LPRR - The Classified Mission

by Kaciekk

Chapter 3

After receiving the address and exiting the scrapyard, the pair hike west. The sky is slowly brightening, but the sun never shows. The clouds create an ever present overcast, for no Pegasus dares to touch the polluted clouds.

“Do you know where it is?” CharmingRhythm asks.

“I… maybe? I’m not sure. But this is the way to the park. If we can’t find it we can ask one of the sentries,” Slate explains.

A few minutes later they run into a few Resistance sentries that are guarding the neighborhood ahead.

One of the armored sentries speaks up. “Stop. This area is condemned due to Hybrids. No pony is allowed past this point.”

“Not sure why they don’t get anyone to handle the Hybrids,” Rhythm thinks aloud.

“Oh, would you stop that,” Slate says, annoyed. He puts his attention on the sentries instead. “We have a mission that requires entering this area.”

“Sorry, I don’t think we can allow only two ponies into the neighborhood. It’s too dangerous not to go as a party,” a turquoise sentry tells.

“Besides, we wouldn’t let anyone in unless they were sent to eliminate the Hybrids,” another sentry reports.

“Listen,” Slate asserts, “This is a very important mission. There’s something in there that we need to retrieve. I was sent by the president.” Rhythm’s eyes go wide as he says that. “You could ask her yourself, but that will take all day to get a transmission, you know how busy she is. So let us in.”

“I- I’m not sure,” The turquoise mare says.

Slate’s gaze becomes as cold as his voice. “You wouldn’t want to upset the president, would you?”

“Well… no,” one armored sentry replies, worry in his eyes.

“Just let them through, we don’t want to argue all day,” The other sentry says.

“Thank you,” Slate tells them. He enters into the condemned area.

Stunned, CharmingRhythm stands still for a few moments. He suddenly canters forward to catch up with his father. “What was that?” He calls. “Is this mission actually assigned by the president, or did you lie to get in?”

“Oh no, that wasn’t a lie. But I’m surprised they didn’t think it was one,” Slate retorts.

“What? I had no clue this mission was so important,” Rhythm says, astonished.

Slate murmurs, “You didn’t need to know.” Picking up speed, the grey stallion turns the corner around a brick house.

“What the hell could be so important…” Rhythm wonders, but his words do not reach Slate. The steel blue Unicorn continues to shadow him.

Staring down the street, Rhythm’s brown eyes search for any signs of enemies. He only picks out misplaced trash and metal. He angles is vision upward, scanning the skies and roofs. Immediately, he notices a Hybrid patrolling the top of a building at the end of the block. Its gleaming red eye is almost visible from Rhythm’s position. He stops and pulls Slate’s tail gently with his magic.

“Wait,” murmurs Rhythm.

He takes both of them into a dark corner between two of the houses. Rhythm points up to the Hybrid on the roof for Slate to notice. Patiently, they wait for the Hybrid to disappear, the seconds drawing out. The cyborg creature finally moves to another part of the roof, no longer visible.

The two stallions return to their path on the sidewalk in the same order as before. They cover just under a dozen meters before another problem arises.

“Hold up,” Slate warns, holding up a mechanical hoof. “Rhyth, I think we’re gonna need to use some of your magic.”

He gestures his hoof over to the Hybrids that are a block away, on the other side of the street. They duck their heads, passing behind trees that grew in the medium between the sidewalk and street.

“Where do we need to go?” Rhythm whispers from behind Slate’s black tail.

“Pretty sure it’s the house at the end of this street. We just have to make sure not to get the attention of those Hybrids.”

Crouching, the two of them hide behind a pair of trash cans. The Hybrids are now on the adjacent side of the street. Rhythm tries to peer out at the side, leaning forward. The trash can starts to tip into the street. Panicking, Rhythm captures the can with his magic, and pulls it back in place. He looks to his left to see Slate’s eyes, furious.

“Sorry,” Rhythm apologizes through his teeth. “I want to see if I can distract them.”

“Well, getting their attention with the trash can would be a horrible idea!” Slate criticizes.

Rhythm studies the houses on the other side of the street. He picks out an old plastic flower pot which is next to a door. Focusing, he lifts it up with his cyan magic and quickly throws it down the street, pass the Hybrids. The cyborg ponies notice it and chase it, away from the duo’s track. Their movement up the street commences.

They finally reach the house. Slate twists the doorknob. “Locked. Shit.” He mutters.

“Lemme try,” Rhythm offers.

The blue stallion takes a few steps back. He puts his prosthetic leg up to the door, below the knob. He begins to build up energy in his leg. He curls up his leg, and then smashes it into the lock at the same time as blasting it with energy. Rhythm silences the sound with his magic. The door opens.

