Borderlands: Eden

Borderlands: Eden

Part 6: Two Jobs for Freddy

Twilight (as the Princess)

Twilight did not get a restful sleep.

She had spent the majority of the night thinking about her new gun, the one that shot fire. She couldn’t believe that she had killed someone in such a painful way. She knew that the guy probably deserved it, but still… how much had that hurt?

Then there was the company that made the gun. ‘Sparkle Conglomerate’. Not only did they use her Cutie Mark, they also used her last name as part of theirs. Finally, the name of the weapon was friendly and revolved around the very concept of friendship, much like where she came from. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Who were these guys? What was the connection to her? Why did the gun shoot fire? Why would they choose such an ironic name? How long would it take her to go insane in this place?

So when Alex called her on the S-NET, told her to get up because they were leaving in twenty minutes, she got up in the foulest mood she’d ever experienced for herself.

She dragged herself out of the too-big bed she had found and groaned. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she picked up her S-NET, attached it to herself, strapped on her kukri and grabbed a can of Howler meat for breakfast.

She forced herself to eat it, desperately ignoring the fact that she was once a herbivore and this went against all her evolutionary responses. She managed to eat it after telling herself, ‘This is what you have, and this is what you eat.’

After meeting with the others, they had set off to the sound of Claptrap (“Good luck, travellers! Please don’t die!”) and Medic (“Good luck, Söldners!”) wishing them luck. Then, they headed back out into the desert. The Howlers left them alone aside from the occasional growl and the Bandits had abandoned the post that the Tree Hunters had attacked the day before.

As they passed under the makeshift tent, Alex took off his sword and started scratching into the road.

The others stopped and looked at him questionably as Alex dug into the concreate and drew a circle with a line down the middle and a rectangle down that.

Alex reattached his sword and stared at the Tree Symbol. “Well… fear will make them a tad easier to fight. Let’s see if this works.”

Then they continued down the path to Tornenhurst.

As they walked down the road, Twilight took a moment to consider her teammates again. Bane and Alex were silent, as per usual. Twilight guessed that anti-sociality was part of their previous lifestyles, which she assumed involved killing. After all, they seemed so easy with it. Twilight only killed because she’d die otherwise.

Viper was good at killing too, but she, like Twilight, wasn’t eager to do so. That’s what Twilight like about her. She seemed to be the only one in the group who understood emotions beyond coldness and anger. She was also had standards, as Twilight learnt yesterday.

Twilight looked at Viper. She still shivered as she did so, but she was getting used to working with her. She was just as nice as her other friends, who were probably worried out of their minds because she’d been gone for three whole days.

Twilight shook her head, trying to get those memories out of her head. She didn’t want to get depressed. She was going to see them again.

Deciding to start up conversation, she turned to Viper. “You know… I forgot to say yesterday.”

“Hmm?” Viper looked up.

“You stood up to them pretty well yesterday.” Twilight said, smiling. “Pretty brave, saying that you’d leave.”

“And I would’ve.” Viper nodded. “But I doubt it would’ve had as much effect if you hadn’t joined in.”

“It wouldn’t’ve.” Alex muttered from the front. “Twilight’s the only reason we didn’t kick you out.”

Bane grunted in agreement.

The girls ignored them.

“So thanks,” Viper said. “Thanks for helping me.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So… what was your life like before this?” Viper asked.

“Um…” Twilight scratched her head. She didn’t want to just say that she was a princess. After all, she

didn’t want to seem like she was bragging. “I lived in this town…”

“Bane…” Alex nudged said wall of muscle. “You think that’s it, up there?”

Twilight turned to where Alex was looking. At the top of a hill was a small hut with a figure at the top. Connected to the hut was a fence that went in a circle around what Twilight assumed was a small, hidden village.

“Probably just the entrance.” Bane replied.

“…I don’t see any doors.” Viper pointed out.

“Probably to stop the Bandits.”

“Who’s the guy up there?” Twilight frowned.

“Let’s go find out.” Alex said, continuing his path.

As they neared the hut and Tornenhurst, Twilight could see that the fence was dotted with messages that she couldn’t make out at the current distance. The figure looked like he or she was slumped forward, sleeping even. There were also a few metal rods with human skulls jammed onto them.

“…Urrg.” Twilight groaned.

“Well… it keeps the Bandits away.” Viper said.

When they were at the gate, Twilight could read the messages clearly. They read dark things such as ‘GO AWAY’, ‘PIS OFF’ and ‘Do u want piza?’ There were some other, more threatening messages, but most of them were incoherent, save for one message, right at the top of the fence.

“‘This is the entrance to Tornenhurst.’” Twilight read aloud. “‘Stay away if you like having limbs.’”

“Joyful.” Alex said sarcastically.

“Perfect grammar and punctuation on that one.” Twilight noted. “Promising.”

“Except for the ‘having limbs’ part.”

Twilight looked at the prone figure. It was slumping forward in a chair with a shotgun by its side. It seemed to be covered in a red felt-like material from the top and a brown material down the bottom.

The stuff was ripped in several places though, including the entirety of its bottom legs, revealing a metal frame that Twilight assumed was this… thing’s version of a skeleton.

It had a hook in favour of a right hand and its head resembled a fox. One of its eyes had a metal eye patch covering it and its jaw was hanging open loosely. Its ‘fur’ had faded from sun exposure and the lower half of its body was dotted with sand.

