Blood Red Shadowsby The DestoyerChaptersAct I, Chapter 1: Two Months LaterAct I, Chapter 3: They Can't Stop All of Us!Act I, Chapter 4: Out of the Ashes...Act I, Chapter 5: Rude AwakeningAct I, Chapter 6: Future CircumstancesAct I, Chapter 7: Movin' inAct I, Chapter 8: A Little Hunting Trip (EDITED)Act I, Chapter 9: Worst...Party...Ever!Act I, Chapter 10: AftermathAct I, Chapter 11: The Canterlot Raid: Part 1Act I, Chapter 12: The Canterlot Raid: Part 2Act I, Chapter 13: Gaining AlliesAct I, Chapter 14: Plan BAct I, Chapter 15: Abandon All Hope... (Edited)Act I, Chapter 17: Beacon Of HopeAct I, Chapter 18: Untapped PotentialAct I, Chapter 19: Discovered PotentialAct I, Chapter 20: Revealing The TruthAct I, Chapter 21: Quoth the Raven...Act I, Chapter 22: Unwelcome Guests (x2 Edited)Act I, Chapter 23: Act Of RebellionAct I, Chapter 24: Act Of Vengeance Act I, Chapter 25: The Duel (Edited)Act I, Chapter 26: The TalkAct II, Chapter 1: The SyndicateAct II, Chapter 2: Another PlanAct II, Chapter 3: The ChaseAct II, Chapter 5, The Aircraft Carrier Heist; Part II of IIIAct II, Chapter 6: The Aircraft Carrier Heist, Part III of IIIAct II, Chapter 7: Combat TrainingAct II, Chapter 8: ConfrontationsAct II, Chapter 9: DeceptionAct II, Chapter 10: Preventing A CringefestAct II, Chapter 11: Zodiac KillersAct II, Chapter 12: SOS Act II, Chapter 13: Return to EquestriaAct II, Chapter 14: ScratchboltsAct II, Chapter 15: Equestrian Electro-Naut Part I of IIAct II, Chapter 16: Equestrian Electro-Naut Part II of IIAct II, Chapter 17: Room For ImprovementAct II, Chapter 18: The Knights Myriad Part I of IIIAct II, Chapter 19: The Knights Myriad Part II of IIIAct II, Chapter 20: The Knights Myriad Part III of IIIAct III, Chapter 1: The IliadAct III, Chapter 2: Intruder Alert!Act III, Chapter 3: Next Stop... Remnant!Act III, Chapter 5: Shock And AweAct III, Chapter 6: Achilles RidgeAct III, Chapter 7: IN SPAAAAACE!!Act III, Chapter 8: The Battle of The SubterrainsAct III, Chapter 9: The Long Road Ahead...Act III, Chapter 10: Breaking and ExitingAct III, Chapter 11: RecoveryAct III, Chapter 12: The Next Step...Act III, Chapter 13: IncognitoAct III, Chapter 14: The Fight WithinAct III, Chapter 15: Battle For Vale Act III, Chapter 16: A Light in the DarknessAct III, Chapter 17: Preparations For Total AnnihilationAct III, Blood Red Night Part 1: Nightfall [X2 Edited]Act III, Blood Red Night Part 2: Never SurrenderAct III, Blood Red Night Part 4: Base InvadersAct III, Blood Red Night Part 5: For the FallenAct III, Blood Red Night Part 6: One Final EffortAct III, Chapter 24: Hope's First LightAct III, Chapter 25: AdmittanceAct III, Chapter 26: ValedictionsAct IV, Epilogue: Ashes of War Act IV, Sequel Announcement: And apparently, THIS is now happening.Act 0, Prologue: Of Omens and MassacresAct I, Chapter 2: Welcome to the ShowAct I, Chapter 16: ...Ye Who Enter Here (RWBY Chapters start here!)Act II, Chapter 4: The Aircraft Carrier Heist; Part I of IIIAct III, Chapter 4: Halloween Special!Act III, Blood Red Night Part 3: Fire And LightningAct I, Chapter 1: Two Months Later"I'm not going to ask again, Why did you kill all those people?" Alex Walker was now sitting in a dimly lit room, tied to a chair. This was unfortunately a daily thing since his arrest back in August. He was arrested because apparently he looked similar to a mercenary that had actually been a part in the attack. The man standing before him, butcher knife in tow, was Agent Winchester, he had been interrogating and torturing Alex ever since he was dragged out of the armored van that took him here. And because he didn't actually know anything and the fact that the real perp hadn't been detained, he was still the prime suspect. "Sir, with all due respect, I didn't do crap. I'm ninety-nine percent sure you just arrested me to boost your paycheck. I really didn't do it." Alex anxiously replied. "Then where we're you on the night of July 8?" Winchester threatened. He had just planted the tip of his knife above his eye, slowly pulling it down to about his eyebrow. "How can anyone remember exactly where they were on some random night two months ago?" He actually meant that, memories of that night were foggy enough, and was too distracted by the new cut on his forehead. Winchester sharply yanked the knife down, just barely missing his eye and met the skin below. Alex grunted in pain. Winchester had done similar things to him for the past month, but he still wasn't entirely used to pain, yet. Instead of asking another question. Winchester started untying him. This was new, Winchester never stopped a torture session early, and he would never untie a suspect. Was the actual mercenary caught? Because Alex was getting pretty sick of being a murderer's fall guy, more so considering the punishment. Winchester grabbed Alex by the wrist, dragging him back to a small cell. He opened the steel bar gate, threw him inside like garbage, and locked the door. Then, the agent spoke. "Kid, you haven't given me anything remotely useful since the day we brought you in. But there is one use for you." Alex perked his head up, he agreed when Winchester said nothing useful came out of the ordeal, but he didn't exactly see how he could be of any use as a prisoner. "For the safety and security of this country, you and the other traitors are being executed. Today. You have five minutes left to live. If you have any more to say, the guard is right out there." Winchester coldly finished. He walked away, giving Alex time to think. The day he was arrested had to be one of the worst days of his life, the government burned his home to the ground, knocked him out, and his family? That was too painful to think about. What Alex didn't understand was what Winchester said about 'other traitors'.'Were they wrongfully accused and imprisoned like him, or were some actually guilty? He figured at least one of the others had to have been involved. He wiped his new wound with his hand, leaving red smeared across his palm. This wasn't his first wound. He'd been electrically shocked, stabbed, beaten, even shot once or twice. But in spite of all of that, he still wasn't fully used to this kind of pain. A guard opened his cell and cuffed his wrists and ankles. The guard was still nervous even pacifying him. Seriously, he did kill two SWAT guys during his arrest, but even he wasn't cunning enough to get out of it, besides. He was already tired and weak. Alex was dragged to a small room with 4 posts in a straight line, and the guards immediately tied him to one of them. It wasn't hard to notice the line of soldiers carrying rifles pointed in his direction. Death by firing squad was seldom used simply because it was barbaric and ancient, but they must've decided that if their bosses were shot to death, so would they, or something like that. The first suspect had to be carried inside, he was incredibly frail. Alex felt a pang of sorrow for the kid. He looked like he had been in the prison for at least a month before him. He had cuts and bruises on every inch of him, and looked malnourished. The second was already chained on his post. This guy was better off than Alex was. He wasn't as wounded as Alex was. This boy looked to be about 16, built like an NFL linebacker. His head was shaved, but this guy had facial hair that could double as steel wool. The third was, to Alex's surprise, a girl. About, say, 15 years old. Shoulder length lightish-brown hair, and. Let's just say if looks could kill, the guards would be long dead by now. As soon as they were all bound to their posts, Agent Winchester walked behind the executioners and spoke. "If there's anything any of you have to say, this is your last chance." The weakened child to the far right coughed, prompting the Agent to walk over to him, the kid mumbled something that Alex couldn't hear, and when Winchester leaned in closer, the kid spat into Winchester's shades. The operative wiped his sleeve over his sunglasses and stabbed the poor guy between the eyes and just left the knife stuck in there, scarlet dripping to the floor. "Ready!" Winchester yelled to his men, immediately, three guards point their weapons at them, the inevitable looming closer and closer. "Aim!" He screamed again. Alex could've sworn he heard something beeping, and one of the guards turned his head to find the source of the noise. The ceiling above appeared to crumble down in front of him. Fire lapping in from above. He saw a canister drop to the ground on front of them. The sounds of gunfire roared in the small room as smoke filled the room. The two men fought, one hitting the other with the butt of his gun, as the second fell to the ground. The smoke cleared, and he saw a man in his late teens with ashy blonde hair, similar to his, grabbed a key ring from the unconscious body of Agent Winchester. "Took you long enough, Jäger." The girl said. Jäger, huh? This is the guy Alex was mistaken for. He unlocked the girl's chains and she took the key ring out of his hands and got to freeing the other suspect. "Zip it. Can you finish up here, we have to go." The other suspect said "Mordecai, fancy seeing you here!" Jäger snapped at 'Mordecai'. Well, Alex guessed most of these people were involved. He was apparently the odd one out. Wouldn't be the first time. "Kat, what are you doing, this guy isn't one of us!" Mordecai scolded. To his surprise, this 'Kat' person was unlocking his chains and pulling Alex up. "Come on, you expect us to leave him here?" Kat pleaded. Alex didn't quite know the answer himself, but thank god someone was helping him. "She's right, Mordecai, he can help us with something." Jäger agreed. Now Alex was obligated to help them with whatever they needed me for. The last thing he needed was to join the very people he was blamed for being part of and tortured for it. Kat must've noticed Alex's reaction to that statement, because she looked Alex in the eye and told me "Listen, aren't you mad at these guys for torturing and almost killing you? We're trying to help." "Fine, what do I need to do for you guys?" He groaned inwardly, he was in enough trouble as-is. He didn't need to be in more. "For right now, kid. Grab that rope, we're pulling you up and taking you to HQ." Jäger ordered. Just because Alex was a little skeptical doesn't mean he wouldn't take help where he got it. Alex grabbed the rope, and was pulled into a helicopter. Upon entering, Alex was greeted by the man holding the rope. "Glad to see you're still among living, Kat, who's the kid?" He asked. "Don't worry about it, we've just recruited another member to our cause." Mordecai stated matter-of-factly, as if it really didn't matter to him what happened to me. "Welcome to the Kahn's Militia, kid, what's your name?" Jäger finally asked. "Alex. Alex Walker." He responded, they saved his life, he may as well be honest. "Correction, Private Alex Walker." Mordecai said. -Meanwhile- September 11, 2016 Dear Twilight, Thank you for your report, I am glad to hear you've been settling in to your new castle, I know it may be daunting at first, but you will eventually come around. The main reason I wrote this is that you tell me if anything unusual happens, due to certain events in my life, It's imperative that you tell me these things, while I know you have proven yourself time and time again, I fear you may still be too inexperienced to properly handle such an event. If anything does happen. Write me a letter immediately, and I will be there as soon as possible. Sincerely, Celestia Author's Note Well, part two of the first four instant chapers! I know you may be asking 'why is Destoyer posting four chapters to his story immediately?" It's because I'm already on an inspirational streak and the fact that this story will likely be really, really long. Act I, Chapter 3: They Can't Stop All of Us!"Is everyone ok?" Alex heard Silas ask, their Helicopter had crashed and burned. Jäger went to help Mordecai get up, and Kat gripped Alex's hand to help him up. "We're okay!" O'Leary yelled. O'Leary was a 25 year old man with a PKM, Alex knew already not to mess with a machine gunner. "Mordecai, place the charges. Alex, get the ropes from the helicopter. Jäger, throw smoke as soon as the hole is blown, Go!" Silas ordered. Alex ran over to the crash, pulling out his Swiss Army knife. He got to the crash site and cut six reasonably sized ropes, and ran back to his unit. Jäger had a canister and Mordecai planted some C4 on the roof. Silas then ordered everyone to back away. Silas clicked the detonator, causing a decently sized explosion. Jäger pulled the pin on a smoke grenade and threw it in the hole, Alex gave everyone a rope, which they attached to the scrap metal, they roped in and started shooting. Even though the planes caused a sufficient distraction, there were still enough soldiers to give us a run for our money, we took cover behind some crates and started shooting. A few soldiers went down fast, but there were still enough to slow us down until reinforcements could arrive. "Grenade!" Alex shouted, pointing the Grenade Launcher at the soldiers once they formed a nice group, The resulting explosion left a few stragglers. Jäger went to one of the injured troops, pointed a pistol at his head, and threatened him. "Where is 'Odyssey'? Answer me, NOW!" "There's a hatch in the office down the hall, once you go down, make a right. Then follow that hall until you find elevator 1-D. It'll take you down to our operations. It should be obvious where the device is by then!" The soldier buckled. Silas grabbed his radio. Probably to tell everyone our findings. "Attention all units, move to Hangar 18, The device is underground, I say again, Die Glocke is underground, move to Hangar 18, over!" Alex had one question in mind about the mission. "How did a machine developed by the Nazis fall into the hands of the Russians?" "Die Glocke was built by Nazi scientists in Poland. When the Nazis lost, the Russians occupied Poland after the war, they found it and did their own tests on it, it wasn't until a few years ago that the U.S bought it from them." Kat answered. By now, they were climbing down the ladder to the underground section of the Hangar. But we were met by significant resistance upon entering the intersection. O'Leary hip-fired his Machine Gun, killing a bunch of them at a time and leaving the floor a bloody mess of flesh and bone. Kat was shooting multiple backup squads long before they could be a significant threat. Mordecai, Silas, and Jäger continued moving down the hallway, killing anyone unfortunate enough to be stationed there that night. Alex was shooting enemies in the chest, covering the path behind all of them while they pressed ahead. It wasn't long until the team reached the elevator. Alex shot his last enemy while Silas worked on the elevator. "That's the last of them!" Alex called to them. "Dammit! The elevator's busted, Alex, fire a grenade at the door, but first, Mordecai, place the plastic explosive." Mordecai places the C4 on the elevator and everyone ran back, and Alex shot the grenade at the bomb and blew the elevator doors apart, obviously Silas' intended effect. "You still got our ropes, Kid?" O'Leary asked. Alex responded by handing everyone their ropes, he tied his to a locked door, and started going down. Kat started talking, he wasn't sure why she had to whisper, that sorta concerned him. "Do you think the machine is operational, Alex?" "I don't know, probably. The machine is being tested by the government, it's more likely then not fully operational." Alex responded. The machine was definitely operational, it's in the hands of the Military. "Good, because I have my own plans." Kat answered mysteriously. Uh, oh. "What plans?" Alex asked anxiously. This was probably going to suck. "I'll 'test' the machine, then you blow it up." Kat excitedly whispered. "What?! Why?!" Alex asked, frightened. "It's completely obvious what they're going to do, they're going to use it for their own ends, for greed. I can't let that happen." Kat told him, where were these wild accusations coming from? "If you had access to such a device, would you use it?" "Kat," Alex began, "I'm only here because I have an obligation, I owe them." "Wrong, you owe me. I can't let Silas use the device to hurt innocent people. I'm only using it to get away from this militia, it's for the greater good that you destroy it." Kat determined. If they she was telling the truth, then... "Why did you rescue me?" He asked. "I need someone to blow it up, everyone else is loyal to Silas, I need fresh blood to do this." "Fine." Alex gave in. Besides, even he didn't trust them. "Thanks for saving me, if you're right, we need to stop this." Alex actually didn't fully trust her, especially since he would definitely die. But if she was right, he would have to do it. They reached the main room, with a dilapidated bell-shaped device in the back end of the room, bearing the Nazi, Soviet, and American flags. This was definitely it. "Okay, it's go time." Kat signaled him. Whatever happened, he figured he owed her this. Alex ran over and planted the explosives after Kat entered the machine. "You sure you know what you're doing, Kat?" Alex asked as he fitted the last explosive. "Yes, they replaced the old German buttons with English ones, I know what I'm doing, Thank you, Alex." With that, the machine flashed blue, then red, then in one white flash, Kat was gone. Alex was about to hit the detonator when he heard someone yell at him. "What the hell are you doing!?" He gasped, looking behind him, he saw Silas, he looked worried, like 'someone about to discover your secret' worried. "Following your orders, you told me we had to destroy it, sir." Alex remembered the debriefing. "Not here, back at the base, get the explosives off of there!" Jäger yelled. "He knows, Jäger, why else would he destroy it here?" Silas whispered. "Oh, no." Kat was right. And he was standing right there in front. He had to get the hell out. Now. But how could he... The Machine! He could use it and detonate it from the inside as it's in use! More Militia ran in behind Mordecai. "Open fire, shoot him! KILL HIM!!!" Silas shrieked They all shot their weapons at him, he scrambled over to the machine, a few shots hitting him. Sending wave after wave of pain through him. Alex returned fire, but no amount of firepower could be enough to withstand such impossible odds Alex heard screams of dying militia, Could that be the Task Force? Alex then saw, in the distance... The, unfortunately, familiar visage of Agent Winchester. He kept running away, he realized the Agent was shooting at him. And he was actually hitting his chest, continuing the onslaught of pain in his still-wounded body. Alex got in the machine. He noticed the 'shuffle' button on the control panel inside. And he pressed the 'activate' button. 'Die Glocke' resonated a large hum, charging up to sufficient power for the transport as bullets punched inside the device's hollow interior, a few blasting into Alex, leaving him crumpled to the ground. His vision flashed blue as he lifted the detonator to eye-level. Vertigo rushing into Alex's head and making him feel sick to his stomach. The room changed to a very bright red color, Alex felt the ground beneath him becoming less stable as he tried to stand, he pressed the detonator, making the explosives outside the hull beep one last time as the ground seemed to collapse from underneath as the resulting explosion burned his face and chest as he continued falling faster and further down the purplish hole, noticing the hole under him made it perfectly clear, he was nearing an alternate universe, being the second person (to his knowledge) to do so. Alex fell hard against the earth as the portal above him spat him out, flames burning his flesh as the portal dilated like it never was to be. Alex was safe, at least for the moment. Alex, left with a moment to rest, finally noticed how tired he was, and how badly his wounds hurt. He needed to get to the hospital. Looking around, he noticed a town occupied by...small horses? Eh, what did he expect from an alternate universe. He needed help, bad, but in his condition, he wouldn't last long. He needed help. For the moment, he figured he should put away his gun. They probably wouldn't take to kindly to a man with a live weapon at the ready, so to get in the least amount of trouble, he should at least put it away. With the gun at his back, he went to find help, any help. -Moments Later- Cloudchaser left the party nearby and figured it would do some good If she took a walk, besides, her sister, Flitter, practically pleaded her to do so. Not that she would argue, it was a nice night after all, may as well enjoy it. The two Pegasi walked side by side down the path leading near the Everfree. She liked the sounds of the forest at night, always did. The two sisters started talking. "So, Cloudy," Flitter began. "Yeah?" She responded. "How's everything?" She asked. "Everything's fine, sis, I finally got that promotion. I'll try asking them to give you the same job, we work well together, that's all I have to say." Cloudchaser informed. It was true, they did work well together, that was just how it worked, no question about it. "What is that?!" Flitter gasped fearfully, pointing to a bipedal figure limping nearby. "I don't know, looks like one of Lyra's drawings." She muttered that last part to herself. "Hey, buddy, over here!" She yelled to him. To be honest, he looked like he had seen better days. It must've heard her, because it started talking, "Help...shot...hospital." He groaned painfully. Flitter looked shocked. This thing was hurt. Bad. "He needs help!" They had gotten close enough to notice he had been burnt, and was covered in some type of wound. Cloudchaser agreed, whatever it was, it needed help. She flew over to him, grabbing one arm and instructing Flitter to take the other arm. The two sisters flew the creature to the Ponyville hospital, doctors could hopefully help him. But one question occupied her thoughts. "What the hell happened to you, kid?" Author's Note And that's that! Four chapters, released straight away! Act I, Chapter 4: Out of the Ashes...'Ow... What happened last night?' Alex, immediately upon waking up, was in very deep pain. The events that transpired the previous night had taken it's toll on him. And, wow, it hurt! Alex then tried to recollect just what the hell happened to him. Not with much difficulty, though not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. 'Okay, first, the arrest, government burning my house down, killing my family..' Those memories made it clear that maybe, just maybe, that his little 'escapade' should be kept to himself. If he told anyone, they might turn him in again. 'What else..? Winchester sadistically torturing me, the botched execution... Being recruited into a terrorist cell..' Alex agreed that being strong-armed into the Kahn Militia was far from his best moment. He wasn't sure what fate would've befell him if he hadn't joined Jäger and Kat. 'Joining the Militia in an attack against Area 51... Kat informing him of her correct assumptions about Silas... The Task Force and the Militia trying to kill me... And, what else?' It didn't take long for Alex to realize that he was alone, in a hospital, or something. Alex then decided to get up... Which was immediately met with severe pain. Looking down, he noticed a blood-stained patch on his chest, remembering full well the origin of such wounds. And then Alex remembered. 'Getting the bloody hell away from Winchester and Silas... Using Die Glocke to escape... And getting escorted to a hospital by small, winged horses.' Alex wasn't sure whether or not that last part was a hallucination from the blood loss, but what he saw next debunked that theory... Those same small, winged horses entering the room. "Um...hi." Alex nervously greeted with a wave of his hand. He wasn't sure how to handle the situation. On one hand, he actually made it to an alternate universe... On the other... That alternate universe was inhabited by creatures who looked like they were from a little girl's TV show. Looking at them again, the two small, winged horses... 'the Pegasi", he figured. Looked very similar, like they could be related, or something like that. "Hello... Whatever you are..." One of the Pegasi awkwardly replied. This particular Pegasus had very messed up, almost spiky, whitish hair with a blue streak at the ends. Alex could tell she was having as much fun as he was. Meeting new people was hard enough, after his situation, the fact that they were Pegasi didn't help at all. Regardless, Alex figured he may as well try and be friendly. Make it easier for them. "I'm Alex." Was pretty much all his confidence would get him, But, eh, it was a start. "My name's Cloudchaser, and this," pointing to the other Pegasus, "Is my sister, Flitter." Flitter, unlike her sister, had, green hair, swooping over at the bottom, with a bow tied on. Clearly she was enjoying this as much as Alex and Cloudchaser. "Hi..." Flitter introduced shyly. "I just wanted to say thank you for helping me, I probably would've died out there or something." Alex said. He figured that they did go through the effort of carrying him to the hospital, he may as well be polite. "You're welcome, Mr..-" "Walker, my full name is Alex Walker." Alex interrupted Flitter. Well so much for being polite. "'Alex Walker'? What kind of a name is that? It sounds like something some idiot author came up with in, like, five seconds!" Cloudchaser said. "Hey, 'Alex Walker' is a perfectly normal name where I come from!" Alex scolded. Although he had to kind of admit, she may be right. "Which is..?" Filtter asks nervously. At least someone was trying to be nice. "Yeah, where are you from, Alex?" Cloudchaser asks. "Umm, Earth... I'm pretty sure I'm from a different universe, so good luck finding that on a map." Alex answers, rather rudely, even by his standards. "Oh... How did you get here?" Cloudchaser inquires. 'Oh, god, this question. Alex thought reluctantly. He couldn't exactly tell them every terrible thing that happened to him. He was pretty sure they could tell whether or not Alex was lying. But he had to give them some kind of answer. "I...um, well, you see..." Alex stammers. A Nurse walks into the room just as he was about to answer, a white unicorn, Alex notices the horn sticking out of her head. "Hello Cloudchaser, Flitter, and...um..." "Alex." He replies, thanking whatever gods might have been for preventing him from answering. "Right," The nurse replies, "What's my situation?" Alex imposed. "Well, let's put it this way, your head, neck, and shoulders are covered with second and third degree burns, you're also peppered with some unknown type of wound, and we found this..." she informs, holding up a small bag of what appeared to be a bullet, distorted at the end from the shot, and covered in what appeared to be Alex's blood, "..Inside one of the wounds." "Ouch." Alex responded, stunned. "How long will that take to heal?" "With our magic, about a week, we just need to apply some salve on your head and shoulders, and a few healing spells every couple of days and you'll be good as new." Alex was thunderstruck. "That's it? On my world it would take a few days in an ICU for the gunshots and it would take even longer for the burns." "Why, do you not have magic in your world?" Flitter asks. "Not really." Alex answered. "I'm going over to tell Princess Twilight about you. If you don't mind." Cloudchaser tells him. "Ah... I don't know, I usually get into some type of trouble with authority figures." Alex answers nervously, remembering the FBI, Agent Winchester, and Silas. "Don't worry about it, I think she wants something like this to happen, in fact, she's been asking everyone in town if they've seen anything." Flitter reassures. "One other thing, nurse?" "Yeah?" She asks "Can I have a mirror, if you have one?" Alex inquired, he hadn't seen his reflection in months since the arrest. The nurse levitated Alex a small, portable mirror, he grabbed it, nodding his thanks to the nurse. Alex's eyes stayed the same, ice blue color, but he was now covered in cuts, the most prominent being the one he received from before the execution, his brownish blonde hair wasn't entirely gone, it was about an inch from being a full blown buzz cut, some of it curling a little bit. The scar Winchester had most recently given him started a half inch above where his eyebrow would be and ended at his cheek, never to disappear like the other cuts eventually would. Handing the nurse back the mirror, he took out a small journal he'd gotten from his time in the Kahn Militia, an entry already written inside, practically asking for another, so that his experiences, unlike him, would never perish. Although this was a new world, it was hardly a new beginning. Alex just needed to clear up a few more details. "Where is my stuff?" "Oh, those things? The larger object will be ready for you once you leave, we left the smaller one with you." The nurse replied, pointing to a small nightstand. The gun was still in the holster, sitting on the table. "The doctor said something about letting Princess Twilight study it." Cloudchaser informed. "Fine by me, I can tell her all about it." Alex responded, while there was still a good amount of ammo, he still might need more, he wondered if there was a forge so he could build his own bullets, did they even have gunpowder? There were so many questions. "Well, Cloudchaser and I kinda have to go, It's 7:53, and we need to get to work by 8:00." Flitter realized, as if they had lost track of time. "Oh, wow, you're right. We have to go, like now. You'll be okay, right? Cloudchaser asked. "I'll be fine, thanks again." Alex answered, for the moment, it was probably true. The two Pegasi left the room, leaving Alex alone again. He figured he should probably get some sleep, it would be a long road to recovery, but at least he was safe, at least for now. A new thought entered his mind, a rather unpleasant one at that. 'What if they find me here?' Author's Note Well, here we are, the first chapter after the 4 chapter rush! If anyone has anything to say to help me improve as a writer, feel free to comment! (I am such a noob.) Act I, Chapter 5: Rude AwakeningAlex was back inside his cell. Tied to a small folding chair, and very weak. No matter how much Alex struggled and pulled against his chains, he wasn't able to break free. Distracted by his attempt at escape, he did not notice the cell door slowly creak open, or the silhouette that entered the room. Said cell door slammed shut, fully gaining Alex's attention. "Hello again, traitor." The shadow coldly greeted as it bashed something against Alex's head. The shockwave of pain knocked him against the cold, stone floor. The shadow turned on the one incandescent light hanging loosely above Alex, now he was able to clearly see the gun being pointed at his chest. The dark figure stepped closer, revealing the identity of his captor. Agent Winchester. Alex stared in horror, what was he doing here? "Where is the Militia, answer me, now!" Winchester threatened. Alex tried to speak, to tell him where he had last seen them, so he could beat up some other poor sap besides him. But he couldn't. "Typical martyrs." The Agent scoffed, placing the barrel firmly against Alex's rib cage, he fired one shot, the sound booming into his ears. "Are you okay, wake up!" Alex bolted up from his hospital bed, frazzled and breathing wildly. It didn't take him long to realize what just happened. He was having a nightmare, in full view of a pony. Alex somehow figured that didn't bode well for him. "What happened, are you okay?" The lavender pony in front of him anxiously inquired. "I'm fine, it was just a dream." Alex reassured, more for himself than her. "I don't think you're fine, should I come back later?" She asked. "Now is fine, don't worry about it." He said, regaining his composure. "Oh...okay then, Mr. Walker, if you say so.." She obviously didn't fully believe him, not that Alex particularly cared. Alex remembered Cloudchaser mentioning someone named 'Princess Twilight', and that only the staff, Cloudchaser and Flitter, and this Princess knew about him. Oh, crap. He just had a full blown nightmare in front of royalty. "Aren't you this 'Princess Twilight' that Cloudchaser mentioned?" He asked, from what the staff told him, the Princess was an Alicorn, a pony with both wings an a horn, noticing said appendages, this had to be her. "Yes I am, Cloudchaser and Flitter told me about you earlier this morning. I just had to come over and meet you!" She beamed excitedly. Oh great, questions. "Cloudchaser also said something about you wanting to study my equipment." Alex said, remembering what the Pegasus had told him in her visit yesterday. "Oh, yeah, can I? Please?" She pleaded. Damn, she is really into this whole 'alien tech' thing. "Why not? Better yet, I can tell you a bit about it, I only ask that you not-" Alex could hardly finish talking until the Alicorn levitated the SCAR into the air above him and dissected the thing, leaving each individual part suspended in the air, some flew over to Twilight for closer inspection. "What is this called?" Twilight asked, levitating a Magazine towards Alex's direction. "This is a Magazine, mag for short, people have also called them 'clips'." Alex stated, revealing what he knew on the subject. "So which is it?" Twilight asked. "Technically, it's a mag, but I can't tell you how many times I called it a clip by accident, it's a pretty common mistake." He answered. "What exactly is the difference?" Twilight inquired again, at least these questions weren't about his past. "A clip is when the ammunition is exposed, held together by a small metal band, a mag is basically a box where you put the ammunition inside yourself." Alex told her. "...what's ammunition?" She asked, yet again. "We'll discuss that later, just tell me the important stuff, deal?" He was getting a little tired of the 'Firearms 101' thing. "Deal." Twilight agreed as she reassembled the gun right in front of him. Wow, it took her four seconds to do what he would in a half-hour, give or take a long ass time. "I know you're here for some other reason then to learn about my armaments, so...what is it?" Alex asked. Twilight cleared her throat, oh boy, this was going to be long. "Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, former protégée of Princess Celestia and The Princess of Friendship, and I would like to formally welcome you to Equestria!" Damn, she seems to have done that same speech a million times! How often did alternate dimensional creatures just drop in here? "Thank you for the introduction, Princess. I just have a couple of questions." Alex said. "Shoot." Twilight seemed ready for a barrage of questions. "Is there a forge near here?" "Yes, the Ponyville forgery is about 2 miles north of here." "Do you have any access to gunpowder?" Alex asked, for safety's sake, it would probably be best to reload, which is hard when you only have what you took with you. "My friend Pinkie might know, she does have a party cannon, so she might know someone." Twilight answered. "Is there much I need to worry about?" Alex inquired, he didn't want another Bohemian Grove to ruin his life here like it did back there. Uh, oh, Twilight seemed a bit nervous about answering this one... "Ponyville has more than it's fair share of monster attacks, and our friendship problems usually cause some type of collateral damage, plus, there's usually some threat to Equestria about once or twice a year. Sorry." She finished. Alex was baffled that all of that could be condensed into one place. Holy hell. "Also, where am I going to live once I'm released from the hospital?" Alex asked one last time, he was an alien, after all, he couldn't be a homeless alien. "There should be a few places, a couple of ponies moved away after that whole 'Tirek' situation." Well, at least He had options. Alex and Twilight continued talking for a while, until Twilight finally had to leave because of some diplomatic talks at her castle... Something like that, leaving Alex alone with some time to think. Alex still felt a sickening sense of fear since his arrest, that only amplified after joining the militia, and more so once he discovered Silas' true colors. He still remembered what happened between him and Jäger on their way to the Militia HQ... -Aircraft Refuelling Station, 63 miles south of Portland, OR, September 11, 2016- "Team, we're stopping here to refuel the helicopter, we have a 10 minute break." Jäger announced. The chopper landed onto the pad with ease, Alex felt the bump that accompanied a landing. That being said, The pilot, Kat, Mordecai, and the other personnel went into a small convenience store inside, leaving Alex and Jäger alone. "So, now that I'm in the militia, what exactly is my job?" Alex asked. "It's simple enough," Jäger stated, "You're going to act as infantry on our missions, the ops are usually simple, kill High Value Targets, gather intel on anything the Government has to even the odds, and weaken their military. Simple." Alex was not entirely okay with this. "I was just blamed for being in the damn militia and tortured for a month! Do you expect me to confirm their suspicions? I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison or with you murderers!" Alex affirmed. Being accused of being part of a group of killers was bad enough, actually being in the group was a whole other level. Jäger pulled a pistol out of his holster, shoved Alex against a wall, and held it in his face, switching the safety to the 'off' position. "You listen here, you are getting a gun, some ammo, and a uniform. You want revenge on these pricks for what they did to you, don't you?" Jäger threatened, this was serious, Alex wouldn't get a say in whatever happened to him. "Uh... Yes sir." Alex nodded, scared out of his mind. "Good, if we get captured, they'll finish what they started, if you're even alive by then, so show some respect when someone offers you a job!" Jäger shoved the barrel into Alex's forehead, his head hitting the wall. Jäger clicked the safety back on and put it back in his holster. "Our ten minutes is up, regroup at the helicopter." Jäger said, the pilot ran out the door with a soda bottle. Mordecai, Kat, and the other guy falling in behind him. "Don't ever let me hear any of that again, you hear me?!" Jäger yelled. "Yes sir!" Alex said, still fearful of what he would do if he disagreed. "Good! Now get to the chopper, we've got places to be!" Jäger screamed again. Alex, still stunned at what transpired, ran back to the chopper. Getting back into his seat, Alex sat down, fear encompassing his mind. September 13, 2016, Ponyville hospital, present day- Alex let the events of that day play again in his mind, as he finished the small meal. 'The past is the past, it's probably a bad idea to let anyone know about that, if I do, I'll be in a crap ton of trouble.' Alex decided. Who knows what would happen to him if they found out he fought against his government, that he killed people. No matter what, this was a new world, it would be best if Cloudchaser, Flitter, Twilight, or anyone else didn't know what he's been through, they might try to help, but he considered that a very unlikely outcome. Author's Note Boom, chapter. I know I promised a chapter dedicated around the Mag vs. clip thing, this wasn't it, but it will come up soon enough. Act I, Chapter 6: Future Circumstances'It's been 5 days since Alex entered the hospital.' And frankly, Alex was quite bored, between the doctors applying the burn medicine, Cloudchaser and Flitter's regular visits, as well as constant updates from Princess Twilight, there wasn't much for him to do but sit there and think. About his joining the Kahn Militia, about Kat, about his own future. He, once again, thought about the possibility of Task Force Crimson following him, The government had just under a century to study it, they might even rebuild Die Glocke, and finish what they started. The door to his small room glowed golden as it slowly opened, Alex sat taller on his bed, As he instantly realized who may be on the other side. Twilight had told Alex about her former mentor, Celestia, and how they still corresponded to deal with major issues, which, for right now, was him. Some crap about being the first Human in Equestria. The tall, white Alicorn slowly entered his room. Alex wasn't kidding about the 'tall' part. Around normal ponies, Alex would have to watch his step, for fear of tripping over them, as they stood at about 3 and a half feet, Celestia, however, was at least 6 feet tall. Alex, at roughly 5'8 was just shorter than her. "So you are Alex Walker, My faithful student has told me so much about you." Celestia greeted, as far as rulers went, Celestia seemed quite trustworthy and kind, but not enough to fully gain Alex's trust. "Likewise. I'm sure my condition is a bit of a concern, is it?" Alex asked, it was likely that Celestia would be more inquisitive about Alex's past. "I must say, how did this happen?" She asked, Alex wasn't sure how to react, proud that he was right, or worried? "Ah...well, it's quite simple, I-" Alex could barely finish his lie when Princess Twilight burst into the room, with 5 other ponies. "Hello, Alex!" Twilight greeted. Alex wasn't sure about these others. While he knew there was a friendship council, he had no idea who was in this council, regardless, his luck saved him from having to answer about his past. "Hey, Twilight, These are your friends, right?" Alex asked with difficulty, the pink one was bouncing on his chest, obviously exited at the mention of an alien entering the dimension. "Yep!" The rainbow haired one exclaimed, flying in next to Twilight. "Um... Hi." The other Pegasus whispered, barely audible. "Hello." Alex nervously replied, waving a hand in greeting. The orange one in the Stenson grabbed his hand and violently shook it, Alex figured it would be best not to question how she was grabbing his hand with a hoof. "Howdy, Mr. Alien, name's Applejack!" She smiled, still trying to dislocate it, or something. "My goodness, Darling, you're a mess!" A purple haired one shouted, fainting as though she was looking at his old bedroom at home. Looking at himself in the handheld mirror the nurse had given him, his hair had grown about half an inch since having it singed off, but the scar was still present, his eyes bloodshot from the lack of sleep. "Well, hello to you too." Alex muttered, rolling his eyes. Then, the pink one started talking, her voice about as high as an Xbox live squeaker, she was talking so fast that Alex could only make out 'Pinkie Pie' and 'welcome to Ponyville party'. The scene before him was quite chaotic, but also welcoming in some weird way. Celestia spoke again, after some time. "Hello, Twilight, I did not expect to see you here, or your friends, for that matter." She commented "I couldn't stop them, they all wanted to meet him really bad." Twilight told Celestia. "How did you get here?" The rainbow headed one asked him. "It's easy, he found either a natural or artificial wormhole, fell in, and effectively ended up in this part of the multiverse " Pinkie answered... Okay, HOW did she know about quantum physics? "...huh?" Applejack pretty much had the same reaction as Alex. "No, like, how, what's his story?" Rainbow head asked again. "I fell into a sewer and ended up here." Alex lied, hopefully, that and Pinkie's physics lesson would click. "...A what?" The purple headed one asked again. Alex explained to Rarity, which was apparently her name, what a sewer was. By the end of that conversation, she seemed thoroughly disgusted. Much to Alex's amusement. "Well, I do hope you've showered." Rarity shuddered, grossed out by Alex's ruse. "Then how do you explain your wounds?" Twilight questioned. "I fell on the pipes, that 'projectile' were slivers of metal." Alex lied. Trying to keep his alibi as airtight as possible. "There are still a lot of holes in your story, but I'll have to take your word for it." Twilight relented, not willing to go much more into this, probably wanted to study the SCAR more. "You!" Pinkie pointed a hoof at the author, "What's he hiding, tell me or I'll jump right out of this computer and-" "Who are you talking to, Miss?" Alex asked the pink horse pointing at the sky. "Trust me when I say this, 'she's just being Pinkie Pie' is a perfectly acceptable answer around here." Twilight said. "...Is this sort of thing normal?" Alex questioned, just then, Pinkie's tail twitched, said pony leapt off of her bed, with the other Pegasus flying into a corner as an incandescent light fell on his head. "I'll take that as a big, fat 'yes'." Alex said. Applejack walked over to the nightstand, picking up Alex's .44 Magnum. "What does this do?" She asked, pointing the barrel at Alex's direction. "Don't point that at me!" Alex took the gun from her, unloading the weapon. "W-why, is it dangerous?" The Pegasus in the corner asked, quite frightened at Alex's reaction. "Yes! Very!" He scolded. Why he kept that loaded all that time was beyond him, but, hey, hindsight is 20/20. "Then, why do you have it?" The rainbow one asked. "I'd rather not get into that." Alex responded. Twilight levitated one of the rounds over to her for closer inspection. "Kahn Militia .44 Remington Magnum." She read on the back of the bullet, "The what?" Asked Rainbow. "What's a 'Kahn Militia?" Rarity worriedly backed up. The word 'militia' was more than enough to sent the yellow one as far back into the corner as possible, the rainbow one flying over to Alex threateningly. "You'd better have a good explanation for this, Fluttershy is literally crying in the corner!" She yelled. "It's just the manufacturer! It's for self defense!" Alex defended. "Girls, can I talk with Mr. Walker... Alone please?" Celestia asked in a neutral tone. The 6 ponies left the hospital room, leaving Alex alone with a sun goddess, and not in the best situation. This could get very messy. "I can tell there's much more than you are willing to let on, Mr. Walker." Celestia began. "...Am I that transparent?" Alex moaned. Clearly those acting lessons were useless. "No, but you are a horrible liar." She said. "...How much do you know?" He asked. "My sister is the one looking into your dreams, ask her if you get the chance." She commented. "I said how much do you know, with all due respect." Alex chose his words carefully. "Listen closely, Alex, this is one of those problems that will solve itself, but I know enough to be able to tell it won't be easily solved." Oh, crap. It's over, well, he had a good run. "What's going to happen?" Alex nervously questioned, his fate was in the hands of a pony princess, how bad could things be, or not be? "Like I said, this is a problem that will solve itself. I won't tell my student anything, I will put their minds at ease for you. But my help ends there, whatever happens, it is your issue." Celestia told him. "Why?" He asked. "I'm letting you keep your secret, Alex, so let me keep mine." Celestia offered. "Okay, deal, but what about this... 'sister'?" Alex questioned. "I'll ask her to not look in your dreams." She promised. "This seems way too good to be true." Alex said with an edge of doubt. "Do not worry. I'll do you that favor, but you must promise me something, Alex." She told him. "Anything." He promised, anything to keep him safe for another day. "Do not harm my citizens or my guard." "I promise." Alex promised. "Okay, then. I'm glad we could reach an agreement, I will talk to my pupil." Celestia finished. Now Alex had just one more question. "How will everything work once I'm released?" "My student used her wealth and bought you a house down the road from her castle, as well as full citizenship and personal Items. I'm sure there are jobs that may require your...skill set. Twilight also mentioned your interest in metal-working and gunpowder, so she gave you a full membership at the Ponyville Forge, and I will contact my demolitions experts. You've been given more chances than most, I advise you not waste them." Damn, been in Equestria for 5 days and already have a job, a home, and a hobby. "Of course, Princess." He said. "Thank you for cooperating, Alex Walker." Celestia nodded, then left the room, closing the door behind her. Alex sat alone in his hospital room, the day had already passed, and Twilight and her friends apologized for their interrogation, as promised. They then discussed how Alex may fit in. Twilight suggested that he be Ponyville's resident Mercenary, as monsters frequently made a mess of things. Pinkie then did something unusual: she moved his welcome party to after his first job, long after full recovery. "It's the least we can do for scaring you, silly filly!" She had said in her usual squeaky voice. Rarity was generous enough to give Alex a full wardrobe, to be finished a day after his release, free of charge. The others offered to give him some kind of help assimilating into the town due to his being a human. It was now about 8:59, with about a day and a half left, Alex figured he shouldn't get too worked up. He was already receiving aid from his equine benefactors, perhaps too much. Alex looked back on his past, noticing what could have been done to stop it. To know how to stop it from happening again. Yep, things seemed to be looking up for him. But one could never be too cautious, he held his .44, placing it on his nightstand, ready to defend himself at a moment's notice. You can take it, whatever they throw your way. You're a survivor now.' Alex thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep. Author's Note Obvious Mob Of The Dead reference is obvious. Also, just a quick thing, what do you think could be done to improve the general story? Leave a comment below and I'll get back as soon as I can. [good god, almost 2000 words.] Act I, Chapter 7: Movin' inAlex woke up with a start, he overslept.. In his time here, Alex figured that a lot of his time would be spent sleeping, but he had overstayed his welcome, upon the realization, he bolted to the main lobby. The pain accompanying his bullet wounds was entirely non-existent, but the burns still stung a bit, so the doctors had told him not to do anything too crazy for a couple days. With that note, the first human in Equestria was released from the hospital. Cloudchaser and Flitter immediately greeted him upon exiting the hospital. Happy to see that he had made a full recovery. "Hey, Alex, how are you holding up?" Cloudchaser asked. "To be perfectly honest, pretty good." Alex said, for the first time in a month or so. "We heard from Pinkie that you were going to be Ponyville's Mercenary in residence." Flitter said, impressed. "Apparently, I have the right set of skills for the job, how often do monsters just pop up around here?" He asked. "More than you think." Cloudchaser admitted, "Princess Twilight usually has these sort of problems about once a week." "What kind of things usually attack the town?" Alex questioned. "All sorts of things, timberwolves, ursai, I think I saw some type of 'bug bear' a while ago." Flitter answered. Alex walked over to a small type of house, Cloudchaser and Flitter's lunch break was over, so they said their goodbyes and flew away. Noticing the house nearby, Alex saw that the workers were already putting some large crates outside the door, a few levitating crowbars and opening them up, revealing couches and tables and things. Alex still was not entirely sure what to think of this. Sure, first alien in Equestria was a huge frickin' dealio, but holy hell, he did not expect this kind of treatment. An earth pony in a suit walked up to Alex with some papers. The deed to the house, which he had to sign, and a few bills he had to pay by the end of the month, like the mortgage of about 44,000 bits a year. The Utility bill, about 250 bits a month, basically all that stuff that nobody tells you when you buy a house. Thank God that Monster Hunters get paid so much. Alex noticed a small record player being unboxed alongside the extra-large bed. He enjoyed listening to music back home, hopefully they had something good here. He grabbed the medium-sized bag of bits Celestia had given him to start out, and walked over to a record store close by. Alex hit his head on the top of the doorway upon entering the record store, he hoped that his hipster buddies were right when they said music sounded better on vinyl. Hey, he lived in a Portland suburb, there were plenty of hipsters around there. "Welcome to- oh, my goodness, you're tall!" The stallion behind the desk gaped, staring in awe. "Hi, as you can already tell, I'm new here, so what would you recommend?" Alex asked. He needed something decent, he always did, between the teenyboppers and the hipsters that flooded his schools, he needed something truly original, remembering every time that a Taylor Swift or a Nirvana song played on the school intercom. Thinking back, he didn't miss Earth's music that much. Alex's reverie was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder, or rather, his shoulder blade. Turning around, he noticed a unicorn made with an electric blue mane and sunglasses. "Um... Hi." He waved. The unicorn didn't say a thing, instead, she walked a little ways deeper into the store, waving a hoof as if to say 'follow me'. Alex obliged, following the mare to the back left of the small store, she pointed a hoof at one of the shelves, Alex looked at that particular shelf to see... That same unicorn on the cover, labeled DJ-PON3 at the top. Alex couldn't help but chuckle a bit, shameless self-advertising, his one true comic weakness. PON3 didn't look as amused, rolling her eyes and sighing with annoyance. "Sorry, sorry." Alex apologized. Continuing to browse music, picking out a couple more of her albums, as well as a few others. Before making his way to the counter. "That'll be 50 bits." The clerk said. Alex just barely grabbed the bag when DJ-PON3 paid for him, placing 50 gold coins on the counter. "Thank you." He said. The mare again, did not reply, instead, she gave him a small business card, with the name 'Vinyl Scratch' typed near the top, as well as a phone number. It didn't take long for Alex to figure out what she actually wanted. "Oh, you want to play your music at the welcome party." He concluded. Vinyl nodded, smiling broadly. "Well, it's the least I can do, I'll be sure to tell Pinkie. Thanks again." Alex said He left the record store with a bag in tow. Returning to his new home nearby, the workers finished placing all of his stuff and were just now finishing. "That'll be 400 bits, sir." The foreman said. Alex looked in his bag, counting out 400 coins. He gave them to the foreman and went into his new home. He had to admit, they did a pretty good job. The record player near the couch with a small shelf nearby, obviously for albums and stuff. Alex placed one of Vinyl's records into the player. It was basically dubstep mixed in with some classical. Not much different from what he listened to back in his old world, that and Alt Rock. Alex then figured it was necessary to go to the forge. It was a good mile away from his house, he'd better get moving, reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a couple of shell casings and ran like hell in the forge's general direction. About 10 minutes later, Alex walked into the small forge, a .44 and a 7.62 cartridge in his pockets as a reference. The metalworker there welcomed him, saying if he ever needed help, to not hesitate to ask. Alex then showed the blacksmith the cartridges. Asking how to make exact copies of those casings specifically. The blacksmith then looked at each one, writing down exact measurements and giving them to Alex, telling him to make a mold with the casings he had, then filling it with brass, and then a crap ton of other things to do, like making a hole for the primer, hollowing out the casing, stuff like that, and then to always check that the measurements were exact. And with that, Alex got to work. -8 hours later- Alex made about 330 .44 magnum shells, and 690 7.62 shells, figuring he'd get to the whole primer, powder, and projectile thing soon, according to Celestia, the shipments of Nitro glycerin and magic propellant would be mailed to his house tomorrow. Then he would figure out how to build more Magazines for the SCAR and use the extras for grenades for the M203. Alex lugged the massive haul of shell casings in a two large bags behind him. They were really heavy, and Alex knew one thing for sure, he would sleep like a baby that night. Opening the door with his teeth, Alex placed the casings on the couch, noticing a note on his closet door. How did someone get in the house? And, on that note, who? Alex picked up the note, It didn't take long to figure out who wrote it. Alex, It's me, Vinyl, y'know, from the record store? You weren't home when I stopped by. Thanks again for promising me a gig at your welcome party, business has been a bit slow lately, and I need the money, you know how it is, right? So, anyways, call the number on that card I gave you to let me know when the party is. And if you somehow lost it, just come over to my place, apparently, we're neighbors. I live literally right next door. Thanks again, Vinyl. Alex moved the note over to his phone, and placed the card on the table, he would call Vinyl tomorrow. Right now, he was beat. He stumbled over to the bedroom nearby and plopped right on. Alex fully appreciated the value of a good night's sleep, the bed at the prison wasn't even a bed, he didn't get to sleep in his time with the Militia, and that hospital bed was uncomfortable as all hell, but this was actually quite soft. Wrapping himself in the flannel blanket, keeping him warm in spite of the early fall chill, and went directly to sleep. The work at the forge sapped Alex of all his energy. And, hell, given what happened to him the past month, he felt the universe owed him this one. Alex was awoken by electronic music, the sound exploding from the house next door. Not the best way to wake up, sure, but it was better than torture or interrogation by visitors. Alex looked at the clock on the wall adjacent to his bed. 6:44, it read. Who plays dubstep that loud at 6 a.m? Alex then remembered the record store, the note, and immediately figured out the pony responsible. Vinyl. Who else? Alex got ready for breakfast, these ponies didn't eat meat, apparently, so he got to work on some French Toast, cracking the eggs into a bowl and heating the pan on a stove. Grabbing some cinnamon from a cupboard, and getting the bread, he made his morning meal quick, remembering how to make food from back on earth, thinking back, Earth wasn't all that crappy. Alex couldn't quite get how his fridge was already stocked, or how fast that the workers set this up, he only spent a half hour at that record store, right? Grabbing a glass of milk from the fridge, he drank the liquid in a few gulps. He didn't need to eat very much. The rest of the morning pretty much consisted of showering, getting dressed, all that stuff. When he looked at the clock again, it read 7:23. Before any of this, he would be spending this time lazily moping around the house, while his parents all but pleaded for him to do something. But his parents were now dead, and in an alternate universe, far beyond his reach, and now he had a job? He had pretty much become an adult in the span of a month. Then, there was just the small matter of his past. Rainbow Dash, which was apparently the rainbow headed one's name, still looked doubtful and almost vindictive at the hospital visit. She was probably the one who he should be the most concerned about. Knowing full well that people weren't made to always have to hide, or lie about their past. However, it didn't seem like he had anyone to turn to about it, and that the more time he spent around ponies, the higher the likelihood he'd let something slip, and he'd be done for. 'How will I be able to handle this?' Alex thought hopelessly to himself. Author's Note Well, boom, more on Alex's personal life besides the whole 'Tortured by the government, betrayed by rebels, and riddled with gunfire, multiverse, blah blah blah' stuff, I bet most of you were waiting for this sorta thing to happen, well, here. Act I, Chapter 8: A Little Hunting Trip (EDITED)Alex had pretty much nothing to do.. This was a very rare opportunity in his new life. While he hadn't once been called to hunt monsters, between planning a party that would probably never happen, and his hobby at the Forge, he had a busy life, although distant from Twilight and the others, only visiting her amethyst castle once for testing, but at least something important came out of it, that magic propellant was damn powerful, one shot from the test cartridge sent him flying backwards, now remembering to use two grains of propellant, three or four for larger opponents. Alex himself was listening to more of Vinyl's music and reading a book he'd gotten from Twilight. He'd finished building his ammunition, rounding out at roughly 354 .44 Magnum bullets and 672 7.62 bullets, he told Pinkie to have Vinyl DJ at his welcome party, and had gotten his wardrobe from Rarity, his favorite being his hunting outfit, making him ever more eager to receive his first target. In regards to Alex's occupation, Mayor Mare would call him, where he would then discuss with her and Twilight's council about what to do in regards to the threat, and Alex would respond accordingly. It seemed simple enough, and a very good idea, Alex couldn't say how many times he went into something without seriously thinking about it, his temporary stint with the Militia being his biggest. Alex closed his book and finished the iced tea he had been drinking, looking again at the clock, 2:23. The day felt long enough to him, in spite of the time, and figured it was best to take a small nap, so maybe he would find some way to spend the rest of his day. He barely got out of his chair when suddenly, the phone rang, probably Vinyl asking what songs she should play at the party. Regardless, it would be best to answer the phone, he wasn't very tired anyway. Alex picked up the telephone. "Hello, Alex here, how can I help." He began. This was pretty much his standard intro. It worked for him. "Hi, Alex, this is Mayor Mare, could you come over here, it's pretty important." The voice at the other end said. Oh, crap, was this his first job?! "I'll be over there as soon as I can." Alex said with urgency. "Thank you." Mayor Mare finished. Alex, now giddy with anticipation, ran into his bedroom, opening the closet and grabbing his gear. Alex first changed out of his casual wear, leaving him in nothing but his undergarments. And quickly put on the pants that were part of his uniform. Placing several magazines into the pockets. Then the undershirt, grabbing his old bandolier of grenades from the militia, and a new one, meant to accommodate the .44 bullets. Alex then pulled on the jacket, placing more mags and .44 bullets inside the pockets. Next, Alex put on his holster and put the Colt revolver inside. Alex then strapped the SCAR-H on his back, triple-checking that the safety was on and the gun was unloaded. Finally, Alex grabbed his satchel, with some water, food, and a thick cloth that would be used to keep sand out of his eyes, or to shield him from cold in higher altitudes. Finishing the look with a pair of black sunglasses, he left his home, to begin his first assignment. Alex entered the city hall about 3 minutes later, and the secretaries there kindly got him into the conference room for debriefing. "Hello, Mr. Walker, have a seat." The mayor greeted. Alex sat down, still ecstatic about his first day. "What's the situation?" Alex asked, containing his excitement. "We seem to have some sort of a dragon problem." Rainbow scoffed, obviously not caring about this at all. "A dragon made it's nest inside of a cave on the outskirts of town, we've been having the same problems with it, it keeps coming back." Twilight said dejectedly. "Where is the cave?" He asked. "There." Applejack pointed towards a very high mountain, Alex noticed a small hole just under the summit. The Dragon's Lair, no doubt. "Okay, what are my options?" He asked, in the time he was here. He learned that killing was a massive taboo in Equestria, pretty much a capital sin. "When we tried this the first time, diplomacy, charm, and kicking it in the face didn't work." Rarity chimed in, obviously thinking back on that day. "How about, I don't know, asking nicely?" He asked in a mocking tone. Alex was stunned when he learned that Ponies, for the most part, were mostly pacifists. He thought back to his arrest, when he would've done anything to escape the 'authorities', including killing two members of the SWAT team. "Nope! It just flew back a few weeks later!" Pinkie yelled, very close to Alex's eardrum. Ow. "... That was right in my ear." Alex complained. "What are we going to do? Even when I stood up to it, it came back." Fluttershy murmured desperately. "So all I have is 'no diplomacy, charm, petty assault, asking nicely, or yelling at it'. At least we narrowed it down, any other options? Say, teleporting it away?" Alex suggested. "That won't work. Even If I do teleport it, dragons have a keen sense of direction. All that would happen is that my magic would be drained to basically nothing and the dragon would be back a few weeks later." Twilight sighed. This was getting difficult. "Any other ideas?" Alex asked, although killing it was, for him, the best way to go, it would be very bad for his reputation. "I suppose we have no other option." Mayor Mare glumly concluded. "You're not telling us that Alex is going to-" Fluttershy could barely finish that sentence before she started weeping. Oh, crap, this is serious. "It appears so, Fluttershy. Alexander, I need you to evict the dragon, and seal away the cave." Mayor Mare replied. "You're sending me to force out a dragon at least 5 times my size, blow up the rocks above the cave, and somehow escape the ensuing avalanche of death? Biggest middle finger I ever received." Alex commented. The mountain was huge, blowing up such a large chunk of it would mean that several-ton boulders would crush him to death if the Dragon didn't. "You have weapons, don't you?" Rainbow asked him. "At all times, but what the bloody hell is that going to do to a huge dragon and solid rock?!" Alex asked, almost infuriated that his request was fulfilled. Be careful what you wish for. "I have diagrams of weak points on the dragon, the eyes..." Twilight started as Fluttershy continued crying her eyes out, with greater intensity. "Yah do know that dragons keep a huge haul of loot with 'em, right?" Applejack questioned. "What good is a reward if you aren't around to use it?" He asked. "Darling, stop being such a baby. You signed up for this, didn't you?" Rarity chided. "...okay, yes." He relented, so he would be keeping his secret to his grave... Or to his charred remains. "We've tried everything else. If you can, find another solution." Mayor Mare sighed. "I'll try, Is there some sort of finder's fee I have to pay?" Alex asked. "The proper term is 'taxes', Alex." She said. "Do your job, we'll be ready for you once you get back." Rainbow said. "Before I go, do any of you have like a large bag? Like a huge burlap sack?" Alex asked, if Applejack was right, he would be carrying in a large haul. Twilight tossed Alex a small, onyx-colored octahedron adorned with white markings. "I've done studies on pocket dimensions a while back, move all the treasure into the pocket dimension and you can access it anytime you want." She said proudly. "Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go get myself killed." Alex left the room after that. Alex soon got to the base of the mountain, assessing the peak, he could take the path, but it's a lot of extra work, he could climb up there, doing the same amount of work faster, but he'd be too tired to fight. Alex decided to take the scenic route, donning the cloth, wrapping it around his nose and mouth. And pulled out the SCAR from his back, and started walking. The walk wasn't absolutely horrible, Alex moved up the path with ease, already about forty feet or so up, but the rest of the path moved in a corkscrew type motion, leading up to the mouth of the cave. He continued walking when he thought he saw something further up the path. Alex loaded his weapon, pressing the button on the side that chambered in the first round. Now jogging over to a rockier part of the path. He looked around for the source. "Hello?!" Alex yelled, "It's not the best idea to do this kinda crap with me!" Alex felt something pull him to the ground, and he felt like he was being held down by a...hand?! He looked up in horror at the sight before him. Agent Winchester, holding a gun up to his forehead. "You should have died in 51, kid." He contemptfully spat. Alex grit his teeth as he saw Winchester pull the trigger, the muzzle flashed, and the figure faded away to nothing. What he saw next was even worse. Rainbow Dash. In full view of him hallucinating. "You okay?" She asked, almost genuinely worried about him. "Yeah, it's just the lack of oxygen." He lied. "Really? We're not even halfway up the mountain." She scolded "...Damn it." "Why were you freaking out like that, we're you in a crime or something?" She asked. "Why are you following me, isn't this a solo mission?" Alex questioned. "Hey, someone needs to drag your corpse to the party." She said. "Seriously, Rainbow, go help with the decorations." Alex ordered. "No." She said Well, this sucked. She caught him in the middle of post-traumatic hallucinations and she got to watch him die in a fire. Today sucked. "You know what? Screw this, you can follow, but don't think I'm going to tell you my life story or something." He said. At this point, he was willing to compromise. "I can fly you up there." She suggested. "Don't trouble yourself, I have two perfectly good legs that aren't broken." Alex said. "Are you sure? I can get you up there in ten seconds flat." She asked. "And what if I say-" Alex could barely finish before Rainbow grabbed him and flew him to the summit. Fully aware that he was really far up. "Buck! How much do you weigh?" She asked through the strain. "Don't flatter yourself." He exhaled. She got him to the summit a few seconds later, and dropped him, relieved. "Ten...seconds...flat." Rainbow panted. She literally carried him up here. Still unnecessary, but, eh. Alex only had to look at the mouth of the cave to tremble a bit. "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Alex said to himself. "What?" Rainbow asked. "Just stay close." He said, walking inside. The stench of brimstone filled Alex's nostrils as the two snuck inside, hopefully unnoticed. Alex heard something inhaling deeply, it seemed to echo throughout the cave walls, Alex immediately knew what was about to happen. "Rainbow, get down!" Alex yelled as he dove to the ground. Fire swirled above Alex's head, the image of his entrance into Equestria flashing through his mind, sending splinters of pain inside his head. As soon as the flame dissipated, Alex rolled behind a rock, pulling out a diagram of the Dragon's anatomy. Twilight had circled sensitive spots in red ink, the eyes, belly, joints...other areas. He looked at the dragon again. It was a huge beast, crimson red scales, exhaling smoke and ash and sickly green eyes. Eyes that made the best available targets. "Well, I'm royally screwed." Alex fired several rounds towards the dragon's eye, the rifle digging into his shoulder as he squeezed the trigger. It seemed to work, the dragon held it's eye, roaring in agony and arching into a bridge type shape. "Dash! Hit his belly, knock him over!" Alex yelled. Rainbow reared back as far as she could, leaping into high speeds and punching the dragon, knocking it into an upright position. Alex switched the SCAR's safety switch from 'semi' to 'full' and unleashed a torrent of gunfire, ripping through the beast, screeching and spewing flame. Alex then put a grenade inside the launcher, pulling the tube back. "Rainbow, get out of the way!" He screamed. She immediately complied, flying far back as Alex fired the grenade. The magic propellant resulting in a huge, cerulean explosion. Alex continued spraying lead towards the weakened beast. "Alex! Move!" Rainbow yelled. Alex rolled over to the right side of the cave In time to see a large fireball blow the rock he had been using for cover to cinders. Alex inserted a magazine labeled '4' to indicate the grains of propellant he used. The rifle's kickback threatened to dislocate his shoulder. "Kid, use one of those...uh..." Rainbow seemed lost for words, but knew what she meant. Loading in another grenade into the launcher, one he called 'the big boy', which he had filled the remaining propellant into the projectile. Alex fired the grenade, causing a much bigger explosion than the one preceding it. Rainbow then sped like a bullet through the cave, the dragon screeching in pain as rainbow flew out. Alex funneled the rest of the mag into the dragon before pulling out the .44. Loading six shots into the cylinder, pulling back the hammer and sending bullets screaming into the beast. The recoil was quite unforgiving, more so than the SCAR. "Alex, grab my hoof!" Rainbow ordered, Alex grabbing the Pegasus, who was in full speed at the moment. Alex pulled out a large kitchen knife that he carried with him in the satchel. Pointing the end towards the dragon's heart, Rainbow released him, sending him barreling into the dragon's chest. The cold steel blade burying itself into it's flesh. Using it for support, he fired six more bullets into the dragon's chest. The dragon's screams died down to a murmur as it's body went limp and fell forwards, Alex still grasping the knife. The dragon was stone dead. "Woah... Y-You just.." Rainbow gasped in surprise. "It was him or me, Dash. Maybe even you, too. On the plus side, we don't have to worry about the ensuing rockslide that would've happened if I had to seal the entrance." Alex scoffed. Alex pulled the knife out, placing it back into the satchel. Alex rolled over, breathing raggedly, tired. Rainbow herself landed nearby and plopped down, panting with exhaustion. Alex's head turned over to the right, noticing the massive amount of gold and jewels. This would pay for more that his little house, this would be able to buy him a whole mansion! He walked over to the haul, pulling a large bag out of the satchel. And began filling it with treasure. Tying it up once it felt full, he lifted it, testing it to see if he could carry it. The bag weighed something like 80 pounds, but it was possible. Pulling out a flask, he placed the contents near Rainbow, who looked up at him in confusion. "Here's your cut." He said. "I can't-" she began. "The water is my way of saying 'thank you'." Alex said. "But the money... Well, it's a bribe." "For what?" She asked. "All I want is for you not ask me too much about my past. Also, don't tell them about what happened with 'Puff the Magic Dragon' over here." "That? Wait, you were involved in a crime?" She asked Alex looked at her with an expression that said 'shut up for the love of god'. "Why is this such a big deal? The whole dragon-killing, I get, but who doesn't want to talk about their life?" She contemplated. "You're looking at him." He said as he opened up the pocket dimension, tossing coins into it indiscriminately. "Look, I get that whatever might've happened to you wants you to lock that in your head, but you can't hide that sort of thing forever." She said. "So?" He asked. "...It's not your fault." She sighed "I know that." He snapped. "Alex, look at me... It's not your fault." "Don't even try that, I've seen Good Will Hunting." "It's not your fault." "Knock it off, please." "Okay, fine! I thought that would work out better." She relented. Alex was nearly done moving the treasure into the pocket dimension, all things considered, she was kinda right. He was blamed for being someone he wasn't, tortured for weeks because of that suspicion, and forced into fighting with the Militia. The only thing that was, was his entering Equestria, and even that was a lucky shot. Alex closed the Pocket Dimension, placing the black octahedron into his satchel. "Come on, Alex, I won't tell anypony else, I'm not the Element of Loyalty for nothing." Rainbow tried. "Who are you loyal to more? Me, a stranger that someone scraped off the street that you only knew for, how long, a week? Or are you more loyal to your friends, who you've known for, probably years? Using powers that could rival gods, which is strengthened by that resolve?" Alex questioned her. It was a completely valid argument, as Rainbow herself was lost for words. He felt bad for invoking an existential crisis on the poor mare, but she was too persistent, she would've been at this until he cracked like an egg. Alex and Rainbow walked out of the cavern with their riches in tow. "Do you need me to fly you down?" She asked. "I got it. See you at the party, Dash." He said, sliding down the mountain on it's side, which was probably more dangerous. On the way down, Alex again thought about the subject. 