The Demon of Canterlot City

by Amadeus cancer

Heaven and Hell part ll

Author's Note:

WARNING:
This Chapter houses gore, violence and what some of you might call dark humor, read at your own risk!

A.C.

“It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny.”
— Jean Nidetch
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Canterlot City, 7:40

Screaming.

Lots and lots of screaming.

And gunfire. That too.

That was all Cadence heard as bullets whizzed overhead, people pushing and shoving each other out of the way all around her, as the rumbling of a massive stolen military vehicle slowly crept closer. She ran alongside other civilians as she cupped her hands above her head, heading towards the safest place she could think of. Back at the mail office. Changler pickup trucks raced recklessly down the street, playing an evil game of human bowling.

This, is why Canterlot city residents where decreasing in numbers. They were scared out of their minds from the terrorist group known as The Changlers, so they moved as far away from the city as they could. Which was precisely what the Changlers wanted.

For some Faust forsaken reason, they were hellbent on obtaining Canterlot city for themselves. Not afraid to take lives as a sick message to the police and the world, saying ‘’Stay out of our plans and OUR city”. Luckily, they (so far) never struck outside of the city limits, so the neighborhoods and schools where safe from the attacks. Another thing Cadence was grateful for however, was that they didn’t seem to know about the strange happenings at Canterlot High.

A glass window to a store shattered next to her, giving the young woman a message to RUN FASTER. Suddenly, a person to her right fell harshly onto the ground, his screams increasing. Stopping herself, she saw him grab his leg in pain, tears forming in his eyes. Ignoring all the voices in her head telling her to run, she ran over to him, grabbed him by the armpits and lifted him up. While keeping both their heads down, as she sprinted towards an alleyway to the left up ahead of her, his painful gasps echoing in her ear each time his leg bumped on the concrete. Once they reached the alleyway, the shadows almost engulfed them both. Not stopping, she kept dragging him by the arms until they were about 20 feet within the alley. Seeing two large, metal dumpsters side by side to her left, Cadence quickly hid him behind the furthest one, setting him in a deeper shaded area. Whimpering in response, he coughed violently as red started to spill out of his nose in soft streams.

The ground began to shake as the rumbling of the military vehicle grew closer than before. Turning her head in slow horror, she saw people frantically running past the alleyway just a few feet from her, ducking their heads for cover. Some jerked their heads back as they fell to the ground, hard, their screams ceasing as they began to pile on one another. Then she didn’t see anyone run past anymore. For a moment all she could hear was screams from people she couldn’t see off to the left, then the hood of a tank-like car approached the opening to the alleyway. Jumping behind the dumpster, she quickly sat next the man before gently yet firmly slapping her hand over his mouth to silence the coughing. Bringing her free hand up, she faced towards him while putting a finger to her lips. Nodding, he tried his best to contain his coughing.

The military truck continued its slow attack, police fire bouncing off it like a trampoline. Some of their bullets flying into the high reaches of the buildings that made the alleyway, causing tiny flakes of concrete to fall on Cadence and her companion. A massive machine gun laid on the top of the car, firing back bullets that could shred through a person like paper. As it waded over abandoned cars and fallen bodies, (she avoided looking in their direction) it suddenly stopped altogether once it’s middle was squarely placed in front of the alley entrance. Cadence’s breath hitched. Had they seen them? But how? A sick feeling overcame her as her stomach felt like it was caving in. To her horror, a whirring sound came from the base of the gun. Time slowed as the machine gun turned itself towards Cadence’s direction; Cupping a hand over her own mouth to stop her from crying herself, bracing for the worst.

It was more terrifying then she would have ever imagined. All Tartarus broke loose when the air was suddenly filled with ear aching whistles as 10-inch thick bullets destroyed everything in sight. Fist-sized chunks of concrete tore off the two walls of the buildings, spraying everywhere randomly, the solid metal stairs clinging to the sides of said walls rattled and clanged from the pelting, plastic trash bins flew sky-high while barrel rolling. Even the very street wasn’t spared as the bullets pierced through the road, pieces of weak brick and cobblestone flipped out of their places as cracks spider-webbed the ground, signaling this alleyway was going to be scarred for a long time. The two dumpers that provided Cadence and her companion cover were pushed back by the unstoppable force, the other dumper on the far-right side facing towards the entrance took the brunt of the damage. The immense power of the bullets easily shredded through the metal shell, but it was slowed because of the garbage inside. A few bullets managed to go through the dumpster and break into the second one where Cadence was hiding on the other side. but that seemed to be too much for the bullets as they quickly stopped once they reached the other dumpster.

Resisting the urge to scream, she instead pulled her fear away from her mouth and up to her eyes, letting out silent tears as the loud sound of gunfire continued.

For what felt like years, the gun never stopped as she was forced to watch everything around her tear to pieces. One bullet had managed to almost go straight through both dumpsters, leaving a large dent on the side of the dumpster they were hiding behind. Tightening up into a teary ball, she closed her eyes and desperately tried to think of something, anything, that could help calm her down. The first thing that came to mind was Twilight herself; Every moment she spent with the younger girl was a treasure beyond everything else, she never ceased to make Cadence feel warm and happy on the inside. She remembered all the time and fun they spent with each other: Going out for ice cream at sugar cube corner, playing hide-and-seek for two hours straight, (Something Cadence didn’t mind at all) even stitching up Twilight’s plush horse “Fancy pants” when he had taken a rough fall from Twilight climbing a tree without Cadence knowing. One time, twilight had made an adorable painting of herself and cadence holding hands, with the words: "Best babysitter!" written in bold letters on the top, for all the world to see. The memory brought a small smile onto the woman’s face, she still had that painting magnetized to the refrigerator so it would be the first thing she could see when going in the kitchen.

There, was something else. Something twilight had shown her, well, more like taught her. A song, with a fun little dance to it. It was made by the kindergartners to symbolize their never-ending dedication and friendship to one another. Hugging her knees tighter, Cadence silently began humming to herself.

Sunshine, sunshine,

Ladybug's awake.

Clap your hands,

And do a little shake.

finishing the song in a short time, Cadence felt a small, twinge of peace. Though the song ended too quickly for her liking, so she started over.

Sunshine, sunshine,

Ladybug's awake.

Clap your hands,

And do a little shake.

Once again, Cadence felt a small feeling of peace, though it was larger this time. She liked that, so she kept humming the song, each time she ended it, the feeling of peace grew. She must have hummed that song two more times before the gun stopped shooting. She held her breath as the car sat there, looking for any kind of movement. Seemingly satisfied with it’s work, the gun turned its head back towards the street with the same loud whirring sound, as the heavy tires rolled onward to find new victims.

Waiting until the entire frame of the vehicle disappeared behind the left corner of the alley, cadence slumped her back to the wall with a sigh of relief. They both sat there in tense silence as the both breathed heavily. Her companion made the first move to start a conversation, “T-thank you for saving me miss.” She looked back at him, a small smile on her lips.

“I couldn’t leave you there.” She looked down and saw him still clutching his leg in pain, red seeping through his fingers. ‘we need to get you help, come ‘on, I’ll help you.” Lifting herself up, she started to reach her hand out when another sound caught her attention. Whipping her head back to the entrance, she saw a pickup truck reach the corner at a much faster pace, yet slow enough for the occupants to look for them. diving back behind the dumpster, she sat beside the man pressing her finger to her lips. Her grit his teeth and glared ahead of him. Apparently, he was tired of sitting helplessly as his pain grew.

At first, nothing happened, that, Cadence was glad. They didn’t see them, and probably thought the machine gun had done its work on any potential hiders.

Then something happened that made Cadence’s color drain completely from her face.

“Where do you think you’re going idiot?” a raspy voice called out.

“I’m gonna check for people, that’s what” an even raspier voice said back.

“No way, the torrent would’ve taken care of them, get back in the truck before the cops catch you!”

“you ain’t the boss of me asshat! I’m checking this place out, THEN I’ll get back in the truck. No prisoners remember?”

“No way in Tartarus man, if we stay here the 5-0’ll get us, I’m stayin’ with the group.”

The second voice nearly screamed his reply, “Then I’ll catch up with you, geez, get off my tail man!’’

A low growl could just be heard from the pickup’s engine. “Man, you are one dumbass, sadistic, pain in the-“

A car door shut harshly as the car’s engine revved up and continued down the road. “paranoid coward.” The remaining man spat in disgust. It wasn’t long before Cadence heard footsteps walking towards her direction. Fingers digging into the dirty pavement, the woman felt sharp needles stabbing into her stomach. This wasn’t good. They were out frying pan and into the fire. Grabbing the man’s arm beside her, she prepared to make a run for it, the darkness of the alleyway would make good cover for them both. Only to feel said man’s arm yank away from her reach. Looking to the man beside her, she saw him stare back at her with a sad face. “I’ll just slow you down,’’ he whispered, “You need to go, or who knows what he’ll do to you.”

Glaring at him, she hissed. “I’m not leaving you here.” Quickly looking around her surroundings, she tried to come up with various escape routes. She saw the alleyway break into a fork up ahead, so they could easily lose the potential attacker in a calculated run. However, her companion was less then ready for even a short jog, especially a rushed, frenzied run from a bloodthirsty terrorist. There was a concrete patch of stairs leading to a door a shorter way away that they could hide behind, but the terrorist sounded like he wanted to check every nook and cranny in the alley, so they’d both be found out just as easily as next to the dumpsters they were currently hiding behind. Plus, she doubted the occupants of the room the stairs where attached to would have left their door unlocked.

Other than that, she couldn’t see anywhere else to go, at least, not together. Looking once more at her companion, she saw the fear in his eyes, knowing there was no way out for him, knowing the terrorist would catch him, knowing that in a matter of minutes, he would never be able to see the smiling faces of his family again. But there was something else in his eyes, acceptance. He also knew that even though his chances where slim, Cadence herself had a high chance of escaping. She could escape though the other side, away from the Changlers, to freedom. All for what he thought was the small price of his life.

Screw that. She growled in her mind. Taking a seat next to him, she mouthed her plan. They both were going to stay put, hiding as best they could in what shadows covered them. he looked at her in shock, this lady was insane! She needed to get out of here before she got hurt!

Before he could voice his concerns, she immediately silenced him with a look of finality. She wasn’t going anywhere. She didn’t care if it was stupid or foolish, Cadence was never someone to leave a person in need.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”

Her mind turned to ice. A gut-wrenching silence followed the rhetorical question. Cadence was still staring at the man on her left, so engrossed in their stubborn argument that neither of them had heard their enemy’s footsteps grow nearer, until they were right on top of them. She gulped a stone before facing their captor.

He was short, about chest high if she was standing, with sickly dark green skin covering his body. But she was sitting on the ground, so he easily towered over her, plus the added bonus of him clutching a shotgun firmly to his chest. Heavy, thick boots clung to his feet like blocks, almost metallic in appearance, like they could snap a person’s bones in half with one swift kick. Camouflage pants were crudely shredded off at the knees, a wide belt holding it tightly to his waist. Trailing her eyes upward she saw an oddly larger-than-needed-be bullet-proof vest protecting his shirtless upper body, rusty, square buckles clipped across a massive tear in the vest’s middle, keeping it together for his protection. Looking further up, she could finally see her attacker’s face. And it wasn’t a pretty sight. Bulky in shape, each feature on his face practically screamed “fear me!” horrid scars cut across his entire left side, the cheek just barely visible due to its current form of mangled flesh. A teal, punk-like, spiky mohawk finned out atop his otherwise bald head, somehow having clean-cut holes randomly dug though the hair. His eyes terrified her the most though; they were teal like his hair, but no pupils could be seen. Just bright lights of blue that bore into her magenta eyes. He looked almost hollow. Almost.

The difference being that instead of seeing, she could feel the intense sadistic animosity pouring out of his eyes and focusing it all on her. Promising her pain and fear on an unimaginable scale. It made her want to shrink up into a ball again and shut out the world around her, like it was all a dream. But the stinging pain from scratching her elbows on the pavement earlier proved otherwise. So, she simply stared back at him, mouth open and body stiff with terror.

The shorter man slowly, almost robotically, turned his head over to the man sitting beside Cadence, who was still clutching his leg, and glaring hatefully at the armed terrorist. He was silent for a moment, before chuckling in a dark, slimy voice. “Well look at you two, hidin’ in here like sneaky campers.’’ Turning his head back to her, he continued. “Kinda rude to just leave your friends out there to fend for themselves.” he said, pointing the barrel of his shotgun towards the street to their right.

Cadence stayed completely silent. What was she to say, what could she say? This man and his friends probably killed hundreds, if not thousands of innocent lives all for the sake of having no one to stand against them. Bringing his gun back, the Changler pointed it back at the man beside her before speaking again. “Why don’t you come and join them.” Putting out a free hand, he motioned for them both to stand up. Cadence almost stood up out of absolute fear, but then her senses quickly came back to her. He was basically going to take them out into the streets, where they murdered innocent lives, people with families, and either use them both as target practice or worse, ransom.

Her fear soon stepped aside as anger took its place. She looked him square in the eyes once more, and once again, saw a man with no conscience, no sympathy, no empathy, no soul. Only a man with a lust for power over others. Fist clenched, Cadence furrowed her brows into a scowl, then crossed her arms in defiance. The man beside her coincidentally had the same thoughts, but unlike her, he didn’t move an inch from his spot, his scowl never leaving, instead it seemed to deepen. Both glared back at their capture.

