Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Daybreak: Summit Siege, Part II

The woman went as white as a sheet.

“What did it just say?” Stygian responded.

Shining Armor looked ahead again, and saw both metal warriors were now approaching the hall. Their eyes were already aimed forward, and while they could have been looking at the group in general, they seemed to be aimed straight at her.

“What…what?” she echoed breathlessly. “They’re after me…? But…”

Shining Armor swallowed. He looked behind him and in front of him. The metal warriors were now approaching on both sides and would soon have them cornered. He inhaled stiffly. “Stygian.”

The young man turned, still looking fearful and bewildered but attentive.

“Take Sunset, get back to Big Mac and Marble, and get them and the others out of here. Any way you can find. I’ll follow if I can but don’t wait for me.”

Stygian and Sunset alike went wide-eyed. “Sir, what-”

With that, he rose again. “Stay behind me! You got to break for the stairs the moment you can!”

“What-”

He couldn’t protest any further. Shining Armor bellowed a cry and began to charge—right for the hub and right for the first metal warrior. Stygian and Sunset had no choice but to run after him or lose their last protection, and soon all three were again about to exit the hall.

The metal warrior behind them immediately took off in pursuit, but the other two were nearer and dashed in to intercept. The first was closest, and reached for the metal ribbon only to pull it out into a long, gleaming, razor whip. A moment later, she snapped it out for Shining Armor.

Sunset let out a small gasp as she saw Shining Armor’s shield immediately be cut through, and the whip went against him—sending up a small red mist. Yet the man barely faltered before crying out even louder, running all the way up to the warrior, extending his arms, and doing the best tackle of her midsection as he could.

Sunset and Stygian didn’t have the chance to see how effective it was. They had to use the moment to duck under his arm and run for the stairs. A moment later, Sunset cried out as the second warrior dove for them. She was just as fast as before, and it was only because she had been trying to avoid hitting the other metal warrior that her fist missed her. Even so, she felt the edge of her gauntlet slice a rather deep cut through the back of her dress and shoulder, but she was forced to ignore it as they two of them ran to the stairs.

They continued to duck as they tore around the edge and dashed down in a half-run, half-tumble. A good thing too, because at that moment the upstairs erupted into a deafening cacophony of gunfire. The Mount Aris soldiers had recovered enough to open fire, and both metal warriors behind them were lit up with showers of lead on metal as they were shot from all angles. Neither of them looked back to see the result. After a second or two, Sunset gained enough of her bearings to straighten up again. With Stygian, they managed to get enough of their footing to take the stairs two at a time, and they turned the bend to start heading down to the second tier…

They were still far from the bottom, however, when a horrible, resounding, almost head-splitting noise rocketed out from behind them. It almost had the force of a blow or an explosion, sweeping out their feet from behind them before, to their mutual shock, the stairs behind them literally burst as if they had balloons. Sunset and Stygian were both launched into the air and sent flying off of the stairwell, but in the moment that passed Sunset glanced behind her and she saw the third metal warrior was right behind them.

Her eyes only had a moment to reflect the horror at how fast she was catching up before gravity threw both her and Stygian to the marble tile of the next floor down—where they collided hard enough to flop. It was more than a little painful, and their heads were still rocking from the blast of what seemed to be nothing more than raw noise that had hit them a moment ago. Sunset moaned and began to push herself up from the ground, but she barely got her head off of the floor before she heard an impact behind her. Stygian was still getting his own bearings when she looked behind her in terror—seeing the metal warrior had landed only a foot behind her…

More loud, head-shaking noises rang out as a new chorus of rifle bullets thundered. Sparks erupted all around the metal warrior once again, and Sunset snapped her head back around to see another wave of Mount Aris guards that had been heading up to reinforce the first now saw the new target and were letting her have it. The metal warrior’s only response was to begin to split its helmet open again and reveal a glowing cavity inside, but as this wasn’t aimed at Sunset she quickly rolled to one side to get clear. Stygian followed suit, and as she reached out to pull him to his feet she heard another one of those agonizing sounds—this time aimed at the Mount Aris soldiers firing at her. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of six of them being scattered like dead leaves in the wind before she forced herself back up to her feet and limped around for the next stairwell.

The two of them half-managed to stumble toward the banister at the edge of the stairs before Stygian heard a metallic whistling behind them. Quickly, he grabbed Sunset by the back and shoved her head down while dropping his own. A moment later, gleaming metal whips shot over their head and proceeded to cleave through both the stone banister as well as the floor where they had been headed—right before the metallic body of the first warrior sailed over their heads, pivoted around, and splayed itself out right in their path. Both looked up in shock to see it facing off with them, poised and swirling both of its deadly whips.

