Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

197. Target... Eliminated.

Author's Note:

Warning: Minor gore warning and character death scene.

Scene is marked with "-!-"

-Equus, Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle-

“It is to my sincere and rather severe disappointment that we have nothing to keep you imprisoned with, we can’t actually pin a crime on you… in fact if you were willing to press charges you can pin a crime on Spitfire the Wonder Bolt’s Captain. It’s a good thing you aren’t.” I stated as we let Jaded go after an overnight stay after Pom’s Puppies captured Jaded La Perm. We couldn’t jail the puppies for causing a public disturbance as they were becoming ridiculously popular around Canterlot and there would be riots for trying. Unfortunately there wasn’t a crime we could convict Jaded for and she was calling diplomatic immunity, plus she couldn’t be imprisoned for causing a disturbance because the puppies were the ones to actually start it. “I almost want to say you’re the worst friend I’ve ever had, but Discord beats you out by a mile…. he’s still a friend though.”

“Oh I like you too Twilight! Also you very well know that you can’t keep Airship Mauled’s chaos magnet away from her family and friends for too long.” I’m not surprised in the slightest that you’d call Jaded that Discord. “Why the chaos that would cause.”

-Earth, Saint Canard, Streets, Tobias Rieper-

“Hand over your money!” The random thugs that were out in broad daylight now that the moles were dealt with were quite a sad state of affairs, I had a schedule to keep and a strong sheep like entity to kill. The ones I was staring down in particular were weasels.

“I will assure you now, that the ten of you made a huge mistake of accosting me.” I stated before strolling forward. “I however will not feel sorry for what I’m about to do.”

-Exactly one minute later-

Ten thugs out cold and all I had to do was adjust my tie afterwards, back to preparing my target for an unfortunate accident.

I had to finish my job to get paid after all. I was going to draw her to Saint Canard’s park.

I pulled out my phone and made the call.

“Hello… Ocellus I believe?” My tone made her gasp.

“How did you… where did you get the ability to contact this place?!” Oh don’t you worry about that Ocellus, I wasn’t after you. “Who are you and how do you know my name?”

“Doesn’t matter, I just wanted to tell you that the reaper comes for your friend Leap Lamb.” Call it professional courtesy if you will, to give them prior warning. The last few times were testing her limits. A load of bricks couldn’t hurt her and a wrecking ball going full speed was too slow. “She will come to Saint Canard’s park one way or another.”

-Different set of streets, Shanty-

The moles be being wiped out entirely, we not be seeing a single one once we be setting out to find Steel Beak. There were still the small Egghead groups running around and random street thugs now that the moles were gone.

They be less than threatening compared to the Eggheads or mole army. We be knocking a few of them around, but they weren’t a threat so much as a mild problem.

Dolly be taking things slow and I be wondering how it will happen. It be upsetting for sure, but I be a big girl and could take care of myself with Dolly and Dormarch watching over me until things come to past.

We be a bit late getting to the jewelry store, all the valuables be being stolen. Not that I wouldn’t be minding some treasure to plunder myself, but that be someone’s livelihood that just be going down the drain.

“Guys, Bushroot has been confirmed as being at Saint Canard Park. Megavolt like Liquidator is now a captive, Fawn and Gandra made it back to the hospital okay thanks to Fall-Apart… though I wouldn’t trust that guy to drive a vehicle normally when his body parts keep falling off like they do. No sign of Quackerjack or what he’s doing since he ran, he’s still laying low.” Isn’t Bushroot being the same one that be giving Gosalyn, Drake and Honker trouble? Well if Dolly be needing confirmation on what we found out about an hour ago… “Also our contact has received a call from Agent 47, he’s inevitably going to do something there.”

“That’s where we’re heading next right? Not like we have much better to do here.” Pom looked about for trouble and then we set off at a quick pace for Saint Canard’s park. “We still don’t have any ideas on Negaduck’s whereabouts.”

-Saint Canard Local Park, Tobias Rieper-

“Look the only reason why I’m bothering you is because you’re the only other person here, people start fleeing the park the moment they saw me. Kind of understandable… I do terrorize people regularly.” Looking at the one called Bushroot, I can tell that the plant duck was going to be trouble. “I’m kind of lonely here, besides you’re working for Negaduck at the moment right? So why can’t we both talk to pass the time.”

I glanced at Bushroot as I worked on my trap, his lower torso was made of brown roots and his torso and head were green with what looked like a flower of purple bushy hair like leaves on his head. His arms were of a lighter shade of green, vine like in appearance leading to leaf like hands ending in pointy leafy digits.

Bushroot would be a good bait and set up for the trap as a whole. If Leap Lamb has heightened senses, then disorienting her before killing her off will be a simple task.