'How long can I keep this up? Certainly not forever if she keeps asking. But is this really the best way to cope? I have a legitimate condition, I need therapy, bad, but they'll know something's up. Why am I the only god damned person to deal with this?' Alex knew that last part was not true at all. Kat must be going through something similar. How would she react to seeing me like this? She was able to figure out Silas's plan and he didn't suspect a thing! In the skies above, Alex noticed a streak of what appeared to be a rainbow headed for the town. No doubt it was Rainbow, on her way to tell her friends about his freaking out. This was gonna suck. "Well, Alex, you stupid prick. Better get to that party." He said to himself. This was freaking pitiful. Regretting decisions that weren't his own. Author's Note You people probably wanted to see some more action, as that's probably what drew you into this story in the first place, so Skyrim Alex. Yeah. [3000+ words!? How did I do that?!] [EDIT:] I changed some details of the story so Alex's outing was more or less of an eviction 'gone wrong' sort of thing, rather than pastel horses hiring a hit man. Also helps to establish Alex's mindset throughout the story, more or less of a Darwinist philosophy; adapt or die. Act I, Chapter 9: Worst...Party...Ever!Alex Walker was bone tired. He just fought a huge dragon alongside a winged horse, carried every last cent of the treasure haul the dragon had kept into his pocket dimension, and yet again reevaluated his decisions. All he wanted to do was sleep, but his party came first. From what Alex and Pinkie discussed, the party would be at Sugarcube Corner, the local bakery and Pinkie's home, Alex figured it was a bad idea to have Pinkie live upstairs from the town's bakery, but hey, their choice. Alex wondered if he could drink, hell, he was practically an adult, with a home, a vastly overpaying job, and was acquaintances with a local celebrity. All things considered, he needed this. The bakery was not far from where he now was, complete with a 'Welcome Alex' banner over the entrance, and the whole inside of the bakery bustling with ponies. Alex opened the door, the entirety of the town's residence welcoming him, including Vinyl, sitting behind the turntable, as promised. He sat down at one of the tables, and that one table was instantly filled, Twilight, Cloudchaser, and Flitter greeting him happily. "Alex! Congratulations on...well, surviving!" Twilight smiled. "What? You'd think I'd go down that quick?" He joked, smiling for the first time in ages. "So, what was your life like before coming here, Alex?" Flitter asked, eager to hear a story of some type. "Well, I was born in Reynold, Oregon. Lived there pretty much my whole life. My parents were wonderful people, and my father taught me everything there was to know about weapons by the time I was about 12." He started. "Oh, yeah, I've been meaning to ask, how old are you, anyway?" Cloudchaser asked. "Fifteen and a half, I'll be sixteen in March." He said. "You're only 15? And you held your own against a dragon?!" Flitter asked, bewildered. "I can't take all the credit, Rainbow followed me up, probably would've died in about 15 seconds of that fight if not for her." He said. "Oh, yeah, we couldn't take a chance on you doing anything drastic, so we sent her up there for you." Twilight sheepishly admitted. "Are we going to ignore the fact that he's fifteen and killed a dragon?" Cloudchaser asked. "Why, how old are you?" He asked. "Twenty-two, but that's not the point!" Cloudchaser defended. "Alex!" Pinkie yelled, carrying a tray of cupcakes. "Hello, Pinkie." He greeted. "Pinkie, did you know Alex here is only 15?" Asked Flitter. "Well, duh! His voice cracks all the time!" She scoffed. "My voice doesn't crack!" Alex said. "It just did!" Twilight said, laughing. "Hey, AJ, settle a bet, would you, does my voice crack?" He asked the orange pony. "Like an egg." She giggled. "He's as red as a tomato!" Pinkie yelled in between laughs, pointing at his cheeks. "Yeah, bartender, the strongest you've got?" Alex asked. "Okay, sir." He said, handing him what looked like a root beer, after one sip, he noticed that it was. "Isn't this root beer?" He asked. "Sorry sir, you have to be at least 18 to drink." "Eighteen?! In my world it was 21!" He said, bewildered. "Okay, I can make an exception. Age 21 to drink?" The bartender laughing. "What is this? A 'pick on me' day?" He asked. Alex looked at the door, seeing, in horror, a scene from his worst nightmares. Four humans, all dressed in military uniforms, carrying SCARs and MP-7s, and a picture of Alex under a 'Wanted, dead or alive' caption, in bold. Alex quietly unholstered his .44 Magnum, loading six rounds into the cylinder. "Hey, is something wrong, Alex, you look like you've seen a ghost." Cloudchaser said. "You could say that." "Miss, we're looking for a Mr. Alex Gabriel Walker, have you seen him?" One of the soldiers asked Vinyl. He could just barely hear the conversation from his seat. "Who, Alex? He's over there with the princess." Another pony said. "Thank you." The soldier finished. Alex waited until the soldiers could move away from the other guests, they were going to be quite pissed at him for what he was about to do. "Cloudchaser, can you get my contact lens, I think it fell under the table." He lied, her head was blocking his view of the soldiers, he didn't want to accidentally kill her. "No probs, I'll look." She said, ducking down. In the second that Cloudchaser ducked under the table, Alex pulled out his Colt, Aiming it at the soldier closest to him. The first shot hit the Soldier right in the middle of his visor, blood splattering out the gaping hole in the back of his head as the bullet hit the wall. The second bullet screamed into the next soldier's neck, holding his throat as he went on his knees. Gurgling and coughing blood. "Suspect at Sugarcube corner, repeat, High Value Target is at the bakery." The third said into a transmitter as the third and fourth shots crippled and killed him, respectfully. The fifth shot bounced off the last soldier's helmet and into the second soldier's chest, killing him. The last bullet went into the fourth soldier's neck, grasping his neck and spluttering to the ground, choking on his own blood. Alex immediately noticed the look of horror on everyone's eyes, a few running over to the dead soldiers, trying to help them, to no avail. He was clearly trembling, with the realization of what happened hitting him like a brick wall. His suspicions confirmed, their suspicions confirmed, and the effect of firing all six rounds, all of them four-grain. In his fear, Alex got up, stole a walkie-talkie from one of the corpses, loaded the SCAR, and ran like all hell was at his heels, which it probably was. The other ponies tried to process exactly what happened, to them, a newcomer, someone welcome in their home, their society killed four people, whom they knew nothing about, all carrying similar weapons to Alex's, and Alex himself didn't say a thing about the soldiers, why was he so mortified? Alex ran through the streets of Ponyville as fast as his legs could carry him, trying to find which channel their COs were giving orders, all the while evading and killing more soldiers, all fire teams. Alex stole a large butcher knife from his newest kills, putting that into the satchel. He flipped through radio channels at a constant pace, and continued to do so until he heard a female voice from the other end. "High Value Target, This is Spectre 0-1 calling on a private channel, I repeat, High Value Target, respond, this is Spectre 0-1!" Alex wasn't sure what to think of this, Spectre wouldn't communicate on any open channels, yet she seemed to want him to answer with urgency, he figured he should respond. "Spectre 0-1, this is the HVT, I'm all ears, over!" He yelled, shooting the SCAR as well as a stolen MP-7 at another squad. He clearly had no idea where to turn, Twilight and the others would find him any minute, if Task Force Crimson didn't gun him down first. "High Value Target, I'm going to direct you to a nearby safe zone, follow my instructions precisely and you should make it in one piece." Spectre responded. "10-4, Spectre, I'm currently a half-mile away from a large purple castle to the east, I'm listening." Alex responded, he needed all the help he could get right now, and if Spectre was going to turn him in, that would be her mistake. "High Value Target, I'm picking up feeds that an armored patrol is moving in your direction, recommend you move a half- click north. What's your inventory?" Spectre asked. "SCAR-H ACOG sight and M203 attachment and a Colt Anaconda, over!" He responded. Alex ran as far as he could, returning fire at any Crimson soldiers who dared to attack. He really hoped that Spectre wouldn't turn out like the Militia, using him to her own ends. "Spectre, I'm seeing helos coming in from the south, what's your recommended course of action?" Alex asked, looking at the three Apache helicopters above him. "Stay low, move a half click more to the west." Alex was bewildered, that led him straight through the heart of town! "Spectre, where is this safe zone?" He asked. "Northwest corner of Ponyville, just before reaching the Orchard. Over." Spectre responded. "Wilco, moving west." He continued charging through the town, firing at anyone holding a gun. Alex moved on to using his .44 Magnum, the SCAR's barrel was another mag away from melting before him. Pulling back the hammer and unleashing a volley of bullets in that direction. Dammit! A bullet zipped inches away from his hand, hitting the Colt Revolver, leaving him with a piping-hot SCAR-H and a knife. He charged at his opponent, dodging shots from his M4 Carbine. He lunged for his aggressor's neck, jabbing the blade into his throat and stealing the gun. "High Value Target, I just picked up some comm chatter, enemy Humvees coming your way, recommend using your grenade launcher and running." Spectre warned. Oh, crap, they were everywhere, and on each one was a Minigun, it's barrels rotating as they sighted him in. Alex pulled out his SCAR and fired a grenade at one of the Humvees, blowing it to cinders and sending the gunner flying. Then using his M4 to pick of the remaining gunners, blood splattering the cars as he ran like hell. "High Value Target, Crimson fire team Metal Storm moving fast in your direction, use the rooftops." Spectre ordered. Alex charged for one of the houses, climbing onto the roof without struggle. Sweet Apple Acres wasn't too far away now, just gotta jump these rooftops and avoid being spotted. Pain! God! A red hot splinter seared into his leg, Alex had been shot! Looking down, he noticed several men bearing M249 SAWs, absolutely tearing this house apart. Alex returned fire, picking off two soldiers, but there wasn't much he could do without getting shot again. "Spectre, I'm pinned down on the roof about a half click away from your quote-unquote 'safe zone'." He complained. "Roger, friendly mortars inbound." Spectre responded. She had artillery?! That would've been much more useful when he was cornered. As promised, a large explosion blasted in front of Alex, the house caving in as he leapt off, sending more pain into wounded leg. The soldiers pinning him down were obviously blown to bits. "Spectre, I'm wounded." Alex said into the speaker. Limping frantically towards the safe zone, he was likely very close . "Where are you?" Spectre asked. "Pretty damn close to the safe zone." He said. "I see you, popping flares at safe zone now." Spectre said. Sure enough, a brilliant red light popped up about a quarter mile away from where he was right now. Alex dropped his M4, the shock of being shot was in no way, shape, or form a new experience, but it still hurt a LOT. Moving as best he could with a hole in his leg, he noticed a young woman with hair as dark as the night sky waving a flare, no doubt it was Spectre, did she work alone? Spectre noticed his difficulty, running close to him and helping him into the spider hole. "Hello, you are Alex Walker, I assume, is that correct?" She asked. "Yeah. Thanks for helping me out." "Anytime, an enemy of Winchester's is a friend of mine." She smiled. "How do you know about Agent Winchester?" He asked. "I was his comrade from an old CIA unit, He offered me a job at Crimson as soon as it formed. When I found out the full extent of his actions, I left." Spectre sighed, as if the fact that Winchester would kill kids was new to her. "Then why help his target?" "I only needed to read your file once to know you were innocent. I knew it, he knew it. The only reason he didn't let you leave was because he didn't want to look like a failure, he knows if you got out, you would tell everyone what he did." Spectre said. "I didn't tell another soul, in fact, I made myself look like a total ass in front of a potential friend just to hide it." He admitted. "What?! Why?" Spectre seemed bewildered. Maybe he was wrong to hide it. "I'm just scared to death of what will happen when I tell people. Murder is a condemnable crime here, I felt like if I were to talk, it would be like giving my gun to Winchester and saying 'here, kill me'." Alex said. He truly did feel like if he did talk, Twilight and the others would turn him back in as soon as Crimson got here. "You can't always expect everyone to betray you, you have to put trust in someone." She said. "Why the hell not? The Kahn Militia certainly felt it was a reasonable idea." Alex sarcastically stated, "You joined them?!" "It's not like I had much choice! It was that or die a slow, painful death!" "Did you ever think the reason bad things happen to you is because you're a dumbass?!" Spectre chided. "Now that you mention it, yeah." Alex relented. "Look, I can't promise anything too fancy here, any opportunity I see to help us take down Winchester, I'm taking it. From now on, you do as I say until you can somehow get on your feet. Got it?" Spectre asked. Now, Alex could think about this. One one hand, he was working with an ex-C.I.A operative who could slit his throat in his sleep if she so wanted, until luck finally returned to Alex's side, he was stuck. But on the other hand, Spectre was offering Alex a second chance, an opportunity to kill the man who ruined his life twice now. "I'm in." Alex decided. "I think that's the first smart decision you've made in a while." Spectre seemed to approve of this choice. "What's the plan?" Alex asked. "You hunted monsters before this, right?" "Once, I killed a dragon, and that was today." Alex said. "Wow, you've had one hell of a day, don't dragons have a treasure haul?" Spectre asked. "Right here." Alex said, pulling the Octahedral pocket dimension. "Princess Twilight gave me this to put the treasure in." "Good, I have a mission for you. You still know people who trust you, right?" Spectre asked. "That's up in the air right now, I shot four people to death in front of all of them." Alex said. "I figured you would say that, I need you to buy some Equestrian Steel." "What's that?" "It's a metallic alloy used in royal guard armor, It's damn near indestructible, but expensive." "Why do you need this?" Alex asked. "A suit of armor for your next missions. Imagine yourself charging through the battlefield, unaffected by gunfire and mowing down your enemies." She fantasized. "I'm a fugitive, how am I supposed to get some?" He asked. "I know someone." Spectre said casually. "When do we start?" Alex asked. "Tomorrow, I bet you need some sleep, you've done nothing all day but fight. You need your rest." Alex looked around the spider hole, and he saw the basic minimum of living standards, two small cots and two thin blankets, a few radioes, and a hit list. A small fire lit up the room, and the only ventilation there was the door, with a few small holes drilled into it. "One more thing, what exactly is your name?" He asked, he couldn't always call her 'Spectre'. "Oh, I nearly forgot, my name is Karis." "Good meeting you, Karis. I haven't heard that name before." "It's not very common." Karis admits. "Well, then, I'm tired as all hell, I need some rest." "Sure, good night, Alex." Karis yawns. "Night." Alex responds. Here we go again, Alex thought, back to the old, unpredictable life. Twilight, her friends, and Cloudchaser and Flitter sat around the table in her castle, discussing what to do about Alex, he killed at least 18 soldiers, and none of them knew why. "Does anyone know anything about these other humans?" Twilight asked her friends. "I just remember Alex looking really scared about something, then he told me he lost his contact lens, next thing I know, he killed four other humans." Cloudchaser searched her memory, and didn't find much else. "I saw Alex hallucinating on our way up to fight the dragon, then he tried to bribe me into not asking about it!" Rainbow clearly felt betrayed. Twilight scribbled down some notes on a piece of paper for her next letter to Princess Celestia. "Why do you think he would do that?" She asked. "In my experience, it would mean that Mr. Walker is getting desperate." A deep voice bellowed behind them. Twilight turned around to look at the source of the voice, he was a tall, able-bodied man with brown hair, turning gray at the edges. "Um, who are you...?" Fluttershy asked, cowering further into her chair. "My name is Agent Timothy Winchester, C.I.A. I believe I know a thing or two about your... 'Friend'." Agent Winchester said that last word full of anger and contempt. "Like what?" Rainbow asked. "Alex Walker is not the man you know, he is a menace, very dangerous, and fierce in active combat. We believe that Mr. Walker was in cahoots with the Kahn Militia, a social reform group gone violent, responsible for a massacre that killed almost 2,000 people, and a raid on a recently declassified testing facility known as Area 51." Winchester continued. "If that's true, how did he get here?" Flitter asked. "Mr. Walker used Die Glocke, a century-old device recently acquired by our government. He used it, obviously, to escape the Kahn Militia, and destroyed it before we could follow him." Agent Winchester answered matter-of-factly. "Alex told us he fell in a sewer, through a wormhole.." Rarity said. "He must have told you that to divert suspicion, terrible liar, always was." "I won't let you call my friend a murderer! He told Cloudchaser to duck when he shot your men! There's something you're not telling us!" Rainbow yelled. Even Agent Winchester was surprised to hear her defend her friend. "Rainbow does have a point, did he kill any ponies?" Cloudchaser asked. "It would appear not. He trusts you as much as that one," Winchester said, pointing to Rainbow Dash, "trusts Mr. Walker, and Ms. Sparkle, you, as well as all your friends are on a need-to-know basis." "What is up with these humans always keepin' secrets all the time, it ain't healthy." Applejack muttered. "What are you suggesting here, another 'welcome to Ponyville party, perhaps?" Pinkie says, smiling deviously. "No. As of right now, Alex Walker is Public Enemy #1, nowhere is safe, we will send garrisons all across this land, anyone who opposes will die. If any of you pastel horses have him in custody, I will demand you turn him back in, upon doing so, he is United States Government property." Vinyl walked home, head downcast, while the party was a success for the first hour or so, the guest of honor screwed everything up, for himself and his friends, she wondered how Twilight must be handling this. Ow! She stubbed her front hoof on something, it stuck out of the ground at an angle. Levitating it with her magic, she noticed it was the weapon that Alex used to kill the soldiers. In the short time she knew Alex, Vinyl knew he wouldn't use it without good reason. She pulled back a switch and saw the cylinders pop out of the weapon. While she her job description was 'disk jockey' she also had to build highly advanced speakers all by hoof. It's not like they had huge speakers before she came along, not good ones, anyway. Vinyl knew what she would be doing for the next week or so, she would give this gun an upgrade, DJ- PON3 style. Author's Note First off, I originally thought of naming Karis 'Akira', but then I read 'Black Ops: Ember' and, for the sake of artistic integrity, used something different. Second, what do you think of this story, leave a comment telling me on how to do better, always room for improvement. Act I, Chapter 10: Aftermath'Alex, wake up.' Karis poked at his arm for the third time, threatening to pull him out of dreamland, where at least nobody tried to shoot him dead...well... "Come on, we won't be able to kill Winchester if you're asleep." Karis poked Alex's arm again, and again, and- "Okay, fine! God forbid someone actually gets some shut-eye! What time is it anyway?!" Alex asked, flustered and drowsy from yesterday's several encounters. Alex killed a dragon alongside Rainbow Dash, and like an hour afterwards, got chased out of town by Winchester's goons. "If I'm right, it is... About 0600 hours." Karis answered, looking through a hole leading to the outside world. "You woke me up at 6 a.m?! Need I ask?" "We'll be meeting up with one of my contacts in about a half hour, I advise getting on some different clothes. I have some here." Karis tossed him a small bag, they seemed to contain some olive colored cargo pants, a t-shirt, a camo jacket, and a balaclava. Alex acted accordingly, fear of Karis killing him if he didn't overriding the general awkwardness of changing in front of a girl, lord knows he's had plenty of that when Rarity sized him for clothes. "Who is this contact, anyway?" He asked. "She's sort of the treasure hunter-y type. She would do anything for whatever you have in that 'pocket-dimension' of yours." Karis replied. "Where do you find these people?" Alex felt like he shouldn't even need to ask that. "Everywhere, you meet a lot of weird people in the CIA." She replied, almost casually, as if that sort of thing happened all the time. A dark thought crossed Alex's mind, Applejack lived around here, what if she found their hideout? "What if someone, or worse, some pony, sees us walk out from the underground?" He asked. "I've got you covered." Karis said. She led Alex down a hole, and a tunnel that seemed to go on forever and ever. Barely able to see anything. "Where the hell did this come from?" "What do you think I was doing while you slept?" "Planning the best time to slit my jugular?" He asked. "You really aren't the trusting type, are you?" Karis asked. "Weren't you with that Winchester psychopath?" He retorted. Karis didn't say another word until they reached an incline, pushing up on whatever was there, Alex was nearly blinded by Celestia's piercing light. "Ah! My eyes!" Alex yelled, unable to see much with the sudden change of light. "Your eyes will adjust, you big baby." Karis seemed annoyed with Alex's noobishness. Karis and Alex must have waited for hours until a yellowish Pegasus with a monochrome mane and tail stalked out of the Everfree before them. "Hello, Daring." Karis introduced calmly. "Well, well, well. if it isn't Ms. Karis Thorne, I was wondering if you'd show up at all, who's the kid?" 'Daring' asked. "Don't mind him. Remember the deal?" Karis asked. "I believe it was '500,000 bits for 500 five-by five sheets of pure Equestrian Steel'. The most top quality metal I could find." Daring replied. "Show me the goods, first." Karis demanded. "Okay, miss. Brutus!" Daring yelled. A large Minotaur the size of a two-story house started piling the metal sheets before them, putting a small one foot by one foot square at an angle. The metal was almost a gold-ish copper mash up. From what Karis told him, the stuff was very malleable when heated up, and very difficult to punch through at room temperature, making it ideal for armor and weapons. "Kid, can I borrow your gun?" Karis asked. Alex handed Karis the SCAR-H that he still carried with him. Karis then clicked off the safety, loaded a mag, and fired the whole thing into the little metal square. The bullets flew off the metal like raquetballs, bouncing off the metal square and hitting the dirt around it. Karis handed him back the SCAR, quickly placing it behind his back once more. "You've got yourself a deal, Ms. Do. Kid, the pocket thingamajig!" Alex opened up the pocket dimension, the portal opening an 8 by 4 foot rectangle, looking like the night sky inside the pocket dimension, and, of course, the massive amount of gold, jewels, and other assorted riches inside. Daring pulled out a large bag and walked inside the dimension, hearing the clatter of coins filling up the bag, Daring walked out after about two minutes of being inside. "Glad we could do this without much trouble, Brutus, you and Karis' little friend get the metal inside that hole!" Daring ordered. Alex moved over to the pile, where he and the Minotaur started lifting the steel. They came in reams of, like, fifty. And even though it was supposed to be lightweight, it was still rather heavy. This went on for about five minutes, by the time they got the last ream of fifty inside, Alex felt really tired and sore. With both parties satisfied, Karis and Alex left. Going back in the hole. "So, kid, you knew a blacksmith, right?" Karis asked. "Yeah, I think his name was Hammering Sickle, or something." Alex responded. "Was he at that party?" She asked again. "Actually, no, his anniversary was that night, he couldn't make it." "Good. I need some tools to get to work on this armor." "You're building the armor?" Alex asked. "Yeah, I already know all of your sizes in clothes?" Karis responded. "How?" "While you were whining like a wuss at the tunnel, my A.I did a diagnostic on your dress sizes." "A.I, why do I feel like this is turning out like Red vs. Blue?" Alex asked. "Red vs. Blue; a web series developed by Rooster Teeth, starting out in 2003 after the release of Halo: Combat Evolved and still on-going." A small voice coming from Karis' wristband said. "Who is that?" Alex asked. "I am the A.I program known as Veil; developed by the Central Intelligence Agency and designed specifically for Field Operative Karis Victoria Thorne on September 25, 2015." Alex was astounded. Sure, they had things like Evie or Cleverbot, but nothing as advanced as this. "Veil, why isn't Karis getting any armor?" Alex asked. "Agent Thorne's position is in Logistics, Weapons design, and assassinations. Not for active combat. You, however, seem to have a natural ability to fight, and will benefit the most from wearing this armor." Veil said. "Karis Victoria Thorne? That's your full name?" Alex asked. "Yes." Karis says. "Notable Missions on Agent Karis V. Thorne include overseeing the assassination of former Kahn Militia leader Viktor Rutherford Kahn in 2014, assassination of Syndicate leader Anthony Vincent, and-" "That will be all, Veil. Alex, get to Hammering Sickle." Karis orders. "Will do." Alex said, getting back in the main hole and leaving. Alex got to the Forge a while later, panting in exhaustion, he had to run, for fear of being discovered. "Hammering! I'm here!" Alex panted. A heavyset stallion with a black goatee walked out of his office. "Ah, Alex! You are here! I did not expect to see you! I thought the humans killed you!" Hammering said in a thick Russian accent. "What, you heard about that?" Alex asked. "Da. Do not worry, I do not trust the Agent or his men." Hammering said. "Thank you, listen, there's this girl-" Alex began. "Listen, when Mare and Stallion love each other very much-" Hammering interrupted. "Not like that! She wants to use the forge!" Alex yells, in embarrassment. "Oh! My bad! Of course she can use forge! You are nice guy, she probably nice too. What will she work on?" "She's building a suit of armor with Equestrian Steel." Alex said. "My! How expensive! But if she need help, I will not hesitate to assist" Hammering assured. "Thank you, sir." Alex said. "No need to thank me. I am just doing my job." Hammering said. "Okay, her name is Karis, she's got incredibly black hair, a bit taller than me, and a bit of a- never mind." Alex didn't want to finish that last part, she was apparently some kind of master of stealth. "Okay, Karis, beautiful name." Hammering says. "Thank you." A voice says from above. Karis dropped down between Alex and Hammering. "So you are girl Alex is talking about! Very nice to meet you!" Hammering says. "Likewise. Alex, we have to go, someone called Crimson, we gotta go!" "Oh, crap! The Task Force!?" Alex asked in bewilderment. "Go out back, I handle Agents." Hammering says. Karis grabbed Alex's hand and they ran to the back, the door led to an alleyway that they would easily escape into. "Hello, newcomers! Would you like to work in shop? Maybe an extra something for your boss?" Hammering asks, distracting the Death Squads. --POV Shift: Vinyl-- Vinyl continued tinkering with Alex's weapon. Beautifully designed, but left wanting in firepower. Vinyl then thought of something, suppose this called for a new propellant entirely, and she knew just the one. Sound. She heard of nerds at home making ridiculously small speakers and condensing them into one super speaker, Vinyl herself used that technology, and the holes the bullets were meant to go into were just big enough to place six into them, but something like that required mass quantities of power to make a bullet fly fast enough to do some damage. So maybe in the middle, she could condense some of her own magic into an infinitely producing power source, though it took some very powerful unicorns to pull that off. No matter what, this gun was going to be badass by the time she was done! Looking back at her unfinished masterpiece, she had spray painted an eighth-note logo in white on the grip, added some glow-in-the-dark purple lighting for the rear sights and some thing similar in yellow towards the front. The cylinders were also painted in luminescent, light blue paint. The barrel was also switched from a 6 inch barrel to a 7 inch barrel, to improve accuracy. Looking back at her sketches, the cylinders would have the setup in the back, the high powered speakers in each cylinder, and the generator right in the middle, for this to work, there wouldn't be any casings, just the bullets, so whenever one needed to reload, Alex would only need to drop six bullets, or 'caps' as she called them, into the front of the cylinders, where they would be magnetically held in. Oh, yes. Things were certainly coming together. --POV Shift: Karis-- Karis entered Hammering's establishment, it was dark now, and Alex was so chock full of questions, they talked all day, about her occupation, her partner, everything! He was rather inquisitive to say the least, unfortunately for her. He had no idea about what really was going on. She pitied him, she really did. "Hello, Ms. Karis, ready to get to work? May I help?" Hammering walked in. "Huh? Oh, sure, I just need to know where everything is." Karis innocently replied. "Oh, sure! The blowtorches used for Equestrian steel are over there, the hammers by the iron bars, and the protective gear is right by my office." "Thank you." Karis said. Grabbing everything she needed, Karis set out to work. "Veil, put up model...5." Karis ordered. "Right away, ma'am." Veil said. A hologram instantly popped up in front of her, a perfect scale on Alex's physique. Also in front were the several pieces making up the armor. This, according to Veil, was the best jack-of-all-trades armor. Good maneuverability, brilliant all-round protection, and looked pretty damn cool to say the least. Karis suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder blade, interrupting her intense focus. She turned behind her to see a white unicorn with an electric-blue mane and tail with purple sunglasses. "Can I help you?" Karis asked. "Do you know what the best metal is for, say, projectiles?" She asked. "Well, Lead is a perfectly suitable projectile metal." "Anything else in mind? I need a magnetic metal that can fly really far when shot out of a gun." She said. "How about iron, it's magnetic, cheap, and pretty easy to manipulate." Karis said. "Wow... Thank you. Alex is really going to be happy when he sees this." "Alex, as in, Alex Walker?" Karis asked, thunderstruck. "Yeah, he paid me for a gig at his welcome party, well, before it all went to hell." The unicorn said. "I'm helping him too. Mostly because he's helping me with something." Karis said "What?" The mare asked. She seemed a bit nervous, as if she hadn't been expecting to talk this long. "It's a long story." Karis responded. The two talked for a little while more. Vinyl, as she was called, had made a few hundred metal caps that looked like bullets before fitted with the cartridge. As for Karis, she finished making the boots and greaves, nearly done making the codpiece. "It's been nice talking to you." Karis said "But I really need to get back." "Same here, it's almost sunrise already." Vinyl groaned. "Bye." "Oh, uh, see you around." Vinyl waved her goodbyes and walked out the door. Karis herself had a bit of time to think. Alex had a difficult time trusting people, and for good reasons, her old comrade had tortured the poor kid for a month after killing his parents so he wouldn't look bad, the Militia betrayed him for their own ends, seeing him as merely an expendable kid with nowhere else to turn. And when he was closest to actually being accepted, Winchester screwed him over a second time. Alex was not ready to know what is actually going on, and he may never be ready, but at this rate, it's just a matter of when. She knew that killing Winchester would not solve everything for him, there is too much going on behind the scenes. She just hoped that the CIA would at least do this final favor for her. --POV Shift: Unknown-- "Ugh... Where am I?" A man in a red and white leather jacked groaned as he stumbled up from the dirt. Pulling out his AP Pistol and aiming it anywhere that felt unfamiliar. He walked backwards and felt his leg scrape against something. Turning around, he picked up a brown and white owl mask, complete with large, yellow eyes and a sharp-looking beak. He put on the mask, looking for any of his friends. "Ow...shit. What the hell kinda glitch was that?" A man in a light blue hoodie wearing clown makeup grumbled in pain. He slowly staggered upwards, slipping on a hockey mask, complete with red markings that looked like lightning bolts on the cheeks and eyebrows of the mask, pulling out a hatchet. "Delirious, where the hell are we?" He asked, looking around at the mess of unconscious bodies. "I don't know, Vanoss, when the hell did GTA 5 turn into freaking H1Z1?" Delirious asked. "Oh, yeah, I just remembered, 'my name Jeff'." Vanoss said, laughing as he remembered that game. "Yeah, but seriously, we should build some shelter, before zombies come and eat our faces or something." Just then, out of the darkness, a voice that sounded like it was coming from above them landed just out of sight. "Hey, who are you?!" A brash, angry voice asked from what seemed like nowhere. "AAAAAAAH!!! ZOMBIES!!!" Delirious screamed, running around until he hit a tree. "NOOOOO!" Vanoss shrieked as he put a pistol up to his head and shot himself, before his corpse blinked three times and disappeared. A few other humans, obviously soldiers, walked around, getting a good look at the scene before them, eight men were unconscious in the forest and the other two...reappeared right in front of them. "Stay where you are! Put your hands up!" One soldier ordered, the man had a two patches on his right arm, one a red hawk-like bird, and the other a cloud, shooting out a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt. "Hey, what do you call a magic owl?" Vanoss asked the soldier in front of him, the yellow eyes staring daggers into the man. "God damn it! I already have thousands of that joke on my twitter, you dick!" Delirious groaned, knowing full well what was about to happen. Vanoss himself pulled an AK-47 from out of nowhere, and finished his joke. "HOO-DINI!" The soldier was completely unprepared for the onslaught of gunfire that ripped through him. Vanoss shot a full extended mag's worth of bullets into him, reloading as he fell to the ground, dead. Delirious pulled out a hatchet, burying it into another soldier's head before violently yanking it out and repeating the act two more times. "I'm the real Delirious, bitches!" He yelled as he yanked the now bloody hatchet from the corpse. "Uuugh... What are you two idiots doing?" Asked a man wearing a pig mask and a white motorcycle helmet, as well as a fluorescent green hoodie and similarly colored undergarments. "Aaaugh. Arnold needs a nap really bad." Another man groaned, in an obviously bad Austrian accent. "Zzz. Cockatoos..." Snored another man, wearing a pink polo shirt in an albeit extremely racist accent himself. The remaining soldier had to stop himself from laughing his ass off, but still terrified of what would happen to him. "Honestly, can you guys shut up? I'm trying to sleep you fockin' pricks." A man wearing a paper bag, a green button-up shirt, and an adult diaper whisper-yelled. "Okay, fine, Jesus." Vanoss nonchalantly pulled out an RPG and aimed it at the last soldier. "This is how we do it in Team Canada!" He yelled again, blowing the soldier into a pile of ash. "Good job, Evan, now can we go back to sleep?" Another man asked, agitated beyond belief. "Okay, fine, Marcel." Vanoss relented, passing out after finishing that sentence. Only one other pony now knew of the existence of these men. That mare hid behind a cloud, peering into that scene, unable to look away. The one, the awesome, Rainbow Dash. She knew of other humans. The first one seemed scared to death, none of them knew why, the others, they were after him, and they wouldn't say why. But these guys, they were something else entirely. She knew she was supposed to let Agent Winchester know about these men, but she figured she should only entrust Twilight with this information. It wasn't treason, it was just... She didn't know what this was anymore. The job for her was simple; be awesome, zap villains with her combined strength with her friends, maybe reform them, but now, with all this...complexity, all this being kept in the dark. This was too much. Now Rainbow herself had her own secret. And she was not above keeping it. Author's Note Yeah, remember when I said the crossover tag was for future events in the story? This is only a glimpse. I may lose a huge amount of my audience in doing this, but there is also a chance this could help things. We are dealing with multiple universes after all. Act I, Chapter 11: The Canterlot Raid: Part 1The past week spent with Karis had been turblent to say the least.. And Alex enjoyed absolutely none of it. He still suspected that Karis might betray him, that their hideout would be discovered. That either Twilight, Karis, or Winchester may be the ones to take what little of his life was left. The nightmares had gotten much, much worse. Now featuring his former equine allies, and Karis. It was never a good feeling to not trust anyone, but he more or less got used to it. At the moment, Alex had an iron grip on the SCAR-H, Alex's only remaining weapon, loaded and ready to kill in an instant, Karis was out doing god knows what, leaving him alone and very afraid. He wasn't sure what was worse for his well-being, Karis being gone, or not. "I'm back!" Karis yelled from the other end of the tunnel she dug, leading to the very edge of the Everfree. Karis pulled out the pocket dimension emitter from her pocket, she had been taking that thing with her everywhere, what she was doing, he could only guess. "Hello, Karis. How was your trip?" Alex asked. "Well, Alex, first off, I have a gift for you." Karis beamed. This was unsettling, Karis never seemed visibly delighted, or even pleased. To see her like this was unthinkable. "You're serious?" Alex asked skeptically. Karis opened up the pocket dimension, and brought out multiple pieces of the Equestrian Steel, Alex assumed it was the armor. "Allow me to introduce... The Goliath Mark. V armor, capable of full maneuverability and speed, while providing an impenetrable defense against bullets, knives, even Magic." Alex looked at the chest piece, it was remarkable, Karis was one hell of a craft maker. The piece was adorned with silvery markings, standing out amongst the overwhelming gold-ish copper color, a marking of some type of skull at the front. Alex put on the chest piece, to his surprise, he hardly felt any weight, maybe a little... Next, he put on the Shoulder plates and the Codpiece, the shoulder plates also featuring a skull on each one, the codpiece was pretty standard. Then, Alex put on the shin pieces, elbow pads, wrist pieces, gauntlets, greaves, and boots, leaving Alex with substantially covered and protected throughout his body. "Wow, this is actually really good! Thank you, Karis." Alex respectfully nodded to her, smiling as best he could. "There's more good news, Alex." Karis said excitedly. "What, you found Winchester?" "Yep! He's in Canterlot right now, overseeing a garrison transfer, probably to augment the regular guard." "Wow, what's your plan?" Alex asked. "DJ-PON3 is going to Canterlot with Twilight and her friends to keep anyone from disturbing the full transfer. But you're not killing him." Karis said. "What?" Alex asked, that was their end goal, was it not? "I received word that some sensitive files were being transferred with Winchester. You find them, get the word out that Winchester can't be trusted, and get the hell out." "How the hell do you expect me to do that?" Alex asked, with a hint of exasperation in his voice. "The train Ms. Scratch is going to Canterlot in will leave in roughly an hour. Sneak onto the train, hide yourself inside the luggage, let the men sneak you in so you won't have to." "And...?" "In case you're discovered, I advise wearing the Armor. You'll be protected from most, if not all, damage that will normally kill, but if you can? Sneak out, the next train leaves tomorrow that morning. You'll have to hide in the alleyways, the streets, anywhere." Karis orders. "And you'll be doing what? Sitting pretty in your little cave while I go out and die?!" Alex questions, bewildered. "Just do what I tell you, it worked last time, didn't it?" Karis retorts. "Fine." Alex coldly replies. He nearly walked out the door when Karis whistled at him. "You may need this!" Karis tossed Alex what looked like a helmet, the eyes seemed to have a yellowish glow to them, the eyes were jagged and uneven, but symmetrical at the edges, like that guy's mask from the E3 2015 Star Wars Knights of the Fallen Empire trailer, there was no mouth, only holes for breathing. Alex nodded his thanks again, grabbing his Battle Rifle and putting on the Helmet and mask before walking away, possibly forever. He waited at his spot two miles north of the train station, waiting for the train to pass so he could sneak on unnoticed. Alex had waited in that same spot for a while now, it was noon when he got there. Alex was alone with his thoughts until he heard a loud horn and a distinct chugging noise. The train! Alex bent down as the train whizzed past his visage, waiting for the best moment to climb on... Almost... Now! Alex nearly slipped and fell off the train, he headed for the luggage cart, still hanging off the side, just under the windows. This went on until Alex found what he was sure was the cart. Climbing in through the window, Alex looked around for any and all guards that may be attacking him, to his surprise, there were none. Just boxes of audio equipment that he assumed belonged to Vinyl. He looked around for a compartment that looked to be his size and snuck in, letting the dark envelop him. Damn! He heard hooves clopping his direction, this was definitely a pony in here. And by the sound of it, the horse was getting closer. Alex braced himself for the onslaught as the compartment door opened, revealing a very familiar white unicorn with magenta sunglasses. "Vinyl?" Alex whispered. She seemed to know who he was, even without seeing his face, why, he didn't know. Said unicorn smiled at him, nodding as she ruffled through a saddlebag. She pulled out what appeared to be his .44 Magnum, but very heavily modified, featuring some glow in the dark paint jobs and extensions of the barrel, it looked badass to say the least. She levitated the new weapon over to Alex, picking it up to look at the gun more closely. Then, she handed him a few bags of what appeared to be the bullets, no casings, just bullets, Alex took them, realizing that the gun was no longer set to accommodate regular .44 bullets, instead, they were replaced by...speakers? He would have to find out how that worked later, he had a job to do. "You aren't going to give me away, are you?" Alex asked. Vinyl shook her head, closing the door in front of him. Alex put the SCAR on his back, he would have to try out this beast of a gun once the mission started. The soldiers placed Alex's hiding spot among the rest of the equipment, leaving as soon as their job was done. Alex slowly crawled out of the confined space of the spot. Looking in the direction of the castle, which wasn't far at all. He lowered to a crouch and moved as fast as he could. Alex hid behind several corners and walls, realizing that stealth was a massive pain in the ass, he wasn't even inside yet! Groaning in dissatisfaction, he snuck up behind a human soldier, brandishing the butcher knife he stole on his escape. Covering the soldier's mouth before stabbing the blade into his neck. Killing him almost immediately before dragging his body away. Hiding it in a nearby bush. Alex was inside now, the fear of being found out was not new, so it didn't affect him as badly as it could have. Sneaking past royal guard ponies and killing any human soldiers in his path. He had to be close by now. Eventually, Alex made his way towards the archives, which were apparently top-secret to anyone. Alex was able to get inside using a key he had stolen from one of the many corpses. The door slowly clicked open, so Alex could wall inside. Alex wandered around more until he noticed a small guard patrol, he had been seeing more ponies than he expected here, he thought they were all at the concert with Twilight and the others, who he knew 100% that they were there. Regardless, he made a promise to Celestia about not killing any ponies, he may as well keep some promises. Besides, it would result in less confrontation if he was somehow discovered. He snuck around the archives, stifling his way through several archaic spells and runes until he came across a Manila folder bearing the seal of the CIA. He opened the folder and found his picture, along with a physical description and a bio. Alex flipped through several pages, including a picture of the Kahn Militia Logo, Die Glocke. Jäger, the man he was mistaken for, and, the big finish. 'Alex Walker stands accused of Perpetrating the Bohemian Grove Massacre of July, 2016. There is no evidence that Walker was even involved, however, the Agent responsible for his capture still believes Mr. Walker is a valuable source of information on the attackers, despite not providing any new knowledge.' Bingo! He placed the files into his pocket dimension, using a 1 inch by 1 inch square of Equestrian Steel as a paperweight before heading back out and closing it. Placing the octahedron back into the duffel bag, he snuck out of the archives, hearing two voices talk about something. "I know that, princess, but he is dangerous!" One voice said. "I have seen into this young man's nightmares! You've irreversibly damaged him!" The other retorted. Alex listened closer, were they talking about him? "Good. With nowhere to run or hide, the fear will cause him to turn himself in." The first coldly discussed. "Fear is unpredictable, the boy may just kill you to spare himself!" The other defended. Alex looked for a place to run or hide, only to run straight into... Agent Winchester and who he assumed was Princess Luna. Well, crap. Luna looked surprised at the sight of the armored man in her castle, but saw that she seemed to notice the immense fear and pain clouding his mind. She flew off somewhere, he didn't know why. Agent Winchester merely looked angry and pulled out his P226, and kickedAlex away. "All soldiers, HVT is inside the castle!" He yelled into his microphone. Alex ran away from the scene, only to be met with more soldiers going in a straight line down one hallway, and another, and another. Eventually, Alex was surrounded by Winchester's men, all bearing SCARs, MP7s, M249s, anything and everything "Open fire!" Winchester commanded. The gunfire rang out indiscriminately in Alex's direction, feeling almost nothing and hearing the projectiles plink as the hundreds of bullets bounced off of his armor, a few even hitting the soldiers. Smoke filled the intersection as more soldiers kept firing every last bullet at their target. Alex, dazed but unharmed, stood up, pulling out the .44 Scratch, as he preferred to call it. "My turn." Author's Note Well, a one chapter gap between two battles and a full overhaul on Alex's arsenal. Leave a comment below, feel free to tell me what you think could be done to improve the story in any way, basically: Constructive Criticism is very highly recommended. Act I, Chapter 12: The Canterlot Raid: Part 2"My turn." Alex was currently surrounded by Winchester's soldiers at the Royal Castle in Canterlot. Alex went there to steal some sensitive CIA documents about his imprisonment, which were now in his possession. Now for the tricky part; Getting out alive. Alex pulled out the .44 Magnum that Vinyl had modified for him, which he now called the .44 Scratch, in honor of the mare who had gone through the trouble of fixing it and revamping it. He raised the new weapon in the direction of a cluster of soldiers, pulling the hammer back as he found his targets. BZZZZZOW! The weapon produced at least thrice the recoil of the original gun, even when using 4 grains of magic propellant. The iron bullet burst out of the gun, producing a visible sonic boom, and it left a thin trail of lightning behind the projectile. As for the soldiers, they were blown away, all 5 of them, dead. Leaving only the still-echoing sound of something similar to a gunshot combined with a dubstep bass drop. Alex ran as fast as he could down the hallway containing the corpses of his attack, with more soldiers firing their weapons, making a slight plink every time a bullet hit his armor. Firing another round of the .44 Scratch. Killing more and more soldiers. Where could Alex go? Soldiers were pretty much everywhere, occupying each hallway as Alex continued to move. Trying to head towards the main entrance. It wasn't the best way to go, but he was running low on options. More soldiers popped out from the direction of the entrance, blocking Alex's path and shooting at him. Alex fired the .44 Scratch again and again in attempts to thin out the crowd. Where else? Maybe there's a back exit of some type. But again, soldiers occupied the halls of the castle. How many soldiers were there in this damned death trap? Alex reminded himself to flip off Karis if he survived this. It was about then that Alex figured he should try going out through a window. Nope. Bad plan. Celestia would be pretty mad if she found out that Alex jumped through one of the very expensive windows. Sure, he could pay for it, but that would drain the wealth in Alex's pocket dimension entirely. Where else?! Alex was starting to worry. These A-Holes were everywhere, all of them shooting their weapons at him. Ow! A bullet punched through the armor! It must've worn out since these guys were firing at him nonstop. The wound wasn't serious. It hadn't even broken the skin! Alex reloaded his .44 Scratch for what was quite possibly the third or fourth time. The weapon blasted away many of his foes in just a few shots, but the sheer firepower was proving tiresome for Alex, and downright painful, this thing could break something! Pulling out the SCAR, he fired a grenade out of the launcher into a group of soldiers, blowing them back to the Stone Age. He fired about 11 rounds into the next group in front of him, slaughtering them. Alex then ran towards a long staircase. He figured it was that or die down here. He ran up the stairs, closing the wooden door behind him. As Alex ran up the stairs, he saw more of Winchester's men. "HVT spotted going up the stairs!" One soldier reported. Alex shot him first, right in the neck, blood oozing out of the wound and choking him to death. The other soldiers returned fire, a few more rounds piercing through his weakened armor. The hot red metal burning him from inside his chest and leg. Alex looked out the window and saw something that made him wet himself a little. A large, blue hued energy wave, coming right for him! Alex leaped out of the way as the energy obliterated everything behind him in a blaze of dubstep. Looking down, Alex noticed a group of soldiers, kinda far off from the main party, with a large speaker connected to it. Alex ran for his life as the beam followed him. Shooting and killing a couple more soldiers, Alex looked up the staircase. Damn, how high up was this?! From there, one of two things happened; 1: The soldiers broke through the wooden door, and were ganging up behind him. 2: Another beam shot out behind another group of soldiers further up the stairs Alex had to think about this, he could retreat, but what good would that do? Or he could fight his way up, shoving the soldiers into the beam. He went with the latter. Alex charged for the soldiers, the men shot him with pistols and machine guns, while Alex kept Sparta-kicking, uppercutting, or whatever he could to throw the soldiers into the beam. Then, for some reason, the beam stopped. Using this opportunity, Alex sprinted up the stairs, occasionally turning around and shooting them, until... The SCAR blew up in his face. His one untouched souvenir from the Militia was destroyed right in front of him, the projectile blowing up the barrel of the gun. Desperate, he threw the gun at the soldiers, hitting one in the leg as the others kept shooting, further weakening the armor. Alex came across a locked door, shooting it with the .44 Scratch, he smashed the door open. Alex got a pretty good view of the concert from up here, but he was cornered. The soldiers ran through the door, Agent Winchester falling in close behind. Alex could end this right now! He aimed the .44 Scratch directly at Agent Winchester's neck, a more painful way to go, cocked back the hammer, and- *click* No ammo!? *click* *click* *click* "... Well, this is embarrassing." Alex muttered. The soldiers and Winchester fired another torrent of bullets at Alex, forcing him to run towards the railing and leap off the edge, screaming bloody murder on the way down. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" Out of practically nowhere, a cyan blur picked up Alex before he could reach terminal velocity. Alex looked to the left to find out the identity of his savior. "R-Rainbow Dash!?" Alex was horrified. She had been the one to follow him up the mountain to fight that dragon. He hadn't seen her since that day. Alex then noticed that she wasn't flying him back up the castle perch to turn him in, if not that, then what? Alex had another moment to rest. Looking at the vast plains intersecting north of Ponyville and west of Canterlot. The sun was just beginning to set as the day prepared for the arrival of the night. Rainbow lowered him to about ten feet above the ground. And dropped him. The impact sent more pain to his wounds and tired muscles. Grasping his leg, he staggered up to find Rainbow glaring at him. "What the hell was that?!" Alex asked in disbelief. "I should be asking you the same thing! Killing four of your kind in front of everyone, attacking the castle, not telling us anything!" She stared daggers at Alex, who was still very afraid of what would happen to him. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe there are some things you shouldn't know? For god's sakes, show some restraint!" Alex retorted. "Alex! You've been hiding something since you got here, I can tell! There's no use hiding what you did in Bohemian Grove!" So Winchester fed her false information. He did kind of see this coming, but he started to get angry at the suggestion that Winchester lied to them, and she believed it. "Do you honestly think that's what happened," Alex began, growing more and more enraged by the second. "Do you really believe that I would do this?" His voice started to shake. Rainbow's eyes widened, she had gone too far. "Alex..." "I had nothing to do with that damned massacre! I would've had nothing to do with the Militia if Winchester hadn't gotten desperate!! And I NEVER WOULD HAVE COME HERE IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THOSE PSYCHOPATHS IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!" Enraged, he opened the pocket dimension, stormed inside, and went out carrying the file on his case with the government. "YOU LIKE READING ADVENTURE BOOKS!?! WELL READ THIS!!! IT'S NON-FICTION!!!!!" He finished angrily. Dropping the folder on the ground and kicking it to Rainbow. She seemed astonished that this had gotten him so angry. Alex had released his repressed fear, anger, anxiety, pain, everything. Everything he had felt the past month and a half. He had been through hell, back, and into hell again. By the time she had gotten to the details on Die Glocke, she was trembling. He would be lying if he said he didn't feel bad for her. Now she would know all about him. As she turned the next page, he knew this was probably the worst part. "Full details on the interrogation of Alex Walker... Electrical shock...waterboarding...forced removal of molars..." He heard Rainbow read out loud, reading off everything that Winchester did to him. She occasionally looked up sympathetically at him. Tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes. By the time Rainbow finished reading the file, she looked like she could barely stand, falling into a sitting position, stunned. "Winchester and the FBI came to my house the next day, a neighbor reported that I looked like the police sketch of one of the Militia's men. The Feds killed my parents and burned my house into a pile of ash. He did it for the reward money. $50,000. That was the value they placed on our lives." Alex himself was starting to shake. "That sick bastard Winchester tortured me for weeks. Then, once they seemed me worthless, they were about to execute me..." "S-Stop!" She pleaded. "...if it hadn't been for the militia, I would have died. I was forced to fight for the Militia after they rescued me, but they manipulated me. If I did what the militia told me, I would have died. So, yes, next time I saw these people hunting me down, I lost my shit, WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU DO!?!?!" Both Alex and Rainbow sat in silence. Now Rainbow understood his pain, his fear, all of it. Though he wished he didn't have to go about it like that. He now moved into a laying position, hardly having any energy to move. He just revealed his darkest secret to Rainbow Dash, and in one of the most cruel ways imaginable. Despite his tiredness, he got to work removing the armor. The chest plate was shredded and mangled. He threw it inside the pocket dimension like garbage, then, he got to rest of the armor. And chucked it all in the pocket dimension, he also took the file from Rainbow and placed it inside there as well, neglecting to notice a few pages had been torn out. Upon completion of his work, he took out the small bottle of alcohol and some bandages and started tending to his wounds, feeling the painful sting as he dabbed some on one of the cloth bandages, and crudely wrapped the bandage on top of the wounds. The sun set behind them, and Alex sat down. What would happen to him now that someone knew the truth. Would she help him, or hurt him? Rainbow walked up to Alex, tapping him on the shoulder. "I...I didn't know it would be that bad... I just...I'm sorry." She said in a low, respectful tone. "Don't be. You had nothing to do with it, I was wrong to treat you like that." Alex said back to her. She sat down next to him, watching the sun set in an explosion of orange, pink, blue, and red. "Hello, Mr. Walker." A voice sounded behind them. Alex turned around to see an Alicorn as dark as the night itself, she looked sypathetic. "Princess Luna?" Rainbow questioned, bowing. "How much did you hear?" Alex asked. "I didn't need to hear very much. Your mind may be an enigma, Mr. Walker, but you cannot hide from your fear forever." Luna told him. "I've noticed." Alex said, referring to his confrontation with Rainbow. "I admire thy resolve. Not many ponies have such will." "What are you getting at here?" Alex asked. "As thine sister hath said, the fight is your own, but you are not alone." Luna said "What do you mean?" Alex questioned. "I believe Ms. Dash can answer that." Luna says. "After you left, I found these weird guys inside the forest, they killed Winchester's soldiers really quickly. and when they got shot... they didn't die.. They just... 'Respawn'." Rainbow reluctantly admitted. "How did Luna find out?" Alex asked Rainbow. It was Luna who answered. "'Twas simple. Rainbow told Twilight, Twilight told Celestia, and Celestia told me." "Do you think they will be any help?" Alex questioned. "They have already been acquainted with Rainbow, and she seems to have told them about you." Luna informs. "Good, there's just one more tiny little detail I need to clear up." Alex said. "Karis!" Alex yelled "I'm not dead!" Karis walked out of the spider hole, looking indignant. "What the hell are you thinking?! Don't attract attention!" She yelled. "Too late." Rainbow Dash walked out from behind some bushes. Karis responded by holding Alex's mouth, pointing her M1911 at the mare. Alex moved out of the lock, pointing her gun away from Rainbow. "Calm down, she's with me." Alex says. "Why are you here?" Karis asked. "We found some people outside the Everfree, Alex said you should be able to help him." Rainbow said. "I think you may know something about it." Alex said. Karis seemed to understand what was going on. "Project Immersion was a CIA test on certain video games, seeing how test subjects would work together. I pulled some strings, and had the CIA pull in a team that had been dominating the youtube charts for about 4 years now." Karis explains. "Oh, god... You don't mean..." Alex says. "Yes. Them. They work well together, but lack any sense of professionalism, I had a friend of mine send them here to see how they would fare in this situation." Karis replied. "Who are we talking about?" Rainbow asked. "You'll find out in the morning, meet us back here at 0800." Karis said. Rainbow saluted, then moving to Alex, spoke to him. "Again, I'm sorry, about everything." She said, hugging him. "It's not your fault. Rest up, we have a long day ahead of us." Alex comforted,returning the hug. It still felt awkward. But, he actually felt slightly better. Rainbow flew off, and Alex and Karis went inside the spider hole again. "Did you complete the mission, at the very least?" Karis asked. "Yep, how do you think I have Rainbow helping us?" Karis gaped. "So you just... told her everything?" "Yes. It's just...I hate this. I hate all of this." Alex admitted, tired. "I understand. We will get you through this, Alex. Just trust me." Karis comforted. "Okay, okay, enough with the pity party." He gruffly laid down on the cot, still uncomfortable as all hell, but it was better than sleeping on the ground. "One more thing, Karis." Alex said Karis turned her attention towards Alex, who lifted up both middle fingers, looking really mad at her. She just sends him out to do this crap without another thought? What kind of crap is that? "My point being that you really do suck." Alex scowled. Karis stared him down as she put on a pair of brass knuckles. "Ah, crap." Author's Note Well, boom, third or fourth major chapter in the story and possibly the darkest, as you find out why Alex was framed. I also figured he should have like a mental breakdown as he's telling Rainbow everything, to me, he was starting to look too much like a Mary Sue type character, god knows what that would do to my reputation, am I right? Act I, Chapter 13: Gaining AlliesVanoss sat in the makeshift encampment that Rainbow Hair helped them make. It was a bit of work setting up and maintaining, but it gave him time to chill with his youtube friends. "Hey, Vanoss! Check Mini out!" Wildcat yelled from across the camp. God dammit. He had things he wanted to do today, he walked over to where Wildcat was, only to see Mini Ladd with his hands in the air, with a Sticky Bomb on his back. "Wait, wait, I had nothing to do with the blue stuff!" He yelled. Delirious walked over to Mini, inspecting his condition, walking away shortly after. "Yeah, yeah, there's no hope for him." He said through that mask. "Hold on, let me observe this-" Nogla walked over to Mini Ladd, who exploded; killing them both. Pretty much everyone started laughing at Nogla's corpse launch. "Ha ha, 'let me observe this', kaboom!" Vanoss was still laughing. Lui Calibre ran towards the group, he looked like he had something important to tell them. "Vanoss, Droidd found these guys outside the camp, follow me!" Lui said. What? He thought that this would be secluded. Who was there? "Let me out of these ropes!" Alex yelled at a guy in a pink shirt. "No can do, Sénor. Vanoss!" He yelled again. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Alex asked Karis, who was also tied up. "At first, I was, but now I'm having second thoughts." She admitted. Just then, the guy with a red and white jacket and the iconic owl mask ran over alongside the other guy in the monkey mask, another guy with a hockey mask, and this other guy wearing the pig mask. "Who are these guys?" The owl asked. "I-I don't know Vanoss! These guys just showed up over here!" The monkey masked guy said, in a rather high pitched voice. "Ah, so were they born in the darkness?" This other guy asked, clutching a Pringles can and doing his best Bane impression. Alex groaned, he was already getting pretty damn sick of this. "So then, who are you?" The guy wearing the pig mask asked them. "Alex Walker." He replied. "I'm Agent Karis Victoria Thorne, CIA." Karis said. "Well, I'm Vanoss, the badass of the group." Vanoss egotistically introduced. "I am H2O Delirious, the axe murderer!" Delirious yelled, splitting Piggy's head open. "You sound a lot like this guy I know called the Masturbating Fisherman." "Well, you sound like this other guy I know called-" Delirious was about to finish when Vanoss so rudely interrupted. "HOO-DINI!" Vanoss yelled, shooting Delirious in the face with a musket. "NOOOOOO! YOU BITCH!!!!!" Delirious yelled, falling off a conveniently placed cliff. "Anyway, the Pig is Wildcat," Vanoss said, pointing to this Wildcat person. "Are you ready, Kids?!" Wildcat asked, pulling out a mini-gun. "...what?" Alex asked. "I can't hear y-" Alex shot Wildcat in the face by his .44 Scratch. "Alex!" Karis scolded. "What?!" "Why the hell did you do that?" "Sit down, you punk bitch!" Vanoss yelled. Vanoss swung at him with a 9-iron. Alex deftly evaded the blow, spun behind Vanoss, wrestled the golf club out of his hands and swung at his neck. The Owl clutched his neck, giving Alex another opportunity to attack, before he was surrounded by the crew, all pointing various weapons at him. "You've gotta be kidding me." Alex grunted, pointing his own weapon at them. They all shot at him, but he dived down, all of their shots missed, and hit the others. "AAAAAH! IT'S BATMAN!!!" Delirious screamed. "Where did he go!?" Another man wearing a paper bag asked, looking around. Alex stood behind him, getting close to his ear. "I'm right here." He said, sliding between him and the Monkey Masked fellow. Paper Bag guy shot his weapon at another guy. "Nogla! Don't shoot me!" A guy with a Mohawk and a multicolored t-shirt said. "C-c-c-combo breaker!" Someone else said as Alex kneed some guy in the face, placing a foot on his chest once he was knocked over. "Marcel, you noob!" Delirious laughed. Alex pointed his gun at Delirious' face, then he flipped on the safety, putting it back in a holster. "Look, you guys' combat skills are...average at best," Alex began. "Alex..." Karis warned. "...But still good, I have a proposition for you." Alex continued. "What kind of proposition?" Vanoss asked. "Perhaps he is the instrument of our liberation?" The guy with the Pringles can said again. "Shut up, Terroriser. What do you want?" Wildcat asked. "Rainbow told you about me, right?" Alex questioned. "Yeah, mentioned you killing people in front of everybody." 