To their surprise however, his reaction wasn’t a complete tantrum as they expected, instead he raised an eyebrow then whispered in a deadly calm voice. “I’m sorry, is there a problem with us? If so, could you address it please.’’ No answer. “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear, you two left. Them. to. Die. So, I think there needs to be some closure between you guys. If you had the time to save yourselves, then you obviously could have had time to save them. I’m only making your problem less difficult; I mean…” he lent down at the next part. “… You don’t want their avoidable deaths staining your conscience for the rest of your life do you?”

Cadence was furious, she barely had time to save an injured man, there was no way she could have saved anyone else while she was busy helping him to safety. Could she? Could she really have saved those people? Was there enough time to help somebody’s father, their mother, their younger sibling? Did she actually leave thousands of families to fend for themselves just to save one life? Tears started to form in her eyes as she gripped her shoulders tighter, a feeling of guilt beginning to tear up her heart and claw out of her throat.

Spat!

The terrorist’s eyes widened in shock. A red stain had planted on his scarred right cheek, the impact making him freeze. Watching the Changler leer over Cadence and fill her mind with unrealistic guilt, her companion decided enough was enough.

“Screw you, you psychopathic freak.” The man growled in a low voice. “You get shot in the leg by a bunch of cowards holding a stolen machine gun then try and save people who are running over you.”

The terrorist simply stared at Cadence in silent shock. His eyes never strayed from hers, with his mouth slightly open from when he was about to finish his previous sentence before being interrupted. For a moment, nothing happened, at least, not anything a bystander could see. But for Cadence, slowly but surely, she began to see white hot anger and fury start to form in his eyes, ready to unleash at any minute. Then, faster than she could blink, the terrorist whipped his gun around and crashed it square into the man’s face, causing him to fly back and hit the wall behind him with a sickening thud.

Straight on impact, he immediately slumped over to his left side with a groan. Blood dripped onto the cracked concrete as Cadence held both of her hands up to cover her mouth, keeping in a barely contained squeak. Tears formed in her eyes as her friend didn’t move from his spot, instead choosing to lay down and moan in agony. His face was concealed from her view, so she wasn’t able to see the damage that had been done, but she knew by the sound of the impact it was pretty severe.

“Sit up asshole.” The Changler growled animalistically. Bending down and grabbing a wad of his victim’s bloody shirt, he roughly hoisted him back up on his rump next to the terrified woman. Now being able to see her companion’s face more clearly, she spared a quick glance at him to see the damage. His nose was obviously broken, bent in an unnatural angle with a red, wide bloody streak carved across it. That would definitely leave a scar. His right eye was also badly bruised, making him have to squint to ease the pain.

Both looked up to their enemy, who had replaced his previous glare with yet another smirk. Moving his eyes from one to the other, he said nothing as his eyes seemed to calculate something. Then he spoke.

“Cuz that’s my job.”

Both widened their eyes in shock. Was that his only excuse?! Kill innocent people, children even, because it was “his job?!"

He seemed to understand what their minds were shouting out in anger, so he continued.

“Us ‘Terrorists’ as you call us, aren’t just shooting people willy nilly.”

What?

“We’re doing this for a purpose, not for money or fame, but for the sake of the people. Shit, you could say it's for this planet”

What?!

“You just don’t get it do you? Then again, how could you?” Pointing to them both, he continues chuckling. “Look at this city, it's crawling with weakness. Not from it’s roots, but from it’s habitants. Your leaders have been shoving this illusion of peaceful negotiation and war-free ideals down your throats for so long, you've forgotten how the world actually works. No more. it’s time to bring back the original rulers and idealists. Power and strength, not over you, but over the world.”

He drew his hand away from the two and pointed towards the Changler emblem on his vest, snarling.

“ People like us, we do what others are too scared to do: Tear apart any weaknesses that could hold us down and make our enemies quake into submission. But you all, you just try and ‘help’ those who attempt to kill you, try to show them there’s some kind of ‘different’ path. You're neither strong nor worthy enough to live amongst the natural order. So…” he dropped his hand down.

“…we’re here to stomp out the weakness.’’ Firing rounds could be heard in the distance, followed by more screams. “You people are like an invasive roach on a farm...” he sounded like he just swallowed mud with that last word, “… In order for this land to truly have harmony, proper exterminators are required.’’

Cadence was at loss for words. Was this truly the Changlers’ point of view? That people like her where just weak and useless and they shouldn’t even exist simply because they tried to settle things in a none violent way. If she thought she hated the changlers before, she utterly DESPISED them now.

‘’Now walk.”

She was done. She was tired. Hurt, both physically and mentally. She was SICK of these thoughtless bullies pushing them around for so long and she was SICK of them thinking they were all powerful, acting like they could never be touched by punishment. If she was going to die, she sure as Tartarus wasn’t going out in the way they wanted her to. Crying and begging for mercy, therefore giving them exactly what they wanted.

Just as her companion started to get up in defeat, she grabbed hold of his sleeve and held him down. both male eyes turned to her, as her face remained a calm, businesslike look.

“No.’’ she replied simply.

Her companion stood still for a moment, before joining her. The terrorist stayed in his position, face calm, but she could see the familiar fury grow back in his teal eyes. She wasn’t scared. Instead she spoke with an even and calm voice.

“Go ahead, hit us. Break us. Shoot us. Do whatever you want, just know we’re not going ANYWHERE with you. We’ll fight you if need be, but you’re not going to get what you want.’’

The fury grew larger. The terrorist began to numbly raise his shotgun.

“Because sooner or later, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but at the end of your road, people like you…”

the shotgun started to shake in his hands from rage.

“…. you’ll lose all the power you once had that you’ve never deserved, and still forever wonder, ‘what happened?’”

The Changler’s fingers turned white from gripping the gun too hard. His face however, remained neutral. He then whispered in a deadly voice.

‘’At least we’ll have the pleasure of killing you worthless insects.”

Brushing his hand on the trigger, he aimed the gun straight for her heart with a crazed smile. He didn’t even pull the trigger before a streak of lightning crushed into his temple.
_____________________
Outside of the alleyway. two blocks away from the stolen army truck. Number of Changler forces: 2 pickup trucks.

Oh, how they loved this job. Two pickup trucks packed full of terrorists drove at an even pace just twenty feet from each other, shooting anything that moved. The massive army truck they had apprehended from a VERY successful raid long ago had already done most of the dirty work on the street, now came the easy part. Though panicked, civilians always somehow managed to avoid their first wave of attack, either hiding in basements, inside alleyways, ducking behinds cars, debris, or even trying to blend in with the dead. And the Changlers have to give them credit, they do a fine job of hiding, but alas, human curiosity is both a gift, and a curse. Because once the sounds of firearms cease, people poke their heads out into the firing range to see if the danger is gone, so they can get away.

How foolish.

With all the smoky debris, screams and the shrieking of destroyed brick and metal beams grinding together, it was easy not to hear the less loud thrumming of a pickup trucks’ engine. Just wait for an unsuspecting victim to pop their head out of their hidey hole, put em’ in your crosshairs and pow. That’s that. It was like a game of shoot-a-mole.

BANG!

“That’s one for me!”

Sitting on the pickup’s bed was a long sleeved Changler with an imposing, heavy, bullet proof vest strapped to his otherwise scrawny body. A rifle in his hands was held up high for any signs of life, looking rather pleased with himself. Inside the truck were two other Changlers, one on the driver side, the other on the passenger side with his own rifle hanging out of an open window. The one on the passenger side gained a face of annoyance.

“That’s because you got the best seat in the house, besides, didn’t know we were keeping count.”

“Well I thought we were, though by the looks of it, guess there wasn’t really a reason to.” the Changler on the bed replied with a smirk in his voice.

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“It means I’m better at your job then you, that’s what.”

The second rifleman growled lowly before biting back. “yeah, sure, just because you’ve got ‘special training’ doesn’t make you the absolute best shot in our ranks, Mr. Ex-army soldier. Give me a minute.” Turning his attention from his partners in crime, he spotted a woman just a few yards away making her get away, bolting down the street in a terrified panic. Aiming his gun in her direction, he found himself having trouble aiming with the trucks’ nonstop moving pace, added to her mad dash to freedom, making it a challenge to keep his scope fixed on her. He could almost feel the stupid smirk on his partner’s face grow larger by the second at his strife. Twisting his face into a snarl, his already small amount of focus faded into oblivion as he pulled the trigger.

BANG!

A loud “Ping!” was heard as the bullet penetrated the concrete wall she was running alongside of. Jumping in surprise, she let out a shriek of terror, but continued running nonetheless, albeit faster this time.

His pupils dilated before the gunman punched the inside of the door in frustration. “FAUST!” Laughing could be heard outside of the car as the sniper in the back double over in hysteria, even the silent driver chuckled a little at his partner’s folly. Grumbling, he shifted his rifle before putting his eye in the scope.

“Man, screw you both.”

Trying to collect himself, the backseat shooter sat himself up before speaking in a hiccupped voice. “Here, let me show you how it’s done.’’ Putting his rifle parallel to his shoulder, he aimed his scope as best he could on the escaping female. She had gone quite a ways away, making it difficult to get a shot at her, but not impossible, he still had time to at least wound her, but not fatally. She was smart too, ducking and weaving around large debris, trying to make herself both invisible and untouchable. Aiming his gun at her, he waited for an opening to present itself as she flew, his breathing stilled as he homed in on her, ignoring the close gunshots from the other pickup truck, who was shooting their own targets with giddy glee.

BANG!

A gunshot echoed through the street, followed by a howl of pain. The woman fell to the ground, out of view, screaming in agony. He had been able to get a shot right under her ribs, it was definitely going to leave a scar, but not kill her. Oh well, take what you can get right?

“And that’s how you do it!” he said with a proud smile. His teasing victim took it more personally then he should have. He shoved his rifle back in the car before reaching for the handle like he was about to get out.

“ALRIGHT, THAT’S IT!”

A hand grabbed onto his teal hair and yanked him back with harsh force. Letting out a cry of pain, the rifleman shouted profanities as the backseat shooter once again fell into a fit of laughter. The driver on the other hand, was less than pleased, gripping the younger man’s hair tighter as a scowl edged across his face.

“Would you two shut the hell up and do you’re job!? Faust, you do this every time. No wonder no one wants to be around you!” His scowl turned into a deep frown before growling. “why in the ever-loving world of Tartarus did she even hire you two anyway?”

The backseat rider stopped laughing and gained a serious look. “Watch yourself Fang, you might have been here for a while and gained her favor, but an unexpected retirement could come early.” He lifted his rifle at that last sentence, and the car become dead silent.

Gripping the steering wheel tighter, the driver said nothing as he continued driving. Smirking once more, the sniper in the back chuckled darkly. “That’s what I thought.” Before sitting comfortably in the trucks’ bed. Fang let go of the passenger side rifleman, forcefully shoving him into the door with an “Oof!”. Sitting back up with a scowl, the rifleman was about to snap at his partners when he saw a bright, blue light form in an alley way on the driver’s side. At first, he started to think it was just a random city light, yet for some reason, something just felt, unnatural about it. he felt memorized by it.

Suddenly, his eyes widened in horror.

“FANG, LOOK OU-“

A massive ball of electricity slammed into the side of the pickup truck with a loud crunch, sending it flying into the tv. store on the other side of the street, instantly killing all three men.

The pickup in the front had heard the commotion. All the occupants turned their heads in horror as their ally vehicle started to catch fire while basically turned upside down inside the store.

“What the hell happened?! What’s going on back there?!’’ The driver screamed in terrified confusion.

“I don’t know!” the sniper on the trucks’ bed screamed back. A loud crackle was heard before a stream of pure electricity flew over their heads and rammed into a heavy light post in front of the car, shredding through the metal like paper. The post gave a metallic groan before it’s weight gave in and toppled over. All the Changlers barely had time to scream before the metal beam crashed into the center of the car, crushing the driver and passenger and flinging the backseat shooter into the air and onto the shrapnel below.

In just a span of thirty seconds, the entire street had gone deathly quiet. Citizens peaked their heads out at the unexpected quiet, gaping in awe at the sheer destruction of what the was once thought invincible Changler pickup trucks. What just happened?
_______________
One block down. Two blocks and three houses down from stolen army truck. Number of Changler forces: 3 pickup trucks, 10 ground soldiers.

BANG!

A middle-aged man fell heavily onto the ground, eyes stripped of life. People, forced to scramble over his body, ducked their heads to avoid a similar fate. A line of Changlers stalked closely behind them, two pickups packed full of riflemen led the charge, ten armor-clad soldiers trailing alongside it like flies, while a third pickup followed as the caboose. Being much closer to the army truck then the others on the previous street, the Changlers needed a strong, outer defense in case of a potential attack from federal forces, who would do anything they could to get the truck out of the Changlers’ hands. This meant a large number of soldiers and trucks needed to form a defensive wall behind their heavy weapons, securing their prized possession. Their goal for today was simple: Make sure the public gets the message to Leave. Canterlot. City. Wasn’t that hard to understand.

The caboose car drove at an even pace behind the soldiers. A sniper and a soldier with an assault rifle in the back were hunched over so they could gain cover behind the short walls of the bed, guns drawn over the edge, ready for action. The man with the assault rifle on the left in particular was scanning for targets when he spotted something interesting.

