Tales of Equestrian City- the Back Roads

by Alden MacManx

07- Over in a (Split)Second

Rip Current sat forlornly in his studio apartment in the Rare Innovations tower. He was there in an attempt to get his weight down and his appetite under control. Yes, he had his comforts there, mainly his high-end home computer system, full cable and internet access, and enough clothing to last a few days, along with a washer and dryer. The problem with him is that appetite suppressants just would not work, and he could not find enough self-control to regulate his eating. When his weight climbed past three hundred forty pounds, he asked for help. He was provided with the apartment, an exercise program, a fitness trainer, and greatly restricted access to food. So far, he has not added any more weight, but he has come to live with sore muscles and chronic fatigue. He lost a pound after the first week. Just a pound. At least he didn’t have much of a commute to work and back. The constant hunger wore down his spirits, though.

This Saturday morning, Rip was awaiting breakfast, such as it was. Two eggs, grapefruit, bacon, two slices of unbuttered whole wheat toast, and coffee. When the knock came, Rip sprang up to answer it.

A youngish fellow was there, bronze skin tone, coppery-orange colored hair that came down almost to his shoulders, sitting in a wheelchair with a tray on it that held two covered dishes, wearing a track suit. “You’re Rip Current, yes?” the fellow asked, looking at Rip’s portly green frame.

“That’s me. Can’t say I have met you before. You got my breakfast there?” Rip asked.

“Yours and mine, Rip. I’m Wave Rider, Twilight’s aide on certain projects. I’m also your training partner while you do your workouts today,” Wave said as he moved his wheelchair into Rip’s room.

“Please pardon me for asking, but what sort of workout can you do, sir?” Rip asked as Wave gave him one of the covered dishes.

“While you are working out, I will be practicing standing and walking, Mister Current,” Wave said as he uncovered his own plate, which held scrambled eggs, bacon and mixed fruit.

“Please pardon my skepticism, Mister Rider, but how?” Rip asked before taking a bite of his breakfast.

“The how is due to a custom suit I am wearing under my sweats, Mister Current. My back was broken in the Canterlot High disaster, and I have been paralyzed ever since. However, with this suit on, the circuitry can detect the signals going down my spine, bypass the break, and enable me to use my legs again,” Wave explained. “I had an idea how to do it, due to my doctorate in robotics, but Doctor Sparkle was able to use her fabricators to build this suit. I need to make up for ten years in this chair.”

“You look like you are in good shape, Doctor Rider,” Rip managed to say, forcing himself not to wolf down his breakfast because there was a guest present.

Wave smiled. “That’s because I am. I was a competitive surfer when I was in high school and college, up until my back was broken. It was easy for me to stay this way, at least for my upper body. My lower body just would not respond. External massage and flexion can only go so far. The one thing I’m grateful for is that I cannot feel anything in my legs. The pain is in my abdominal muscles, if I work too long and hard.”

“Competitive surfer… Wave Rider… the Pan-Commonwealth surfing championships! You took first place not only in your age group, but overall! I remember watching that on Weekend Sports Cavalcade! You had a surfboard the color of your hair, with a double black stripe and fin!” Rip exclaimed. “I was in B double-E school at the time!” At Wave’s confused look, he went on. “Basic Electricity and Electronics school. Navy.”

“I see. Nice to know someone remembered. What do you do here?” Wave asked with a smile.

“I.T. and office programming here for Rare Innovations. Did my Navy time, got out, went to a more up-to-date school, graduated and got a job with Silver Innovations, coming here when it became Rare Innovations. I’m fairly senior here.”

“With one heck of a problem. I asked Doctor Sparkle for an explanation, and she said to ask you. She said to use the words ‘carte blanche’,” Wave said, his face showing curiosity.

Rip looked startled. Doctor Sparkle had told him, and Blaise Arrow, that those code words signaled that the speaker can be trusted with their secret, that they were metas. “Yes, well…” he started, a flush spreading up his green face. “I’m a meta with a problem. Yes, I have a meta talent, but it’s done something to me, and now my appetite is completely out of control! I’m constantly hungry, and only being here, under a very strict diet and workout regimen, is keeping me from gaining more than the sixty-five pounds I’ve put on since this started!” he finished almost with a desperate wail.

Wave reached up and took Rip’s hand. “Easy there. I’m here to help,” he said soothingly.

“Thanks. I have a friend who has been trying to help me, but while I know he is doing his best to help me, thanks to his condition, after a while, his help frustrates me to the point where I want to slap some sense into him! Problem is, when I do, he beats the sense out of me,” Rip said.

“Now, why would he do that?”

“Blaise is a veteran of the Eastern army, and he’s always kept himself in excellent condition. Problem with him is that he took some sort of blast to the head,” Rip told Wave, showing where, “and now, his face is an expressionless mask, has a mass of scars back here, and is about as emotional as two short planks. He always apologizes, but AFTER he throws me across the gym.”

“Ouch. You ready to go work out?”

