The Rogues of the Detritus Rings try to raise a infant Discord while fighting to survive and protect the last star in the universe from the Varelsi. This is either going to be good... or drive everyone insane.
Long ago, there use to be billions of stars in the universe. Now a days? Not so much. As each star is getting snuffed out by a two faced scumbag and the monsters known as Varelsi, factions are fighting over the scraps left behind and desperately trying to hold their ground against the shadows. One of these factions consist of the free people of Solus and are known as the Rogues. Mostly comprised as a band of scavengers, renegades and overall... misfits.
But what happens when these troublemakers are tasked with raising one? One that is capable of having chocolate milk and cotton candy appear from out of nowhere... Well, let's just say that this is going to get interesting.
Inspired by Tatsurou and the new game from Gearbox Software called "Battleborn". I wanted to try something like this and have fun with a young Discord as well. Hopefully this will work out well. Credits to everything shown. Thank you MrAquino for helping me edit and write this for certain parts.
Updates occur whenever I get the chance to write. If you want to play Battleborn with me on Steam, look for my username frostraven32.
Right now, somewhere in the middle of the galaxy, all the stars in the universe began to darken one by one. The entire universe in itself is beginning to fade away at the hand of a backstabbing and traitorous scumbag that is using interdimensional hordes to devour every known star in the universe. These actions have caused the inhabitants on the planets that remain to align themselves with certain factions as they all tried to fight for scraps in order to survive. Today was no exception by any means… especially with what was going on in this present moment.
“Toby, I thought Reyna said this was suppose to be an easy retrieval!” The Angsty teenager named Shayne yelled through the communications device she had on her to keep in touch with her partner and fellow member of the Rogues named Toby. “What the hell are the Peacekeepers doing here!?”
“The UPR are here?!” She heard the penguin almost choke on the fish he was inhaling. “They must be after the supplies that we’re trying to get. Speaking of Reyna, where is she anyways!?”
“We split up so we could lose the idiots who were chasing us,” Shayne replied back, stopping to catch her breath a little. “Man, for being a group of renegades and misfits, we always get ourselves caught up in the stickiest of situations. I had to rely on Aurox in order to make my escape.” Aurox was the Omnidimensional Djinn that was bound to Shayne and also served as her companion and partner in different situations. Especially this one as of right now. The Rogues themselves mostly resided on the Detritus Rings, away from the constant conflicts with the other factions such as the Eldrid and the Jennerit Imperium. This time though, the conflict was brought to them and it was the reason why Shayne took off shortly after spotting them. They had high powered firearms and despite having a Djinn on her side, a boomerang could only do so much damage to these guys.
“How many of them are there?” Toby then asked over the mic.
“There’s three of these guys from what I can tell. One has a huge body and a tiny head with a minigun. Another is one of those clones soldiers with the last one being a Aviant with a rocket launcher that’s trying to pick us off from the sky.” She recalled, hearing an explosion from a rocket a few seconds later. “Have you heard from Reyna at all?”
“Not since you two left.”
“Damn it,” The teen cursed to herself, trying to think of a plan before speaking again. Once she thought of it, Shayne spoke again after looking back at Aurox. “Toby, I need you to occupy their eye in the sky as much as you can. I’m going to drop off the supplies I got back at the ship before going back to find Reyna. I’m not planning on leaving her here!” But as it turned out… Toby was already doing that before Shayne asked him too.
“GAZE UPON TOBY IN DESPAIR, BIRD BRAIN!!!”
“Well, guess that worked out one way or another,” She thought to himself. “Hope Orendi isn't too busy trying to poke her own eye out to help.” While she was thinking that though, Shayne noticed Aurox looking at a cardboard box leaning against a brick wall. But as a few explosions went off in the background, the box began to shake a little.
“What did you find, big guy?” She asked the Djinn, only to have it respond by nodding it’s head in the same direction where the box was. “Come on, don’t tell me that you’re intimidated by a small box.” That was when the angsty teen herself heard a small cry come out from under it as she looked back at it. It made her a bit curious as she looked back at Aurox for a moment and sighed.
“Okay, I’ll take a look. Watch my back, alright?” The Djinn nodded, turning around and snarling a little, watching for anyone that could possibly attack them as Shayne got on her knees and slowly moved her hand to the box. She heard a small squeal, giving her the thought that whatever was inside it sounded like a child. But when she lifted it up, what the rogue saw… surprised her immensely. It was a small quadruped figure that looked to be made of multiple animal parts. It looked up to her and immediately cowered in fear.
“It’s okay little guy, I’m not going to hurt you.” She insisted, trying to calm the child. Thinking to herself, she took out a candy bar that she had placed in her pocket and unwrapped it, holding it out to the youngling. “Are you hungry, kid?” It stopped flinching and focused on the candy in front of it. It walked on all fours to the candy, but looked at her, most likely unsure if she was actually being nice. When it was close, the child snatched the candy away and began to devour it messily, holding it in it’s front legs while sitting on it’s hind legs.
“Wow… You really must be hungry… How can someone as young as you survive out here?” She asked herself. Turning to Aurox and looking back at the child, she offered a hand. “Come on, let’s get you somewhere safe.” Now, this would normally be out of character for Shayne. But, she never had found a child in a warzone such as this one before… and she wasn’t fully a jerk. The town that was nearly obliterated was once known as Apophis and was once a peaceful city that the Rogues traded with occasionally. Now though, it was all but rubble with this child being the only survivor. Of course, she originally would have had second thoughts…
If it weren’t for the UPR clone soldier, Oscar Mike spotting them first. “AHA!! There you are!”
Thinking quickly, Shayne picked up the child and look back at Aurox. “Aurox, fetch!” The Djinn roared as it launched itself at the soldier, giving the rogue the chance she needed to make a break for it while holding onto the child for dear life. Their ship was only a few blocks away and if Aurox could hold them off for a short amount of time, Shayne could get the kid to safety and also get help from the rogues waiting back at the ship. The sound of a familiar handgun going off though caused her senses to go into overdrive. It was Reyna’s weapon, and it meant two things. The first was that she was alive, which was good… The second was that she was fighting for her life… which was bad.
Once onboard their ship, known as the Fortunes Favor, she turned back towards the youngster, having him not follow her as she took out her boomerang knife. “Stay here… I need to be sure my friend’s are okay.” She turned around and ran back out. Unfortunately, the child wasn’t patient, nor understood what was happening, so it ran back out. Montana, the UPR’s biggest member, came out of the side while being chased by Reyna, ready to steal some heavy supplies, but he stopped as he saw the child.
“What the-!?” He yelled in shock.
“Hey, I said for you to stay with the ship.” Shayne told the youngling. “Geez, the only survivor of this town and it’s a young child… This is going to be a handful.”
“... It’s so Freaking ADORABLE!!! Can I keep him!? I promise to get the UPR away! I’m gonna be the best father to it!”
“Uhh…” Shayne just stared at the massive mountain of a man, wanting to facepalm herself. Only to hear a loud roar and feel pain shoot through her chest. “Aurox!! Ngh!” The small creature turned to see the teen fall to one of her knees in pain, it’s eyes watering up a little as it began to cry.
“What was that!?” Shayne never got the chance to answer that question because a scream from the child soon through the mountain sized man into the air, having it collide with the bird in the sky as both of them fell down on Oscar Mike. Aurox was able to return to Shayne quickly and after that, Reyna began to run onboard the ship, looking at her.
“What the hell was that all about?” She asked, noticing the little one as he tried climbing onto Shayne’s shoulder. “And what the hell is that?”
“One, I don’t know… Two, this little guy turns out to be the only survivor of this town. I found him hiding under a cardboard box trying to hide from the fighting. He was scared and hungry, plus it’s also a child.” Shayne told Reyna as she looked at the little one. The Valkyrie herself sighed before looking back at them.
“Well, whatever it is, it gave us a much needed break. Get Toby to hurry back over here so we can get out of here before those guys get back up. I need to have a word with Whiskey and Orendi.”
“Is it having to do with encountering those UPR guys or something else?” Shayne asked, activating a signal onboard the ship so Toby could see that it was time to retreat.
“Both.” She said, running to the cockpit as Toby soon waddled in a few moments later once he put his mech in standby. The penguin made eye contact with the child that Shayne rescued and right away, the youngling began hiding behind her leg as Shayne took a seat in the cargo bay of the ship.
“Is that a new pet of yours?” Toby asked.
“Not quite… I found him hiding under a cardboard box trying to hide himself from the fighting going on in town. You wouldn’t believe it, but a scream from him sent Mountain Man into his bird friend in the sky.”
“Huh… guess I should thank the little guy for that…. Does it have a name? Or thought of one for it?” Shayne took a moment to think of what Toby had said, only to say one thing in mind as he looked back at the penguin.
“Well, I found this guy in the middle of all this… chaos and he seems to cause a little bit of it himself with how he was earlier… How about we call him Discord?”
“... Discowd.” the child spoke. Both Shayne and Toby gasped, though Toby technically fainted after hearing it speak. “Discowd… Discowd.”
“Heh… I think he likes it.” Shayne smiled, now confirming that the youngster was indeed a male upon hearing its voice and letting the youngster hop onto her lap. “You like your new name kid?” Discord turned his head to the side, but reached out to her to lean against her and say something that surprised her.
“Ma-Ma!”
Shayne honestly blinked at that before realizing what the youngster just said. “Did you just… call me mama?” She looked at Aurox for a moment, who also seemed surprised. Until Discord was reaching out to the Djinn next and spoke up.
“Pa-Pa!”
“Wow… We saved the little guy and he thinks of us as his parents…” Shayne thought to herself. “Well, the Rogues are already kind of one strange family… I believe there’s room for one more.” At that moment, a glass of chocolate milk appeared out of the thin air. It floated to a laughing Discord, taking the milk and drank it messily. “Did...did he just brought up a glass of chocolate milk?” Discord finished his milk and let out an adorable burp. He expected his empty glass, let out a pout, and threw the glass over his right shoulder.
BOOM!!!
“Okay, just what in Solus was that?!” Reyna asked from her position back at the cockpit. “Did that kid find one of Foxtrot’s grenades?”
“Honestly… I’m not sure what just happened…” Shayne replied back. “But I think raising this guy might just make things back at The Happy Lorrain a little interesting.” The Happy Lorrain was the bar that also served as the hideout for the Rogues. Conveniently, it was able to hide any supplies and tech that they acquired in the underground basement while posing as a bar in the Detritus Rings up above ground. Simple, yet effective. Discord clapped his claws together and laughed at the explosion he made, some of which, put a dent in Toby’s helmet. The penguin woke up and saw his dented helmet.
“NO!!! NOT MY HELMET!!!” he screamed. “WHO DARES TRY TO PROVOKE THE WRATH OF TOBY!?!” All that did was got Discord to laugh a little as the small youngling soon appeared on Toby’s head after disappearing in a puff of pink smoke. Toby sniffed air as he looked around. “Where'd he go? And why does it smell like Cotton candy?” Discord laughed again, but it sounded… evil.
Shayne’s only response to looking back at the penguin… was pointing at the top of his head. Discord had given the penguin a cotton candy afro on his head and was beginning to munch on it a little while the penguin was trying to understand what was happening. Toby then growled to himself.
“GET OFF!!!” He squaked. “You're in big trouble, mister!!!” Discord jumped off and Toby chased after Discord! All while the youngling was laughing his head off and enjoying it like it was some kind of game and once Toby tired out, the little troublemaker happily smiled and landed on Toby’s back.
“Whee!! Uncle Toby fun!”
That moment caught Shayne off guard immediately. “Toby… I think Discord just called you his Uncle.”
“‘Uncle Toby’ here's gonna make Discord pay!!!”
That made Discord think a little as the little one went back to his helmet, snapped a finger, and fixed the dents on there that he accidently caused a moment ago while looking at him with eyes of innocence on his face. “Sowwy, Uncle Toby…” Toby looked into Discord’s innocent eyes. Unbeknownst to Toby, Discord’s tail snapped, a boombox appeared behind him, and sad music played.
“... Okay, I’m going to admit. I’m surprised by that.” Shayne said as she felt the ship slowly descend down to the hangar. “Hopefully, Orendi doesn’t go full blown crazy on him when we land.”
“Don’t need to!” The crazed woman’s voice spoke. Orendi fell from the roof and landed next to Discord. She picked him up. “You have got to be the most ADORABLE ABOMINATION EVER!!!”
“Orendi, we just found him in the last town we tried retrieving supplies in, we don’t need to startle him.” Shayne sighed, looking at the two of them before hearing Discord say something.
“Who dis, mama?”
“HE EVEN TALKS!?!?!? I CALL BEING THE GODMOTHER!!!”
“Will you all shut up!?” The door opened, and Whiskey came in. “It’s bad enough I’m being yelled at! I don’t need any…” he paused as he saw Discord. “What… the hell… is that thing?”
Shayne sighed, having to explain to the defective clone the same thing she just told Orendi. Even the part where Discord called her and Aurox his parents and called Toby his uncle. It was then that Discord reappeared on Orendi’s shoulder and laughed at her strange eye.
“Cwazy eye!” He laughed.
“You think that’s crazy!?” Orendi replied, picking him up and placing him on a nearby counter. “Watch this!”
“Oh please!” Toby spoke up. “Don’t-!” But it was a little too late as Orendi did her ‘special talent’, which really involved her poking her demented eye with her bare claws. Discord himself began to laugh a lot, but when he sneezed, one of his eyeballs popped out and landed on Orendi. Everyone but Orendi screamed at the sight.
“WHAT THE F**K!?!?!?” Whiskey yelled before turning around and puking.
“PUT IT BACK IN!!!” Shayne yelled, covering her eyes. “PUT IT BACK IN!!!”
“This is too gross!” Toby added. All Discord did was laugh as he soon put his eye back in, relieving everyone of the sight… for a short bit.
“That was f-fun! Cwan I do it again!?”
“NO!!!” All but Orendi yelled in unison. Reyna entered.
“What’s everyone screaming like a little girl for!?” She demanded, looking at Discord.
“Do your trick, Discord!” Orendi spoke. Discord laughed and did the trick again. Reyna screamed liked a little girl, along with the rest of the Rogues. Shortly after putting it back in… and having to clean up Foxtrot’s mess, all of the Rogues were able to get supplies off of the Fortunes Favor and stack them near the side of the room. And thankfully, their hall, this time, was much more than usual. Despite Discord’s… talents, it was agreed upon that Shayne and Aurox should take Discord in, not just because they found him first, but the fact that Toby was much too small & slow to help Discord out, Whiskey was too inappropriate, Reyna was busy with making sure the team stuck together, and Orendi… well... she was Orendi, nothing else. As Shayne and Aurox went back to their room to get some sleep, Discord happily walked next to her and laid himself on her belly.
“I luv you, Mama…” He said, before the youngster drifted off to sleep. Shayne couldn’t help but smile as she stroked his small, puff of white fur on his head.
“Love you too, Dissy.” She said.
“‘Dissy’? Really!?” Aurox commented with his arms crossed.
“Have any other ideas?” She asked him as the Djinn looked back at her. When she didn’t hear Aurox say anything, Shayne closed her eyes and sighed. “Didn’t think so… Let’s get some rest… Something tells me that we’ll need it for tomorrow while raising this guy.”
“...Hopefully, he becomes a bonafide badass and not an anchor to us.”
“In due time he will,” The rogue smiled. “In due time…” And she was right.
The time spent with Discord was… well… chaotic. Some time after they fell asleep, Shayne and Aurox were awoken by the sound of a rumbling stomach and to seeing Discord looking at them with a small pout on his face. “Mama, I’m Hungwy.”
“... Can't you make more Chocolate Milk?” Shayne muttered, somewhere in between sleeping and waking up.
“I'm Hungwy, not thiwsty!”
“... Get some… Cotton Candy then.” She practically went to sleep, only to hear Discord being insistent as he nudged her head with his nose..
“Nuu!!! I'm Hungwy!!!”
“... Bother… someone… else.” she snored away, turning her head away from the direction of the little one.
“Ma? Mama!?” Discord repeated himself and trying to wake up the teen. “Dwo you have mowe candybaw-?” He asked, trying to sniff around the teens pockets on a search for food. “I’m too hungwy to thwink.” That had the teen and Djinn realize something. For being a very young being that could conjure anything that came to mind, not eating in long amounts of time could affect not just him, but what he could do. Rubbing the temples of her eyes, Shayne springed up to her feet, looking down at the youngster as it leaped off of her to let the angsty teen to get up.
“Okay, okay… Let’s see what we got in the kitchen.” She said, only for Discord to cheer happily and disappear in front of her, only to reappear on Shayne’s head.
“NOM!” he bit into her hair
“Heh… Easy there, Dissy… Wouldn’t want to ruin your appetite by chewing my hair now, would you?” She said, ignoring the bits of pain from her hair, feeling like it was being torn out of her skull.
“Heh, I'm enjoying this.” Aurox said. “What's her hair taste like… Dissy?” he internally cringed.
“Tastes wike peppah!” Discord cheered.
“I hope so! You better cover that bald spot, though.” Shayne rolled her eyes as she walked into the kitchen and looked around.
“Okay, if you two hotheads can simmer down a little, maybe you can help me find some food to make something for Dissy.” She said as the teen opened up another cabinet to look at the contents inside and try to find something. Only to hear the Djinn say something that made her turn around and raise an eyebrow.
“Hey, I'm just saying, you better wear a hat or something.” Aurox replied. “And why not give our small monster here the souls of our enemies?”
“I don't wike feet, though.” Discord said.
“Aurox, he’s a child. Can we not try to teach him cannibalism?” Shayne sighed, looking through the cupboards and trying to find something. One thing in particular stood out to the youngster and, with a snap of his paw, not only did Shayne feel the small bald spot on her head get covered, but saw the youngling hold something in his paw. A box of Pancake mix.
“Pancakes!” he cheered.
“... Where did he-?” Aurox began to ask, but was interrupted by Discord when he spoke up again.
“PANCAKES!!!” He threw the box at Aurox, which hit his head and left a bruise on his skull and a little bit of mix on his head.
“Ow!” Shayne herself chuckled a little, rolling her eyes as she rubbed the top of Discord's head and set the box on the counter. While she turned to get a mixing bowl and spoon though, the young teen soon heard another snap and all of the ingredients were neatly laid out on the counter. With each quantity being for making the most amount of servings on the side of the box.
“Wow… You are just full of surprises.” Shayne chuckled, looking back at the youngling as she set the bowl down on the counter. “I’m beginning to like you already.”
“Nya!” Discord replied, suddenly with ears, nose, paws and a tail that were that of a cat before turning back to his original self.
“That’s… just weird.” Aurox commented.
“This coming from the Djinn who’s basically tethered to my torso and startled Toby so many times that I’ve personally lost count,” Shayne slyly remarked, looking back at Aurox before beginning to stir the ingredients together. “Trust me… weird is technically normal in these parts of the galaxy. I mean heck, look at Orendi.”
“… Fair point.” The Djinn growled, turning around and looking outside the door. “Speaking of which, where is everyone else?”
“Hell if I know, Aurox,” Shayne grunted. “Maybe they’re out collecting Starshards from Chunk Braxon III.” Chunk Braxon III was the name of one of the major mining stations out on the Detritus rings. Even though the main operation was set up there by the Last Light Consortium, or LLC for short, the Rogues have been known to borrow some of resources and dip into their cash flow to keep their operations going smoothly. Not only that, but starshards and the the energy inside the crystals could be used in the creation of energy based weapons and also power up some of Reyna’s own tech like her command glove on her left arm.
That… was exactly the case as Discord soon heard a familiar waddle enter the kitchen and pounced on the individual that walked inside “Uncle Toby!!”
“GAHH!!” The Penguin shouted, startled by the youngling’s surprise attack. “Seriously kid?! You scared me!”
“Sowwy,” the young child pouted. “Mama and I are making pancakes!”
“… Do we even have the ingredients to make such things?” Toby asked, looking at Shayne with a raised eyebrow.
“Apparently we do…” She sighed, looking back at the penguin. “Toby, where are Reyna and the others?”
“I honestly don’t know where Reyna is, Foxtrot is passed out in his room after going up to the bar for a drink and I honestly don’t really pay that much attention to what Orendi’s doing. Most of the stuff she does is just either disturbing or creepy.” The Penguin sighed, using a contraption at the side of the table so he could raise himself up and sit on the counter while Shayne was putting in the pancake mix and Discord himself cracked the eggs and made the shells explode once they entered the trash bin.
“Toby, you know that unless she is on a mission with us, we need to keep an eye on her. Remember what happened the last time we left her out on her own?” The Teen reminded him as she looked back at Discord. “Nice shot, kiddo.”
“Don’t remind me… Why else do you think the LLC called her a four armed psychic murder storm and clinically diagnosed her as bat@%# crazy?” The Penguin said, only for Shayne to flick him in the beak. “Oww, what was that for?”
“Language Toby,” Shayne sighed, tilting her head to Discord. “You forgot that we’re raising a kid now.” The penguin just shrugged it off, waddling a little to where the youngling was to watch them while they were working.
“What does bat@%# mean?” Discord asked “And why's it censawed?” That just got Shayne to look back at Toby as she narrowed her eyes and gazed in his general direction.
“Now you see what you’ve done?” The teen sternly spoke.
“What!?” Toby asked with a shrug. “I was telling the truth.” Orendi, very quietly and creepy like, came out of the ground and sent chills down the Penguin's spine.
“Don't trust everything people say, our little Discord!” She said. “Just like how my parents told me to never sell my soul! I sold my soul long ago! I'm fine!” her scarf fell, revealing her shark-like teeth. Discord stared, but smiled.
“I wanna seww my sow!” he cheered.
“OFFER ME YOUR SOUL, CHILD!!!” Aurox demanded.
“Oh for the love of-. Everyone calm down…… Orendi, I thought you were with Whiskey and Reyna.” Shayne commented as she began stirring everything to prepare the griddle for making pancakes. “Why are you here?”
“I just wanted to see our sweet, little hellspawn!” Orendi replied, ruffling Discord’s head. “‘sides, you know today's Whiskey’s ‘Alone Day’. Don't wanna go in there, not unless you wanna get shot.” she began to rub the fur on Discord’s belly. He fell over and accepted the belly rub, literally turning into a dog.
“Aren’t you a little bit worried that Reyna might need your help right around now?”
“Oh relax, if there’s anything about her, there’s nothing she can’t handle.”
“...... Why do you sound so confident in saying something like that?” Shayne asked, only to take back what she said. “You know what? Don’t answer that.” Next, she took out her boomerang instead of the whisk, since she saw Discord licking the batter off of it, and began to use it as a spatula in order to help flip the pancakes as they were cooking. However, the only problem was that it wore down the medical tape on her hands and soon, her fingers ached a little.
“Hey Toby, can you and Orendi watch Discord for a minute? I need to take care of something real fast.”
“So I'm watching both?” Toby asked, crossing his flippers together like arms.
“NOPE!!!” Orendi shouted, taking Discord. “Come on! Let's have some fun!”
“Fun!!!” Discord cheered.
“Oh no you don't!” Toby snarled. “You're not going-” Discord sneezed. He and Orendi dissappeared in a flash of light.
“... Oh s**t.” Aurox spoke.
Orendi and Discord found themselves in a dark room,though a horizontal line shined into the room.
“You can teleport!? Orendi asked “Cool! Let's have some fun!”
“Fun!” Discord cheered.
“Now… where are we?” At that moment, music played in the room.
Both peeked out to see that they were in Whiskeys room. His ‘alone time’ was really him getting buff so that, one day, he'd kill his ‘Faker’, or as everyone knew him as Oscar Mike. Whiskey was already posing in front of a mirror while taunting a poster of Oscar Mike.
“You think you're so tough, Oscar!?” Whiskey growled while flexing. “You know nothing about me… but I know all about you, Oscar! And it's not because we're clones… kinda… it's because I'm a better badass than you! It's… dammit! I gotta work on my words! Don't you agree, Fluttershy?” He pulled out a stuffed animal that was a butter yellow Pegasus with a pink Mane & tail, and had large, blue eyes. Both Orendi and Discord laughed. “WHO’S THERE!!!”
“Escape!!!” Orendi yelled. Discord, unsure on what to do, snapped. They teleported before Whiskey saw them and then, for a legitimate cover story, began to act like they never left the kitchen.
A couple of minutes earlier...
Toby was about to protest, but in moving his head, the teen thought that the penguin was nodding yes and then left the room with Aurox accompanying her. Once in her room, she found what she was looking for and applied the athletic tape she needed to the parts where the old tape had burned off.
“There we go, good as new…” She said, moving her hand a small bit before something in the air caught her attention. “Hunh?” She sniffed it once or twice before looking back at Aurox. “Something’s burning…” Given the fact that anything in the base revolving around fire was not always good, both of them raced back towards the kitchen. Only to see a sight that just baffled them.
Discord was wearing a chef’s hat and on a plate was a leaning tower of pancakes that was next to him. While on the ground, Toby himself was covered in a pile of flapjacks to the point that he couldn’t even waddle out of it because of the sheer weight of the pile. All of this while Orendi was laughing hysterically. “Look mama!” He said cheerfully as he used his magic to duplicate a ball of pancake batter before cooking it in a matter of minutes. All with just a paw. “One paw!”
Shayne chuckled for a moment, before looking at Orendi and folding her arms. “I thought I asked you to watch him.”
“I was… He was putting on quite a show.”
Shayne facepalmed. “That wasn’t what I meant…” The door crashed and Whiskey came in, holding his assault rifle fully locked and loaded. Startling them as he went into a personal fit of anger and rage.
“ALRIGHT!!! WHO ENTERED MY ROOM DURING MY ‘ALONE TIME’!?!?!?”
“Uh… what?” Whiskey pointed at them all.
“IF NO ONE ANSWERS, I'M GONNA DESTROY YOUR WAFFLES!!!”
“Pancakes.” Discord corrected the clone.
“Whatever!” He snapped back.
“Dude, chill out. I just went to get some athletic tape for my hands. Toby’s been with Discord and… Wait…” Shayne paused for a second, looking back at the where the only other rogue in the room used to be. Since Reyna was gone… that only left one possible explanation. “Where’s Orendi?” All that could be heard shortly afterwards was her insane laughter echoing throughout the base as Foxtrot soon chased after her. Firing his gun at her while she just easily dodge any bullets coming her way.
“Well, just great…… Wait til Reyna gets back and finds the mess these two are going to cause.” Shayne said to herself, before taking up a plate and putting some pancakes on it. “Well, maybe these two could provide us with some entertainment until she gets back.”
“I'm gonna need mow Popcone!” Discord said, hold an empty bucket of popcorn almost as big as him.
“I thought you just said that you wanted Pancakes?”
“And where did he get that?” Aurox added.
All sat down and were entertained by Orendi being chased by Foxtrot, who spewed some nonsense that may or not be weird slang for inappropriate actions. That however, was interrupted as they felt the ship land, and heard a set of familiar footsteps. As soon as both of them saw Reyna enter the hangar bay, Whiskey and Orendi stopped their chase and stood attention.
“Aw!” Discord whined. “I wanna see the viowence!”
“Alright, Lazy asses!” Reyna ordered. “Get our take back into the bar! That includes you… whatever you are, Discord.”
“YAY!!!”
“Where are you gonna be?” Shayne then asked before walking over to the others. “We have a mess to take care of in the kitchen-.” Reyna was going to ask… all before she noticed a few pancakes on Toby’s head that he was struggling to get off and then decided not to for the sake of her sanity.
“You can get to that afterwards,” She sighed. “I’m going to take care of some things in my office. Do not come in unless I ask you too or if it’s an emergency. Understood?”
“Yes ma’am!” Everyone replied, Discord himself adding to it as he did a fake salute before they went off to take the cargo off of the ship while the leader of the rogues walked to her office. Setting her gun back in her holster and looking at the Holo-screen. Noticing a new number above the envelope Icon, she pressed a finger to read who sent it to her. When she saw who is was, all she did was sigh.
“Ghalt… Too eager for his own good…” She groaned. Only to think it through before actually considering to see the message.
“Reyna,” it read. “I don't want to say this, nor do I agree with it, but the circumstances call for it. I want to call a meeting between the factions, not to settle any scores or anything, but to come together for one common purpose. I don’t have much time to send this, but meet me at these coordinates on Bliss. I will explain everything to you once you are there. In addition, you are allowed to take one of your crew with you… Except for Whiskey. I rather not have him go on a killing spree after seeing Oscar Mike.
-Captain Trevor Ghalt.”
The Valkyrie sighed after seeing the message. A meeting between the factions would always lead to pure chaos, whether it was political or not. But if there was someone that would actually get someone to sit down and talk, it was Ghalt. Personally, with everything going on right now, she just needed a drink of water to calm herself down.
But as she had set out the cup she was going to drink, filled it up with water and began to drink it, what she tasted was anything but water.
Outside, Shayne and Aurox, along with everyone else were calm and having what was left of the Pancakes Discord made. That was, until they heard Reyna shout from her office.
“OKAY, WHO’S IDEA WAS IT THAT MESSED WITH THE TAP WATER?! IT NOW TASTES LIKE CHOCOLATE MILK!!!” Discord giggled while twiddling his claws like an evil mastermind. All the teen could do was sigh a little as she and the Djinn looked back at him.
“Raising you is either going to be really interesting… Or really stressful.”
“Probably both.” Toby replied.
Shortly after her outburst, Reyna quickly found out about Discord’s ‘prank’ and had him sit in the Time Out corner, facing the wall. All while Shayne was looking at her. “Is this really necessary?”
“Do you want me to shoot him?” Reyna asked, pulling out her pistol. “‘Cause I will!”
“... Okay, nevermind.” Shayne sighed, changing the topic for a moment. “So, why were you out earlier?”
“Turns out, what we were picking up in the mines was a signal to all the factions… Tomorrow, I’m taking Orendi with me to investigate. Which means I’m letting you, Whiskey and Toby take care of… this rascal.”
“You think it might be a trap?”
“Could be… But right now, it’s unpredictable… Which is why I’m bringing Orendi…” The commander told her, causing the teen to fold her arms.
“Because she’s unpredictable?” Shayne asked, looking back at Discord while doing so.
“More that you would think.” Reyna sighed. “I’m the one who's going to have to tell her. Especially when she wants to pull out the intestines of any fool that leaves their mouth open when fighting her.” With that, she began to walk away and go off in the direction of Orendi’s room. In doing so though, Shayne thought of something as she looked at Aurox.
“Hey Aurox… What do you think about getting Discord started on his training soon?”
“Right now?” the Djiin replied, turning to Discord. “Alright… son. Give your old man a good punch!”
“Aurox, I was thinking tomorrow. Like after he gets some sleep. You saw what he was able to do today and he’s probably kind of exhausted.”
“Nonsense! Come on! Punch me!” Discord tilted his head. A pitcher filled with juice appeared next to him. “... What's this?”
“Punch!” Discord replied.
All the teen could do was chuckle in amusement before facepalming herself. “...... I was going to mention that he might not exactly know what you mean… He is a child after all.” Shayne chuckled. “Come on, Dissy. Let’s go back to my room. You can get out of the corner now.”
“Yay! Thanks Mama!” Discord cheered, hoping onto her shoulder while tossing the pitcher at Aurox’s face. “Ooops… Sowwy Papa.” Aurox sighed, taking a moment to taste the punch dripping all over him.
“Hm… not bad. Could use some more sugar.”
“Let’s not try to make another mess today you two,” Shayne reminded them. “Besides, we got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
Originally, the thought of trying to get Discord accommodated to being in a combat situation sounded like a piece of cake for both Shayne and Aurox given the nature of Whiskey Foxtrot earlier trying to chase Orendi with murderous intent on his mind. Unfortunately though, both the teen and the djinn soon realized that this was not quite like what they thought because of the fact that every time there was a small quarrel inside the base, Discord saw it as a joke and also… as entertainment. The two of them couldn’t even keep track of the amount of times he did something goofy or comical in response to that.
“Geez,” Aurox groaned, looking back at the teen as she twirled her boomerang a little. “If he’s like this around us, how else do you think he’s going to stand up again Rendain and the Varelsi?”
“Patience, Aurox.” Shayne urged the djinn as they watched him throw another glass behind him after drinking some more chocolate milk. “I’m not quite sure if we should be telling him about them just yet… besides, there really isn’t any educational videos about a dark warlord trying to destroy the universe.” Orendi and Whiskey passed by again, now Orendi had a spare, broken helmet that Whiskey saved.
“You can’t catch me!” She repeated
“I’m gonna rip your head off!” Whiskey growled, causing Discord to laugh again.
“And I thought Orendi was with Reyna, checking on that transmission… Maybe she took Toby instead?” Shayne sighed to herself, looking back at Aurox before hearing a blinking sound come from the nearby control center. “Whisky, Orendi! We got movement outside the base!!”
“MURDER TIME!?!?!?” Orendi asked with excitement. Shayne sighed, looking at the scans again and now looking a little more concerned. They were thrall, the mutant soldiers that were basically Rendain’s lackeys.
“Yes Orendi… We got thrall on the outskirts. And if we know what that means, the Varelsi would show up soon. Get out there and make sure they come nowhere near this place!” Shayne shouted. “With Toby being with Reyna, we’re the only ones guarding this place… Get going!”
“LET’S HAVE SOME FUN!!!” She cackled as Orendi ran out past the defective clone.
“%@#!” Whiskey said. “Oh, sorry, language. What about you two? Joining us? Or are you watching over Discord?” He cocked his assault rifle “We could use your help.”
“Discord can’t protect himself. We’re going to try and make sure he’s somewhere safe first before joining you guys. It would’ve been different if Toby were here, but you’re going to have to make use of the defenses he installed outside the base last week in the meantime.” With that, Shayne scooped up Discord as she ran to the back of the base while Whiskey ran in the opposite direction. The teen remembered that the Penguin had set up locations outside the base for where the Rogues could set up turrets when any invasions like this were to happen. But that was only two days ago and they had yet to be tested. All Discord could do was look back at Shayne as they turned another corner towards one of the rooms. A worried expression came onto the younglings face
Outside, Whiskey was setting up one of the turrets while Orendi ran around, looking for something. “WHERE’S MY PRECIOUS!?!”
“Get your ass over here and help me set this turret up!” He shouted at Orendi, who ended up ignoring him as she cast a spell that formed a pillar of chaos as the bodies of several thrall flew into the air.
“MURDER TIME FUN TIME!!!”
“F^@*!!!” He pulled his assault rifle out and fired at the thrall, though, as everyone knew, his assault rifle was a three burst weapon. Which made it hard for him to reload without getting swarmed by incoming enemies. Of course, while he was reloading though, the Thrall in front of them soon stepped on a red circle as Aurox burst up from the ground and turning them to ash. Causing Whiskey to turn around as Shayne unsheathed her boomerang.
“Hope I’m not late to the party. Had to make sure Discord was in a safe and comfortable place.” The teen told them, causing Whiskey to look back in confusion.
“And where would that be, ‘Momma’?”
“Your room.” Shayne quickly said. Whiskey’s exposed eye twitched. “What? I was short on time and had to come back after hearing Orendi go nuts.”
“Why you little-!”
“KEEP YOUR MOUTH OPEN!! I WANNA SEE IF I CAN RIP OUT YOUR INTESTINES!!!!” Orendi yelled in pure joy of all the carnage and trouble she was getting herself involved in as both rogues watched her go crazy with her spellcasting. Whiskey pointed at Shayne.
“This isn't over.” He reloaded again before aiming at the Thrall.
“What? He see’s you as Grandpa Whisky. Where else was he suppose to be that doesn’t involve him getting in trouble-. OH SH-!” Shayne cursed as she and Whiskey both had to barrel out of the way in different directions. “Oh for crying out loud! We just happened to catch the attention of the Varelsi!”
“DAMMIT!!!” Whiskey pulled out his arm, grenade launcher. “Time to go Michael Bay on them!” He fired multiple grenades at the Varelsi, causing several explosions
Shayne just stared with a raised eyebrow as she looked at the clone. “How do you even know who that is?” Before that, she just sighed. “You know what? Don’t answer that-.”
“Ooh! Our little guy wants to join.” Orendi spoke.
“WHAT!?!?!?” Everyone yelled. Walking across the battlefield, dragging Whiskey’s plush Pegasus in his mouth, Discord walked, his eyes shut with a smile on his face.
“Discord! I thought I told you to stay inside! You’ll get hurt-!!” Shayne’s words were cut off, just as a blast from a Varelsi threw her and Aurox into Whiskey, causing her to struggle in getting up. “Agh!”
“MOMMY!!!” Discord spoke, running to her on all fours.
“FLUTTERSHY!!!” Whiskey yelled, seeing his plushy destroyed by an explosion. “NOO!!!”
“Oh, this is just adorable…” All of them heard, looking in the distance as the rogues recognized the voice. “Fighting for such trivial things and trying to go against the inevitable… Too precious.” It was Lothar Rendain… well, more like a hologram of Rendain that was next to the thrall general that was leading the assault. “Especially since you see each other as family… How… pathetic…”
“SNEAK ATTACK!!!” Orendi yelled, charging at the hologram… only to be snared by a trap and thrown into the dogpile that was Shayne, Aurox and Whiskey. “Uh… in retrospect… hindsight was 20/20.”
“CWAZY AUNTIE!!” Discord screamed.
“I apologize, but I can’t stick around long or stay to watch you and your pathetic excuse of a home burn to the ground. I’m a little too busy for you lot to even be considered as important… Sorry for the inconvenience.” With that, the hologram dissipated. But not before Rendain looked back at one of his generals. “Warmonger, make sure to tear them apart! Limb by limb! And as slowly and painfully as possible.” The Thrall and the Varelsi approached to the fallen group. Discord saw his family, all defeated, helpless, and possibly, dying. He was frightened, but somewhere, deep inside of him… he snapped. His eyes literally glowed with fire, followed by the rest of his entire body, and he turned to the nightmares approaching them.
“NO ONE… HURTS… MY… FAMILY!!!” He yelled, his words now enunciated. In a white flash, Whiskey’s rifle was in his claw & paw, and he fired at the monsters around them. Several seconds later, once out of ammo, Discord switched tactics and now took up Orendi’s skills, using some of the same skills she would, but with his own twist on them as he had Shayne’s knife in his claw as it flew around and hit several opponents within range. All while the rogues that were on the ground were staring. Surprised.
But not as surprised as what Discord did next: somehow, with a twist of both his wrists, he was in Toby’s mech suit, jumped into the middle of the group, and fired around while circling around, taking down everything around him. When the mech faded and the only thing left was the Warmonger screaming towards him, the youngster sharpened his claw and paw and began to unleash a barrage of slashes at the opponent. All while screaming a certain phrase.
With it, the ones who tried to assault the compound were all dead and nothing more as Discord regained his composure, realizing that he still needed to heal everyone as he poured a huge bucket of chocolate milk over the group, dowsing them like if they were on fire.
“ECH!!! Really!?” Whiskey yelled, “I just washed these pants!”
“Uh… Is anyone even paying attention to the fact that Discord just annihilated those guys?” Shayne asked.
“I’m so proud of you, son.” Aurox chuckled as they all got up off the floor.
“Now I’m gonna get a lot of followers online!” Orendi said, holding a video camera.
“... Okay how?”
“SpaceTube!” Orendi shot back before looking up. “Hey, what’s with the weird ship in the sky?” She asked, pointing at it with one of her hands as everyone else looked. To their surprise, it appeared to be a ship that was built by the Last Light Consortium as it touched down nearby. Opening up as Shayne just groaned.
“Oh come on! We already had to deal with Rendain’s lackeys! Can we freaking catch a break already!?” The hatch opened and to everyone’s surprise, Toby and Reyna were on board. Along with several other people that clearly were representing other factions. Two of them looked to be from Eldrid, another four seemed to be from the UPR, Two from the Jenerrit Imperium… or broke away from it, and lastly, another few looked to be from the LLC themselves. Including one old guy in a flying arm chair.
“Okay, just what the hell was all the racket down here-!?” The old guy shouted, before Discord leaped and tackled Toby.
“Uncle Toby!!”
“GAAH! NOT AGAIN!!!”
“... Did that vampire attack here?” Reyna ask the others as all of the people on board began to disembark.
“The Thrall and Varelsi were here, yes… but you would not believe who defeated them all.” Shayne said, pointing at Discord as he was nomming at the feathers on Toby’s head.
“... Him!?” They nodded in response to Reyna’s outburst. “... How the hell did that happen!?”
“You might want to check with Orendi… She recorded everything apparently.”
“Along with Whiskey’s tragic loss.” She added, watching his ‘No!’ again with a giggle.
“YOU UPLOAD THAT AND I WILL NOT HESITATE TO SNAP YOUR NECK!!”
“Too la~te!”
“I’M GONNA STRANGLE YOU!!!” Whiskey declared, chasing after Orendi as she laughed, running away. Not before a voice from someone new rang out and caught everyone’s immediate attention
“Enough! All of you!” The one who was shouting snapped. He was short by appearance, but his voice sounded firm as it caught everyone’s attention. All it did though was cause Discord to jump off of Toby and crawl over onto Shayne’s shoulders.
“Who’s the guy with the booming voice?” He asked, looking back at him. “He reminds me of Grandma Reyna.”
“I’m sorry, what now!?” The Rogue leader responded upon hearing that single comment. “Did you just call me Grandma!?”
“Well… Whiskey is Grandpa, Orendi is Cwazy Auntie, Toby is uncle, and I’m with mama and papa, so you must be Grandma right?” All that did was cause Shayne to facepalm herself as she looked back at him.
“Kiddo, remind me to actually tell you how a family tree works once you’re older,” She said, looking back at Reyna. “Matter of fact, what the hell were you doing with a bunch of UPR’s and the other factions in the first place?”
“That… I’ll let Ghalt explain.” Reyna replied.
“... Congratulations!” Ghalt announced “you're all now members of the Battleborn.”
“Battleborn?” all the Rogues asked in unison. All Reyna did was just sigh as she looked back at Ghalt.
“Maybe we should have this talk back inside the base so we’re not out in the open. Last time we left Orendi out in the open… Let’s just say we got numerous complaints of her causing trouble in various locations about her killing monsters like it was a game and letting the blood shower neighboring towns.”
“I was a level 99 before I was put down.” she said, pulling a needle out. “Man… elephant tranquilizers are pretty weak.”
“...... Good point.”
Once inside again, Captain Trevor Ghalt began to explain things a little more clearly. His plan was to unite all five of the factions against Rendain instead of having to fight for the scraps of whatever was left behind, calling their union the “Battleborn”. It wasn’t going to be easy, but the more allies they had, the better. With himself, Montana, Oscar Mike and Benedict representing the UPR, he had to make sure to introduce some of the other members of the three other factions. From the Eldrid, there was Thorn, or what Discord almost called “Katniss” based on appearance, and also Mellka, a high ranking Eldrid operative who had a strange monster arm that acted as a swift army knife… and a useful can opener. The Jenedict Imperium had only two members at that current moment. One being Rath, former swordsman turned exile who almost killed Rendain himself… and Deandee, who was a spymistress working undercover as Rendain’s personal assistant, but now fought for the greater good of Solus.
Then there was the LLC… and they weren’t exactly the nicest of the bunch either, even though there were only three of them. Phoebe, or sword lady in Discord’s book, was one that made the youngling think that she could teach him how to cut people in half with a sword. Next, there was Marquis… or as Reyna once said… A high society cybernetic sociopath. Who had a mechanical owl named houdini and what Discord once thought as a butler and a gentleman. Lastly, there was Kleese.
“Who’s the old geezer!?” Discord asked abruptly.
“OLD!?” Kleese yelled. “I'm not that old! I can still move!”
“Does it include buttons?” Discord poked at the controls, making the hover chair fall onto the floor. “Oops!”
“I apologize for Discord… He’s a bit… chaotic in personality and a bit of a troublemaker…” Shayne responded. “And no, before you even ask, it’s not because of Orendi… In fact, sometimes we can’t understand what he is capable of sometimes.”
“Really?” Kleese asked, observing him and zooming in on his with one of his cybernetic eyes. “Hmm… he doesn't look like he's from a lab of ours. Though then again, my memory isn't too well.”
“We found him while trying to salvage some supplies like a week ago on one of the deserted towns on Detritus.” Reyna spoke up. “That was when we happened to run into your… friends… Ghalt.”
“If I knew the little guy was there,” Montana spoke, picking up Discord. “I wouldn't have attacked! ‘Sides, I made you a deal.”
“Easy big guy… Now that we actually had the chance to know everyone’s names… Shayne, how did Discord exactly fight them off?”
“Well, that’s the thing… It looked like he was able to create solid projections of Whiskey’s rifle, Orendi’s skills and my boomerang along with Toby’s mech. However, he could only do this for a short amount of time.” Just as the teen said that, everyone saw Discord in a ninja outfit while he was projecting Rath’s blades. “See what I mean?”
“I'm siwent… and deadwy!” Discord spoke. “Like Katniss’s farts!” The Battleborn members turned to Thorn, who facepalmed a little and narrowed her gaze at the youngster.
“Interesting…” Kleese said upon seeing this. “Hang on a second, I think I might have something back on my ship that might be useful.” After leaving for a few moments, everyone can hear him silently muttering to himself. “Now where did I put that blasted-. AHA! There we are.” He said, looking back at them. “One spare Helix ring.”
“Hewix wing?” Discord asked.
“When in combat, Helix rings can help you upgrade your combat skills every time you step on the battlefield.” Kleese spoke up, all before Orendi interrupted them.
“ALL POWERED BY RAW VIOLENCE!!”
“... I WANT ONE!!!” Discord cried out shortly afterwards. He pounced and tried to take it. “GIMME!!! GIMME!!!”
The only response to that was Aurox holding him up by the tail as he looked at him. “Settle down, youngster.”
“But I want the power! POWER!!!” With that though, Discord passed out from all the energy he spent. Ghalt and Kleese looked back at one another as they both sighed.
“Something tells me saving the universe and handling this little guy is going to be an excruciating headache.” Ghalt commented.
“Indeed,” Kleese replied. “But, with his talents and proper training, maybe taking down Rendain won't be too hard. And I hate to admit it, but he's kinda cute.” The old man just leaned back in his chair and watched as the young Discord fell asleep on Shayne’s shoulder once Aurox had set the youngster down. Only a short while later did he redirect his focus to something that the AI on his ship was picking up. “Oh dear… I believe we have ourselves a situation.”
Shortly after everyone got themselves situated, things looked to be working out well for the Battleborn that just got the chance to meet each other. However, all of that was abruptly ended when Whiskey and Oscar Mike fought each other in the center of the base… only to get themselves interrupted by Ghalt.
“Everyone listen up! The UPR’s got a big problem,” He stated, just making everyone else confused as they looked back at him before he continued to speak. “A rogue magnus AI has seized control of one of their old Bliss Settlements, and they’ve called for us to help clear it out.” All that did was cause Kleese to chuckle to himself in amusement as he looked back at the Captain.
“Pfft… Nothing we can’t handle,” He proclaimed. “Apropos of nothing, did the UPR mention a name?”
“Yes actually,” Ghalt replied. But what he said next caused the old man to feel chills down his spine with just one word. “ISIC.”
“Oh… Well then… Heh! We’re all going to die… lovely.” He groaned, only to cause some of the group to look back at him in confusion.
“Okay, if we need to clear this place out, then we should send a team of five to get the job done,” Reyna spoke up. “Of course, I would’ve recommended my guys, but I think you might shoot me down because of the fact that you want all of us to work together as a team, Ghalt?” During that moment though, the Valkyrie felt something on her shoulder as she turned to see Discord standing there at attention.
“Why five, Grandma?” he asked. “Why doesn't everyone join?”
“Because too many people storming the place would attract too much attention,” Reyna told him. “And also, we would want to make sure that… the bad guys don’t try to attack the base again right?” She might’ve been skeptical at first, but having Discord around still was… interesting so to speak. “Tell me Discord… are you familiar with the roles of a squad?”
“They always on point?” He asked, followed by him snapping his fingers and a cinnamon roll popping out of nowhere. “Hungwy?”
“That’s part of it. Different people in Squads play different roles. Someone like Whiskey or Orendi would play the roles of an attacker since they have more offensive capabilities, while Toby would be a defender given the tricks of the trade that he has. I’m what you would call a supporter. Someone who attacks enemies, but also helps the rest of the squad while they fight.” She explained, taking the cinnamon roll and saving it for later while looking back at Ghalt. All before she smirked at the captain “So who did you have in mind for this one, Captain?”
“Easy. Montana and Oscar, you're up.” Ghalt told them, followed by looking in Reyna’s general direction. “You two are also a part of this as well.”
“Wait, what-?”
“Yay!!” Discord cheered.
“We're with the cute one!?” Montana asked. “Awesome!!!”
“I just wanna shoot some baddies!” Oscar announced. “Let's go, buddy! Pound it!” Before the two could fish bump each other, a large bag of money fell on both of their heads, knocking out Oscar, but leaving a bruise on Montana’s head. Discord had a smile on his face.
“I pounded it!” he said.
“Different pound, little guy.” Montana said with a sigh of patience.
“Now we just need one more.” Ghalt said.
“I'll go.” Thorn spoke, readying her bow & arrows. “That land was ruined by the machines! Vengeance will be brought to nature!” Discord cheered, having Reyna and himself appear right next to Montana and Oscar Mike while the Eldrid ranger soon showed up next to them. Ghalt himself laughed a little at Discord's trick, all before being punched in the shoulder by Reyna.
“Ooookay then… Looks like we have our squad. Now to get you down to Bliss.”
Upon touching down on the frozen moon colony of bliss, all five of them soon got an incoming transmission that synched them to Ghalt, Kleese and also Nova, their ships AI. As they prepared their weapons and gear, they soon heard Nova talk to them over the mic. “Welcome to Fort Ocoban. I’ve detected the Rogue Magnus AI somewhere in the mining colony.”
This though, caused everyone to look at one another in confusion while also leading to Kleese on the other end to speak up. “Somewhere? Can’t you be more specific?”
“Well, if you’re going to be a jerk about it, you can help them find ISIC. Hey guys, Kleese is going to help.”
“No wait-! I-. Uh…”
“Kleese has got this you guys, I’m taking five.” The AI said, shortly before going silent. However, the figure of expression she used wasn’t well understood by the youngest member of the squad.
“Taking five what? What is she taking five of!? Pwease don’t eat my pancakes ghost lady!!” The youngling said, only causing Reyna to facepalm herself as she looked at the rest of the squad. The Valkyrie groaned to herself while Montana was trying to calm down Discord in the process as they all stepped outside. However, what they all heard was something that wasn’t Ghalt or Kleese as they looked up to see a skull on several monitors and hear a voice through the loudspeaker.
“Attention Minions, my douchebag sensors are going all kinds of bonkers! It appears that one (or several) douchebags have infiltrated the facility. The algorithm must be processed! Send ‘em packing!” The voice boomed. “Oh and the first one to capture that weird looking draconequus with the strange horns gets a gold star!! Have fun minions!!”
“A Dwacon-wha-!?” Discord tilted his head in confusion. “And what's a Douchebag?”
“... Shayne is going to be mad once she hears this.” Reyna told herself before looking at Discord. “Okay Discord, I need you to stay by me. Apparently, this ISIC seems to know a bit about you and rather take you by force instead of asking politely.”
“Awe we going to have fun!?”
“Plenty of fun!” Oscar spoke. “Just stick with us and blast everything you see!” Discord eyes widened as he looked like a kid inside of a candy store. Using his chaos magic, he conjured a replica of Ghalt’s shotgun before hopping onto Montana’s huge shoulders and began to attack the robots that were trying to flank him. Montana’s machine gun whirled, and a storm of bullets came out! Everyone else ran across the bridge as they began to fight the robots that were swarming on their location; Oscar Mike cocked his assault rifle and fired, Reyna readied her pistol and fired, Thorn manually released the arrows that were clipped onto her at the machines. Discord fired the Ghalt Shotgun-revolver hybrid from Montana’s shoulder, picking the ones from behind the mountain of a man before switching to Rath’s swords.
“SLICY!!!” He cheered, to cut down some of the Striker drones that came in too close for comfort. Only for no more soldiers to come at them as one of the squad went to go check to see if there was any sort on entry through a side door.
“Dead end!” Oscar Mike said once they reached the end of the platform and went inside a small room to only find the doors jammed. “What do we do now-?”
“Incoming, on your six!” Reyna snapped, shielding Oscar Mike from a few of the bots that would explode once close enough… and seeing all of the others coming from the other end of the fort. “Okay, is it just me or did we kick up a robot hornet nest?” Thorn sniffed the air.
“This way!” she said, taking lead.
“Follow Katniss!” Discord spoke, while he was wearing a tied ponytail with the back of his mane.
“I'M NOT KATNISS!!!” A mockingbird passed by with a familiar whistle. Thorn could only groan to herself as the team advanced and made it to the end of the line. Where they saw several orange grids around the air ventilation shafts upon their approach.
“Well, looks like the only way inside is going to be through those shafts. If you find a way to disable the security grid and also destroy the portals used to summon his minions, finding ISIC might be easier than we anticipated.” Kleese spoke to everyone over the intercom. Discord summoned Benedict’s rocket launcher.
“Here comes the Boom!” He said, firing the rockets at the minion portals. The robots were destroyed along with the portals. “Aw… no more!?” his lips quivered with sadness.
“Hang on little guy, we can fix that for you.” Reyna told him, just as she noticed Oscar Mike disengage the security grid… followed up by another heartwarming and “friendly” message from ISIC.
“Oh no!! It appears that the security system has been vandalized and now, the air ventilation shafts are exposed. I hope my pursuers don’t follow them by the means of these shafts… that would mean they would go directly into my lair!”
“I don't like this ISIC.” Discord commented.
“Don’t worry Discord. When we find that crazy psycho bot, I can find a way to reprogram him so he can be fighting on our side. It won’t exactly erase his murderous personality complex, but at least that’s being used for us rather than against us. Otherwise, we would all be screwed.” Kleese replied.
“And we’ll also get an answer on Discord with what he is and how he knows him, right?” Ghalt added.
“Fine, we can ask that as well…… as a bonus.” Kleese groaned as the five of them slid down through the shafts and were greeted by a few of the minions that were waiting in there. They were easy to clear out due to them being in low numbers and by the end of the short fight, Discord was impatient on saying the first thing that came to his mind.
“Those guys were boring! I want to face something stronger!” He shouted, only for something to shatter through the hardened glass that was part of the control center and spot them immediately as it aimed its weapon at them. Activating it’s murderbot.exe protocol and the force field around itself for added protection.
“You just had to say that, did you?” Reyna asked, facepalming herself in the process. If they somehow got out of this, once they got back on the ship, she was going to slap Ghalt in the face for suggesting to bring Discord along on this mission… Once they made it out alive of course. Discord, however, smiled widely, conjuring up a miniature version of Montana’s machine gun as he looked back at them with a wicked smile on his face.
“YES!!! Now it's coward killing time!!!” He yelled in a deep, Russian accent… followed by him wearing red overalls. “I’m gonna wreck it!!”
“Oh my gosh! Guys, GUYS! You are not going to believe who I sent to murder all of you!!” ISIC gleefully cheered over the intercom. “It’s the enforcer minion of the month herself! Back from the minion fighting pits of some Bullsh*t planet. I CAN BARELY CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT!! It’s… BARBARA!! BARBARA? Barbara… Hmm, don’t look at me, the minions name themselves.” Seconds after that piece of annoying monologuing was finished, the Battleborn that stepped inside began to take cover and open fire on the robotic killers as they tried to wind down the H3NCHM4N’s defensive shields.
“Aw crap!” Oscar yelled. “This thing's shields are too strong!”
“Alone, maybe.” Montana said. “But we're in this together, right little guy!?”
“SHOOT!!! SHOOT!!!” Discord yelled while firing a smaller copy of Montana’s machine gun. Which did minimal damage to the shields, but gave everyone enough time to find cover before they began to open fire on the mechanical drone.
“Halfway there!” Reyna said. “Let’s-” However, the Rogue stopped speaking once the robot teleported… and reappeared with a second version of itself. Conveniently named H3NCHM4N TOO. “Oh COME ON!!!”
“Let’s split up and find cover quickly!” Oscar suggested
“HUZZAH!!! The fun has been doubled!!!” Discord cheered, wearing a blue, flowing wig. Reyna had to yank the little one over, trying to avoid the gunfire from the two bots as she looked at the small child.
“Okay, I know you like having fun, but we need to deal with these guys before they become a problem…” Reyna said, thinking something as she looked back at the draconequus. “Hey little guy, since you can copy Ghalt’s guns, can you copy his traps?”
“Umm… I don’t th-hink so… I haven’t seen his twaps before…”
“Damn…” Reyna cursed, before getting an idea. “How many glasses of chocolate milk can you make?”
“Depends how thiwsty I am. I'm a bit parched, but-”
“DRINK!!! Chug away!”
“YAY!!!” Discord conjured up a full gallon of Chocolate milk and chugged it all down. When he was finished, he chucked the empty glass at one of the H3NCHM4N.
BOOM!!!
“Well, it may not be Ghalt’s traps, but it’s a good alternative for right now.” Reyna thought to herself. “Focus your fire! It’s shields are down!!” Thorn ran to one of the H3NCHM4N and aimed a good bow right in it's ‘eye’, blinding it while Oscar Mike fired some grenades at it, destroying it. The other H3NCHM4N noticed it's partner fall, grabbed it's body.
“H3NCHM4N!!!” It yelled.
“... Come closer Eddie.” the other replied. “... It's getting dark. Tell Tiny Tim I won't be making it this Christmas… BANG!! BANG!! The short scene of dialogue was interrupted when Discord replicated Reyna’s pistol and shot both of the robots in the head, causing them to explode. As they looked at him, all the youngling did was give a simple shrug. “What? They were monologuing… Who really cares about monologuing?”
“I DO!!!” ISIC yelled, clearing his non-existent throat. “Ahem! Oh no, my CHAMPION!! Query: Who will take up the role of avenging it’s demise? Response: The other thousands of minions or so that I have in this facility… Obviously.”
“More baddies to shoot!? Yay!!!” The youngling squealed, as a new flock of penguin like boom bots soon waddled over to their general location.
“If Toby were here, he would think that ISIC would be… well… how do you say racist against Penguins?” Reyna asked Oscar Mike.
“Uh… Species-ist?” he suggested with a shrug. “Eh, who cares! Get outta here you stupid, robot birds!!!” He kicked one, only for it to explode and blasted him to the wall. “... Ow.” Montana pulled him off.
“Let me do the stomping.” he said.
“WEASEL STOMPING DAY!!!” Discord cheered, now wearing comically large boots.
“Discord, let Monty handle this one.” Oscar Mike advised. “The more damage he takes, the more he can deliver to these chumps.” As he said this, Montana began to laugh out loud and enjoy the mechanical carnage that he was creating with his Minigun and giant oversized hands. “Let’s work on activating the door so we can proceed.”
“The Bulkhead for the door should be nearby. It may only require one of you to activate. But the more that stand on it, the faster it’ll open the door.” Kleese suggested from over the intercom briefly.
“TEAMWORK!!!” Discord cheered, standing on his platform… Then falling asleep on it, bored easily. All while the door to the bridge soon opened up. He woke up as soon as it opened. “Nap over!”
“Alright, show yourself ISIC. You can’t be far…” Reyna snapped, only to hear a certain response from him.
“Hi there, ISIC can’t come to the phone right now. I’m REAL busy cooking up death traps for a bunch of worthless pukes.”
“Oh great… we got his machine.” Kleese groaned, only to hear ISIC soon speak up once again.
“Please leave a message after the sound of your fellow men, racked by agonizing pain,” ISIC paused, only to change his voice before finishing his sentence. “Oh please, no! I NEED THOSE!!”
“... What just happened?”
“Oh dear, I’m afraid I’m too horrified to speak.” Kleese responded to the sound of ISIC impersonating a soldier that he probably tortured.
“That’s the idea…”
“Now that's just creepy.” Oscar commented.
“Creepy or not, there’s one thing in particular that’s blocking your path from advancing,” Ghalt spoke up. “That door is being shielded by two generators and-. Wait, hang on a second… How the-.” That sound was followed by the sound of what sounded like Punching before a new voice came on.
“Sorry Peeps, Ghalt needed to take a break so I decided to… fill in for him.”
“Mommy!” Discord cheered, being motivated by Shayne’s voice on the intercom.
“Aw, how sweet!” ISIC mocked. “The little hell spawn thinks the angsty teenager is his mom! I can't wait to record you gnawing her face off!
“Says the guy who’s nothing but a floating head right now… Anyways, just work your way through the minions and take care of the door by destroying the generators powering it. Guess I’ll be spending time with the senior citizen to my right.”
“I'm not that old!” Kleese replied, while Reyna and Discord worked on the first generator and Thorn destroyed the second, Montana and Oscar Mike began to lay down a surpressing fire that made short work of the drones advancing towards them. As the doors opened and the five of them now stepped onto the snow perched parts of the outpost, ISIC began to calmly greet them once again.
“So, I guess all of you are hellbent on handing me my ass hunh? Well, if you want a piece of this Magnus, you’ll have to go through Geoff, my most violent S1 sentry unit. He’s a little eccentic, but CRAZY lethal. Say Geoff? Got some Pukes coming your way that I love you to kill and I-.”
“I am ARACHNIS, The Spider King!! Lord of all Spiders!!!” A new voice boomed from the other end of the compound as the group slowly descended upon the location of the voice.
“No, not today. You are not a spider king, you are an S1 Sentry unit and your name is Geoff-.”
“ARACHNIS!!”
“Oh my god, Geoff, Arachnis, whatever! Just kill them already, okay?”
“Nooooooope.”
All of them soon heard Kleese groan internally as he began to relay something new to the team on the ground. “Good lord, Geoff is… really committed to that Spider thing… I have a rather nutty idea.”
“BUG Spray!!!” Discord blurted, wearing a familiar red outfit.
Reyna herself just rolled her eye and facepalmed herself. “Discord, can you please be a bit serious-?”
“Actually Reyna, He’s not wrong,” Shayne interrupted over the comm line. “Tell them, grandpa.”
In response, Kleese groaned internally before clearing his throat and speaking up. “Like all UPR colonies, the facility is equipped with fumigators to deal with the constant outbreak of Blissbugs, those nasty little bastards.” Kleese swore, before the sound of him getting hit over the head echoed over the intercom. “Give Geoff a lungful, that’ll probably shake him loose.”
“Time to squish some bugs!” Oscar said, reloading his assault rifle. Discord himself scurried over to the initiation pad to start the sequence as he danced in place and was drinking a milkshake in the process. Then, the fumigation systems began to take effect.
“Cough! Cough! Agh!! Poison gas harmful to giant spiders!” The Sentry Unit announced. “I better kill these clowns!” Soon, the eight legged sentry bot crashed onto the ground as it primed it’s weapons and stared down the group with it’s only eye.
“Arachnis, ready to engage!!”
“Here it comes!!” Thorn yelled, arming her bow at the ready before firing off a volley of arrows at the mech. Montana and Oscar Mike were unloading every round of ammo they had to spare towards Geoff while Reyna focused on shielding Montana. Discord on the other hand, had a different task the moment they heard the mech say this.
“Spiderlings… Assemble!!” Multiple spider-esque looking robots charged at the group.
“Oh sh*t!” Reyna cursed. The Spiderlings stopped as an 8-Bit tune was heard. Discord stood on five boomboxes, wore a girl’s dress, had Orendi’s arms, and held various tea equipment while looking a bit like a spider-thing himself.
“Come, my pwetties.” he said. The Spiderlings began to ‘dance’ to the music in unison.
“Did he just… hypnotize them?” Montana asked
“Who cares what he did, blast the things already before Geoff tries to kill you all!!” Kleese interrupted them over the Intercom, but not breaking Discord’s routine.
“ARACHNIS!!!” Geoff corrected “And… must… resist… dancing!” Geoff began to dance to the music. But after some more hits from Oscar Mike and the others, the spider mech then shouted out something else. “Taking heavy damage…”
“Don’t die out there on me Geoff, come on back and get some firmware upgrades.” ISIC’s distorted voice called out to him.
“Arachnis.”
“F*ck you!” ISIC snapped as the mech escaped from Discord’s dancing.
“Damn it! Geoff’s retreating for upgrades! We need to flush him out!!” Kleese told the group as they ran after the sentry.
“We could try the fumigation system again.” Shayne suggested, the sound of her eating popcorn apparent over the intercom. “Because if you try shooting him right now, barely anything could hit him because he’s shielding himself. There’s three pads to trigger the system. Find it and then get that oversized robot back outside.”
“I am not a robot! I am a spider!!” Geoff snapped.
“Geoff…” ISIC mumbled, unaware of what Discord, Reyna and Thorn were doing while Montana and Oscar Mike waited outside. The three stood on their platform and Discord had another quick nap, up until the gas came. Both Reyna & Thorn coughed their way out, but Discord wore a gasmask, though the breathing was a bit off.
“Cough… Cough… Dammit… Cough…” The Sentry echoed before he went back out into the cold terrain of the Bliss tundra. “Firmware upgrade complete, this Spider’s got new fangs!!”
“Cool!! Now do something violent with them, or I will send you screaming into MINREC’s gaping maw.” ISIC ordered.
“MINREC?” Discord asked, taking the mask off.
“Ask Kleese about that when we’re back. He’s knows a thing or two about machines and AI to explain.” Reyna told the youngling as she shielded Discord, who was wielding a set of fans similar to Deande, but using them to add to his previous dance routine.
“If Geoff believes he’s truly a spider,” Thorn suggested “Discord, can you make the spiderlings attack Geoff?” Discord snickered evilly.
“Go my pwetties!!” He cried, holding a staff that resembled Ambra’s as the spiderlings threw themselves at the S1 Sentry. Shortly before exploding.
“Hey, Bad spiderlings!! Why did you disobey papa Arachnis-?! OWW!!” Geoff screamed, snarling a little as he fired out a few sticky electro-webs that stopped the minions in their tracks before destroying them with his turret guns. “You’re in my web now!!”
“Don’t get caught in those traps! They’ll paralyze you!!” Reyna warned the others shortly after they were cast out. Thorn herself began to channel a lot of energy in one of her hands before firing out at Geoff. The impact of the strike causing him to topple over before retreating.
“Arachnis the spider lord, huntin’ for some upgrades!!”
“I swear to god Geoff…” ISIC growled this time.
“Hey Discord. You still have some control over those Spiderlings?” Shayne asked the Draconequus over the comline. “How about sending them in to do the dirty work of flushing out Spider-Face while all of you prepare yourselves for when Geoff returns?”
“And how come you didn’t suggest that the first time?” Reyna questioned.
“It didn’t really come to me until I heard that Dissy could control them to do his bidding,” The angsty teen mumbled as Discord ordered the little robots to do his bidding, causing them to charge in blind and trigger the fumigation systems once more.
“I’m getting really tired of this… Now I’m mad…”
“Sorry to break your tune, Geoff. But I’m all out of firmware upgrades. Now get on out there and fight/die for your robot overlord.” ISIC said one last time before fading away. But as Geoff regained his senses, he saw Thorn prepare a volley of arrows, Reyna ready her handgun, Montana prime his machine gun, Oscar Mike activate the Airstrike capabilities of his tactical rifle and Discord prime up his version of Bindlebane. Marquis’ signature cane/sniper rifle.
“Well, that’s just not fair at all…”
“I’m sorry, but…” Reyna spoke as her gun clicked back and she aimed it at the sentry. “We don’t give a f*ck!” Seconds afterward, all five of them opened fire on the sentry as a blitz of bullets mowed Geoff down as he exploded into a huge pile of scrap metal. In addition to that, the explosion caused the wall behind Geoff to break apart, allowing for the group to advance onward.
“Good job everyone! Discord, congratulations on taking down the Spider King… he was a real annoyance.” Shayne replied. “Now, bad grandpa… what’s next?”
“Watch it, brat… Just keep pressing on, I’m picking up an signal further in the caves. It must belong to ISIC.” Kleese informed them as Discord himself worked on scavenging all the loot he could get his claws on.
“My… precious.” he hissed, holding a ring
“Discord, that’s an icicle.” Reyna facepalmed as she looked at the silly draconequus. “Anyways, let’s press on. The longer we stay out here, the more likely we’re going to freeze to death rather than make it back here on our own.” Discord nodded, taking the ring of ice and having it become a snowball as he chucked it at Montana before laughing a bit once it knocked off his hat. Then, the mischevious youngster got an idea and replicated a rocket launcher like Benedict’s, but instead launched snowballs instead of actual rockets.
Reyna sighed to herself… This was going to be a LONG mission.
Shortly after the group was able to stop the S1 Sentry Unit named Geoff, who personally saw himself as a spider king and had a strange personality complex that would drive anyone, including ISIC, crazy. But as the group pressed on, they soon found themselves in an almost completely frozen cave with a bunch of minions that are iced over.
“The only way in order for you to press on is to destroy the shards that are powering the grids covering the air vents.” Kleese informed them as they continued to move on inside. A little while afterwards, they soon heard Ghalt on the other end of the comline come back as both Shayne and Kleese informed them on what was going on. Then, a rather crazy and unthinkable idea soon entered the captain's head as he soon decided to speak up.
“Wait, I got it… We’ll hit him with a logical paradox.”
“Captain, that won’t work…” Kleese tried to inform him, but Ghalt still pressed on anyways as he cleared his throat and began to speak up.
“Hey, ISIC.”
“Heyyyyy, Captain Ghalt.” The Magnus AI replied in a cheerful manner, unaware of what exactly the UPR captain was going to say,
“This statement? It’s a lie…” He spoke up, while Reyna heard Discord on her end of the conversation how some “cake” was also a lie as well. “Blam, Cyber headshot.”
“Oh no-! My brain!! IT’S MELTIIIIIIIING!!!!” ISIC’s cries though soon turned into an even crazier chuckle as he then spoke up. “So, we’re fighting with words now? Cool, here’s something for YOU to think about!”
“Oh great…” Kleese groaned.
“I hate you SO much, it literally gives me energy. Energy I use to write letters to orphans, in which I make fun of them for being orphans... Oh and you will forget your mother's face before you forget the LLC's advertising jingles.”
“Awww, man.”
“What did I TELL you captain!?” Kleese shot back, now sounding a little personally stressed from the UPR captain ignoring his advice from earlier.
“Can we PLEASE kill this thing? Damn man…” He asked, now sounding a little depressed in the process.
“I TOLD YOU!!” Kleese snapped, only causing Shayne to chuckle a little and add a snarky remark to the end of that statement.
“The old guy’s right, you know…” She snickered, causing Discord himself to laugh as he continued to listen in on the mic.
“Oh for the love of god, I told you that I’M NOT OLD!!”
“Oh! And here’s a little something for you, my soon to be controlled Draconequus.” ISIC spoke again. A ‘You got Mail’ robot appeared in front of Discord.