For a heartbeat, Sunset was petrified—feeling like she was a rat caught in a trap. Carrying the rifle meant nothing if these things were shrugging off gunfire left and right. Yet a split second later, Stygian moved…not away but ducking right toward the warrior. And somehow Sunset got enough of her bearings both to realize what he was doing and to quickly do the same as she went on its opposite side. The warrior raised both of her whips and cracked them out, and Sunset could feel the air and maybe a few of her hairs cut, but Stygian had correctly deduced that her weapon was too long range to hit them when they were that close. Yet as they dashed by for the stairs, she realized they were in the open again.

That was when she saw a black object headed for her face. She ducked her head to one side and saw it sail past…gasping on realizing it was a grenade. More Mount Aris guards down another hall were getting desperate to try and damage the attackers. The metal warrior spun around to attack Sunset and Stygian only to see the explosive land at her feet. As a result, it quickly retracted one of the whips and aimed its arm out at the hallway where the grenade had come from. Sunset heard a bullet-like sound as something was fired from inside the arm, just as she and Stygian turned around and reached the stairs…

An instant later, both of them were flinging themselves down onto the stairway and, in spite of it being stone, beginning a painful roll down it. They had to as standing would have been a sure way to get ripped apart by shrapnel as two explosions went off. The lesser fragmentary explosion from the grenade would have been more than enough to tear them both apart, but it was nothing compared to the explosion the metal warrior had caused. The entire stairwell shook and the boom was louder than any of the sonic blasts until now. There was little doubt in the minds of either of them that the force of the explosion was bigger than most artillery shells, and had no doubt collapsed that entire hallway.

They kept rolling down, partially due to injury and partially due to purposely escaping, as the noise got worse. Large eruptions and gunshots continued to thunder from over their heads, and by this point it was joined in by more soldiers desperate to try and fight back against these assailants while the civilians and delegates were now fully panicking and screaming. It was nothing short of a war zone. Worst of all, both Sunset and Stygian knew they had scarcely escaped down the first two flights of stairs. They reached the landing for the next switch back, however, and both began to get to their feet to run down the rest…

A heavy, solid, and rather painful metal object proceeded to strike both of them in the back. The blow was so sudden and strong that it left them both dazzled from the pain and surprise, and as a result neither of them could stop themselves before their bodies were flung over the edge of the railing and sent hurtling to the ground yet again…

This impact was the hardest yet. That height was easily enough to break a bone if landed on wrong. As it was, much of Sunset’s chest absorbed her own fall, but her face still banged against the ground and jammed the inside of her mouth onto her teeth, cutting a deep gash. Stygian at least had a Promethian Sigil to brace him, but he still landed on one of his wrists and let out a cry of pain before he sprawled out against the floor. Sunset was left too sore and stunned to do much, but he bit through his pain and rolled on his back—looking back at what hit them.

It seemed the metal warrior with small wings had another surprise. Sunset didn’t see it, but she soon became conscious of a whirling noise over her head…courtesy of a metallic, oblong platform with what looked like a pair of narrow-necked metal baskets mounted on either end of it. Both were belching what looked like potent blue flame, and rotated freely within holes in the platform. The flames acted like stabilized rockets, keeping it not only steady but hovering in midair while the metal warrior perched on top of it—seeming to ride it.

Sunset barely managed to start lifting her head, blood oozing from her mouth and one of her eyes bruised, when the rocket pivoted downward. The metal warrior was repositioning itself over her, and held out one of its gauntlets with fingers extended as if she was making her hand a blade. A second later, the rockets pivoted around and began to drive her downward to her…

Yet a loud crackling sound and a burst of blue-white light impacted her on the side of the head before she could. Where all of the rifle bullets and explosions before had failed to make the metal warriors even flinch, Stygian saw not only her head but her upper torso jerked one way from the force of the impact and the platform she was riding on was twisted to one side. It forced her to halt and stabilize herself before turning to her attacker.

“Well, well…that’s an impressive new weapon.”

Sunset went white as a sheet, and began to gasp as frantically as she had weeks ago on hearing that voice. She was soon rooted to the spot in terror; leaving Stygian to turn to the voice of who had spoken.

There, standing at the end of one of the halls, her own ensemble and brutish-looking guards behind her, stood Tempest Shadow. She didn’t seem to be the least bit afraid of the metal warrior in spite of the sounds of screaming and explosions still going off upstairs.

Instead, her eyes were narrow and her jaw turned in the hint of stern scowl. Without a word, she held up a hand behind her—instantly causing the thuggish soldiers and their entourage to move away and slip to one side. She herself calmly walked out from the hall and to the other side to give them a berth.

“Not one made from Manehattan, either. So that makes it something designed explicitly to kill eidolons or me. I’d like you to tell me about how you came by it. Now.”

Stygian glanced between the two for a few moments. The metal warrior said nothing and, naturally, showed no change for two seconds. Suddenly, the rockets pivoted again.

A moment later, they fired, and proceeded to shoot the platform and its rider across the room, smash right into Tempest’s upper torso, and then crush her against the wall with such force that the platform embedded itself in the stonework…leaving only her legs and lower torso dangling out.