Rip sighed. “Yeah. Just let me put a shirt on.” After doing so, he led Wave to the exercise room he was assigned, and they went through what to Rip was a grueling two-hour workout. Wave took it all in stride, but even he showed signs of wear after. Rip needed to lean on the wheelchair all the way back to his room.

That was the start of what developed into a friendship between the fat man and the surfer. Blaise joined the group once he got back from additional technical training. They learned about each other and their meta talents. Wave found his force field would repel any of Blaise’s arrows, Rip found he could not sense Wave’s control circuitry unless he was literally touching Wave, and Wave found Blaise a good workout partner.

They were together when Rip finally got a diagnosis of his problem. After several detailed brain scans, a series of small lesions were found that disrupted his appetite control centers as well as his metabolism, which meant that not only would he put on weight very fast, shedding the pounds was very difficult. Surgery for the lesions was deemed too risky, so Rip submitted to another form of surgery- bariatric surgery combined with liposuction. He was a miserable fellow for some time, but he was able to resume a more normal life afterwards, so long as he knew to stop eating at a certain point. He did, with the help of a little hypnosis that magnified the pain he would feel if he ate too much for his tiny stomach. His idea, actually.

After that, the workouts became more bearable for Rip. Not pleasant, but bearable. Wave was an enthusiastic supporter, while he knew he had Blaise’s support.

The three men found their commonalities formed a bond with each other, despite their obvious differences. Blaise, despite having the most experience, declined the leadership of the small group. Rip was not the leader type, having all sorts of confidence issues. He followed Blaise thanks to the trust of a long friendship and the simple fact that he could not give a damn about how Blaise looked and sounded. Rip gladly accepted his lumps whenever his temper snapped, and he tried to fight Blaise.

Wave found himself the default leader of the group, despite being the youngest of the three. His good looks and inner self-confidence turned into a natural charisma that has been supporting him, and the other two men responded to it. Wave’s first command as default leader was refusing the two men privacy on weekends, insisting on some sort of group event one day of each weekend away from work, to get to know each other. Picnics at Wave’s house, trips to whatever sporting event was going on nearby, going to the beach or even enjoying the sunshine in the park was Wave’s goal, and the other two soon found they enjoyed it, or in Blaise’s case, as much as it could be said he enjoyed anything.

“Think of this would not I have done, Wave,” Blaise said one day at the beach, after a vigorous swim in the surf. Wave’s walking suit could stand getting wet with no real problem, it was getting it snagged on something he had to worry about.

“I’m just glad this Mark Four version will allow me to swim again. I’ve always enjoyed the water, and I’m sure I’m building strength in my legs. The muscles are getting definition again,” Wave said from where he sat on the sand, under an umbrella. Rip Current was sound asleep under another umbrella, the vigorous exercise he got swimming having tired him out.

“Out in public being, discomfort I see it bring to others. Not like making civilians uncomfortable looking at me,” Blaise explained in his monotone.

Wave turned to look at Blaise, directly at his scarred head. “If they can’t take it, they are not worth knowing. Rip does not care about your looks, while I know the meaning of what they represent. I’m honored to call you my friend, Blaise. Looks or no looks, you are a good person to know,” he said with all sincerity.

Blaise reached out and took Wave’s hand. “For your words, I give you my thanks, Doctor Rider. Put into words you do feelings I know Rip has for me. Express it well he never could. Lessons in eloquence you should give him maybe?”

Wave squeezed Blaise’s hand companionably. “Think he will listen if I tried?”

Blaise shook his head a little. “Nein.”

The trio were about three blocks from Blaise’s apartment when the van was hit from behind while at a red light. The impact was not very hard, but it was noticeable. Wave put the van in park and rolled down his window to look outside when he found the muzzle of a gun shoved in his face. “Everyone out! Now! Now! Now!” someone shouted in Wave’s ear. At the same time, someone pounded on the window next to Rip, and someone else was at the side door, trying to open it.

“Plan Theta!” Wave shouted to the others as he took a deep breath, raised his shield, and jammed his little finger down the barrel of the gun. Rip looked at what was pounding on the window. He extended his electrical sense and found the watch the thug at his window was wearing. Almost instinctively, he reversed the polarity of the power flow in the watch, causing the battery to detonate. Since that watch battery was a lithium-ion, it burned hot and fast. Blaise called up his crossbow, reached over to the side door, and opened it, catching the person on the other side by surprise.

Wave’s opponent, caught off guard by Wave sticking his finger down the barrel, almost dropped the pistol. In doing so, he pulled the trigger. The gun went off, but the bullet did not exit the barrel. Instead, the pressure generated blew out the back, blasting hot sparks and gases into the goon’s face. Wave winced at the feeling of the bullet hitting his fingertip. It HURT!

Rip lowered his window a little as the thug’s watch caught fire on her wrist. She let out a high-pitched scream as skin, tendon and bone burned. “Did somebody knock?” he said innocently as the thug fled screaming into the night, trying to get the burning lump of molten plastic and glass off her.