“What is this thing?” Twilight asked the group at large, walking towards the thing.

“An animatronic.” Bane said. “They use them for entertainment.”

“They’re pretty much robots, except they can’t think for themselves.” Alex tapped the creature on the head and lifted up a panel on the back. “This one doesn’t have an AI chip, so it can’t be controlled.”

“So it’s broken?” Viper asked.

“Looks like it.”

“Is it possible that the village is populated by animatronics?” Bane asked. “Médico said that this was a village of robots.”

“Well… there was this incident on the planet where I was born…” Alex looked thoughtful. “There was this restaurant that sold tacos… one of their animatronics became self-aware.”

“Tacos?” Viper tilted her head to the side.

“A type of food.” Twilight explained.

“Yeah… so their robot realised that he was only designed to sell fast food, became depressed and so he killed himself.” Alex said bluntly. “Pretty traumatizing for the kids at the time.”

“…Dark.” Viper winced.

“But in answer to your question, I doubt it though.” Alex shrugged. “Animatronics are extremely simple in terms of intelligence. It’d be extremely rare for one animatronic to become self-aware, let alone a whole village.”

Twilight lifted the head of the animatronic. Its jaw was filled with sharp, dangerous-looking plastic teeth with a secondary set of teeth inside the mouth. The eye that wasn’t obscured by the eye patch looked dull and was cracked.

“Looks like nothing can survive on this place without getting damaged.” Twilight said.

The moment the last word escaped her lips, the eye lit up.

The robot moved so fast that Twilight couldn’t react in time. Its hooked hand pierced her shirt and lifted her up while the other hand grabbed the shotgun and pointed it to her face, all the while shooting straight up from sitting to standing.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she was lifted into the air. She grabbed the hook, trying to find something to balance herself with. From her left, she heard Viper’s cry of alarm while also hearing the sounds of a pistol cocking and a shotgun pumping.

The creature spun around to face them, giving them a perfect view of Twilight’s back as she was whirled around.

“Git outta ‘ere, ye land-lubbers!” Foxy snarled, pressing the barrel of the shotgun up against Twilight’s head. “Not unless ye want ye friend to lose a head!” (Yar, Har, Fiddily De!)

“Let her go.” Twilight heard Alex say from behind.

“Only when Oi can’t see ye no more!” Foxy snapped back. “Git goin’!”

“We haven’t done anything to you!” Viper shouted.

“Ye’ve intruded upon this place! That’s wot ye’ve done wrong!”

“Let her go now, or we will shoot you.” Bane said coldly and clearly.

“Sure.” Twilight could hear the sneer in Foxy’s voice. “Go ‘head. Me crew will just attack ye back, ye thievin’ scallywags!”

“Thieving-?!” Viper spluttered. Then she seemed to understand, because the next thing she said was, “No, no, we’re not Bandits. We’re Tree Hunters.”

“Sem bloody difference!” Foxy replied. “Everyone tries to kill us, including ye fancy-pants ‘Tree Hunters’! Now git away from ‘ere!”

That went well. Twilight thought sarcastically, trying to kick Foxy in order to make him let go. He barely reacted though.

“Okay, listen.” Alex said. “We’re not like the Tree Hunters you’ve seen previously.”

“How so?”

“We’re not assholes.” (Twilight rolled her eyes) “We just want to help you. We don’t want to kill you all. We just want jobs.”

“Oh yeah? Then why’ve ye still got ye guns out?”

“That’s a good point.” Alex replied. The sound of the gun digistructing back into the S-Net followed his statement. “Bane? If you could put away your gun.”

After bit of a delay, there was another digistructing sound.

“…Ye actually did it.” Foxy sounded surprised, confused even. “That’s never happened before.”

“Can you let her go now?” Alex asked.

Twilight really hoped that Foxy was going to say yes. This position was starting to get uncomfortable.

After a bit of silence, Foxy said, “Follow me. Freddy’ll want to see ya.”

“Right.” Alex sighed. “Why?”

“If ye really want jobs, then maybe ‘e’ll give ye one… if ‘e’s in a good mood.”

“And if he’s not?” Viper asked.

“Ye die, landlubber. Why even ask?” Foxy replied, pushing open the gate like a catflap.

Foxy let Twilight go, pushing her inside the village. She stumbled backwards, the others following her inside.

Taking out his shotgun, Foxy growled, “Move.” and aimed at them.

The group walked through the town, looking at the different animatronics that were standing around. They stared at the Tree Hunters as they passed, some of them looking curious while others were more hostile.

Foxy guided them towards a worn-down and slightly destroyed restaurant. According to the giant sign at the top, it was called ‘Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria House’. Outside it was a large pole with a ladder and a noose at the top.

Once inside, Twilight saw that it was a kid’s restaurant, except it had been repurposed as what looked like a war room, with various weapons just lying around the place.

“Sit down.” Foxy said, gesturing to a large table. The group sat down.

Foxy walked off into the dark, maybe to get someone.

After waiting in a dark room with only a table and a bunch of chairs for company for about a minute, Foxy came back, along with a bunch of other animatronics.

One of them was a purple rabbit with an assault rifle that had a body with felt like Foxy. Another looked like a chick in the body of a young woman, who was holding an SMG. Unlike the other one, this robot was made out of some sort of plastic.

The last one was a bear in a top-hat with a revolver. He had brown felt covering his body, although there were a few bullet holes in his chest.