Sunset was still frozen to her spot, but Stygian was left aghast. As brutal as the metal warriors had been, seeing how ruthlessly it had dealt with probably the most feared woman in the world left him rather petrified as well. He couldn’t even muster the will to move at first.

Yet just as he was regaining his bearings, he froze again. He heard a crackling sound from the wall. At first, he thought it might be more of a fracture growing from the impact the metal platform had made, but he realized the metal warrior was still there and still pushing her rockets into it. Yet in spite of that, the platform was quivering. And a moment later it began to pull back again.

That was when he truly gasped, because he soon saw it wasn’t because of the rider. Tempest Shadow, very much alive and actually grinning now as lights danced in her eyes and along her scar, was pushing the platform back.

Far from scared, she looked invigorated.

“Heh…a real challenge at last. Don’t disappoint me.”

With that, a blast of electric light three times as large as the first one shot forth from Tempest Shadow and impacted the metal warrior right in the chest. In response, she actually went flying back and away from Tempest, but only about three meters before halting herself and evening out again, crouching and eying her.

Tempest didn’t hesitate, but instantly whipped out another arc of light for her, tearing up more masonry along the floor as it flashed up toward her. This time, the metal warrior reacted faster; pivoting her rockets around and shooting up and out of her way. She immediately dove again at Tempest, but the scarred woman showed off her own prowess as she promptly sprung to one side—letting the metal platform slice the ground where she was as she alit and crouched again before firing off a counter blast. The metal warrior quickly backed up again, but was forced back a second time as Tempest sprang back up and fired once more.

Stygian didn’t watch anymore. As the fight continued to rage, he turned over to Sunset and grasped her by the shoulders. “Come on! Let’s go now!”

At first, she wouldn’t move. Even when he pulled at her. Eventually, however, she swallowed and allowed her fear to push her into flight rather than freeze, and started to pull herself up again. She had just reached down to take her own rifle with her when a cutting sound was heard, and the ceiling over their heads began to groan. Neither of them afforded a look skyward. Instead, the fresh panic made them both scramble up into a crouch and scatter out of the way…just as a huge section of the stone masonry came down and obliterated where they had been.

Sunset risked a look behind them as they ran around for the next set of stairs down—just in time to see the whip-bearing metal warrior come crashing to the floor along with the ceiling. She didn’t even pause but immediately cracked and snapped her whips out at Tempest, who had just finished dodging another diving swipe from the flying platform of the first warrior. The scarred woman answered by leaping back twice, once for one whip and a second for the other, before her eyes flashed and she lashed out with an arc of electric light in front of her to cut a path into the floor. Doing so was not only enough to halt the whip-bearing one from coming closer but interrupted the path of the flying one so that she had to cut to one side just as she was making another dive for her.

As Sunset and Stygian reached the stairs and quickly began to run down them, they heard yet another echo of a sonic blast. Luckily, they were far enough away to only wince from it, but it didn’t come from the ceiling. Rather, the wall behind Tempest exploded from the force of what had to be the third warrior annihilating it. While it was still erupting, Sunset caught a glimpse of the warrior bursting through the falling rubble and seizing Tempest from behind. It immediately yanked her close—as if getting ready to blow her head off with the next sonic blast. Yet still not overcome, she drove her head back and smashed it into the hollow metal skull with enough force to jar it to one side, causing the sonic blast to obliterate the top of the stairwell. Fortunately, at that moment, the two turned around the next set of stairs going down and kept rushing.

It was only then, when the sounds of battle and destruction began to very slowly turn to echoes rather than resound all around them, that Sunset realized how hard her heart was beating and how heavily she was breathing. Stygian, however, kept a hand on her shoulder and kept pushing her downward. “I don’t think even Tempest Shadow can survive those three all at once for long. We have to hurry.”

She said nothing. She was still panting too much. It was all she could do to lock her brain into keeping herself moving.

Fortunately, the attack served as adequate diversion for most of the castle. There were a few other guards and civilians along the way as they kept descending, but they were either preoccupied with their own tasks or, far more often, fleeing the tower themselves as fast as they could. The battle continued to rage overhead and with sufficient power to shake the entire palace, and once or twice it even sounded like it was getting closer, but for the most part it grew fainter as they made their full descent.

They finally reached the right floor and rushed back toward the dungeons. By now, they had been practically abandoned. No more guard posts to rush through or soldiers to worry about. However, the distant eruptions kept sounding and the palace kept shaking.

After running through the last few desolate halls, at last they saw it. Far ahead at the entrance to the oubliette, the area was crowded with dozens of people. Many of them were dirty, squinting, and looking more than a little malnourished, but they were out at least. However, the two also saw that people were still coming out of the hole; being guided by Big Macintosh and Marble Pie.

It wasn’t long before Smolder ran up to them, although she slowed as they got nearer. “Whoa…you two look like crap. Is there a war going on up there or something?”

