Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Scratched felt her heart race as she saw the stallion who killed her parents aim the gun straight at her head.
“Nice to see you again,” he sneered. “Running away, that wasn't smart.” He took a step towards her with Scratched taking a step backwards. “If only had you just come back when I told you, this wouldn’t be needed.”
“We told you, it wasn’t possible for us to get back there in an hour,” Scratched said slowly.
“I really don’t care,” he spat, shifting his gun closer to her head. “You have that data storage and you will give it to me.”
Scratched was fully aware that regardless of what she did, he was going to shoot and kill her. She tried to think of something when there was a loud whirl behind them.
“Alert; unauthorized firearm detected,” one of the robots that had been with Cleo was now behind them with its hands retracting to reveal gun barrels on both arms. “Disarm immediately or lethal-” the robot was cut off when the stallion shot it in the head, disabling it instantly.
“Now, where were we-” he started only to let out a grunt of pain as Scratched smashed him across the head with largest book she could grab, knocking him unconscious. Panting with adrenaline, Scratched pulled out her gun and aimed it at his head and was poised to fire when she began to tremble.
Sweating, she tried to force herself to pull the trigger, to kill him right here and now but she couldn’t make herself do it. She couldn’t bring herself to take a life.
Not even for a monster like this.
Stuffing her gun back in its hiding spot, she turned around and ran.
“Aerostorm, Zaat, one of you guys come in,” she said over her communicator, doing her best to make it back to the lobby or find someone that could help. “It’s him, he got here somehow - I knocked him out and got away, but he’s here!”
“Scratch, what are you saying, you sure?” Zaat called back extremely worried.
“After what he did, I couldn’t mistake him for anyone else,” she said. “Yes, I’m sure!” She then heard a snarl from behind her and dropped to the floor with a blast going straight over her head and into a stack of books. “Shit he’s up!” she shouted, scrambling to get away.
“You stupid bitch, you should have killed me when you got the chance!” he shouted, firing more rounds into the bookcases with the crackle of flames starting to spread. “Get back here so I can kill you!”
Taking the risk to get into the air so she could escape, Scratched spread her wings and flew through the billowing smoke with the stallion behind her growling loudly.
Coughing as she tried to get an understanding of where she was, Scratched heard a familiar set of flapping wings.
“Scratched, you’re oka-down!” Aerostorm shouted, pushing her down with her gun firing off into the smoke before she let out a pain-filled scream and the two of them crashed into the ground.
“Aero, Aero, are you ok-oh my god!” she shouted in horror as she saw the blood pooling out of her girlfriend with one of her wings on the ground next to them. “Aero!”
“I-I,” she couldn’t even began to say anything as she began to cough horribly, causing the blood to pump out of the stump where her right wing once was even faster.
“I got her,” Zaat said, sliding in from nowhere as people ran past them, some holding firearms while the other began to try and put out the fire. With strength she didn’t even know he had, her parrot friend lifted the griffon up onto his shoulder and began to run away from the growing firefight and back outside. “Scratch, lower the ramp!” he shouted at her as they ran, with gunfire shots going off inside the library. Jolting at his orders, Scratched fumbled with her wrist computer but managed to get it down by the time he reached the Excelsior so he could run straight inside.
Following him, Scratched saw Zaat carry Aerostorm into the kitchen and was about to follow them inside when he turned his head around and shouted at her, “Scratch, no! We need to get away now! Go pilot us out of here!”
“R-right,” she stuttered, racing back into the cockpit and going through the basic checklist routine for them to take off when she heard Aerostorm scream. “Aero!” she shouted about to push herself out the captain’s seat when Zaat screamed back.
“Stay there!” he bellowed. “I don’t care what you hear, just get us out of here or Aero and the rest of us will die!”
Sitting back down, Scratched grabbed the flight controllers and took off.
Scratched had no idea how long it had been since she started flying them away from Jukern VI, her mind barely able to focus on anything beyond what could be happening to Aerostorm. She had been whimpering in pain for a while before things became quiet and then her mind began to race with all kinds of horrible things that could be happening to her Aero.
Finally, there was a padding behind her and she spun around to see Zaat covered in blood and looking completely exhausted. “The kitchen is a no go for a long time; I don’t know how much scrubbing we’re going to need to do but it won’t be enough,” he said, leaning against the wall before sliding down to rest on his ass.
She stared at him, her mouth trying to form words before he cracked a grin on his face. “She’s okay,” he said. “Took me a while, but I was able to stop the bleeding and get it locked down… but I don’t know how she’s going to cope without that wing.”
“I-I,” she started with Zaat shaking his head.
“She’s hurt, but she’ll live,” he said soothingly. “That’s the important part. Go to her.”
Nodding her head, she leapt out of the chair and made her way into their bedroom and saw Aerostorm resting on the bed. There were bandages wrapped around her upper chest with her left wing hanging off the bed and her right one…
“Hey,” Aerostorm croaked, a weak smile on her face. “How are you, love?”
“How am I-I,” she sputtered, climbing onto the bed. “How can you even ask that?”
“Because I wouldn’t know what to do if you were hurt,” Aerostorm said, taking her hoof and rubbing it with her talon. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“N-no,” Scratched admitted. “I didn’t get hit - but I should have stopped him,” she said more to herself than to Aerostorm. “I had the chance, he was knocked out for a minute, but…”
“But you couldn’t bring yourself to shoot a guy who couldn’t fight back,” Aerostorm finished, still rubbing her hoof. “I understand.”