They all looked different, but they all looked damaged, with their bodies falling to pieces in some places.

The bear looked at the Tree Hunters for a few seconds, then he turned to Foxy. In a light tone of voice, he said, “These them?”

“Aye.” Foxy replied.

“Right.” The bear leaned onto the table and glared at them. “I’m Freddy. You have ten minutes to explain why you’re here.” (It’s not me. It’s you.)

“We’re Tree Hunters and we’re here to help.” Bane said bluntly.

The rabbit made a sound like an amused snort. “Yeah, right.” It said in a male voice.

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Twilight asked.

“Why?!” Foxy snarled. “Do ye want me to bring up me first mate?!”

“Foxy, go back to your station.” Freddy ordered.

“Why? Capn’ Foxy’s got a score to-”

“I know, but I need you watching out in case King’s Bandits attack, now go!” Freddy snapped.

Foxy grumbled, but he walked down the room and out the door regardless.

“So…” Viper said nervously. “Nice room.”

“What do you mean, ‘you want to help’?” Freddy asked, glaring at the group.

“We want to do some jobs for you.” Alex said uninterestedly. “Killing Bandits, monsters, even WAR if you

want.”

The chick looked at the rabbit. “Why would we want to attack WAR? At least they’ve left us alone.”

“Quiet.” Freddy raised his hand. He looked back at the Tree Hunters. “And you want nothing in return? Nothing at all?”

“Well…” Alex scratched his head. “There is one thing…”

“I knew it.” Freddy said in disgust, standing up. “Forget it.”

Alex sighed. “You don’t even know what we want.”

“We’re not paying murderers. Period.” Freddy said bluntly.

“Hey!” Viper snapped. “We are not murderers!”

“Then explain this: a year ago, a group of you ‘Tree Hunters’ came up, attacked our town and killed one of my own citizens. There was no provocation, no reason, just a straight-up murder.”

“…Oh…” Twilight suddenly wished that they had just gone ahead and attacked King already.

“That wasn’t us.” Bane stated simply. “We arrived three days ago.”

“Cop-out.” The chick muttered.

“Can you prove this?” Freddy asked.

“Grab any random Bandit and interrogate him.” Alex replied. “We’ve had a few run-ins with them.”

Freddy glared at them. “How do I know that you aren’t Bandits?”

There was a moment of awkward silence from Alex. “Well… we can’t prove that we’re not… but you can’t prove that we are. A Bandit would’ve opened fire on you guys on sight.”

Freddy seemed to be sorting through his decisions.

“What exactly are you planning to do?” He said finally.

“We want to kill King.” Twilight said.

“Really?” Freddy seemed sceptical. “What reason do you have for wanting to do so?”

“King has something that we want.” Bane replied. “Part of the key to the Tree.”

Freddy seemed to frown, although his mouth couldn’t actually move.

“Just let us shoot them.” The rabbit said. “It hasn’t worked out badly yet.”

“I’m thinking about that.” Freddy muttered. “Trouble is that if they are telling the truth…”

“Who cares? If it’s not King, it’s Joy-Kill, or the Shell Lord himself. Our situation isn’t getting any better any time soon.”

“That’s not a given.”

“Look, how about this? The first few jobs we do, you don’t even have to pay us for.” Viper suggested. “That way, you lose nothing.”

Freddy crossed his arms, tapping them in thought.

“Freddy, remember the bots we lost in this hellhole?” The chick said. “That was the work of Tree Hunters.”

Freddy looked at the chick, back at the Tree Hunters, then back to the chick. He nodded. “Yes… you’re right.”

In retrospect, Twilight would be thankful for Foxy bursting back through the door at that moment.

“Foxy, I told you-!” Freddy started.

“Bandits!” Foxy said quickly. “Six of ‘em!”

Despite the lack of facial movement, Twilight could see the alarm in the bots faces. It was mutual too.

“Bandits?” She said. “How many?”

“Like oi’d tell ye!” Foxy snarled. “Ye’re probably the ones who led ‘em here!”

“No.” Bane said bluntly.

Foxy raised his shotgun, but quickly put it down when Freddy snapped, “Stop!”

Freddy turned the Tree Hunters. “You say you want to help? Prove it.”

Twilight interpreted this as ‘kill all the Bandits’.

“Got it.” Alex nodded. He turned to the others. “Let’s go.”

The group ran outside and through the town with the bots following them. The other animatronics they glimpsed were either hiding in their houses or pulling out weapons. Twilight didn’t spare them a second thought as she ran past.

The Tree Hunters were pulling out their weapons as well. Alex pulled out his Revolution, quickly checking his ammo quickly, then snapping the gun back. Bane got out his ASULT-RFL, spinning it in the air as it unfolded. Twilight pulled out her Friendship, hoping that the first shot lighted her target.

Viper just blinked and frowned.

They reached the gate, pushing it open like it was a dog-flap. There, they saw a Speedie, occupied by two Thugs. There were four other Thugs, most of them regular except for one Raiding Thug.

When the Raiding Thug saw them, Twilight could see him smile underneath the balaclava. “Ah, the Tree Hunters!” He said. “I take i-”

Alex interrupted his sentence by shooting him in the face.

Stunned for a few moments, the other Thugs just jumped back. Twilight took advantage of this by shooting one of the other Thugs, thankfully lighting him up and causing him to scream in pain and shoot wildly. Viper shot forward and bit a Thug in the neck, causing him to bleed, then she snapped his leg, felling him. Bane just filled the remaining Thug full of bullets.