Ocellus nearby looked far more nervous. “Where’s Mr. Shining Armor?”

“We have to get out of here. Right now.” Sunset looked back to Big Mac. “Is everyone out yet?”

“Almost,” Ocellus answered for him. “We only have about sixty-two to go.”

“Six…sixty-two?! That’s ‘almost’?!”

“Yeah, well climbing a metal rung ladder when you haven’t seen any light in days or had a decent meal or a chance to move around is kinda hard,” Smolder retorted.

“Some people have babies too,” Yona threw in from nearby.

Sunset groaned. “I just had to come back to try and rescue everyone…”

“We can’t wait any longer,” Stygian stated. “We can keep letting people come out, but Big Macintosh, Marble Pie, Sunset Shimmer, and I need to head back and hold off the junction just before the stairwell. Anyone able-bodied should follow or continue to help people out, then follow after us.”

Sunset turned to him. “Why?”

“I may not know how we’re going to escape this palace, but I know how we’ll be trapped in it. If we lose that junction, then we might as well be stuck in a cell. There’s no other way out this deep.”

“Ugh…good point. Big Mac? Marble? Can you trust someone with those guns?”

Smolder immediately raised her hand eagerly, but the two deferred to passing them off to two of the more alert-looking inmates. Other ones who seemed to be in better strength got to the edge of the hole and proceeded to start helping hoist people out as quickly as they could. As for Big Mac and Marble, they came up to stand alongside Stygian and Sunset, and the four of them turned and began to head back the way they came.

Sunset almost immediately handed her own rifle back to Big Mac. “Either you or Marble will be better with this than me.”

The bigger man reluctantly took it, but also looked concerned. “Uh…”

Guessing what he was going to say, Sunset sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know where Shining Armor is right now. He told us to go ahead. Things have gotten bad up there. Real bad. We’ve got all of the Mount Aris folks after us and they’re not the worst of it.”

Marble let out a gasp at that and Big Mac was dumbfounded.

“If we get out of this alive, I’ll give you the details, but suffice to say we’re not going back to Manehattan…”

Stygian picked up the pace, beginning to scale the short staircases leading up into the higher levels. “We need to hurry. This junction is all we can hope for at the moment, but as soon as we’re able we have to try and hold something that at least is on the first-”

“Hey!”

The shout was a mercy to the four, who looked up in alarm. They were just getting to the top of the stairway after Stygian when they spotted four Mount Aris soldiers far ahead at the end of the hall just before the junction. Two of them were crouched at the walls but two were up, and their guns were raised in an instant. The four just had time to recoil before a pair of bullets went off, trying to hit them as they ducked back down the stairs.

In moments, all four were pressed against the ground as more bullets whizzed overhead. “Great…we’re too late already.”

“It’s only four of them…” Stygian remarked as he cocked his own rifle. “With any luck, we can mark them without much effort.”

Marble looked a little uncomfortable on hearing that. Big Mac wasn’t much better. As Stygian flipped his body around to put his belly against the stairs, he only reluctantly swallowed and began to crawl up as well.

However, before Stygian could call out when to wait for a shot, they heard more cries of alarm from up the hall, followed by a pair of loud knocking sounds. Two more soon followed it, and then silence aside from heavy breathing. The four were confused for a moment before they all risked a look over the top.

Sunset went wide-eyed. “Shining Armor!”

It was indeed him, although saying he had seen better days was an understatement. He was half-hunched over his staff, which had already been broken once but nevertheless had been used to strike the still-writhing soldiers down. Much to the unease of the others, his white robe had turned mostly red with what looked like slashes across his body, and his aura had dimmed considerably. Considering that he was a Healer, Sunset realized the initial injuries had to have been far worse.

The four quickly got up and ran the rest of the way. Stygian went straight for the fallen soldiers and, with a little help from Sunset, quickly stripped them not only of their weapons but also their spare ammunition. Big Mac and Marble went for Shining Armor, and not a moment too soon. He managed to only take one step in their direction before he heaved and collapsed—being caught by Big Mac just in time. Sunset, taking up a fresh rifle, turned to him and saw that his aura was flickering. His robe and staff were barely staying intact and were trying to transition back into their original forms.

Stygian sighed. “I knew the power of one Anima Viri. It’s shocking that those metal warriors were so strong…”

Marble Pie wheeled to him in alarm. “Hmm?!”

“Yes, they’re here. All three of them,” Sunset darkly answered. “And I’m more scared of them getting here than the entire Mount Aris army, so that means we need to get out faster. But first off, look what our friends here were trying to do.”

She pointed down to the two soldiers that had been against the wall. Stygian and the others saw a series of red cylinders tied together and connected with twisting wires were planted there. There was another one on the other side of the hallway from it. Both had lengths of wire coming from them a short distance before coiling up in a spool that had not yet been unwound.

“Dynamite,” Stygian remarked.

