Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis

by Jasper77W

Chapter 44: Skirmish

Colgate leaped high over a rock cone that Terra cast from the earth, her hooves clearing the sharp tip with ease. She landed on top of it, her momentum keeping her going and sending her sliding down the rock. She pushed off, raising both blades high and ready to slice Terra in half.

Terra slammed and ground his front hooves together, blue electricity sparkling across the air. He then buried both hooves into the earth with a loud boom, the ground beneath his hooves crackling and splintering into a sea of long sharp spikes.

Colgate landed with her blades, which kept her body away from the sea of danger. She then flipped herself clear of the spikes and landed somewhere behind Terra.

Terra pulled his hooves out from the earth, and turned around to face his opponent. At this rate- while he could defend himself, it was hard to land a hit.

But he could keep trying.

Grinding a hoof lightly across the ground, he transferred a spell into the earth. It'll spring up on its own later on- this should work fine. Then he conjured up a huge rock block then kicked it full on the side, sending it flying towards Colgate.

Colgate slid under it, then leaped back up into the air again.

Terra's trap sprung as Colgate went past it, triggering a huge magical reaction to take place inside the earth's crust.

The automatic spell that Colgate triggered caused a valve to be formed inside the crust, making a direct channel to the mantle hundreds of miles below. The displacement and natural pressure build-up beneath the crust immediately forced a large section of hot gases and molten rock up the valve, and on the surface ended in an explosive manner. The spell was timed, and would seal the crust again after a split second- thus it wouldn't destabilize the earth.

Colgate heard the spell activate behind her, and took a quick glance at the ground there. Her eyes widened as she saw a fresh gust of lava and super-heated gas explode from the earth, a huge wave heading straight for her.

Terra slammed a hoof into the ground, and a thick half-sphere rose from the ground in front of him. He crouched down and covered his head as the brief burst of lava hit the rock shield full on, then spilt to the sides in a molten bubbling mass. His vision was blurring from the heat waves, but he ignored it and dropped the rock shield.

His eyes widened as he saw something with a light blue glow suddenly dart towards him- it was Colgate. She had conjured up a magic shield to protect herself- of all things Terra could have forgotten, the fact that Colgate was a unicorn had to be one of them.

Colgate deactivated the shield shimmering around her in a destructive manner, the magical particles of the shield exploding outwards and hitting Terra full in the chest. He went flying back, over the puddles of lava and ended up slamming his back against the ground. And still he tumbled back a further five meters before coming to a stop on his side.

He struggled to get back up, having been completely knocked off balance. It was a miracle that he didn't get knocked out, but he was barely holding together. In his unfocused vision he saw Colgate leap into the air, arching down with both blades pointed at him.

It was too late- he wouldn't have any time to do anything. Colgate was too close already.

Then suddenly a flash of glowing black darted past him and collided with Colgate.

Neon slammed a fist into the side of Colgate's face, knocking her right back out of her original trajectory. But she didn't stop there- she grabbed hold of her two implanted blades, and snapped them clean off with her claws as they tumbled through the air.

Colgate slammed hard into the ground several meters away from the lava pond, but Neon barreled right into it. The impact sent a fresh wave of molten rock into the air, splattering back down again and cooling into burnt black bits on the floor.

Neon rose from the puddle, lava sliding off her back and mane. The sizzling effect of the lava on her cold skin was causing a lot of smoke to be produced- but one could still see her huge glowing eyes through the thick screen. She dusted off some of the cooling lava with a claw, and started striding through it as if it were water.

Colgate slowly got back up, remnants of her broken blades still attached to her front hooves. She looked at them disapprovingly- useless junk. Then unexpectedly her leg buckled following a loud bang, and she collapsed to the floor. She looked down and found that there was a giant hole that tore through her leg, shredding the flesh and obliterating the bone.

There was a soft tink as a bullet fell to the floor from Inkie's sniper rifle, and a loud click as Blinkie reloaded for her one-armed sister.

Inkie took aim once more, this time going straight for the head- and fired.

Neon suddenly darted forward and snatched the bullet right out of the air, effectively protecting Colgate.

"Cease fire." She said as she threw the bullet into the lava.

"Copy." Inkie said without emotion, lowering the rifle and propping it against the ground.

Neon turned to the disabled Colgate, who was having trouble breathing for whatever reason. She had a neutral expression on her face- as if she were a machine. Neon recognized that look. One she had in herself once, before the Element of Loyalty did something to alter her. That blank expression of a machine- was exactly what she had. Programmed to kill- and it didn't take much to guess who the programmer was.