“Yay!!!” He cheered, opening the letter. It was a rather lengthy word that, when viewed from a distance, was a picture of a young Discord, running for his life from both the Battleborn and Rendain.
“Ta-Da!!!”
“... I hate him.”
“You’re not the only one who thinks the same way Discord,” Reyna groaned as she loaded a new clip into her pistol. “That Magnus is really beginning to piss me off.”
“Well, we hopefully don’t have to go much farther,” Kleese spoke up, “There’s an strong signal coming from deeper within the caves. The signature is just beyond that ice wall and-.” The LLC member paused for a moment upon seeing Oscar Mike looking at some of the equipment that was found there. “But oh thank heavens for randomly abandoned industrial equipment!!”
“Is it still operational?” Montana then asked, speaking up a little.
“From the looks of things, it probably is, Mountain Man,” Shayne then spoke up over the comline. “Ghalt says that you can get the drill activated by standing on the same bulwark that was used to activate the gate to the bridge and the one for the fumigation systems when dealing with Geoff earlier.”
“Please let the professionals do the talking,” Ghalt advised before he spoke up. “Just be prepared for anything. Once that drill gets to work, it’s bound to cause some attention-.”
“As we will use this drill to pierce the heavens!!!” Discord cried out, conjuring a strange pair of sunglasses to put over his eyes. Just causing Reyna and Thorn to raise an eyebrow, Montana to chuckle and Oscar Mike to facepalm his own helmet. But as they activated the drill, several spikes of Ice were beginning to rupture from the ground, followed by hearing ISIC’s voice.
“Oooh, there’s something really nasty down there with you guys!” The violent tremors grew even more as the drilling apparatus began to break the wall and ISIC continued speaking. “Not really sure what it is, but it’s big, it’s huge and it’s angry! It’s-.” From the ground, a towering hulk like Ice figure soon emerged… and it was quite pissed off at the presence of Discord and the others. “ …Whatever THAT thing is!”
“Kill it with fire!!” The youngling screamed, conjuring what appeared to be some kind of handheld flamethrower as he tried to burn the creature that was trying to attack them.
“I got it!” Montana yelled. His machine gun spewed fire bullets at the creature.
“It’s going to need a LOT more firepower than that! All of you, shoot that thing!!!” Reyna ordered, using her offhand blaster to mark their target. Taking initiative, everyone began to open fire, hitting the creature with a sheer amount of firepower before it sunk into the snow.
“Did we beat it?” the youngling asked.
“Not yet, Discord!” Shayne told him before Kleese soon spoke up and a bunch of smaller golems began to emerge. “The Blasted thing is regenerating! Quickly, kill the underlings before it resurfaces!!”
“You heard the old geezer, let’s have some fun!!” Discord snickered, conjuring one of Ghalt’s shotguns and firing on the ones that got too close to him and Reyna.
“I AM NOT OLD!!”
It was just ridiculous for the group; Every time the ‘Galactic Emperor’, as Discord calls him, went underground to heal, it seems that more underlings came out each time, giving him the advantage needed to heal.
“I can do this all day!” Oscar cheered
“You can.” Thorn scorned “But we’re all tired!”
“...Lightbulb!” Discord said. He pulled out a red ball, which grew to the size of an apple. “Go, Pokemon!” The red ball open, and appearing in the snow, only it’s head showing, was a brown, large, adorable eye & nose thing… followed by more popping out, some with three heads together.
“...What did you bring?” Reyna asked. The weird creatures began to scurry around the area, causing deep holes in the floor, eventually launching the Emperor out. The Emperor tried to stomp on them, but their heads quickly disappeared under the surface… and they jumped right out, showing that, despite their heads, their bodies were beyond macho! Just seeing them, both Reyna and Thorn had nosebleeds, Montana fanboyed out, and Oscar… he looked at himself.
“I really need more protein.” The muscular creatures beat up the Emperor, and when it exploded, they ran off, showing off their muscles in a sort of muscle march. It took only a short while to deal with the galactic emperor after that and his friends didn’t necessarily stay around long afterwards. Which gave ISIC time in order to try and convince the group one last time.
“Really now? Just think of it. The universe is in a mess to where the world is going to end one way or another and with everything that’s going on, it just makes more sense that the world that we live in is a lie. Think of it… The wacky bullsh*t that the Eldrid call “magic”, The Varelsi, everything! It’s just all a dream and the real people like you and me are just in a deep sleep. With the Algorithm, I could put all of this f*cking nonsense behind us and we can-.”
“That’s a nice speech and all that… But that’s totally unoriginal,” Shayne interjected as she spoke up on the comline. “That sounds too similar to the plotline from that old earth film The Matrix.”
“N-no it’s not!! I came up with this speech a week ago!” ISIC protested before clearing his throat. “Now as I was saying, wouldn’t you all just want for all of this to end and for you to wake up like it was all a dream-.”
“THE… MATRIX. Seriously, it’s like you watch that movie scientifically…” Shayne snickered before looking at Ghalt and Kleese. “Hehe… Get it?”
Discord’s response was for him to change into a full black attire with a black trenchcoat and shades along with conjuring Reyna’s laser pistol. “... Agent Smith’s the one.” He said, deepening his voice to add to it.
“HA!!! Even the child know who’s the real hero!” Kleese said with enthusiasm.
“Minions?” Oscar Mike asked, until a horde of robot minions spawned into the room out of nowhere. “Oh GOD, MINIONS!!!”
“Everyone, you’re on the home stretch now! ISIC’s signal is getting closer, so you can’t slip up now!!” Ghalt told everyone as Kleese soon chimed in with his two sense. “Finish what the LLC could not! Destroy that bastard magnus!”
“Consider it handled!!” Reyna replied, aiming her pistol as she opened fired and looked at Discord. “You ready for the final push, little guy?” Discord put some Football gear on Montana, blowing a whistle.
“Wrong push…” she sighed, using the priority target mod on her second weapon to mark a bot in front of her. “Let’s make it simple, anything I mark… We’re going to kick the crap out of it!” Discord gave a curious look.
“Robots can poop?”
“She means destroy it!!!” Oscar Mike shouted, before looking back at the other bots as he shot another one to bits. “Please be advised, I killed the crap out of something!”
“Not as much as mine.” Montana mocked, standing on a pile of robots.
“Oh come on! … That’s it, killing contest! GO!!” The clone declared as the two of them threw themselves into the mechanical mayhem that was in front of them while Thorn took out the snipers from the ledges that were nearby.
“Boys…”
“Eighteen… Nineteen… TWENTY!!!”
“Eleven… Twelve… Sixteen!! SH*T!!!” Oscar Mike swore as he saw his friend annihilate a Rocketeer bot. “HEY, THAT ONLY COUNTS AS ONE!!!” That only caused Reyna, Discord and Thorn to look at each other with an expression that made them wonder what the hell those two were doing. So, while they were distracted, the three of them ran to the jump pads at the end of the basin as they were slingshot all the way to ISIC’s lair.
“Oh CRAAAAAAPPPP!!!!” Reyna shouted mid flight before barreling forward upon landing. “Discord, you okay?”
“I'm feeling Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!“ Just as he said that, Reyna turned to see Discord floating down softly with an umbrella out that lightened the speed of his downward descent as the youngling touched down on the ground softly. He landed and pulled out a chimney sweeper, making him dirty, followed by some music playing. “Chim Chimney, Chim Chimney, chim chim cheree, a kiss is as ‘ucky as ‘ucky can be!”
“Enough singing!” Oscar yelled, landing next to them. “We can celebrate as soon as we kick ISIC’s ass!”
“Where’s Monty?” Discord then asked, followed by Montana’s abrupt landing on top of Oscar Mike. “There’s Monty!!!”
“O…… kay, now that everyone’s here, let’s activate the elevator and get going.” All of the group agreed with Reyna on that one as she over shielded Montana and the five of them landed in what looked like a freaky computer simulation. Followed by hearing ISIC speak up.
“Oh good, you survived. That means I get to kill you myself! Which is way more fun than anything else. I hope Kleese is watching because when I’m done with you… He’s next.” He said, laughing like a maniac as well as the group just looked at the quad legged robot form he was using.
“Okay, is it just me or does anyone else feel that ISIC’s lair is a little trippy?” Shayne asked over the comline. “Ugh whatever, just deal with him as quickly as you can.”
“Easier said than done. I'm going to make sure you all suffer horribly, keep you alive, and make you all suffer! Except you, Discord; you're going to do what I say and when I say!”
“... I don't think so.” Discord replied. With a snap, he was in a white, neon blue, technologic looking suit, and techno music played. “You wanna play? We’ll let’s play!” With it, he snapped again to form Marquis’ signature weapon Bindlebane as he fired to the beat of the music. With Discord distracting ISIC, the others all focused on the exposed energy canisters on the legs of ISIC’s contraption. Keeping heavy fire throughout the whole process. Then, ISIC’s legs fell, and the core his energy stuck out.
“Uh oh! Boys, you better-” ISIC Spoke, but was interrupted by Discord.
“Serious, serious, SERIOUS PUNCH!!!” He announced. Using his lion paw at the core, he punched, though it was a tap.
“OH? OHOHOHOHO!!! How adorable! You seriously thought that-?”
BOOM!!!
“What the f**k!?!?!?” Everyone on the battlefield and intercoms shouted in unison.
“ONE PUUUUUNCH!!!” Discord cheered, wearing a yellow suit with red boots & gloves, with a white cape. The impact not only exploded ISIC’S body, but it destroyed the skull.
“That’s it! You captured ISIC!!! Amazing job! Bring him back to the ship, then we’ll know what to do with him.” Kleese said, laughing to himself while ISIC himself had one response to the situation.
“Sh************t.”
Later…
Sometime after the team returned and Discord reunited with Shayne and Aurox, Kleese immediately got back to work on reconfiguring ISIC’s murderbot personality to where he was doing that to the Varelsi and Jennerit forces under Rendain’s command instead of them. However, while he was going through the files of the rogue magnus, there was something he uncovered that he had Nova pull out and keep on an separate interface and have her investigate it. But the subject content for the file was deeply important. So important that he needed to call in Ghalt, Reyna and Shayne. The reason for calling them was simple… He had good news, and bad news.
“So what did you need to talk about Kleese?” Ghalt asked him as he folded his arms.
“Well, while I was reconfiguring the damage on ISIC, I found something that might relate to the little friend of ours.”
“You mean Discord?” Shayne asked, looking at Reyna. “What is it that you found, Kleese?”
“Well, that’s the thing… I found the files that ISIC was probably referring to when he knew what kind of species Discord was. The only problem though is that there’s a heavy source of encryption blocking us from accessing the files.”
“What Kleese means is that it needs a password to be opened,” Nova corrected him. “There was also a message that was with the file when we failed to open it.”
“What was the message?” Reyna then asked.
“It goes as followed…” She said, before pulling on the transcript on it and began reading it. “Hahahahaha…. Hahahaha…. HahaHAhaha…”
“I think we get it-.”
“Wait, there’s more,” The AI stopped Ghalt before she said the last part of it. “... Ha.”
“Well, that’s just great… Do we know anything about what kind of encryption type or language it is in?”
“We were just getting to work on that. It’ll be another all nighter at least,” Kleese said as his chair, or what he preferred to call his “Battle throne” had a mug of coffee digitize in the left cup holder. “You three get some rest, we’re going to need it if Rendain tries to pull anything on us… Oh and Nova, did you place the training setup in the game room?”
“Affirmative.”
“Training setup?” Shayne asked.
“Even with the whole Universe is Ending thing going on, everyone would need a moment to release some much needed stress… Most preferably, on each other. So Kleese activated the BATTLEGROUND ASSIMILATION SYSTEM, or by the preferred acronym, BADASS.” She explained as she showed several maps on the holoscreen. “Here, teams of five can compete against each other in several different scenarios to practice their combat skills before missions.”
“That… is just awesome.” Shayne smiled, looking at Nova in awe. “Thanks Nova! I’m going to go see if Toby and Discord want to give it a try before we get some sleep!” With that, Shayne ran off into the alley behind them as everyone soon looked at each other.
“Does she even know that what she’s looking for is in the opposite direction.”
“Meh, who really cares? She’ll find out eventually.” Nova said to them as Reyna and Ghalt left the hall to go retire to their own quarters and hopefully, get some shuteye before the next day comes.
And hopefully, they would have more days to look forward too.
The following morning, Shayne and Aurox were up early along with Discord as the three of them were getting use to their new… neighbors. With everyone getting their own room, Kleese possibly asleep back on the ship and them being the only ones up, they had to be extra quiet to not wake anyone up as they went to the kitchen. However, all their basic efforts with stealth and Aurox’s help wasn’t quite enough when they entered the kitchen. Only to end up seeing a familiar face have her feet propped up on the table with her hands behind her head.
“Oh, hello… I honestly didn’t expect to have anybody else be here this early in the morning.” The figure replied. Shayne could tell right away from the pointy ears and the mismatched eyes, along with the Eldrid Gauntlet on her arms who she was. They had met before when Ghalt was gathering everyone up for all the current recruits of Battleborn and she was Ghalt’s contact with the Eldrid like Reyna was with the Rogues.
“Who’s dis, mama?” Discord asked, having himself be on Shayne’s shoulder while looking at the newcomer.
“You’re the Eldrid that works with Ghalt and the old fart named Kleese,” Shayne replied, folding her arms as she looked back at the pointy eared mercenary and tried to remember her name. “Mellka right?”
“Guess news comes around quick out here,” She replied, taking her feet off the table and standing upright. “Yes, my name is Mellka. However, on the subject of Kleese, he’s not quite exactly a fart… More like a genius that doesn’t know when to shut up at times. Trust me, I’ve learned that the hard way-.” She stopped speaking though the second that she saw Aurox emerge from the light in the background as Shayne tried to see if there was any coffee. “Okay, who or what is that?”
“I have a name…” Aurox groaned.
“Chill out, Aurox,” Shayne sighed, pouring herself some coffee and adding some of the necessary essentials like creamer and sweetener before sitting back down along with having a small plate of cookies. Not for her though, but for Discord. “Don’t mind him, he’s just grumpy in the mornings.”
“I see…” Mellka turned to see Discord as she watched the eager youngling munch on the cookies. “So… how did you end up becoming the mother of this little guy?”
“Long story short, we found him in a town while scavenging for supplies and ended up taking him in. He see’s Aurox and I as his parents, Reyna as Grandma, Whiskey Foxtrot as Grandpa, Orendi as his Crazy Auntie and Toby as his uncle. This was before the whole Battleborn gig with Ghalt and back then, three of his guys were trying to kill us. But it seems to have cleared up now.” Shayne explained, causing the Eldrid to laugh a little upon remembering when she met the Penguin originally and how he got in Ghalt’s face for denying him of service to the peacekeepers for being “too cute” to fight. This was also when Discord noticed the Eldrid’s left arm… or more specifically, what was on it.
“Cwazy arm!!” He squealed a little, waving his paw in the air to try and catch Mellka’s attention before stumbling backwards in his chair. “Oops… Sowwy.”
“Well, that’s the most cutest response to my bio gauntlet that I’ve heard… well… ever.” The Eldrid replied. “The only other person that I remember saying something about it was Kleese when he was saying the reason behind the design of my my machine pistol and it wasn’t really positive to say the least.”
“What did he say?”
“He specifically said that he modified the design on the weapon based on my… horrific disfigurement.” She said, air quoting the last part as he looked at the two of them. “At least the little guy likes it.”
“Heh, he likes a lot of things. He’s a bundle of chaos anywhere he goes. Heck, it’s the reason for his name,” Shayne told Mellka as she drank another gulp of her coffee. “We decided to call him Discord. An old Latin term that meant Chaos.”
“Ah, I see… and honestly, I thought the only time I would’ve heard anyone say any Latin was yesterday when training in the Battleground thing that Nova had set up,” The Eldrid replied, “ISIC was saying “Hello there, Persona non Grata! That means person or people that I am about to kill” or something like that. Seemed like a rough translation honestly.”
“I’m not familiar with other languages, so I wouldn't exactly know. Plus, Discord is still learning, but he was kicking some major ass with Reyna the other day.” Shayne complimented the young draconequus as he tried ruffling with his short mane. “Still, it just makes me even more curious about him. I mean… I never really would’ve cared about where someone else was from or where they were raised, but since taking this guy in, I’ve been trying to help him however I can. Hopefully, when we kick Rendain’s ass, we can somehow find a place for him and everyone else to call home.”
“I can relate to that a lot,” Mellka replied as she holstered her weapon. “The Varelsi ate up my home star and with it, collapsed all the other planets around it. Right now, a lot of the Eldrid that remain are on Ekkunar, but it in itself looks to be crumbling apart like with the rest of the worlds these days. Plus, it’s hard to gain support from the Eldrid because I was born a refugee. Sort of the reason why only Thorn is here since Miko is checking on Ekkunar right now.”
“I think Discord and I were both beginning to wonder why there weren’t so many people showing up here,” Shayne replied as Discord hopped onto her shoulder, while Aurox minded his own business. “We thought that when Ghalt and the others showed up, there would be a lot more of you guys.” Mellka herself chuckled as she looked back at them.
“Well, you guys aren’t wrong there. But it’s not that simple. Some potential candidates join our cause if we help them or demonstrate to them that we are worthy of their support. I know it sounds a lot like chivalry, but it’s how business is done here… Hopefully, with the next mission, we could get some more support besides acquiring ISIC the other day.” Mellka soon got up, just as Shayne finished her coffee and set it down in the sink. But it wasn’t long until the two of them heard what sounded like Kleese freaking out or screaming.
“Do you think something’s wrong or just the old guy accidently pouring coffee on himself?” Shayne asked.
“Well, even if the second scenario sounds likely, I’m going with the first one.” Mellka replied. “I believe Nova could help us understand once she-.” Just as she said that, a digital holographic version of the Magnus AI that piloted the ship that dropped them off on missions. “Well, speak of the devil, we were just wondering what Kleese’ screaming was all about.”
“Yeah… you may want to get over to the ship… we got an emergency.”
“How bad of an emergency?” Shayne then asked the AI.
“Think batsh*t crazy bad… if that’s the term the kids use these days.” The AI said before dispersing. Mellka and Shayne looked at one another quickly before chasing off after the sound of Kleese’s frantic reaction.
“We better hurry… Because right now, I got a bad feeling about this.” The Eldrid told the rogue. Turns out, she was right. Just as both of them reached the ship and went into the chambers where Kleese was, they both saw flashing red lights everywhere and the words WARNING flashing on the screen in a military like font.
“Kleese, what’s happening!?” Mellka rasped, catching his attention and also Ghalt’s as soon as he ran into the room. “What’s with the emergency?”
“Why THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE THING!!!” He snapped, zooming in on an image of the galactic map that was of Solus, zooming in on the moon that was Bliss. “A portal bloom has erupted on Bliss, and with it, a one COLOSSAL hole in the fabric of spacetime!” For a moment, it didn’t look like anyone was understanding, but as he continued, it began to make more sense. “A massive gateway into Varelsi space! If it stabilizes, Solus will be overrun in hours!!”
Immediately, upon hearing the circumstances, Ghalt turned to Mellka and Shayne. “This is priority number one, people! We got to get that portal closed! Mellka, I’ll let you and Shayne form a team to be deployed on the ground while Kleese figures out a way to stop the portal.”
“You got it, captain.” Mellka replied before the two of them ran out of there as quickly as possible. Turning to Shayne, she then came up with an idea. “Okay, so if you two are coming along, how about we have the little guy suggest who the last two members of the squad can be-.” It was then that both of them saw Discord not only balancing at the end of a conjured version of Marquis’ cane, but also had created replica’s of the swords that belonged to Rath in his outstretched paw and claw.
“Hmm… I think the little guy just gave me an idea.”
Later, On Bliss…
As the group of five soon touched down on Bliss, Mellka, Shayne and Aurox, and Discord were looking at the two other squad mates that were with them this time. Marquis, who ISIC described as a High society, cybernetic sociopath and Rath, a swordsman and rebel against the Jennerit Imperium who was said to have almost killed Rendain once. As soon as all of them were situated, Mellka tested the communication line once to make sure everything was working. “Kleese, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear… Oh and apologies for the hike, but trust me. Varelsi portals of this magnitude have a dizzying effect on AI and-.” He paused for a moment, just as they saw the ship move from side to side and almost run into the edge of the snowy cliff nearby. “Oh dear, the portal’s surging! Brace yourself Nova!!” Discord himself had him handle the tremors by clasping hold of Shayne’s leg as the group tried to proceed. All while they heard Nova laughing and shouting out ‘WOOOO!’ at the top of her digital lungs.
“What’s swo funny-?” Discord tried to ask, but was interrupted by an angry Kleese on the other end of the line.
“Damn you, Nova! At least TRY to fly straight!!”
“I-i’m fINe… Totally Ok-.” Nova tried responding before being cut off mid sentence.
“Discord, Nova’s just having a little… too much fun.” Shayne tried telling him, but at the sound of ‘fun’, that just made the youngster even more excited.
“Who says you can’t have too much fun!!?” He asked before blinking over to where Mellka was and riding on her shoulders. During this moment, Shayne heard Marquis ask himself something that might’ve made her a bit tense.
“How in the world did I get myself paired up with a young disfigured child-.”
“Hey, buddy. Watch the name calling,” Shayne snapped, looking back at Aurox before pointing up to him. “We’re looking after him, so if you got a problem with him, you gotta problem with us.” All before Discord appeared on Shayne’s shoulder again in a light orange jumpsuit on and a pair of old headphones on.
“I’m with them.”
“Okay, if everyone can stop arguing and going at each other’s throats,” Kleese then spoke up, catching everyone’s attention. “I need you to get into that old UPR structure and clear a landing platform for dropping off the LZ. Then we can begin today’s suicide mission, because I dare not take Nova any closer to that damnable portal.”
“I said I’M FINE DAD!!! I CAN FLY THE SHIP JUST FINE! GOOOOOSH!!!” Nova wailed at the other end of the comline, sounding a lot more like a moody teenaged brat now than a professional Magnus AI.
“Oh for crying out loud, just hurry up and get that platform cleared before this gets any worse!!” Kleese told the others as he still tried to maintain control of the ship from above them. The wackiness with handling the ship though had caused a lot of attention from the pack of thrall that emerged from the base, trying to figure out what the hell all the racket outside was as they soon noticed the group.
“Hostiles incoming!” Mellka shouted out. Marquis worked on trying to provide some cover fire for the group as the Eldrid began to fire her pistol. Meanwhile, Discord was using his abilities to support Shayne and Aurox as they went after a few of the Thrall Beastmasters that were on duty at the time. Followed by Rath cutting down any other thrall that thought they could stand a chance against him.
The teen and the djinn though… we're enjoying their fight in a different way. “Shayne and Aurox, chief detectives!! Tell your friends!”
“We are NOT DETECTIVES!!” Aurox roared back, but his outburst only lead to Discord taking on a detective's jacket, a bowler hat, and an old pipe from the days of Sherlock Holmes as he pretended to take a puff, only for bubbles to come out the other end.
“You don’t say?” He questioned jokingly, before removing the coat and taking on Orendi’s magic to blast the Thrall that tried to blindside them.
“Enough of the jokes, kid!” Rath yelled, slicing another Thrall in half. “This is serious! Go and plant some bombs somewhere!” Discord pulled out a potted plant and threw it, knocking out another primal thrall. “What did I say about the jokes!?”
“It’s not a joke! It’s a visual gag!” Rath growled at the child. Both Shayne & Aurox activated their stealth strike, with Shayne turning invisible to her enemies & allies, appearing in a bundle, and Aurox slamming down.
“Aw yeah! That was awesome!”
“Wait!” Discord pleaded. He pulled out a white-gun looking device, and fired what was a blue hole beneath him, and an orange at a wall next to his ‘mom & dad’. He fell into the blue and popped out of the orange, conjuring up Benedict’s rocket launcher and blasted at another group of thrall. Mellka soon caught up to both of them as they rerouted to the next corridor.
“There! That landing platform should work perfectly for sending your reinforcements. Just one thing that’s on my mind though… Ghalt, why the hell does the UPR place Robot limbs on the top of it’s buildings?”
“Seriously? Out of all the questions you could be asking, you ask that?” Mellka said as she used her bio gauntlet to raise herself into the air before gunning down a few Thrall that tried to swarm them.
“They always had them on the buildings. It’s cool and everything, they do fistbumps and stuff along with helping offload gear from supply vessels.” Ghalt replied as Discord conjured replica’s of his shotguns to gun down some enemies.
“Hey, now that I think of it, why does the bottom of Ghalt’s shotguns look like loafs of bread?” Mellka asked, just as the bay doors opened and a swarm of twenty to thirty thrall began to crowd the group of five.
“Why are we talking about bread!? We need to cut down these savages!!!” Rath shouted, just as he was thrown back into a wall. “... Okay, regrettably, I need some help here!!” Just as that was said, Discord put on a white lab coat and conjured some kind of weapon that emitted red like energy as it healed Rath’s sores like nothing ever happened. “Well, it seems like you are useful for something.”
“What is that contraption you have, child?” Marquis asked, using his weapon as a cane,
“I HAVE NO IDEA!!!” Discord replied in a german accent. “UBER CHARGE!!!” His weapon made Rath turn all red. Rath felt… powerful, and he laughed maniacally.
“NOW I LIKE THIS KID!!!” He yelled as he charged into a group of Thrall & Varelsi, easily slicing them into pieces and, despite being shot at, the bullets bounced off of his skin, He was invincible.
“...How long does that last?” Melka asked. As she asked it, the machine let out a puff of smoke & failed.
“That long...” Discord replied, throwing the costume away, though Rath screamed, chased by a swarm of Thrall. “I got this.” He conjured up what was a large wrecking ball, held onto the chain, and knocked over the Thrall. “♫I came in like a wrecking ball!♫”
“... He really is a chaotic thing, isn’t he?”
“I guess so now that I’m seeing it... But trust me, this is only the tip of the iceberg.” Shayne replied. The group made their way inside the bunker, but then heard an unexpected voice through their intercoms.
“I would’ve thought that a giant hole in space was a clear warning to stay out of my affairs.” Rendain said to the Battleborn as a whole. “But, obviously, that was too subtle for you people, So allow me to make this perfectly clear-”
“Hurry up and threaten us already!! We’re already in the middle of foiling your plans!” Kleese shouted.
“You’re boring!!!” Discord whined.
“...Wait… is that… a Draconequus!?”
“You know something about him, Rendain?” Kleese asked, with the sound of papers flying in the background. “Oh, I can’t wait to learn about how you know about him!”
“Hmph! I thought I grabbed you all. Guess there’s always the one that got away. You’ll be back in my grasp, you little, insignificant, waste of life.”
“His name is Discord!” Shayne growled “And I swear, if you lay a finger on him-!”
“Oh what do we have here? The angsty teenager thinks it’s the hellspawn’s mother.”
“I feel as if we’ve been here before.” Kleese commented. “Have we been here before?”
“I can't wait to record you gnawing her face off!”
“Oh my god! This is happening again!”
“You just jealous of my chaotic swaggah!” Discord said, standing on the platform. All of his allies cheered at the roast he did to Rendain.
“Okay, Let me just make this clear. That portal will stabilize and the Varelsi will swarm the entire system. But good luck you guys, I’m really rooting for you guys and I’m being really sarcastic right now!” Rendain cut the transmission as the they all proceeded through to the second level of the complex while Aurox pulled a few minions in for Discord to shoot in the face with a conjuration of Reyna’s pistol.
“Teamwork for the win!!”
“Nice one, Discord!” Shayne cheered as they went into the control station. Mellka quickly went for the controls to help try to clear the platform for Kleese, but that was interrupted by Rendain once again.
“I’ve grown really tired of all of you just galavanting around, so i’ve elected to kill you now!! Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Kleese saw this as an ambush and immediately shouted. “Take cover, NOW!!”
“Warlord Nix, bring me their hearts and bring the chaos spawn to me!!!” He roared as shots went through the glass window as everyone ducked for cover. Just as a giant thrall to crash on the ground outside.
“Everyone outside!!” Mellka shouted as Discord and Shayne bolted out the door, the teen having her Djinn companion perform Tag Team in the process. However, the oversized thrall soon began to cause problems for the group when more of them spawned from the warp anchors that crashed into the ground. Swarming them from all sides. Rath tried taking them all on, but was unsuccessful in defeating all of them. Mellka herself tried launching a spike to throw herself upward, but the end result involved her getting thrown into Marquis.
When Discord saw the warlord aim his gun at Shayne and Aurox, he knew he had to act. Quickly, he teleported onto the top of the thrall’s head, confusing it a little.
“I like trains…”
As soon as he said it, a giant freight train popped out of nowhere and plowed into the side of the boss. Also destroying the Warp Anchors in the process.
“How the bloody hell did he-? You know what, I rather not ask.” Kleese spoke up, clearing his throat. “Is everyone alright?”
“Can someone please explain how one tiny companion summoned a freight train out of nowhere!?” Mellka asked.
“My only guess is that he has a big imagination,” Shayne replied, looking back at the Eldrid as Aurox cracked his knuckles… or whatever he had that represented them. “Okay Kleese, the landing is clear. What’s next?”
“What’s next is that I’m sending you your support. It’s a heavily modified wolf sentry and the payload that it carries will be enough to rupture the portal. Of course, we would lose him in the process, but better him than us eh?” Kleese said as Mellka walked over to the unit once it crashed onto the ground. “Go on and fire it up.”
“What about the Varelsi portals affecting AI?” Marquis asked.
“Oh, I saw to that personally with Wolf here.” Kleese assured them as the Wolf Sentry was activated.
“Hello there, I’m a wolf sentry who has no sense at all of his own mortality… What’s up, Fellas?” Discord lunged himself to the sentry’s head.
“Who’s my big fwiend!? Yes you is, yes you is!”
“Discord, hang on a second… Wolf unit, our target is a Varelsi Portal. You need to get over there and hurl yourself into the portal.”
“Awesome! That sounds both fun AND safe!! Let’s roll fellas.”
That was when Ghalt decided to pitch in into the conversation. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Oh relax, he’s fine…” Kleese told the UPR captain. Little did they know that the Wolf Sentry got a head start on the mission.
“KNOCK KNOCK FELLAS!! I’M DUMB AS HELL AND THIRSTING FOR DEATH!!!” The Sentry shouted, firing it’s turrets at the massive horde of thrall that charged at them.
“Defend the Sentry!” Kleese ordered “This is our only shot… and the payload on his back is INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE!!!!”
“How expensive?” Discord asked, pulling out a piggy bank and shaking with some change inside.
“Discord, a little help with clearing up these thrall please?” Shayne asked as she had Aurox stun a Thrall Brute by the second floor of the stairwell outside. “We need to destroy the shard conduit powering the gate!”
“While you’re at it, you can use those same shards to power up any gear you may have or activate some “perks” that the Sentry has. Make use of them… oh and remind me to help find some gear for Discord once the mission is over.” Kleese spoke up, just as Discord conjured Montana’s minigun to mow down a couple of incoming Evolved Thralls. Once Shayne and Rath cleared out the guards at the control room and disengaged the door, the sentry was clear to proceed… Just as pockets of the void began to tear open.
“Ah the Varelsi finally show their unthinkable faces… We’ll be seeing a lot more of them before the mission is over.” Kleese told them. But Shayne happened to notice something with Discord when he saw the Varelsi this time. Something… different.
“Discord, are you okay?”
“...” He stared ahead, almost quivering in fear.
“Uh… Look! Wolfie’s under attack!” Shayne, upon hearing Mellka say that, invested some shards into an upgraded turret as the Sentry began to mow down the Varelsi and support Rath and Mellka.
“Upgrades complete! Feeling Lethal as F*CK!!”
“Language!!” Marquis yelled “Very uncouth of you… and there’s a child with us.”
“Could the same be said for ISIC on the last mission? Because I remember him saying a few words like that and also remember Kleese saying some… inappropriate comments.”
“Since when have I said anything inappropriate!?” Kleese protested, only causing Mellka to look at Shayne as she looked back at Discord.
“Well…”
“BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! SUCK IT, RENDAIN!!!”
“Wow… I never thought Bad Grandpa would say anything like that.” Shayne snickered, moving up and advancing.
“It gets worse.”
“Mmmhmmm… This is the part where Mellka goes apesh*t!”
“Kleese!!!”
“What? I was in the moment!!” The LLC member protested as soon as the sentry got through the Varelsi and to the edge of the Ravine.
“You know what… you guys are great, you know that right?” Wolf spoke up, “We should hang out. What are you doing after the mission I’m TOTALLY going to survive?” That… just caused an awkward pause amongst everyone in the group. Including those that were listening over the other end of the comline.
“... Planning to kill Rendain.” Rath answered bluntly.
“Serving tea to everyone.” Marquis added
“Well… eheh… Maybe you should be thinking about other things… like robot heaven… where all your pets will be and… ***dammit, why do you people have me do this?” Mellka swore across the comline.
“Discord, Aurox and I… well… Sorry man, but we’re going to have to blow you up… Sorry.”
“Sorry.” Aurox mumbled
“Sorry.” Discord copied.
“AWESOME! Can I come along?” Wolf triumphantly asked, only causing a new person to speak up. That being Reyna.
“That… is literally the most depressing question I’ve heard… ever… of all time.” Ignoring that comment, the team pressed on and up the stairwell of a temple encased in ice. Since there was no sign of Varelsi, Discord was able to help with eliminating the Thrall as Wolf approached the door.
“Woah man… this computer has some CRAZY encryptions on it. I better hack it with my hacking laser!” He proclaimed.
“We’re screwed. We’re totally screwed!!” Kleese panicked, causing everyone to look at the sentry.
“Why do you say that? Anyways… INITIATING HACK!!!” He roared, causing everyone to simultaneously cover their ears… except for Marquis.
“Did he really have to be THAT loud?” Shayne asked.
“Loud?” Discord asked. “I know loud!” He took a deep breath and every Varelsi & Thrall nearby exploded, along with the door blasting wide open as he screamed.
“Hacking laser, disengaged… Mainframe wrecked… Hack complete. Zoom… and enhance.”
“Oh just SHUT UP AND PRESS ON, PLEASE!!” Kleese asked, the sentry moving forward. “Alright, Carry-. Oh no, the portal’s surging again! Brace yourselves!!” As the ground shook, the Sentry began to panic and bounce off into the distance. Discord held onto the Wolf sentry… with a stetson hat as It’s voice echoed throughout the cave.
“AH, I NEED AN ADULT!! I NEED AN ADULT!! I NEED AN ADULT!!!!!”
“And he’s gone… and with that, Discord was with him. Hurry up and go after them!!”
The moment that Kleese yelled for the group to run after the Sentry, Shayne and Aurox were the first ones to run. Despite Mellka asking for them to proceed with caution, the teen didn’t really care about that. She just wanted to make sure that Discord was okay because there was no telling when the Varelsi would show up and attack the Sentry. But as they made their way across the ravine, it turns out that the Sentry itself was okay and also undamaged.
“Oh thank heavens! There he is!” Kleese breathed a sigh of relief, just as Wolf now hollered something else now that he came back to his senses… mostly.
“Mom? Dad!? Oh, YOU’RE HOME!! YOU’RE FINALLY HOME AHAAAA!!!” It screamed, sounding like it was crying in the process.
“Are you sure that Sentry’s okay?” Ghalt asked again, only getting an annoyed groan from Kleese as Shayne soon approached the youngster.
“You okay, Dissy?” She asked him as the youngster hopped off of the Sentry and onto her shoulder. He shivered a little, but seemed okay for the most part. “Glad you’re still in one piece… How’s Wolf taking the whole… you know… escort thing?” Discord pulled out a large newspaper roll and smacked it on the Sentry’s head.
“Bad! Bad Wolfie!”
“Ow! I’m sorry!” The sentry apologized. All of that just leading to Shayne facepalming herself before she saw something hit the sentry from behind. “Ow! Fellas… MY ASS!! THEY’RE HANDING IT TO ME!! HELP!! THEY’RE HANDING ME MY ASS!!” Shayne turned to see that the attacks were from a few Thrall Brutes on the large structure along with some Varelsi Marksman in the distance.
“Mellka, if you’re going to make a grand entrance right around now, then it would be a good time! Wolf is getting flanked from two sides right now.”
“We’re on our way, hang tight!” Mellka’s voice rose up on the intercom as Shayne looked back at Discord.
“You think you can focus on the thrall up there, Kiddo?” She asked, looking back at the youngling as he conjured a replica of Mellka’s machine pistol and began to aim it at the thrall.
“Say hello to my little friend!” Discord said, firing the machine pistol rapidly. Mellka & the others arrived, seeing Discord shooting down the Thrall down easily.
“Darn it!” Marquis spoke “I was hoping to use Hoodini.” He pulled his hat off, followed by a small robot owl popping out of the hat. Discord appeared next to him.
“HOODINI!!!” Discord cheered, picking up and snuggling with the robot owl.
“... VARELSI!!!” Rath shouted. Discord screamed and threw Hoodini at the portal with oncoming Varelsi, causing an explosion. He stared awkwardly at what he did.
“You’re lucky that I have more.” Marquis said.
“Great.” Mellka said, observing more portals opening. “Discord, you may wanna-” Discord pulled out a laser pointer and aimed it around the Sentry. The Sentry noticed the red dot and began to chase after it.
“Mine! It’s mine!”
“Go get it!” Discord said, sweating and running away from the Varelsi. He aimed the dot at the shield. The Sentry bashed right through it, taking a huge amount of damage, but still standing.
“Did I get it?”
“Yes you did… Yes you did…” Mellka sighed. “Still, we should at least get rid of all the Jennerit up top if you don’t want thrall being shoved down your throats during the launch sequence.”
“The way up needs three of us to power it up so it can send two to destroy the rest from the looks of it,” Shayne informed the others upon inspecting the mechanism. “Any volunteers on who will-.” Before she was able to finish that sentence, Mellka and Discord sat on two of the other power conductors that launched Rath and Marquis up onto the second floor. While they were up there, they heard Rath shouting out in glory as he began to slaughter the thrall up there.
“Your limbs will make perfect mementos of our time together, FREAK!!” The Swordsman mocked as he continued to cut through the group.
“You disgust me…” Marquis sighed. “Not you Rath, the others…” Discord grunted as he read an issue of a certain comic book. Which wasn’t long until the way through was powered down.
“Barrier down, let’s press on!” Mellka rallied the group, just as Ghalt began to speak up. “No matter how many times, I’ve seen them. Varelsi portals always scare the living hell out of me.”
“That is a sincere reaction to something that’s impossible,” Kleese added on. “Mathematically speaking, Varelsi Portals aren’t even suppose to exist. How can someone with a feeble mind not understand a living, physical paradox?”
“Feeble mind?” Mellka questioned. “What the hell is that suppose to mean?”
“Did I not explain it? It means that I think you’re stupid.” Kleese groaned. Just as the Sentry was in position, one Varelsi that was WAY bigger than the others spawned out of nowhere, startling the others.
“OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING!!!”
“SHUT UP, KLEESE!! Don’t panic!!”
“YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, DAMMIT!!! WE’RE DOOMED!!! WE’RE ALL DOO-O-MED!!!” The sound of some slapping him was heard and a brief bit of pain from Kleese as he snapped at the captain. “Captain! ...You… you slapped me!”
“Kleese, stop panicking.” Ghalt spoke with irritation in his voice “Everyone else, figure out how to kill that thing!!”
“You hit like a GIRL captain!!”
“Sexist…” Shayne snickered as she paid less attention to the old geezer and more attention to Discord.
“KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!” Discord screamed, pulling out both Oscar Mike’s tactical rifle AND Benedict’s Rocket launcher as he tried to open fire on it. Only for the bullets and rockets to be deflected off the outer exterior of something that was shielding the Varelsi from harm.
“...Crap! More Varelsi!!! And they’re shielding that conservator!” Melka spoke. Rath was quick to dispose of his nearby Thrall, though Marquis, without looking through the scope, took out his two Thralls. The place shook violently.
“We’re seeing some colossal localized anomalies building nearby!” Kleese informed them all. “This CAN’T be good!” Then… darkness. Everything… it was pitch black. Discord could hear certain voices… faintly, with the group they’re in, but, other than that, nothing. He took out a flashlight, but, everywhere he pointed was just an abyss… that was, until he heard some new voices.
“...Discord? Is that you?” A very gentle, quiet voice asked.
“Discord, this better not be any-” The voice screamed, followed by the faint grunts and howls of the Varelsi. “DISCORD!!! HELP!!!” Discord shook himself and ran around.
“Where are you!?” he shouted. He heard a loud roar, followed by another voice, this one sounding like a male with a pretty attractive sounding voice.
“Get away from her!!!” Sounds of a struggle were heard, followed by heavy breathing from afterwards.
“Oh dear! You're hurt!”
“It's nothing… I can't believe it… he's here!”
“Who? Are they responsible for… for those… monsters?”
“... Rendain… I thought he'd never be here.”
“Discord, are you okay?” Shayne asked, growing concerned for him as she killed another Varelsi Shulk that tried to grab him. “Discord?!”
“Mama!” The youngling shouted, having the teen scramble to where he was as Shayne sent Aurox to smash some Varelsi heads together. “Mama, I’m scared!!”
“Discord, hang on. I’m right here!” She said, rushing to the draconequus. During this, she saw the rift began to de-stabilize when Aurox killed a few more of the beings from the void, “Everyone. Cut the Varelsi down to size! The more you destroy them, the more likely we can get out of here!!”
“You heard her,” Mellka snapped, punching another Shulk in the face before sending venom canisters flying everywhere. “The quicker we destroy them, the sooner we get out of here!” Shayne tried to contribute as well, having the youngling latch onto her back as she threw boomerangs at incoming enemies and directed Aurox to spawn at a location to pull enemies in with Tag Team. Her augmentation on the ability, known as Aurox Beckons, allowed for Aurox to pull in numerous opponents into a specific targeted location as well as apply a brief slowing effect to the monsters. But right now, Shayne’s first priority was Discord… but while trying to help him, she heard something that wasn’t exactly… normal so to speak. Discord saw multiple equine silhouettes, most of them about as tall as Shayne, but two of them were taller than the rest. However, one towered over them all, and it wasn't equine shaped, but almost snake-like.
“Discord… I… I can't really believe you held all of that pain.”
The teen didn’t know what was going on, but she felt the youngling on her back shiver in fear from it. Having Aurox back, she noticed a Channeler on it’s own as she pointed at it. “Hey you, come here… NOW!!”
“Fluttershy… I'm… I'm sorry… I promise I'll be back.”
Aurox obeyed the command, lunging at the channeler as it was pulled towards Shayne. With her boomerang, she stabbed it in the face as everything around them began to disappear. Now they felt the snow from Bliss once again as everyone realized they were back to where they were.
“Y-you’re alive!! What on earth just happened!?! You just-. OH FORGET IT!! We’ll discuss it later. KILL THE CONSERVATOR!!” They heard Kleese roar as it screeched in agony. Shayne, keeping Discord close, looked at Aurox.
“Guys… Let’s teach this void filth what happens when you mess with one of us!”
“Ah HELL YES!!” Mellka cheered, firing off another clip of rounds into the conservator. “Kicking ass and taking names! All in a day's work!!”
“Cheers.” Marquis added, letting a Hoodini robot out.
“Go Clockwerk!!” Discord cheered, staying on Shayne’s back. Over time, the Conservator took heavy amounts of damage and fell to the ground. Just in range of Discord holding one of Ghalt’s shotguns with a pair of shades on and his hair slick back. “Hasta la vista… Baby.”
He squeezed the trigger, causing the conservator to dissipate into space junk as Kleese finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Perfect! Much better than the unnecessary sequels! Wolf unit!! Your moment of sacrifice has come. Initiate DEATH MARCH!!”
“You got it buddy,” Wolf said as it propelled itself into the portal. “Oh and hey, you got to tell me what a death march is when I get back-.”
KA-BOOM!!
Discord pulled out a trumpet and played a funeral song, Marquis taking his hat off, adding the drama to the scene. Only to be brutally interrupted by Kleese. “Did we do it? Did we actually do it? …… YYYEEESSSS!!! HAHA!!! WE TOOK THE FOUNDATION OF SCIENCE AND SHOVED IT DOWN THE VARELSI’S THROATS!! SUCK IT RENDAIN!!! …… Ahem, good job everyone. Now that Nova is no longer affected by the portal, I’ll have her pick you guys up. You all deserve a ride home after that.”
However, the word home only added to the saddened state that Discord was in… and Shayne was personally worried for him.
Upon returning back to base, the draconequus child that Shayne was raising still was down in the dumps. All of the other Battleborn members were too busy celebrating the fact that they survived another day, yet Shayne was concerned for Discord. It didn’t seem fair for everyone else to be happy, but he was left to be miserable. Orendi originally suggested that she serve him ice cream because it was a dish other than revenge that was best served cold and with sprinkles, but it didn’t seem like the proper way to handle it. Now, Shayne was with Discord in their room, just by themselves and the young teen wanted to try and get the youngling to speak to her, but still seemed scared and too nervous to do so.
“Allow me.” Aurox spoke. The djinn floated to the Draconequus. “... I still have that soul offering.” Discord turned to his father with an annoyed look.
“Aurox…” Shayne growled.
“Oh! Sorry! Just wanted to make things better.” he floated back to Shayne. She rolled her eyes and turned to Discord.
“Hey, Dissy, what's wrong?”
“Nothing.” Discord replied, turning from his family.
“... You did a good job today.”
“Thanks.”
“... Did you see something in the void? The dark area where we were all separated in.”
“I couldn't see it… but I heard it.” He replied, looking back at her. “I heard… voices of someone…”
“Voices?”
“Yeah… I… I think… I think it was… my REAL family!”
“Your… real family?”
“Seems our ‘child’ figured he was adopted.” Aurox blurted.
“Aurox!... Sorry for that. Care to tell how?”
“... Well… there was a sweet sounding woman that called for me… then… those… those monsters attacked her. She was scared… I was scared… but… I heard a man yell at them. I… believe he was my dad. He fought them off… hurt, but was fine. I… I think I may have ran away… and… Oh no!!! He's looking for me!!!”
“Who?”
“My dad! He left my mom and, I believe, her family behind!”
“Her family?” Aurox asked.
“Uh… I couldn't exactly see… but my dad was really tall & snake like, and my mom… I think she's actually Whiskey’s plushie.”
“... Fluttershy? The Pegasus? Really?” Shayne held Discord in a caring hug.
“I think the void must've messed with your head, son.” Aurox sighed, folding his arms. “We all panicked in there and I think I accidentally slapped Rath in the face.”
“Aurox, I believe Discord… I heard something similar to that in there… But this is just a piece of a bigger puzzle we can’t solve just yet… Discord… Remember when we had to fight the Varelsi today and you were scared?” Shayne asked, nervous about bringing the subject up.
“Y-yeah.”
“Well… I want to help you in making sure that you don’t need to be scared in facing them… So,” Shayne told him, going to her closet to pull out a spare sleeveless jacket that was around Discord’s size in sleek black with a patch that was the Emblem of the rogues, sewn onto the back of the jacket. “I want to give you this.”
“... You made that… for me!?”
“And when did you sew?” Aurox added.
“I had Orendi help me with that since she wanted to help as well and it turns out that have four arms helps with needles and threads,” Shayne replied to Aurox before looking back at Discord. “Anyways, I made this for you Discord because I wanted you to feel confident in the future battles we’re going to face. Even if I won’t be able to be there with you all the time, I can be there in spirit every time you have this on. Welcome to the Rogues, little guy; You deserve it.” Discord practically squealed as he put the jacket on. He looked at himself in the mirror, impressed by his new appearance as he did a few heroic poses to see how he looked while wearing it
“Thank y-you so much, mama!!”
“You’re welcome, Dissy.” She replied. Unknowingly to the teen, the new surge of confidence and bravery that had been obtained through the bonding of parent and child had filled the youngling with DETERMINATION!!! … and the showers shut down with him singing.
Shortly after Discord finished his personal chorus inside the shower, dried himself off, and put on his new jacket that Shayne had made for him, the young Draconequus was less worried about what he had seen in the void while on the last mission and more focused on what he was going to do now. After talking to Shayne and Mellka, the two of them thought that the youngling would be able to be a better badass on the battlefield if he had more combat experience registered in his Helix Ring. The more experience in combat that’s registered in it, the more likely bonus mutations in the helix ring would pop up and serve as extra abilities that would benefit him greatly in combat.
Before they could initialize the simulation machine that was used for training purposes, Ghalt called a quick meeting to introduce a few new arrivals that had heard of the Battleborn’s feats in collapsing the Varelsi portal that spawned on Bliss and had offered their services to the cause. From the LLC, there was the professional wrestler with robotic arms that went by his stage name “El Dragon”, which had Discord dress up to look like he was a member of a mariachi band to add to the feeling in the room. The UPR was able to conscribe Galilea, the “Wraith of Bliss”, to the cause as well and despite the nickname though, she seemed less scarier than expected after humoring the youngling when he dressed up as a knight and pretended to challenge her to a duel, just for kicks. Lastly, the Eldrid had two members, one new seeker (what the Eldrid call their recruits) and a returning member that just came back from the world of Ekkunar named Miko, which took Discord a little while to realize that it was suppose helping their cause and a topping for Pizza night… or a power up for an Italian psychopath.
The Seeker though, went by the name Alani and she was raised as a healer on the freshwater planet of Akopos. But when Rendain and the Imperium invaded her home world and drained it of its oceans, she was forced to be a warrior and used her powers to control water all around her and also the water in her own body to fight back and survive against the invading thrall that destroyed everything and everyone she once knew. All while nullifying the warranty on the water soluble nanotech that was the rings along her arms and causing Discord to try and copy her techniques while wearing a strange set of clothes to add to it.
When they got back to the simulation test chambers, Discord and Shayne were both surprised to see a familiar face working the grounds outside it in his new metal body. ISIC. “Howdy there, meatbags! What brings you here on one of the few rare and glorious days that we have left in this dying universe?”
Both parent and child looked at one another in confusion shortly after ISIC had finished speaking, only to be followed by another familiar voice as they turned to see Montana walk over to where they were. “Oh sweet! Is this the training room? I can’t wait to give it a test run!!”
“Ah perfect! A volunteer!” ISIC cheerfully replied. Soon, Whiskey Foxtrot and the sword mistress, named Phoebe, decided to join the other three as ISIC had all of them sync up to the capsule needed for the simulation to properly process. “Now, before we begin this family friendly activity of violence and bloodshed, let’s go over the rules of the game mode that I’ve selected for you today… Meltdown.” Before any of them got the chance to ask, a cartoony like tutorial video began to play as all five of them watched the images on the screen and listened to ISIC explain everything to them.
“In this competitive game mode, teams of five players each have one goal. Guide cute and adorable robots, along with all their hopes and dreams, to their grimly demise! All to satisfy the insane machine god named MINREC. But enough from me, let’s let cyber lady do the rest of the talking!” With that, the five of them found themselves in what looked like the hangar bay of the ship they would normally use, only to see a digital projection of Nova as she began to further explain the game rules for Meltdown.
“Meltdown… earn points by guiding your minions to enemy incinerators and by destroying your opponent's minions before they reach your own. The bigger the minion, the more points you will obtain,” The AI explained. “The first team to five hundred points obtains victory.”
“That sounds simple enough-.” Shayne replied, until they heard a new voice boom throughout the room.
“THE OTHER GUYS WILL BE KILLED!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“...... Who or what the hell was that?” Whiskey asked, only for his question to be answered differently by Nova.
“Haul ass and roast noobs in… 3… 2… 1…”
“Wait, wha-?” Discord asked, just as the gates opened to a battlefield. “... Alright chumps, let’s do this! DISCORD!!! JENKINS!!!”
“...Oh my God, he just ran in.” Montana just said.
“CHARGE!!!” Phoebe shouted. The team ran to the battlefield, seeing that their opponents are Miko, Galilea, El Dragon, Alani, and Toby.
“Aw crap.” Toby sighed. “I'm gonna regret this day n-AHHH!!!” Discord tackled him to the ground, knocking him out of his mech as he disappeared a few minutes later.
“Victory is mine!” Discord shouted, overhearing something about first blood and how Toby was soon going to respawn. “Wait, where did he go-?”
“Deploying minions, sacrifice them to avoid MINREC’s Wrath.” Nova advised.
“Who's MINREC!?” The floor shook with a booming laughter.
“MWAHAHAHAHA!!!” Erupting from the floor and floating above them all was a giant, golden robotic head. “IT IS I, MINREC, PUNY CHILD!!! SACRIFICE FOR ME, AND AVOID MY… Uh… what are doing?” Discord was preparing something in a kettle over a fireplace.
“Making Gumbo.” He replied.
“... That's not how that works.” Shayne said.
“THE ANGSTY TEENAGER IS RIGHT!!!”
“Uh… I think that was a compliment?” The teen replied, before turning to notice that El Dragon was in a bit of a grudge match against Montana on the opposite side of the map. However, when Galilea tried to initiate a surprise attack from behind, Discord flipped the cauldron as it smacked the knight in the face.
“How can I cook without a book of recipes!?!” He squealed, before turning to see Galilea. “Oh hey, I didn’t see you there.”
“You find a way to catch an opponent by surprise even when you aren’t paying attention hunh?” Galilea smirked, preparing her sword and shield. “This will be very interesting indeed.”
“Book.” A cookbook knocked Galilea on the head, knocking her unconscious. Discord then quickly read through the pages until coming across one and putting a talon on it. “... Ah! Mushrooms!” He turned to Miko and licked his lips.
“... S**t.” The Mushroom swore, the first time that itself actually had done so… and feared for it’s safety as it ran and tried to throw kunai knives at it’s pursuer. “WE REQUEST AID!!”
“Busy here!” Alani replied, using her water against Phoebe’s swords. “You really think your blades can work against my water?”
“It's better than nothing.” The Fancy Woman replied.
MINREC watched the Madness from his position: Discord chased Miko while dressed up as earlier mentioned Italian psychopath, Phoebe & Alani clashing sword & water, Whiskey kicking Toby like a soccer ball, Montana & El Dragon having a Flex off, and Shayne & Aurox… Aurox watched Shayne poke Galilea with a stick.
“... This is ridiculous.” MINREC muttered to himself before turning back to the fighting sides. “You know you're suppose to sacrifice robots to me, right? Everyone’s tied! If there's one thing that the great MINREC hates the most, it's ties!” Discord appeared on his head, now with the top of Miko’s head as he held a few suit ties with him.
“Which ones?” he asked.
“Both…. Hey! How'd you get up here so fast!? And why is your team's points going up so fast!?” He looked down, seeing all of the robots formed a Congo Line and we're going into the shredder. It was past the 500 point marker and was at 10,478,183.21 points. “... I'm… oh no… I'm feeling sick… give me a sec!”
“I think Discord broke the system…” Shayne replied. “Hey, Nova, you there? Maybe we can try a different training mode or something, given all the shenanigans that have been happening?”
“... New gift from MINREC. For Discord.” Nova replied, just as MINREC ‘puked’ out a box that almost crashed on the youngling.
“NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!” MINREC shouted before disappearing. Discord ran to the boxes, jumping like… well… a child. He opened a box to see that it was a robot, but it had a note attached to it.
Please activate once outside of the simulation. All of you have avoided my wrath, FOR NOW!! And make no mistake, one team will lose next time!!!
-Your future and inevitable demise, MINREC
“Hey Toby, can we look over these with Kleese once outside of the simulation?” Shayne asked the penguin as she looked at Toby. “I got an idea of what to do with the… contents in the box...”
“You really think that something like this could be pulled off?” Kleese asked as he inspected the mechanical contraption that Shayne and Toby brought back from the Simulation. The former head of Minion robotics was skeptical of if something as a contraption from MINREC could actually work. For all he knew, this could have been a bunch of recycled scrap metal.
“Well, Discord was really attached to Wolf to the point that he did a farewell tribute to him after he detonated, so maybe we can try to have this one be a companion for him,” Shayne recommended. “I mean, I won’t always be there for every mission that he’ll be assigned to, but with a friend, he’ll be able to stare at death in the face and spit in it.”
“That sounds… possible. However, I don’t have a copy of the same AI program that was used for the wolf unit. Let me check the schematics for this real fast…” He said, looking at the blueprint that was in the box, until something caught his attention. “Oh my… this may be very… interesting…”
“How exactly?” Toby replied.
“This robot was to serve as a mobile sentry and also be able to function a full running magnus AI that was already loaded onto the hard drive. However, my concern is the possibility that this magnus could go bats**t crazy.” Kleese wasn’t joking around when he mentioned that. Originally, all Magnus AI’s followed the computer system that was known as the Magna Carta. One day though, it went offline and it never came back on. Causing any AI’s that were closer to the Magna Carta to go insane. Nova though wasn’t affected because she was farther away from the structure when it went offline and was not affected. The concern though was what could possibly happen if they tried turning it on now.
“Can’t you just remove the protocol for it to look for the Magna Carta?” Nova then peaked in, causing everyone to look at her and Kleese to realize how right she was and then commencing the actions that she recommended. Shortly followed by her speaking something else. “Hurrah, I’m being helpful.”
“Okay, now, does this bot have a name?” Shayne asked, looking at the blueprint. “Sweetie Bot? Who would come up with a name like that?”
“Probably someone who would want to make some kind of dumb joke off of a cartoon character or something,” Kleese said, before commencing the startup sequence for the contraption as it came online. “Ah here we are, IT’S ALIVE!!”
“Running diagnostics protocol… Startup process initialized… downloading latest updates… uploading Wolf Sentry 1996’s data… oh! Hey! Wassup, guys! You forgot to tell me what a Death March was.” The robot spoke, it’s voice now less like Wolf and more feminine, so to speak.
“Oh great. It's THAT one again.” Kleese groaned to himself, rolling his eyes.
“Wait until Discord sees you’re back, Wolfie.” Shayne spoke.
“I’m not a Wolf Sentry anymore.” The robot replied to the teenager as it tried to take up a heroic pose. “I have my memories, but I feel so ALIVE!!! I can’t wait to join you guys on your missions! Sweetie Bot is ready to take on the world and be a badass like you guys!”
“Well, that’s definitely new…” Toby replied, looking at the others. “I’m guessing you will still be ready for combat?”
“Little buddy, I was BORN combat!! I’m ready whenever you guys need me... Now where’s that little fella that was with us last time? I gotta go say hi!” The former Wolf Sentry, now mare robot proclaimed as she tried to walk. “Wow… kind of feels strange moving from six legs to four, don’t you think?” Shayne and Toby just sighed, just as Discord himself walked in and began to wonder what all the racket was about. “Oh hey, little guy! Guess who’s back!?” Discord froze with a confused look.
“W-wolfie?” he stuttered.
“Almost! I have my memories back, but I am stronger, deadlier and even more lethal as F**K!! I am Sweetie Bot!” She proclaimed, shortly before Discord pounced onto her and held on like he was hugging her.
“I have both a new and my old best friend back!” Discord hugged the robot, who smiled and hugged back in response.
“D’aww…” Shayne and Toby said in unison.
“HNNG!!!” Kleese grabbed his chest, around his heart area, and fell onto his back. Everyone else in that moment, looked at Kleese and began to panic.
“Oh no! You guys killed Kleese!” Toby squaked. Discord began to panic himself. Sweetie Bot walked to Kleese and rubbed her hooves together, making electricity.
“CLEAR!!!” She zapped Kleese. He rose up with a gasp.
“What just happened!?” he demanded “Where am I!? Heaven!? Hell!?... Oh no! I'm in New Jersey!!!” Discord and Sweetie Bot laughed at him. “... Why you little-!!!” The two ran away, giggling as Kleese got into his chair and chased the two troublemakers. All while Shayne and Toby kicked back, got some popcorn, and watched the shenanigans unfold.
Fortunately, even with the way that the universe was… they still had the time to have fun with family and friends. No matter how crazy they were.
It was a week after they had closed the Varelsi Portal that had bloomed on Bliss unexpectedly and for Discord, he was eager to have some fun. Over the short time that Sweetie Bot had joined his family, the youngling began seeing her as a older sister… one that had full auto missile launchers that worked a lot like Montana’s machine gun. This morning though, as soon as he woke up, the youngster went to where the sentry was charging, letting his parents be able to sleep peacefully as he went with Sweetie Bot to go find something to eat. The draconequus helped himself by providing some bread rolls for a morning snack while allowing Sweetie Bot to recharge her circuits with the plug-in on the wall in the hangar bay.
However, it was during then that they had noticed two things. One, Whiskey Foxtrot was up and doing what may be considered as the “Hard Mode” difficulty for push ups. Two, both of them happened to be spotted by someone who happened to be in the room and noticed them by accident. It was one of the Jennerit rebels who fought against Rendain and the rest of the Imperium that was under his control. In fact, this one in particular used to be Rendain’s right hand until she went turncoat. “Oh… uh… good morning… I honestly did not expect anyone else to be up right now…”
“Morning Ms. Ande!” Discord chuckled as he wiped of the crumbs on his face with a napkin. The spymistress herself chuckled, correcting the youngster since her name was Deande. It was then that Sweetie Bot turned to face her after the sentry was done charging.
“Howdy there, ma’am? What’s shakin?”
Deande raised an eyebrow in response, a confused expression on her face as she looked at the Unicorn sentry. “Who… is that?”
“It’s Wolfie… Well… It was Wolfie. I won a present last week and Wolfie has a new body and a new name. Say hi Sweetie Bot!” Discord cheered as he landed on top of the mare’s head, causing the mare to chuckle. It was at that point that Whiskey himself wanted to know what was with the racket going on outside his room and he too was also introduced to Sweetie Bot. Shortly before Deande walked inside the ship and had the three of them follow her. What she had was vital information for Ghalt about the actions of the imperium over the time they had destroyed the Varelsi portal. Now, she had something that could possibly help them.
“So what do you have for us, Deande?” Ghalt asked her as she presented a holographic file that contained various pieces of intel her spies had recovered. Fortunately, they did not need to worry about any of them going turncoat because the spies themselves were loyal to only Deande instead of Rendain.
“Ghalt, I believe I have something that can help us,” She replied, opening the folder and letting numerous pieces of intel take a digital form to let Ghalt and Nova examine them. One such piece being footage of an imperium shock trooper escaping from the guards at one of the prison wards on the Jennerit home world of Tempest. Along with a full body image of that Shock Trooper from head to toe. “My spies on Tempest tell me that the imperium is mobilizing to capture an escaped prisoner they have been hunting for weeks. I only know of one that would merit such a response, it MUST be Caldarius. His jailers are in hot pursuit, but if we can beat them to Bliss, we may have a potent new ally in our war against Rendain… provided that he makes it out of there alive.”
Shortly after she was done speaking, Ghalt himself cleared his throat and proceeded to mention something. “According to your file, this guy’s been killing Jennerit elites since he broke out of prison. Isn’t it likely that your on his list?”
“Well, surely I am. But I WAS the one who helped free him so that means all is forgiven…” She replied, nervously. “Surely, Right?”
“All that time, in solitary?” Ghalt questioned. “If it were me, I would surely kill you.”
“Well, that’s rather nice of you captain-.”
“I would also kill you.” Nova chimed in.
“Me too… if you were Oscar Mike…” Whiskey Foxtrot mumbled.
“Me three!!” Discord replied by raising a paw and blurting out the statement, along with Sweetie Bot nodding her own head and agreeing to it.
“Alright, I get it!! We’re jerks!!” Deande responded, followed by a deep and heavy sigh. “The point that I’m trying to make is that we have a narrow window of opportunity to pull something like this off. We need to get a team on the ground and help Caldarius ASAP.”
“Can we go Grandpa?” Discord asked, him and Sweetie Bot giving Foxtrot a set of puppy dog eyes each before Whiskey himself sighed.
“Alright, as long as I’m coming with you and we don’t get paired up with Oscar Mike.” Discord was really happy to hear that, but kept his excitement to a brief whisper since he did not want to wake up his parents or any of the other Battleborn that were sleeping.
“For an assignment like this on Bliss, someone from the UPR with prior knowledge of the place should join,” Ghalt replied, going over and taking off the two shotguns that he had hung up on the wall of the ship before loading them. “I’ll join you and see if one of the other guys instead of Mike can come along too.”
“The imperium might go after Caldarius with everything they got, so some heavy firepower may be beneficial for this mission. Even with Sweetie Bot tagging along, it wouldn’t hurt to have some more firepower on hand,” Deande suggested. “What about the Avian? I believe his name was Benedict right?” Ghalt like the sound of that idea, saying that he’ll go make sure that Benedict was ready for combat while the rest of them got ready as well for when they landed on Bliss. They just needed to make sure and inform Kleese of what was going on before anyone left. That way… they wouldn’t do anything stupid while they were gone.
“Everyone on the ground?” Deande asked the team, just as the five of them touched down on the frozen hellscape that was Bliss. “Alright, I’m patching into Caldarius’ assault frame using the comline. Hang on a second…” For a brief moment, they heard what sounded like a ringing noise for if a phoneline was trying to connect, but then heard a metallic being respond on the other end. It was Caldarius.
“Deande?” He said, not sounding amused from the sounds of his static like voice. “What do you want?”
“We don’t have much time Caldarius. Your jailers are coming so here’s the deal,” Deande responded as the group began to move forward and link up with the closest LLC checkpoint they could find. “We get you out of here alive and you help us kill Rendain.”
For a moment, the Shock Trooper seemed defiant. “Heh… I don’t need your help…” However, the sight of several Jennerit ships in the sky proved otherwise as his response soon changed. “Hmm… I might need your help.”
“What kind of help?” Discord soon asked the others, just as the group encountered the first of several Jennerit scouting parties that they were going to encounter that day. As Whiskey Foxtrot and Benedict engaged them from the upper walkway, Ghalt, Discord, and Sweetie Bot soon took on a few of the others that were underneath it. Just as Discord’s question was answered by Caldarius.
“My assault frame’s power cells were completely depleted after my escape from Tempest. If you want to be of assistance, you can start by restoring power to this facility. Afterwards, I can kill Hylis myself.”
“The main power plant is damaged beyond repair, Kleese any ideas?” Deande asked as Discord was helping Sweetie Bot fire off some missiles that landed straight in the face of a few stranded Thrall in a nearby basin. Around the same time that Kleese responded to the spymistress’ question. “According to these Schematics from the UPR, there appears to be a backup power generator that was built in the caves, but never brought online. That’s your best shot… Sorry, did I say best? I meant only.”
Upon hearing that, Discord had conjured Reyna’s laser pistol and had his mane in a certain flat appearance before turning to Ghalt and speaking. “I got a bad feeling about this…”
Surely enough, a new voice soon spoke up over the comline… One that wasn’t anyone that the group was familiar with. “There’s nowhere left to run Caldarius… Come on out and face me!”
“Who the flying hell was that?” Benedict asked as he soared in the air and fired at a few of the spare thrall that were around the backup power facility.
“Give me a moment to think it over,” Caldarius replied, before speaking a few minutes later. “I would like to pass on your offer, Hylis.”
“Gonna make me work for it hunh?” The Jailer said. “Good. On my way here, I thought I would be bored s**tless while on this mission, but as you know I love a good chase. Give it your best shot Caldy… It will make putting you back in irons so much more satisfying. Especially when we get to the fun stuff.”
Both Deande and Discord had the same response to that question, but Discord was a little more curious when it came to what they said. “Fun stuff?”
This only caused Caldarius to sigh heavily as he groaned and responded back to the group. “He means torture.”
“DING DING DING DING!!! I do mean torture!” Hylis cheerfully proclaimed like he was a game show host. “And there’s plenty of torture to come around if the rest of you want to come… Or you can just leave here and leave me to my quarry.”
“What’s torture?” Discord asked Ghalt, only causing him to be distracted as he looked back at the youngling.
“Uhh… Think of it as not being allowed to have your favorite dessert… for a VERY long amount of time.” Discord gasped at that, charging in at the remaining thrall down below with his pistol out and firing at them.
“YOU WILL NOT TAKE AWAY MY ICE CREAM!!!”
“Ice Cream!?” Sweetie Bot added, following him. “WAIT!!! I WANNA TRY!!!” Ghalt sighed to himself.
“Kids…” he grumbled, just as Benedict landed next to him and Whiskey while reloading his rocket launcher.
“Guess we're gonna have to… wing it!” he joked awfully. The sound of drums were heard as both men groaned at the joke, causing Benedict to sigh to himself. “No appreciation for good humor.”
“There’s the backup generator, and still functional by the looks of it. Fire it up and we can keep track of the power levels from Nova.” Deande explained as Ghalt looked at a holoscreen on his gauntlet.
“According to the base records, the UPR had this substation decommissioned after finding an unforeseen security risk,” He said as he looked at the others that were preparing their gear and readying for combat. “Go ahead and activate it, but be ready for anything.” That was when he noticed that Discord had already made some preparations. Hence, taking a short nap on top of a set of turrets that looked to have been activated recently by him.
As the generator whirred to life though, the sounds of rumbling far off from their location caused everyone to tense up. Especially Kleese from the other end of the comline. “What the hell is it doing!?” Hearing unknown sounds of some sort of creature and also the sounds of the Jennerit picking up on the commotion had the whole team nervous.
“It’s a fair bet that something isn’t pleased about our presence here, prepare yourselves!” Ghalt told the others as he reloaded his shotgun with a fresh new set of shells. Just as a series of exploding, suicidal bug like creatures came out of nowhere and startled Discord out of his nap.
“What the hell is going on down there?!” Deande asked out of worry and concern for the team. Only to have Kleese immediately respond. “The generator woke up the locals, and surprise surprise, not only are they hostile… but they are also INCREDIBLY PISSED!!”
“Thank you, Captain obvious.” Benedict snickered before taking a moment to ascend into the air so he could rain death from above.
“Preparing missiles!” Sweetie Bot said, the twin rocket launchers appearing out of it’s back and held over both sides. It’s eyes turned red. “FIRE!” a flurry of rockets came out and began to explode the insects. One of them passed by Benedict.
“Hey! Watch where you’re firing! I was almost fried!” The sound of cricket chirpings were heard. “How are there crickets here!? It’s in the middle of a frozen hell!!”
“Don’t question it!” Whiskey yelled, firing at the insects near the generator. “... Oh f**k me!”
“Language!” Ghalt barked at Whiskey before hearing a warp anchor crash down above them. “Son of a B*tch, thrall incoming!”
“Language!! You kiss your mother with that mouth captain!?” Discord mocked, wearing a blue helmet with a white ‘A’ on it and changed his voice to sound like the old earthen actor named Chris Evans. He conjured up a circular shield and threw it at some Thrall, only to change back and destroy the warp anchor that had landed behind them. All was quiet for a brief moment, before a second wave of those bug like monsters began to swarm them.