“They must be losing it up there. With those metal warriors here, they want to make sure none of the eidolons get out of here alive. They were going to blow this hall and seal us all in it.” Sunset shrugged. “Well, I’m assuming they have a detonator on them too. Looks like we got a couple bombs as our assets now…”

“Wait.”

She froze just as she leaned over to start rifling through one of the solder’s things. Stygian stared on at the dynamite for a moment, calculated something, then looked up to her again.

“We both agree that the biggest threat right now are those metal warriors, and that even Tempest Shadow won’t be able to hold them back for long, right?”

She looked a little confused, but nodded. “Yes, but what does-”

“Then I have an idea: let’s set a trap.”

“What?”

“If they get on the other side of this, they’ll be underground in a stone prison. If we blow the entrance on them, they won’t be able to escape. Even eliminating one of them would be a boon at this point.”

She paused, thinking that over for a moment, but frowned. “One problem. They’ll be coming toward us. They have to be on the other side for us to set off the bomb.”

“We have bait, though.”

“We do?”

“That one called your name, remember?”

Sunset went wide-eyed. She started to shake her head. “No…no, I am not going to be ‘cheese’ for these-”

“Just trust me. Stay here until they get here, then I’ll take care of it. Just make sure the detonator is ready.”

The woman looked more than a little dubious at this proposition, but she really couldn’t argue at the moment. Now that they had stripped the soldiers of their weapons, it only took another moment of searching to find a basic lever detonator. Marble Pie took the spool and began to unwind it, and once it had gotten a good distance Big Mac began to wire it up to the detonator. Stygian and Sunset stayed behind covering the soldiers, but it wasn’t long before more of the inmates began to show up. As soon as they were there, they passed out the spare guns and ammunition. There wasn’t much but it was better than nothing.

Once the bomb was set, Marble ducked into an enclave in the wall with the detonator while Big Mac ran back. He ducked down and got Shining Armor onto his back. Not long after, his glow died out all together, but that hardly mattered now. Stygian himself began to move back to the stairwell and Sunset only reluctantly followed after him. As he did, he spoke to those arriving.

“Alright, whatever you do, don’t go forward or head in that direction. That’s where most of the fighting is taking place. As soon as you get to a set of stairs, head upward. We need to get to where we have multiple exit points.”

With forward spoken for, that left either the right or the left. It seemed that either way would be good…or neither way. For all they knew, Mount Aris might have been able to cover both wings. Yet it would still be easier to fight through them than through the metal warriors.

However, no more than thirty of them had managed to gather when echoes started coming down from the right hallway. The group turned to it, realizing that was the main direction reinforcements were coming, and Stygian looked back to the others. “That means head to the left. Try to keep moving forward to the nearest exit.”

The inmates didn’t argue, but soon took off with their few weapons they could spare in the lead. After the large group left, more soon began to stream out behind them. As for the others, they quickly got into position. Big Macintosh positioned himself at the edge of the turn in the hall in visual range of Marble while setting Shining Armor down in an adjacent enclave, while Stygian held back further in another enclave. He motioned for Sunset to stand with him, and she sighed and moved up alongside him.

“If one of them shows up, we immediately need to fall back and draw their attention before they can attack anyone else.”

“Great…I’m not just being ‘volunteered’ to be bait, I’m also being volunteered to be a martyr…”

“They attack whatever constitutes a threat. They made that clear upstairs. We just have to hope everyone gets out…”

The sounds of the footsteps grew louder. Stygian leveled his rifle and Big Mac quickly did the same. Sunset, not being foolish enough to stick her neck out, quickly pressed herself back against the wall. She looked around for a few moments for anything she could use for a weapon, but found nothing other than a loose brick when it began.

As one, both Big Mac and Stygian fired out shots. Big Mac stopped after one but Stygian quickly reloaded and fired again and again until he had exhausted his entire five shot clip…firing enough for Big Mac, a little confused, to fire again himself. After that, they stopped. Stygian quickly went for his only remaining clip and began to reload.

Sunset gave him a look. “There’s no way you hit five of them just now.”

“No, I didn’t hit any.”

“What?!” she screeched in a harsh whisper. “We don’t have ammo to waste!”

“We have to let them think they’re more then two of us!” he loudly whispered back as he put his clip in. “Big Mac! As soon as one pokes their head out, fire a shot! Keep doing that!”

“Eeyup!” he whispered back as he kept watching.

People continued to stream out, one after the other. Some were dragging children along or carrying them if they couldn’t keep up, others were more able-bodied running, but none of them were moving as fast as the group. It made Sunset increasingly nervous and she tried not to count them as they went by. After a few moments Big Mac fired a shot. Only ten seconds later, he fired two more, and was quickly forced to go for his own remaining clip.

Beginning to shake with anxiety, Sunset called out to one as she passed. “How many more?”

“They’re down to the last ten, but they each have babies! They’re trying to get them up!”