“Come on Kettle!” A young boy shouted at his little sister, holding her arm in a vicelike grip while trying to run behind the truck. The little girl in question had a hard time catching up with her older brother, her small feet tripping and shuffling as she barely made it to his side. The sniper chuckled at the pathetic display, watching the small duos’ “attempt” to flee. Raising his rifle, he closed an eye and looked through the scope, aiming it square between them in a gap, debating which to shoot first. His mind then clicked as he picked his target.

Shifting the rifle to the left, he aimed it right at the boy’s skull, wanting to make it a clean, quick shot. She’d only get a little blood on her shirt, and maybe in her face.

Suddenly, a white blur flew in front of the two children, blocking them from his scope. Then the object sat up, and the Changler found himself looking at a VERY angry man staring right back at him through the scope. The man didn’t waste a second as he reared his right hand back and flung it forward with a yell.

The changler looked up from his scope with a yell of surprise clawing up his throat as bolt of lightning slammed into his face, sending him sailing into the air. Screaming in agony, the man’s body twitched uncontrollably from the painful surge of electricity, causing his fingers to wrap tightly around the trigger. Time slowed as everyone watched the screaming man fly above them as his rifle chaotically fired off rounds into the open air. Then his body slammed into the back of one of the pickups in front, crashing into the two snipers on the bed and breaking through the back window. His screaming ceased and his body went limp.

The Changlers cries of surprise could be heard as the driver abruptly stepped on the breaks, creating a loud SCREECH!

The other two cars pulled on the breaks themselves, confused and on high alert. Hopping out of the backseat, the two riflemen ushered over to the side of the car as the driver and passenger got out themselves, dazed and petrified. Many of the soldiers aimed their guns in the direction of the attacker, but found nothing but a destroyed road in their line of sight. “It’s the damn cops!” One shouted in anger and nervousness. Shortly after, the sniper that had been sitting next to the shot rifleman spoke up.

“I’m pretty sure cops don’t shoot electricity at their enemies.”

“Electricity? Are you seeing things?!” Another soldier snarked as the four terrorists from the truck pulled the dead rifleman out of the car. Dropping him roughly on the ground, they spared a look at his bloodied though visible face.

“Not bullet holes.” The driver stated in bewilderment.

“Then what just happened?” One of the snipers asked.

“Me.”

All heads turned to see a shock wave of electricity ram into them, knocking the soldiers off their feet as well as flipping over the caboose pickup, causing it to land onto the other two parked trucks, crushing them out of commission. Many of them fell onto the ground roughly, letting out choked gasps and hitched breaths. Before any of them could get to their feet, a swooshing sound was heard and a small ball of crackling electricity, roughly the size of two softballs, dropped to the ground in what could be considered the middle of their scattered state. For a second, nothing happened. Then it exploded.

Shards of electricity stabbed into them as a miniature shockwave blew the downed soldiers into the air, many of them hitting rough slabs of concrete that stopped their decent. For the soldiers who were spared from the grenade, either too far from it or took the least damage, they quickly got to their feet, ready to face the assailant.

What they got instead was a stream of bolts hitting them square in the chest, sinking through their bullet proof vests and frying their skin. While their cohorts wailed in pain, the free soldiers took aim at the enemy, only to be dumbstruck by what they saw.

It was a man their age, bald and wearing a bright, white t-shirt, with some kind of weird weapon hanging of his sling bag. But what dumbfounded them the most was the fact that he was the one shooting electricity at the Changlers. And not from any type of gun, but from his freaking HAND!

Shaking their heads, the soldiers decided to fix the situation exactly how they fixed all of their problems: by shooting it. Aiming straight at his head, the terrorists fired. However, their enemy seemed to already know of the coming attack, quickly ceasing his own attack and diving behind a destroyed car before the bullets could reach him.

Every soldier with a gun absolutely sprayed the downed car with every clip they could use, desperately hoping to shoot through it and hit their enemy. Just who did this joker think he was, attacking them?! the cops’ faces paled just at the sight of their flag, the public prayed to Faust whenever they heard the Changler name, the media announced their names all across the globe and the government considered them a THREAT! And this idiot decided to attack them of all people? Oh, they were going to have some fun with this guy after they caught him. Show him just exactly who they were and why he should fear them, make him BEG for mercy.

Then the man of the hour poked his head out and threw his hand forward, creating a giant ball of electricity and hurling it towards them. They didn’t have time to react before it crashed into them, the sheer power frying their outer bodies and insides to a crisp. Once again seeing their comrades knocked down, the few standing soldiers aimed at the car, preparing to fire. Suddenly, the car shifted, before lifting up in the air by an invisible force. As the car lifted up, they saw their enemy slowly appear from behind it, body crouched in a tense stance and hands raised to the sides with blue electricity dancing around them. Mouths gaped in shock as the car hovered above him, a power current flowing through the air and surging into the car, raising the hairs on their necks. Shifting their eyes down, they looked at him in terror. He smirked.

"Catch."

Then he thrusted his arms forward and their vision was filled with metal.
_________________
One block over. Three houses down from stolen army truck. Number of Changlers: 5 Pickup trucks, 40 ground soldiers, 1 army truck.

“You’re not going to win.” A beaten, yet defiant voice called out, an irritated groan followed.

“Do we REALLY have to keep these idiots’ prisoners? they’re just liabilities, ready to stab us in the back the moment they can.”

Five soldiers stood guard over a row of captives, police and citizen alike. Just minutes ago, the police had done everything they could to get the civilians to safety while distracting the army truck that clearly outmatched them. Their bullets produced the same amount of damage on the truck like an ant on a windshield, and shredded through their defensive barrier of cop cars like it was nothing. It didn’t take long before almost every cop on the field was either captured for ransom/target practice or KIA. So much for the distraction.

Sigh. “I thought we went over this, we may have an army truck, but the feds and cops have things that can take trucks like these down in a heartbeat. The only reason we won today was because we caught them off guard, they’ll be ready next time. So we interrogate the cops, hurt em’ a little, force them to show us where they’re keeping those kinds of tools so we can have an upper hand against them in case they try to take down our heavy weapons, then try and get our hands on more stuff like this.” A Changler whispered to his confused companion as he gestured to the lumbering army truck.

“Just look at what we did today. Imagine if we had a flock of these trucks, or shit, our very own tank! This town would be ours by noon.”

Just recently, the Changlers had strategically invaded a small town off to the far south, which was neighbored to a miniature army base. After a long struggle, the sheer numbers of the Changlers drove the army forces back, allowing the terrorist group to obtain a heavily weaponized army truck. Despite the terrorist’s complaints however, the higher ranks in the group made it official to never use the truck when they brought it back to the base, instead keeping it very hush, hush. That way, no one would truly know of their heavy arsenal, therefore stopping the target on their back from growing. Today however, they had planned to take the City of Canterlot by surprise and capture the law enforcement for info. And maybe a hint of ransom.

As many of the soldiers carried along behind the truck, shooting every person in their sight, they failed to notice a certain individual watching them from atop a building, glowering hatefully at them.

_

Having just recently woken up inside a strange place, next to a strange city called Canterlot city, Cole didn’t know what to expect. He needed, no, craved answers. So far, the information he had gotten was close to diddily squat, instead he just got looks of bewilderment and confusion.

However, his quest for answers had taken a nose dive out the window once the sound of gunfire and screams filled his ears. Immediately bolting into the city, what he saw horrified him. One street alone looked like something you’d see out of a movie. Bodies lying everywhere, dozens of people doubled over in pain, he was too late for this street, and by the sounds of it, his enemies where getting farther from him. Quickly healing whoever he could, Cole sprinted towards the fray, climbing up a tall building to get a look at his surroundings. Easily finding the attackers from the extensive firing, he made his way towards them in a hurry. His anger bubbling up to the boiling point each time he saw a downed civilian.

Oh, how he absolutely HATED people like this. The ones who lived for carnage, the ones who thought they live above the rules. The ones who made innocents’ lives horrible because they themselves were too USELESS to do ANYTHING remotely productive with their own lives. Images of Bertrand, Alden Tate and Sasha filled his mind, causing his fists to clench with sharp sparks poking everywhere.

Somehow, the RFI hadn’t decreased his powers like he feared. Instead, unlike his first fight with the Beast, which had depleted his powers, he found that all of his previous powers had stayed within him, making it much easier for him. But how that was possible? Not that he was complaining of course, he just wanted at least some kind of answer for today. A loud explosion was set off as the army truck blow up a car with it’s barrage of bullets, lighting a portion of the street with a hellish orange. “Yet another question for later” he thought. Back to the matter at hand.

They had weapons no one like them should ever have, hunting down people like common game. For some people he stopped to heal, he noticed that many of their wounds were in spots that would cripple them for life.

These clowns wanted to play dirty? Challenge excepted.

Time to introduce himself.

_

As the Changler soldiers kept their pace, the army truck lumbered a far way ahead of them, shooting whatever and whoever it wanted. Suddenly, a shadow had cast over a group of five soldiers. Turning their heads up, their eyes widened in shock as a flaming SUV came hurling out of the sky and barreled towards them.

“HOLY SHI-“

BOOM!

An ear-piercing explosion ripped through the atmosphere as metal chunks of car flew sky high, crashing down on the street below. Not a second later, two balls of electricity rammed into a Changler pickup truck, blue light dancing around it and frying the passengers into unconsciousness. Soon, a cluster of softball sized grenades sprayed all around the soldiers’ feet.

“Move!”

Jumping to the sides, many soldiers managed to escape to explosives, as their unluckier comrades flew shrieking overhead. Shifting to their feet, they aimed their guns in all directions, eyes widened and minds alert. Suddenly, a barrage of bolts rained from the sky, aiming straight at one of the pickups that moved behind the army vehicle. The snipers in the back ducked their heads and jumped out as bolts pelted the car, causing the metal to dent and the glass to crack. As the passengers practically clawed their way out of their seat belts, the lethal electrical current seeping through the metal beams of the car and making its way to the stereo and battery. Black smoke billowed out of the hood as the stereo crackled and popped with burning hot sparks, the dents on the truck crushing the beams on top of the doors, making it almost impossible to get out. The driver began banging profusely against the car door, nearly on the verge of full-blown panic at the sight of the electrical current visibly stabbing into everything it could. On occasion, he felt the stinging, needle-like pain of the current as it phased through his body, causing him to flinch and twitch whenever he felt it.

POP!

Whirling his head around in a mix of confusion and horror, he turned just in time to have the stereo explode in his face, causing him to fly back into his seat with a yelp. Rubbing the debris from his eyes, he blinked hard before his whole world started to shake. The engine rumbled and groaned as its life began to fade.

“Ah, fuck me.” The man mumbled just before everything exploded in his face

The bolts ceased as the pickup and its passengers were reduced to nothing, now focusing on the second pickup’s snipers. All soldiers on the ground began shooting aimlessly at the direction of the enemy fire, shouts from their commander telling them to flank the building and stop whoever it was from firing/finding a way to escape. Soon, the snipers fell off the bed and onto the ground, defeated, and the pickups’ engine fried to a crisp not long after.

The Changlers up ahead had heard the commotion and where rushing like crazy towards their comrades, weapons at the ready. By now, twenty terrorists began firing at the rooftop of the building where their supposed attacker was, while ten more soldiers busted through the building’s windows and ran frantically up the stairs to the roof. Eager to meet this guy in person.

_

Throwing two grenades off the edge, Cole waited for a moment before the satisfying sounds of soldiers shrieking in surprise followed by two explosions ripped through the air. His previous spot on the ledge was currently being torn to pieces by gunfire, as more and more soldiers piled up on his doorstep. He also caught wind of other soldiers making their way to his location through the building underneath him, and probably up to the roof on the building’s opposite to him. Either way, he needed a new hiding spot, and fast; Besides, he could feel the power inside him start to drain, and there wasn’t a fan or electrical outlet on the roof he could recharge with. Turning his head to the side, his eyes landed on the door leading out onto the roof, with his electro-sense he could tell those pricks were getting closer, as if their heavy ass boots stomping on the stairs wasn’t proof enough. Seriously, how did these guys even move around?!

Tossing another grenade off the ledge for good measure, he walked over to the door, standing about 8 feet away from it with his neutral scowl. Suddenly, the door was kicked open as ten soldiers burst through the door, guns raised and murder beaming in their eyes. Swarming into a cluster right in front of the door, the soldiers narrowed their eyes at him while aiming at Cole’s heart. One man who was in the front of the line aimed straight at his enemies’ head with a crazed grin, ready to pull the trigger; however, instead of looking afraid, the bald man smirked before raising a finger and pointing at something behind them. Confused, he turned his head around to see six crackling, sparking balls of electricity sticking to the concrete wall around the door. The balls exploded, their power and force sending all the soldiers rocketing towards the edge of the roof. ducking underneath them, Cole watched as they flew over him and fell onto their comrades on the street below. “Have a nice flight!’’ he quipped.

Okay, NOW he was really drained. Not wasting any time, he bolted over to a neighboring roof on his right, easily skimming over the gap between buildings. Barrel rolling to his feet, he beelined towards a fan and brought his hands forward. Just like before, a massive stream of electricity shot through the fan like a rocket and slammed into his chest. Feeling the electricity surge through his body, giving him more power, Cole smiled as he quickly recharged for battle. After all the electricity sucked out of the fan, Cole relaxed his arms with a sigh.

Suddenly he was knocked clean off his feet when an explosion set off right behind him. Flailing his arms, Cole flew right over the fan and landed on the opposite side of it, just two inches from the edge. Of course, the explosion didn’t cause him any truly serious damage, his supernatural healing factor being able to dish it out tremendously, but that certainly didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt. Plus, the sheer surprise of the attack was enough for him to be overtaken by the shock wave.