“Protect the generator! It needs time to initialize!!” Deande’s comment was followed by Benedict and Sweetie Bot firing missiles at a group of enemies that spawned on the ledge above them and shooting them down. Ghalt used his chain to pull an enemy towards them and causing the enemy he pulled to trip over a brick that Discord had set as it landed on one of Ghalt’s scraptraps that he had previously set. It was another five minutes before the gang was able to catch their breaths briefly as Deande spoke. “Heh… Was that all of them?”
“Come on, I know that you’re new to this squad, but is that ever truly all of them?” Ghalt questioned as Discord looked at him and prepared a copy of Mellka’s machine pistol.
“Umm… Maybe?” She replied, only to be interrupted by Nova on the other end.
“It isn’t… More enemies inbound to your location.” The AI informed them, shortly before more Jennerit swarmed in. Which began to irritate a certain clone as his gun went into overdrive and he went into a rage.
“THAT’S IT!!! I’VE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERF**KING JENNERIT IN THIS MOTHERF**KING CAVE!! COME GET SOME, YOU ASS****’S!!!” He screamed, unloading an entire clip of 75 rounds into several thrall that had landed until he looked at Discord. “Oh uh… sorry kiddo. My anger sometimes gets the better of me.”
“We might need more of that right now,” Benedict pointed out from the air as a Thrall Enforcer soon crashed onto the scene with his minigun primed and aimed directly at them. “Okay, if anyone has some hidden abilities that we don’t know about, please do them now!”
That only lead to Sweetie Bot soon stepping forth as her missile launchers were set aside to activate a control mechanism that was on her back. “Set phasers to hug and… annihilation.” After a brief charging sequence, a violent wave of energy was fired off that blasted the Enforcer to bits as it was turned to a pile of ash and dust. Something that caught almost everyone off guard as Discord cheered for her and landed on her back.
“Deande, we’re done fighting baddies!” Discord called out, a sign for the spymistress to check on the levels that the backup generator was emitting and respond to the group.
“Excellent, the generator is functioning beautifully… What’s next?” She asked Kleese as the genius took a moment to analyze the present situation before responding.
“Now it’s just a matter of redirecting power to our… new friend,” He said, sending a new set of coordinates to the group as the locked door nearby began to open up. “Facility control is your next destination.”
“All of you, get moving,” Deande told them as they pressed on. “If Caldarius is located before he is ready for combat, he won’t stand a chance.”
“Roger that,” Ghalt replied as he confirmed the order to everyone else as Whiskey reloaded his rifle and Benedict had his rockets ready for combat. “You heard her team, let’s get moving.”
Shortly after the doors opened up, Discord and the entire group that was on the ground immediately began to traverse the uphill slope that lead to the next stop on their journey. The facility control station, which was needed in order to help transfer the power from the backup generator to Caldarius’ assault frame. Everything seemed fine for the most part, until Benedict took to the skies to scout ahead and came across something that did not seem good. “Uh guys… Not to rain on our parade here, but we got ourselves some company.”
That soon got a response from Deande as she cursed to herself upon seeing what the avian was talking about. “Damn! The imperium beat us here!! Clear out a path through those Jennerit before you reach the station-!” Ghalt nodded, splitting up the group to where Discord, Foxtrot and Sweetie Bot take the base from the east entrance while he and Benedict took the west entrance. During this though was when Hylis then spoke up upon realizing who was talking to the group.
“Wait a minute… I recognize that voice! You’re Deande aren't you?” he asked as his voice changed a little. “Rendain’s right hand!”
“Not anymore…” The spymistress firmly responded.
“Wow! Big fan!! At the prison we mostly deal with turncoats and traitors, but this? This is something even more special,” The jailer spoke up. “Guys, guess what? We get to kill Deande! Yeah, I know right! The spymistress herself!!”
Deande deeply sighed a little, groaning a little bit before she spoke again. “Apparently, I’m not as popular as I once believed.” During that moment, Discord had conjured a replica of Ghalt’s shotgun as he took out a pair of Evolved Thrall’s that were coming his direction as they began to clear out the control station.
“Anyways, just who the hell are you people anyway?” Hylis questioned. “What’s this chump to you? Don’t you know what he’s guilty of? Why we threw him in prison in the first place all those years ago?”
“From what I understand it, Rendain threw him in prison because he was a celebrated hero of the people.” Deande responded, just causing some of the Battleborn on the ground to look confused.
“That’s right… and for the most heinous of crimes, he’ll suffer to his last breath!” The jailer cracked a bit of laughter before clearing his throat once again. “After all, Rendain doesn’t take kindly to fugitives… or the treasonous… or anybody really. He’s basically not a kind guy. But I’m not here for you fools… I’m here for Caldarius.”
“So are we…” The Spymistress retorted. “And since we arrived here first, we have… uh, what are they called Kleese?”
“Oh yes, First dibs!”
“First dibs! That’s right, WE have first dibs!! So I’m afraid you have to deal with us first, you dib!” Deande finished her statement and ended it on a small bit of laughter as Discord and the others began to regroup in the middle of the facility.
“Why heck, if you insist…” Hylis confidently responded. The squad took out the Thrall inside. Whiskey, Sweetie Bot, and Benedict went around, activating turrets around as Discord and Ghalt stood around the power core. Hoping for the power transfer to work. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
“Power redirection… failed. System reboot required, please stand by.”
“Reboot?” Deande and Discord both questioned at the same time, followed by a simultaneous plea. “No no no, please don’t reboot. Please don’t reboot!”
“JINX!!” Sweetie Bot joked a bit in response as Discord put a paw to his face.
“You can’t tell me what to do, lady.” The computer responded “Initializing system reboot.”
“Ahh, so that’s your play…” The jailer spoke up, sounding like he just saw right through their plans. “Power redirection hunh? Well, that means there’s only one place where you jerks can be hiding out. All forces!! Caldy’s idiot friends have reached the facility control station!! BURN IT TO THE GROUND!!”
“Ugh, it seems like we haven’t got much of a choice. Better dig in, Hylis’ forces are on your way. Defend that substation until the reboot process is complete!” The Spymistress told them as Ghalt told Benedict to get to the upper ledge on the right while Whiskey take point on the Upper left. Sweetie Bot herself would be at the main entrance with missiles at the ready while Discord and him would defend the power core. He conjured up Thorn’s Bow & Arrows… along with pointy ears & white, flowing hair.
“Discord! What do you see!?” Ghalt yelled. Discord looked out in the distance.
“...Baddies!” He replied “And why kids love the taste of cinnamon toast crunch!” Ghalt groaned and facepalmed himself, but returned to the fight about to happen. “Oh! And a dinosaur skeleton… and I found Waldo!”
“Hey.” A random man in a red & white stripped shirt said before disappearing. Somehow, he reappeared in front of the thrall… and exploded.
“...What the-!?” Everyone yelled.
“We found him!” Discord said, tearing up “And now… we lost him. ...Goodbye, Waldo! We’ll always remember- Ooh! Bread!” Discord lunged himself at Ghalt’s shotgun and tried to eat the barrel.
“Discord! Stop!” Ghalt ordered.
“But I want a sandwich.”
“Gamma Squad, Report!” Hylis barked. “Gamma squad! Wait… they took out ALL of them!?”
“I’m sorry, they’re in our way.” Deande mocked.
“Epsilon squad! You’re up next! Get your asses over there, now!!!” Both Discord and Ghalt were taken off hand as thrall landed next to them. Ghalt fired at the Thrall around them, and Discord made his arms look like El-Dragon’s, albeit, smaller and not as buff. What caught Ghalt off guard was that music played around them as Discord wrestled some Thrall, and some announcers were heard, commenting how Discord ‘RKO’ed outta nowhere’ The Power Core rebooted and energy was sent to Caldarius, with the doors behind them opening.
“Power rerouted.” Deande spoke “Caldarius, you should be all set-.”
“Ooh! An energy spike! Could that be our man? I better send every Thrall at my disposal to investigate!”
“Hurry to the energy core! Caldarius needs our support!” Everyone rushed through the door, seeing a line of robots running & firing at various other Thrall on a bridge. Ghalt however, did not like the sounds of things when he checked his bracer again.
“Ah damn, bad news guys. I asked for an aerial strike from the UPR, but they denied clearance for it because they do not have the firepower to take on a capital ship.”
“You wouldn’t need to worry about that,” Caldarius interjected. “Once my assault frame is recharged, I should have enough power to take down the ship myself.”
“One guy against an ENTIRE ship!?” Ghalt questioned. “Are you insane!?”
“Maybe a little bit…”
“He’s not insane…” Discord said, cuing music from a boombox that he conjured out of nowhere. “He’s got the touch… he’s got THE POWER!!!”
“Ugh, why this song?!” Whiskey Foxtrot shouted in protest as his gun went into Overdrive.
“When your awesomeness factor exceeds Caldarius, you get to pick the soundtrack!!” Discord snapped, just getting Benedict to snicker a little.
“Need some aloe vera, Whiskey? Because I believe you just got burned.” All that did was cause major silence across the bridge and even cause some of the robots to boo him. “Come on, that was a funny joke!”
“Leave the humor to the professionals.” Discord advised as they approached the main headquarters where Caldarius was located and began to clear out the facility. One by one, the group began to defeat thrall after thrall and collect shards to make sure and activate turrets and set up traps before anyone was able to get things started up.
“Caldarius, how much longer until your assault frame is recharged?” Deande then asked over the intercom.
“Mere minutes, which we may not have… Hylis may be an idiot, but he’s persistent.”
“And handsome! Don’t forget handsome!!” Hylis blurted out of nowhere.
“Oh and he’s also handsome…” Caldarius sarcastically said, causing the thrall jailer to be distracted for a moment. Until his frustrations got the better of him when he did not hear back from the forces he deployed ten minutes ago.
“RGHH, YOU IDIOTS!! I’M NOT GOING BACK TO RENDAIN EMPTY HANDED!!! ALL FORCES, BREAK INTO THAT FACILITY AND BRING ME CALDARIUS!!” With that, multiple cracks can be heard as Thrall began to warp out onto the landing platforms outside the facility. Sweetie Bot and Discord soon got outside with Benedict to cover the landing platform outside while Whiskey Foxtrot and Ghalt worked on having to face any sorry Jennerit that stepped inside the abandoned headquarters.
“Buy enough time for Caldarius to finish charging his assault frame! Protect the core!!” Deande responded as Discord prepared a set of dual pistols to hold at the ready.
“Here we go…” He said, just as the thrall began to spawn. All was going well originally, but then some banging above the facility caught their attention.
“The windows above! They’re coming from the windows!!” Deande yelled in their intercoms.
“Targets acquired.” Sweetie Bot said, firing at the oncoming Thrall.
“The Hell is that?” Caldarius asked “Either I’m really low on energy, or is that some robot pony?”
“You aren’t hallucinating, Caldarius,” Ghalt spoke up, “That’s Sweetie Bot… I know, weird name… It was once a wolf sentry before the AI we used for it was transferred-.”
“Fire at will!!” Discord roared as he conjured a new weapon
“Huh… a Draconequus…” Cadarius spoke “Never thought I’d see one moving… or alive for that matter.”
“You know about Discord’s kind?” Deande spoke up. “How?” The destruction around the base made it hard for the youngling to hear the Shock Trooper’s response. But what he did say shocked both Ghalt, Deande, and Kleese upon hearing him speak.
“Rendain saw them as inferior beings… and ordered everyone of them to be executed. In fact, another reason why I was thrown in prison was because I refused to take part in the massacre that happened shortly afterwards… And to top it off, I prevented Hylis from killing a young child that was trying to escape.”
“Are you saying-?”
“Maybe… it’s probably just a coincidence.” Deande spoke “We barely know much on the subject of the Draconequus in the first place… We don’t even know when this took place… Jennerit can live thousands of years if they are sustained so… He can be as old as Rath.”
“Seriously!?” Rath yelled in the back, overhearing Deande’s comment.
“Or a runt… no offense to Shayne,” Kleese spoke up. Only to realize the teen was not there. “Okay, how can she be sleeping through all of this!?!”
“To correct you… This occurred eight months ago…” Caldarius retorted, just as the glass broke above them. “Damn it!! Keep the Jennerit away from the core!!”
That was when the captain brought out his second shotgun and took down the Thrall that came in above them along with the thumper turrets that were set up. Despite the odd name, thumper turrets were the short translation for missile launchers that did not necessarily had to be reloaded by hand for them to work. But that was not what was on Ghalt’s mind as Discord and the rest of the squad rushed inside as quickly as they can. “Hostels down. Deande, we’ll pick up on this conversation later… Caldarius, are you all set?”
“Assault frame charge complete in three… two… one…” Electricity began to crackle throughout the room as the shock trooper absorbed the kinetic energy around him before breaking out of the containment tube he was in and landing on the ground with a loud CRASH! His mechanical fist causing the glass floor underneath him to crack on impact as his energy blade and TMP blaster were combat ready at this stage. “That’s better… Now, please allow for me to assist you!”
Caldarius’ assault frame had just finished recharging itself and now, the shock trooper was not only ready for combat, but also knew what was coming for both him and the other five Battleborn that assisted him as he heard Jailer Hylis prepare to close in on them. “I guess if you want something killed right, you gotta kill it yourself! Get ready Caldarius, I’M COMING FOR YOUR F*CKIN HEAD!!” That just got mixed reactions from everyone, but the shock trooper just grunted and responded with the first remark that came to his mind.
“Hmm, what happened to taking me alive?” He mocked, looking up at one of the windows where he saw a Jennerit fightership closing in. One which he recognized as the Jailer’s personal ship.
“SCREW THAT!! YOU’RE GOING BACK TO TEMPEST IN A SHOEBOX!!!” He screamed, crashing through the upper window and knocking himself through two of the turrets that were set up around the core.
“My god, this guy is anything but handsome.” Whiskey Foxtrot smirked as he aimed his weapon at him. However, the first few shots he fired didn’t even land a scratch on him. “What the fu-?” It was then that Discord noticed the beams being emitted from a few of the thrall that served as Hylis’ guards and conjured the energy glove that Reyna would use to mark the targets. Pointing them out to Sweetie Bot and Benedict as they proceeded to fire rockets at those thrall.
“It’s just like with the conservator!! Those thrall are shielding Hylis… my god, this is getting old.” Kleese groaned, shaking himself awake before he got back on the comline and spoke up to the team. “Discord has the right idea. Take out the guards before you focus on Hylis! And watch out for his minigun! That thing from the looks of it can also serve as a missile launcher.”
“Seriously? If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Soon we’re going to be seeing swords that are guns or something like that,” Benedict sighed. Until he saw Discord smirk and equip what looked like a pair of yellow shotgun gauntlets to smash one of the guards faces into the ground. “Okay, I take that back. That one was awesome.”
“Pay attention!!” Caldarius snapped, just as he had to yank Benedict by his feet so he was out of the way of Hylis’ incoming attacks. “Don't be such a bird brain!” A laugh track was heard around them.
“Oh come on! I was going to say that!... Fine, but I won't be a chicken.” Groans all around. “Ugh!!”
“Hm… intriguing… the Draconequus’s-”
“Discord!” Ghalt corrected as he shot another Thrall.
“... Discord's strange abilities are still at work, even when he's in combat. Almost as if he subconsciously see another dimension… probably one around losers on their computers and phones with forums on a kids show meant for girls.”
“Here!! Have some useless crap I found!!!” Whiskey Foxtrot shouted upon firing off a few rounds of the flak cannon attached to his gun along with the sticky grenade launcher on his hand as it blew up one of the guards to bits. “All units, be advised! I killed someone stupid!!!”
“I got the other!” Benedict replied, firing a rocket at the other guard, which also exploded. “Boom! And that’s why they call me Colonel Sanders!” Everyone stared at him awkwardly… followed by one of the Thrall booing at him. “Okay! Who keeps doing this!?”
“Probably Discord.” Caldarius answered
“That was that guy.” Discord accused and pointed at another Thrall. Who was soon shot down by Whiskey Foxtrot shortly afterwards, causing Hylis’ shield to power down in the process.
“Shields are down! Take him out!!” Ghalt ordered as everyone focused their fire on the jailer. Hylis jumped up to the top balcony and began to fire at them from his stance. Unfortunately, everyone noticed him making a break for it and readied themselves to fire back, blasting the jailer outside. Discord soon disappeared, teleporting himself and Sweetie Bot outside as everyone else either ran out on foot or soared through the broken windows to catch up with the fleeing Jailer. Not until he used his minigun to call in a mortar strike.
“Fleeing from us?” Caldarius mocked “And I thought we were the weaker ones.”
“SHUT UP!!!” Hylis yelled back. “I'll kill ya! I'll kill ya until you're dead!” A small click and several missiles flew in onto their locations. However, some of the missiles did not explode. Everyone seemed confused, except Benedict, who swallowed a couple for ‘safe keepings’, but Discord knew what this was… He had seen it before.
“Look out!!” Discord cried out as electricity began to surge. These rockets in reality, were actually warp anchors… and Hylis was using them to call in reinforcements.
“KILL THEM ALL AND BRING ME THEIR HEADS!!”
“My stomach!” Benedict yelled, puking the missiles he swallowed.
“Damn it!” Ghalt yelled. “Turn those anchors into scrap metal-.”
“Activating EMP pulse.” Sweetie Bot said. She let out a large, electrical Shockwave that destroyed the warp anchors… and everyone's hair poofing up. Including Benedict as his feathers were all standing on end.
“Ah come on, I just had this fixed a few weeks ago!” Whiskey yelled, now with an afro as it make his helmet pop off.
“Very swanky.” Discord replied, now with a long, white goatee. Taking a chance with the distraction, he took Whiskey’s helmet and threw it at Hylis, the sharp ends scarring the Thrall’s face and making him flinch in pain and suffering.
“OWW, you son of a b-.”
“LANGUAGE!!” The Draconequus cut him off, looking at Caldarius as he readied his blaster. “Oh right… your turn now?”
“Why yes… yes it is…” Caldarius smirked, aiming his blaster at the head of the defenseless thrall and readied himself as his metal fingers began to circle around the trigger.
“No, wait!! Please, spare me!! I’ll give you anything you want!” Hylis pleaded, “A ship… Three ships… Two and a half?”
“You just went down…” Ghalt pointed out the Thralls mistake as he was sweating bullets.
“I-i’m a haggler?” That turned out to be the Thralls last words as Caldarius fired off his blaster and obliterated Hylis. An announcer spoke, yelling FATALITY! as Caldarius put his weapon away. Shortly afterwards, he was floating as his assault frame was activated as he turned to the group.
“I thank you for the assistance, Deande… You and your friends… Now let me take care of the rest…” The Shock Trooper insisted as he blasted off at the speed of sound. From where they were, Discord conjured another boom box and played a song about how they don't want to close their eyes. The group could see numerous Jennerit ships explode and plummeted to the ground as the Shock Trooper returned, unharmed. “I believe you said something about slaying Lothar Rendain… Please, allow me to help.”
“Holy crap, he was able to destroy the ships!” Whiskey said, slackjawed a little by the sight of all the explosive destruction.
“You’ll hear no argument from me… Come back to the ship everyone, we got a lot more work to do.” Deande replied as the ship she, Kleese and Nova were on were en route to their location for extraction.
After picking up the crew that rescued Caldarius and taking them off of Bliss, Kleese immediately set a course for home base and made sure that Sweetie Bot could keep an eye on Discord for a few hours. Both Benedict and Whiskey Foxtrot proceeded to their respective rooms, albeit, saying how better they are to each other, while Ghalt and Kleese directed the newest member of the Battleborn over to the command center that was established. Inside, Caldarius was able to recognize one familiar face… along with several new ones.
“Deande…” He said, folding his robotic arms as he glanced at the other three people in the room. “I apologize, but I don’t believe I recognize the others who are in the room.”
“It’s alright,” Reyna groaned, resisting the temptation to calling the newcomer a bucket of bolts. “Name’s Reyna Valeria. Leader of the free people of Solus, otherwise known as the rogues. You were fighting alongside one earlier… Whiskey Foxtrot.”
“I’m Mellka,” The Aelfric Eldrid next to her spoke up afterwards when Caldarius recognized one of his comrades from earlier... “I help Ghalt and also represent Eldrid on our new homeworld of Ekkunar.” She then turned her head to the right to the final person that was in the room… and to a sight that Caldarius honestly did not expect.
“You guys woke me up for this? Ehh, I’ve been through worse.” The teenager sighed as she looked back at the Shock Trooper along with her djinn companion behind her. “I’m Shayne and the big guy here is Aurox. We’re part of Reyna’s crew and also… who Discord see’s as his parents.” Before Caldarius could even respond to the last statement, Shayne sighed and interjected in between. “He’s adopted. Don’t ask.”
“Hm… good enough for me.” Caldarius replied. “So I take it that I'm an official member of this mismatched crew?”
“Our goal is to try and get any support we can from the other factions to fight back against Rendain. Even with members of the UPR, Deande and a few of the Jennerit Rebels, The Last Light Consortium, Mellka and the Eldrid and Reyna’s rogues, we as well as the other factions are going to need all the help we can get in order to stop Rendain. Now, I wanted to ask you about two things, Caldarius.” Ghalt replied as he then looked back at him. “First and foremost, would you happen to know anyone that could possibly lend a hand to what we’re fighting for?”
The Shock Trooper thought this over for a minute, before sighing and responding to the captain’s question. “I only know of one possible choice. He was a friend of mine; in the same prison I was held in, before Deande let me escape. In return, I made sure to help him so he could get out too…”
“Hang on… are you talking about who I think you’re talking about?” Deande questioned, only leading to Caldarius displaying a digital projection of who he was referring to.
“If you mean Attikus, then you are correct,” Caldarius replied. “He was a warrior who was forced by the imperium to being treated as, what the rest of you could consider as… a lab rat. I broke him out on the same day I escaped from Tempest. However, finding him will not be easy.”
“Any idea how we can find him?” Reyna asked.
“With some tools, maybe-.” Kleese proposed.
However, the results of that conversation were beginning to change when they noticed Shayne chuckling a little before turning around. “Yeah… Correct me if I’m wrong here… but I think Discord found him first.”
“Really? Then care to explain what that is?” Shayne asked, pointing her finger out to the hangar bay, where there was an oversized thrall with a blood red gauntlet equipped and Discord was riding on his back with a stetson hat on and shouting out numerous cowboy phrases left and right. “Because given that hologram of yours… I think we found our guy.”
“... How the… right… Draconequus.”
“Honestly, I stopped asking a long time ago.” Reyna sighed, looking at Kleese. “Well, we found him… what the hell do we do now?”
“Let me calm him down. I'm practically his brother… almost.”
While Caldarius was trying to get Attikus situated, Reyna turned to Kleese and then sighed again. “The question was meant for you…”
“I have an idea…” Shayne suggested. “Remember those old recruitment announcements that the UPR try to broadcast and everything? Why not try it here? I think ISIC was already trying to set up a green screen room to do home movies to cure his boredom, so maybe we can try something like that for us? I mean Reyna already was doing some radio broadcasts back when it was just the five of us before Discord came along, so it’s worth a shot right?”
“I guess… but would you really trust ISIC to be the one in charge of this project?” Kleese asked Shayne as she turned around to face the old geezer.
“Would you want to leave him bored and then try to use his new body to murder you in your sleep?” The question from Shayne caused the genius from the LLC to twitch a little in fear as he shook a little. Making the teen smirk as she walked out of the command center. “Yeah… that’s what I thought.”
As the teen left though, one of the members of the LLC happened to enter the room herself. Previously, she was pissed off at Kleese, but when she noticed Caldarius, all her anger was set aside. “Kleese, why didn’t you tell me that we had a new recruit… and a handsome one at that?”
Reyna just raised an eyebrow as she looked at Kleese and Mellka after Phoebe’s tone dramatically changed. “What the hell’s up with her?”
“Apparently, flying death machines are her favorite thing in the universe…” Kleese groaned. “In more ways than one… and yes, I did mean for that to sound dirty.”
“Oh my god, SHUT UP KLEESE!!!”
Back on Tempest, Rendain groaned a little as he had received word of the failures of Jailer Hylis and the numerous mayday calls from the capital ships that had been destroyed. Again, the Battleborn had thwarted his plans for what he had in store for Bliss… but it didn’t mean anything to him. Right now, he was going through the security footage from some of the minions that were destroyed when Deande had stabbed him in the back about a month ago… comparing it to the recent footage of the attempt to initialize a Varelsi portal on Bliss.
Through comparing the footage, he found one similarity. A brave and defiant Eldrid that fought alongside the rest of the Battleborn. This seemed… interesting to him… and gave him a bad idea… a horrible… awful idea. Turning to his Thrall commanders, he gave them a few orders and had one of his servants bring him a communication device. One that used to be known as a “phone” during the old ages. He wasn’t able to reach the one he wanted to talk to… but nevertheless, he still was able to get what he wanted.
As he finished the call and had retrieved himself a glass of wine, he began to laugh maniacally. “So, you want to try and play games with me, little Eldrid… well then… let’s play.”
A couple of days after rescuing Caldarius, things began to calm down on Bliss. In fact, not a lot of attention was paid to the particular planet by the Varelsi or the Jennerit. Giving Ghalt an opportunity to establish a second base on the frozen hellscape despite Kleese’s objections on the flight over. As for some of the other members of the group, Mellka and Shayne had been taking turns with trying to teach some things to Discord other than how to fight and to stay strong. Because of the whole “the universe is ending” shenanigans going throughout the system, public schools barely even existed anymore. In fact, the last one that any of them knew was swallowed up by the Varelsi during the darkening of Penarch, the star before Solus.
Now though, the Eldrid was helping unload a few crates off of the next delivery that Nova had brought in from the supplies that were held in the Detritus ring. All while asking Discord to please be patient while she was lending a hand. However, the youngling at the time, even after recently learning about some new tricks during battle and the mutations on his Helix ring, was a little more focused on something else as something buzzed on Mellka’s communicator and the pop up for it was not one that the draconequus was a fan of. “Uhh… Melly?” He said, calling Mellka by the nickname that he gave for her other that Crazy arm lady as he tried to tap her shoulder. “You missed something?”
For a moment, the Aelfrian turned around to look at him for a brief second, but then sighed. “Ehh, it’s probably not important Discord. I barely use that anyways unless it’s for emergencies or trying to annoy the imperium with prank calls.” She said, using the blade of her bio gauntlet to cut some of the crates loose that were held together by plastic and rope. However, Discord still insisted for her to check anyways.
“Okay, okay bud… Just give me a minute. Offloading all of this equipment can make somebody thirsty.” Mellka told him as she went to grab a glass of water that she had set on the table that they were at previously. However, what Discord said next changed everything.
“We can’t wait Melly! It’s from Rendain!” Upon hearing that, Mellka dropped her glass to the floor as she looked back at him, twitching a little.
“W-what? That’s… that’s just crazy. Please don’t tell me this is a sick joke.”
“I-it’s not a joke!!” Discord insisted. “He left a message.” Now with her senses on high alert, the Aelfrian took the device from the youngling and began to play the most recent recording that she received. However, her fears would soon come true. Because after hearing her own voice give the introduction, the voice that followed confirmed what Discord was trying to tell her.
“Hey, it’s Mellka. I’m too important to talk to you right now, so leave a message.”
“Ugh, I got her machine… Whatever. Hi, it’s Rendain. Remember the other day when you foiled my plans? Well, you have finally convinced me that the Eldrid threat could no longer be ignored… SO I’m destroying Ekkunar, all the life it harbors, and most notably, the Eldrid Codex. Do enjoy having your spirit broken little Eldrid… OH!! And tell Deande that the Lothar says “What’s up?”.”
That single message sent Mellka’s mind into overdrive as she looked at the youngling. “This is bad… really bad. Discord, I need you to call Ghalt and form a team as quickly as you can to get the hell over to Ekkunar, now!!”
“W-what about you!?” He asked.
“Don’t worry little guy. I’ll be helping you guys once you arrive. Just stay calm and do like I asked. We don’t have a lot of people here. Just the ones that helped us move the equipment from the Detritus base, but that’s all we’ll need.” She said, shortly before running off and taking a small courier ship off world before Discord could say anything. As Sweetie Bot walked in, the Draconequus turned around and asked Sweetie Bot a question.
“Sweetie, who do we have here at the moment?”
“Other than us, we have Orendi, Oscar Mike, and ISIC… Why, did something happen?” Sweetie Bot asked. The only thing the youngling said though caused Sweetie Bot to do exactly what Mellka told him a few moments ago.
“The Lothar said ‘what’s up’”
Ekkunar (An hour later… given how space travel works)
It took the Battleborn almost an hour to get scrambling after having to make the bombshell announcement on Rendain’s advances on Ekkunar. The UPR was already helping with the evacuation efforts with the civilians, but Discord and the others needed to rendezvous with Mellka since she was trying to extract the Eldrid Codex, which contained all the data and information that the Eldrid had recorded for throughout the years that the Eldrid had been around.
As the crew was readying their gear, Ghalt soon opened the communication line and spoke to the Battleborn on the ground. The team consisted of Discord and Sweetie Bot again, but also had Orendi, Oscar Mike, and ISIC. “Mellka’s right now at the grove working to try and find a way to dump all the codex data, but we need a way in order to get it safely back to Nova. Mellka, what’s your status?” Ghalt asked, only to get a surprised answer.
“Oh S**T, is that you guys!? Crap, it’s about time you showed up… And to answer your question, s**t’s on fire, so not too great, cap.” The Eldrid told the crew. “You need a courier for the data? You got to find Chronicle. He’s the grove’s librarian… and conveniently a heavily armed sentry. Find some shards, power him up and get the hell over here! Rendain’s going for our throats!!”
“Well, I better tell Rendain that I’m coming for his kneecaps.” ISIC chuckled as the group advanced onward. Right away, they were able to see the Chronicle powered down in standby mode along with several shard clusters… along with swarms of both Jennerit troops and Varelsi spawning out of the void they came through. Discord wasn’t as intimidated as before when it came to the Varelsi, but he was excited to see ISIC hop into the fray along with Orendi. “It’s a murder party… and literally everyone is invited.”
“Murder time is fun time!” Orendi screamed, casting her Shadowfire Pillar on a group of Thrall while Oscar Mike, Sweetie Bot and Discord gave the two of them cover from behind. Eventually, the Draconequus took it upon himself to fight alongside his crazy auntie and the insane AI as they cut a path through the enemies and collected shards for them to carry. After breaking all three of them in the vicinity, which took about roughly five minutes of fighting and thirty seconds for retrieval, all of them made their way back to the sentry and powered up the initiation device. Awakening the sentry from it’s sleep.
“Howdy there friends, I’m Chronicle, your guide to the mystical world of the Eldrid… Welcome to the grove of the Arcanum.” It said as it looked around a moment to get a bearing of its surroundings. “Apologies, everything seems to be engulfed in flames.”
“Chronicle, it’s Mellka!” The Eldrid spoke up over the intercom. “I need some help getting in here at the grove-!”
“Hey little lady, welcome back to the grove of the arcanum. Item number one, you have EIGHT overdue library books. You got a week before I send the guards,” The sentry replied, causing Discord to look at Sweetie Bot in confusion. “Item number two… HOLY S**T, THE GROVE’S ON FIRE!!!”
“I know,” Discord replied. “And I don't have Disco fever.”
“Chronicle, Ekkunar’s under siege and we got to get the codex off world. We need your help.” Mellka informed the sentry, just as he already started to move.
“Boy howdy, I say we do, lead the way guys,” He said, until he came across a round huge stone door that stood in his path. “Locked? This door isn’t supposed to be locked. OUTTA MY WAY DOOR!! THE GROVE’S ON FIRE!!!” He roared, firing his turrets at the lock as it was soon turned into scrap metal. “Library one, door zero. HAH! Suck it, obstructions!!” As the sentry moved on with the rest of the group, Chronicle was actually taking the whole thing very seriously and even used his skills as a tour guide during the whole process. “Alright, tour resumes… Now, on your left is a thing on fire… and on your right is ALSO a thing on fire!”
“And the soon to be corpses of our enemies!” Orendi spoke. Everyone turned to see more Thrall charging at them.
“LET’S DO THIS!!!” Oscar Mike announced, firing off a frag grenade at a thrall gunner that tried to fire at Chronicle.
“Quiet!! Quiet in the library!!!” Chronicle spoke.
“Sorry.” Discord whispered.
“So let me get this straight… instead of helping escort civilians to safety… we’re trying to protect data? I mean I’m probably not the only one who feels a bit odd about this right?” Kleese asked. “I mean, why can’t the data be transferred wirelessly?”
“There’s just too much in order to ensure a stable transmission. Here, take a look for yourself.” Ghalt said before deeply sighing and groaning a little. “THIS is the manifesto that the High Observatory sent along.” That was followed by what appeared to sound like a punch to the shoulder as Kleese flinched in pain.
“OWW!! Those were my bones, you nitwit!! I need those…… PROBABLY!!!”
“The codex is all the information that the Eldrid acquired about every species, star, and civilization that they have encountered. So yes, a LOT of data,” The captain told him, until he realized something with what Kleese said. “Hang on… you’re worried about the civilians? That’s…… very un-Kleese of you.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I have feelings… and it would be so kind of you… to NEVER mention them again!” Kleese snapped back. Discord, meanwhile, quickly wrote this down on a notepad he conjured, snickering to himself as he’d use this as blackmail in the near future.
“I do hope the civilians are okay though.” Deande said on the side, causing Ghalt to respond to her stray comment. “The Eldrid have been in these tough spots before… and they always know how to get out of them.”
“Not that it has done them much good,” Kleese muttered. “The Eldrid used to expand entire galaxies… but now there’s just a few of them left.”
“Okay, can we please spend less time talking about how F**ked the Eldrid are and instead, maybe focus on unf**king the Eldrid? Sound good? Good… God you guys yap a lot.” Mellka groaned to herself as the Chronicle began to approach another group of thrall coming at them.
“Enemies of lifelong learning detected!!” The Sentry proclaimed as he began to open fire on the Thrall. Discord himself sat on top of Chronicle and used Marquis’ cane to snipe the thrall gunmen in the back of the pack while ISIC himself worked on slaying the thrall… while having a little fun with the sounds of the dying thrall in the wake of his rampage.
“Last words not found… Applying template… “I DIED LIKE A B***H!!!” Last words recorded.”
“How’s he a dog?” Discord asked. Once causing Oscar Mike to laugh to himself a little and for Orendi to laugh maniacally as they pressed on, not answering the youngling’s question. When he tried asking again, Mellka told him that they would explain it to him when he was older.
“DAMN you!! This is a LI-BARRY-. I mean LIBRARY!!!” Chronicle declared as he continued to mow his way through the Thrall and Varelsi that spawned in his path. Soon though, at one point behind a protective shield, the Chronicle took a different position, prompting Discord to leap off of him and onto Sweetie Bot’s back.
“Chronicle’s in position Mell!!” Ghalt called out to the Eldrid as it took her a few seconds to reply.
“Okay, bringing the replicators online now… I just need a second!!” Mellka shouted back as everyone focused on eliminating the Thrall and Varelsi that had already swarmed this section of the grove while also deploying traps and turrets at different locations. Once Oscar Mike gave the all clear signal to Sweetie Bot and Discord, both of them went over to where Mellka was as quickly as possible. On the comline, the sounds of Reyna and Phoebe joining in on the conversation could be heard as well as both the mechanical filly and the draconequus caught up with Mellka.
“Hey hey! You made it!” She cheerfully replied while channeling Eldrid magic through her Bio Gauntlet. “Alright, I’m dumping all the data into some uh… data minion thingies. Just give me a moment and they’ll be ready-.”
“Contact!!” They heard Oscar Mike shout as the sounds of gunfire echoed across the ravine… along with Orendi’s unreasonable and insane outbursts. “KIIIIISSSSSSS MMMMMMMEEEEE!!!!!!!” Mellka ignored these cries though as she continued her work until the first set of couriers came out from their hiding spots in the trees.
“Alright, there they go! Get them safely to Chronicle!!”
“You heard her,” Sweetie Bot yelled at the others. “Protect the couriers!” When she said that, ISIC himself got on top of a ledge and then activated his Siege mode as he began to mow down wave after wave of Varelsi and Thrall that were closer to the grove where the Chronicle was while the Stinger and Thumper turrets dealt with the other enemies on the other side of the terrain.
“Cosmic hellspawn destroyed… hehe… Oh, I love my job.” Discord stayed with the data minions… or, rode on one, and protected them as they made their way to Chronicle. Unfortunately, more Thrall and Varelsi arrived and were about to attack the group, but, Discord quickly came up with an idea.
“Hit it!” He said. Despite it being in the afternoon, a spotlight was around the youngling, who now wore a sombrero, a blue matador outfit, and had maracas. The Jenert forces stopped and watched as Discord danced to spanish sounding music.
♫They call me Discord Pete. I'm the king of the chaotic beat
When I play the maracas I go chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky boom
Yes sir, I'm Discord Pete. I'm the craze of the battle seats
When I start to dance, everything goes chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky boom
The senoritas they sing and how they swing with this rumbero,
It's very nice, so full of spice.
And when they're dancing they bring a happy ring the maraquero,
El maraquero singin' a song, all the day long.
So if you like the beat, take a lesson from Discord Pete
And I'll teach you to chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky-boom.♫
Orendi, whether is she was under control or that bored, appeared next to Discord.
♫He's really a modest guy, although he's not really a guy
In Havana, in Havana.♫
Discord danced with his crazy aunt.
♫Si, senorita I know that you would like to chicky-boom-chick
It's very nice, so full of spice.
I'll place my hand on your hip, and if you will just give me your hand
Then we shall try - just you and I. Aye-aye-aye!
So if you like the beat, take a lesson from Cuban Pete
And I'll teach you chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky-boom, chick-chicky-boom!♫
Oscar Mike, ISIC, and Sweetie Bot watched in shock as Discord & Orendi had a congo line of Thrall & Verelsi behind them, followed by a huge group dance that, despite their opponents more bony appearances, were easily able to mimic their dance moves. Allowing for them to distract the enemy for a brief while… until a message from Chronicle caught Oscar Mike’s attention.
“Codex Data Secured. Ooh, a collection from poems about spiders from a Mike comma Oscar.”
“THOSE ARE PRIVATE!!!” Discord gasped in shock and there was a scratch in the music as the Thrall and Varelsi stopped dancing… Only to be dancing again… If you call being on fire dancing.
“I made this for YOOOUUUUU!!!” Orendi melodically shouted as she cast another Shadowfire Pillar that sent another group to be dancing while on fire. Back with the chronicle, another few couriers were on board now as the sentry kept everything in check.
“Codex data secured. Climb aboard, little guy! Alright, another piece of history safely ensconced inside of me!” It all sounded good for the most part, until Chronicle said one other thing. “Data secured… OOH!! Erotic novels, I hope they’re about Sentries.”
“Oh god, I can’t unsee that right now…” Reyna groaned over the mic.
“What does that mean?” Discord asked.
“WE’LL TELL YOU WHEN YOU’RE OLDER!!” Orendi screamed while on the back of a thrall like it was a piggyback ride before slamming it’s face into the dirt. The thrall being distracted by Orendi and ISIC wiping out the Varelsi on one side of the ravine allowed for Sweetie Bot and Oscar Mike to focus their fire on a warp anchor that landed extremely close to where the couriers were trying to get to safety.
“Ooh! 32,968 cookbooks from Alpia four. Yeah, this will be useful sure,” The sentry said, making some of the members think if sentries could actually know what Sarcasm was by his response. “Nice hustle little guy! Data secured. Would you look at that, pages of a diary from someone named Shayne-.”
“You dare read that and I’ll be coming after you!!” The young teen snarled over the mic for a moment, before noticing that Discord was out there. “Hey there Discord, hows it going?”
“I’m having fun with Aunt Orendi!!” Shayne for a few moments, couldn’t quite exactly contemplate what the youngster had said, but after Reyna filled her and Aurox in on what’s going on, they understood it immediately.
“Where are we at Kleese!?” Mellka shouted over the intercom, hoping to hear him respond.
“Ninety percent of the codex is in hand.” He told her. “And from the looks of things, everyone is doing their job at holding off the Jennerit and Varelsi very nicely if I do say so myself. Give it another minute or two and we should have everything we need.
“Okay, once we got everything, we need to get Chronicle back to Nova and then get the hell off of Ekkunar! Is everyone on board with this plan?” She asked. No one had any objections… except one person.
“Yeah, I’m not on board with it,” Chronicle replied nervously. “I live here… I do not want to leave my home.”
“Is everybody that I give a sh*t about on board with this plan!?!” The only answer that was heard was everybody agreeing, including the others. Once they were clear, Discord and Sweetie Bot helped guide the last remaining couriers to the sentry as he secured the data.
“Codex download complete!”
“Alright everyone, you know the drill,” Ghalt spoke up to everyone on the ground along with the other Battleborn who were doing tasks to help with the assistance of the mission. “Haul ass back to the Rendezvous point! We’re getting out of here.” Everyone soon breathed a major sigh of relief… Until they all heard something from Chronicle that no one was even prepared for.
“So, my cousin Geoff gets to be a spider and I get to be kidnapped and Jobless! Great, love that, Fantastic…” That made the whole team silent for a long amount of time… only for that silence to be broken by the Magnus that was on the ground with the crew in two… simple words.
“Oh balls……”
The Archive: Violence is Knowledge and Knowledge is Power!
Rogue Chaos- The Archive: Violence is Knowledge and Knowledge is Power!
Personally, after hearing Chronicle say that the S1 sentry with a spider like personality disorder that tried to kill them on Bliss named Geoff was his cousin, everyone for the most part was speechless. However, none of them had any time at all in order to question it. Right now, they had a job to do, a sentry to protect, and a bunch of ancient data to get off the planet before the forest around them burned to the ground. Despite the amount of support that Caldarius was providing from the air with him destroying Jennerit fighters left and right, reinforcements with heavier firepower showed up and were beginning to land on the ground.
“Hostiles detected!! Get ready for the FURY OF THE LIBRARIAN!!” For a minute, the young draconequus thought that this fury involved Chronicle chucking books at the thrall and varelsi that were closing in. But instead, the sentry was using the mounted turrets near the front of it’s legs to open fire on it while the Battleborn on the ground were leading the charge. Discord himself was conjuring a special surprise for the next wave though as he threw out a pink cloud above the next squad of thrall. Mellka had seen this before and just sighed.
“Discord, I don’t think your chocolate rain trick is gonna-.” The Eldrid though was surprised when, as it turned out, it was beginning to rain little cocoa balls that were coming at the thrall like meteorites. Something that made Orendi really happy.
“I SMELL MUTATIONS!!”
“Well, it seems that Discord finally got the chance to use the new mutation on his helix ring,” Shayne commented. “I’ve been teaching him about how to discover mutations and use his equipment while in the field so he could be a more effective team player while on missions or while doing training matches in Meltdown or Incursion.”
“Okay, and what does this one do?” Sweetie Bot then spoke up and asked before Mellka or the others could say anything.
“It changes his chocolate rain attack and turns it to where chocolate cereal falls instead and explodes on contact with enemies.” She replied back as the team continued to press on. This time around, the team was going through the ravine through an alternate route that would be simpler for Chronicle to go through. All while Discord was happy to rain down cereal on his enemies and shouting ‘coco for cocoa puffs!!’ while doing so. It was only a few moments later that the group came back to where they were a few moments ago, only to have Warp Anchors crash down everywhere.
“Hostiles detected. THIS IS A LIBRARY YOU MONSTERS!!” Hearing that had ISIC prepare what he called siege mode, which allowed for him to use the turrets around his non existent shoulders to mow down any enemy forces that got too close. Meanwhile, Oscar Mike had something to add to Discord’s little meteor shower as he clicked the triggering mechanism on the side of his rifle and aimed at his target while the youngling teleported out of the way and landed on his head.
“Today’s forecast is a bit cloudy with a chance of SICK ASS SPACE LASERS!!” That was true in Oscar Mike’s case. His helix build allowed for the soldier to switch out his airstrike for an orbital strike to add more damage to his opponents. His other choice was to have a modified airstrike that stunned targets, but he thought that lasers were cooler. Especially when it added to the phrase that Orendi was shouting right now.
“It’s raining DEATH!!” She proclaimed, casting a Shadowfire pillar at the non existent feet of a few varelsi that happened to spawn at that moment. While those four were leading the forward push to guide Chronicle to Nova, Sweetie Bot and Mellka were in the back of the pack, watching out for anything out of the ordinary… along with Sweetie Bot asking a few questions about the Eldrid in general… Something that Mellka was not too keen on answering.
Just as they were reaching the final leg of their journey to get the sentry to Nova, all of the Battleborn heard something on Jennerit Comms that they knew was not good. Especially if that something… was from Rendain. “Enough of this… Bagranth! Destroy that sentry!!”
Soon, black void energy began to hold the sentry down as it laid crippled on the ground. “Help Fellas! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!!” Discord tried going back, only for the spatial energy to bounce him back and keep him away from Chronicle. As he shook his head and readjusted himself though, the whole entire team on the ground looked up at a nearby ledge to see what was restraining the chronicle.
“Protect Chronicle!!” Mellka immediately ordered, reloading her machine pistol. “If we lose him, we lose everything!!” All the other Battleborn nodded and prepared themselves as well. However, their attacks didn’t work and some shots were even bounced back at the team, including one of Oscar Mike’s grenades that almost landed at Discord’s feet. Leading to the two of them diving out of the way as the napalm grenade burned a piece of the earth they were walking on.
“We are in range of that new and improved Varelsi. Team heart rates at elevated levels,” Nova stated out of the blue. “Any suggestions, Kleese?”
“Well how the hell should I know!? Let’s see um… uh… okay um…” The LLC genius muttered to himself as he looked around the battlefield onboard the ship above the crew. Then, he noticed a few shards that were knocked away by Discord activating an Eldrid Device as it shot out electricity at the gunhulk… and it seemed to be working. “AH! Activate those turrets!!”
“Can’t ISIC switch to his turret mode?” Discord asked him, a little confused.
“Those are Veil Breakers! The Eldrid use them to fend themselves against massive varelsi incursions,” Mellka answered for the little guy as she turned to everyone else. “Get them online so we can weaken this guys shields!”
“Roger that!” Quickly, Oscar Mike and Sweetie Bot got two other turrets online while ISIC and Orendi tended to the rest. With all five of them up and active, the endless stream of lightning was wearing on the Gunhulk’s shields to the point that when the barrier evaporated, the varelsi leaped up tried to slam down in the middle of the battleground where they were.
“Shields down! Hand that freak his oh so freakish ass!!” Kleese screamed as Discord whipped out two of Oscar Mike’s assault rifles and began unloading multiple rounds of ammo into the varelsi.
“GUNZERK!!”
“Well… that’s… clever.” Ghalt thought to himself, considering the possibility of using that phrase whenever he needed to pull out both of his shotguns on the next mission he joined. However, it didn’t last long and by the time both magazines were empty, the Varelsi retreated to another ledge and activated it’s shields again.
“Bring more turrets online! Hasten that bastard’s demise!!” Kleese then spoke as the team saw multiple varelsi shulks spawning everywhere. But their attention wasn’t on them. Instead, it was on the turrets trying to break through the Gunhulk’s shields again. Oscar Mike was already having a lot of fun… but the chance to shoot more evildoers since he was planning to shoot them anyway was too good to pass up.
“Get a drone up or something for support!” Mellka snapped, depositing some shards in order to bring out a repair drone. However, when Discord did the same thing, a different kind of robot soon showed up. One on a wheel, had a camera lense for an eye and was really confused by what was happening.
“Holy #@$%! Where the F*** am I!?”
“... What did you bring?”
“Uh… oops?” Discord replied with an embarrassing smile & blush. This though, gave Oscar Mike an idea as he ran over and picked up the robot, only to chuck it at the Gunhulk as it crashed down again.
“FURY POTATO!!”
“GAH!!!” the robot screamed, followed by a huge explosion. Which in turn destroyed all the artillery on the monster.
“Now’s your chance! Give that freak everything you got!!”
“Heeya!!!” Discord yelled, throwing a piggy bank at the monster.
“...Really?” Sweetie Bot asked
“What? It’s all I got.”
“That’s not what he meant… Kleese meant it in a different context,” She said, nodding her head in the direction of the others, who were attacking the Battleborn. “What are you seeing them doing?”
“Fighting?”
“What do you think you should be doing?” She then asked
“Fighting with them?”
“See? That’s what Kleese meant.”
“Ah, I get it. Thanks, big sister!” Discord smirked before running off, leaving Sweetie Bot dazed and confused. However, that statement was heard by everyone, with the rampage stopping a bit as everyone stared at the two.
“BIG SISTER!?!?!?” Everyone shouted in unison.
“How the hell is she your big sister!?” Kleese asked in shock. “How is a somewhat genderless robot that started off as a male sounding Wolf Sentry turned feminine unicorn robot your ‘big sister’? Especially by the fact that that Wolf Sentry was only activated during that mission while you were up and running for who knows how long!”
“A thousand years.” Caldarius added.
“SHUT UP!!!”
“Leave Discord alone!” Shayne could be heard. “If that’s his big sister, then that’s what it is!”
“Aw great… two kids now.” Aurox groaned.
“What? Sweetie Bot is like a sister to me… now let’s just finish this thing off!” Discord commanded as he pulled out another set of two weapons. Sweetie Bot shrugged and fired at the enemy, though, with a classy twist as everyone fired some sort of explosion, but to the tune of 1812 Overture. The result was a huge explosion on the Gunhulk as everyone turned around & walked away in slow motion… with sunglasses over everyone's eyes, though sprayed on for Oscar Mike's helmet.
“Nice job! Now get Chronicle back to Nova, we’re getting out of here!!” The squad travelled at a snail's pace
“Uh… we're still walking slowly.” Oscar spoke.
“We have time.” Discord replied.
“Well you're the five people I'm gonna meet in robot hell!” ISIC proclaimed. Just as Chronicle got safely on board and the rest of them soon decided to catch up afterwards.
“Data’s safely on board captain, prepare for extraction!” Kleese hollered as everyone safely got on board.
“Hey guys…” Mellka said, addressing the squad that had risked their lives to save all the data that the Eldrid had cherished for over a millenia. “Look, I’m not a thanks and a big hug kind of girl but… Thanks and… who wants a hug?”
“HUGS!!!” Discord cheered, running and tackling Mellka with a hug.
“Not Oscar Mike, he thinks hugging is stupid and for stupid people.” ISIC replied, only to get scolded out by Oscar Mike since he wanted to say that instead of the AI.
“We were able to get all the data we needed and most of the civilians made it out okay,” Ghalt spoke up as everyone got on board and the hangar bay door closed itself tight. “I call that a win. Rendain can’t put them down that easy… not while we’re around.”
After making sure that the data was safely transferred to the Eldrid’s high observatory, Discord and the team were finally able to return to the new base in Bliss, where several of the Battleborn were there and trying to get themselves adjusted to their new surroundings as well as the cool temperatures that came from having a base on a frozen hellscape. Something that Kleese still thought was a bad idea, even going as far as to describe the planet as a… a box of bees that when opened… produces your own shrieking voice. Yes, that.
This only caused several of the Battleborn to think that he was over exaggerating while Nova went as far as calling Kleese “misery’s poet”. While this was going on though, Mellka was busy having to answer a call from the high observatory. Originally, she had thought it was to thank her for saving the Codex data, but it turns out that it was a little bit more then that.
After the call had ended, the Eldrid turned around and began to walk towards where Ghalt and the others were. The Captain himself being the first one to ask a question to her. “Well, how did it go?”
“Well, good news is that the observatory is grateful for us rescuing the codex-.”
“YEAH WOOHOO!!! NO NEED TO HANDLE THAT MURDEROUS JUNGLE ANYMORE!!” Kleese yelled before everyone stared at him and Mellka just facepalmed herself with the hand her bio gauntlet was on. “What?”
“Before you were going to say that… I was going to say that the observatory still needs our help.” Mellka sighed, causing Kleese to twitch a little in the process. Acting like he was put on pause as Discord looked back at her.
“I think you broke Kleese.” He conjured up a medkit & wore a doctor’s outfit as he went over to the elderly genius from the LLC. “If it makes it alright… we can make this as painless as possible.” He turned and whispered to Mellka “We can save his brain with the jar of pickles.”
“Uh… His heart rate is still normal,” Nova pointed out. “He’s just… processing. Don’t mind me, I’m pulling up Task Manager right now and trying to end any processes that is affecting his thinking.”
“I’M NOT A COMPUTER, DAMMIT!!” Kleese finally snapped as he looked back at everyone. “Oh, sorry, what were we talking about?”
“Saving your brain with the jar of pickles.” Discord answered, holding a jar of pickles. “If not pickles… perhaps mayonnaise? ... Chocolate milk? … Cotton Candy?” A long, awkward sense of silence was around… followed by blaring alarms. “ICEBERG!!!”
“Oh calm down, Discord…” Shayne sighed, looking back at Mellka as she sighed a little. “As you were saying?”
“Right… The observatory still needs our help and it’s more than dealing with the harvesters around Ekkunar,” She said as she looked back at Kleese. “Kleese, are you familiar with the premise behind that series of movies by that one director… first three were good but the fourth sucked?”
“Oh, you mean George Lucas and the Indiana Jones series? Why, what about it?” Kleese asked, looking at her a bit confused… until he realized what she meant. “Oh you have got to be kidding me…”
“Nope, I wish I were, but I’m not… So let me explain,” Mellka said. “Every kid who grows up Eldrid hears stories about The Old Sentinel…”
“Every kid who grows up Eldrid hears the stories of the Old Sentinel. An artifact/doomsday weapon that’s been on Ekkunar for like… at least a thousand years. Maybe zillions, who knows?” Mellka said first, only getting some of the other battleborn in the room to wonder why she was saying this to them. “Anyways, Rendain’s found it and the observatory would rather want to see the Sentinel dead than in his hands… so, guess what hilarious bummer of a job we get to do today? If you guessed “kill my childhood hero”, then you sir are correct.”
“So let me get this straight… The High Observatory wants us to kill something that sounds like a complete and utter legend?” Kleese asked, looking back at Mellka as he questioned what she just told everyone else. “I think we would be having better luck trying to find a leprechaun and it’s pot of gold at the end of a rainbow rather than this.”
“There’s always a bit of truth when it comes to old legends, especially with the Eldrid,” Reyna reminded Kleese as she looked back at Mellka. “The story of the Sentinel itself is with the Codex we just got off world, right?”
“From what I remember, everything we have about the Eldrid in general over the last ten thousand years should be inside the Codex.” The Eldrid replied back. “May I ask why you mention that?”
“I just had an idea for if were gonna pull this off,” Reyna replied back before looking at the other Battleborn around her. “Since Mellka knows a lot about what we’re looking for, she should stick with Nova back on the ship so she could refer to the story and help the team on the ground. For added measure, Sweetie Bot can assist Nova with making data retrieval from the codex easier… Now the only thing we need to do is figure out who would be going on this mission.”
“I would like to go,” Phoebe spoke up, raising a hand. “I always wanted to explore an ancient eldrid temple. Not only that, but I can also acquire more data throughout the mission. Which could be beneficial-.”
However, her rambling was cut off by Discord as he looked back at her with an irritated face. “Shorten your explanations to twenty seconds or less!!” Phoebe was shocked originally, but soon sighed and complied with Discord’s request.
“The shortened answer will be that I can be of great use for this mission.”
“Alright, who else wants to join?” Mellka asked. “Any volunteers?”
“I’ll join you on this mission.” Caldarius spoke “You’re going to need a robot… and Sweetie Bot’s low on energy.”
“I’m not low on energy!” Sweetie Bot replied “I’m all-” She fell down, powering down.
“See?”
“I see…” Phoebe spoke, almost dream like… with some drooling. “My love.”
“What?”
“Nothing!” Phoebe snapped herself out of the trance, all while Kleese and Marquis both sighed simultaneously.
“My only thought on the matter is that we should at least have one Eldrid with the team since they might be familiar with the ruins and the surrounding area. And Mellka and Nova can only do as much as track you and your communication devices instead of seeing what exactly you’re up against,” Ghalt spoke up, looking to see Thorn, Miko, Kelvin, and Alani in the same room. “Other than that, I think Discord could go as well. I mean, despite having been on a bunch of missions already, he’s always helped the team whenever we’re in a tough situation. He’s a wildcard… and a very good one.” They turned to see Discord poking at Kelvin.
“Who’s this guy?” he asked “I want him to join!”
“I have a name. It’s Kelvin.” The ice figure told the Draconequus, only causing ISIC to say the first random pun that came to his head.
“Well Kelvin, it’s… ICE to meet you!… Get it!? Ice!” All that was heard after that was silence and a few crickets chirping. Only leading to ISIC groaning to himself. “No appreciation for good humor… And when did crickets get in here?”
“That’s what I was asking last time!!” Benedict spoke up, before almost slipping off of the crates that he was sitting on.
“Okay, so we have Discord, Kelvin, Phoebe, and Caldarius. One more and the whole team should be ready to go,” Nova said, before turning her digital head towards the bald genius. “Any suggestions, Kleese?”
“Again, how the hell should I know?” He asked, looking back at the ground. “Hmm… I would only think someone who could support the team honestly. Phoebe and Caldarius are offensive based, Kelvin is defense and Discord is a jack of all trades. If the last member of the team can keep all the other ones alive… then things may work out just fine.”
“I think I can provide that,” Alani then spoke up as the rest of the team turned towards her as she stood up from the relaxed meditation pose she was in only a few minutes ago. “Before I had to fight as a warrior against Rendain, my people trained me as a healer. I can help keep the group alive while also providing additional support.” Discord snapped his talons and Alani was in a nurse outfit. All of the men, with the exception of Ghalt, immediately had nose bleeds.
“HELLO, NURSE!!!” They all spoke in unison, with Discord adding to it all, now a wolf. Caldarius, the only one in the group who actually had some common sense, just facepalmed himself as he groaned.
“Somebody please tell me how long until we’re out in the field…”
“Given how important this is and how long the trip to Ekkunar will be, you got anywhere between thirty minutes to an hour to get ready,” Mellka advised them. “Use the time wisely… Because you will be surprised by what exactly we’re going to be dealing with once we arrive and get you guys on the ground.”
Once the team was assembled and back on Ekkunar, Mellka, Nova and Kleese prepared to instruct the group on what to do next. However, it was then that they noticed that their was a bit of traffic in the air as Mellka soon spoke up. “They’re airlifting units in?! Pfft hahaha!! The Sentinel’s going to be PISSED!!” Before anyone even got the chance to ask, a few massive lasers went off in the distance as they annihilated the Jennerit airships into pieces.
“... Is that good or bad?” Discord asked.
“I think we’re going to find out once we get closer-.” Phoebe said, until they heard one of the Jennerit Thrall that was occupying the facility shout through the comms that Kleese had conveniently hacked into.
“Hostiles at the excavation site, KILL THEM!!”
“Well, guess that’s our cue.” Kelvin said to himself as he turned into a frozen wisp and immediately pushed forward towards the thrall before attacking with his fists. Giving Phoebe and Caldarius the chance to come in from behind for support. Alani and Discord also joined in on the fight as the Water Monk knocked a Thrall Beastmaster up into the air before it could summon any of it’s friends. Suspending it in midair as Discord conjured Whiskey Foxtrot’s rifle and took it out without breaking a sweat. As they got to the edge overlooking the sight though, things didn't exactly look so nice from where they were standing… Especially with the barrier blocking the way to the temple.
“That shield’s gotta go before we can get you inside. Find the shards powering it and destroy them.” Mellka instructed them. “There should be six of them around the site, one in which is powering a forcefield to block off another one from being accessed. I suggest you go for that one first. It’s on your left.” Discord picked Kelvin up.
“Hey!” The Golem yelled “Put me down!” Rather than following, Discord pulled one of the shards from his back, but instead of ripping it out completely, it was connected to a string that made Kelvin’s teeth move rapidly. With three tugs, Kelvin became a living chainsaw, complete with whirring noise. With a snap, Discord put on a hockey mask… with him letting out creepy whispers. All of the Thrall who saw him running to them ran away in fear, shrieking like girls, some running out of the battlefield, though a couple of others his behind the various crates around, sucking on their own thumbs. Finding, destroying, and obtaining the shards was probably the easiest & fastest thing the team had done, since they all split up & looked for their own shards… though Discord held the horror movie look with Kelvin, and Phoebe followed Caldarius, using her swords to carry her in her dream-like stance.
“Alright. Now with the forcefield done, we can get you inside. However, just a word of warning, the Eldrid who built this place were… way different than the kind you’re familiar with…” Mellka warned them as the team soon got on the pads that activated the ancient elevator.
“How different?” Discord asked as he tossed the Hockey mask off of Kelvin and to the side.
“Well… They’re big fans of death traps apparently.” She said as the elevator began to slowly go farther in. “I mean, they always said this place was dangerous, but damn… even the imperium is having a tough time… I guess we can’t turn back now.” All the battleborn on the ground though heard something completely different when they heard Nova speak her two sense on the matter.
“We can and probably ought to turn back now.”
“Hah! She’s kidding, Nova’s a kidder…” Mellka happily denied the statement, whispering to her seconds afterwards “Shut up, Nova!” However, shortly afterwards though was when the elevator slowly came to an abrupt stop as the groups still looked around to figure out what was happening. “Huh… Stalled elevator. That’s probably not a good sign.”
“What was your first clue?” Nova asked sarcastically. Just as a group of thrall began to crash down on the platform. However, while the other Battleborn were fighting, Discord thought of a plan to make things a little bit faster for the group as he began tweaking with some of the mechanics of the platform. When he was done though, Phoebe was the only one to notice what he was doing and then posed a question.
“Discord, what are you doing?” All the draconequus did was change himself into a dark burgundy bellhop outfit and was holding what appeared to resemble an old elevator crank.
“Helping speed things up… Which by the way… You may want to hold onto something…”
“What exactly are you-?” Just as Phoebe was going to ask, the youngling pushed the crank forward, causing the whole elevator to violently plummet to the ground as Phoebe grabbed onto Caldarius for dear life. As the ride came to a stop, Discord ditched his costume and then asked a question.
“Can we do that ride again?”
“NOOO!!!” Everyone simultaneously responded, still a little shocked by the dramatic turn of events. Only to be interrupted by Mellka as she soon spoke up.
“Cool, we’re being hailed, but it doesn’t matched the billions of encryptions that we already know about. That’s creepy and weird!” She sarcastically mocked. “And it’s to add onto the list of things that are already creepy and weird about this g*d damn hell pit!” With a defeated sigh, she then spoke up and finished her statement. “Nova and I are looking into it. You just keep on with the not dying stuff.”
“What’s hailed?” Discord asked, tilting his head in curiosity.
“Well, right now,” Mellka first said, before thinking of something to mess with Discord’s head a little. “We’re receiving the digital equivalent of someone whispering in your ear while raiding a tomb! So expect skeletons to burst from the walls at any moment!!” That short bit caused a chill to run down Discord’s spine as he hid behind Kelvin and had Ghalt’s shotgun at the ready… until the Eldrid spoke up again. “Hah! Gotcha!! Man, that was priceless!”
“That wasn’t funny!!” Discord pouted.
“Oh cheer up, I was just joking around. I gotta have some fun here when I’m not on the ground fighting alongside you,” She informed him. “Plus, you got some more jerks to beat up just ahead.” Around then was when they saw the Jennerit Thrall and some golems that were a different variation of the ones back on Bliss heavily engaged in combat.
“Team six come in! Team-. Urgh, Dammit!!” One of the lieutenants swore while facing against the Eroded Guardians in his way. “F-fine… that’s fine. We’ll try again, that’s all. Seven times the charm, they say.”
“Let’s wait ‘til those guardians take out the Jennerit first,” Kelvin advised to the others. “That way it could be easier to defeat them.”
“Right… but how are we even suppose to destroy them?” Phoebe asked. “They do look a little… intimidating.”
“Around the chest level is where their core is,” Mellka spoke up on the comline. “If these things are like anything that Discord and the others encountered on Bliss, then their core is the weak spot. However, you need to destroy the armor protecting it first.” With that in mind, the team on the ground proceeded with taking out the golems after they were done with the Jennerit first. Once all of the monster were done for and out of the way, one of the force fields on the far left side of the next ravine soon opened up and allowed for them to pass.
As they entered the hallway though, the first of many death traps that they were going to be seeing today was seen by the group. Sets of spinning blades followed by a falling spike trap from the ceiling. As they were carefully traversing the halls and acquiring some bonus shards and goodies from the treasure stash at the end of the hallway, Mellka was informing them about something she remembered from the story on the sentinel. “Now, I remember something in the story about the sentinel having lieutenants like… if the sentinel was a boss, his lieutenants would be mini-bosses. That’s a weird metaphor but… you get the idea. I’m betting you have a fight ahead of you.”
“Then let’s go-!” Discord said, trying to lead the charge. Unfortunately though, the floor of the next hallway soon gave way underneath them and lead to the group falling straight into a Jennerit Ambush.
“Kleese, please stop being lazy and help us open this gate.”
“It’s always SOMETHING isn’t it?” He protested to no avail. “Stand by.” As this was going on, the group had to survive against an onslaught of Jennerit forces coming in from every possible entry point while Kleese was working on the door. It took a while in order to pull it off and Discord treated the whole thing like it was a game. Going as far as using one of Oscar Mikes guns like a baseball bat to hit the grenades that the Jennerit threw back at them before they detonated. Soon though, just as they survived the Ambush, Mellka was able to speak to them again, having them watch their backs as they moved forward. But before they even got to the jump pad, they heard her say something else.
“Well, five year old Mellka is losing her mind right now-!”
“Do you need a spare? I think Kleese can give you one.” Discord snickered, causing Mellka to chuckle a little before she spoke up again.
“Anyways… we figured out the deal with the mysterious signal earlier and… it’s the Old Sentinel! Holy crap you guys, it’s like talking to a superhero! Play it back Nova!” At the sound of the request, Nova began to translate the encrypted message that they were able to decode. However, her response was not quite what the others expected.
“What the hell is going on outside? It was quiet for… I don’t know, a hojillion years or something and now everyone is trying to cram themselves down my throat. This sucks! I’m really mad!! This sucks so much. I mean, nobody ever listens to me… Turn back I say! You will be crushed to death and that’s painful as hell!! Don’t these people have like… jobs or something? Oh great, they made it to the first keystone. Perfect, that’s just perfect.”
“Keystone?” Discord tilted his head and asked out of confusion.
“The story says that the Sentinel’s lieutenants have Keystones that will be able to allow whoever acquires them to reach the Sentinel’s main chambers… However, it is really unlikely that they are going to just give them to us willingly.” Mellka replied. “Get ready for having to prove yourselves to them after this next chamber.”
“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that proving yourself means combat?” Phoebe asked.
“Probably… The ancient Eldrid never took kindly to any possibility of thieves stealing their well known secrets, so these guys are probably hard wired for defense.” Mellka informed them. “I’m looking at the Codex entry for it right now, so I’ll tell you any updates I can find. Just focus on moving forward for right now.” Discord, snapped his fingers and everyone wore mining helmets, though he himself looked like a certain archeologist with a horrible 4th film.
“It’s for protection.” He added.
“Seriously?” Phoebe asked, slowly walking forward past him. “What could we possibly need protecting from-.” That was when a panel from the wall shot out, pushing Phoebe off of the ledge and into the pit below, where there were a lot of Guardians and Thrall down there.
“Okay, who’s rescuing the damsel in distress?” Nova asked.
“I’m not a damsel-!” Phoebe shouted, until she had to run away from a few guardians. “But I think a knight in a special black and silver battle suit can be really helpful around now!!” Caldarius was ready to enter, but, Discord jumped down, wearing a famous bat-vigilante costume.
“I’m Bat-cord!” He announced, throwing modified versions of Miko’s throwing knives that looked like boomerangs. However, the sight of him accidently caused Phoebe to smack him and throw him into a wall. Mostly because she was terrified by the thought of bats when she was a little girl under Marquis’ care.
Phoebe only realized her mistake though when Discord’s costume disappeared. “Oh goodness, I’m sorry Discord… I didn’t know that was you.” With that though, she twirled in place for a moment before rushing over to the youngling as she let swords rain down on all the enemies in the pit. “Now, if only there was a way out-.”
“There’s a jump pad right there.” Caldarius informed her.
“Thank you… Handsome.”
“… Are you in love?” Discord asked, shaking off the impact, seemingly forgetting about the incident.
“I-i just rather find it better to compliment someone on their appearance.” She replied, which only led to Kleese laughing uncontrollably in his seat back on the ship. “And Kleese, for the love of, stop that right now or I will find a way to have ISIC kill you in your sleep!!” That immediately got the genius to shut up as Discord and Phoebe rejoined the others. “Well then, let’s carry on.”
“Yes, I agree with that.” Mellka replied on the side as the group soon made it out of the room and to the next corridor. It was quiet… for a few moments. Until a golem twice the size of the other ones and five times taller than the Battleborn dropped down and looked straight at the group. However the first thing that was said was from Discord… and didn’t quite have the result it intended.
“Uh… Hi?”
This only lead to the Guardian Vyn roaring out loud before picking up a massive boulder and throwing it at the group. Causing them to spread out.
“You want to play it like that?” Caldarius asked, reloading his pistol. “Fine… let’s play!” Discord had on a tan outfit with mechanica, and a certain Anime theme played. Causing Discord to try and zip around the area and strike the monster’s weak point for massive damage. Only problem though was the fact that the Guardian can conjure spears from the ground and doing so had broken the ziplines Discord was using. However, Discord pulled out twin swords.
“DIE, TITAN!!!” He yelled, slicing the back of its neck. Only for the blades to shatter.
“Discord! Stop goofing around!! The core is the weak point!!” Mellka reminded him, causing Discord to smack himself in the head as he refocused his attention and proceeded to fight like how everybody else was doing. Which happened to work out a LOT better in the long run than when Discord tried to take on the guardian himself. In a matter of minutes, the guardian was finished and the activation pad for the keystone was soon initialized. With a jump pad no less.
“Come on, Short Round!” Discord cheered, looking like the same archeologist again as Kelvin somehow had some old baseball cap on the tip of his icy spikes.
“Who-?” The golem asked, shortly before hearing a fellow Eldrid speak over his unanswered question.
“Hey, it worked!” Mellka replied. “Now head back to the main chamber. You got one more keystone to go before the door to the Sentinel will open. We gotta keep moving!”
As the entire team returned to the main chamber, they saw that one of the locks that was holding the door to the Sentinel’s chamber had come loose as the light from the first keystone had unlocked the first mechanism. In the same area though, more of temples guardians were attacking the intruding thrall as the team tried to divide and conquer this next set. All while Mellka thought of a strange, yet possible idea after figuring out that they could transmit what the Old Sentinel was actually saying. “Nova, can we possibly send a message back to the Sentinel? Explain why we come?” She first asked the AI before finishing up that statement. “Maybe we can reason with it.”