“No you don’t. It’s all my fault,” Scratched finally blurted out, the guilt burning her up inside. “Because if I did kill him, you wouldn’t be hurt like this!” She began to sob, resting her head on Aerostorm’s side with the griffon rubbing her back.
“Love, love, my sweet love, it’s okay,” Aerostorm said softly before lifting Scratched’s head up and placing a kiss on her lips. “I don’t blame you.”
Leaning into the kiss, Scratched slowly broke it off after a minute and stared in amazement at Aerostorm. “How can you be this calm about everything?”
“Because I’m that amazing, my beautiful pegasus,” Aerostorm chuckled weakly before coughing. When she had stopped, she smiled at her girlfriend. “Besides, I may not look it on the outside, but I was far more worried about you and still am. Now come here and get some rest.”
Chuckling softly, Scratched gently rested her head on Aerostorm’s side and felt her soft wing cover her and was instantly aware of how tired she really was. Within a few seconds, she was out cold.
It had been a few cycles before Zaat had pulled them into a dying binary solar system, near the flaming shells of its two stars. Aerostorm had spent the entire time in bed, and Scratched had spent most of that time with her, but now the two rejoined their friend in the main area of the ship, looking out the viewscreen.
“Hard to believe this used to be a normal place,” Scratched said softly.
Zaat nodded. “Nobody’s quite sure how it happened, but according to the records I’ve found, something made those stars go nuts and start putting out all kinds of flares about five thousand years ago - wiped out everything else in the system. Whatever star gas is still there to be given off will be perfect camouflage for us, as long as we stay here.”
“So what are we going to do now?” Aerostorm asked, looking around. “The view’s nice, but we can’t stay here for good.”
Zaat nodded. “We still need to figure out what’s on that data box, and we need to deal with that lunatic chasing us. I think we’re going to have to hire some help, for protection.”
Aerostorm raised an eyebrow at him. “Mercenaries?”
“It’s better than nothing,” Zaat replied. “Besides, maybe if we go to where we can find them, we can also find help with that.” He gestured to the box, which sat on the table between them.
“Though there is one problem,” Scratched said, tapping a hoof onto the table. “How are we even going to pay them?”
Zaat sighed. “That, I haven’t figured out yet.” He looked up. “But, I think I know where we can start looking.”
“Where?” Aerostorm asked.
“Doa’s Bar.” Zaat gave a faint smile at the startled looks they gave. “Place has a reputation for being kind of chaotic, and it attracts a lot of… shall we say, unsavory traffic. I’ve heard some say it’s a smaller version of some place called Klugetown, though I’m not sure where that was. But they also have a no-tolerance policy when it comes to violence. Jukern VI had its security measures, but this place is even stricter. And they’re not affiliated with any planetary or galactic government - in fact, I think that place even served as a temporary neutral ground to end some war a few hundred years ago… which also broke out there.” Zaat said with a chuckle, rolling his eyes.
Aerostorm rolled her own. “Sounds like a nice place, but if we can get help there, why not?”
“I’ll do it,” Scratched said with both of her friends looking at her.
“You in a bar?” Aerostorm snorted before wincing. “You hate drinking and how can you get some merc to take you seriously? I love that you want to do this, love, but-”
“But nothing,” Scratched said firmly. “You’re still recovering and Zaat can take care of you better than I can with those fingers of his if something happens. And even if I don’t drink for any reason, most bars do serve things other than alcohol, right?”
“Yes, they do,” Zaat said. “In fact, Doa’s is also known for its great food. But still…”
“Still nothing,” Scratched shot back. “I’m going in… even if I don’t have someone to watch my back.”
“Considering the last time you went into a bar with one of us and your back got punched twice, I get your point,” Aerostorm said with a rasping chuckle, before pulling her into an embrace. “We’ll be keeping an eye out from the ship though, so make sure your comm’s charged.”
Scratched nodded, nuzzling her girlfriend. “I will.”
“But please,” Aerostorm said, holding her head close to her beak. “Don’t do this because you feel guilty what happened to me.”
“I’m not just doing it because of that,” Scratched told her, a faint smile on her face. “I’m doing it because one of us has to, and I’m the only one who can now.”
Aerostorm let out a sigh, shaking her head. “Alright, fine,” she said, placing a kiss on her cheek. “We’ve got time to prepare you for being in a bar; should be fun.”
Snorting at her, Scratched felt herself smile for the first time in a while and was hopeful that things would start going their way.
Stats
Page generated in 0.017 seconds
Total duration
775 users online
680,648 hits today, 2,205,040 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
You're a crazy pony. And not in the fun Pinkie Pie kind of way.
Poorly.
Shock. And a hell of a lot more composure than I'd have in this situation.
Sounds like a regular ol' hive of scum and villainy.
Wouldn't place any bets on it.
I think I see some foreshadowing
... don't know why but I find the fact that little miss Dead on Arrival started a bar to be hilarious
Where have I heard that name before ?
Thats right it's the name Spliced gave herself when she had no idea who she was.
She was Dead On Arrival.(First Story here :Link)
I think I may be onto something. It could be a coincidence but I don't belive in coincidents
9457922
Someone has eyes....
9460232
I actually surprised myself as I saw that. I have read many stroies since I read the first one of this series but unique characters I enjoyed in a good story tend to stick to me.
This also mean the next chapters are gonna get interesting .