Sunset swallowed back the cold feeling in her stomach as she began to mouth for them to hurry up. Big Mac scarcely managed to reload before he had to fire again. Less than a minute later, she heard more footsteps coming down the hallway. Soon after, Big Mac fired off twice again, and a shout to “take cover” was heard. She began to breathe hard as she realized he was down to two shots, and grasped her brick more tightly as if that would help…

Big Mac fired once more, and this time Stygian quickly had to pick up the slack with two more shots of his own. The big man grimaced before he shrugged and choked up on his rifle to use it as a bludgeoning weapon, but turned to the two of them and shrugged. Sunset was now getting extremely nervous, before she noticed one of the people running by was Yona. The Yakyakistani turned to her with a smile.

“All people out! Ready to go!”

She let out a huge sigh. “Thank Harmonium… We just need to hold for a little-”

She was cut off by the sound of an explosion. He wasn’t terribly near, but the stone hallways acted as a perfect echo chamber to make everyone freeze where they were and cover their ears in shock. At the same time, both Sunset and Stygian spun to the direction it came from—the pathway right ahead of them and up the staircase. They saw a cloud of dust rush down the stairs, followed soon after by several bits of rubble…

…And pieces of Mount Aris soldiers.

Sunset turned white, but the nearest inmates were far more shocked. One of them immediately screamed at the top of her lungs while the others began to be seized with panic.

“Keep going!” Stygian shouted at them. “Run! Don’t look back!”

The people, motivated more by fear and panic than anything, did as they were told. Even Yona seemed to lose a bit of her confidence before she rushed after them, with more people still streaming out. As for Stygian, he immediately stepped out of the enclave and into the center of the hall…as the sound of metal footsteps began to echo to them.

Sunset gaped at him. “What are you doing?”

“Stand out here with me!”

“What?!”

“We can’t set off the trap until everyone’s out! As soon as I shoot, run for it!” He turned to Big Macintosh. “Take Shining Armor and go with them!” Finally, he looked to Marble Pie. “When I yell ‘now’, hit the detonator!”

The three were aghast. Stygian was only a young man yet he was taking charge so readily now that there was a void of leadership. Yet none of them were in a position to argue with him at this point. Sunset realized she’d rather be closer to a person with a gun than farther away and reluctantly stepped out to his side. Both of them swallowed and stood their ground as bravely as they could as they looked ahead at the stairs. People continued to stream out, but they focused only on the sound getting louder and louder…

Finally, they saw her footsteps begin to descend the stairs. Not long after, Sunset felt a chill as she saw the ends of the razor whips dangling down as well. It was that one, it seemed. She didn’t have the others with her, but just seeing her was bad enough. Her glowing eyes were soon exposed and focused forward, seeing the stream of people running by and looking beyond it to the hall.

“Sunset Shimmer.”

Just hearing her name called again made Sunset begin to tremble. Stygian raised his weapon and leveled the sight. “Remember,” he said through his own quivering lips. “As soon as I shoot, run for it.”

She didn’t answer, feeling her mouth drying out and her knees knocking as the metal warrior walked closer and began to enter the junction. Big Mac and Marble dared not move. The people, stricken with fear, kept running by her. Stygian started to sweat.

“I’ve got her right eye in my sight. Just…just a little closer…”

Finally, the metal warrior reached the edge of the people running by, and stopped. It stared ahead a moment longer. Then, its helmet turned down and saw them pass. It stared for one whole second.

Then it snapped his whip up, flashed it out, and bisected three of them as they ran by.

Sunset and Stygian alike gaped in shock. “Wh-what?!”

“Sunset Shimmer.” The other whip went out and sliced apart two more.

The screams resounded through the entire hallway as blood and body parts went flying. The escapees were quickly split it half, with the ones who had already run going faster and those still to come grinding to a halt and quickly pulling back the way they came. The metal warrior didn’t stop. She only continued to look after more, picking off the stragglers.

“Hey! Hey!” Stygian shouted at it. His face finally broke, showing not only shock but anger. “Over here! Here!”

The metal warrior ignored him, continuing to attack those around her.

“Here!” Gritting his teeth, he raised the weapon, took aim at its eye from the distance, and fired.

The shot just barely missed, impacting it in the side of the head instead. It didn’t even flinch in response, but it did pause. Just long enough to let one of its whips fall and raise its arm up toward him. Sunset saw a hint of an opening on its wrist.

“No…run!” she cried, lashing out just long enough to push him to one side while he was still aiming, while she dove to the other and back into the enclave.

A capsule shot out of its arm and hit where they had been a moment later, and Sunset was deafened as not only an explosion but a pillar of flame erupted and quickly spread along the floor. The maid dress she was wearing was quickly singed and set aflame, and the force shoved her the rest of the way into the enclave at the same time. She made a rather hard impact against the wall, but quickly snapped out of it at the feeling of burning along her legs. She reached down and violently tore at the hem of the dress, ripping it out the rest of the way.