'Marcel' said. "...well, there's a reason behind that." Alex started to explain. "Get to the point." "I'm going to need some help getting through this crap, so I'll pay you all to help her and myself kill a rogue CIA agent, I'll pay you all about...10,000 bits." Alex proposed. "Pfft, we could get more money by doing a heist," Vanoss scoffed."150,000." "100,000 bits." Alex said. "125,000. Final offer." Vanoss had given him an ultimatum, there were at least 10 of them, this would completely drain his resources! But he had no other choice. "Deal." Alex raised out a hand, Vanoss shook it, and demanded his money up front. "Sure." Alex opened up his pocket dimension, and handed everyone a bag. Vanoss and friends went inside, each coming out with their bags full of loot. "Okay, now my first order as your boss, untie her." Alex said, pointing to Karis. Delirious cut Karis out with his axe, and helped her up. "Okay, team. You're going to go about your daily lives until Karis and I need you. Sound like a plan?" Alex asked. "125,000 gold coins to do nothing? Sounds good to me." Mini Ladd said. "Well, I think it would be best to reintroduce ourselves, especially since Alex here tried breaking Evan's neck. Sound good?" Karis asked. "Okay, I'm Vanoss, and that guy in the mask is Delirious," Vanoss began "'Sup, bitches?" Delirious introduced, brandishing an axe. "And these guys are Lui, Mini, Nogla, Terroriser, Wildcat, and...who else?" "I'm Basically." Marcel said. "And these other guys are Droidd and Moo." Terroriser finished. "Good meeting you all, I'm Alex." Alex said. "Agent Karis Thorne." Karis introduced herself to the other men. "Okay, Alex, now that we've been paid and already introduced ourselves, what exactly is the plan?" Mini asked. It was Karis who answered. "I'm going to dig up what I can about Winchester, that's the guy we're paying you to help us kill, Alex is going to do some extra special missions for me, and we'll call you guys if we need you." Karis instructed. "Question, what the hell does Alex have, exactly?" Wildcat asked. "Yeah, that's one hell of a gun." Basically said, admiring the gun. "Yeah, it looks epic as shit, where did you get it?" Moo agreed. Alex thought back to Vinyl, always a trustworthy mare, she helped him on his first day in town, and gave him the weapon after it got damaged in his first scuffle against Crimson after getting here. "The gun got broken during a battle, and this mare, Vinyl, fixed it up, made it a thousand times cooler that what it already was." Alex said, remembering the events play back in his head. "What do you guys have?" Karis asked the crew. "We have our phones and some money, we could buy, like, tanks and helicopters and shit." Delirious said. "One more thing, is there an extra tent somewhere? It's a little cramped in our old base camp, and they probably found it by now." Alex asked Vanoss. "Well, we have Delirious' extra tent, though you may want to burn it, or clean it, or at least spray some febreeze inside..." Vanoss' voice trailed off, thinking about some dark subject. "Hey! Don't judge my special spongebob time!" Delirious defended himself, looking indignantly at Vanoss. "That reminds me, remember that giant spongebob trap?" Vanoss asked, laughing. "Don't remind me..." Moo facepalmed. Rainbow Dash flew in looking like she missed the bus, looking around, and noticing that Alex and Vanoss had already been aquainted. "Buck! I'm late!" Rainbow looked rather flustered, as though she had just woken up from a nap. "Yes, yes you are." Nogla rolled his eyes through his paper bag. "Wait, Nogla, why do you wear that paper bag over your head?" Karis asked. "Do you really want to know?" Wildcat asked. "...No." Alex said. "Oh, fock you guys!" Nogla looked pretty mad, it was kinda funny. And with that, Rainbow helped Karis and Alex move into the tent, Karis decided it would be best to try and redesign the Goliath Mk. V armor to better handle gunshots. As for Alex, he figured it would be best to train Vanoss and Friends in combat as best he could. Looking back, Alex had no idea how he managed to survive his past encounters, he had backup at first in Area 51, and got wounded pretty badly after they turned on him. The fight against Task Force Crimson at Sugarcube Corner, maybe the need to escape, plus Karis' instructions helped him get there without dying an awful death, but he still got shot in the leg and other various spots. And his most recent attack, he survived because he always wore that armor. Thank god for Karis' handiwork. He still wasn't sure what was going on back in his old world. And he thought about Kat for the first time in weeks. He wondered how she was doing... --POV Shift: Kat-- Kat fell out of another portal, landing hard against the rocky ground. Writhing in pain, she staggered up, only to back away in terror as she was standing over the edge of a cliff overlooking a base of some kind. "Where the hell am I this time..?" Kat groaned inwardly. She knew she shouldn't have pressed 'shuffle' again! In any case, she ducked out of sight. She didn't know where she was, and considering how things went last time, they weren't exactly going to treat her well. "Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air!" A voice demanded. Kat thought the man sounded kind of odd, since he sounded like he was talking through a cheap voice-changer from Target. "Who are you?" She asked in a low whisper. "I should be asking you the same thing." A tall man, about seven feet, in fact, introduced. He looked like he was in some type of military. "I'm not from here.. My name is Katherine Anderson, former Corporal of the Kahn Militia." Kat introduced herself. "My name is Kaiver Locust, Commander of the Adenien Ryder Corps. And you're going to help retrieve something for me." Author's Note Well, I'm trying to get the word out about the story as best I can. And without people telling me how else I can improve, I have no safe method on how to help you guys read a good fan fiction. Also, I told you about Crossover elements being added into the story, so here it is. What do you guys think of my adding Vanoss into this, like, I know it's been done to death already and I also know this may seem like a Cheap shot for likes, but truth be told, the way I wrote the story makes it so that these elements are interwoven into the storyline from the get-go, so it would seem obvious looking back. Also, one last thing, a certain web-series will be crossed over in this fan fiction, can anyone guess what that web series is? EDIT: I've been making edits to most of the chapters to better segue the story in the direction it was going. Act I, Chapter 14: Plan BAlex never could be able to tell a good idea from a bad idea. But now, at least it was clear. This was one of those plans that were pretty much doomed to fail (not unlike the story). Vanoss and his crew were usually ok, but, much like his brief assimilation into Ponyville, there were a fair amount of shenanigans. Firstly, was their moving in. Someone mentioned 'Delirious' Special Spongebob Time', and Alex had feared the worst. Really, it was just Delirious hauling in a crap ton of snacks and watching Spongebob, but this was Delirious, and often, he would make a huge mess every time and not clean it, so the floor of the tent looked like the floor of a movie theater that the janitor just hasn't gotten to yet. Cheetos and Pringles and other assorted snacks left an inch-thick layer of sugary, disgusting crust on the floor, the occasional soda spill, all of that. Much to Alex and Karis' annoyance, they forced him to help clean it all up. "I ain't cleaning that shit off the floor!" Delirious yelled. "Hey, I don't care about what shows you watch, but for the love of god, at least clean up after yourself!" Karis had told him. "NOOOOOO!" And then there was the constant killing, exploding, and all sorts of crazy things, maybe even a race now and then. Alex still remembered their musket fight, lead balls flying to and fro, nearly hitting Alex or Karis, and ripping huge holes in the tent, but at least they had a bunch of small windows now. Alex was now trying to tape up any holes that resulted from their little Revolutionary War reenactment, and Karis... She was somewhere else, probably building his new armor or getting information on Winchester. Until Alex had finished, Vanoss would be in charge, he prayed for his sanity, but not from the constant nightmares and that other crap, which was very different. KABOOM!! "Holy shit! Delirious!!!" Vanoss yelled from across the camp. "What?" The masked killer asked in an innocent tone. "What the hell happened?" "Nogla took off his bag, so I threw a grenade at his ugly face." "Oh, okay, sounds reasonable, carry on." "For Fock sakes, Evan!" Nogla angrily screamed. Alex was getting quite annoyed, but he just had to finish taping back this one last hole... "Lui, are you sure you know the controls to this tank?" Terroriser asked. "Yeah, the controls seem pretty straight-forward... What does this button do?" Lui asked, confused. This could only mean one thing... Alex leaped out of the tent just in time for a large tank shell to rip through his tent, right where he was standing. "Jesus! I almost died!" Alex was really starting to get tired of this. "Marcel drew a dick on the wall!" Someone yelled. "It's a brontosaurus! How many times do I have to tell you!" Basically yelled. "Anyone else think that this 'Destoyer' guy is reenacting old videos because he has no original ideas?" Mini Ladd asked. "Me!" Wildcat agreed. "Could you guys go two seconds without drawing on the wall, or blowing stuff up, or breaking the fourth wall!?!" Alex yelled, exasperated. "...No." Moo said. Alex looked up at the sky, and put his middle finger in the air. "Do you see what I have to deal with here? Why couldn't you have crossed this story over with something cool like... I don't know..." "How about this one web series called R-" Destoyer asked, his voice booming from the sky. "Don't...say it... You know what? I will go along with this." Alex said, with an air of determination in his voice. Droidd crashed a car into a nearby tree. "Droidd, what are you doing?" Alex asked in a neutral tone. "I-I just wanna go to Cockatoos." Droidd responded. Delirious also stumbled out of the car, obviously drunk. "Really, Delirious? It's not even noon." Alex chided. "You don't know my life!" Delirious retorted, his voice slurred. Karis walked back into the encampment with Alex's pocket dimension, looking around at the chaos around her. "Really? I leave for, like, two hours and this place looks worse off than it was when I left." Karis said, just...disappointed. "At least I tried to fix things around here!" Alex defended. "You really are helpless, you know that, right?" Karis rolled her eyes. "Yeah... Idiot authors and their desperate attempts to ingratiate themselves to their audience..." Alex muttered contemptfully. "I don't know about 'idiot'...but the whole thing about redeeming themselves to the reader...yeah... He did kinda fu-" "Don't... He's going to try and keep this slightly kid-friendly." Alex scolded. "To who exactly?" Karis replied. "...yeah, you're right." Alex relented. "So, you want the good news or the bad news?" Karis asks. "Bad news. Just get it out of the way." Alex said. "Okay, Princess Twilight gained Winchester's trust, probably on account of the destruction of the castle." Karis said. "Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't see it coming." Alex admitted. "There is some good news..." Karis began. "What?" Alex asked. "I figured out how Winchester and Crimson got here, in the time the Government had studied Die Glocke, they made more than just the one." Karis said. "That would explain things, how did they find me?" "They probably traced your signal after you blew up the original." Karis concluded. "Oh..." "And I also learned that Princess Twilight has a Die Glocke of her own, probably as a gift from Winchester." "Really?" "Yeah... But there are still a few problems." Karis admitted. "What, the like-to-dislike ratio?" Alex asked. "No. Twilight's castle is very heavily guarded, Crimson, Your old Militia, the Guard..." "What?! The Militia?!!? How?!" Alex gasped, the militia was after him, too? How did Winchester do that? "I don't know." Karis said. "What are our options?" Alex asked. "The only way to handle this is to wait, build up our resources, wait for a weakness and exploit it." "...sounds reasonable." Alex said. "Also, I got to work on the Goliath Mk. VI, it should be done in about 6 days." Karis said. "Okay, so we have at least a 6-day wait. I'll tell Vanoss to start buying up as much equipment as possible. They have us outmanned and outgunned, we may as well try to stand a chance." Alex said. "Okay. Tell the crew, I'll be repairing those giant holes in our tent." Karis said. Alex walked over to Vanoss and friends, and sat down. "Team, we have some developments." Alex began. "Like what?" Terroriser said. "We found out that Winchester is working with Ponyville's hero, Princess Twilight Sparkle." "Isn't she Rainbow Face's friend?" Mini asked. "Yes. Winchester's men completely outnumber ours." Alex said. "You want us to kill the Military men?" Nogla asked. "Not just yet. We're going to wait a minimum of six days so we can prepare for the assault, which brings me to our first order of business." Alex said. "You need us to buy a bunch of Valkyries, Insurgents, and Hydras?" Lui asked. "If by that, you mean buy a bunch of equipment, yes." Alex told him. "How about a Cargobob and a tank?" Delirious asked. "Anything as long as it can kill a bunch of soldiers." Alex nodded. "Is this a heist?" Wildcat asked. "No, the priority is getting to a machine called 'Die Glocke' and getting the hell out as fast as possible, killing Winchester is second on the list." "Oh, what does this machine do?" Basically asked. "It's a machine that is capable of inter-dimensional transport." "What?" Basically asked again. "It's like the teleporter from zombies, but it can take us to different universes." Vanoss said. "Oh." "How is this any different from what you tried last time?" Rainbow Dash walked to Alex and the others, the cyan Pegasus had heard everything. "This time, I'm going to tell people what happened to me, instead of just waiting for someone to lie and incriminate me, like what happened here." He said. "I know this seems like the only way out of this, but..." Rainbow tried to reassure him. "It is. I'm being hunted down by everyone, there isn't anyone I know for sure I can trust, and to top it all of, the rulers of two different countries want nothing more to cut my head off and mount it above their fireplace, or something!" Alex said. "What about us," Vanoss said, "you paid us to keep your ass safe, you're asking us to buy military equipment, and you're trusting us enough to stay in the same place as us." "I'm sure if I didn't pay you guys, I would be nothing but Swiss cheese right now." Alex retorted. "So your best option is to just leave?" Rainbow asked, appalled. "Yes, the way Twilight sees it, I'm too dangerous to be kept alive." Alex said. "That's not true, and you know it!" "I don't know for sure, but if it is as bad as it looks, my only chance is escape." Alex said. "Fine. I won't say anything to Twilight or the others, but if you do attack the castle, I will hurt you." Rainbow said. "Deal." Alex said for the umpteenth time. Rainbow flew away, angry and confused. "Well, let's just give up, Alex just lost the war." Moo said. "No! I'm not living my life in fear anymore! We're getting out of here in a minimum of six days, we're going somewhere else, that's final." Alex said. "You just pissed off the only other pony who was actually willing to help!" Vanoss said. "I have NO other choice!" Alex argued. "Not entirely true, Mr. Walker." A voice said. Alex turned around, staring at a being that was part pony, part dragon, part...everything. He remembered everyone's description of who this was. "Discord." Alex scowled. "Clever observation, boy. I see you have yourself quite an army." Discord complimented. "AAAAH! IT'S THE FLYING DUTCHMAN!!!!" Delirious yelled. "What? Oh, him. Never really liked that guy, always going on and on about that little yellow guy." "Get to the point." Alex said. "You seem rather desperate, enough to turn away help from Ms. Dash. Shocking to say the least." "What do you want?" "Well, it would seem as if someone doesn't trust me. I'm hurt." Discord said, wiping his eyes with a tissue. "I have a history of trust issues, it's to be expected. What do you want?" Alex asked again, hardening his voice. "I have a proposition for you." "What kind of proposition?" "It's simple, really. You help me with something, and I help you with your predicament." "I don't need your help." Alex bitterly replied. "Well, someone doesn't know about Inquisitors, then. If you really don't want my help, I will take my leave." Discord scoffed. What were Inquisitors? Alex didn't like the sound of that at all. "What?" "Oh, just a secret society of inter dimensional warriors bent on conquering the multiverse. If that's what you're asking, but, no, you don't want my help, goodbye." Discord poofed away, leaving no trace. What was he talking about? This kinda scared Alex. He had no help with this. Alex walked back to his tent, starting to rethink his decisions. He made a lot of bad choices, but this probably took the cake. If he went face to face with an inquisitor, what would he do? Author's Note Well. I added more about Alex's thoughts on the Vanoss crew, and more than a few fourth wall breaks. At this point, I'm really starting to reconsider putting this up, but I'm still going to keep writing, because, well, why not? I'm also giving another story development, more antagonists, that kind of stuff. Also, the plan in this chapter plus my hints=...well, you'll find out eventually. Act I, Chapter 15: Abandon All Hope... (Edited)It's been 3 days since Alex, Karis, and the others started a rough sketch of the plan. Alex went over the details he and Karis made together. They narrowed it down to two options that would seem to work, depending on how the crew wanted it to go. Alex brought over the boards that contained both methods of escaping Equestria. "Vanoss, get you and your crew over here, it's important!" Alex yelled. Karis set up the cork board containing a map of Equestria, a technical readout of the castle, thanks to Veil, and two lists of things they would need for either plan. Vanoss and the others walked to the center of the camp and sat down. "Okay, team, we have two plans on how we can successfully escape the dimension. Which would you like to hear first?" Alex asked, pointing to the two manila folders containing both plans. "How about the one on the left?" Nogla requested. Alex picked up the folder and started setting it up. "Okay, what we would do in this plan is have two teams of three, one in each Valkyrie helicopter, provide air support, one is going to fly lower to the ground, shoot a few targets, and get as many enemies as they can as far away from the castle as possible. The other will fly in later in case the former needs help. Then we're going to have two Cargobobs. One pilot in each, fly us into the entrance. One Cargobob will constantly be carrying a tank, providing support when we need it, the other is going to drop in an Insurgent pick-up. As soon as both Valkyries have sufficiently killed the targets they lured away, they'll fly back to give more Air support. There are 5 possible locations for Die Glocke to be, once we find it, head back in, clear out as many targets as you can, and we get the hell out of here." Karis rambled. "Holy shit, that plan sounds over-complicated and ridiculous." Vanoss said. "Yeah, but it sounds epic!" Wildcat added. "What's the other plan?" Mini asked. "This other plan will only need one Valkyrie, four people in it, eliminate any targets in the vicinity as you can. Four more will gun down any targets the Valkyrie missed in the Insurgent. The other four will search the castle for Die Glocke while clearing out any infantry inside. Once we find it, the four inside will defend the location until the other Eight can get here." "Sounds a little smarter and more tactical." Moo said. "Both plans sound epic, I don't know what to choose!" Basically commented. "Yeah, both sound like a Michael Bay movie." Lui said. Alex figured it was best to put this to a vote. "All in favor for the first one?" Karis said. At least 4 people rose their hands. "All in favor for the latter?" Alex asked. Six people rose their hands. "It seems less complicated to me." Droidd said. "Which one of us gets to GET TO THE CHOPPA!?!" Terroriser screamed. "We'll form teams, Karis leads one, Alex leads the second, and I'll lead the third." Vanoss suggested. "Good point." Alex commented. "Okay, Terroriser, Lui, and...Moo are on my team." Karis said. "Delirious, Wildcat, and Nogla are with me." Vanoss chose. "I guess that leaves me with Mini, Basically, and Droidd." Alex nodded. Well, that settled it, but who would do what? "What about our jobs?" Basically said. "Okay, Alex's team is going to search the castle, Vanoss' team will drive the Insurgent, and My team is going to ride the Valkyrie." Karis decided. Everyone seemed to agree. At least there wasn't too much harm done. "Okay, Alex's team. You're getting a map of Princess Twilight's castle, my team is getting Tracer rounds, and Vanoss' team is getting...how about an IPod with Bluetooth, so you can listen to music as you attack." Karis said. The groups nodded. "How about team names? I call dibs on the Red Hoodinis!" Vanoss yelled. "God dammit, Evan!" Wildcat groaned indignantly. "Sounds fun, I call Blue Flares!" Karis called. "Okay...how about..." Alex started "THE TERMINATORS!!! AAAAAUGH!!!" Terroriser burst out. "That was right in my ear." Alex groaned "It's settled, the mission starts in 3 days." Karis said. "Meeting adjourned!" Alex yelled. The teams left the center of the camp, with a mission in their minds. Alex was left with some time to think. Was this really the best way to solve these problems, go in, wait for your past to come back with a vengeance, only to escape again? He could have told Twilight and the others, if only he had let go of his paranoid delusions when he had the chance. And now he antagonized everyone he tried to befriend. Only that wasn't true. Karis had helped him escape Crimson as soon as they found him, and built him armor he needed to retrieve his key to liberation, and now she was building him new armor for this mission. Not to mention Vanoss and the others. Despite having to pay them, they seemed ok. Alex figured if they were to keep their rampant escapades in check, they would be good soldiers, and, above all, good people. Alex got back to his tent, and started to rest. "Alex, can you come over here for a second?" He heard Karis ask. "Sure... What is it?" Alex asked. "I want your personal opinion on my work." Karis said. "You wouldn't be the first, I'd be happy to come over and help you." Alex walked inside the Pocket Dimension, noticing Karis hauling over some more armor, it looked cool to say the least. The project was an up-armored variant of the Mark V, and the mask looked different, now it looked similar to something from Halo, or something, in terms of the larger visor. The armor itself looked much bulkier and would likely take more damage without breaking down As quickly as it had with that whole charade in Canterlot. "Wow... I didn't expect you to finish it that quick." Alex said. "It isn't, I still have to temper it and add some final touches. But it's still usable now, if you really wanted to move the op ahead." Karis said. "Is it still resilient and repels bullet fire?" Alex asked. "Yes, and it will last longer than the Mark V." "Then I'd be happy to use it now, if the others are comfortable." "I'm sure they wouldn't mind." Karis said. "Okay, let's get this out of the way as soon as possible, we're spending too much time." -The Next Day- Alex, Mini, Droidd, and Basically sat in a bush near the Castle, waiting for their signal. "Where the hell is Evan, he should be here by now." Basically groaned. "I don't know, Sénor." Droidd said. "And why the hell did we let Terroriser name our team?" Mini asked. "I don't know, either." Alex admitted. Explosions ripped apart the space in front of them, The Valkyrie! "Incoming, bitch!" Wildcat shouted into the radio. The Insurgent drove past, gunning down several guards and soldiers, with Wildcat on the M2. "Vanoss! Drive around the castle in circles, nobody in or out!" Lui yelled. "Got it. Alex, go in whenever you see an opening!" Vanoss told him. "10-4. Moving now." Alex said, pulling out the Carbine Rifle Vanoss let him borrow. "Move it, Mini!" Basically groaned, trying to move him. "I'm too fat!" Mini retorted. Alex shoved Mini Ladd out of the bush, shooting the Carbine at several Crimson soldiers. The team ran into the castle, killing several soldiers in the process. Royal Guards! Coming straight for them with spears! Alex charged into the fray, stealing one guard's spear and slaughtering the rest with vicious precision. Alex noticed another soldier coming right at him, placing the spear in the barrel of the gun, he fired, the spear going through the soldier's gut, killing him. He grabbed another one, throwing it like a javelin at another group, slaughtering one as Basically, Droidd, and Mini finished off the rest. "Split up!" Alex said, grabbing another spear and placing it on his back. Alex moved down the eastern hallway, gunning down several royal guards and Crimson soldiers. He breached every room he could and killed everyone unfortunate enough to be inside that day. A violet bolt of energy knocked Alex over, sending him reeling backwards, gaping in horror at who attacked him. Princess Twilight. Alex backed up, putting as much space between him and her as possible. "I have no choice, princess, people are going to die, I can't let that happen." Alex insisted Twilight didn't move an inch, her horn glowing purple as she seethed with aggression. "Please don't make me do this." Alex pleaded. Again, Twilight didn't move, her horn glowing with greater intensity. She left him no choice. With a battle cry, he charged at her, dodging bolts of magic as she evaded or blocked his bullets. Alex raised a foot, preparing for a strike that would hopefully end this fight quickly. Damn! She blocked his attack and blew him away, firing more magic at him. One bolt bounced off him, sending it towards the wall and destroying a part of it. Twilight's eyebrows rose, an opportunity! Alex deftly rolled over and shot at the ceiling, sending more bullets down, further distracting her. He sent one more kick towards Twilight, holding it back with her magic. Her magic held his foot in place, hopefully distracting her, he fired one more shot directly upwards, ricocheting down. Twilight blocked it, weakening her defense against Alex. Alex's foot met her horn, injured, she lashed out with her forelegs, with a palm heel strike, he sent Twilight further back. Twilight picked him up with her magic, lifting him into the air. "How could you... How could you cause all this destruction?!" She asked, pained by this attack. Alex lifted his .44 Scratch, pointing it at her. "I had no choice." He responded darkly, firing the gun, distracting her to the point where she dropped him. Landing on his feet, he fired another two shots at her, unable to cope with his onslaught. Twilight refocused her defensive spell into an attack, turning her dome into a spear, propelling it at him. The construct dissipated, though forcing him back. Twilight sent more spear constructs towards Alex, the Equestrian Steel Armor protecting him. Alex charged towards Twilight, evading the constructs and grabbing her by the horn. "Now. I have my own question; how could you trust Agent Winchester?" Alex asked, calmly. "He's...been telling us...about you...everything that you did..." She groaned, pained by Alex holding her by the horn. "Winchester left out a few crucial details about me." Alex told her. "What...what...do you mean?" She asked. "Ask Rainbow Dash, I'm sure she'd be delighted to answer." Alex coldly said. Alex dropped Twilight. "Where's Die Glocke?" Alex interrogated. "Why do you want to know?" Twilight asked, holding her horn. "You'll find that out later, right now, I need to know. Where is that machine?" "Further down this hallway, take a right, and take the third door on the left..." She answered. "Thank you, Princess. You saved my life." Alex said. Alex left her to heal herself. He knew where it was, time to contact the others. "I know where the machine is! Follow my radar!" Alex told them. "Kick ass!" Vanoss applauded. "Good work, Alex!" Karis complimented. "Thank you. Team! Regroup at Die Glocke location C!" Alex instructed. "On our way!" Mini yelled. Alex took Twilight's instructions, and sure enough, there was the machine. He powered it, set the receiving universe called 'Oum Alpha 0-12; Remnant'. Alex figured that possibly, that universe would seem more welcoming. Mini, Droidd, and Basically ran into the room, taking defensive actions and killing more guards. "Hold them off while I get to the others!" Alex ordered, running out the door and killing more troops. Alex ran to the entrance, where Vanoss, Delirious, Wildcat, and Nogla held off more troops. "Follow me!" Alex ordered. "DIIIIIIEEE!!!!!" Delirious yelled as he fired his SMG, following the others to the east hallway, killing as many troops as they could. "The device is down that hallway, then move to the right! The machine is in the third door to the left!" Alex instructed, the crew went down the hallway as they were told, killing more soldiers and making a mess out of Princess Twilight's castle. "Karis! Vanoss and his crew are En Route to the machine, what's your ETA?!" Alex asked. "Right about now!" The helicopter landed outside, with Karis, Lui, Terroriser, and Moo running out, shooting more enemy troops. "On me!" Alex yelled. Alex and the other barely made the turn... Until Alex was punched in the face by a woman in dark armor, that seemed to glow orange, as did the eyes... "Who the hell are you?" Moo asked. The woman snickered. "Just call me...Sigma." She answered. Alex's spine turned to ice and dripped down his back. This was an Inquisitor! The others shot at Sigma, who blocked the bullets with her bare hands. Karis kicked Sigma away. "Go! Alex and I will hold her off!" Karis yelled. The three ran down the hall, high-tailing it to the device. Alex pulled out his spear, lunging at Sigma, who evaded it skillfully, giving Karis a chance to strike, punching her in the jaw. Sigma backed away, her hands burning as she summoned two vicious looking blades, she simply scoffed. Karis pulled out a machete, holding it in a defensive stance. Alex spun his spear, twirling and tossing it in the air, as he went into an offensive position. It was Sigma who made the first move, kicking Karis away and summoning a volley of glass, Alex dodged it, only to be hit in the head. Karis swung the machete, Sigma blocking it with one sword as she swung with the other. Karis dodged it, attempting to hit her again. Alex lunged in for Sigma again, who blocked it with both swords, leaving her open to Karis' attack. The strike worked, sending Sigma flipping back. "Persistent." She scoffed. Alex spun his spear again, only to have it meet Sigma's blades, he spun the spear, succeeding in dazing Sigma, stepping back. Karis swung her machete in a wide arc, and Alex lunged in, Sigma blocking both blows with either sword. Alex could tell she was holding back. Sigma kicked Alex away, and in the same instant, spun her blade, disarming Karis. Alex got up and threw the spear at Sigma, distracting her as Karis retrieved her weapon. Sigma merely torched his spear, burning it into cinders. Karis swung the machete again, Sigma merely holding the bladed end in a gloved hand. "You and your...apprentice, decent fighters, I will admit. But no match." Sigma pulled away Karis' machete, swinging it towards Karis' neck, who quickly dodged it. Alex pulled out the .44 Scratch, loaded in six caps, and started shooting. Sigma seemed to notice this, as she blocked the bullets again. Open to Karis' attack, trying to put her in a headlock. Sigma moved just in time to evade the hold, and picked Karis up by the head. "Fools. You're just like all the rest, trying to protect your worlds to your last breath." "Alex, go!" Karis ordered. Alex looked at the hallway, then back at Karis. "I would follow her advice, kid. This is your only warning." Sigma threatened. Alex looked at that hallway again, considering his options. Karis was probably going to die, and Sigma was giving him an opportunity to escape. "Do it!" Karis yelled again. Alex made one of the hardest decisions of his life. He ran. Only hearing the slash of the blade meeting flesh, and a dull thud on the ground as he ran as fast as he could down the hallway. Sigma was shooting at him, seeing arrows explode on the ground past him. Firing the gun back without looking. Evading arrows and running for his life. Alex eventually made it to the room where the others waited for him. "Alex! Where's Karis?!" Vanoss asked. "No time! Pull the damn lever! Go!!" Alex ordered. "Don't bullshit us!" Delirious yelled. "NOW!! PULL THE LEVER NOW!!!" Alex ordered again. Someone pulled the lever. His vision turning blue as he felt that old sickness rush into him, as the floor became less and less solid. Stumbling around, he saw Sigma walk up to the door, and place an arrow on the draw string. His vison turned red as bolts of lightning scattered around them, seeing the armored killer aim her shot at Alex and the others. They fell down the hole just in time for Sigma to shoot another explosive arrow at the machine, looking up, he saw the flames above them as they all fell further down the purple-hued portal. Alex and the others fell faster and faster until they saw a small hole at the bottom. The eleven men fell out of that hole into another forest. The flames lapping around them as the portal dilated into nothing, leaving only a small flicker behind. Alex and the others made it to the new universe. 'All except Karis.' Alex scolded himself, he selfishly saved himself and Vanoss' crew, while Karis had to die. "She didn't make it, did she?" Lui asked. "No..." Alex sighed. He was disgusted at himself. Running away from his problems again. Not all of them. "Shit..." Mini sighed. "Now what, Alex?" Terroriser asked. Alex didn't respond at first. Karis had been the one to make all of the important decisions, but now she was dead. Killed by Sigma. "Alex?" Vanoss' voice snapped him back into reality. "We need to keep moving. Stay close, stay together." Alex ordered. Alex took his first few steps in this new place. Now, like Earth. Equestria was a thing of the past, to be forgotten, lost to his nightmares and hallucinations. No. He couldn't do that again. He couldn't let Winchester waltz in and turn the inhabitants of this world against him as he did in Equestria. If there was anyone in this new universe. He would tell them. He would tell them everything. Author's Note Alex makes his way into another alternate universe in this chapter. I know full well that this story is tanking. But I'm still going to keep writing this. Even if this fic sucks. I'm sticking it until the end. EDIT: Dialogue fixing. Let's face it, It's necessary. Act I, Chapter 17: Beacon Of HopeAlex landed in Beacon Academy a while ago. Now, he was sitting in the main hall, waiting for Wildcat and the others with Vanoss and Delirious. The two were currently engaged in some type of conversation. "Evan, do you really think all this is a good idea?" Delirious asked Vanoss. "I'm not sure. It's going to be hard explaining to 16,000,000 people where I was for the past few weeks, but it sure as hell is worth it." Vanoss replied. "I don't know, man. Alex, what do you think?" Delirious asked him. Alex thought back to that question. Not a day went by where he didn't. "Take it from a guy who spent the last two months as an on/off fugitive. We really have no other option, at least, I don't. So why not at least try to make the best of it." Alex said. "Eyyyyy! Evan! We're here!!" Wildcat yelled from across the room. "Hey, guys!" Delirious shouted. "Piggy!" Vanoss shouted, referring to Wildcat's pig mask. While the others got acquainted, Alex sat down, watching the numerous students walk in and out of the school. Ruby and the others had told him that this is where warriors known as 'Huntsmen', or, in Ruby's case, 'Huntresses', went to learn how to fight those monsters. Alex didn't go to such a school, learning from a month's worth of experience dealing with Crimson, only difference was that he was being hunted during that time. "Alex?" Ruby gained his attention, standing outside an elevator nearby. Alex figured he should follow her, this may be important. "What's going on?" Alex asked. "Ozpin wants to talk to you, he also asked me to come with." Ruby replied. Alex still wasn't quite sure how to take this. "Very well. Let's just get it over with." Alex sighed. Remembering full well the cycle that may repeat here. "Something wrong?" She asked. "Nothing that can't be explained once we meet with the Professor." Alex replied. "If you're sure..." The elevator doors opened, with Ozpin sitting at his desk, with another woman standing nearby. "Mr. Walker, Ms. Rose." "Professor." Alex nodded respectfully. "Have a seat. Make yourselves comfortable." Ozpin said. Alex went to a seat in front of the desk, Ruby sitting in the one next to him. "How are you today, Mr. Walker?" Ozpin asked. "Tired, mortified, slightly aggravated." Alex answered honestly "Why is that?" "Various reasons. I'm sure I'm supposed to tell you how I got here with Vanoss and the others, I'm assuming." "Something along those lines." "You sure? The full story is pretty long." "I've got time, Mr. Walker. Don't be shy." Ozpin answered. "It all started...Three months ago tomorrow. Terrorists attacked a place called the Bohemian Grove, a vacation stop for the most powerful men on my world. Of the 2000 that arrived, only about fifty left." "How does this have anything to do with you, Alex, were you involved in this attack?" The woman asked. "My neighbor said I looked like one of the police sketches of the perpetrators. They arrested me, killed my parents and burned my home to nothing but ash." Alex elaborated. Ruby seemed genuinely shocked, Ozpin didn't even flinch. "This asshole, Agent Winchester, who was in charge of my arrest, oversaw the torture, went on for about two months, even after he knew I wasn't guilty. Once he figured I was useless, he was about to have me executed. But that was when one of the perpetrators saved myself and others who were actually guilty." Alex continued. Ozpin still didn't move, in vast contrast to Ms. Rose, who had him locked in a rib-crushing hug. "Ruby...please...get off me..." Alex pleaded. Reluctantly, the huntress-in-training let go. Alex took a deep breath before continuing his story. "Anyway... These guys, the Kahn Militia, they take me in, they help me, on the condition that I remain a blind follower, a soldier, if you will. We attacked Area 51, which was notorious for supposedly housing alien artifacts. Found a device called Die Glocke, an interdimesional teleporter if you will. A girl named Kat Anderson told me what the bosses were planning, escaped, and left me to get shot at. I escaped and blew the device up. I then landed in Equestria, the magical land of horses." Alex rolled his eyes at that statement. "Go on." Ozpin nodded. "After that, I landed in the hospital, with the knowledge that I could never tell them what happened to me. This went on until Winchester's men cornered me at a welcome party. I killed them all and met up with a woman named Karis. She wanted to help clear my name, so she cracked a plan that required me to steal intel on my case, and she built the armor that helped me survive that mission." Alex said. "So it was there that you learned how to fight?" Ozpin asked. "Not really. After that, I met up with Vanoss and his crew, who helped me hatch another plan; invade another castle and get out of there." Alex continued to spin his little tale. "Wow..." Ruby gaped. "So we get in, kill more enemies, and find another Die Glocke. I was about to get the last group of people to the device when we were stopped by an Inquisitor named 'Sigma'." Alex said. "And she was the one who killed your friend?" The other woman asked. "Yes." Alex answered. "Do you have a description of this 'Sigma' character?" Ozpin asked. "Sigma was an older girl, I would say very late teens to early 20s. Wore grayish-black armor that had some kind of orange glow to it, same with the eyes. She appeared to summon her weapons; two blades. I also noticed that she used a bow, and she could somehow manipulate glass." Said Alex, drawing from his memory. "Odd. This sounds like the woman who I encountered when I first met Ruby." The woman said. "...and the woman I fought at the communications tower!" Ruby exclaimed. They had seen Sigma before!? "What happens to me, now?" Alex asked. Ozpin seemed to seriously think about this. "You are a decent fighter, and I can tell the last thing you want is to have this escalate to a point where it is too much." "True enough." Alex said. "Your weapon already seems fit to handle Grimm, but it may be too little to handle opponents such as Ms. Rose, or Sigma." "That is also true." "Considering that, I advise you build a weapon, we have forges here that specialize in repairing weapons, but I can temporarily accommodate it for full weapon design." Ozpin thought. "I have plenty of material to build such a weapon, and possibly augment my armor while I'm there." Alex contemplated "Of course, Ms. Schnee will have to inform you about Dust weaponry." "Yes, sir." "I apologize that you had to endure such torment, but this is how children become adults." "I understand." Alex lied, he was sure most children didn't have to take this kind of crap. "You are dismissed, Mr. Walker." Ozpin said. "Yes, sir." "Ruby, you may go as well." "Okay, Professor." Ruby said. Getting up just as Alex was walking out the door. "Wait!" Ruby yelled, running over to Alex. -Later- Alex walked into the room that Ozpin set up, it was just a temporary room until he could find a job that paid well enough to get a house. The rooms were accommodated to handle four people, Alex was meant to sit in a room with Terroriser and Nogla. "Fock sakes, Terroriser! Find yer own damn electrical socket!" "Nogla, do you expect me to ask Mr. Death Machine over here to use his?" Terroriser said. "...Fair point." Nogla responded. Alex himself sat in his bed, drawing schematics for his weapon, apparently, since he had the necessary potential (killed more Grimm than anyone on his team combined), he was to have his Aura unlocked, which Alex figured was some sick double-entendre. Then he would be able to use a Semblance of some type, for Ruby, it was the flash-like super speed, for Weiss, it was those glyphs. He had no idea what his would possibly be, or if he had any of that at all, considering this was an alternate universe. Back to the weapon. Alex usually did okay with every type of weapon, be it a spear or a halberd, but Alex set his sights on swords, he preferred them, it allowed more personal additions and had a multitude of applications, the sword he was drawing out was sort of a broadsword, but instead of one solid blade, it would be two blades that could become one large single. Since their weapons always had at least two forms, the sword would be able to convert into a large-caliber revolver, preferably the Kaiser .499 Magnum, Remnant's equivalent to the S&W .500. He was drawing out a rough sketch of his weapon when someone knocked the door. After a brief argument, Nogla went to open the door. "Alex! It's for you!" Nogla yelled back. Who could it be? Alex walked up to the door, unsure as to who it was. "HELLO!!!" "JESUS H. CHRIST!!!" Alex leaped backwards at the jump scare before him. Team RWBY had the pleasure to introduce the other Huntsman teams, in front of him now was Nora Valkyrie from Team JNPR. "My apologies, Nora wanted to meet you after she found out you were from an alternate universe." Nora's close friend Ren apologized. "Noted, even I can hardly keep track of where I end up." Alex admitted. The rest of JNPR followed suit, Jaune following Ren and Pyrrha not very far behind. They all met before, but this was their first time meeting off the record. "What're you doing to me over here?" Terroriser asked, Nora had been asking numerous questions. The rest were a bit more mature...and overall less sporadic than their comrade. Jaune seemed a little nervous, but gradually got more comfortable as Nogla kept talking. Ren himself was keeping Nora in check near Terroriser. Alex calmly sat down, drawing the rough sketch of his weapon. "Ahem." Oh, crap. Alex just realized that he was the only other person in the room not being spoken to, as while the others were busy asking and answering questions, Alex had completely forgotten Pyrrha. He respected the straight-forward mindset she seemed to carry, but would usually continue whatever he was doing to avoid social awkwardness. "Oh, hello. Pyrrha, right?" Alex sat up, he was used to being around people who could kill him with their pinky finger in his time spent with Karis. "Yes, you are Alex Walker, I assume?" Pyrrha asked. "Yeah." Neither had any real clue on what to talk about, Alex figured he may as well get this question out of the way now. "So this whole 'Aura' thing... What is it?" Alex asked. Pyrrha inhaled, which was a clear sign of a very long and arduous explanation. "Aura is the manifestation of a person's soul. It shields out hearts and...." Alex honestly didn't care about the technicalities, but he kept at least one ear open. He had become an expert at completely tuning out speech while looking fully aware. From what Alex was able to muster from that complicated speech was that Aura was basically Remnant's equivalent of unicorn magic, most commonly defensive but occasionally used in offensive attacks. Alex had a theory, Pyrrha had also said Aura could be drained from a long, strenuous duel, could it not be stored elsewhere, to be used at a later time? Or piled on top of normal levels to amplify performance? He would have to try that later, he had other, more important questions. From what Pyrrha said, Aura had to be unlocked by having someone else unlocking it for you, but there were few people who had such ability. "Wouldn't one have to unlock their own Aura before they unlocked the rest of the world's at one point in time?" Alex asked. "In theory, it would be possible through deep meditation in a peaceful environment, but it would be a very strenuous process." Pyrrha said. This held Alex's interest, it was almost sundown. He enjoyed that time, it wasn't like sunrise, where one didn't have to wake early to see it, or so ridiculously late where one would fall asleep waiting for it, and it was really beautiful. "Do you know of anywhere I can meditate?" Alex asked. "There is the back fountain, just behind the school. Usually children practice their fighting skills there, but it is much too late for any of that." She responded. "Then that's where I'm going." Alex said. "Are you sure?" "It seems easier than finding someone who does know how to unlock it." "Actually..." "With all due respect, I have a history of managing things on my own, I'm still alive, am I not?" Alex retorted as he exited the room. Author's Note A little more RWBY related segments of the chapter. I grow tired of asking you guys to leave a comment, so I'm going to try something. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT COMMENT!!! Act I, Chapter 18: Untapped PotentialAlex stood in the back fountain at Beacon Academy. Listening to the sounds of nature around him as the sun started to set on the horizon, unleashing a barrage of oranges, pinks, and blues. Remembering what Pyrrha told him about unlocking one's own Aura, the person had to be at peace with himself, even if it was only for a second. He feared that he would not be able to pull it off, remembering every single negative thing to happen in his life. Regardless, Alex found a good place to meditate and sat down. He crossed his legs, straightened his back, and waited until the sounds of nature faded from his ears, his back to the setting sun. Alex concentrated, searching his mind and body for such power. Thinking about it, it wasn't power he sought at all, but simply the possibility of a normal life, now unobtainable by his quest. The virtues of peace and prosperity, now nothing but a misguided delusion in his mind. Alex started to question his choices. Thinking back to the Fight or Flight Reaction, he realized that he had chosen to run, to escape his oppressors every time, only for them to find him, or for him to find them. When Alex discovered that the Militia was going to use Die Glocke in their greed fueled conquest, he ran, but not before foiling their plans. When Task Force Crimson found him at Sugarcube Corner, he ran, but not without killing a few before finding Karis. Alex realized that his previous statements weren't completely true. He had chosen to run, to escape. But he also fought back every time, remembering his mission to steal intel in Canterlot, and Alex's escape to Remnant. And instead of running away from those monsters, he had chosen to stay behind and defend his allies. That was beside the point, though. Were Alex's multitude of hard decisions wrong? In the case of the Area 51 invasion, he prevented millions from being enslaved by Silas, giving Winchester a chance to kill him. And in both the Escape from Crimson and the Canterlot Raid, he didn't kill any guards until he was 100% sure they would be fully hostile to him. And forming alliances with Karis and Vanoss' crew weren't all that bad, either. In fact, they were extraordinary strokes of luck. In the short time he knew Karis, she had been honest, dependable, a good soldier who died too soon, Vanoss and the others were okay as well. Their constant puns and other annoying habits had boosted his morale to a significant degree. Kat had also fought for what was right, but not inherently smart, or afraid to leave someone behind, somewhat of a coward, but for all the right reasons. The Kahn Militia had been cruel to their soldiers, only respecting them until they were sure to win, then to be disposed of entirely. Alex couldn't blame the CIA as a whole for doing this to him, it was all the actions of one agent and his men that had resulted in Alex's ill-fated torture sessions. He wasn't sure about Sigma, though, it was completely obvious to him that she had used a code name, whether that just the Inquisitor's ranking system, or something else. Getting his thoughts back on track to finding the key to activate his Aura, he found it had become much easier. His mind less clouded by doubt and self-hatred. What else was holding him back? He knew now. His parents, his home. That awful day back in Reynold, Oregon had forever changed the course of his life. He was so rage-fueled that he killed two members of the SWAT team, what had angered him more? The deprivation of a fulfilling life back on Earth. His family had been killed, effectively making Alex an orphan. He had been completely denied his dream of becoming a screenwriter. That drive to make movies of the future better than their first drafts had been obliterated along with his humanity. He found that after spending a month in that damned cell had bent him, but not broken. His drive now was not to change simple stories, but the very world, or worlds, for that matter. Good, what else? His own insecurities? He was rather unsure of himself. What to do after a mission, what to do if this happens, what if this person died or that person betrayed him? He couldn't live in constant fear that people would betray him. Karis had said something similar when they first met. 'You can't always expect everyone to betray you. You have to put trust in someone." She was right. And his paranoid delusion cost him a chance at possibly leading a good life. He couldn't let that happen again, he wouldn't. Alex just realized something. He didn't. He had told Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch, (which was apparently her name), and Ruby everything. And they would gladly help in case they came here in about a week. And so would Vanoss and his crew. And Team RWBY. And, if Rainbow told the Princess, perhaps they would as well. Alex searched his mind again. His mind completely clear, all doubts erased. His potential obtainable. He inhaled deeply, concentrating while he was still at peace. -Meanwhile- "Where the hell is Alex?" Vanoss asked. "I don't know, Evan, he talked to this red-haired girl and he left!" Nogla said. "Wow. He is one hell of a ladies' man." Wildcat joked. "Oh, shit." Delirious realized what this meant just then. "Did you just now reach that same conclusion?" Basically asked, agitated. "Maybe I did, Marcel!" Delirious retorted. "Hey, could somebody turn that damn night light off?" Vanoss asked, then he realized. You can't plug night lights into windows. And the sun had already set. Vanoss looked outside the window, and saw someone meditating outside. "Guys, you might want to see this." He said. "Vanoss, you pervert, don't watch Alex do that shit!" Delirious chided. "It's not that at all, you creepy bastard, look out the window!" Nogla yelled. Delirious went to look outside the window. What he saw was not what he expected. Someone, probably Alex, was sitting outside, meditating, and glowing a bright purple. "Why the hell is he glowing?!" Wildcat asked. "I don't know! Get someone over here!" Basically yelled. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang ran into their room. "Did you see that!?" Ruby asked, exited. "Yeah, what the hell happened?" Vanoss asked. "It would seem as though your leader unlocked his Aura." Blake said. "What the hell does that mean? That sounds like code for something!" Wildcat joked again. "He's able to become a huntsman. He can use the power that laid dormant inside him!" Yang explained. "So he'll be a badass killing machine?" Delirious asked. "As if he wasn't already!" Nogla yelled. "Yes. If he can find his Semblance, learn how to use a weapon, and receive some training. Then yes, he may be able to become a Huntsman." Weiss said. "He survived in the Emerald Forest, he could very well be one in a matter of weeks!" Ruby came to this realization. "Holy shit." Delirious sounded impressed. Alex walked back into the dormitory, his potential released and ready to use. He was met by several students cheering, applauding the fact that he did this himself. "What's happening?!" Alex was a little nervous, what did he do? "You unlocked your own Aura without any help!" "You're the first person to do that in a century!" "Can I have your autograph?" "Can everyone quiet down for three seconds?!" Alex yelled, a little miffed at the sudden crowd, despite their congradulatory applause. "Thank you, now can somebody please explain why this is such a huge deal?" Alex questioned. "You have unlocked your own Aura alone. This hasn't been done in 71 years, the last person who was able to accomplish this was another dimensional traveler named Colonel Hanz Krieger. Doing so means that your own Aura is twice as strong as anyone else's in this entire school." A voice said behind him. Alex turned around to find Professor Ozpin standing directly behind him. "You have more potential, Mr. Walker, but since Aura is your soul being represented in the physical world, without any neutralizer that most students have, your Aura, and, by extension, your semblance, will directly correlate with your emotions. If you so much as get a little angry during a duel, you're abilities may spin out of control." Ozpin warned. "And if I'm completely enraged?" Alex asked cautiously. "Then your abilities will be amplified, but unpredictable. I would advise that whenever you duel in a sparring match, keep a sound mind." "Will do." Alex promised. Twilight was with her friends in the Testing Chamber, along with Sigma and her remaining Guards and Agent Winchester. She was afraid for Alex's life, if she let Winchester and Sigma get to Alex, she may as well as have done it herself in the eastern hallway. She had been holding back, looking only for some answers. What she got instead was a moral catastrophe! "Have you triangulated his location yet, Inquisitor?!" Winchester asked. "Let me see... Almost got it..." Sigma tried to find his location. "Twilight shot a spell at the device, completely destroying it without either one noticing. "Damn! The machine broke as it was telling me where he went!" "Should have thought of that before you blew it up!" Winchester scolded. "At least I took a screenshot of it before it broke." Sigma said. "Then where is he?" Winchester asked. "Oum Alpha 0-12; Remnant." Sigma said. "Excellent. I will send my men to rebuild the device." Winchester concluded. "Looks like I'll be coming home for this one." Sigma said to herself. Twilight was furious with herself. She failed in preserving what little of Alex's life remained. "I'll come with once the reconstruction is complete." Twilight informed. "And why is that?" Sigma asked. "I have a score to settle." She bluffed. "Wonderful! We can kill him together." Winchester applauded. They had fallen for Twilight's lie. From there, she could keep an eye on them, throw them in a loop, and maybe, if the time came, help Alex and end this immediately. 'I hope this works.' She thought. Author's Note Just out of curiosity, who else would you want to see in the story? Act I, Chapter 19: Discovered PotentialLife at Beacon was pretty much standard. Alex had grown accustomed to not knowing where he would end up every night. So his readjustment into a predictable setting had been a long and arduous process. For example, Alex was sitting at his seat between Vanoss and Wildcat, which would not be as claustrophobic if it wasn't for the fact that he was sitting across from Yang. Eating his pancakes and bacon in silence, in contrast to...well, everyone else. "Alright, Delirious. I think that you should take off the mask and the creepy-ass clown make-up for once." Vanoss joked. "I don't do face reveals." Delirious retorted. "Vanoss just got H-2-Owned!" Yang punned, much to everyone's utter disappointment. "God dammit, Yang." Wildcat facepalmed, or rather, mask-palmed, as he wore that damn thing everywhere. "What?" She asked innocently. "That reminds me, I think I want to go get another..." "Don't say it, Wildcat!" Vanoss groaned. "...Pun-cake!" He finished. Silence... What Alex thought as impossible, Wildcat actually succeeded in. "...No. Just... No." Yang said in utter disappointment. Alex finished his meal, eating what remained of his breakfast and drinking his chocolate milk in huge gulps. "Well, this has been fun, but very awkward. If you don't mind, I'm going to try and find out what my Semblance is." Alex said. "You still don't know? It's been a whole week!" Weiss asked, shocked. "No, and it's much harder than it looks." Alex retorted. "Good luck, Alex!" Ruby chimed. And with that, Alex left to find a free training room. Jesus, the training rooms were far away! Alex must've ran at least a mile, and that was before he got tired and walked the rest of the way, as he had been doing for the past 5 minutes. Finally, he found an open training room, complete with training droids that they brought in from Atlas, which was pretty much a technological super-power. Alex stepped in, as he did yesterday, and every day after he got here. "Identified: Alex Walker, scan confirmed." A mechanical voice said. "Previously selected: Basic attacks, moving onto battle simulation." Other droids walked in, bearing shock gauntlets, one zap, and it would deliver an electric shock. "Battle simulation in 3...2...1. Begin battle simulation." The droids immediately attacked, Alex having to dodge and evade to avoid being struck by his opponents. Alex evaded his opponents, delivering a kick or a hard punch, resulting in the droids telling Alex their health for the particular exercise. "97% remaining." "95% remaining." "92% remaining." Crap! A gauntlet almost hit Alex in the face, he dodged the attack, holding the droid's arm in place as he brought it down to his knee, a move that would result in breaking the opponent's arm. "68% remaining, right arm critically damaged." Alex redirected more of his opponent's blows before they could touch him, kicking away shock gauntlets and striking one of the droids' heads. "89% remaining." It chimed. Alex swept a leg underneath one of the droids, knocking it over. Grabbing it by the neck, he punched it in the back of the head and using it as a shield. "76% remaining." Alex picked up the droid, bringing it's back down to his knee, which would result in breaking an opponent's spine, paralyzing or killing them. "0% remaining, critical damage to spinal cord." Throwing the disabled droid at others, he took advantage of the opportunity and kicked one in the center of the chest. "85% remaining." Noticing another droid next to him, he delivered a barrage of punches, finishing it off with a strong kick. "32% remaining." Diving low, he grabbed another droid by the leg, pulling it to the ground and sent a foot to it's head. "0% remaining, critical damage to skull and brain." Two down, three to go. Evading more blows, he spun behind them, snapping one of the droid's necks. "0% remaining, critical damage to spinal cord." The droid who's arm he broke swung the limp limb in his direction, using the arm to punch the other droid. "58% remaining." He punched the droid he held in the neck, finishing it off with a roundhouse kick that sent it to the ground. "46% remaining." One of the droids got up, swung hard, hitting Alex inthe chest and delivering a painful electrical shock. He screamed in pain. Punching that droid hard in the face. Needless to say, the outcome was not as he expected. The droid was blown backwards in an onslaught of purple-hued lightning, he had discovered his Semblance! He punched the ground, and sure enough, the droid was electrocuted in a burst of purple lightning underneath the floor. "0% remaining, nervous system compromised." Calmly, he walked to the last droid, who was struggling to get up, and Alex stepped hard on it's neck. "0% remaining, spinal cord critically damaged." So electricity manipulation was his Semblance. Intresting. The droids got up and walked back to their places. "Score: 97%. Recommended combat style: Arcamida." Alex had read a bit on the combat forms in Remnant, instead of several styles with differing techniques, these were very broad and covered a specific form. "Arcamida: the Aggression Form, focuses mostly on offense, meant to chain in Semblance attacks and brute strength in order to incapacitate the enemy. Recommended only for use on the field." Alex figured it would say that, his style was usually dependent on killing an enemy, since Alex was constantly encountering them. "Recommended Secondary Combat Style: Voikara." Alex read exclusively on this form, he knew all about it. "Voikara: The Evasion Form, focuses on agility and redirecting an opponent's attacks, leaving them open to counter-attack. Recommended for use on the field and in dueling scenarios." Alex thought of something, why only use one form at a time, when he could blend both forms into one; a crippling offense and an unpredictable and sporadic defense? He could easily dodge an opponent's attack, disorient them with his lightning, and deliver a powerful blow to end duels quickly and efficiently. Remembering Professor Ozpin's warning about his Aura, he figured he should focus on mostly Voikara techniques, and then use his semblance to knock them off balance, saving a powerful blow for when the opponent got tired. "Previously selected: Battle Simulation, moving on to dueling scenario Level 1; sword sparring." Another, considerably larger droid walked in with the Training Sword, which had similar effects to the Shock Gauntlets. Alex grabbed his own Training Sword, grabbing it with both hands and holding it over his right shoulder. "Beginning Duelling Scenario Level 1 in 3...2...1... Begin simulation." Alex walked back into his dorm, tired after a long day of training. He opened the door, drained of most energy and figured it would be best if he drank something that would wake him up, like soda or coffee. Wait, no, just soda. He disliked coffee's bitter taste. He grabbed his simple soda can, cracking open the can and drinking it in huge gulps. He finished the soda rather quickly, tossing the can in the trash bin, he noticed something. Where were Nogla and Terroriser? Alex shrugged it off, they were probably hanging out with Vanoss. Alex went to exit the room when he heard something coming from outside. " YOU FOCKIN' BIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!!!" Nogla crashed into the room through the window, sending splinters of glass all over the room. "Hi, Nogla." Alex said in a neutral tone. "Aw. We were aimin' for Ruby's room." Nogla whined, disappointed. "Why are you aiming for Ruby's room, Nogla?" Alex asked, annoyed. "Hold on. YOU WERE AIMIN' FOR MY ROOM, YOU PRICK!!!" Nogla yelled out the window. Alex looked outside to find Vanoss and the others with a giant slingshot. "GOD DAMMIT!!!" Vanoss yelled from...200 yards? Yep, 200 yards. Alex aimed for the tight group that formed near the slingshot. Letting a small ball of purple lightning form in his hands. "What the hell is that?!" Nogla asked. "You'll see..." Alex said. Wait for it... Wait for it... Wait for it... NOW! Alex threw his lightning ball at Delirious, who had been launched toward Ruby's window. The lightning ball met it's target, Delirious plummeting to the ground. "NOOOOO!!! YOU BIIIIITCH!!!" Delirious screamed as his body met the ground, Vanoss and his crew laughing from all the way from where they were at. "HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS AMAZING!" Vanoss yelled from below. Alex walked out of the room, he had his fun, now to build his weapon. Grabbing the schematics for the device, he opened the door and walked out. -Later that evening- Yang sat in her bed, thinking to herself. It had been about a week or so since Alex Walker had arrived with his friends, and he hasn't once said anything about his personal life. And he always seemed so...distant, he was almost always training, that or he was alone in his dorm. In the few moments he was even around, he hardly even spoke. Yang knew Alex had explained a lot to her younger half-sister, Ruby, as well as Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch. However none of them said anything. That settled it, tomorrow, she would ask him in private. Regardless if he was in the mood or not. -Meanwhile- Alex couldn't sleep. It was not uncommon. The nightmares still came to him. Visions of Winchester, Twilight, Sigma, everyone killing him. He couldn't tell another soul. Telling Ruby and the others seemed too risky. He told them all about the reasons for the nightmares coming to him, but not the result. It kept him awake at night. He knew one day it would slip. But not knowing who he would tell. It was worse now. He was actually dangerous. It was almost too much for him to bear. But he was above self-pity. He could take it, Task Force Crimson wasn't a concern anymore, neither was Twilight. But not Sigma. The mere name brought waves of guilt. He got to live while Karis was killed. He was a coward. That, at least, was a constant in this vast multiverse. Author's Note Well, I figured I may as well have Vanoss have a 'funny moments' sort of thing at Beacon, like they'd do anything else. Act I, Chapter 20: Revealing The TruthAlex woke to the abrupt sound of the single alarm clock. Alex hadn't slept that night, but Nogla and Terroriser had, and getting up was, like, the worst thing ever to those Irishmen. He moved up from his spot, grabbed a can of soda, and drank it, hopefully, the energy boost would wake him up. Alex then left his dorm, going into the men's bathroom at the end of the hall, rubbing the remaining tiredness from his eyelids. He was probably the only man to use makeup. It worked well, hiding the bags under his eyes easily. Alex figured it was best to go down and actually eat something. He desperately needed the extra energy. Finishing up his morning duties and went back to the room, threw on his uniform, and went down to the cafeteria. "Remember what happened yesterday, Delirious?" Vanoss asked the Masked Murderer. "What, me getting completely owned by the lightning ball?" "Yeah!" "What are you two talking about?" Ruby asked. "We were messing around with a giant slingshot...don't ask." Wildcat began. "Then when we launched Delirious, Alex zapped him with an electricity ball in mid-air." Terroriser finished. "Alex found his Semblance?!" She asked. "Pretty much." Alex responded, still tired. "Congratulations, man, good job completely wrecking Delirious's ass." Vanoss said. "Shut up. You don't know my life." Delirious retorted. Alex ate his remaining scrambled eggs in silence. Gulping down more chocolate milk. "Alex, you okay? You seem a little tired." Yang said. "What? No, I'm fine." Alex perks up slightly. "He's always like this." Wildcat agreed. "Oh, look at the time, I have to go train. I'd love to stay and chat, but I really have to go!" Alex said as he ran out the door. -Later- Alex was a complete mess in training. So what if he was sleep-deprived? That was no excuse for twenty robots to shock him awake. He stumbled out of the training room, tired and bruised from today's session. At this rate, Sigma would still wipe the floor with him. "Hello?" A voice said behind him, Alex had been so tired, he hadn't noticed someone tapping his shoulder. Stifling a yawn, he turned around to find Yang standing right behind him. "I saw you in training today, I have to say, you're the first person I've seen sleep through a fight." She teased. "Yeah, yeah, I haven't been sleeping so well lately, sue me." Alex retorted. "I also noticed you hardly ever talk. Nobody even knew what your Semblance was until today." "So I'm also anti-social." "And you always seem afraid of something." Yang said. "... And I have my fair share of phobias, so?" Yang pulled him into the bushes, just out of sight. Alex was trapped. Yang was probably going to demand some answers. "What's going on? You can't hide forever." Yang said. Alex was legitimately afraid to answer, Ruby already knew everything, well, almost everything. So why the hell didn't Yang already know? "You can tell me, nobody else will ever know." She insisted in a softer tone. "I can't, I'm sorry, Yang, but this is beyond you." Alex bluntly replied. "You can, there's no reason to be scared." Yang reasons. "No means no, if I don't want to talk about it, then I don't want to talk about it, just leave me be!" Alex almost pleaded. "Alex! You have to trust me!" "And why?! So the second I turn my back, one of you will see it fit to end my existence?!" Alex bursts out in anger. "None of us would do that!" Alex was actually at a loss for words. He didn't want to say anything, but he didn't want to shove the girl away. "Alex, whatever happened to you, I'm sorry, but please, tell me." Yang pleaded. "Fine." Alex relented. No more secrets. No more lies. Alex began his story, purposefully keeping it short, as he told this story like 30 times already. Yang listened intently, occasionally wincing at Alex's descriptions of what had transpired. "...We had another mission, escape Equestria using another Die Glocke, I was about to get the last of our group out, but we were attacked by an Inquisitor-" Alex said before Yang interrupted him. "Wait, Inquisitor?!" Yang asked, shocked. "Yeah, to the best of my knowledge, that was an inquisitor." Alex responded. "Alex. You don't understand what's going on. The Inquisitors are really dangerous. Whatever you did must have made them really mad." Yang said. "Tell me something I don't know." Alex huffed. "Alex. This is serious. I need you to come with me somewhere. Secret mission." Yang said. "Where?" Alex asked. "Patch." She responded. "Why there?" Alex questioned. "I know someone who can help." "Can I send someone with me, Vanoss maybe?" Alex asked. "No, just you and me." Yang replied. "I'm...not sure about this." Alex said doubtfully. "I'm going to go find a pilot, you get your equipment. We'll talk on the way!" Yang says before running off. "Okay, just tell me what the hell is happening! Ms. Xiao Long!" Alex yelled. Not getting an answer, Alex ran for the locker room. Alex was at the locker room, looking for his locker. He repeated the number in his head, '221'. Searching high and low, he eventually found it. Alex opened the locker quickly, grabbing his armor. His own craftsmanship was impressive. This latest project had been an up-armored variant of the Goliath Mk. VI. It was large, bulky, but still highly maneuverable, the helmet had a slightly smaller visor than the Mk. VI with a purple tint to it. He called it the Scarab Mk. I, because it was slightly different from his previous armors, and it was massive. Alex then grabbed his weapon, a broadsword almost a meter long. The sword could also turn into a revolver similar to the .44 Scratch, but with a lot more firepower. The sword form had one more extra feature, the two blades could separate and spin at a very high speed, using this in combat would mean shredding an opponent's armor, or ripping a person to bits. This death tool was called, in honor of his Semblance, Electric Fury. Putting Electric Fury in revolver form and putting it in a holster, he put the .44 Scratch in a separate holster, Alex figured he could always use both revolvers in tandem. Good, Alex just needed one more thing... "Evan, can I borrow a gun?" Vanoss looked up from his latest project, appropriately named 'The Delirious Cannon'. "Well, what kind of gun, an RPG, a Combat MG?" He asked. "Maybe an all-round type weapon, good handling, doesn't weigh too much, with a good mag capacity." Alex responded. "How about the Carbine Rifle that I lent you last time?" Vanoss asked. "It's good, but I need something concealable." "The PDW? I hardly ever even use it, I put extended mags on it last time I used it." To Vanoss, it seemed fair. "Sure." Alex said. Vanoss went to the weapon circle, got to the PDW, and pressed 'Y' "Thanks, Evan!" Alex said, running out the door like he missed the bus. Alex got over to the landing pad, where one airship sat in the pad, sure enough, Yang was nearby. He was very unsure about this secret mission, what had gotten her so worked up about this to where they had to hide in some obscure island. "Alex! You're just in time!" Yang waved, Alex quickened his pace a little bit. "Remind me again why this is so damned important?" Alex groaned. "You'll find out. before that, why not tell me everything else before I went and called for this secret mission?" Yang said. Once they got inside, Alex sat across from Yang, only for her to move over to his left. "Okay, The inquisitor's code-name was Sigma. Karis and I held her off while the others got to the machine. Sigma killed her, and for some reason, she gave me the choice to run." Alex sighed. He felt like a coward, he was a coward. "Then why aren't any of them after you?" Yang asked. "Sigma blew up the machine trying to kill us." Alex replied. "You're lucky. It's a rare moment when an Inquisitor misses their target." "Don't need to tell me twice." Alex bluntly replied. "Why is that?" Yang asked. "Luck is pretty much all I have." Alex sighed. "Don't beat yourself up about this, I'm trying to help." Yang chided. "You just proved my point, with the scores of people who want nothing more than for me to die, very few people actually wanted to help." "How about Vanoss?" Yang asked. "Oh, please. I had to pay them so they wouldn't turn me into Swiss cheese." "What about us?" "It's simple, Ms. Xiao Long. You pity me." "There's more to it than that." "That remains to be seen, what exactly is this mission?" Alex asked calculatingly. "We're meeting up with a...friend...of mine who happens to know all about this stuff. She asked me to come whenever somebody mentioned the Inquisitors." Yang replied. "'She', huh? So it isn't Discord..." Alex said to himself. "I'll tell my friends I'm investigating The White Fang, you better tell your friends something so they won't be worried." Yang said. Crafty. He had heard about their investigation against the terrorist cell. "Got you. I'll tell them I'm looking for more leads on the Task Force being here." Vanoss and Delirious were having another heated discussion. "Where do you think Alex went off to?" Delirious asked. "I don't know, he said he was looking for the task force, but I find it suspicious that Alex and Yang disappear at the exact same time." Vanoss said. "Maybe. She probably went to protect his ass or some shit." Delirious said. "Or..?" "I told you he was a ladies' man!" Wildcat said, walking into the room. "He's sneaker than Hoo-dini!" Vanoss joked. "Haha! 