*Cough* “ugh, that’s gonna cost you.” The man growled as he rose to his feet.

Shaking his hands because of the sharp scrapes on his arms, he looked behind him just in time to see two oval-shaped objects get thrown from the opposite edge and land on the roof. Grenades. Whipping around, Cole hopped over the edge next to him without a second thought. Unfortunately, although the edge he jumped off of led to an alley, it was too wide of a space, so his raised hands could only grip onto a window ledge of the building behind the one he was previously on. But instead of climbing the building, he let go of the ledge and fell to the ground with a THUD! Soon as he hit the ground, he flew over to the building to the right of the one he jumped off of.

Although he was strong, there was no possible way he could take them all on ground level. They had the advantage in both numbers and probably experience considering they somehow had high tech military-grade weapons. The only reason he had been able to take down so many of them thus far, was because just like they did with the civilians, he had managed to catch them off guard. He focused most of his attention on the pickup trucks, as knocking those out first would decrease most of their heavy firepower. Sure, he may have had SOME fun with the soldiers, but the pickups were top on his hit list. He needed to be smart about this; After he was done with the soldiers and their pickups, he planned to go after the army truck, knowing that if he attacked the truck first, he’d be pelted with enemy fire, and some of the soldiers would find the opportunity to run. No, Cole wanted to make sure ALL of these bastards where caught. After his ten, long, grueling months of being a conduit, Cole had learned both the easy and the hard way that in order to achieve victory, you couldn’t always face an enemy head on. You needed to peel back their layers, one at a time.

“He’s over here!!”

Cole didn’t even turn his head when about sixteen terrorists rounded a corner with their guns trained on him. Ducking behind a dumpster for cover, he felt the metal trash bin shift and shake by the barrage of bullets that slammed into it. Throwing his hand out, he tossed a rocket of electricity at them. Not to take them all down, but to at least distract them. As the massive ball of pure energy slammed into them, Cole flipped around and jumped onto a metal pipe sprouting out of the concrete back wall of the building.

One of the downed soldiers coughed violently into his fist after the unexpected attack and shakily rose to his feet, sparks of electricity dancing all around his vest and legs. Lifting his rifle off the ground, he aimed it back at the dumpster and prepared to set off another round.

As he prepared to pull the trigger, sprays of concrete and brick fell out alongside the wall from far above his sight and banged onto the dumpster the assailant was hiding behind. Normally, the Changler wouldn’t be bothered by this, knowing better than to be distracted by such insignificance when an enemy was present, if he had not heard a faint “Oof!” come from up above. Confused, the soldier lifted his head up to see what the source of the voice was, only to raise his eyebrows at what he saw.

With grace that would make a mountain goat proud, the Changler watched as the assailant scaled the wall of the building with record speed. Each time he grabbed onto a pipe, crack or window ledge, the man hoisted himself up and easily snagged onto the next ledge without a moment’s hesitation. Mouth gaping and eyebrows still raised, the soldier stood stock still as all his knowledge of logic snapped out of existence; first, this guy attacks them with a somehow unlimited supply of electricity (which came from his body, what the f-). Second, considering he hadn’t seen any of the ten soldiers that tried to take this guy out on the rooftop, he deduced this guy must have downright destroyed about 19 of their best men on this street alone. The bastard was probably the reason why their forces on the previous blocks hadn’t said anything in a while. Now to add to his list, the guy can climb buildings like freaking Spidermane. His stomach churned as he watched the man climb higher, the Changlers were powerful people, they held the cops under their heals like insignificant insects. But after only knowing this new guy for only a few minutes, watching firsthand how he could take down a large portion of them like it was a cakewalk, he couldn’t help but question the Changlers’ power and capability.

Who or what were they fighting exactly?

His musings were cut short when a soldier to the left of him fired at the still climbing hero, his gunshots ringing in the worried Changler’s ear.

Cole moved his hand out of the way just in time for a bullet to penetrate the window ledge he had just grabbed. Taking this as a sign to m a b y e move a bit faster, Cole quickened his pace as the loud PLINKS of bullets penetrating the wall around him got closer with every shot. Some bullets managed to hit his side and back, causing Cole to grip the ledges tighter in pain at the unwelcome contact. Like his ability to fall from great heights and not even feel sprained, Cole’s special healing factor allowed him to toughen out a barrage of bullets like he was being belted with BBs, with a considerable amount of natural, self-healing electricity in your body, it takes quite a hit to knock someone down. But everything has its limit, and his superhuman body could only take so much damage all at once.

Flipping his body over the top on the roof and escaping enemy fire, Cole instantly ran to the other side of the building, facing the street. The army truck was still shooting all it could see, oblivious to the ruckus behind it, while the last three pickups followed behind it like pilot fish trailing a shark. Ignoring the shouts of profanity towards his direction from the ground soldiers, he raised his hands and shot a massive barrage of bolts towards one of the truck’s engine, causing the car to screech to a halt in surprise. As his bolts never ceased their attack, and the occupants of all the car scrambled out, Cole couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. Nothing looked more hilarious than a squad of blood thirsty freaking out about why their car was being viciously attacked by electricity in the distance. He could almost hear them screeching about their buffed-out ride being destroyed.

Soon the car’s engine gave in and exploded in fire and electricity, sending the hood flying to the far off reaches of the galaxy. As the soldiers flew back from the impact of the explosion, Cole aimed his hand just an inch to the left, thrusted it back, and tossed a rocket towards the second pickup which was behind the first. Once the ball of pure power slammed into the small truck, it skidded across the pavement and crashed into the third pickup riding alongside it.

Just as planned.

Cole grinned as he fired three more rockets at the messed-up vehicles, knocking them further and further to the side as the drivers wailed pathetically when seeing their already downed vehicles get blasted to kingdom come. When the third rocket hit, it pushed the cars into a large, glass window of a store, rendering them unusable. As the stuck cars smoked and popped, the drivers ran over to try and get their supplies, only to have another rocket blast into their backs from behind them. Watching them all fall to the ground in a clump, Cole flexed his fingers. Now that all the pickups were out of the way, he only had a few things to deal with now.

A bullet whizzed by his face as the screams of the ground soldiers filled his ears once more. Peering over the edge, he saw that all 40 Changlers on the street had absolutely crowded around the entire perimeter of his building, generals barking orders to privates, telling them to find some way, ANY way, to get to the roof and unload every clip they had on him, considering the roof he was on had no door, and the outside staircase was broken. No doubt they saw him destroy their last three pickups just now, making them either desperate or down right pissed. hell, some of the soldiers were practically clawing their way up the walls of the building, roaring in outrage whenever they failed to hold tight on a ledge, leading them to fall comically onto their allies.

Flipping a hand, he tossed about ten grenades onto the soldiers below; Widening their eyes, they tried to give the command to run when all of the grenades simultaneously exploded. Each miniature explosion rocketed multiple soldiers in random directions, screaming in fear and rage along the way. Tossing another hand full of grenades down below, Cole watched as the cluster of men tried to scatter, only to have the grenades somehow attach themselves onto the men. Shrieking in surprise, the soldiers batted wildly at the balls of electricity that stuck to their arms and backs, but could do nothing as the grenades exploded in their faces.

Twelve down, twenty-eight to go. He counted in his mind. He tossed another rocket of electricity down below, this one breaking into three separate pieces and attaching to more soldiers, who once again were sent flying into each other. Taking this distraction as an advantage, Cole dove over the edge, hanging onto it in a vicelike grip, and shot forth a barrage of sticky rockets onto the Changlers, knocking them down one by one. That's five more

Suddenly, about five bullets pierced through his sling bag and into his skin, causing him to flinch. Pulling himself up, he was prepared to drain more energy when he found out there was none. Of course. Looking to his left, he saw that the army vehicle was getting further away from him. He needed to deal with these soldiers fast. He tossed to more grenade down onto the furious men, though this grenade was smaller. Nevertheless, the men ran in all directions before it even made landfall. But to their surprise, the crackling ball of electricity didn’t explode in it’s designated blast time, instead it just sat on the ground, it even appeared to shrink in on itself.

Feeling brave mixed in with smugness, a large number of the Changlers walked over to the ball with cruel smirks, some even chuckling at the pathetic little display. So, this guy wasn’t all powerful. One soldier in particular got the gall to look up at Cole’s imposing figure and thrust out his favorite finger, yelling up at him.

“HEY FREAK! NICE DUD!”

Many of his cohorts laughed along with him, ignoring their more alert companions’ shouts at them to get away. Unbeknownst to the laughing terrorists, the crackling ball did indeed continue to get smaller, but as it did, its original smooth shape started to deteriorate, becoming sharp and jagged. The ball spiked and fizzed as knifelike points rippled around it’s body like a soundwave on a computer.

Still laughing hysterically, the Changler who spoke up looked one more time at the ball of electricity before preparing to shoot back at Cole. But something stopped him short: The ball had ceased shrinking, the only movement that came from it now was the honestly, worrying increase of fizzing and spiking it was making.

Before he could speak his concerns however, the ball detonated into a flash of blinding light! Shooting back in surprise and pain, the terrorist instantly brought his hands to his face in order to shield himself from the shockwave and closed his eyes. all he could hear was the screams of both the explosion, the wind and his comrades digging into his eardrums, followed by an immense amount of pain. The sheer power from the grenade hurt like nothing he had ever felt before, the electricity burned clear through his hands and onto his face, it felt as though a million white hot needles were slicing all over him, like they were building the world’s most chaotic quilt. Somehow, the electrical current had found it’s way inside his body, and squeezed his insides together like a black hole, making it painful to breathe. However, this particular explosion felt off.

Something was missing. The one thing he didn’t feel, yet expected to, was the feeling of free flying through the air; Instead, even through all the pain and ringing in his ears, he felt like he hadn’t moved from his spot at all.

Just as soon as it came, the explosion dissipated and the wind stopped. The air felt hot and metallic as he blinked his eyes, hands still covering his face. At least, that’s what he thought he was doing. His vision was blurred like a bitch. Pain still surged through his every being, plus from his waist down he felt surprisingly numb. Luckily, his vision seemed to clear rather quickly. Shifting his hands down, he looked around at the damage. As it turned out, his suspicion from earlier proved correct, as he had indeed not moved an inch from his previous spot, still standing at full height. Looking around, he saw that he was not the only one. A handful of his friends were also standing, shock and pain clearly evident on their face from what just happened. At first, he thought the grenade was exactly what it looked like before, a dud. However, he saw that many of his allies who were far enough from the center had been knocked back a couple feet and were in the process of getting back up.

So the grenade wasn’t a dud, as it had clearly knocked down a bunch of people onto the floor, so, why were they, the guys at the center of the blast, able to stand like nothing happened. Turning to the right, he saw his assault rifle scattered on the floor at a 240-degree angle from him back when he dropped it. Oh right. The bald bastard on the roof. The pain in his body was shoved aside as fury made its way to the console, he was going to make that guy pay.

Bending over to reach his weapon, he tried to grab the handle before his entire body was halted.

He wasn’t being held back by anyone, because he didn’t feel any arms grab onto him, his body just, stopped going forward. Furrowing his brows, he lifted his chest up and brought his hands to the sides, his eyes skimming across his surroundings. okay, did that just happen, or was he just extremely dazed from the grenade earlier? Turning his head down, his eyes once again laid on his gun sitting on the floor in front of him. Greedily gleaming his teeth, he hastily made his deduction: Dazed by the grenade. Bending his top half over to grab the weapon again, he got a mere five inches before his body jerked to a stop for the second time.

If he didn’t know any better, he’d swear it was his waist that hadn’t moved from it’s spot. Come to think of it, he hadn’t felt anything from his waist down since the explosion, it was like he had gone completely numb.

“Holy shit.”

The blatant statement caught the attention of the man, causing him to turn his head around. The source of the voice, another Changler who was in the epicenter of the blast and, just like him, was somehow still able to stand up, had his eyes staring in pure horror at something on the other man’s waist.

Fed up with all of this nonsense, the Changler finally decided to look down and see just what in the world was wrong with him.

At first, he thought he was seeing things, hoping he was scatterbrained from the attack from earlier.

His entire body from waist down was coated in jagged, crystal-like, rock solid ice; And it was gradually clawing it’s way up his body like a blanket. A nerve-numbing blanket.

“Sweet Faust!” He screamed as he reached out for the others. But they were too busy dealing with their own icy prisons. Soon, the Changler could do nothing as his entire body was turned into a massive ice block amongst his friends, once soldiers, now merely sidewalk decorations.

That’s seven. Twenty-four down, sixteen to go.

Tossing another Ice grenade onto the distracted and freaked-out mercenaries below, Cole watched as half a handful of soldiers couldn’t get out of the way as the grenade landed and exploded, freezing them in place. Not as many soldiers were downed as he had hoped, but Cole could work with it. Now that a massive portion of the soldiers were down, he could finally fight on ground level.

Faster than the eye could blink, Cole jumped off the roof of the building, blue electricity crackling under his feet as he scrunched up in a ball. Raising both fists into the air, he smiled as his enemies’ eyes widened in terror at the oncoming human missile.

BOOM!

People, cars, concrete and Changler ice cycles alike flew into the air as the man landed onto the street below with enough force to crush a car into pizza, sending out a massive, electrical shockwave that stretched for twenty feet!

