Explanations, Planning, and Trouble
“I'm sorry,” said Sunset. “I didn't mean to worry any of you. I just passed out last night and didn't wake up until about ten minutes ago. Then I heard you arguing and realized what was going on.”
“You slept for over 18 hours!” Twilight practically shrieked. “How is that possible? Have you been sleeping since all this started? Eating well? Regular bowel—MMMPH!”
“I think that's quite enough of that line of questioning, Twilight, darling,” said Rarity. She gestured with her hand and the crystal lattice that had covered Twilight's mouth vanished. The nerdy girl blushed with embarrassment.
“Sorry, got carried away,” she said with a sheepish grin.
Sunset returned the smile. “It's okay. No, I haven't been sleeping too well since all this started. I guess everything just caught up with me last night.”
“So now that we know you're okay, what's the plan?” Rainbow asked. “Are we gonna go deal with that monster in the woods or deal with the Fed?”
Sunset frowned. “I don't know.”
Rainbow blinked. “What?”
“I don't know what we should do next,” Sunset said. She grabbed her right elbow and looked off into the distance, towards the woods. “Odds are Frank's been scared off to another hiding place, and I don't know what's going to happen now that Agent Shadow's seen what we can do. Did you guys see her at all today?”
“Nope,” answered Applejack. “We were wonderin' about that ourselves.”
“It does seem kind of strange that she hasn't tried to at least talk to any of us,” Fluttershy added.
“Can we even do anything about her?” Rarity asked. “At this point, nearly everything is out in the open as far as she's concerned. There really doesn't seem to be anything we can do until she makes her next move.”
“But that could be having us arrested!” Twilight protested.
“For what?” Rainbow said. “What did we do that was illegal?”
“It's not a question of legality,” Twilight replied. “It's what STORM is authorized to do, and part of that is containing things like us! And if you hadn't noticed, she's been interested in us from the moment she set foot in town!”
Sunset's frown deepened as flashes of her brief reading of Tempest's memories came back to her. She chewed on the inside of her bottom lip for a moment then looked up at her friends.
“Okay, so this is what we're going to do,” she said. The other girls looked at her expectantly.
“Rarity's right,” Sunset began. “Until we know what Agent Shadow is going to do, we're at a stalemate where she's concerned. So, what we're going to do until then is try to take care of Frank before he winds up hurting anyone.
“Fluttershy,” she said, turning her attention to the girl. “I want you to talk to some of your animal friends and have them spread the word about Frank. Tell them to get a message back to you if they find him. He's still got to be somewhere in the woods. Hopefully, we can find him before anyone else does, or worse, if he wanders off to the next town over.”
“Right!” Fluttershy said. “I'll send out the word with Hubert, Carmilla, and Pedro as soon as I get home.”
“Speaking of...” Sunset turned to Twilight. “Is that offer to put me up still open? I don't think I should go back to my apartment for a while.”
“Of course!” Twilgiht said. “Anything you need.”
“Good. When we're done here, we'll stop there so I can grab some things and then head to your place.”
“What about the rest of us?” Rainbow insisted. “What do you need us to do?”
“For right not, go home, do your homework, and act as normal as possible,” Sunset answered.
Rainbow's jaw dropped open. “What?! That's it?! How is that going to help?”
Sunset up a hand on her friend's shoulder. “Right now we're in a race to find Frank and purge the magic from him before Agent Shadow does whatever she's going to do. We need to be ready to move as soon as Fluttershy finds out where he is. Until then, we need to get a much normal out of our lives as we can, because I have a feeling it'll be the last we get for a while. So no running off on your own.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow huffed. Sunset put her other hand on Rainbow's other shoulder and looked into the athlete's eyes, her gaze hard.
“I mean it, Dash. I want your word you won't do anything without the rest of us. Promise me.”
Rainbow saw the seriousness in Sunset's eyes, swallowed and nodded. “I promise.”
Sunset let out a sigh of relief. “Good.”
She looked around at all her friends. “I can't promise this is going to end well for any of us. But we'll do what we always do. Help those who need it and hopefully things will turn out okay.”
The girls all made noises of assent before collapsing into a group hug. Sunset closed her eyes and let the warmth overtake her.
It'll be okay. It has to be okay. Right?
Night fell over Canterlot City, but the night was not completely quiet. On one of the lesser used roads leading out of town was an old rest area. It didn't get much use now, but that made it all the better for Tempest.
She leaned against the side of her car, under the sole working streetlight in the parking lot. She glanced at her phone, noted the time and folded her arms. They were late.
But not by much, as it turned out. A flash of light caught the corner of her eye and Tempest turned to see a convoy of six vehicles pulling into the parking lot. A sedan, two SUVs, a large cargo van, and two heavily modified box trucks. The trucks and the van all featured small dishes on their roofs, and all six vehicles were a uniform black. The SUVs, the trucks, and the van all featured the double lightning bolt insignia of STORM on the sides.