'Vanoss doesn't know that Alex and Yang are hiding here doing that thang'!" He joked. "Tyler, you just can't rhyme shit!" Delirious said laughing. "Off topic, I have a funny idea for tomorrow, Delirious..." Vanoss said, doing an evil grin. "Oh, no! We are not switching bodies again!" Delirious yelled. "Yes we are...Vanoss!" Vanoss said evilly. "NOOOOOO!" Delirious screamed. Author's Note More developments in the story! Recycled jokes and secret missions! Six-to-eight like/dislike ratios! All next week (for that last part, right now). On Blood-Red Shadows! Act I, Chapter 21: Quoth the Raven...Alex and Yang landed in Patch about an hour ago.. Alex found that the island was so massive, he felt it was more fit to describe it as a continent, from his perspective, anyway. "So where's this friend, Yang?" Alex asked. "I just called her, she told me she would be somewhere in the forest." Yang replied. "Cryptic as always, Ms. Xiao Long. What's the plan?" Alex asked. "We'll split up, you take the right path, and I'll take the left." Yang ordered. "Sure." Alex said, running into the forest. Alex walked at a decent pace through the undergrowth, expecting those Grimm to be sniffing at his behind...or eating it, whichever worked best. A branch cracked just behind him. "Who's there?" Alex pointed Vanoss's PDW in several directions. When he saw nothing, he continued walking. Another branch broke, same general direction. "Show yourself!" Alex yelled. He backed away slowly. Alex had to be cautious, if what Yang said was right, there were more than a few Grimm around here. "You are intelligent, cautious, a true huntsman. But you will have to be much more." a voice emanated from every direction. "Who's there!?" Alex asked, louder this time. Silence. Soul crushing silence. He was sure he was hallucinating again, but there was no way to tell. "Come then, warrior. Test your skill." There was that voice again. Was he schizophrenic now? It would be believable, but it sounded way too real. Regardless, he clicked the safety off the PDW. "Afraid, Mr...Walker, is it?" Alex didn't say another word. This apparition would not get the better of him. He was careful about it. Pointing his weapon in front of him, behind him, even up in the trees, you never know when a Nevermore would swoop in and rip you into confetti. "The silent treatment, Alex? Are you really that petty?" Alex again did not answer this voice. "Fool. Doesn't even pay attention to what's right in front of him." Alex turned around and saw...someone. Upon closer inspection, he noticed it was definitely female, wearing a mask that reminded him of the Grimm masks that the White Fang reportedly wore. She held out a large katana-like blade, which had been colored red, and was pointed directly at him. "Put down your weapon!" Alex ordered. The figure did not move. Instead, she stood in a stance similar to a fencer before a duel. "This is your last chance!" Alex yelled again. She didn't move a single inch, the blade doubled in length before him. "Your choice." Alex fired the PDW, all 60 rounds, aiming specifically for her head. Instantaneously, all he could see was a red blur where his target used to be. Clearly using her sword to block the bullets. Alex put the PDW against his back, put on his helmet, and pulled out the .44 Scratch and Electric Fury. How could have he been so stupid? This was an Inquisitor! He charged at his enemy, firing one shot from each gun as he ran, The Inquisitor blocked it, the .44 Scratch was not much of a deal to that blade, the .499 Kaiser, however, shattered the blade completely. Alex smirked. Some inquisitor this was! She put the hilt back into the sheath, the sheath spinning like a revolver's chambers, and pulled out her hilt, a new blade reattached. He fired more .44 Scratch, hopefully a distraction to her. As he fired Electric Fury, it was clear that tricks would not work with her. She blocked the round with her blade. Unlike last time, it didn't break. Alex reloaded both revolvers, growled, and charged at her, relentlessly firing both guns to the point to where the inquisitor had to dodge his bullets. He kicked the inquisitor in the gut, sending her skidding backwards and almost hitting a tree. She used the momentum to run backwards and front flip, kicking Alex in the process. Reloading .44 Scratch, he shot all six rounds at her while she was still confident. She dodged all of them with stunning agility. Reholstering .44 Scratch, he stuck solely to Electric Fury. Blasting her away with ruthless precision, aiming for her head, neck, chest, leg, chest, and head in quick succession. Carefully dodging and/or blocking his shots, she taunted him. "Is that all you got, boy?" She asked scathingly. "Not even close." He retorted. Alex shifted Electric Fury from it's gun form to it's sword form, holding it in his best stance, over his right shoulder, blade facing the target. She swung first, as planned, aiming for his leg. He leaped over it and slashed at her, the inquisitor's blade locking onto his own. Alex broke the clash, kicking her, and slashing his blade. She leaped back. And, no joke, shot the blade at him. Dodging just in time, the blade stayed embedded in the tree behind him. Seeing it as his chance, he swung hard, only to have it blocked by the inquisitor's new, blue blade. He punched hard, sending her reeling into the corner and swung Electric Fury again. This time, the inquisitor was not so lucky, her blade shattering apart and leaving a hole in her arm. She looked like she honestly didn't care, and punched him in the mouth with her wounded arm. Holding his mouth, to no avail due to the helmet. She swung another, yellow blade at Alex, bringing him to his knees near another tree. Alex roared in fury, Electric Fury grasped in his hands, and swung as hard as he could at this inquisitor. She was taken aback as to how quickly he recovered, and swung her blade again. Alex locked it. Staring her in the eye and kicked again. She recovered fast, swing her sword as Alex struggled to dodge it. "Interesting. It seems you're using both Voikara and Arcamida techniques. I haven't seen that before, but you will have to do a lot better!" Alex swung again, only to have the inquisitor's blade locked in the gap in his blade, holding it in place by turning his sword to the right. With a flick of the wrist, he broke the inquisitor's blade, and before she could replace it, sent purple lightning out of his hands. Taken aback by the attack, she replaced the blade with an orange one. And planted it into the ground. Leaping just as the earth below exploded, he swung the blade again. Only to be kicked away. He recovered fast, furiously swinging his blade as the inquisitor tried to keep up. As she tried to recover, he charged his blade, now glowing a static-y purple, and swung his blade repetitively. The inquisitor tried to block it, only to be blown downwards by his relentless attack. She punched him hard in the gut, and swung her blade at his neck. To no avail. The armor blocked it completely. He grabbed her blade with an armored gauntlet, and broke it with his grip. She kicked him away, replaced the blade with a green one. And charged. Alex set his blade into saw-mode, in which both sides of the sword separated, and spun at high speeds. He batted away her attack easily, and charged it. The inquisitor sheathed her green blade, the sheath rotating until she pulled out a purple blade. Alex swung repeatedly, bashing the death blades against the inquisitor's sword. She quickly dodged each one of his ruthless attacks. And batted away his weapon easily. She then stabbed his armor, barely touching the skin, and pulled the Scarab Mk. I apart with some difficulty. Then, she punched him in the center of his ribcage, holding his chest in pain as he gasped in agony. She punched his visor, breaking it, denting the surrounding metal, and knocked him on his back. "You put up a good fight, for someone who only trained for a week." The inquisitor commented. Alex merely groaned in agony. "Indeed, you are a promising young huntsman. But you are not yet an Inheritor." The inquisitor scathed. "Wh-what?" Alex asked meekly, and in severe pain. "Okay, I think he's had enough for one day." Someone said from his right. "I agree, Ms. Xiao Long. While he is in no way ready to go up against an Inquisitor, he has a good start." The inquisitor replied. "Come on, Alex. Get up." The new voice said to him. "Y-Yang?" Alex asked, struggling to get up. "Yep!" Yang replied. Alex groaned in pain, only barely getting up before falling to his knees in agony. "What... What is going on, here?" Alex asked, spitting blood. "Come on, Raven, I said 'no badly wounding' last time we talked." Yang chided. "Aaack... Seriously... What is going on?" Alex coughed. "Do you think Sigma, Omega, let alone Alpha will agree to that rule?" "Yang, what's going on!?" Alex spoke more clearly this time. "Alex, this is who I was talking about!" Yang said, picking him up. "Mutual friends don't kick each other's asses!" Alex coughed again. "May I remind you that you shot first?" The...person asked, if this person wasn't an Inquisitor, then what? "I gave you fair warning!" Alex retorted, coughing blood. "Raven, this is Alex Walker, that guy who fought an inquisitor." Yang gestured towards him. "It's a pleasure, I'm Raven." Raven introduced. "Alex." He replied, trying to shake her hand, but coughing more blood in the process. "What did you do?" Yang asked. "Probably broke my ribcage...punched me in the face. Usual stuff." Alex buckled again. "I told you, no using 'the disabler'!" Yang yelled. "Hey, he's this supposed up-and-coming Inheritor, he should be able to handle this." Raven replied. "Ow..." Alex coughed again. Barely conscious. "Here. Hold him up!" Yang ordered. "I got him." Raven replied. Alex grabbed Raven's hand, she only pulled him up. "Now. Onto a more serious matter, Alex, if you can. Which Inquisitor did you encounter?" Raven asked. "Sigma!" Alex coughed again. "Listen. You're obviously too injured to be able to handle this. Let's get you somewhere." Raven said. "Where...the guillotine?" Alex asked sarcastically. "Yang, hold him." Raven ordered. "Okay." Yang grabbed him, and held him like a wounded soldier...or a baby. "I can walk!" Alex coughed loudly. Blood pooling on the ground below. "No, you can't. I'm surprised you're almost standing, Mr. Walker. Yang, hold him!" Raven ordered. Yang held him again, Alex still coughing blood. Holding his chest, he feared what would come next. -Meanwhile- "Delirious, let's hurry this up." Vanoss was currently in the pilot's seat on an Attack Helicopter, clad in a blue hoodie, clown makeup, and a hockey mask. Delirious was sitting directly next to him, in Vanoss's trademark red and white leather jacket and owl mask. This was all being recorded on a GoPro-esque camera, to be posted on Remnant's version of YouTube, called 'Beholder'. "DELIRIOUS!!! GO!!!" "This helicopter is hard to fly, Vanoss!" Delirious said. "Screw this, I'm leaving!" Vanoss said as Delirious exited the chopper. "Never mind, I call shotgun!" Vanoss yelled again as Delirious got back in. "This is so confusing!" Lui said from the back seat of the helicopter. -Later that evening- "9 dislikes!?" Vanoss yelled in anger. Vanoss was dressed as himself again, as was Delirious, and they had posted their video on Beholder, only for it to have a 6:9 like/dislike ratio, much to Vanoss's disappointment. "At least you have six likes, that has to count for something." Ruby added, her and the other members if Team RWBY, except for Yang, were in the room with them. "Three of them were from you guys, one of them I know for sure is Jaune, and the other two were from Delirious and Basically!" Vanoss pointed out. "Still, it's only been a half-hour since it got there." Weiss added. "Then who disliked it?" Delirious asked. Pyrrha walked down the hallway, only to see Vanoss and the others inside. She backed further down the hallway before running to her dorm. "That's one." -Meanwhile- "Is that machine ready yet?" Twilight sat with her friends, the Agent, and Sigma, as well as scores of Royal Guards, Ex-Militia Fighters, and the remaining soldiers of Task Force Crimson. With Twilight's help, not only were they able to rebuild it, but expand it so that every last one could hunt Alex and his friends down. "Almost, in order to transport all of our soldiers, it needs a massive amount of energy." Sigma told Agent Winchester. "How much?" The agent scowled. "1.21 Terawatts of power, to be exact." Sigma responded. "It's actually 1.209427 Terawatts, to be exact." Another inquisitor, Theta, corrected. Sigma found that a mission in Remnant would prove difficult, so she arranged to have another three Inquisitors sent to help. The Inquisitor team consisted of Sigma, Theta, Eta, and Iota. "Why aren't we asking the horses anything, didn't they know what they were dealing with?" Eta asked. "I doubt anyone actually knew. I never thought this kid would have anything to do with Remnant." Iota thought. "A mission to Remnant is not very dangerous. Not compared to Fiore, or Vitylis, for that matter." Theta said. "Not for Sigma, anyway." Eta scoffed. Twilight and her friends snuck off to the castle to discuss the plan. "I'm not sure about this, these guys mean business." Applejack started the conversation in a nervous tone. "Neither am I, but Alex needs all the help he can get." Rainbow defended. "I don't know, wouldn't we help him better by not intruding? Surely he won't believe for a second that we are double agents." Rarity asked, obviously wanting to do with as little with this as possible. "I agree." Fluttershy backed away, towards her cottage. "Come on! It'll be like a masquerade party!" Pinkie whisper yelled. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't sure about this myself, but as much as I hate saying it, we put him through this, and we have to get him out of this." Twilight asserted. "Twilight, the other princesses wouldn't touch this case with a ten-foot pole. This isn't our place!" Applejack rolled her eyes. "We weren't even responsible for Alex's criminal acts!" Rarity elaborated. "Alex told me himself this whole case was a sham, I told you everything he told me!" Rainbow yelled again. "I'm sorry, but this is too big to just leave behind!" Twilight told her friends. "There's two ways this thing will end, Twi. Either one person dies or one million people die." Applejack sighed. "Are you saying he deserves this!?" Rainbow was appalled. "He may not deserve it, it's just...it's for the greater good." She defended herself. "If we don't help him, we'll regret it for the rest of our lives!" Twilight yelled. "Which may not be very long if we do!" Rarity yelled. Sigma walked into the castle. "Are you going or not? We have five minutes!" Sigma ordered "In a moment!" Twilight yelled. "So, what are we going to do?" Pinkie asked. "I don't know. Let's put it to a vote... If that's okay." Fluttershy said timidly. "Sounds fair, all in favor of helping Alex?" Twilight asked. Author's Note I know I said I would wait a week, but unless I post new material that people may possibly like, the vote bar will look like Darth Vader's lightsaber. Act I, Chapter 22: Unwelcome Guests (x2 Edited)Vanoss sat in the dorm, watching the like bar closely. He clicked the refresh bar for the 270th time that hour. 6 likes and 4,972 dislikes. Tough crowd. "Are you still sulking over the dislike bar?" Wildcat chuckled. "No... I'm just... Waiting for this copy of Pacific Rim to finish downloading." Vanoss defended. "Oh, really?" Delirious teased, looking at the dislike bar grow exponentially. 5 likes to 49,728 dislikes. "GOD DAMMIT!" Vanoss seethed. "What's the matter, upset that your video did so bad?" Wildcat joked. "Lemme read one of the comments," Delirious began, "'The most embarrassing thing I've ever seen in my entire life, a newborn could make a better video.'" Both Delirious and Wildcat started laughing like crazy. "I'm not gonna lie, I disliked the video!" Delirious wheezed. "Shut up!" Vanoss twitched "Wait, do you guys hear that?" Wildcat silenced everyone. It sounded like...marching and...was that gunfire? "Holy shit." Delirious gaped. "Who the hell is that? An angry mob?" Wildcat asked. Several of the students ran out of their dorms to see what the commotion was. Ruby and the others ran into Vanoss's room, weapons in tow. "Come on! We're under attack!" Ruby yelled. "By who?" Wildcat asked. "We think it's the people who fought you and Alex! They came out of another portal, near the school!" Blake said. "Not them again!" Delirious groaned, pulling out an Uzi from seemingly nowhere. "Get the others, we'll send an SOS to Yang and Alex!" Weiss ordered. "Alright, fine!" Vanoss pulled out his AK, joining the massing crowd in the halls. Delirious looked out the window, seeing Huntsmen and Soldiers clash just outside the main entrance. "Let's go, Delirious!" Yelled another student as Delirious charged out the door. Alex sat, wounded, inside the base. As promised, Raven repaired his armor back into working order, even adding small jet boosters to further enhance his combat style. "Don't thank me, I'm just doing my job." Raven had said. They had gotten the SOS from Beacon about 15 minutes ago, right now, Alex had both revolvers primed and holstered in their respective places. Loading the PDW, he stood up in what he now called the Scarab Mk. II, because of the new retro-rockets, as well as shatterproof glass to replace his visor. "Alex, you ready yet?" Yang asked. "Yeah, how are we getting there?" Alex asked, cracking his knuckles. "Allow me." Raven said. Raven pulled out her weapon again, slashing the air and generating a red-hued portal. "This should get you two straight back to Beacon, and Alex?" Raven said to him. Alex looked back at Raven, who stared daggers into him. "I expect to see you again soon." "Aren't you coming with us?" Alex asked. "It would be too dangerous, for you and myself, for an Inquisitor to see you and me near each other ." Raven stated. Alex turned back to the portal, and he leaped through it, disappearing completely. Vanoss stood in the range, firing rockets and bullets at the assailants, alongside Delirious and Moo. "How many of these guys are there?!" Moo asked, firing a mini gun at some of the royal guards. "I DON'T KNOW!!!" Delirious yelled, hacking at a soldier who moved too close for comfort. "AAAAAAHHH! DIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!" Vanoss yelled, shooting a combat MG at the Militia guys. "I'm ready for action!" Nogla said, carrying the an MG and wearing a sand-colored helmet and the most ridiculous pair of glasses that any of them had ever seen, making for a really stupid combat uniform. "GET TO DA CHOPPA!!!" Terroriser yelled in an Austrian accent, firing rockets from his Homing Launcher and blowing up several jets in the process. A red portal opened up above the defenders, with Alex and Yang leaping out of it. "Where were you?" Moo asked. "I knew they would be here!" Alex said, falling back on his lie, and doing an okay job at it. "AAAAAH!!! ASSISTANCE NEEDED!!!" Mini Ladd yelled from the front lines. "On my way!" Yang responded, firing both gauntlets at the ground and flying upwards. Ruby skidded to a halt with assistance from Crescent Rose. "Alex! You're back!" She seemed delighted at his return. "I'm really feeling the love, what do you need help with?" Alex asked, gesturing to the pure chaos around him. "We found Sigma among the attackers!" She said. Alex hardened his gaze, red violet lightning starting to crackle at his fingertips. "Show me." He seethed, trying to control himself, at least until he and Sigma were a safe distance away from his allies. Ruby pointed to a dense spot on the battlefield, and sure enough, a black and orange blur was visible in the fray. Alex leaped, with assistance from his new enhancements. He could probably take her, now. Twilight was mortified with the destruction around her, they really wanted him bad. She ducked further behind her shield, turning it into an electrified pulse ray and propelling it at the defenders. She looked above her, to find an armored suit flying above her. Alex! She braced herself for another fight against him, ducking down and placing a protective barrier between her and the assailant. Instead, he leaped for Sigma, noticeably alight with rage as he placed a blow deftly on her shoulder, Sigma recoiled backward, kicking him with great force. "So you come straight to me, did you finally break, or do you just want revenge?" She smirked. Alex was not amused, not in the slightest. Alex pulled out his PDW, swinging the butt of the gun towards Sigma's face. She blocked it easily, giving Alex an opportunity to kick her. He fired 60 rounds of .300 Blackout towards Sigma, who blocked a few of the rounds with her bare hands, but even so, a few managed to enter her arm. Alex kicked again, red-violet lightning spewing out of the blow, sending his foe skidding backwards. Sigma summoned her swords, holding them in a threatening position. Alex pulled out Electric Fury, holding it in his usual stance. "At long last, a fight that may actually be a good use of my time." Sigma swung both blades, Alex blocking both with his sword and his armored glove. He kicked again, swinging hard at his enemy, red lightning starting to spew out of the blade. Alex turned his sword into a revolver, firing all six rounds at Sigma's direction. "Back off!" A yellow blur blocked all six rounds. "Glad to see you, Theta." Sigma said. "This has nothing to do with you. Back off. Now." Alex was positively seething with rage. "A concern of my comrade's is a concern of mine, thou ungrateful whelp." Theta smiled, his weapon at his side. "Fine." Alex pounded the ground, red lightning spewing out in all directions. Sigma leaped out of the way in time, Theta was not as lucky, slamming hard into an M1 Abrams. Alex charged at Sigma, kneeing her in the jaw with assistance from his jump jets. He punched hard, lightning flying out in all directions as Sigma ducked out of the way. She threw an elbow into Alex's side, knocking him back and swinging violently in an effort to defend herself. A black blur knocked Alex further back, and a white blur sent him to the ground. "Eta, Iota. Finish him. I'm done here." Sigma said, "One more thing, Winchester was not the one who hired me." Sigma leapt away from the battlefield, leaving Alex to contend with Sigma's comrades. Alex, even angrier at his missed chance at revenge. The lightning turning a very dark red. He swung at Eta, knocking him away. He leaped in the air to finish the job, only for Iota to slash Alex's back. All three combatants fell to the ground, injured and angry. Alex took out Electric Fury, both blades separating and spinning at high speeds, swinging hard at Eta and turning around to fight Iota. Theta leaped back into the fray, his short sword denting Alex's armor. "Give up, do you have any idea who we are?" Theta taunted. "I don't care." Alex muttered, swinging his blade at all three combatants. Theta leaped backwards with surprise, evading the death blow just in time. Eta was not as lucky, the blades taking it's toll on his armor, scratching it badly and probably managing to penetrate it, as Eta held his arm. Iota was still fighting him, kicking, stabbing, anything to keep him off. Which wouldn't work. Alex set up the jump jets and leaped high above the fray, Iota and Theta looking up in surprise. Using his jump jets as well as his own Aura, he plummeted downwards, destroying the concrete below and seriously injuring Iota. Theta attacked again, swinging his blade and hitting Alex in the shoulder and denting the armor. "Big mistake." Alex grabbed Theta's wrist, twisting it at an awkward angle. Theta screamed in pain, dropping his weapon and falling to his knees. "Where is Sigma going?!" Theta didn't respond, only spitting in his visor. Alex grabbed Theta by the neck, shocking him with red lightning that flashed indiscriminately. "I'm not going to ask again, where is Sigma?!?!" Alex yelled again. Theta was not having the best day, blood dripped out of his mouth and onto Alex's gauntlet, only worsening as Alex tightened his grip. "Sigma... Winchester...Embassy... Two days.." Theta choked. Alex slammed him hard against the broken concrete, and walked away, leaving the battered inquisitors behind. "Who...are you?" Theta gasped. "Your worst nightmare." Alex turned and left for the school. Vanoss fired the last few rounds into another Crimson soldier, the others retreated long ago, only a select few to fight them. "That's the last one!" Vanoss yelled to his comrades. "It's about time!" Basically sighed with relief. Droidd was still beating up another soldier with a nightstick. "We really screwed them up, eh Vanoss?" He said. The battle had taken it's toll on everyone, a few huntsmen even died, Vanoss himself died about 4 times in the span of about a half-hour. Team RWBY were exhausted as well, despite the Task Force's older weaponry, they put up one heck of a fight. Alex walked back to the main hall, where they all were at the moment. "Hey! Alex!" Vanoss waved over to him. "Hi, Evan. Here's your gun back." Alex tossed the PDW in his direction. "Alex, these men, they-" Ruby began. "I know, these were the guys that Vanoss's crew and myself fought to get out of Equestria." Alex interrupted. "We know, Ruby told us everything after the attack started." Blake explained. "I also saw a few White Fang airships." Weiss added. "The hell? Who doesn't want me dead!?" Alex seemed very frustrated. He sat down against the wall. "That isn't all, man. Remember how you told us that someone helped you in your initial escape?" Vanoss asked. "Very well, not a day goes by when I don't think about it." Alex responded. "Ozpin got a call before the attack. Said there's someone who knows you." Wildcat finished. "Who?" Alex was actually a little nervous. There were very few people he knew in the Militia, and even fewer were actually trustworthy. Alex turned at the sound of someone clearing their throat, he turned backward and found someone standing among the burning heaps of jets and tanks and the destroyed concrete. It was a girl, with very familiar shoulder-length lightish-brown hair. Alex removed his helmet, revealing to the girl his identity. "Kat?" Alex asked, thunderstruck that she already lasted this long. "Is...that really you, Alex?" She said. "Yeah." He sighed. "How are you still alive? I thought the Militia killed you after I escaped!" She said. "I used the device and blew it up in the same instant." Alex told her. "That makes sense, how did you get to Remnant?" Kat asked him. "Crimson found me at Equestria. I got the hell out of there." He answered. "Same story, the Task Force found me in a wizard guild in a place called Fiore. How did you manage to find people to help?" Kat asked. "He paid us to protect his ass and kill Winchester." Vanoss said nonchalantly. "Winchester is here?!" "Along with Inquisitors, the Task Force, the Militia, Royal Guards, even a terrorist organization!" Alex angrily said. "Inquisitors?!" "Yeah, Sigma, as well as the three stooges over there." Mini told her. Kat walked over to find the wounded Inquisitors. "K-Katherine Anderson?!" Theta gasped. "Theta. I should have guessed." Kat kicked him hard in the gut. "You know this prick?" Alex asked. "Give me your gun." She told him. Alex handed her the .44 Scratch, as well as his three remaining caps. "Make 'em count." Alex said. Kat walked over to Theta, stomping on his face repeatedly, breaking his nose and leaving a bloody mess on the bottom of her boot and his face. She fired one cap into his neck. So they had the same killing blow. Noticing the other two, she fired both rounds into Eta's and Iota's heads. Killing them before they had the chance to run. Kat handed him back the .44 Scratch. "So, where is Winchester?" Kat asked, pulling out an enhanced Barrett M82, having a new sword-like bayonet and fire decals, not to mention a key lining each side of the scope, and Ice-like bipod attachment. "An embassy building." Alex told her. "Good, let me at 'em!" Kat yelled. "Calm down, Theta said he would be there in two days." Alex said. Looking around, it was just him and her now. "Okay, at least I can load up while I'm here." Kat said. "One more thing, just out of curiosity, did you have any help in this...Fiore?" Alex asked. She seemed to not want to talk about it, but answered anyway. "Four wizards helped augment my weapons and build me some armor. I left Fiore and went to Adenien, another, previously unknown universe, and met an android who was willing to help. She's back at the hotel right now. Once Agent Viktor, Winchester's second-in-command, found me in Adenien, I found Remnant." Kat told him everything. Alex held her shoulder in an effort to comfort her. "It's fine. I've got a lot of help now, and I have my own defense. You'll be fine. Let's just kill the A-holes and we can all go back home and tell everyone everything." Alex told her. "I...Thanks, I needed that. You're right. Let's end this." Kat asserted. "There you are! Let's get back to our homes, I'll call when there's somewhere where all of us can talk this through." Alex said. "I know a place, Alex. I got it." Kat said. She walked away, leaving Alex standing outside the school, alone. Alex walked back inside, a new determination burning deep within. Author's Note I'm not sure what else to say besides- Here's to the first 50,000 words! EDIT: Trying to add in more reason behind Alex's animosity towards Sigma. I'm still trying to think of ways to properly have thing build up so that Alex's rage in Chapter 25 would make more sense. EDIT AGAIN: After noticing the repetitiveness of the dialogue in this chapter, I changed it. Act I, Chapter 23: Act Of RebellionAlex and the others were nearing the rendezvous point Kat set up.. The group of 15 walked along the various shops and apartments in Vale. For others, it would be quite a sight. For Alex, who had experienced a lot in the past two months, had become desensitized to any sort of sight that beheld him. "How far away is this place?" Nogla complained. "Yeah, my feet are killing me!" Moo groaned. "It shouldn't be too far off, now." Alex said, looking at the park nearby. Sure enough, Kat was sitting on a bench nearby, along with someone else Alex couldn't quite identify. "Alex! Hey, glad everyone could make it." Kat said. "Well, this is too important to pass up. Who's the girl?" Alex asked. "Hello, sir!" She waved from the bench. "This is Zera, the android I told you about." Kat reminded him. "Oh, yeah." Alex remembered. "Are we going to stand around and not do anything, or are we making a plan here?" Weiss seemed a little annoyed at how long this whole conversation was. "Right. We better move." Alex agreed. "Okay, follow us." Zera nods before walking away from the main group. Alex followed Zera, with Team RWBY and Vanoss's crew in tow. The larger group of 17 were sitting in a large apartment, almost the size of a small mansion. They all sat around a table with various schematics, blueprints, and all that crap that was somehow necessary for the plan. "Okay, team. I've made a layout of the Vale Embassy Building using these blueprints. You guys will have to fill in the blanks, what can we come up with in 24 hours?" Kat asked the team. "Vanoss and I have the most GTA 5 money, so helicopters and shit is on us." Lui said. "We can set up a standard Huntress defense, and we can have more on the way." Blake added. "I'll handle assassinations." Alex scowled. "Okay, who do we need dead?" Zera asked. "Winchester, Viktor, Sigma and any other inquisitors, Twilight-" Alex made a list before Vanoss interrupted him. "How do you know Twilight will be there at all?" He asked. "-Or if she's even against you. From what I can understand, she probably would want to help us." Ruby added. "Oh, really? Then explain to me why she, along with the rest of those murderers, attacked Beacon?" Alex retorted, he wasn't fully sure if the ponies were against him at all, but he learned to trust his instincts. "What about reinforcements?" Kat tried to steer away the conversation. "Well, Blake said that they could send more huntsmen, Vanoss can whip up some air support. As for what to do about the Inquisitors, I took on three and lived to tell about it." Alex said. "I'm talking about Vale's army. If they find us attacking their embassy, then why shouldn't they attack us?" Kat asked. "Or what if Atlas attacks?" Weiss added. "God help us." Alex finished. "Okay, back to inventory. Evan, what do we have?" Kat asked. "I can buy up some Valkyrie helicopters, Hydra jets, tanks, the McLarry." Vanoss listed. "Or the Insurgents and the Technicals." Wildcat said, adding to the list. "Get a Cargobob and a Tank!" Delirious requested. "How about the banana bus?" Vanoss asked. "Guys, we get the idea." Yang groaned. "How about weapons? I know Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Alex have their own death machines, but how about you guys?" Zera asked. "That's why I got this!" Basically pulled up a large box with glowing question marks on the top. "Oooooh! The mystery box!" Mini seemed exited. "First!" Nogla yelled, opening the box, several deadly looking weapons floated above, cycling through until Nogla got a sniper rifle, a DSR-50 by the looks of it. "I got a sniper!" He grabbed the gun out of the box. "That's awesome!" Ruby admired the box. Vanoss opened the box himself until he got... The exact same weapon as Nogla. "Oh! Nogla, you wanna join my sniper clan?" Vanoss asked, in a rather nasally voice. "Hold on, let me spin again, I wanna see what clan I join!" Nogla replied. "I'm starting to see where this is going." Wildcat facepalmed. "Really, author?!" Zera groaned. Destoyer looked down from his holy iPod Touch and flipped them off. "Screw you, this is difficult!" He yelled at the group. The Vanoss crew got their weapons, even Ruby, who got a Ray Gun, much to her happiness. "Well, that covers it, I got a base plan now." Kat said, pulling up a hologram of the embassy. "The meeting rooms are here, here, and here." Zera said, pointing to various spots of the map. "The embassy is at the bottom of a small valley, giving us plenty of room for sniper kills. Ruby, Myself, Nogla, Vanoss, and Basically are on over watch." Kat said. "Delirious, Mini, Lui, and Moo will fly around in the Valkyrie helicopter and will take out any reinforcements. Terroriser and Wildcat are flying two Hydra jets." Kat said. "Alex, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Myself are killing any high-value targets." Zera said. "No. What happens between myself and Winchester, I'm doing alone." Alex seethed. "What about Sigma? If you get sidetracked, he gets away and nobody wins." Kat said. "Then I'll kill her too. I have a bone to pick with both those pricks." He huffed. "That's suicide. Even if you kill them both, how are you getting out?" Ruby asked. "I hate Winchester too, but you don't see me grabbing my gun and shooting Viktor in the head!" Kat said angrily. "They took much more from me than a few friends. I'm killing Winchester myself for ruining any and every chance I had at a normal life!" Alex yelled, annunciating his last word with a fist on the table. "Do you see the people you're sitting with?" Vanoss rolled his eyes at the statement. "Does it matter? The son of a bitch needs to go down once and for all!" Alex retorted. "There's a lot more at stake here than just a personal vendetta." Yang told him. Alex glared around the table in silence. "Carry on." He muttered, sitting down. "Okay, so the meeting is at around 12:15 p.m, liftoff is at 11:45, there are cots in the living room." Kat said after informing the team about more logistic nonsense. Alex moved over to his sleeping bag near the T.V in silence. How dare they try to interfere with his chance at revenge. Winchester ruined his life, twice. Sigma killed one of his closest allies, and Princess Twilight stood by and did nothing as she watched the remaining pieces of his world crumble before her. They had to pay, with their blood. Alex stared at the clock, letting more angry thoughts cloud his mind. In order for him to have any sort of closure, they all had to die by his hand, and his alone. No matter what. The time was about 9:59 pm, from their arrival at about 6:00. They were to wake up at about 7:30 am. If Alex could sneak out before then, he could have his own breakfast, be there long before anyone shows up, and kill them all. All he needed was a different gun... Vanoss woke up to find the apartment in chaos. "Where is he?!" "Do you think he's dead?" "Call his Scroll!" "What the hell is happening?" Vanoss asked groggily. "Your commander is missing." Zera told him. "He stole my sniper rifle!" Kat seethed. "He also took quite a bit of Kat's equipment, including fire enchantments, ice pellets..." Zera listed off the missing equipment. "He went rogue?!" Ruby seemed appalled. "Yes!" Kat yelled, exasperated. "Why?" Delirious asked. "Isn't it obvious? He's going to kill them!" Kat gasped. "By himself?!" Nogla also seemed worried. "It appears so. He stole the kill list." Zera replied. "What do we do?" Delirious asked. "Alex knows that the meeting is at 12:15, we have no hope of communicating with him, so we're going to continue as planned and hope he doesn't kill himself." Kat sighed. "We gotta go now! This is way too important!" Yang ordered. "GET TO DA CHOPPAS!!!!" Terroriser yelled, pulling out a Meat Grinder from Black Ops II zombies. Alex sat in his position above the embassy, it was about 12:05, they should be there any minute. He contemplated his actions again, he regretted having to steal Kat's stuff, but there wasn't any choice. All that aside, he screwed himself again, and he knew it, he abandoned his team, even when they tried to help him. But it was all for a good cause. Killing the man who ruined him. Agent Timothy Winchester. At long last, he would have his sweet revenge. Several military vehicles and limousines drove up to the Embassy below, looking through the scope, he counted his kill list. Checking to see if he was going to hit the jackpot. Winchester- check. Viktor-check. Sigma-check. Twilight and the others-check He saw them all walk out of their cars and walk in the building, with Rainbow Dash looking at him through the scope. Was it possible that she saw him, even from a mile up? No matter, he looked at the kill list again, everyone who needed to die was there. He waited again, looking at the several rooms he could see. It was about 12:09 now. Alex saw them all pile in the second floor meeting room, along with several other politicians, they were all in the room. Perfect. He aimed down the scope, Finding Winchester easily. He sat left of Twilight and right of Sigma, directly in his line of fire. Viktor sat across from him, his head blocking Winchester's chest. Even better. He flicked the safety off the gun, aiming for the back of Viktor's skull. He pulled the bolt back on the gun, chambering in a powerful round. He inhaled slowly, focusing on his target with laser precision. Alex slowly exhaled as he pulled the trigger, this was a perfect shot. BOOM!! Author's Note Well, seeing as how hardly anyone reads these anyway, should I stop with the authors notes? Ah, who cares? I'll just do a standard outro. Leave a comment below on what you think of the story, and where I can improve, or if you have questions about the story, comments are very highly appreciated, thank you! Act I, Chapter 24: Act Of Vengeance Act I, Chapter 24: Act Of Vengeance BOOM!!! An explosion shook the ground beneath him and gave in under the pressure, Alex falling like a rock to the ground below. He took the sniper rifle and loaded in the grappling hook attachment to the barrel. Aiming above the second floor window, he fired the gun, the hook reeling over to his target, a strong steel cord trailing behind it. Using it in tandem with the jump jets, he swung hard, quickly moving to his destination. That is, until he hit the wall of the building. On the ground floor, no less. Alex knew he should have aimed higher, but there wasn't very much he could do. "Hold it right there!" A voice sounded behind him. Alex slowly turned around, meeting the gaze of a few security guards, all bearing standard issue M4 Carbines or, it's equivalent, the RPX-998 Atlean Battle Rifle. "You're coming with us!" One of the guards yelled. "What if I say no?" Alex asked smugly. He grabbed Electric Fury from his sheath, converting it from it's sword form to it's .499 Kaiser Revolver. Firing four shots at the guards, one for each, he ran away. Only to find several of his comrades fighting against the guards, Task Force Crimson, the Royal Guard, everyone! Zera leaped from the fray and pinned Alex against the wall of the building, impressive given her small structure. "What do you think you're doing?!" Zera scolded. "Killing Winchester! That's out mission, isn't it?!" Alex retorted. "Not like this! We go as a team!" Zera ordered. Alex shoved Zera off of him. "Zera, I'm sorry, but this is personal business." He walked away as Zera tried to recover. Alex encountered a few more Crimson soldiers, one of them bearing a Remington 870 shotgun. Perfect. He grabbed a soldier's P226 pistol, shooting him in the head and using the gun to bash in the shotgunner's face. Grabbing the shotgun, he killed the remaining two with the Electric Fury's saw mode attachment, slicing through them like butter. The main entrance was not to far off, he only needed to go a few more feet- A cyan blur knocked him on his back and flew back into it's spot near the entrance. Looking up, he saw Twilight, Rainbow, AJ, and Rarity. All of them looked really pissed. "So good to -ack!- see you guys again! I figured you would be back in Ponyville by now!" Alex taunted. "Can it, can-head!" Rainbow yelled. "Do any of you know where I can find Winchester?" Alex asked scathingly. "He's in the medical bay, along with Sigma, that is, if you can get through us!" Rarity threatened. "A 4-on-1 match, eh? Where are the other two?" "Fluttershy's with Sigma and Pinkie...well, I don't know.." Applejack looked around for the pink horse, only to find air whistling around them. Along with the sounds of battle. "You had one chance to make a normal life for yourself, and you didn't take it. Instead you chose to kill and destroy everything in your path. That ends here!" Twilight yelled as the others charged into battle. Alex was going to have to plan here, Rainbow's specialty was obviously speed, Applejack's was her strength, Twilight her magic, what about Rarity? Said white unicorn threw a punch, Alex gripped the hoof with his gauntlet before it could hit his...area. How hadn't he seen it before? Rarity knew precisely where to hit him, and had he not blocked, he would've been in serious trouble. He shoved Rarity back, leaping to the air to dodge Rainbow's attack. She had attempted to tackle him, which would've given the others a chance to attack. Instead, the Pegasus met solid ground. Applejack kicked Alex with her hind legs, sending him flying back at least 10 feet, and leaving a massive concave in his armor where the hooves met. Trying to recuperate, he rolled to his side, aiming a blow specifically for Twilight. The punch met Rainbow instead, and she went down like a fly, skidding against the ground. Twilight sent a powerful blast in his direction, having similar effects to Applejack's attack. Alex realized he couldn't just throw punches and be done with it, he needed a strategy. Looking around, he saw Rarity levitating numerous sewing needles, all pointed at him. Rainbow had gotten up, rearing up for a vicious barrage about 3 feet behind Rarity. Applejack was roughly 5 feet away from Twilight, her...back facing him, ready to buck as if she was back at that orchard. Twilight was nearest the entrance, charging her horn for a devastatingly powerful attack. He had his plan. Rainbow leaped at him, flying at him scarily fast. Alex redirected Dash to Rarity's sewing needle barrage, all of them sinking rather painfully into the Pegasus. Sliding over to Rarity, he picked her up with his free arm, and threw her at Applejack, who wasn't looking at all, and Applejack kicked her hard across the battlefield, crashing into a battalion of Royal Guards. Alex threw Rainbow at Twilight, Rainbow receiving the entirety of her attack, suffering a similar fate as Rarity, crashing into a nearby tank. The smoke cleared, and Alex leapt through the veil, punching Twilight hard in the nose. Twilight, as expected after a brutal attack like that, held her bloodied nose, and Alex grabbed her by the horn, usually torturously painful to unicorns. What the heck?! Twilight's horn glowed brightly, burning the gauntlet to the point where it started to melt, and meet Alex's skin underneath. Alex grasped his burnt hand in agony as Twilight hit him with a powerful spell, knocking him to the earth below. "This is your last chance. Surrender." Twilight ordered. Alex, in his rage, pounded the ground, red-violet lightning spewing out from underneath Twilight and shocking her badly. "H-How is that possible?! Abilities like that are forbidden!" Twilight groaned in pain. "I just learned how to do this a little while ago, nice to have you test it out for me. Where's Winchester?" Alex asked. "He's in the medical hall! Downstairs, then take the third left!" Twilight held both hooves defensively. Alex entered the building, ready to end this. Once and for all. Running into the building, Alex noticed several people in nobility trying to escape. One in particular ran into him. "A Huntsman! Can you help me? I have a family!" One pleaded. "Do you believe anything Agent Winchester told you about a Mr. Walker?" Alex asked him, he had his helmet and mask on, so the ambassador couldn't see his face. "He made a pretty convincing case, but I can see right through him, what he wants with the kid, I have no idea!" He said. So he wasn't against him. "Find a Huntress named Ruby Rose, she should help you get out of here alive!" Alex instructed. The Ambassador grasped his gauntlet with both hands. "Bless you, son!" He said as he ran towards the entrance. Alex continued his walk inside the building, then a battalion of Crimson soldiers ran at him, firing their Assault Rifles at him. The bullets bounced off his armor as Alex spam-fired the shotgun, killing most of them, only one lay wounded on the ground. "Please...have mercy." He groaned. "All out." Alex said as he blew his head off with the shotgun. Blood and brain matter everywhere. The medical office was not that far off. Third door to the left... Alex received a hard fist to the helmet, knocking it off of him. Winchester, holding in a devastating wound, stood in horror at Alex. "You?! I remember you! You were the armored soldier at the castle?!" Winchester asked in fear. "So you didn't know all this time. Pathetic, couldn't discern the identity of the man who stole his own files." Alex mocked. "Thought you could outrun the CIA? You're the pathetic one!" Winchester defended. "All this time I thought I was running from you and your sad excuses for soldiers." Alex began his lecture, shoving the Agent on a chair. "All this time, you thought you were the one following me." Alex grabbed a scalpel from one of the drawers, and he walked towards Winchester. "No. I was following you. You constantly tried to destroy me, my reputation, my friendships! Because you knew that one day, I would have my revenge for what you did to me in that damned cell." Alex gripped Winchester, raising the scalpel. Ruby, Kat, Vanoss and Twilight ran outside the door, looking at him in horror and trying to break it down. "My name is Alex Gabriel Walker! And that day is TODAY!!!" Alex yelled as the three friends and one enemy broke down the door. "Alex! Stop!" "What the hell are you doing?!" "Stand down, NOW!" "You don't know what you're doing!" Alex flicked the scalpel sharply to the right, slitting Winchester's throat wide open, spraying red blood all over the room as Winchester tried to no avail to stop it. Winchester held his throat as he fell to the floor, gasping and sputtering as the very life drained out of him, until his body spasmed one last time as he released his final breath. Agent Winchester was dead, he would torment him no longer. As for his allies, they rushed on him as they tried fruitlessly to stop him, Alex had stabbed Kat in the side and Ruby held him down. Ruby had the bloodied scalpel in her hand, that was when Alex threw a hard punch that was supposed to knock her off of him. The blow did not do it's intended job, and Ruby gripped Alex's Electric Fury by the barrel, and hit him in the head. Alex didn't hear much after that. "I'm fine! Check Winchester!" "He's dead." That was all he heard as his vision faded to black. "I'm fine! Check Winchester!" Kat gasped, holding the stab wound. Vanoss ran up to the Agent. "He's dead." Vanoss said. "That idiot! He just went in and killed him!" Twilight said angrily. "Calm down. There was no way he would've known." Ruby tried to calm her down. "Ruby's right, the Ambassador told us as soon as he got out of the building. He must not have told Alex." Kat grunted as she rummaged around the med room, looking for something to disinfect the wound. "You could have told him yourself, little miss 'double-agent'! You already knew everything!" Vanoss scolded. "I had to keep up the act or else my whole plan would've fallen apart!" Twilight retorted. "Which was?" Ruby asked, confused. "Get as much information about this as possible so I could help him. I don't think Winchester himself would've done this if there was no other way out of it." Twilight informed. "I have to admit, his whole act was impressive, even I didn't see through it." Kat complimented. "In any sense, this may be the beginning of the end." Ruby sighed, defeated. "The prologue to The Great War has ended. This is where the real story begins." Twilight said. "Hoodini have mercy." Vanoss muttered solemnly. Author's Note Well, as much as I like/don't necessarily mind/ hate (depends on what you guys think of the story) there is a whole lot more to this story. What do you think? Should I keep this all in one story and separate this into Acts? Or write this in a sequel? Tell me what you think in the comments below! Act I, Chapter 25: The Duel (Edited)Alex awoke, still in the medical office. He was surrounded by Vanoss, Ruby, Kat, and Twilight, all of them looking either pitifully or angrily at him. "What happened. Did I kill Winchester?" Alex asked. A look to his right gave him his answer. The Agent lay unmoving on the linoleum floor, engulfed in a puddle of his own blood. "You have no idea what you just did, do you?" Kat starts choking him. Alex notices the bloodied bandage wrapped around her waist. "Not really, nobody told me anything!" Alex yelled after getting Kat to stop choking him. "The Ambassador found me, I asked him what he knew about all of this." Ruby began. "He said something along the lines of 'The Agent is the Key to Oblivion', or something." Vanoss continued. "I went over and interrogated Twilight on the matter, then, she told me an old tale about the predicted end of her world." Kat added. "Well, I don't got all day. Tell me." Alex insisted. "A while ago, Celestia had a vision. A Spirit came before her and told her what was destined for the whole Multiverse." Twilight answered. "What did Celestia hear?" Alex asked "Alex, think. At the end of almost any myth, what comes last?" Kat asked him. "They were all depict great battles. The ultimate clash of good and evil. The End of the World." Alex replied. "It's not just in your world. In our legends, we call it 'Kazi'ivan, it's an ancient word meaning 'The Great War'." Ruby told him. "Get to the point." Alex ordered them. "Agent Winchester's death made a lot of people very, very pissed. Like these 'Inquisitor' bitches." Vanoss told him. "How exactly?" Alex asked. "The legend goes that 'Two beings, not like any other ponies, would come to Equestria and engage in conflict, then continue it elsewhere'." Twilight said. "Yeah, and in Remnant's ancient writings, it was said that 'The death of either of these beings would anger the Warriors of the Dark into escalating the conflict into a war." Ruby said. "So what you're all saying is, killing Winchester is going to start the Apocalypse?" Alex asked, bewildered. "Well, yeah." Vanoss shrugged. Alex slumped down in his seat, remorseful. "Damn it, why and how does it have to end up like this?" He sighed heavily, as if he wanted this done entirely. Initially, he thought this would end the fighting and he could go home. Alex realized something in that moment. He had no home to fight for. All this time, he had been fighting so having one could be a possibility, so he could have some sort of freedom again. "What now?" Alex hardened, he couldn't lose morale. "Sigma is out there right now. Before she left, she said she was looking specifically for you." Twilight said. "Are your friends okay, Twi?" He asked. "They're fighting Sigma right now, we turned on them." Twilight replied. "What about your Crew, Evan?" He turned to Vanoss. "They're with them." He said back. "And your team, Ruby?" Alex asked Ruby. "Fighting Sigma." She replied, ready to fight. "As for Zera?" Alex asked Kat. "Where do you think?" Kat asked sarcastically. "Let's move, NOW!" Alex grabbed his Helmet, along with Electric Fury. Looking at his weapon, it seemed...different. "I enchanted your weapon, hopefully, it should stand more of a chance." Twilight told him. "Right. Let's go!" Alex and the others ran outside to see their comrades fighting valiantly against Sigma. "I'm not going to lie, you're all boring me. Where is he?!" Sigma demanded. "Right here, you dirty comrade-killer!" Alex panted. Sigma turned to Alex. "Well. I guess you actually killed the bastard. I bet you don't even know what you started." Sigma glared at him. "That doesn't matter right now. Everyone, stand back. This is between me and her." Alex ordered, "Finally, someone who might not be such a bore." Sigma summoned her bow, drawing back three arrows. "This ends here!" Alex said, pulling out a now fully reloaded .44 Scratch and his enchanted Electric Fury, both revolvers cocked and pointed at Sigma. It was Sigma who attacked first, unleashing a barrage of arrows at Alex, who either dodged, shot them with his revolvers, or let them strike, for an explosion like that had little effect to him, his armor...well, there was a huge black mark where that arrow struck. Alex shot at Sigma whenever given the opportunity, knocking her slightly backwards with every shot. Alex kept this up until they were mere feet apart. Then Alex struck. Converting Electric Fury, he slashed at Sigma, who blocked the attack with both swords. Alex shot Sigma with .44 Scratch with his free hand, Sigma stepping back in reaction to the attack. Alex fired relentlessly at Sigma, who blocked the attacks with her bare hands as well as her swords. Alex holstered .44 Scratch, and smashed the ground before him, Erupting violet lightning from the ground under Sigma. "When I killed your friend, she did not die immediately. No, she died slowly, painfully, I'm not one to show mercy to a traitor like her. Or like your friends." Sigma taunted. "I'm not letting you kill them, even if that means I have to kill you myself!" Alex retorted, feeling rage cloud his mind and darken his vison. "Good riddance." Sigma punched him hard in the chest, summoned several razor-sharp spikes made of glass, and flung them at Alex. The attack did not affect him, the thorn-like projectiles shattered on contact, giving Alex the opening he needed to strike. Alex lunged at her with Electric Fury, wounding her to a minor degree and distracting her. With Sigma properly distracted, Alex used his jump-jets as well as his own abilities to fly above her, and come rocketing down in front of her, the lightning erupting before her turning more and more red. Alex swung his weapon with both hands, further disorienting her. Alex ducked down to a crouch and swung Electric Fury in a wide arc, slashing Sigma in the legs as she tried to regain composure. He kicked Sigma hard in the stomach and punched her even harder in the neck, Alex constantly trying to keep her from getting another opportunity to attack him. The next punch he made, Sigma blocked it with her bare hands, twisting it at an awkward angle and hacking Alex from his lower right abdomen to his left shoulder. While not piercing the armor, it produced a significant amount of pain on Alex's part. How had Twilight enchanted it again? Alex felt Electric Fury change again, into more of a rail gun, the handle curving, the blades folding, the gun barrel poking out. The cylinder popped upwards, Alex loading Electric Fury again. Pushing it back into it's designated spot, he pulled the trigger. All six shots flew out of the gun in a rapid pace, disorienting his opponent and damaging her armor. Changing Electric Fury back into it's sword form, he swung again at Sigma, the blow managing to send red-hued bolts of lightning shocking her and frying her insides. Sigma placed both swords together at the pommels, and sharply twisted them. She spun her dual blade in a flourish, distracting him until Sigma landed a blow on Alex's chest. The Armor turned a bright red and burnt his chest painfully. "Agent Thorne died for nothing, child. Just like those two I killed a few months back for personal business, who were they?... Oh, right, Jason and Alice Walker. Let me guess, they were your parents?" Sigma glared "YOU WILL DIE WHERE YOU STAND!!!" Alex screamed, she killed his parents... She had to die. In his rage, he threw down his sword, relying only on his bare fists. Each punch exploding in blood-red hued bolts of electricity, Sigma could only watch as his rage continued. She herself had been disarmed as she blocked and dodged her opponent's anger-fueled attacks. She simply could not attack, even if she had the opportunity, it would only enrage him more and more. Alex's onslaught was matched, but not very easily. Sigma was noticeably injured, but still fighting. His lightning was electrifying his armor, the deep red glow had moved past his fingertips and he was now glowing in the deathly color. Sigma attacked, but nothing seemed to affect him anymore. Suddenly the color moved to his right hand, the gauntlet glowing brightly in that color. He was concentrating all his power into this one death blow. "Still angry over your parents' death, Walker?" Sigma mocked. "I WILL KILL YOU!!!" Alex spat in his intense anger. "They, like your friend, died as they lived, like cowards too scared to fight back. You will too unless you stop this now." He charged, running dangerously fast. Sigma tried to hold him off, delay his attack. Until he struck. Her side exploded in an eruption of energy, breaking all armor in that particular spot. Alex attacked more and more. Sigma countering whenever possible, striking at his back, his neck, his knee, anywhere she could reasonably attack. Alex grabbed his sword again, swinging it even if Sigma got away from him, lightning constructs barreling at her in waves, continuing to fry her. He planted the sword firmly on the ground, a massive beam erupting from where it was planted, striking her again, further weakening her. He walked slowly, the lightning starting to turn a very, very dark red color. Almost black. He lashed out, blackish-red lightning exploding from his hands like a volcano, the attack was ridiculously powerful, leaving Sigma in constant pain as she tried to stand firm against it, only for his power to grow more and more, until she fell to her knees, smoke floating out of the broken figure on the ground. Walking back, Alex picked up the sword from the ground, and strolled slowly over to the defeated foe, he managed to get a closer look at this inquisitor. Her armor completely shattered from where he had hit her, burnt skin underneath, the armor only got to about the lower abdomen, and all the skin underneath looked badly burnt. The helmet Sigma was wearing almost completely broke, exposing the right side of her face, eyes the color of fire, looking fearfully up at him. He raised his sword, ready to deal a killing blow. "Stop!" A voice ordered from behind him. Turning back, Alex noticed Raven, the Inheritor that he had spoken to before reuniting with Kat. "What are you doing?!" She scolded him. "You want her dead as much as I do!" He panted, still alit with fury. "Your Semblance! It seems to correlate with your emotions. You activated it on your own?!" She asked bewildered. "Yes, I did! Apparently I'm more talented that any other huntsman, why the hell am I explaining this? Sigma has to die!!" Alex said. "I don't want her dead just yet!" Raven demanded. "Why?! Give me one good reason why I should let the person who killed my parents walk away?!" He asked, enraged. He turned back, seeing a gravely wounded Sigma stagger to an undamaged airship, and it soon flew off, leaving him and his allies alone. "Inheritors don't kill in cold blood, nor do they use their full power in a duel. Huntsmen have this same rule." Raven answered. Alex calmed down, finally noticing the blistering pain in his chest. Staggering down, he pulled the armor off him, the chest piece peeling his burnt flesh as he removed it. "It's not over, is it?" Vanoss asked him. Alex thought about this for a moment. "I hired you guys to kill Agent Winchester for me. The job is done. You can all go back to your families if you want." Alex responded. "What?" Kat was bewildered. "You heard right, they were hired, and they don't have to stay with us. Unless, by any chance, they still want to go through with this." Alex said. "Well, what'll it be?" Zera turned towards the crew, awaiting their response. They went into a sort of group huddle, discussing their options only in hushed whispers, only glancing at Alex and the others. Vanoss finally cleared his throat. "We're staying." He said. "Okay, what's your price?" Alex asked. "You already paid us. We decided that half of the money we got was payment while the other half was in case you wanted to, I don't know, be in our Youtube videos if you wanted to, but this works." Vanoss replied. Alex was stunned, they were willing to have him guest star in their videos? While that was all well and good, he wasn't sure as to how he would have gotten the computer equipment or any of the games. Alex was officially broke when he paid the crew to help him. "Glad to know you're still ready to help." Ruby said. Twilight spoke up, clearing her throat. "We would have decided to have the Royal Guard help us..." Her voice trailed off. "But apparently, being a double-agent isn't the best way to keep friends." Rainbow said, awkwardly. "The guards branded you all as traitors and are still against us, aren't they?" Alex asked, sighing in disappointment. "Um...yes." Fluttershy said, timidly. "And last time I checked... The Red Dawn Guild isn't all that willing to help us, either." Kat admitted. "But they won't intrude on our missions, I think is what Katherine is trying to say." Zera finished. "And I'm not sure Ozpin is still going to help us much at all." Ruby sighed. "Crap, Equestria doesn't want us, Remnant doesn't want us. We have no safe haven." Alex grunted. "Actually, we have a place in mind." Vanoss said. The trip to Los Santos had been a daunting trip for the 7 people who hadn't been there. It was similar to Los Angeles in a way, but it also had an arid desert north of the city, and a redwood forest even further up. Alex considered this a step down from his daily life as a fugitive, while Vanoss and his Friends frequently were being chased by police, they were not nearly as competent as the Task Force, and they were all far enough away from the Royal Guard, The Militia, and the remaining Task Force members that there should not be that many problems. Vanoss, being the helpful type, had gotten everyone an apartment somewhere in the city, Alex's in particular was a high-rise, complete with it's own planning room, repurposed from it's usual purpose as a Heist Setup area. Alex was now sitting in his new house, sipping some wine. Which tasted horrible, he was not used to the taste of alcohol yet, and spit the putrid red beverage into the sink. He was far too young anyways. The individual members of his team were all contacts on his new cellphone, and he could call any one of them at any given time. Thankful for the rest, and the new home, Alex thought of the future. He wasn't sure when such cataclysms would take place, but he thanked god for every breath he took. He was exhausted from constantly fighting and killing. He needed this. Alex thought again about Raven. The Inheritor didn't come with them, though Alex desperately needed training. But for now, everything seemed to be going for him. Some time spent alone was long overdue. Author's Note I think this chapter had an unclear time gap as to when they were still at the embassy and when they were in Los Santos. I think the least amount of time 10 people could scrape money for 7 apartments, one of them a high rise in-game would be about... 3 days. Assuming Vanoss bought a few Shark Cards (downloadable GTA$). EDIT: I have been told that Alex needed more of a motivator to get that mad in a fight. In retrospect, I probably should have added more to Alex's hatred for Sigma other than the death of a minor character, but I'm still thinking about what could be done to add that element to the fic and where. Act I, Chapter 26: The TalkAlex laid down in the bed in his apartment. Not unusual to say the least, he had a lot to think about. In the past 2 3/4 of a month, he's had people purposely hunt him down, having to always run, and hope that at least 3 people actually cared enough to help. It was always unpredictable. He never knew when his last day would be, hell, a couple times, he thought for sure it was. In short, Alex's friends were the most random people he had ever met, and he knew hipsters, metal-heads, maybe even a couple otakus, but they took the cake. Alex's life was also pretty ridiculous. Like, who spends a little more than a week perfectly assimilating into the magical land of horses, only to move to a school where the most overpowered teenagers go to learn how to kill people like him, as well as some terrifying gigantic monsters hell bent on eating your face? The odds of getting struck by lightning, Alex knew, was 1 in 700,000. The odds of having to deal with that kinda crap? 1 in, say, A LOT! At least now, he got to spend some peace and quiet... *buzz!* Ugh, who could that be?! Alex walked over to the front door of his apartment, pressed the button, and spoke. "Who's this?" Alex asked, annoyed. "It's Kat." A voice from the other side replied. Why didn't she say so? "Oh. Go away." Alex sighed. "Vanoss and his friends didn't do anything, I'm just here to talk." Kat replied. Like he wanted to talk about his problems, she wouldn't understand... At least, not completely. "Alright, fine." Alex buzzed her in. Shortly after, there was a knock on his door, knowing full well who it was, he let her in the apartment. "Wow, I gotta say, this is way nicer than the apartment Vanoss got Zera and I." Kat admired. "I agree, I would've been perfectly fine sleeping in a box. Not that I'm complaining." Alex replied. "So, is there anything you wanna talk about?" She asked him. "Meh, you first, I'm not all in the mood to talk." Alex encouraged. "Okay, I was thinking about your situation..." Kat began. "Funny how the conversation is about me." He sighed. "I was just wondering, was there anyone you actually connected with? Anyone at all?" Kat asked him. That was actually difficult. Alex purposely tried not to get attached to anyone in Equestria. Karis? He felt he only connected with her was because there was not a whole lot to hide, she already knew about his predicament. Team RWBY? He wasn't trying to connect either, but he told Ruby and Yang everything that happened before then, and he was sure they told Weiss and Blake. Vanoss and his crew? Thankfully, no. "Not very many people, I will admit." Alex said as honestly as he could. "Oh, there's your problem." Kat realized. "Come again?" Alex asked. "Unlike me, you never wanted to connect with anyone at a personal level. I told my friends in the guild about what happened to me, I even told them a little bit about you." "Then what the hell happened? Why did you have to leave?" Alex asked Kat. "They were on a mission, and I kinda had a bad reputation with the others." Kat replied nervously. "The other members set you up, didn't they?" Alex concluded. "Well, when you put it like that, it makes them sound bad..." Kat defended. "And that, my friend, is why I didn't want to talk to anyone. I always have that sense that tells me that someone is going to stab me in the back as soon as I turn around! Had I been in your place, I would have been gone long before I could tell your friends crap." Alex asserted. "You can't always expect someone to betray you..." Kat began. "Funny, someone told me that a while ago. Guess what? She's dead!" Alex scowled. "Nobody really betrayed you in the end, Twilight and the others were double agents, or did you forget?" Kat retorted. "I still don't trust her. Same as how I still don't trust Evan, or Ruby! Hell, I'm paranoid about being in the same room as you right now!" Alex regretted saying that as soon as the words left his mouth. "Ahem... Well, let's stop that conversation, deal?" Kat raised a hand. "Deal." Alex grasped hers tightly and shook it. "My real question was... Have you thought about connecting with someone romantically?" Kat asked. "Never thought about it. Not even once. There's too much going on in my life and it's way too unpredictable to actually give you a straight answer." Alex responded honestly. "So, no setting you up on dates anytime soon?" Kat asked hopefully. "REALLY, AUTHOR?! THERE ISN'T EVEN A ROMANCE TAG ON THIS STORY!" A rather high pitched voice screamed from below, Alex had to assume it was Pinkie. "Oh, yeah, I've been meaning to ask, what's up with Pinkie?" Kat asked. "Schitzophrenia, psychopathic tendencies, somehow floating, a lot of different stuff." Alex responded. "STOP! REFERENCING! CUPCAKES!!!!" That same voice said again. "How can she even hear us from down there?" Kat asked, bewildered. "Twilight told me that 'she's just being Pinkie Pie' is apparently a good answer. So, yeah, let's go with that." Alex elaborated with a hand gesture. "Okay, why not? Anyways, what about Ruby, she's about your age." Kat pleaded. "I already told you, I'm far too... In everyone's thoughts... Paranoid, or rather, delusional." Alex responded bluntly. "So...you're serious?" Kat asked. "I am." Alex sighed, almost sad that all of that was actually true. "Are...Are you sure?" She sighed herself. "Yes. Please. Leave me be." Alex pleaded. Kat stood up, and walked to the door, turning around only to cast a pitying glance in his direction. "I'm sorry you feel that way about yourself." Kat closed the door softly, as to not disturb him any further. Alex laid on the orange sofa, wanting nothing more than to rest and reflect on the conversation. Was he really that negative about himself? It was hard to imagine a life spent with another person, but was he really that damaged? He really wished that things hadn't turned out like they did, and that was true, especially about the more recent events of his life. If things were different, if he wasn't that shallow and self-pitying, then maybe there would have been a chance. No. That life died with his parents back in Oregon. That life died in Area 51. That life died in Ponyville and Vale. That life died with his humanity. Now, he was a soldier, more than that, he was a leader, he had other lives to worry about beside his own. Things were different now, this was not about self-preservation like it was in Ponyville or Canterlot, no. This was about ensuring that his allies lived to see tomorrow. Even if he didn't. His phone buzzed at his side, he flipped it up, and it revealed an unknown contact, he swiped to the right on his phone to answer the call. "Hello, is this Alex Walker?" The man at the other line asked. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. What of it?" Alex asked him. "My name is Rufio Vincent of the Los Santos Syndicate, I'm holding a Mr. Fong hostage, as well as his friends." "Don't even start it." Alex seethed with aggression. "You have ten minutes to pay us $50,000, or else they die. Your call." "Where?" Alex tried to calm himself down. "The Galileo Observatory north of your apartment." Rufio answered. "I'm on my way." Alex said. "Pleasure doin' business with you, Walker." Rufio hung up. Alex went over to his closet, and put on his Armor, the Scarab Mk. III, built in with various rocket launchers and a shoulder-mounted .50 Caliber machine gun, on top of his jump-jets and near indestructible Equestrian Steel hull. He reached for .44 Scratch and Electric Fury, holstering them before reaching for an Atlean KMG-157 Battle Rifle, equipped with a Veir-Kai sight and an A-17 grenade launcher, the equivalent of his original SCAR-H, courtesy of a security guard's corpse from his stint in the Vale Embassy. "Not for the reason you're thinking Mr. Vincent." Alex said to himself as he walked into his garage and into his armored Insurgent, still in it's original black-and-yellow paint job with Batman logos stamped on the sides. Pressing a button on the data-pad on his left wrist, he sent a voice message to everyone who wasn't captured. "Attention all remaining members of Team Unity, Vanoss and his friends are being held captive in the Galileo Observatory to the north! Be there to assist in the rescue mission ASAP!" Alex ordered. "Roger that!" "Yes, Sir!" "I am not missing this!" "Ugh, fine!" "On our way!" "Meet ya there!" "The Elements and I are on our way over!" Everyone said through their radios. Indeed, there was no escaping this life. Not that he had much of a problem with it. Author's Note Anyone else agree that the ending to this chapter had a sort of 'Avengers' feel to it? What do you guys think? Should I... A:) End the story here and tell the rest in a sequel Or B:) Continue with the story, but move onto Act II of the story? Leave your answer in the comments below! Act II, Chapter 1: The SyndicateKat drove her car over to the Observatory where Alex said Vanoss and his crew were being held. "So, Ms. Anderson. How did your conversation with Commander Walker go?" Zera asked. While Kat respected Zera's caring and straightforward attitude, she was not in as much of a mood to speak. "Alex said he isn't ready for romance yet. He hasn't even thought about it once." Kat replied. "Perhaps he really isn't. To go through something like Alex's situation is not one I would wish on anyone. My sensors indicate that, while psychologically beneficial, a relationship would only deter any progress on this misadventure." Zera figured. "You really know how to make me feel better, Zera." Kat said sarcastically. "Hold on, I just downloaded schematics for the building, and I have a plan for this." Zera perked up. "Phone the others, we aren't called 'Team Unity' for nothing. We need this plan to work!" Kat ordered. "Already sent the texts." Zera said. But how? She didn't even have a phone... "How did you- oh, right, android." Kat realized mid-sentence. Kat's phone buzzed, receiving a text. Opening up her phone, she saw a highly detailed map of the observatory, along with sniping positions, suspected locations for Evan and his crew, orders, everything. Moving along to her GPS, she marked the best parking space nearest the best vantage point, a small hill overlooking the entire building. She drove up near the overlook, went over to the trunk of the car, and opened it, revealing a very heavily modified Barrett M82 .50 BMG sniper rifle, equipped with an ice-like bipod, a bayonet that could change into a grappling hook, flame decals and incendiary bullets, as well as two keys on either side of the scope meant to summon Sentinels, metallic bird-like creatures that had most in common with Nevermores in Remnant. She laid down in her spot while Zera moved over to the northwestern side of the building, out of sight from many of the Syndicate's men. She looked through the scope. Safety on, of course, and saw Twilight and the former bearers of the Elements of Harmony went into their respective corners of the structure like spokes on a wheel. Team RWBY were riding a helicopter above the Observatory, ready to jump out of the helicopter and into the ensuing battle. Alex, she saw, was walking right into the Observatory, as planned, ready to attack on Zera's cue. The cue, she remembered, was the word 'Knightfall'. That was the signal that said Alex, Kat, and the Elements should start attacking. The cue word for Team RWBY and Zera to attack was only if they needed backup, a signal given by Alex, his code word was 'Bishop'. Looking back to her cellphone, her first targets were the ones guarding sites A, with Alex's being B and the Elements' being C. Aiming right for a patrolman's neck, she awaited her signal. Alex walked into the main entrance, ready to attack the Observatory on Zera's signal. He was immediately greeted by guards. "You must be Mr. Walker, so nice for you to join us!" One introduced. "Why are you wearing the armor?" The other asked. "It's a dangerous world, can't be too cautious." Alex replied. "We have orders to take the bounty as soon as you get here." The first said. "How about you tell me where my friends are, then you get your bribe." Alex replied. "Of course! Your friends are being held in the room where the Telescope is. It isn't that far away." Alex awaited Zera's order still. Suddenly, his earpiece chimed in. "Knightfall." The voice said. Two shots were fired above them, and both guards looked around for the source. His MG emitted a sharp beeping noise before shooting the guards, killing them both. "Roger, HVIs are in site C!" Alex said as soon as the second guard died. "Noted, sending Elements to site C immediately, Alex, go assist them, keep the others away from them!" Zera ordered "Understood. On my way." Alex replied, leaping high above the site and killing anyone in his way. His Machine gun roared with fire, killing anyone he missed while killing more Syndicate men with the BR he stole from the guards in Vale. Sniper fire killed what Alex and his MG missed, spurts of blood leaping from their bodies and crumpling to the ground in a useless heap. Alex crashed on top of more soldiers, deactivating the machine gun and shooting them with the Battle Rifle, killing most of his enemies with ruthless efficiency. Reloading a mag into said BR, he killed any survivors of the attack, unloading 32 rounds of 7.89 mm (Remnant's equivalent to a 7.62) into them, resulting in agonizing death. He immediately saw the Elements, and they were struggling. 'That's what you get when you and your friends are mostly pacifists,' Alex thought bitterly as he pulled out .44 Scratch, killing their opponents with relentlessly accurate shots, making full use of each shot. "You ponies sure know how to handle yourselves in a battle scenario." Alex scoffed sarcastically. "Don't blame us, war in Equestria is next to unheard of, it's not like we get much practice, unlike you." Twilight retorted. Ignoring the insult, he turned around, only to find dozens of Syndicate Mercs fast-roping in from above them. Alex pressed a button on his suit, opening up compartments filled to the brim with laser-guided missiles. Launching them all, he blew up most of the helicopers, burnt hunks of metal crashing to the earth as the mercenaries dodged the destroyed vehicles as try plummeted to the earth below. More trucks drove up, most of them armored cars, and started shooting at Alex, only for the bullets to ricochet off of him and into several buildings around him. "Get Vanoss! I'll deal with them!" Alex ordered his on/off allies. They ran in direction of the telescope as Alex reactivated his Machine Gun, loaded his Grenade Launcher, and rose hell on his combatants. Twilight and the others ran into a few lingering foes, with her using attack spells, Rainbow flying them high above the ground and simply dropping them or punching them, Applejack bucking them far away from the area, Rarity levitating sewing needles and flinging them at the enemies, or knocking them out with a hard punch, Pinkie distracting them long enough for the others to attack, and Fluttershy... Twilight looked back at her meek friend, she was crying in the corner, mortified by the chaos around her. She levitated Fluttershy along, even though kindness had no place in a situation like this. They eventually made their way to the Telescope room, opening the door and finding more guards inside, along with Vanoss and his friends. A man in a fancy looking suit and slicked black-and-grey hair looked back at them, looking rather confused. "What am I looking at here? Horses are coming to rescue these men?" The man giggled at the mere sight of them. Rainbow seethed at the comment. "Oh yeah?!" Rainbow yelled as he flew head on at the man... ...And rose a hand, which glowed a bright yellow, and held Rainbow Dash in place. "Pfft... You are NOTHING TO ME!!!" He yelled as he tossed her friend aside like a rag doll. Fluttershy immediately flew to help her friend up. "Kill these men!" He ordered, levitating them up as he walked right past them, dropping them as soon as he left the room. "No!" Twilight rose a hoof in an effort to save her friends. The guards shot them all in the head, killing them all. "Buck! Evan!" Rainbow gasped. The room was silent. They won. Their friends were dead. The room was then bursting with gunfire, the six ducked in an effort to try and save themselves, when Twilight finally looked up, the men were dead, with Vanoss and his friends climbing in through the windows. "You're alive!" Rarity gasped. "But...how?" Applejack asked suspiciously. "You guys do know that we respawn, like, a block away, right?" Mini replied. "These assholes didn't!" Wildcat chuckled. "But, seriously though. You guys went to rescue us, didn't you?" Terroriser asked them. "Of course, silly filly!" Pinkie cheered. "Really? That's not even how you say that! It's like how Nogla says 'hockin' a dookie'!" Wildcat practically died laughing. "You! Yellow one! You seem really familiar..." Basically tried to recall where he had seen her before. "Wait, how's Alex doing?" Rainbow asked, checking her earpiece. "AAAAAAH SHIT!!! BISHOP!!' BISHOP!!! C'MON! SOMEBODY HELP!!!!" Alex yelled in a panic. "He seems to be doing so well!" Delirious rolled his eyes. "There's no time to waste! We have to help him! Let's go!" Twilight ordered as the other Elements and Evan's crew followed her. Alex was not having fun. He was being attacked by way more troops that even he could handle and called for help. Immediately, Team RWBY fell in to assist, explosions and ice structures all around him as they fell and continued their assault. Zera ran in, sang in a mechanized voice, and held a large sword that glowed a bright blue. Kat was not far off, firing sniper rounds and killing anyone she could. The elements attacked them next, violet bolts of magic flying right past him, a rainbow blur knocking several men out of the way, others being kicked upwards, to name some attacks. Vanoss and his crew ran in last, shooting at the opponents ruthlessly, blood flying high into the air and killing them. More troops fast-roped in, others drove in tanks and other assorted military equipment, even the police attacked, shooting at them and their enemies. "I have a plan! Get in a circle around me!" Twilight ordered. Everyone did as they were told, Alex knew exactly what she was planning. The attack was relentless, enemies seemed to come in from everywhere. "Why is no one helping!" Asked Droidd, very worried about the attack around them. "If you've got a plan, you better get to it!" Blake yelled, shooting at anyone she could. "GET OVER HERE!" Vanoss screamed, stealing Gambol Shroud from Blake and skewering a cop. "HEY!" She yelled as Vanoss yanked back, pulling the officer and slicing him up. Blake stole it back from Vanoss, looking very pissed at him. "Don't ever do that again!" She ordered. The more enemies swarmed in around them, the tighter the circle became. "Okay, I worked up enough magic to get us out of here! Hang on!" Twilight yelled as a violet glow enveloped Team Unity. Alex ducked down as the ground fell from under them and the sky above caved in on itself. When Alex blinked again, there they all were, on top of the Maze Bank building. They all fell to the ground, exhausted, especially Twilight, who casted the spell that teleported all twenty-three members of Team Unity, an impressive feat, even for an Alicorn. Alex watched as, from the distance, a large cloud of smoke enveloped the once-peaceful building. Surely the cops and the Syndicate were all killing each other. "Who were those guys?" Kat asked, gasping for breath. "The Syndicate, they're responsible for most of the professional crime in Los Santos." Vanoss breathed. "That guy's name, the guy in the suit, is Rufio Vincent, he's basically their boss or some shit." Wildcat gasped through his pig mask. "He's the one who called me and told me you guys were captured, he said he wanted $500,000 or something ridiculous like that." Alex added to what he knew. "That guy?! He threw me into a wall!" Rainbow scoffed. "He possessed some sort of levitation ability similar to unicorn magic." Twilight explained further. "That can only mean one thing..." Alex's voice trailed off. Rufio was not a happy guy. He never was, nor would he ever be. Events like tonight only angered him further. He grasped the amethyst hued communication beacon, bearing the black mark of the Inquisitors, a dark silhouette with red eyes, bearing a silver scythe and a golden scale. He pressed the button on the side. "What is it, Gamma?" A raspy voice asked. "Sigma's target? I found him." Rufio responded. "Ah, I see. I'll be sure to tell her." The voice replied. "I understand, sir." Rufio nodded. "It appears The Red Star's formation will come a little early, ready your men, Gamma!" The voice ordered. "Yes, Alpha." He sighed. "Sigma's target... He interests me... I will come also." Alpha concluded. "Yes, Alpha." The transmitter stopped, and Rufio put it away. "The Great War has been set in motion. Time to... Prioritize." Rufio scowled. Author's Note So begins Act II. I considered having, like, a vote. But due to the fact that that nobody reads my blogs anyway and there are apparently rules against setting these up in Group Forums, I decided to choose myself, so, here we are. Act II, Chapter 2: Another PlanAlex had all of Team Unity at his apartment after that battle. With the intent to discuss what to do about The Syndicate, Alex soon found the group getting hopelessly off-track. "-So then, Delirious got out of that creepy-ass costume and we had to check the cameras..." Vanoss continued his long-winded story about his 'Five Nights at Freddy's' Gmod adventure. "Weren't we supposed to be talking about those guys who captured you and held you for ransom?" Weiss clearly had as much interest on the subject as Alex did. "Oh, yeah!" Delirious jumped up a little, as if realizing the reason why they were even having the meeting in the first place. "As interesting as it was, I'm afraid Ms. Schnee is correct. We have to focus on the current threat at hand. There will be time to talk about our previous misadventures later, Vanoss." Zera calmly replied. "True, those guys were tough! Even I had trouble fighting them, there were so many." Alex recalled. "Yeah, I wonder if those cops managed to hold their own against them." Rainbow sighed. "Do you think we need any backup? I do know a few wizards." Kat asked. "We don't know if they'd even consider helping us. As far as I'm concerned, we're all we've got." Alex asserted. "Commander Walker may be correct. Keep in mind that your friends were in the same guild as those that turned against you, and as the saying goes, 'Birds of a feather flock together'." Zera agreed. "So what's the plan?" Basically asked. "We have to investigate as to why these men are choosing to target us. We've only been here about, what? Five days? There's gotta be something behind all this." Alex decided. "But what about Rufio? If he finds us before we know what's going on, we're all going down in your shit." Mini explained. "It's obvious that this guy is an Inquisitor. According to a certain someone that I know, Inquisitors almost always have some kind of special ability and are usually leaders of some type of group, and Mr. Vincent just so happens to meet and exceed that criteria." Alex replied. "But we're severely out-ponied! How are we ever going to survive this?" Rarity started to panic. "Calm down! I'm sure he knows what to do, so what's your plan?" Yang asked. "The way I see it, we've got two fugitives, ten idiots, six magical horses, four schoolgirls who happen to know how to kill so well that it's borderline Yandere-like, and one android. Zera is going to try and tap all the phone lines to see what they're planning, Team RWBY, Kat, and Myself are going to try and kill the SOB before he can screw us all over, the Elements are going to have to try and put the pieces that we give them together, and Vanoss's crew are gonna root out and kill anyone in the Syndicate and buy as much equipment as humanly possible. Sound like a plan?" Alex planned out. "The chances of success are about... 87.61%" Zera calculated. "What's the other 12.29?" Twilight asked. "The likelihood of this plan failing and every last one of us dying an awful death, of course!" Zera replied cheerfully. "That's a lot better than we usually do." Moo figured. "Are you ready, kids?" Vanoss asked. "Aye, aye, captain." Nogla said. "Aye, aye, Vanoss." Wildcat replied at that exact moment. "I can't hear you-" Vanoss said before he was so rudely interrupted. "AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN!!!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Jesus!" Vanoss scolded. "Well, then. It's settled." Alex concluded calmly, in vast contrast to his teammates. "Already tapping phone lines in the immediate Los Santos and Blaine County areas, sir!" "Meeting adjourned!" Kat announced. Everyone except Alex and Kat left the apartment, Alex lived here, but he wasn't fully sure about why Kat stayed. "Do you wanna talk, Alex?" Kat asked him. "Sure. Any topics?" Alex asked her. "I've been meaning to ask, what's up with you and Yang?" Kat wondered. "It's a long story." Alex responded. "I have plenty of time." Kat assured him. "Okay. So I was training one day, and because of my apparent nightmares, I didn't sleep the night before, but I didn't tell anyone." Alex began his tale. "Why not?" Kat asked. "I was sure everyone kinda already knew. But anyways, Yang throws me into a bush and asks why I wasn't telling anyone anything, so I just... Told her everything." Alex explained. "Anything else?" "As soon as I mentioned Inquisitors, she had us go to Patch for some secret mission regarding a 'friend'." Alex finished. He didn't want to give away a whole lot. "She knew about them?" Kat asked. "Enough that she felt it was necessary to have us sent to some random island." Alex answered, rolling his eyes. "I see." "And what's your story? I know you told me something about a Guild, what's the story behind that?" Alex asked a question of his own. "Oh! You mean them!" Kat realized. Kat began explaining her own interdimesional escapades when Zera called Alex. "Hello?" Alex asked. "Greetings Commander. I do not wish to waste your time so I shall go straight to the point." Zera said. "Go on." "Vanoss, H20 Delirious, and Lui Calibre are currently under attack by Syndicate hit men." She explained. "Where?" "About now, they are near the Ammu-Nation by the overpass south of here." Zera replied. "How are they holding up?" Alex asked. "I hacked into the microphones on their cell phones, you tell me." Zera sighed as the line disconnected and reconnected elsewhere. "We've got two choppers on us, three choppers!" Lui yelled, firing a machine gun. "Delirious! Drive!" Vanoss screamed. "AAAAAAHHH!" The line disconnected again and reconnected to Zera. "Case in point. I should probably help." Alex grumbled. "Yes, You should." Zera said in annoyance as the phone hung up. "Well then!" Alex scoffed, putting on some battle gear he purchased from a clothing store, as well as a heavy bulletproof vest, grabbed a pair of sunglasses and his Battle Rifle and left for his garage, Kat not too far behind. The garage was pretty impressive, Super cars, motorcycles, and armored trucks of some varieties inside. "What should we take?" Kat asked. "Get in the Insurgent and take the wheel!" Alex ordered. "Okay! Sheesh!" Kat rose her hands in defense, walking in the car while Alex got in the gunner. No, this was not the same one he drove to on their previous mission, that was destroyed, he still owed Vanoss $500. "Where to?" Kat asked as soon as they pulled out of the garage. "The highway near that Ammu-Nation to the south, please." Alex informed her. They drove off in the direction the police helicopters were going. This was not going to end very well. For the Syndicate's men, at least. Author's Note Well, here's a short chapter. Anyways, I should have the next chapter up in a little while, so yeah. Act II, Chapter 3: The ChaseKat eventually got herself and Alex to that overpass. Upon reaching that location, It was pretty easy to see Vanoss and the others being chased by several black and red cars. "Are those Syndicate cars?" Kat asked Alex, who was reaching back up to the turret on top of the truck. "I'd think so, that's Lui shooting them." Alex replied. A look further up the road confirmed his theory, as she saw a monkey firing a machine gun while smoking a cigar. Definitely Lui. "Okay, drive up next to Vanoss and tell him to tell Delirious to get his ass on the gunner position!" Alex ordered. "What about you? What are you gonna do?!" Kat asked. "Lay some hate." Alex replied, grabbing his battle rifle and leaping from the truck. Kat figured he would be fine, he had done stupider things in the past, until then, she may as well follow orders. Alex leapt off the Insurgent and onto another car, a grey sedan. The driver started yelling at him while he was searching for a Syndicate car. Found one! It was a few cars ahead, the passenger shooting what appeared to be a M1927 Thompson. Alex leapt from one car to the next, which was rather difficult given he was on a highway, leaping from car to car at 80 mph. Whilst gripping the top of a car, he shot one of the Syndicate car's tires. The tire didn't explode. Of course they were bulletproof. What about the windows? Climbing to the top of a minivan, he aimed his BR in the direction of the driver, and fired one shot, intended to hit the back of his head. The bullet pierced through the back window and the car skidded to the right, and slammed into a roadblock. A nearby explosion indicated that Delirious and Lui were making short work of the remaining cars, blowing them up seconds after he killed the driver. Damn! A Syndicate car smashed directly into the minivan he was riding, and the driver as well as the passenger were shooting at him. Firing at the engine, he tried to hold them back a little. One look past and he saw about six more Syndicate cars and possibly a red and black helicopter. Alex grabbed his cell phone and called Delirious and Lui. "I don't mean to alarm you, but they have a chopper after us, would you kindly SHOOT IT DOWN BEFORE IT KILLS US ALL?!" Alex yelled, panicking a little. They both hung up on him. "Of course, what else was gonna happen?" Alex sighed, annoyed with the cutoff. Alex resorted to firing grenades at the Syndicate cars, and accidentally blew up a few other cars in the process. And the one he was standing on was currently in flames. He leaped off, and the minivan exploded a few meters away. What's worse is that the Syndicate hit-men stopped in front of him, stepped out of their cars, and shot at him. Alex retaliated by shooting grenades at the cars, blowing them up in a fireworks show of orange and blue, for he still had plenty of grenades from the SCAR. The hit men still shot at him, and Alex was aware that his bulletproof vest's condition was worsening, and fast. "Alex! Do you read? I repeat, Alex, do you copy, over!" a voice from his earpiece beckoned. "Yeah! I'm in a bit of trouble! Syndicate hit men have me cornered!" Alex yelled, calling out to one of his comrades. "I'm on my way, hang in there, kid!" the voice responded. Alex wasn't sure who it was he was communicating with, his earpiece was that damaged, he should probably have someone repair it. But that was beside the point. Alex kept shooting until he ran out of bullets, and when he went to reload, he found that there wasn't a single mag left. In response, he threw it at his enemies, distracting them while pulling out .44 Scratch, killing as many as he could. As soon as he began reloading, a bullet pierced his left arm, the pain was excruciating. "AAGH! DAMN IT!" He screamed in pain as he literally took his thumb and pointer finger and dug into his arm, pulling out the bullet and throwing it to the ground. Alex grasped a Thompson that had been dropped near him and shot back with his right arm only as his left hung limp at his side. It was around that moment when someone in a bright yellow motorcycle landed between him and his assailants, using an Uzi submachine gun in tandem with very powerful blasts from a gauntlet. The rider holstered the Uzi and reached out to him, he recognized her immediately. "Hi, Yang. Thanks for coming." He nodded as he got on the motorcycle. "Zera told me to, she said I was closest to you. Where are Vanoss and the others?" She asked. "They should be further up ahead." Alex responded, then he noticed something. There was no way to ride this thing and not have it feel awkward. Oh, who cares? He grasped Electric Fury, converted it into it's rail gun mode, and had it pointed behind him in case Syndicate hit men were to attack from behind, all the while trying to hang on with only his legs. 'Don't think about it, don't think about it.' Alex repeated this mantra in his head, as he would have to throughout this next part of the mission. Kat was still on the highway, and the view had changed from an urban landscape to a more lush and inviting view, and now it was more or less an arid desert. Delirious knocked twice on the ceiling, demanding her attention. "Drive up to this overpass and make a left!" Delirious said. Kat did as Delirious instructed, only to find more desert. From what she knew, there was a small town just up ahead, as well as the prison. "Vanoss and Lui are pulling into the airport, let's stop here." Delirious calmly said, relieved that most of the Hit-men were dead. Kat pulled up next to Vanoss's Insurgent, put the large truck in park, and exited the car, Delirious had also gotten out of the car and was not far off. "Hey, Kat. You ok?" Vanoss asked. "Don't worry about it, what's the plan?" Kat asked. "I just thought of something a while ago." Vanoss said. "What?" Kat asked, curiosity getting the better of her. "You know about the Humane Labs raid, right?" Lui asked her. "Oh, yeah. Nogla told me about that." "You know how we used an EMP to shut down all their stuff, right?" Delirious continued. "Yeah, why?" "We figured we should probably get ourselves one of those, put it in Alex's weird ass pocket thing." Vanoss said. "Where are we going to get one?" Kat asked. "Same place we got the last one, on a navy boat, from a jet." Lui answered. "How would you even know where to find an EMP?" "We asked Zera. She said there were about two that were somewhere on the map, the first option was the navy boat, and the other one is the one we used, which is in the FIB building, hidden in a vault." Vanoss responded. "Well, I'd ask everyone if I were you." Kat recommended. "We'll bring it up in the next meeting." Delirious shrugged. "No need." A voice said behind them all. Kat looked back, and saw Alex and Yang. "Oh, hey man, where ya been? Secret mission?" Lui asked. "No, I had to save Alex for, like, the second time already." Yang answered. Kat noticed something kinda funny, Alex was blushing a little bit. "You okay, Alex? You're looking a little red." Kat smirked. Alex then muttered something about 'stupid puberty' and sat down on the hood of one of the Insurgents. Kat looked over in that general direction, where a yellow motorcycle had been neatly parked next to the trucks, and suddenly everything made sense. "Oooooh. I get it!" Kat couldn't help but laugh a little bit. "Shut up." Alex sighed, embarrassed. "Oh! I see what she's thinkin'!" Delirious could barely finish the sentence before laughing rather hard. "Shut up, Delirious, I saw your 'GTA V Gay Adventures' video!" Vanoss taunted. That sentence alone had thrown pretty much everyone into a laughing fit, except Delirious and Alex, for obvious reasons. "Calm down, man! We're all friends here!" Yang comforted, still laughing. "Ha ha. Not in the mood." Alex rolled his eyes. "I have a plan." Vanoss said, tossing a C4 at Delirious's feet, and blew him about 10 meters up in the air. "NOOOOO!" Delirious screamed at the top of his lungs. Vanoss and Lui had started laughing again, not before another C4 had been thrown at Vanoss's feet and detonated. Alex began laughing, holding a detonator in his right hand. "NO! DELIRIOUS!!!" Vanoss immediately blamed. "That was Alex!" Lui corrected, laughing. "So what happened, anyway?" Kat asked. "So I drove up to Alex, and picked him up." "I had to sit behind her." "I told him to hold on." "When they say 'keep your hands north of the equator', they never clearly state how far north you go." Alex said, blushing again. "He thought he went too far up and just froze." Yang continued. "I fell off the motorcycle." Alex admitted. "Oooooh! I thought he did something else!" Delirious realized. "Why, what did you think- oh, wait, don't tell me." Yang stopped herself just in time. "Dude! I'm fifteen!" Alex scolded. "And that deserves a-" Vanoss said before shooting Delirious in the head with a marksman pistol. "GOD DAMMIT VANOSS!!!!" Delirious yelled. "So, we're clear, like, the plan?" Alex asked. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Okay, everyone drive home, I'm walking." Alex said. Yang grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "Nah! You're coming with me, don't fall off this time, okay?" Yang teased. "Don't remind me." Alex replied, annoyed. Author's Note Zip Zop Zoobity chapter. The next chapter should be out soon. And, yes, this is actually important to the story. No, I'm too lazy to add a Romance tag, so unless I change my mind, this is as far as it's going. Yes, I learned from my time in the fandom that there will be ships, even though I'm sure that this story won't gain enough publicity for fan art, but ships are bound to happen at some point. Will I have cover art? That remains to be seen, but I can't pay for it with actual money, why? Reasons. Act II, Chapter 5, The Aircraft Carrier Heist; Part II of III"We're here!" Vanoss and Nogla were the first two to actually get out of the dinghy and into the Aircraft Carrier. "Gotcha, I don't think I see anybody. You guys should be good if you keep quiet." Rainbow Dash said. She was currently flying around 10,000 feet above the ship, not detectable by their radar and still visible. Vanoss had said that the dinghy wasn't so small that it was undetectable, but it was small enough to be confused for something innocent, like some driftwood, explaining why it was so cramped in there. "C'mon, Alex!" Wildcat urged, pulling out a .50 Caliber pistol and climbed off the boat. "Here's the plan. Alex, wait on that balcony and clear out anyone on the next floor that you can on my signal." Vanoss whispered. Alex simply nodded in reply as he got into position. "Okay, Operation Flying Tank is complete, let us know when to come over there." Delirious said through the radio. "Zera, are you 100% sure that this channel is secure?" Alex asked. "Yes, I'm 95.6667% that this channel is secure." The android replied. "That's it?" Alex asked "There are a couple hackers on that ship just chipping away at the firewalls, It should hold out." Zera responded. "Well, ok then." Vanoss, Wildcat and Nogla stood at the bottom of the stairwell, running through the plan again. "Okay, Nogla, do a numbers crunch." "There's about .33% chance of success going up the stairs." Nogla replied. "That's a lot better than we usually do." "Times up, let's do this!" Wildcat shouted. "Tyler!" Nogla yelled, enraged. "LEEROOOOOY JEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIINSSS!!!!!!" Wildcat yelled. "Alex! Go!" Vanoss ordered. "'Bout time." Alex muttered as he initiated the jump-jets. Rearing up for the 25 meter jump, he activated his Shoulder Mounted MG and set it for... 1987 RPM! Looking up to clarify, he extended his legs in a large jump and activated his jump-jets in the span of about a second and flew up to where he needed to go. The soldiers looked behind them in disbelief as they saw Alex in full Scarab Mk. III Armor. "Holy shit! Open fire!!" The sergeant ordered as the dozens of troops shot at him. Each shot merely bounced off the armor, the impact lighting up in a flash of orange, explosive rounds. The MG ripped the men in front of him to shreds before moving onto the soldiers further back, the MG sounding much like a buzz saw as dozens of rounds zipped through the helpless victims like butter. When all was said and done, the soldiers were dead as the floor was a red mess. Alex tapped the button on the headset. "Evan, the second floor is secure. Where are you?" Alex asked. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! WE'RE ON THE SECOND FLOOR!! YOU'RE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE RUNWAY!!!" Vanoss yelled. "... Well shit." Alex ran down the stairs and killed anyone inside brutally, the machine gun was still going strong. He was surprised that the barrel hasn't melted yet. Grabbing one of the corpses that were still in one piece, Alex charged down the stairs to the... 4th floor?! How high had he jumped? Looking back at the meter, he had set the leap to... 1,987 feet. Then what was the rate of fire on the machine gun?! He checked that, and it said that the gun was going at 2211 rounds per minute. Well, that was ridiculous. "We found an elevator leading to the runway! It's another floor up, so we need you to keep the entrance to the elevator on the runway safe so we actually make it all the way up!" Nogla said. "Good thinking, I'm moving in!" Alex assured them. He wouldn't fail them this time! He ran back up the stairs to find that there were more SEALs and a couple Marines blocking his path, all bearing Carbine Rifles. "Hands up! Disable that sentry gun!" One of the soldiers ordered. "Why should I?" Alex asked innocently. "Disable the suit or we'll do it for you!" "And how would you do that?" Alex asked scathingly. "With this." Two of the soldiers walked into the room with what he assumed was the EMP. "And what, pray tell, is that?" Alex asked, though he already knew the answer. "The EMP your friends want from us. Disable the suit, or we activate this thing and the whole ship is without power!" Alex noticed the red and black markings on the SEAL's right arm, and the crimson hawk on the left. "You're one of Vincent's men." Alex deduced. "Who is this guy talking about, Lieutenant?" Another one of them asked. The Lieutenant shot them all with the Carbine Rifle he was carrying. "I'm surprised you figured me out, Walker." The Lieutenant complimented. "Who are you?" Alex asked. Alex suddenly heard what sounded like gunfire from upstairs. "Oh, that's disappointing. You can't even help your friends. We're hearing them die right now, do you know that?" The Lieutenant smirked. "You're forgetting something." Alex said. "And what is that, Huntsman?" "That we respawn." Someone said from behind him. Vanoss ran up the stairs behind him, pointing an Assault Rifle at The Lieutenant. "So this is what's keeping you from saving our asses, now who the hell is that?" Vanoss asked. "If you must know..." The Lieutenant said. He pulled out a dieselpunk-esque gas mask and what looked like a World War II flamethrower, putting on both and glaring at Vanoss menacingly. "... I am Scarecrow." Vanoss put on his owl mask as well as a heavy looking utility vest and a bulletproof vest, putting a brass knuckle on his right hand as he aimed his Assault Rifle at Scarecrow. "I got this bitch, get the EMP to Tyler and Nogla." Vanoss ordered. Alex nodded and sprinted to the EMP, evading branches of fire and narrowly avoiding being roasted alive. Vanoss swung hard at Scarecrow, knocking him in the back of the head before firing a plethora of bullets at his chest, each one bouncing off a metallic vest at his chest. Alex ran up the stairs carrying the EMP device as Vanoss and Scarecrow continued to battle below him. Priming his machine gun for a devastating attack, he broke down the door and saw Wildcat and Nogla taking cover behind a pile of crates. He put down the EMP next to him and aimed at the enemy targets. The resulting maelstrom of bullets zipped through their targets and into the walls of the tower behind them, their blood splattering on the blacktop and seeping off the side of the ship. "Took you long enough, where's Evan?" Wildcat asked. "He's occupied, but I got 'em. Take the EMP and get it in the Hydra and get the hell away from here." Alex ordered. Wildcat grabbed the EMP with both hands and lugged it over to the jet. Nogla went looking around for a jet closest to the runway so he could cover him. Sure, they had hit a roadblock named Scarecrow, but they were so close to completing their mission. "I just thought of something!" Wildcat shouted before getting the EMP in the jet. "What?" Alex asked him. "They'll be expecting the EMP on the hydra, right?" Wildcat asked. "Yeah." "Let's just put it in the pocket thing now! I can jump out when the bad guys are off me!" Wildcat explained. "That is actually a decent plan." Alex admitted, dumbfounded. "Well, get it out then and put the fockin' thing in!" Nogla urged. Alex grabbed the pocket dimension and opened it, all that remained was the dossier on his case and a few extra bits lying about. As Wildcat threw the EMP into the Pocket Dimension, Alex wondered how Evan was exactly doing... "I know that look, what are you planning?" Rainbow asked. "You'll see..." Evan swung again at Scarecrow, knocking him down again. This guy was near unstoppable, almost like Alex... Or him. He needed an advantage against this guy. He had a flamethrower, better training, an epic mask... Wait a second. He had a flamethrower. Vanoss remembered his secret play-through of the CoD World At War Campaign. He tried to remember what Russian Gary Oldman had told him. "Do you see the flamethrowers? A single shot will incinerate anyone nearby. You must choose your moment." Evan swung at him with the Knuckle Duster again, and kicked him hard for good measure. Pulling out the Marksman Pistol, he aimed for one of the large tanks, ran backwards, and pulled the trigger. Gary Oldman was right! The explosion was able to ensure that Scarecrow wasn't going anywhere for a while! He walked toward Scarecrow and gripped him by the throat. "What the hell is going on here! I heard what Alex said! What are you planning?!" Vanoss interrogated. Scarecrow coughed. "You fool. I was just here to distract you so the real work could begin." Scarecrow gasped. "What do you mean?!" Scarecrow pressed a button on his shoulder. "Operative Scarecrow to Beta, I distracted the Owl and The Hydra is leaving." "Good work," a voice from the other end said, "your job is done." "Thank you, Beta." Scarecrow gasped for breath and expired. He was dead. And Vanoss was running up the stairs. Alex watched as the Hydra and the Laser took off and flew towards the Airport in Blaine County. "Alex!" Vanoss yelled. "What?" He asked. "Is the EMP on the Hydra?" "... The EMP was destroyed." Alex grumbled. He heard what Scarecrow had said, and he had it covered, now he needed to convince Vanoss as well as any Inquisitor that dared to listen in. "Damn it!" They both watched as two rockets blew up the two jets. Alex stood in silence. "What now?" Vanoss asked him. "Get to the boat." Alex replied after a moment. "What?!" "Get to the Dinghy. Get back to shore." Alex ordered. Vanoss ran down the stairs nearby, Alex watching as he did so. "Smart to turn away your friend like that." A young woman said behind Alex. "Sigma..!" Alex growled. Said Inquisitor was standing behind him, swords drawn. "Listen, I need an Inquisitor out of the way, and you're going to play along." Sigma said. "Let me guess, you want the satisfaction of being the strongest, and whoever is after me is in your way." Alex concluded. "Something like that, which is why I need your help." Sigma nodded. "You're insane if you think I'm going to help you! After everything you did... After killing my parents!" Alex glared back. "We can kill each other all we want when this is over, but for right now, if either of us wants the other dead, we have to kill Beta first." Sigma reasoned. "Sound reasoning, you dirty traitor." A deeper voice bellowed from behind them. Alex turned around to find a heavily armored super-soldier type of guy carrying a heavy steel Zweihander. "Beta." Sigma glared. "I see both you and your target teaming up against an official inquisitor, not to mention Second-in-Command. Whose side are you even on, Sigma?" "As long as I kill him, I get my bounty." Sigma defended. "Alpha will not allow it, and as for you," Beta pointed the heavy sword at Alex. "Not only are you an official target for the Inquisition, you are the prophesied Catalyst. Someone who must not be allowed to exist for too long!" Beta growled. "Piss off!" Alex shot back. Literally. The shoulder mounted MG fired everything it had at the highest rate of fire he could in hopes of killing him swiftly. Beta merely watched as the bullets bounced off his armor and he swung at the gun, ripping it off his shoulder and falling to the ground. "That was a bad move, Catalyst. Prepare to die!" Author's Note Such chapter, much wow. Anyways, Part III should be out in about a day or two, hang in there. Act II, Chapter 6: The Aircraft Carrier Heist, Part III of IIIAlex grabbed .44 Scratch and Electric Fury. Spinning them in a flourish, he cocked both revolvers and fired them, Beta lurched back in time to avoid the bullets. Alex saw Sigma leaping high behind Beta, bracing himself for a death blow, only to find that Sigma attacked Beta and had him in a blade lock. As soon as Sigma tried to attack Beta with a free blade, Beta punched Sigma and grasped her by the wrist. "You are in no condition to fight me, I'll deal with you after the boy." Beta glared at Sigma before tossing her aside. Alex fired both revolvers at Beta again, aiming for anything that looked like a weak spot, until Beta swung his Zweihander and knocked him backwards. "Is that really all you've got, Huntsman?" Beta sneered. "Try me!" Alex roared, aiming a swinging kick towards Beta's helmet. Beta merely blocked the kick and punched him hard. "FIIIIIIRE RAAAAAAAAIN!!!!" Beta yelled, summoning a bright orange disc similar to Weiss's glyphs. Streams of flame soared from above, Alex sprinted over and skidded into the comms tower to avoid the flames before leaping off the side towards Beta. Beta lurched back in time to evade Alex's attack, leaving him skidding to a halt on the ground. "What kind of Semblance was that?!" Alex asked, baffled. "Are you that ignorant? Hasn't Ms. Anderson told you anything?" Beta scoffed. "What does she have to do with any of this?" Red lightning crackled at Alex's fingertips. Beta swung his sword again, he was fast for an armor wearing pyromaniac with a broadsword. Alex kicked and shot whenever he had the opportunity, trying not to let his lightning out, for it would compromise his rocket systems. Beta swung his sword, catching Alex right in the chest and knocking him aside and leaving him hanging from the safety net above the ocean. "Pathetic. I thought this would have been a challenge." Beta shook his head slowly. "What...are you?!" Alex asked. "If you must know, there is more to Ms. Anderson's stay in Fiore. Pitiful that she does not trust you enough to tell you." "He's mine!" Sigma yelled from across the boat, attacking Beta with a flurry of arrows and swords. Sigma was fast, but Alex assumed her injuries would end up getting her killed, hopefully. Alex pulled himself up and snuck behind some crates, he readied the rocket launchers hidden inside the shoulders and chest, and pulled down the rockets on his shoulders, after this, he could be able to unleash the full barrage at Beta and give him the opportunity to attack Beta with his lightning without compromising any more of his systems. He looked at the two fighting inquisitors and aimed every rocket he could at both of them. Unfortunately, Sigma saw him and flipped backwards. "YAHTZEE!!" He yelled, firing every last rocket in his inventory, enveloping the area they were standing with thick smoke. "Is he dead?" Sigma asked. The vague sound of a sword swinging behind him told him that Beta wasn't as dead as Alex would've liked. Alex blocked with both barrels of his guns and kicked hard at his knee. Beta didn't seem to care and kicked him much further away than even Alex was able to. "FIIIIIRE LAAAAAANCE!!!!" Beta yelled, spears of flame flying over and threatening to burn his flesh. Alex raised both hands until branches of lightning crackled from his fingertips and blew up the flaming death branches. "Interesting. You use lightning magic without naming the spells." Beta nodded. "I'll take my Semblance over your magic any day." Alex smiled. Beta swung his weapon at Alex, knocking him down, Alex took the time to convert Electric Fury to it's rail gun form, and shot all six at Beta's chest. Beta shrugged them off, and his weapon glowed bright orange before it revealed a steel-colored pair of short swords. Alex converted his rail gun to it's sword and attacked, swinging at the parts that seemed most vulnerable. Beta kicked him to the ground, and before Beta could deliver a death blow, a strange blue light enveloped him, rendering him somehow unable to move. Sigma leaped, slashing at him with both swords while she had the advantage and quickly evading Beta's strikes. "Doesn't your weapon have another function?" Sigma asked. "That depends, are you going to try and kill me afterward?!" Alex yelled back. He should kill her once Beta is out of commission, then Sigma would be easy pickings afterwards. "Use it!" Sigma yelled back. Alex did as Sigma told, both ends of the blade spinning fast as they could, and Alex struck. The attack proved useless, it was a hologram or an afterimage?! Beta held Sigma by the leg and threw her at him, Alex threw her away and threw lightning balls at him, to no effect. Beta then punched him in the throat, throwing him aside and coughing. "Your 'Semblance' did not defeat me." Beta stated. Alex coughed. "It wasn't supposed to." He gagged. The distant sound of a helicopter was heard, and a barrage of 105mm shells ripped through the air, blowing up in Beta's face. This went on until Alex could no longer see wether Sigma or Beta were even there anymore. The Cargobob Lui was piloting dropped a tank in the smoke, and Delirious climbed out, waving frantically. "That was epic as shit!" Delirious cheered. The helicopter landed nearby, the smoke swirling away as Lui stepped out of the Helicopter. "Yeah! We did it!" Lui smirked, joining Delirious. "Well. Mission accomplished." Alex sat down. "I thought you said the EMP was destroyed!" Delirious was clearly confused. "I'll explain after we get to shore." Alex promised. Alex looked to the right to see Sigma looking over the ocean. She looked him right in the eye. "I'll get my chance to kill you later. For now, at least, don't watch your back." She glared. "I get it, you megalomaniacal prick! You have 5 seconds before we start shooting!" Alex yelled. Sigma rolled her eyes and leaped off the side of the boat. "Alright. Let's go home." Alex said, getting inside the co-pilot's seat. Lui stepped into the pilot's seat and Delirious got in the tank, before Alex knew it, they were on the return trip. "Alpha, sir!" Gamma yelled. "What is it?" Alpha asked. "Beta has fallen at the hands of the boy, and Sigma escaped." Gamma said. "Right, escaped." Sigma scoffed. Alpha merely glared in her direction. "I'll deal with you later, but for now.." Alpha dismissively turned away from Sigma, and towards his other subordinate. "I can't even rely on you to kill one pathetic kid!" Alpha yelled, picking him up and punching him square in the jaw. "Don't pin this on me! It was Sigma who stabbed you in the back!" Gamma choked. "Sigma here was hand-selected by one of our highest donors. Besides, she is too valuable to our cause for me to simply cast her aside... for now." Alpha defended. "It's not his fault, either." A voice sounded behind Gamma. Gamma saw a man in a military uniform, bearing a cracked gas mask and the remains of a flamethrower. "Beta. You haven't died like Gamma had assumed.." Alpha concluded. Sigma didn't say anything, but looked quite dissatisfied with her failure. "Walker and his allies are more skilled than even I expected. Mr. Fong put my best man out of commission, at least for a while. However, the EMP was destroyed in the battle." "That is not the case." Alpha corrected. "What?!" Gamma asked, baffled. "Instead of it being destroyed in the Hydra jet, the boy hid it." Alpha explained. "Clever bastard." Gamma concluded. "So, what now?" Beta asked. "We have no choice, we have to get The Red Star assembled as soon as possible, and see to it that Walker, Fong, Sparkle, Anderson, and Rose do know know what we are doing here." Alpha stated. "They will not, I can promise you that." A mysterious voice said from their right. "Zodiac. I did not expect to see you here." Beta noted. "They won't know what's happening here until it's too late." Zodiac assured. "And why is that?" Gamma asked. "Because I'm working with them." Author's Note If any of you are wondering, this is the only point in the story where Sigma and Alex work together, they're still bitter enemies. What are your opinions in the story now that it's gotten to the point where I have to add another Act just because it's that long. It could be a complicated question, or a very simple one. Feel free to add constructive criticism of any kind. Act II, Chapter 7: Combat TrainingAlex was laying in his bed. He twirled .44 Scratch around, spinning it in a flourish before holstering it once more. It was good to practice that sort of thing. Besides, he was bored. When he last spoke to Yang, she was surprised that he had managed to defeat Beta, and was thunderstruck when she found out that Sigma helped him. To be honest, Alex was disappointed by the encounter, even though they had killed off Beta, Sigma was still alive. He assumed that Sigma was one of those 'if anyone is going to kill him, it has to be me' types, so he should have his chance again soon. He was now looking over a map of Los Santos, a thumbtack over a spot in the ocean which he labeled 'EMP'. He knew he would have more missions in getting what he needed, but first, he needed to figure out what it was he needed. A nuke would be very impractical, as would a nerve agent or a chimera virus, he already had enough military equipment to decimate a small army in a matter of hours thanks to Evan. Alex had heard of 'Atlean Paladins', large mechs made by the Kingdom of Atlas, as that the White Fang had plenty of those. He should consider robbing them for what they had for a few of those. His cellphone buzzed, who could that be? He pulled out the cellphone, and saw that Yang had sent him a text, the description was vague. 'Meet me at the top of the Maze Bank, bring your weapon.' it read. He knew what this was about. Alex put on his Scarab Mk. III Armor, his Atlean Battle Rifle, and Electric Fury, putting .44 Scratch in a safe spot. He walked out of the apartment and into the Elevator, he was alone, as usual. Walking out, he set his armor up for a huge leap that should get him to the top of the tower. His jump-jets were ready, burning the concrete below as he leaped over his apartment complex. Looking out at the massive view of Los Santos, he saw the shape of a girl waving at him. Yang. He set his jump jets to go towards the tower and sped across the sky, skidding into the helipad with ease, putting his BR aside and pulling out Electric Fury, converting into it's sword form and facing the Huntress/Inheritor. "You called?" Alex asked her. "Yep! I bet you know why?" Yang beamed excitedly. "Inheritor training. I remember our deal." Alex answered. "Okay, then! Let's begin with a simple training exercise!" "Which is?" Alex asked. "I need you to go down those stairs, face a wall, and count to 500. I'll be hiding somewhere in the city. After you finish counting, I need you to find me, and if you can, beat me in city-wide combat!" Yang said. "Wonderful. A game of 'hide and go fight'. Any other rules?" Alex asked. "No going north of the city's outer limits, no fighting to the death, and no help. You have to beat me yourself." Yang responded. "Do your teammates know about this?" Alex asked. "I sent them with Vanoss's crew and Twilight's friends to go hang out or whatever, Kat and Zera are with them." Yang replied. "Of course." Alex rolled his eyes. He could only imagine the sheer chaos the bartender must be dealing with. "Okay, get down those stairs and start counting!" Yang ordered. As Alex stepped down the stairs, he heard Yang clear her throat. "Yes?" Alex asked. "One more thing; Hair is off limits." Yang glared. "Okay then. No hair." Alex shrugged, he honestly didn't pay much attention to his hair, it always got burned off or got snagged in his helmet. He'd respect Yang's wishes, but Alex wasn't sure where he should aim, as her golden locks drifted at least down to her back. With Alex down the stairs, he started counting. "One..-" Alex could barely finish before he heard what vaguely sounded like Ember Celica launching the Huntress elsewhere. "This may take a while." 17 minutes later "...497...498...499...500!" Alex finished counting. He leaped down from his perch and rocketed towards the ground. He landed hard on a truck, but his Aura took more damage than Alex himself. Alex looked around. Yang could be anywhere by now! Was there a time limit? Because this would take damn near forever. The rest of Team Unity would be back before Alex found her! Regardless, he walked towards a young girl in her twenties. Yang said nothing about asking for directions. "Excuse me, miss? Have you seen a girl, long blonde hair, about in her late teens? Small brown jacket?" Alex asked. "I saw someone like that, but I don't remember where she went exactly, I think I might need something to jog my memory." She insisted, rubbing her thumb and forefinger together. Materialistic pricks. Alex handed her $25 cash. "Yeah, she was flying around in the direction of the LS Customs." She said. No further evidence needed. He set his jump jets in the direction of the LS Customs. Alex walked inside the car shop, and waved to the proprietor. "Hi. Have you seen a girl in her late teens? Long blonde hair, small brown jacket, gauntlets of death, ring any bells?" Alex asked. "I'm not sure. I think I saw someone like that, but I'm not quite sure..." His voice trailed off, and he rubbed his thumb and pointer finger together. This again?! Alex grabbed a $50 out of his wallet and handed it to him. "Yeah, I've seen her. She said something about an amusement park, wanting to ride a roller coaster or something." He said. "Thank you for your time, sir." Alex nodded. "Come again!" He waved. "Excuse me, have you seen a girl in her late teens? Long blonde hair, brown jacket?" Alex asked the guy operating the roller coaster. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." He replied, rubbing his thumb and pointer together. "Fine, god dammit!" Alex groaned, reaching into his pocket and throwing a $50 and a $20 at him. "Okay, sheesh! I did see her! Said something about a bar afterwards. She also bought a picture we took of her on the ride and asked me to give it to you." He said, handing him a picture. The picture consisted of Yang with her hair flowing back, middle finger extended, with the words 'Find me if you can' written on the front. "Thank you for your time, sir." He said, trying to control his anger. Alex walked into the bar, picture crumpled in his hand, and slammed it on the table. "Has anyone seen this girl?!" Alex asked, pissed beyond belief. "I have, but it'll cost ya." A middle-aged man with black hair stated to his right. "Listen, you. What's your name?!" Alex grasped his collar. "Michael!" He gasped. "Listen here, Michael, I've been looking all damn day, with literally everyone I asked demanding a bribe! I'm completely out of money, so unless you want me to beat you on the damn sidewalk, you'll tell me where she went!" Alex seethed. Alex knew well enough that he wasn't usually like this, but Yang's 'exercise' had really gotten to him. "She said something about a tower..." He gasped. Alex released him, Michael gasping for breath on the seat. "Thank you for your time." Alex nodded, but just as he was leaving, he heard a loud boom and something bounced off the back of his helmet. Alex turned around to see Michael holding a gun up to his head. He merely grasped his gun hand and punched him in the face. "As much as I'd love to kick your ass for that, I really don't have time for this crap." Alex said before leaving the bar. Alex landed on the tower to find the woman of the hour standing on the top of the tower, looking over the view. "About time you showed up!" Yang smiled. "Very funny. Ha ha HA!" Alex wasn't as amused. "Upset because you spent the whole day looking for me? Oh well, I'm gonna split." She teased. "Okay. THAT'S IT!!!" Alex had enough of this crap, and lashed out with Electric Fury. Yang leaped out of the way just in time and was flying away from him. "Gotta go fast!" She yelled. Alex was thoroughly pissed. "GET BACK HERE!!!" He yelled, leaping after her. After he had landed on a construction site, he looked around for the Huntress, who was nowhere to be seen. He peeked around steel frames cautiously, noticing piles of rebar dangling haphazardly above him. "SURPRISE, BITCH!" Yang yelled at the top of her lungs as Alex was hit hard by Ember Celica. Right in the face. Alex reared up an attack and swung with all his might, knocking Yang into a pile of steel beams. Yang got up immediately after and launched herself at him. Alex evaded the attack just in time, Yang skidding across the floor and stopping herself with the steel beams nearby. Alex immediately converted Electric Fury into it's gun form before she could harm him. She launched shell after shell at Alex, who fired back into the blasts, blowing them up in midair before aiming right for her gut. The bullet was met immediately by two shells, one to block and the other for Alex. Alex leaped out of the way, reloaded, and repeatedly shot again and again. Yang seemed to be having a thrill with this fight, and blocked all the bullets with her gauntlets, and went up close. Uh, oh. Yang hit him again and again as Alex tried fruitlessly to defend against such a devastating torrent of flame and buckshot. Once Yang ran out of ammo, Alex's armor was severely damaged, a jump-jet activated and left Alex struggling to balance. This could work. Alex reloaded, and leaped into the air with his good leg, the jump-jet causing him to spin and flip uncontrollably, occasionally hitting Yang and sending her backwards. Yang was fully reloaded. This wasn't good. She punched out his jump-jet and tossed him aside. Alex grasping his injured leg in agony. Using his pain, he fired all six rounds at Yang as fast and as accurate as he could, supercharging his bullets with the little Aura he had left. Yang leaped at him with a rod of rebar and swung it at his leg, she hit it pretty hard and it sent him flying across the room. Alex had to focus his Aura. His leg was likely broken, as it was bent at an awkward angle. What could he do? Alex focused his Aura to his bad leg, it glowed a deep red-violet and straightened up immediately with a loud crack, all pain subsided. "What the?!" Yang asked, baffled. Alex lunged at Yang, firing multiple shots close and reverting it back into sword form, slicing through her blasts. Yang hit him hard in the chest, leaving Alex gasping for air. "Come on, man. Face it, I won." Yang stared at him. Alex lurched up, facing her. "Not yet." He gasped, clutching his chest before focusing his Aura to it. Alex lunged again, a series of punches, kicks, and swings flawlessly meshed together into a formidable attack, Yang could almost barely keep up with him. And for a final attack, he focused his Aura into a blast of lightning that sent her across the room. And disabling his temporary sedation. Alex gasped and screamed in pain, his shattered leg and rib cage were causing him a lot of pain. So much so that he almost couldn't refocus his Aura to his injuries. Alex remembered his hard landing, that hadn't been a temporary painkiller, it was full blown healing, and he used up most of his Aura into it, and Aura took forever to completely regenerate. Long story short, he was in terrible pain. He noticed Yang walking up to him, something sounding vaguely like sounds of pride and encouragement before he passed out. He felt his Aura regenerating again, rather quickly. He could now heal his disastrous wounds. Doing so, he staggered up. Grabbing Electric Fury and reholstering it back into it's proper spot. "Not bad for a trainee. I didn't know your Aura could be used for a painkiller!" She beamed. "Neither did I." Alex replied. "Come on, man. Let's get you back to your apartment." Yang suggested. "Yeah, why not." Alex said, emotionless due to how tired he was. Alex was back in the apartment, watching TV and drinking the closest thing that LS had to offer to a slush. Yang insisted coming over, despite Alex's pleas not to. He just wanted to sleep. "So, Alex." Yang said. "Hmm?" He asked. "I know Kat already talked to you about this, but what's your status, relationship-wise?" Yang asked. "Single." Alex answered. "Are you even thinking about getting a girlfriend?" "Nope." "What about that incident on the motorcycle?" She asked. "That was an accident and you know it!" Alex retorted. "Just teasing you, man. Relax!" She defended. "Okay, then." Alex said apathetically. Silence fell upon the apartment complex until Yang spoke up. "When would be the best time for a date?" She asked. Alex sighed, staring her in the eye. "As soon as this mess is cleared up, and that's if I'm stable enough." Yang seemed a little disappointed. Staring at the TV. "Why do you ask?" Alex said after a while. "Huh?" "About my relationship. Why are you asking?" "I don't know. You seem cool enough, sure you're a little young, but it's normal for couples to be a year or two apart, unless one is 18, then it's probably not okay." "So the customs are at least a little similar." Alex notes. "They're the same in your world?" Yang asks. "Yeah, pretty much." Alex shrugged. "What was it like?" Yang asked. "Earth?" Alex asked, it seemed like a lifetime away now, his old life. "Yeah, tell me about it!" Yang punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Well, to put it simply, nobody is special." Alex replied. "Define special." "Like, nobody had any sort of superpowers, that sort of thing is only in movies and comic books." Alex explained. "Then how come you were able to activate your Aura, by yourself no less?" She asked. "Hell if I know." Alex shrugged. "Sounds boring enough, for you anyway." Yang smiled. "Earth is a lot of things, peaceful is, under no circumstance, one of them. Why do you think I ran off to Ponyville?" Alex asked. "Really?" "Oh yeah, rampant terrorist groups, corrupt governments, and hordes of people who are exactly the same." Alex frowned. "You always felt like you wanted more out of life?" Yang asked. "Precisely. Lemme guess, you felt the same way at one time or another." "Not as bad as you." "Well then." Alex scoffed. "In all seriousness, that's why I became a huntress, I like the feeling of not knowing where I'll be tomorrow." She elaborated. "I'd readily trade my job for yours any day of the week. I don't know what kind of jobs you did in the past, but I'm sure none of them involved leaping through universes being hunted by the same assholes 24/7." Alex said. They continued talking for a while, it was almost one in the morning before Yang left the apartment. "I guess you want me out of your hair, see you around." She waved goodbye and left. Alex staggered downstairs to bed, turned off all the lights, and welcomed sleep with open arms, with one last thought. I literally have the most ridiculous life ever. Act II, Chapter 8: ConfrontationsAlex sat in his apartment.. The rest of Team Unity returned to the city a couple days ago. After an hour long chewing out about how none of them should even be in public, for fear of their enemies closing in and finishing what they started. They found out that they had no idea in mind as to what to do about the Syndicate, he figured they should sit tight until something happened. After all, none of them had any clue as to where they were. Alex wondered again why Sigma would team up with him, especially after killing his friend and threatening to kill the others. She had said that Winchester wasn't the one who hired her, so who was? It was a question that plagued him day and night since Karis's death. That wasn't the point. She agreed to it, she had to die. Horribly. Alex was immediately met by a buzz at his apartment door. Who could that be? Walking over to his door, he pressed a small button and spoke. "Who's this?" Alex asked. "It's Twilight and the others, can we come in?" Twilight asked. "No problem." Alex pressed another button to let his newest allies inside. A minute or two later, Alex was met by the six ponies. "Hi." Alex greeted, he invited them to sit down and have something to drink. "Hello Alex. I bet you know why we're here." Twilight grimly, but calmly stated. "Not really." Alex calmly replied. "We want to know why you've been killing all of these people!" Rainbow Dash blurted out. Ah, he should've expected this. Ponies were typically against violence and bloodshed. Similar in nature to how normal people would react. Regardless, there was a reason behind it. All of it. "Do you think I really had any other choice?" Alex coldly retorted. "What do ya mean?" Applejack questioned. "If I had just accepted my fate and got taken away by those men, I would be dead. If I didn't use Die Glocke to escape, after killing my way to getting there, I would be dead. And if I hadn't followed Kat and the others out of that damned prison, WE WOULDN'T EVEN BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE I'D BE SIX FEET UNDER!" He yelled. "That's no excuse for what you did after that. Sure you killed to save yourself in the beginning-" Rarity tried to finish. "MY MOTIVES HAVE STAYED THE SAME THROUGHOUT! I'M A WANTED FUGITIVE, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXPECT?!" Alex reasoned. "AND WHY IS THAT? DO YOU EXPECT US TO BELIEVE YOU AFTER EVERYTHING YOU DID! ALL THOSE MEN YOU KILLED? THE INNOCENT DON'T RUN!" Rainbow yelled. "Um... Please stop arguing..." Fluttershy shrank back from the hostility. "LET'S YELL RANDOM THINGS! FORGET INSIDE VOICES!" Pinkie yelled. "IF THE INNOCENT NEVER RUN, THEN WHY WAS I ABDUCTED FROM MY HOME, MY PARENTS MURDERED, AND MY HOUSE BURNED TO ASHES?!" "AND DOES THAT JUSTIFY THE HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE YOU KILLED?!" "THOSE MEN WERE NEVER INNOCENT! THEY TRIED TO KILL ME, OR SEND ME OVER TO SOME SADISTIC ASSHOLE THAT WOULD TORTURE ME UNTIL I PISSED BLOOD! AND YOU SUPPORTED HIM!" Alex angrily yelled back. "HE'S DEAD NOW SO WHY WORRY?! THE BODY COUNT IS NEVER ENOUGH FOR YOU, IS IT?!" "IT'S BECAUSE OF THAT INQUISITOR YOU HIRED! THAT SAME INQUISITOR THAT MURDERED ONE OF MY FRIENDS IN COLD BLOOD!" Twilight stepped back in shock. "Did you think I didn't know? Did you think I was that dim-witted? Sigma told me that Winchester didn't hire her, so I got to thinking, who did?" Alex scoffed. Twilight froze, and her other friends looked guilty. "And when you and your 'Elements of Harmony' drop this topic on me. That's when I realized. It was you. It was you all along. You didn't trust me from the beginning. And it was only after you and your friends called the hit that you finally figured out that what you were doing was wrong all along." Alex continued, that angry stare not even moving an inch from Twilight's eyes. "Do you realize now just what you did? That if we all die, if we all fail in defeating the Inquisitors, that the blame will fall directly on your shoulders, the blood in your hands? And was I even the first? You had to have at least known what the Inquisitors do for a living. Did you call hits on other innocent men like me who lost their way? Or the dozens and dozens of protesters and naysayers?" Alex cruelly finished. Twilight honestly didn't know what to say, how to respond. He was right. This was their fault. "Did you even consider the consequences of your actions? That if I survived, that more, stronger warriors would come my way until, finally, death takes me? Or did you think that if Cinder failed, everything would just be all sunshine and rainbows and I'd live happily ever after? NO! I WON'T! IF I HAD EVEN THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE OF HAVING A NORMAL LIFE, IT'S GONE DOWN THE SHITTER NOW!!" Alex finished. Twilight sat down, shocked. What had she done? "Is that really what you want? A chance for a normal life?" Rainbow asked. "You know me well enough that this is what I've been fighting for all along. Before all of this, I was just your average, run-of-the-mill kid until I was blamed for that attack. And it's only escalated from there." Alex said. "Then, why bother with all of this? You know that you're never going to go back now." Twilight asked. "Yeah. I've never really understood that." Applejack agreed. "I already tried that, in Ponyville. You all know how well that turned out for me." Alex elaborated. "What about Remnant?" Rarity asked. "We all know I passed the point of no return with that. Remnant is anything but." Alex bluntly replied. Alex stood up, walked to the window, and stared Thoughtfully at the view. "Sometimes, I wonder what could have changed, how everything would be if I had just accepted my fate and died. All the lives that would be saved, all the damage that would never be." Alex sighed. Alex turned back to the mares, a sorrowful expression on his face. "I don't expect forgiveness for what I did, or pity from anyone that knows me well enough to know what happened to me all those months ago. But what I do expect is anger, fear, loss, and pain. In here and everywhere that I go. No matter what I do or where I go. I always wonder if I'll even be here tomorrow. But all I'm asking is for acceptance. From the small group of people that I am willing to call 'allies'. Perhaps even 'friends'." Alex finished. Him and the six mares sat in silence. Thinking about what Alex had said to all of them. Even Alex never expected his words to make that big of an impact on them. On all of them. "If it's any consolation, darling," Rarity began, Alex looked at her with an unidentifiable expression,"I will help you get through this. I understand some of the blame may fall upon us, but then again, nobody is innocent. And I accept it. I will help you." "So will I." Rainbow raised a hoof in agreement. "Same here." Applejack assured. "I don't agree with what we're doing here, but count me in... If that's okay." Fluttershy weakly rose a hoof. "WOOHOO!" Pinkie yelled, waving a flag with the word 'Alex' draped in gold. "Alex." Twilight began. Alex looked at Twilight expectingly. "If it's all the same to you. I'll do what I can." She said. "Thank you. All of you. I'm not sure what we're going to do now, but all we can do is stick together and hope for the best." Alex nodded respectfully. The apartment buzzer sounded again, and Alex ran to the door. "Who is it?" Alex asked. "Alex, It's Kat. I need your help. Bring the Elements with you." Kat said. Alex was nervous, she sounded like the Grim Reaper itself had followed her here, she was that afraid. "On our way." Alex nodded. He turned to the ponies. "Kat needs our help, if you want to prove to me if you meant what you said, you'll come with me." Alex stated. "Of course." Twilight replied. "All right. Let's go." Kat led them to an alleyway, Vanoss and company, Team RWBY, and Zera were among them in the alleyway. "Look at this." Kat gestured to a bloodied corpse. "Jesus!" Alex turned away at the sight, and the mares gagged. Vanoss knelt down, emotionlessly, and checked the dead body. "Well?" Alex asked. "This person hasn't been dead for too long." Vanoss stated. "Look, there's an note!" Ruby notices. Alex knelt down and plucked a bloodied piece of paper off the corpse. Needless to say, what was written on that note disturbed him so much that he felt sick just reciting it. Greetings, Team Unity. This sacrifice is addressed to you as a warning. I am a mercenary hired by the Inquisition. I know how your group operates, how you manage to defeat us, and how to defeat you. If Commander Walker does not turn himself into the Inquisition, Team Unity will die, one by one, starting at about 1300 tomorrow. And every day until either he turns himself in or you all die. Oh, and I have a special surprise for those who respawn. Until we meet again. Zodiac. Author's Note Boom! Plot Twist! DUN DUN DUUUUUN! I figured this fic was becoming more RWBY-related than anything else, and then I figured, 'Well this is a website for MLP fan fiction, so I'd better make it more MLP-related or else. 'Or else what?' You may ask? Exactly. One more thing, I've been wondering a lot about this, What do you guys think of this story, it's nice to hear feedback once in a while, especially if it would make a more interesting fic for you people to read, and I can't exactly do that if people never tell me how I can improve, because, truth be told, I know it needs improvement, but I can never be sure what I need to fix and what I need to keep. And I'm boring you guys. Again. You know what? Just ignore these. Act II, Chapter 9: DeceptionAlex stared at the note in horror. "What's wrong, Alex?" Kat asked. "Is it an eviction notice or some shit?" Delirious smirked inside his hockey mask. Alex turned to his friends, well, his 21 friends and one enemy. "This note says that one of us is an Inquisitor." Alex grimly announced. "What?!" Weiss gaped in disbelief. "I can't believe it. We all just got Hoodini'd." Vanoss blinked. Alex wasn't sure how Vanoss got the inanimate owl mask to blink, but he figured he couldn't be bothered with it. After all, stranger, and occasionally, more embarrassing things have happened. Ruby grabbed the note from Alex's hands and read it carefully. "It also says we have to turn Alex in, or this 'Zodiac' is going to kill us all one by one." She announced. "Wait a minute! We can respawn, we'll be fine! Nice knowing you Alex and the rest!" Wildcat waved goodbye before he was nudged by Twilight, who levitated the note and read it. "It seems like they planned for that." Twilight grimly stated, showing Wildcat the note. "Well, shit." "Anyone have any bright ideas?" Alex asked. "I have one-" Vanoss said before Dash covered his mouth, or rather, beak. "No, you idiot! If one of us is a bad guy, announcing the plan to that bad guy is a terrible idea!" She whispered. "Can we talk about this somewhere else? This place literally stinks!" Blake covered her nose and gestured to the dead body. "Fine by me." Alex nodded. "But I'm hungry!" Vanoss pouted. "I need FOOOOOOOD!" Delirious announced. Alex face-palmed, grabbing a wallet and looking inside. "It's empty. No thanks to Yang's quote-unquote 'training exercise'." Alex rolled his eyes in her direction. "Hey, you're the one who decided to ask for directions in this town!" Yang retorted. "I'll pay, if that's fine." Kat said. "Sure, where do you guys want to go?" Alex asked. -4 mystery pizzas and a 10-piece bucket of Cluckin' Bell later- "Okay, now that we've spent, like, $250 of Kat's money on food and drinks, let's at least try and figure this out." Alex announced. "Hello! Earth to Alex! Bad idea! Villain in the room!" Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. "Oh, please, you know as well as I do that they're all going to be talking about any topic other than this one for, like, an hour, right?" Alex gestured to the rest of the group. "And Alex was all like; 'AAAH! I didn't mean to do that!'" Yang told them all about his embarrassing moment. "Nah, Ah've got a better one, so we were at Sugarcube Corner..." Applejack begins to tell the others about the party all those weeks ago. Rainbow turned back to Alex, waving a hand at the small crowd sitting on his couch. "Huh." "Case in point." Alex muttered, still upset they they were talking about him. Rainbow went over to join in the conversation, leaving Alex with some time to think. 