Stuffing him in a solid metal box with weed killer and flamethrowers is what I would suggest for Bushroot, but I’m not being paid to kill someone for free no matter how annoying.

“No.” I said sternly.

“So all I have to do is lead them to the fountain? Probably the best place for a fight for me, plenty of water and sunlight to work with. Not the mention the grass… not a lot of plants around the fountain though.” Bushroot was thinking ahead at least, can’t really ask for much more.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something, I’m going to get into position now.” I walked away from the plant duck biological nightmare, hopefully I would never be required to get his DNA for a genetically modified clone that could survive off sunlight. I would in fact be the one to kill anyone who tried, we do not need daylight assassins that will not tire out as long as the sun is up.

“Uh… okay I guess.” Whatever this Bushroot was, he was going to be useful at least. “Well things didn’t go so well at the arboretum, so maybe they’ll go better here?”

-Shanty-

If I had to choose between Saint Canard’s park and Duckbergs, I be liking Duckberg’s before most of it is being run over with an APC, Gi-ants and flying sharks. Also Pom was being part of that destruction by igniting a portion of it by lighting herself on fire, it be necessary at the time according to Pom.

We be at the edge of the park.

“Hey there, come and get me!” Was that being a giant talking flower with a duck’s beak impaled on it? He be running off, but he not be doing anything to warrant us attacking him.

“Well… okay then.” Pom stated before giving chase, I just be shaking my head and looking to Dolly.

Dolly be a smart dog, one of the smartest ones I’ve ever be meeting and since she can communicate with me through Dormarch. She be letting me know she’d be at my side for the foreseeable future and why she wouldn’t be by Pom’s side, why we’re about to do what we were going to.

It all be scary to think about, at least I be having two good friends at my side and a brave heart. This was going to be being very hard to watch.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay with seeing this? I be seeing death at a far younger age.” There are a number of things I will cherish in my memories, Pom being one of them.

Dolly just looked at me and stood tall and looked ready to protect me, she gave two sharp yips and tilted her head towards the park.

We both took off and I be taking Dormarch from my bandana between my horns.

“I have to be asking, what is it like being a machine for you?” I be curious about Dodo, he be many things a machine is not.

“Technically I’m not a machine, I’m an entity living inside a machine. Though it wouldn’t be wrong to say that my life is tied to what makes more complex machines work. Machines with intelligence likely can’t feel pain or anything physically, there’s not much sensation to being mechanical.” As Dormarch spoke we approached Bushroot and Pom facing each other. Bushroot be having several large potatoes that be walking on their roots and Pom be crouching down ready to leap into a fight. “I on the other hand can feel sensations like any living being, however I’m very much limited to what I can feel. Emotional satisfaction is important when you’re leashed to one device.”

“So what exactly is your evil plan after the whole burning down the Arboretum thing?” Pom asked as we approached.

“That was an accident I’ll have you know! Also, I really didn’t think that far ahead, I’m just going with the flow and decided to create some potato minions, very easy to make… tend to grow out control though.” The potatoes be half the size of who we’re assuming to be Bushroot. The potatoes be having fangs and little legs and thorny limbs, for monsters they be looking lazily made. “Thankfully this batch turned out to be controllable and I have five decent potatoes versus your dog, a goat and whatever that device she’s holding is all about. In any case I plan to take over the whole park and make it my personal garden that nobody can come into except who I allow personally!”

“I think I like those odds.” Plainly stated Pom. “Also… you... fiend? I think this is one of those cases where the threat is actually more helpful than evil. I mean you can make the park absolutely beautiful, but then again people won’t be able to enjoy the park themselves… so I guess that’s still relatively evil even if you’d be helping the city overall. You could be a pretty good groundskeeper if you actually put your mind to it.”

“Yeah, but looking like I do doesn’t make me any friends, besides you’re the hero and we have to fight so… yeah.” Bushroot rubbed at the back of his neck while looking away. Dolly be making her way up to Bushroot and sniffing him once, she reeled back and held her nose with her left paw. “Hey, no, I’m not getting dogged again, potato minions attack!”

Dolly immediately darted back for me and not for Pom who laid into the first potato minion with a hoof while sticking to all fours.

“Well that’s all the reason a hero like me needs to fight I guess!” Pom be quickly bucking the next potato minion and rolling away to swing her hind legs into a sweeping trip strike.

We be standing off to the side watching this and not helping her, she had it handled. Looking to Dolly, she looked back to me and nodded with a grim look on her face.

“That be confirming it then?” I asked Dormarch as Pom busy mashing some potatoes with Bushroot trying to coach them into something approaching formidable… it was being quite laughable.

Dolly said something to Dormarch and he be looking troubled on the screen his three fish tails be shaking agitatedly, body language is being easier than verbal if you are good at watching others carefully. Technology was of interest to me, especially the kinds you can interact with and Dormarch be a curious thing. Though I kind of want to be seeing him manifest like he says he can. Just because he can do so, it does not mean that he ever will.