Recovering from this, the driver of the Speedie backed up rapidly, with the gunner firing at them randomly. The three Tree Hunters with guns fired back, killing the gunner with a mixture of bullets. Viper rushed forward to the driver, who had just decided that running was his best chance of survival. So he spun the car around and sped off.

Viper probably would’ve got him, but Twilight said, “Let him go.”

Viper looked at her quizzically.

“We need to show King what we thought of his offer.” Twilight explained.

“Ah.” Viper said.

The group turned back to the animatronics, who hadn’t gotten the chance to fire a single shot during the fight.

Now they were just staring at them.

“Oh, King asked us to take a sum of money and leave.” Viper elaborated to them. “But we ignored him.”

“…Uh, huh.” Freddy nodded.

Alex put away his gun and looked at the dirt in front of the gate. Then he looked at the gate.

“Do you have any paint?” He asked the robots.

“So… let’s get something straight here.” Freddy said to the group when they were all seated back in the room.

“Why did we come back here?” Viper asked.

Ignoring her, Freddy said, “I don’t trust you guys yet. No-one does. But we can thank you for defending us from the Bandits.”

“You’re welcome.” Alex said drily. “Any other jobs you need doing?”

“Ye just killed ‘alf a dozen Bandits and ye want to start killin’ again?” Foxy asked incredulously. “Ye lot are either-”

“Foxy, station.” Freddy said.

Foxy spluttered for a bit before leaving, grumbling to himself.

Now that the animatronics knew that they wanted to help, Twilight figured that she could say more daring things to them. So when Foxy was out of earshot, Twilight said, “Who are you guys anyway?”

Freddy probably would’ve frowned at her. “We’re the mascots for Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaria.”

Bane was the only one who recognised the name. “Of course. That restaurant.”

“What’s special about it?” Alex asked. “I wasn’t around in that time period.”

“It got a lot of attention in the media due to a few murders that happened there.” Bane replied. “I don’t know the specifics though…”

“Murder in a restaurant?” Twilight found the idea repulsive.

“Children.” Freddy said in disgust.

The Hunters turned to Freddy and the other two robots. They all looked like they were remembering something unpleasant.

“…Come again?” Viper asked.

“The victims were children.” Freddy said, clearly still very angry about it. “Some staff member lured them backstage, killed them, then shoved the bodies into four of us. The place got shut down after that.”

Twilight must’ve looked horrified, because the bunny nodded at her.

“…Oh…” Viper said in a small voice.

A silence settled over them for a few seconds.

“So…” Viper must’ve decided to change the subject. “If you got shut down, then why’re you here?”

The animatronics looked at each other.

“That’s not important.” Freddy said. “All you need to know is that we’ve been here for a while, trying to survive in this hellhole.”

Alex frowned. “I have a question. How’re you lot alive right now?”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no way any of you are in any working condition.” Alex stated. “I checked Foxy myself, and he has no AI chip. There is no way that he should be functioning, and yet he just walked out the door a minute ago. And you lot probably aren’t that much different. So how’re you standing right now, talking to us? With proper sentience as well?”

The temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees. The rabbit and Freddy’s eyes suddenly went dark, with only pure white irises showing. Their jaws dropped open and blood slowly dripped from the open mouths and any rips in their suits. The effect was amplified by the lights in the room flickering during the event.

The Tree Hunters had completely frozen during this show. In contrast, the chick rolled her eyes at the two.

During this, Twilight felt something else in the air. It felt cold, damp and strangely intimidating. It wasn’t physical, she could tell that it was magical, or supernatural.

Ghosts.

Then everything went back to normal.

“…You’re possessed.” Alex said. He looked quite surprised.

“Yes.” Freddy did not sound very pleased. “A side effect of the body-stuffing. It gets worse at night. We get overpowering desires to kill.”

“Right.” Viper said. “So don’t come at night.”

“But this is irrelevant to our current situation.” Freddy said. “You said before that you wanted to kill King. How exactly do you plan to do this?”

Twilight suddenly realised that Medic hadn’t explained that to them. All he had told them was to meet the bots at Tornenhurst. He’d left out other details.

“We’ll explain in due time.” Twilight decided. “In the meantime though, we have a favour to ask of you.”

Freddy looked quite annoyed. “Yes?”

“We need a way for Viper to hold a gun.” Twilight gestured to the grass-green snake.

“W-What?” Viper blinked.

Freddy nodded thoughtfully. “I was wondering about that.”

Bane nodded. “Yes. We can’t afford to have any weakness on our team.”

“Well, yeah.” Viper smiled nervously. “But, you know… no rush.”

“Big rush.” Alex retorted. “If we’re going to take on King, we need you to be ready.”

“Well…” Freddy stroked his chin. “Foxy could probably build you something…”

“Foxy?” Twilight asked, surprised.

“He’s a pretty good mechanic.” The chick said. “Sure, he’s a bit hard to get along with, but I reckon that he could do something.”

“Great!” Twilight said.

“…Yeah.” Viper mumbled.

“Go ask him.” Freddy said. “He might not do it, though. He has a grudge against Tree Hunters.”

“We noticed.” Alex replied, standing up. “Let’s go.”

The Tree Hunters left the building and through the village.