“Not bad,” Slate comments as he follows his son into the building.

They both began to search the house. Two horns illuminate the dark room with magic. Their hooves step onto trash left on the floor. Rhythm’s eyes glance over all of the misplaced objects. He surmised that the home had been vacant for a few months at least.

"Yeesh, this place is a mess," Rhythm scoffs.

"Well yeah, you aren't really given a warning when Hybrids take control of your neighborhood. You don't get a chance to clean. Anyway, the Hybrids could have also made a mess,” Slate says.

"Hope there's no Hybrids upstairs," Rhythm grimaces.

Rhythm looks through the kitchen and dining room. He opens cabinets and looks around the table. Passing the grease stained oven, Rhythm checks in the cupboard under the counter.

"Where would you keep an important chest?" Rhythm thinks aloud.

"Maybe in a bedroom?" The voice of Slate comes from several meters away. Rhythm follows it to find him holding open a door. They enter.

Immediately a strange sent emerges. "Ech, what is that," Rhythm coughs in disgust, placing his hoof to his muzzle.

"Don't know. Don't want to know," Slate mutters in equal amount of disgust.

Rhythm checks the closet as Slate peers under the bed. Rhythm notes every shelf, but nothing resembling a chest is present. Slate suddenly whips his head up above the bed, eyes stricken with horror.

"That smell would be a dead raccoon. At least I think it's a racoon," Slate reports, appalled but unmoved.

"Aw, come on!" Rhythm moans, throwing his chin into the air.

"Good news: I found the chest." Slate levitates the small box from under the bed and shows it to Rhythm.

"Great. Let's get the hell out of here," Rhythm mutters in annoyance.

Just as they exit the bedroom, heavy hoofsteps are heard from the floor above. Both of them freeze in alarm, their hearts beating fast. The shuffling overhead continues.

Quickly glancing over to Rhythm, Slate growls, "you just had to jinx it."

They head for the door, heads low and ears pushed back. On the other side, they see the Hybrids Rhythm had distracted had returned to their post. Slate motion for them to travel to the right.

"We should be able to get through the alley" Slate says, as they go towards the dark shadows next to the house.

"Dad, that's not an alley. There's a fucking wall there," Rhythm states bluntly.

Slate grumbles something that sounds like Kirinese under his breath, which Rhythm cannot understand. They continue on the sidewalk.

All of a sudden, the Hybrids notice the pair. One starts running towards them as the other takes fire. With hooves pounding the pavement, the two Unicorns begin to run, Rhythm overtaking Slate. Shots from above now rain down. Glancing behind himself, Rhythm notices a Hybrid hanging out the window of the building they had just been in.

Several other Hybrids notice and come out of the alleys to chase. Slate lifts his leg and bright blue energy races towards the enemies. A brown Pegasus drops in front of the Unicorns' path. Rhythm's leg raises and he attacks the Pegasus Hybrid in its face with a quick shot of energy. While it’s temporarily blinded, Rhythm takes his right foreleg and bashes it against the foe's head. Using his back legs, Rhythm bucks the Hybrid into the dusty street.

Rhythm leads Slate through a tight alley in an attempt to lose the Hybrids. Bursting out of the shadows, several other Hybrids wait on the other side. Both stallions stopped when they realize they are surrounded. The enemies continue to shoot and claw at them, one pounding against Rhythm’s armor and another slashing Rhythm’s back leg. The blue Unicorn’s head flicks as he releases a surge of magic from his horn. With the Hybrids now blinded from his magic, the pair have no choice but to run through them.

“Where the fuck did they come from?” Rhythm hollers. “Why didn’t they notice us before?”

“Just run!” Slate yells to the stallion in front of him with irritation in his voice.

Both father and son receive shots of Hybrid energy on their bodies. A dirty orange Hybrid chases close. It reaches out its mechanical clawed foreleg at its prey. Its blade slices across Rhythm’s left foreleg, below the shoulder pads. He grits his teeth from the sting, but chooses to keep running.

Slate challenges the orange Hybrid that attacked Rhythm. He takes fire as it swings it steel blade forward. Only gracing Slate’s neck, the claw leaves a shallow red cut. It takes several shots of Slate’s blue energy until the metal and flesh creature finally collapses.

Rhythm focuses on the Hybrid in the street. Cyan magic engulfs a rusted piece of metal that was lying on the sidewalk. Rhythm’s magic thrusts the sharp metal into the exposed side of the Hybrid. It lets out a wail and topples over.

