Showdown

Whole New World
Chapter 20
Showdown

The thin wooden door shattered under the weight of Dano’s assault. Before the pieces even hit the ground the surviving team members, excluding the wounded Soarin, began to file through the door, their weapons raised as they fanned out inside of the room. The survivor was the last in, and he found himself standing in a small, well lit interior space. A metal cot, much like the ones around the rest of the camp, rested in the back left corner of the room, and the left wall was lined with full, wooden bookshelves that rose to the ceiling. The rest of the interior walls remained a bare, neutral cream color.

In the dead center of the room sat a single grey metal desk that was completely empty. Nothing covered the desk space, and it looked like no one had even used the counter recently. Behind the desk, with its back to Dano, was a large leather seat. The survivor couldn’t see around the light brown upholster chair, but he knew the man he was hunting was sitting in that very spot.

The team formed a semicircle with Dano facing the desk head on, all of their weapons pointed at the chair. As if on cue the seat rotated slowly to reveal a lanky man with bone white hair, a matching small white beard, bushy white eyebrows and blood red irises with a slightly yellowed tint to the rest of his eyes. A clean brown suit with an egg yolk yellow dress shirt covered his upper body, and when he had completed his turned the man rested his elbows on the desk in front of him, hands clasped together to reveal long, talon like fingernails end the end of his right fingers and thumb. A small, sadistic smile graces the man’s thin face, and through the crack in his expression you could see his overly large right canine tooth.

“Nice of you to finally join me Daniel.”

Discord’s voice was smooth and confident.

“It took you quite a while to get here, but I do believe that explosion made up for the wait.”

Discord chuckled, a deep laugh that made the hair stand up on the back of Dano’s neck.

“Shut your face.”

Dano’s voice was hard has he glared at the person responsible for the death of his friends. The survivor could have sworn his sight began to turn red from the pure lust to end the avatar’s life.

“Now, that isn’t the way to talk to your host.”

Discord pulled his hands apart, leaned back in his chair with an audible creak and tapped his chin with his left pointer finger.

“I do remember there being seven of you. Oh yes, the baker took a rocket to the face. Thunderlane was always a good shot with those sorts of things.”

Dano had heard enough, and he took a quick step forward as he pointed his rifle at Discord’s face.

“Oh no. Looks like tough times ahead for Sid.”

Discord put both if his hands in the air, his stupid smile still on his face as he locked eyes with Dano.

“Go ahead friend, what are you waiting for.”

Dano squeezed the trigger, and he felt the satisfying kick of the rifle against his shoulder. A brief feeling of joy washed over the survivor as he finally won, he finally finished the fight.

The feeling was short lived, and as the small amount of smoke cleared he could see Discord sitting in his chair, the bullet still rotating in the air an inch from the bridge of the avatar’s nose. The rage Dano had felt was soon replaced with fear as he watched Discord pluck the bullet out of midair and rolled it between his thumb and pointer finger. The survivor’s jaw dropped, his rifle slumped and his mind raced to try and do something, anything.

“Get out.”

Dano’s voice was quiet and full of fear.

No one moved, all frozen in terror at the sight they had just witnessed.

“I SAID GET OUT!”

Dano didn’t tear his eyes away from Discord as he barked his orders, and the sound of panicked movement behind him told the survivor he had broken his team out of their stupor. Dano on the other hand took slow steps backwards to cover his team while they evacuated.

Discord chucked darkly as he stood, discarding the round in his hand with a quick toss. The avatar then, with his right hand, flipped the desk end over end across the room where it smashed against the bookshelves in a pile of faux wood, paper and metal. Dano couldn’t believe his eyes as the avatar walked toward him, and the terror of fighting against something that wasn’t human bored its way into the survivor’s skull.

Dano had made it out of the officer’s structure while still walking backwards. Discord glared at the survivor as he kept the same pace as Dano just to taunt him, and when the avatar reached the threshold Soarin, who had been leaning by to the left of the door, swung the pistol he held in his left hand in an attempt to pistol whip the avatar. Discord, without breaking eye contact with Dano, caught Soarin’s wrist with his right hand, removed the pistol with his left and threw the weapon away. Soarin had an expression of awe from the quick reaction, and before the soldier could react Discord had pulled him in close before unleashing a powerful left jab to his gut.