Before Colgate could react, Neon had already slammed a palm against her temple.

Instantly she was knocked out, and collapsed sideways onto the floor. Neon picked her up and slung her over her shoulder, then turned away.

*

Thyme made the final short length of a jump down the side of the cliff, and landed with a slight 'oomf' on the ledge to the cave. Instantly her HUD was bombarded by warnings as she scanned the life forms inside- two readings, one heavily injured and the other completely mutated, yet normal.

She quickly disconnected her rappel cable, and drew out her pistol. Turning on the flashlight, she shone it into the dark cave.

"Identify yourselves." She spoke clearly, aiming the pistol at the two ponies inside.

"Doctor Whooves and Derpy Hooves. Friendlies..." The doctor said weakly, his chest heaving with the effort.

"Better get the survivors and leave med team, give em some treatment and go ASAP. The pirates seem to want their property back- their forces are turning around." Spitfire said, checking in from high above the earth. The OASIS constantly monitored the situation with its long-range cameras, scanners reporting in the enemy unit types in battle. "Just a bit of artillery and a buck-load of infantry, so get out quick or get swarmed."

"Copy." Thyme said, hearing a few more thuds as the rest of her team swung into the cave and landed on the ledge. "Alright boys and girls, give em a quick patch up- dropship! Wait for us at the bottom, over."

"Copy." The pilot replied. "Moving." He said, and a second later Thyme saw the dropship fly down to land at the bottom of the cliff, its engines roaring as they struggled to keep the hunk of metal steadily in the air.

"Thyme! We can't get a true reading on Derpy, but for some reason... The doctor only has one heart now." Pulse said, tapping away on a holographic tablet projected from his helmet. "Damnit... These readings don't even make any sense."

"Well then screw the readings!" Thyme yelled. "Buck'n find the problem and fix it! Derpy's fine, so fix up the doctor's damn bleeding so we can get outta here before we get shelled!"

"We're trying, okay!? Damnit!" Pulse cursed, making more analytics on the tablet. "His heart is fine, just suffering from heavy blood loss. Stop the bleeding- move it!" He yelled, and produced a canister from his backpack. It had 'biohazard' written all over it.

Ever since artificial blood had been invented, less and less hospitals and surgeries used real blood. Artificial blood was actually a chemical often known as 'Cellplierius', and wasn't actually blood. It remains a clear liquid in its neutral state, however once it comes in contact with blood it immediately adapts itself to change into blood. This prevents any difficulties from between blood types forming, as the chemical remains neutral until it comes in contact with blood and adapts to that blood type. Due to this however, Cellplierius must be kept in heavy containment all the time, as any pollutants might alter its properties and render the entire canister useless or even dangerous. And that's exactly what Pulse had in the canister- three full liters of compressed Cellplierius.

"Alright- I got the CLS loaded! Get that tube in his arm- can't start the injection until you do!"

One of the medic ponies grabbed a long needle, the blunter end attached to a rubber tube that was connected to the canister of CLS.

"Alright doctor- just a little jab, but keep your mind off it." He said, and slid the needle into the flesh on the doctor's right arm.

The doctor groaned as he felt the cold metal slowly slide into his arm, triggering several nerves. He ground his teeth together, and watched with fascination as Pulse started injecting him with the CLS artificial blood. Even as he did so, he could feel his own senses slowly coming back to life.

"Is he going to be alright?" Derpy asked worriedly from the side, shut out by the medic ponies crowded around the doctor.

"Don't worry- he'll be fine." Thyme reassured her, giving her a light pat on the back.

Something on Pulse's HUD beeped, and he pulled the plug on the canister. "Alright! We're done." He said, packing the canister again.

"I gave his leg a few bandages and a healing spell. Should hold together for now." A med finished wrapping the doctor's stump of a leg, and started cleaning up all the equipment.

"Good job meds! Now let's get these fellas down to the dropship!" Thyme yelled, but even as she said this she could hear the loud whoosh of a missile being fired.

She quickly ran to the cave entrance, and saw the missile as it hurtled towards them. She quickly whipped out her rifle and fired a quick burst at it. The first few bullets missed, but the last one hit it dead on and tore it right down the center.

"Get them on the cables- we've got company!!" She yelled behind her.

Then there were more rockets fired at them- from the infantry. Thyme counted at least five- but that probably wasn't accurate considering she was trying to take them down before they could reach their target.

There were so many of them she didn't even have any time to reload- and when she did, there simply wasn't enough time for her unless she was a natural gunslinger like Magnum.