Blaise, for his part, did not say a word as he looked at the wannabe carjacker, who had fallen when he slid the door back suddenly. Calmly, he shot the person with a stun bolt. He then exited, looking for the ‘lady’ with the burning wrist. Seeing her running, he fired another stun bolt, tracking it all the way in to impact. He then started scouting around, seeing the car that had rammed them, a rather beat-up used sedan.

Wave opened his door and looked down at the goon who had shoved the gun in his face. He was moaning in pain, having dropped the now-useless gun, his hands over his eyes. The hand that was holding the gun had some obviously dislocated fingers. “Playing with guns is not smart, kid,” he said.

Everyone heard the car who hit them rev up and try to back away, but suddenly, the windows in the car shattered and the motor stopped running. A young woman appeared, holding someone dressed in black who was driving. The woman had pink hair and was wearing a silver colored one-piece outfit with yellow lightning bolts. “I’ve been tracking you four all the way across town! No more running!” she said as she knocked the driver out with some rapid slaps. She then gathered up the others and lined them up on the side of the road, tying them up firmly with something the others couldn’t see quite right.

The woman, whom everyone had recognized as SplitSecond, then zipped up to Wave’s door. “What? They tried to carjack a wheelchair van? I didn’t expect them to be THAT stupid!”

“Apparently, they were that stupid. I didn’t even hear them before they hit us. How bad is it back there?” Wave asked.

“Bumper’s got a crumple, but you’re able to drive. Their car won’t. Your trailer hitch went into their radiator,” SplitSecond told him as Blaise got back into the van and closed the door.

Rip and SplitSecond made eye contact with each other. A flash of recognition went between them. “I know you!” they said at the same time. “The Total Wasteland Forum!”

“Total Wasteland?” Wave asked.

“I’ve got every episode recorded!” Rip exclaimed, his inner fanboy coming out in the presence of another fan.

“I do too!” SplitSecond squealed. “I’ll see you on the Forum later, okay? I got to let the police know about these thieves before they wake up! You wait here for them, okay? Gotta go!” She then vanished in a blur.

“By in her presence being, fatigue follow fast,” Blaise intoned.

Wade turned to look at Rip. “You sure you know her?” he asked.

“Well, I know I have seen her in one of the video chat rooms. She knows me, too. Not my real name, though, by my handle,” Rip explained.

“We’ll discuss it later. Blaise, check for damage to the van. Rip, check the thieves and make sure they are tied. I’ll call the police,” Wave directed.

“On it.”

“Ja, mein herr.”

It took almost two hours before the police finished interviewing them and let them go on their way. Blaise invited them inside. “Drink I need after that. Anyone else want?” he asked in his own way.

Rip nodded. “I would, but if I do now, I may go over limits,” he said to his friend.

Wave chipped in with “I’m driving, Blaise. I’ll wait till I get home before I have a shot. Thank you for the offer, though.”

“Offering friends drinks after that incident is right thing to do. Declining offer all right, too. Accept reason I do. Monday morning see you at work, ja?” Blaise droned.

“Ja. Have a good Sunday, Blaise!” Wave called out in Blaise’s native language before pulling out.

“I didn’t know you spoke Eastern, Wave,” Rip observed as they pulled out of Blaise’s complex.

“I do, but not very well. I have been taking lessons, just to make him feel more comfortable around me,” Wave explained. “Why don’t you try?”

Rip sighed. “I’ve known Blaise since we were working at Silver Innovations. I can speak a little of it, but I understand more. He says I have too much of a Commonwealth accent when I try,” he explained.

“I hope I don’t have one. If I do, I’m going to ask for a refund on my language lessons,” Wave snorted as he pulled out onto the street, heading for Rip’s apartment. “You say you know SplitSecond?”

“Well, I obviously didn’t know she was SplitSecond until after I met her,” Rip said drily. “But her hair and voice are dead giveaways.”

“Going to mention this in the Forum?”

“Hell, no! I’m not that stupid!” Rip snapped. “I’ll use a PM for that!”

After about a mile, Rip spoke up again. “SplitSecond is a good lady, but I have to admit, I really admire Shadowstrike.”

“Shadowstrike? How did you meet her?” Wave asked as he pulled in to Rip’s complex. Rip explained in a few sentences as they neared his home. “Lucky you, then. I still say the music camp with Rainbow Dash was better.”

“We’ll do more comparisons Monday at lunch, okay? Right now, I need sleep.”

“Monday at lunch, see you then, Rip.”

“Later, Wave.” Rip said as he got out, closing the van door as he fumbled for his house keys.

Author's Note:

Okay, first contact with thugs went over well. Remember, you don't send first-level characters against overbosses at the start of the story!

Okay, that makes five of the Mane Seven encountered, either in hero ID or private ID, (in the case of Rainbow Dash, both). Two more to go before they all meet each other, but only Twilight knows... the REST of the story!

as the announcer is nailed in the face with a two-foot wide lemon meringue pie

Chill it, Paul Harvey, and stick to the script!

Comments

[DavisSentoV5]

Those three make quite the team don't they

[Alden MacManx]

But wait, there's more...

[Malcontent]

9790235
How much would you expect to pay for this team? Wait! Dont answer!