The vehicles parked and disgorged nearly two dozen of STORM's best containment agents. Most were in the tactical uniform needed to capture and transfer cryptids and other dangerous items the agency encountered. There were a few other plainclothes agents like Tempest herself. One of them, a serious looking mint green woman with a wild shock of blond hair, walked over to Tempest. She was carrying a briefcase.
“Agent Shadow?”
When Tempest nodded in the affirmative, the woman nodded. “Agent Lightning Dust. The director sends his regards.”
“I'll take the regards,” Tempest said. “But I hope he also sent along more than just all of you.”
Agent Dust smiled and opened the briefcase. She handed Tempest a small manila folder. “As requested, detention warrants for the POIs you specified.”
Tempest opened the folder and smiled at the seven official documents inside. She felt the old thrill running up her spine. The one which meant the investigation was over and it was time to do what she did best. She looked up at the assembled agent.
“All right, listen up!” she began. “We have two objectives here. One is a large cryptid similar to a bear but with substantial differences in both appearance and strength. You've all dealt with that kind of thing before, so SOP where that's concerned. I'll give you details in a moment.
“The other objective is something some of you may have a problem with. In addition to the cryptid, we have seven POIs who have exhibited Class Two levels of paranomal power. So far, it seems they have not used this power in any sort of aggressive capacity, but they are known to use it to defend themselves. We need to strike hard and fast to neutralize them.”
“Ma'am,” said one of the squad, raising his hand. “Are we neutralizing with extreme prejudice?”
“That is a hard negative,” Tempest replied. She looked over the entire group. “We want to take both objectives unharmed. If that isn't possible, strictly non-lethal takedowns only. Are we clear?”
There was a noise of assent. Tempest nodded.
“Now, you should know that the POIs are, in fact, minors. However, the law is on our side. We have warrants to detain them until we know what kind of threat they are, if any. Hence, the aforementioned non-lethal takedowns. Does anyone have a problem with that?”
“What kind of power are we dealing with, ma'am?” asked Dust.
“So far, from what I've seen, each POI has a different specialty. I don't know all of them, but I can say we are dealing at the very least with enhanced strength, enhanced speed, telekinesis, and some sort of force field creation ability. Additionally, at least three of the POIs are able to fly and the force fielder can levitate herself and others. As I said, however, they seem to only use these powers in defense. If we hit them hard and fast, we can probably deal with anyone who becomes belligerent. Some of them may surrender themselves once they see the warrants. Agent Dust, I want you with me on that. I have a feeling the less noise we make the better.”
Dust nodded. “Understood.”
“All right, people, that's the general outline. I want two squads. Most of you will be dealing with the cryptid. The rest will be coordinating with me on the POIs. Team leaders, come with me and I'll fill in the details. The rest of you get your gear ready.”
Tempest grinned at her fellow STORM agents. “It's time to go to work.”
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This is gonna end badly...
Oh dear.
10151704 Yeah.
For Tempest and the rest of the STORM idiots.
Oh dear o.O
Shits getting real (er) now!
10151768
Indeed.
They are no SCP foundation.
Storm you do NOT have the law on your side. this is clear Consitutional violations and that warrant is illegal
Hoo boy... Me thinks the excrement is about to impact the oscillating air displacement apparatus in a manner that may or may not be strictly proverbial in it's application.
Forgive me, I haven't had coffee yet so apparently I'm channelling SciTwi this morning.
Anyway, awesome chapter as always!
For right now?
just pointing this out because it would aggravate me to no end.
10151945 True.
This will be interesting to see them try and take down the girls.
Good luck trying to catch Rainbow,
Contain AJ
deal with Pinkie (with or without powers)
Get passed Raritys shields
Deal with a large group of animals to get to fluttershy
Handle Twilights telekinesis
Sunset is the only vulnerable one, unless she touches an agent and telepathically commands them to release her
10152170
Sunset is best without magic, in this situation
if i had my way i would have ripped every last storm agent to shreds and then save the big boss for last and let him watch as his whole entire agency is burned to the ground then drag his sorry ass strait to hell
BB r UH
I'm kinda shook not going to lie.
10151970
They're bad guys. They dont care. Also, they probably have the police force in their pocket anyway. Either that or they could just do what all shadowy evil coorparations do: kill off any loose lips.
10152243
Not a corporation. Government.
10151970
Since when does the government care about what's legal?
10152879
It should. That's why the 2nd amendment exists
10153018
Yeah, and look how hard they're trying to kill it these days...
10153189
10153018
This is not the place for real world political discourse. If you wish to continue this discussion, please take it to DMs. Thank you.
10153197
When you do a story like this this kind of discussion will happen
10153208
Yes, but it is MY story, MY comments section and I will moderate it how I see fit.
10153259
heeeeelll yeah
When will be the next update