Then there was the loud blasting of engines, and she could feel an odd heat wave slithering into the cave.

"I said 'in bad condition', not 'unusable'." Zealo said, making the Apollo hover just above the cave entrance.

Several beams of rainbows blasted the rockets straight out of the sky.

"Med team, I've got one heavily wounded over here!" He yelled, slowly bringing the Apollo down so its hull was level with the cave entrance's ledge. "Get her off! She's lost a lot of blood." He said, and parted the cockpit windshields.

"Pulse- with me!" Thyme waved behind her, pocketing her pistol and jumping onto the Apollo's outer hull. "Albatross! Cover fire please."

"Copy. Unloading." Thunderlane replied, swinging the huge gunship around and aiming for the pirates.

The earth shook as explosions ripped across the surface, entire buildings being completely knocked down and shredded by the heavy explosives that the gunship was unloading.

"Careful now-" Thyme said as she carefully lifted an unconscious Lightning Dust out of the cockpit. She and Pulse carried her off the plane and into the cave- to a more stable platform so they could begin work. "Apollo! You're clear."

"Copy med team. Thanks for the assistance." Zealo said, flying the Apollo away to assist the Albatross.

"Least we can do." Pulse replied, once again unpacking the canister of CLS.

"Ground team- we've got more firepower now. Retreat to rendezvous immediately! Zealo, cover the Albatross." Spitfire yelled.

"Copy captain." Zealo sighed, and sent the Apollo down to a low hover just above the ground. He could use the buildings as cover for now, and flew the plane sideways and slid onto another street.

"Turning back to pick up the ground team." Thunderlane reported, and there was a silent droning noise as he steered the huge gunship around to park it at where the ground team was.

"Come on boys and girls... It's been a tough fight." Neon said, with Colgate slung over her back.

The dust from the bombardment earlier was starting to settle, the enemy forces recovering. The pirates stumbled back to their hooves, usable aspects of their remaining artillery firing up.

"Terra! Cover us." Neon yelled, and Terra slammed a hoof into the dirt. A huge block of rock rose from beneath the layer of muck, effectively shielding out all the bullets.

"Coming in for landing." Thunderlane said.

"Buy them some time!" Terra yelled at Neon, and they both nodded at each other and charged forth. Then they stopped as they spotted something behind the pirates, and ran either side to take cover. They tuck rolled behind two buildings, hoping it would be enough- also hoping that the pilot's aim wasn't too horrible.

"Seriously? Did I really just flank these guys without them even noticing?" Zealo muttered to himself. "Ah well." He shrugged, and let loose all the Apollo's ammo.

One of the pirates yelled as he started hearing the firing of missiles and prism guns behind them, and turned around. But by then Zealo had already cut down a good fifth of their troops.

"Oooh RPG." Zealo tutted and swung the Apollo to the side, still hovering at the same distance from the pilots. It performed a barrel roll, the rocket soaring past and leaving a trail of smoke in its wake.

Neon peered out from cover, caught Terra's eye and nodded. He nodded back, and they darted out from cover.

The pirates, beaten and confused, were trapped in the middle with an assault aircraft on one side, and two Wardens on the other. The assault aircraft would've been the easier choice if they could shoot it down- which was proving to be a difficulty.

Thunderlane landed the Albatross with a bit of a struggle- the huge aircraft was quite something to try and land. It touched down on the empty street with a loud thunk, the anti-gravity engines dimming as they were no longer required for the time being. The gate at the rear of the aircraft lowered, forming a platform leading into the aircraft's vast interior.
"Everypony in! Let's go!" Rig yelled, waving an arm wildly in the air and getting the others' attention. He stood guard by the aircraft, shooting at the pirates in the distance while Asty rushed over to the Pie twins to help Inkie.

"Don't worry about me. I can walk fine." Inkie said, but made a small stumble as she did so. She stabilized herself with her rifle, but moved off and kept on going. "Just a bit dizzy from blood loss."

"Better sum it up over there!" Thunderlane yelled at the Wardens. "Everyone's already in!"
"Copy." Neon said, snapping a neck. "We'll be over now."

"Cleaning up." Zealo said, still sweeping at the pirate forces with prism beams and a few remaining torpedoes. Then something started beeping wildly on his broken HUD, and he frowned. The corner of a broken edge of glass was flashing red- there was something there before it shattered, but what was it again...?

Zealo's eyes widened as he realized it was a lock-on warning- but by the time he figured that out there was no choice but to bail the aircraft.

He slammed a hoof down on the eject button, but it wouldn't work. The wiring must've been damaged- the signal wasn't getting through.

