"

"Ready to fire!" one soldier stated, aiming his RPG at the helicopter and checking behind himself.

"Hold your fire!" Shining Armor shouted, rushing to the radio behind himself and opening a channel to all Vespanian troops. "Everyone, ceasefire on the chopper! It's carrying the nuclear warhead! Repeat, we can't fire on that helicopter!"

Angry that they couldn't do anything, the soldiers settled for wiping out as many of Tirek's surviving forces as they could. Those that surrendered would have been shown some mercy, but none did. They were more afraid of Tirek than of the enemy.

Shining Armor and the Dazzlings simply watched Tirek leave into the distance, accompanied by his army of fighter jets all around him.

---

"Sir, should we not have wiped out the Vespanian forces before we left?" the pilot asked Tirek.

"No," Tirek answered. "Their backup is only fifteen minutes away. The priority is securing the warhead and ensuring that we are not followed. Now continue the path I have given you until we are in the clear."

"Yes, sir!"

Tirek looked down at his open laptop, viewing the camera footage from inside the bunker. For a while the footage went out, but when it returned, Tirek found two young girls performing powerful magic that rendered Hydia's staves unusable. No, it was worse than that. It drained the very magic out of those staves' wielders.

"What an interesting find," he said, pausing the video and focussing on the blue-haired man in a black suit. "Shining Armor. So the FBI has a force from Equestria on its side? No matter. This simply confirms that Equestria holds the power I need to rule both worlds.

"And soon, that power will be mine."

Comments

[Emperor]

So yet another one of Tirek's big underlings down.

Though not blowing up Tirek's helicopter because it has the nuclear warhead on it _is_ a plot contrivance. It's not like blowing up the nuclear warhead is going to cause a nuclear reaction. Nuclear material isn't that volatile, you need to actually have a set-up to kickstart the reaction.

[Yukito]

8238776

Hmmm, not too sure on that. Tbh I figure even if the soldiers know that, would they wanna take that chance?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Poor Hydia, no one ever said. ;)