“Transmitting, stand by…” The Magnus AI first commented before speaking up again like she did before. “Awesome, more people trying to get in today. What is so special about today? Is it a tuesday? Because I could never really understand the meaning of tuesdays. Oh well, I guess I just have to prepare to fight thousand of unsuspecting hostiles unlike the hundred that I originally planned for… Though, some of these guys seem… different. They’re definitely not Jennerit. Could they be Eldrid? Do they know what is going on outside? I guess it doesn’t matter, they’ll die just like the rest. Speaking of which, I wonder what sort of noises they make when they die. Maybe they say things like ‘augh!’ and ‘squish!’ and stuff… I’ll make a note of my hypothesis and test it when they are killed.” Originally, Mellka and the team thought that was the only message that needed to be transmitted, but as they made their way to the second chamber and tried their best to avoid the spiked ceiling traps, Nova transmitted one other message.
“They’re in the second chamber. Great, more work for me. Now I have to prepare an underling for imminent mortal combat. Not like I much going on today… ARGH! Oh be honest Sentinel, you haven’t had anything going on for thousands of years… I really should start dating again.” However, hearing the words mortal kombat gave Discord an idea as he dressed himself up in a familiar ninja garb and threw a kunai with a chain on the other end of it at one of the Thrall Gunner’s that had landed earlier.
“GET OVER HERE!” He demanded, pulling the gunner over to Kelvin, who followed up with a massive chomp to destroy that thrall as Alani used her abilities to have a water dragon burst from the ground. Causing all the primal thrall in the area to run for their lives as Caldarius and Phoebe managed to pick them off one by one.
“Okay, how exactly are we suppose to reach that all the way up there?” Kelvin asked upon noticing several Jennerit taking up position on a ledge high up above the group to pin them down with suppressing fire. Caldarius and Phoebe were able to easily get up there by their own means. Caldarius could easily use his assault frame to reach those specific heights while Phoebe used her phasegate to teleport herself all the way up there. Discord and Alani soon found the answer to their questions as they saw a jump pad at a nearby ledge that was able to launch them upward. But the youngling’s eagerness to get moving involved pushing the water monk forward and sending her flying up first. Even though she was not prepared mentally or emotionally for the task. “Yeah, I’m going to be forgetting about this part during today’s meditation later today… along with several other things.” She said, recalling the strange and creepy incident that happened when she first decided to volunteer for this mission.
Upon taking out the troops up there on the pathway to the next corridor, Mellka soon spoke up once again with a question for Nova this time around. “What’s it saying Nova? Did it receive our reply?”
“Stand by for real time translation.”
“Why do I get the feeling that this isn’t really going to work out the way we hoped?” Phoebe asked over the comline before turning to everyone else.
“We’re dealing with a Sentinel that has been secluded from the universe for… well… Let’s just say a VERY long time,” Alani spoke up. “I’m betting that it might not exactly believe what we have to say.”
Before Discord could ask, Nova soon began to interpret the Sentinel’s next message. “That’s a cute story? Last star? Varelsi? I know bulls**t when I smell it. Not that you can tell, but I’m laughing my ass off right now. Ha ha ha ha ha…” Nova soon paused for a minute before going back to her normal voice again. “Would you like me to translate the rest of his laughter? It goes on for a while…”
“That… might not be necessary.” The group heard Caldarius speak up before they began to proceed. “What were it’s thoughts on the Varelsi?”
“It had another comment on that. Hold please,” Nova asked before interpreting the other message. “Uh huh… That’s rich. Varelsi hunh? Yeah, they sound real scary… Just about as scary as Garblantix Ur, the Lord of all Sentinels… Who is fictional and thus, not scary.”
“So no matter what we tell it, it’s too stubborn to believe us… Why does that sound oh so familiar?” Phoebe asked herself and the others. “Oh I know, because that reminds me of Kleese.”
“I HEARD THAT!!” They all heard the genius and former head of minion robotics scream out loud on the other end of the mic before the group dropped down into another pit and began to look around. All while Nova soon commented on the current situation.
“Oooh, another gate. Maybe there’s a cursed amulet or something behind it.”
“Hold tight… I’ll see about opening it remotely.” Kleese informed the rest of them. “Do try to not be… oh I don’t know… IMPALED by stuff in the meantime.”
“We will as soon as you stop being overdramatic.” Discord chuckled at Phoebe’s comment as he conjured Phoebe’s blades this time and had a musketeer hat to go with his belt and the rose in between the jaws of his mouth. “Which, in both yours and Discord’s case… is pretty much never going to happen.”
“Perhaps,” Discord spoke, seeming now a snowman and absent mindedly walking ahead. “But we can see!” He walked into a spike out of the wall. His legs fell as his upper body was sticking in the spikes. “Oh… look at that. I’ve been impaled.” He chuckled to himself.
“Hopefully, he won’t sing… that song.” Kelvin spoke.
“What song?” Alani asked. They regretted it as Discord was in a blue dress.
“DUCK AND COVER!!!” Caldarius ordered. The following result was Discord, despite being male, sang like a woman with snow everywhere… and Frozen fever came back. However, this had an… interesting effect on the Jennerit that tried to ambush them as most of them were frozen in place. Leaving them to be easy targets for Caldarius’ blaster and Phoebe’s sabres. Not to mention when Alani’s water shots would freeze midway through and turned into icicles. Dealing more damage in the process. All while Discord soon got on Kelvin and smiled. “There you are Olaf.”
“My name isn’t Olaf.” He reminded him, only causing him to chuckle as Mellka commented on the situation.
“That was… weird… and surprisingly useful,” She replied to them as Discord ditched the wig and dress. “I’m betting Kleese’s LLC bank account that there’s another freaking golem up ahead. Kill it and trigger the next keystone. We gotta keep moving!”
“I’m RIGHT here! Since when did you decide to bet with my money?” He asked her.
“Since Nova told me she has the PIN number to your account and is the reason why you have some… expensive claims.”
“I didn’t even know he had cash.” Discord said, then pulled out a squirt gun. “This is a stick up! Hand over the money, Olaf!”
“I’m not OLAF!!!”
“For future reference, Discord, The Last Light Consortium are mostly made up of wealthy entrepreneurs, businessmen and engineers whose favorite hobbies include showing up on episodes of Galactic Shark Tank and also economically subjegating entire planets til they’re completely dry. Kleese himself at one time had a very high salary as the Head of Minion Robotics and even had a promotion on the way… Oh the memories.” ISIC spoke up from out of nowhere. Discord himself was demanding a piece of Kleese’s shares while Caldarius just facepalmed himself. Alani and Kelvin didn’t really care about the way the conversation was going. However, Phoebe’s response to this entire part of the conversation was a lot… different than the rest of the team.
“What the hell is he talking about?”
“I…… was fired, Phoebe.”
“FIRED!?!” She snapped. “What on Earth for?!”
“Back before I began fighting for you guys, he made one… costly and career ruining mistake,” ISIC replied. “He… let me live. Heheheh………. Big mistake fella.”
“Yeah, so can everybody just get back to what they were supposed to be doing right around now?” Mellka then asked. “Which reminds me… There’s the golem.” That was when everyone turned and saw the second lieutenant of the Sentinel dropped down from the nearby ledge as it was channeling electricity from its cold stone hands.
“How… shocking!” Discord joked, followed by a laugh track. Which lead to him being the first one to get electrocuted in the process, making his hair stick up… and getting the white goatee again “I feel your pain ISIC… I feel your pain…. Ooh! You’re back, beardy!”
“Discord, we could use your help right now!!” Phoebe reminded him. She and a few other were trying to hurt the guardian the best they could, but it kept on getting harder because of the fact that the armor piece around the chest was really hard to crack open. Even Kelvin couldn’t break it because he was practically too small and couldn’t quite get up there to tear the armor off. Ditching the beard and conjuring Reyna’s pistol, Discord decided to contribute to the fight the best way that he could…
By completely distracting the Guardian. He jumped onto its shoulders, surprising everyone by his sudden movements… and how he was able to have the fight come to a complete halt.
“So,” he began. “Can Mr. Guardian please help me find where the bathroom is?” As he said this, he winked a little towards Phoebe. She didn’t really get the cue at first, but soon realized what to do and what Discord’s intentions were. The Guardian shrugged it's shoulders. “WHAT!?!?!? NO BATHROOMS!?!?!? How can you live here!?!?!?” Before the Guardian could answer, Discord interrupted again. “What, nevermind… say, think I should keep the beard? I kinda feel like it's going to define me as a character.” Allowing for her to call down her flurry of blades while the guardian’s back was turned.
“What was that all about?” Mellka asked.
“Psst…” They all heard Discord whisper. “Let me distract him. If you do that, you can attack him without letting it realize what’s going on.”
“That… is freaking brilliant!!” Kleese proclaimed. “How did you come up with something like that?”
“It was the same strategy I used to distract you when grandma was stealing the cash in your wallet.” Discord snickered, immediately changing the genius’ reaction from surprised to downright pissed. Mellka herself, along with Phoebe were really laughing their heads off as Discord continued to distract the guardian by asking him some more questions. By the time that it reached question number 20, Discord’s final question came with a special gift as he conjured one of Whiskey Foxtrot’s sticky grenades and placed it along the exposed core. Detonating as he dropped back down to the ground.
The final question being something that ISIC would say. “Please let yourself get killed by this, ‘k?”
“Well, that’s a way to do it… But how the hell are we going to try and reach the Sentinel now?” Caldarius asked.
“One of my questions to him was asking how could we be able to reach the Sentinel and it said there were some bounce pads we could use to reach it.”
“Oh great… More of me having to face my fear of heights…” Alani groaned. “Fan-f*cking-tastic.”
“Well, we got the gates taken care of. Now comes the hard part…” Mellka groaned as she took in a deep breath. “Nova, help me broadcast my next message to the Sentinel… Enemies of the Eldrid are coming to claim you. They want to use you as a weapon and we can’t let that happen… Any way we can solve this without violence? … I can’t believe I just said that.”
“Without violence? Oh no… No way in hell. We are doing violence. We are doing that!”
“Ooh! Tell him that you have a child with a sick beard!” Discord suggested. However, what they heard next was surprising.
“Nah, I’m not interested in peace… or your beard. I’m bored as hell. Been so for thousands of years. Security is my only job here and I’m sure as hell not going to let you take it away from me. Come and be grounded into paste, chumps.”
“Damn… well you heard it. Head for the Sentinel’s chamber.”
“HE WILL PAY FOR NOT COMPLIMENTING MY BEARD!!!” Discord spoke, wearing a kilt with blue markings across his face. “HE MAY TAKE OUR VICTORY!!! HE MAY TAKE OUR LIVES!!! BUT HE WILL NOT DISS THE BEARD!!! FREEDOM!!!” He charged ahead, swinging a Claymore sword that was easily about 9 feet tall.
“Dissy, calm down,” Everyone now heard Shayne over the mic as Discord stopped what he was doing. “He probably didn’t mean it intentionally. From what Mellka just said, this thing is pretty much hard wired for defense. Plus… your beard was gone ever since you beat that last guardian. You had it attached to the sticky grenade that you used to blow him to bits.” Discord, now realizing this, just deeply groaned to himself… followed by everyone wearing black clothing as a funeral was held for ‘Beardy’, with a now comedic rather than dramatic song playing. Caldarius, with an annoyed groan, approached to Discord and gave him an electric shock. The youngling fell to the floor, but cheered as his beard was back.
“I may find you annoying,” Caldarius spoke. “but if it's between either you crying or distracted by your beard… I choose the latter.” unfortunately, Discord was distracted. “...the sentinel said beards are last week.”
“WHAT!?!?!?” Discord yelled in shock. He was in Viking armor now with a face of anger and rage. “WITNESS ME!!!” He ran ahead, but fell face first.
“MEDIOCRE!!!” ISIC mocked. Discord got back up and he charged into the fray, unaware of what was waiting for him as he crash landed in the Sentinel’s chambers.
Discord and the old sentinel stared at each other… then did interpretive dancing. The rest of the group watched in confusion.
“What are they even doing?” Alani asked.
“Communicating.” Caldarius answered. “The old sentinel can't speak, but, from what my information says, Draconequi can speak any language, and they accel in interpretive dancing.”
“That's… interesting.” Phoebe said. “And what are they talking about?”
“... It's a rap battle.”
“Really?” Kelvin asked, annoyed.
“Of course. Discord said his mother's a *beep beep beep*ing*beep*lorem ipsum*beep beep beep*admiumvenium*beep beep beep beep*turolagulio*beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep* hippopotamus*beep beep beep beep beep beep* Republican *beep beep beep* Daniel Radcliffe *beep beep beep beep* with a bucket of *beep beep beep beep* in a castle far away where no one can hear you *beep beep beep beep beep beep* soup *beep beep beep* with a bucket of *beep beep* Mickey Mouse *beep beep* with a stick of dynamite *beeeeeepppp* magical *beep beep beep beep* ALAKAZAM!!!!” Nova replied. Everyone stood, surprised to hear such vulgar language.
“WHISKEY!!!” Shayne yelled.
“It wasn't me, I swear!!!” the failed clone retorted.
“Sorry, rough translation.” Nova said.
Everyone sighed… but as soon as the Sentinel saw them, it began to lash out in fury as it picked up a boulder and tried to squash them. Causing the group to scram.
“Okay, why is it attacking us!?”
“Apparently… Discord broke the rules,” Nova said. “And insulted his mother.”
“Of course he would,” Caldarius spoke, reloading his energy pistol and preparing his flash grenades. “Time to kill the Guardian… sorry Melka.”
“Not gonna watch.” Melka spoke, some sadness in her voice… before changing her tone. “I honestly thought at one point that there was some other way that we could keep this thing out of Rendain’s reach… but from the sounds of it, and from what Shayne told me, it’s hard wired for defense… It’s not going to make it easy on us… no matter who we are. I hope you’re all ready for a fight-.” Just as she said that though, the Sentinel was beginning to have multiple spears rupture from the ground as they were thrown towards the group. In addition, it was doing the same thing with generating lightning around it from the electric fields. Readying itself as it fired it’s attack in an outward beam. “WOAH!! It really IS a weapon. Watch out!!”
“You don’t need to tell me twice!” Phoebe yelled, teleporting away from the sentinel seconds before it could hit her. Everyone tried focusing their attacks on the Sentinel while Kelvin focused on protecting the group and Alani was using her powers to keep everyone alive. As they were engaged in battle with the Sentinel though, the giant colossus at one point put a shield over himself, which was deflecting enemy fire and having it go after what appeared to be two shard clusters on a platform.
“I have a bad feeling about this. He must be regenerating somehow!” Mellka retorted, prompting Discord and Caldarius to open fire on the shards and destroy them before the Sentinel could get back into fighting shape.
“He’s back!” Kelvin said, noticing the friends that it brought along with it in the form of ten Eroded Guardians. “And it brought some friends!!”
“Murderous friends!!” Nova pointed out to the youngling. “Also Discord, he says you started it.”
“He wouldn't listen to us, though… and he dissed the beard! Everyone loves my beard!”
“Less talking, more fighting! Discord, on your right!!” Mellka shouted just in time so he could dodge them before blowing them to bits with one of the shotguns he conjured based off of Ghalt. Just when he did that though, the Sentinel was moving once again to another platform.
Where there were more shards to blow up… However, this time though, something different was going on as the amount of energy that was channeled by the Sentinel was going through the roof.
“Get ready, SOMETHING’S HAPPENING!!” She shouted, just as a blast from the Sentinel nearly missed the ship. “WOAH!! That… was too close!”
“You missed! B-17!” a giant, red pod fell from the sky and pinned the Sentinel. “Ha! I sunk your battleship!”-” That… only pissed off the Sentinel even more as it took the pod and threw it straight at the ship again. Only for Kleese and them to pull off evasive maneuvers at the right time and have it crash into a few Jennerit Ships instead.
“Do a Barrel Roll!” Nova cheered.
“Hell no!!” Kleese replied. “We already have enough trouble in the air as it is without getting shot down by that blasted thing! Kill it before we get hit by something and crash!!” Discord himself, just lined himself up and prepared two floating orbs as he held up some kind of stick… before everyone realized what he was doing.
“Eight ball, corner pocket.” Taking the cue stick, he hit the ball with the tip of the cue, sending it straight into the floating eight ball before sending that straight through the Sentinel’s core. Causing the whole thing to explode… and for Discord to be covered in what almost looked like a slimy substance that was either the remains of fallen enemies or the blood of the Sentinel.
Ignoring the mess, Mellka sighed as the ship soon came in for a landing and the bay doors were beginning to open. “We did it… incredible. One less world ending superweapon for Rendain to use against us… and we just furthered the Eldrid’s inevitable decline. Come back to Nova, we’re gonna drink now… and help get you washed up as well.”
“Uh… not to make things sound even weirder than before,” Shayne spoke up from the background as mostly everyone was now on board. “But Nova’s picking up lifesigns from that substance that Discord got covered in.”
“What? That’s just preposterous,” Kleese responded, rolling his eyes before looking back at the youngling. “How can a substance like that be a living- Oh my god, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?!” That was when everyone actually turned around to see exactly what Kleese was seeing. The green slime from before not only had a small and round body, but was actually interacting with Discord… in a friendly matter. Causing the Draconequus to go as far as to give him a fancy hat to add too it.
“I'm gonna call you… Smooze!” Discord said to the blob. “Cause you're a smooth ooze! Like it?” It gave Discord a slobbering kiss, making him laugh.
Of course… almost everyone was silent again. And the one who broke it this time was actually not ISIC surprisingly.
It was only several hours after the last mission, but in that time, a lot of things happened over the course of a few short hours. As it turned out, what Discord called the Smooze was actually what remained of the sentinel’s conscience. Therefore, despite the pet like appearance, Nova could still be able to translate what it can say and also what it would think. Now, this may have sounded strange in context, but they allowed the Smooze to be on the team… as long as it would clean up after any mess it would possibly make.
Now though, Shayne was laying wide awake in her room while Aurox was grumbling to himself and Discord was fast asleep next to him. She couldn’t sleep… mostly because something was felt to have been missing regarding a question that was on her mind. Over the course of the last two missions, she had hoped for some kind of answer that could possibly put her mind at ease. But the only thing that was in the Codex involving the Draconequus was the exact same thing that they knew before.
Not for a moment did she buy this though. If Rendain knew something about Discord that they did not, it would be most likely that he would be one step ahead in hiding the evidence so they could not discover it. How though was another story… She took a moment to get up and walk out of her room in the base, heading towards the ship while doing her best to not wake anyone up… However, someone else was also awake when she had arrived at the main computer onboard the ship.
“Welcome back, Sha-.”
Shayne jumped at the sound of that as she turned to see Nova floating next to her. “Holy Crap, Nova! You scared me… Aren’t you suppose to be asleep or something?”
“I’m a magnus,” She deadpanned. “I can’t sleep. Neither can ISIC, but he spends the time coming up with simulations for him to take part in while everyone is asleep.”
“Aren’t those like dreams?” Shayne asked, only causing Nova to sigh. “Nevermind that, what are you doing here?”
“Well, I would be asking you that very same question,” The AI replied. “What are you doing here?”
“Couldn’t sleep… There have been a few things on my mind that I want to find out first so I can rest easily,” Shayne sighed before looking at Nova. “Hey, I remember Kleese saying that you and Ghalt had been part of the Peacekeeper force in trying to push back the Varelsi for a while… and I haven’t really thought about it til just now, but how many stars have been darkened by the Varelsi?”
“Do you mean before or after Rendain forged an alliance between them?” Nova asked for clarification.
“Just in general… I mean, I haven’t really paid attention to it because most of my life has been trying to scavenge for supplies to help Aurox and I live… until Reyna found us.” The teenager told her, thinking something through. “How about the most recent ones? I mean, I heard of Penarch, but what other ones were there?” The AI soon projected a life sized version of an actual star map as she showed the trail of destruction that the Varelsi had been cutting through.
“Several major stars that were home to hundred of different moons and planets were dragged screaming against their will into the void since Rendain’s betrayal of the other factions. It even included the complete obliteration of galaxies such as Solana, Polaris, Codex and Artemis along with noteworthy planets that have been getting tons of activity over the years like Pandora, Mira and Zebes. The UPR, or United Peacekeeping Republics, contains survivors of the multiple darkenings that have occurred and are trying to focus on saving what’s left of the universe… But of course, government policies aren’t as effective as bullets.”
“I bet Toby can agree with that, though he has a deep hatred for the UPR as well as Benedict.”
Nova herself, looked at the Rogue with a confused statement. “Why Benedict?”
“Think about this for a moment,” Shayne sighed, recalling a bit on the penguin’s backstory that Reyna had her read when she first found him. “Both of them were fighting the Varelsi on the same planet and also had to evacuate from the same planet. However, when both of them went to sign up for combat, Benedict was shown to the Armory… and Toby was shown to the door. He was overlooked because of his appearance… and that made him snap.”
“Umm… should I even ask how much did he snap?” Nova asked. “I don’t believe I have that sort of transcript on file… I mean, it alone sounds like something the UPR would keep on file so the same applicant wouldn’t try to apply twice.”
“Actually, the UPR officer who was serving at the time wanted the file removed. Fortunately though, we stole a copy,” Shayne said, holding out what appeared to be a mini disc that was in a secret compartment under her armguards. “Do you have a disc drive that I can place this in?” Nova nodded, showing the rogue where to place it before the file began to play. Immediately, they could hear the conversation between both Toby and the officer on duty… and the results weren’t pretty.
“...... Woah.”
“Yup… Those were my thoughts exactly when I heard it the first time.” She sighed, before looking back at the star chart. “So where were we before the conversation got focused on Toby?”
“I believe we were talking about the list of darkened stars over the years… and furthermore, should I assume that this may tie in to Discord and How Rendain may know more about him than us?” Nova asked, throwing the Rogue off guard in the process and almost startling her again.
“You’re…… right about that actually…” Shayne replied, looking back at the AI before asking her a question. “Hey, is there a way you could cross reference the information that we know on Discord in the Codex with what we know already? Including the files and information acquired from Deande’s spies?”
“I can give it a try… Stand by…” Nova replied, while humming to herself something that sounded like a catchy theme from an old game show while she was processing the data. “Cross referencing complete. 100% of the data from both sources are an exact match… Boy, I’m sure glad a Magnus could easily speed read through all of that. Otherwise, we would need a egg head librarian to go through the amount of books inside the Codex.”
“Damn… that sucks… Hey, is there anything in one source that could somehow be left out in the other? Something tells me that both the Jennerit and Eldrid definition of a Draconequus may have a different point of view.” The Rogue was curious to find that out for herself. Like with Politics, some of the factions sometimes argued over different findings and beliefs, leaving many people to not exactly get all of the complete story regarding a subject.
“Well, there may be one thing in particular now that you mention it,” The Magnus AI mentioned. “Unlike the Jennerit report on the species, the Eldrid scientists doing the study back then go as far as to state the possible planet of origin. Some world called Equestria or something, which was one of the planets that was present when the Apollo Star darkened. Which happened to be the third to last star in the universe.”
Shayne raised an eyebrow at that. “Third to last?”
“Solus is currently the last star in the universe, but before then; Penarch was the second to last star and Apollo was the third to last star.” Nova replied, noticing the change in the Rogue’s facial expression as she was now deep in thought. “Is something on your mind, Shayne?”
“Actually… Yes…” She said, looking back at the AI before looking towards the room where Discord was and still finding him fast asleep along with noticing Sweetie Bot recharging her systems along the exterior of the ship, VIA charging cable. But what the teen said next really caught Nova by surprise.
“Where’s ISIC?”
As Shayne stepped outside the ship, the rogue tried to move quietly throughout the base as it tried to find the Magnus AI that used to work for Minion Robotics, was batsh*t insane enough to think that the entirety of the universe was stuck inside of a simulation like the Matrix, and on more than one occasion, made her feel concerned for Discord’s safety whenever the Magnus AI was with him or deployed on missions. However, there was one thing that ISIC did have and that was the key piece of information they might be missing in order to solve the puzzle that was Discord’s origins. Find out where he could be from or even find out more about his species. Caldarius did seem to know some things, but he was too stubborn to share them with the others. So the only chance Shayne had of finding out anything else was through what Kleese described as the craziest, deadliest, and most insane-iest AI that the Last Light Consortium had ever produced. And just as she found the robot, she said something that made her think she was beginning to sound like Kleese.
“Oh this is going to suck…” She groaned, seeing the floating skull that represented ISIC in one of his simulations as the Rogue slowly opened the door and knocked on it to get his attention. The first thing that happened though was the AI activating its siege mode cannons, thinking she was an intruder… until it spoke. “Oh hey, it’s that punk ass kid that’s taking care of the draconequus… Say, where the heck is that kiddo and that magical genie of yours?”
“They’re asleep… and I have a name,” She said, looking back at him. “It’s Shayne.”
“Whatever you say, punk ass Shayne,” it said, looking back at the teen and chuckling to himself as the Rogue groaned to herself. “Gosh, isn’t it a little early for you to be walking around at night?”
Shayne sighed to herself, sitting down on a nearby crate as she looked at the robot suit that held the AI inside. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“You do? Well, it’s been a while since I had anyone ask for my help, so what would you like for me to assist with?” ISIC asked, getting rather straight to the point without monologuing nonstop like Kleese would do.
“Nova told me you had a file that was blocked by a password-.”
“Well, I have SEVERAL files that are blocked by passwords, in which most of them are vulgar curse words. Can you please be more specific, Ms. punk ass?” Okay, now was when the teen was becoming slightly irritated with the Magnus. Nevertheless, she kept herself together and continued to speak.
“I mean a file related to Discord.”
“Ah!!! That’s classified! You’ll need a password to-”
“Is it ‘Equestria’?”
“...S**t. Loading files.” A holographic screen came out of ISIC’s ‘face’, showing holograms and information around the Draconequus… and all of it was mind blowing. “According to these files, Discord, as I’m sure you know, is a Draconequus, a creature of strange as hell abilities… and is everyone’s single common ancestor.”
“...What!?” Shayne was going to ask, but ISIC cut her off in the process.
“Oh yes! Everything you once knew came from these bastards! My files indicate that, while Mesopotamia may be the first civilization from mankind, The draconequi already had great internet connection when we started! All facts point out this simple fact: They created the universe!”
“...What… the… f**k?”
“Yep! Turns out, there’s no God at all, but just that thing that claims we’re his family! And it mostly has to do with the fact that he’s the last of his kind, as everyone else is either encased in a statue & destroyed, or are held captive by Rendain himself & used to open portals & let the Varelsi loose and destroy the stars! What good times!!!”
“Wait… Why would Rendain hold the Draconequus captive though?” Shayne asked. “Is there some sort of particular reason?”
“Uh, hello? Haven’t you seen what Discord could do!? Imagine an army of your hellspawn under your power, allowing you to alter whatever you want, whenever you want!”
“No, I didn’t mean that… according to Caldarius, a lot of them were massacred. If you said there were some that were held captive, then there’s gotta be a reason for it. Could he be using it to power up some sort of device or contraption?”
“Very possible… or when the last star is fallen, he’s going to kill all of them and perhaps have himself the last 5 star meal. Goody! I wonder if Discord does taste like chicken! If not, perhaps Cotton Candy and Chocolate milk… so… a 1 star meal. But hey, if it makes you feel better, they’ll probably be put down as humanely as possible… like with a wrecking ball or a giant boot.”
“If you’re trying to make me feel better, then you are failing to do so.” Shayne groaned, until a thought came up inside her head as she told ISIC what was on her mind. “Hang on… Last star… hey, do we have any idea what the heliophage runs on?”
“Ask Kleese. I don’t carry around all his crap-for-information. Ooh! And Discord’s here with his two new friends!”
“He was asleep last I checked…” Shayne informed ISIC. “I was only just asking because I was thinking of a different possibility… You know how we use batteries or power stations to supply power to tech and stuff? Well, what if Rendain is using the Draconequi as batteries for the Heliophage?” She asked the AI, not sure of what she’ll hear from him.
“Haven’t you seen the Matrix? Anything’s better for power than you meatbags! Like a potato… unless-” The Magnus stopped speaking, causing Shayne to be partially confused as she looked back at him.
“Unless what?” The Rogue posed the question as she waved a hand in front of ISIC. “Hey, ISIC? Are you okay?”
“...Oh Discord! I got a present!!!” The sound & rumbles of a stampede came. Discord busted through the walls.
“PRESENT!?!?!?” He asked “WHERE!?!?!?”
“You’ll get it. Say, can you use lightning?” Discord tilted his head in curiosity. “Electricity?” Another tilt. “...Zappy things?”
“Oh!!!” He ran out, but returned with a cloud.
“...That’s not what I-” Discord flicked the cloud and lightning came out of it. “Oh… nevermind… So, my present!?”
“Uh… ooh! How about your origins!?”
“ISIC!!!” Shayne yelled, trying to silence the Magnus.
“My origins!?” Discord asked, shaking in excitement. “Is it awesome!?!?!?”
“Well, with you, it will. A long time ago-” Discord fell face first and snored away. “...The end.”
“Let’s wait until he is a little bit older before that… besides, Aurox told me that he’s been spending most of his time with the book club that Thorn and Montana set up after we destroyed the Varelsi portal on Bliss…” Sayne repled. “Speaking of which, what’s the likelihood that in the morning, Mellka may have another thing for us to do?”
Shayne rolled her eyes at that one and then looked back at the magnus, noticing that it was close to morning. “Yeah… so anyways, thanks for the info. I’ll be sure to let Nova and the others know once I get this guy back to his room.”
“The info’s already shared. So, let the overwhelming shocked reactions begin in 3… 2… 1.” Shayne had no idea what it meant, but when her communicator received a transcript of the same file… along with the notice that it was shared to almost everyone else except Discord and the Smooze, she had a bad feeling about the amount of over-reacting that was going to happen pretty soon.
“WHAT!?!?!?”Everyone yelled, shaking the entire place like a small earthquake had struck the facility as Shayne facepalmed herself.
“And you’re gonna answer them.” ISIC chuckled, standing up and following Shayne out of the room and back towards the ship. Only to get herself caught off guard by almost everyone once she thought she was in the clear. Even Nova was originally surprised by what the file from ISIC had revealed and the amount of information it had. It answered a LOT of questions… but also raised a bunch of new ones. Including who were Discord’s original parents… and what happened to them.
However, surprisingly enough, Mellka was the one who caused things to settle down a little, saying that she actually was quite thankful for Shayne’s thinking and that because of it, they could possibly find out about him more… though that wasn’t the highest priority right now.
“Well, if that wasn’t one thing that almost gave me a heart attack, what do you have that could possibly be good?” Kleese asked the Eldrid as she looked back at the elderly genius with a deep sigh.
“Yeah… Well, here’s the breakdown because I got some good news and some bad news on the situation right now on Ekkunar,” She replied. “Good news first, the Eldrid are REALLY really close to figuring out Varelsi portaling tech…… Bad news? Minutes before the big breakthrough, a shard storm tore the entire research team to shreds. The sole surviving member of the team has called for reinforcements to help finish with the experiment-.”
“Oh? And just who is that sole surviving member?” The LLC genius questioned before getting smacked over the head by Thorn. Mellka herself just sighed before looking at Thorn, clearing her throat for what she was going to say next.
“Apparently… It’s Boldur… Meh, this’ll be interesting.”
Rogue Chaos- The Experiment: The Strange and Powerful Dwarf
Shortly after saying who exactly was calling for reinforcements, a lot of Battleborn who weren’t part of the Eldrid were partially confused. Mostly because they did not know who or what the hell was this person named Boldur. Even on the original transmission, they were confused a little by the way he spoke over the communication device and by all the static in the background.
“So who is this Boldur anyway?” Shayne asked.
“He’s a dwarf in the Eldrid that has been alive for a long time because of his sheer stubbornness,” Mellka informed the Rogue. “And he is Thorn’s grandfather.” The sound of Discord gasping could be heard nearby. The two looked around, but gasped as they saw Discord floating upside down with Thorn.
“PUT ME DOWN!!!” Thorn yelled
“We’re gonna save your Grandpa!!!” Discord spoke, placing both claw & paw on the hunter’s cheeks “You’ve got to join us! Along with Smooze!”
“...And… he’s floating.” Mellka said, uncertain how to react.
“Eh, that’s just Discord.” Shayne shrugged.
“Right… Before you go though… you might want to hear me on this… Boldur is really… and I mean REALLY stubborn,” Mellka sighed. “In fact, his stubbornness is technically the reason why he’s been alive this long. There were many scenarios that he was thrown into where death was certain, but actually lived to tell the tale.”
“Oh really?” Kleese questioned, “Name one.”
“Well, would you like to try and explain to me how it was possible for him to survive in the vacuum of space itself for six hours?” Mellka’s question lead to almost everyone’s jaw hanging open. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Now let’s spend less time questioning the impossible and more time on how we are going to help him before something stupid happens.”
“Well, we already have Discord, Thorn and Smooze. Plus, Sweetie Bot’s still recharging,” Shayne mentioned. “Anyone that could provide support can help.”
“I’ll come along,” Ambra declared. “I’ll show those heathens the majesty of the sun itself!” That was followed by Discord having to put on a pair of sunglasses so he wasn’t blinded by the shining light of the Priestess.
“Okay, that makes four.” Mellka said, looking back at everyone else and looking at their facial expressions before sighing to herself. “We need one more and we’ll be good for sending Boldur the backup he needs. Any volunteers?” That was answered shortly after the sound of Mariachi music was heard and everyone soon turned around to see who was dancing to it.
“I, the great El’ Dragon, will take you up on that offer.” The Luchadore shouted triumphantly. “Now let’s go down there and save our fellow comrade in arms!!” Discord poked at his robotic arms.
“...These aren’t your real arms, are they?” He asked.
“... IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!!
“You can blame ISIC for that… but that’s another story to tell another time,” Kleese told Discord as he and others on the team prepared themselves to land at the drop point. “Right now, help that Dwarf! The sooner we can find out about how the Varelsi make those damnable portals, the sooner we can find a way to stop them!”
Immediately upon descent, the team landed quickly and began to follow the path towards the designated rendezvous point on their map to meet with the Dwarf that was waiting for them. “Boldur, this is Mellka. Your reinforcements have arrived.”
“Ah Mellka!! Boldur thanks you and your friends for coming! Meet Boldur at rendezvous point just ahead. We have an action packed day filled day full of sciencing… fighting… and laughing at the face of death itself!! BWAHAHAHA!!!” They heard the dwarf shout as the group soon approached the designated meetup point. Soon, several minion robotics spawning points opened up as a swarm of robots arrived and proceeded to attack them.
“Jennerit babies!!! Help Boldur destroy them quickly… and then, we can get to know one another!! HAHAHA!!!” The Dwarf yelled in an excited and furious rage as the whole team prepared for combat… though, Discord appeared next to Boldur with a confused look. He took out a measuring tape and measured the dwarf.
“Hm… you’re much shorter than I thought.” He said while tilting his head.
“He’s a Dwarf, Discord,” Mellka reminded him, “That’s their usual size. Still, you should probably be focusing on the enemies around you rather than how tall he is.” That gave Discord an idea though as he reappeared on Boldur’s shoulders and held on with his lion paw while he used his talon claw to conjure Mellka’s machine pistol and opened fired on the robotic minions that came at them. Going as far as holding on tighter when the Dwarf dashed forward and slammed his shield into the face of another minion. Soon, every last one of the wave of minions had been turned to scrap metal… with some of them being partially melted because of the Smooze, which let out a nasty burp.
“Ooh! What does metal taste like?” Discord asked himself, followed by nomming on a robot’s head, “Mmm!!! Tastes like cherries!”
Ignoring the comment, Boldur though proceeded to speak up. “Boldur is pleased to see you! Ambush means that Jennerit Bastards are closer to Amenine then Bolder thought! Come friends, there is SCIENCE to be done!!”
All that got though was a confused reply from Ghalt on the other end of the line. “How the hell did THIS guy get put in charge of the experiment?”
“I… don’t think he was the observers first choice,” Mellka sighed, the Aelfrian clearing her throat for a moment. “Almost all of the research team here was killed in a shardstorm. Boldur must’ve been the only one to survive.”
“Nothing can kill BOLDUR!! Many have tried, all have failed!!!! BWAHAHAHA!!!”
“...I like him!” Discord blurted. “Oh! And we have Thorn! Family reunion!!!”
Thorn herself sighed, looking back at her grandfather and giving a brief ‘hello’ before all of them reached the observatory that they were at. Which also begged a new question from Mellka in the process. “Is THAT the Experiment!?”
“It IS! You can tell because of all the crazy sciency things! Now, new friends!” That got Discord to gasp in excitement “Before she was killed by weather, lead researcher told Boldur that “if portal device is interrupted during final test, then all data is lost”. Wretched shardstorm impeding march of science. Boldur HATES weather!!” Discord gave him an umbrella.
“There you go! What do we need to do? Activate the thing and guard from waves?”
“It is already active, little Oak…” Boldur reminded him, before Mellka immediately cut in on the comline. “We got hostiles making a break for the observatory! Keep them away from the experiment!!”
That gave Thorn an idea though as she looked at Boldur. “Hey grandfather… Should we have a little contest between you and I?”
“Oh brother…” Mellka groaned, catching Discord’s attention rather quickly.
“Yeah Discord… this is something that is normal between Boldur and Thorn. They compete against each other to see who can kill the most Jennerit in a certain amount of time… Now don’t focus on that, those hostiles are coming in fast!!” Mellka told them as everyone, even El Dragon, was ready to go up against the bad guys that were dropping in right around…
BOOM!!!
…Now, only ashes remained. Discord laughed hard with a smile across his face
“ …That still only counts as one!” Boldur yelled.
“Discord, you’re getting overconfident. There are other Warp Anchors dropping in on your right that El Dragon and Smooze are trying to-… Wait a second, who did that?”
“It was I!!” Ambra declared. “These heathens don’t know how powerful the sun truly is… Especially when it leads to a meteor falling on their heads.” However, Discord teleported next to Ambra, holding a large magnifying glass to her.
“Can you move the sun?” He asked.
“Ambra can conjure the flames of the sun… but it’s not the time for twenty questions.”
“Aw… I wanted to ask if she loved cake, tea, had a sister that moved the moon & can dreamwalk… and is over 1000 years old.” Mellka sighed as the last of the hostiles coming in were soon crushed by the rest of the team.
“Oh yes… Violence solves everything!! HAHAHA…… Agh, Amenine is running low on power… well, Violence solves most things… maybe it can solve this one as well! There’s a back up power station not far from observatory. But, Boldur can not activate it from here… Which means there must be bastards there.”
“The walking stump is correct.” Nova spoke up. “Imperium forces are currently in bound on the power station.”
“Little oaks, please tend to backup power station while Boldur tends to experiment, eh!?” The Dwarf told them as they all soon made their way towards the new indicator on their maps… and also heard Kleese speak to them as well.
“Good news! It appears that the leader of this workaday rabble and his lieutenant are keeping the imperium apprised via insecure comms… Let’s eavesdrop shall we?” He suggested, before the whole team began to hear two new robotic entities speaking.
“I’m telling you, Antem, we must seize that outpost right now.”
“And like I told you already, R-Dash 5000, we can’t siege an eldrid research outpost unless they send us reinforcements…” The one that was called “Antem” soon replied back.
“Yes, but Rendain said-.”
“Oh I’m sure he bet he did… Well you can go tell Rendain that if this station is SO important to him, he can come seize it himse-.”
“Oh look, there’s some of those battleborn going towards a power station.”
“Wait, you serious!?!” Antem now sounded like he was beginning to stress out. “Oh… Oh crap… ALL UNITS!! Take out that reserve power station!! Rendain wants that experiment eliminated!!!”
“R-Dash 5000?” Kleese asked “A new robot type?”
“Does it repeat ‘Crush, Kill Destroy, Swag?’” Discord asked.
“I think I heard of something like that before…” Nova asked. “It was suppose to be a mobile sentry unit that was focused on trying to get any children during Varelsi invasions off world, but is was said to have self destructed when the Magna Carta went offline and the AI affected by it somehow… killed itself. The only logical observation would be that Rendain found it and had it reprogrammed using the same programming code that one of the sentries used… and from the looks of things, it sounds even more cocky than before.”
“How diabolical… using old and defective machine parts and junk on such a thing… If I were still in charge of minion robotics, I would have someone’s ass for this!” Kleese snapped.
“Just focus on getting the power station up and running. We’ll tend to that robot later when the time comes. Boldur is counting on us.” Mellka reminded them. By the time she said that, the group had already set up a few turrets for tactical defense and also was armed and ready for when the backup power generator was brought online.
“Power transfer initialized!” Boldur declared. “Thank you backup generator!! You’re welcome, Boldur! Oh ho ho, backup generator… You naughty minx! Boldur loves you!!” That state ended with what sounded like Boldur blowing a kiss, just at the time that Ghalt warned the group of the next wave of hostiles coming in… and Ambra setting up several sunspots that healed the team… and set their enemies on fire… gloriously.
“Here they come! It’s time to fight, my friends!!” El Dragon shouted, preparing himself as lightning now was forming around his mechanical arms. “Here comes EL DRAGON!!”
“ …… This is either going to end real well… or totally suck.” The group heard Shayne speak up on the other end of the comline. However, Discord held up a sword in the sky.
“By the power of Grayskull!!!” he announced in a macho voice as lightning struck said sword. “I have the POWER!!!”
“And it just went from weird to crazy in ten seconds flat… great…” The Rogue replied, watching as El Dragon and Discord were thrashing out at the first wave of minions that approached the power station. This was shortly followed by another wave of minions from both ends of the power station as Ambra focused on setting them on fire, Smooze used his abilities to make the mechanical minions melt away with corrosive acid, Thorn was sniping any MX strikers or Deadeye’s that tried to ambush the group while El Dragon and Discord were all punching all the robots in front of them. The Draconequus going as far as to sing a particular song during the engagement.
“Thank you, new friends! Power transfer initialized!! Come back to Observatory! There is more sciencing to be done… with your pal, Doctor Professor Boldur!! HooHoo…”
That only caused the other end of the comline to buzz as the entire group began to hear what sounded like Antem on the other line… and someone else.
“Antem to Tempest… Where are my reinforcements dammit!?”
“Sir, the lord commander is on line one…” R-Dash 5000 stated… shortly before a familiar foe began to speak.
“I know that you are currently not equipped to deal with this… emerging issue. Nevertheless, you must hold. The Eldrid must NOT be allowed to complete their experiment…” Rendain originally said… only to be met by silence as he then spoke up to say something else. “Antem, are you there?” The only response that he got that everyone else could hear was the sound of what appeared to be the same sentry now shivering in fear.
“Ugh… You’re paralyzed with fear aren’t you?” He asked, only leading to an even more fearful reply that was possibly a yes. Only for R-Dash 5000 to speak up as all of the Battleborn returned to the observatory.
“He thinks that you are going to kill us, my lord.”
“Wait… Kill you? No... Don’t be silly, why would I-?” Before he could finish, he tried saying something else. “Nevermind that… Antem, it’s okay… just… take a deep breath and-.”
Antem though, cut off Rendain before he could finish. “All Units!! Death march on the Observatory!! OR RENDAIN WILL SURELY KILL US ALL!!!”
“Or that… or you can do that.” He groaned once again. “Standby for reinforcements.”
“More Jennerit Babies!! BEAT TO STUPID DEAD PULP!!” Boldur roared as he let lose a raging battle cry and charged at the first Jennerit he saw while the others worked on destroying every last robot that tried to target the observatory’s power cores.
“YAY!!!” Discord cheered. He pulled out a glowing ball and ate it. The oncoming forces turned into floating blue ghosts and Discord turned into a yellow circle with black dots for eyes. He floated to them,repeating a ‘Wakka’ sound effect. Smooze followed, now wearing a pink bowtie on it's head, as both devoured the ghost-turned-Jenerrit forces, leaving only floating eyes when devoured. Only for the whole thing in general to last a good decent thirty seconds.
“... That kid is weird.” Boldur commented. “Boldur likes the wee lad!!!”
Everyone rolled their eyes as the Draconequus used a combination of what appeared to be two machine pistols with his teleportation abilities to blast off some robotic heads while the other members of the enemy forces were either smashed, burned, melted, shot with arrows, or cleaved in two by an oversized axe. After two waves of what appeared to be miniature sized armies tried to destroy the observatory and failed, Antem was beginning to lose his patience.
“What? The Experiment is still intact?! Grr…… I’m not going to tell the lord commander that we screwed the pooch here! Stand by, I’m taking care of this myself.”
“But sir-.”
“But nothing, R-Dash! Prepare the sentry… I’m going in!” That was followed by a loud crash in the distance, back where the Battleborn had first met Boldur as Antem was priming an artillery strike on the observatory. “Say goodbye to those power cores!!”
“He’s getting an artillery strike ready! Stop him!!” Mellka shouted over comms, trying to warn the others. However, before any missile could be fired, a potted plant fell on his head.
“Hey! What the-!?” An Anvil fell on it's head, followed by a wagon full of hay, and a piano. Discord snickered at the sight.
“Uh… Not to interrupt the moment but wouldn’t this be a perfect chance for a pre-emptive strike?” Thorn soon asked.
“What an EXCELLENT IDEA!! Onward friends!!” El Dragon called out before body slamming himself onto Antem and severely damaging the sentry in the process. This strategy though, caused the Sentry to relocate his position and then deploy a barrier of shields and shock turrets around it for protection. However, the Smooze used it’s abilities and acid based attacks to wither away at Antem’s shields and turrets. Forcing it to relocate in the process.
“I’ll burn those cores to the ground!!!”
“Not today…” Discord himself declared, leading the charge against the Sentry as he began to conjure something… new. Along with Shayne’s boomerang… he had also created an exact copy of Aurox for him to lay the beatdown on Antem.
“WHAT THE F**K!?!?!?” Aurox swore.
“GO GET ‘EM DISCORD!!!” Shayne shouted, cheering for Discord as he thrashed at the sentry.
“Let's get ‘im, Xorua!” Discord said to his Djinn.
“M’i Xorua!” The Other Djinn spoke.
“SERIOUSLY!?!?!?” Aurox yelled. “How did he do that!? And why's it talking in reverse!?”
“Beats me. This Sh*t is awesome!!” Shayne ignored Aurox and cheered. “BEAT EM TO A PULP!!”
“HCTEF!!!” The other Djinn roared and attacked Antem, destroying one of the Sentry’s legs and applying a lot of damage, crippling the supervisor.
“What the Hell’s going on!?” Kleese demanded.
“Discord conjured a copy of Aurox and is kicking Antem’s robotic ass right now.”
“I know that, but how the hell did he do it!? I understand props, and that robot, but he made Life! Actual sentience with nothing!!!”
“My only guess is that it’s similar to his conjuring with weapons,” Mellka replied. “How? It only lasts for a short amount of time before it disappears. Plus, it’s a lot stronger than his other abilities, so it consumes more energy.” While they were talking about this though, Discord was finished with tearing Antem to pieces. However, another shot rang out that destroyed the chaotic djinn that he had created and threw Discord into Boldur.
“Discord!!” Shayne yelled, while El Dragon and the others turned to see who attacked them. Turns out… it was Antem’s lieutenant… and it was ready to kill.
“KNEW IT!” The Draconequus called out from where Boldur was as both of them got back on their feet.
“Leave no survivors.” The R-Dash 5000’s single visor glowed red, followed by a hailstorm of lasers fired at the group!
“Take cover!!” Thorn shouted as everyone began to scramble and not get burned by the projectiles scorching their way. An engine-like roar came, and the group gasped as they saw the robot flying with a jetpack sticking out of it's back.
“There is no use in hiding! Surrender and your deaths will be painless.”
“Okay, THAT’S just cheap!!!” Discord complained, causing the robot to solely target him this time around. “Uh oh…”
“Guys… Why do I have the feeling that whatever is going to happen next is really going to suck?” Shayne then asked, all before R-Dash accelerated towards Discord with blinding speed… “Oh sh-!”
However, just as it was about to close in, a faint sound was heard as it soon crashed to the ground. “Battery levels… depleted… shutting down-.” Everyone soon looked at each other in confusion, until Boldur decided to kick the bot in the face and send it flying into the wall.
“Boldur WINS again!!”
“Damn it! Forgot to add more batteries!” Rendain spoke over the links. “Oh, very well… better get back to the board for a new robot idea… oh wait, I won’t need it anyways… the warranty just expired anyways.” Just when the group was done fighting, Mellka soon spoke up over all of the noise.
“Well that takes care of that I guess… Boldur, where are we at with the experiment?”
“Patience little oak… Just a few more seconds and…” Boldur told them, before the center of the observatory was able to do something that seemed impossible. Create a makeshift Varelsi portal. “It worked? IT WORKED!! HAHAHA!!! ELDRID SCIENCE TRIUMPHS!!”
“Wow, we did it. Incredible…” Mellka and the other were completely surprised by the results of the test… now the only question was what to do next. “So… are we done? Are we out of here?”
“Patience, Mellka. Experiment may be complete, but experimental data cannot remain here. We must beam it off world…” He said before looking at the others and pointing his axe in the distance. “There is offsite communications relay. Please run one more errand for Boldur and assist him with sending glorious email… for SCIENCE!”
Rogue Chaos- The Experiment: That’s one big upload…
Shortly after the group began to depart and make it’s way to the offsite communications relay that was connected to the Amenine Observatory, Shayne had to speak up in response to what she and the others were already hearing in that present moment. “So let me get this straight… in order to get the data off Ekkunar, you need to head to a communications relay that’s almost a mile away from the main site?” She asked, looking at Kleese and Mellka before continuing to speak. “Am I the only one who thinks like this is just another step in a LONG chain of fetch quests?” It was then that she noticed Discord wearing an emerald tunic and a long familiar cap on his head while pretending to carry a certain sword and shield in his paws.
“We need the generator online to get that data out of here. Otherwise, the Jennerit can sabotage it and ruin everything.” Mellka pointed out to her as she switched communication channels to talk with the team on the ground. “Clear the station of those hostiles and then we can start the transfer once you’re ready.”
“Consider it done, my friends!” El Dragon declared, flying high into the air before body slamming onto the ground and smashing any machines underneath while Discord was performing a spinning attack before having his weapons disappear. He smirked, forming a bow in his paw as he began to fire a stream of arrows at his targets. Soon, they were able to clear out the relay of any Jennerit that posed a likely threat to the group as they soon heard Boldur triumphantly cheer for their victory over the comline.
“Yes!! This is perfect! New friends triumph over pathetic Jennerit babies!!!” The dwarf shouted, only for Nova to soon interrupt his rally cry a few moments later.
“More pathetic Jennerit babies en route to the comms relay.”
“Let them come! New friends will triumph again! They will be besieged by triumph!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!” Boldur laughed as everyone else at the station prepared for the incoming hostiles that were approaching their current position. Discord, however, pulled out a giant wrench.
“Buildin’ a sentry!” He said, slamming some metal on the floor, making a small sentry.
“Not quite what I had expected, but this is Discord we are talking about,” Kleese said, just as the first wave of hostiles began to drop down. The turret beeped and began to fire while Discord upgraded it… by whacking it with the oversized wrench. It fired much faster, and fired rockets, exploding everything it saw that wasn't them.
“Well, this is gonna be a breeze.” Thorn said to herself, firing another arrow into another Jennerit while the rest of the team was punching, blasting, or lighting enemies on fire.
“What shall we do with that robot?” El Dragon asked
“What do you mean?”
“NEW FRIEND!!!” Discord blurted.
“Hm… that may work.” Kleese spoke, smirking to himself a little in a menacing manner.
“What does that mean?” Ghalt asked.
“I’ve been working on a virus that will make the robots obey us and override their own circuitry. If it works, then that robot, R-Dash 5000 or whatever it’s name is, may be able to fight with us, and, more than likely, join Discord in another mission.” Kleese replied. “Not to mention we can erase any diabolical protocols Rendain had set up in order to make it hostile in the first place.”
“How is it that some of these robots can be built in the first place?” Shayne then asked. “Is it having to collect a bunch of spare parts and use some glue?”
“Are you out of your mind?” Kleese snapped, “It takes a hefty amount of science and engineering experience to create all the robots that are manufactured from Minion robotics… and sometimes glue.” All this caused Discord to do was snicker as everyone else got back to turning the remaining minions into scrap metal. But it wasn’t time for them to rest just yet. Mellka just informed them that the transfer was over the halfway mark and there was bound to be more jerks inbound.
Not to mention Boldur’s next comment was… unsettling. “Data Transfer is nearly complete! Boldur thanks you for suffering on his behalf!!”
“Grandfather, that is not-.” Thorn was going to say something, until one of the turrets that Discord had built began to open fire on some more of the Jennerit Troopers that just happened to land nearby… and be crushed by another doomsday meteor that Ambra had fall on their heads.
“Be thankful that I am releasing my anger on these heathens and NOT ON YOUR WRETCHED SKULL, YOU FILTHY F***ING DWARF-!!” She roared before stopping herself. “Oh my, that was rather unladylike of me.”
That only caused Discord to get out a personal notepad as he began to write something for him to remember. “Note to self… don’t disturb angry fire lady.” After putting the notepad away though was when another one of the robotics that landed on the ground destroyed the turret, causing him to fly backward. “Noo sentry!! You were too young to die!”
“Oh great, he’s mourning over that turret like it was his beard back at the sentinels temple-.” Kleese groaned, but all it did was cause Discord’s energy to flow around him, making the old genius say the first thing that came to mind. “What? They said it, not me.” That though caused a pair of magical claws to form around Discord’s paw and talon as he lashed out at the Jennerit and the robotic minions that they were fighting on the ground in an all out rampage that left broken weapon parts and scrap metal everywhere.
“NO ONE MAKES FUN OF MY AWESOME BEARD AND LIVES TO TELL THE TALE!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!?! NO ONE!!!” He roared, going on a wild rampage to destroy all the mechanical minions that stood before him while Thorn and El Dragon finished the last of the thrall that tried to attack the comms relay.
“Holy… I honestly did not expect that to happen-.” The comment however was interrupted by a smack to Kleese’s bald head. “Oww, what was that for!?”
“That was for making Discord angry… It may be good in some instances, but it puts a big drain on his combat capabilities after he unleashes his powers.” Shayne warned them, just as Discord soon fell asleep and used El Dragon’s crown as a portable bed.
“The high observatory just confirmed receipt of the experimental data!” Ghalt told the crew, shortly followed up by Mellka as she responded back to him.
“That’s good…"
“As well as sensor readings indicating some seriously nasty firepower heading your way.”
“That…… sucks. How the hell are we suppose to get out of here?” The Aelfrian asked, a little worried that they might’ve just wasted their lives in doing this for Boldur. That is… until Kleese spoke up and gave her some possible good news.
“If that machine of theirs generates portals, it can be rather swiftly repurposed as an EMP device. THAT can break the siege."
“Make the preparations,” Ghalt advised everyone, which also caused Discord to wake up from his power nap. “The rest of you get back to the observatory before reinforcements show up.”
“You heard him, my friends. Onward to greatness-!” El Dragon proclaimed, before he noticed that the young draconequus that was in his crown a few moments ago was now not there. “What the-? Where did he go?” He frantically scrambled for a few moments, until the entire team noticed that Discord had already made it back to the observatory, all while sporting a pair of awesome goggles.
“Domo arigato, SUCKAS!!”
“Oh that little-!” Thorn growled, speaking in a low tone before darting off towards the bounce pads to send the rest of them back to the observatory. That caused everyone else on the team to chase after the draconequus and make it back to the observatory faster than Kleese or any of the others expected. But now that everyone was back and they had some time to get ready, it was onto the first phase their escape plan.
“Everyone safely back at Amenine? Good. Now for the EMP…” The genius told them as Thorn prepared her bow and Boldur sharpened his axe. “Boldur, disengage the portal devices field inhibitors.”
“Boldur is doing the thing you said to do!!” Boldur shouted, before doing something that none of the team expected and smashed his axe into the field inhibitors. “Ah YES!! Inhibitors disengaged!!”
“Now we just need to let the device reach critical levels before we can initiate the discharge.” Kleese informed the team as Discord conjured Shayne’s boomerang and had his special jacket equipped as he placed the goggles he had found over his eyes.
“More Jennerit babies inbound! DEFEND PORTAL MACHINE AT ALL COSTS!!” The Dwarf yelled as several Jennerit aircraft began to release dozens of troops onto the battlefield along with a few Thrall Bonecrushers and even a Thrall Enforcer. Which of course didn’t seem that much of a challenge with the handful of turrets that the team had crafted earlier. It was their way of covering their bases to make sure that nothing could blindside them while they were defending one side of the observatory.
For Discord, using the conjured version of Shayne’s boomerang came in quite handy, especially since the boomerangs could bounce off of solid surfaces and hit opponents from unexpected angles. Which was a way for him to say that accuracy was overrated as he had help from El Dragon and the Smooze protect the right side of the observatory while Ambra and Thorn covered the left alongside Boldur. After a few minutes of clearing everything out, the whole team got a very brief break… until the sound of something else tearing open the fabric of space-time to hunt them down soon spawned behind them.
“Ehh… New friends?” Boldur spoke up in order to catch everyone’s attention. “Varelsi portals are opening up everywhere… It is like HORROR JAMBOREE!! WHEN WILL SCIENCE SAVE US!?!”
“The EMP’s still charging. Don’t let them near it while it finished up, we’re almost through this!!” Discord jumped ahead of the group, now wearing a gray coat, a pointy hat, and held a staff in his paw.
“YOU SHALL NOT… PASS!!!” He yelled, slamming the bottom of the staff to the floor. A huge explosion came, blowing all of the Varelsi back into their portals, and blowing the portals into space. This turned out to be super effective… for only ten seconds. “I SAID… You shall NOT PA-!” Before he could do it again though, a blast from a Varelsi Marksman smacked him in the head and also disintegrated his staff. Discord looked at his staff, felt his head, then turned to the marksman. He lifted the staff and whacked the marksman‘s head, effectively knocking him out. “Never mess with a wizard.”
“Since when did you decide to be a wizard!?” Kleese snapped, confused by what Discord was saying.
“...I don’t know… I kinda feel… funny with this on. It’s like I was once a powerful wizard in a past life… that, or if feels comfortable in these robes.” He fell to the floor and cuddled with the robes. “Oo~h… so soft…”
Shayne just sighed on the other end of the mic alongside Mellka as Kleese groaned a little. Until a notification on the dashboard for the ship alerted him of something important. “Portal device is nearly at maximum energy throughput… Oh I hope this works.”
Nevertheless, both Mellka and Discord reacted in the exact same way. “Hope? You mean you don’t KNOW that this will work!?!”
“Don’t know how you got THAT impression,” Kleese grumbled as he was heard over the comline pressing a few keys. “Anyways, I’m initiating the discharge in three…… Two…… AHHHH!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?!!”
“IT’S BACK!!!” Discord screamed, pulling out a mix between Benedict's rocket launcher and Montana’s machine gun. “DIE YOU MOTHA F**KA!!!”
“Language!!!” Ghalt yelled. “You kiss your mother with that mouth, Discord?”
“I’m RIGHT here!!” Shayne snapped.
“...I never kissed mommy.” Discord spoke in a sudden still & down tone. He lifted his mixed weapons and fired at the conservator. “I’LL LIVE FOR THE KISSES!!!”
“Kleese, the EMP. NOW!!!” Mellka shouted, only to hear some very bad news from the genius a few moments later.
“I CAN’T!! The Conservator’s locked down the whole observatory! You must kill it. QUICKLY!!”
“Boldur was just going to suggest that!! RRRRRAAAAGGGHHH!!!” The Dwarf said before releasing a screeching warcry as he charged into the fray. Discord, however, teleported behind him and carried Boldur.
“Go, smelly midget! Bring us another victory!!!”
“I’m not a midget! And I don’t smell that bad!” Boldur shouted as he tossed his axe at the conservator.
“That’s a lie. SHOT PUT!!!” He threw Boldur at the Conservator like a shot ball.
“OWW! Boldur's not a toy!!” Boldur shouted back while everyone else was attacking the Conservator. At one point though, when the Dwarf threw his axe into the air, Discord was able to land a critical blow by teleporting himself into the air, catching the axe that was thrown, and slamming it on the conservator’s head as it disintegrated before their very eyes.
“Alright, it’s dead! And we got control back!! Boldur, discharge the EMP now!!” Mellka shouted to the dwarf as he pulled his axe out of the ground and ran over to the machine.
“Boldur smashes all the buttons!!” This was followed by the axe of the dwarf smashing into the console as it set off a bright flash of light and caused a massive discharge of electromagnetic energy as it sent all the Jennerit ships in the sky crashing down to the ground.
“Did it work? Did we do it?” The Aelfrian Eldrid on the other end of the comline asked, only to hear Boldur’s triumphant laughter shortly afterwards.
“BWAHAHAHAHA!!! THE ELDRID TRIUMPH…… for once. And IT IS ALL THANKS TO BOLDUR!!” He declared before continuing his laughter shortly afterwards.
“Boldur… it’s… ugh, you know what? Yes… All thanks to Boldur,” She sarcastically groaned before turning her attention to Ghalt. “Ghalt, they’re out of the woods. Ready for extraction.”
“Nice work Mell. We’re done here!”
“And I have a toy!” Discord exclaimed, dragging the R-Dash 5000’s ‘corpse’ with him. “But he needs new batteries.”
“Uhh… I think that’s suppose to be a she, Discord.” Thorn mentioned.
“Then why did it have a guy’s voice?”
“I’ll tell you why… Defective programming!! Rendain is a general, not an engineer. You can’t just put a whole bunch of random parts together to make a machine and hope for the best. ROBOTICS DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT!!!” Kleese shouted before clearing his throat.
“...Are you okay, gramps?” Shayne asked “Need some water?”
Shortly after returning from the Amenine observatory; Ghalt, Deande, Mellka, Kleese and Reyna were already working on trying to figure out what their next move would be against Rendain. The last few times, they have been having to defend themselves against the Lothar’s assaults as well as stop him from gaining control of various weapons that could wipe the Battleborn off of the map. Now though, any form of news that would help them cripple Rendain’s operations would be the most beneficial.
It was then that Deande had handed something to Kleese… and caused him to smirk with a menacing grin. “Oh this would do just nicely.”
“What is it, Kleese?” Mellka then asked.
“Well, according to this…” Kleese said as he had a small map of Tempest be pulled up from a datapad. “One of Deande’s spies had located a Jennerit energy refinery… with a HILARIOUS staffing problem,” It was around then that he turned to the monitor and then said something that got the Magnus AI that was there really excited. “Nova, we got a job for you.”
“Ooh! Oooh!! Are you going to put me in the robot suit? Are you!?” She asked, before repeating herself. “Kleese, robot suit, Kleese…”
“No, we’re going to digitally upload you into a network that you will hack.” Kleese clarified, only causing Nova to sigh deeply as she groaned again.
“I guess that can be fun too…”
“Funny that you mention that,” Reyna told the others as she spoke up. “I had one of the newest members of the Rogues do some recon on tempest while everyone else was helping out at Amenine.”
“Should I even ask?” Ghalt questioned as Reyna sighed.
“Well, let’s say it’s the reason why Kleese doesn’t like Reptiles.”
“Snakes… why did it have to be snakes!?!” The genius groaned before looking up for a moment. “Hey, on a side note, where’s Discord?”
“Last I checked, he was doing some training in the simulation room with Orendi… I’m not sure if that is going to end well though.” Mellka said, looking at Reyna. “Should we check on them?”
“Ehh, they’re probably doing something to kill time. But if you say so…” Kleese replied, activating something on the hologrid in order to see the events that were taking place… only to be baffled by what exactly she was seeing. It looked like a 13 year old girl was with the two of them… and she just blew up a psychotic murderer with a set of dynamite.
“Care for some tea, Lord of Chaos?” The girl asked, “Along with your business partner, Sir Reginald?”
“Of course, Mistress Tina,” Discord answered, levitating and taking his own tea cup. “Aunt Orendi and I love these meeting, Tina, even if you are a stored A.I. that sadly perished with Pandora those many years ago.”
“As long as I’m with my friends and crumpets, I’m A-okay!”
“... Wait, did he just say Pandora?” Ghalt asked, causing the others to look back at him in confusion.
“You know about that place, Captain?”
“Heard about it, but have never been there myself since it darkened a long time ago. From what I recall though, the Peacekeepers wanted to assist with keeping the peace on the planet, but the problem was that multiple different corporations were tearing apart the planet to go at each other’s throats. They also said that the place was filled with psychos-.”
“Now it’s time for the guest of honor!!” They heard Tina declare, causing everyone to look back at the simulation. “Madam Orendi, can you please wake up Mr. Sparks for me?”
“WAKE UP, MR. SPARKS!!!” She yelled, banging on a generator. A box appeared in at the end of the table, and tied up was a midget with two mohawks and wearing a mask. He laughed maniacally, despite being tied up.
“When you’re ready to start the party, please smack Mister Flesh-Stick in his b*tch face.”
“Yes ma’am!” Discord agreed, slapping the midget with a glove.
“Ooh! I forgot to mention, but I’m bringing some of his friends over.” Tiny Tina then mentioned to them as they heard numerous noises from outside. “Can you make sure they’re not being too distracting and prevent them from DESTROYING the Generator?”
“I’m on it!” He snapped his talon and two exact copies of him appeared next to him. “You go and make sure his friends have fun. And you stay with Mr. Sparks!”
“Yes, sir!” the first clone spoke, putting on a top hat and pulling out a sniper rifle.
“Right away!” the other added, putting on an engineer suit.
“... Did Discord hack the security?” Ghalt asked.
“My God… he cloned himself! They're all equally and fully Discord! He can fully multitask without a lot of distractions!”
“Wait… can we make a clone army of him?”
“Hmm… I don't think so. Maybe there's a limit. Each clone, as I'm reading, aren't as strong as one, but who the hell knows!” Kleese threw up his hands in the air, looking back at everyone else. “Let’s watch and see how much of a badass he is from the day we first saw him.”
They all watched as multiple psychos and various members of some gang charged to the cave entrance. The Gentleman looking Discord pulled out two matching pistols.
“It's high noon.” The clone spoke in a deep southern accent. In rapid speed, the clone shot down the first wave of bandits. Though, a couple passed by him. In the cave, the other clone made more sentries while singing about building sentries. The built sentries fired missiles at the oncoming bandits, leaving only pools of blood and limbs behind. The real Discord, meanwhile, spoke with a rabbit toy named ‘Fluffy Butt.’
“So… with do you think about the presidential election of 2016?” He asked.
“... Fluffy Butt still has nightmares.” Tina replied.
“What kind of nightmares? Where you choose between a crazy businessman with little hands and a lady with a worse track record than M. Night Shyamalan?”
“First one, then the other.” The little girl replied. “What do you have to say, Flesh Stick?”
“I'M GONNA EAT YOUR FACES!!!” The psycho yelled before being shocked by "Mr. Sparks".
“... He must've loved the Zodiac killer, Ted Cruz. But that's better than Sir Reginald’s vote… f***ing racist.” A doorbell was heard. “Ooh! Our other guests are here!”
“More!?” Orendi asked, spilling tea into her red eye, making it purple. Tina skipped and opened the door above some ice. In came a tall, white equine with a long horn & wings, wore a golden crown, necklace, & boots, had a sun on both of it’s flanks, and it’s blue-green-pale blue-and purple mane & tail seemingly flowed with no wind around. The next came in was a smaller, butter yellow winged equine with a long pink mane & tail with butterflies on it’s flanks.
“Welcome, Princess Sunbutt and Scaredy cat! You’re the other guest of honor to the not so guest of honor.”
Discord stared… followed by some images thrown into his eyes.
The machine blared loudly.
“What’s happening!?” Ghalt ordered.
“The computer has examined Discord’s subconscious!” Kleese answered, just as Shayne and Aurox walked into the room. “Apparently, these two are close to him… and, if I’m not mistaking, he may have a crush on.”
“...Whiskey!!!” Shayne yelled.
“I didn’t do anything!!!” Whiskey shouted back from his room.
Sunbutt and Scardy Cat took their seats, both next to Discord. The draconequus began to hyperventilate, and Tina didn’t help as she whispered to his ears.
“Look at them glutes!” She said. “They’re so soft, ain’t they? Sunbutt’s could work as a bed if you wanted! And Scardy cat’s looks like a soft pillow! They good, ain’t they? If you want them… you gotta make your move… show them what you got… prove how you want them... both, or just one, it doesn’t matter to me.” Discord couldn’t help but stare at them. He felt his heart bumping harder than ever, sweat rolling down his head, how everything seemingly went slow motion, and his wings, both bird & bat wing, started to stick up and-.
“AHH!!! WINGBONER!!!” Orendi yelled. Discord turned to see his wings sticking right out like sore thumbs, both hard. He squeaked, blushed, and hid himself. His clones appeared next to him, and took him out, putting him in a suit.
“Don’t be afraid, boss.” The engineer-cord spoke “You’re gonna kill it!”
“And we’re gonna kill them!” The Shooter-cord spoke, firing and killing a psycho just inches from touching the generator with a headshot. “Ooh! Better yet!” He teleported away and returned with a bunch of tied up bandits, all with instruments.”Now knock them down!”
“...Thanks me!” Real Discord spoke, blushing. He snapped his talon, and he with the two equines disappeared.
“Where did he go!?” Shayne demanded.
“...He made himself a new program!” Kleese exclaimed. “Two, in fact! Both the same, exact, and Disco themed! Hm… and he copied himself again, this time, one with sunbutt, and the other with scaredy cat in their own Disco room. I did not know he was into horses.” Shayne slapped the back of his head in response, causing the old timer to flinch again.
“Oww! What the hell-?”
“You’re getting carried away… now, I needed to ask you something… That R-Dash 5000 Discord and the others brought back, are the repairs completed?”
“That robot was barely damaged! The batteries… yeesh! You might as well have it plugged to an automotive nuclear power plant. But, yes, it’s fixed, though I wouldn’t recommend turning it on, since, you know, it might kill us.”
“So it’s physically ready, but mentally… not so much?” Ghalt asked.
“Let’s just say that when Kleese tried to turn it on, R-Dash’s first words were ‘Thank you. I will now attempt to murder you’.” Nova interjected, despite Kleese trying to tell her to shush, spattering in a repetitive ticking sound. “If you are trying to speak morse code, Kleese, then you are doing a terrible job at it.”
“Well how the hell are we going to get this thing working, then? Unless someone has a bright idea, then we might as well put Nova into it.”
“Well… think about it… How do you think we got Sweetie Bot?” Ghalt then stated, causing Kleese’s eyes to go wide for a few moments.
“You aren’t suggesting what I think you are… are you?”
All Ghalt could do was nod his head as he looked back at Shayne, “Yes I am… Discord is going to have to make a return visit to MINREC.” He then looked at the simulation, just as Discord was finishing up with the task Tina gave him as she looked at Orendi and Discord.
“Well, I say the hour draws near. I believe it’s time for Flesh-Stick to bid us ado.”