“Dolly says Bushroot matches the profile, De Ville involvement is confirmed to be a major problem we need to deal with.” Dormarch then pointed upwards on the screen. “Heads up Cut-Lass, she is almost done making mashed potatoes. One actually decided that attacking us was a better idea.”

Looking up from the screen I saw one potato monster running at us full tilt. It… was less than threatening then it sounded once you think about it. I put Dormarch up and then lunged forward past the potato with a blindingly fast swipe of my hoof as Pom continued to mash the other four into a fine paste, she would likely do so until the mash stopped twitching.

I turned back to the potato as it turned to be growling, it then stop and its mouth made an ‘O’ shape as the top of its head be separating from the rest of it. Then the upper half and lower half be growing their missing parts only smaller.

Dolly grinned and then leapt to bring the top of her board down on one of the two smaller potato monsters splattering them everywhere. I be spin bucking the other one into a tree where it too splattered violently.

Dolly and I be turning to Bushroot who was backing away slowly with his leafy appendages held up as Pom approached him.

“Excuse me, I might need to go make some more minions!” Bushroot turned and started running.

“After him, we need to stop him from terrorizing kids into never eating vegetables again!” That be the most ridiculous thing I think I ever be hearing come out of Pom’s mouth. Why wouldn’t I eat vegetables? That is being like sixty percent of my diet, the other forty is rum... slowly working that up to fifty percent.

We didn’t follow after Pom immediately.

“Dormarch can you ask Ocellus if Dodo’s egg be okay?” I be looking down to Dolly who be waiting patiently at my side, but she still be tapping her paw in an annoyed manner that she wanted to watch what Bushroot and Pom would do.

“On it, I might even hold a conversation with her while we’re doing this thing, you can talk to her directly you know…” Be knowing that Dormarch, but I’d rather be focused on the situation.

“I need to focus on the here and now.” Putting Dormarch away again, I looked to Dolly. “Let’s go.”

We started heading in the direction that Bushroot and Pom were last seen running. By the time we be seeing Pom, she was fighting on the paved pathway. The things she was fighting? Two blueberry bushes.

I heard Dolly barking something at my side and I then waited for Dormarch to translate.

“She says to hold back and to not help, Pom trusts Dante Dalmatian to be accurate and she hopes that things will turn out how they might be projected to.” Though I can understand why Pom be having to die, it was still a bit weird to hear that we’d have to be there to witness it personally and would be reporting her death personally to everyone. “As you can tell, Dolly is not exactly the most patient dog around, but in this case she’s making an exception because the situation warrants she actually be patient and thinks things through.”

I do not be liking death all too much, but I be a witnessing enough to it to know that life is being very fragile.

Pom having dealt with the bushes through mangling them with raw brute force, instead of anything approaching an elegant fighting style, she started to fight Bushroot. It be sad when the bad guy doesn’t know how to fight without using their abilities, even I can be fighting without my magical abilities.

Is it weird that I want a bad guy that I can root for? Bushroot be seeming more like a sad guy than a bad guy.

Dolly yipped something.

“We should approach now, but don’t make any moves to assist Pom even if it seems like she really needs it. Remember what’s happening here and why we’re staying back like this.” Dormarch be saying from behind my ears. “That’s what Dolly said… but I’m paraphrasing because Dolly has a cheeky way of putting things sometimes.”

Blowing a raspberry in the direction of Dormarch, Dolly rolled her eyes and motioned me forward with a paw. We started moving forward, wary of any plants moving in the general vicinity and Dolly be having a paw on her skateboard as we approached the two.

After what be happening to Gandra, we shouldn’t take anything ‘De Ville’ related lightly.

Pom be handling Bushroot his flank rather well, she not be really needing our help with this as Bushroot be fighting with slaps versus Pom who be dodging and landing solid, rather painful sounding, hits.

“Look, can we talk about this Leap Lamb?” Bushroot be cowering away from Pom his arms splashing in the water as he quickly backed away from Pom. “Haven’t you beaten me enough? My petals are wilting badly here.”

“Are you willing to come quietly?” Pom asked with an air of authority that she didn’t quite have.

“Yes, yes I am, just please stop!” Bushroot clapped his hands above his head and bowed forward as he cowered. “Vegetables can bruise easily and I’m no different.”

Bushroot be looking about the fountain while whimpering, probably for a way out of this. I be looking up at the statue and blinking at something I think I saw that was being quite out of place. The statue be of an animal horse, being ridden by… a biped horse wielding a metal spear, I be wondering what the story behind the statue was considering the largest population of this world consists of duck bipeds.

We be slowly approaching the fountain.