No sooner had she done so than she spun back around to the hallway. “Stygian!”

She couldn’t see him. Only flames now, filling most of the passageway. The remaining inmates were pulling away farther and farther; going in the opposite direction they needed to be. Sunset looked forward again and saw the metal warrior had never even looked in their direction. She was continuing to lash out and cut people down by the legs. She looked like she’d take off after them soon.

“Sunset Shimmer.”

The woman rooted herself to the spot at that, eyes opening in realization as the truth hit her. The metal warriors may have been calling her name but they didn’t know what she looked like. They were just attacking Promethian Sigil bearers looking for her.

Her heart began to race. Her stomach sank. Every fiber of her being told her to hide. Yet somehow, in spite of all that, enough of her mind forced her to take a step further out and yell.

“I’m here! I’m Sunset Shimmer!”

The metal warrior instantaneously forgot about the ones she was pursuing. Turning aside from the some dozen she had butchered, her glowing eyes focused on Sunset instead. An instant later, it retracted both whips and lunged at her.

Even if Sunset hadn’t been petrified in terror of the unstoppable thing headed toward her, it wouldn’t have mattered. It seemed to practically fly across the hallway, seize her by the neck, and then rapidly swing around and slam her against the wall. She tried to cry out in pain, but that was instantly impossible as the hand around her throat, more tighter than an industrial vise, crushed to choke her. An instant later, it tightened enough to pinch off the blood vessels as well. Her eyes bulged as she gagged and felt the pain growing tighter and tighter.

She realized the metal warrior wasn’t going to stop. It was going to crush her neck and spine and pop her head right off…

“Don’t ignore me!”

Through the crushing agony, Sunset turned her head to that void, and saw that Stygian was up again. He was a little singed, but that wasn’t what caught her eye. For a moment, she only saw his furious face. His teeth were clenched and his eyes blazing.

Yet she could almost swear she saw something running down his cheeks. Not tears, but…tar?

She saw no more, for at that moment Stygian swung his fist at the side of the metal warrior’s head purely on instinct. A meaningless effort. These individuals hadn’t withstood bombs and gunfire and even Tempest Shadow with nothing to show for it to have anything to fear from a small man’s tiny little punch.

So Sunset was rather shocked when she heard a clang against metal like a bell…before the metal warrior was knocked clean off of her feet.

The vise-like grip loosened, and Sunset was dropped to the ground. If not for the wall behind her, she would have collapsed as she began to gasp and gag raggedly. She clenched for her agonized throat as her eyes watered and even breathing burned. Even then, however, she looked to the metal warrior for she wasn’t sure if she had just imagined that. Sure enough…she was not only knocked away a whole meter but was spread out on the floor. Even Tempest’s energy blasts hadn’t managed that.

She wheeled back around on Stygian. She saw him standing there, still smoking, half-hunched over, without his gun, and gasping hard. His anger had abated. Now he was gaping at the metal warrior with his hand still curled into a fist; a mixture of regaining his wits after his angry outburst, exhaustion from adrenaline, and sheer shock at what he had just done. There was no sign of the streaks on his cheeks that Sunset had thought she had seen.

He didn’t stay like that for long. He looked up, and over to the remaining people. They were as surprised as Sunset was, and were staring at him now along with the warrior on the ground. However, he began to frantically wave at them. “What are you waiting for? Go! Go!”

The yell shook them out of it, and soon they began to run again. A good thing, too. The fires were dying again to let them quickly run past, but the metal warrior was far from out. Moving almost like a mechanical toy, she began to smoothly and rigidly get her arms out and press them against the ground to start standing up again.

Stygian, his anger now giving way to anxiety, swallowed before he looked around on the ground. After a moment, he found his rifle and took it up, then looked to Sunset. “Go! Go now!”

“But…but how did-”

“Just go!”

Sunset was still awash with confusion, but now that the metal warrior knew who she was she wasn’t eager to stay there any longer. Especially not with how nearly she had been killed. She turned and joined up with the others. As for Stygian, he quickly cocked his rifle and went up to the still rising metal warrior. He got as near as he dared, before he raised it and fired it into the biggest joint he could find. The warrior flinched slightly, but continued to rise. He cocked it again and quickly fired his last shot into another joint around the shoulder. Again, a slight flinch, but nothing more.

By now, Sunset and the last of the inmates were clear, but as they kept running she turned back. “Stygian, come on!”

He grit his teeth and Sunset thought she heard a curse, but then he began to turn to run for it. However, just as he did, the metal warrior sprung more to life and, with a nimble gesture, righted herself and sprang to her feet. Again ignoring Stygian, she turned fully to Sunset and got ready to lunge at her again, much to the woman’s terror…

However, Stygian saw this, and immediately answered by leaping onto her back, wrapping an arm around her neck, and furiously beginning to beat away at the back of her head with one hand. Yet whatever strange, momentary power had given him the ability to punch her to the ground was gone. He might as well have been beating on a locomotive. The only thing he did was seem to stall the warrior for a moment as she began to look for how to disengage this attacker.