Now that Twilight wasn’t under any pressure, she took a good look at the town. Most of the buildings seemed to be constructed from sheet metal and garbage, although that seemed like bit of a theme on this planet. The animatronics looked really curious now, no doubt due to them saving the town from Bandits and all.

After deciding that the town wasn’t very interesting in terms of appearance, Twilight turned her attention to Viper. She seemed very uncomfortable for some reason, like she was about to do something unforgivable. Twilight assumed that it had something to do with holding a gun, but she couldn’t figure out why she’d be uncomfortable with that.

Twilight couldn’t figure out why she’d be uncomfortable with holding a futuristic weapon designed to kill people from the far side of a football field.

Twilight rubbed her forehead. She needed to get off this planet.

Eventually, they reached the flap that led outside. Bane pushed it open, holding it for the others to walk through. Twilight looked over to Foxy, who had taken up the position he had before, slumped forward in a chair pretending to be deactivated.

Bane cleared his throat.

Foxy opened his eyes and looked at them. “Wha-? Oh. It’s yer lot.”

“Yeah.” Alex said. “We have a request for you.”

Foxy gave him a blank stare. “Wot?”

“We need you to build a way for Viper to hold a gun.” Bane gestured at the said snake.

Foxy scratched his head with his hook. “And yer askn’ me?”

“We heard that you were a good mechanic.” Twilight shrugged.

“Aye.” Twilight could hear pride in his voice. “Oi helped build the Rocket-Ride ‘ere, oi have! Can ye name anyone else who could do that?”

“No, we couldn’t.” Twilight said, having no idea what that was. “So… can you help us?”

“But no rush.” Viper said quickly.

"Well…” Foxy seemed to consider it. “Ye did kill those Bandits a bit ago… so oi guess oi owe ye…”

“Good.” Alex said, satisfied. “Then we-”

“On the other ‘and, ye lot are Tree Hunters.”

Alex sighed a frustrated sigh. “As we have stated before, we are not affiliated with the ones you knew before.”

“Even so. Oi don’ trust ye.”

“You don’t have to.” Bane said.

Foxy rubbed his chin, turning to Viper. “Ye’d be the one called ‘Viper’?”

“Yes.” Viper nodded.

Foxy stood up and walked over to her. Kneeling down to eye level with her, he gave her a critical look, staring at her long enough for Viper to become noticeably uncomfortable.

He stood up and backed off so that he could see them all. “O’right. Oi think that oi can do somethin’ for yer lass.”

“Really?” Twilight asked.

“Aye. But oi need ye to do somethin’ fer me, first.”

Alex sighed. “Of course you do. What is it?”

Foxy turned and pointed down the hill. “Do ye see that Howler nest down there?”

Twilight walked to the edge of the hill and peered at what Foxy was pointing at. “Uh, huh.”

“Do you need us to wipe them out?” Viper asked.

“Nay, we need the Howlers.” Foxy shook his head. “Fer when night comes an’ we lose our minds.”

Alex frowned at him. “Then what do you…?”

“The little bastards down there stole me booze a few days ago.” Foxy growled. “Oi know tha’ it was them, ‘cause it was before any Bandit attack an’ Bandits only take money an’ guns. Oi need ye lot to go down there, find me booze, an’ bring it back… unless they’ve drank it already.”

The Tree Hunters stared at him.

“That’s it?” Alex asked. “You want us to find some alcohol for you?”

“Aye.”

The look of confusion on Alex’s face was priceless.

“…But you’re an animatronic.” Alex said.

“So?” Foxy shrugged.

“So… you can’t…” Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Never mind. Couldn’t you ask one of your friends in the town to do something this menial?”

Foxy gave a short laugh that sounded a bit like a bark. “They wouldn’t give a damn. Freddy’s policy is that if ye screw up, then ye fix it. But if oi leave me station fer just a few minutes, then Freddy’ll be yelln’ at me louder than a Bandit hooker durin’ ‘happy hour’.”

“So we have to fix this for you.”

“Aye.”

Twilight felt rather underwhelmed by this latest quest. “Alright… so, let’s go.”

“Thanks, laddies!” Foxy said as the group walked down the hill.

As they walked down, Twilight pressed the OPEN button on her S-NET and brought up her HUD. Switching to the inventory screen, she took stock of how much ammunition she had. There was a bunch of ammo for weapons that she didn’t have, like assault and sniper rifle ammo, but she also noticed that she was running a bit low on pistol ammo.

Closing the menu, Twilight tucked her pistol into her dress and took out her SMG from the other side of the dress.

An idea occurred to her. She frowned in concentration and thought, secondary. Her pistol disappeared from her dress and went into her S-NET while her Woodpecker stayed right where it was, in her hands.

She smiled a smile that died a few seconds later when she heard a howl.

She looked down at the nest. A bunch of small Howlers were gathered around in a group, or pack. There were a lot of Pups, but some other Howlers that were larger than the Pups, but smaller than the Adults. Twilight decided that they were adolescents and named them ‘Mutts’.

“I’ll stay here and act as sniper.” Alex said. “That way, I can take out any Howlers that bother you guys.”

“And avoid getting hurt.” Twilight pointed out.

“It’s a strategy.”

“A coward’s strategy.” Viper muttered. Alex ignored her.

Bane got out his shotgun. “It’ll work. Make sure that you land hits.”

Twilight advanced towards the Howlers. There were about six of them, although Twilight was sure that more would climb out of the dens that were scattered around. She decided to be the one to open hostilities, so a bit later, she opened fire on one of the Pups.