Soarin sailed through the air and came to a rolling stop five yards away from Discord, groaning in pain. Dano’s flight reflexes began to kick in, but as he turned to run Discord closed the distance between them in the blink on an eye. While gripping Dano’s vest with both hands Discord began to spin, and launched the survivor at the prison hut as if he was participating in the hammer throw. Dano flew through the air like a rocket until he came to a sudden stop when he impacted the side of the metal hut, denting the exterior wall a bit.

The survivor slid off of the wall to a sitting position. His vision blurred and his head was pounding, and a bit of Dano wondered if he had a concussion. Training kicked in, and the survivor began to look for his rifle only to find it sitting on the ground next to a still grinning Discord, his beret falling about halfway between him and his enemy. Dano coughed a bit as he tried to fight off the growing pain from his collision.

“What are we going to do?”

Braeburn’s voice was full of fear as he pointed his ineffectual weapon at the avatar, his other standing squad mates doing the same in the open area in front of the officer’s building.

“If we can’t shoot ‘em then we will just have to hit ‘em.”

Big Mac’s voice much steadier than his cousins, but still betrayed some of his own terror. Discord let out a booming laugh, and he held his sides as the sounds of his hysterics echoed on for miles.

“Make my day.”

Dano had regained just enough of his wits to focus on the world around him. The survivor watched his team take Discord’s challenge and charge him. The avatar seemed un-phased by the sight of three men and a wolf sprinting toward him, and remained in a relaxed stance until the last possible moment.

Echo closed the distance first, and leapt at Discord’s throat. The avatar simply ducked under the wolf before rising to his full height just as the three soldiers made it into striking distance. The Doctor threw his rifle butt at the left side of Discord’s head and the avatar countered with a quick spin to dodge the club. While he spun Discord raised his right elbow to head height, and smashed it into the back of the Doctor’s head. The medic collapsed forward onto the dirt, no longer conscious.

Discord continued fluidly from his elbow into a right hook that caught the attacking Braeburn in the side of the head causing the soldier’s skull to twist as he was knocked back from the blow. Side stepping the falling Braeburn, Big Mac managed to get close enough to the avatar to unleash an uppercut with his SAW’s butt stock. Discord deftly dodged the blow by leaning backwards, his feet staying planted as his knees bent until his upper body was parallel with the ground. Big Mac lost his balance as his strike missed its target, and Discord, without pushing off of the ground in any way, short right back up to give the large soldier a wicked head-butt. Big Mac’s upper body shot backwards from the blow, but his legs continued forwards. The result was a pancaked Big Mac laying in the dirt at Discord’s feet.

Echo had recovered from his missed attack, and launched another while Discord’s back was turned. The avatar rotated completely around, caught the wolf by the scruff of the neck and brought the snarling K9 up to his face.

“Nice to see you again Echo. How’s Disarray?”

Echo snapped and Discord’s face.

“What? No witty one-liners? No sarcastic remarks? I thought you were a wise guy?”

Echo was now trashing wildly in Discord’s grasp, trying to gain any advantage. Discord laughed at the attempts before he wound up and threw the wolf at the officer’s building. Echo hit the wall hard, and collapsed on the ground, small pained whines escaping his maw.

Even though they had been knocked down in rapid succession Braeburn and Big Mac tried to right themselves so they could finish the fight while Soarin tried to sit up seeing as he couldn’t walk. Discord’s smile dropped a bit, but he kept the stupid grin as he spoke.

“Why don’t we all just take a seat.”

Dano watched as the three soldiers simply froze as their eyes widened and their teeth clenched behind tightened lips. The survivor realized Discord was imposing his will on them, but before he could say anything to help his friends the avatar snapped his gaze over to him. Dano’s eyes met Discord’s, and the two simply glared at each other for a few long seconds.

“You did a good job Daniel, I can barely get a hold of your little ‘militia’.”

Dano felt something growing in the back of his head, a force much large than himself.

“To bad all of your work will be for nothing. I will take them soon Daniel, and you will be their first kill.”

Discord gave Dano a toothy smile, his large canine showing, as the survivor looked back at his men. Each of them was sweating profusely as they fought the assault on their consciousness.

Suddenly the feeling growing in the back of Dano’s head exploded across his nervous system. Searing hot pain ran through every vein in the survivor’s body, and he flexed every muscle he could to try and stop from crying out in pain. As soon as it started the rush of agony stopped, and Dano opened his eyes to see a frowning Discord.