Crouching on his knee in a classic hero stance, Cole lifted his head up slowly as the soldiers got back on their feet, gripping onto large slabs of debris and destroyed cars to help hoist themselves up. Getting up to his feet, Cole simply waited for his enemies to assert themselves, standing tall and opposing when they started to notice them.

Soon, the street became quiet, the sounds of the army torrent, screaming civilians and what was left of police fire fading into the background. Until all the last fourteen men could focus on was each other.

The Changlers: a militia group who constantly terrorized the city of Canterlot for years, tore the police down to the bone and took pride as well as enjoyment in hunting down innocent people just to see them suffer.

And the new comer: A single man who, in a span of one hour, had managed to completely humiliate and destroy a large fraction of the Changler army and a flawless, strategical plan that had taken over three, brutal months to accomplish.

No harsh words were said however, as they continued to stare at each other. They instead communicated with their eyes alone, sending a message to each other that was as clear as day. They just wanted the other gone.

Guns slowly started to raise as electricity swiveled around a strong arm, trigger ready at any moment.

Then all hell broke loose. In a blur, Cole shot forth his hand and blasted one man back with a massive strike of lightning, as the others fired a spray of bullets into the hero’s chest. Yelping in pain, Cole stopped his attack and dove behind a car in front of him, hand raise for protective measures as his chest quickly healed. Bullets plinked the hood of the car as the soldiers themselves hid in order to reload.

In a few seconds, his wounds were healed, making him ready to get back into the fray. Standing up, he thrusted both of his arms out, creating a massive shockwave that hurled the burnt car over to the enemy’s direction. Screams could be made out as the object exploded into them, easily getting rid of two soldiers in the process.

Bolting ahead, he ran towards a couple of soldiers who were trying their earnest to sit up. Bringing his leg back, his foot crackled with blue energy before his slammed it into one of the soldier’s right kidney, who let out a pained yelp before limply falling back onto the ground, defeated. Seeing another soldier ahead of them both trying to get up as well, Cole shot forth a barrage of bolts in his direction, pelting the smaller man with rapid force. Roaring in fury and pain, the soldier could do nothing as every time he managed to force himself up through all the firing bolts, it kept managing to pin him back down.

Finally, all strength left the poor soldier, dropping back down on his stomach, defeated. Immediately ceasing his attack, Cole whipped around just in time to see a butt of a rifle slam into his face.

“Urgh!” Cole growled as he stumbled back in surprise, followed by a spray of bullets penetrating his exposed chest. Lifting a hand up, he shot forth a rocket which broke into three pieces midair and magnetized to his previous assailant. As his opponent chaotically bounced around in all directions from the three bullets exploding at different times, Cole saw four other soldiers quickly hide behind a downed bus to reload, while the other four soldiers tried to distract him.

Quickly tossing two grenades at the “distraction”, Cole made his way towards the reloading terrorists, climbing on top of the bus and tossing two freeze grenades right on their heads. Bullets whizzed by his ears as the last four soldiers shouted a war cry and ran full speed ahead towards him. Hopping off the bus, Cole started to calmly walk towards their direction as well, before slowly descending into a run, electricity crackling in his hands. Raising their guns, the Changlers fired more rounds at their enemy, who just ignored the pain in his chest and kept his pace. One of the four men felt intimidated by his enemy’s even pace, and halted to a stop, his allies however, were too deep in their fury to feel anything else. Closer and closer the men got, until they were barely two feet from each other, until suddenly, Cole shot forth a hand and out of nowhere, a wall of ice spikes seemed to materialize in thin air. Then he brought forth both his hands, and a shockwave was sent out with a massive amount of force, pushing the ice spikes along with it. The Changlers didn’t have enough time to register what had happened before the spikes imbedded themselves into the small men, sending them spinning in the air and landing on the ground in a heap.

All was quiet as Cole bent over on one knee, panting heavily. Not too drained, but definitely in pain.

“In all my years.”

Turning his head up, he saw the last Changler on the street, the one who had stopped running towards him, staring at the hero in contempt and disgust.

“I have served the Changler army and it’s leader for years, committing countless crimes. Bloodshed, torture, vandalism. Which I have truthfully enjoyed and have never before been stopped along with the rest of my friends.”

Glaring at the hero, he spoke in a venomous whisper.

“And I won’t ever be stopped. Not now. Not ever. And sure as Tarturas…”

Dropping his gun, he slowly reached for something clasped to his thigh.

“…not by some freak who doesn’t know his place.”

He pulled out a large, gleaming machete and waved it in front of his face, a look of sadistic glee growing on him. Still staring at each other, both were silent before Cole broke the tension. Chuckling, the conduit rose to his feet and put his hands on his hips, smiling. His enemy raised an eyebrow before asking dangerously. “Something funny?”

His chuckling died down as he stared right into the Changler’s eyes, smirking at the smaller man.

“You really think you’re special? Charmed by power, driven mad by it...”

Lifting an arm up, Cole reached behind him and wrapped his fingers around the handle of his Amp, smirk never leaving. ”...chumps like you are a dime a dozen.” Pulling it out, the Amp started to glisten as electricity sparked through the rubber handle and tip-wired in between the two spokes that stored the power. Staring in awe at the weapon, the Changler’s hand shook before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. Screaming in rage, the Changler lifted his own weapon and charged towards the hero, who copied his movements.

Once they were close enough, the smaller men swung a calculated strike at Cole’s upper left rib, right underneath his armpit. However, Cole smacked the opposing hand away and headbutted harshly into his opponents’ forehead, who stumbled back in pain. Using his other hand, Cole threw the Amp towards the Changler’s temple, but only hit air when the smaller man ducked out of the way. Kicking the taller hero in the stomach to give himself room, he brought his machete up and jammed it towards Cole’s lower intestines. Only to have his wrist locked in a steel grip just inches from his enemy’s stomach. Widening his eyes in horror, he saw that Cole had easily righted himself from the attack and quickly seized the Changlers hand with his free arm.

Suddenly, blue electricity sparked out of Cole’s chest and snaked it’s way down his arm, going straight towards his hold on the soldiers wrist.

Shrieking in pain, the soldier released his weapon as the electricity made its way through Cole’s hand and into his arm, the current going straight for the metal machete. As soon as the electricity made contact with the weapon, it spiderwebbed everywhere, causing the blade and handle to be searing to the touch.

With his weapon out of commission, the hero pulled his own weapon back before jamming it’s spokes into the goon’s chest and stomach. The electricity stored inside it shot out the two spokes like missiles, knocking the opponent on his back, down for the count.

Groaning, the Changler laid in pain as his insides felt like they were being burnt alive. Suddenly, a weight was pressed onto his chest followed by his arms moving on their own, off his stomach and magnetizing to the floor. Widening his eyes, his head whipped to the side to see just what this guy had done to him now. A blue, half ring had encased his wrist, the other half imbedded into the ground, holding him firm in place. Turning to the other side, he saw that both his wrists had the rings clamped onto them, the bastard had cuffed him! Shifting his feet, he tried to struggle and kick, only to feel the exact same tight clamps on his legs. A sense of panic started setting in, so he tensed his muscles and pulled his arms with all his might, hoping to break through the cuffs. As he shifted his chest and shoulders, spouts of profanity coming out of his mouth, Cole simply watched in slight amusement. It was no use, try as he might, the cuffs were quite literally ‘set in stone’, he was completely held in place.

A shadow started to engulf around his body, completely blocking out the sun. Looking up, he saw none other than Cole looming over him, a dark scowl crossing his features. Without warning, he slammed his foot onto the other man’s chest, causing him to let out a choked yelp of pain, electricity streaming along his pants leg and stinging the terrorist’s body. Bending his upper body over, Cole got close to the latter’s face, eyes boring into one another. All sense of bravery and courage blew out of the terrorist like a candle once he looked into Cole’s eyes, the blue electricity crackling in his hand sparked as he spoke in a deadly whisper.

“Question and answer time pal.”

BOOM!

Shifting his attention from the trapped Changler, Cole turned around to see the army truck destroy a car, shredding it to pieces. The Changler could wait. Without even looking back, Cole thrusted his amp behind him and smacked it into his enemy’s head, knocking him out cold. Sheathing the weapon back in place on his bag, Cole immediately ran to the building he jumped off of.

____
One house away from stolen army vehicle. Number of Changlers: 1 army truck

Hopping over the ledge that separated his building from the next, Cole sprinted across the rooftops, getting closer to the army truck with every roof he scaled across. Though some rooftops where higher than others, he had no problem climbing up the walls of the buildings and reaching the roof.

Cole continued to hop and jump over ledges and alleys as he got closer to the car. It definitely was high grade military material, it’s massive, bulky form easily towering over the smaller cars on the street. Just being twenty feet away from it, he could feel the gunshots from it let out mini shockwaves that pierced through his chest and damage his ears. It wasn’t going to go down easily.

Stopping on a rooftop that was right beside the truck, Cole jumped behind a decretive stone slab and examined his target. Purely rectangular in shape, it’s entire vomit green body sported a ridiculously thick, bullet-proof outer shell that could wade through the hottest of fires and crumble enemy bullets to dust. It’s massive wheels taller than a household dresser and thicker than boulder simply walked over random cars, turning them into a fine imprint of the road. Even the windows were a force to be reckoned with, just by looking at it from afar, Cole could see that the interior was heavily guarded by an immensely thick layer of bullet-proof glass. And finally, his eyes trailed to the machine torrent that was mounted atop the sleek vehicle.

Considering the torrent was the main focus of the car, it was also guarded from probable danger, though not as heavily armored as the rest of the car considering its more fragile body. A layer of thinner metal sprouted from the roof of the car and covered the gun’s entire body in a rotatable boxlike cage, with the end of the barrel poking out through a tiny hole in the front.

Basically, his bolts would only dissipate once it touched the armor, it’s bulky surface far beyond capable to withstand them. the most damage he’d do to it is bubble the paint.

Another plan of attack was to try and drain the battery, rendering the vehicle motionless and open for attack. After all, that way the thickness of the car’s armor didn’t matter; If he got close enough, he could drain every inch of power from the battery regardless of the armor.

Looking at the car and the street around it, Cole quickly calculated his route and plan before springing into action.

Allowing the truck to lumber just a few inches further, Cole waited until it was close yet far enough not to notice him before hoisting himself over the decretive concrete slab and falling to the street below. As soon as he landed, he instinctively dived behind a car so he wouldn’t get spotted. Peeking through the window, he watched as the truck calmly made it’s way through the street, ignoring everything except the victims it saw in the front window. The drivers didn’t know in the slightest their supposed impenetrable backup had been dealt with. Good, better make this fast.

Running to the left of the car, Cole beelined for the trunk of the vehicle, ducking and weaving behind any kind of debris he could incase the drivers somehow found out of his presence and aimed the torrent in his direction. Luckily, that never seemed to be the case, as he soon found himself just one foot away from the truck. Tensing his muscles once again, he lifted his hands in the air, commanding the electricity to forfeit itself from it’s current host.

Not even the truck’s heavy armor could shield in the electricity as it seeped out of the trunk and into Cole’s hands, powering him up even more. From every wire and fan inside the interior of the vehicle, blue electricity poured out of them and phased through any solid obstacle in their way, slowly but surely draining the car’s power. The muffled sounds of powering down fans and dry gears could be heard as the already slow car started to decrease its pace, soon pulling to a stop. Grinning, he jumped onto the car, grabbing onto a makeshift ladder and climbed up the sides. Reaching the top of the car, he started searching for any supposed weak points, all the while ducking his head from the torrent; This thing didn’t even have a door, how did the soldiers get in?

After a moment of searching, he saw a handle sprouting out of a corner on the roof. Running over to it, he started to see the form of a latch leading into the interior. Perfect. Immediately, he grabbed onto the metal bar and started pulling with all his might, electricity surging through his arms in hopes of helping him open it. However, the latch wouldn’t budge in the slightest, probably heavily sealed from the inside, it was like trying to pull a boulder out of the ground with just his bare hands. The latch didn’t even make a sound.

Cole’s entire world suddenly went sideways as his right side felt like it exploded. Flying off the car and back onto the street, Cole tumbled onto the ground as his injury started to burn like acid. His rolling came to a stop once he rammed into a downed street pole, causing him to groan in pain as he lifted himself up. Every second that ticked by, the burning in his side grew and spread like a spiderweb, making it hard to stand up. Placing a shaky hand on his side, he felt a wet substance on his palm, encouraging him to bring it back up to his face to inspect. Crimson red stained his entire hand. Confusion etched across his features before the ground around his feet shattered like glass, concrete and granite flying in shreds, causing him to hop and jump; Twisting to the side, Cole hid behind the corner of an alleyway as the torrent continued firing in his direction.

Apparently, somewhere hidden on the cage housing the gun was a surveillance camera, installed for scoping out the field more efficiently when the drivers could not. Obviously, the soldiers inside had felt their armored weapon cease function when the battery drained, making them nervous as well as highly alert for anything out of the ordinary. After all, it wasn’t a normal occurrence for such a war-ready weapon to run out of power just like that; Either something was jacked up in the inside mechanics, or someone had screwed with their weaponry. Soon after, they heard loud clanging and bumping sounds up above them, as if someone were walking on the cars’ roof.

So imagine their surprise when their camera had picked up movement just outside the latch and saw a person trying to forcefully open the latch to get inside. If this guy wanted to get up close and personal, then who were they to disappoint him? Unleashing their torrent right in the man’s kidney, they expected the camera to be coated in gore and entrails, but instead got the view of the man being flown off the car with thankfully only a handful amount of blood covering the car. What caught their attention however, was that after their enemy had been shot point blank with a bullet powerful enough to shred through bone in the blink of an eye and had fallen, rather roughly, onto the street below, he tumbled and rolled for quite a distance immediately began to right himself.