The Howlers immediately barked and ran at the Tree Hunters. Twilight fell another Pup, then opened fire on a Mutt. It growled angrily, but went down a bit later.

Bane was firing a shotgun blast after shotgun blast at the small horde, kicking away any Howlers that got too close to him. He seemed to be holding his own rather well.

Viper was having a bit more difficulty. Without a gun, she found herself having to constantly dodge all the snapping teeth in between the strikes. She almost got herself bitten in half, but a rifle behind them cracked and the offending Howler went down.

As more Howlers climbed out of the dens, Twilight shouted to Bane, “How do we find the alcohol?!”

“We’ll search the bodies and the dens when we’re done!” Bane replied.

“Right!” Twilight turned her attention back to her attackers. She fired a few more rounds at the Howlers, but then a Mutt jumped her from behind.

The teeth bounced off her shield, but she still stumbled from the attack. She tried to turn around, but she ended up falling flat on her back. The Howler then jumped on her in an attempt to bite off her face.

Unable to get to her SMG, Twilight reached for her kukri, but the Howler bit deep into her arm, stopping her motion and causing her shield to start draining at an alarming rate.

Fully panicking now, Twilight tried to punch the Howler in the face to get it off, but it was too busy mauling her arm. She hit it again and again and again, to no avail each time.

It wasn’t until the shield depleted completely and Twilight felt the teeth sink into her arm that she lost control completely.

She punched the Howler again, only this time a bright flash of purple-pink light caused the Howler to fly off of her and into the sky.

Twilight blinked and stared at the speck in disbelief, then at her uninjured hand. It was tingling a bit, but otherwise it looked normal.

She got up and looked around. Apparently, the others hadn’t seen what had happened, probably because they were wrapped up in their own conflicts. There were a few more Howlers around, but most of them were pups.

Twilight grabbed her SMG, wincing at the pain in her arm. Her HUD showed that the injury wasn’t too critical, so she decided to ignore it for the time being and shoot the rest of the Howlers.

Turning on burst-fire mode, she got a couple of headshots while Bane took down the ones around him with his shotgun. When the level of Howlers was down to one, Viper whipped it upwards and slammed it back down into the ground.

With the battle over, Twilight put away her SMG, wincing and clutching her arm. Viper slithered over to her in concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll survive.” Twilight replied. “Did you guys get injured?”

Viper shook her head. “I got scraped by one of their claws, but most of the blows glanced off of my shield.”

Bane walked over to them. “A few scratches. Nothing major.”

“Yeah, the shields are useful.” Twilight muttered. “The Howler probably would’ve ripped off my arm if I didn’t have it.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed Alex walking up to them. His face was covered with black soot and he looked extremely annoyed. His sniper rifle was strapped to his back and he was holding a health vial in his hand. When he reached the group, he gave it to her without a word.

Twilight jammed the syringe into her injured arm. Immediately, the gashes closed up and the skin healed. She felt a tingling feeling go through her body.

She glared at Alex angrily. “What were you doing when that Howler was on top of me?”

“I was attempting to reload my rifle.” Alex replied coldly.

That reminded Twilight to reload her weapons. She clicked the switch near the magazine and it fell out. A quick thought command and she was able to shove another clip into the gun.

She did this with little to no difficulty.

“And that was difficult for you, because…?” Twilight said.

Alex unclipped his Lancer, turned around and fired it into the ground. Then, Alex turned around, smacked the butt of his gun and threw it away like a javelin.

It hit the ground a fair bit away and exploded.

Twilight and Viper jumped. Bane just frowned. They turned to Alex just as the rifle was re-forming out of nothing back into his hand.

“Apparently, Mann Co. thought that it’d be a good idea for that to happen.” Alex grumbled. “It blew up in my face when I tried to reload up there.”

Twilight chuckled. “So, wait… it blew up-”

“In my face, yes.” Alex snapped.

“Let’s find the alcohol.” Bane interrupted, no doubt wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.

“Yeah.” Viper nodded. “You suppose that we’ll find it in one of the dens?”

“Probably.” Alex agreed. “We’ll each search one; there are only five holes here.”

Twilight, still smirking, walked over to the closest den and looked in it. She couldn’t see a thing, so she stuck her arm in there and felt around.

She got some shotgun shells and pistol rounds, and she did manage to get another health vial, but there was no sign of Foxy’s booze.

Twilight looked at the others. Viper, being the smallest, was able to get into the den without any problem, but she came out empty hand- without finding anything. Bane came out with a cowardly Pup Howler and a couple of extra dollars, but nothing bottle-shaped.

Alex came out with a new assault rifle. He smirked as he looked at it.

The group walked over towards the last den, hoping to find the item/s and get this over with.

Twilight took the chance to look at the title card for Alex’s new gun. It was made by Egghead Inc. and was called a ‘Crossbred Tiger’. It was level 3 and was white in rarity. It was red and yellow, just like Viper’s pistol.

Viper ducked into the den for a little while. Then she called out, “Found it!”

Twilight knelt down and tried to see into the gloom. She spotted Viper pushing a bottle out with her head, so she reached in to help her.

Pulling out the rather light bottle, she showed it to the others.

“Rum?” Bane raised his eyebrows. “Strong stuff.”

“I don’t even know how he manages to drink at all.” Alex muttered.

As Viper slithered out, Twilight asked, “Was there any more of them?”