“Always meddling in other people’s lives.”

Dano didn’t know what the avatar was talking about, but as if on cue a pair of feminine voices echoed from the back of the survivors mind.

“You are a son of the universe, and it will bring you salvation in your darkest hour.”

Dano recognized the voices as Celestia’s and Luna’s, and once their voices dissipated the felt the urge to stand. He did as he was told, and as he rose he felt a power coursing through his body, a force beyond anything he had felt in his life. Dano looked at his hands as he flexed them, feeling the energy flow to the tips of his fingers.

With a sudden jolt Dano remembered that he was supposed to be fighting, and he looked up to see a very disgruntled Discord pointing to the survivors left. Cautiously following the avatar’s indication the survivor turned to see the blacked out window of the prison hut. In the dull light given off from the lamp attached to the officer’s building Dano could see his reflection, and his jaw dropped slightly at what he saw.

The survivor’s short hair was no longer brown, but split in half between four pastel colors on his left and navy blue with white spots on his right. His eyes have also changed, with his left being a deep magenta and his right navy blue. In the instant that Dano saw himself he realized that the two women who had guided him to Ponyville and this fight had given him, at least a fraction of, their own magical power, and his features had changed in response.

Dano looked back to Discord feeling much better about his odds. With the playing field leveled it was time for the bad guy to spill the beans on his plan.

“Why?”

Discord raised an eyebrow.

“Why what?”

Dano glared at the avatar.

“Why not just wipe out Ponyville in one strike? You had the men and material.”

Discord’s disgruntled frown turned back into his sadistic smile as the avatar laughed.

“You good guys and your belief that all that evil people want to do is destroy. Maybe I wanted to create?”

Dano kept a straight face while his brain jumped through hoops to try and figure out what he meant.

“Judging by your expression I’m going to guess that you are completely lost.”

Discord chuckled before continuing.

“How many people do you think are left on this wretched planet Daniel? I’m not going to confuse you any more by making you come up with an answer, so I will answer for you. Not enough. Sure there are communities large enough to rebuild, but they are too busy fighting amongst themselves to even think about the future.”

Discord’s smile grew slightly.

“Even while your species lies on its death bed you continue to give into your base instincts. Your need to kill, to take, to own everything. It’s beautiful.”

Dano still didn’t get it, and Discord let out a sigh.

“I need Ponyville because the morons who live there are too stupid to handle the natural chaos of your world. They would willingly accept my control, and I could build an army from scratch. One baby at a time.”

It clicked for Dano, but one vital piece of information nagged at him.

“If you are trying to build an army, then why are you abducting woman so your men can rape them?”

Dano felt his rage returning as he spoke, and Discord flashed a big toothy smile at the survivor.

“Because we all just want to have a little fun sometimes.”

That was it. All of the other questions that flowed through Dano’s brain drowned in a sea of anger. The survivor pulled his blade from its sheath and positioned himself in an athletic stance. Discord looked away from Dano to observe the still struggling soldiers at his feet.

“Looks like it is just you and me.” Discord said with a sigh.

“One shall stand, one shall fall.”

Dano gripped his blade tighter as Discord returned his gaze, and the survivor noticed the slight drizzle that had dominated the weather suddenly stopped.

“Why throw away your life so recklessly?”

Discord squared his shoulders to Dano, his trademark smirk across his face.

“That is a question you should ask yourself Discord.”

Discord dropped his smile and a scowl spread across his features.

“I will crush you with my bare hands!”

With that Discord took off at a sprint toward Dano, and the survivor did the same. Before his little boost Dano could barely keep up with Discord, but now the avatar moved just like a normal person would.

The two powered beings met mere milliseconds after starting, and the frenzied battle started with Dano dodging a right handed jab from Discord. The survivor retaliated with a quick right handed uppercut which skimmed the avatars chin as he leaned back to avoid the blow. Dano took advantage to the minor lapse in Discord’s balance to throw his left elbow forward. The quick blow to the avatar’s chest knocked Discord back a step, and the survivor continued his onslaught with a jab of his knife towards his enemy’s face. Discord shifted his head to the side to avoid the pointed weapon, and counterattacked.