To say that made them nervous was an understatement, nobody should have survived a hit like that, not even with a bullet-proof vest, or any type of gear and certainly not at such a close range! Yet, here was this guy, no type of protection guarding his body. Only a t-shirt, plain pants and a bag with something hanging off the back of it. If they didn’t know any better, without the weapon they’d say he was some everyday citizen.

“Ow.” Cole growled as he rubbed his bloodied side. Well, the shirt was bloodied, his healing factor had already gotten to work on his injured side, which was almost fully healed, but it still hurt like hell. Ok, so there were a few unseen snags in his plan, they had a way to see him, that much was obvious. But did they already know he was coming for them? Did they allow him to gain a false sense of security so when he was able to climb onto the car, they planned to ambush him? Either way, these guys were more prepared than he gave them credit for. Time for a new plan.

The bullets kept spraying the alleyway entrance, blocking any route to the street ahead, not that he wanted to go out there; Turning around, he latched onto a window seal and began his climb up the building, reaching the top in a matter of seconds. As soon as he did, the conduit sneaked over to the edge, hoping not to be seen, and once again surveyed the vehicle. The tip of the barrel ceased it’s firing and was searching the area around it, scanning for any sign of Cole, too bad it didn’t have the option to look up. Trailing his eyes over the vehicle one more time, he quickly formed another plan and immediately jumped off the roof and back into the fray. This time, both of his hands were engulfed in a covering of blue electricity, which he raised to the sides in a pouncing like manner, a mist of blue streaming out of his palms. For a second, his body rose about one full foot in the air, before steadily gliding back down to earth, except his landing spot wasn’t the street. Planting his feet on the torrents’ cage with a ‘THUD!’, he immediately crouched down and clung to the sides of it so he wouldn’t slip.

flipping his legs off the metal box, he stood up right beside the torrent in anticipation, his plan highly depending on this single step; The soldiers below had heard his rough arrival and had begun to panic, manually shifting the torrent around in a full 180 degree in hopes of finding him. As the gun turned around towards his direction, Cole waited for the barrel of the gun to appear in his view before lunging forward. Wrapping both his hands around the barrel in a steel grip, he unleashed a mad stream of electricity down his arms and into his target, the blue energy tightly wrapping around the barrel, bleeding into the cage and, though not visible but clearly audible, burning into the guns’ full body. It didn’t take long until the barrel melted into playdough his hands and the rest of the torrent from inside the little cage exploded, metal shrapnel clanging all inside it and orange fire visibly igniting from the small opening. Muffled shrieks of surprise and terrified confusion could be heard from below as Cole reviled in his victory, now there was only a few more things to do.

Walking over to the latch, he steadily unsheathed his amp, which began crackling with heavenly blueish white energy, and placed it firmly in his hands. Bringing it back with a hitched breath, he tensed up before ramming the spokes underneath the latch’s handle, stopping when they were halfway in. Then, shifting his hands into a defensive position, he started pulling the Amp towards him with all his might, all of his internal power housing into the spokes and dripping into the latch, practically burning the mechanical locks from inside to ash. Channeling as much power as he could into the Amp, he strained every part of his body as he pulled hard on it’s handle, he could hear the latch creak and groan. Then, with one final, HARD tug, the locks underneath exploded and the latch opened up, causing Cole to fly back in surprise!

“Alright you damn freak, you want to come get me, well here I am!” a gravely voice screamed as a gun poked out of the latch. The person holding the weapon, the Changler torrent gunner, narrowed his eyes dangerously as he slowly climbed out of the car with a bazooka. But when he fully rose out of the car, he found the roof to be completely clear, the street all around him seemed to be empty as well. Although, it was a little hard to see right beside the car because of all the dust and dirt it threw in the air from the raid. Turning around to check the torrent, his heart nearly stopped; The barrel had been practically melted right off it’s body, now just a pathetic stain on the roof. He didn’t even need to check the rest of the gun, orange flames licked the opening of the metal box, obviously a sign that the weapon was done for. Gulping nervously, he scooted his feet along the smooth surface and aimed his weapon ahead of him, slowly creeping towards the left side of the truck to see if the other man was hiding beside it.

As he was checking the left side, he failed to notice Cole exit an alley way from behind him and quietly sneak his way up the car. Lifting himself up over the roof, Cole now stood at full height behind the man, unnoticed. Before he made his move on the other however, Cole quickly checked the latch which was still wide open, looking for whoever else was hiding in the car that he didn’t know of. An equally rough voice called out from within the truck, underneath the frontal side of the car near the window.

“Is he there Illa?”

The soldier wielding the bazooka shouted back over his shoulder.

“No, bastard must be hiding somewhere!”

Before he could say another word, a shockwave collided into his back, sending him into the street battered and bruised. Whipping his head in the direction of the latch, he saw three other Changlers trying to scramble up the ladder with all kinds of guns strapped to their backs immediately after hearing the ruckus up above. With quick reflexes, Cole slammed his shoe into the lead Changler’s jaw, sending him sprawling on top of his comrades.

In a single, swift moment, Cole tossed five grenades into the car’s opening, barely having time to register his victims' terrified faces. Instead, he reached over to the latch’s door and slammed it shut, ignoring his enemy’s yells.

“WAIT, WAIT-“

SLAM!

The entire truck rattled and shook like an earthquake as the explosions set off, shaking Cole once again off the car, except this time, when he landed, he ran from the vehicle. The electricity in his grenades had not only instantly killed all of the soldiers, but exploded every technological device inside the car, frying the controls, webbing across the metal floors and walls, and boiled the oil inside the pipes. The intense heat in the car became too much, and the electric gears gave up their harnessed power and the entire interior of the car was consumed in a hellish fire, (It exploded) incinerating every square centimeter of metal and wire it touched.

Luckily for Cole, the damage that was shown on the outside was not a massive explosion that had the potential to harm him; Instead, only the windows, exhaust pipe and hood exploded outward with pitch black smoke billowing out of them, the loose latch from earlier was ripped clean off it’s hinges from the shockwave, signaling that the army truck was now forever unusable. Sitting on his rump from a few feet away, Cole sighed as he reviled in his victory, his shoulders drooping down in a relaxing form.

Then a whistling sound filled his ears as a ball of fire whizzed over his head and crashed into the building beside him. Ducking out of the way from the falling debris, Cole rolled to his knees and glared ahead of him.

‘I’m still here fucker!”

The bazooka man, (Illa) had seen their heavy weapon get obliterated from the outside and had gained a massive bloodthirst. He knew this new guy could probably destroy him in a one on one, after all, he pretty much just humiliated the Changler name in a single day, but he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to at least try to take this guy down. Reloading another shell into it’s holster, the soldier frantically looked up to see the hero speed towards him with an angry scowl etched across his face. Eyes bulging, he hosted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder and fired again, the guns’ kick knocking his upper chest back a few inches. The flaming bullet rocketed towards Cole, who tuck and rolled to the left, nimbly dodging the fireball like it was child’s play. Getting to his feet, Cole continued to sprint towards his enemy as lightning began to form on his arms, his expression never changing. This made Illa furious over his miss.

“I’m gonna kill you freak! I’m gonna blow off your freakin’ head, then keep your stupid weapon as a trophy!” the Changler screamed.

He was full on crazed now, his vision blurring and trigger finger itchy as he quickly loaded in another rocket; Cole quickened his pace as the gun was raised in his direction, firing without a second thought. The prime conduit ran at full speed towards the oncoming rocket, which was about eye level with him, like he was challenging it. Suddenly, he brought both of his hands up and shot them forward with a push, sending out a shockwave which rammed into the rocket; But instead of the electricity destroying it’s circuits on touch, which would normally blow up the weapon, the shockwave’s power caused the rocket to visibly flip it’s course around and head back to where it came from, which was Illa. Widening his eyes in silent shock, the Changler said nothing as his own weapon barreled towards him, only dropping his launcher in surprise and jumping out of the way as the rocket slammed into the very spot his feet were resting. Unlike Cole, his dodge had not been graceful in the slightest and he slammed his ribs into the concrete, hard, as the world around him was filled with dust and the taste of metal.

Falling from his side to his stomach, the soldier brought his arm to his forehead and simply rested on the ground. He was scared, emotionally tired and hurt, all of his squad, not that he cared for any of them, had been defeated and he lay broken on the floor of the destroyed street. He just prayed his death was quick.

Suddenly, he felt a steely hand grab a fistful of his militia uniform and hoist him in the air, bringing him face to face with a very pissed conduit. Before he could even blink, he was pushed into the building wall behind him, Cole’s hands never letting go.

“Your friends didn’t fare so well, so I’m hoping you can do a little better at answering my questions.” Cole growled.

His enemy, who was pulled up to his height, coughed out blood before glaring daggers at the hero.

“Screw you, asshat.”

Cole scowled at that.

“Tough talk shorty, considering you and the rest of your goons just got you asses whooped like a bunch of bratty preschoolers. Now answer my question: Just who the hell are you clowns, huh?”

The Changler spat blood on Cole’s forehead, smirking devilishly.

“I’ve got nothing to say to you freak.”

Cole tightened his grip. He didn’t have time for this nonsense, he needed answers NOW. Cocking a fist back, he didn’t even hesitate a second before slamming it into the smaller man’s jaw, a loud ‘CRACK’ following suite. He then wrapped his right hand around the others’ throat, sharp electricity digging into the terrorist’s flesh.

“I can fry your muscles until they’ll look like barbecued steak, and I’ll do it slowly so you can watch as your entire, worthless body burns into a crisp. You just murdered god-knows-how many innocent people and by the looks of it you’ve done this kind of thing dozens of times before. I’m doing you a favor here.”

Cole brought his face close to Illa, who lost his confident smirk and was sweating nervously.

“Think long and hard about your next move pal, I’m giving you a chance to make this easy on yourself. I’ve got no problems if I need to put you down, I’ll just go to the cops, see if they have anything useful for me. Who knows, maybe I won’t kill you, maybe I’ll just feed you to the civilians. After all, I’m guessing they’re not really the biggest fans of you guys and would love to get their hands on you. All I need to do is turn the police’s attention somewhere else.”

The Changler’s face paled at the mention of the angry civilians. Sweet Tartarus, the mere thought of what a mob of furious and heartbroken civilians would do to him sent chills down his spine. Cole noticed his panic, and took this as a victory.

“Glad to see your reasonable, now tell me: Who are you guys and what the hell are you trying to accomplish? I know this isn’t just some scare tactic on the world, you would’ve known better than to bring out your heavy weapons and shove it in the public’s face like a damn flag, unless you’re as stupid as your costume.”

Illa couldn’t bring himself to snap at Cole for his insult, as the electricity stabbing into him restricted any unnecessary words. This wasn’t in the job description! The Changler was now visibly shaking, his words mumbled and dribbled, until he managed to form a stuttered sentence from his mouth.

“W-we wanted t-t-to capture the police for i-intel or randsom, have them bring us mo-more defensive weapons s-s-s-so we can be prepared in case the g-government has ways to eliminate our we-weapons that we don’t know about. The cops have been ruthless lately, l-like they’ve been specially trained to fight specifically a-against us, s-so we had no o-other choice than to u-use the truck today. Plus, w-we wanted the civilians to be even m-more afraid of us, so they wouldn’t get any ideas and f-finally leave the city.”

When the terrorist ceased his stumbled talk, Cole silently mulled the information over in his head. It actually made sense, just being here for a matter of hours, he could easily tell that this terrorist group and the city had been at war with each other for quite a while. The police were most likely unprepared for the unexpected terrorist group in the beginning; And by the sound of it, the cops were getting wise, they must have started something that molded them to be more equipped with dealing with these sort of people, what it was, the terrorists had yet to find out and retaliate against. So they were forced to bring out the big guns, make the citizens understand they still held the high cards, giving them back their fearful title, as well as capture the police for information.

Hand clutching onto the Changler’s throat, Cole pushed him further into the wall.

“Where’s the rest of your little militia, huh? I think it’s time I go pay them a visit.”

Illa’s pure teal eyes shrunk as his face lost all color, his shaking increasing.

“I-I can’t, I’ve already said too much. She’s already going to kill me, i-if I say anything else, oh sweet Scorpan, who knows what she’ll do to me. I’ve seen what she does to traitors and squealers, the things she does to people. She’ll break me out just so she can get me back for talking. Oh Faust, I’m done for!”

Without warning, Cole hoisted the Changler in the air and held him high above his head, before thrusting his arms downward and throwing the terrorist roughly onto the concrete.

“YOU BETTER START THINKING ABOUT WHAT I’M GOING TO DO TO YOU INSTEAD, IF YOU DON’T START TALKING! WHERE. ARE. YOUR. PEOPLE!” Cole roared.

“She’s gonna kill me, she’s gonna kill me. She’s gonna kill you, then kill the cops, and kill everyone I love. I’m basically a walking corpse now, no one can save me, protect me, not the cops, heh, she’ll just tear them apart like she always does! Lilac. Oh Faust, Lilac. She’ll go after Lilac, just to get to me. Oh Faust, what is she going to do to my daughter! I need to warn Lilac, I need to warn Lilac about her! No, no, no, no, no.”