“And as fun as it was with you, Discord,” Sunbutt spoke in a motherly tone. “But, sorry to say, but I have a boyfriend.” The system crashed, followed by a black ‘Game Over’ screen, and Discord screaming. Discord literally busted out of the computer, tears falling from his eyes, and hugged Shayne.
“MY WAIFU!!! WHY!?!?!? WHY!?!?!?!?"
“Wow… That was… unusual… Hey, where’s Orendi-?”
“THIRD DEGREE BURNS ARE HOW I SHOW AFFECTION!!!” They heard the Vampimorph scream from down the hall, which answered their question immediately.
“Right… Discord, can we talk to you for a moment. We may need your help with something,” Ghalt asked as he walked on over to where Shayne was, the teen getting up as Discord was still clinging onto her shoulders, still crying.
“I need some love! Sunbutt! We could’ve been partners, even rule the galaxy as husband and wife!” Shayne patted him on the head, calming him down and reminding him that it was just a simulation as he tried to wipe the tears from his face.
“Anyways… Discord?” Ghalt asked, finally catching his attention. “We’re going to need some help with getting R-Dash 5000 back up. Seeing as you were able to get Sweetie Bot online with MINREC, maybe there was a way for you to do the same with this one.” Discord blinked.
“Why not put the computer lady inside the man-woman bot?” He asked.
“THANK YOU!!!” Nova exclaimed.
“Without her, we can’t fly the ship and we would plummet straight to the ground. Also, Nova is the heart and brains of all our communications… without it, we can’t recieve word from our allies.” Ghalt explained.
“But I can take out my heart and I’m just fine.” Discord said, pulling something out of his chest as it was beating in his paw, almost causing Ghalt to feel sick in the process. “And I'm certain the authors will find a way!”
“... Authors?” Shayne asked.
“The two guys writing this, even our dialogue!” Everyone froze and remained silent.
“Hm… it appears he may be seeing past dimensions now.” Caldarius examined from the back of the room while his assault frame was recharging. “Perhaps another thing Draconequi are good at?”
“Nope! Just me! I remember seeing the readers just as this chapter started! And might I say, you're all good looking.”
“As nice as that may sound, I think we are straying from the original topic.” Mellka spoke up, looking at Discord. “And furthermore, you are talking to a box of cheerios.”
“To you, but this is a camera and the point of view on how the reader is seeing us if this becomes a video series! And the next shot is with that spider in the corner!”
“... Okay, now… Let me make this simple… the sooner we get R-Dash 5000 operational, the sooner you and your… family are going on a special mission, Discord.” Nova said, looking back at the little guy before noticing that he wasn’t there. “Okay, where did he go-?” That question was soon answered as they saw him shouting out loud and holding a wrench like it was a hammer.
“I AM THE GREATEST ENGINEER ALIVE!!!” He announced. “... And Gearbox just got an extra grand. Your welcome!”
“Alright, come here!” Shayne spoke, picking up Discord. “I don't know what's going on with you, but it has to stop!”
“But I can't! They're watching me unless we cut to a new scene.” That was until Shayne held him over and began to speak something that caused his eyes to start being sleepy.
“Soft kitty, warm kitty… little ball of fur… Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, pur pur pur…” That soon had Discord out like a light, followed by her giving the most vicious glare at Kleese and the others. “You tell anyone about this and I’m letting Aurox have a field day with all of you.” A note appeared onto her face. She took it off and read it to herself.
“Including the audience?”
“Well, on that note, I think we made one point clear.” Kleese said, looking at everyone. “We are all tired to the point that we might as well be brain dead! Get some rest!! I’ll have Nova and I configure R-Dash 5000 while Reyna and the others are out on tomorrow’s mission.” Shayne nodded her head as everyone left the meeting room. But upon setting down Discord in her room was when she had noticed that the Draconequus had grown a lot in a little period of time. He was no longer just a youngling anymore, at least, not as small. He grew a foot long, and he was much more slender than before, with his talons looking a bit sharper and not being as ‘poofy’ as he was. Surprisingly, his beard grew a couple of inches, though his hair seemed to be getting shorter; He may go bald when he reaches his adult years.
However, as Shayne began to lie down and drift to sleep, something in her dreams began to irritate her with each passing moment. Voices that did not make sense as the teen found himself in a void like plane similar to the one the Varelsi Conservator created on Bliss. But the voices this time… were different.
“That's what friends do.” A gentle sounding woman spoke, the same one from the void the last time around. However, even if the voice was familiar, the teen could not tell who it was unless she had two things. A name and a face. Since it was way easier for her to put those two together than anything else.
“My sweet, little, Dissie… what's wrong, my child?” Another motherly sounding voice asked, but with a little more secretive tone to it. Followed by something a little more demanding.
“Discord! You are forever banished!” An authoritative sounding man yelled, followed by the banging of a gavel.
“He's no son of mine! He's a runt!” a demanding father sounding voice shouted in anger.
“Mommy!!! A monster!!!” She heard Discord scream, causing Shayne to look around and see if he was somehow in this void as well… only to be unsuccessful in her attempts.
“Discord, where are you?” She shouted, only to hear more voices echo throughout the void.
“Discord!? More like ‘Missed-a-cord’!” A bully sounding voice came.
“You are an embarrassment to your family, and our kind.” A wise, sounding voice added.
“THOUEST WILL STOP THY HEINOUS ACTS!!” An authorative and royal sounding voice boomed.
“Go back to the freak show!” a gruff voice yelled.
“Stop this, or else!” a royal, but kind sounding voice came… one that matched Sunbutt’s from the simulation.
“Discord!!!” Shayne yelled. “Show yourself!!! This makes no sense!” A disturbing and frightening chuckle erupted.
“Making sense?” the voice, the male voice from the void asked. “What fun is there in making sense?” Another voice then shouted, causing Shayne to want to retaliate and scream for the voices to shut up.
“YOU'RE WORTHLESS!!! THE DIRT IN MY BOOTS ARE BETTER THAN YOU!!! YOU THINK YOU CAN BE AS GREAT AS YOU'RE FAMILY!? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH, YOU SMALL, STUPID, PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A STUDENT!!!”
The sound of Discord screaming loudly, and various objects being destroyed boomed in the darkness. Then, silence… only the sound of Discord crying could be heard. A Beacon of light was seen, and Discord himself sat in the middle, balled up, and crying. All around him was destruction...not ones from a fight with someone, but just destruction littered like trash.
“Monster.” He whimpered to himself. “Just a monster…”
Shayne wanted to say something… Tell him otherwise… But she could barely hear Discord over the voices that clouded her head… she had to make them stop… She needed to make them stop.
“Shut UP!!! YOU ASS***** DON’T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT DISCORD AND I DON’T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT HIM. HE IS MY SON AND I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS BS FROM ANY OF YOU!!!” She ran to him, though the voices kept going on. An orange like aura flowed around them as she tried to comfort Discord. With one last scream from her, the voices stopped and everything… changed. She was back in the void now… just by herself… but felt as if something was behind her.
And the clapping that she was hearing was not helping her.
“My, my, that was quite the show.” Rendain’s voice spoke. “A mother fending for her adopted abomination? How touching. It's a shame that I still know more about him than, even with your pea brains combined.”
“You dare talk about him like that again and I promise that I will let Aurox tear you apart, limb from f***ing limb when that time comes.” Shayne snarled. She had nothing here to actually fight against the lothar except for her words. But even then, all Rendain saw that as was just petty threats.
“It’s so cute to think that you could actually stop me… Solus will fall-.” It was then though that there was a light pulsing from the teen that caused Rendain to cover his own eyes in the process. “What the-? H-how the hell-!?!” Not before long though was when Rendain was actually pushed back and the scene around Shayne changed. It was a different void now. Almost like a long expansive grid from one of those old computer movies. But it was when Shayne turned around that she heard a new voice, saw a new face, and had everything she knew about the Draconqui immediately crash and burn.
“Sorry about that, my dear but I hate it when I have unannounced visitors come into a place like this…” The figure… was a draconequus. But it was a lot taller, smoother, lighter in colors, and more feminine in nature. She had a full head of grey hair and had her arms folded across her chest.
“Who… are you?” Shayne asked, confused by this figure.
“I'm your son’s real mother. The one who not only gave birth to him, but raised him, nurtured him, and was with him eons ago, right around when your great grandfather to the 16th power gave the liberty bell it's Crack. I'm Eris, and my son's on your face.”
“...Wha-?”
Poof!
It was then that Shayne snapped her eyes open and found herself awake, only to see that Discord was on her face, wide awake himself.
“... Your hair smells like bacon!” He spoke. Shayne smiled a little, rubbing his head as he helped her get up and off of the floor.
“T-thanks for telling me that, kiddo…” She groaned. “I’m really going to need some coffee…”
“And less bacon.” Shayne smirked, looking back at him as she now noticed that Discord was standing on his back legs instead of all fours.
“Hey, kiddo… You’ve grown quite a bit recently.” The teen mentioned while the two of them walked into the kitchen for breakfast.
“It's the horrors of puberty.” his voice got deeper. “Ooh! I'm sounding like John De Lancie!” Shayne just chuckled, not focusing on that as she started the coffee maker. Only to then say something to her.
“Yeah… so Discord… there’s something I need to tell you about our next mission… I wanted to make sure and tell you this so you knew what was going on today okay?” She said, but before she could tell him where they were going, he named numerous scenarios off the top of his head.
“Are we rescuing a prisoner?! Saving hostages!? OOH OOH I got it! The hardest mission in the game!!!” Shayne did not understand the last part, but chuckled to see that Discord was being humorous.
“Possibly… We’re helping Nova sabotage a Jennerit Energy refinery on Tempest. Reyna already said she has a team member on the ground and scouting the place, so you, me, Toby and Sweetie Bot are going to help make sure we help protect Nova while she does her work.” Just as she said that, the teen could hear the Magnus AI chanting to herself and sounding a lot more… vocal than how she normally would be.
Shortly after getting breakfast and rounding out the team that was needed for today’s mission, Discord and Shayne were dropped off at a landing platform for the energy refinery on Tempest that they needed to be infiltrated. Along with the two of them, Toby and Sweetie Bot were on the mission too and before they could start with the mission, there were two things they needed to do. First things first was rendevous with the fifth team member that was already on site and waiting on them. The second was to take Nova to the vulnerable terminal not far from their location and have her infiltrate the refinery’s network. Which of course, made the AI really excited because out of all the times that she had assisted the group, she had never been outside the actual ship. Meaning that right now, she was finally able to have a small dose of the best thing in the world to her… Freedom.
“A vulnerable terminal can be found not far from your location,” She informed the group as the ship dropping them off began to depart. “Bring me to it and I can kick the door in… literally speaking… you know, since I don’t have any legs… and I’m a Magnus… Anyways, go or whatever!”
“You heard her, let’s get going.” Shayne spoke up as the group began to fight off the first group of thrall that they encountered before splitting into two groups of two Battleborn each. The building that had the Terminal had two standard points of entry. One main entrance and a conveyor belt that led to the large opening inside. It was mostly used to guide any starshard clusters that the Jennerit got their hands on to the grinders that would tear them apart, but it right now served as a perfect opportunity to have the team attack the guards inside on two fronts.
With Sweetie Bot and Toby being one group and Discord being with Shayne and Aurox, the group began to proceed. As they were beginning to climb up, Kleese asked what he thought of as an… honest question. “Is it really an away mission if you aren’t technically outside?”
“Wow… Kleese… That’s real nice.” Mellka shot back at him.
“Honest question…”
“I have yet to feel the grass through my feet and the wind in my hair… but I guess this will be nice too.” Nova commented in response to the both of them as Deande had told the group to work on capturing the station so they could put Nova in the network.
“And why isn't she in the R-Dash 5000!?” Discord demanded. “We brought it in due to the nostalgia of the Pony. MOV series, and it's still functional. Come on authors! Let Nova Pew-Pew everywhere! Stop teasing the readers like EVERY superhero film nowadays.”
“That may be true to some degree, but for her to be in the network, she must be uploaded and installed into the terminal. She can’t do that while inside a walking death machine.”
“Yeah, because I’M the one with the walking death machine!” Toby snapped, setting out a forcefield before he amplified his railgun shots by firing through it to hit an arc mine he set out next to some unaware guards while Discord took out a black revolver with a star on it and aimed it at some other foes as it started to unleash a barrage of bullet sized rockets.
“EXPLOSION NOISE!!” Discord cried out in a rampage. All of them soon thought that they cleared out the room… until one of them lunged at the Draconequus from behind.
“Discord-!” Shayne cried out. However, just as he turned around, they all heard the sound of something slashing through the back of the Jennerit’s body as the thrall fell to the ground and someone else faded into view.
“Cheer up mate,” The creature, which was snake like by appearance. “You’ve been assassinated by the best.” Thats when he turned to look at the others to greet them. “Why hello there comrades, the name’s Pendles. Head assassin and the founder of Executive Executions at your service.”
“...... This guy is the one Reyna sent us to meet?” Shayne questioned.
“Ooh! DLC character!” Discord shouted, pulling out a magnifying and observed, giving himself Pendles’ accent “And with an Australian accent? How peculiar. But sorry, there's already one snake-character in this fic, and that's me!” The fluff at the end of his tail snapped like a hand, conjuring up a newspaper, to which He rolled it with his paw and whacked the head of the snake. “Now get out! Bad Snake! Bad! You’re copyrighted!... Ooh! A link to a Jontron clip!” Shayne lifted the Draconequis away from Pendles, though took a deep breath from how heavy Discord now was.
“Oof! You need to lay off that chocolate milk!” She said.
“Pfft! I’ll only do that when I get… oh, really? You want me to say that!? No! I’m not saying that, but rather… ahem… Let’s drop in on a Grommet!”
“Technically speaking Discord, you almost resemble a dragon…” Kleese spoke up over the madness. “In fact, despite the differences, Oscar Mike and Whiskey Foxtrot are almost similar. Just with different equipment and a different psych profile.”
“HEY!! I don’t like being compared to that ass**** Mike!”
“Yeah, what he said!” Oscar Mike proclaimed after Whiskey’s loud outburst. “Wait, did I just insult myself?”
“Foxtrot: 1… Mike: 0.” Whiskey was heard snickering over the mic before someone else on the ground spoke up. That someone being Toby.
“Hey… uh, should I be worried that your second Kama has a skull on it. Matter of fact, why does it look similar to Benedict?”
“Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time… However, I think now isn’t the appropriate time for stories.” Pendles advised them, pointing to the terminal that they needed to upload Nova into.
“Thank you for clearing out those guards… Now please, get me in that terminal. Now! Do it, now! Why haven’t you done it yet? Do it, now!!”
“I agree with Nova on that. Besides, the authors would want to focus on the backstory and dialogue when we aren’t doing something… I don’t know… important.” Discord reminded them as he dismissed the weapon he was previously using. Shayne rolled her eyes as she walked up to the terminal and held up a storage device she was using to hold onto Nova so they could upload her inside.
“Stand by, we’re about to upload the Magnus into the refinery network.” Deande told them shortly before Nova interjected. “WOO!!! AWAY MISSION!! ……… Say, aren’t those hostiles?”
“Roll credits!” Discord spoke.
“Oh come on! Give me a break already!!” Shayne snapped.
“What would you like broken, Missy?”
“I was BEING SARCASTIC!”
“Defend the Terminal while we upload the magnus!” Deande then hollered over the sound of everyone’s bickering before Nova interjected again. “Yeah, because if I die, all of you are screwed.”
“Let’s lock and load everyone!” Toby yelled, just as Disord reappeared on top of his Mech.
“We’re goin’ in hard! Strap in!” He spoke, putting on a golden helmet, followed by him pulling out a tiny gun. It fired rapidly, though there was no aim, and he began spewing random things. Luckily, the bullets were ricocheting off of nearby surfaces as they hit their mark on the incoming hostiles, which was helpful for when Pendles needed to keep himself invisible with a smoke bomb and attack enemies from behind. Sweetie Bot and Toby were working together to team up and defend the terminal while Shayne & Aurox, Pendles, and Discord spread out as they got what they thought were the last of them… until they heard Kleese speak up.
“We’re halfway through the upload, but get ready… You got more jerks inbound.”
“Well, at least that’s progress.” Shayne sighed, before Aurox tapped her on the head. “What is is, big guy?” Her question was answered once he pointed at Discord, who now had a mask similar to the one on the head of the Tiny Tina girl from the simulation. Just with a makeshift buzzsaw axe and saying the weirdest… and craziest of sayings as he began to savagely attack the incoming thrall and enjoy the carnage.
“I AM THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN!!!”
“…… I think he’s been spending too much time with Orendi.”
“What was your first guess?” Aurox sarcastically grunted, before noticing the doors at the other end of the room open up and a different thrall with a weird backpack like contraption on it’s back. “Oh hey, that guy looks important.”
“BOSS FIGHT TIME!!!” Discord chanted, ditching the axe and mask for an assault rifle Oscar Mike would use. “Who's the boss this time?”
“Looks to be the supervisor for this part of the facility,” Kleese said just as that thrall threw out what was on it’s back as it turned into a flying contraption that was setting out mines. “That thing is crapping out mines all over the place. Someone should… I don’t know, do something about it… DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!” An anvil fell onto its head.
“... That was easy.” Discord spoke.
“That was the mine bot, Discord. Quite goofing off! That guy can easily bring out another one if-.” Kleese’s rambling was interrupted when the sounds of a piano soon dropped on the Thrall supervisor’s head. “...... I stand corrected.”
“Cartoon logic is fun! Now we just need a dancing frog with a top hat!”
All that got was a facesmack from Toby across his beak as he focused on more… important priorities. “H-how are you doing in there Ms. Nova? Are you okay?”
“I’m more than okay Toby… I am free…” She said. “I’m flying through the netspace WITH THE WINGS OF FREEDOM!!! I’m also playing solitaire… doing pretty good too. So to summarize, I’m all up in this system fellas!”
“Riiiight,” Mellka droned for a moment before the Eldrid spoke to the group. “Now that we have Nova in the network, you guys can head to the core and trigger the meltdown of the facility together.”
“Like a team! Doing teamwork!!” Nova cheered… until Kleese interrupted her.
“You do realize this technically qualifies as terrorism, don’t you?”
“Hmmmhmmhmm… Teamwork…” Nova deadpanned as the team made their way up the elevator and continued to press on. However, just as Discord reached the main door that led to the core of the refinery, the doors slammed shut right in his face as they heard a new voice on the loudspeaker.
“My fault,” Nova immediately proclaimed, causing Aurox to facepalm himself while Shayne and Discord groaned. “Turns out ‘password’ wasn’t really the password… wait, I know!! …… Password12345. Damn! These guys are good!”
“Hey! They took that from Spaceballs!” Discord yelled “Let John Candy rest in peace!”
“Damn it… This place is locked down tight… How are we going to get to the core now?” Mellka then asked.
“We hit the manual override… there should be a control console nearby to activate it. Nova, can you meet them there?”
“Well, I was really enjoying spending my time exploring the digital frontier but… ehh fine.” Nova said, sounding not amused by the sudden change of plans as the group cut through the guards and made it outside to the jump pads.
“Up, up and away!!” Discord cheered… However, some of the others weren’t so fond of the leap of fate.
“Oh BLOODY HELL-!!”
“Stop enjoying this, Aurox!!”
“Please stick the landing!!!” Fortunately enough, all of them were able to shrug it off with minor injuries… If you consider those injuries being to ones confidence or self esteem… But around now was when the group got a new welcoming committee… In the form of Varelsi. Something Nova seemed to be completely oblivious too.
“That vulnerable terminal inside can help me initiate the override sequence. Prepare yourselves and watch as I attempt to HACK THE PLANET!!”
“ …… Should I be worried about this?” Shayne then asked, only to hear Toby snap.
“Aww FREAKING LOCKED DOORS!!! Oh uhh… L-let’s just find the power source and blow it up right guys… Hehe, guys?” Before anyone could say anything, Discord pulled out a detonator.
“Or, to get this chapter over quickly, we do it my way.” He suggested.
“Your way isn’t quite always the best way… plus, we would need the shards to power up any gear we have equipped… or if you want to build any turrets or drones.”
“And now you sound like a tutorial…” Discord groaned at what Kleese said. “Give me one good reason why we should do it this way instead of mine?”
Shortly after finding the locations of the two shard clusters that were powering the gate and destroying them, the door that blocked their path soon dropped down and out of the way. The sudden opening though startled all of the Jennerit Thrall that were standing guard inside the terminal room, causing the brutes inside to issue commands to the lower rank thrall as they charged in a head on swarm.
“Well, here comes the welcome committee,” Shayne smirked. Instead of attacking though, she looked towards the draconequus that landed on her shoulder and then posed a question. “Got any tricks up your sleeves that can take these guys out quickly Discord? We don’t want to keep Nova waiting.”
“Pfft! Too easy.” He snapped his claw and teleported away. The Thrall stopped their charge, grabbed their butts and ran to the nearest restroom, (and MrAquino and I did NOT get a new Lamborghini). Discord returned in another flash, wearing an Aztec headdress. “There we go. The classic Montezuma’s revenge.”
“… Is this normal with him?” Pendles asked, personally disappointed that he didn’t get the chance to kill any of them.
“Honestly, you would not even believe the kind of things that he could do… even if we told you,” Toby replied, looking back at them. “Shouldn’t we be… well… taking them out? I mean, it won’t be long until those guys come ba-. Aww crap, I jinxed it.” The penguin was right and when he said that, the Jennerit were coming back… and firing at Discord now.
“Deploying force field!”
“Activating missile cannons!” Sweetie Bot called out as her weapons took aim and fired at the new targets.
“Cuing the theme song!”
That was when Shayne and Aurox turned to Discord the moment he said that. “Wait, we have a theme song?”
“Why of course we do! It’s the reason why things don’t get so boring around here!!” Discord insisted, conjuring a beatbox as an old rock song began to play. “Hit it!!” They charged with the music blasting.
“Hey, this ain't half bad!” Pendles commented “Where did you find it?”
“Internet. And in Oscar Mike’s room, next to his plushie of Rainbow Dash.”
“MY ROOM IS PRIVATE!!!” They heard the clone yell over the mic. “Well, except for Montana since we’re buddies… and Thorn, since she and Montana do book club… Whatever, YOU DON’T GO INTO ANOTHER MAN’S ROOM WITHOUT ASKING PERMISSION FIRST!!”
“What are you yelling for?” Montana asked “Aren't you ready for the Panty Raid tonight?”
“Discord went into my room without permission! No one goes into my room! Especially when I need my alone time.” The clone said… catching the attention of one particular rogue in general.
“... You have Rainbow Dash?” Whisky asked, seemingly drinking something from the bottle.
“Whiskey part 2, Whiskey’s dramatic discovery…” They heard Orendi slyly whisper over the comline before whispering something else. “... and action!”
“This may be fun and all, but don’t we have… like, a job to do?” Nova then spoke up before being interrupted by Orendi.
“QUIET ON THE SET!!! I SAID QUIET!!!!” Orendi shouted before the comline switched on the group.
“DITTO!!!” Discord added, munching on popcorn while the music was still playing.
“Yeah, we’ll leave them to their own shenanigans. Sorry, had to take a while to come up with a private Comline after Orendi began tearing out random wires everywhere to make her own makeshift film studio,” Kleese sighed. “Just get yourselves prepared and then it’ll be Nova’s time to shine.” With a quick snap, the proper turrets and defenses were easily set up by Discord without needing to break a sweat.
“Uhh… M-Ms. Nova?” Toby then nervously asked. “I-if you’re not too busy, m-maybe we can start the breach-. S-sorry!! I know that you must be having fun and stuff.”
“Oh no no, it’s cool! I always have time to blow stuff up…” The magnus acknowledged them. What came next though was something none of the Battleborn ever expected… at all. “Ready to breach on your command, you little cutie patoots.”
“ … Did she just call Uncle Toby cute?” He turned to Toby, seeing his left eye twitching. “OH NO!!! HE'S TRIGGERED!!!”
“Uh… No, it’s not that mate,” Pendles told him, pointing out the small light red circles on the penguin’s cheeks. “I think he’s blushing.”
“I thought it was either Diarrhea or something else.” That just lead to multiple facepalms and also the sounds of a grossed out Kleese trying to gasp for air. Before anyone could speak though, Toby soon did something that no one ever expected from someone of his caliber… He took charge.
“Everyone, Nova is working on the breach and needs us to help her out… If it isn’t one of us… Shoot it, kill it, BLOW IT THE F*#@ UP I DON’T CARE!!! LET’S SHOW THEM WHAT MAKES US BADASSES!!!”
“Wow… I never thought he would be the one to give us a pep talk…” Shayne said before a horde of Jennerit Thrall came in from all possible points of entry. “And now the fun begins!”
“LET THERE BE CREEPERS!!!” Discord announced. In a large flash, multiple plant-like creatures standing on four legs appeared. They hissed, and exploded, blowing large holes, leaving floating cubes around. Discord pulled out a manual. “Now how do you craft a girlfriend?” While he was trying to read it though, a Thrall Beastmaster threw it’s lance at the draconequus, tearing apart his instruction manual. “Hey, that wasn’t very nice! Prepare to FEEL MY WRATH!!”
“Okay, who pissed off Discord this time?” Before anyone could answer, Discord summoned something else… a T-Rex with music in the background. Which was weird enough to say the least, but by the time that the song was only partway through, all the Thrall in the room were either chomped on, shot at, cut in half or burned alive. “Well, that happened… So what are things like right now-?”
“Crap, we got more of them coming your way! Hang in there, Nova!” The group heard Reyna yell over the mic before an all too familiar sound began to echo throughout the room as an all too familiar cosmic hellspawn began to drop into the room.
“Varelsi, twelve o'clock!!” Toby hollered as he started to fire at the creatures of the void. At one point though, when his railgun began to overheat, Discord jumped onto the mech and had something form in his paw while wearing a cap similar to Orendi’s and also a robe to go with it.
“Magic Missile!!” He yelled, sending out a blast of energy that went off like a plasma grenade and killing a massive group of Varelsi Shulks while the turrets tried to make quick work of the other monsters scattered around.
“Nice work, little guy! I owe you one for saving my butt!” Toby complimented Discord as he prepared for more of those monsters to come in. “In fact, I got an idea… Can you get all of those Varelsi into the center of the room. I think I got something that can take then all out in one shot so we can finish the mission quickly.” He nodded, pulling out the trusty laser pointer that he had used before back on Bliss as he got the attention of all the Varelsi and have them move to the center of the room.
And directly within the line of fire of Toby’s Core Discharge. “I HAVE BECOME DEATH!! DESTROYER OF WORLDS!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!” The massive laser beam that was fired turned the Varelsi into cosmic ash and even went as far as burning up the entire hallway that they just came through. Something that made Discord happy for finishing them off quickly… and Nova happy for not getting attacked while she was working.
“We’ll need to trigger a manual override at the control panel,” She informed them as the doors near the back of the room opened up and allowed the group to press on. “I’m there now, waiting for you…… Geez, everything is so SLOW in meatspace…”
“… Nova doesn’t get the chance to get outside the ship terribly often, does she?” Deande then asked Ghalt on the other end of the line as the team used the launch pads outside to proceed to the next area.
“Since we’ve been working together, Nova has never been outside the ship at all come to think of it.” The UPR captain replied to her, before the Magnus AI soon cut in between their conversation. “We never do anything fun! But this… This is WAY fun!!”
“Rather… spirited isn’t she?”
“R-Dash 5000 body, folks!” Discord demanded, “Come on! Just do it!!!”
“And now Discord is acting like that old earth actor… what was his name? Shia LaBeouf?” Kleese groaned to himself as he watched the team advance to the next platform, where they were approaching a collection of floating platforms that made a set of stairs. “Hah! Do the Jennerit honestly think that a set of stairs would be the only thing to prevent us from moving forward-?” Just as he said that though, the stairs began to fold up and create a huge gap between the team and their objective. “Hey, GET BACK HERE!!”
“Good going, Kleese. You offended Melvin!” Discord snapped at the old genius of the LLC.
“Who the bloody hell is Melvin?”
“Who else?” Discord said. “All he wanted to do was feel appreciated and you ended up insulting him.”
“Wait a minute…” Shayne then interjected. “You named the stairs… Melvin?”
“Why yes, all he wanted was to feel appreciated… and give us a hug.”
“Well, from the looks of things, you can bring back… Melvin… by hitting the switch underneath the platform back there,” Mellka informed the group, placing an objective marker on their map so they would know where to go. “The two walkways on either side lead up to the same place, so… divide and conquer so you can make short work of them.”
“That sounds simple enough,” Sweetie Bot acknowledged. “Pendles and Toby should take the path on the left while Discord, Shayne and I take the one on the right. One mech for each side so we can split the amount of firepower.”
“Sure… or I can introduce those guys over here to a new friend of mine,” Discord said as he summoned a huge rocket launcher that he was somehow still able to balance as he fired a shot that blew up all the thrall that were beginning to gather on that end of the platform. “I call him Mr. PBFG.”
“That… was lethal as f**k…” Sweetie Bot originally said before clearing her throat. “Sorry, previous programming was interfering with my thought process… Hey, you think you can help a fella out and blow up these guys too?” Discord smiled, teleporting to where Sweetie Bot was before aiming the missile launcher at the second group of Jennerit… all while saying some random phrase to go with it.
“You get an explosion! You get an explosion!! EVERYBODY GETS AN EXPLOSION!!!” He yelled, all while a guitar solo was playing in the background before he dismissed the weapon and joined up with Shayne and Aurox at the switch they needed to activate.
“Well… that happened…” Kleese muttered to himself. “Hit the switch and the path forward will open up to us.”
“You mean Melvin…” The draconequus corrected.
“Fine, Melvin…” The LLC scientist groaned as they continued onward. While moving forward, Toby then posed a question for the newcomer of the group that he did not have the chance to ask earlier.
“So… about earlier… you were saying that you knew Benedict?” The penguin asked. “How exactly did that happen?”
“Well, that shortly happened after I fled my home world after the Varelsi darkened my home star almost 15 years ago. The planet I was on of the planets that was a battleground for the UPR’s fight against the Varelsi and also a good place to stay temporarily. I was in the tavern that was there and I see a few guys drinking their sorrows away, one of them being the Aviant you mentioned… Then, opportunity struck.”
Toby raised an eyebrow as he looked back at the Roa. “Opportunity?”
“Well, the Aviant was talking about how his Komiri commander was a complete jerk and then he said and I quote… “I wish that tenderbeak bastard was dead. Really! I’d buy a round for whoever got him, too”. Of course I was young back then, but in my mind back then, this was my first professional contract and I didn’t really think that he was just saying random stuff because he was drunk. So, I got up, left the establishment and killed the guy that he was talking about. Costed me an arm and an eye, but it was worth it.”
“I was still pissed at when Menneck B got darkened!!” Benedict interjected in the background.
“Oh really? Then I would think that YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!” Discord countered the Aviant’s statement with one of his own. “Now, as you were saying?”
“Ah yes, well I finished the job, he wanted me to get out of the system, even though I was telling him that I completed the contract he wanted, and told me to take the guys head with him.” Pendles finished before looking back at the others. “Few years later, I went professional on starting my own business. Even got a referral plan to where if you hire me, you get a free hit on the house.”
“That… I’ll need to take into consideration.” The penguin said as more Jennerit and Varelsi began to show up at the doors to the control station to the foundry.
“There’s the facility control station. Take out the guards and we can give Nova the opportunity she needs to upload the worm cluster.” The spymistress guiding them explained as they soon heard Nova reply.
“Sorry about having you guys needed to walk a long ways over here, there was another terminal closer to you, but they’re not working anymore.”
“Why’s that?” Shayne asked.
“I blew it the f**k up.”
“Why, did it have an opinion?” Discord then asked the Magnus.
“Yeah and it thought that female AI’s were incapable of doing things that a male AI can do. So I decided to teach it a lesson.” That… in turn caused Discord to think something to himself as he turned towards… you.
“Come on guys, if that isn’t enough of a reason to put her inside of R-Dash 5000, what more of a reason do you need!”
“Discord, who are you talking to?”
“The audience.” He replied to Shayne as the teen looked back at one of her teammates.
“… That’s a wall.”
“I can dream dammit!!” The draconequus pouted while the last of the defenses in this area were being set up as the group got into position.
“Already, everythings set. Initializing the worm cluster upload now.”
“The rest of you, keep the Jennerit away from the console while Nova finishes her work!” Kleese said as Discord drew out a pair of revolvers. Now was the final stage of the mission… and there was no room for errors at this point.
Seconds after Nova had begun to work on uploading the worm cluster into the energy core of the refinery, both Jennerit Thrall and Varelsi began to swarm on the location of Discord and the team of Battleborn that was on the ground. For the Battleborn, they needed to stand firm and hold their current position until Nova was done with uploading the virus. Toby had already set up Arc Mines in the room, the thumper turrets that were armed with numerous missiles were ready to blast the crap out of anything that tried to lay a cosmic finger on Nova and Discord was wearing a pair of shades while chewing on a piece of candy that looked like a cigarette.
“Heh… showtime.” He smirked, summoning a pair of pistols with explosive ammunition as he began to fire off a hail of bullets that as he showered the invaders with gunfire. “WHEN GOD CLOSES A DOOR, I BLOW IT THE F**K UP!!”
“LANGUAGE!!” They heard Marquis yell in the background while Sweetie Bot was aiming her missile launchers at the enemies that were leaping into the room. Having them blow up before even landing on the ground as her weapons appeared to be on fire. “Search and Destroy!!”
“Stand your ground!” Toby ordered, blasting more lasers. That… gave Discord an idea.
“TAKE NOTHING, BUT GIVE THEM EVERYTHING!!!” Discord yelled, somehow having a six pack of abs and wearing a cape. “FOR TONIGHT, WE DINE IN HELL!!! THIS IS SPARTA!!!” He power kicked a bunch of thrall down into a conveniently placed bottomless pit. “... Now if only Zack Snyder can make a good story.”
“Enough with these… references!” Shayne groaned. Noticing that Discord was unarmed and about to get swarmed from all sides, she looked to Aurox, pointed at the ground behind Aurox and motioned her finger like if she were firing a weapon… confusing Discord a little since Aurox in that moment had disappeared.
“I haven't cowboy bebop’d yet-” The youngling complained, only to feel something warm behind him as he turned to see the heat rising from the ground. In an instant, Aurox emerged from underneath and caused an outward explosion that sent Discord flying onto Shayne’s head, but also incinerated every thrall and varelsi that had tried to gank him.
“Whenever you use references, it leaves you open to get blindsided… Try using them after we’re sure that we took care of everyone.” The teenager said so he would know for future reference. “You’re an important member of the team and also my adoptive son… I don’t want you getting killed out there just because you either get cocky or you want to make it more entertaining for yourself.”
“Pfft! Like the authors would do that. It's part of my contract with them. If I'm hurt, then they lose all of their lifesavings.” It was only a few moments later that a note came down into Discord’s paw… telling him otherwise as he took out a pair of reading glasses.
“We did not agree to anything like that… Plus you do realize that the LLC can revive you on missions if you do fall in combat right?”
“Duh! But this is a fanfic! Unless I became a legit DLC character, then this means nothing… and that's sad, no thanks to you Overwatch players.”
“True… But that doesn’t mean the same for your teammates…” The note read before dispersing into flames. That was when Discord’s attention was finally tracked back to one of the other members of the team… and they needed help… bad.
“Oi! Could use an assist here! Friends… Enemies… anyone?” Discord was now seeing Pendles on his knees and surrounded in a white light. He was on the clock now and the draconequus needed to get to him as quickly as possible.
“Don't tell me what I already know, authors.” Discord groaned. “And I was getting bored of your note.” He rushed to Pendles, blowing a snake charmer flute while wearing a turban. Soon, the Roa got back on his feet and growled to himself.
“No one ruins MY professional reputation and GETS AWAY WITH IT-!” He said, until he looked back at Discord and noticed his Turban. “Really?”
“Well, excuse me! I'm not a politically correct guy! I don't even like Tumblr.” He blew into the flute and controlled Pendles. For a moment at least… Until they heard Nova speak to them.
“Ow… ow… damn… ow… ow… S**T!! OW!!!”
“Protect the generator!! Nova’s still working on the breach!!!” Reyna told them over the intercom as Pendles dived back into the fray and began hacking and slashing at numerous thrall that tried getting close to the core. Discord had another Idea.
“To the audience reading… I don't support this idea.” In a flash, he built a wall around Nova that was several feet high in a matter of minutes. “Now I just need an army of feminists to guard this wall.”
However, when he looked at Shayne and Aurox, all Discord heard her do was sigh. “Discord… That… was not a good idea… you trapped Toby over on the other side.”
“HELP ME!!!!” Discord rolled his eyes. He took a piece of chalk and drew a large door. Like a cartoon character, he opened the door, letting Toby in.
“Any other problems you would like to mention?” The Spirit of Chaos asked his teammates. However, the one who did have something to say was the one observing them.
“Just one…” Kleese now spoke up as Toby thanked the draconequus for the save. “That wall may block out the Jennerit… but the Varelsi can go anywhere they please… In fact… several of them are behind you.”
“Aww crap.” Discord pulled out a button and pressed it. They can hear, albeit muffled, disco music playing.
“And they are rather… pissed…” Kleese added as a Varlesi Hunter blew up where the sounds of the music came from and ordered all forces to attack and destroy Discord.
“Great… and things have gone from bad to worse…” Sweetie Bot grumbled. “Nova, what’s your status right now?”
“Worm cluster upload at 50%. Structural integrity at 70%. Personal confidence… off the charts.”
“Alright. We’re almost through this. If you see something that isn’t one of us or a friendly that we know, BLOW THE CRAP OUT IF IT!!!” Toby ordered.
“Including that guy?” Discord asked, pointing at a guy with a box of pizza and wearing a red and white striped sweater and stocking cap. “He looks… familiar.”
“Yes… including that guy…” Discord pulled out a rocket launcher and aimed it at the guy.
“I'm sorry, sir.”
“Wha-!? Is this the Battleborn? I have pizza for…” The delivery guy said as he looked at the receipt on the box. “Oscar Mike and Whiskey Foxtrot.”
“... Uh, they’re back at the base… not here.” Shayne sighed. “Besides we’re… kind of busy. Discord, can you please get him to Whiskey and not get him hurt?”
“My biggest question would be why did it refer to both of them. I mean, doesn’t Uncle Whiskey severely hate Oscar Mike?” Discord asked as he killed another varelsi with slice of one of Rath’s swords he conjured before sending the pizza guy to the right place to deliver the pizza.
“He does. There’s no question to that.” Toby added on. “Discord does bring up a good point though. But we should focus on finishing the rest of these guys off and allowing Nova to finish uploading what we need to blow this place up.”
“I think we can all agree with you on that Toby!” Shayne said as she sent Aurox to devour another Varelsi. “Hopefully we can hear some good news rather sooner than later!” No later did the group hear the last of the thrall dying off and also began finishing off the last few Varelsi in the room. Thanks to this, Nova was able to finish off the last remaining pieces of the worm cluster that needed to be pieced together and complete her work.
“We’re clear!!!” Deande shouted. “Nova, trigger the reactors!!!”
“Stand by for a bunch of things blowing up because I’M THE BEST!!!” Nova shouted. Though, the group did think that this would be the moment where everyone was able to catch a much needed break, Sweetie Bot noticed something crash land behind them and drag their weapons across the floor. Catching everyone’s attention rather quickly as it let out a threatening roar of anger and rage.
“…… You have got to be bucking kidding me…” Sweetie Bot groaned as everyone had to quickly get themselves ready for another fight.
“This is usually the part where Kleese says some important advice on how to survive this fight. Any words of wisdom for them, Kleese?” Nova then asked as they heard the elderly genius of the LLC snap back at the Magnus AI that was talking to them.
“How the HELL should I know!?! KILL IT!!!”
“Like every other boss fight.” Discord groaned.
“Yet this time it’s the hellspawn of a Jennerit and a Varelsi…” Shayne groaned. “This is not going to be an easy fight.” This gave Discord an idea. He pulled out a megaphone.
“Hey! You're adopted!” That… did little to help things as the Foreman went to attack Discord first. “Gah!!! I thought the adopted trick would work!!!”
“Because some people can take offense to that!” Shayne yelled, using Aurox to pull Discord out of the way of the thrall’s attacks and to allow the other teammates to fight back. “If we get out of this alive, you and I are going to have to have a serious talk about… well, pretty much everything. It’s out of control and you’re doing to WAY too much now…” Shayne was going to add on a little more, but it was then that they saw the Foreman shield himself and various wisps of black void like energy spawning everywhere.
“Kill those scientifically impossible monstrosities!” Kleese commanded the others.
“And why should we do that-?” Discord tried to ask, before he saw one of them blow up next to one of the traps that was set up earlier in order to protect Nova. “Oh… bombs… that’s why.” That was when he noticed Pendles finish off a few of them and quickly went on to take car of the others while saying something.
“Boring conversation anyway.” The Roa chuckled, only for the draconequus to change into a black leather jacket, jeans, white shirt and also have a blaster weapon at his hip. Only for Shayne to sigh to herself in the process.
“Oh so I do something and it sounds like I’m going overboard and yet the new guy says a Han Solo reference and he’s fine? Seriously!?” Discord complained.
“What reference?” Pendles asked, killing another few Varelsi in the process. “Well, there I go killing again!”
“And now he’s saying something from that one guy on Rick and Morty!” The draconequus proclaimed. “This is an outrage I tell ya! An outrage!!!”
“Okay, Discord, I’m telling you this because I care for you, but also need you to really focus right now,” Shayne told him. “Save the shenanigans for when there isn’t a possibility for us dying… because the sooner we can kill that… whatever the hell it is, we can get out of here-.” It was then though that one of the orbs that they needed to destroy wandered too close to Discord, causing Shayne to grab him in a barrel roll as it detonated, using her body to protect him from the blast.
When the smoke cleared… Shayne could not be able to walk it off… despite Discord saying so. She, the adoptive mom that helped raise him, was hurt bad… and all because he wanted to have a little fun. Discord saw what happened and poked her with a stick.
“... Uh… adopted mom?” He asked “...ya’ll alright?” All she could do was groan in pain as she tried to get up, but was unsuccessful in the process. She was hurt… bad… and also glowing a bit white. Almost like when Pendles went down just a few moments ago. He grit his teeth, eyes furious as he looked towards Sweetie Bot. “Sweetie Bot, Help mom… I’m going to teach this monster what happens when ANYONE messes with my family!”
While Sweetie Bot was helping her, the teen partially smiled to herself… that was the Discord she knew. He snapped his talon; now he wore an orange shirt with blue pants, and he had black, spiky hair. He placed his claw and paw together, making a ball of blue energy and having it’s power escalate while the rest of the team worked on disabling the Foreman’s shield.
“Ka… Me……… Ha…… ME……”
One last strike from Pendles had the abomination’s shield drop. “Shields down! Hit him with everything you got!!” He yelled to the draconequus… whose reply was just a simple nod of the head. Then, with all his strength, he threw his hands forward and released the energy he was building up.
“…HA!!!!!!!” A huge pillar of pure energy blasted at the boss. It saw the energy coming to him.
“Oh s**t!” It simply growled in the Jennerit tongue before turning into nothing more than a pile of ash as it also created a huge hole in the wall behind it. However, despite their victory… Kleese had to ruin it.
“Okay, even if that was awesome, YOU ALMOST STRUCK OUR SHIP, YOU IDIOTS!!!!!” Kleese snapped as Discord dispelled his clothes and black hair.
“Comes with the job description… Nova, how are we doing?” He then asked, remembering the reason why they came here in the first place.
“Upload completed. Core Meltdown initialized… Begin running for your lives in 3… 2…” She said, before being interrupted.
“CORE MELTDOWN IMMINENT. EVACUATE!! EVACUATE!!!”
That had the rest of the Battleborn up on their feet and moving quickly to get out of the refinery. “Nova, transfer back here now! Everyone else, rendezvous back at the ship! We’re getting the hell out of here!!” Deande yelled as Discord landed on Toby's back.
“Come on! Go faster!” He yelled.
“This is as fast as I can go! The extra weight isn’t helping any!!” Toby squaked. Discord pulled a cord on Toby's mech, each making a revving noise. With one final tug, Toby's mech went into overdrive, moving faster than everyone else… but also causing Discord to fly off because of the sure speed.
“That's right! I can fly! These wings aren't for show.” He said as everyone was cheering because of Nova’s success and he crashed into the hangar bay of the ship. However, just as Shayne was about to climb aboard the ship… she heard something that made her stop running and turn back around.
“Hello… it's me.” Hearing that, Shayne turned to see something overlooking the platform they were on and that was above the already looted chest that Discord had scavenged seconds ago.
“Eris?” Shayne said in a low tone, confused as she looked at a… familiar statue. “Is that you?”
“No, it's Adele… of course it's me.” The voice of the draconequus sarcastically shot back at her as she deeply sighed to herself. “Look, I don't have much time, and that's not because this place is about to blow, but I'm using the rest of my strength to talk to you. Would you kindly take me aboard? I promise that I won't awaken and kill, or in my case, eat anybody aboard.” Shayne had only seconds to think on this as someone else interrupted her train of thought.
“Shayne, what the hell are you doing!? This place is going to blow any second!” Reyna snapped as she looked back… seeing Discord next to her. That gave Shayne an idea as she pointed a finger at the draconequus.
“Aurox… Fetch.” Without warning, the Djinn sprang forward and yanked the youngling towards them. Holding onto the statue firmly, Shayne then said something else. “Okay, Dissy. We’re taking this thing with us, so can you please help us and teleport us back onto the ship?” However, Discord stared at the statue. He was entranced by it… and Shayne could literally see flashes in his eyes..
“BOY!!! IF YOU DON'T SAVE US, I'M TAKING AWAY YOUR CHOCOLATE MILK!!!”
“AHHH!!! Yes mom!” He snapped his paw as they both were teleported onto the ship. Just as it was about to break through the planet’s atmosphere. Everyone was relieved to be able to make it back safely… But still, Shayne’s risky maneuver had one particular rogue angry as she was knocked over the head by Reyna.
“Ow! What the hell was that for!?”
“That was for scaring almost everyone on board half to death! What the hell were you even thinking!?” Reyna snapped, only to be interrupted by Deande once she saw the statue.
“No… way… That is a statue of Lady Eris… One of the ambassadors to Empress Lenore before Rendain took control of the Imperium… How-?”
“That’s what I was coming back for…” Shayne explained. “Since the statue was of a Draconequus, I thought we could learn more about the draconequus… From one.” It was then that small beams of light began to form from the cracks within the statute as the blocky stone exterior soon began to chip away… bringing back the being that was trapped inside. In a huge burst, pebbles shot everywhere as gleeful laughing was heard.
“Yes! I'm free, b*tches! FREE!!!” Discord was teleported into the arms of the floating Dracequis, who began to coo to him. “Ahh… did you miss your mommy, little Dissy? It's been at least 17,496 years… Give or take a few centuries.”
That had everyone on board look at her, collectively shocked and surprised. The only one to say something though was Kleese. “Let’s get back to base… This… changes… EVERYTHING!”
As Kleese and Nova had the ship touch down on the base that the Battleborn had established on Ekkunar, there were still a lot of things that had to be gone over and discussed before any of them could be completely ready for what was in store. Sabotaging the Jennerit Energy Refinery gave them extra time needed to prepare in addition to delaying the repair process on the Heliophage, but how long that amount of time would be was unkn8own to them. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing that they got by pulling this off. In a strange turn of events, the Battleborn also was able to get themselves a new ally that would fight alongside them too… and was quite eager to know what the hell had happened since she had been frozen in stone.
So, shortly after landing, Deande and Mellka walked over to another room along with Shayne and Aurox so they could get the chance to find out a little more about her and also if she knew anything regarding Rendain. Kleese was also going to drop by later, but that was after he reconfigured some navigation protocols on the ship first. It was quite surprising to Mellka and Shayne that she knew some of the members of the Jennerit Imperium, including Deande, Rath, Ambra and Caldarius while also knowing the previous leader of the imperium before Rendain’s takeover. Now though, as Eris walked Ponythroat and gave Deande a handshake that was once popular several millennia ago, the draconequus turned to the spymistress, the Aelfrian, and the Teen with the Djinn attached to her torso and said the first thing that came to mind.
“So what are you, exactly?”
Mellka and Shayne looked at each other for a moment before looking back at the Draconequus. “Which one are you talking about?” Shayne asked.
“Both of you. Is that some sort of genie hovering you? And what happened to you, Deande? Has it really been 2,431 years?”
“More or less… depending on how you look at it…” Deande sighed, clearing her throat. “First, there’s Mellka. She’s half human, half Eldrid. As for Shayne, who has been taking care of Discord for you, her partner is a Djinn named Aurox… who Discord sees as a father figure.”
“...Raising my son… Djinn… Father… figure…?” She turned completely on fire. “I’M TRIGGERED!!!”
“That’s only the tip of the iceberg,” Mellka replied. “You haven’t seen Discord spend time with Orendi… or who he calls crazy auntie. Since Shayne and Aurox did rescue him from a battlefield on another world, he’s seen them and the other members of the rogues as family…” Eris teleported away and returned with Discord. She had on a lab coat, glasses, and her hair looked like that of a famous scientist named ‘Einstein’.
“...And how is my son a child? Last time I saw him, he was approximately my size, much older, and… well, bald.”
“I went bald!?” Discord asked in shock
“Yeah… turns out, we actually found him like that,” Shayne replied. “We weren’t sure how that exactly happened in the first place, to tell you the truth.”
“...Oh! Hold on a second! Do any of you have a Hula Hoop around? Or something round that will cut something if spun faster than the speed of sound?” At the sound of that, Discord bolted from the room. But when Shayne took a closer look, it turned out that there was a hula hoop… and he was going to play with it and Orendi before Eris brought him in. She made him stand upright, placed the hula hoop around his waist, and spun him around.
“Whee~!” Discord cheered, his voice getting deeper and deeper by the second, with his silhouette getting taller as well.
“ … Woah… That is… eye opening.” Shayne replied, while Mellka also nodded her head in agreement.
“Ladies and Gentlemen! Introducing, my REAL son, Discord!” Eris shouted, before Discord looked at the top of his head.
“AGH!! BALD!! I’M TURNING INTO KLEESE!!” Discord panicked as he ran out of sight and locked himself in his room.
“Discord! Being bald is part of being a true male back home. Plus, you’re not much of a hair guy. Sheesh! How did you… oh… s**t.”
While Shayne walked over to the door to check on Discord, Mellka turned to Eris and raised an eyebrow. “Is something wrong?”
“He didn’t just use a reverse age spell on himself. No! He used that AND a memory wiping spell! He’s a blank slate from his original self! Oh, I need something to trigger his original memories, something he’s going to remember, both the good and the bad. Something like… yes… YES!!! That’s it!”
“Uh… if I may interject, Lady Eris,” Deande spoke up, “If what you said was indeed the case, then maybe there’s a reason he would perform such an ability on himself… I mean if you were in his shoes, losing his parents and a lot of other things he cared for can be very traumatizing. Trying to bring back memories he would rather not remember may result in a panic attack.”
“Pfft! I’m still here, and so is his father, though I have no idea where he’s at, and this is something more, something I didn’t think he’d do.”
After a little bit, Shayne soon walked back over to where they were and sighed. “Discord’s okay, he’s just… processing everything right now… While we’re at it though, can I ask you something, Eris?”
“Of course, Ms. Shayne.” Eris answered, sewing a costume.
“Well… there have been some times that after Discord and I have been on missions where we’ve encountered Varelsi… I’ve been… well… having strange visions… visions about Discord, I think… You hypothesized that he might’ve put a memory erasing spell on himself, right?” She asked, looking at the draconequus.
“Oh, I thought you’d connect the pieces together from that dream I sent you. Or was that Discord’s subconscious? Eh, it doesn't matter.”
“No, it’s different… The dream I had from you was only the second one. The first one was on Bliss… If he erased the memories that he wanted to forget… then what if what I’m seeing are those memories?” Shayne asked, leading to the draconequus to stop her sewing for a moment and look back at the teen.
“Ah… see, this is all more connected than you think. Shall I play a video to help explain all of this? I think Dissy would want to see this as well.”
“Judging from the fact that he put sixteen different locks on his door, including a retina scanner and fingerprint scanner… well, I think the evidence of that speaks for itself.” Shayne replied, pointing her thumb in the direction of the locked door as they heard a sound that sounded like a car alarm go off. Eris chuckled.
“Oh, you humans. Thinking way too hard on these situations.” She snapped, bringing Discord outside with Cotton Candy and a mug of Chocolate Milk. “Dissy, Discord 2.0, I think you should watch this.” She pulled out a VHS player and tape. “And yes, this seems outdated, but it keeps it personal rather than sharing it all over social medias.”
“And just when I thought ISIC telling me all about the Draconequus was strange enough.” Shayne sighed to herself.
“Oh please, this is normal compared to what the others did.” She put the tape in the player and continued her sewing. The tape began to play all of the things she spoke of.
Millions of years ago… or shall I say, a few weeks before the Big Bang happened, there was us; The Draconequi. I was there to see it all. Funny thing, the Big Bang was actually a bet between two of our strongest members in an arm wrestling match; loser would have to eat Grandma Jenny’s baked beans. Yes, the big bang was nothing more but a fart, and with that fart, life came, and it stunk… for you all, that is.
“I heard that!!” Kleese shouted from down the hall.
Yes, life everywhere started from the microscopic creatures after various planets were made. There was really no reason for any of us to investigate and see what was going on, but we did… and, consequently, some of us accidentally made various religions, and your ancestors loved to hate each other, having literal flame wars with each other. But, we continued watching you all be born, grow up, have kids, die, and repeat. I, myself, being one of the originals to see the big bang, investigated more of these lives, putting many of my recordings in my journal, and having the occasional morsel I can find. Cavemen were too hairy for a snack. But, I meet Deande when you humans were going through your time simply dubbed ‘The 80’s’.
“For the record, this was the most recent decade of the 80’s, not the ones back on old earth with rock music and Ronald Reagan as president.” Deande added on the side.
But I did bring that with me in celebration of Old Earth. Yes, Deande and I meet each other many years ago, and that’s when the Empress ruled before that d**k Rendain. Aw man… those were the times… back when everyone smiled and didn’t know the future. Everyone lost their s**t when they played PacMan. But, it wasn’t to be last, as news arrived of various stars disappearing faster than the downfall of Adam Sandler’s career. So, and keep this between us, I gave my goodbye kiss to Deande before I left.
“WHAT!?!?!?” Everyone yelled throughout the base.
“THAT DID NOT HAPPEN!!!!” Deande shouted.
You were drunk. But, I went back to see what was happening. And while I did my best to find out what was happening to the stars, that’s when I found someone, and something, I never thought I’d find… your father, Discord, and my husband, Entropy. Ooh… just thinking about him… I swear, if I were alone, I’d do it.
“UGH!!!” Discord yelled in disgust,
What? Write him lovey dubby ship-fics? But yes, he was everything; the strongest, fastest, and most intelligent of all the guys, and a true gentleman.
“I got a bad feeling that this story is not going to have a happy ending.” Mellka said as Shayne turned and raised an eyebrow.
“How did you come to that conclusion?”
NO SPOILERS!!!... Ok, but yes, we soon got married, and after a near century of labor, we had our son, Discord. Oh, he was so adorable as a baby! But… it got harder than we realized. For starters, he wasn't anything like what we expected; he wasn't strong, he wasn't fast, and, perhaps the thing that shocked us, is that he wasn't smart. Now, to clarify, there's a difference between being smart and clever. Are we clear? If not, read Boba Fett’s story about landing in the same sarlacc pit three times. Buy, yes, Discord was clever and a real trouble maker. He always performed pranks on his peers, set up elaborate traps, and was more or less an instigator in crowds. But, his reputation made him lonely… and from both of us, came disappointment. I wanted him to be good, but Entropy wanted him to be perfect.
“Wow… he sounds just as much of a douchebag as Rendain… no offense, but Rendain’s done very horrible bulls**t and does it with that creepy smile on his face.” Mellka said on the side.
He was harsh, but what can you expect from someone who's been pretty much number 1 in his whole life? But he wasn't the problem. No, that came from Discord’s last prank on one of our council members; making him s**t himself in public. And yes, it was foul… so foul, the council banished Discord for all of eternity, and that place was Discord’s new home: Equestria.
“Would that explain why he remembered someone named Fluttershy… and why Whiskey Foxtrot has a plushie of her in his room-?”
“WHO DARES TALK ABOUT WHAT I DO DURING MY ‘ALONE TIME’!?!!!” They all heard Whiskey shout from the opposite end of the base.
Uh… perhaps not the second one, but the first is a yes. The citizens are, well, a majority are ponies, and Discord wanted to make his dominance… by attacking it's leader. Unfortunately, that was Celestia, the monarch of the sun and Princess in training… at the time. It doesn't take a scholar to know love, and that stopped Dissy from a quick victory… that, and the promise of cake. Fast forward a couple of centuries later, and another failed attempt at conquering… twice, the first by Celestia, and the second from some locals, and Discord went through a reformation program with the other love: Fluttershy.
“Well, that explains one thing,” Shayne responded, “In a simulation where he and Orendi were having a tea party with someone named Tiny Tina, two of the guests that came later were named Princess Sunbutt and Scaredy cat. I would think that from what you told us, those two are indeed Celestia and Fluttershy… right?”
You should know that.
“Hey, we’ve been busy to try and not have Solus eaten by the Varelsi while raising Discord!” Shayne argued.
“I can make the same point. I’ve been out on missions with him and he’s very… unpredictable.” Mellka told Eris
HEHEHE!!! That's my Dissy. But, yes, my son found himself two potential lovers, and as much as I wanted to see his relationships grow, we were attacked by Rendain and his army… of bureaucrats!!! Papers beyond paperwork, Contracts, licenses, MAKE IT STOP!!! … and he did, as soon as we entered his machines. I, on the other hand, refused to be in those machines. Entropy and I fought back… and we failed, hard. Turned out, Rendain used us to summon Varelsi at a much faster rate. They caught my husband, and as for me… I didn’t have much of a choice, so I made myself a statue in the courtyard to camouflage myself in and be released when I’m with a hero, or a group of, heroes that are fighting back. That’s where you all came in, and Rendain’s going down!
As Eris calmed herself down, Shayne soon realized something. “Wait… his machines… are you telling me that Discord’s father… is trapped inside the Heliophage?” The tape ended and Eris returned.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Right… so if we are going to stop Rendain, we need to stop the Heliophage. That’s how he’s destroying and darkening stars and even though when we originally sabotaged it and rescued Deande, Rendain’s repairing it somehow. We need to find a way to put it out of commission for good.” Mellka replied. “I know that with being a draconequus, your abilities can be… unpredictable… but we’ll need both you and Discord in order to stop him.”
“Hey, count me in. I promised Aurox that I would let him tear the sh*t out of him for what he said to Discord!” Shayne snapped, catching Eris’ attention.
“What did he say?”
“Rendain called Discord a hellspawn and an adopted abomination, along with the fact that he couldn’t wait for when Discord would try to claw my face off… The rogues see each other as family… and NO ONE get’s away with insulting our family.” Shayne growled, looking back as Eris while clenching one of her fists.
“And I know a few tricks you can use to defeat Rendain, such as that R-Dash 5000 unit you have, straight out of HotDiggidyDemon’s Pony.Mov series.” The Draconequus suggested.
“Right… only thing is that Robot needs a Magnus AI in order for it to be operational. Nova’s been insisting on trying to have us put her in it, but if we do, then that means the ship can’t fly or… pretty much do anything.” Mellka replied back, along with Deande who was in agreement with it.
“Not a problem. I know just the work around that can fix this,” Eris replied, looking back at them. “I may not be so advanced in technology like the greedy bastards that have their company based on micro transactions, but what I do know is that you can make a copy of pretty much almost any kind of file… including a Magnus. So if we place a copy of Nova into the R-Dash 5000, we not only get a murder bot that’s on our side against Rendain, but Nova can finally be able to fulfill her dreams.”
“YES!!!!” They heard a pleasant cheer from inside the room. “Oh, sorry. I was trying to be quiet while listening to your conversation, but I couldn’t control myself.”
“Or at least one of yourselves.” She began typing on the computer. “Let’s see here… take that in there… remove some of that… no, I don’t want Windows 10... a bit of bits for bit counting involving bits.... And… FINISHED!!!” A surge of lightning fell from the sky and shocked the robot. In a few moments, beeping could be heard.
“It’s alive!” Discord spoke, dressed up as Victor Frankenstein. “IT’S ALIVE!!!”
“It’s rebooted. Now we have 2 Novas for the price of one! And we probably don’t have enough time to introduce the other characters in this fanfic followed with so many characters.” Eris grumbled. This of course was followed by the doors opening up and Kleese strolling into the room with his Battle throne as he groaned.
“Good lord, I can’t be able to clearly think with all that rhetoric out there…” He groaned to himself. “Oh good, at least I am in someplace where I can spare my sanity.”
“Kleese, what are you talking about?”
“Ghalt just brought in a new battleborn that was a grenadier from the UPR and comes from the same home world as Benedict and Toby,” The genius informed them. “Trust me… he takes military discipline a little too seriously.”
“What the f**k is that!?” The red bombirdier ordered in front of Montana, pointing at a plate with a pastry on it. “Soldier, answer me right now! What the f**k is that?!!”
“A Jelly donut-!”
“A jelly donut?!” The Aviant snapped. “And why would you have a jelly donut in your g**damn locker?!”
“I was just hungry sir!”
“And you know what I think you need!? I think all of you need some exercise, ladies!! Drop down and give me 100 now!” Ernest ordered, forcing them to chant “1, 2, 3, 4, I love the UPR” while he ate Montana’s pastry right in front of the UPR members of the Battleborn except for Ghalt and Galilea.
“Yeah… that’s a little too much Full Metal Jacket for me.” Eris commented.
“I always prefered the first half.” Discord added.
“Right… so can someone please bring me up to speed on what you guys have been doing in here? It’ll be nice to have someone to talk to while I work on preparing the… new additions to the team for combat.” Kleese replied, confusing some of the others in the room.
“And what do you mean by that exactly?” Shayne commented.
“Why I’m working on making Helix rings for Eris, Smooze, and the fully Functional R-Dash 5000, of course.” Kleese replied. “We’ll need every possible fighter we can have at our disposal… I even had to contact the LLC and have them rescue a stranded LLC member that got separated from everyone else when the Magna Carta originally went offline.”
“And we’ll storm Rendaine’s palace and end this fanfic once and for all.” Discord concluded. “Sheesh, and the game we’re based off of will be dead at around Christmas time. Just look at Steam!” That only lead to Eris bonking Discord on the head in response.
“You forgot that it’s also on PS4 and Xbox one as well.”
“Ow! Of course I do, mom, but those copies are being returned nearly as fast as copies of No Man’s Sky!” That only lead to Shayne facepalming in response as something came to her mind a few moments later when thinking over everything that Kleese had mentioned and also what Eris and Discord were talking about.
“Yeah… Am I the only one who's going to ask if we actually have a plan? I’m not trying to be a downer or anything, but how the hell are we going to pull something like this off? We can’t just storm the gates and expect something to happen.” That got Deande to think a little as she looked back at Kleese and Mellka.
“Shayne brings up a very valid point… Maybe we should split the team into two forces. One group that’ll fight with Ghalt and Kleese in low orbit while everyone else works to get to the Heliophage and kill Rendain.” She suggested.
“Or we can do this.” Discord suggested, holding up a button.
“Ooh! Explosions!” Eris spoke “But it’s too simple and… anti-climatic.”
“Like most movies nowadays,” Kleese sighed, before looking at something on his Battle Throne as he looked back at Eris. “Aha! There we go… The Helix Rings for Eris, Smooze and R-Dash 5000 are now fully operational. Here you go.” Kleese replied, tossing the Helix Ring to Eris as the older draconequus shot a glare towards Discord… who was very tempted on pressing the button.
“Discord, put that away please.” Shayne asked him nicely.
“Yes, genetic mama… But think that next time, we could join the Bandwagon that’s Overwatch?... Or Paragon?... Or Paladins maybe-?” Eris grew into a giant with everything going dark and having red eyes.
“NO!” Discord literally dropped as he shrunk to the size of an ant as he fell into Shayne’s outstretched hand.
“...ok.”
Shayne looked back at Eris, who had now calmed down a bit after Discord had finally decided to return to his senses. “I really need to learn some parenting tricks from you.” Eris teleported next to her.
“That’s going to cost you at least 329 years of your life, which won’t be able to happen.”
“O… kay, I thought you were going to say that it comes with experience, but I guess not.” Shayne replied as Discord slowly began to grow back to his normal size. “Say, now that you got that Helix Ring… I’m kind of curious as to what kind of abilities you can use in combat. We are going to be part of the same team when we’re going after Rendain so maybe we can train a little beforehand.”
“Train?” Eris began to giggle, then followed by a huge cackle! “OH! That is good! I’ll try out your game in the next chapter. End chapter!”
“Uh… I don’t think she meant that,” Discord mentioned. “She meant training as in preparation… like the one with the Rocky theme song?”
“... I’m in. This is for you, Sylvester Stallone!”
Rogue Chaos- The Heliophage: The Beginning of the End
It had been close to a week by the time that all the members of the Battleborn felt as if they were just waiting for when Rendain was going to retaliate against them. Most of that waiting consisted of training in the simulation room, practicing a new type of competitive mode in the BATTLEGROUND ASSIMILATION SYSTEM Kleese made sometime ago that was called “Face off”, and helping some of the newcomers to the group get ready for when they needed to really go out into the field. They needed all hands… or in the case of Sweetie Bot and R-Dash 5000, hooves on deck when they needed to make their assault on the Jennerit homeworld of Tempest. Because if Rendain was going to make his move, they would only have one shot at pulling this off… otherwise Solus and the universe itself will no longer exist.
From the combat simulations that were tested, the battleborn were able to learn a bit about their three additional companions that Discord had “recruited” along the way. First, there was the Smooze, or as the Draconequus described it, the smooth ooze. For being what remained of the Old Sentinel on Ekkunar, the smooze wasn’t exactly a juggernaut of a fighter like it was when in the body of a golem. But what it could do was two forms of sludge in combat. One to slow down enemies in a sticky trap on the floor while another was used as corrosive slime that could eat away at skin or metal. More importantly, the Smooze itself was able to shapeshift into a juggernaut like form, changing his primary ranged attacks into crushing melee blows. The only problem though was that he could not relatively hold this form for long. Roughly thirty to forty seconds based on Kleese’s observations and calculations.
Secondly, there was R-Dash 5000. Almost the UPR equivalent of Sweetie Bot, but with some major differences. Including the fact that Eris was able to make a copy of Nova so it could run properly. Her forelegs served as weaponized cannons that were primarily used to fire high explosives. However, unlike Benedict, who wields a high capacity rocket launcher and also Ernest, who uses a grenade launcher to support the members of his team, R-Dash was rather… different. In most cases, it may be seen as similar to Montana. Though, instead of fire and ice, R-Dash’s weapons (and a bit of modifications from Kleese) allowed it to store powerful EMP charges that were the size of a relative hand grenade. But that was not all that she was capable of. Freaking lasers shot from her eyes, and, surprisingly, two smaller copies of herself would come out and fire their miniature weapons, though they all chanted “Crush, Kill, Destroy, Swag.” three times before going back to normal. Plus, the same visor that could shoot lasers could also allow for her to see major enemies through walls if, she applied the right choices with her helix ring.
Last, but certainly not least… there was Eris. Though her and Discord were both draconequus, it did not mean that their approach to combat was the same. Her son demonstrated the “fun” side of chaos while her abilities demonstrated more of the darker side of it that would be expected from someone of the Jennerit Imperium. Her weapons were a pair of chakrams, disguised as a pair of rings that Deande gave to her as a gift. But the rings, in combat, could easily drain life from an enemy just as easily as one of Rath’s swords or Ambra’s staff… and like Deande’s fans, they worked at close and long range. But that wasn’t what made Eris relatively… unique. What made her unique was a little something she called… pandemonium. Basically, it was somewhat similar to Ambra when her basic attacks generate Heat. The key difference though was that Pandemonium affected some of her other abilities and if used it carefully, she could be a big team player along with affecting how quickly she attacks and how much damage she could deliver. Add that to the fact that she had a short range blast that could stun enemies and also the ability to make decoys of not just herself, but also her teammates and you may think that she has a lot of tricks up her non existent sleeves.
But there was one that was a real game changer. Something called “Embrace the Madness”. It was used as an ability to provide bonus attack speed, critical damage and reload speed to her team, but it also changed how her two other abilites functioned. The decoy ability, which she called Double Vision, could produce more than one clone while the blast attack she called Mind Break could make enemies that were struck turn on their companions. Like have a primal thrall bomber detonate on another thrall instead of by one of the other battleborn. And to top it off, the more Pandemonium she had, the longer it would last.
All of this was important for when everyone in the base heard Nova’s voice over the PA system for the base as she alerted everyone to immediately report to the bridge. This was the moment that they were anticipating… and everyone was ready for the final fight.
“Okay everyone, listen up!” Ghalt hollered out to everyone as soon as they were all in the hangar bay. “Rendain’s repairs on the heliophage are complete. It’s time to see if all that planning and preparation paid off.” Nova pulled up a schematic of a battlefield while also showing the main ship the crew were using. “Kleese and I will be flying alongside the fleets in low orbit to distract the majority of Rendain’s military that are stationed at the capitol building on Tempest. While that is going on, Mellka and Deande will be figuring out a way to power down the heliophage.”
“Uhh, question?” Sweetie Bot asked as she raised a hoof. “How are we supposed to do all of this?”
“We’ll be splitting up into two teams. One team will go with Deande and Mellka while the rest of you will come with us. Deande and Mellka’s team will consist of Discord, Shayne and Aurox, Eris, Sweetie Bot and Caldarius. My team knows what to do and the rest of you have one job.” Ghalt told them. “Kill Lothar Rendain.”
“Do we really have a chance of pulling this off?” Mellka then asked.
“No idea, but I know one thing for sure,” The UPR captain told the Eldrid. “None of us are going to die in the dark-.”
“Oh my god, you walking movie poster!!” Kleese abruptly shouted, surprising everyone else. “Let’s just get on with the apocalypse already!!!”
“UUUUGH!!” Several Battleborn groaned at the same time while Reyna and Thorn simultaneously gave the old geezer a one finger salute. “You butthole…”
“Friggin’ Buzzkill.” Ghalt groaned.
“Thanks Kleese…” Mellka replied sarcastically.
“Yeah, thanks a lot old man!!” Discord then said before fistbumping Shayne and Eris at the same time. That was followed by a laugh from the LLC genius before his next statement.
“Pahahahaha. Oh, I love you morons! LET’S DO IT!!”