'Now who could it be?' Alex thought. He looked at Twilight and the other Elements. Given their recent reconciliation, he was going to give them a pass, for now at least. Vanoss and his crew? No, they weren't clever enough to plan that far ahead, and they had promised to pay Kat back. Kat? She had trusted him from the start, and he regularly spoke with her, even more so than Yang. Team RWBY were already out of the question, they had taken an oath on not working with people they knew were evil, and he was sure that included the Inquisitors. Who, then? "Something wrong, Commander?" Zera asked. "Trying to think about who among us could be this 'Zodiac' person." Alex sighed. "This could be, in itself, a lie. A mind game designed specifically that we would all destroy ourselves without the inquisitors themselves actually having to lift a finger." Zera explained. "How do you figure? I trust most of the people on this team with my life, and I'm pretty sure this isn't going to change anything in their situation." Alex gestured over to the crowd. "...And then my brother walked in and saw it." Nogla said, telling them an embarrassing tale of his own. "Did you even close the door on your way in?" Kat laughed. "...Ya got me there." Nogla admitted. Alex waited until Zera looked back at him to continue the conversation. "If this Inquisitor really took the time to at least try to know all of us, that inquisitor would probably defect by now. If a fifteen year old pubescent idiot with a bad history can manage to make the same bond with everyone here, then so can a highly trained warrior for hire." Alex nodded, pride encompassing his voice. "So, what you're saying is that, you can't bring yourself to accuse anyone, guilty or not." Zera concluded. "Pretty much." Alex replied. Zera sighed. "Are you sure you're not putting too much faith in your comrades?" Zera asked. "I know, they can be idiots, but hell, even I have my moments." Alex admitted. "Are you talking about that incident with Ms. Xiao Long?" Zera asked. "And a majority of my decisions. Including joining the Militia." Alex replied. "Nobody can blame you for that. You were desperate, inexperienced, afraid even." She elaborated. "I'm not denying it." "Well, then I'm not denying my identity." Zera replied. "Come again?" Alex asked. "I respect your dedication to your comrades, but I am not forgetting my mission." Zera continued. "No way." Alex backed away. "Alex Gabriel Walker, under Article XIII of the Kalos Accords, 'If an undercover agent bonds with multiple targets, that agent is obliged to duel with the leader among them. If the agent wins, the agent will take the target and spare the others. If, however, the target is the victor, the agent is to be permanently associated with the group, the agent's status as Inquisitor is to be decided by the current Alpha Inquisitor.'" Zera announced. "Zodiac." Alex gaped. "There is more to this arrangement. 'I; Neither the agent nor the target is to receive any assistance from their allies. II; The duel is not to the death, both must remain alive. III; the terms of the duel are to be discussed between the agent and the target until an agreement can be reached. IV; The duel is not to be announced to either party, though if the duel is discovered by Inquisitors or the target's allies, neither party will be penalized." "Sounds fair for a cult of assassins." Alex admitted. "'V; to ensure a fair fight, both duelists are to inform one another of their known abilities, augmentations, and equipment, if an ability unknown to either party happens to manifest itself during the duel, neither party shall be penalized.'" Zera finished. "Of course. I accept your challenge, let's discuss this further somewhere where they can't hear." Alex figured. "Glad to see you have respect for the law. Let's take this to your garage." Zera announced. Once both Alex and Zera arrived inside the garage, Alex sat on the hood of a sedan, while Zera continued to stand. "Okay, let's start with a decent location." Alex figured. "I have to go with the Helipad on top of the Maze Bank, no obstacles, nothing in the environment either of us can use to our advantage." Zera decided. "What if either of us is launched to another building in the process?" Alex asked. "Not to worry, one of my ablilities includes shield spells and active cammoflage. Neither of us will be able to leave, and the others will not be able to see us." Zera replied. "Intresting, does it take an extended period of time to set up?" Alex asked. "Yes, it takes a full 30 minutes to fully deploy anything of that magnitude." Zera replied. "Okay. So what time? Tomorrow at dawn is good for me. Your offer starts at 1:00 pm, before you are obliged to kill my friends." Alex asked. "I accept, dawn is about 6:38 tomorrow." Zera announced. "Great, I'll be there at 6:08 so you can set up." Alex agreed. "Deal." "What else? Oh yeah, abilities. Androids first." Alex nodded. "Ah, yes. My model is outfitted with long-range radios, Internet capabilities, and advanced shielding." "So none of that is useful in the duel." Alex wondered. "No." "Good, continue." Alex wanted this over with, he had an idea of what Zera was capable of. "Due to my model being mostly used for performance, enhanced for combat by an Inquisitor called 'Delta'. This allows me to summon bladed weapons using only my voice. Such weapons include a Katana, Zweihander, dual short swords, and a Magnum Research Desert Eagle .50AE, modified with such attachments as laser sighting, a scope, extended magazines, and full-auto firing." "Jesus. A full auto Deagle." Alex gaped. "I am also able to leap about 93 meters, punch with three times the force of an average human punch, and due to my Internet capabilities, I am an unofficial expert in Kung Fu, Silat, Krav Maga, The Atlesian offensive form Arcamida, and the Minstraili defense form, Okira." "Well, shit." "What about you, Commander?" Zera asked. "Ah... I carry a primary Atlean Battle Rifle-" "Two things; One, the proper term is Atlesian. Two; please state the model of your rifle, as well as any attachments you may have." Zera corrected. "Sure. As a primary, I'm carrying the Atlesian KMG-157 Battle Rifle, equipped with a Ver-Kai sight and an A-17 grenade launcher. As secondaries, I'm carrying a heavily modified Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum pistol, able to fire iron pellets at the target, as well as Electric Fury, with four forms; a .499 Kaiser revolver, a rail gun that fires all six rounds at full auto, a long sword, and the blades of the sword separate and spin fast enough to cut through steel. My armor is composed entirely of Equestrian Steel, and is outfitted with rockets, jump-jets, and at one point, a Shoulder-mounted Browning M2 .50 BMG machine gun. My semblance is Electricity Manipulation, I can just fire regular electric bolts, condense them into balls of lightning, use them to augment my weapons, and temporary sedation if I'm injured. If I have enough Aura, I can also fully heal my wounds. Since I activated my own Aura, I can grow more powerful once I'm mad enough." Alex explained all of his abilities. "What combat forms have you used?" Zera asked. "A combination of Arcamida and Voikara, though I only trained for a week or so. I was also a red belt in Kung Fu when I was about 13, not sure how well that stuck, though." Alex admitted. "Very well then. That checks out." Zera nodded. "Okay then. I can't exactly wish you 'good luck' without sounding masochistic, so this is as close as I'm able to get." Alex admitted. "It is not a weakness to wish an opponent luck before a duel. The only reason I am doing this is so you may have a chance to stay with your comrades." Zera replied. "A damn small one, if you ask me. You've got much more experience than I do! I'll probably die!" Alex lamented. "The rules state it is not a fight to the death." Zera stated. "You don't seem to understand. The Inquisitors want me dead more that any target they've been given." Alex elaborated. "I am fully aware of your situation, and you have defeated countless inquisitors before." Zera stated. "Not without help." "True, but when you fought Beta, Sigma was wounded. And when you last fought Sigma, you fought her to near death." "I can't fight an inquisitor!" "There is more reason to this than you think." "Like what?! Dealing with failure, torture for dummies; the sequel?!" Alex exclaimed. "I shouldn't tell you this, but I'm doing this to make sure you are ready for any challenge." "Explain to me how me possibly dying is going to prepare me for anything!" "I did the math, and you may have a slight advantage." Zera answered. "What?!" "I am not telling you in which field this advantage lies, I'm only telling you it is there." "Fine." Alex relented. As Zera left the garage, she turned back. "You will understand. You just need to look." She said as she closed the door. Alex didn't understand what Zera told him. All he knew was he was probably going to be handed over to te Inquisitors and killed. He needed something before this whole mess went down. Alex walked out of the Ammu-Nation store with new grenades for his KMG and some spare parts needed to repair the shoulder mounted MG. Should he really be going through with this? The whole reason he even had the thought to take another life was because of his will to preserve his own. But he had other lives beside his own to protect. He couldn't stand to watch any if his friends suffer more than they already did. No matter the cost. Author's Note After watching a few youtube videos of people reacting to fanfiction, I'm starting to reconsider my options. Imagine that, someone like, I don't know, The voice actors of MLP reacting to your fan fiction. Yep, Cringefest 2015. Act II, Chapter 10: Preventing A CringefestAlex listened to the others joke about his incident again. And he was getting tired of it. Like, really tired. "Don't you think this is getting a little old yet?" Alex groaned. "Uh... Nope!" Vanoss replied. "Not really." Kat added. "It's still funny." Rainbow shrugged. "Don't you mean it's still punny?" Yang joked. Everyone collectively groaned at the pun. "What?" Yang asked. "Vanoss, you're up." Alex shoved. "For what, exactly?" In response, Alex gestured to the huntress in front of him. "Rainbow, do you know where Twilight is?" Alex asked. "She said something about 'studying the effects of trans-dimensional pathogens' or something weird like that." Rainbow replied. "Of course, where is she though?" Alex asked. "The airport." "Thanks." Alex said, walking out of the apartment door, hearing Vanoss's screams of agony accompanied by yelling and what sounded like gunshots. He didn't expect Vanoss to actually tell her that. The cab driver dropped Alex off at the airport, and sure enough, Delirious was coughing loudly and was visibly shaking. "Come on, Delirious! I still need to inject you with the Blue Flu and the Grimm-pox!" Twilight said, two needles being levitated near him. "Get that shit away from me!" Delirious yelled in response. "Twilight! I need your help with something!" Alex yelled. Delirious took this time to get up from the dirty bench he was laying on, run up to a truck, shoot the driver, steal the car, and drive away at a solid 89 mph. "See you on the other side, Alex!" Delirious waved before crashing through a light pole and continue his escape. "Alex, what is it?" Twilight asked. "You've travelled through time once, right?" Alex asked. "That was to prevent a disaster that was never going to happen anyways." Twilight answered. "Okay, good. Y'know that little 'accident' I had on the back of Yang's motorcycle, right?" Alex asked. "I see what's going on here..." Twilight's voice trailed off. "Yep." "REALLY, DESTOYER?! YOU CAN'T UNDO EVEN THE MOST EMBARRASSING INCIDENTS!" Pinkie yelled. "Pinkie Pie?!" Alex gaped. "Yupperoonie!" Pinkie chimed. "Why are you here?" Twilight asked. "Exposition." "Oh." "Basically, when the not-so-great author, Destoyer, saw a Youtube video of Barbara Dunkelman and Arryn Zech reacting to fan-fiction, he panicked and decided to write this chapter to undo what he already wrote in." "Even if that were true, that's a terrible idea." Alex face-palmed "Do you think I didn't already tell him that?!" Pinkie asked. "So, you want to go back in time to fix your mistake and preserve your now-tarnished reputation?" Twilight asked. "Yeah, pretty much." "But think of the dangers! The sheer chaos that would be produced by messing with the past!" Twilight pleaded. "Nah, The Terminator movies did it, so did Star Trek and Back To The Future." Alex retorted. "And look at the consequences! The new Terminator movie sucked!" Pinkie yelled. "I don't know, I actually liked it." Alex shrugged. "Shun the clueless one!" Pinkie yelled. "But you didn't get the point-" "SHUUUUUUUUUN!!!" Pinkie screamed. "Okay, Jesus!" Alex backed up defensively. "...There's no way I can change your mind, is there." Twilight deadpanned. "Not by a damn sight." "Alright fine, but if you want me to do something for you, you gotta do something for me." Twilight announced, smiling evilly. "What do I have to do?" Alex groaned. -About a week ago...- Alex coughed loudly. Thanks to Twilight, Alex was now colored blue, and covered with itchy red bumps all over his body. He knew he shouldn't have agreed to her demands. But no matter, he had to do this. It was about night now, Past-Alex should be there any minute. Seeing a large amount of explosions down the road, he had his own mission. Prevent Cringefest 2016. Past Alex skidded to a halt in the middle of the highway, shooting at the hit men repeatedly whilst getting badly wounded. He didn't have much time. A yellow motorcycle drove up and the remaining attackers were killed violently. Now! Alex sprinted, tackling Past-Alex before Past-Yang could help him onto the motorcycle. "Don't go on there!" Alex ordered. "Why the hell not?! And why are you blue?!" Past-Alex's voice trailed off as he realized who gave the order. "What the..." Past-Yang was obviously confused. "If you go on that motorcycle, something deeply embarrassing will happen to you, or us... I guess.." Alex said. "Like what?" Past-Alex asked. Past-Yang walked up to Past-Alex, whispered in his ear, and Past-Alex looked deeply disturbed. "Blue Alex is probably right. Something like that happened to a guy named Neptune during a mission." She whispered to him. "Ugh. Now I get why you went back in time." Past-Alex agreed. "But why are you blue?" Past-Yang asked. "Twilight injected me with the Blue Flu and Grimmpox." Alex groaned. "And you tackled me?!" Past-Alex backed up. "Listen... I'm sure blue-you can handle the rest.. So I'll just be on my way.." Past-Yang got back on the motorcycle. "So, what, you're going to leave me with a bullet in my arm?!" Past-Alex asked. "I thought you already pulled it out!" Past-Yang drove away. "Great! So, Mr. Great and Wise Future Blue Me, how do I get home?" Past-Alex asked. "Don't know, don't caaaaare!" Alex yelled as he was being pulled back into the present.. -About a week later...or now.- Alex reappeared, and rolled over to Twilight. "Did it work?" Alex asked. "Not in the way you intended." Twilight cringed. "How do you mean?" Alex asked. "There are two realities now, one where you stopped yourself, and the one we're in right now. This is a lot different from when I tried to stop myself from worrying about the future.." Twilight said. "So..." "You're still in the reality where you... Violated.." "I get the point!" Alex groaned. "But there is a way to see what happened instead." Twilight said. "How?" "Here." Twilight handed, or hoofed, him a small screen, Alex peered into it. And what he saw really disturbed him. "I can't believe he's dead." Yang sighed. "Still, it was nice of him to try and fix something he did." Kat comforted. "Yeah, I guess. I didn't expect that bullet wound in his arm to get infected like that." Yang replied. "That did look really painful." "So much pus..." Yang shuddered. Twilight groaned. "I'll get the spell ready, go... Buy some medicine or something." Twilight said. "Okay." "But first..." "Oh, Christ. Not again..." Alex moaned. -About a week ago (again)- Just as Alex #2 left. Alex arrived at the site where Yang left him, apparently, to die. "Come with me if you want to live." Alex said. "Why?" Past-Alex asked again. "I needed to distract you while I did this." "Did wha- AAAAAGH! WHAT THE HELL?!" Past-Alex screamed as Alex splashed the bloodied wound with peroxide. "There, good as new, get a taxi, Zera is an Inquisitor, buy gold, byeee!" Alex yelled as the time spell faded and was sent back to his own time. -The Present- Alex fell back to his own time, immediately Twilight handed him the screen. And what he saw disturbed him slightly less than the previous iteration. "I can't believe he's dead." Yang sighed. "I'm still not sure how he figured out that Zera was an Inquisitor." Kat comforted "It was obvious in hindsight." "But that was no reason to impale the poor guy." "Yeah, even I felt that one." Yang cringed. Twilight took the screen back. "Okay, you know the rules, two more injections, a sample of Horngitis and Deathstalker Venom." Twilight said. "Deathstalker Anti-Venon, you mean." Alex said. "You wish." "Why do you do these things?!" Alex moaned. -another time travel spell later- Alex returned to his time, and Twilight handed him the screen. "I can't believe he's dead" Yang sighed. "How did he even get a nuke?" Kat asked. "I don't know." Yang shrugged "But still, that doesn't change that I'm covered in radiation burns now." Twilight took back the screen. "Yeah, where did you get a nuke?" Twilight asked. "Don't ask." Alex responded. "Okay, then. Now for your PIV and Sinuitis injections." Twilight said. "Okay, I'm done with this. I'm out. Goodbye." Alex groaned, he was tired of getting injected with every disease Equestria and Remnant had to offer. He would deal with this conundrum himself. Yang sat comfortably in her home, drinking a glass of lemonade and reading Ruby's 'Weapons Weekly' magazine. Her relaxing day was interrupted by a loud knocking on her door. "Who is it?" She asked. "A very embarrassed, angry, angst-y kid." She heard her apprentice, Alex, respond. He didn't sound very happy. Regardless, she went and opened the door. Sure enough, he was blue, covered in itchy red bumps, sweating profusely and visibly shaking. "You don't look very good." Yang noticed. "You don't say!" Alex groaned irritably at her. "There's probably a reason why you're here other than to yell at me infected with dust-knows-what." Yang figured. "I have spent the past 3 hours getting random diseases shoved into my arm! All so I could fix something stupid I did a while back!" Alex yelled. "Oh... This is about that incident a week ago." Yang concluded, smirking. "Yep!!" Alex groaned. "Oh, yeah. Sorry about not telling them the actual truth." Yang apologized. "What do you mean, 'actual truth'..?" Alex asked weakly. "Never mind. Do you need me to get you to the hospital or something?" Yang asked. "Nah... I'm good... Ugh..." Alex said before passing out on the floor in front of her. "Alex..?" Yang asked, poking him with Crescent Rose, which Ruby had left inside the apartment. "Yellow is red..." Alex groaned. Yang sighed. Figuring it was the right thing to do, she picked him up, put him in her newly installed sidecar, and drove to the hospital nearby. -a week earlier; normal continuum- Alex was still riding on the back of Yang's motorcycle, still uncomfortable about his position. "You okay man?" She asked him. "Not really." Alex responded. "Why not?" Yang asked. "Well, to put it simply, I'm a dude." Alex responded. "Okay.." "And you're a girl." "Right, you can tell us apart, you're a genius." Yang sarcastically joked. "Not my point. Look at how we're sitting.." "Oh, I get it now..." Yang realized. "Yes... Now you get why this is disturbing for me." "Yeah, actually, a similar thing happened to this guy named Neptune." Alex had stopped listening at this point, he was too distracted by trying to find an appropriate, family friendly, area to hold onto. The shoulders might've worked, but there was a risk of going too low, the waist had a similar problem, as it would be a disaster if they hit a bump. Eventually, he held onto the seat itself, while in no way secure, it would probably spare him some embarrassment. "And then I yelled, 'Sexual Harassment'!" Yang yelled. Alex lost his grip of the seat, and the motorcycle hit a bump, and Alex fell off the back of the motorcycle, landing on the road. Hard. "OW! MY HEAD!" Alex screamed in pain. Yang stopped the motorcycle and walked over to him. Needless to say, he was a mess. Red splattered on the road in a sticky trail that led to Alex, the road burn was intense, the hair on the back of his head was nowhere in sight. She picked him up, and Alex said. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that!" Alex gasped. Yang realized something, she could use this to get a few cheap laughs out of the other guys. Besides, he was too perfect. "You know what, don't worry about it, it was a first offense, so I'm going to leave you off with a warning on this one." Yang said. "Thanks." "But we're still telling everyone what happened." "What?! No!" Alex defended. "I'm sorry, it's how I roll." "NOOOO!" Alex screamed, similar in manner to Delirious -a week later- Yang looked back on that memory. Still feeling bad about this, she sighed. He was actually okay as a person. She thought, how did he get involved with assassins, Inquisitors, Crime Syndicates, and all that? Getting her mind back to the subject at hand, she read the last of her magazine until someone called her name. "Ms. Xiao Long?" The nurse asked. Yang walked over into the emergency room, and met with the doctor. "Hello, Yang." "Hey doc, how is he?" Yang asked. "He's in pretty rough shape, we got him on some sleeping gas to ease the pain. We're not sure what kind of diseases he had, but thanks to Ms. Sparkle, he should be up and running in about a week." The doctor replied. "Sleeping gas?" "Yep, I will warn you, though, it'll make him a little loopy for a few hours, but he should be just fine." He assured. "Thank you, doc. Can we be alone for a few minutes?" Yang asked. "Sure." The doctor left the room, leaving Yang and Alex alone. "Alex, you still there?" She asked. "Yeah... He said a week, right?" Alex asked weakly. "Not important right now, I have some questions." Yang said. "Sure... Whatever." Alex groaned. "Why did Twi inject you with all that?" She asked. "I tried to change the past... So that incident... Wouldn't happen." Alex replied. Yang was surprised, he did this to save him a little embarrassment? "Why were you nervous about that?" She asked. "I can be kinda... Well, stupid. I don't have that luxury anymore.." "What else?" She asked. "I... Uulgh." Alex groaned. "You what?" She asked. "Never-never mind..." Alex shrugged it off. "Fine, why did you ask if you would be fine in a week?" Yang asked. "Duel... With. Zodiac..." Alex mumbled. "Duel?" She asked. "On top of the Maze Bank... 6:38 am tomorrow..." Alex said. "What?!" She gaped. "It's for.. All of you, if I fail... You all... Live." He groaned. "We're not doing this without you!" "Not...my problem...lives..to worry about...other than mine." "What about us?!" Yang asked him. "You...end this... Without me.. Holding you back.." He said before falling asleep. Twilight ran in the hospital room. "Did you hear?" She asked. "That Zera is an Inquisitor?" Twilight replied. "Zera's the Inquisitor?!" Yang asked. "Yes, is there something you know?" "He accepted a duel with her at 6:00 tomorrow morning!" Yang said. "Why would he do that?" Twilight asked. "Something about him having other lives to worry about other than his. He took it so we could end this without him!" "That's insane!" "We have to stop Zera!" "Yeah, you're right, we have to go now!" Twilight replied. Both ran out the door, leaving Alex in the room. Alex looked up, he heard everything, the effects of the sleeping gas wore off instantly after that realization. The sickness returned with a Vengeance, while his Blue Flu had subsided, the effects of the Deathstalker Venom, Grimmpox, and his other ailments struck back. He couldn't let them kill themselves! He staggered up and out of the bed, coughing up foul mucus and his Grimmpox beginning to itch intensely. A doctor immediately tried to stop him. "Mr. Walker, what are you doing?! You're in critical condition!" He yelled. "Not now! I have to help my friends!" He retorted, shoving him into a wall and staggering into the elevator. Author's Note At first, I made this as a joke chapter, then I figured that this could actually work. So yeah. I will confirm that Pinkie's reasoning behind this chapter is pretty much fact. EDIT: Specific things. Derp Act II, Chapter 11: Zodiac KillersVanoss was chillin' with Terroriser and Wildcat. Right now, they were recovering from a full-on no-holds-barred brass knuckle/marksman pistol brawl. "Okay, so now what?" Wildcat asked. "I don't know, skydive into the city like in the new Godzilla movie?" Terroriser suggested. "Wrong reference, Brian!" Vanoss yelled, shooting an RPG and killing the Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator. "NOOOOOOOO! REALLY?!" He exclaimed, his corpse flying upwards about 30 feet in the air. "You know what I'm talkin' bout. Right, Evan?" Wildcat asked. Both the pig and the owl inhaled deeply, about to utter one of their most favorite past-times. "DAAAAAAAAARTS!" They yelled simultaneously. "God damn it!" Terroriser face-palmed. When the hell would they stop referencing old videos. "Wait, wait, hold on, Yang's calling me." Vanoss stopped before entering Wildcat's McLarry. "I thought her and Alex were already a thing, Evan." Terroriser warned. "Nah, she's probably still mad that I said her puns were terrible." Vanoss reasoned. "Yeah, but they are, so..." Wildcat shrugged. "Whatever man." Vanoss rolled his eyes. "Evan?" They heard Yang ask through the speakerphone. Vanoss recoiled from the phone, holding an ear in pain before continuing. "Yeah, what is it?" He asked dryly. "I don't care if you and Alex's gf are talking, but can you at least turn it off the speakerphone?!" Terroriser groaned. "Brian, stop talking." She retorted. Terroriser immediately backed away defensively, holding up both hands. "Zera is the Inquisitor threatening to kill us, we need as many people as possible, I already got Team RWBY together, and Twilight and the other Elements are over there now. Get the others!" Yang ordered. "Zera? As in the robot bitch coordinating the missions and shit?" Wildcat asked in disbelief. "Really, do we know anyone else with the name 'Zera'? Seriously, who names their robot child that?" Terroriser scoffed. "Yeah, I have to go with Terroriser on this." Yang agreed. "So, get the rest of the team together?" Vanoss asked. "Yes!" Yang groaned. "Alright, boys. Let's terminate this terminator!" Vanoss exclaimed. "GET TO DA CHOPPA!!! YAAAAAAAUGH!" Terroriser screamed, running towards nothing in particular. -Meanwhile- Zera sat on top of the construction site overlooking the city. She had heard everything. Her comrades were on their way to kill her. Opening up the data pad installed in her wrist, she pressed a small button, and was immediately met by static, and then a deep, raspy, cold voice. "What is the situation?" Alpha asked. "I've been discovered. Unity is on their way to kill me." Zera replied. "Unfortunate. For you at least. If you can, buy us some time." Alpha instructed. "Of course." She sighed. "Is something the matter?" He asked. "I had grown... Attached... To them. Walker is a decent leader, and his allies, no, friends, trust him completely." She sighed. "Do not allow this to get in the way of your prime directive, Zodiac. Alpha out." "You really shoulda called for backup while you had the chance!" A raspy, tomboyish voice came from behind her. "Turn around... If it's alright with you..." A meeker, lighter voice ordered. "OR I'LL FIRE THIS PARTY CANNON RIGHT UP YOUR-" "Pinkie! I think she gets the point!" "Aw... I wanted to swear!" "Pinkie, this ain't the time fer games!" "Swearing isn't a game, but it's fun! FU-!" "PINKIE!" Zera stared in disbelief. The Elements, the self proclaimed defenders of friendship, were the first to try and kill her. "So you're the first to arrive, I figured I'd meet someone decently formidable." Zera coldly stared into them. "We're not afraid of some bucket of bolts!" Rainbow Dash crouched into a take-off stance. "Yeah! If you want Alex, ya gotta go through us!" Applejack readied her hind legs for a powerful kick. "We're not letting you lay a circuit on Alex!" Twilight boldly proclaimed, horn glowing a bright magenta color. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me with no choice." Zera sang loudly and produced a pair of deadly swords, swinging them stylishly before readying into a combat stance. -54 seconds after the battle began- Alex walked back to his garage sluggishly. Those diseases did a number on his immune system. He was actually really sick. "Gotta...uurgh...get to the armory..." He gurgled. The Deathstalker Venom had drained him of most of his Aura and sickened him to his stomach. Running over to a dumpster, he vomited inside, the foul mucus leaving his nose and throat stinging. Looking up, he saw a burst of purple-hued magic, and what sounded like a hardcore fight going on above. "Oh, shit. I gotta go!" Alex gasped, sprinting back to his apartment building. It was only a matter of time before the others got there. He had to hurry up! Opening the garage door, he trudged inside, looking for the key he hid inside the wall, he had to be quick about this, or who knows how many of his friends would fall to her? The key was roughly where he left it, good. Going up the elevator was a challenge. The motion sickness rushed to him like a brain freeze, slowing overall movement and making him feel even more nauseous. Finally, he ran inside his apartment and immediately inside his armory. The main problem was rather obvious. "WHERE THE HELL IS THE SCARAB?!" Only one thing remained in it's spot. .44 Scratch, as well as it's remaining 42 caps. He had to make it work. Running inside and grabbing said firearm, he put it inside his holster and opened up his Pocket Dimension, which had been laying on the ground. Since getting the EMP device, he added a few extra assets to his collection, there was only one thing he was actually looking for. Admiring the EOD he had bought online, he packed it into a bag, which was easier said than done, and ran back out the door, he'd put it on later. But where was his Scarab armor? -meanwhile- "Twilight, watch out!" Ruby yelled to the Alicorn. Twilight quickly set up a magic barrier to defend against Zera's broadsword, she was much faster than most of them had imagined. "Ruby, get out of the way!" Rainbow ordered, Immediately complying, Ruby fired Crescent Rose towards the ground in front of her and was blown away, and Rainbow immediately made contact with Zera afterwards. Zera grasped Rainbow by the front hooves, and with great effort, threw her towards the other side of the rooftop. "Checkmate!" Ruby yelled out, Yang was knocked back after a brief skirmish with the Inquisitor and she needed to reload. Weiss set up a row of glyphs between Blake and Zera, all colored black. Blake leaped onto one of them and sped to the Inquisitor, blocking and dodging each potential blow and dealing out an equal amount. Weiss then arranged a bunch if glyphs around Zera as Blake kept her distracted. Immediately using each one to propel herself and swing at their enemy. Ruby grabbed another mag, this one marked with a black cross, and loaded it, pushing the bolt into place and chambering the first round. Zera looked around her. She knew she was beaten. Or at least looked like it. She planted one foot on the ground in front of her, and immediately a large circle similar to Weiss's glyphs formed on the ground, it glowed an ominous light blue. "Leo!" Zera yelled. The glyph turned a bright orange, and so did this inquisitor. The orange blur sped about the room, much faster than any of them, and knocked them down before they could even react. After finally knocking down all of them, Zera stood tall in the center of the room. "As fun as this was, it is not you who I'm willing to fight. Where is Alex?" She asked. "Right here." A deep, obviously altered voice said behind her. Zera turned around, and saw someone wearing Alex's armor, the Equestrian Steel chassis polished beautifully, with the Machine Gun reattached and pointed at Zera. And Electric Fury glowed a dim blue. "Hello, Alex. I had thought you were recovering." "Aura, Remember?" Alex had scoffed. "Uurgh.. What the hell?!" Another voice gasped behind them. Alex stood, looking quite sick, and pointed .44 Scratch at Zera. "Go back to the hospital, Alex!" The imposter ordered. "Like hell I will! I'm not...uurgh...letting Zera hurt anyone!" Alex groaned. "Admirable. You're willing to masquerade as the boy so he would be safe." Zera nodded "That's not exactly admirable..." Alex grumbled before running to the side of the building. "I know it's you. Kat." Zera concluded. Kat removed the helmet, tossing it to the ground and brandishing Alex's weapon. "I propose a new challenge, if that actually is how you tell people that." Kat proposed. "Let's hear it." "If I win, You're rejoining Unity and telling us exactly what these Inquisitors are doing." Kat announced. "And if you win..." "You kill me and spare the others." Kat glared. "Seriously, do you have any idea...uurgh... How bad of an Idea that is?! I'm not letting anyone else die if I can help it!" Alex opposed. "You're too ill to fight. Besides, I'm already fully equipped with your weapons." Kat scoffed. "Not all of them." Alex smirked, spinning .44 Scratch on his pointer finger. "Interesting proposal. But we'll see if you're worthy enough for me to even consider accepting this challenge." Zera nodded, pulling out the full auto Desert Eagle. "Alex, go to the crane." Kat ordered. Alex nodded and ran up to the crane, leaping off the building and grabbing on at the last second. Kat swung Electric Fury, spinning the blade before locking with Zera's. Alex climbed to the top of the crane. It wasn't easy given his condition, but he did it all the same. Noticing something, he ran over to the end of the crane, and got a look at what it was. Kat's sniper. He grabbed hold of it, grabbing the keys and turning them sharply to the right as she taught him. "Open, gate of the guardian! Sentinel!" He muttered. A metallic bird apparated in front of him, flying over to one shoulder. Repeating the process again, both birds sat on either shoulder. "Help Kat, I'll cover her!" He ordered. Both sentinels flew off and into the battle. Kat was holding up a little better than Alex previously thought. And with the Sentinels, she would probably win. But he needed to do his part. Grabbing the sniper, he looked down the scope, waited until Zera's head was exposed, and pulled the trigger. A brilliant flame erupted from the weapon, and the recoil was actually more manageable than he thought. The bullet had hit it's target, Zera was hit! She staggered to recover, only just in time managing to block Kat's attack. Again! Alex grabbed hold of the sniper, waited until Zera's knee was open, and in that instance he fired the weapon again. The bullet severed Zera's leg in two and Kat could deliver a final blow. Kat grasped Zera by the head, and decapitated the robot. The body grew limp as the metal shell clattered to the ground. Kat dug through wires in the neck and pulled out a small hard drive, tossing the head aside. Alex attached the grappling hook and fired, swinging to where the rest of the group was, and handed Kat the sniper. "That was actually impressive." Alex congratulated. "Thanks, good shooting." Kat replied. Ruby and the others staggered up, injured. "Well. That was a thing." Yang said. "Really, Yang? 'That was a thing'?" Alex rolled his eyes. "And this is the same person who's the self-proclaimed 'queen of puns?'" Kat joked. "Hey! That was a one-time thing!" Yang defended. "Yeah, yeah, 'Yang Xiao Pun." Alex scoffed. "Alex." Kat face-palmed. "See? I can make bad puns too!" He sarcastically announced. "Anyways, bad puns aside, what is that?" Blake asked. "It's Zera's CPU, all of her memories are right here. I did say she would tell us everything." Kat smirked. "But did you really have to decapitate her? That's probably insanely offensive to some people." Alex argued. "Yeah, I'm with the 'king of puns'. Couldn't you have just deactivated her and then get the CPU?" Weiss asked. "We are not in a relationship! What is up with you guys and my non-existent love life?!" Alex groaned. "Well, I guess. I didn't exactly think about that at first." Kat admitted. "Whatever, let's just get Alex back to the hospital." Yang groaned. "Actually, his body temperature is at 102 degrees. He might actually burn the diseases out." Twilight pointed out. "What about the Deathstalker venom?" Ruby asked. "Nah, that was just water and food coloring." Twilight smirked. "How many of those were actually placebos?" Weiss asked. "Just the venom." "Yeah, if it was, he'd be dead as soon as it was injected." Blake pointed out. "Wait, where are Evan and the others?" Alex asked. "Badoop, badoop, BANANA BUS!" Wildcat yelled. A large bus fell on Zera's robot corpse, and Evan's crew walked out of it. "Hey, guys! Why is Kat cross dressing?" Vanoss asked. "Oh yeah!! She is!" Delirious laughed. "Yeah, Kat. Why steal my armor?" Alex asked. "It looked cool..." Her voice trailed off. "Yeah, I'd probably steal it too, if I was her." Yang smirked. "AAAAAAGH! WHY?!" Alex groaned, his face turning a deep red. "He's a tomato again!" Pinkie laughed. "Just kidding!" Yang said. "Also, about that incident on your bike... WHAT THE HELL, YANG?!" Alex screamed at Yang. "I thought it would be funny!" She defended. "It's hilarious." Vanoss added. "YOU TRICKED ME INTO THINKING I DID SOMETHING STUPID WHILE I WAS BLEEDING FROM THE HEAD!!" Alex yelled louder. "How often do you deal with these people?" Kat asked. "All the time!" Alex groaned. "Ouch. Now I feel really bad about hanging out with Trevor." Kat cringed. "Wait. Who's Trevor?" Alex asked. Alex and Kat were alone in the apartment. The doctors gave him some pills and suppositories that Alex was supposed to take twice a day for three weeks. "Alex!" Kat called. "Just a moment! I'm still working on the suppositories!" Alex yelled back. "Ugh. Okay, whenever you're ready. Okay?" She probably cringed. Alex finished his pills and ran upstairs. "Yeah?" Alex asked. "I've been looking through Zera's CPU." Kat said. "What did you find?" Alex asked. "Her mind. Her personality, her memories. Everything." "Sweet. Is there a way we can reprogram her?" Alex asked. "Already did, just one problem." Kat sighed. "What?" Alex asked "Her body was completely destroyed." Kat sighed. "Oh." Alex cringed. "But we can communicate via computer." Kat said. "I have another idea." Alex said. Alex ran into the pocket dimension and grabbed the data pad Karis used, Veil was still installed. He ran back inside. "This data pad could work, but the A.I is still inside." Alex said. "Let's see here..." Kat said, turning it on. A hologram of a woman who looked almost exactly like Karis appeared on the table. "Greetings, Si- oh! Hello, Mr. Walker, Ms. Anderson!" She noticed the two. "Hello again, Veil." Alex waved. "Anything I can help you with?" Veil asked. "We need another A.I in there, she has important information on the Inquisitors." Kat said. "Another individual A.I cannot be downloaded, put I can persuade the A.I to merge with myself." Veil said. "How?" Alex asked. "There is a small cord inside, connect it to the device the A.I is currently on." Veil instructed. "Of course." Kat replied, plugging Veil in the computer. Immediately, two holograms appeared in the table. "Who...who are you?" The second hologram, Zera asked. "I am Veil, an Artificial Intelligence System developed by the C.I.A. Who are you?" Veil asked. "Z-Zera..." Zera replied timidly. "Well, Zera. You seem to be under distress." Veil noticed. "The Inquisitors...they made me betray m-my friends." Zera lamented. "Unfortunate. I'm sure they will understand." Veil smiled at her. "R-really? Even after I hurt them..?" "If they truly are your allies. They will." Veil assured. "What do you want from me?" Zera asked. "Mr. Walker and Ms. Anderson need us to become one singular A.I so we can better assist them." Veil explained. "I-I don't know... What if the Inquisitors hack into us.?" Zera asked. "My programming is equipped with the most advanced cyber security software, and even if they do, You can produce backups." Veil assured. "I see. I'll merge with you.." Zera smiled back. "Thank you for understanding. And before we continue..." Veil stopped Zera before they could fuse. "Alex Walker. You may not know this, but I am a literal A.I copy of your dead ally. The C.I.A could not simply create an Artificial Intelligence. They instead scanned your friend's brain. I currently contain all of her memories. If you'd like, I can manifest this data." Veil explained. "Are you sure?" Alex asked. "It would seem to be the easiest way to provide emotional closure." Veil replied. "What's going on?" Kat asked. "My first recipient was Karis Thorne of the C.I.A. She helped Alex Walker evade Task Force Crimson when they first found him in Ponyville. The two worked closely together for the next month, she assigned him on the mission that led Ms. Dash to forgive him for what he did. She helped Alex join with Mr. Fong and his friends. And, most importantly. She died trying to protect him from Sigma." Veil said. "So, if it weren't for Agent Thorne, Alex would have died." Kat concluded. "I ran the simulations multiple times. Alex, if it had not been for our intervention, would likely have spent that time hiding from them in his own manner. He would grow spiteful towards the Elements after he discovered the Royal Guard were after him. It is likely he would run his own mission. Obtaining revenge on Winchester and the Elements for torturing him. He would likely kill Winchester in the process, until he would be cornered by the Princess and slaughtered." Veil explained. "Ouch." Alex winced. "Indeed. So, I need an answer to continue." Veil stated. "Thank you. But I-" Alex was prepared to deny it. "Yes. He would appreciate that." Kat interrupted. "What the?" Alex asked. "You've been really moody and depressed since I first met you. And that hasn't gotten any better. If Veil says she can help, then let her." She laid a hand on Alex's shoulder. Alex took her hand and placed it at her side. "I got all the time in the world for that once this is over. For now, we have a job to do." Alex reasoned. "Interesting predicament." Zera commented. "Typical human emotion at it's finest." Veil replied. "I know." "I say we put it to a vote. All against?" Veil asked. Alex raised his hand. "All in favor?" Kat raised her hand, and surprisingly, so did Zera. "What?" Alex gaped. "Alex. I've seen the inside your head. Do you think nobody else notices that you still have nightmares? That you're still tormented by everything that has happened to you?" Zera asked. "You know?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "Yep." Kat said. "The part of the brain related to depression has increased activity by 50% the past few weeks." Veil nodded. Alex sat on the couch. "It seems like he just wants to be alone for a couple minutes." Kat sighed. "I'm running the simulation now. Katherine, if you'd like, you can leave." Veil said. "What?" Kat asked. "You said it yourself. He needs a bit of alone time. But we won't let him stay like this. Don't worry." Zera smiled. "Okay." Kat left the armory, walked out the door and closed it softly behind her. -one day later- Alex laid down on the couch. Watching television. Not that there was anything good on. He was honestly bored. Looking at his data pad, he wondered exactly how the C.I.A had gotten so advanced. "Alex?" A voice said. "Yeah, Iris?" Alex asked. The two A.Is had agrees on that name, he wasn't sure why, but he didn't mind it much. "Text message from Ms. Rose." Iris replied. Alex looked at the data pad, reading the text Ruby sent. Ruby: Alex. Kat told me everything about what happened. I wanted to check on you. Alex was not surprised at all. Ruby was generally a caring person, he respected her for that very reason. He privately wished that more people shared that trait. Alex texted back. Alex: Yeah, Everything's fine. Author's Note And that was the conclusion of the Zodiac storyline! I think Act II is going to end sooner than I thought. Act I took forever to complete! To those who don't read my blog,(so everyone) Chapters will be posted on Saturdays! As well as the occasional exception Act II, Chapter 12: SOSAlex shot at the Syndicate hit men. From what he heard, Basically and Mini walked straight into a meeting and drank all of their alcohol. Sure it was a dumb move on their part, and, had it been someone else, he would have made them apologize, but they were already in too deep. Plus, he hated the Syndicate. He hated them a lot. Firing the KMG at, yet another, car, he killed both the driver and whomever was sitting behind him. Mini and Basically were also shooting at the hit-men, and rather decently, one had been shot right between the eyes, causing brain matter and gore to spew out the back like a 2-liter soda bottle. Another one had been shot in both knees, both arms, and several times in the chest. When the rest had retreated, Alex turned to face both men. "What have we learned here today?" Alex groaned, he'd hoped they would learn their lesson now. Next time, he wouldn't bail them out. "Drinking other people's booze is a bad thing..." Basically grumbled. "And..?" Alex prompted. "...It's even worse when it's the bad guys' booze." Mini Ladd finished. "Good. You're lucky I was getting ammunition and medicine when they attacked you. Next time, I won't go out of my way just to bail you guys out." Alex chided yet again. "Yeah, like I don't have enough problems with Vanoss." Basically scoffed. "Pssh, you wish. At least you guys aren't dealing with holographic projections of dead friends and helpful, creepy mentors." Alex rolled his eyes. "Interesting thought, Alex. May I remind you that you started crying about 30 seconds into the sim?" Iris mocked. "Wow. That is just sad." Mini smirked. "Shut up, Mini." Alex scowled. "Yeah, yeah, Tobey Maguire." Basically laughed. "Laugh it up, assholes." Alex grumbled. After a few more minutes of taunting, Mini and Basically left for their own apartments, leaving Alex alone with an annoying A.I. "Phone call from your waifu, Alex." Iris beamed. "Ms. Xiao Long is hardly my waifu, you know-it-all piece of crap." Alex scowled. "Oh, really?" "Yes. Really." "Well, better hurry up now. The phone is still ringing." "Yeah, sure." Alex calmly replied answering the phone. Alex grabbed his cellphone, sure enough, that same picture Yang had given him of her flipping off the camera with her name written in white underneath appeared on the screen. He swiped the touch screen to the right in a quick motion. "Hello?" "Hey, Alex!" Yang happily sang from the other end. "What is it? Is something the matter?" Alex asked. "Yeah. I heard gunfire coming down the road. It stopped and I wanted to check and see if you were still alive." "I'm fine." Alex assured. "Quite the contrary, Alex was shot once in the stomach and another skinned him. In addition, his blood pressure is at 148/93." Iris said. "What?!" Yang gasped "That isn't true! My blood pressure is at 125/82!" Alex scowled. "Actually, given the stress you have experienced in the past two to three months, your blood pressure has raised significantly. Relatively common in patients with Post-Traumatic Stress." "Is she serious?!" "Oh, please. I don't have PTSD." "Actually, according to what Ms. Dash has said, you've been suffering from symptoms of PTSD as early as your stay in Ponyville." "And you did tell me that you have a lot of nightmares." Yang said. "Alright, fine! So I'm not the healthiest! Maybe my blood pressure is at 150, and maybe I do have PTED!" Alex groaned. "Actually, we are referring to your Post Traumatic Stress, not your Post-Traumatic Embitterment." "That too?!" Alex groaned. "You do constantly reject help." Yang pointed out. "That is not a mental disorder, but it is worth bringing up." Iris stated. "Can you two shut up about my health!?" Alex facepalmed. "I agree, now is not the time to discuss his detrimental state." Iris agreed. "Thank you, Iris. So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Alex asked. "I wanted to tell you that Ruby and I just bailed Vanoss and Wildcat out. They were having a 1v1 sniper duel at the airport and it got the Syndicate's attention." Yang explained. "Thank you for keeping me updated." Alex smiled. "Your welcome! I'm feeling a little tired after killing them though." "Sure. Take care." Alex said. "Bye!" Yang said before hanging up. Alex continued his walk home. "So. About Ms. Xiao Long..." Iris began. "You have 10 seconds to make your case." Alex groaned. "A relationship would likely lower your blood pressure and possibly help you with your nightmares." Iris stated. "So, relationships are prescriptions now?" Alex scoffed. "In all seriousness. It may be time to let go some of that pain inside." "What pain? Winchester's dead, Sigma knows not to mess with me, and Kat's with us, what could be wrong?" Alex asked. "The fallout from the torture, the pain of Karis's death, the fact that you are all being hunted by mad men." Iris began listing every negative thing in his life. "Yeah, yeah. I get the point." Alex groaned. "If you won't have an intensely intimate relationship, then at least try and make more friends, and not just ex-gamers who you had to pay so they wouldn't kill you." "Who?" Alex asked. "Find some. You'll be sure to feel a little better." "Not in this city, I had to bribe 5 or 6 people just to find one girl." Alex scoffed. "Do not worry. True friendship finds you, or you find it." -4 hours later- "Uugh. My head..." Alex groaned as he stumbled around the brightly lit room. Then Alex noticed something a little peculiar. This room had no direct source of light, that and it was white and foggy. "Iris. Come in." Alex automatically beckoned to his A.I, but the wrist-pad that he usually wore was gone. "Hello?" Alex asked, pulling out both .44 Scratch and Electric Fury. He turned to his left, nothing. He turned behind him, still nothing, but the room started to get darker. "Alex Gabriel Walker of Geo Vector 0-1, Faust Zeta 3-7, Oum Alpha 1-2, and RS Eta 7-3?" A voice beckoned. He had no idea what any of those were, but he remembered Oum Alpha 1-2 from his initial escape. And RS Eta 7-3 was where he currently resided. He really needed to ask just who came up with the system of naming universes. "Yes, that's me... I think..." Alex stumbled. A dark blue Alicorn floated in front of him before landing on all fours, a very familiar blue Alicorn. "Princess Luna?!" Alex gaped. "Finally! Do you have any idea how many of you there are?! I must've met at least 36 other yous before I asked Discord!" She sighed, as though exasperated. "Is everything okay?" Alex asked. "I should be asking you the same thing. You left before your trial." Luna scoffed. "Trial?" Alex asked. "So you really don't know..." Luna cringed, as if what had happened was too terrible. "What?" Alex asked. "Rainbow had turned in a few copies of your dossier into Equestrian authorities. They were to have you on trial in court." "How much?" Alex asked. "Torture records and your bio." "Oh." "So, when you left, there couldn't be a fair trial, and Celestia and I formally pardoned you. Naturally, ponies got angry with the fact that you pretty much got away with murder." "A whole political scandal over me of all people?" Alex gaped. "I'm afraid it is far worse than that. A lot of those angry ponies were Royal Guards and Criminals. They, led by a Gryphon named Iron Talon, led an insurgency against Equestria itself, called the Rogue Guard." "That sounds terrifying." Alex backed away. "It is. Most of these ponies thought that war was just something of legend, never to happen again. And now..." Her voice trailed off. "So, Rainbow started a war?" Alex asked. "Not exactly, there were many responsible, but it was Rainbow Dash who set these events in motion." Luna figured. Alex leaped with joy. "Human! 'Tis not the time to be joyful!" Luna scolded. "Finally! Someone started a cataclysmic war and it's not me!" Alex sang. "What dost thou mean?" "Apparently, I killed Winchester, which, according to your mythology, starts the apocalypse." Alex explained. Luna's dark blue visage turned white. "The end times are upon us?!" "According to a bunch of very old books." Luna paced back and forth. "This is bad, this is very, very bad..." She muttered. "Not as bad as what else happened!" Alex added. "God's wounds! Cease thy words!" Luna gasped. "Myself, as well as all 22 of my friends are being hunted by the Inquisitors." Luna deflated, face-hoofing before turning to face Alex. "You ignorant buffoon! Dost thou realize what you've done?!?!" "Apparently doomed multiple worlds, including your own?" Alex meekly added. "...Yes!" Luna's left eye twitched. "What do I have to do?" Alex groaned. "Thou is to return to Equestria to sort this mess out!" Luna concluded. "I can't! I've got my own problems!" "You must! The fate of all is at stake here!" Luna pleaded. "Fine. I'll do this the same way I dealt with the first crisis in Equestria. Alone." Luna looked at him like he had just grown three heads. "This is not something that can be dealt with alone! You need your allies!" Luna slapped him. "Ow! They'll be fine! Kat can lead them! Besides, I may as well be alone! To everyone else there, I'm nothing but a cold-blooded murderer and a coward!" Alex reasoned. "Is that really what you believe they think of you?" Luna asked, an edge of sympathy shining amongst the contemptful anger. "That's what I am! When I found out that the Militia was working against me, I ran! When your sister's pupil was against me, I ran! Even now, I'm running away, trying to delay the inevitable! So if you think that I'm some sort of role model, or someone to be admired, think again!!" Alex elaborated. The princess of the night gaped at him. "You really are ignorant. Thou cannot see what your own comrades see in you." Luna sighed. "What could they possibly see in me?!" Alex scoffed. "They see a brother in arms. A friend, an ally, a trustworthy leader who will stare death in the eye. To some, even a potential lover-" "Too much!" Alex waved both hands defensively. "Thy point is, thou should have more confidence in yourself. But I am getting beside the point." "Which is..?" "Return to Equestria. Aid us in these dark times. Soldier." Luna nodded as she walked away. The room grew brighter. He was waking up. Alex gasped in his bed. He felt the data-pad on his arm glow bright blue. "Good morning, Alex. Your brainwaves were off the charts during your sleep! Any dreams you're willing to share?" Iris asked. "Just one thing. Where can I find the Die Glocke on this world?" Alex asked. "Do you wish to return to Remnant? Earth?" She asked. "Equestria." "What about Equestria?" A voice asked from upstairs. "Who is that?" Alex asked. "Ms. Xiao Long requested to stay in the apartment at 0500, they said their wi-fi was disabled. Ms. Belladonna came very recently.." "What?! Why did you let both of them in here?!" Alex yelled. "You were asleep. I did not want to disturb you. Besides, she drew on your face." Iris stated. "Well, Yang did. I just talked with Evan on the phone." Blake smirked, coming down the stairs. "You guys suck." Alex scowled. "I tried to stop her." She shrugged. "Wait.. Why are you here? Aren't you a little... I don't know... Too anti-social and respectful of other people's space to just drop in to a guys apartment while he's sleeping?" Alex asked. "Actually, I just came to get Yang before your face was completely covered in marker." Blake explained. "Seems reasonable, did she draw anything inapropriate?" Alex asked. "All of it is." "Figured. Now please leave, I'm still in bed." Alex sighed, it was about 8:00, much to early for him. "I was just about to." "Thank you." Blake suddenly perked, and stood very still. "What?" Alex asked. A quick look further up the stairs explained everything. Yang held a small laser pointer in her hand, and had it pointed straight at him. That, combined with the fact that Blake was a Faunus, told him this was probably bad news. "YOU FU-" Author's Note I feel like I'm starting to lose readers as the story goes on, so I'm going to try something here. Long story short, I changed a good amount of the plot to try and get that demographic back, while still trying to keep what's already been written so it doesn't seem like 'A did this and B did that because God was bored' kind of deal. For example- Alex is returning to Equestria, who goes with... Yeah, I'm not going to spoil that much. Act II, Chapter 13: Return to EquestriaAct II, Chapter 13: Return to Equestria A purple vortex appeared suddenly on the plains south of Ponyville. A young man in full Equestrian Steel armor stalked out of it, with him were the six Elements of Harmony. "Stay close. Luna said that these 'Rogue Guard' pretty much swarmed the town." Alex warned. "I still can't believe Rainbow turned over those documents!" Twilight lamented. "Hey! I had to do something!" The Pegasus defended. "Like having Kat take over Evan's crew in our absence?!" Rarity gaped. "Stow it. I'd be helping Kat and Vanoss out with the Syndicate, or, hell, maybe going with Ruby and the others to Remnant if I wasn't required to come along!" Alex tried to end this as soon as he could. "And how do ya expect to stop them?" Applejack inquired. "Only way I know how." "A PARTY!!!" The hyper-energetic pink horse interrupted. "Er... Something along those lines." Alex admitted. "Just...leave me out of it. My animals must be worried sick! Angel is particularly gun-shy... If that's how you say it..." Fluttershy darted her eyes, almost expecting to be caught dead center in the fray. "Okay then, you two were clearly made for each other." Alex said, more to himself than the yellow Pegasus. "All right, Mr. Big shot mercenary, how are we going to stop them before things get worse?" Rainbow asked. "Go home. All of you." Alex ordered. "No way!" She yelled back. "Yes way. It's me they want. Not you. Go home, try to make the best of it, avoid any confrontation until this is all sorted out." "And how do you think this is gonna end?" Applejack asked. "Two ways. A; They kill me and leave my rotting corpse to the buzzards..." "Ew.." Fluttershy immediately gagged "Or B; By some circumstance, I kill Iron Talon or whatever the bastard's name is, and his whole guard falls apart and you guys are safe." Alex finished. "Ah can tell you're more the 'glass is half-empty' kinda fella." "Thanks a million, Sheriff Obvious." Alex rolled his eyes. "Racist." "My point is that this isn't your problem. It never was and it never should have been your problem." "We are not letting you do this alone! We're helping you!" Rainbow stood directly in front of Alex, glaring at his helmeted eyes. "You want to help me? Good. Go home." "If you haven't already noticed, our homes have probably been destroyed!" Twilight angrily stated. "Oh come on, your ponies, for cripes sake! The closest since this you've gotten to armed conflict is a bunch of insane, egotistical monsters that you've defeated pretty easily." Alex scoffed. "You don't get it, do you? Since Equestria hasn't been involved in a war for a millennium, we have no laws governing what they can and can't do!" Twilight retorted. "Really? In the thousand years you guys had to chill, none of you had the foresight to write something like the Geneva Conventions?" "You've never abided by any of those laws either! I bet once you get home, you'll be tried as a war criminal!" "Who the hell said I was going back to Earth?" "What do you mean?" Alex facepalmed, if he facepalmed any harder, his hand would have gone straight through his skull. "Haven't I told you guys this like, a MILLION F***ING TIMES ALREADY?!" Pinkie gaped at Alex. "You defy the not-so-great Destoyer by using the forbidden word?!" Pinkie gasped. "YOU KNOW WHAT? YES, I DID!" "You fiend! SHORYUKEN!" Pinkie yelled, upper cutting Alex in the face with what appeared to be... "What the hell? Is that Yang's?!" Alex asked in surprise. "She let me borrow it!" The party horse smiled broadly. "You...do know she's back at Remnant, right?" Her smile faded into one of genuine surprise, as if she had completely forgotten that she had to give it back. She ran away, panicking and hollering. "DISCOOORD! I NEED YOUR HEEEELP!!!" Alex heard her say. All of them stared in disbelief at what the hell just happened. "Well, Ah've gotta check and see if Apple Bloom's okay." Applejack said as she walked in the direction of her home. "And I have to make sure that Opal didn't destroy all of my projects in my absence." Rarity nodded her goodbyes and left for the Boutique. "Wait, where's Spike?!" Twilight had immediately come to her senses and ran off for her castle. "Oh! Poor Angel bunny! Momma's coming!" Fluttershy flew off in speed almost comparable to Rainbow's. "Well, I have to check my mail for Wonderbolt acceptance letters!" Rainbow flew off towards her home, leaving Alex alone. As Alex watched Rainbow fly away, he started to think, about all of this. About Earth. About Equestria. About Remnant. He thought about all the times he had to run away from whomever wanted him to die, Task Force Crimson, The Inquisitors, The Syndicate, and hell, maybe even the White Fang. And nothing's changed since. Now he was off fighting whoever the 'Rogue Guard' was. And it all boiled down to this single thought that echoed through his mind. 'I hate always having to do this.' -2 Hours Later- Alex was almost back in Ponyville, the small town was in his line of sight now. Only it was...different. No Fillies or Colts or...wait, did he even get that right? Anyways, no children were out playing, no old friends conversing, nothing. It was...almost scary to think about. The storybook-perfect little world he was first introduced to in this state deeply unnerved him. Even the sky itself was a dark grey-ish color. "What the hell happened here?" Alex asked to himself. "Halt! Hands where I can see them!" Alex turned around to see Stallions in grey armor bearing what appeared to be firearms perfectly designed for use by a pony. "What the-" "Are you deaf? Hands up!" The captain ordered again. "Do you know who I am?" Alex asked them. "No, but you must be quite the coward to hide behind that suit! HANDS UP!" Alex removed his helmet and dropped it to the ground before them. The captain looked up at Alex, and he knew what was running through his mind. "We need backup!" They all fired their weapons at Alex, to little effect. All the bullets bounced off his armor. Alex himself made short work of the patrol in 7 shots, all to the head. Dusting himself off, he walked around the town some more, still not over the fact that the town he once knew was so...barren. "Walker spotted! Moving in!" Alex turned around to see dozens of armed ponies and the odd gryphon here or there, all bearing weapons. Alex shot back, killing two of them before a gryphon lashed out at him with a huge knife. This gryphon in particular held the blade high before finally plunging it down, Alex could barely hold it in place, he was decently strong, but no match for a trained soldier. Alex punched the gryphon in the face, grabbed the knife, and jammed it square into the side of his neck before pulling out .44 Scratch and shooting him off. Before he even had time to react, a pony punched him square behind the knee, causing Alex to kneel to the ground. He lunged for the knife in the dead gryphon's throat, sharply pulling it out and placing it dead center in the stallion's forehead. Alex turned around, firing his gun at anyone he could until he was brought down again by a gryphon. "You're dead meat, Human!" The gryphon spat an Alex struggled to get it off of him. It lashed it's claws, barely noticing that the claws were reinforced by Equestrian Steel before they ripped through the armor and into his skin. The pain fueled his anger, and he punched the gryphon in the beak, enhancing it with his own Aura. It was absolutely devastating, the punch broke the gryphon's beak entirely, grasping what remained in agony before Alex ended it all. He looked on at the dozens of soldiers still on the way. He could take them. Focusing all of his power into his right hand, he leaped high and punched the ground below, sending red lightning out in a huge wave that electrocuted the crowd of soldiers, frying them all and filling the air with a revolting stench. Alex put his helmet back on, holstered .44 Scratch, and unsheathed Electric Fury, it's blade glistening in the light. This time, they brought in what seemed to be horse-drawn carriages armed with machine guns. Alex leaped into the air, bringing the sword down on the gunner, slicing him clean in half. Alex stole the machine gun, aimed it below, where more soldiers were, and fired until the roof collapsed from under him. Tossing the MG in his hands, he set the shoulder-mounted MG to automatically target hostiles, and it absolutely ripped them apart. A large explosion struck at Alex's back. They were using mortars?! The MG was destroyed, but not any of the other weapons. "Something you need?" Iris asked. "Mark all the mortar positions!" Alex ordered. "Now now, say the 'p' word..." Iris stalled. "Fine. Will you please target all the mortar positions." Alex groaned. "Thank you for being so polite! Okay, targeting six Rogue Guard mortar positions!" Alex saw six green dots marked on his HUD. "You have a plan, don't you?" Iris asked. "Don't I always?" Alex smirked. He opened up every last compartment on the suit, causing wave upon wave of rockets to completely wreck the mortars and their crew. "Iris, are we all cleaned up?" Alex asked. "I wouldn't say that." "What do you mean?" Alex asked. "You know how Die Glocke was a Nazi super-weapon, right?" "Yeah but what does that have to do with... Oh, no." "Have you ever heard of the Landkreuzer P. 1000?" "The Rat. How in god's name did they get that thing?!" Alex looked behind him, and saw the massive tank. It was damn huge, even all of team Unity combined would have difficulty taking it down. Alex summoned all of his remaining Aura, pulled out both .44 Scratch and Electric Fury, and leaped towards it, his battle cry echoing through the desolate place. The tank fired everything it had at Alex, quite literally everything. As Alex neared closer to the giant tank, he knew this would probably end horribly. -4 Hours Later- The Armored Pegasus landed on the ground, the shattered remains of a giant tank lay smoking on the ground, only calmed by the light rain that casually landed on the ground and barely dousing the flames. She wandered a bit until she came across a human body, the visor cracked, the armor blackened by rapid fire from the previous battle, at least, what remained of the armor. It was shredded completely, but the body within was completely intact. And alive. The young man was unconscious, and badly injured, but alive. She gently removed the young man's helmet to get a better look at him. The boy had ashy-blonde hair that almost curled at the edges, and it was rather messy, even worse given what had happened. His features were quite gaunt, pale with the exceptions of multiple scars and bags under the eyes. Scars were present almost everywhere on the boy's face, of all shapes and sizes, but almost all of them were barely noticeable that one could only see them from way up close. The scar on his eye was one of the only exceptions, it started just above his eyebrow, ended just above the socket, then met the skin below going another half inch down. She couldn't quite get a clear look at his eyes, since he was unconscious, but she already knew who he was. "It's been a while since I've seen you. I know all about what happened to you. " She said, placing a hoof gently on his shoulder. She removed her mask, and placed it at her side, in a compartment on the powered suit that completely concealed any trace of coat, only the tail bare. The pony herself was a deep purplish color, the mane white lined with a light blue, with bags under her eyes similar to the boy's. She held the boy gently, as she was preparing for the flight back. "But don't worry, We're going to put you back together again." Author's Note Well, here we are, Alex's return to Equestria! I think you guys should know how this exactly worked, since I doubt I described it well enough. Alex and the Elements of Harmony went back to Equestria to deal with the Rogue Guard, Kat stayed in LS with Vanoss and friends to deal with the Syndicate, And Team RWBY went back to Remnant, why? Well it's called a spoiler alert, I can't tell you that yet. I was a little late with this chapter, but I'll try to release the chapter earlier next week. -The Destoyer Act II, Chapter 14: Scratchbolts"Alex?" A voice echoed through his ears again, it seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "You in there?" The voice beckoned again. Alex cracked his eyes open slightly, the room was dark aside from the blue light. "Wake up, Alex." He drowsily propped himself up on one elbow, but his vison was still foggy. "What...where am I?" Alex coughed. "Alex? It's me!" Alex knew it was a pony, and he knew her, but he still couldn't quite figure out who. "Who are you?" He quietly asked. "Come on, It's only been a month! Don't tell me you forgot!" She slugged him lightly on the shoulder, waking him up. "Cloudchaser..?" He asked. "There you are! I never thought I'd see you again! How's it hangin'?" Cloudchaser asked. "Well, the second time I end up in this town, I get knocked off my ass. So..." "That'll teach you a lesson about dealing with a Rat, am I right?" "Hell yeah." Cloudchaser looked a little concerned. "You okay man? I know you just woke up and everything, but you seem... Different." "Let's just say a lot can happen in a month." Alex replied. Another pony, a unicorn, walked in the room. He could tell who this one was even with the mask covering her face. "I thought I heard voices! Good to see you again, man!" Vinyl greeted. "Likewise. Where are we, though?" Alex asked. "Your basement." Vinyl responded. "What?! I don't own a house!" Alex looked shocked. "Dude, did you fall on your head while you were gone? Of course you have a house!" Cloudchaser scoffed. "A lot happened in the past month." Alex defended. "Actually, Alex's A.I told me everything he did the past month or so." Vinyl agreed. "Dammit, Iris!" Alex groaned. "What? Upset that this 'Yang' person clearly has feelings for you?" Vinyl smirked. "Someone's a bit more talkative that usual." Alex rolled his eyes. "Wait. I'm lost here. Who's Yang again?" Cloudchaser asked. "The blonde girl from Iris' recordings." "You recorded me?!" Alex turned to wherever Iris may have been. "It's pretty obvious that you wouldn't have told them. I took it upon myself to feed them every bit of information I knew about you." Iris replied. "Not only that, she took screenshots of pages from your journal. You say self-promotion jokes are your true comedic weakness?" Vinyl joked. "Damn you, Iris." "Aw. Thank you!" "My personal favorite was Entry 40. You kicked Sigma's ass!" Cloudchaser applauded. "There was even video from Sigma's perspective to go along with it! You went Bat shit insane!" Vinyl added. "I forgot to mention, great job starting the apocalypse, buddy." "IRIS!!!" Alex screamed The three newly reunited friends discussed their escapades in-depth. Apparently, after Dash released those documents and they heard about it, they had been among his most spirited supporters and even tried searching for him when they discovered he escaped. "Then, next thing I know, Twi and the others were gone! All that was left was some type of device that required a ridiculous amount of power. I'm not even sure where they got all that energy!" Cloudchaser explained. "So, then Celestia and Luna are pretty much out of ideas, so when they discovered the tech used in your raid, they went to me." Vinyl added. "Wait, isn't there anyone else who could've helped? It seems like they instantly decided to go to the resident disk-jockey for help." Alex reasoned. "I think Shining Armor and Cadence would've done something, but considering that, for all they knew, Twilight was dead, they were left to just grieve." Cloudchaser shrugged. "Ouch. I know what it's like to lose a family member or two, or all. Considering how close they must've been, it hit them pretty damn hard." Alex winced. "So, Celestia gives me a grant of about 250,000 bits and tells me to build weapons. I decided that weapons were, well, overrated." Vinyl explained. "Vinyl went up to Flitter and I and asked us to be the first to use some type of new technology." Cloudchaser said. "Your armor." Alex figured. "Yep! With this baby, I can fly almost as fast as Rainbow, plus I'm equipped with some kind of dubstep machine gun and a sound cannon. And the HUD on this thing is pretty top notch!" Cloudchaser beamed, showing off the cannons. "Huh. I thought Vinyl said that weapons were overrated." Alex scoffed. "That was before things went straight to hell." Vinyl deadpanned. "I heard, that's why I left the team back in LS. I heard that Ruby and the others were going back to where they came from. Why, I have no idea." Alex shrugged. "Yeah, it's so bad they sent you to deal with this mess." Cloudchaser rolled her eyes. "Wait, where are Twilight and the others now?" Vinyl asked. "I sent them back to their homes. I felt like since this was my fault, they shouldn't have any part in this." Alex replied. "Okay. Good to hear that they're safe." Cloudchaser sighed in relief. "By the way, Alex. Your armor was destroyed when you fought the tank. I hope you don't mind if I make you some based off the designs Iris gave me. We really need you helping out." Vinyl said. "Deal. I'm not sure how long I'd last without it." Alex nodded. "Good. Where's Flitter, I sent her out on Recon about an hour ago!" Cloudchaser asked. Vinyl immediately ran to the computer she designed, and pressed a button. "Flitter? You there?" Vinyl asked. "Yeah. You guys need to see this.." Flitter replied. "Do you guys have a video uplink?" Alex asked. "Who is that? Is Alex here?!" Flitter asked in disbelief. "Yep. He woke up about a minute after you left!" Cloudchaser said. "Yeah. I'll send you the uplink." Flitter replied. On the screen, it showed an aerial view of what appeared to be a convoy of large transport vehicles of all kinds. Syndicate, Crimson, Rogue Guard... "Who the hell are they?" Flitter asked. "Alex here made more than his fair share of enemies on his little vacation." Cloudchaser replied. "I figured they'd all be working together." Alex scoffed. "They've teamed up before?!" Vinyl asked in disbelief. "Once or twice." Alex responded. "Flitter, can you hack into their radio frequencies?" Vinyl asked. "I set up the software, I should be in by now." A small window opened on the upper-right hand corner of the screen, radio frequencies. "Fireteam Platinum, come in, this is Epsilon. I repeat, Fireteam Platinum, come in, over!" Epsilon ordered. "Epsilon?" Cloudchaser asked. "Epsilon... Why does that strike me as odd..." Alex muttered to himself. "Epsilon, this is Platinum 0-1. We picked up a civvie, a human female. I think she said her name was 'Mako', or something. Over." A gruff sounding voice said over the loudspeaker. "Beta to Epsilon, Sigma has decided to assist. She believes the Catalyst is here." Another, deeper voice boomed. "Beta's still alive..? And Sigma wasn't even excecuted?!!" Alex gasped. "No...not Mako.." Cloudchaser gasped. "Who's Mako?" Alex asked. "A woman came into Equestria one day looking for someone named 'Spectre'. She's been our undercover op for almost 2 weeks." Vinyl stated. "Wait... If Beta's here, and Sigma's here... That means Epsilon..." Alex pondered again. "This 'Epsilon' guy must be one of those Inquisitors." Vinyl grimly stated. "Good, I'd appreciate some White Fang assistance from now on, Cinder." Epsilon said. "I'll be looking forward to it, Talon." Sigma retorted sarcastically. "Iron Talon's an Inquisitor?!" Alex gasped. "This is bad, isn't it?" Flitter asked. "Understatement of the f**king century." Alex replied blankly. "Good to see you're working together, Get this 'Mako' girl into questioning immediately. If she is connected with the Catalyst, we have to know." Beta ordered. "Iris, what's the ETA on Alex's armor?" Vinyl asked. "Two days for maximized capabilities, 36 hours for Scarab Mk. III capabilities, and 18 for Goliath Mk. V standard. Agent Mako will likely be alive for at least three, she has no idea who Alex is yet, they may just let her go." Iris replied. "Can Alex possibly help us without the armor?" Cloudchaser asked. "No. You are dealing with at least three higher-caliber Inquisitors and 2,467 armed soldiers." "What do we have here? Gentlemen, we appear to have quite the following about us." Another man came onto the radio, he sounded familiar. "Gamma? Get back to San Andreas! There's still the girl and her group that you have to worry about!" Beta scolded. "What do you mean by 'following'?" Sigma asked. "Scratchbolt. 