The Changler was babbling now, tears streaming out of his face as he shook like a withered leaf in Cole’s hands. One look and Cole knew he wouldn’t be getting anymore answers out of him, he was completely past the point of communicating. What the fuck?

“FREEZE!”

Body going stiff, Cole didn’t move an inch as the Changler in his grasp continued his mumbling, a clicking of a gun sounded off behind him as a nervous panting filled the air. Unlike the Changlers’ voices which sounded rough and sickly, this new voice was younger and smoother. Shifting his head to the left, he let out a wave of electro-sense, he immediately knew whoever was behind him was, finally, not an enemy.

“Easy man, I’m on your side. I’m just trying to get information out of him.” Cole spoke warmly over his shoulder, hands raised in surrender. The gun clattered as the man, whoever it was, started shaking his gun, either in fear or exhaustion.

“If I wasn’t on your side, I would’ve already attacked you here and now.” Cole advised. The clattering of the gun continued for a solid minute before it stopped with a sigh.

“I’m going to cuff him now, that okay with you?” Cole asked as the babbling Changler continued to ignore everything that was occurring.

“I’d turn a blind eye if you just kill this waste of space.” The voice growled, clearly showing distain for the terrorist.

“You guys need all the information you can get from him.” Cole replied as he gently cuffed the smaller man’s wrists and ankles. Turning around, he saw the voice behind him to be non-other than a battered police officer with a torn uniform, a pistol hanging limply in his arms by his side. He must’ve been one of the prisoners. The officer limped towards him, until his foot got caught on a crack in the stone and he fell forward without a word, his exhaustion catching up with him. Before his body could make contact with the floor however, Cole quickly grasped him in his arms, lifting the officer up and wrapping his bruised arm around the back of his neck, with his own arm holding onto the officer’s right kidney.

The soldier didn’t even resist as he allowed the hero to hold him upright, the both of them looking down at the Changler who continued to chant his troubles, not noticing his imprisonment in the slightest.

“His friends killed five of my partners. Gunned them down right in front of me and laughed as they did it.” The officer covered his face as he silently wept. “They had families: wives, husbands, children. I don’t know how I’m going to tell them.”

Cole said nothing as he observed the downed villain, instead, he simply kept hold of the wounded man beside him. Looking away, he carefully examined his new found ally, noticing right away he had a multitude of injuries, many of them bloody, looking deep and painful.

But not unfixable. Cole thought as he smiled.

“You’re hurt pretty bad; I can fix it if you want.” Cole offered as he brought a hand up, sparkling electricity lapping his fingers. The officer stared in awe, before shaking his head and contemplating the scenario in his head; He had just met this guy, so there was no telling if he was leading him into a false sense of security so he could to gain his trust. Plus, he had superpowers, powers which had been able to take down an infamous terrorist group in a matter of hours, a terrorist group mind you, that he and the rest of his fellow officers have been busting their necks against for years, and have only recently been able to somewhat defend themselves against them.

On the other hand, however, he hadn’t hurt anyone besides the Changlers themselves. In fact, the terrorists seemed to be the only people he was after; Earlier, the officer had seen this very same guy jump down from a building and head over to an injured civilian. Of course, he was worried for the pedestrians’ safety at first and aimed his pistol at the newcomer’s head, only to see him place his hands down on the injured man’s chest which engulfed him in blue. He was millimeters from pulling the trigger when he saw the civilian start to stand upright in shock! The newcomer seemed to say something to the pedestrian before the healed man ran off in the opposite direction. The newcomer had healed him!

Now this man was helping him up from his wounds and offering to help him, even after he pointed a gun at his head just seconds ago no less! If he was an enemy, then why would he go out of his way to save a pedestrian without any onlookers, and even if the civilian started singing his praise, this guy didn’t seem like the type to wallow himself in fame. To the officer, all he saw was someone who just wanted to do the right thing. He was beginning to believe the other man: If he wasn’t on their side, he’d already be dead.

“Sure, but there’s some people over here that need more help than me. Do you think you can heal them?” The officer asked with worry.

“Well, I’ll sure as hell try.” Cole replied with hope in his voice, before he gently pressed a palm onto the officer’s chest, blue electricity surging through him. However, unlike when the electricity went into the Changlers, which seemed to force itself roughly into their bodies, burning the skin along the way; when the electricity touched the officer’s chest, it seemed to melt into him almost naturally, not burning or stinging in the slightest. Healing everything it touched as it streamed across his muscles like a river inside him. Then, as quick as it came, the electricity dissipated, and most of the officer’s deep wounds quickly healed themselves, leaving not a single trace left behind.

Patting himself all over, the officer stared dumbfounded as he felt the spots where his injuries were, only to feel nothing.

“W-what the hell?”

“Yeah, it’s fast and a little intimidating at first, but trust me man, you’re all good.” Cole said with a reassuring smile.

“Sweet Faust, this is completely out of my field. My boys are never going to believe this. A real life super hero, what has this world come to.” The officer mumbled as his shaking hands kept rubbing the spot of his previous wounds. He was too astonished to even notice he was standing straight without Cole’s help; The electricity having healed his limping.

“You said there were more people that need help?” Cole asked as he fingers started once again sparking. It took a minute for the officer to get his bearing before he looked up at the hero, realization dawning on him.

“What? Oh, yeah, yeah, of course, they’re over here, follow me.” He stated as he began to walk towards the direction he originally came from.

As the two started lightly jogging down the street, Cole looked at his newfound companion, who was now fully running like he hadn’t been injured just two minutes ago, and breathed out a sigh of relief. Finally, he had some sort of ally in this strange place. Speaking of which.

“Hey man, could you tell me what’s going on here? I uh, have quite a few questions that really need answering.”

The officer never turned his head, instead choosing to keep running straight, answering without stopping.

“Sure thing. But, I just gotta ask: Who are you?”

Cole shifted his attention back to the street in front of him, face shifting into a serious expression. He replied with a simple answer.

“Name’s Cole. Cole Macgrath.”

_________
Canterlot City, 11:30

“SHE’LL KILL YOU! SHE’LL KILL YOU ALL! YOU’LL SEE! TEAR YOU BLUE COLLAR DO-GOODERS IN HALF AND PUT YOUR HEADS ON PIKES! THEN SHE’LL KILL YOUR LITTLE ‘GUARDIAN ANGEL’, SET’EM ON A STAKE AND BURN HIM ALIVE WHILE THE WHOLE WORLD WATCHES!!”

The Changler who fought Cole earlier kept screaming his lungs out as the police dragged him and his other interrogated ally towards a SWAT truck, ready to be shipped back to the station for even more interrogation.

One cop who held a firm grip onto the screaming terrorist’s cuffed arm, winced at the harsh treatment of his ears, growling irritably at the insults. An older officer marching alongside him noticed his comrade’s discomfort, and placed a sympathetic hand on the younger cop’s shoulder blade

“Easy son, save your breath for the interrogation.”

While the police practically shoved the still shrieking man and his ally into the truck, two officers observed from a short distance as the handlers slammed the back-double doors in the Changler’s face and the car sped off down the street. As they drove off, dozens of other police officers, firemen and emergency doctors flooded the streets, digging out civilians trapped under rubble, trying their earnest to heal any wounded they could find and anything else under the sun they could do.

The two officers simply watched the scene unfold before them, eyes blank, yet disappointment etched across their faces. The officer on the left sighed through clenched teeth, his broom moustache shifting as he did.

“Well, if this isn’t the biggest screw over in history, then I don’t know what is. They held a torrent, a freaking torrent, right under our nose and they still managed to sneak it out of their little hole, all the way to a public street without so much as one government official seeing them and completely mow us all down! How they managed to do all of this is beyond me Lawbound.”

The officer to the right of him, CCPD police chief Lawbound, turned his head to his deputy and old friend, a tired expression crossing his aged features. His friend paid him no mind as he continued his rant.

“A torrent. A fucking torrent. Faust, Lawbound, we’re not equipped to deal with this sort of enemy and firepower. We stop drug traffickers, murderers, shoot outs. This, this is turning into military grade shit. And of course, those pencil necked government idiots are too cowardly and blind sighted to so much as help us one bit. ‘It’s your problem and city to deal with.’ The nerve of those bastards.”

Lawbound smiled warmly at the deputy, hand placed on his shoulder. “We’re doing the best we can here, you know that.”

The deputy roughly shrugged off the hand, a growing anger etching across his features. “Yeah, ‘our best’, clearly our best doesn’t amount to crud. We lost a lot of GOOD men and women out there today, people who deserved honorary discharges rather than being gunned down by a pack of animals.” He spat out the last word with so much disgust, fists balled tightly at their mention. Then his expression softened. “And the civilians. I don’t even want to think about how many innocent people lost their lives today. We’re supposed to protect them from people like these. They look up to us. And we failed them. We had the tools, the training and the strategy, and we still won by the skin of our teeth, like we always do. Like we always have done.”

The deputy rubbed his tired eyes as he shedded a tear. “15 years. 15 years we’ve been doing this. Fighting Changlers so we can take back our city, our home, only to lose more and more people each fight. People who want nothing more than to protect the ones they love, protect people they don’t even know, in order for those people to see another sunrise. Why? Why us, with all their power, why only attack Canterlot City? What horrible wrong did we commit to earn this? I…I don’t know how long we can keep this up Lawbound.”

The old chief stared empathetically at the deputy, a saddened frown donning his face. Keeping his hands to his sides, he stared back at the carnage before him, a look of anger silently brewing in his eyes.

“Yes, I agree it has been a long and painful war with the Changlers, that in every fight, the Changlers always seem to outnumber us. Their unorthodox methods and soldiers have been always been a massive disadvantage for us in both the field and on the map. Of course, it does not help us in the slightest that the government seems to only think of this as ‘our problem, and our problem alone’.” The deputy drooped his hands down at the statement, until his superior continued with a new tone.

“However, as you have said, we’ve always managed to survive in the end. Even through all their numbers and all their firepower, we manage to pull through. We still stand here today, guarding our city with as much determination and power as before. We always manage to somehow, just barely survive, and that is what interests me.”

The deputy was about to speak in retaliation, when the chief raised his hand to silence him, allowing the elder to continue.

“I am not foolish, I understand completely that we can’t expect to win every fight because of some coincidental ‘winning streak’, nor am I saying that we should get in the habit of believing we are simply stronger than them. I’m saying, that there is something we have or are doing that results in our victory, something, which I have noticed, neither of our teams have yet to grasp and understand. That ‘something’, seems to allow us to win, I think there’s a reason for that. And we need to understand it, to find that reason before our enemy finds it and uses it against us. That, is what I believe, Atlas. How to begin our search however, well, that will be our first step.’’

The deputy, Atlas, seemed to mull this information over in his head for a minute or so, before grunting in agreement. Silence overcame them both for a time, before the chief spoke up once again.

“Besides, haven’t you heard; we seem to no longer be alone in this endeavor.”

The deputy barked out a laugh, his eyes never straying from the medics packing people and supplies into the ambulances.

“Don’t tell me you actually believe in this ‘Electric man’ crap. That’s nothing but a load of bull and you know it. Probably just some group of people trying to get famous, or if we’re REALLY lucky, the governments’ crawled out of their damn hole and are actually doing something for once. Though probably just to scare the Changlers from making a move on them.”

Lawbound turned his head towards his friend, a questioning eyebrow raised.

“A whole city full of policemen lose a battle against an army in a matter of hours, half the city’s civilians held captive for ransom and other unknown horrendous acts; Then out the blue, each of their forces break down one by one, until there’s nothing left but the torrent. Where, might I include, many people, both officers and captives, claim to have seen a man that shoots forth electricity jump onto the truck and destroy the torrent with his bare hands. We even checked the torrent ourselves, and it indeed, was in fact melted. Now, other than exploded stereos inside of the Changlers’ cars and a surprising amount of high voltage encircling the area; That’s an awful lot of people seeing the same exact ‘mirage’ at the same exact time.”

The old officer noticed his partner still wasn’t ready to believe in the superhero, that same disbelieving look clearly evident in his eyes. Lawbound sighed inwardly; For as long as he’d known him, deputy Atlas had always been a straight forward, realistic man, a stark contrast to Lawbound’s more optimistic and hopeful attitude, choosing to instead focus on the facts and nothing more. However, ‘facts’ or not, the notion of an actual real life, comic book superhero was something Atlas just couldn’t and refused to even consider the slightest bit believable.

“Come now old friend, if not the witnesses or the damaged enemy vehicles, surely the tale from fellow officer Copper Bronze gives proof to a newfound ally. He said it himself that he witnessed firsthand the hero heal both him and the captives, and we both know Copper doesn’t lie.”

Atlas shook his head, hands placed on his hips as he exhaled.

“True, but like you said, he had just been held captive by a bunch of deranged psychos, who knows what they did to him even in that short amount of time. We do know he claimed to have been stricken in the head a lot, after so much trauma it must’ve been pretty hard to tell the difference between reality and a trick of the mind. It was nothing more than a medic that did all the healing, its no wonder Copper must’ve viewed whoever it was as some bright, shiny superhero.”