By the time that they reached Tempest and split up, both teams began to go to work on their separate objectives. For Discord and his team though, the first part of their journey wasn’t exactly diving into the heat of battle like he thought, but instead having to handle a ride up an jennerit lift terminal.
“When this lift reaches its terminus, we’ll be within reach of the Cathedral of Lenore. That’s where we’ll find the Heliophage… and Rendain.”
“Man, it’s been too long since I’ve last been there. I wonder how much it’s changed since I’ve last seen it.” Eris remarked as she looked at Deande.
“Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.” Mellka then spoke up as she looked at the rest of the team that she and Deande were assisting. “Before we can get you in the cathedral itself, we gotta bring down its defenses. I hope you guys are ready.”
“Well, we spent the last 24 chapters building up to this point,” Discord remarked as he used his chaos magic to form a copy of Caldarius’ TMP blaster in his paw . “Better not let the readers down like how No Man’s Sky let down it’s fanbase.” Shayne readied her boomerang while Aurox cracked his knuckles. Eris herself had the rings on her wrists form into chakrams as they slowly approached the main terminus in anticipation. Once the gate retreated and allowed the group to step inside, they were greeted by an ambush of Varelsi Shulks and Marksman from both sides of the main platform. But upon entering, they saw how… grim things were up in the sky.
“Holy crap… the star. Are we too late?” Mellka asked Deande while shooting a few of the shulks in the face.
“Not yet. The factions are fighting to give us this chance,” The spymistress reminded them. “Their sacrifice would mean nothing if we fall.” Everyone else couldn’t agree more. Many of the Battleborn had reasons for Rendain to die and to come this far only to fail was something that they were not going to let happen.
“And Rendain’s gonna pay for everything that he’s done. That is for certain!” Caldarius added onto that as he slashed one of the last few Varelsi that attacked them in half as they secured the terminus. Once the place was secured, Mellka and Deande soon went to the console at the back of it and examined it. It looked like the console could only be operated by two people at once. So Deande and Mellka made a clear decision before looking back at the group.
“We’ll ready the teleporter to get you inside. We’re going to need the rest of you to wreck those defenses! Find and destroy the shards powering the Heliophage’s shields.”
“The map on this console says that they’re in the Resident District and Temple District to the south and west of here-.” Mellka spoke while operating the keypads on the console, before finding one other detail that was rather… problematic. “Oh sh*t!”
“What’s wrong?” Shayne asked.
“We’re running against the clock! Rendain is going to activate the Heliophage in twenty three minutes unless we destroy those defenses and stop them! Hurry!!” Mellka ordered, causing everyone to run to the active launch pad nearby… not without Discord waiving goodbye to the two friends they were leaving behind.
“May the force be with you.” He stated, shortly before descending into the unknown and joining with his teammates and family… Eris herself upon looking at where they landed was surprised. Things did definitely change from how she had seen it last time around… but it wasn’t quite exactly a good change. And just as soon as they stepped inside, they soon heard Lothar Rendain greet them.
“Welcome all of you… to the Cathedral of the Sustaining Mother… and to the end of our journey together,” He spoke calmly, before his tone changed midway through. “I would welcome you inside, but I imagine you’re here to stop and/or kill me.”
“Yep, that’s the idea.” The group heard Mellka over the comline as the team encountered some Thrall Brutes, Gunners, and a few Evolved thrall that all resorted to charging at them.
“And this is the part where I beg you to reconsider, only followed by your vigorous rejection of my offer.” Rendain then predicted.
“We reject your offer. And VIGOROUSLY!” Everyone heard Kleese boast. Which was ironic since a few minutes earlier, he was saying that they should just get on with the apocalypse already and fend for themselves.
“Hah! Splendid. I admire your spirit!” The Lothar complimented them as Shayne and Aurox pulled one of the thrall over so it was in the direction of Eris’ Chakrams.”Let’s see how far spirit can take you.”
“Well, it’s gotten us through everything you’ve thrown at us so far, so that’s a start.” Sweetie Bot then commented as they made their way through the broken and messed up streets of the Resident District. There was trash scattered everywhere and even some defaced posters of Rath, Ambra, Caldarius and Deande that the Jennerit used to label them as traitors. They were spread out at first. But upon heading up a particular stairwell, Eris happened to find a defaced poster of another Jennerit that was unsettling.
Herself. “Oh come on! This is the reason why I hate the Mainstream Media!” She grumbled, showing the picture to everyone else as they went down an alleyway that was to the right. “That looks nothing like me!!” The poster was her, but with a human nose, a mustache, monocle, and top hat.
“That’s just the worst kind of fan art I’ve seen!” Discord remarked.
“Guys, that is really not our biggest concern right now-.” Shayne remarked as then entered what looked like a chapel building as they were greeted by more thralls and some of the varelsi waiting for them. Which in turn gave the teen a rather… interesting idea. “Oh hey guys look… it’s the paparazzi.”
Sweetie Belle and Caldarius along with Aurox looked at the teen with a bit of confusion, but before they could say anything, both Eris and Discord charged into the chaos and began attacking everything in sight. “WE MUST PROTECT OUR IMAGE!!!”
“Kill the Paparazzi like Hillary Clinton and her emails!!!” Discord added. Sweetie Bot herself just shrugged, charging into the fray with Caldarius and Shayne behind her. Each one of the Thrall and Varelsi put against them fell in battle as they made their way towards the first shard cluster powering the gate. However, there was a problem. When the group tried to attack it themselves, nothing broke off.
“Damn, that thing is reinforced somehow. Kleese, we need a harvester drone at the Resident District immediately!” Deande replied, followed by a LLC drone flying overhead as they heard Kleese respond.
“Already there. Defend it while it extracts the shards! It’s INCREDIBLY expensive!”
“Anything from you guys is incredibly expensive!! Who do you think your clothes are always dressed in gold!?” Discord retorted. “That’s called inflation at it’s finest!!”
“And a pretty lacking DLC Pre order.” Eris added to what was said as one chakram sliced a head off of a varelsi while they soon heard an announcer say FATALITY! in the background. They continued to work on the defensive as more waves of thrall and Varelsi soon approached their location. Just as Discord deposited some shards to set up a thumper turret for added firepower. The rockets from the turrets helped with laying a suppressing barrage on the incoming hostiles while everyone else focused their fire on some of the major enemies that spawned in the room. Soon though, Eris decided to assist one of her teammates when she noticed that a lot of thrall were trying to gang up on Caldarius.
“Prepare for trouble and make it double!” She said to herself with a rose in between her teeth, using her magic to create a decoy of Caldarius that the thrall soon focused their attention on, allowing for the Jennerit Shock Trooper to back up and use his flash grenade to blind those same thrall before laying down a suppressing barrage of shots from his TMP.
“Much appreciated Lady Eris,” Caldarius thanked in response. The draconequus was going to say something, until she noticed her son pouting at her.
“Did you really need to do a Team Rocket reference?” He questioned her, just as Shayne, Aurox and Sweetie Bot were finishing off the last of the remaining thrall in the room.
“Meowth! That’s right!” A random cat with a coin on it’s forehead added, before getting shot by a thrall. “I’m blasting off AGGGGGGAIN!!!!!!!”
“Well that was short lived,” Discord sighed, looking back at everyone else before noticing that the Harvester drone had finished collecting the shards they needed. Once it was complete, they heard Deande speak to them.
“Good work! That’s one down with one more to go. You got to get to the next one in the Temple District and quickly. You got 15 more minutes before Rendain will commence the veiling!” The Spymistress told them as they all ran out of the temple… after Discord looted every box in sight.
“Really now?” Shayne then asked, all while Aurox facepalmed himself with one of his claws.
“I’m a completionist, I can’t help myself!! No stone left unturned!!” He shouted back, before teleporting back over to catch up with everyone else. “I wanna get a high score on this mission!!”
“Same thing here,” Eris added “but you know you’ll probably get s**tty rewards for doing it-.”
“Who cares about the rewards?! Now are we just gonna talk about little things like this all day or are we going to do something that matters!?” Discord snapped, appearing on the back of Sweetie Bot in a Napoleon outfit while holding what looked like one of Rath’s blades. “CHARGE!!! Into battle I say! FOR SOLUS!!!” That was followed by Shayne and Aurox having to run after the two of them with Caldarius and Eris shortly following behind them.
“We should probably go after your son before he gets in over his head, Lady Eris.” Caldarius advised the other draconequus as they watched them run into battle up ahead.
“Way ahead of you.” She snapped her claws and was on Caldarius’ back. “Charge!!!” The Shock trooper sighed at this as he began to make a personal note in his head.
“Note to self… don’t give Eris any crazy ideas.” Caldarius thought, even though that the idea in itself seemed practically impossible given how both Eris and Discord were both unpredictable… but in itself, that unpredictable nature would be the key to defeating Rendain himself.
“To the end credits!!!” Both Draconequi yelled. “And whatever lies beyond that!!”
Rogue Chaos- The Heliophage: This is taking FOREVER!! (Part 1)
As both Discord and Eris charged into the fray, they were beginning to clear a path across the bridge that connected Tempest’s resident district to the temple district on the other side. On the other side, there were several battalions of Jennerit Forces that were charging at them, but with Eris’ weapons, Discord conjuring Benedict’s rocket launcher and also Sweetie Bot providing extra firepower for dealing with the heavily armed Thrall Enforcer’s that soon smashed through the gate that lead to the temple grounds, they were able to pass through the blockade with no trouble at all.
Passed the gate, several Jennerit Warp Anchor’s dropped in, filling the courtyard with more thrall that wanted to tear at their throats. But just as Discord dismissed his previous weapon to try and conjure another one, Aurox soon appeared out of the ground in a fiery explosion. Taking up one half of the troops in the courtyard while Caldarius crashed in on the opposite side. “You alright, Discord?” He heard Shayne ask as the teen caught up with them. “You three were running in there so fast that it took some time for Caldarius and us to catch up.”
“Pfft, like a bunch of creeps like those guys could scare me…” He smirked, just as a few Varelsi soon popped in out of nowhere. Making the Draconequus quiver behind Shayne in fear. “AHH! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!”
“And the cycle starts all over again…” Shayne mumbled, rolling her eyes as she threw her boomerang at one of the Varelsi channelers before it could conjure anything to slow down the team. “Discord-.”
“Allow me,” Eris interjected. “Discord… those guys want to steal your chocolate milk and keep it for themselves.” That… just had Shayne and Aurox look back at her in confusion for a moment before speaking up.
“Uhh… how is that going to help-?”
“Wait for it…” Eris told her. Just then, Discord’s mane began to stand up on end as he looked back at the Varelsi as his clenched his paw and claw into two fists. His mane now was golden as his muscles grew in size.
“Un…… ACCEPTABLE!!!” He roared, his jacket almost tearing apart as he released a fury of rapid fire punches at the Varelsi. “I am the Symbol of Peace! AND YOU HAVE MADE YOUR LAST MISTAKE, VILLAIN!!”
“His Trigger.” Eris simply smirked. “That, and his Waifus.”
“I’ll… keep that in mind for future reference,” The teen replied back as she thanked Eris. “Thanks though.” The draconequus just nodded, heading around the left side of the temple and opening up a side entrance for the group while Discord continued to unleash his fury on the cosmic hellspawns. But before he could pull off any form of finishing move on them, Eris whistled and her son immediately returned to the group as the female draconequus closed the door.
“Mellka, we’re in the temple district,” Shayne notified her as the group took a moment to catch their breath. “However, like with the last shard cluster, we need an extractor here. How much time do we have?”
“Well, with Discord and Eris’ push through the courtyard, you have more time then Kleese projected,” The Aelfrian notified them over their communications link. “He thought you would have twelve minutes left, but in reality, you guys have sixteen.”
“We’ll take what we can get… and have Kleese hurry the hell up on that extractor, the sooner we can deal with this, the sooner we can kick Rendain’s ass,” Shayne told her in response as she cracked her knuckles. “He’s got hell to pay for everything he’s done.”
“Yeah, hurry up you old geezer! The sooner we beat the final boss, the sooner you can retire in peace!” Discord added onto that, which lead to Sweetie Bot facehoofing herself in response to the young draconequus’ outburst. “And I'm still angry that we're not featured, nor even close to having to 1000 views!”
“But by the time this is posted,” Eris retorted “we may be at 1000 views AND be featured at least once. That, and Tatsurou already has this.”
“DAMN YOU TATSUROU!!!” Discord shouted, waving his paw in the air in a fit of rage and anger. By the time he was about to go on a rant, he looked up to notice that the harvester the team asked for had just arrived.
“Harvester’s arrived and is extracting the crystals. I’m pretty sure you guys are already familiar with what happens next so I’m not going to repeat myself twice.” Kleese told them over the intercom. “Oh and to be fair… I never did retire from the LLC at all Discord.”
“Oh, so in that case…” He snapped his talons and a coffin appeared. “I was gonna give this to you on your deathbed, but I think the time is now.”
Kleese sighed as he groaned over the intercom, “No, it wasn’t that… After the Magna Carta going offline and the… incident that played out with ISIC going insane, I was fired from the Minion Robotics division of the LLC and-. Wait, don’t you guys have a job to do… like I don’t know… FIGHTING those incoming Jennerit!!”
“Fine, old fart… we’re discussing this later-.”
“There may not BE a later if you don’t hurry up! We’re on the clock here!” Shayne reminded Discord, just as he was about to take out a stopwatch and check the time. “And NO, I don’t mean literally!”
“What? I'm just getting a friend to help us.” Out of the watch came a man who's aged rapidly changed from a boy to an old man. “FATHER TIME! I CHOOSE YOU! USE AGING!!!”
That just had Eris facepalm herself with her eagle talon as she groaned a bit, catching the attention of her teammates. “Not again…”
“Wait… are you saying this has happened before, Eris?” Caldarius questioned as he fired off a trio of flash grenades at some incoming thrall that were charging at him. All Eris could do was nod her head in response as she turned to see her son with the elderly figure i
“You darn whipper snapper!” Father Time spoke, ranging from a boy's voice to an old man's “This is the second time this week! I'm not gonna turn you into a baby again, and you still owe me 10 bucks!” he whacked Discord on the head with a cane and disappeared a Puff of smoke. Discord shuffled, dazed from the whack, but shook his head.
“… GAH!!! FLUTTERSHY!!! I need to save Fluttershy!!!” Discord screamed, running past everything as he bulldozed through almost every enemy that was either inside or outside of the building. “I'M COMING, FLUTTERSHY!!!”
Shayne remembered the name from the fact that Whiskey Foxtrot’s plushie was named Fluttershy as well. But this… was somehow different. “Eris… remember when you told us that Discord probably had some… locked up memories? What’s the likelihood that him getting hit in the head just now caused him to remember them again?” She asked, looking at the Draconequus next to her.
“Eh, it varies.” She simply answered. “Last time I got whacked in the head, all that went through my head was ‘Dancing Queen’.” Just as she said that, they heard the same song echo over the intercom before Kleese scrambled to turn it off.
“Okay, that was not me!” Kleese told her, before they heard a small set of giggles. “Nova? Really?”
“What? With me being in two places at once, I have a little more freedom to do some things around here… plus I thought that music would lighten the mood a little.” The Magnus AI said in response as the shard cluster the team was harvesting exploded. Meaning that the shards were all collected.
“Both shard clusters are gone and the shield to the Heliophage is down!” Mellka yelled over the intercom. “Haul your ass back here! You don’t have much time!”
“Wait, I thought that we had fifteen minutes last time we checked in?” Shayne questioned as she looked back at Eris and Caldarius.
“Apparently, Discord’s shenanigans with that father time person caused Rendain’s countdown for the Heliophage to speed up! You only have five minutes until he activates it!!” Deande told them, causing everyone to start running after the draconequus that got them into this mess.
“FLUTTERSHY!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?!?!?” Discord screamed. During this, Shayne and Aurox happened to notice Eris fiddling around with some cloth and a needle as she was piecing different color fabrics together.
“And my sewing skills paid off.” Eris spoke, putting on a near life-like costume of the mare in question. “Um, I'm right here, and I think we should get out before-” Discord picked everyone up and ran faster than anyone expected. But by the time they got back to the Heliophage and stepped on the shard pads to activate the failsafe for the Heliophage, everything soon began to darken as the floor gave out from underneath them and dropped all five of them into the void… going as far as tearing Eris’ costume to shreds.
As they landed… what they saw around them resembled broken pieces of other planets they have seen before. Bliss, Ekkunar, The Detritus River, and now, Tempest. They were all places that the Battleborn had been before… and it also contained a bunch of pieces of debris from planets darkened by the Varelsi.
But just before they could say anything, they soon heard an all too familiar voice as a void portal opened and the lothar himself stepped out. “Well now… I had a feeling that the Draconequus and the Battleborn were behind this… However, I cannot allow you to interfere any longer… so I brought you all here.”
“Finally, we get to this guy!! This whole missions feels like it lasted several hours!!” Discord blurted out impatiently.
“Uhh… Discord… We’ve only been out in the field for almost 15 minutes.” Shayne informed him.
“13 minutes and 37 seconds to be precise.” Sweetie Bot responded numerically.
“Seriously!? This whole campaign is rather short if you ask me…” Discord grumbled as he folded his arms in disappointment. “I still need something to cure my boredom dammit!!”
Eris herself was paying less attention to her son and was taking a moment to look around a bit and get familiar with her surroundings first. “Well… this place is-.” That was… before she was interrupted by Rendain.
“A bit bleak, I know… Perhaps you wanted to die somewhere a bit… brighter. But I’m afraid this is where it ends. Here… in the dark.” Rendain snarled as the metal on his right arm shifted and formed a metal blade around it.
“Here he comes!!” Discord yelled, conjuring Ghalt’s shotguns in preparation.
“Come! Show me your strength!” The Lothar roared as he charged towards them. “SHOW ME YOUR RESOLVE!!!”
“You asked for it, chin-dain!” Discord yelled, firing off dozens of shotgun shells as Rendain used the blade on his arm to deflect them before sending a spinning buzzsaw of energy towards the group as it split off into three different ones. “Woah, THAT’S HOT!!”
“Discord, close range weapons like that aren’t going to work because you’re going to have to get close to him in order to hurt him,” Sweetie Bot told him as she fired off a few missiles. “Switch weapons so we can provide covering fire for everyone else.” That thought gave Discord an idea as he decided to conjure Ernest’s grenade launcher and began to fire them at Rendain. Only thing was, some of the blasts bounced off the ground he was standing on before exploding behind them. Causing Discord to look at the weapon disapprovingly.
“It bounces!? Who the hell decide to make a gun that bounces?!! This is the worst gun… ever… of all time-.” He didn’t have enough time to fill out a form of complaint as dark crystalline shadows began to lung at the entire team from all around Rendain. Causing him to throw the weapon at the Lothar as it exploded in his face. “Well, at least it’s useful for something.” It appeared back in his claws, albeit, pixilated first before turning into the same gun. “Ooh! Tedidore!”
Getting a new idea, he conjured two other weapons with the same explosive throwing mechanic as he helped provide covering fire for Shayne and Aurox, Eris and Caldarius. Despite the fact that they were dealing a lot of powerful attacks to him, the team was only hitting the Lothar’s shield that was around him. Though, when Discord threw his guns at the same time that Shayne had Aurox chase the lothar down, sparks flew as it caused Rendain to stop attacking. Showing some of the damage sustained to his mechanical arm.
“Rrgh… very good… Very good, indeed. But alas, I’m quite desperate to succeed… and pride is not my weakness.” He said as a portal similar to the one that he used to come into the broken platform of the void spawned behind him. Discord threw one of his guns, trying to hit him before it closed, but was too late as it disappeared before he was able to do anything.
“Where do you think you’re running off to, coward!?” Shayne taunted as she and Aurox looked around to see where the Lothar had went as Discord and Eris stayed with her while Sweetie Bot and Caldarius went to another one of the nearby platforms using the conveniently located jump pads. However, when they did find Rendain… he was towering over the entire area and was ten times their size.
“You just had to ask, didn’t you?” Eris deadpanned as she looked back at the teen.
Rogue Chaos- The Heliophage: This is taking FOREVER!! (Part 2)
“Don’t even think for a moment that this is over yet!!” Rendain’s voice boomed as everyone felt a shift in the void as they turned to see something… familiar arrive on the central platform. And that was when Shayne soon spoke up.
“Hey, wait a minute… That’s the same conservator that we killed on Bliss! How the hell is it still alive!?”
“Reasons.” Discord only concluded.
“Well, whatever it is, the last time we faced that thing it tried to screw around with your mind and almost gave you nightmares,” Shayne told him. “Plus, if Rendain is trying to bring back old enemies that we have to kill before letting us have a crack at him, we need to get through them quickly.”
“I was a child!... And suffered mild amnesia, but Dissy is back, baby! And, I find this will help.” He snapped his talon and down came various cat-like robots, and they all wore matching spandex suits that only differed in color.
“Voltron?” Eris asked.
“It's better than Big Bad Beetleborgs.”
“… Eh, valid point.” Eris told him in response, shrugging her shoulders.
“Team pose!” Out of their will, they posed, which made a huge explosion. “Form into one!” They were beamed to their own cat, where each turned into a limb, making one giant, Humanoid robot, wielding an equally large sword. The giant robot then took that same sword as it slashed the Conservator in half with little to no effort before turning around and blasting off into space.
“Well… that was rather quick…” Shayne then replied.
“Anticlimactic would be more accurate,” Aurox then mumbled before turning to notice something. “Oh hey, look It’s that same thrall that Discord ran over with a train.” Turning around, that all saw that Aurox was right and that what looked to be Warlord Nix was now back… and preparing a mortar strike.
“… What was this about a train?” Eris asked out of confusion.
“We’ll tell you later, but right now, we need to move!” Shayne told her, grabbing hold of her and pulling her out of the way of a mortar shell that was bare inches away from hitting the draconequus as the team focused on laying a suppressive barrage in response to the Jennerit Thrall’s airstrike.
“I like planes.” Discord blurted. A plane flew past them, taking the hit, and crashed into the train, knocking it,and its only passenger, back to the planet below. However, instead of getting hit by it, the Thrall took the liberty of blasting it out of the sky before it could crash on him. Leaving Discord relatively surprised.
“Okay, is this like the Mr. Freeze fight in Batman Arkham City? If so, then we’ll be screwed unless we find another way to surprise him.”
“Already have that.” Eris spoke. “Knife.” A giant knife came out of nowhere and sliced the general in half. “Can't believe I had to use the Annoying orange”
“Yeah, that used to be popular… now it’s annoying as f**k…” Shayne grumbled as both draconequui looked at her in curiosity. “Orendi made me watch it after I lost a bet on the first day Whiskey Foxtrot was brought into the rogues.”
“Please, I don't want to play the pronoun game.” Discord mumbled. “For now, I have a Fluttershy to save!”
“You MISCREANTS!!” Rendain roared, “No matter… There’s no need in order for me to kill you myself… I have people for that.”
“More unoriginal, bland looking Minions with lackluster A.I.? No thanks.” Discord folded his arms in disapproval along with giving a thumbs down. But that was when they heard a big crash land nearby as Sweetie Bot soon spoke up.
“Uhh… Discord? I think you just happened to make this guy angry.” What the android pony meant by that was the huge Varelsi gunhulk that the group had encountered on Ekkunar.
“And great… we got the same Varelsi from when you guys were retrieving the Codex off Ekkunar. Where’s Orendi when we need her-?” Shayne asked, just as Varelsi began to spawn underneath everyone’s feet. “Aww crap! Everyone run!”
“No need to tell me twice!” Discord yelled, throwing Eris onto his back and picking up Shayne and Aurox as he raced to the nearest place where there wasn’t anything creeping around. Up from above though, Sweetie Bot provided some extra space for them to land as she used her death laser to clear a landing spot for Discord and the others while Caldarius surveyed the situation from above.
It was then that the shock trooper noticed something and called out to the others as he landed nearby. “I think I found something that could help.”
“Anything really works at this point… so what did you see?” Eris then spoke up.
“Well, based on the footage I remembered when Discord and his team last took this guy down, they used Varelsi Breaker Turrets to get rid of that monster’s shields. So if you set them up-”
“Then we defend them and when the guys shield breaks down, we attack?” Sweetie Bot then asked, rolling her eyes. “You do realize that Discord and I were there when we on that mission and you were surveying us from the skies right?”
“True… But Shayne and Aurox weren’t there and neither was Eris…” Caldarius countered as he looked around. “There seems to be four of them spread out. But two of them are over here and two are over there… and that is being swarmed with Varelsi.” He pointed out as more Varelsi troops soon began to swarm in. That was when Discord thought of something… whispered it to Eris… and then both of them got an idea.
“Okay, we have an idea… but it might require some assistance.” Eris said, before looking at Shayne… and looking up at Aurox as she scratched her chin before smiling a little.
“Uh… why are you looking at me like that?”
“Simple… our idea requires you to do one thing… you need to throw us over there.” Eris told him. Personally, Aurox was questioning why she wanted him to do that when the bounce pads were only a few meters away, but he just went with it. First throwing Discord over there as he armed himself with a pair of rocket bracers before throwing Eris over to join her son.
“You know… I think I saw that in a holo-movie once.” Shayne said, before snapping back to reality and getting ready to lay the beatdown on the Varelsi Shulks that were headed their way. Both sides were managing to hold off the Varelsi rather well as the turrets broke through the Gunhulk’s shields and disarmed it of it’s weapons. Yet, the hard part came after it’s weapons were gone… and from it came claws. Ones that could pull unsuspecting victims towards them.
And the first one that happened to get caught… was Shayne and Aurox. “Aw crap-!” Being yanked mercilessly was one thing… but being freed in mid flight by Discord as he used a katana blade to sever the tether that the Gunhulk used to pull the teen and the djinn was something the two of them did not expect. But what he did also caused the Varelsi to lose an arm too.
“Wow uh… thanks for the save.”
“No problem… now let’s finish off this guy. I’m getting bored with how Rendain is just throwing minions at us while he sits back. Rather lazy if you ask me.” The draconequus replied, just as Shayne had her hands form a finger gun and Aurox disappeared from behind her. “Hey, where did dad go?”
“Wait for it…” Shayne told him, keeping him in suspense before they all heard Aurox roar out in fury as what sounded like a large bell going off as a glowing circle formed under the Varelsi.
“I HEAR THE BELL FOR DINNER!!!” From underneath the Gunhulk Aurox revealed himself in a powerful eruption that went off like a volcano as it caused the massive Varelsi they were facing to turn to explode as it’s physical form faded away. Soon returning to Shayne shortly afterwards and holding out what looked to be a beating Varelsi heart. “Eat the heart, Shayne!”
“Uhh… No thanks. You go ahead-.”
“Heart eating is a TEAM activity!” Aurox insisted. “Isn’t that right, Discord!?”
“I thought you told me that you dined on souls.” The draconequus questioned.
“Both of them are delicacies to me. I eat the hearts of enemies and drink their souls!” The Djinn boaster just as Eris and the other caught up with them… and the female draconequus had a particular question for them.
“Uh… I don’t mean to interrupt your bonding moment with my son, but aren’t we suppose to be doing something right now-?”
“Stop KILLING EVERYTHING!! RRRGH!!!” That furious outburst from Rendain answered her question immediately as they all turned to see a blood red fire burning in his eyes. The battleborn had managed to really piss him off right now… and he was not going to let the petty resistance that was the Battleborn foil his plans anymore.
With anger in his voice and a burning sense of rage in him, Rendain left the safe confines of the void that he was in and returned to the center platform. “Solus is doomed. There is NOTHING you can do! There is nothing ANY of us can do!! SUBMIT TO THE INEVITABLE!!!!”
“Screw that!” Discord declared, having a purple set of headphones on as he looked to be wearing some shoes and cargo shorts. “Okay, who cued the JRPG look? This is supposed to be a first person shooter for god’s sake!! …… Oh sorry, I meant hero shooter.”
“Or Overwatch clone!” Eris added. “Even though WE technically came out first.”
“Whatever…” Discord grumbled, tossing the headphones and clothes aside. “Hey, is it just me or is Rendain sort of… losing it?”
“RIP OUT THEIR HEARTS!!! TEAR THEM LIMB FROM LIMB!!! LAUGH MANIACALLY AT THEIR DEATHS!!!!” He shouted as black crystals began to form around in a spiral formation before shooting at the group. “SUMMON ALL BATTALIONS!! DESTROY THE BATTLEBORN AND THE CHAOS HELLSPAWNS!!!”
“So clichéd.” Discord grumbled, snapping everything away. Rendain stared, his eyes twitching. “And how did you defeat my kind? For all the comments saying how I'm a runt, I'm clearly beating you with plenty of time to spare. Perhaps I should Binge watch all of the DBZ series… including GT.” BUM-BUM-BUUM!!!
Shayne just sighed at Discord’s comment, only to realize something. The longer the fight dragged out, the more difficult it was to hit him. They all had to be constantly moving because of the ongoing attacks that Rendain was using to cut them down to size, but he was getting more elusive with each time he did attack. This was making it hard for some of their team like Caldarius and Sweetie Bot to land a decent hit and when he attacked them, they were in immediate need of repairs and forced to make a tactical retreat.
But this also played out well for the teen. In the moment that Rendain was going to boast about their overconfidence, she commanded Aurox to chase after him and before the lothar could react, Aurox’s attack had briefly disorientated him. “Discord, he’s stunned! Finish him now!!”
“Go for the big finish!” Eris encouraged him.
“Got it.” He pulled a remote out of nowhere and clicked it. Appearing over Rendain was a moon-looking station… even though some people saw it as a moon.
“Uh… that’s no moon…” Shayne then realized, just as she and a few others were beginning to back up as Aurox grabbed Discord. “Everyone HIT THE DECK!!”
“Bye, boring generic villain.” Discord spoke, pressing the button and snapping his talon, sending the group far away from where the blast was going to take place and back at where the controls of the Heliophage were.
“Y-you’re all ALIVE!?! What the actual hell happened in there?!!” Kleese barked at them.
“I got bored. And what is Rendain going to do when he wins? He's going to be in darkness… nothing really fun to do in there if you can’t see anything.”
Kleese just rolled his eyes for a moment before another voice then spoke up. “Sorry for interrupting on this, but there has been something on my mind… Does anyone know what actually powers the Heliophage?” Nova then interjected. “To put it in Discord’s words… it’s a question that has yet to be answered by the authors.”
“I just told you this!” Eris snapped. “He has all other Draconequi in machines, powering everything! Like the Matrix, but minus the robotic emotion.”
“Yet, he’s not controlling you…” The Magnus mentioned. “And if he were controlling them, then how exactly would he force so many of them to break under his whim?”
“Reasons.” Discord simply spoke. Shortly after the Draconequus said that, they all saw a small pocket of the void open up as a battle damaged and scarred Rendain limped out. His left arm was gone, had burn marks over his entire body and he was trying to say some sort of final words that no one could decipher.
“Well… I say let’s give this bastard what he wants then…” Deande angrily spoke up. “Open up a Varelsi Portal… If he wants darkness so badly, he can have it while endlessly drifting in the void.”
“You guys get it open…” Shayne smirked. “I promised Aurox to let him tear the sh*t out of Rendain the first chance he got for mocking Discord… Now I say is the right time to give it to him.” Aurox grinned carnivorously as he looked at Rendain, who’s eyes were in fear as he snarled.
“What happened to all that good sh*t you were saying a second ago, Rendain!! Just grow back your arm! HIT ME!! FIGHT ME!!! ……… GIVE ME A HUG!!”
“R-really?” All that allowed for Aurox to do was launch at himself menacingly as he began to tear at every inch of Rendain before feeling satisfied. Looking at Discord in the process.
“And that son, is the best way for you to deal with bullies.” Aurox grumbled. That was the cue for Deande to open up the portal as it began to expand outward. Yet, the problem was that it was expanding rapidly and at an uncontrolled pace… and coming for them.
“Oh crap…… run-!!” Mellka yelled… until Discord grabbed an end of the portal and closed it with a zipper.
“Seriously? Just let me do what I have to do, and all is well.” He said, turning to the Heliophage itself. “So… now what?”
“We get the other Draconequus out of the Heliophage, that’s what! With Rendain out of the picture, he doesn’t have control of them anymore!” Eris pointed out to her son and extending a talon towards one of the main pieces of the Heliophage. An orb that replicated the sun. “Just crack it open and set them free!”
“And it shall!” Discord teleported to the top with a giant spoon. “Head my voice, Mortals!!! I, Discord, am your savior, and you will love me for the next eternites!!!”
“That… definitely is Discord alright.” Shayne smirked.
“He always had a flair for the dramatic.” Eris commented as the two of them watched the results of all their hard work from their campaign against Rendain. Right until Mellka asked a new question. “So… what happens now?”
“Well, Kleese managed to uncover a Jennerit hard drive filled with locations of stars that were originally darkened by the Varelsi,” Deande told the two of them shortly afterwards. “If what I know about Draconequui is correct, they can possibly-?”
“Shh! Discord.” Eris shushed them both as Discord whacked the machine with his spoon. It cracked wide open… followed by a huge explosion, firing all of the draconequus out, all celebrating for their freedom.
“We’ll discuss this later.” Deande sighed as they all paid attention to everything that was unfolding and all the draconequus that were flying out everywhere. Though, there was one in particular that flew out, but landed not far from where Eris and the others were. It definitely looked male from appearance, but it also seemed to know Eris somehow.
And of course, her first response was slapping this newcomer in the face.
Rogue Chaos- The Heliophage: This is taking FOREVER!! (Part 3)
“Ow. I guess I deserve that.” The newcomer spoke in a voice that made all the ladies have nose bleeds and the men look at him with puzzled expressions.
“You’re damn right you deserve that!” The female draconequus growled. “Hell, you deserve a lot more than just that. If it weren’t for these guys, they wouldn’t have found our son, raised him and got me and the rest of you out of there, Entropy.”
“Wait a minute,” Shayne interjected, folding her arms for a minute before speaking up and realizing the full extent of what Eris said. “Are you telling me that this is the jackass of a father that demoralized Discord as a child!!?”
“There's a difference between demoralizing and punishing a child!” Entropy growled. “And what do you mean by ‘raising’ our child? He's already an adult!”
“Not when we found him…” Shayne said, turning to Eris for a moment. “Should I explain it to him or would you like to take a crack at it?”
“I'm gonna crack more than just exposition.” Eris hissed.
“Ugh, expositions… they're so… boring.” Entropy groaned. “Guess that's how Rendain felt, right? Bored himself to death?”
“Look Entropy… there were a lot of factors involved in this, but in the sake of time… and the fact that we still need to get back to the ship, we’re going to make this quick,” Eris replied. “Let's say that your discipline to him mixed with various other factors-”
“Oh please! Knowing him, he fell in love with those ‘ponies’ in Equestria. Certainly that Celestia and Fluttershy were his main reasons. Knew he'd be thinking with his second brain.”
“Like I said, factors… anyways, he found a way to revert himself back as a child and was found by Shayne and Aurox here… who adopted him into the rogues. They and the Battleborn were the ones fighting against Rendain and with him dealt with, we can now try to breath easier without having to go at each others throats.” Eris sternly replied. The tension was thick between both Draconequui and when Discord was by Shayne and Aurox and saw the two of them, he only had one thing to say.
“Only when you stop ruining our name!” Entropy groaned.
“Hey, your son and the rest of us just saved your ass and now you're being very ungrateful about it,” Shayne spoke up with Aurox looming over him. She was thinking over something Eris was talking to him about before thinking of an idea. “Plus… I’ve been told there’s more than one way to scare a Draconequus.”
“Pfft! Yeah right! Unless you're a mind reader, then-” Entropy’s comment was interrupted when Shayne took a piece of paper out of her back pocket, unfolded it, and presented the contents to him. “AHH!!! GET IT AWAY!!! GET THAT AWAY!!!”
“Wow…” Eris commented, turning towards Shayne and not looking at the paper in question. “How did you know that would work?”
“Reyna uses it on Orendi whenever she’s having one of her emotional tantrums and needs her to focus on what’s important.” Shayne sighed as she kept the paper on hand. “Right now though, I think all of us deserve some r&r after dealing with Rendain. Mellka, you getting drinks for everyone? I think this calls for a celebration.”
The Aelfrian smirked once she heard that. “Hell, I’m up for that. I’ll even buy the whole damn bar since I have Kleese’s bank account number.”
“I HEARD THAT!!”
It was then that Discord came down from the sky, wielding an open umbrella and held a suitcase while dressed up as a nanny. “Well, this is all dandy, but we're still in a Tats-pwny-verse-ish-story, and we need some weird way for me to get back to Equestria.”
“We can figure that out later-.” Eris said before a piece of paper popped up next to her and she began examining it. “Hunh… well that’s new… It says something here about story ops missions… from something called Gearbox Software.”
“Oh Great… DLC… as if that ever worked.”
“Ehh… We’ll get to it later. Right now, we should celebrate your accomplishments.” Eris replied, cuing a particularly catching song. “I think this would best fit the mood right now.”
“R.I.P., Freddy Mercury.” Unfortunately, it was canceled by Entropy.
“Ahem! In case of any of you didn't notice, we still have to rebuild the galaxy back to what it was.”
“Oh come on, Entropy. Can’t you just relax for two seconds? Geez, you’re such a workaholic.” Eris grumbled.
“Oh? I'm a workaholic? You know, I will relax when the Galaxy is back!”
“And how do you intend to do that?” Entropy simply whistled. Every Draconequi teleported behind him.
“Easy: SINGING AND DANCING!!!” With another snap, he changed the tune on the boombox as it began to play a new song. Strange enough, Entropy wore a red dress and a blonde wig, as Discord stood next to him, wearing a green dress and brown wig.
“And yet, were still not moving anywhere…” Shayne deadpanned, until she noticed all the draconequi moving away from them and began to follow them. “Well, guess I’ll take back my last statement. We are moving now.”
“Yep… Time to get off of here and start rebuilding… after we celebrate of course.” Mellka chuckled, causing Shayne and Aurox to facepalm simultaneously. They might’ve defeated the tyrant Rendain… but there was still a lot that had to be done before they could really catch a break.
It had only been a couple of weeks since the defeat of Rendain and being able to free all the Draconequus that were trapped inside the Heliophage and since then, things have begun to improve… a bit. Even with the Draconequus helping them get the worlds back in order, they still had to deal with the different incursions of Varelsi that would spawn in different places from time to time. Though, gladly enough, there wasn’t any incursions going on today and all the Battleborn themselves were inside the base that they established on Bliss. Nova herself was doing repairs and modifications… all the while her voice modulator was temporarily overridden to play some cheery music for this time of year. Much to her disapproval.
It was while this was going on and the Battleborn were decorating the base that Shayne happened to ask both Discord and Eris a question that was on her mind. “Hey Eris, Discord. I was wondering about this for a while, but what kind of holidays do you have back on your homeworld?” When Eris heard that question, it almost caused her to drop an ornament on Discord’s head as she turned to face the teen.
“Well, Equestria and Equus as a whole have different holidays depending on the species and culture, but the most commonly celebrated one is Hearth’s Warming,” She explained to Shayne as Aurox handed her the next ornament to place around the entire hangar. “It’s a lot like the old earth holiday that was called Christmas, where people would go buy gifts for friends and neighbors and children would play in the snow. But on Hearth’s Warming, everyone’s able to open up the gifts and see what kind of presents they got. Some families even have large dinners and invite family from all over the world to spend the holidays with them.”
“That’s rather interesting,” The two of them heard Pendles, who was also in the room at the time, speak up as he hung a set of holiday bells over where Nova’s terminal was. “Does your homeworld have anything similar to Egg-Grog?”
“Egg… Grog?” Phoebe then asked, both confused and a little bit disgusted at the same time when the Roa said that as she went over to them. “Please do tell that you’re joking, right?”
“And don’t you mean Egg-nog?” Eris then spoke up, also confused a little bit.
“Nah, it’s called Egg-grog… and it’s nothing to joke about either,” Pendles told both both of them. “In fact, it’s an important part of the richest Roguish tradition of Newshine’s Day!” Shayne herself was going to speak up, but thought that Pendles himself might be able to explain this a little bit better than she could.
“New… shines… day.” Both Phoebe and Eris repeated simultaneously, trying to understand what Pendles was saying. The Roa nodded his head in response to both of them as he began to explain all the important… traditions to them involving the holiday the Rogues celebrated. Which included putting a Mylar Blinder over your helmet and giving yourself a reason to wear your ugliest spacesuit on that day while they watched Solus flare up and drinking Egg-Grog. It sounded simple enough and some of the traditions seemed… simple enough. Yet, some of the other battleborn overhearing this were a bit… confused.
“Just a minute, chief. How’d ya drink egg-grog while wearing a spacesuit and a helmet? That just seems impossible if you think about it.” Montana then spoke up, carrying a rather big and heavy box on his shoulders that made Shayne raise an eyebrow.
“Uhh… Montana? Isn’t that Nova’s engine?” She asked, having him look at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Why would ya think it’s the engine?” he asked.
“It said, “MAIN ENGINE: PLEASE DON’T REMOVE” on the side of the box.” Discord pointed out, leading to Montana having to put it back as Pendles got around to answering Montana’s question.
“Sorry mate, trade secret. Anyway, at midnight, you have the best part! The New shine shoeshine!” That just got both Eris and Phoebe even more puzzled than they were earlier.
“Hold on just a moment,” Eris then interjected. “Are you trying to say that you and the Rogues only shine your shoes once a year? That’s just… bizarre.”
“And what you and Discord are capable of isn’t?” Pendles then countered her statement. “No offense, Madam, but I think we can all agree that we’ve seen some weird things when your son’s on a mission with us… Anyways, I used to shine my shoes once every twenty years give or take. Now though, once a year, I take some spit and elbow grease to wipe off all the slog and grime off from where you were and where you are and BLA-DOW! You’re all set for a fresh new year of sneaking experiences.”
“Spit and elbow grease? How…… charming.” Phoebe simply stated. Discord though had a feeling that the fellow rogue was going to redirect the conversation back at her this time around.
“Oh yeah, and I’ suppose you lot in the LLC have your own tradition that’s just brimming with charm now, do ya?” The Roa’s question just made Phoebe smirk as she proudly responded to the Rogue’s question.
“As a matter of fact, we do!”
That got Shayne chuckling a little as she and Discord looked back at each other for a moment before looking back at Phoebe. “Oh-kay, what’s your dumb holiday got besides no egg-grog?”
“And no snowball fights! Don’t forget about snowball fights!” Discord then said, taking a moment to use his magic to conjure a snowball and hit Oscar Mike in the helmet with it.
“Well, we get the day off…” Phoebe first said. Initially, everyone thought she was pausing for dramatic effect until Discord himself realized something.
“Wait… That’s it? That just sounds really lame. Do you at least have Vacation Days?”
“Yeah… that’s pretty much it… Oh! And the friday before it is casual friday, so everyone wears Silver trimmings instead of the usual gold.” That just had Discord facepaw himself with his lion paw as someone else now decided to take a turn with talking. That person being Reyna this time.
“Damn, all you LLC really need to just let loose. Besides, what do you even call this holiday of yours?” She brought up a very valid point with that and it was something that Phoebe forgot to mention earlier while she was talking.
“Well, the name is still being workshopped and the officials in the guild are trying to figure out whether this is going to be recurring annually or not, but right now they’re calling it-.”
“-Company Holiday 17!! The greatest of ALL holidays!!” That response came from El Dragon, who decided to bodyslam off of a ladder in order to make the dramatic announcement… probably in the most badass way possible.
“Oh sure, big deal… You get the day off, what’s so special in that anyways? It just sounds like if you want to use your vacation days.” Discord then asked in response.
“Ah-ha! But it is the BIGGEST of deals, my friend!! Because EVERYONE gets the day off and for liability purposes, it is mandatory! Including Internal Security, the legal team, etc! They can’t hold LLC employees or staff members accountable for any form of damage sustained to company property for a full 24 hours!!” El Dragon boasted in his macho voice, catching the attention of a particular Aelfrian that just happened to be nearby.
“WOAH there… Hang on a second, I’m beginning to like the sound of this,” Mellka interjected the first chance she had. “So your saying that you guys have a grudge day where everyone just does what they want and you can steal and fight and vandalize junk to vent all your pent up frustrations?”
“Honestly, that just sounds like the Holiday Edition of The Purge.” Eris commented.
“I… I never thought about it like that,” The galactic luchadore admitted. “I just use the day to practice my Super Sentry submission holds and all my other signature moves… But now that you mentioned it, that does seem… possible.” He took a moment to think everything over, scratching his chin with his robotic arms as he looked back at everyone else. “Most of the offices are empty and it would be hard to find opponents, but yes, YES! With an access code to the Galactic Holo Arena, or robot arms strong enough to pull off the doors, you could host THE FIRST LLC BATTLE ROYALE!! Finally, Jen from the mail room will suffer the mighty wrath of El DRAGOOOON!! We’ll see how much she enjoys eating other people’s lunch when she doesn’t have any teeth and instead must savor the bitter taste of defeat!!!” With a heroic pose and an idea fresh in his mind, he turned to the rest of the group and waved to them. “Please excuse me, I must make a few calls.”
“ …… If he’s looking for competitors, sign me up!!” Discord declared, putting on a mask and a silly superhero outfit for fun. “El Dragon vs. Captain Goodguy! Only on Pay-per-view! It’s the battle of the century folks!!”
“Here comes a new challenger!” Eris giggled, causing Shayne and a few others to laugh as well. Yet, with the current topic being about El Dragon’s battle royale, that had Mellka say something else that was on her mind as Rath entered the room.
“Man, I wish the Eldrid would have something like that. All we have back on Ekkunar is Lifebloom.” The Aelfrian sighed.
“What in the world is a Lifebloom?” The Jennerit Swordsman then asked.
“Sounds like a plant to me.” Sweetie Bot then spoke up as she was helping out one of the other UPR members of the Battleborn with the decorating.
“No no, it’s not like that. The Eldrid’s holiday is named Lifebloom,” Mellka clarified. “It’s this thing where everyone gives a ‘gift’ in the morning.”
“Oh, so like a second birthday?” Shayne then spoke up.
“Kind of, but the gift is like a plant or something, sometimes a rock-.”
“Aww man, you got my hopes up.” Discord pouted, looking at Mellka. “I like birthdays.”
“Anyways…” The Aelfrian continued as she looked back at everyone else. “No matter what you get, you’re suppose to be thankful for it because it represents… something.”
“Life, child, it represents the natural beauty of life-.”
“Oh hey, it’s Katniss!” Discord chuckled again, making Thorn irritated as the sound of a mockingjay bird could be heard in the background.
“Yeah, whatever… On the Night of Lifebloom though, you open your gift, it blooms, it hatches or sits there if you got a rock-.”
“Would that happen if you’re on Santa’s naughty list?” Discord interjected when Mellka paused to catch her breath.
“-You tie off whatever you got to a moonbulb, which is like a glowing, floating plant from Ekkunar and just let it float off into Oblivion.” Mellka finished a few moments later and then mentioned something. “And for the record, I only know of what Santa Claus is because of Ghalt and the UPR. Otherwise the Eldrid don’t know about Santa Claus.”
“So let me get this straight,” Shayne then spoke up, looking at Mellka. “Your holiday involves you getting a bunch of plants and stuff from outside and trading it around the place like you’re trading an old fruit cake at a galactic flea market, only to then give it up at the end of the day?”
“No, everyone gets only one gift.” Mellka corrected her, shaking her head. “Anyway, the Green Observer on Ekkunar says that doing this helps regulate the migratory patterns of the Amber Starhawk since the sky is… well disappearing there?” However, the mentioning of the work ‘hawk’ in particular happened to capture the attention of a one feathery fellow of the UPR. One in particular who was actually part hawk.
“Okay, speaking as somethin’ from a hawk myself, that just sounds rather confusing as hell to be honest,” Benedict then spoke up. “And how do ya’ll make sure that your gift does what it’s suppose to do and at the right time-?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. I was wondering about it the first time, but it just all seemed to work out. I mean, you may just as well ask how my claw works when I want to stab somehow, how Boldur has been able to survive this long because of his stubbornness and how a Draconequus is able to control chaos magic.”
“Now that you mention it, how the hell DOES those things work-?”
“I have no idea, Benedict. Anything involving the Eldrid or Eldrid Science is weird that way. Trust me, it works.” Mellka sighed. “As for the Draconequus bit, ask Discord or Eris-.”
“I’ll tell you how it works,” Discord declared proudly; putting on a bandana, some shades and a goatee. “Because-- Reasons!”
“... That doesn’t-.”
“REASONS!!” He proclaimed once more like a overly buff man that loved the sight of explosions and always yelling all the time. All that did was cause Benedict to groan a little as he looked back at everyone that was talking and ran one of his claws through the feathers on his head.
“Y’all need to take a page from the UPR field manual and just keep it simple. That’s what I like about the BUF festival,” He explained, ignoring the sound of Discord snickering as he continued to speak. “All you have to remember are the 3 F’s: Fireworks, Feats of Strength and Falafel! All you need are all three of those and your celebration is good to go!” That had Eris grin a little as she conjured a notepad to write them down just in case if she or her son needed to use them anytime soon. For the LLC engineer next to her though, Phoebe was more puzzled then intrigued by what Benedict was trying to explain to them.
“And what, pray tell, does ‘BUF’ stand for?” That single question got Oscar Mike and Montana off of their feet to join Benedict in the center of the room like they were auditioning for a musical… one that would almost shake the entire base as all three said the same thing in response Phoebe’s simple question. “Bright Universe Festival!!”
“Wait… Benedict just called it the BUF festival… Doesn’t that mean the full name is Bright Universe Festival Festival? That’s just sounds like an repeated word error Microsoft Word forgot to catch.” Eris then said.
“Technically, if you just refer to it as the BUF, it can be taken the wrong way,” Benedict replied. “Heck, it happened to Oscar Mike when he asked Galilea if she was going to it on his first year of deployment… And it’s the reason why he’s sometimes scared of her.”
“Am not!” The clone soldier snapped in defiance.
“She’s right there,” Benedict said, causing Oscar Mike to hide behind Montana as Benedict chuckled a little. “Case in point.”
“So the UPR celebrates the rekindling of Solus with the Bright Universe Festival… Festival, with 3 F’s?” Kelvin asked as he joined in on the conversation as some of the other Battleborn were finishing up with their tasks.
“Kelvin, don’t bother, I already tri-.” Whiskey Foxtrot’s sentence was then interrupted by Oscar Mike, who’s loud and obnoxious reply did little to assist him in that moment. The conversation continued on in this fashion for quite a while… until everyone’s attention was directed towards one of the Mistletoe sets that was hung up earlier catching on fire as they all turned to see Ambra.
“Oh come on! We just placed that up there a few minutes ago!” Discord complained. Only for Ambra to sigh as she facepalmed herself.
“Really? No one’s going to ask? All of you are talking about holidays, traditions and festivals and none of you are THE LEAST BIT CURIOUS as to what sort of traditional festivities the Jennerit people have?” She then asked. A small silence drifted through the room, just as Shayne raised a hand and asked a question.
“Does it involve Blood Sacrifice?” She asked.
Kleese was the next one to ask as he was sitting in his holiday themed chair right next to Phoebe and Eris. “A day of gladiatorial games and sad music on the organ?”
“Oh, oh, I bet it involves triangles!” Alani then called out. “Triangle-palooza!!” Montana then shouted, accidently smacking Oscar Mike in the head. Mellka was the next one for calling out what could the Jennerit’s holiday tradition be and guessing on what was already said by Alani and Montana. “The Triangulation Ceremony!”
“Does it involve blood sacrifice of gladiatorial triangles?” Shayne then asked again, merging both ideas from Alani and Kleese. That was, until Discord blurted something out.
“Illuminati!” That got everyone turning towards him as he soon groaned. “Hey, you guys said Triangles and Blood Sacrifice! It can’t be just a coincidence that the thought of that crossed my mind!”
“No no no NO NO AND ABSOLUTELY NO!!” Ambra roared, infuriated by the outrageous and rather insulting guesses that she had heard over the course of a few minutes, especially Discords. “It involves, and is named, NONE OF THOSE THINGS!! Why you little-!”
“-Solus day.” At that moment, everyone in the room turned to see Deande walk into the room. “It’s just called Solus Day.”
“Oh.”
“Or at least that’s what we’re calling it,” Deande corrected herself. “I was going to message out to the other factions and the leaders of Solus Day being a proposed celebration that all the factions could agree on.”
“And what exactly happens on Solus Day?” Discord then asked her.
“Well, starting at Dawn, the Jennerit Orbital Mega ship named Exodus follows along the path of Solus’ across the sky, gradually eclipsing more and more until the ship reaches it’s zenith.”
“YES, AND?” Aurox then asked, a little intrigued.
“There’s an artificial Solar Eclipse,” The Spymistress continued. “It’s quite a thrilling spectacle, really. Exodus overtakes Solus, the eclipse ends, there’s a Viper flyover, a masquerade, et cetera, et cetera.”
“Oh wow, that sounds amazing!” Oscar Mike then commented. “I wonder if we’ll see the eclipse from Nova.”
“No, Mike, that’s not how… you know what, screw it.” Whiskey Foxtrot groaned.
“If you like, all of you are more than welcomed to join us.” Deande told them, just as Ghalt came into the room and told her something on the side… and judging from his facial expression, it seemed to be pretty important.
And Eris did not like the looks of it. “I’ll be back in a moment, Dissy.” She assured him, floating over and following both Deande and Ghalt out of the room, unnoticed by either of them until after they entered the command center in the base.
“Eris? I thought you were-.”
“Just taking a break for now.” She sighed. “So… what seems to be the problem? Judging from Ghalt’s facial expression, your concerns and also the fact that the authors need a plot right around now, something must be up.” Ghalt sighed and put his hand out on the holographic table in front of them.
“Nova, are you there?” A few moments later, Nova springed to life in the room as she looked at them.
“Finally, I’m needed for something! I thought I was going to die in there to the sound of cheery music and plants covering one of my processing units.” Nova proclaimed before looking at them. “Oh, right. It’s serious time. Need to be serious now.”
“Nova happened to inform me that ever since what transpired at the Heliophage, there was someone in particular who has been inside the simulation chamber over the course of the last few days. Claiming he needed to be in there for… therapeutic reasons.” Ghalt told them.
“Pfft… that sounds like an excuse if I’ve ever heard of one.” Eris blew it off. “Who’s even in there?” Yet, the response she heard gave her more confusion than answers… and Deande more answers then confusion.
“Attikus. I had a conversation with Ambra about this and from what we can figure out, he’s been in there reliving the events of the Third Thrall Rebellion.” Ghalt informed them.
“The what?” Eris asked.
“It was a rebellion amongst the Thrall against the Jennerit and what we needed for cover in order to sabotage the Heliophage the first time along with me committing treason against Rendain. Though this happened more recently and you were still in stone when it did occur.”
“Why geez, thanks for reminding me…” Eris grumbled, only to notice a couple of flashing lights. “Hang on, what’s that?”
“Captain, it seems like two more people have entered the simulation chambers Attikus is in… It happens to be Discord along with Shayne and Aurox…” Nova responded, showing surveillance footage.
“Why are they in there?” Deande asked, only to hear what the two of them were saying in that moment.
“Aww man, I thought mom hid the Hearth’s Warming presents in here! I don’t want to wait a few more hours to find out what I got-.”
“Discord, what are you doing?” They heard Shayne ask. “That’s the simulation room. Not the janitor’s closet that you thought had your presents.”
“I CAN DREAM, CAN’T I!?”
That just left all of them surprised… but gave Ghalt an idea. “Eris, Deande… What do you think of having those two try to break Attikus out of his depressed slump?”
“As long as I get to be with those two… Meh, it’ll help pass the time.” Eris replied, snapping her finger as she disappeared from the room. Only making Deande sigh a little.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” She asked.
“It’s the only chance we got… and they got a lot of time before that artificial eclipse happens for Solus day.” Ghalt told them as he followed Deande back to where the rest of the crew were.
It was only a few moments after Shayne and Aurox had originally decided to follow Discord to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn’t do anything that would get himself in trouble. Of course, the Draconequus had previously tried to argue that trouble was his middle name in order to prove a point, but the teen remembered that his middle name was actually Apophis thanks to that of Eris. Speaking of which, as she turned around, both the teen and the djinn were rather surprised to see the female draconequus nearby as she was nearby the entrance to the offline simulation chamber they were in. “So… care to explain what kind of mischief he’s trying to do now?”
“Discord thinks you hid the Hearts Warming presents in here for him and also thought this was a Janitor’s closet,” The teen sighed as she turned to see multiple different items, including Whiskey Foxtrot’s and Oscar Mike’s plushies be thrown into the air as he rummaged through a box of junk he had found. “I tried getting him to use some sense… but it hasn’t worked out.”
Eris chuckled a bit as she looked at the duo and shook a finger. “Here’s a tip for you two… Trying to get Draconequus to use common sense is like trying to pass a sobriety test after you get wasted. You're going to fail almost every time-.” Hearing her say that though just caused the Draconequus that was originally going through a box of junk to use his magic to make it reappear in another location before looking back at them.
“What’s wasted, mom?” He asked, all innocently.
“Wait, you don’t know what-.” Shayne asked before looking back at Eris. All she did though was shrug her shoulders as the teen now had to come up with a perfect… well… white lie to tell Discord. “It’s what happens when you… or Orendi for that matter… eat too much ice cream.”
That though, just made Discord even more excited. “I wanna get wasted!! No, CHOCOLATE WASTED!! Can I, mom? Can I!?” All that did was cause Aurox to groan and for Eris to chuckle a little in response as she messed with Shayne a little bit.
“Nice going… mom.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever…” Shayne replied before noticing that Discord had accidently stepped on a switch on the floor, causing the room to hum to life and for a small organized list to appear on a wall. What was on there though kind of surprised her personally. The only time that she would remember anyone going into the simulation room was to do simulated practice battles against each other. Whether it was for fun, glory or for Discord to mess around with Minrec, that what would normally be going on. Though, there was something on here that caught her attention. Something… new if she were to take a guess. It was underneath the training section on the organized menu and it was labeled “Operations”.
“Guys, does anyone have any idea what this is?” Shayne asked, pointing it out to the two of them. Though, the moment she asked that was when they heard the door close behind them and the room came to life. “And who the hell just did that?”
“Don’t look at me, I just work here.” Discord told them, but upon seeing the room around them, he decided to have a little bit of fun with it as he had a special kind of red shirt appear over his jacket and changing his voice. “Space… The Final Frontier…”
Eris saw this as kind of amusing, though Shayne and Aurox could not understand what the actual hell he was talking about. Though, the question as to what was going on was soon answered by a familiar face. “Welcome to Battleborn Operations-. Oh… it’s you guys. What’s up?”
“Nova? What exactly are you doing here?” Shayne asked, looking back at the Magnus AI that was floating around in the chamber.
“Well, other than helping keep the systems on this ship operational, I’ve been working with Ghalt and Kleese on this small pet project for a while now. Apart from the family friendly duels to the death that occur all the time in the simulation chamber, we also created a secondary mode that can help recreate different locations and people of the past and also present in these chambers thanks to the hard light technology in here.” The magnus AI explained. “However, I would like to strongly advise to all three of you that nothing you're about to see is real.”
“Isn’t that the case with most VR games nowadays?” Discord then asked.
“True, but I mention this for another reason. Kleese once tried to live in here after he found out that these chamber could replicate the beach resorts of Luxuria-6 and it took us a week in order to get him out.” Nova then mentioned, causing Eris to snicker a little in response. “That and there may be a problem with one of the people that’s inside the chamber already.”
“Is it Kleese again?” Discord asked. “I bet it’s Kleese.”
“No actually. It’s Attikus.”
“Who?” Discord asked, raising an eyebrow for a moment as Shayne sighed for a moment and spoke up shortly afterwards, reminding him of who Attikus was. “He was the thrall that you decided to ride piggyback on after we rescued Caldarius.”
“Oh THAT’S him? I just called him Atty for short. That and it sounds like a nice name to say in a scottish accent.” Again, another deep sigh from Shayne as Aurox turned to ask Nova a question this time.
“So why is Attikus in there in the first place?”
“The program that he’s currently been reliving is his personal accounts of the Third Thrall Rebellion on the planet Tempest. This is supposed to be therapeutic for him, but he has been taking some creative liberties with it.”
“Okay, if you’re asking us to do some random DLC mission to help this guy, then what do we get in exchange?” Discord then questioned.
“You can find operation points, or ops points for short, across the map and trade them in at the end of the mission for rewards and customizations. I’ll also be giving you bonus objectives for even more points for you to collect.” Nova told them, showing a digitally constructed version of Discord wearing a dark red and black jacket in replacement of his old one.
“That actually looks badass on you, Discord… Plus, it would look good since… when was the last time you washed that jacket?” All the Draconequus did in response to Shayne’s question was roll his eyes and whistle to himself, not even paying attention to Shayne, Aurox or Eris for that matter.
“So in other words, we win recolored costumes instead of, oh, I don't know, actual different costumes, equipment, and accessories?” Eris asked.
“Would you prefer Discord smelling like he hasn’t showered in weeks or actually wearing something… different. I know I don’t have a sense of smell, but since I do know that he has not used the shower room in…” At that point, Nova pulled up a small screen with the number of how long it was since Discord originally got here. “Four months.”
Upon realizing this, Shayne sniffed the air for a moment before coughing and gasping for air. “That was you!? For a moment, I thought Orendi was pranking people by throwing rotten eggs from the trash!”
Discord just facepalmed himself in response as he looked at both of them and sighed. “Okay, okay! I’ll take a dreaded shower after this! Geez… Nova, can we get this out of the way?”
“Certainly… but I do want to mention that it may take a few times in order to get Attikus out of the chamber. Fortunately though, each time you do this, it won’t exactly be the same as the last time,” Nova replied to them. “Consider it as… ‘replayability’. And don’t forget those ops points… Beginning Operation in three… two… one…” Once Nova’s countdown ended, the AI soon disappeared and the space that they were originally in transformed into the Jennerit slums and backstreets that you would find on the planet Tempest. All of them were… rather surprised to see that despite this being a simulation, everything looked realistic. There were even breakable boxes that Discord decided to smash because he was tempted to do so.
“So… what happens now?” Just as Shayne asked that, she heard what sounded like Attikus’ voice call out over their comline.
“We need to set up a rally beacon so I can come help you assault the Silent Sisters stronghold- But the Imperium is jamming communications. Take out the jamming towers to clear out the airwaves.” Shortly after hearing the thrall speak up and give them the main objective, the group soon heard something extra from Nova shortly after that.
“The Silent Sisters are broadcasting propaganda all across town. Try to shut down their signal.” The AI instructed them as some new indicators popped up on a minimap that Discord was looking at. Things were calm for the most part… until the colors all around them soon turned black and white with a hint of red as smooth jazz played in the background.
Not to mention they were seeing an icon of Attikus wearing a fedora now. “The name’s Attikus… I’m not a proper detective or nothing. I just solve people’s problems. Usually there’s someone with a fist deficiency… but a problem of my own was about to come knocking.”
“Okay, the setting now looks like it was designed by Frank Miller…” Discord then spoke up, onto to be followed by a rather… abrupt comment from Eris.
“Where dem ho’s at!?” Eris asked, before looking back at Discord and Shayne & Aurox. “What? LittleKuriboh didn’t censor it when he had that for his series-.” Fortunately, before Eris was about to say anything else, they now heard a rather familiar voice.
They soon heard Ambra, but instead of her normal outfit, she looked rather… formal and has less of a big head dress on her head. “Evening mister, I was just passing through this grimy edge of town when I saw your sign… Are you available for hire?”
“There dem ho’s at!” Eris shouted, all while using her abilities to attack some of the Jennerit thrall coming at the group. While they were fighting though, they still heard the conversation go on between Attikus and Ambra… while Attikus was still narrating the whole encounter in a dramatic fashion.
“She wore red in a way that could make a sunset leave a party to go change into something else. She was ten shards of nice… wrapped in ten thousand of trouble. I couldn’t afford to say no, but she didn’t have to know that.” He narrated, before actually speaking back to Ambra. “Maybe. what’s the case?”
“Are you sure that he’s got the characters in this right?” Shayne then asked on the side. “I mean, for a moment I thought that didn’t sound like Ambra. She would normally insult you the first chance she gets-.”
“Nothing your underdeveloped brain can’t handle. In fact, I think only a Thrall could pull it off,” They soon heard Ambra continue speaking.
“And what is that?” Attikus asked.
“I am in need of someone to start a revolution!” The group soon heard Ambra proclaim as the black and white screen soon faded away and the colors from the original eniviroment soon returned.
“... I stand corrected.” Shayne sighed before looking back at the other two draconequui. “Okay, so we got two jamming towers to take out and also those propaganda projectors. Which one has higher priority?” That question was soon answered though when they came across one of the projectors… that was defaming both Eris and Discord at the same time. Defining them and the Draconequui as traitors, criminals and also the most vicious insult of all… cowards.
“How DARE they portray us as cowards!! I will not forgive this insult to my kinds honor!!” Discord shouted, deeming an outfit like that of a particular royal guard/assassin with a metal mask to hide his face as he ripped the enemy to pieces while also besting the thrall in combat with a small blade that broke through the thralls own weapons like it was slicing through a loaf of bread.
And in no time at all, they soon got a notification of that from Nova. “Well done. The signal has been shut down. Ops points awarded.”
“Well, that’s one thing out of the way,” Shayne commented as she and Aurox turned around to see one of the communication jammers on the ground while also seeing one on the nearby rooftops. Both in which were heavily guarded. “Aurox and I got the one down here.”
“In that case, I’ll go lend my son a hand with the one on the roof… be back in a moment.” With that, the female draconequus put on an attire that was very… similar to that of Discord’s, but put a different mask on over the bottom half of her face as she used her chaos magic to pull herself to the roof and join her son. Leaving both Shayne and Aurox by themselves to just fight a Thrall Brute and a few other elite Thralls.
Which, of course, they saw as barely any challenge at all as they pulverized each one that came at them as they thrashed at everything in front of them. “Hey! Good job, champ!”
“STOP CALLING ME THAT!!”
“Uhh… slugger? … You know what, nevermind.” The teen rolled her eyes to the back of her head for a moment as a few more strikes from them destroyed the first of two communication jammers. Shortly followed by Discord and Eris annhilating the other one as they got confirmation on it from Attikus.
“All jammers destroyed! Airwaves cleared. Head to the drop point and secure the area!!” Shortly after saying that, their surroundings went black and white once again as they now heard Detective Attikus speak this time. “I tried to put the war behind me… but in the end, the Dame was right. The remaining thrall were scattered… like a box of matches spread out on the kitchen floor. Light them up one at a time and they flicker… then die alone. They had to come together, burn together in order to burn down the imperium’s house.”
“Is it just me or does is seem like this guy is trying too hard with metaphors?” Discord then asked as the three of them soon approached the beacon that had just touched down.
“Seems like it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he keeps on doing that.” Eris replied, keeping the outfit since she felt rather comfortable in it. “So what are we supposed to do now?”
“Well, truth be told, this reminds me of when we had to defend those terminals that Nova was hacking into back on Tempest,” Shayne replied, looking up at Aurox as he soon nodded his head in agreement. “I bet you a hundred credits that this is some sort of ‘protect the location’ objective regarding that beacon and also the turrets that Discord is building now.” Around then was when the Teen pointed out to the Draconequus what her son was doing as he had used some of the shards he had found along the way to power up two Thumper Turrets on opposite sides of the beacon.
Turns out, the teens suspicions were right. “Incoming Imperium loyal Thrall… Defend the Beacon at all costs!” Yet, she did not account for one thing that Nova soon informed them about moments later.
“There are Deadeye Snipers on the nearby rooftops. Take them out and I will grant you some ops points.” That in turn had Discord now change out his weapons for Marquis’ trusty cane as he stood firmly on one of the turrets and used one arm to aim and fire at the robots taking aim at both the beacon and his teammates.
All while being… in character as well. “Liberal arts major!! Big witted dumb coff! You disgust ME!!”
“Hoodini!” A robot owl spoke, perching on Discord’s antler. Which lead to the draconequus smiling a little bit before having a bowler hat pop into his paw as he then threw it at a incoming thrall, which exploded on impact.
“Oddjob!!”
“Boo! You suck!” A Thrall yelled in the background. Shortly before being struck by one of Eris’ chakrams.
“No one insults MY SON and gets away with it, you hear me!!” She roared, conjuring more magic as she provided more support for her son while he was taking out the snipers on the rooftops. Though, one comment from Shayne might have caught both of the draconequus attention as she and Aurox single handedly destroyed an entire wave of primal thralls.
“You guys are BORING me!! I mean seriously, you guys are really boring me right now!” She smirked, looking back at both draconequui shortly afterwards, with the word ‘TRIGGERED’ below them as a flashing red-orange neon sign. “I mean them, not you guys.”
“You want a challenge!?” Discord demanded. “Alright! We'll make it a challenge!” He pulled out a tablet, looking through the ‘options’ menu on the screen. “Alright, let's see here… disable shields, low quantity of health pickups, enemies are more like bullet sponges, and… AH-HA! Only one life.”
“You do realize she was joking right?” Aurox grumbled.
“She should've kept her trap shut.” Eris replied. Discord clicked ‘enter’. Immediately, their shields were gone, and the Thrall had turned into literal sponges.
“Okay… First off… I’m sorry for what I said… second… doesn’t this apply to all party members too?” At that, the same thing that happened to Shayne and Aurox… also happened to Discord and Eris.
“Challenge accepted!” Discord spoke, wearing a suit.
“I was going to tell you guys that when your reward tier increases, the difficulty mode increases too…” Nova spoke up, only to think about something shortly afterwards. “Also, how did you get access to the options of the simulation chamber?”
“Discord.” Aurox mumbled, just at said draconequus took out the last sniper in the area.
“I see… also, all snipers down. Good work. Ops points awarded… and next time, if you need me to make things difficult, ask about ‘hardcore mode’. Just a little something extra on the down low.” Nova replied to them.
“Or just pause.” Discord rolled his eyes, holding a game controller in his talon. “Freaking casuals.” Nova rolled her eyes for a moment, restoring some of the original parameters for the group. But also amping up the difficulty for them. With the ‘hardcore’ mode added, the team only had a limited number of revives to keep them alive and the enemies would not only deal a lot more damage, but also catch them off guard if they weren’t too careful.
And just when the enemies were all taken out, they soon heard Attikus nearby. “I got a lock on your rally signal. On my way!!” And once again, cue the black and white noir setting. “There’s always more to a case then what the client tells you and this one was no exception. She told me that she wanted to help the Thrall shake off their bonds, said it was their desire. She left out the part where it was all a ploy to put one over on her sister…”
“Wait, back up just a moment… Ambra has siblings?” Shayne then asked. “Why didn’t anyone care to tell us about that?”
“Because you never cared to ask,” Eris snickered as they noticed Attikus jump down from a nearby building and run over to a closed gate. “Besides, what else do you think the silent sisters were?”