Dano was over extended, with his right arm fully stretched in a stabbing motion. Discord took a quick step past the survivor’s guard, and before he could defend himself the avatar landed three quick blows to Dano’s chest. The three jabs were followed by a right handed uppercut, and the sound of teeth smashing against themselves echoed from the fight. Dano was knocked back a few steps by the blow, and he felt his mouth start to fill with blood. He had bit the tip of his tongue off.

Not willing to let up Dano let out a roar as he closed on his enemy once more, hacking downward with his blade. Discord caught the survivor’s wrist, and attempted to strike back with a left jab to the face. Dano promptly caught the fast blow, and the two combatants soon found themselves in a grapple.

The survivor and avatar locked eyes as they struggled to gain the upper hand. Discord opened his left hand and began to push towards Dano’s throat while Dano tried to force his blade into the gap between Discord’s neck and shoulder. The two of them held fast, and no one made any advancement for several long minutes before Dano’s arms began to move toward him. The survivor grits his teeth and tried to push back, but Discord was slowly winning the struggle.

Dano felt his knees start to buckle under the weight of Discord’s assault, and the avatar’s grin returned when the survivor finally fell to one knee. Ever so slowly Dano was forced back until Discord stopped pressing, his grin growing as he spoke.

“You know what Dano? I’m going to fuck up your face, so when I take your head back to Ponyville I can see your little girl friend cry before I take her.”

Dano felt Discord’s right hand change its course from his neck to the top of his face. The survivor tried his best to hold him back, but the magical boost was wearing off. Fear began to force its way into Dano’s brain, and he soon felt the avatar’s hand reach its destination. Ever so slowly Discord pushed his razor sharp fingernails into Dano’s flesh. They sliced through his skin just deep enough to draw a constant stream of blood that trickled down the survivor’s face. Once sure he was deep enough to draw a decent amount of blood Discord began to drag his hand downwards.

Dano did he best to resist, but the combination of stinging pain and his own fatigue allowed Discord to continue his mutilation of the survivor’s face. He felt his skin being torn off slowly, and when the four fingernails reached his brow Dano closed his eyes in an attempt to protect the sensitive organs. Discord ignored his enemy’s eyes, and continued down to his chin. Four thick vertical cuts now dominated Dano’s face, and they all dripped blood in a steady fashion, staining the dirt underneath the survivor.

Finished with his destruction of Dano’s features Discord resumed his advance on the survivor’s throat. Dano couldn’t think between the fear of his coming doom and the extreme stinging pain in his face. His base instincts continued to fight for his survival, but his strength had dissipated. The feeling of Discords fingers millimeters from Dano’s neck only made his mind panic even more. The survivor opened his eyes to see a huge grin on his enemy’s face.

“I would have waited an eternity for this. Its over Daniel.”

Dano closed his eye tightly, a feeling of doom washing over his mind. When he was about to give in to the strain of living a pair of cyan eyes appeared in his consciousness.

“Promise you will come back.”

Dano opened his eyes to glare at Discord as a wave of determination washed over him.

“NEVER!”

Dano threw everything he could into the grapple, digging as deep as he could. To the astonishment of both of the combatants Dano rose to his feet as he forced Discord’s hand away from his neck. The avatar’s expression changed from one of victory to one of horror as the survivor quickly overpowered him. Dano’s blade now rested millimeters from Discord’s flesh, and with one more burst of strength the survivor forced the blade downward into his enemy’s body. The blade cut deep, and blood began to flow quickly out of the avatar.

Discord collapsed to his knees, his face contorted in pain. Dano ripped his knife out of the avatar’s flesh, and glared at the mortally wounded man. Discord picked his head up and looked at Dano, his crimson eyes full of anger.

“You may have won this time Dano, but this is far from over. We will be meeting again, real soon.”

Dano raised his blade above his head, both hands on the handle.

“The only place I will see you is in hell.”

Dano brought his blade down as hard as he could, and the sound of a splitting skull echoed in the night. Blood and grey matter pushed its way out of the hole in Discord’s skull, and with an audible breaking noise the survivor pulled his weapon out of his enemy’s head to let him collapse onto the dirt.

With the mental assault gone Big Mac and Braeburn rose to their feet slowly while holding their heads, and Soarin just sat up seeing as he could barely walk without support. The Doctor groaned as he regained consciousness, and he rose to his feet much like his comrades. Echo remained down, much to the dismay of Dano, but as he took a step the survivor collapsed feeling suddenly tired.