Lawbound hummed at this. A valid point. The chief still firmly believed in this ‘’Cole Macgrath”, as outlandish as it sounded, because he saw the entire scenario as a crime scene, and all crime scenes require to be picked and prodded to the core. And though decoded in a seemingly accidental way, all the evidence pointed towards one insane, yet oddly reasonable conclusion, a superhuman. Except this time, the crime scene had been flipped around. The victims were people both him and probably anyone else could care less about, and the suspect? Lawbound smiled at the memory of a grinning Copper Bronze and nearly a busload of civilians crying tears of happiness as they embraced their loved ones, practically singing praises about a man who had healed them of their wounds and ordered Copper to lead them to safety. He remembered staring in awe at the sight of the destroyed army car, jaw nearly dropping completely off his skull when he viewed the damage. Even the weapon engineers had been astonished, claiming with certainty that there was no bomb or weapon on record with such a unique outcome that could cause that kind of damage.

Nevertheless, it seemed that a larger majority of people, including Atlas, just couldn’t nor wouldn’t allow that conclusion. Lawbound exhaled sharply through his nose, he wasn’t really in the mood for an argument, knowing now was neither the time, nor the place. so the man made his decision; he would humor Atlas and the rest for a while, at least until all of the people had been cared for and the mess cleaned up. After all, they now needed to stay on high alert in case the enemy attacked while they recovered.

But his belief would stay firm. He knew for a fact there was a new ally out there, ready to defend them all from threats. How did he know this you ask?

Although many viewed Lawbound as a wise old man who knew answers no one could ever see, the truth was, he was nothing close to that. In fact, like any living being, over his course of time the old chief had made many fatal and foolish mistakes, some causing him to lose friendships, some making friendships stronger. But one thing Lawbound was exceedingly good at, was defining a bad soul between a good soul.

Besides, he’d rather sweep this occasion under the rug for a while rather then argue with Atlas about it. That man is as stubborn as he is strict, and arguments with him usually last for a full-blown month. Seriously, no joke. Lawbound’s head still hurt from last month’s argument over who broke the coffee machine.

“Excuse me, officers!”

Both deputy and chief turned their heads simultaneously as a woman in a brightly suited vest in high heels gracefully rushed towards them, a cap wearing boy following close behind with a boulder-sized camera strapped to his right shoulder.

“Ah great, it’s Mrs. ‘’10,000 Questions.’’ Atlas grumbled under his breath.

His friend chuckled as he clasped a hand on Atlas’ shoulder.

“One question at a time brother.”

As the news reporters got close, all four failed to notice a figure hopping across the building to their left and vanishing from sight
____________

To say today was a win would be a bit of a stretch. Cole lightly jogged across the rooftops of various buildings, scanning the ground like a hawk for any potentially injured people accidentally left or still trapped in the rubble of the streets. He was almost done, this being the last block to search, the ambulances having nearly picked clean this one as well as all the other streets damaged during the raid. Earlier, as he healed the injured civilians, the officer ally Cole had helped, known as Copper Bronze, had given the confused hero all the questions he could offer. Apparently, Cole was right, these terrorists, known as the Changlers, (What the hell kinda name is that? Who came up with it, a fanfiction writer?) had been terrorizing this same exact city for longer than needed be. The officer seemed to read his mind and answered Cole’s next question before he could even speak.

No one really knew what exactly the Changlers were after, only that it was something harbored exclusively in Canterlot City. The police obviously didn’t know, but were sure as hell not going to let those idiots find it. Aside from their hellbent search for whatever-it-is, the Changlers also seemed to just like tormenting the people of Canterlot for giggles and fun, going out of their way to capture, shoot down and maim whomever they pleased.

Next, he asked about their leader. After all, if their continuous screams about some all-powerful woman burning their heads on a stake wasn’t conformation enough; There had to be some kind of strong head amongst such shaky and crazy shoulders. From what he witnessed, though the soldiers were powerful and headstrong in their own right, they were too reckless and destructive to be doing this on their own. He knew their kind from the core, having personally dealt with people like them all the time back in empire city while he was still a simple bike courier, and thugs like the changlers didn’t work together for very long. They’re macho personalities clashed with their own allies resulting in them basically slaughtering one another in the end. To still be grouped as a team for this long and pull all kinds of stunts like these? Yeah, they had to have some kind of alpha they all looked up to, a person who had the power to get people like the Changlers in line and the mindset to force people like them to agree with as well as fight for their own personal goals. And boy, did they have a leader.

Not only was she a person almost all the Changlers adored, she was also an enigma to the rest of the world. No one in the entire CCPD had a sliver of a lead on who she was. Whenever they interrogated any soldier Changlers all they got were promises of seeing her when she herself dragged them to death’s door. Other than that, there was no actual sighting of her: Not on the field, not on the radio, nothing. The only ways they knew about her were the praises from her minions and when she’d write crude and horrific signs on whatever she could after a successful attack, usually in blood, demanding Lawbound and the rest of the world her attention. One thing was for certain, she always seemed to predict most of her enemies plans before they acted, resulting in near devastating losses for the police. Cole smiled once he heard that information. She would have never expected something like him interrupting her hard-worked plans, she must’ve thought this army truck plan would go without a hitch. Oh, how he wished he could see her face once she heard the news.

Other than that, she was practically invisible. Shame, by the sound of it, he was sure the both of them would HIT it off quite well.

And the government? From what Copper told Cole, the government, as usual, had been unhelpful in everyway so far, only shrugging their shoulders in a damn ‘meh’ way and shooing off their pleas for help like it was the plague. Sounds familiar. Cole rolled his eyes as he watched the ambulances drive off down the road and out of his line of sight.

Standing on the edge of a motel rooftop, he scratched his shoulder blade as his eyes wandered the streets. That was really all the background info he was able to squeeze out on the enemy, well, that and the fact all the Changlers were reported to be, interestingly enough, all dwarfs. All of them just chest height to the average person. Eyes set dead on the ground in search for people in need, Cole continued his walk along the roofs.

He had been at this for a while now, having already healed every injured person on a stretcher and a gurney he could find in the last hour. Unfortunately, there was only so much he could do, as his abilities could heal the deep cuts, bruises and to a limited extent, ruptures, of both internal and outer; But there were some injuries even his power could not fix. Destroyed organs and crushed limbs aren’t exactly fixable by electricity, so all he could do was help the firemen pull people out of the rubble and do his best to be a supportive and calming voice as the lawmen worked on their injuries.

“Damn bastards.” Cole fumed, clenching his teeth as he walked. He couldn’t help those people because he was too slow, and he hated it. That needed to change.

And finally, as for where he was? Shit, his head hurt thinking about it. Apparently, the jogger he met in the forest earlier was right, he really was in some strange new city. Hell, it sounded like he was in some other country entirely! “Canterlot City”, “Equestria”, and just like the jogger, Copper nor literally ANY one else had not the slightest clue about New Marias, the Beast, the plague or Empire City. They didn’t even have a single drop of knowledge about the United States!

A conclusion came to mind, he was in some rural part of a different country, most probably in Europe from the sound of their city names, where they somehow weren’t affected by the RFI nor informed of the problems overseas. Thereby, it made sense for them to not have any idea on the subjects he asked about.

But them not knowing about another country entirely? Well, it wasn’t impossible, just rare, he kinda didn’t know where to go from there, maybe they just weren’t taught about the U.S. But then what explained their rainbow-colored bodies?

To be honest, this whole ordeal scared Cole. For every answer he got, twice as many questions shot back up. He was as much as an enigma to these people, their city, and their country as they were to him, and that meant less help in getting him back home. Back to where he needed to be.

It got him thinking again, just how did he get here? When he flipped the RFI, he should have died, period. It was a one-hundred percent certainty. But yet, here he was, very much alive in a once again very much dangerous place. Was it the RFI that sent him here? If so, why? How? And why did he still have his powers? His fight with the beast had drained him dry, so why should something as powerful as the RFI be any different?

Cole messaged his eyes in stressful anger. All these questions and sudden happenings were starting to drive him insane.

Just leaving the city was an option that came to mind. As far as the conduit knew, he was completely stranded here, no familiar faces had yet to show up and now he had managed to piss off a shitload of apparent psychopaths. Sure, he met a few new friendly faces, but how long would those last. People tended to get wary and paranoid around others with any kind of power over them, he didn’t feel like having another knife jabbed into his back anytime soon. Besides, this whole “Changler” thing honestly wasn’t really his problem, he barely managed to win against them today and had more important things to deal with anyways.

If he survived the RFI, did anyone else? Kuo, Nix, hell, ANY other conduit, were they still alive and kicking? What about Zeke? Worry started to build up in his stomach; How was Zeke faring, going about thinking that Cole was dead? What he wouldn’t give to have his best friend’s advice right now.

Suddenly, his face paled.

John.

If Cole had survived, did the beast? What if the RFI failed? Yeah it was painful, but he was still alive, was that exactly what happened with John?

The urge to leave spiked. After all, it wasn’t hard, all he needed was to gain some kind of map, hop aboard a boat, plane or whatever, and hightail it back to New Marais.

“BERRY!”

Looking down, he viewed the damaged street once more in confusion. Below, he saw a middle aged, bright pink woman barrel down the road towards another limping woman, this one a dark shade of purplish blue, and full on tackle her to the ground, balling her eyes out. The victim of the hug, whom he guessed was Berry herself, didn’t hesitate in hugging the crying woman back. Both began crying tears of joy as they clutched each other like lifelines, ignoring the rest of the universe like it didn’t matter.

Cole’s expression softened. What was he thinking, he couldn’t just leave. These people, they didn’t deserve this, horror and death on an unfair scale, hell no one deserved it. It reminded him of the enemies he faced before, how they forced innocents under their boot and walked over their bodies to reach fame, and the victims could do nothing to stop them. That’s why he did what he did. Because he had been in their place before, helpless and useless, not being able to protect the ones he loved as the enemy drew nearer. Now, he had the power to fight against those forces and stand up for their victims, give the people who earned the right to explore what their lives had to offer a much safer path. He needed to stay here, in doing so would allow him to keep a close eye on the Changlers, as well as be a valuable source of retaliation in case of another attack. He’d been given powers to protect the world and the people in it, so that’s what he was going to do.

Straightening his back, Cole began to ponder his situation. On one hand, staying here would result in him relying completely on himself and the environment around him, basically trying to find food and shelter from scratch. The only allies he’d have were the cops, if he played his cards right.

Eh, not my first rodeo. Cole nodded as he rubbed his chin. On the other hand, not only would he provide a safe shield for the city against the terrorists, with his help, maybe he could give them an edge in completely defeating the Changlers all-together. Sure, it was high wishing, but opportunities like these weren’t hard to come by. And as an added bonus, he could try to find out just exactly where he was in the world, maybe come up with a plan on how to get back once he settled everything out here. Hopefully along the way, he could find a way to contact Zeke again, give him the good and possibly bad news.

As for the beast, well that problem would still be at the same magnitude even if he stayed or not. The thing with John was, he had a way of avoiding literally anyone when things got sticky. He’d appear when he wanted to appear, otherwise, it’d be like playing "Where's Waldo” on god mode. So, as dangerous and terrifying as it was, Cole’s only option would be to wait for John to make his move first, he’d have to keep a constant eye and ear out for him, because as sneaky as the beast could be undercover, the powers he possessed caused his arrival to always be an explosive one.

He continued to watch as the two women sat up and began scurrying off to a safe location, tears still brimming in their eyes, his face etched into a small smile.

“Alright, you win. I’ll stay, for now.” He whispered to them as they escaped his field of view. Ambulances sounded off a few blocks away, carrying more injured people off to the hospitals. Reaching the end of the road, Cole did one last Electro-wave to see if he could sense any type of presence underneath the rubble. He received nothing; The police did a good job here.

Turning on his heal, his eyes trailed off towards the city as the cool, dusty afternoon air nipped at his exposed skin. A tired sigh escaped his lips as he continued his quiet view. An entirely new environment with who knows what to offer. He had so many things to do and didn’t know where to start. His mind immediately began debating with his decision. Should he really stay here? He felt like a minnow in foreign waters, this place just gave him odd vibes.

But leaving would result in avoidable deaths. Swallowing his excitement, Cole tightened his fists as his expression hardened. As long as he was here, might as well learn what he can about the place, and it’s rainbow-skinned people.

“Screw it. Let’s do this.” Cole growled, shaking his head in exasperation. Hopping in place, the hero shook his hands before bolting forward, jumping off the building and landing onto the cracked pavement below. He immediately hoisted himself up and jogged towards another building, preparing to climb up. After a few minutes, he pulled his body onto the roof and continued running, heading deeper and deeper into the new world of Canterlot City.

_______________
Two blocks away, unknown alleyway.

“Well, if this isn’t the biggest screw over in history, then I don’t know what is.” A scraggily voice snarled as wailing ambulances drove by in a fast hurry. The owner of said voice, a shadowy, dwarflike figure crouching behind a dumpster inside of an alleyway, watched the police and hospital staff on the street drag the injured and sick into their cars, intent on getting them to safety. As the small man watched, the fury in his pure, teal eyes grew, his fingernails digging into the metal bin he hid behind.

Never taking his eyes off the police, he gingerly reached behind him and unclipped a rectangular device from the back of his belt. Bringing the device up to his lips, he pressed his thumb onto the side button with a Click before speaking into the bottom.

“Lieutenant Pharynx to Changler base. I repeat, Lieutenant Pharynx to Changler base. I think we have a problem. Get her on the line.”

Comments

[Umbra Animo]

Huh neat I had actually commented on crossovers about this very idea.

[PickleRickInAPickle]

Woah! What a chapter. Keep up the good work!

[Shady Nail]

“Lieutenant Pharynx to Changler base. I repeat, Lieutenant Pharynx to Changler base. I think we have a problem. Get her on the line.”

I fucking knew it!