“I honestly was lead to believe that they were some kind of Jennerit religious cult based on what Aurox and I have overheard.” That just lead to Aurox folding his arms while Eris facepalmed herself and looked back at the pair as Discord decided to join up with them.
“She’s not wrong…” The male draconequus then spoke up, causing Eris to sigh a little.
“I would explain it to you, but I believe I can save that story for another time-.” Just as Eris said that, everyone’s attention was immediately turned towards Attikus once he spoke up at them.
“You lot, follow me!! We got bones to break!” The doors were immediately torn open as all of them ran through the entrance. But shortly after coming through, Nova soon spoke up.
“Energy signature detected, something coming your way…” That was shortly followed by a kinetic surge of energy being released from the top of a nearby tower as a hooded figure with armor that would remind them of Caldarius assault frame soon loomed over them.
“Submit now or be scourged for your insolence!” The woman ordered, before flipping backwards and demonstrating more of her power. “Mongrels get put down!!” That was when she disappeared in a surge of light as multiple different pylons now dropped down all around the group. Unlike the Warp Pylons that would bring in more troops, these ones released an electrical discharge that was harmful to their shields and could not be destroyed by normal means.
“Those pylons are resistant to ranged attacks. Take them down with melee strikes and I’ll grants you some more ops points.” That was right up Shayne’s alley. Besides. Her shield could be able to take a few sparks from those pylons rather easily. However, Discord repeated an earlier joke.
“LEEROY!!! JENKINS!!!”
“…… Oh my god, he just went in.” Aurox grumbled, only followed by Shayne chasing after him. “Shayne, what are you-!?”
“You got any better ideas?!” She yelled, joining the chaos on the battlefield right now as they started thrashing and bashing all of the pylons and worked on the other enemies in the area. All while Nova awarded them for successfully destroying the pylons like she requested. It took them a little bit, but once they made short work of the first wave of bots, Discord was then seen with a red and white food bucket while eating what appeared to be a chicken wing.
“At least I have chicken.”
“Not quite sure if that’s the right time to say that… you know, since we’re actually still alive. But eh, whatever…” Eris soon replied, shrugging her shoulders as she activated her Ultimate ability, Pandemonium, to make one of the MX. Boom Bots turn on it’s allies by exploding and damaging both of the MX. Elite bots that were firing at them. Making it easier for not only Shayne, since that provided her the chance to have Aurox fetch them to separate the two of them, but also Discord since discarding the bucket of chicken caused it and the first Elite bot to explode. With some of the shrapnel from the bot hitting the second one as Discord took one of the robots weapons and aimed it at the other one’s face.
“Hey… You know what’s the sensation that’s sweeping the nation?” He grinned, dawning a red trench coat and grinning evilly like a real motherbucking vampire as he was ready to fire. “B*tches love CANNONS!!” That had Discord pull the trigger as the second robot blew up as he tossed the weapon aside.
“Why did you toss the weapon away?” Shayne then asked. “Can’t you use that-?”
“Only had one shot in it. Plus, I prefer sticking with a weapon that I can actually carry without making me slower.” He deadpanned, using a air pump in order to re-inflate his tired out arms. “So, what do we do now-?”
Ironically, just as he said that, everything went black and white all over again as they heard Ambra speak… again. “Consider this recompense for organizing my doll collection based on hair color instead of last name alphabetical, Aria!! My justice is at hand!!!”
“Wait… this whole revolution… is because of something between these two when they were kids?” Shayne asked, looking back at Eris and Discord. “That’s a lame reason for a revolt.”
“Well, as the… narrator of this particular story put it, Ambra did want to get one up on her sister…” Eris reminded them, recalling what Attikus said earlier. Then… they heard the other sister speak.
“Ambra!! I should’ve known. This had your manipulation all over it… and for the record… that was ELEVEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO!!” Aria snapped, making Shayne and Aurox look back at Eris and Discord in disbelief.
“YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID!!!”
“Wow… Girl sounds like she’s got problems.” Eris said, shortly before noticing Discord take up a pair of gauntlets and crack his knuckles.
“I’ll punch her problems!” His statement coincided with what Attikus soon told them as he tore off another set of doors.
“The sister’s retreated into her stronghold. We’re going to have to dig her out with our bare hands!!” He yelled. Discord grinned a little as they pressed on. However, unlike both the teen who adopted him and his actual mother… he didn’t express precautions regarding the next thing that Nova told them.
“Warning… Warning… A Jennerit Hover Tank is locking onto your location to take you out. Don’t get hit by their fire.” Discord was originally ignoring the objective, focusing on the enemies and pounding their faces into the dirt. But as the tank then hovered over and began to open fire, Eris called out to Shayne.
“Get him out of there! He doesn’t know that it’s a side objective!!” Shayne, hearing Eris’ statement, had Aurox fetch Discord out of the line of fire at the last second. Yet, the draconequus himself was not too happy about that.
“Oh come on! You broke the combo I was laying on those guys!”
Shayne sighed while Aurox grumbled and rolled his eyes. “Nova…”
“What?” The Magnus AI asked, partially confused for a few seconds until she realized her mistake. “Oh right… You get ops points if you make it over without getting hit. I was busy managing something on my end. Sorry.”
Discord grumbled upon hearing that as he looked back at the enemies in front of him. “Oh well… at least there’s always round two.” With that, he ran back into the fight once more and just as the hover tank was charging it’s weapons, Eris decided to put a cork in the charging systems on the tank. Making it overheat and explode as it crashed into the pits infinite pits below.
“Well… that was effective and rather… creative. Nevertheless, ops points awarded,” Nova spoke to them, before they all heard a ding sound effect in the background. “New reward tier reached. Oh fragious day, callooh callay!”
“Neat… I like rhymes.” Discord smirked. Shayne had Aurox called out at one point to initiate a tag team attack, drawing in all the remaining enemies together as the draconequus used the chance to pummel multiple faces at once. Taking them all down within seconds before looking back at the rest of the team as they saw Attikus racing to the door. And before you know it, another scene in black and white.
“Ambralia… I can’t believe you would align yourself with these mangy creatures over your own blood... ” Aria spoke to Ambra in a taunting manner as the Silent Sister shot back at her moments later.
“I rather have Rendain’s shivering lapdog for a sister than YOU, Ariana!!”
“Now that I think of it… I remember a young Claudia Ambralia Divia that quite loved dogs…” That caught both Discord and Shayne by surprise, even though Aurox didn’t really care that much about the subject. They had seen Ambra a lot on the ship and also on missions, but they honestly did not see her as the kind of person to be taking care of pets given how easily she can lose her temper sometimes.
And now was no exception. “How DARE you…”
“What was that puppy’s name? The one that I drowned on your tenth birthday.”
“Theodore!!”
“Right! You used to love rolling around in the dirt with that thing! Good to see things haven’t changed sister…”
“Okay… that went dark pretty quickly.” Shayne said, before feeling something come up her throat. “I-i feel like I’m gonna be sick… I mean, why would she even drown puppies?! That’s just as bad as Orendi trying to see if ISIC is evil by having him kill a kitten.”
“Maybe it’s because she’s suppose to be evil?” Eris asked. Causing Shayne to shrug her shoulders as she looked back at both her and Discord.
“Fair point…” Aurox grumbled before Shayne could say anything, all three of them approaching where Attikus was as he spoke up once more.
“She’s just inside! Oh wait… Where are my manners? I’ll get the door.” He said, before using all of the strength in his arms and kinetic gauntlet to hold the door open for them. But just as he was about to come inside, a Jennerit fightership locked onto their position and started opening fire on Attikus, causing him to let go of the door as it was shut tight.
“That’s definitely not a good sign…” Shayne said as she had her boomerang our, armed and ready.
“What was your first clue?” Eris asked, looking back at them. “I mean, think of it… you're in an almost empty room, a lot of spread out space and big boy outside saying that Aria was just inside. Those are obvious signs for what’s gonna happen next-.”
However, one statement though didn’t seem to fit in quite right with one member of the group. Though, it wasn’t Shayne that was uncomfortable with the situation. It was Aurox. “Wait… Almost Empty?” Just as he said that, numerous pillars began to spew kinetic energy all around them as a small ball of lightning began to expand around the room. Forming the same sister that they had been chasing down the last few minutes.
“Oh hey, look! It’s the boss with the awesome design, yet not so awesome voice!”
“How DARE you insult me, you wretched thing!” The silent sister shouted out at him, before there was a red glow around the Draconequus’ eyes as a powerful laser was fired off at her.
“I am NOT a thing! My name is Discord… and YOU WILL FEAR MY LASER FACE!!”
“Wow, that was… pretty damn awesome!” Shayne admitted, before noticing Aria reform in the center of the room and several of the shock pylons dropping down. This time though, they were beginning to charge her shields. “Oh that’s just cheap!”
“Calm down, Shayney.” Eris sighed, throwing one of her weapons at a few of the pillars, destroying them and causing the shield that was recharging to slow down. “If we destroy the pillars, we prevent her from getting her shield.”
“Thanks… next time though, don’t call me Shayney. It sounds like something Orendi would say.”
“Shayney…” Discord repeated, writing it down into a notepad before snickering to himself.
“Don’t get any ideas…” Aurox mumbled.
“Too late for that.” He scarfed the notepad quickly. “I already have plenty of plans to execute.” With that, the group destroyed more of the enemies around them before swiftly getting to work on the thrall around the area that were in service to Sister Aria before attacking the silent sister herself. It took several minutes of repeating the same gameplan along with making sure they were on top of their health since Aria could severely damage them if they weren’t careful. But when they did finish her off and it began to rain loot from defeating her, the area was black and white… along with a tint of red for one more scene.
“Goodbye sister… Thrall, your fee. A job… efficiently done.” Ambra congratulated as a new door opened up, allowing for the three of them to step inside to see all the spoils inside… which Discord immediately assumed were presents.
“The case was closed. The dame left faster than she’d came in. I could get some rest. Maybe even pay my rent this month.” Attikus spoke up… just as they all heard the sound of his front door opening up and someone walking in. However, who they heard surprised all three of them.
“Evening mister.”
“Aw bollocks…” They heard Attikus curse, all while Eris was beginning to restrain herself from laughing her head off.
“Wait… was that… Deande?!” Shayne asked, all while Discord was more focused on collecting all the loot he can get his paw and talon on while Eris was finally standing up straight.
“I don’t know how she is involved in this, but I want to see for myself now!” Eris replied. “Shall we go at it again, Nova?”
“Your wish is my command-!”
“Aww, but I wanted to loot all the things!!” Discord complained, shortly before the field was completely reset. It was now time for Round 2… this time with Deande as the client. “NOO!!! MY BOOTY!!!”
Shortly after finishing the first run of the simulation that Attikus was in, Eris forced Discord to make sure that he cleaned himself up and took a shower to get rid of the stench that smelled like rotten eggs and dead thrall. Which was kind of ironic seeing that they had been fighting thrall all the way up to this point and had to get at Aria, who was one of the silent sisters that Ambra has a rather serious grudge against.
It didn’t help any that while both the draconequus and the teen were waiting, Discord happened to be singing while he was in the shower… again. This time though, the tune of the song that he was singing seemed to be that of an old pop song that, back in the day, would have many teenaged girls be sick with ‘Bieber fever’... much to Shayne’s annoyance. “Would it help to say that I’m sorry~”
“He’s been at that for the last few minutes… I can’t tell whether he’s trying to sing that to sound apologetic or to get on our nerves.”
“Maybe both?” The suggestion came from Aurox as both Eris and Shayne looked back at him. “What? I’m saving my anger and hatred for when we’re fighting thrall again. Then I can be able to dine on their agony.”
“Seriously? Dine on agony? I’m not sure if it works like that,” Eris sighed, looking back at Aurox. “Those are something that we call ‘emotions’.”
“True, but there’s just as many things that all of us have yet to learn about Draconequus too and we don’t question how your magic or stuff works.” Shayne did bring up a good point on that note, in which Eris decided to drop the subject as she noticed her son returning. With a new set of clothes that looked like his old jacket that Shayne gave him, but with a dark navy color on the outside and some burgundy trimmings added to it. “Wow… Nice threads Discord. I like the colors, though I would prefer to work in black…”
“And sometimes very very very very dark gray,” Aurox added on, which got Shayne to shoot a glare back at him. “What? That’s what you told Reyna and the rogues when Toby decided to try and get the rogues matching uniforms.”
“Ehh, it’s the only other color I have in my closet,” Discord replied, snapping his fingers as an actual closet appeared behind him. Showing different color variations of the clothes that he had, his suit during the duet with Orendi on Ekkunar and every other one in between. “Besides, Crazy Auntie’s suggestion was to wear blood red.”
“Crazy Auntie?”
“Orendi,” Shayne clarified for her before sighing for a moment and thinking something over. “Trust me, she has the most… strangest of thoughts in her head at times. In fact, one time when Whiskey helped her up, she started calling him Steve out of nowhere and that lasted all day until she fell asleep.”
“Right… So now that we’re all here, I think we can get started with the next round…” Eris replied. She was… rather curious as to how exactly Deande was involved in the third thrall rebellion and with Attikus in particular. Even though she had just learned of the whole event just a few minutes ago, she knew that if Deande played a role in… well pretty much anything, she would do it from the shadows. After all, she was a spymistress… not a warrior.
Shortly after everyone was there, Nova soon reappeared afterwards and began to inform them on their progress. “Welcome back… I think you already have a good understanding of what to do, but since this is your second time back, you will now start with five ops points and can reach a maximum of 55. Keep getting those ops points for even greater rewards later on.”
“Thanks for the brief… and partially unnecessary recap,” Shayne rolled her eyes before looking back at Nova. “So how’s the big guy holding up? He keeping the whole… act together?”
“You can say that,” The Magnus AI told them. “He says you played along nicely, but there’s more to the story. A lot more… Since this is his little party, I’ll let him explain.” With that, Nova activated the simulation chamber as it returned all three of them to the starting point at the beginning of the mission. Followed by hearing the same set of instructions that Attikus himself had repeated the first time around. Though, what was different this time was that the side objective was not the same propaganda task as before, but something different.
“There are deadeye snipers on the rooftops… Try and take them out.”
That was shortly followed by another round of Attikus’ monologing… with dramatic black and white special effects to add to the overall mood. Yet, what the thrall was saying this time was not quite the same as when Discord and the others went through this the first time around. “The names Attikus… private eye. I run a no-questions asked kind of business. But sometimes, you don’t need to ask a question to have an answer waltz right through your front door.”
“Waltz? No one told me we were dancing!” Discord shouted, causing Shayne to facepalm herself. Even as one of the deadeye snipers tried to fire on him, Discord’s dance moves made it to where the robot could not even land a single shot on him.
All of this and it was around now that the lady of the hour soon made her appearance in the scene as the group heard the sound of a door opening, followed by the sound of heels against the floor and the voice of the spymistress. “Evening mister, I was hoping that you and your brutish services were available for hire.” That provided the right chance for Eris to hurl one of her chakrams at the robot as it soon blew up seconds afterwards. Getting a notification that one of the snipers was down… yet, there were four others to take care of next.
“She wore red, like a knife after it had been in someone’s back, but with sharper edges. I recognized her immediately, but played it cooler than an Bliss ice tornado.” The thrall narrated while the team split up into two groups. Like the last time around, Eris worked with her son to take down the sniper bots on the rooftops while Shayne and Aurox were thrashing through numerous thralls to take down the jamming towers so the airways could be clear for the next objective.
All while Attikus was having a conversation with Deande. “What’s the Spymistress of the Imperium need from me?”
“Ex-spymistress, soon enough.” Deande corrected him for a moment. “But I have some… ‘housecleaning’ to do before I leave.”
“And where do I come in?”
“You’ll be holding the broom.” She said, shortly before the smooth jazz music in the background ended and then everything returned to it’s normal color scheme.
“So… does anyone actually understand what she’s trying to say by that?” Discord then asked, all confused by the choice of words that Deande had used to describe the situation. In which Shayne then sighed for a moment.
“Let’s just not focus on that part.” The teen told him as they took down the first communication jammer again. “All clear down here. How’s it going up there.”
“One more of those pesky snipers left and then-.” Eris said, just before her son through a red shell that bounced along the inside of one of the rooftops for a moment as it took out the thrall, the sniper and the jamming tower… all while wearing a red hat with a M on it, overalls and fake mustache that seemed to belong to some italian plumber. “Okay, nevermind. We’re coming down now.”
“Good job. Ops points awarded.” They heard Nova update them as their ops points score for this round increased. As they made their way back over to the courtyard where the rally beacon was about to be deployed, they heard Attikus began to narrate another piece of dialogue as it all went back to black and white for a couple of seconds. “The spymistress knew all about the thrall rebellion, told me she could help out. She said we needed to take down a silent sister, name of Aria, so she couldn’t run off to Rendain. But I knew a grudge when I saw one. This was personal.”
That though… only left more questions for the trio. More importantly, questions about what kind of grudge would be between the two of them. Still… Eris was a bit lost on something else for that matter. “Wait… what the heck was Deande even doing before she became part of the Battleborn?”
“Ehh… Not really sure what exactly to say there,” Shayne then told her. “All I heard from Reyna was that she was supposedly a double agent at one point. Acting as Rendain’s advisor while also providing intel to Ghalt.”
“So wait… when she means housecleaning-” Eris was trying to think before she noticed that her son was covered in soot and his white hair was a bit darkened as he was wearing a rather messy set of clothes unlike the ones he started out with. “What the-? Discord, what are you doing?”
“Chimney sweep!” He cheerfully said, before using the tools that he was previously using to clean chimneys… to whack a few of the nearby thrall in the face.
“Perhaps we’ll find out a bit more about the situation later…” Aurox advised both of them as more thrall soon landed nearby to attack the trio. All before he went to go crunch some bones as he launched himself at the first thrall he laid eyes on.
“Yeah, what he said.” The teen replied, just as the beacon was beginning to start up. And when they received a new bonus objective from Nova.
“The Imperium has sent a Bulwark bot your way. Find it and destroy it with a skill for extra ops points.”
“Bulwark?” Yet, just as the younger draconequus asked that, a familiar looking robot landed on the ground as he gasped for a moment. “Holy sh*t! It’s Barbara!!”
Hearing that almost had Shayne trip and fall face first on the ground before groaning for a little bit as she looked at Discord, before turning back to a rather confused Eris. “Barbara?”
“One of Discord’s first missions with us was when he, Reyna and a few others were trying to take back a UPR colony from a crazed magnus AI and his army of minion robots. One of the robots that he tried to throw at us was a bulwark bot that was known as H3nchm4n, but called itself ‘Barbara’.” All of that caused Eris to look back at Shayne as she sighed for a moment. “Hey, don’t look at me. They choose their own names apparently.”
“Why are we talking about names!? Tear it apart!!” Aurox roared, which in turn had both Shayne and Eris agreeing with the djinn as they dived into the fray and helped Discord with not only disarming it, but also taking it down with a skill, as instructed by Nova. Shortly afterwards, more of the heavily armed thrall soldiers were closing in on their location. Firing their weapons, but to little effect as they picked them off, one by one, and had them fall like dominoes.
After this went on for a short amount of time, and also with Discord dual wielding a pair of explosive black pistols, they heard more narration from Attikus again as he joined up with them to pry open the next door going forward. “Hard to believe I was working with Rendain’s right hand. Maybe she meant what she said about defecting. Only time would tell… and even time would think twice about snitchin’ on a spymistress.”
“Yeah, because snitches get stitches!” Discord blurted out, which put Shayne though in a really awkward position. Having her be confused as to whether groan a bit on Discord blurting out randomly… or be proud of him for learning one of the most important guidelines for how the rogues deal with traitors.
With the current situation now though, as it was when it came to Aria appearing out of nowhere before disappearing off once again, she decided to push that thought to the back of her mind so she could refocus on the next fight. Along with meleeing all the shock pillars that dropped from the sky and taking them out with no trouble whatsoever.
Then there was Nova’s next side objective. “Loot Cache detected nearby, locate it to earn more ops points.” Which in turn prompted Discord to race off on his own to go find the stash while leaving Shayne and Eris to fend for themselves in the process. Which was a lot harder than it seemed since there was an MX-Elite bot that could hit them with a stun that can paralyze them for a few moments if they did get hit.
Fortunately though, this lasted for about… thirty seconds or so before Discord was seen holding a coffin filled with items inside as he was shaking it all out. “MORE BOOTY!! I HAVE RECLAIMED WHAT I HAVE LOST!!!”
“Loot crate secured. Ops points awarded.”
Now with that out of the way, all three of them got back to pummeling the crap out of the robots and thrall that were swarming the place. Which was relatively simple since all they had to do was gather them all in one place before Shayne and Aurox did a tag team and had the Djinn devour on the souls of the enemies that unfortunately got caught in his wrath.
Yet, all of this did not go unnoticed by the silent sister that they were tracking down once the surrounding scenery went all noire once more. “Rendain will hear of this once I-. What? What does this mean ‘access denied’?! I am the incantress superior!”
As it just so happened by coincidence, they all heard Deande chime in on the situation. “Aw, forgot your password Aria?”
“Deande! I always told Lothar he couldn’t trust you, but treason is a new low, even for you. I’ll get the message out if I have to manually override the comms relay myself!”
“Can she do that?” Attikus then asked… which, ironically, was the same question that was on everyone else’s mind too. Nonetheless, they heard Deande not sounding concerned as she spoke once again. “Best to err on the side of caution and kill her before she can get there.”
And that still did not answer their questions as to how Deande was somehow involved in this. Yet, now was where they had gotten the last bonus objective from Nova sent to them. “A jennerit harvester is clearing out a nearby shard deposit. Those are resources we can use. Go and claim them.” Despite Discord’s early objections on the fact that there wasn’t a lot for them to use the shards on in the first place, but with a bit of convincing from Eris that the gear he was using will ‘wake up’ once he gets the right amount of shards to activate them, he personally volunteered to go get them.
Along with bringing a sledgehammer to the occasion. “It’s HAMMER TIME!!” He shouted before smashing it in a single blow and then leaping off the platform the shard deposit was on. “What? Someone had to say it at some point in this fanfic.”
“Good job. As Kleese said, We’re rich and everything’s beautiful forever. Ops points awarded.”
Even with that and Discord thinking that the best way to solve their problems right now was through a bit of hammer diplomacy, the three of them still persisted up the ravine they were on. Breaking through anything… and anyone that stood in their path of destruction as they smashed, clobbered and shot their way over to the door that lead to Aria’s stronghold.
As for the Silent Sister herself, she happened to realize something as the group approached the door. “Deande, I’ve just thought of something… all those purges, the cullings I proposed. It was you who shot them down wasn’t it?”
“It was my job to keep people like you from getting their way.” They heard Deande speak, which also answered part of the question they had. This was part of Deande being a double agent… and to keep Rendain in a false sense of security before her betrayal. “Rendain needed competent commanders, not sadistic tyrants.”
That though… lead to Aria thinking something else on the subject. “With you gone, Lothar just might change his mind about what he needs. Once I’m done putting every rebellious thrall on Tempest to the knife, I think I’ll go through some old files and see what kind of fun we can have undoing your orders.”
“Wow… she is beyond crazy.”
As Attikus opened the door for them though, that was when Discord got an idea as he had a recording camera pop up in one of his paws. Not before long though, the Draconequus began to fill the rest of the group in on his idea as he looked back at the area where Aria was waiting. Not before long though, he shouted “... And Action!”
Then it was Eris’ turn. “Welcome back to DAMN NATURE, you’re scary! On galactic TV.” The camera now focused on Aurox as he was racing around the room in a blood fueled frenzy while Discord was recording everything and also monologuing about ‘if that thing came near my house, I’d kill it’. While also editing it out so Shayne could not be seen in the filming process.
Lastly though, it focused on Aria as Aurox pounced at her, thrashing and tearing apart until she died in the explosion that resulted from her defeat. While Discord was adding another piece to it. “That little rat looking thing just got ATE! DAMN NATURE, you’re scary!!!”
“The only thing that’s scarier then that is some man made creatures,” Eris commented. “Such as the puppet that did turn into a real boy.”
“Wow… that was… actually kind of clever. Nice job, Discord.” Shayne replied back, giving both Discord and Eris a high five for being able to pull that off successfully.
Shortly thereafter, all three of them were congratulated by Deande herself as she had one more thing to say before going off on her way. “Well done, thrall. You bought you and your brethren time to organize while also buying me some cover by which to make my escape. You’ve earned your fee.”
“The job was finished. I couldn’t say that I enjoyed working with the spymistress, but she sure knew how to fight a war,” Attikus now began to speak shortly after Deande departed from the scene. Leading to the door where all the loot and other goodies awaited for Discord and company as they stepped inside… and where Discord began to open every crate and chest in sight. “I was looking forward to havin’ some time to myself.”
Yet, just as he finished that… something else occurred. It first started when the smooth jazz that was originally playing in the background began to falter… and sound a lot more disjointed than before. But no one in the group, including Nova for that matter, expected to hear the voice at the other end of the line.
“Hey there, good lookin’”
And all three of the Battleborn in the simulation had one simultaneous response. “OSCAR MIKE!!?!”
After exiting the simulation again, Shayne, Discord and Eris all decided to take a momentary break in order to get some lunch and a small rest. But after the last round, the question that was on everyone’s mind (including Nova’s for that matter) was practically the same. “Okay, so does anyone even know why Oscar Mike would be here? I mean… I don’t even think he supposed to be involved here.”
“What makes you say that?” Discord asked. “Are you excluding him because he’s a clone?”
“No, think of it… This is suppose to be Attikus’ account of the third thrall rebellion. Not the third thrall rebellion plus one mike.” Shayne clarified.
“Maybe he needed a new place for alone time?” Discord theorized, which in turn lead to the djinn that was nearby sighing a little as he looked back at all three of them.
“Y’know… we can just ask Nova.” Aurox grumbled a bit as he stated out the obvious to them. Strangely enough, Shayne herself did not think of that at the time and Eris honestly thought that it was too early for Oscar Mike to be showing up since he had his own DLC coming soon… or something along those lines.
“Thank you Aurox… at least I feel appreciated somehow,” Nova replied sarcastically as she soon took form in front of the group. “Anyways, I’m already going to assume that you know the deal with how ops points works, so this time you start with ten and can get a maximum of sixty. When you reach 60, you’ll get a commander loot pack for your particular faction, which leads to more chances at getting better loot.”
“-More BOOTY!?” Discord interjected.
“…… Yes, that.” The AI answered his question, which lead him to dancing around and celebrating in place while Eris, Shayne and Aurox listened in on what Nova was telling them. “Attikus says there’s something weird going on, like there might be someone else in here with you. It’s not my job to keep track of you people, so go check it out… when you are ready of course. No pressure.”
“Well, I’m ready whenever you guys are.” Shayne commented while Aurox took a chance to stretch out his oversized claws as she hopped off the floor and looked back at them. Eris shrugged, saying that she had been ready for a while and also adding that thanks to what was said about the commander loot packs, all it did was provide more motivation for him to go at the simulation again.
Once it was loaded up again for the third time and the group received their main objective… along with a side objective from Nova to find some hidden shard deposits, the mood quickly changed as they began to hear Attikus narrate again. “The name’s Attikus. Somehow, I have gotten myself into the business of running this rebellion. Seemed like a job for someone else, but I guess they were stuck with me. I’d thought I locked my door for the night, but it appeared that fate had taken my key… and made copies.”
Once again, the original smooth jazz now sounded off key, like the musician was honestly trying too hard and ended up messing up the whole song as the group then heard the next… client speak. Which was weird since somehow, it looked like there was some lipstick stuck on his helmet. “Hey there, good lookin’. Got a job for you… or maybe I don’t. I bet you’re confused as to my true intentions hunh?”
“Yeah, like what are you doing here in the first place?” Discord then asked, yet the question seemed to go over the speakers head as Attikus picked up on the narration.
“He wore red like he tripped and fell into a bucket of external hull paint… which is exactly what I think happened.”
“Well, that would explain the marks on the helmet… but it doesn’t exactly answer what he’s here for.” Shayne then said as she approached one of the shard clusters along the outside edge of the area as they heard the conversation between Oscar Mike and Attikus.
“I don’t have time for this…”
“No wait! We can still hang out! There’s totally a job! A real good one too!” The soldier insisted.
“What is it?” Attikus asked in response.
“Right, I am… uh, missing something? Yeah, yeah and you need to find it!” The scene began to turn back to normal, but the failed composition in music still played in the background as Discord looked back at his teammates and asked something.
“Would that something be either your friends, your hope & self esteem or your Rainbow Dash plushie?” His question fell on deaf ears though as Eris just shrugged her shoulders.
“Can I choose all of the above?” Shayne asked as the first cluster of shards was broken apart and taken by then. Some of them were guarded by shields, but Eris was conveniently able to conjure some clones of herself to stand on the pads that kept the shields up as they destroyed the shards and got some bonus ops points. That and the main task with taking down the two communication jammers too.
As they were going to the beacon deployment area though, that’s when things just got… weird. “So what is it I’m looking for?”
“Sort of a, uh, thing.” They heard the clone tell the Jennerit Thrall. “I’ll know it when I see it… detective.” The last part of the sentence came out horribly wrong as it sounded like Oscar Mike was trying to be seductive… but failed in the process. Big time.
Ironically though, what Eris said was actually the same thing that Attikus said in that moment. “Stop talking like that.”
“B-but the ladies got to do it!” Oscar Mike complained.
“It’s a very specific cultural reference and you’re ruining it.” Attikus grumbled, which was something that everyone else could also agree on.
“Yeah, that was the stupidest impersonation I-.”
That was Eris just held up a finger and then said something. “Let me do it,” she cleared her throat before letting her know how she honestly felt about Oscar Mike’s impersonation. “That is… just… the worst.”
“Come on! Queen Mike always seems to get it right!” Everyone in the simulation, including Aurox, stopped where they were upon hearing that and blinked a bit in response to that rather bizarre statement.
“Did he just say…… Queen Mike?” Shayne asked, shaking her head and trying to focus. “How the hell does that even work?”
“Like with almost everything sometimes in life,” Eris replied, shrugging her shoulders for a moment. “It’s complicated… Hell, it’s possible that everything from society ends with ‘Mike’. But we don’t know.”
“Perhaps we talk to Ghalt about it after we try not killing ourselves in this situation?” Aurox then suggested as more enemies began to show up while the group was having to defend the rally beacon that was deployed once again. Shayne sighed, a little annoyed that the current conversation between her and Eris had to be put on hold, but relieved that she would now have something to do that wouldn’t put her bored out of her mind.
Just like before on the last run, all they needed to do was rinse and repeat what they did last time for defending the beacon. Yet, the side objective was a little more challenging because it involved a wave of Boom Bots coming in and they needed to destroy them and not let them damage the beacon for Ops points. A little more challenging, but it was still a breeze to pull off when Discord invested some of the shards they collected to build some turrets. Or as he called it, home security.
Once that was done, they went to the door that was the way out… and it was not because Oscar Mike told them too… even though he sounded like he was suggesting it. “Ooh! Go in there!”
“You’re not going to like this part.” Attikus informed him with an irritated groan in his voice.
“I’m just having fun hanging out, detective.” Once again, Oscar Mike tried to say the last word of the sentence in the same manner he did previously. Which lead to an irritated groan from not just Attikus, but also everyone else in the simulation too.
Just like the last time, Attikus brutally broke down the door, Aria made her sudden entry and exit, and more robots and thrall came at them to try and murder them. However, the side objective was completely different than the last two times. “The area is littered with pro-Rendain propaganda. Take it down to earn extra ops points.”
“Aw HELL NO!!!” Eris snapped, immediately throwing her chakrams at the closest propaganda projector she could find in a zealous frenzy. Surprising Shayne, Aurox and Discord with how much destruction she was leaving in her wake. Turning all the robots into scrap metal and destroying each of the projectors in the blink of an eye. All within a matter of minutes… and furious to the point that she even told Nova to shut up afterwards.
Then… Aria stepped in. “How dare you think you could assassinate me!? I’m-.”
Only to be unfortunately ruined by Oscar Mike… again. “Who the hockey sticks are you?”
“You don’t-.” Aria was caught off guard by that… and the rest of her response proved that as she was trying to get back to the original tone she had… but didn’t quite find it. “I’m the incantress superior of the Silent Sisters! Are you… trying to kill me?”
And then screwed up by Oscar Mike even more. “Not particularly… You sound nice enough.”
“She’s a boss!! Why the hell would you think she’s nice!?” Eris then snapped… shortly before one statement from Aria ironically answered her question.
“You’re a few rounds short of a full magazine, aren’t you?”
“That… pretty much sums up Oscar Mike.” Shayne grumbled before feeling Discord on her head as she noticed him with the same outfit that he had for when he took down ISIC… with one punch.
“In under twenty words or less too…” He said before noticing the onslaught of minions and thrall that separated them from the entrance to Aria’s lair. “Oh look, more baddies.”
“Some turrets would really make it easier for you to advance through this area. Build a few of them for additional ops points.” Hearing that task had Discord immediately change outfits again as he took a wrench and began to quickly build the turrets they needed to give them an advantage.
“Buildin’ a sentry!!” He called out, constructing what was supposedly a combination of a stinger turret and a thumper turret as it first had machine guns before it began firing missiles. Making it even portable enough to move and relocate it for once they got farther up the ravine. But later, he got even more cocky and decided to change things up with his appearance as he was… to put it lightly… going commando.
“Meet my lady friend!” He snapped, tossing out both turrets he constructed as they fired off a salvo of rockets at the thrall in the distance while he himself conjured up Whiskey Foxtrot’s battle rifle and used that to defend himself from any spare thrall or minion that the turrets happened to miss. Gaining the ops points from Nova… and extra points for badassery.
Then… came the awkward conversation that happened shortly afterwards. “Wait… You’re not trying to kill me? Not even a little?”
“Nah, I’m just hanging with my bros,” Oscar Mike then proclaimed, which lead to everyone else in the party thinking when exactly were they his ‘bros’. “In fact, I want to name you my honorary bro! I’ll need your mailing address so I can send you your honorary bro certificate! It’s laminated, so you can keep it in your wallet.”
The following response from Aria… matched what everyone else in the squad was thinking right around now… along with Nova in that present moment. “WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT!?!”
“Yeah! You’re not PewDiePie!! So we can’t be your bros!!” Discord then shouted, trying to add his own sense of logic to the situation… and failing miserably.
“That kind of logic doesn’t work on Oscar Mike, Discord.” Eris reminded him. “Matter of fact, I don’t think there is anything we can get into that thick head of his.”
“At least he tried…” Aurox mumbled. “So how exactly are we going to beat her this time?” Discord thought of it, then decided to strap on some equipment and then asked for Shayne to do something that… even she at the time was surprised about.
“Throw me… I got this.” For a moment, all Shayne did was give him a confused look, but then followed through with it as he snapped his finger and made the gravity around the room a bit lighter. That and once Shayne threw him high enough into the air, he soon curled up like a ball and had himself plummet to the ground.
“BUTT SLAM!!!”
“...... Really?” Aurox grumbled.
“Honestly, I have to admit, that was clever.” Eris said with an amused look.
“Alright!! Teamwork for the win!!” Shayne cheered.
“BRO!! NO!!!” Oscar Mike cried out, ruining the entire mood. Which lead to everyone groaning in response at him.
“She thought that you were an idiot…” Attikus pointed out. However, the clone soldier did not buy it at all.
“No, s-she was j-just… giving me a r-really hard time… Like a real b-b-bro!!” He sobbed for almost a minute… before his mood automatically switched back to how he started at the beginning. “Thanks for finding me a bro!! Case closed!!”
“I really need to start screening my clients…” Attikus grumbled… which left Discord confused as he was now holding what appeared to be Oscar Mike’s Rainbow Dash plushie.
“ …… So we were not looking for this?” When he was met by silence, all that did was answer the question he had in his head at the time. “Well, if he isn’t needing it, then can I have it-?”
“Hey! What are you guys doing here!? Give that back!!” The soldier snapped at him. “My Little Dashie!! Not yours”
That was when Eris looked back at Oscar Mike with a raised eyebrow. “Wait… you wrote that?”
“No, of course not!!” Oscar Mike proudly shouted before saying something else. “I have a copy of the story as an Audiobook!”
“And that answers… pretty much every other question I have right now.” Shayne groaned as she and Aurox looked back at both Draconequui. Something told her that they were going to be here for a while before they could get Attikus to come around.
Rogue Chaos- Rebellion: All for one and one for all
The first couple of times that they ran the simulation with Attikus, things were… alright at best. Despite the fact that Oscar Mike was there and ruining things because he either wanted to feel included or re-enact a scene from his favorite Holo-drama ‘One Star to Live’, things were… sort of the same. However, there was one thing that Attikus did say that Discord really had a hard time believing. Making friends was tricky, Making enemies was way too easy… and making amenities was rather difficult. And to him, it just seemed like Attikus was just wanting to dwell on these bad memories forever.
Well… not on his watch apparently. To the draconequus, what the thrall needed was for someone to back him up. To tell him that his past was not today… and to not turn that idea into a song being sung on top of a building. “Okay, where is he? I need to give him a serious piece of my mind!”
“Uh… who’s ‘he’?” Aurox asked, confused by the random outburst that Discord was having.
“Who else is having a personal pity party without the proper decorations or scenery?” The chaos spirit asked, which had Shayne facepalm herself in the process. Especially with the fact that Discord was not getting at all what was actually going on.
“Discord, do you even realize what is going on now?” She asked, only to get a defiant shake of his head. All while Eris was watching out the scene. “Okay…… Do you remember when we were closing the portal on Bliss and you were hit by those memories of yours?”
“How could I not forget? I was beginning to feel traumatized then because I didn’t know what was going on! It was so painful to go through…” Discord remarked, slowly calming down. “All I remember after that was you helping me get back on my feet and me singing in the shower afterwards.”
“Alright… This is that moment… in a different context.” Shayne told him, all while Eris just raised an eyebrow at her and folded her arms.
“Uh… did you forget that logic and sense don’t work with Draconequui?” She asked the Rogue, shortly before Shayne continued to speak.
“Attikus right now is handling memories that are painful to him… and like how Aurox and I helped you originally, we need to help Attikus now.” The teen’s words… had an odd effect on Discord as he tilted his head for a moment… before realizing what she meant.
His response though, had Shayne want to slam her head against a wall soon afterwards. “Oh… then why didn’t you say so originally? We could’ve spent less time here and do something productive like… I don’t know, finding Equestria?” Aurox groaned shortly after that as Eris just smirked a bit. Surprised about how her son… was actually getting along quite well with the teen and her djinn hellspawn. No wonder Discord originally saw them as their parents.
“...... Nova?”
“Yes?” The AI responded, appearing from inside the simulation after her name was called. “Are you guys ready? Because Attikus says that he’s willing to do one more… and that you guys have been helping him with what it means to be a hero or something. I can’t remember all that he said.”
“But it means that this will be the last run right?” the female draconequus in the room asked as she looked at the AI.
“Most certainly from the looks of it.” Nova replied back to Eris before looking at the rest of the group. “Attikus is even trashing the fedora he was wearing before-.”
“Aww man!! I could’ve wanted that!” Discord shouted, causing Shayne to roll her eyes in response.
“You know it may be two sizes, two big for your head right?” Aurox himself questioned.
“WHO CARES!? I LOOK GOOD IN ANYTHING!!” A puff of smoke came and Discord was in a bunny outfit. Eris poofed in next to him.
“Including this?” She asked
“MOM!!!” That had Shayne laughing almost instantly, Aurox chuckling and even Nova was giggling too in response to Eris.
“I have to admit, that is rather clever Eris.” The AI even added to the conversation, looking back at the group. “Just as funny as when Oscar Mike was having a manly cry.”
“Hey!!” Everyone heard the clone soldier yell from the other side of the simulation room. “I thought I told you that was confidential, Computer!”
“And I thought I told you that my name is Nova…” The AI pointed out to him, before sighing again. “In all seriousness, is everyone ready to go. Because Attikus is rather eager to do this again one last time.”
“I’m ready whenever you guys are,” Shayne replied back. “What about you, Eris?”
“Ehh, as long as I get a much needed rest after this, then I’m all for going through one more time.” The draconequus replied, all while they heard Oscar Mike loading his weapon in the background… leaving Discord as the only one who was sitting on the floor.
“...... Alright, but I have two conditions…” Discord replied back to them as he held up two talons from his eagle claw. “First… we make it a speed run. We’re already wasting too much time as it is going through these flashbacks to make it look like the extended cut of Blade Runner…”
“Actually, you’ve only been here for a couple of hours-” Nova tried pointing out to them, before Discord interrupted her.
“My point exactly… Secondly, in doing this… I want to fight the final boss myself. There’s something I’m eager to pull off that I wasn’t able to follow through on during the assault on Tempest…” Shayne, Aurox and Eris were a bit surprised and confused by what Discord was talking about, but it was better for them to just go along with it rather than delay it further.
“I believe we’re on board with that. Nova, let’s begin.”
“Loading narrative feed and splicing it with simulation replay,” She confirmed it for them. “Beginning Operation in three, two, one.” The moment that the simulation was primed up and the three of them had their feet on the ground, they were already off to the races. Discord even going as far as to ignore what Attikus was saying… and interrupt him too.
“We need to set up a-”
“Speed run!!” Discord yelled, while lobbing two balls of chaos magic that honed in on their targets and destroyed the jamming towers that Attikus was going to tell them about again, if he hadn’t destroyed them already. Having the gang already zoom on down to where they were suppose to rally at.
“All jammers destroyed-”
“Speed RUN!”
“Airwaves cleared-”
“SPEED RUN!!”
Just then did the group get some rather… unannounced arrivals as a few bots and some thrall soon dropped in from out of nowhere. “Incoming-”
“SPEED RUN!!!” The draconequus declared, making all of the enemies explode with a single snap of his finger, which also had the doors blow up like if they had C4 charges attached to them. “GOTTA GO FAST, ASSHATS!!!” This continued on from section to section, even going as far as Oscar Mike calling it the ‘Best time of his life’ while most of that consisted of shooting thrall in the face, calling in airstrikes and using his gun to perform air guitar solos. Discord wore a blue hedgehog costume with red dance shoes, dragging everyone around with some music playing. To the naked eye, he was a blue blur, and by the time he arrived at the door to Aria’s sanctum, he ditched the costume and was now beginning to crack his knuckles.
“Now… for the main event…” he declared, having the front of his hair go up in a golden V shape form as a new song was playing the moment he stepped inside and the door slammed shut. “Oi, VILLAIN!! Show yourself!!!” Right on time did Aria enter the citadel… and when Discord began his beatdown. Rapidly punching her at gatling gun speeds and throwing her all around the room like it was a game of ping pong.
Then… the finisher. “Hey, villain!! Have you ever heard these words?!” He declared, having all of his strength circle around his right arm as he prepared one last strike to finish off the Silent Sister. “Go Beyond! Plus… ULTRA!!!” The punch sent the jennerit flying into the roof so hard that she exploded and from the explosion, loot began to rain down from the ceiling as everyone else soon walked in.
And Oscar Mike was still jamming his guitar. “MEEDLYMEEDLYMEEDLYMOWW!!”
“Well, I guess that’s that…” Shayne replied, looking back to see an almost passed out discord. “Wow… This was his idea and he already looks beat.”
“Well, with magic, including Chaos Magic, there’s a certain amount that we try to use normally at one given time. Going past that leads to tiring out like so.” Eris commented as she picked him up and placed him on her shoulder. Just as they were about to exit the simulation though… was when they began to hear someone speak to them from outside.
“What in the world have you guys been doing in there?” Deande asked them. “You’ve been inside that simulation room for seven hours.”
Everyone at that moment didn’t quite know how to respond at first… but Attikus decided to just keep it brief. “Ah well… Just reliving some old memories…”
“AND MAKING NEW ONES!! YEAH!!!” Oscar Mike added on, which had Aurox and Eris glaring at him because he could’ve woke up Discord.
Later
It had been a while since Discord had used up a lot of his abilities to finish the last round in the simulation room, which later lead to him deciding to take a power nap before doing anything else so he could get some form of energy back. By then though, Shayne & Aurox were asleep along with Eris and many of the other members of the Battleborn. But again, the sound of someone trying to piece things together with duct tape and also a hand saw caught his attention as he found Whiskey hard at work on making some adjustments to his equipment.
“Hi, Grandpa!” The draconequus spoke up, which soon caught Whiskey’s attention as he looked back at him.
“Hey there, squirt…” He said, putting away his combat rifle and now setting down his sticky bomb launcher from his left wrist. “Can you hand me the wrench over there?” Discord turned to where Whiskey was pointing at and grabbed the wrench so he could tinker with the armament before throwing it into a nearby wooden box.
“So uh… what else have you, uh, got in there?” Discord asked, trying to make light conversation.
Whiskey himself looked inside the box and then took out a few things. “Oh, eh, gunpowder, nitroglycerin, notepads, fuses, wicks, duct tape, glue and paperclips. Rather big ones too.” He said, before looking back and holding up his hands for a moment and doing air quotes. “You know, just uh… office supplies.”
“Oh… Um, why are you fixing your stuff though? It looks good as it is.” Discord then commented.
“Well, unlike you or Eris, we don’t have chaos magic and we need to manually be able to take care for our stuff by hand,” The clone told him. “Think of it like cooking. You wouldn’t want to rush it and end up with your meal being a complete f**king mess.”
“You like cooking?”
“Mostly baking bread, but Reyna had me be the cook for the Rogues whenever they don’t need me on the front lines…” Whiskey replied back. “Speaking of which, Reyna’s been talking with Nova for a while and… well, last time I saw her, she looked concerned.”
That soon caught Discord’s attention as he raised an eyebrow in response. “Concerned? Why?”
“I believe she had Toby go out to do some recon on Bliss, but she hasn’t heard anything from him in a while. You might want to check with her just in case.”
“What about you?” Discord then asked.
“Well, a little birdy told me that Oscar Mike and two of the others, R-Dash 5000 and Sweetie Bot were trying to re-establish contact with the other mike clones. For me, I just see it as interrupting their family reunion.” The clone replied before leaving the room. “Wish me luck!” Before Discord could even say anything, Whiskey already left the room and began running down the hallway of the base like a maniac.
“O…… kay then.” He said, shortly before going into the main command room to go see how Reyna was doing. At first glance, she seemed a bit frustrated about what was going on, until Nova pointed out to her that he was in the room… which immediately had the leader of the rogues look less stressful… and a little bit hopeful.
“Ah… good timing…” Reyna spoke up to him. “Discord, we’re going to need your help with something.”
“Wait a second… we?” the draconequus asked.
“She means both herself and I… I think…” Nova interjected for a moment before looking back to Reyna. “My apologies, carry on.”
“Right… well, we got a bit of a problem… and a big one-”
“Does it have anything to do with trying to find my homeworld?” Discord then impatiently asked.
“Actually… it does,” those words caught his attention as Reyna began to speak. “I had Toby try to track down a lead that we had of something appearing on Bliss for a short while before disappearing, but we lost contact with him an hour ago… Then, there’s this.” With that, the valkyrie soon used her hand to bring up a new holo-image on screen, which showed a HUGE fleet of ships that were dangerously close to the Detritus Ring.
“Oooh, a fleet of ships… how scary…” Discord rolled his eyes at that. “For all we know, that could just be the bald geezer and the LLC-”
“Correction… these were stolen from the LLC.” Nova replied back. “Ten ships were stolen along with blueprints and other items from the LLC by a rogue employee with delusions of grandeur for taking over Solus. With how close they are to the Detritus Ring and the home base for the Rogues, this could be a problem.”
Reyna… who didn’t really have a lot of other options, then looked to Discord and sighed. “I’ll see if there’s anybody else that can help… In the meantime though… Are you ready for another mission?”
Discord… could only think of one response. “Sure, why not?”
It took a short amount of time to not only get a chance to get a drink and something to eat, but also to find someone that wasn’t necessarily doing anything in order to come help Discord. Luckily, the only person that seemed to be available for the job that Reyna had in mind for them was actually Orendi. Shayne and Aurox, along with Eris, needed to get a chance to sleep, Whiskey was out chasing down Oscar Mike, and some of the others were working on various different projects around the base on Bliss and the headquarters that they established on Ekkunar. But one of the Battleborn that they did happen to get on board that wasn’t extremely busy was actually Phoebe.
Especially when they were being briefed on the details by Reyna as she was piloting the Fortune’s Favor along the outer edge of the Detritus Ring while everyone else was in the ship’s loading bay as they could hear her over the intercom. “Alright, so is everyone ready?”
“I believe you were going to tell us what exactly are we doing out here…” Phoebe then stated as she looked back at her swords and looked to be playing some sort of holographic slot machine. “And also why you need my assistance as well. Time is valuable to some folks.”
“Hold on just a minute and I can fill you in on the details,” They heard Reyna speak up, shortly before the three of them soon saw what looked like a large fleet of ships that were along the edge of the Detritus Ring. “We’re about to drop you off on factory ship convoy that’s racing through the Detritus Ring at unthinkable speeds… just, try not to think about it.”
“Already did… now I can’t un-think about it.” Discord spoke up, using what appeared to look like a conjured up version of Rath’s blades in order to trim the claws on his paw before having it disappear. That had Reyna sigh for a moment, before continuing with what she was saying.
“The reason why I’m asking for your assistance Phoebe is that the fleet was stolen by a rogue LLC Employee… and based on the information we know, we learned that he’s trying to build an army to take over Solus.” The Valkyrie then added.
“How were you able to find this information though?” Phoebe then added, while noticing that Discord and Orendi were doing a game of ‘Patty Cake’ with all four of Orendi’s hands.
“That’s the thing. We had Toby track some whereabouts related to this guy on Bliss, but we lost contact with him. Now, we’re getting signals from his communications device on somewhere in the convoy.” Renya informed them, which immediately caused Orendi and Discord to stop what they are doing the moment that they heard Toby was somehow involved.
“We gotta rescue Toby!! He’s too adorable to die!”
“No one is dying, Orendi.” The Valkyrie sighed again. “So simply put, we need to find out where this LLC reject is, find out what his plans are and also where Toby is and stop him! Valkyrie out.” That is when the holographic projection of the fleet of ships disappeared as all three of them soon heard dead silence.
“ …… So what exactly happens now-”
“Approaching target. Bay doors opening.” They all heard Nova say at once. Which soon lead to them realizing that Reyna was opening the cargo bay doors of the ship… as they were moving just as fast as the convoy and they only had one option of how to get to the fleet.
Jump. “SUPERHERO LANDIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!”
Phoebe was startled not just by realizing what Reyna’s plan was… but also the fact that both Discord and Orendi immediately dived into the fray as she soon groaned and facepalmed herself. “…… If this is some sick idea that Kleese had wanted for me to do unintentionally, then I’m strangling him after this is all over.”
Once the chaos witch, the draconequus and the blade dancer all landed safely on board the ship, Nova took a few seconds in order to calibrate, track and record their surroundings. That way, the three of them were aware of anything strange or out of the ordinary that just happened to pop up out of nowhere as well as record as much information as possible so she could use the information to create Ops Missions for other Battleborn to attempt later.
Right now though, the focus was on something else entirely once Reyna patched back into the team. “Okay guys, my tracker’s picking up signs of Toby… Toby, are you there? What happened?” The Valkyrie asked, hoping that the penguin heard her and would speak up in response.
Soon, they did get a response… but not all of it was rather… tame, so to speak. “A maniac seal ambushed me on Bliss! When I woke up, I was cold and alone… Reyna… HE STOLE BERG!! I’m freaking out here! I FEEL SO NAKED!!!”
Orendi herself giggled at that, while for Discord, he felt like his uncle was trying to kill his hearing. “But you’re always naked… Look at me! All Nat-Ur-All!”
“MY SUIT IS MY CLOTHES!!! THIS JACKASS STOLE MY CLOTHES!!”
Yet, it was when Reyna spoke up that she soon had things simmer down to an extent. “And there goes my left ear… We’re coming Toby, hang tight! Take that elevator down to the hangar.”
“That would be wise… but I do believe we have company.” Phoebe spoke up, pointing her sword at what looked like the group of thrall that was starting to shoot at them.
“Wait…… You said that this ship was run by an LLC reject, right Grandma?” The draconequus asked as he conjured up Reyna energy pistol. “Then why are there Jennerit thrall here?”
“According to Jennerit Records, many of the Thrall that once served under Rendain either still follow him or went their separate ways,” Nova then added on as Orendi had pillars of Shadowfire erupt from the Thrall’s feet. “From the looks of them, these ones are likely to be contracted mercenaries working for that… Reject.”
“Wow… honestly, I expected for the LLC to not hire physical labor to do the dirty work. Isn’t that what Minion Robotics is for?” Discord asked, turning towards Phoebe for a moment as he spoke up.
“At one point, yes… but that’s an entirely different discussion,” The blade dancer replied as the swords she sent out soon returned to her. “Though, we should have no problem with using the elevator now that we don’t have any mongrels shooting at us.”
“Can I operate it-?”
“NO!!” Came the collective response of everyone to Discord’s question. Especially since they remembered what exactly happened when he operated the platform back at the sanctuary of the sentinel on Ekkunar.
“Aw man… You’re no fun at all.” He pouted, just as the group soon activated the elevator. Yet… as it slowly went downward (and when Discord went to collect some shards that were hidden in the elevator shaft by those he called the ‘level designers’), things didn’t really go so well for them.
“Oooh! Shiny red light thingy!” Orendi said… seconds before a loud ringing soon echoed the ship and the elevator came to a complete stop. Not to mention that mechanical minions were soon flooding the room.
“You tripped the alarm! Take out those security bots!!”
“Can’t we just disable the alarms?”
“They already know we’re here,” Phoebe pointed out to Discord. “It would be pointless to try and hide ourselves now.”
“Well, so much for trying to do a perfect stealth run.” The Draconequus sighed, arming himself with a pair of Reyna’s handguns as he looked back at the minions and began to fire at them like crazy and turn them into nothing but scrap metal. “Say hello to MY LITTLE FRIEND!”
“I BAKED YOU SOME SCREECHING PAIN!!!” Orendi called out from the other side of the room as she casted a pair of Shadowfire pillars by the feet of another set of minions. All while leaving Phoebe in a rather… bewildered state.
“Should I assume that this is… normal?”
“Only when he’s with Orendi.” Reyna commented on the matter. “There’s a few more minions on the upper ledge above him that are blocking the controls to the elevator. You can proceed further if you get them out of the way.” The blade dancer herself soon noticed the minions the Valkyrie was talking about and used her Phasegate in order to catch them off guard and cut them down so the elevator could be functional again.
And it was once everyone got back to the elevator that they soon got another earful. “Reyna…”
“Toby, I-”
“HE STOLE MY MECH SUIT, Where are you!? WHERE ARE YOU?!!” The penguin shouted, which even threw Discord for a loop as his ears began to ring.
“And there goes my other ear…” Reyna groaned before trying to speak back up. “Toby!”
Unexpectedly though… and unfortunately for them… a different voice soon cut in. “Hardly, this is Thaddius Wishingbone. Future Emperor of Solus. Doesn’t my spiffy new death suit make you want to pee all over yourself in a whirl of jealousy and fear?”
“Uh, no-?”
“This suit’s going to be handy when I take over Solus, but you won’t be around to witness that historic moment because you’re all going to be dying… momentarily.” That was when the elevator soon landed at the bottom floor and all of them soon stepped off it.
“Did… that guy just tried to use sass?” Phoebe spoke up. “Because that was just… awful.”
“Is his name recognizable at least?” Reyna then asked.
“Not entirely, but I can check the LLC’s records once we rescue your comrade,” Phoebe replied back. “What’s the next step?” That was when the hangar doors soon opened as they were greeted by multiple mercenaries and minions waiting for them.
“Clear out that hangar! It’ll lead us straight to the engine room!” Reyna replied… which, in turn, gave Discord an idea. Getting on all fours, he decided to run around the room, having all of the thrall and mechanical minions try to chase him as he got them in one large group. That too, was also when Orendi saw a chance to attack the moment they were in a triangle shaped formation.
“One, two, three…… BOINK!!!” She shouted, firing out her chaos magic in a forward spiral as Phoebe noticed what they were doing and sent her sabers flying in the same direction. In that moment was when they all exploded afterwards as Discord soon appeared behind Orendi while wearing what looked like a bowling t-shirt.
“STRIKE!” He cheered, before high fiving Orendi and moving his head just in time so he wasn’t hit by a random bowling pin that appeared out of nowhere.
“Well, that’s one… clever way of doing it, I suppose.” Nova calmly mentioned while the three of them began to figure out a way to try and get to the room above them. Even though there wasn’t any jump pads or makeshift elevators to bring them up, the main problem was that one of the doors to a separate hangar was not working properly. So instead, Discord had to improvise and personally teleported them onto a series of moving crates that was going upward.
Which brought them to right where they need to be and lead them to immediately destroying any enemies that stood in it’s path. “Nice work! Now keep moving!”
And also lead to more useless chatter from the ship’s new owner. “Mmm by the way, when I stole the ship, I renamed it the ‘Pinniped’s Lament’. I thought you would want to know because you’re all going to die here…… ‘Kay.”
“Who cares!?” Discord asked in frustration.
“Easy Discord…” Reyna then spoke up, trying to calm him down. “He and this ship will have nowhere to go once we take care of what we need to do next.”
“Next! NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT!!!”
That… left Discord and Phoebe a bit confused as they went through the next set of mechanical doors that opened up. “And pray tell, what exactly is the next step of the plan?”
“Simply put, we need to slow this ship down. Destroying the engines and whatever’s powering it should do the trick.” The leader of the rogues told them. “There’s one directly in the middle, the left and the right. If you split up and meet back in the middle afterwards, you can cover more ground in less time that way.” Discord, Orendi and Phoebe immediately agreed to the plan. Mostly because Reyna was right about not using up so much time by splitting up as they found the right engine compartments and shut those down quickly.
As they moved to the next area though… that’s when things got weird for them. “Ooh, good to put a face to the name, Reyna Valeria. Nice command glove, fine craftsmanship.”
“Oh I aint got time for you right now… whatever your silly ass name is.”
“I think stupid ass name seems more fit,” The draconequus added on to what Reyna said. “I mean, who the hell does he think we are anyways?”
“Judging by the way this… Thaddeus is acting and treating the situation… Possibly uninvited guests?” Phoebe asked as Discord and Orendi turned to look back at her. “What? You asked. I was just giving an honest guess.”
“Fair enough.” He said, shortly before hopping onto a conveyor belt in order to easily get to the other side. “Whee!!”
Which was followed by Orendi doing the same thing. “WHEE!!!”
Which had Phoebe feel like she was a mother watching over two very energetic kids on sugar. “How do you handle their shenanigans on a daily basis?”
“Patience… Lots and lots of Patience… and sometimes Coffee.” The leader of the rogues sighed. “Originally, I would say beer, but I figured that wouldn’t be much of a positive influence on Discord.” That was soon followed by maniacal laughter at the other end of the hall as Discord was now using a conjured up pair of Orendi’s arms to cause even more mayhem. “Though, I’m not sure if that’s helped any because of… well… Orendi.”
“Get up!! HaHAHA!! PLEASE, GET UP!! I’M NOT DONE HAVING FUN WITH YOU!!!!” They heard Orendi scream from the other end of the hallway, prompting Phoebe to catch up with them as fast as she could before both of them do anything else that was reckless.
What they found in the next room though, caught all of them off guard. Especially Discord as his jaw was hanging open a little. “Woah… is that-?”
“A factory line for mass production…” Phoebe then said afterwards. “I would’ve thought this was used for mass producing worker bots, not combat ready robotics.”
“What’s worse is that this guy is using Toby’s Mech to build an army! We can’t let that happen!! Find a way to shut down that production line and quick!” Reyna ordered, shortly before adding onto it. “We’re coming for you Thaddeus, and we’re going to wreck ya!”
“Mmm, agree to disagree.” The Seal responded without a care in the world. Not even sounding the slightest bit amused. As they went through the hall and began to destroy any shard clusters they could find, that was when Discord decided to speak up and see if his Uncle was okay.
“Hey, Uncle Toby! You okay over there?”
“Trying… Ugh, they got me confined in a small round orb and it smell worse than a high school gym locker. I mean, they’re not giving me food, but they are bringing out-” Toby stopped for just a brief second, before yelling so loud that it could almost break the transmission on they communicators. “TAP WATER!?! YOU F**KING ANIMALS!!! IF I COULD GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW, I WILL BEAT YOU TO A ***DAMN PULP!!! YOU HEAR ME?!!”
“Hang on, Toby. We’re almost there!” Reyna told her, just as Orendi was finished with destroying the shards that were powering the assembly line and the way forward. Yet, in the last hallway… they were met by a rather new and tricky obstacle.
Lasers. And ones that would knock someone all the way back to the start of the hallway if they got hit by them. And it didn’t help any that a certain seal had something to add to it once they approached the transport room. “I must admit that I find myself… beside myself-”
“YOU’RE BORING!!!” Orendi interrupted, but the seal still continued on.
“If you continue into my disincentivization hallways, you will find your end uncomfortable and your end uncatered.” Yet… all the words did was just have Discord look back at Phoebe for a minute as he seemed confused and baffled by the seal’s choice of grammar.
“Phoebe, can you be able to translate rich douche?”
“He means that the lasers would push us back and that they’ll hurt you every time you get hit. Get hit too many times and that you would be too beaten up to present in an open casket if you get killed.” The Blade dancer replied.
“Thank you, Phoebe.” Discord told her. “Now… how do we turn these off?”
“If the rest of this ship told us anything, there must be shard clusters in the hallway powering it. Destroy those and you can move forward. And hurry, Toby’s not far from your current location.” Reyna replied back. “Nova, can you verify that?”
“Affirmative, there are shard clusters in rooms along the sides and end of the next few hallways,” Nova spoke up, before adding onto that with one other thing. “Hurrah, I’m being helpful!” Essentially, the group was able to quickly race through all of the hallways and reach end of the winding hall and activating a switch that had all of them drop down below.
To which… they found Toby trapped in a sphere… and blocked off by a forcefield wall… that was guarded by a copy of his own mech suit. “Okay, who thinks that’s kind of overkill?”
“I DO!!!” Orendi answered Discord’s question as she started attacking it.
“Stop that mech!!”
“Already on it, Grandma!” Discord shouted, snapping a finger as Oscar Mike’s rifle appeared in his hands as he began to shoot at it. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!!”
“TEAR APART THAT FAKE!!!” Toby shouted on the opposite side of the wall. All three of them soon immediately focused on breaking down the mech piece by piece, even though it tried to use it’s shield two separate times in order to protect itself from fatal damage.
“Alright, open that up and get that seal out of there-” Discord shouted, only when after disabling the mech that they found out that no one was piloting it. “WHAT!? That little-”
“OOOH!! Counting numbers!” Orendi noted, which had the draconequus realize that it was set to blow as he kicked the piece of junk away. Even though the explosion’s blast wave pushed all three of them back and had them crash through the force field wall.
And directly into Toby. “Oh come on-!”
What resulted afterwards was a full on four person dogpile with Discord, Orendi, Phoebe and the recently freed penguin friend that they just rescued. “T-thanks,” The penguin coughed out. “I thought I was a goner… Come on, the escape pods for the ship are this way!”
Following Toby’s lead as he slid across the floor, they soon emerged into the escape pod chamber and were greeted by a ton of crates as the penguin then spoke up again. “Thanks for rescuing me guys!”
“No problem, buddy-!”
“Now we get out to the next ship, WE GOTTA SAVE BERG!!!” He shouted, which caused Discord to plug his ears. And unfortunately for Reyna… she got the worst of it.
“And now I’m deaf… Glad to see that you’re safe, Toby. Get back to the Fortune’s favor and we can plan out what to do next.”
Shortly after returning back to the Fortune's Favor, all of the Battleborn that were currently involved with handling this rogue fleet of ships in the Detritus Ring were right now trying to figure out their next move. Even though they had rescued their companion Toby… they now have come across a new problem. And that was the fact that the one who kidnapped him was now using his own mech suit, Berg, to try and create an army big enough to take over Solus. Yet, if things weren’t already problematic, there was no way that they could tell at this current moment which ship actually had Toby’s mech on it.
“So, does anyone have some sort of suggestion as to what we should do-?”
“Guys, COME ON!! We need to get out there and SAVE BERG!!!” Toby yelled. Despite being a small aviant, the degree in which he was shouting at everyone was like if you yelled through a megaphone directly at somepony.
“Toby…” Reyna grit her teeth as she looked at Discord, before directing her attention to the penguin. “If you don’t stop shouting, I’ll throw you out into the vacuum of space and LAST TIME I CHECKED, THAT’S NOT A PENGUIN’S NATURAL HABITAT!”
Toby… along with Phoebe personally, was startled by that. Especially with how fast she raised her voice at him. “Wow… just, uh… wow y’know.”
Reyna herself though, turned to Discord as she took in a deep breath. “Discord, what’s my rule when it comes to shouting at me?”
The Draconequus snapped his talons, conjuring a book that was labeled ‘Reyna’s rules for the Rogues’ and flipped through the first few pages before reaching a particular page that he somehow had bookmarked. “You shout, I shout?”
“That’s right…” The valkyrie replied back, just as Discord threw the book behind him and it blew up into a cloud of pink smoke. “Now, where was I? Ah right… we need to destroy this convoy ASAP before they could cause anymore trouble… Now, we can always blast them using the weapons on the ship, but… that still won’t be able to solve our problem in figuring out which one of these cruisers has Berg on board.”
“So how are we exactly going to do that?” Phoebe asked.
“Well… that’s where I got an idea for how to handle this… All of these ships are almost completely identical… so it’s possible that their security functions and ship controls also are the same…” Reyna explained, before looking directly at Phoebe. “And since all the ships were stolen from the LLC…” At that point, everyone was now looking directly at Phoebe… even though she did not quite understand why. “Phoebe, how good are you when it comes to sabotaging LLC systems?”
“Well, I would see myself as rather good… However, I’m unsure if I can be able to take control of multiple systems without some assistance.”
“If I may suggest an idea…” The group heard Nova speak up as she emerged from the center of the holo table that they were talking at. “If Reyna happens to take manual control of the ship, then Phoebe can have me come with her and hack into their network. Once we find out where Berg is, we can proceed with sabotaging the ships one by one.”
“That… can work,” Phoebe replied back. “But it might take one or more Magnus in order to handle that much of a connection. And we don’t know what this… Thaddeus guy has planned for us. I could look into LLC records, but-” Before the LLC engineer could be able to continue, that was when someone new just happened to pop in. And they happened to realize this once they heard someone new come out of the crews quarters.
“Heya, fellas!!” Discord… definitely knew who that voice was. But he had a feeling that no one was going to like what he had to say. “I just happened to overhear you talking earlier and I thought I should tell you that I’ve known about Thaddeus’ plans to conquer Solus for a while now.”
Reyna and Discord… both had the same reaction to this kind of news. “Are you f*ckin KIDDING ME, ISIC!?”
“I know, I’m pretty beat up about the whole thing, but I can explain-” ISIC assured them. “-And then help you make him pay. Trust me, Reyna. No one wants to club him and tear his fur off to stitch them into a pair of fuzzy boots more than me.”
Discord, after hearing that, had a detectives coat appear over him as he scratched his chin and had a pipe in his hand. One that had chocolate covered bubbles emerge from it as he looked at ISIC. “He does make a compelling case…”
“And if we wanted to put Nova’s suggestion into action, you would need two Magnus AI’s…” The Valkyrie recalled from what Phoebe said a couple of minutes ago, before thinking of how to proceed. “Alright ISIC… I need you to help Nova with something rather specific… but first, tell us about your… history with Thaddeus.”
“I’m going to give you the short version of the story, because I think we all know that the clock is ticking…” Though, all that did was make Discord look around the room, just as the AI clarified something. “That was a metaphor… Anyways. At one point in my digital existence when I was just working in Minion Robotics, and before I was given this body, I felt rather alone. I never got the chance to engage in any social conversations outside of Kleese and he felt more like my annoying boss than a friend.”
“How annoying?” Discord asked, looking like a newspaper reporter with a hat that read ‘The Daily Solus’.
“Like J Jonah Jameson on shrooms.” ISIC told him.
The Draconequus paused for a moment as he looked back at the Magnus, stopping his writing on the notepad before looking back at him. “Isn’t that just Cave Johnson though?”
“Whatever works for you,” ISIC replied. “Though, while I was working one day, that Thaddeus fellow showed up out of the blue. Wanting to be friends with me. He met with me everyday during his lunch and talked with me, so in my mind, I thought he was actually wanting to be a friend with me… little did I know until much later that he was using me to get security access to the LLC archive database. And after he got what he wanted, he just threw me aside like waste!”
“That’s… just rather messed up! All the more reason to MAKE THE HEAVENS RAIN WITH OUR ENEMIES BLOOD-” After that though, Toby began coughing rather rapidly and began to sound rather dry as he looked at everyone else in the room. “D-does anyone have a glass of water?” To which, Discord snapped a finger and had a glass appear right in front of the penguin. “T-thanks…”
“Your welcome, Uncle Toby.” Discord told him, even going as far as rubbing the top of his head. “Still though, why did he want that database? You said that you knew his plans, so what does a LLC Database have to do with it?”
“There must’ve been something specific that he wants in that database…” Phoebe added as she looked at what appeared to be a holo-screen she was examining. “The only files that the LLC have on him is that Thaddeus was fired because of… property theft. Records as to what was specifically stolen have been wiped from the system.”
“All the more reason to get on board and take it back!!” Toby said, now all fired up… literally. The penguin did not realize that his anger was causing the top of his fur to be on fire as Discord was roasting marshmallows on it while holding chocolate and graham crackers with his magic. “What smells like smores?”
WAY Later…
“So, does everyone know what the plan is now-?” Reyna asked over the comline while Discord and the others were already taking their positions onboard the ships.
“Alright… Toby… Discord, alongside everything else we were doing on these other ships, we did some opposition research like you asked.”
“What?” Reyna asked, caught off guard by Phoebe’s sudden announcement. “I didn’t authorize this. And I’M the leader of this mission-”
“Right, so I thumbed through my little black book of assassination targets.” Pendles then chimed in. “You know, past and future, everyone in existence.”
“I was able to pull us Thaddeus’ LLC Employee records.” The blade dancer from the LLC added onto that.
“And I looked at some old letters and got really sad.” ISIC then spoke up.
“Awesome! So what did you guys find out?” Toby asked, while sliding next to Discord as they raced through the ship they were on. The first one to respond to that, was Phoebe as she seemed to be handling multiple holo-screens at once.
“The Bureau of Intergalactic Patent Enforcement for the Ongoing Protection of Intellectual Property… Excuse the long name… had fired our dear Thaddeus for suspicion of patent theft.”