“Now, Marble! Now!”

Sunset gaped. “No! You’ll get blown up too!”

“Just do it! Hit it!”

Sunset turned to Marble, but the Pie sister seemed horrified at the suggestion. Her hands remained frozen on the detonator and unmoving. Stygian continued to struggle, but wasn’t able to leave any other mark on his opponent. As for the metal warrior, seeing itself unable to get a good purchase on him, it instead angled itself away for the nearest wall and began to flex its legs. Considering what they had seen the one do to Tempest, both Sunset and Stygian knew that it planned to smash him against the wall like a bug and scrape him off.

“Now! Marble, please!”

The woman continued to shake. Her fingers twitched, but she couldn’t bring herself to push it. The metal warrior arched herself over and got ready to spring back…

She didn’t get the chance. Barreling forward with all the force he could muster, Big Macintosh charged into the hall and smashed into her back as she was arching forward. As crude as the move was and as ineffective as it was to do any lasting damage, his experience in dealing with big animals on the farm proved to be a boon—for between Stygian’s own weight and his charge he managed to knock the metal warrior off balance all together and send her again face first to the floor.

This one hadn’t been nearly as severe a blow, and the metal warrior began to rise again almost immediately, but Big Mac didn’t wait. Using his bigger size, he seized Stygian off of her back like he was no more than a toddler, spun around, and began to carry him at full speed back to safety.

“Now!”

That finally gave Marble the prompt she needed, and she mashed the detonator.

Sunset almost thought the bomb had gone off right in front of her, considering how she felt like her eardrums were nearly blown out and the impact from the blast immediately sent her back to the ground again. The rest of the light, noise, and force rendered her incapable of remembering what happened over the next few seconds as the dynamite erupted. But Big Mac caught a good part of the explosion as he was not only taken off of his feet with Stygian in tow but seized and flung through the air. He could have easily seriously hurt the young man if not for the fact that the force managed to twist him before sending him falling to the ground again. As it was, he landed painfully on his side—too painfully even for his Promethian Sigil to protect him as he was ground along and let Stygian unceremoniously fall out of his hands and topple to the ground.

Even then, a cloud of dust and smoke swept over everyone followed by numerous rocks—many of them large, painful, and capable of bruising and gashing or worse when it struck them. Sunset herself got hit by one particularly bad one in the shoulder blade, and cried out only to choke on dust and debris. The entire hallway was soon coated in it and rendered totally black. Even then, the sounds of progressive crumbling and crackling both from falling debris along with damage getting progressively worse continued to echo out.

Sunset, in spite of her pain and being blinded, forced herself back onto all fours and started to crawl away from the sounds of the crumbling, hoping she was headed out. She tried to catch her breath, but as all she got was more dust and smoke she progressively began to crawl faster, and finally pushed herself back up on both feet and forced herself to rush. Finally, enough of the dust cleared to at least see the lighting, and at that point she coughed and hacked to try and get her lungs free.

She kept coughing and blinking to clear dust from her eyes as she went further, until at last enough smoke cleared to see the last of the inmates likewise running, coughing, and choking. She looked around, trying to find the others. After a moment she found Marble was ahead of her, caked with dust as they all were but no worse for wear. She didn’t see the others right away, even the further they went, but eventually she looked behind her into the dust cloud. It took a few more seconds, but finally she saw Stygian staggering out of there while Big Mac, looking more labored and struggling, hobbled after with Shining Armor on his back.

She tried to call out, but only coughed and choked more as a result. It wasn’t until they finally reached the set of stairs and began to go up that she was able to speak. By that point, even walking hurt, and her exhaustion from all the running was beginning to add up on her. Nevertheless, she still choked out to him. “Everyone alright?”

Stygian, a bit to her surprise, was still frowning and glowering at the ground. For once, he didn’t respond right away. Instead, Big Mac gave a nod and a breathless: “Eeyup.”

“Here’s hoping we finally got one of those bitches… Even she’s not going to be able to shrug off being buried by-”

Sunset was cut off by a distant echo. One that came from back down the hall in the smoke cloud.

One that sounded like stone being forcefully broken.

Stygian’s grim demeanor turned to shock as he and the others spun and looked behind them. They saw only smoke but soon heard the sound again.

“We don’t have long…”

Turning forward, the group started walking faster.

Author's Note:

One last part to go. The surprises aren't done either...

Comments

[cyberpoison]

A wonderful chapter！

[cyberpoison]

I'm curious, is Metal Warrior the Flash?

[Piccolo Sky]

11528272
If you're talking about Flash Sentry, I'll confirm right now he's definitely dead. He died at the beginning of the "Daybreak" segment and he's never coming back.

[dannny43]

Damn, I was hoping applebloom would get a good look at big mac