“Cut-Lass cover your ears, Caper Canine block both your sights with the board, now!” Reacting to Dormarch’s sudden shout of panic with incredible speed, Dolly hopped onto my back and held her board in front of us horizontally. I be putting my hooves up to my ears wondering what was about to happen.

A blinding flash occurred that was blocked by Dolly’s board being held up in front of us. The noise was loud and disorienting, but thankfully we avoided the most of it.

“Someone fired a stun grenade from a grenade launcher, somewhere near the edges of the park on a parabolic arc towards Pom.” Dormarch’s voice be sounding muffled, but I be hearing enough of it. Dolly looked disoriented clutching at her helmeted head.

Pulling away the board we saw that Pom was dazed and had flopped onto her belly in the fountain and Bushroot was out of it and moving to some bushes nearby while carefully watching as small explosions happened around the base of the statue of the reared back horse being ridden by a horse.

I be feeling a strong urge to rush forward and ram right into the statue so it didn’t fall forward, but then I felt Dolly putting her left paw to my chest to hold me in place. Dolly actively continued to hold her board defensively towards Bushroot.

What I witnessed next would be in my nightmares for years to come…

-!-

The dazed and stunned Pom trying to stand up in a pool of water, the statue be toppling forward really fast and then… Dolly, Dormarch and I be witnessing a gruesome scene.

We could have been saving Pom from this, but we didn’t move to save or help her. It be very sad, but we all be knowing that it be completely necessary.

The spear rammed into Pom’s back next to her spine, the spear ripped its way out of her chest below where her heart was being in a splatter of flesh and blood. The large hole ripped in her body made way for some of her organs to dribble out slightly.

Wide eyed, Pom’s hooves went to the spear that be piercing through her chest, slowly her gaze drifted our way. They turned just to look at us standing here as the life in those vibrant big blue eyes were dying, she struggled a bit and she saw that we weren’t coming to her side to help her with the heavy statue… that we weren’t going to help her at all and we weren’t going to try.

The look in her eyes became slightly accusing and quite saddened as they slowly closed and her body started going limp on the spear, the fountain water be turning an ugly red color as her body slowly slid down the spear and partially into the water.

“Rigor mortis will set in soon.” Dormarch be interrupting our staring to state that fact calmly despite the grisly sight of Pom being impaled before us.

If this is what betrayal feels like, then I would make sure to make a crew based on love and trust so that mutiny like this never happens.

I be hearing a sniffle at my side and I be looking to Dolly who was crying a bit, I felt some tears come to my eyes too.

This was not a sight I ever wanted to be seeing, at least I not be witness to this alone.

“Sending confirmation, Leap Lamb has died fighting Bushroot. Cause of death was definitely by a third party, she was hit with a stun grenade fired from a distance, once stunned a few well-placed explosives knocked a statue over onto her.” The way Dormarch was saying this without an emotion was heartbreaking. “The statue's spear pierced next her spine from behind at an angle below the withers destroying her left lung, the damage ripped a portion of her belly open and some of her organs are peaking out. She swiftly bled out, the central fountain in Saint Canard’s park is now currently running red. She will be missed…. Ocellus broadcast this news to all local heroes on open frequencies.”

-!-

-Tobias Rieper-

I felt somewhat empty after that, like something was missing now.

I had succeeded and even got a recording of confirmation of death as well as a picture that I had succeeded in my mission.

“Target Eliminated, Leap Lamb is no more. Sending two sources of confirmation now.” Mine and that of the communications between wherever Darkwing’s lair is, I’m not being paid to out the location and Negaduck was not asking for it.

“Hehahahhahhaa, now you see Neyla, that’s how you do it right Sabu Taj!” Negaduck was laughing as soon as he received the picture, he was taking a twisted pleasure from the sight. Not all of my kills were worthy of what was coming to them, but it is what I do. “Good Job Agent 47, sending you the money now and confirming payment for a good job. Thanks for the picture by the way, nice touch, I’ll hang this on my wall and will always remember how painful that death must have been. Now go away and do whatever you want, I have big plans in the work for this evening and it’ll take a while before anyone is in a position to stop me. So be a good little assassin and get out of my way.”

Confirming that the money was put into my account, I took one last look at my victim and then disappeared into the bright streets of Saint Canard leaving behind another in my long list of bodies feeling something vaguely like regret.

Comments

[Shadowshame]

Well I know that in this mishmashed world of yours ghosts should exist because of the Duck family’s ghost butler and probably a few others but I’m not sure what else to make of this

[Booster Spice]

The only way to stop an unstoppable assasin, is take the hit?

You can be killed, but dont mean you have to stay dead?

[Herald of Opera]

11213243
I said the spoilered thing last chapter with a Japanese idiom. Pom won't die, even if you kill her.