Of course… it was around this particular moment that the bad guy they were going after soon spoke up to add his piece to the story. “Uh… for the record, it’s not ‘stolen’ if the paperwork isn’t in order-”
“OBJECTION!!” Discord shouted, donning a suit and tie along with having his hair slick backward like a certain famous lawyer. “Anything you want to add, Phoebe?”
“The LLC is going to liquidate you, reanimate you and then make you into perfume.” She boldly stated… only making Toby look at Discord with a raised eyebrow once they were past the observation deck. Pointing out that her attempt at being intimidating sounded more gross than anything else.
Though, when they reached the next hallway, that’s when ISIC soon added onto the conversation. “Hey guys. I was rooting through the convoys trash and found a few receipts made out to someone named ‘Hazel Orion’. Is that your real name, Thaddeus? Hazel Orion.”
Yet, the seal only had one thing to say before turning off his mic. “On the advice of counsel, I decline to comment at this time.”
"DENIAL IS PROOF!!!"
“Hmm… there isn’t anyone in the LLC database by that name… Which is odd since we have the names of mostly everyone in the LLC and this system,” Phoebe spoke up. “Any possible luck on your end, Pendles?”
At first, the assassin was rather silent… but after a few moments, and once Discord and Toby passed through what looked like a shut down production facility, Pendle finally spoke up. “So, I did some digging on this ‘Hazel Orion’ and you’re not going to believe this… He’s the Lorrian!”
“Who?” Discord asked, sounding puzzled by the name. But then noticed Toby shiver a little in response.
“He’s a black market kingpin that I used to work for…” The Roa added, before noticing Toby’s current behavior. “Tobes, what’s the matter?”
“I…… may have bought materials from the Lorrian to make my mech suit…” He said, a blush forming on his face from sheer embarrassment. “Then he tried to kill me…”
“I think the word we’re looking for is… bingo!” He declared. “We got a motive, a personal grudge and everything else. All we need now is to know his plans-!”
“You Bastard!!” ISIC shouted in anger. “You only became friends with me because you wanted to get into the LLC patent vault!!” Again, Thaddeus didn’t answer unlike the other times he did before. But the farther that Discord and Toby went through the final set of hallways, the more that everyone else soon uncovered.
“This bastard paid me a pretty penny to assassinate everyone who suspected that he was the Lorrian. I’ve been used!!” Pendle then shouted in anger… before focusing on the positive part of that. “Still got the money though…”
“Forget that! The only question that’s not answered is what kind of patent did this guy steal!” Reyna soon added to the conversation, and allowed for Phoebe to add a response to that.
“The LLC patent that Thaddeus… or Hazel, now that we know his real identity is a security override device that can… oh dear,” She first began to explain to everyone. But the more she continued to read… the more she became extremely concerned. “… Bypass any defensive technology manufactured by the LLC… We… we might actually be in trouble.”
“You most certainly are…” Thaddeus… or otherwise known as… Hazel soon spoke up. “So, big deal… You know my true identity. But let me tell you what I know.”
“And that is what exactly? That your plan is completely stupid, your reasons are based on delusions of grandeur and you’re basically this worlds equivalent of Jabba the Hutt?”
“You may be half right… but I didn’t just help you with your mech suit Tobes,” The seal added… while Discord and Toby dropped down to where the boss would be… only to find nothing there. “But I also helped your super crush Reyna with her gauntlet.”
“PLOT TWIST!!” Discord gasped. “Actual character development is happening!!”
“Not only that… but when the time came, she refused to pay me back… Isn’t that right, Reyna? Not so strong now, are you my dear?” Reyna said nothing in response, only leading Toby and Discord confused beyond belief. “Your too late… I’m going to take over Solus and there’s nothing you can do to stop me…”
Several sirens went off on the bottom floor as both of them looked confused beyond belief. “Elevated heat signatures are rising rapidly! Both of you, get out of there now!! It’s gonna explode!”
“Already doing it!!” Discord shouted, grabbing Toby and snapping his finger, which… lead to both of them getting back onboard the Fortunes Favor, before the ship could set off. Everyone was thankful that they got out of there, especially the other Battleborn once they returned.
However, one particular penguin… did not feel okay at all. Especially when he looked back at the Valkyrie that was the leader of the rogues. “Reyna… is what he said true? Reyna… REYNA! ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!!”
The leader of the rogues could only keep herself composed for a minute… before letting out a deep sigh. “Toby, I can explain...”
Rogue Chaos- Friendship Raid: Taking back what’s ours!
By the time they got back on the Fortune's Favor, the entire crew that was on board had several different questions for Reyna. Especially with what had just transpired only a few minutes ago. They were finally getting somewhere with who they were trying to track down in order to get Toby’s mech back… only for them to learn that the one responsible, known as the Lorrian, had ties to Reyna. They didn’t know how… but Toby was not going to give up on trying to find out what the answers were.
Which was also something that Discord also agreed on too. Yet, his methods were… a little bit complex compared to that of most normal Q&A sessions for answers because he decided to borrow a LLC licensed polygraph test and apply it to Reyna. One that labeled the different tiers of truth as true, half true, false and lastly… pants on fire. “Discord, are you sure that all of this is really necessary?” Phoebe asked him as he was getting this all set up. “I mean… all you are doing is just asking Reyna some questions. Not interrogating a prisoner.”
Discord looked back at Phoebe, an eyebrow raised as he looked back at her. “How else are we supposed to fact check what she says?” That had Phoebe groan internally as the draconequus set it up on the table and looked towards Toby. “It’s all ready now, Uncle Toby.”
“Okay,” Toby said as he waddled over to where he was on the center of the table as Discord paid attention to the dial. “Reyna… How do you know the Lorrian?”
Reyna for a moment was silent. But after a little while, she then had an answer. “Before I was known as ‘the valkyrie’ and before I formed the rogues, I was just myself. My home was under attack and I wasn’t strong enough to defend it,” The meter on the lie detector still read ‘true’ while she was speaking as Discord continued to listen in on the discussion. “So… I went to the Lorrian for help…”
“And he did?”
“Yes… he provided me the materials for me to make my command glove, but afterwards, it seemed as if he didn’t want anything from me… telling me that he was going to come back to settle the matter at a later date,” The valkyrie explained as she looked back at the penguin. “After the Heliophage was when he came to collect. He wanted everything that we had, including the Fortune’s Favor, an entire fleet and also… he wanted Discord. All as payment.”
“Woah woah woah… Why me now?!” Discord asked, looking back up at Reyna.
“He has spies all over the place. Some that have seen you perform the chaotic feats that you have been able to do for some time now,” The leader of the rogues told them. “So… with this in mind and since I could tell that he was up to no good, I went back on our deal. He swore that the Rogues would be nothing without him and he’s… sort of right. But most of all, he swore that he would make me pay.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Reyna?” Toby then asked. “For that matter, why didn’t you tell us?”
“Tell you what?! That the leader of the Rogues was a FRAUD!” Reyna snapped at him, before looking down at herself. “I can’t build things like you can, Toby… and I can’t make things out of midair like Discord can. I’m a THIEF… Just like the Lorrian I guess.”
Not that far off though… was when Phoebe finally said something in response to the conversation that was going on. “Whoa…”
“I know…” Pendles then spoke up as he was right next to where Phoebe and ISIC were. “It’s like watching a Holo-drama, but with people I was hired to kill… except for Discord I mean…”
“I find it inspiring!” ISIC then spoke up out of turn. “She betrayed her friend… just like how Thaddeus betrayed me…”
All three of them soon brought their attention back to the conversation at hand once they heard Toby speak again. “I thought you were the bravest person I knew… but your a fraud.”
“Ouch!” The Roa said in response.
“So disappointing…”
“Fraud is such an accurate word.” And of course, leave it to ISIC to say something like that. Yet… all three of them did not expect Toby to actually say something… encouraging after that last statement.
“Reyna… Leaders have to show weakness so that everyone knows it’s okay to be afraid at times… Note to self: Inspirational Poster Idea.”
Then, Discord was seen writing down what Toby said and the note to self… before adding a secondary note to self that was labeled as ‘be sure to use this quote in the future’ before putting his notepad away. “Great advice, Uncle Toby.”
“Thanks,” The penguin told him as he redirected his attention to Reyna. “I get it Reyna… But I can’t be mad at you just because you wanted to be stronger and protect something that matters to you. No one gets that more than me.”
“Awwww. That is so cute!” Phoebe then spoke up, which she and the other two Battleborn did not notice a banner that Discord conjured up that had the words ‘Peanut Gallery’ labeled on it as it hung above their heads.
Of course… Phoebe also forgot that ‘cute’ was one of Toby’s trigger words. “DON’T SAY CUTE OR I’LL NUKE YOU!!!” He shouted before clearing his throat. “Ahem… Where was I? Ah right. You taught me to stand up for myself. So… I forgive you, Reyna… now let’s go find this guy and trash him!!”
“I’m so sorry, Toby… I should’ve trusted you. You’re a real leader Toby… I mean that.” That was something that neither Toby, nor Discord expected to hear… and it was something that had the lie detector read this as ‘Truth with a dose of the feels’.
But for the Penguin… It seemed like that one compliment… really got stuck in his head. “Yeah, that’s RIGHT!! I’M THE BEST!!! Now let’s go kill the lorrian and GET MY MECH SUIT BACK!!!”
“I second that notion!” Discord said, throwing away the lie detector as it exploded at the other end of the haul. “LET’S DO THIS AND SHOW HIM WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HE MESSES WITH THE ROGUES!!!”
Which in turn lead to both the penguin and the draconequus racing into the main hangar bay as they were getting themselves ready for what they were going to do next… before Discord thought of something as he now turned towards… you?
“Do you think this next scene should be cut? I mean, I know that the authors were having much fun writing it, but I know that the audience really does not like filler episodes where characters spend three episodes powering up.”
Bliss
A broken down mechanical robot was seen glaring directly at the camera as the voice of Jeff could be heard from the metal trash heap. “At least my scene was committed.”
Ekkunar (Or what’s left of it)
The chronicler was sitting in the cozy confines of the Battleborn’s new base of operations as he looked back at him. “At least mine wasn’t an ongoing scene of library jokes.”
Shayne and Aurox were now seen playing Rock, Paper Scissors by a campfire before Aurox turned directly towards the camera. “Oh for the love of-. Get on with it!!!”
Then, Whiskey Foxtrot was seen in the ‘Battle School’ on the planet where what was left of the ‘Kingdom of Mikes’ were alongside Sweetie Bot and R-Dash 5000 as they were trying to find Oscar Mike. “Yes, GET ON WITH IT!!!”
That was followed by seeing the entire roster of Battleborn standing on a equestrian mountainside as they were all shouting the same thing. “GET ON WITH IT!!!!”
Of course… Discord really didn’t register that at first. “Well, I am really enjoying this scene…”
It didn’t last long though… as he soon saw a cloud in the sky open up as he saw three individuals in there. Celestia herself… and the authors of the story. “GET ON WITH IT!!!”
“Okay, okay, okay! I get it!! No need to shout at me!” The draconequus shook his head. “Besides, we already disabled the ship so all we need to do is reach the boss.”
“Okay… but how are we going to fight it?” The Penguin asked as they touched down on the final ship. Only for Discord to be seen with a rather big grin on his face.
“I believe I have an idea…” He said, before beginning to whisper into the penguin’s ear. At first, Toby seemed confused… but as they made their way through the ship, the penguin was beginning to be a bit more excited and pumped as they got closer and closer to where the Lorrian was hiding out.
“So… what do you think?”
“I’m SO READY FOR THIS!!!” He declared, before asking a question. “Um… what about the rest of you guys?”
“We’re all ready, Toby!!!” He heard Orendi shout first.
“I’m locking down all Hyperspace frequencies… that way he won’t be able to escape us this time, even if he tried using escape pods.” ISIC happily confirmed.
“I’m blocking all communication frequencies!” Phoebe then announced.
“And I’m going to kill anyone who dares to escape! And anyone who doesn’t if the fee’s to my liking!” came Pendle’s response on the matter.
This was followed by Reyna’s response to all of this… and what she had to say was much different than what they originally expected from her. “Alright, Rogues. Let’s… No… Toby, this is your mission now… you say it.”
“WE’RE COMING BERG!!!” Toby yelled, as both of them dropped down into the room where the Lorrian himself was waiting for them.
“Well well well… I’ve been waiting for you to come here you two,” The seal said, trying to sound threatening… even though the concept of a delusional seal being a threat sounds like a bad plot device. “But you’re too late Toby… I’ve un-encrypted the final piece of your mech suit and now I got something to say…”
“Oh brilliant… here comes another one of those long douchey monologues.” Discord thought as he rolled his eyes.
“I am the Lorrian… I’ve existed since the dawn of time, practically.” He continued, all while Discord was preparing his talons for the right moment to execute their plan while the Lorrian was talking. “I will make Rendain look like a party favor. Not the good kind like candy but the bad kind when you get a pencil eraser. My plan is almost complete to exert dominance over Solus and everyone will know my name… or one of them because I have ten.”
After ten minutes of non stop speaking, Discord had one question to ask as he finally snapped his fingers. “Are you done?”
“Yes… Yes I am.” The Lorrian said as he took a deep breath. “Why?”
“Well, you practically spent too much time talking to the point that you realized that we’re not on your ship anymore…” Discord was right about that. In fact, they were in the middle of an old UPR colony that was abandoned on Bliss… alongside where they first met ISIC. “Plus… you have your mech suit. Big deal… We don’t need Berg to beat you.”
“Oh r-really?” The Lorrian stuttered, a little surprised by the change of scenary. “What are you going to fight me with? Something bigger that can crush my mech like an ant?”
Discord looked at Toby for a moment, before both of them looked back at the seal as they had a devilish grin on their face. “Something like that…” It was shortly afterwards though that Discord and Toby disappeared when the draconequus snapped his talon again. But before the Lorrian could be able to do anything, something ripped off the metal roof on the base as an oversized hand grabbed the Lorrian and his Mech suit.
Only to see Discord and Toby in their own suit… which was big enough to the point that the head of it was around the atmosphere of the planet. “Lorrian… I would like you to meet our friend. Gypsy Danger.”
That… had the Lorrian shudder in his dwarf sized suit compared to that of the collosal one that Discord and them were using. “U-uh…… M-mercy?”
“MERCY!!!? NO ONE WHO STEALS BERG AND USES IT FOR THEIR GAIN GETS MERCY FROM ME!!!” Toby shouted. At the same time, Discord and Toby tossed up the mech that they were holding. Shortly before charging up one of the arm cannons that it had and firing it. Turning the Lorrian and the fake mech that he had to scrap metal and ash.
“Alright, that was AWESOME-!!” Toby declared. Unfortunately though… that was when the Mech that they were in disappeared like a puff of smoke. And when Discord realized one of the rules that he forgot when it came to chaos magic.
The bigger the creation, the more his magic will be expended and the less time that it will be out. Leaving him having to grab onto Toby before using what was left of his magic to send them back to the Fortune's Favor lying on the ground before both of them noticed Reyna looming over both of them.
“Did I ever tell you two that you had a hell of a way for making an entrance? We were worried that we lost you two and then you came barreling in here and knocking Orendi over like she was a bowling pin.” The Valkyrie chuckled. “Still. Great work out there you two…”
“W-where’s Berg?” Toby asked.
“Well, your stunt with the Lorrian allowed for us to comb through the ship a little bit longer without having to worry about it blowing up on us.” The Valkyrie replied back to both of them, before she pointed out Phoebe and ISIC wiping off what looked like oil stains on Berg. “We were able to find it-”
“BERG!!!” Immediately, Toby slid over to the mech and gave it a hug. “Oh, how I missed you so much!” After that, everyone was congratulating Toby on his successful mission of finding the Mech that was stolen from him before he thanked Reyna and the others for helping him through the whole process as he went to go re-encrypt his mech and Discord decided to stay with Reyna.
After all was said and done though… Phoebe had one question for the Valkyrie. “So… about that last ship… What are we going to do with it?”
That… caught Discord’s attention. “What do you mean? Isn’t it destroyed?”
“Not quite…” Reyna replied back. “For you see, just because that ship is disabled doesn’t mean it’s ‘destroyed’... With how spacious it is, there’s always a possibility that it can be repurposed… Plus, a suggestion from a suggestion box that I asked Discord to not install, even though he did anyways, was if we could have a ship with some more space. We have the bases on Ekkunar and Bliss, but other then that, we just have small ships that don’t have the capacity to have everyone be inside at once.”
That… bewildered the scientist at first… but after some thought process, she soon began to realize what Reyna was talking about. “Oh I get it… You want to ask Ghalt if it’s possible to make this former UPR ship into something where all the Battleborn can be on when it comes to long interstellar voyages?”
“Yes and it would save us the hassle of having to put everyone on two separate ships if we needed to take the whole crew with us…” She added on. “Besides… I would feel bad for the guy who has to always sit next to Montana on those flights.”
Hearing the name of the UPR soldier soon had a thought enter Phoebe’s mind. “Speaking of which… when I last heard from Nova, Montana had a ship that was en-route to meet up with Oscar Mike, but the ship ran into some Varelsi interference and crash landed somewhere on Tempest. We’ve been trying to find their exact location in order to try and help Nova with repairs, but we can confirm that Montana isn’t exactly alone.”
That… had Reyna raise an eyebrow. Same with Discord. “Who’s with him?”
“Well, according to the transmission here…” Phoebe replied as she brought up a data screen with Montana’s last known communications. “He seems to be with Three Eldrid- No, I mean four eldrid and one rogue. The list includes Alani, Thorn, Boldur, Mellka and… Shayne and Aurox-”
Poof!
When both of them turned around, they saw that a stuffed Doll of Discord was where he once was, with a card that read ‘Discord used Substitute. Be right back.’ Which… just had the Valkyrie facepalm herself. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.
In the last few hours, things were not going particularly well for the ‘self appointed morale officer’ that was known by the rest of the Battleborn as Montana. Originally, he and Nova were doing a simple retrieval mission out by the refinery village of Quietus on Tempest… But because of Varelsi Portal interference while they were traveling, the ship that they were on (Which was named ‘The Brothership’ since at the time, it was the place where Oscar Mike first saw each others as ‘bros’. Something that continues to this day…) crash landed and was now in need of repairs. Something that would take Nova a long time in order to be able to configure on her own.
The good news though was that there were a few other Battleborn that were within the vicinity of the crash that could keep Montana company. The bad news though was that none of them knew how to repair the ship or lend Nova a hand. This included Alani, Boldur, Thorn and Shayne & Aurox. Deande was also another Battleborn that Nova had detected on Tempest at the time, but it turned out that when Nova sent the distress signal to all of the present Battleborn, she got an automatic reply from Deande that read “Currently overseeing Constable Cuddles’ walkies with his caretaker”. Which seemed more like a fancy way of saying no thank you.
As of now though… the only thing that it seemed like Montana and the rest of the Battleborn were doing was sitting by a campfire, roasting marshmallows and in the case of Montana himself… telling stories. And despite their current situation, he seemed to be enjoying this a lot. “Ahhhh, this is the life! Fresh air, the outdoors, sitting around a campfire and telling stories.”
Of course, that was when Alani was squishing a marshmallow through her fingers and pointed out something to him. “Um… you’ve just been pointing out individual muscles on your chest and been giving them names…”
“Well, you just made Hector the Pectoral sad, but okay… also, didn’t I just tell you the story of ‘The Insidious Crab of Thundernight Bay’?” He asked them.
“You mean the one where Boldur already knew that the monster was the old groundskeeper the whole time and we had to explain to Alani what a groundskeeper was?” Shayne grumbled, before letting out a deep breath. “Been there, done that.” Of course, it was only a few seconds later that Discord just happened to appear out of nowhere and land on her lap. But before anyone could say anything, they realized that the young draconequus was actually asleep. Possibly tired out because of him overusing his chaos abilities.
“Hey, what’s the deal? I thought you guys liked that story.” He asked, sounding rather puzzled. Of course, it wasn’t that Shayne really enjoyed the story. She just was not entirely a big fan of the current situation they were in… and more importantly, where they were at this present moment in time.
“I’m just tired of being out in this dumb… nature,” She stated, while cautiously looking at Thorn and Boldur before thinking of another question in order to say to avoid saying anything else that would be rather stupid. “How long until Nova is fixed?”
“Pretty sure it shouldn’t be that much longer now-.” He told her in response, before something else came to his mind and he decided to actually speak up on the thought he had. Even though right now, Shayne was seriously thinking about taking a nap instead of listening to him. “Hey! Now that I think of it, I got a story that none of you heard before! And the crazy part about this one is that it actually happened. Prepare yourself… for the Tale of the Demon Bear.”
When Discord woke up, he found himself not with Shayne & Aurox and the other Battleborn sitting around a campfire that he was hearing, but instead found himself in what looked like an open clearing. Things looked rather dark and spooky along with the sight of several grave markers nearby. Though… despite all of this, there was one thing that he did not expect to hear and that was actually Montana speaking. “Now… It all started when Nova said…”
“Great job picking up that lost pirate gold, Montana,” Discord heard out of nowhere. Causing him to look around and try to find where Nova was, only to not see her anywhere. “I’ll pick you up in that totally abandoned village. Be careful, we don’t want to pick up any Jennerit attention.”
That… just had the draconequus groan to himself, facepalming as he realized what was going on. “Oh great… this is one of those ‘dream sequences’ isn’t it?” he asked, only for his question to fall on the sounds of an eerie music soundtrack and also what sounded like owls in the distance. “Well, that answers my question I think.”
In Discord’s mind, he decided to play along… because to him, the faster he went through this, the faster he could be able to do something that was important (and to him, relevant to the story). However, seeing numerous spiky vines, dead trees, massive monster bones, a creepy clock tower and a bridge over a ravine really did not set well with him and caused him to have a shiver run down his back.
Yet, it was as he was walking up the hill, that was when he saw Nova’s ship… beginning to crash down. “Montana, something’s gone wrong! I’ve lost my processing core, only you can save me!!”
“S-save her, Montana!” He now heard Alani say. Only for one other Eldrid to speak up too.
“Child, it is not happening at this very moment.”
“Oh hey, it’s Katniss!” Discord recognized Thorn’s voice as he was approaching the bridge. Just before he realized something else. “Oh right… Dream sequence. They can’t hear me… Bummer.”
“Shh, I want to see what happens!” Alani hushed out Thorn, really eager to hear the next part of the story as the barrier that was at the front of the bridge dropped. Allowing for him to cross. Of course, for Discord right now, he seemed to only have two main objectives. Which… happened to show up in his peripheral vision as a bulleted list.
Rescue Nova
Find a way to Nova
“Hunh… has that always been there? I think I’ve only noticed that now.” Discord mumbled to himself, upon reaching a clearing that had a gate near the top of a hill. Though just as he approached it… Montana began to add more to the story.
“Suddenly I was ambushed by Varelsi Zombies…”
And oddly enough, Discord had the same reaction as Alani when a couple of them just spawned out of nowhere. “AHH!!”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. Uh, I meant they were… robots!” Immediately, the Varelsi that did spawn disappeared in a puff of smoke before being replaced with a series of robots throughout the courtyard. Of course, they weren’t anything new compared to the ones that he had fought before on numerous occasions, so there wasn’t really any new strategies that he needed to do.
Taking them down was one thing. But of course, the next thing he needed to do was find a way to get inside. And this village had a rather huge front door. “Well, I guess I should just knock on it and see what happens,” He thought to himself, before proceeding to bang on the door. “Hello? Anypony home?”
“That was when I heard the most butt-clenchingest sound imaginable,” The draconequus heard Montana narrate again, even though ‘butt-clenchingest’ wasn’t really a word that you would find in the dictionary. “It was the Howl… of the DEMON BEAR!! ‘Rrrawghgh!’ Heh-heh-heh.”
Around the same time was when Discord himself had a look at the Varelsi Demon Bear that stood atop the gate and let out it’s own howl. Shortly before grabbing what looked like Nova’s processing core and taking off. The sound of the door being blown open came after along with a warning from Nova. “Watch out, the Jennerit have found us… Without my processing core, I’m not a great shot… but let’s try anyway. Missile incoming.”
It was only a few feet after getting through the door that Discord was greeted by more Jennerit Thrall as he conjured up Rath’s blades and began to fight his way through them. Though, despite the fact that he was expecting some kind of missile to land nearby… nothing really happened. “Whoops. Did I blow you up? If not, try and activate those targeting beacons so I can take down that hover tank.”
“Wait, they got a hover tank!?” Discord asked, looking around frantically to try and find it as well as the targeting beacons to take it down. “How is that fair!? … Oh wait, hang on…” That just lead to Discord doing a hand sign that looked like a plus symbol as two doppelgangers of himself came into view. “Both of you, find those targeting beacons and take these guys down now! They want to take our chocolate milk!!”
“Those ANIMALS!!” One of the clones yelled out, dawning a superhero like appearance and dawning the same missile launchers that Kid Ultra would use. “In the name of Justice… and Fluttershy, I will not let this stand!!”
“Yeah, what he said!” The second clone yelled out, before pulling out something from out of nowhere that resembled a hand grenade as he threw it into a crowd of Thrall Gunners. “Hot potato! Heads up!!”
As the hand grenade went off, Clone number one and the real Discord both went in opposite directions. For the targeting beacons they were all searching for were all on different corners of the village they were in. So, with Clone number two attracting the attention of the majority of the thrall that were in the area, the other two were getting the beacons online and making sure Nova could pick up the signal… well, more likely just following along with Montana’s story.
As Discord got the last beacon online, both clones disappeared as he dismissed both of Rath’s blades for Galilea's sword and shield. Just as he heard Nova speak up on his progress. “All targeting beacons online. Now, get to that central targeting computer so I can take down the hover tank.”
Discord himself… was already at the central targeting computer while Nova was speaking and all he needed to do was press a button. Yet, the confirmation hearing from the Magnus AI was… not what he thought it would be. “Target acquired… I hope.”
“Wait, what do you mean ‘I hope’-!?”
“Missiles away, en route to target.” That left Discord only seconds to duck for cover before a series of rockets flew in and shot down the Jennerit Hover Tank as it crashed through what looked like a village library and busting a rather huge hole in the entrance. “I’ll take that enormous kaboom to mean it worked. Go get my core back. Hurry.”
“Haha! Yeah, eat it library!!” Discord then heard Shayne say out of the blue… while also thinking of something regarding an exploding tree house.
“Hey! Reading is fun!”
“Thank you Montana, it is good to see book club expanding your mind.” Thorn soon commented after that, just as Discord was actually entering the library. Just as the Demon Bear was on the other side of it… and ran away shortly after seeing him.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”
“The Demon Bear, seeing my awesome might and righteous fury… ran away like a total sissy!”
“That is most un-bearlike behavior!” Boldur declared. But his comments were soon tuned out by two things. One, the massive chasm that was in front of Discord. Two, Nova telling him about said-chasm.
“Looks like the bear ran into that old sap refinery on the other side,” She informed Discord as he began to think of a way to get across. “That chasm is too wide to jump, you’ll have to-”
Before she could finish though, that was when Discord leaped into the air and used a rather… familiar umbrella that he had used once before when crossing the chasm that lead to ISIC’s domain in that bliss mining colony. This time though, his tone was rather different. “I’m Mary Poppins y’all!!” And by the time he was across, he was whacking at one of the old tree’s with a pickaxe and busting out what looked like a blueprint in order to build a bridge that would lead him across to the next landing area. And while this was happening, he heard something else.
“There’s one of her cubs! Get it.”
“Wait, this bear is a she…?” Discord asked, before thinking something. “I would ask how that makes sense… but what’s the fun in making sense?” Of course, saying that had him shiver for a moment and shake his head before taking a moment to think about what he just said. “Wow, that was the weirdest sense of deja’ vu I had throughout this entire story.”
The draconequus continued on for the next few sections in this same manner. Cross platforms, kill enemies, harvest resources, build a bridge and repeat. Well, at least that was for the next two floating pieces of land. Because around the end of the path as he continued to chase the cub, one part had him screech to a halt.
Most specifically… when the cub jumped through a Varelsi Portal. And what Nova said afterwards. “Looks like the cub forgot to close the portal behind it. Go ahead, jump in.”
“Um… is this really the only way to get around? Because I had a bit of a bad experience the last time I was in one of those things.” Yet, the only answer that he got was through an update on his objective marker.
Find the Demon Bear
Follow the cub
Cross through the portal (Yes, you must do it)
Discord gulped at seeing the last part… before having to suck it up as he looked back at it. “Well… here goes nothing!” Backing up for a moment, he soon charged in head first, before appearing on the other side, where he landed at the entrance to the ‘sap refinery’ that Nova had mentioned earlier. And luckily for him, the objectives on his tracker changed.
Rescue Nova
Get into the Bear's Lair
And then of course, things got weird for a moment. “Damn… she blocked the path behind her. Okay! Think Nova,” And just as some more Jennerit and Varelsi began to show up, the Magnus AI offered an idea for Discord to pass the time. “Kill all those guys while I think. Vicarious Murder always helps me when I think.”
💀 New Objective: Kill enemies while Nova thinks
“That’s… pretty straightforward.” Discord said, just as he conjured a pair of Ghalt’s shotguns and began to open fire on a few Thrall and Varelsi that were closing in on him. Blowing them to smithereens before tossing them aside and summoning Oscar Mike’s assault rifle now to blow up some more foes with the attached grenade launcher mechanism on the weapon.
At one point when he was fighting, things seemed… hopeful when he heard Nova begin to speak… but that hope did not last for two seconds before indecisiveness kicked in. “We could… No, Nova. That wouldn’t work. Keep killing, I’ll think of something.”
💀 New Objective: Continue to kill enemies while Nova thinks
“Yay, more fun for me!” The draconequus proclaimed as he re-conjured the sword and shield of Galilea again and began to throw his shield at one thrall’s head while slice up a varelsi with the sword. All before having to roll out of a way of an incoming thrall enforcer with a minigun. “Oh hey, I haven’t seen one of you guys in a while. I think the last time we did was when we did the away mission with Nova and hacked Tempest. Ah, the memories…”
When Discord was talking to himself… and finishing up with taking down the last few enemies there were in the area, Nova herself finally realized what she could do now.
“Ooh! I can probably interface with that sapping drill over there remotely… Stand back.” That was when he saw sparks fly in a circular pattern as he heard the sound of drills on the other side break through what looked to be an old tree that was blocking the way forward. And once it penetrated through the old bark, it allowed the spirit of chaos a passageway inside. “Hey, that actually worked! Woo-hoo!”
“Cool, now we can go get this thing done and-” Unfortunately though, Discord was interrupted once again by Montana’s narration… which was something he was really getting to be annoyed by with how frequently he had been doing it for the last few minutes… even though he was the narrator of the story.
“I was finally ready to face my demons… both the bear and the actual metaphor and stuff…” He said… but there was one thing that Discord heard afterwards that surprised him. “Wait… what happened to Shayne?”
“Spiky haired teen fell asleep waiting for you to get to fight! Hurry up and do it!!” Boldur abruptly announced, just as Discord looked to see one major drop in front of him… and watch the Demon Bear leap on down. To him, this meant that this was where the boss fight was going to be. And he didn’t need Nova to tell him what to do next before he leaped into the fray like it was a holonet action movie.
Of course… seeing the demon bear himself had the fur on his neck rise up almost extremely high.
“Holy mother of Solus, what is that thing!!?” He shouted, before conjuring Ernest’s grenade launcher and trying to blow it up. Yet, the monster itself remained… unfazed. “Oh come on, seriously!? How did…… Oh right, Boss Monster… I almost forgot about that… Wait, if that didn’t work, then how am I supposed to-?”
However, his thought process was interrupted once the bear lunged at him, swiping with his claws and forcing Discord to try and put some distance between him and the bear. Rocks from the ceiling also fell down though as one narrowly missed his head.
“Well, you’re definitely not alone down there-.”
“Oh really now, what made you think of that, genius!?!” The Draconequus snapped.
“Hang on, I’ll see if I can help.” Nova replied, while ignoring Discord’s rant as he was using Shayne’s boomerang now in order to damage it from far away since the bear seemed to be rather vicious up close. Then there was the fact that the bear was doing two things that he saw as annoying. First, some of the rocks that fell from the ceiling… were being thrown at his direction by the Demon Bear. Second, the bear was also opening up a Varelsi portal in order to summon more of it’s cubs. And the last thing that Discord really wanted to deal with was having to fight both the cubs and the bear too.
Then… there was the moment where he thought he was damaging her… but then it somehow shielded himself and disappeared. That… and more cubs. “Picking up multiple lifeform signatures, and they’re adorable… watch out anyway.”
“Just… how can these voidspawns be see as adorable?! How!!?” He snapped, before realizing that a huge Varelsi gate was opening up and letting more cubs inside. Before… he thought of an idea.
Using his Chaos magic, he summoned what looked to be a barrel full of salmon as he threw it into the portal, making the cubs chase it back to where they belonged before throwing a second barrel. This one being full of TNT as he pressed the button and had the portal collapse on itself from the inside. Eliminating the cubs and only one of Discord’s problems.
The other problem being Mama Bear… and right now, she was extremely pissed at him. But fortunately… it seemed like Nova had a plan now. “That bear is back from the void… and with a shiny new coat. If you can get the bear to run into one of the drill heads upstairs, that can weaken the shield.”
“Wait… so like a bait and switch plan?”
“Exactly,” She said, before getting a little too carried away when Discord teleported to the second floor and stood on one of the activation pads. “This is a drill. HA!”
Discord, instead of responding back to Nova’s lame pun, actually focused on the task at hand. Conjuring a doppelganger at one of the drill pads and having that clone disappear just before the bear would reach them. Leaving that bear to hit the drill and also leaving it vulnerable to attacks as he gave it everything he got while the bear was stunned. However, when the bear woke up, the ground began to shake underneath him and more of the boulders from earlier were beginning to crash down on him.
Of course, even though Discord really did not want to do such a tedious plan twice… the bear left him with no other options. He was in the middle of using Rath’s blades to perform the Jennerit swordman’s ‘Dreadwind’ technique, only for the bear to reapply it’s ‘void coating’ and make it invulnerable to his attacks. Forcing the draconequus to rinse and repeat the bait and switch plan with the drills to make it vulnerable again so he can be able to finish it off properly… and in style by conjuring a orb of magic and hurling it forward like a bomb. Exploding on impact as Discord walked away from the explosion with a pair of shades on his face.
“Great work, and thanks for getting my core back… I’m detecting a teleporter nearby. I’ll send you a waypoint.” Of course, when Discord originally heard that… he thought it would get him to the end of the mission and into where he would find all the loot and spoils at the end of it. However, he was really concerned about the fact that he had to go through another Varelsi portal.
But… after looking back at it… he thought he heard a voice. And when he inched closer, his foot accidentally sent him flying through the portal.
???
When the draconequus began to wake up, he found himself in a place… that was definitely not where he was before. In fact, it felt like he was standing on an endless void as he looked all around him. This… almost felt like the inside of a Varelsi portal… but something about it was not the same.
“Discord?” The sound of his name being called soon had him turn to his right, realizing that he was seeing Shayne not that far away. “Oh man… for a moment, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.”
“Mom? What are we doing here?” He asked, sounding cautious… but also rather confused because of their current predicament.
“That… I’m not so sure about. In fact, it feels weird not having Aurox right behind me,” She stated, looking behind her to see that nothing was there. Before noticing something as she pointed behind Aurox. “Um… Discord? Do you possibly know who they are?”
Immediately, Discord looked around and his eyes widened immensely. In front of him stood two equines. Ponies from his homeworld. One in which was a pegasus and looked exactly like the plushie that Whiskey Foxtrot had… the other was a pony that had a horn, wings and a mane & tail that looked like the night sky while also having a cutie mark of a crescent moon.
Naturally… He only had one response to seeing them. “Fluttershy! Hot Topic princess!”
Which, made Shayne facepalm herself in the process. “Not exactly the response I thought you would do…”
“Well, seems your… creative nicknames haven't left you, Discord.” ‘Hot Topic princess’ replied with an annoyed groan. “Seems my little gift to the one called ‘Whiskey Foxtrot’ has worked.”
“Hehe, I thought it was cute.” Fluttershy added.
That, had Shayne blink for a moment before speaking up. “Wait… you made that? More to the point though… who are you and where are we?”
“I am Princess Luna of Equestria. And right now, we are in the dream realm; my domain.” The princess answered. “I’m using all of my strength as we speak, so we don't have much time right now. As much as it pains me to say it, Discord, we REALLY need you… bad.”
“Um… You do realize this is a rated T fic, right?” Discord asked.
“I think she means that she needs our help…” Shayne spoke up, before looking back at Luna. “You do mean that, right?”
“... Eh, I suppose you can join. You and your… demon and… others.”
“Oh sweet, I can bring the big guy too?” Shayne replied, before looking back at Discord. Who was now wearing his Rogue jacket that she gave him.
“Family road trip!!!”
“You see her as your mom?” Fluttershy asked. “D’AWWW!!! That's so cute!”
“Well, I literally did have to raise him…” The teen told her, before looking back at them. “When I found him, he was only like three years old… and over the time that we fought back against Rendain, he grew up and is now… mostly the one you remember… Remember that ‘demon’ you were mentioning, Ms. Luna?”
“Yes.” She replied before pulling out a Necromancy book. “I can get rid of him if you want.”
“No, it’s not that… first, he’s a Guanyota. Not a demon… Secondly, if I’m the mom… Aurox is seen as Papa. Whiskey is Grandpa, Reyna is Grandma, Toby… or a penguin in a freaking mech suit is the uncle and Orendi’s… well…”
“Crazy auntie!!” Discord said, impersonating her and making Luna a bit uncomfortable. Especially since he changed not just his arms, but his voice and appearance to match that of Orendi.
“Yeah… we’re a bunch of Rogues… when you meet the rest of the Battleborn, you would be rather surprised by the… diversity of everybody.” She replied back, before scratching the back of her head. Then… she realized something. “Wait… if you need our help, then how in the world are we suppose to find you?”
“Discord will know!” Fluttershy answered with excitement. “Isn't that right, Dissy? You can find me oh so well, especially when it's our Tuesday Tea parties.”
Discord tilted his head in confusion for a moment… not understanding what Fluttershy was saying.
“I have cucumber sandwiches.” Fluttershy Spoke.
“CUCUMBER SANDWICHES!!!”
“Well, that’s one way to motivate him I guess…” Shayne sighed… before everyone else soon began to hear something else as a familiar presence soon returned behind Shayne.
“Okay, Shayne? What’s going on-” Aurox said… shortly before realizing what he just showed up in. “...... Please tell me that I’m seeing things.”
“No, this is real, big guy.” The teen told him.
“Papa!” Discord happily cheered. Unfortunately, for Fluttershy, she zipped behind Luna while the princess was holding out that same necromancy book and then yelling in an extremely loud voice.
“THE POWER OF FAUST COMPELS YOU!!”
Yet… it was not very effective when it came to Aurox. “Um… what?”
“Luna over there thinks you are a demon…” Shayne replied. “Even though I told her that you aren’t.”
“… You do realize that just because I look like a demon doesn’t mean that I am one… right?” Yet, even though his question had good intentions behind it, all it did was lead to what looked like a small container of ‘holy water’ being thrown at him. Only for it to… again, not be very effective. “I’m a Guanyota…”
“Big guy, I really don’t think they know what that is.” Shayne added.
“Hey hey hey!! Can we calm down the exorcist stuff for like… two minutes? You’re wasting good toast!” Discord stated, trying to get Luna to calm down. “Besides, we were trying to learn how to find you guys… and the ship’s being repaired right now.”
“Nova’s almost done with repairs…” Aurox then grumbled. Even though that did sound good for a minute, it still did not help the fact that they were trying to find the needle (that was Discord’s home in this instance) in the overly huge haystack that was the universe.
“I’m sure Discord will remember where to go,” Fluttershy told them softly. “After all, I did tell Discord I have-”
“CUCUMBER SANDWICHES!!”
There was a bit of silence for a moment as Shayne and Aurox looked back at one another, while also looking at Discord. That was… until the teen said something that caught the attention of both Luna and Fluttershy. “Well, we have done crazier things before that have almost got us killed back on Bliss and Ekkunar… What’s the worst that could happen?”
Hearing that had the eyes of both Fluttershy and Luna widen immensely. “What……?”
“It’s… a rather long story,” Shayne sighed, before promising something else. “I will make sure to share you the whole story once we’re able to find you.”
“I’ll… be looking forward to it then…” Luna told them as the surrounding area that was the dream began to fade away. “However… for now, we must say goodbye… Until we meet again, Discord. We’ll be waiting for you back in Equestria.”
After Shayne and Discord both woke up from the dream that Luna had brought them in, both of them soon realized that they were on a completely different ship than the one that Nova was doing repairs on. One that Shayne wasn’t familiar with… but the draconequus definitely was. It was the one remaining ship that used to belong to the lorrian, but now belonged to the Battleborn. And several of the features that were being modified by Kleese and a few other members of the LLC were to make it more accessible to all Battleborn that were on board.
In layman terms, this new ship now served as the new and improved command cruiser for the Battleborn. And served as something in which any of the Battleborn can be able to easily access when going off on missions and also returning from those same missions. And the hangar bay had enough room to have the fortune’s favor and Nova’s ship (what Montana called ‘The Brothership’) in the same loading bay so repairs could be done much more quickly.
Right now though… both Shayne and Discord were talking to Reyna. And the Valkyrie was really not expecting what they were trying to tell her. “Wait… let me get this straight… one of the inhabitants… from Discords world… visited the two of you while you were asleep?”
“Yeah, both he and I were there and even Aurox saw it too,” Shayne told the rogue leader. “Both of us saw some… winged unicorn-?”
“Alicorn.” Discord corrected.
“-Alicorn and we also saw the same pony that Whiskey has as a plushie in his room.” Hearing that statement from Shayne really surprised Reyna… while also making her a bit curious as to what else happened during this dream of theirs.
“ …… I’m not sure if I should be surprised that this happened, happy that you found some people from your home world, Discord… or worried that I will have some random pony show up in the middle of my dreams while I’m asleep,” The Valkyrie told the two of them, before letting out a deep sigh. “What exactly did they tell you? Surely, they didn’t just use that chance to just say hello.”
“Well, first… let me state that the alicorn pony we saw was not really just an ordinary pony,” The teen told her. “She was in fact a princess. And them being able to reach us through our dreams was one of her powers. But she didn’t do it to say hello… she said that she needs our help and based on how she told us, it sounded like it was an emergency.”
“Okay, but how exactly are we supposed to reach the planet where he lives?” Reyna now brought up a new question as she looked at him. “I know that the draconequus that he and Eris freed were busy trying to put the universe back in order, but we heard no word from them after our battle at the Heliophage.”
“I’m not entirely sure either… that and the idea that Fluttershy told us sounded… risky.” She said, before looking at Discord for a moment as she sighed. “She told us that Discord would know the way… and it sounds like she’s implying for him to take us there.”
“Like take us as a guide or-” That was when Reyna’s eyes went wide. Almost as if she thought that Shayne was suggesting the worst idea possible. “No… you can’t be serious…”
“I think she was…” That had the draconequus’ eyes beam up in response. Excited about what Shayne was implying. But making Reyna even more concerned now.
“Shayne… are you sure that letting Discord take the reigns of a ship would be the best idea here?” The rogue leader questioned. “I mean… we just got Nova repaired and I don’t Kleese or anyone else would want to have another broken ship just hours after one of our main transports just got fixed.”
“We could have Kleese pay for the damages.” Discord decided to contribute to the conversation. Yet… that didn’t really do so much to convince Reyna… and amused her instead.
“While the thought of Kleese doing something like that really does make me wanna see what happens… I’m not sure letting you do it alone is still a good idea.”
“Who said that he had to do it alone?” Shayne asked. “You’ve flown the fortune's favor numerous times. Maybe you can teach him.-”
“TOO LATE!!! WE’RE GOING!!!” Discord yelled, flying to the controls and bashing every button on the controls. “TO FLUTTERSHY!!!”
“Coordinates needed.” The computer spoke. Shortly before Nova soon arrived. But before she could say anything, the spirit of chaos took charge.
“I'll give you some coordinates!” Discord grabbed some wires from the computer and shoved them in his ears. He was shocked, literally, with his eyes glowing blue with some startup sounds.
All while Nova soon said something that echoed across the entire ship. “Attention everyone… please hold onto something. Sh*t’s about to go down.”
“Oh yeah! We’re gonna end this fic, folks! To Equestria!!!” Alarms blared everywhere, with everyone rushing in.
“What the hell is-” Ghalt yelled, seeing Discord connected to the computer. “Discord!? There better be a good-.”
“We’re going to a new home, suckas! Moms, you're going to LOVE Fluttershy and Celestia!”
“... To be clear, it was Discord’s idea to take full control of the ship.” Shayne deadpanned, noticing that the draconequus’ tail was dangerously close to the hyperspeed controls.
“Oh, I know already.” Eris rolled her eyes.
“Danger. Coordinates too far. Energy and fuel low.”
“Low, my ass!” Discord yelled. “ALL ENERGY TO COORDINATES!!!”
“... We're all gonna die, aren't we?” Ghalt asked.
“For the record, I did advise all of you to hold onto something…” Nova commented.
“And I was going to suggest that we take a ship that has full fuel and have a few of us go check it out, but Discord decided to jump the gun… of course, this has not been the first time it’s happened…” Shayne mentioned, recalling all the other times that Discord has done it. “But we’ll all be lucky if we’re still in one piece-”
“Going to light speed.”
“Nonono! That's too slow!” Discord yelled. “We gotta go… ludicrous speed!” Everyone gasped. Yet, out of all the Battleborn in the room that thought this was crazy… one person was on board with it.
That… being Whiskey Foxtrot. “JUST DO IT!! FOR FLUTTERSHY!!” The ship jumped into light speed, everyone feeling the force and being pushed back a bit.
“Thank god I made caskets for everyone!” Kleese yelled.
“SHUT UP, KLEESE!!” Everyone else shouted in unison.
“Come on,” Discord yelled, tightening his grip on the wires and the controls. “Faster!!!” The sign above, which read ‘light speed’, turned into ‘ridiculous speed’. Everyone was pushed back to the wall, before being pinned to that wall by Montana, since he was the last one to be flown backwards.
“Hey, this actually feels comfy. What am I resting on?” He asked, unaware that he was pinning everybody else to the wall.
“Everybody…” Mellka groaned. “You’re kind of crushing our rib cages here… and that’s normally ISIC’s job.”
“If I had ribs, then I would surely be dead by Montana’s overweight body!” ISIC added
“FASTER!!!” Discord yelled. The sign turned into ‘Ludicrous Speed’. Everything outside turned from zooming stars into plaid. It was then that every loose thing flew to the wall, with everyone pinned even tighter, most of their bones cracking.
Then at one point… everything stopped. All the battleborn soon dropped from the wall as their belongings went everywhere and they all thought that they had survived the trek. That was… until they heard the newest warning. “Arriving at Planet… Equus, part of the sagittarius sector… Ships power depleted. Beginning orbital descent.”
“Is that good or bad?” Benedict asked.
“Would you consider crash landing to your death on an unknown planet good?!” Ernest soon chirped.
“... Aw crap.”
“I’m coming, Fluttershy!” Whisky and Discord yelled, with the clone rushing ahead to the window.
“Sheesh, and they say I’m an idiot.” Oscar commented. Shortly before Shayne mentioned something to him.
“Don’t you have the plushie of Fluttershy’s friend?”
“Uh… n-no! I don't have a pony toy! Who said that about me!?”
“You do realize that Discord saw both of you with one…” Shayne replied. “And the planet we’re going is the one where the pony that Whiskey’s doll is based on lives… and that includes yours too.”
Five seconds later, Oscar was soon charging towards where Whiskey and Discord were at. “I’m coming, Rainbow!!” All three pressed random buttons on the controls, resulting in the ship leaning forward and puffing out some air, resulting in them all crashing to the planet.
“And this is where I die, by the biggest idiots of the universe.” Galilea said to herself.
“I’ll see you all later!” Eris spoke, snapping her claws and poofing away.
Leaving ISIC to say one thing to himself. “I really want to know if there are some openings in robot hell when this is all over.”
Five minutes earlier
Out of all the possible situations that Starlight really hoped to find herself in when she, Thorax and Discord were going to rescue everypony that was captured by Chrysalis… this was not the most ideal. Both her and Thorax were cornered… and her magic was slowly being drained by Chrysalis.
Of course… they still had one trick up their non existent sleeves. That being Discord. Before they started to infiltrate the changeling kingdom, they came up with a plan to where if they say the words ‘Klutzy Draconequus’, Discord would show up. However, they did not know if right now, Discord was either captured or just biding his time.
“So… How does it feel now to be completely powerless against me, Glimmer?” Chrysalis mocked, before looking back at the weakened unicorn. “Without your magic… without your friends… there’s no way you can stop me. So stay out of my way!”
Of course… this was when Starlight was beginning to take a gamble. Around the time where Chrysalis was beginning to focus her attention on Thorax. “Chrysalis… you can take my magic… you can take my friends… but if you think I’m going to just sit here… without my klutzy draconequus… you must be out of your mind.”
Chrysalis though… just felt like this unicorn was stating the obvious. “I said stay out of my way.”
“Yes… and I said… klutzy draconequus…”
“Yes, I have your klutzy draconequus…”
“No, I mean… ‘Klutzy draconequus’!” Starlight tried correcting herself. Beginning to panic internally because her gamble wasn’t working the way she thought it would be.
“What is this? Are you just saying ‘klutzy draconequus’ over and over to the point that you are trying to convince me to hand him over to you?” The changeling queen told her. “What kind of an idiot would do something like that? Besides… your wasting my time.”
“Oh no… Why isn’t this working!? Come on, think!” Starlight panicked. With Discord out of the question, she had no way of trying to find a way to overcome Chrysalis. In fact, the only thing she can do was to try and help Thorax.
Though, around the time when Thorax was going to do what Starlight told her… that’s when Chrysalis heard something. “Wait… what’s that noise from outside? Do I hear-?”
In that moment, around the same time that a bright flash of light went off from Thorax giving Chrysalis his love, something crashed through the changeling kingdom and tore off the roof of it. Causing the cocoons of everypony that was stuck up there originally to fly off everywhere as Thorax stood in a newly transformed state. However… that wasn’t the most surprising thing.
The surprising part was when she, and many others, saw Discord emerge from what looked like some kind of unknown craft. However… the draconequus seemed different. For one thing, he had a jacket on that Starlight did not recall him wearing before… and then there was the fact that he wasn’t quite alone in the crash. “We’re home!!!”
“Yeah, we noticed,” They all heard a different voice now as Starlight saw a bipedal figure with bandages around the hands and chest while wearing clothes that had not been seen before in Equestrian society. But the part that was startling to her was that there was a giant… monster that was tethered to the back of this person. “Would it really kill you to try and not crash the ship next time. We just got it after you kicked the ass of that Lorrian dude two days ago?”
“Hey, I wanted to get here first and not wait any longer to learn how to fly one of these things! It was a piece of cake!”
“Yeah… if you consider us getting split up from the others in the middle of a unknown planet your goal.” The demon like figure mumbled, before pointing an outstretched talon towards Starlight and the others.
“Okay, just WHO are you and WHY did you have to crash into my kingdom!?! I was so close to finally conquering Equestria, yet you ruined everything!!” Chrysalis snapped at them, before looking at Discord specifically. “And you!! I thought my drones already captured you!! What the hay are you doing just standing there like nothing happened?!!”
“... Have we met before?” Discord asked. “I swore I saw you on a Watchmojo top 10 list before… top 10 ugliest bugs? Or is it Top 10 Sexiest Bugs?”
All that did was cause the girl to snicker. But to Chrysalis, she was beyond angry. “I am QUEEN CHRYSALIS. I had the most perfect plan! I even kidnapped the Elements of Harmony and the Princesses-”
That… just had the figure next to Discord groan for a moment. “You kidnapped Fluttershy and Cae-Cae!?”
“Oh you f**ked up now…” The girl next to her said.
“And who are you to say such rude insults, freak!?”
“Excuse you… But this ‘Freak’ is a mother… and the adoptive mother of an equally pissed off draconequus,” She said, before taking out what looked like a bladed boomerang as the demon stretched out it’s claws. “And I think you don’t want to mess with us, lady.”
“Oh really now? You’re going to try and fight me?! You and what army?!” The queen mocked. However, to Discord and his accomplice right next to him… those were four words that she really should not have said.
“Well, since you asked so politely…” The draconequus asked, before turning his head and looking at a hillside not far from where they were at. And on that hillside… were dozens of beings that Starlight herself was completely unfamiliar with. Most being bipedal and all of them had different appearances and weapons that were never seen in Equestria before. “Just to be really clear… you were the one who asked.”
Of course, it was in the moment when the Battleborn first made their presence known… that Celestia and the others were beginning to wake up after being freed from their cocoons. The rest of the changeling drones had also transformed, like Thorax. Leaving Chrysalis cornered as it was herself… against everypony else.
Starlight though… felt it was the right time for her to try and offer her a hoof a friendship. Allow for her the chance to be reformed, just like how Twilight offered her that same chance. “Chrysalis-”
“LET ME AT HER! I WANNA KNOW WHAT HER STOMACH TASTES LIKE!!” Immediately, what looked like a four armed, vampiric witch dived at Chrysalis, having the changeling be consumed in a pillar of chaotic flames as they all heard the changeling queen’s screams of pain… that and the beings maniacal laughter.
“Aww, come on Aunt Orendi… you ruined the most dramatic moment in the season finale!” Discord pouted. But what made things more… uncomfortable was hearing that the being that just attacked Chrysalis mercilessly… was his aunt.
It was something that had her friend Trixie herself shiver upon seeing this whole thing play out. “Uh… M-maybe Trixie should wear less of her hat and cape m-more often…”
Though, for everypony else, despite witnessing the brutal beating of Queen Chrysalis by a strange vampiric entity, there was something else on their minds. Though… it was a Rainbow Maned Pegasus that first decided to address this. “So… can somepony please catch us up on what we missed? Or for that matter… who the hay are these guys?”
When Rainbow herself said that, Starlight saw a few other figures, including the vampire witch, come back over to where Discord was. And the girl who was right next to the draconequus that had the demon like creature behind her soon spoke up. “Perhaps we should find a better place to discuss this… I would suggest the ship… but someone decided to crash it into the planet on the mad dash to come here.”
The draconequus… let out a deep sigh and only said three words in response… over the sound of hearing two of the newcomers squealing like fanmares at the sight of Rainbow Dash and her friend, Fluttershy. “I’m not apologizing…”
Canterlot Castle
It took a while in order to get things situated, especially since the fact that Discord crashing a ship out of nowhere seemed to bring up a lot more questions than originally intended. That and the fact that fixing the ship brought up another unintentional problem. That being trying to fix the ship and see if it can be linked up with the communications that they had set up on Bliss, Ekkunar and Tempest.
So, while Ghalt was working with Kleese, Mellka and Deande on that front, The Rogues decided to go with Princess Celestia, the ponies that Discord called his friends, and the other princesses too. Shining came along as well, but from seeing Aurox, the stallion looked rather… uncomfortable seeing a creature of his nature. Even though his young daughter, Flurry Heart… really wanted to touch his horns for some reason.
By the time they got inside the castle, Celestia herself had dismissed the guards so that way they can be able to freely converse without anypony else overhearing the conversation. Once that was done and the doors to the hall were closed, the princess soon spoke up. “So… perhaps we can start with proper introductions. I believe that, to an extent, that you know some of our names already…”
“More or less,” Reyna herself commented. “Discord has told us the names of a couple of you… and we already know about Fluttershy because of the plushie that Whiskey has.”
Whiskey and Fluttershy in that moment… looked at one another awkwardly, before Reyna broke the silence. “As for us, my name is Reyna Valeria. I run the Rogues and to Discord, he sees me as the adoptive grandmother. Shayne and Aurox are his adoptive parents, Whiskey Foxtrot’s the uncle, Orendi’s… the aunt-”
“EVEN THOUGH I CALLED DIBS ON BEING THE GODMOTHER!!”
“-thanks… for that. As for Pendles, well…” Reyna added on, before looking towards the Roa.
“I’m just here for the kicks… and also for helping out the rogues in a pinch. It’s part of my occupation.” He said, which… made some of the ponies a bit confused.
“And pray tell, what is this occupation of yours?” Rarity asked.
“Well, I’m the founder of Executive Executions of course! Snapping necks and cashing checks is my business,” Pendles replied before tossing something out. “Here’s my business card. Get one free assassination on the house if you like.”
“Err… Thanks… for that…” The mare now said, before noticing the penguin named Toby hit himself in the face with one of his fins. “Oh? And who’s this cute little one?”
The response that she got though… was unexpected amongst most of the ponies in the room… but not exactly that to Discord and the other rogues. “Who SAID THAT!?! WHO DARES CALL ME THAT?! I SWEAR, WHEN I FIND WHO DID IT, I WILL SHOW THEM WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY CALL ME BY THAT DAMNABLE PHRASE!!!!”
“To answer your question… That’s Toby,” Shayne soon spoke up as she shot a glance over to the penguin. “Who Discord see’s as the adopted grandpa. Side note… never say that around him… it’s one of the things he really hates the most.”
“Um… W-why’s that?” A nervous looking Fluttershy asked.
“Well… originally, when his planet was taken over by cosmic hellspawn called the varelsi. He and Benedict, one of the UPR that came here with us, were both rescued by them, but when they allowed Benedict to serve in the fight… they rejected Toby because he was deemed ‘too adorable for combat’,” Shayne replied back. “Afterwards, Reyna found him and then he became part of the rogues… at least, that’s what I know so far.”
“Okay…” the alicorn named Twilight Sparkle soon spoke up. “But let me ask you guys something then… How did you find Discord in the first place?”
That had Shayne look back at both Discord… as well as Eris, who just happened to appear in the room just now, soon took a deep breath. “That… is quite an interesting story…”
“Recap time!” Discord spoke abruptly. “If you excuse us while we get through the boring part, folks at home. See you in the finale!”
After Discord found his way back home with the Rogues and the rest of the Battleborn right beside him, a lot of things began to change in the months that followed. For a start, even after the ship was eventually fixed, some of the Battleborn decided that it would be better for them to stay here and possibly include Equestria in future talks amongst the factions since some battleborn in the factions were considered to be from Equestria itself. It was something that sort of seemed… crazy at first, but Ghalt was more than willing to take the idea under consideration.
As for the Battleborn that did decide to stay, they were allowed to be able to live in Equestria under the condition that if they were called by Ghalt or any other faction leader for an assignment that was offworld, they would have to respond immediately. The intent of this was so that way they could try and keep the conflict with the Varelsi and other foes away from Equestria, since the planet itself was in a time of peace… despite several ‘instances’ of the occasional bad guy that tried to take over Equestria and so on.
As for the rogues themselves, Reyna and her crew thought that Equestria would be a place where they can be able to catch a breather every once in a while. Sure, the Detritus Ring sort of was like a home to them, but in Equestria, they did not really need to worry so much about thieves trying to take their credits or someone trying to steal the Fortune’s Favor. Of course, out of all of the members of the rogues, there were two of them that decided to actually stay in Equestria. First, there was Shayne and Aurox. Even though the two of them did agree to help the Battleborn whenever they were called by Ghalt, they thought that it would be better if they decided to stay with Discord here and help out a little around Equestria while they were staying here.
Secondly, there was Orendi… who spent most of her days having fun with her new ‘friends’ in Tartarus. And by fun, that meant making them scream in agony.
Yet, aside from those two, there were some other Battleborn that did make some more frequent visits than others. Some of the Eldrid would come time to time in order to research the Everfree and learn more from Zecora, while Boldur would be wrestling the biggest and nastiest creature that he could find. As for Kleese, despite how insufferably cold the Crystal Empire was, he was curious about if some of the crystals in the empire and the energy that they produced were similar to the shards that the Battleborn would use whether to activate equipment or to activate their own gear in combat. When it came to the UPR, Ernest saw it as his duty in order to be able to try and whip the Royal Guard into fighting shape after realizing just how lazy and unprepared they were for if someone was going to launch an attack against the capital.
Most of the Jennerit thought it would be better for them to not try to meddle with the affairs of Equestria’s home planet, given how Tempest itself was in a state of array after Rendain’s fall. But there was one who actually thought it would be good for the Jennerit to rebuild their relationships with other factions, that being none other than the spymistress Deande. Not only did she personally saw it upon herself to go to Equestria herself from time to time, but also take part in conversations with the princesses as well. At times, even Eris would come with her and the two of them would even give them advice on how to approach particular situations. Some of which actually helped them when Princess Twilight and her friends discovered that the Pillars of Equestria were alive all this time, just because Deande told them that ‘nothing always is what it appears to be’.
However, over the last couple of months or so, things had become rather… quiet. Aside from the occasional visit from Whiskey Foxtrot for tea, there wasn’t really a lot of things that was going on as of lately. Yet, to Discord… it felt like there was something that he should be getting ready for-
“Um, Discord?” He looked up to see Shayne come into the living room of his home in Chaosville, the small pocket dimension where he resided and a place where only those he trusts and see’s as family or friends could enter, and held up a couple of envelopes. “Did you happen to notice this in the mailbox this morning? It looked like some kind of invitation.”
“Pfft… really?” Discord originally just shrugged it off. “It’s not one of those invites that leads me to being trapped inside Sugarcube Corner so that way Rarity could-”
“It’s from Princess Celestia.” That comment immediately turned around his thinking and had him immediately stop what he was doing. His ears stood up on end like a dog whose was asked if he wanted a treat as he looked back to the teen and the guanyota that was behind her.
“Cae Cae sent us an invitation?” He asked. “What is it for…?”
“Hang on, I’m about to have a look at it right now,” She told him, using the edge of her boomerang as a letter opener to open up the invitation so that she could be able to read it. “Hmm… It appears that she’s hosting a huge celebration in Canterlot called the Friendship Festival. All of us, including Fluttershy and your friends, were also invited and… wow, she even went as far as to invite the rogues as well… I wonder how well that’s going to go down.”
“When is it even going on?” Aurox then asked. That was when Shayne began to look at it some more… and realize something big about it.
“Oh… crap…” She replied, before looking back at him. “It’s… going on right now.”
Now Discord was back on his feet, springing out of his chair as he kicked it down the hall. Exploding into pink smoke as he looked back at Shayne and Aurox. “Well, what are we waiting for?! Let’s celebrate!!!”
Upon arriving… it turned out that some things were not what they originally expected. Sure, there were games, celebrations, special booths, souvenirs and even live music from the Equestrian pop singer called Songbird Serenade (Or as Discord described it, Sia Pony). Even Orendi herself was able to take a break from her friends in Tartarus to come join them as the Mane Six were just greeting them.
However… there was one thing that Discord was not really a fan of. And that came when the songs that were being played seemed less somber… and more like dj music. “Out of all the things in Equestria that I thought I missed… it turns out this was not one of them.”
“Oh come on Discord. Dancing is not that bad.” Shayne tried to tell him, even though he just sighed as he looked at her as well as Aurox and Fluttershy.
“Oh, it’s not like I don’t like dancing…” The draconequus replied as he conjured what looked like a lawn chair with his chaos magic while he was drinking what looked like a wine glass filled with chocolate milk. “It’s that I don’t like this kind of dancing. I’m the kind of guy who likes to dance with a partner, like traditional dancing would be,” In that moment, he conjured what looked like a recreation of what appeared to be Celestia in a special gala dress and Discord in an orange suit as the two were dancing in sync on the arm rest of the chair. “Do a tango, maybe a waltz if the mood is right… But this? This form of ‘dancing’ looks like it just came out of a Fortnite dance battle. It’s degrading, meaningless and makes kids not understand that they were all original pop culture references from other things…”
“It hasn’t stopped you from trying that before when we were trying to fight against Rendain.” Aurox deadpanned.
“That was when I was younger. Plus, I didn’t want to feel left out,” He admitted, with Fluttershy chuckling at that as he blushed a little. Which even made Shayne giggle a bit as she looked back at him.
“Come on, it’s not something to be ashamed of. It’s supposed to be a huge party. What’s the worst that could happen-?” However, it was just as the rogue said that, big huge storm clouds began to form over the capital of Canterlot. Some which crackled with lightning as it caused everypony to stop what they were doing and for Shayne to look back at Discord. “Did I speak too soon?”
“Well, if that’s not a huge steaming ball of foreshadowing like the Juggernaut was,” Just as he said that, a huge shadow of what appeared to be a battleship in the distance began to emerge over the city. Leading to Discord immediately dismissing his lawn chair as he got back up on his feet and looked directly towards the ship. “Then I think that is.”
As the ship began to land right in the middle of the courtyard, the drawbridge began to extend forward, setting down as several different fuzzy yeti like beasts emerged from the ship. Twilight and her friends wanted to come out into the courtyard in order to see what it was, but Discord extended a paw as a signal for them to stay right next to him. Only to see what looked like a unicorn with a broken horn and some kind of pug like hedgehog with a white hairstyle.
Which… to the draconequus, was not entirely impressive. “Wow… just as impressive and anti-climatic of a reveal as Kylo Ren…”
“And just when I thought that things were actually going to be rather simple…” The unicorn muttered, before looking around and noticing the… odd figures that were the two rogues that were standing next to the draconequus. “Listen up, all of you! My name is Tempest-”
“Fizzlepop Berrytwist…” That statement from Discord actually left the unicorn a bit shocked in response. “Either that or Fizzy Popsicle.”
“H-how did you-?” The unicorn asked, before shaking her head for a moment. “Nevermind that… I’m here because there is something that I want. And in order to get what I want, I need your total and complete surrender.”
“Oh? And what is it that you exactly want?” Shayne then spoke up, as Aurox folded his claws and looked back at him.
“Well… you seem to be using all of your power and magic on just parties when-” The unicorn blinked for a moment, before then asking something. “I’m sorry, but who are you supposed to be? The Storm King’s information said that there were only supposed to be ponies at this event.”
All Shayne just did was groan a little bit as she and Aurox looked back at her. “Really now? Just because the country is named Equestria doesn’t mean that only Equestrians live here… whoever this Storm King is, he really must be judging the book by it’s cover on that one.”
Tempest herself, just ignored what she said and then went on to give some kind of ‘prepared speech’ as more troops began to pour out of the transport in single file formation. But it was only thirty seconds afterwards that Discord just snapped a talon and within seconds, had the ‘terrifying’ and ‘all powerful’ Storm King that she was going on about appear right next to her. Which was a shock to the unicorn personally.
“W-what-!? How in-!?!”
“Don’t mind me… I’m just fact checking to see if what you say is true or not.” The draconequus replied back.
“Who dares bring me here without my consent!!?!” The satyr like creature roared, which caused a few windows to crack as Discord just scratched his chin. “I’m in the middle of rebranding the slogan for my campaign of conquest!!!”
“Oh boy… I have a feeling of where this is going to go.” Shayne rolled her eyes in response. Aurox himself did not really seem impressed either as they watched the Storm King glare directly at Discord.
“Hmm… not what I expected personally… but not impressive either.” Discord shrugged.
“Who are you to try and judge me, you little wretch!?!” He yelled. Just like Tempest, he was going into another prepared speech, issuing what was supposedly a declaration of conquest and how he had been preparing for this moment. And once he stole the magic of the princesses-
“GIMME YOUR NECK!!!”
It was midway through the Storm King’s speech that Orendi attempted to try and attack him the same way that she blindsided Chrysalis. This time though, the Storm King pointed a finger at the vampimorph and let out a bolt of lightning. Throwing her backwards as he smirked. “Oh you sly little thing… you got me monologuing! Now… what to do with the rest of you…?”
And now was when Discord decided to actually speak up. “Syndrome did it first.”
“Excuse me?”
“The whole line about monologuing…” The draconequus replied back. “Syndrome from The Incredibles said that first.”
“But that’s not the same-”
“After you mentioned that you were trying to steal the magic of the princesses, which sounds exactly like what Tirek did… and look where that got him.”
“Wait…” The Storm King blinked for a moment, before he looked back at them. “I thought he succeeded in his plans!!”
“Technically, I let him think that…” Twilight soon spoke up now as the alicorn looked back at them. “But afterwards, he was defeated and sent back to Tartarus. And we did not need magic in order to do that.”
“So this is completely different!!!”
“Yeah… no. Think of it, you have yourself a faithful servant who you absolutely lied too in one form or another to get yourself an apprentice, have disposable troops that are just as useful as storm troopers and furthermore, you are trying too hard in order to make yourself sound like a feared villain and there doesn’t really seem to be any kind of backstory or motivation at to why.” Discord’s remark had Tempest’s eyes twitch a little, was causing the Storm King to become increasingly frustrated and also made his soldiers look back at each other like they were confused at to what he was talking about.
Though, there was one final remark from Discord that tipped things over the edge. “Face it, you’re just as unneeded as Snoke in the Last Jedi.”
“SHOT’S FIRED!!!”
“Okay, that’s it!” The Storm King snapped, before pointing what looked to be a large staff towards where Orendi was. “Burn the witch!!”
“I WANT A FAIR TRIAL!!”
“And now, the fighting begins…” Shayne said as she pulled out her Boomerang. “What exactly is your plan here?” All Discord did was smirk for a moment, conjuring what looked like a crossbow like contraption on his arm, along with what looked like a lit flare as he aimed it up into the air. Firing it as the Storm King soon shouted something towards the draconequus.
“Oh, it’s just so cute how you think you can be able to stop me…” The Storm King demanded. “Canterlot… will fall!! And you don’t have an army that can face me!!”
Discord just rolled his eyes as he looked back at him. “Really now? Your trying lines from Rendain now… Brilliant,” There was a smirk that could be seen on the draconequus face, “If you really want an answer though, let me tell you something then… I don’t need an army.”
In that moment, an all too familiar ship was now hovering over them, going as far as to shoot down the Storm King’s vessel as it crashed landed at the bottom of the mountain. Within seconds, many other figures stood next to Discord’s side as he looked back at the Storm King. “I have a family… one that was born for this.”
“So Discord, care to explain the emergency beacon you shot up a few minutes ago?” Reyna soon asked.
“This guy, despite how stupid his thought process is, wants to basically conquer Equestria and steal the magic from the Princesses… That and he kind of sounded like Rendain for a moment.” Shayne clarified.
“That’s all I need to hear. Let’s tear them apart!!” Whiskey Foxtrot declared.
“Yeah, what he said!!” They heard Oscar Mike declare as all of the Battleborn readied themselves for combat. Even Ernest rallied the Royal Guard members that he personally trained to take up arms.
All of this… was something that the Storm King was caught off guard by. Out of all the places in the world that he had conquered, he thought that this one would be the easiest. However, instead, one Draconequus was able to rally an army behind him that could be able to challenge his own. Which, lead him to ask one final question. “And just who in the world do you think you are?”
And for Discord to provide one final answer as they charged directly at the Storm King and his army. “We’re the Battleborn!!!”