Right before Dano hit the ground he was grabbed and lifted back up by a pair of hands. With the rest of his strength the survivor turned his head to see Big Mac holding him up. The large farmer gave Dano a small smile, and the tired survivor returned it before sucking in a deep breath to try and regain as much energy as he could.

“Braeburn?”

Dano’s voice was quiet, and lacked any commanding tone.

“Yeah boss?”

Dano turned his head to see Braeburn smiling at him.

“Go get the girls.”

Braeburn snapped to attention and saluted Dano out of respect before doing as ordered. The survivor returned his gaze to the man holding him up.

“We did it.”

Big Mac nodded as he chuckled deeply.

“Yes we did.”

Dano smiled before he shrugged Big Mac off, picked up his rifle, slung it over his shoulder and began to take some unsteady steps toward Echo. The Doctor quickly moved over to the wolf, picked him up and began to walk toward Dano.

“How does he look Doctor?” Dano’s voice was full of concern for his friend.

“I don’t know Dano, I’m not a vet.”

Dano sighed.

“We will give him to Fluttershy, she will know what to do.”

The Doctor nodded before looking worried.

“How are we supposed to get back? We only have to rides and they are a couple hours away.”

Dano smiled and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb to the motor pool.

The Doctor smiled when he realized they had three trucks to take, and he made his way toward the transports without another word. Dano, feeling a little stronger, turned to Big Mac.

“Find a white sheet and wrap Carrot up before putting him in the trunk of one of the smaller trucks.”

Big Mac nodded before moving to complete his orders.

As the large man left Braeburn returned with Bon Bon in his arms and Berry Punch right behind him. Braeburn looked worried as he approached the survivor.

“She doesn’t look so good.”

Dano, realizing they couldn’t waste any more time, pointed to the vehicles.

“Get her into one of the smaller trucks then find the keys. You are driving.”

Braeburn nodded before trotting away toward the motor pool.

Dano looked around the camp one last time, taking in the sights, sounds and smells before letting out a sad sigh. He had never imagined so much death when he dreamed of being a soldier despite knowing what the military’s job was. Putting that harsh reality aside Dano moved to the motor pool, picking up Soarin along the way, wanting nothing more than to be done with this place.

The next fifteen minutes went by frantically quick. Bon Bon was fading fast, and Echo was in an unknown condition. The surviving team moved as quickly as they could to try and get home before they lost another person. Upon further inspection Dano found out that the two smaller trucks were actually Humvees, and both were armed with long barreled 50 Cal. machine guns. The survivor thanked the gods that the enemy had not used them.

After Braeburn had found the keys in the small shed next to the motor pool the sound of three engines staring thundered through the silent night. Dano drove and Soarin sat in the first Humvee to pull out of the motor pool followed by Braeburn driving the transport truck. Big Mac came last in the second Humvee with Carrot wrapped up in the back, Bon Bon and Berry Punch in the back seat, the later holding Echo in her arms, and the Doctor sitting in the passenger’s seat.

The three vehicles moved through the camp slowly, and Dano used the weight of his truck to break the lock and force the gate open. Once out of the camp the convoy picked up speed, cruising down the dirt path. The Humvees carried their own civilian GPS systems, and each had the location of Ponyville saved. Following the directions the group of trucks turned off of the dirt path onto the asphalt roads towards home only stopping to pick up Dano’s working ATVs. The Doctor, Dano Braeburn and Big Mac struggled a bit trying to get the smaller machines into the bed of the transport truck, but they succeeded after a few minutes of grunting and cursing before returning to task of driving home.

The sun began to rise in the east as the convoy moved. Dano noticed that as it rose it destroyed the cloud cover with its crimson red glow. The sight of the new day brought happiness to the survivor, and a small smile crept across his face as he felt the warm rays upon his scarred face. They had done it, and now they were going home to put the nightmare of Fort Security behind them.

Wow Gaius, that was a quick update
that is what she said
*faceplam*
i just burned myself didn't i
no, you used that joke even though it doesn't fit
of course it fits
when was the last time you heard someone call sex "updating"
uhh.
exactly
you know she is right
shut up logic...

another chapter for your reading pleasure
don't forget to rate and comment
that is all
kthanxbai