Viper shook her head. “Just the one.”

Twilight looked up the hill, where she could vaguely see Foxy watching them. She held up the bottle for him to see. In reply, Foxy waved one of his hands.

“Shall we?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah.” Alex muttered.

The group trudged back up the hill.

As she walked, Twilight thought about that blast of magic back there. She was sure that it was magic, she couldn’t think of any other explanation. But how had she been able to channel that magic in human form? Nothing like this had happened in the alternate universe she’d visited before.

This newest revelation brought up a lot of questions. Would she have to learn how to use magic all over again? Probably. She only used magic back there because she panicked. She needed to learn how to control her magic in this form, because she could easily hurt someone if she lost control.

So how would she go about with that? She’d have to start with the basics, so torchlight and levitation… but how would the others react to her being able to do magic? She recalled how Alex summoned a pistol from smoke back on the bus. Bane and Viper had reacted violently at best. She doubted that they would be supportive of purple light and levitation.

On the other hand, Alex probably wouldn’t give a damn.

They reached Foxy’s hut eventually. He was standing up, his shotgun on his chair behind him. When Twilight got up to him, she noticed that he was giving her a strange stare. She realised that he probably would’ve seen what had happened below.

Oh, great. Twilight thought depressingly. Already I’m being judged.

She handed him the bottle of rum, which she suspected was at least half-empty.

Foxy looked at it critically. “This be all of it?”

“Yup.” Alex nodded.

Foxy sighed in annoyance. “Damned monstrosities…” He then brought the bottle to his mouth and poured the entirety of the contents down into his body.

Twilight couldn’t really see the point of that. From what she could see, the rum simply ran down his exoskeleton and into the dust underneath him.

After the bottle was finished, Foxy threw it to the ground and looked at them. Although his face couldn’t form expressions, Twilight swore that he seemed to be grinning.

“Aye… that’s the stuff! So ye wanted me to build somethin’?” He said to Viper.

“Yes, but you don’t have to do it, like, right now…” Viper protested.

“Don’t be a fool, lass!” Foxy swung his hook at them alarmingly. “Everythin’ on this planet be wantin’ te kill ye! Best to build ye somethin’ roight now, Oi say!”

“…How strong was that?” Bane asked, gesturing to the bottle.

“Oi only buy the strongest poison in the land.” Foxy’s metaphorical grin stretched even further. “Oi work better when Oi’m tipsy, ye see.”

“Uh, huh…” Alex said. “So that would mean that you can perform miracles when you’re pissfaced.”

“Exactly!” Foxy said enthusiastically. “Besoides, Oi’ve got a great oidea for te lass!”

“Alright…” Viper sighed. “What is it?”

“Well, Oi’ve got some spare robot shells in me hut.” Foxy explained. “Me plan is to build ye a body from one of them, ye see. Ye’ll be movin’ it with a system that operates similarly to the S-NET telepathic circuits. That way, ye’ll be able to control it without any of them fiddly levers an’ buttons. It'll have some motor hinges on the chest so ye’ll be able to get out at will an’ get back in whenever ye like. Yer S-NET will automatically connect to ye when ye place it on the body, so ye won’t have to worry ‘bout that. Complete motor functions, built-in gun-usin’ tutorial an’ to top it all off, Oi’ll paint it an emerald green.”

Foxy looked at them. “That sound good to ye?”

The Tree Hunters stared at him, a tad overwhelmed by the intelligent talk.

“…Sure.” Viper nodded dazedly. “That’ll work.”

“Good!” Foxy said happily, turning around to his hut. “But Oi’m going to need ye to come with me, lass. Goin’ te need ye measurements.”

Viper slithered in after him, seeming more than a little nervous as the hut door closed behind her.

The rest of the group stood in place for a moment, unsure of what to do.

Bane decided for himself before the other two. “I need to speak with the oso for a minute.”

Twilight nodded. “Sure.” As Bane walked away, Twilight asked Alex, “What does ‘oso’ mean?”

Alex thought about that. “Either dare, or bear.”

“Oh.” Twilight watched Bane walked away.

Realising that she had a headache, Twilight sat down on Foxy’s chair and sighed. Then she realised that she hadn’t had anything to drink of water in a while, something she needed to survive. She needed to find out where to find some water…

“So you are a magician.” Alex said suddenly.

Twilight blinked. “Huh?”

Alex looked directly at her, arms folded. “Back there, when the Howler was on top of you. I saw you use magic to propel it into orbit. So you’re a magician.”

Twilight could make out a hint of hostility in his voice, and she really didn’t want to deal with this at the moment. “So what if I am?” Twilight asked wearily.

“Magicians are rare, especially ones who practice Pure Magic.” Alex said. “I want to know where you come from, whether there are other magicians like you and how much of a threat you are.”

Twilight glared at him. “Why do you care? And what’s ‘Pure’ magic?”

“The polar opposite of Dark Magic.” Alex replied. “What I use. As for why I care, I want to know why people still practice in Pure Magic at all. After all, it’s next to useless unless you only care about the basics.”

Twilight’s temperature rose. “Alright. I come from a planet with an atmosphere that turns you into a pastel-coloured horse. There are three races, one of which can naturally use this ‘Pure Magic’. We are ruled by a white mare who is rumoured to be the goddess of the sun. One of our country defenders is the god of chaos. I’m a princess who is powerful in using magic and we revolve everything around the concept of friendship.”