Rhythm hears Slate call out his name, but doesn’t have enough time for his body to react. His cheek slams into a magically generated shield, and he falls to his haunches. Gathering himself, Rhythm stares forward. Behind the shield is a lavender Unicorn with a horn glowing the same pink as the shield. Her eyes pierce through him, one glowing an artificial red.

“A shieldmaster, shit,” Rhythm lets out as he scrambles to his hooves. Lasers continue to hit his flank and armor, but he makes an effort to ignore it. He attempts to weaken the shield with his own shots, but there is no luck. In the corner of his vision, he sees Slate sitting, tapping buttons on his right foreleg. The older stallion frantically glances between the situation in front of them and his leg.

“Dad, what are you doing?” Rhythm shouts, baffled. “There’s no time to mess with your leg!”

“Step away from the shield!” Slate orders as he gets his footing.

Doing as he says, Rhythm backs up, but impatience remains on his face. A crackle sounds and yellow energy bursts from the hoof of Slate’s bionic leg. The energy dispurses across the shield, in millions of erratic paths. Electricity disintegrates the shield. Not a second later, another shot of electricity flies forward, striking the Hybrid before she can regenerate her shield. Stunned, she falls to the floor.

“Electricity?” Rhythm yells with even more confusion than before. He swipes his gaze over to Slate. “When the hell could your leg ever do that?”

“For awhile now. Now, move!” commands Slate.

Picking up Gear’s chest, Slate chases after Rhythm. A shot from one of the Hybrids hits his purple hoof, causing him to break his gallop, chin hitting the sidewalk. Slate doesn’t make much more than a grunt, but it’s still enough to catch Rhythm’s attention. The blue stallion swivels around with his stance wide.

“Dad!”

A Hybrid appears at Slate’s open side, malice in its gritted teeth. Right leg under his belly, Slate is not fast enough to attack. The Hybrid slams its metal hoof down into his side. He lets out a shriek of pain, unaffecting the Hybrid, but Rhythm’s ears curl back in distress.

“Dad!” Rhythm hollars again, this time with more desperation in his voice.

He raises his own leg, and readys his shot. After a long second of charging, a blast of pure blue energy takes its path into the Hybrid’s head. The enemy stumbles over, losing its ability to see in one eye. Rhythm rushes to help Slate up, and takes the chest into his own possession.

The two return to fleeing from the horrid cyborgs. Now Slate canters with a limp, much slower than before, so much so that Rhythm has to alter his pace in order to not outrun him. Rhythm continues to look for a distraction. Focusing, he levitates a trash can and flings it towards one of the Hybrids. However, his magic, starting to burn out, cannot throw the can hard enough, and the Hybrid recovers quickly from the force.

Both of them notice bright blue streaks of energy coming from the direction they are heading. Resistance sentries come to aid in the fight. A Pegasus in the sky fires quick blasts from the Energy Power Device on his foreleg. Shields appear around many of the Unicorn sentries, defending against the enemies’ strikes.

“Go on ahead!” One of the Pegasi shouts. “We’ll take care of them!”

Rhythm nods his head and speeds past the place the sentries had told them not to pass early. A few meters later he comes to a stop, and patiently waits for his father to catch up. Concern deep in his eyes, he watches the grey stallion pass the sentries. Slate looks to Rhythm, who confirms that he has the item they claimed in the chaos.

“I’m fine,” Slate insists between his sharp breaths, before even being questioned by his son.

“What? No you’re not. How can you say you’re fine when you’ve been injured?” Rhythm rasps. “This is exactly why I came. Do you really think you could have made it out of there on your own?” he exclaims while extending his left foreleg.

Slate is out of breath and out of words to say. His panic stricken eyes search around Rhythm, and then soften as a relief washes over. They made it out. Rhythm rears up, placing his hooves onto Slate’s shoulders and his chin around his neck. He holds the embrace for a couple moments.

“Rhythm, you can let go now,” Slate says, more as a request.

Rhythm does so and replies “sorry.”

“No need to be,” Slate assures, a smile now on his face. “Let’s just get this chest to that crook.”

Rhythm nods in agreement and they continue on their mission.

A few quiet moments pass. Rhythm peers down at Slate’s energy powered leg, and then up at his face.

“So… when did you get the electricity thing with your leg?” he questions.

“I’ve been developing it for a while now,” Slate explains. “Found if I could give my leg resistance to electricity, it would already be resistance to normal energy. It could do one or the other.”

“But, you have a blue crystal,” Rhythm refers to the crystal that juts out of the front of the bionic leg.

“There’s yellow crystals inside,” Slate says with wit.

“Woah. Can you make my leg do that?” Rhythm inquires, his tone almost childlike.

“You wish,” Slate chuckles.