He cursed, and pulled down a lever to his side. The windshield popped out and was ejected with a violent explosion of air, knocking it at least a good seven meters away from the aircraft. He leapt up, grabbed onto the side of the aircraft and swung out. A second later he heard the missile slam right into the damaged Apollo, the explosion tearing it from the back to the nose.

Zealo fell about two meters down, and slammed his back hard on the gravel floor. The air left his lungs, and he watched as his destroyed fighter came crashing down nose-first.

It smashed into the gravel next to his face, inches away from crushing his skull. Then it tipped to the side and away from him, and crashed down with a light fireball.

Zealo let out a sigh of relief, then looked to who shot him down. Some bastard on the roof.

"Guys! RPGs on the bloody roof in case you haven't noticed!" He coughed, struggling to get up after getting winded by that fall.

"Done." Terra said, slamming a hoof into the ground. The building the RPG pirate was on came crashing down into the earth, the rubble disappearing behind a thick cloud of light brown dust.

"Get to the dropship. Let's go." Neon helped him up, fending off anyone that fired at them. They started backing away towards the dropship not far away behind them, and Terra pulled a giant brick wall out of the earth and sealed off the pirates. It won't last long though- one rocket could take it down.

"Meds! Let's go!" Thyme yelled as members of her team including herself slung the injured over their backs. They ran to the cables still dangling from the top of the cliff where they were anchored, and hooked themselves in again. As a safety precaution they also strapped the injured on as well, keeping them from falling off. Thyme had Lightning Dust on her back, still unconscious but recovering. They had injected a stabilizer into her so her coma state wouldn't do any extra unwanted damage, and wrapped her wings up in bandages.

"Three, two, one!" Pulse yelled, then jumped off the edge. His cable suddenly tightened with tension as the device mounted to his hip detected the fall, and he stopped after only a meter drop and landed hooves down on the cliff face.

They started rappelling their way down to the dropship they arrived in, hopping along the cliff face.

Suddenly Pulse felt something snap, and looked back to see his cable whip back at him. The heavy steel cable contracted and slammed into the side of his helmet, shattering his visor and sending pieces of glass flying into the air. He was knocked unconscious, and his hooves left the cliff face. He fell back, down towards the bottom of the cliff.

"PULSE!!" Thyme screamed, but already it was too late. He slammed down onto the ground about fifty meters down with a sickening crack, and never got back up again.

Thyme's mind didn't register his death for a few seconds, then she realized what had happened and felt a sudden urge to cry. She fought it down, and shook her head. Pulse is dead- but there are still survivors that need to get to the dropship and to safety.

But then it occurred to her- the steel cable shouldn't simply snap....

She turned around, looking behind her and up at the top of the cliff. Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened.

The pirates had flanked them, and climbed onto the cliff. Now they were cutting their cables.

"Shuck!" Thyme cursed, and slammed a button in the armor on her hip. She felt motors yank at her, and she whirled around so she was rappelling down backwards. She whipped out her folded rifle, pressing a button so it sprung into full length. She took aim while still continuing down, firing up at the pirates. "Everyone look out! ABOVE US!!" She screamed, but they were already cutting loose more cables- and she could only watch as her old teammates fell screaming to their deaths at the bottom of the cliff.

Then she heard a loud 'thunk', followed by a whoosh. Horror dawned on her face, and she crouched down as a rocket soared past her head. She quickly looked behind her as it passed, and felt her heart drop.

The rocket slammed right into their dropship, reducing it to shreds.

Author's Note:

Hey! April fools a few days ago. Did anyone play any pranks? Cause I sure did, hehe...

I wanted to prank my friend, but didn't know what to do.... Then I remembered, he's a huuuge magnum fan... So, I decided to tell him that magnum's dying in the next chapter(this one, lol). Here's his exact reaction on iMessages:

I WILL F*CKING DESTROY YOU
F*CK YOU
ASSHOLE
EAT SH*T AND DIE
me: go blame Val
GET VAL TO SUCK MY DICK AND TELL HER TO F*CK HERSELF

I couldn't stop laughing the entire time, it was absolutely hilarious. Then I pretended to send him a new chapter, the email titled 'C44' which stands for 'Chapter 44'. In reality, it was just a blank page with the words 'Happy April Fools b*tch' written on it. The next day at school he raged at me, hahaaaa

It was pretty funny. Although was I a bit too mean though?

Comments

[Varinki]

And that is what I call the ultimate april fools prank.

[tyret100]

Ha nice troll
Anyway keep up the good work