Alex didn’t even look phased. “The universe has spawned weirder things. So the entirety of the race you belong to can use Pure Magic?”

“Yeah.”

“One of which is a Goddess?”

“That’s just a rumour.”

“And a God of chaos is one of your defenders?”

“Yes.”

“Whoop-de-doo.” Alex muttered. “More Gods for the hit-list.”

Twilight’s temper went up another notch. “Excuse me?!”

Alex glared at her. “Gods cannot be trusted, only destroyed. If there’s any wisdom I know of, that phrase is right up there with ‘don’t trust politicians’.”

Twilight stood up, enraged. “So you would kill someone who is basically a queen just because you don’t like gods?!”

“Sounds about right.”

“Unbelievable!” Twilight shouted. “You are beyond infuriating! Is this what happens to people when they use Dark Magic?!”

“That’s just a stigma.” Alex said bluntly.

“Oh, and being a god isn’t?!” Twilight snapped.

Alex glare turned into a snarl. “You are ignorant.”

“I’m ignorant?!” Twilight could barely form a reply at this point. She’d never gotten this angry this fast before, but the heat, the killing, the frustrations from the previous days and Alex’s comments were combining into a furious mess inside her brain.

She probably would’ve continued shouting if it weren’t for a loud horn that sounded from behind her.

Alex and Twilight turned towards the source of the noise. It was coming from the bottom of the hill from a large object, probably a vehicle. She recognised it, of course. It was one of the first things she had seen on this planet.

It was Thomas’s bus, spluttering its way up the path to the town.

Alex rapped on Foxy’s door. “You might want to see this.”

“Oi’m busy, matey.” Came the muffled reply.

By now, the bus was pretty much at the front gate. Thomas honked the horn again, louder this time.

Foxy burst out of the hut and stared at the bus. “Wot the-? Wot be this?”

The bus doors opened, with Thomas walking out of them whistling merrily.

“Oh, Thomas!” Twilight smiled forcedly. “Hi!”

“Yello!” Thomas greeted. “Told ya we’d meet again!”

“Thomas.” Alex said curtly. “How is the gun business going?”

Thomas waved his hand dismissively. “Eh, you know. ‘Bout as well as it can go on this planet. Tryin’ to kill your teammates already, huh?”

Twilight looked at the ground. Alex shrugged and said, “I was merely making an example.”

“Erm…” Foxy walked over to Thomas. “Who be ye?”

Thomas blinked at him. “Er… the name’s Thomas. I sell guns and ammo.”

Foxy seemed to frown. “How do Oi know ye ain’t a Bandit?”

“What, do I look like I’m trying to kill you?” Thomas asked. “I just need to give some stuff to ya.”

“Stuff?”

“Vendors.” Thomas gestured to two large metal boxes on top of his van. “Ammo and guns. You can buy em’ from these.”

Foxy still looked suspicious. “Fer free?”

“Well… not exactly. If you want the said ammo and guns, then you’ll have to pay for them. But it’s okay! I’m not supported by WAR or anything. But, now that you mention it,” Thomas snapped his fingers at Alex. “I got some free stuff for you guys.”

“You do?” Twilight blinked.

Opening his chest compartment, Thomas brought out a sack filled with round objects.

“Protean Grenades, my friends!” He said, giving the sack to Alex. “Figured you guys could use some explosive stuff.”

Alex opened the sack. “How many are in here?”

“Well… the max amount of grenades the S-NET can hold is four. So… there’s about sixteen of them in there.”

Alex took out one of the grenades. It was a grey orb with a few buttons on it. It didn’t look too spectacular.

“How do they work?” Twilight asked.

“You press the blue button, chuck it at someone and it blows up.” Thomas replied. “Oughta be a blast. But enough about you,” Thomas turned back to Foxy. “What say you? Can I sell my crap here?”

Foxy scratched his chin. Turning to Alex, he said, “Could ye take him to Freddy? Oi need to keep workin’ on ye teammate.”

“Sure. Thomas, follow me.” Alex said, pushing open the flap.

“Okay.” Thomas shrugged, walking through the flap. “What does the symbol on your door mean?”

“Tree Hunters.” Alex said as the flap fell back down behind them.

After bit of a silence, Foxy turned to Twilight and said, “Well… if ye get bored out here, ye could help me with yer teammate. It be good to take breaks in between first-degree burns.”

“…I’ll be fine.” Twilight assured him.

“Ye sure?”

“Yes.”

Foxy shrugged. “If ye say so. Oi should be done soon. Just need to reroute some wires and put on the paintjob.”

Twilight blinked. “Already? You just started!”

Foxy grinned again. “Oi told ye. Oi work better when Oi’m drunk.”

Foxy walked back into his hut, leaving Twilight alone with the bus.

With nothing to do, Twilight sat back down in the chair and groaned. Her headache had worsened with her argument with Alex. She rubbed her forehead and sighed.

Twilight looked down at the ground, boredom already settling in. Trying to find something to do, she opened up her inventory and took out her Friendship pistol. She reloaded it, taking out the revolving magazine and replacing it with another one.

She looked at the bullets that had fell to the ground and a thought struck her. They were rather small. Easy enough to lift. She could use them as practice…

Frowning in concentration, she searched her mind for the mental switch that allowed her to access her hidden potential. It was difficult, as the switch was cloudy and dense. She delved deeper, trying to get it to flip.

Click.

Twilight smiled in the purple light.