7 o' clock. High." Another voice said. This one wasn't as familiar. "Who..?" Alex asked himself, he knew he heard him before. "Jäger. I was wondering when you'd say something." Gamma introduced. "It doesn't matter to me. I'll get 'er in the wing." Jäger replied. "That son of a bitch. FLITTER, GET OUT OF THERE!" Alex ordered. Flitter turned a solid 180 degrees and flew off as fast as she could. "Finally, he speaks!" Sigma seemed sadisically delighted to hear him. "Greetings, Catalyst." Beta added. "Walker! There you are!" Gamma introduced. "Hello, boy. I've been waiting for you." Epsilon exhaled. "Hello, traitor. Permission to speak to the boy. It's personal." Jäger asked. "Granted, just don't take too long." Beta allowed. "Alex, if you're hearing this, I want you to know that I know all about your escapades, your actions. You were always a coward, and now you've decided to pay Equestria a little visit again. I know all about your Aura, your pathetic little toys, your weaknesses. And I hear all you have for help is a techno-Wonderbolt knockoff and the prissy princess gang. I've had time to...improve myself, so to speak. Dead or alive, You're coming with me." Jäger finished. "I have unfinished business with Walker myself, Jäger. Don't take all the fun." Sigma warned. "Speaking of which, how the hell are you still alive after that stunt on the carrier? Didn't you turn against Beta? I guess that makes you a dirty parent-killer and a power-hungry sociopath!" Alex retorted, hiding the fear in his voice. "We have waited for your return, boy. Alpha is ecstatic to finally be able to meet you. Adieu." Beta finished, turning off all radio link. "Alex..." Vinyl asked, concerned. Alex himself did not answer, he walked back into the cot he had laid on, and stared blankly in mortal terror. "Kid." Cloudchaser gasped. She had a fair understanding of what that look meant. Flitter burst back in through the door to the basement, still in full tilt. "I heard everything. Is he okay?" Flitter asked. "Th-Those f**kers...." Alex shuddered. "I doubt it..." Cloudchaser sighed. "One of you gather up the Elements, the other has to get to Canterlot. This is serious." Vinyl ordered. "Okay." Flitter said, flying off in the direction of Twilight's Castle. "Got you." Cloudchaser nodded, who flew towards Canterlot. Alex had gotten into a laying position, fear fresh in his mind and terror seeping into his bones, paralyzing him. Vinyl trotted over to Alex, laid a hoof on his forehead, and tried to help him as best as she could. "Come on, man. You've dealt with worse. We're getting Mako, The Elements, and the Princesses. You'll be alright." She repeated. Alex still trembled in fear, hyperventilating like mad. "Ms. Scratch, a word?" Iris asked. "Sure." Vinyl replied. "Are you sure this will be enough? Protocol 267 states that I am to summon Ms. Anderson, Mr. Fong, and Ms. Rose if he ever goes into shock like this. They're all elsewhere." Iris stated. "Why did Ms. Rose go back to Remnant?" Vinyl asked. "I'm not entirely sure, I'd say it was either to get help or complete their training. Given they know where he is, the earliest they may be able to get back is about two months from now, according to my logistics." "One more thing?" Vinyl asked. "Yes?" "Has he ever gotten like this before?" "I've seen him go into shock from his nightmares, but not anything like this." Iris sighed. "Poor kid." She sighed, looking back at Alex. Alex was completely drained of any color, hyperventilating still, and hardly moving at all. "The earliest time of arrival for Kat and the others, though more likely, it may take as little as three days to a week, given they notice Gamma not being in LS anymore." Iris tried to reassure. "I'll get to work on the armor." Vinyl said, rushing for her workbench. She had to help him now. She had to. Author's Note This is part of those rewrites I was talking about. But, man, this chapter got dark. Like chapter 15 dark on steroids. Act II, Chapter 15: Equestrian Electro-Naut Part I of IIAlex was hidden in the bushes near where the Rogue Guard's convoy would be. Vinyl and the Scratchbolts had argued against it, and Iris had estimated that there was a very slim chance of survival for Alex, but he knew what had to be done. He had to track this convoy. He didn't know where they were going or what they were planning, but it was a start. Readjusting his makeshift ghillie suit, he used a pair of binoculars that Flitter let him borrow to see where he could find a spot to latch onto. Alex knew this was likely a very bad idea, Vinyl had said his new armor wouldn't be finished for at least another 12 hours, but this was his one chance. Missing it meant losing any lead he had on what the Inquisitors were planning. He saw the convoy; One Landkreuzer in front, followed by everything from Semi-trucks, Royal Guard Chariots repurposed into technicals, and M1 Abrams tanks to Helicopters, Fighter Jets and Bullhead VTOLs from Remnant. This was them, all right. Sneaking on was going to be difficult, finding a suitable location for the Tracker that Iris and Vinyl put together was going to be even worse, as foot soldiers patrolled the surrounding vehicles. Taking the Intervention Sniper Rifle that the Scratchbolts acquired, he went over a checklist of those he really did not want to run into. Beta, check. Gamma, check. Sigma, check. Epsilon, check. Jäger... Nowhere to be found. This likely wasn't a good thing. "Alex, come in." Vinyl demanded. "I'm here, V. If you could see the shit they got here." Alex muttered "Just sit tight, I'm having Cloudy and Flits distract the air support so you have more of a chance." Vinyl said. "Two things; one, are we really using pet-names on a military op? Two, that likely isn't the best idea, since these A-holes are armed to the teeth, even without air superiority." Alex sighed. "Also, I have one other objective for you. Y'know about Mako, right?" Vinyl asked. "Let me guess, you want me to save her, on top of getting that tracker on the convoy, and getting out of this alive, despite the fact that I have no armor." Alex concluded grimly. "It's the best we can do for now, Celestia's Guard is pinned down out near Dodge City, and Twilight and the others are helping me build you the armor, It should be finished sooner than I thought." Vinyl elaborated. "What good is armor if I'm not alive to use it?" Alex asked. "Shut up, Alex. Let Iris do her thing." Vinyl argued. "Iris? What the actual f*** are you thinking?" Alex gasped "It's the best I can work with right now, most of Team Unity is out doing Destoyer knows what, and besides, you of all people insisted on taking this op." Iris retorted. "Touché." Alex relented. Alex stalked out, stopping on occasion to keep up the impression that he was nothing more than a bush. "I am the master of my own bladder..." Alex whispered to himself as the convoy drew near. The sounds of multiple engines threatening to deafen the 15 year old. He dove into a crawl, moving as fast as he could without being spotted, the dread of being discovered coursing through his system. Once he was in the Mega-Tank's blind spot, he climbed up some loose steel lining the tank, hoping this would suffice as cover as well as a ladder, it seemed to be doing well enough. What was that? It looked like a ventilation shaft, it was wide enough for a person to fit through if they were thin enough, let alone a tracker. "V, I found a vent on the tank, it might work as a spot for the tracker." Alex reported. "I don't know, it could potentially interrupt the signal to the computer here. I'll have Iris test it." Vinyl replied. "Alex, it will not suffice. Find something else. Maybe a little bit behind the bottom end of the tank, perhaps." Iris suggested. "Screw that! the rest of the convoy is over there, I'm in too deep as is." Alex replied. "Try the front end of the tank, It's slightly less exposed, and the engineers can't exactly see you that well." Vinyl suggested. "WILCO." Alex nodded, shutting off the radio. He climbed down as quick as he could, noticing the small porthole that the tank had. "Jäger, I don't think that killing the woman is the best idea." One man said. "Why is that? She's useless to us. Besides, I have a score to settle with the CIA, anyways." Jäger scoffed. "She doesn't seem to care about this case as much. If you're telling me you're going to kill a surrendering agent, then you're not much better than they are!" Another yelled. "Eh, I've committed enough war crimes in my career, what's one more?" "You son of a bitch!" The first yelled. All Alex heard from there was the sound of a knife ripping through flesh, and the fading screams of that soldier. "I will not tolerate this insolence, next time we stop, get the Agent. Innocent or not, torture them long enough and they'll cave." Jäger seethed. "Y-yes sir!" Alex couldn't exactly say he didn't expect this from someone like Jäger, but it was a little hard to believe that he would do the very thing he stopped Winchester from doing so long ago. Alex was now inches above the ground, hanging on for dear life and he placed the tracker on the bottom of the tank, seeing a little light filter through the mechanics of the tank. He dropped down and rolled onto his chest, hoping his ghillie would convince the rest of the convoy he was nothing more than a bush. Cars and chariots rolled over him, not noticing the boy. Alex didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't even blink as the rest of the convoy rolled over him. Once the last vehicle had passed him, he took out his sniper. "V, tracker has been placed, infiltrating the convoy now." Alex reported. "Nice. Once you're in, I'll have Cloudchaser and Flitter take out the air support." Vinyl sounded impressed. "Gotcha." Alex looked down his scope, it would be easiest to pose as another Crimson soldier. He put on the suppressor, and aimed for the soldier's neck. Firing, the soldier's body fell over, dead. Alex snuck up to the corpse, removing the ghillie suit and putting on the Crimson soldier's clothes, thankfully, it included a balaclava. They didn't exactly fit, the undershirt was a size too large, and the pants cut off most of the circulation to his toes, but it was close. Placing the Ghillie on the dead soldier, he stole his rifle and caught up with the rest of the patrol. Another soldier nudged Alex in the soldier. "Vickers, where the hell were you?" The soldier asked him. "Craziest thing happened, man. I saw a sniper lookin' at the convoy, so I shot him in the neck." Alex shrugged. "You okay, mate? Your voice seems a little wonky." Another soldier asked. "Just a bug, dude." Alex nodded in reply. "Whatever you say, Vick." "When do we stop? My legs are killing me!" Alex groaned. "I know! It's not like we're marathon runners!" The first agreed. "Quiet! The CO is giving us dirty looks!" The second urged. Alex saw Sigma walking towards the three, pretty much in sync with the rest. She specifically stopped in front of Alex. "Lance Corproal Vickers?" She asked. Alex did something he never thought he'd do in his life. He saluted Sigma. "Yes, Ma'am?" He asked. "Our associate is asking you to oversee the interrogation on our prisoner." Sigma explained. "Me?" Alex asked, completely blindsided. Every fiber of Alex's being pleaded to take the rifle at his side and kill his enemy, but he had to be at least somewhat convincing. "Why not? After all, you are Silas Kahn's assassin, aren't you?" Sigma asked. "Yes, Ma'am." Alex replied. Sigma walked away, looking at him one more time. "I feel like I should know you from somewhere else..." Her voice trailed off as she walked away again. Alex sighed, was he just that lucky? "Dude, you seem a bit scared. You good, mate?" The second soldier asked. "Yeah, sure." Alex cleared his throat. "I almost feel sorry for ya, Jäger is really strict." The first scoffed. "I know, man." Alex sighed. "Wait, really?" The second asked. Oh, crap. "Oh! You're talking about Jäger! I thought you were thinking about someone else!" Alex fake-realized. "Whatever you say, Comrade Vickers." Another added. "Hey, Simon!" The first greeted. "Greetings to you too, Comrade Monaco." Simon nodded in reply. "Guess what? Vickers here was assigned with Jäger for some interrogation." The second reported. "Oi, poor kid." Simon cringed. "Alright, listen up, maggots!" A loud voice commanded. "Dudes, clam it!" Alex urged. "Sergeant's pet." Monaco scoffed. "We're about to stop any minute to refuel! I need Lance Corporal Vickers and Corporal Schmidt up here immediately to oversee interrogation." The CO ordered. "That's your cue, man. See you on the other side." Monaco slapped his back. Alex ran up to where the CO was, with him was another soldier, about eighteen years old. "Lance Corporal Vickers reporting for duty, sir!" Alex saluted. "Alright, you too. Meet up with Jäger in the front tank, he'll give you the rest of the details." The CO nodded. "I-" Schmidt gasped. "Corporal Schmidt and I got this under control, sir." Alex assured. "Get out of my sight, maggots!" The CO ordered. Alex and Schmidt ran towards the tank as fast as they could. Jäger immediately greeted the two. "Soldiers, listen to me very carefully. We're interrogating a suspected collaborator of Alex Walker. Do not hesitate to kill her if she does not do as I say." Jäger ordered. "Yes, Sir!" Alex saluted. "Very good, we're going in." Jäger nodded, opening the door. Alex, Schmidt, and Jäger piled into the room, where another soldier's corpse remained, as well as a 20-something year old woman tied to a red-hot post. Alex fell in line across from Schmidt, now all he had to do was wait. Schmidt turned to Alex, unfolding the mask, mouthing the words 'I got this, Walker.' Before slipping it back on. Alex blinked in surprise, how the hell did this total stranger know who he was? "Agent Mako Cerise. Glad to see you here." Jäger mocked. "I don't have time for this, Jäger! For the last time, I didn't have anything to do with the case!" Mako pleaded. Alex aimed his rifle at Jäger, but didn't get a chance to shoot before Schmidt pulled out an M1911 pistol and shot Jäger through the neck, leaving him gasping for air. While Schmidt got to freeing Mako, Alex walked up to Jäger Alex removed his mask in front of Jäger, revealing his identity before he grabbed Jäger's blood-splattered hunting knife and stabbed him in the throat. "Go to sleep, you bastard..." Alex held Jäger's mouth as his eyes dulled and his breath silenced forever. "Took you long enough. Who's the kid?" Mako asked. "Walker. Ex-Private Alex Walker of the Kahn Militia." Schmidt responded. "And I'm assuming you're this 'Mako' person Vinyl keeps talking about." Alex replied. "You're with the Scratchbolts too?" Mako asked. "Yes, Ma'am." Alex nodded. "Then you know the plan." Schmidt nodded. "What plan?" Alex asked. "Oh, come on, don't tell me that you didn't know that tracker is actually a bomb, right?" Mako scoffed. "That thing's a bomb?!" Alex whisper-yelled. Both Mako and Schmidt nodded. "Then you don't know about Overcharge?" Mako asked. "Scratchbolt armor for humans, right?" Alex asked. "Pretty much, Iron Man. They said that I was the original Overcharge, but since you have more experience, You're the main man." Schmidt shrugged, "Sorry for stealing the spotlight. What's the plan?" Alex asked. "Get out of here before these Inquisitors decide to check on us." Mako replied. "Then you're gonna hate this." A raspy voice coughed in reply. All three turned to Jäger, who pulled himself up, a splotch of what looked like liquid metal was all that remained of their attempted assassination. "What the hell!?" Alex asked. "You remember how I told you I made 'Improvements', you son of a bitch?" Jäger asked. "Stand back, I-" Alex pulled out .44 Scratch. "No, I'll deal with Jäger, get out of here." Schmidt interrupted. "Schmidt, no!" Mako urged. "GO NOW! GO!" He ordered. Alex and Mako ran out of the tank, firing at the enemies in the convoy. "Walker!" A few gasped. Next thing Alex knew, it was raining Jets and Dubstep, he had a fair idea why. "I see one major flaw in this plan!" Alex yelled. "What?!" Mako asked. "Inquisitors! Four of them! Want us dead! Ring any bells?!!" Alex yelled as he fired at the soldiers. "Problem solved, Overcharge inbound, ETA 10 seconds." Iris responded. "Okay, then." Alex shrugged, throwing a grenade towards a cluster of enemy soldiers. Alex fired .44 Scratch and Electric Fury before throwing them high up in the air. A large, grey hunk of metal came roaring across the battlefield and instantly began suiting Alex up. Schmidt wasn't kidding about this 'Overcharge' armor. He felt his Aura refuel and go beyond it's limits. Large, metallic wings expanded out of the back of the armor and two Shoulder Mounted Machine Guns latched and clicked onto his shoulders. The mask looked similar to his Goliath Mk. V visor, only like the rest of the suit, it glowed a bright blue. The HUD was also practical and cool. In the end, the armor felt almost completely natural. Grabbing both revolvers before they could hit the ground, he cocked them both. "Let's dance!" The suit even had a voice changer?! Holy hell, he sounded like he had one of those Darth Vader voice changers, only the speakers had better quality. Even so, four inquisitors was likely a challenge. "Mako, run!" Alex ordered as Jäger walked out of the tank. Mako escaped, with Rainbow grabbing onto her before zipping away as fast as she got there Alex was surrounded. This got a little out of hand. "Greetings, boy." Beta glared. "You're surrounded, kid! No way out of this one!" Jäger yelled. "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!" Alex bashed the gauntlets together, causing a distinct red spark to burst between the gauntlets. All four inquisitors, with the addition of Jäger, charged at him, brandishing their weapons. If Alex was going down, he was taking a few of them with! Act II, Chapter 16: Equestrian Electro-Naut Part II of IIAlex initiated his attack by converting Electric Fury into it's Rail-Gun form. A yellow glow surrounded the gun, and it was ripped from Alex's hands and flung off to the side. Pulling out .44 Scratch, Alex shot 4 rounds at Gamma, who likely stole his gun. All four bullets were blocked by Beta's broadsword, ricocheting back at Alex. Dodging the shots, they cannoned into the trees, probably hitting a timberwolf or something. Alex's next move was to use his new mechanical jet-pack and fly about 30 feet up. Jäger and Sigma fired a Barrett at him and shot glass at him respectively, threatening to down him. 'Let's see what this thing can do,' Alex thought, his suit glowing brighter and brighter. Massive arcs of lightning cascaded from the glowing areas of the suit, pacifying about two of the warriors. Epsilon flew up to where Alex was, being a Gryphon, and clawed at his visor. Alex was disoriented, but not for very long. His simple reply to the attack was to strangle the Inquisitor. A yellow glow formed around Alex. This wasn't good. "FIIIIRE SPEEEEARS!!!" Beta roared from below. Strands of fire lashed at the boy, burning him underneath. In pain and rage, he curled into a ball and lashed out in fury, bands of electricity disabling Gamma's grasp on Alex. Falling to the ground, Alex lashed out at Jäger, punching his old enemy hard in the rib cage. Alex's fist seeped right through the mercenary, liquid metal seeping out from both ends. "Ever see 'Terminator 2?" Jäger mocked. "Series devolved after the second, never stuck around besides that." Alex retorted, swinging the fist straight upwards, knocking Jäger back. Alex ducked, narrowly avoiding Sigma's swords. He punched hard, sending her careening into a destroyed tank. "Iris? You got a plan?!" Alex asked. "Negative." Iris replied. "You vapid, near-sighted little-" Alex could barely finish his sentence before having to block Beta's fist, which would have otherwise slammed into his face. Instead, Alex skidded backwards, his feet making marks on the earth below. "You should have surrendered at the ship, Catalyst." He spat. "I could've stopped long before that." "Damn shame." Jäger fired a revolver at him, a very familiar revolver. Alex moved the fist away before lashing out at the mercenary, grabbing the gun and kicking him aside. Razor-sharp claws lashed at the armor, causing Alex to recoil. "You fight like a young stallion not being held back. Admirable, but futile." Epsilon quoted. "Since when do you watch Christopher Nolan movies?" Alex asked. "As soon as I joined my brothers and sisters." Epsilon smiled back. "Is it just me, or is this pathetic Fanfiction getting more and more unoriginal?" Sigma asked, firing an arrow at Alex and Epsilon, the resulting explosion separating the two. "Tell that to the 40-something people who added this to their bookshelves." Alex scoffed in reply. "You children make me sick." Beta lurched, swinging his broadsword at Alex, blocking it with both gauntlets. "Wait a second. Do we all go on Fimfiction?" Alex asked. Beta, Gamma, and Epsilon charged at Alex, bombarding him with swipes and swings and gunshots. Alex dodged most of them. "Poor kid, he has the commitment," Gamma scoffed as a beam of yellow-hued energy held Alex at bay, "He has the talent, but he lacks constitution." Alex leapt upwards, avoiding any more extensive damage by the hands of these warriors. "He's mine!" Jäger screamed, leaping high up and grabbing his leg. Jäger grabbed the hunting knife and stabbed at his jet-pack. Alex was losing control of his suit. Using this new-found unpredictability, he charged a gauntlet until it glowed red. Aiming his blow at Beta, who was likely the most powerful, he landed a hard punch right at the helmeted face, sending the armored warrior backwards into the destroyed heap of a helicopter. "Beta!" Sigma screamed, aiming an arrow at Alex. Alex ducked just in time, the arrow flying behind him and blowing a gaping hole in Jäger's back. "Power-hungry f**k! YOU KILLED MY PARENTS, YOU DIE FIRST!!!" Alex leaped again, the gauntlet recharged, and punched Sigma. Epsilon blocked the deadly blow, grabbing it with an armored claw. Alex was quite surprised when he noticed the massive sword swinging in his direction. Throwing Epsilon towards the blade, it hit him head on, knocking the Rogue Guard leader into another broken vehicle. Alex reached for Electric Fury and, before Beta could rear up for another swing, Alex converted it into it's rail gun form and shot Beta in the dented helmet. Sigma leaped at him, both swords brandished. Alex blocked the blades with ease, converting the rail gun into the sword, and swinging at his parents' killer. Alex was hit hard in the side, Gamma threw a Jeep at him! The boy was knocked onto his side, caked in mud and blood. "Ach... Should've seen that coming." Alex groaned, nearly standing up before he was attacked again. Jäger shot at him, throwing a knife at him that landed squarely in the shoulder. Gamma threw more vehicles and various junk at him, disorienting Alex further, Beta and Sigma swung their swords at him, sending pain into his muscles strike by strike. Lastly, Epsilon reared into a running start, grabbing the boy and tossing him into the air like a rag doll. Landing hard into the Landkreuzer, he noticed a minor detail. It hadn't yet exploded, but a series of beeps told him it was close. Alex leapt off just in time before the tank, and anyone inside, exploded into a fiery heap, the boy falling to the ground nearby, beaten and bruised. His Armor was in horrid shape, almost worse than Scarab Mk. III's. Pulling the knife from his shoulder, he tossed it to the ground. "We aren't finished yet!" Beta yelled, leaping high above the wreckage and towards the battered teen. Alex blocked the blade, almost completely keeping it from wounding him, aside from the fact that part of the blade seeped into his leg. Alex blasted lightning at the inquisitor, disorienting him and holding the brute at bay. He needed a plan before the rest showed up! "FIIIIIIRE WAAAAAVE!!!" Beta pounded the earth below, and the ground under Alex exploded in a burst of flame, sending him screaming high into the air. As soon as he landed, he noticed Beta kneeling in pain as he held in his blood. He looked in front of him and was met with a surprising sight. The Inheritor Alex met in Patch. Raven. "What. The. Hell." Alex gasped. "Go, now!" She ordered. "I'm not leaving just yet." Alex coughed. "These Inquisitors are some of the most powerful ones alive! You have to go, they'll kill you if you stay here!" She urged. "What's the plan? At least tell me you have some sort of idea for this!" Alex groaned. "There isn't time! Return to your friends!" Raven ordered again. "FYI, lady. Most of my friends are in different universes, so..." "Celestia's sake, NOW!" She yelled, fighting against Sigma and Gamma, who had just arrived. Alex was enveloped in a white glow, he had an idea of what was likely to happen. He was about to be teleported. Before leaving, Alex tossed Raven a small box he had gotten from Vinyl before the mission began, what she called 'Plan C'. "Give those Inquisitors my regards, at the very least." Alex nodded in acceptance before fading completely out of sight. Alex awoke next inside a bedroom, the soft blankets and pillows providing some sort of comfort before abruptly waking up completely. He was definitely somewhere inside a castle. "Where am I?" Alex asked, he didn't exactly hear anyone, and almost no evidence of any other life besides his own was present in the large room. Almost being the note on the nightstand. Alex picked up the note and read it. Alex, If you're reading this, I suppose you have survived the assault. I applaud your persistence. I sincerely apologize for not explaining things sooner, but we had no time to explain the main plan to you completely. Remember how my sister, Princess Luna, had explained that the Rogue Guard had been waging war on Equestria? That wasn't exactly the full truth. As you have probably noticed by now, the Rogue Guard were working with the Los Santos Syndicate, The White Fang, and Task Force Crimson. I am not sure what they were planning, but ours was to decrease their numbers and set back their plans at least a little while longer. I can't exactly explain all of this in detail, given the size of the note, so I ask only that you meet myself, Luna, the Elements, the Scratchbolts, and Raven inside the throne room once you've awoken. Sincerely, Princess Celestia Alex shrugged, he saw this sort of thing coming, but not from the Princess of the Sun. Upon standing up, he noticed the pain throughout his whole body, the aching and stinging present throughout the boy's body threatened to keep him confined in the room. He limped down the stairs, running into a guard. "Excuse me, do you know where I can find the Throne Room?" Alex asked. "Yes, Commander. It's the 4th door to your left." The guard saluted. Commander? Alex nodded politely, ignoring the sudden respect from the guard, and walked down the hall. Turning to his left, he opened the door. The eleven ponies and one human looked expectantly at the door. "Well, look who decided to show up!" Rainbow yelled. Twilight nudged Rainbow, silencing her. "Are you all right?" Twilight asked. "Do I look okay?!" Alex scowled. "I don't expect you to, between four of the Inquisitors' best and a Terminator knock-off, I'm surprised you're even alive." Raven commented. "Speaking of the schmuck brigade, what happened?" Alex asked. "Plan C, baby!" Vinyl yelled. "It turns out that Vinyl arranged a magic wave cannon into Equestria's atmosphere, blew them all away." Cloudchaser elaborated. "So, what, are they dead now?" Alex asked. "I wish." Raven scoffed. "Where's Mako?" Alex asked. "Right here, kid." A voice behind him replied. Turning around, Alex noticed the Agent walk in. "Mako Cerise, CIA. I understand you've met Agent Thorne?" She asked. "I had the good fortune, yes." Alex replied. "I'm... Sorry about what happened to your family and everything. I know it doesn't mean much, but..." Mako sighed. "I get it. Thanks, Mako." Alex nodded. "So, can someone explain to me what the hay is going on here?" Applejack asked. "Yeah, I'm lost here, too." Alex shrugged. "Look, about a week after Twilight left for Remnant, the other factions started coming in, huge armies with weapons once completely foreign to Pony-kind were suddenly commonplace, and we weren't exactly sure why." Luna began. "So Celestia, knowing a fair amount about the other universes, came to me for help. I told her that I could, and I knew someone else who could, too." Raven continued. "Yang, right?" Alex concluded. "Not just her, this was after you met up with Team RWBY, Raven said that once she met you, that they could help us." Celestia said. "Keeping in mind that Celestia had a vision before you came that predicted the situation almost exactly, I knew what was going on right away." Raven said. "Yeah yeah, Great War of the Ages, Apocalypse, blah blah blah. How could I have known?" Alex groaned. "So once you guys went to LS, Celestia had me set up the Scratchbolts before Twilight came back while the Princesses built their military. Once we met with you, we had Iris take the reins on this case." Vinyl continued. "And I shadowed the group and made sure they were on the right track." Mako added "What they found was a bit more disturbing." Twilight said. "Legend has it that before the Great Battle, the forces of darkness would come together and form the Scarlet Army of the Inquisitors, the Red Star Coalition, for short." Raven continued. "The Red Star?" Alex asked. "Five points on the same blood-stained army, The Inquisitors, the Rogues, the Syndicate, the White Fang, and lastly, Task Force Crimson." Luna elaborated. "We had expected all of you, Team RWBY and Vanoss's Crew included, we didn't expect for all of you to go your separate ways." Celestia grimly stated. "Well, shit! Get them over here!" Alex gasped. "We already sent the letters, Darling. We've gotten one response." Rarity said. "Team RWBY still needs time, Destoyer knows why." Rainbow scoffed. "WOO HOO! MAKING RHYMES ALL THE TIME!" Pinkie yelled. "PINKIE!" Twilight clamped a hoof over the pink party horse's mouth. Alex had one last thing to ask. "Earlier, the Guard called me 'Commander'. Was I already promoted or something?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Don't bring yourself down, you earned that title several times over, if what I heard was right." Flitter said, placing a hoof on Alex's shoulder as he sat. "HOLY SHIT, THIS CASTLE IS BOOTIFUL!" someone yelled. "Shut up, Delirious, we're supposed to surprise them!" someone else chided. "Well, that killed the mood." Cloudchaser scoffed. "Oh, F**k no." Mako sighed. "You know them, too?" Alex asked. "I oversaw Project Immersion." She replied glumly. Ten adult men and one fifteen year old girl burst in through the doors in the hall. "SURPRISE, BITCHES! I'M THE REAL DELIRIOUS!" A hockey masked clown yelled. "Hey, man! How've you been?" An owl greeted. "Eyyy, never thought I'd see you again, scary lady!" A pig yelled. "Tyler, I swear to god!" Mako grumbled. "Kat!" Twilight yelled, flying over to the girl, hugging her tightly. The whole throne room was abuzz with conversation from thereon, old friends reunited, new ones made in seconds, and a sense of friendship spread in the room. "So, Vinyl gave me this kick-plot suit and now I can fly a lot faster!" Flitter laughed. "Holy, shit. That's the best f**king thing I've ever seen in my life!" Mini smirked. "Hey, when did Destoyer finally let us say 'f**k'?" Basically asked. "Around when we got back, it was scary..." Fluttershy replied, shrinking back. "So, you're a CIA agent like Karis?" Kat asked Mako. "I take it Alex told you about her, only really close friends knew her on a first-name basis." Mako said. "Every pony, listen!" Celestia yelled, everyone silencing, awaiting word from the sun goddess. "From this point forward, you are now the best of the best, the A-Team, as Mr. Fong would describe it." Luna said. "So, with that said. You are all taking orders from Commanders Mako Cerise, Alex Walker, Katherine Anderson, and Princess Twilight Sparkle." Celestia continued. "So, Commander Walker, what's your first order of business?" Raven asked. "Me?" Alex asked, pointing to himself. "Go ahead, kid. We all trust you." Mako nodded. "You have my approval." Twilight added. "Well, Alex. They're waiting." Kat replied. Alex stared out among his comrades, his peers, the men, women, and ponies he had the honor of knowing and working alongside. "We link up with the Royal Guard troops in Dodge City, help fortify their defenses. Tell Team RWBY that we'll be over there in case they ever decide to show. If we can stop them before anything from this damn prophecy that I don't know about happens, maybe we'll all have a better chance at living out the rest of our lives instead of coming out in a box. Let's end this war." Author's Note And there we have it. I posted a surprise chapter! I'm on a roll here! Now that most of the plot has been established, what do you, the readers think about this overall? Has this been an interesting 7+ hour read, or has it ended up sucking later on, or, worse yet, sucked from the first chapter? Leave a comment below, I love hearing from you guys! Act II, Chapter 17: Room For Improvement"Okay, I get why I have to stay here, but why keep the rest waiting?!" Under Celestia's orders, Alex was apparently supposed to stay in Canterlot for a while longer for training so he wouldn't get his ass handed to him like his last scuffle with the Inquisitors. He understood why he had to remain, but what he didn't get was why everyone else had to stay as well. "If you really must know, I can't always be around to save you, or your little brigade. You already know that the first years couldn't be around, so here we are." Raven replied calmly, but with a hint of annoyance. Alex and Raven were inside a Royal Guard training room, complete with it's own sparring ring. The Guards would usually use this to keep themselves in shape for the defense of the country. Alex, on the other hand, was going to use this to sharpen his senses, for his aim left something to be desired, in spite of all that time he spent around firearms. Not to mention that he only trained for one week. "Gotcha, what's the plan?" Alex asked, turning to the Inheritor/Huntress. "Simple enough, we're just going to get your baseline physical fitness in so we know where to start." Raven nodded in reply. "And how do you suppose we do that?" Raven leaped to the sparring ring, put on her mask, and drew her weapon. "Attack me." Alex was thunderstruck. "What?!" "Did I stutter?" Raven asked. "Don't you remember what happened last time, with the 'Disablers' and the 'Blade Gun'?" "Yes. Now attack." Alex casually unsheathed Electric Fury, the once-elegant craftsmanship now scarred and maimed by almost constant abuse and weeks without cleaning or repair. "You sure about this? You don't want me crippled before I even go out on the field, do you?" Alex asked "I don't. Attack." Alex summoned the Overcharge armor, fitting on to him with perfect conformity. Sure, the flight was disabled and that the armor itself was maimed so badly that most of the casing and some of the mechanics would have to be replaced, but it's Aura Enhancing features and HUD was still in proper shape, that plus Iris was now able to monitor his technique and inform him when it was safe to stop. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Alex nodded, leaping on the other end of the sparring pit. The Pit was a solid 60 meters in diameter, with seats above for viewing purposes, now empty on account that most of the Guards were fighting in Dodge City. Other than that, it was essentially a dome littered with sand. Alex readied in his fighting stance, feet shoulder-width apart, left side facing his opponent, sword over the right shoulder with both arms wrapped tightly around the handle. Getting a closer look at his opponent, Raven's weapon was not exposed. It was still sheathed, but her hands gripped the handle, Raven was watching his every move through the slits in the mask. 'Let's see... How do I do this...' Alex pondered to himself. He could go in, sword swinging, and hopefully catch her off guard and get the K.O early on. Or maybe he could use his enhanced jumping ability and get behind her before she could so much as blink and distract her. Who said it even had to be a jump! "I'm waiting!" She announced, annoyed. Before Raven could even finish the sentence, Alex's blade met her's, both locked together. "Let's see... Impressive build, you definitely have the raw power, but you're missing one crucial detail." Raven said. "And what's that?" Alex stumbled forward, surprised by the sudden disappearance of his mentor. Where-? Raven seemed to reappear directly behind Alex before even finishing the thought, slashing his back and legs before he could even utter a word. "Your apparent lack of focus. You have the attention span of a gnat." Raven replied. "Do I?" Alex asked, picking himself up and swinging the blade in his hand, each time connecting with Raven's sword. "Where did you learn your sword-fighting techniques? Aim for the person, not the blade." She scolded, catching him right in the arm before he could correct his attacks. Gripping his arm in surprise, Alex swung the blade again, aiming right for Raven's sword hand. Blocking it, her blade slid down Alex's sword and nicked him in the fingers. Infuriated, Alex spun completely, bringing the blade towards the midsection, connecting perfectly and causing the inheritor to fall to one knee. Alex didn't waste any time afterwards, kicking and swinging the sword. That is, until Raven blocked one of his attacks, hit him in the throat, and fired a red-tinted blade towards his chest. Alex was lying flat on his back now, coughing loudly and staggering up. "Good. You learn quickly." She nodded. By this point, Alex was standing up, albeit still grasping his chest in pain. "For an Entry-Level Inheritor, you're okay. I'd say you can take on five lower-ranked Inquisitors or two Higher-ranked." Raven nodded. "What does that make you?" Alex gasped. "I scare most Inquisitors by merely glancing in their direction." She replied. "I gotta ask, how are they ranked? I took on four at once after we first met and won. Why couldn't I beat five now?" Alex asked. "I got their I.Ds. You dealt with a few of the lower level Shadows then, Entry level to 2 years. Shadow-Hunters are more along the lines of Sigma's or Epsilon's caliber, 3 to 9 years. Shadow-Killers are higher level Inquisitors like Beta and Gamma, a solid 10-15 years at least. Then there's the Alpha. You'd have to be a Shadow-Killer for some ridiculous amount of time to even be considered, even after that, you won't be in the running until the old Alpha dies." Raven explained. "They really work at this, don't they?" Alex asked. "They're an Inter-dimensional fraternity of highly trained mercenaries. So I would say so." "Alright. Thanks, Raven." Alex nodded. "Anytime. Back to training." Raven immediately hardened, back in that stance, ready to fight. Alex spun his sword in a flourish before it collided with Raven's. He leaped over Raven and spun around 180 degrees, slashing her in the back and unleashing wave upon wave of lightning. The Inheritor face-planted and regained her composure as quickly as she lost it. She turned around to face him, emotion undiscernible through the expressionless mask. "So we're going all the way, hm?" She asked. "For god sakes, that sounds terrifying." Alex shrank back at the thought of another motorcycle accident type deal. Another blade was fired in Alex's general direction. Alex dodged it, deftly crouch-sliding beneath it and rearing up for a huge spinning attack. Raven completely disappeared when Alex finally looked again. "What the?" Alex was knocked on his back before he could finish his thought. "Next time, don't make it so I know your attacks before you finish." Raven nodded, grasping his hand and pulling him up. "Ok, now what?" Alex asked. "I asked the other Elements and the Scratchbolts to assist with your training." Raven said. Eight ponies trotted inside the pit, armor covering them head to hoof. Some of the nicer ponies waved hello, and the others just nodded their greetings to the boy. "How are they going to help?" "They'll be helping me knock you out. If you last three minutes, you win." Raven replied. "What?!" Alex backed up in surprise, he couldn't take them all on! Rainbow, Cloudchaser, and Flitter flew high above Alex, circling above his head akin to vultures over a dying animal in the desert. Twilight, Rarity, Vinyl, and Raven walked around him, their weapons and horns gleaming in the low-light. Applejack and Pinkie stood to his front and back, AJ's back legs were pointed at Alex, and Pinkie... Well. Pinkie was juggling grenades. And Fluttershy was backed into a corner, so far in that if she were any closer to the wall, she would simply fall right through it. Alex held Electric Fury tightly, looking at his each and every opponent. "Ourfatherwhoartinheaventhyhallowedbethyname..." He whispered to himself, horrified. Eight horses and his temporary master were upon him, swords swinging, horns firing magic, hoof slamming hard into armor, and Fluttershy still buried deep into the corner, weeping softly. "You couldn't handle the little ponies for three minutes?!" Alex had told his embarrassing little tale to his comrades, Vanoss and crew, Kat, and Mako. A mistake he would likely never repeat. "Wow! I knew the ponies were tough, but Jesus!" Vanoss held back his laughter out of respect for Alex, but to little effect. "Yeah! 'My little pony, my little pony, can beat the shit out of you!'" Delirious sang before breaking out in laughter. "Come on, it's not that funny," Mako rolled her eyes, "I mean, sure, Alex got his ass handed to him on a silver platter, but then again, Raven was carrying the team on her shoulders." "Actually, it's f**king hilarious." Mini chuckled, calming down. "The ponies targeted Alex for termination, he only lasted about a minute and a half. Yaugh." Terroriser said in his Arnold voice. Wildcat, of course, was still laughing his ass off. "Oh, my god. That was a solid minute of me laughing without noise!" He continued laughing. "You guys suck." Alex groaned, still sore from getting bucked straight in the stomach, and then blasted with three spells at once, and stabbed. "You need me to bring you your bedpan yet, Alex?" Kat asked. The whole room was then filled in an uproar of laughter. Alex, of course, was not amused in the slightest. "At least I didn't piss myself, like Mr. Hock-a-dookie over here." Alex said, staring straight at Nogla. "Oh, fock you, Alex! I'm wearing an adult diaper, so it's fine!" Nogla fruitlessly defended. Vanoss turned his laughter to Nogla. "Wait, do you even change that thing?!" Moo asked. Nogla merely stared as the sudden realization fell upon him. "Mm hmm." He lied. "Ew." Mako groaned, disgusted. "I'll take that as a 'yes'. One bedpan and one extra-extra large adult diaper coming up!" Kat smiled. Everyone then began laughing again, as Kat not only insulted Nogla, twice, but Alex as well. Raven stalked inside the hospital room, everyone immediately silenced themselves. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to speak with Alex. Alone, if you'd please." Everyone piled out of the room, many holding in their laughter. "What do you need?" Alex asked politely. "Couple things. One, here are the results of the training session I held earlier today." Raven handed him a piece of paper. He was being graded?! Subject: Alex G. Walker Mentor(s): Raven Branwen, Yang Xiao Long Fighting Forms: Standard Atlesian Arcamida/ Standard Vytalian Vokaira Training Exercise 0-3: Sparring II: Multiple opponents; Introduction Time: 1:38 3:00-2:30: Mastery 2:30-2:00: Proficient 2:00-1:30: Average 1:30-1:00: Needs Improvement 1:00-0:30: Weak 0:30-0:00: Defenseless Mentor's Notes: Walker has improved greatly these past weeks. He is powerful, energetic, and conscientious in his combat. Though he is not without fault. He is predictable and slow in his combat tactics. He leans more towards the powerful and brutish Arcamida over the swift and unpredictable Vokaira he selected at Beacon. He may soon be ready for missions in Dodge City once he recovers. Alex blinked. that was considered Average?! "What else?" Alex asked "Your combat team has been selected once you start fighting at Dodge City. Here you are." Raven handed Alex another slip of paper. Canterlot Military Command: Royal Guard Unit name: Task Force Lightning Acting Commander: Alex G. Walker Second-In-Command: Rainbow Dash Personnel: Blast Radius Burning Ember Haunting Horseshoe Skirmish Sentinel H2O Delirious I AM WILDCAT Vanoss "I have to ask, how did Rainbow get to be my #2? I would think she'd be with Twilight." Alex wondered. "I heard she volunteered." Raven nodded. "What of Team RWBY?" Alex said. "They still have a lot they need to do. Give it time." She said. "Sure, when do we head out?" Alex asked. "Tomorrow, 0900 hours. What you do then is your own decision." Raven said. A Pegasus in royal guard armor walked outside the hospital door, he had an orange coat with a red and black mane, from what Alex could tell. "I heard our CO was in here, team. Remember, this guy might have been through a lot if he's our commander at 15." He whispered, turning behind him. "I think they're with you. I'll be on my way." Raven nodded her goodbyes and exited the room. "Pardon me... Gentlecolt, I think." Raven shrugged. "Thank you, Ma'am." The guard nodded. Once Raven was out of sight, he and three other guards walked in, the second guard was a slightly darker orange Unicorn with a gray mane that fringed black at the edges, a mare, if he was right. The third guard was a light grey Earth Pony stallion with messy grey-green hair, the colt's most distinguishing features were his eyes, both pure black around the near-invisible pupil, in addition to the numerous scars on his face. The fourth guard was a royal blue Pegasus with orange hair that was tied into a single braid, the mare looked a bit more stoic, in spite of her slightly smaller stature. The first stallion cleared his throat, "Are you Commander Walker?" He asked, seemingly trying to retain confidence. "Chill out, Blast. You scared of a little colt?" The third guard scoffed. "Shut it, Haunt. I'm sure he is, though." The second sighed, annoyed. "I'm assuming you're the rest of my squad." Alex nodded in reply. "Yes, Sir. Lance Corporal Skirmish Sentinel." The fourth held a hoof out. Alex politely shook it, and gestured to the others. "Private First Class Haunting Horseshoe, reporting for duty." The third grunted, as if he had other things to do. "Sergeant Burning Ember. Been on the guard for 4 years." The second stood firm, demanding respect from her compatriots. "Wonderful introduction as always. Blast Radius. Corporal." The first chuckled. "Well, nice meeting you all, look forward to working with you." Alex smiled. "With all due respect, sir. Can I ask what happened to where you're in a hospital bed?" Ember asked. Skirmish walked over to a nightstand to his right, grabbing his grades. "A graded training session from a Mrs. Raven Branwen and a Mrs. Yang Xiao Long." "Actually, it's Ms. Xiao Long, as far as I know. Not sure about Raven, though." Alex replied. Haunting took the note. "Says here he lasted a minute-thirty-eight in a Pit Match against multiple opponents, that's just sad." Haunting scoffed. "There's a back side to it." Ember noticed, reading it before gasping in surprise. "You fought against the Elements of Harmony, the Scratchbolts, and this 'Raven'?" She asked in awe. "And got my ass handed to me." Alex sighed. "Pony feathers, I think he might be a better fighter than Haunting if he can last a minute against those psychos!" Blast cringed. "I resent that." Haunting scoffed. "If I am, it's only because I had to." Alex sighed. "Come again?" Skirmish asked. Alex told them all about him, everything that happened to him in these past months, once he was done, they all smiled. "Wait, what?!" Alex asked upon noticing their reactions. "I figured that Celestia'd pick you to command us!" Ember nodded. "We've all been there. I was once held in a Diamond Dogs' lair for two months, had to kill my way out with a sharp piece of amethyst." Skirmish recollected. "I was hunted in vampony territory, sharpened a stick and, well, un-alived them all. Took a month and a half." Haunting gestured to a scar on his foreleg. "Had to fight off a manticore and a chimera at once, you ever deal with those things?!" Blast whistled. "That's nothing. You remember the botched wedding in the Castle,right? I boxed myself in the kitchen and used every last fork, knife, and spoon in there. I killed 26 of those flying bugs." Ember scoffed. 'Holy hell, these ponies are psychos' Alex thought to himself. Ember of all ponies seemed to notice his reaction. "Ahem, anyways. It was a pleasure meeting you, I guess we should meet up with Ms. Dash and the others." She said. "F**king finally!" Haunting sighed loudly in relief. "Sure. See you on the field." Skirmish smiled. "Bye, sir!" Blast yelled before being silenced by Haunting. Once they left the room, he reviewed their psych profiles again. What they said was all true, according to Celestia. These ponies had been involved in some of the messiest battles in Equestria's history. And that was actually saying something, Equestria was mostly peaceful! It was also worth noting that these particular four had worked together before, they were often called the 'Doom Bringers' by other species, even Griffins were afraid of them. How they would be around Vanoss, Delirious, and Wildcat was not a question he wanted answered. He suspected that, considering their often aloof behavior and indifference to bloodshed, they would fit right in. Rainbow would probably be horrified, seeing as how, like the other Elements, had seen disappointingly little combat, and they were probably the most sociopathic ponies out there, but that isn't to say they weren't nice ponies, most of them, with the exception of Haunting, were pretty casual and collected. And if Team RWBY were to actually show up, how would they react? Alex knew Yang likely wouldn't care, as long as they were willing to help out once or twice a week. As for the others, he didn't know. He hadn't gotten to know them personally, but he did respect them to some extent. All Alex knew for sure was that he was going to Dodge City with the Elements, Vanoss's crew,The Scratchbolts, Kat, Mako, and their squads to fight the Red Star, and Team RWBY would arrive later, maybe with reinforcements, maybe not. Regardless, things were back to normal for the most part... ... And using the loosest definition of 'normal' ever. Author's Note Well, another Saturday, another chapter to this fan fiction. I took the effort of making more OCs, as apparent in the chapter. No, I can't get cover art or anything because I can't art! See you all next Saturday! Peace! Act II, Chapter 18: The Knights Myriad Part I of IIIAlex and the rest of the coalition had entered the train headed for Dodge Junction about 30 minutes ago. They had stopped for fuel in Ponyville, so they would be a bit late arriving, but he took this opportunity to look at the old house one last time. He had fifteen minutes before he would have to go back now, he had just entered the front door. Looking around, he found it almost exactly as he left it going out to the Dragon's cave about a month ago, minus the dust. Walking up the stairs to his room, Alex pondered over what significance this would have, seeing his temporary asylum again one last time. He entered the closet, seeing his old clothes hung up after putting on his uniform, ready in case he came back. Inhaling the dust particles, he coughed silently. Why was he here again? Remembering a minor detail, he dug further into the closet. There! An old present box! He still remembered when he got it all those weeks ago... 'Are you really sure you want me to have this, princess? It seems a bit unnecessary.' Alex had said about a day after she initially came to visit. 'It's not necessarily because I pity you, but more of a 'Plan Z' , if it were. Something to have in case something were to happen,' Celestia replied, 'Remember one crucial fact about this, Alex.' 'Sure.' 'Only use this gift when you are dealing with something that cannot be overcome using conventional means.' Celestia directed, tapping one hoof on the box. 'It's a deal.' Alex promised. Opening the gift, he used his fingernail to rip the tape enclosed in the box, and folding it open, he noticed a small, round object wrapped in thick, velvety cloth. He unfolded the cloth, and pulled out what looked like a crystalline TV remote, with only one button. Not sure what to think of it, he re-wrapped the cloth and stuck in in one of his pockets. He would save it when he finally met this 'Alpha' inquisitor. Alex was sitting inside of the train with Vanoss, Rainbow, and Skirmish. The Ex-Gamer and the iridescent Pegasus were talking about some of the things they had to deal with in the past. "...I mean, I like Pinkie and all. It's just that sometimes, her personality is a bit much sometimes." Rainbow shrugged. "Yeah, there was this one time when Delirious and I were playing GTA, and..." Alex figured he should end the conversation there, for fear of having this story bumped up to an 'M' rating. Skirmish cringed, but was otherwise silent. "So, Commander." Skirmish finally said. "Yes?" He asked. "I have to ask, what was your exact situation with Ms. Xiao Long?" She asked. Alex sighed, it was complicated as it was. "Awkward. Just very, very, cringe-worthily awkward." He responded, hoping she wouldn't ask for more. "How so?" She asked. F**k. "How do I put this? I constantly have my life on the line, never have I gone two whole weeks without getting shot once or twice. I was tortured for a whole frickin' month and still, to this day, have never gone to sleep without having a nightmare. But having that on top of a full-blown relationship is a bit too much for me. You can imagine my reaction when Kat and Yang start asking me about this kind of thing.." Alex said. "I understand." She nodded. "And it's even worse because she's a Huntress-In-Training. I hardly consider myself on the same level. This-" Alex continued, pounding the armor on his chest, "- can only get me so far if any of them were to switch sides." "You're not a huntsman?" She asked. "Not at heart. An Aura doesn't automatically equal Huntsman material, nor do my weapons and armor." He said. "Then what are you?" Skirmish asked. "Huh?" He perked his head up. "If you don't see yourself as a huntsman, then what do you see yourself as?" Skirmish clarified. Alex thought for a moment before facing Skirmish. "Somewhere between a soldier and a huntsman. A 'super-soldier', if you will." Alex replied evenly. A conductor ran horrified to where the team conversed. "What's the situation?" Ember asked. The conductor hesitated. "The Macintosh hills collapsed! A giant ship launched from the ground and destroyed Dodge Junction!" He yelled. "What?" Twilight gasped. "There's nothing left! I just looked outside and this giant ship just flew op from the dust!" He replied. "What's the plan?" Alex turned to Mako. Mako thought for a solid minute before announcing the plan. "Full speed ahead!" She yelled. "Are you insane?!" Wildcat said. "The Knights Myriad is here?!" Kat gasped. "How the hell do you know about this?!" Alex wondered. "What's going on?" Skirmish asked. "I'd like to know, too!" Flitter said. Kat sighed. "The Myriad is a massive super-carrier! It takes 8000 crew members to operate and stores at least a hundred jets!" She said. "If that thing gets near Canterlot, we're done for!" Rainbow Dash gasped. "Never mind Canterlot, imagine what happened to the guards stationed here!" Kat's sergeant, a stark white earth pony with a light grey mane named Winter Frost realized. "They wiped out the guard?!" Blast asked, astonished. "And the Junction!" Applejack said. Haunting coughed loudly from the back of the train car, everyone turned to him. "Listen here, if the Humans are as good as the Princess says they are, they should have no trouble at all taking down a measly little ship like that!" He scoffed. "He trying to intimidate me, he trying to intimidate ME? HUH? YOU THINK YOU'RE BIG MAN?!" Vanoss challenged. "Hell yeah, that's a challenge! Let's take the thing down!" Haunting yelled. The whole room was suddenly in an uproar. Did Haunt just rally the entire crew to battle in 30 seconds?! As the entirety of the team charged outside, Alex turned to Haunting. "Did you just boost their confidence in 30 seconds?" Alex asked him. "Meh, I dealt with their type before." He shrugged. "Good work, soldier. ONWARD AND UPWARD!" He ordered, activating the now-repaired jets and soared high into battle. The Myriad was truly massive, to compare, the U.S.S Zancudo that Alex raided for the EMP would make up 1/8 of the carrier in total, yes, eighth. It was about 2700 feet in length, 2010 feet in width, and roughly 18 stories tall and built like an oversized, flying Landkreuzer tank, complete with eight 300 foot thrusters keeping it in the air, and filled to the brim with missile launchers, Machine guns, and five cannons with enough firepower to destroy a city. Needless to say, this was going to take some work. Kat slid to the ground, narrowly avoiding a barrage of missiles. The Myriad was more challenging than she remembered Locust describing it would be. She went to the radio, searching for Alex's channel. '-.-Copy, over! I repeat, this is Atlas One-Two-Six calling for support! Requesting authorization from Commanders Walker and Anderson, over!' one channel crackled. Support? "Atlas One-Two-Six, this is Commander Anderson reporting from Dodge Junction, respond!" She ordered. She heard rustling and struggling until she heard a familiar voice. 'Kat? Kat, is that you?!' A girl asked. "Affirmative! We're surrounded by Red Star and are dealing with the Knights Myriad!" she yelled. 'Do you have Alex? Is he okay?!' "He's inside the Myriad, he's still alive!" 'Thank goodness. I'll tell the coalition to engage!' Alex burst through the hull, landing inside the ship's many hallways, searching for anything vulnerable. What the?! The floor collapsed from under him and Alex found himself in a large storage room of Jets and White Fang Bullheads. In the middle of the room was his worst enemy before Sigma came along. The most terrifying person he met from that time period other than the deceased Winchester. In the middle of the room, was Jäger. "You should've stayed with the convoy. Surrendered while you still had the chance." He scoffed. Alex staggered up. "Alpha wants you to die, but on his own, overly chivalric terms. Human sacrifice or something stupid. I just want to see you dead. No bullshit." Jäger scowled. "Whatever these A-Holes are paying you, I can double it." Alex coughed, unsheating Electric Fury. "This isn't business, kid. This is personal." He replied, ripping a thin, rusty, lead pipe off the wall and spinning it. Alex surged towards his old enemy, their weapons locking in place as they stared hatefully into each other's eyes. "Dead or alive, You're coming with me." He threatened. "That's big talk for a small-time crook." Alex shrugged. "Fine, Dead it is!" He yelled. Author's Note I'm going to be posting chapters all throughout the weekend, after that! I'm disregarding the schedule entirely. Hope you enjoy three days of pre-written chapters! Oh, by the way, here's to another 50,000 words. Don't know how I wrote that much in less time and chapters than the last 50,000. But eh, progress. Act II, Chapter 19: The Knights Myriad Part II of IIIJäger stared into Alex's eyes with murderous intent, swinging the lead pipe at his head. Alex blocked it with Electric Fury's blade before converting it into it's rail gun form. Jäger then ducked, swinging hard for Alex's chest and denting the armor. Alex coughed, raised Electric Fury, and fired every shot the railgun contained at Jäger's head, leaving decent sized holes in his head and warping it into a flat, six-holed liquid-metal pan. The abomination of nature re-morphed it's face before he simply threw the pipe at him like a javelin. Alex narrowly dodged the pipe before it was embedded into the wall nearby. Swinging the blade through Jäger's midsection before going all 'Metal Gear Rising Zandatsu Mode' and chopping his enemy into a million liquid metal pieces. Exhausted, Alex walked out of the room only to have to dodge a metallic spike. Turning around to find his adversary rematerialized. "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Jäger scoffed. Alex turned around, both revolvers ready to fire. "Actually, for a second there, yeah. I kinda did." Alex retorted. The metal spike liquefied and slid under Alex's boot before returning to Jäger, who pulled out his own sword, jagged at one side, wickedly sharp, and a meter and a half long, he pointed it at the super-soldier. "Let's dance!" Mako slid, dodging a barrage of missiles and returning fire, blowing up other missiles easily. "It's no use! Fall back!" Twilight ordered. "No! Wait!" Kat yelled back, still fighting off Red Star infantry that were still fast-roping from the top of the ship. "DIIIIIIE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Delirious screamed, still hacking enemies with a hatchet. "RED BULL GIVES YOU WIIIIINGS!!!" Vanoss yelled, Cloudchaser was pulling him up above her, throwing him in range of the enemies still dropping in. "THIS IS THE FIGHT OF A LIFETIME! I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" Haunting seemed to flourish in the battlefield, his two spears serving as mere extensions of his hooves as he sliced away infantry. "Two, three, six, and nine! Shit! Surrounded!" Frost counted, blowing them all away with an SMG. Just then, a massive amount of ponies in Royal Guard uniforms came pouring over the hillside, there seemed to be no end, they numbered in the thousands. "HERE COMES THE CALVARY!" Mini laughed. Then, Mako saw blurs from above, and Rainbow knew who they were. "The Wonderbolts?!" "In my armor?!" Vinyl gasped, pride edging her voice. 'Atlas One-Two-Six, you are clear to engage!' her radio crackled. "Oh, my god!" Mako realized. "Yep! Let's take this thing down!" Kat smiled broadly, the barrel of her sniper rifle now smoking. "We got the gang back together, boys!" Wildcat yelled, firing an RPG rocket that met a missile in midair, causing a decent-sized explosion. Jäger was launched inside the engine room by Alex, who was still fighting him. Panting with exaustion, Alex holstered his revolvers, and sent electricity directly to the gauntlets on his armor. Jäger staggered up, only to be met by Alex's armored fist. BZZZAP! The gauntlet collided with Jäger's face, generating a huge spark on contact. Alex just kept punching and punching before holding both of his hands, as though he were about to swing a golf club, and delivering a devastating uppercut. Jäger was blown upwards, colliding with the ceiling before falling down and meeting the stairway. Coughing, Jäger picked himself up, noticing too late that Alex had stabbed him with Electric Fury, now glowing red-violet and shocking him. "You...you will never win.." Jäger coughed. "Never, you say?" Alex panted, upping the voltage on his blade. Alex charged, slamming Jäger into a red-hot engine, melting his back and even the front a little bit. Planting a foot on his enemy, Alex pulled the blade out, now partially melted, and irreversibly damaged. Alex then pulled out .44 Scratch, firing all six rounds at his enemy, now nothing more than a silvery puddle on the ground. "Give my regards to Winchester, you son of a-" BZZZZOW!. The final shot all but incinerated Alex's rival, Alex himself was now tired. "Finally..." Alex sighed, sweaty in the burning-hot room. He opened up the Pocket Dimension, went inside, and came back out with a familiar device. The EMP. If all else failed, he grabbed the control, meant to detonate it on a timer if he were to not be there. Placing the detonator in his pocket, he ran out of the room and started up the stairs, hopefully by now able to get back to his allies. He had to hurry, they may already be dead. He charged up the stairs, killing any soldiers unfortunate enough to be in the way. He didn't care, his friends were out there! Running just near the runway, Alex was suddenly knocked on his back by another Inquisitor. Epsilon, AKA Iron Talon. "You really have a death wish if you think you can destroy the Knights Myriad. This ship has been here for ages, boy!" The griffin sneered. Alex staggered up, .44 Scratch in hand. "I do have a death wish, Talon. Yours!" He cried out, firing at the Inquisitor Leader of the Rogue Guard. Alex dodged a reinforced claw, slamming hard into the mythical Eagle-Lion thing, and shoved it out the door. Epsilon staggered up, screeching in fury before latching onto Alex's back and ripping the flight mechanisms, Machine Guns, and rocket launchers to shreds. Alex screamed in agony and ripped the Inquisitor off his back. He lashed again, this time to be met by Alex's gauntlet and blown backwards. "I will tear you apart!" Epsilon yelled, charging at Alex and tearing apart what remained of his armor. Now Alex's Overcharge armor was destroyed, the visor cracked and revealed deep blue eyes, the armor now bloody through the claw marks on Alex's back. Alex took off the armor, revealing dirty hunting gear and bloodstained blonde-ish hair. The boy was wounded badly and was going into shock, staggering down and holding in his wounds "I will end you!" The griffin yelled again before getting blown away by green energy blasts, the Inquisitor getting knocked backwards with every shot before a very large bullet ripped through his cranium, falling onto the battlefield below. Alex coughed up blood and was struggling to crawl away before whatever killed Epsilon got to him too. F**k! A large explosion blew up next to Alex, who was now rolling haphazardly near the edge in shock. He found himself unable to do a whole lot as he nearly fell off the ship itself. What the?! Something was grabbing him by the satchel and pulled him up, his vision was blurry and the blood was in his eyes, so he could not identify his savior. He definitely heard something, though. "Alex? Wake up!" The person screamed as Alex continued to try and hold in a wound on his gut. Another blur went up to the first, looked at him and back at his savior. "He's hurt bad. I don't know if he can make it down by himself." The second shook it's head. "He has to! We didn't come all this way to find him like this! Alex!!" The first screamed as he continued to writhe in agony. Author's Note Part II of the Knights Myriad trilogy continues. I forgot to mention, Part III is pretty much the finale of Act II, just thought I should say it. Act II, Chapter 20: The Knights Myriad Part III of IIIAlex slowly blinked until his vision started to clear up. His eyes widened once he saw who was currently defending him from Red Star troops. "Ruby?!" Alex coughed, still bleeding profusely. "Alex! Thank god you're okay!" She hugged him tightly. Alex grit his teeth, the soul-constricting hug in tandem with his wounds left him in agony. "Oh, right. Sorry." She apologized, wiping his blood off of her clothes. "When did you get here?" Alex asked, pulling out .44 Scratch and helped her thin out the enemy forces. "It wasn't easy. We had to convince the kingdoms to start-" "I said when." Alex interrupted. "About a half hour ago." Ruby replied. "Listen... We need to get off this thing. Now!" Alex coughed. "Why?" Ruby asked. "Remember the EMP? Yeah, it's in the engine room on this thing and I have it rigged to burst any minute now." Alex said, showing her the remote. "Gotcha covered, hold on!" She said, holding onto him as the two leaped off the Myriad, Alex screaming along the way. "AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" He shrieked, cringing once they were close to the ground. Ruby fired Crescent Rose just before hitting the ground, slowing their fall and landing relatively safe. Alex himself handed hard on his chest, Ruby had slipped about 5 feet above the ground and, while not ending up a red mark on the dust, it still hurt like crazy. "Ow! Damn it!" Alex coughed. "Listen, Blake and Kat are still up there getting whatever information they can, as soon as they're off, then you can trigger the EMP." Ruby instructed. "Alex! Ruby!" Twilight seemed elated to see Ruby again, and even happier to find out Alex survived. "Hey, Twilight." Alex coughed. "Is he okay?!" She asked, checking his wounds. "He fought Iron Talon on the ship!" Ruby replied. "Motherf**ker ripped my armor into bits and almost killed me, thank god she came in with a ray gun!" Alex added. "Ray gun, you said?" Twilight asked. "Yep!" Ruby said, handing her the Ray Gun. "Where did you even get a Ray Gun?" Alex spluttered, then he remembered when Vanoss's crew brought in the mystery box just before the embassy massacre. "The box that your team brought in, remember?" Ruby asked, turning to him. "Just did." Alex replied. "This is remarkable! I didn't know your species had adapted into atomic cold cell research so well!" Twilight beamed, unloading the weapon. "We didn't." Alex said. "Anyways, I'll have to do some research on this to see if I can implement this technology into your own weapon, Ms. Rose!" Twilight promised. "Thank you so much!" Ruby then proceeded to hug the lavender Alicorn. "That's all well and good, but where's the rest of your team?" Alex asked. "It's not just us anymore, Alex. Every Huntsman and Huntress available is working on this, every huntsman school across Remnant has students participating!" She smiled broadly. Alex's jaw dropped to the ground. "Are you mad?! Your comrades are in danger!!" Alex scolded. He cared about Ruby, and couldn't bear to see her encounter more loss than she might already have suffered. "Ahem, anyways, Weiss is helping Evan's squad and the other Elements, Blake is with Kat stealing information from the ship, and Yang is still fighting off any Red Star infantry left." Ruby reported. "Anyone else?" Alex asked. "Jaune and Pyrrha are with Evan and Weiss, Nora's with Yang, and Ren's with Agent Mako." She replied. "Thank god. They're still alive, yes?" He asked hopefully. "I think so." 'Commander Anderson to Huntress Rose, we found an Electromagnetic Pulse device in the engine room, what do we do?' Kat asked through the radio. Alex took the radio from Ruby. "Kat, I need you to stay away from the EMP! I repeat, stay the hell away from that device!" Alex ordered. 'No! Stay away from there! N----' the radio went out. "Kat?!" Alex shook the radio. They set it off and the ship was falling. "No!" Twilight gasped. "Retreat! Fall back!" Alex ordered. Most of his allies in the battlefield ran away from the falling ship, for a moment, he saw Blake and Kat leaping out of the airship. Hopefully they'd make it. They had to! Everyone kept running as fast as they could. "Regroup at the Intersection! Move! Go go go!" Alex screamed as loud as he could to anyone who could hear. They were going to make it. Turning around, he saw the ship crash into the dust, two parachutes above and floating towards the horde. The skip exploded in a giant fireball, the destroyer of Dodge Junction was brought down entirely, seemingly disintegrating in the flames. Once everyone finally got to the intersecting train tracks, Alex was tired, more tired than he had ever been in his life. He staggered to the ground, coughing profusely and spitting blood. His wounds remained untended. "Is everyone okay?" Alex asked. "I've been better, man." Vanoss huffed. "Good thing I read up on long-distance running." Twilight panted. "Meh, I've had hangovers worse than this." Vinyl replied. "No serious injuries in our squad." Ember said. "I'm good, Lex." Mako added. "We're okay, Alex." Ruby gasped for breath. "We're all fine." Blake said, for she had just arrived, with Kat in tow. Alex rolled onto his back, still wounded badly. "Thank god." Alex's vision started to flutter. A medic walked up to him, she looked like she was from Remnant. "Sir, I think you're the only one with untended wounds, we need to clean these. Now." She said. "Sure..." Alex groaned. As the medic continued patching him up, he looked around. Everyone who was originally a part of Team Unity was now here, as well as some new additions. The sting of the disinfectant was pretty much the only thing keeping him awake, Weiss had fallen asleep on arrival, and Vanoss and some of the other Scratchbolts were beginning to get some shut-eye. "There you go, sir. I'd advise not doing anything too crazy the next couple days. But you should be fine." She said after she finished applying bandages. "Thank you." He said, collapsing onto the ground in exhaustion, blood loss, and the like. Someone had sat down next to him and pat him on the shoulder blade. "I haven't seen you in a while, Alex. What's up?" Alex just realized that Yang was laying next to him. "Oh, hey Yang. I just helped take down a huge carrier ship and probably killed most of the crew, fought my old doppelgänger and won, and got torn apart by a bird-lion thing before your sister got to him." Alex replied blankly. "So, just like old times?" She asked. "Yeah, you could say that." He chuckled a bit. Alex just sat there, blinking away blissful slumber for the next couple of minutes. He saw a small light from the other side of the tracks, a train? Here? now? "Who's that?" Alex asked. "I'm not sure. Let's find out." Yang said, picking him up. Walking towards the train, Alex and Yang saw the train slowly come to a halt before him, the door opened, revealing Princesses Celestia, Luna, and... "Professor Ozpin?" Alex asked. "Hello, Mr. Walker. Glad to finally see you again after so long." Ozpin replied, no emotion in his voice. "Eh. I figured you might have something to do with the dozens of huntsmen being here." Alex shrugged blankly. "Miss Xiao Long, may we have a moment?" The Professor asked, turning to the girl. "Gotcha. See you around, kid." Yang waved. Alex was led inside the train, sitting in a booth to Luna's right side, Ozpin and Celestial facing him. "I assume you know I'm not here to antagonize you." The headmaster tilted his head slightly. "It'd explain why you aren't attacking me, especially since I took off to an alternate dimension with some of your best huntresses." Alex replied rather bluntly. "Miss Rose and Miss Xiao Long both explained at length why they went with you." Ozpin said. "And that's why we want to assist you in your efforts, the Inquisition is a scourge." Celestia added. "Well, thank you." Alex blinked, still tired. "It's not just us, Mr. Walker. The Inquisitors hurt a lot of the wrong people. You are familiar with the prophecies, are you not?" Luna asked. "Yes, I am. Beta's even going as far as calling me a 'Catalyst'." Alex replied. "And for good reason. You are the one who will change everything in this universe. You, Alexander, are the key to our collective future." Celestia said. "It's a pain. It really is." Alex sighed. "True. But no burden is without reward. Needless to say, after this, you shall never be in the same situation you once were ever again." Luna said. "I understand." Alex said, this time, he meant what he said. "I would like to offer you a deal, Commander." Ozpin offered. "I'm listening, Professor." Alex nodded, interested. "Full control of Equestria's and Remnant's fleet, led by our best ship, which is outfitted with dimensional gateway technology, and more soldiers than you can count, with your team leading the charge. You'll have a chance at revenge for your lost comrade, life, and freedom, all you have to do is find the Inquisitor's Capital, and kill the Alpha." Celestia said. "Gee, you make it sound much easier than it actually is, but I may need a tiny bit more than that." Alex said. "Huntsman training beforehand?" Ozpin added. "Eeeeehhh." Alex groaned. "Full access to Remnant, Equestrian, and Earth weapons?" Celestia asked. "Little bit more..." Alex offered. "Magic enhancements? Super-Weapons?!" Luna added on. "Just a little bit more..." "By dust! What is it you want from us?!" Ozpin yelled. "All of the above, plus an extra-something special.." Alex said. Celestia's eyebrows shot straight upwards. "Jesus! Not like that, you pervert! I mean as in materials. The strongest possible materials in your possession for armor building, because I swear to god, if I lose one more set of armor, I'm gonna be pissed!" Alex shook. "Oh. Good. I noticed you've been using Equestrian Steel to reinforce your armor. There is another metal comparable to that." Luna said. "I hear you..." Alex said. "Invictium is one of the most durable, lightweight metals known to Equestria, aside from Equestrian steel." Celestia explained. "The strongest metals in Remnant have been used extensively in Huntsman and Huntress weapons and armor, there would be no problem outfitting some to fit your standard." Ozpin added. Alex smiled. "You have yourself a deal. I just need all of those metals melted into an alloy and made into sheets. Two meters by two meters, about three centimeters thick. About... Seven, if it's at all possible." Alex instructed. "We'll be right on it, Mr. Walker. Just make sure Alpha is dead once you get to him." Ozpin ordered. "And Alex." Celestia said before Alex exited the train. "What would you like the name of your flagship to be?" She asked. Alex thought for a moment, his memory hearkening back to 8th Grade English Class for an unknown reason. "The Iliad." Alex said in reply. Alex sat in the train, looking over every member of the enhanced Team Unity. Writing their names down on a list, he looked over them all admirably. List of Current Team Unity Members (As of October 29, 2016) Alex Walker Katherine 'Kat' Anderson Mako Cerise Twilight Sparkle Rainbow Dash Rarity Applejack Pinkie Pie Fluttershy Vanoss Delirious Wildcat Lui Mini Basically Terroriser Droidd Moo Nogla Ruby Rose Weiss Schnee Blake Belladonna Yang Xiao Long Jaune Arc Pyrrha Nikos Nora Valkyrie Lie Ren Vinyl Scratch Cloudchaser Flitter Winter Frost Pitch Black Burning Ember Blast Radius Haunting Horseshoe Skirmish Sentinel Looking at the list again, he gaped. The group count had jumped from 22 to 36?! What the actual f**k?! "Something wrong, Admiral Walker?" Skirmish asked. Alex forgot to note. He ranked up given his position in the Equestrian-Remnantian Coalition. As well as everyone else. "What rank am I again?" Vanoss asked. "Master Chief Petty Officer. Same as Kat, Mako, Ruby, Jaune, and Rainbow." Alex replied. "Haha! Suck it, Delirious! I'm the Master Chief!" Vanoss yelled, shooting Delirious in the chest. "NOOOOOO!" He screamed, running away. "Get back here...uh..." Vanoss seemed lost for words. 'Commodore.' Alex mouthed. "GET BACK HERE COMMODORE DELIRIOUS!" Vanoss charged at the Hockey-Masked man. "Wait, what am I again, Alex?" Yang asked. Alex sighed. "'All huntsmen and huntressess not designated as leader are enlisted at the rank of 'Lieutenant Colonel'. Leaders of huntsmen/huntress teams are enlisted at the rank of 'Master Chief Petty Officer.''" Alex replied, repeating what he read from the syllabus. "Oh." Blast nodded. "So I'm..." Blake said. "Lieutenant Colonel Belladonna. Yes." Alex replied. "That puts me right over Adam's old rank." Blake said, more or less to herself. "Which was?" Alex asked. He hadn't heard much about Blake's time in the White Fang, but then, not many people knew exact details. "Major." She replied. Alex made sure to keep this in mind before looking outside to his right. "There she is, team," Alex said, admiring the large form in the Eastern Equestrian coast, directly between Fillydelphia and Manehattan. "Woah." Vanoss gaped. "Fine ship you got there. What's it called?" Applejack asked. "That's our new home for the foreseeable future, until we find the Lion's Den that is the Inquisitor's Capital City. I present the E.R.C Iliad." Author's Note And so ends the second act of the story. It brings tears in my eyes. Thank you all for enduring the six hours or so it took reading this story. When, even to this day, I didn't bother to include cover art. I may have to start asking at this point. I'm not going to ask your opinion on the story this time, so leave it of your own accord. Until next time, - The Destoyer Act III, Chapter 1: The IliadOnce the team got on the ship, things seemed to move along a bit more smoothly. "GET AWAY FROM ME, VANOSS!" Delirious screamed, as Vanoss was currently chasing Delirious around the obscenely large flight deck. The Iliad was about half the size of the Myriad in overall volume, but even so, Alex was surprised that the ship itself stayed afloat. It was so huge that Vanoss had actually tired out before he could stab the masked man. "Hahahaha! You can't catch me, bitc- NOOOOO!" Delirious screamed mid-sentence as Vanoss had fired a rocket on the flight deck. "Evan! Not even thirty seconds on deck and you're already destroying Atlesian tech!" Weiss scolded. "And Equestrian, and possibly Earth tech because the dimensional gateway was based off of Die Glock." Twilight corrected. "That'll teach him to steal my loot-crate." Vanoss threatened. "Should we be afraid?" Jaune asked, backing away in terror. "Nah. In the 29 hours I've been with them, they're not much." Haunting shrugged. "It's been one day since the Myriad battle? It's felt like three!" Rainbow asked. "I hear ya, Dash." Mako shrugged. Alex continued the short walk to the stairwell leading below deck. He needed to check the systems on this thing. "All right, I'm going to need Master Chiefs Fong, Rose, Dash, Anderson, Cerise, and Arc with me. Soldiers, stay here until the rest of the crew comes along." Alex ordered. "Yes, sir!" Most of his Company announced. "Welcome, Admiral." A very familiar voice greeted once the group entered the center-most part of the ship. "Iris?! I thought you went down with the armor!" Alex gasped. "You'll have to thank Lieutenant Colonel Belladonna and Master Chief Anderson for that." Iris replied. "You're not going to go all 'HAL-9000' on me for getting torn apart by a psychotic inquisitor griffin, are you?" Alex asked. "She gon' stick a big ol' monolith up yo-" Vanoss joked until Mako elbowed him in the arm. "Ow." He winced. "Thanks for preserving the teen rating on this story, Mak." Rainbow smiled. "Pleasure." She replied. "I severely doubt it will come to that, Admiral. But regardless, I will schedule some training with Lieutenant Colonel Xiao Long so this does not happen again." Iris said. "Oh, Alex. I've been meaning to ask..." Ruby began. "Sure." Alex smiled, turning to the red-cloaked huntress-in-training. "Can I help Yang train you?" She asked him. "I don't see any reason why not. If anyone else wants to, I'll take help wherever I can get it." Alex replied. "And so the trend continues..." Kat sighed, nostalgia heavy in her tone. "Have I asked for other people's help that often?" Alex asked. "Well, not explicitly ask, but rather wait until someone else asks if they can help you." she answered. "Truer words have never been spoken." Vanoss nodded. "I'm with you." Rainbow Dash added. "Ditto." Ruby said. "God dammit." Alex pinched the bridge of his nose, trying with most of his might to keep his internal screaming from becoming external. Alex looked around the dimly lit room while the others continued talking, large computer monitors were laid out in paths, and the only other light source in the room besides Iris's computer, still working on diagnostics. Why were they arranged like that? "Diagnostics complete. The ship is capable of transporting anything in a 40 kilometer radius to other dimensions as far as 100,000 yottaparsecs away from ours. The ship can carry as many as 500 Bullhead VTOLs, 64 M1 Abrams-sized tanks, and 500,000 soldiers excluding crew. The ship requires at least 300 operators to be even remotely managable, and is outfitted with several intercontinental missile launchers, Anti-Aircraft weapons, dozens of heavy machine guns, and one rail gun, capable of firing projectiles one yard in diameter up to 20 miles away with pinpoint accuracy. The ship is also outfitted with training quarters to anyone who may need it, it's own forge is also enclosed inside, and can travel up to 65 knots an hour thanks to two dark-matter reactors on the ship." Iris explained. "Thanks. Iris, what's with the computers?" Alex asked. "The ships systems are meant to holographically project important information in the correct settings. The light over to your right is actually a condensed laser awaiting reaction from the other computers." Iris said. "Let's get to work on that." Rainbow suggested. Several green lights appeared on the floor, indicating where the computers should be placed. Alex and his other friends got behind a few of the monitors and started pushing as hard as they could. Once Rainbow and Vanoss got one of the monitors onto the green light, it made a high beep noise before the light moved towards the monitor, once the light met the monitor, rays of cerulean light refracted around the room. "Ooh, yeah! It likes that!" Evan smiled, moving onto another. Mako and Ruby had placed another one, and one of the beams that shot out from the first monitor met the second, creating more retractions and causing the lasers in between to make a sort of hexagonal shape. "It's working!" Ruby beamed before helping Jaune move another monitor. "One...Two...Three!" Kat grunted, as Alex and her were moving another monitor into it's spot. The beams started to look a bit more complete, forming a shape comparable to a spider's web. "Let's keep this up!" Jaune panted, trying to help Ruby move the monitor. "Almost there..." Rainbow struggled, also helping someone move a computer in place. "And...." Kat gasped for breath, as these monitors were heavy. They placed their monitors in at the same instant, completing the blue hexagonal shape that was currently glowing brightly. "Good work, everyone! I'll notify the crew!" Iris congratulated. "Right... The crew.." Alex panted. "One more thing, Alex." Kat said, walking up to him with a USB drive with the markings '16 TB' etched on the front. "This flash drive contains information about the Inquisitors, some of it talks about the Inquisitors' main headquarters. It's a large island city known as Kalos Prime. We don't know which universe, but several of the higher-up inquisitors might." Kat explained. "Great." Alex smiled, placing the flash drive in his pocket. "Well, I see things have happened down here. Hey, Alex." Vinyl greeted. Alex turned to greet the white and blue unicorn mare. "Hey, V. We just set up the main logistics room." Alex smiled back. "Listen, We have the materials for your armor and weapon in the forge right now. Iris, Ruby and I are helping you with the designs." Vinyl stated. "Wait, Ruby's helping?" Alex asked. "Yeah, who else do you think built the scythe she's always carrying around?" She asked him. "Good point. That doesn't look mass-produced to me." Alex shrugged. "Also, Twilight wanted me to bring you something." Vinyl said, handing him a small, pentagonal, purple hued gem. "What is it?" Alex inquired. "It's a very rare Dust crystal. A 'Oracon Amethyst', if I'm right." Vinyl explained as Alex examined the crystal. Alex hadn't had a lot of experience with dust in it's crystal form. Mainly, it was ammunition for Electric Fury, and that was pretty much it. Granted, he went through the 'Dust for Dummies' pamphlet that Weiss gave him on arrival in about 45 seconds before getting a rough concept of what this stuff actually did. He also remembered reading about rare dust crystals, but could never exactly memorize specific crystals by name. As stated, the Oracon Amethyst Dust crystal was purple hued, a natural match with his own Aura, and carved intricately into a pentagonal shape, and was rather sturdy and unlikely to break. "What exactly is this supposed to do?" Alex asked. "I asked Weiss, she said something about 'Enhancing semblance-related abilities by 20-something percent' or something, I don't know." The unicorn shrugged. "Thanks Vinyl, I have some things I need to take care of, if you don't mind." "Nah man, go do your thing and we'll make the armor later." She patted his back and trotted off. Slipping the small crystal into his right pocket, he nodded in thanks and headed over to a computer to review the data on the flash drive Kat had given him. 'Kalos Prime', eh?" Alex smirked, cracking his knuckles and plugging in the device. Alex had arranged a meeting with the entirety of the team to discuss the plans for their next mission. The seats were filled, and Alex stepped up next to the holographic charts displayed nearby. "Hey, everyone. So, I guess you all know why I called you here?" Alex began. "We already f**king know why you called us! it was on the stupid little card you had the crew deliver!" Wildcat shouted. "Ahem... Anyways, I better start with the big question here; what's our next move?" Alex said, gesturing to the charts, where several highlighted bits of information scattered behind him. "According to the files Master Chief Anderson and Lieutenant General Belladonna were able to retrieve from the Red Star Aero-Carrier The Knights Myriad, The Inquisition's head capital is a huge island-city known as 'Kalos Prime'. Where it is, we don't know." Alex shrugged. "How do you plan on finding out?" Mako asked, hand raised. "It's rather simple, really. The Inquisitors Omicron and Sigma have orders to send a battalion of White Fang soldiers into Vytal. Those of you who have no freakin' clue of what the hell I'm talking about, Vytal is an island located just north of Vale. I believe members of Team RWBY have met both of these inquisitors. Thanks to the records that Raven managed to send after arrival, we know who they are." "Who?" Someone asked. "Sigma has been identified as 'Cinder Fall', a professional criminal who managed to sneak into the Cross-Continental Transmit Tower and hack into it's systems. Due mostly to recent events, she has been revealed to be connected to the White Fang." Alex explained, an image of the Inquisitor appearing on screen. "Wait, then who the f**k is Omicron?" Haunting asked wryly. "Omicron, AKA Adam Taurus, is a Faunus rather high up in the White Fang's ranks. His best known attack was the theft of an entire train shipment of Dust, with just himself and his Ex-apprentice. Both Inquisitors are dangerous on a ridiculous scale, and should be proceeded with caution if we're really going to interrogate them." Alex answered. "How the f**k are we taking two of them down if you haven't even come close to killing one?" Lui scoffed. "You're forgetting something. Just yesterday, Epsilon, AKA Iron Talon, the leader of the Rogue Guard, was killed by Ms. Rose, and I would've gotten away with killing Cinder if Raven didn't stop me." Alex explained. "So, what's the plan here?" Ember asked. "We hire someone to infiltrate the White Fang. Like most of their forces, they'll probably go with Omicron's lot into Vytal. From there, the undercover op should be able to get a decent amount of information before we move in. If we encounter either Omicron or Sigma, I'll need a full huntsman team to attack either. We knock the Inquisitor out, and bring them back into the Iliad for questioning." Alex elaborated. "And once we're done?" Yang asked. "Make the f**ker walk the plank, or just have Nora break the Inquisitor's legs and have him or her crawl down the plank." Nora grinned ear-to-ear. Most of the pony audience looked ready to vomit, except Haunting. "OORAH! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" He laughed heartily. Vanoss and company made a few jokes about that quote. "When your legs don't work like they used to before..." "But before you learn to walk, you must learn to crawl!" "Crawling in my skin! These wounds they will not heal!" Kat sang, trying and failing to contain giggling. "Are you a child?" Weiss asked condescendingly. "Don't patronize me." Kat threatened. Alex himself was surprised to see Kat's mood change that quick. "Infant." The Ice Queen huffed. "Tsundere.." Kat glared back. "This is ridiculous. F**k this, I'm out!" Alex groaned, choosing to head to the forge, grabbing Vinyl and Ruby by the mane and hood respectively. "Ow!" Vinyl winced. "Friendship!" Ruby yelled happily, raising both arms while her feet dragged along the floor. The hills between Manehattan and Fillydelphia were mostly silent, save the occasional Pegasus that drifted calmly across the cold, autumn night. Leaves also billowed through the late night breeze and filled the air with the scents of the season. Mostly quiet except for the birds that continued to chirp through the night... And, of course, the swirling blue vortex that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The portal was roughly six feet in height and spiraled around as though it were a cosmic wheel. Out from this portal stepped a taller man, barely visible due to the silhouette effect made when he stepped in front of it. Two M1911 pistols in hand, the figure didn't so much as glance when this gateway closed. The moon now illuminating the man's features, one would be able to see the man wore a black ski-mask, some night-vision goggles, a respirator, as well as a World War II-era M1 helmet. The man's breathing was raspy and mechanical, almost inhuman in nature. 'Have you arrived at the Target Location yet, Russell?' a voice from his communicator asked. "Affirmative, E.R.C Iliad is in sight, Sirius" Russel said, his voice calm, but still gruff. 'Admiral Walker should be just inside. Knowing him, he'll understand why you're here in a heartbeat.' Sirius noted. "This isn't your world, Sirius. If you're right about this, we can't afford to have him know why we're here." Russell asserted. 'Of course. Have you determined the date yet?' "Roger that, it's October 30, 2016 here." Russell replied evenly. 'Perfect timing, Russell. Perfect timing. Proceed to Phase Two of Directive 2-378.' Sirius ordered. "Gladly, sir." Author's Note Chapter unlocked! So, yeah. Act Three. Yay! I should note that, considering this is an alternate timeline, I won't add a whole lot from RWBY Volume 3 unless it's completely necessary. Before I forget: Whoever's the owner of the white sedan, you left your lights on. Act III, Chapter 2: Intruder Alert!Russell finished inflating the small speedboat at the edge of shore, being careful to avoid the ship's spotlight. "Sirius, the boat's ready. Any way you can get me in the ship?" Russell asked, moving to his communicator. 'I could potentially hack into the ship and have an entrance opened, but it would be way to dangerous.' Sirius sighed. "Do we have any other options?" Russell asked. 'I wish...' Sirius grimly replied. "Fine, let's get to work." Russell hopped inside the boat, started the engine, and sped towards the large carrier ship. "And... Done!" Ruby instructed. Alex helped Vinyl haul out the boiling vat of alloy, which Alex personally dubbed the 'Tenacia Alloy', as they were all composed of metals known not to shatter or break. Heading to the molds that they had set up prior to heating and combining the metals, they poured the red hot liquid into the first mold, the blade. Much like Electric Fury's old blade, it had a large gap towards the bottom of the blade, for weight as well as tactical reasons, meant to catch the enemy's blade and disarm, but the blades would not separate and then spin like with his original weapon. It was just a feature he rarely used, and it was ridiculously impractical, remembering all the times he nearly chopped off both of his arms. Instead, the single blade would move perpendicular to his right arm and then spin. Tipping the red-hot vat of Tenacia Alloy upwards before the mold overflowed, he sat down, panting. "Not bad, eh?" Alex huffed. "Keep in mind that we'll have to make the cuts in the blade and add the mechanics so that this can turn into a gun, you do still want to be able to keep up with us, right?" Ruby inquired. "Right.. Let's not worry about that now, Let's get to work plating the armor. Iris?" Alex asked. "Yes, sir?" Iris appeared in the forge. "Bring up all models compatable with the Overcharge V2 Exo-Suit platforms." Alex ordered. "Bringing up OV2 Exo models 4-18." Iris stated, fourteen holograms appearing out of nowhere, all with different designs. Ruby, Vinyl, and Alex looked some of them over, interest peaking in Alex's mind. "I kind of like Mark 9, it looks almost like an Atlesian 200." Ruby noted, bringing up Mk. IX's hologram. "I don't know, Mark 13's Chassis looks like it could support more upgrades, plus they can equip similar speakers that Crimson used to destroy the castle." Vinyl figured, Mk. XIII's model now equaling Mk. IX's in size. "I feel like Mark 6 wouldn't short out on me if I were to use my Semblance in a fight." Alex stared, the three prototypes now equal in size. "Couldn't we have traits from all three combined?" Ruby figured. "True. Iris?" Asked Alex. "On it, Admiral." Iris said, the three suits merging into one. The armor they worked together on seemed to have traits from Goliath Mk. V, Scarab Mk. II, and Locke's armor from Halo 5 merged together, large speakers replacing machine guns, the visor was slimmer and wider, encompassing about 3 inches before each ear, and the gauntlets had a 1/2 inch thick layer of rubber under the main metal husk, with Electrical Enhancers in the middle of each palm. "That actually looks badass." Vinyl nodded. "We should do this more often!" Ruby agreed. "I have to agree. Iris, get to work on the molds, please?" Alex ordered. "On it- wait- am I reading this right?" Iris asked. "What's going on?" Vinyl wondered. "There's an intruder on the ship! He just outran Pyrrha and is headed below deck!" Iris exclaimed. "An intruder?!" Ruby gasped. "An Inquisitor?" Alex asked. "Not exactly, he looks a little young for an Inquisitor, and he lacks significant training." "I'll deal with this." Alex stood up, reaching for a red-hot poker. "Here. You might need this." Vinyl said, handing him .44 Scratch. "Thanks, get to your cabins and stay down, I'll deal with him!" Alex ordered again. "Sirius! I'm in trouble!" Russell gasped, bashing in some guy's head with the shield he stole from the girl. 'You weren't discovered, were you?!' Sirius groaned. "Just got rid of Nikos and I'm moving towards the deck-" He could barely finish before he had something extremely hot slam him in the chest and have him landing on his back. Struggling to get up, Russell saw the boy who had done it, the familiar scar...the piercing ice-blue eyes... Oh, no. "Next time, ask permission before you come aboard my ship." Admiral Walker scowled. Russell didn't give it a second thought, he kicked the pike out of the Admiral's left hand and hit him with the shield. Given he had put most of his strength into this one blow, he did well with it. The Admiral simply flowed in line with the roll, conserving a good portion of his own energy before skidding to a halt on his knees, some of the fabric on his knees ripped away under the Tarmac. "So that's how it's gotta be. Fine." The admiral chuckled, standing up, hardening his gaze, and charging at Russell like a bull. Russell had mere seconds to dodge his attack, ducking just milliseconds away from getting hit in the face. The Admiral recovered from his own forceful attack and back-kicked Russell in the back of the knee, giving him even less time to avoid certain death by a dimly-glowing pike. Said pike flung out of his grasp and stuck in the wall, giving Russell some time before the Admiral attacked again, he threw the shield at Walker's back. Giving himself enough time to fire both pistols into his legs. Walker was fast. Much faster than he initially anticipated. He leaped out of the path of the first barrage and ran straight up the wall, the second bullet train slamming into the tower behind him. Walker leapt backwards once he was sure Russell had ran out, and using some inhuman ability, sped his attack and slammed an electrically charged fist directly onto Russell's visage. Recoiling in pain, Russell ripped off the gas mask and pulled out some loose shards on his visor. His mask was severely damaged, leaving the ski mask and parts of Russell's pale complexion exposed. "Surrender?" Walker asked, banging his charged fists together, creating a loud and radiant spark. "You wish, Huntsman." Russell coughed. He heard of Remnant's guardians from Sirius; dangerous and heavily armed warriors hailing from different combat schools across the planet, and among the best trained in the multiverse, behind 'Force-sensitives' but still above 'Marvel superhero'. Russell had been taught how to distinguish Semblances from other, similar abilities, by Sirius. "Blood Royal!" Someone had yelled from above the two. A young woman, roughly Walker's age, dressed, for the most part, in black. Save one defining feature, the billowing red cloak. With her she carried a large scythe and what appeared to be a ninjatō, obviously for Walker. He knew all about her. Throwing the blade for Walker, she fired the scythe away from her and was barreling towards Russell. Russell didn't have a lot of time to dodge, just nearly evading a blow from the back of the scythe. The end collided with him and sent him reeling towards Walker, who slashed at him with the blade, which had been glowing a dark purple and electrically charged. Impossible! No huntsman could be able to use their semblances to enhance their weaponry! Unless... "So the stories are true... You activated your own Aura." Russell coughed. "Enough about me. Who are you and what are you doing aboard my ship?" Walker stalked over and grasped him by the neck, holding him a good three inches above the ground. "I was sent... Backup... Sirius Da Long!" Russell coughed. "Sirius..." Ruby contemplated... "Something wrong?" Walker turned to the huntress, punching Russell in the face and into the wall before walking over to Ruby. "Sirius Da Long was a longtime friend of my father's... Why would he send someone here..?" Ruby contemplated. "I might have a small idea!" Someone had said from across deck. A blonde girl, about the same height as Admiral Walker, casually strolled on deck, despite the trickle of blood running down the girl's forehead. "Yang?" Walker asked. "Are you okay?!" The Red-cloaked huntress ran to her sister. "Yeah, no worries." She shrugged. "What the hell happened to you?" Alex asked, bewilderment blatantly clear in his eyes. "Something came up and I got into a fight, but I took care of it." She smiled broadly, wiping the blood off her face. "Cinder? Taurus?" Walker asked. "The bartender." Yang cleared her throat before replying. "Anyways, how do you know Sirius?" Ruby asked. "I'd rather not get into that." Russell answered. "Anyways, do I need to get you to the medic?" Walker asked. "Later." She simply replied. Yang walked away, grasping the Admiral by the back of the shirt collar. "I'll deal with you later!" Walker yelled. "I got it!" Ruby assured. 'Russell, come in Russell!' Sirius called out. "I'm fine, Sirius. I met up with the kids." Russell responded. "Mr. Da Long!" Ruby grasped the microphone. 'So I hear. I guess there's no point hiding our support.' Sirius shrugged. "So, Mr. Da Long, how are you?" Ruby asked him. 'Never better, kid. I just wanted to say we'll be keeping an eye on you. Make sure you're all safe.' Sirius laughed heartily. "Sir. If I may?" Russell interrupted. Sure, the family-friend-whatever reunion was heartwarming at best, there was work to be done. 'Ahem. Yes. As Mr. Leone wanted me to tell you, I'll be coming along on your little voyage for official Inheritor support. We can't have another Great Purge, I'll tell you what.' Sirius informed. "You're another Inheritor?!" Ruby gasped in awe. 'Of course, child! Again, I will see you soon!' "Bye, Mr. Da Long!" Ruby waved. "You realize that Sirius can't see us, right?" Russell asked her. "Quite the contrary!" A voice said behind them. The owner of the voice was a tall man with cyan hair that faded gray at the edges, dressed in white and blue attire that was often used for combat, but could also pass as formal wear. "S-Sirius! I didn't realize..!" Russell waved both hands in defense, as Ruby ran to hug the aging Inheritor. "No need to be alarmed, boy! You did good in your fight against the Admiral, up until he had you by the neck!" He laughed again. "Heh, yeah." Russell rubbed the back of his neck in raw embarrassment. "I also see Raven did a good job training Mr. Walker! No offense, Russ." Sirius assured. "None taken..." Russell sighed. "And you! I was happy to hear that someone got accepted into Beacon two years early!" Sirius turned to the huntress, who still had him in a death lock. Russell walked away from the horribly awkward scene for the moment. From an outsider looking in point of view, it was odd to see two people so close together. What was he thinking?! Was he just that spiteful?! Only people who didn't have that comfort would feel disturbed by the sight! Maybe a person who lost their family and friends, superficial or real, something like that. ...Something like that... ...Something like that... Happened to him. "Alright! Good form, good tactical planning, but you're still forgetting when you lose the upper hand!" Yang yelled, before firing both gauntlets in different directions, likely dislocating his arm. "DEUUEAUGH! THAT HURTS LIKE ALL HELL!" Alex grit his teeth in agony before sending his elbow towards his, still wounded, mentor. Yang skidded backwards, fired both gauntlets at the ground, and while she was still in the air, fired Ember Celica so fast that even Alex had a difficult time blocking the attack, even without the dislocated arm. Alex himself was now lying on the ground, writhing in pain as the Huntress walked up to him casually, as if she didn't just engage in a fight to the death twice today. "You okay?" She asked. "Sure...just do me a solid and relocate my arm?" Alex staggered up, his right arm still hanging limply at his side. "Gotcha!" She smiled as she shoved the arm back in it's rightful place, a prominently loud 'crack' resulting from the action. Alex gnashed his teeth, trying to keep a straight face. "Are you sure you're fine?" Yang asked again. "Yeah...totally... Can I use the soundproof room for a second?" Alex asked, his voice tight with pain. "Sure!" She agreed. Alex went into the room, deeply inhaled, and screamed as loudly as possible. Yang was pretty sure she saw his shadow rolling around on the floor like Zwei in the backyard. 'AAAGH! MY F**KING ARM!!! WHY IS IT BACKWARDS?!' she heard him yell. After a few minutes of screaming, she saw Rainbow and Skirmish walk into the training room. "Can you tell Alex to keep it down?! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" Rainbow groaned indignantly. "What in the name of Tartarus happened in here? There's blood coming from your face!" Skirmish asked. "Unrelated charge. No worries." Yang smiled, it was still bleeding? "Anyways, what the hell happened here?" Rainbow asked again, covering her ears as Alex continued screaming as though he were in hell already. "Dislocated arm." Yang shrugged again. Rainbow and Skirmish took a collective cringe. "Ouch, if it's anything like a wing, that really hurts!" Rainbow Dash tensed, keeping her wings at her sides. "The skeletal structure is really quite similar. You didn't put it back in wrong, did you?" Skirmish asked. "I'm sure it's on right," Yang assured both Pegasi before twisting her own are the way she saw Alex's arm go into. "Oh, no..." Yang' smile quickly faded. She was going to need a doctor... Author's Note Just another Wednesday ...And yes, I stayed up watching then new 'Death Battle' yesterday, can you please get off my back?! ...And yes, the 'DEUUEAUGH' was a Spongebob reference. it's my fan fiction story, I do what I want. Until whenever I have the motivation to post a chapter! 'Leedle Leedle Leedle Lee!' -Patrick Star; from the Spongebob episode 'Shanghaied'. Act III, Chapter 3: Next Stop... Remnant!"Alright, boys. We've been on this ship for three whole months, and I'd like to say-" Wildcat could barely finish his sentence before he was interrupted. "Three months? It's been, like, two days." Twilight pointed out. Twilight had decided to call for a meeting in the brief room, where most of the mission planning usually took place. She had let Wildcat begin the briefing after he had been begging for the past 5 minutes. "It's felt longer, okay?!" He replied, exasperated. "Not really, Tyler." Russell, one of two new additions to the team, scoffed. "Yeah, no." Yang agreed. "I can see where you're coming from, Wildcat, but I have to disagree." Winter said. Wildcat sat down, staring furiously at the crowd. "As I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted, I'm sure that Alex and the 'purple horse' and the 'Super Saiyan God Grim Reaper' have something planned out. Cortana?" Wildcat gestured to the center of the table. "It's Iris." She replied before arranging various maps, before layering a map of Equestria over a map of Remnant, adding a small ring around where Vytal was located before extending that ring onto the Equestrian map, forming a tunnel between the two worlds. "The way that our teleporters were designed was that wherever we are, we land relative to that location, in this case, however..." Iris explained before being interrupted. "There's no way we can get there because if we were to land at the island, we would have to be in Vanhoover, on the other side of the ocean, and furthermore, inland." Vanoss noticed, gesturing to where the Iliad was on the map, still outside of the Equestrian East Coast, and then to the tunnel. "Not exactly. We could potentially arrive to Vytal, but we would have to sail around the continent, and be at the exact right spot in order to make the jump, but good observation." Iris congratulated. "How long is it going to take to get from here to the jump point?" Ruby asked. "Let's see... Keeping in mind we can sail, at best, 60 miles an hour, and around the continent... Carry the seven..." Alex tried figuring out the details in his head. "Done!" Weiss announced, having written the estimated time of arrival on a piece of loose leaf paper, having done her work on another piece of paper. "Two weeks?!" Kat gaped. "Yep, two whole weeks! One to get to the southern end of the continent, five days to get to Vanhoover, and two to park!" Weiss smirked. "Keep in mind, Weiss. Two weeks. Stuck on a boat. With us." Mako reminded her. Weiss started to break down in tears. "I hate this game of emotions we play!" She whined, slumping down in her chair. "One of us! One of us!" Some of Vanoss's crew started to chant. "Woooow, that's a bit mean!" Haunting chuckled. "At least you insisted on the penthouse." Kat tried to cheer her up. "You even paid me 3,500 Lien just to take it!" Alex added. "Sleepover!" Ruby cheered, grabbing some blankets from practically nowhere. "I knew she had a magic satchel!" Delirious shouted. "What's that mean?" Sirius asked. "It's when a character can grab anything from nowhere!" Pinkie explained cheerfully. "Stop breaking the fabric of reality!" Alex's right eye twitched. "Let me see... Aha!" Yang grabbed a glass filled with some type of beverage, with the slight addition of an umbrella. "Really? You're doing this crap again! You all know this is filler, right?" Mako sighed, face palming. Everyone instantly stopped what they were doing and stared at Mako. "...Yes..." Vanoss stated before the room erupted in chaos again. A familiar dragonequus suddenly teleported into the room. "Ah, what a beautiful sight! It brings tears in my eyes." He smiled happily. "Nah, that's just the bowl of onions." Nora said. Russell scooted over to Alex, simply sighing and slowly drinking from a bottle of sparkling grape juice. "How often does this sort of thing happen?" Russell asked. "Every single time we have a meeting." Alex replied glumly. "Man, sucks to be you." Russell smirked. "Shut up, Russ. And get me something besides this sparkling grape juice. None of that diet crap." Alex ordered. "What's in it for me?" Russell asked. "Ten bucks. Twenty if you make it quick." Russell charged out of the room in speeds that rivaled even Rainbow Dash, who had apparently gone Super Saiyan. "KAAMEEHAAMEE-HAAAAAA!" Rainbow screamed, a beam of iridescent plasma erupted from her front hooves, leaving a massive hole in the roof. "Nice!" Evan cheered, voicing his approval. "Clean up on aisle... Everywhere." Alex told Iris. "Sure." She replied. Alex sat in wait for his soda. He knew, at this rate, it would be at least another hour before they finally got their act together, and 36 to board up the roof. It would take the full two week trip to completely repair it, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in Equestrian and Remnant taxes. "Little miscalculation there..." Rainbow backed up before flying out of the room. "V? Where's the undersuit? The mechanical parts?" Alex asked from across the storage room. "The exoskeleton should be in the back left corner, the plating's in the cardboard boxes to the right." Vinyl explained whilst setting up the tools Alex would need to put the suit together, including a ratchet, a good amount of bolts, and work in progress weapon that Alex himself named 'Blitzklinge', translating to 'lightning blade'. "Thanks, I'll work on the suit, you set up some targets." Alex ordered as he dragged the exosuit to the workbench, going back to grab the finished armor plating. Heaving the boxes towards the work bench, he ripped open the tape with his finger, opening it and admiring the hard work. The metal, unlike the bronze-gold coloring of his other armors, this armor was dark grey, almost black in color, that is, save the paint job, adorned with slightly brighter purple lightning bolts scattered throughout the armor, and that one decoration around the visor. An electric blue line, right where Alex's own scar was. Carefully inserting the pieces into their proper places, he continued to tighten the bolts, still feeling a twinge of pain in his right arm from yesterday. He respected Yang and all, but dislocating his arm and putting it back in wrong was uncalled for. Thank god he had his enhanced aura, or he'd be out of commission until they got to Vytal. That gave him an idea. "Vinyl, can I borrow one of the targets?" Alex asked. "Knock yourself out, it's 5 feet up to your left." Vinyl replied, placing more steel targets. He knew how to make lightning balls and fire electricity from his fingertips, but was there more he could do? Squeezing his pointer and middle fingers together, he steadily let a thin but powerful ball of lightning form in between the two, after giving them some space. He could thank Delirious for this move. And Dragonball Z. "SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!" Alex roared, swinging his right arm in the direction of the target. Like a rail gun, the lightning zipped through the air incredibly fast, before hitting it's target, a loud crack emanating from where he hit. "Woah! Bullseye!" Vinyl cheered, removing the metal plate, the lightning hit directly in the middle, leaving a black scorch mark in the plate. "Sweet. I'm gonna have to wait until I have another training session. And I should start watching more anime... And Spider-Man." Alex noted. "It's not enough that you have twice the potential of the other huntsmen, but you have to rub it in by repeating moves you see on TV?" Vinyl joked. "Hey, I'm one of those types of people whose jokes need footnotes. Deal with it." He smirked as he returned to his work. "And all I need is to show you another one of my albums." Vinyl retorted. "Touché." Alex replied as he screwed in another bolt, this one placed the purple-hued visor onto the helmet. "So. Be honest. You've seen some crazy shit these past few months, right?" Vinyl asked. "F**king A right." Alex scoffed, as if Vinyl couldn't pick a more obvious question. "I gotta ask, I know Rainbow told me she saw you hallucinating on the mountain before the party, and Yang told me that you weren't able to sleep when you were first at Beacon, but..." Vinyl hesitated. "You're wondering how I can possibly keep a straight face throughout the bullshit, aren't you?" Alex stated. "Well, yeah." Vinyl shrugged. Alex sighed heavily. "I don't think about it. It's as simple as that. On mission, I don't collapse on the ground sobbing because my mind is all 'you might die, keep your head in the battle'. I don't get all... morose until I get some alone time... And I think..." Alex explained in terms Vinyl was likely to understand. "So... You still ha-" "-Have nightmares and hallucinations? Yes. And there are times when I wonder if what I'm seeing is real, or if it's just another memory. Cursed to replay over and over again in my mind like some sick video. Hell, I'm not even sure if I'm even alive, and this is just some...post death dream." He sighed. "Ouch. I can't say I know how you feel, but..." Vinyl said in a more sorrowful tone. "Don't trouble yourself thinking about it. It's not your fault I'm a nut." Alex assured. "No, no, that's not what I was saying." Vinyl waved both hooves in defense. "Look, I know I can be a little off sometimes. That's just the way it is. If anyone has all this crap happening around them, who wouldn't?" Alex thought. "So, all in all?" Vinyl wondered. "... Ever read 'The Killing Joke'?" Alex asked. "Is that another one of Evan's movies?" Vinyl inquired. "It's a comic book." He replied evenly. "Oh, right." Vinyl laughed a bit. "In it, the main villain, Joker, goes into this... Monologue... About how all it takes is one bad day to drive people mad... Not that I'm agreeing with a villain or anything, but..." Alex elaborated. "Sounds a bit dark for Equestria.." Vinyl figured. "Yeah, well, if all it takes is one bad day to drive the sanest man alive into madness... Think about it... I've had more than one." Alex groaned, as if he felt like the conversation should end. "I see your point... Sorry for asking." Vinyl smiled sheepishly and comfortingly. "Don't be. Talking about it actually helps." Alex assured as he put the finishing touches on the armor. "The...armor done yet?" Vinyl asked, still feeling awkward about having Alex open up to her like this. "Should be." Alex replied. "Well, try it on!" Vinyl encouraged. Watching the armor attach itself onto Alex was amazing. Clicking onto him as the gears and springs wired and attached together, by the end of the 15 second suit-up time, Alex looked more like Iron Mare than anything else. "You've outdone yourself, V!" Alex laughed, examining the armor thoroughly. "I have to, I'm an electronic music artist, it's in the job description!" Vinyl replied. "I'm serious! This fits on like a glove!" Alex cheered again. "Don't trouble yourself, I know I'm great!" Vinyl smirked. "Here, I'll test out the cannons on this thing, good work setting up those targets." Alex nodded, walking over to the center of the makeshift range. "Don't blow yourself up!" Vinyl joked. Alex hardened, examining each target. Each at one, three, seven, ten, and twelve, all ready for the lightning! "FUS RO DAH!" Alex yelled as he fired the first bolt, violet zipping across his field of vision and onto the target, watching as the target itself shattered and melted. "GALICK GUN!" The second bounced off three and landed on seven, melting them both. "KAPOOYAH!" Alex shouted, destroying the tenth in seconds. 12 waved slightly in the rocking ship, Alex slammed both gauntlets together, generating a spark. "I'M A FIRIN' MAH LASER!!" He fired both repulsors at once, sending two violet beams towards the target, which melted and sparked, leaving a metallic puddle on the ground after about 10 seconds. "Ponyfeathers, I'm a genius!" Vinyl gaped. "WOOOO! That was the greatest thing I've ever seen in my entire life! And I watched Star Wars VII!" Alex cheered, disassembling his armor. "Not bad, Alex." Someone said from behind them. A familiar blonde huntress had walked into the room, admiring the work he did on those steel plates. "Hey, Yang!" Vinyl greeted. "How much did you see?" Alex asked. "All of it. All the time. I have my ways." She smiled. "So, Alex just tested the suit.. And.." Vinyl hyperventilated with excitement. "I know! Hey, do you think you can give Ember Celica an upgrade?" Yang playfully elbowed Vinyl on the shoulder. "Why? Did Twi really implement Ray Gun tech into Crescent Rose?" Alex asked. "Yep! She just tested it with her and I was wondering what you guys were up to!" Yang replied. "Holy hell. We are ready!" Vinyl gaped. "Yeah. The ship's A-Team is OP as shit!" Alex chuckled a bit. "Yep, and I also know about your little 'Special Beam Cannon'." Yang teased. "Aw." "It's fine! Russell wanted to ask you if you wanted to come with us on a training session with Sirius." Yang said. "Just them and us?" Alex asked. "I got Ruby too!" She replied. "Sweet. I'm in," Alex smirked. "Cool! Glad you want to hang. See you around!" She waved. "Right. Bye, Yang!" Alex smiled. As she walked out the door, Vinyl turned to him. "Are you 100% sure your relationship with her is platonic?" Vinyl asked, smirking. "f**k off." Alex groaned. Author's Note RWBY Volume Three starts today, so I figured I may as well post a chapter before watching, enjoy! -The Destoyer Act III, Chapter 5: Shock And Awe*Warning!* *Warning!* *Dimensional Jump imminent!* The intercom alerted the rest of the crew as the sirens continued to drone on and on, and the alarms continued to ring. Alex went to explain everything to his teammates and ensure they'd be ready once they're all in Remnant. "Okay, team! Here's the plan! Dimensional Jump is in three minutes, the jump should take about 30 seconds. After that, we'll need to get our asses to the jets and the landing crafts and get moving! The target in question is located near the center, so it's a six hour drive to our target destination. The ship will stay off the coast and fire when ready. Sound good? Great! Now strap in, we gotta move!" Alex explained, moving to one of the designated drop seats, large, gyroscopes with chairs in the middle with more straps than it should. He went in and strapped in tight, Twilight and Vanoss were on his left and right, with Ruby directly across him. *Warning!* *Dimensional Jump in T-Minus 60 seconds!* "Aww, yeah!" Vanoss nodded. "This is the ship's first time doing a Dimensional Jump?" Twilight inquired. "The second, actually." Alex replied. "We got dis! BRING ON THE EPICNESS!!" Delirious screamed from Vanoss's right. "This is going to be AWESOME!" Nora beamed. "Hell yeah!" Wildcat joined. "Are you sure everything's going to be fine..?" Jaune nervously asked. "We'll be fine, Chief, that is, unless you get motion-sick easily." Frost assured. Jaune moaned. "I'm so excited! And terrified, but mostly excited!" Pinkie bounced in her seat. Fluttershy whimpered, crying and not looking up. "Don't worry, Fluttershy. It'll be like flying!" Rainbow tried to calm her down. "You good, Blast?" Ember asked. "Yeah. Haunt?!" Blast craned his head towards Haunt and Skirmish's direction. "Ready for action, baby!" He yelled back. "I'm all set, I hope everyone else is." Skirmish calmly stated. "Hey, Alex." Kat asked Alex. "Yeah?" Alex answered. "Did you ever imagine, in your wildest dreams, you'd be here?" She smiled. "F**k no! If you ask me, I thought I was done for at '51!" Alex replied. "What exactly does this machine do, again?" Cloudchaser asked. "We'll be playing real life Titanfall once we land!" Terroriser rallied the rest of his group. "More like Bioshock!" Mini argued. *T-Minus in 5.* "We'll be fine! Stop worrying!" Ruby told Fluttershy. "I swear, the Valians and Atlesians are gonna shit themselves..." Mako muttered. *4...* "I'll bet you five Lien they don't!" Yang challenged. "Deal, blondie." Mako retorted. *3...* "Oh, fock...oh fock! OH, FOCK!!" Nogla hyperventilated. "Daithi, calm down." Weiss sighed, pitying the Irishman. "I hate this fan fiction, boys.." He moaned. *2...* "You good, Belladonna?" Russell asked. "I'm fine." She calmly stated. "Well, shit, I'm not!" Russell panicked. *1...* "BLAST OFFF!!!" Moo yelled. "KEEP 'ER GOIN'!!!" Vanoss added "LUDICROUS SPEED, GO!" Kat joked. "ADVENTURE!!!" Sirius cheered "THIS IS GONNA SUCK!!" Blast ducked down. "DROP THE BASS!" Vinyl yelled. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" Delirious screamed. The entire room seemed to suddenly go zero-G, various personal items floating and Alex personally felt his stomach fly into his neck. The windows turned bright red before fading into a light blue color. "BRACE YOURSELVES!!" Alex ordered. The drop was immediate, the lights flickered off and they all felt the effect of a 9 million-something pound ship drop into a wormhole. At this point, the seats adjusted them to face downwards into the floor to ensure their equilibrium as they plummeted from Equestria directly into Remnant. The ship suddenly crashed into water, displacing various organs in Alex's body. The Unity Team made a collective sigh in relief as they unstrapped themselves from their seats and collapsed on the ground below. "Heh heh. And fluush." Vanoss laughed weakly. "Holy shit." Delirious gaped. "Is that puke?!" Twilight recoiled. "Sorry.." Jaune sheepishly replied. "This is why I don't hang with the Doctor!" Russell groaned. "Uuuh..." Ruby moaned. "You okay?" Kat asked, helping her up before the two of them fell over. Rainbow tried flying, but was so dizzy she couldn't stay in air properly and fell on her side. "Gyroscopic seats don't do shit..." Sirius shook. "That was AWESOME!" Yang laughed, in stark contrast to everyone else. "YAYY!" Pinkie high-fived the huntress, leaping high to meet the girl's fist. "Only those two..." Alex chuckled. "Come on, Cloudy." Said Flitter, who had been third or fourth to recover, as helped her sister up. "Everyone good?" Alex asked. A few nauseated replies entailed that everyone was A-Okay. "Iris, where are we?" Alex turned to Iris. "Off the coast of Vytal, Valian aircraft flying in above us and the Atlesian Carrier Righteous Fury is currently 2 knots away. "How far are we from the landing zone?" Ruby asked. "Enough that we're ready to engage. The coast is not far off." Iris stated. "Let's move out!" Alex ordered. The group charged out, along with the other 5,000 crew members who survived the Zombie attack earlier that week. "Evan's crew, head to the flight deck, that goes for the Wonderbolts and Scratchbolts. Everyone else is on me, move out!" Sirius ordered. "Move! Move! Move!" Vanoss urged his crew, the Scratchbolts not far behind. Alex ran onto the Landing Craft along with his squad. That is, save Vanoss, Delirious, and Wildcat, who would be dropping in once they arrived at the target. Alex had read that while the island itself was all but uninhabited, hardly anyone went there except for huntsmen on missions. Also, roughly 20 years ago, there was a huge mining operation that was stopped by the Grimm, leaving behind a perfect hideout for Taurus and the White Fang. Teams RWBY and JNPR ran onto the ships on their left and right, respectively, waving as they boarded the craft. The ships dropped into the salty water below and they headed towards Vytal's coast, which was in sight and practically smoking. Alex now was wearing the Armor Vinyl had created for him, keeping Blitzklinge strapped to his hip while carrying the Valian B-482 Light Machine Gun, which was pretty much the SAW from Halo 5. "Sir, what are orders once we're on the field?" Blast wondered. "Iris, what's it look like out there?" Alex asked. "Task Force Crimson patrols and Syndicate cars have been sighted on field." Iris replied. "Anyone nearby?" "The Fury will have reinforcements ready in about 15 minutes. Vale's paratroopers are dropping in as we speak." "As soon as we get out there, the whole beach is going to end up looking like Bloody Omaha. Find cover as soon as you can and return fire until Atlas gets their priorities out of whack. Watch out for Vale's men, they're already landing. Move out!" Alex ordered. "Alex, what's the plan with Evan and the others?" Rainbow wondered. "Vale is going to deal with the AA guns at the beachhead." Iris informed. "Iris just said Vale's working on it." Alex replied. "Thank Celestia.." Rainbow sighed in relief. "Driver! Move as fast as you can! That gun can spot us anytime now!" Haunt pressured. "Blast! I need you firing the rockets as soon as you get off this thing! Ember, help Blast with he mortar once we've landed! Rainbow and Skirmish, I need you two to keep the convoy in the air, don't let up! Haunt, you're with me!" Alex ordered as they drew closer to the beach. 'You there, Alex?' Ruby asked from her communicator. "Yeah, giving orders. You got a plan?" Alex asked. Yep! If you have a chance, run over with us! We'll do what we can!' she ordered. "Sure thing!" Alex responded. "Damn! That nearly hit us!" Blast recoiled as a shell struck the water, causing a massive splash that covered Alex's fire team with a disgusting mixture of saltwater and gunpowder. "10 seconds!" The driver yelled as they approached the beach. "Haunt, follow me as soon as we get out of this thing, you got me?" Alex asked. "Yes, sir!" Haunt put on his Royal Guard helmet and pulled out a SCAR. "Rainbow, Skirmish; I suggest you head out now." Alex ordered. "On it!" Rainbow assured as both her and Skirmish donned their modified Scratchbolt armor and flew out of the ship. "Stinger's up!" Blast called. "GO GO GO!!!" The driver ordered as the door toppled down. Alex was immediately struck with machine gun fire. He recoiled as he protected most of his men from the onslaught of lead. Once Blast had fired the rocket and blew up the MG nest, The four remaining soldiers diverted, Blast and Ember charging for a rock formation to the right while Wlex and Haunt ran left. "Return fire!" Alex ordered as he hip-fired the SAW, killing as many Crimson soldiers as he was able before the armor could wear out. Spotting Team RWBY nearby, Alex and Haunt slid past a destroyed Landing Craft and rolled with the Huntresses. "Where's JNPR?" Alex asked, concerned. "Just saw them at that ridge, they're fine!" Blake assured. "Thank god. Red, what's the plan?" Haunt asked. "One of the Paratrooper Squads is having trouble, we're helping them out!" Ruby smiled, grasping Crescent Rose and inserting a Green Cross Clip, which apparently utilized the ray gun bolts in tandem with a standard round. "Do we have a clear shot?" Alex asked. "Hm, do we?" Weiss slyly replied. "It isn't the time for this kind of crap! Do we or don't we?!" Alex groaned. "Okay! No, we don't! Sheesh!" Weiss waved her hands in defense. "So much for that. Yang! Help me clear a path!" Alex ordered. "Got your back!" The blonde huntress nodded. "Haunt and Blake, keep them covered! Weiss and I will handle the artillery nests!" Ruby commanded. Alex rolled out of their hiding place and held his finger on the trigger, firing streams of ammunition across the field and into the enemy infantry. "Watch it!" Yang warned, Alex spotted a rocket headed his way and leaped high into the air, avoiding the explosion altogether. Yang launched shots from Ember Celica and blew the rest of the patrol into ashes as Alex floated down, taking whomever managed to survive. "You see the Paratroopers?" Alex asked her. "Nope." She shook her head. "Iris?" Alex asked. "Valian 31st Paratrooper Squadron is located at a small crevice about a click north of here." Iris informed. "They're a click that way!" Alex pointed as he ran, with Yang not far behind. "Hey, what's it like having her in your head all the time?" She asked. "Helpful to say the least." Alex simply replied as he punched a Syndicate hit-man in the face. "How far away is a click again?" Yang asked. Alex sighed in disappointment. "Hey! It's an Earth term!" She defended. "It means 'kilometer'." Alex replied. "Thank you." She scoffed. 'Checkpoint one is down! Moving onto Checkpoint two!' someone said on the radio. "Iris is picking up comm chatter, we're almost there!" Alex huffed, simply activating the jump-jets. "Way ahead of you!" Yang smiled, firing both gauntlets and soaring far past him. "Are they dealing with enemies?" Alex asked Iris. "They're currently engaged with Crimson forces just east of their position." Iris replied. "Fire six rockets at the Crimson Battalion." Alex ordered, soaring above the paratroopers now. Six rockets flew instantly out of Alex's suit, slamming into the ground nearby and blowing them into ash. To make sure they were done for, Alex fired beams of electric energy and swiped them through the landscape, reducing it to blackened plant life and burnt human. "Someone ask for a huntress?" Yang asked as Alex finally landed on the ground. "Sergeant Indigo reporting, miss!" One of the paratroopers saluted. "At ease, Sergeant." Alex waved a hand. "Hello, Admiral." He nodded respectfully. "Sergeant." Alex replied mirroring his earnesty. "We were about to meet with The 42nd but we got cut off by White Fang." The sergeant sighed. "They're here?" Yang asked in disbelief. "Oh, they're everywhere, now. I saw one of them wearing this mask execute one of the more unfortunate ones in the squads." Indigo reported. "Taurus." Alex spat. "Where did you last see him?" Yang asked. "A half-click east of here. He said something about 'ARES'..." He recalled. "Thank you, soldier. You're with us now." Yang slapped Indigo on the shoulder. "Blake, I got a hit on Taurus. He's a half-click west of my position." Alex informed her through the radio. He knew somewhat of their personal history, she'd be interested to hear this. 'Thanks, I'll deal with it once Haunt and I finish off the rest of these patrols.' she answered. "What's the plan, Admiral?" One of the other soldiers asked. 'Walker...I don't mean to alarm you, but..' Russell began nervously. "Spit it out." 'Another Trans-Dimensional slip occurred about 5 clicks west of here. Hundreds of unidentified transport inbound, Twi just confirmed.' Russell sighed. "Shit. We got a huge wave of transport vehicles inbound, they were unable to identify whether they're friends or foes!" Alex warned. "How does someone not know if someone's with us or against us?!" Yang threw her hands in the air. 'It's... Oh, god...' Russell gasped. "Soldier! Do you copy?!" Alex yelled into the communicator. 'We got Adenien Ryders. They're engaging the Red Star!' Mako yelled in Russell's communicator. "'Adenien Ryders?" Alex asked. "Super Soldier Cyborgs from the Adenien Dimension. They're especially known to antagonize the Inquisitors, they must not have heard..." Iris replied. 'Alexander Gabriel Walker, offspring of Jason Alexander Walker. We know you're here, and we know why.' a semi-mechanical voice called. "Who are you?" Alex asked sternly. 'That's not important now, what is important is that you meet us at Achilles Ridge just northeast of your current location. There is something we must discuss along with the leaders or your faction.' the Ryder replied. "Alex, who..?" Yang asked. "Don't tell me, I have no freaking clue what's going on either." Alex shrugged. 'Alexander, listen to me. All will be explained at Achilles Ridge. Meet us there, if you wish to understand what you have to do.' He urged. Alex stood, deep in thought. "Alex..?" Yang asked again. 'There is no time. Decide now.' The Ryder pressed on. "Are you just going to do what some creep on the radio thinks is right?" Yang scoffed. "...I'll help you, if you help me." Alex replied. 'State your price, boy.' "You help my men chase these guys off and track where they're headed, we'll do whatever you want." Alex compromised. "What?!" Yang gasped. "Face it, we don't have another option, Yang." Alex reasoned. 'Wise decision, Catalyst. We will see you there.' He cut off connection. "Are you insane?!" Yang asked. "No- wait, Yes! Just a little!" He answered. "You could be walking into a trap!" Yang scolded. "...Or I could be hitting a gold mine. I'm well aware of what's going on. Think about it, this guy knows who my father is, he knows my full name, Iris says they're against the Inquisitors." Alex defended. "You're going to trust the A.I? Even though you know that half of it tried to kill us!" "What do you expect me to do?" 'A-Alex! They're helping us now, their medics are healing the wounded!' Russell stammered. 'Admiral, mission successful, Convoy en-route to suspected Red Star hideaway.' Skirmish announced. "Tell them to land a half-click east of Achilles Ridge. There's something we need taken care of," Alex ordered. 'Roger that, giving them the order.' Skirmish replied. "Ruby, Twi, Vanoss, I need you guys to meet us at Achilles Ridge once the attack is over." Alex commanded. 'Atlas just landed, they're sweeping for Red Star stragglers. I hope you know what you're doing, Alex.' Kat announced. "Come on, we can't exactly stay in one place, now can we?" Alex turned to Yang and the two paratroopers that remained. "I'd say so." Someone said from above. "Who the hell?" Alex asked, grabbing his SAW again. "Where is that coming from?" One of the Paratroopers wondered. "Iris, I need the perimeter scanned." Alex ordered. "On it." She replied. "Reliance on your crutches is not the best way to go about a fight." The voice echoed. "Scan 86% complete..." Iris anticipated. 'Spotted Adam! I'll deal with him!' Blake announced. "Scan 100% complete." Iris announced. A small red light blinked in his HUD, which turned into the silhouette of a man, and mere milliseconds later, said man was punching him across the face. Alex fall to the ground, only to hear the clash of metal, the bursts of gunfire, and the shuffling of feet. "Watch out!" Someone yelled. Someone grasped Alex by the head and slammed it into the ground. "You know who I am?" He spat. Alex pushed himself up, slamming a fist into the man's visage. Without realizing, he had punched Adam Taurus in the face. He was fighting the Inquisitor. This could be his chance! He readied into a proper fighting position, fists closed and buzzing with electric power. Taurus himself looked back at him, the mask he was wearing was horridly cracked on his right side as he scowled back at him. Looking behind Alex, Omicron's gaze darted as he leapt away from the potential battlefield. "He got away?!" Yang growled. "Get back here you coward!!" Alex ran after him. Blake stopped him in his tracks, one arm blocking his path. "If anyone's going to fight him, it's me. And besides," She said, "we'll get another chance." Act III, Chapter 6: Achilles RidgeThe temporary camp that the Ryders came up with in the short time they waited appeared to be just that. Most of the shacks had wheels attached to them, and heavy machine guns were strapped onto each one, some even with rocket launchers. Achilles Ridge looked more like the Midwest than anything else, sweeping valleys with the occasional Beowolf that they had to put down. In essence, the place looked like a rusty diesel-punk version of the Kahn Militia base in the California-Nevada border. "I really f**kin' hope you have a reason for stopping a $50 Billion operation." Mako groaned. "So do I, Mako." Alex groaned. "Well, at least it isn't just us." The 20-something year old C.I.A agent waved a hand around. "True. True." "So, I have to ask. Why did you think this was a good idea?" Mako turned to face him. "Let's face it, who's half-cocked idea was it to appoint a traumatized 15-year old kid as the Admiral of a multi-dimensional fleet?" He retorted. "Touché." She shrugged. "Touché, indeed." "Alex, We'll be seeing you and the others now." One of the Ryders told him as he walked past. The Ryders were cybernetic super-soldiers, usually they had a mechanical arm or leg, but some were wearing layered armor similar in design to the Samurai. Their helmets looked similar to some of the Goliath or Scarab models, at the outermost layer were thick, black capes or scarfs that drifted in the wind on occasion. The Ryder led him into the largest mobile-base, where Ruby, Vanoss, and Twilight were seated, in front of them another Adenien. He sat down next to Vanoss and Twilight. "Welcome, Alexander. Let's begin by introducing ourselves, shall we?" The Ryder greeted with a colder demeanor than even Ozpin's. His voice reminded him very faintly of the bus driver's from Tranzit. God, that map sucked. "Hello, My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, former student of Princess Celestia and the Princess of friendship." Twilight was the first to introduce herself. "What's up, My name's Evan Fong, but you can just call me Vanoss." The owl-masked Canadian cleared his throat before moving along. "I'm... Er..." Ruby stammered. "Not to worry, miss. Just say your name and, if you'd like, occupation." He waved a mechanical hand. "O-Okay, My name is Ruby Rose, and I'm a Huntress-in-Training at Beacon Academy in Vale." She nervously stammered. Alex himself knew social awkwardness painfully well. "My name's Alex Walker, Admiral of the Equestrian-Remnantian Coalition and Ex-Private of the Kahn Milita." Alex stated evenly. "Wonderful to meet you all, my name is Kaiver Locust, Commander of the Adenian Ryders." He replied. "Nice meeting you, Commander Locust. Now can you tell us why I shouldn't be rethinking my decision about stopping here?" Alex asked, in mock politeness. He himself wanted answers. "Ahem. I invited you all here so I could answer some burning questions. What are the Inquisitors? What is their plan? And why is he, a traumatized 15 year old kid, standing before me now, leading the boldest band of heroes since the Great Battle of Year 13842436816?" "Wha-?" Twilight and Vanoss instantly gaped. "In terms of your human years, it's 2005 Anno Domini." Locust elaborated. "Uh..." Vanoss scratched his owl mask. "2005," Alex sighed, "he's talking about 2005 A.D." "What happened?" Ruby asked. "The Inheritors were conglomeration of Warriors from other universes, in 1899 they formed the Inquisitors, designed to hunt down traces of an older enemy, but this plan backfired." Locust explained. "Older enemy?" Twilight asked. "I'll explain the Chronicai later, The Inquisitors turned on their masters in 1962 and purged them, slaying many, forcing some to exile, and only the strongest survived." "That's terrible!" Ruby gasped. "The Inheritors desperately searched for a solution, they turned to the Oracle. The Oracle prophesied that four great heroes would lead an army and force the inquisitors to their end. One from Earth, another from Equestria, Remnant, and Adenien itself. In 1999, they recruited four of the best warriors from each in an attempt to stop them. This finally went into action in 2005. However, two of them were slain in the line of battle, the last two were forced into hiding, waiting until they were extinguished many years later. "The remaining inheritors realized, these were not the prophesied ones, but their ancestors. Twilight Sparkle, Niece of Flickering Light of Equestria. Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer Rose of Remnant. Evan Fong, great nephew four-times-removed of Cyrus Fong of Earth. And, lastly-" "Hold the phone, Locust! Are you saying I'm an Adenienite?!" "I'm afraid so, Alexander Walker, son of Jason Walker of Adenien." Locust confirmed. "How-" Alex wondered. "-Are you able to produce an Aura? Everything that possesses a soul has Aura, but the ritual did little else but awaken your potential. It is a mixture of an activated Aura, as well as similar ability shared by some Adenianite bloodlines, the ability to manipulate electric fields. It is how we can use our prosthetics." Locust explained. "If that's remotely true, then why-?" "-Do you possess abilities similar to Aura. You have only scratched the surface, as they have. And plus, you are special." "How?" Alex asked, growing more and more infuriated by the minute. "Your father's bloodline, The Emphas Clan trained extensively in use of Electro-Wavelength Manipulation, your mother's was the Sirant Clan, who were adept at similar abilities utilizing their very soul. Those abilities are present in your blood. Princess Celestia knew this right away. It is why she has given you the Prometheus Charge." Locust explained. "The Prometheus Charge?! But archaeologists have been searching for that for centuries!" Twilight gasped. "You know of this device, hm? Kindly explain, Equestrian." Locust waved to her. "The Prometheus Charge was said to be able to boost a pony's abilities to their absolute limit. Unicorns could lift entire continents! Pegasi could clear skies in less than a second!" Twilight babbled. "If I were to use it, would I be able to run laps across the world?" Ruby asked. "Not necessarily, Ms. Rose. Instead, what would most likely happen is that you become the physical manifestation of your soul, which is what allows you to run so fast, I assume." Locust explained. "Go on." Alex demanded. "The Inquisitors are trying to gather such items, make themselves the immortal rulers of the universe, and 'immanentize the eschaton', or bring about the end. However, they will be unable to do so without first killing you all. This is where the prophecy comes in. When Alexander killed Winchester, the Inquisitors realized who they would be up against. They have tried to kill you all, while form their own army to counter your own; The Scarlet Army of the Inquisitors." Locust disclosed. "The Red Star." Vanoss concluded. "Correct, Earthling. According to prophecy, the deciding battle will transpire at Kalos Prime, Capital of the Inquisitors' domain, in a cataclysmic battle known as 'Götterdämmerung', 'Armageddon', 'Kerivan', 'Ragnarök'." "Wasn't it Kazi'ivan, though?" Ruby asked. "You severely mistranslated, huntress. You said 'cookie' in ancient Valian." Locust corrected. "Aw..." Ruby pouted. Vanoss couldn't help but start laughing a bit. "But, the true name of this battle, the real term the Inquisitors used to describe this conflict, is called the 'Blood Red Night'. "That would almost sound badass if it didn't include the idea of us dying horrible deaths." Vanoss shuddered. "The basic idea is that, thousands of universes will come together, hundreds with you, and hundreds with the Inquisitors-" "What?! With that much power in one place.." Twilight stammered. "Yes, I'm afraid a great deal of men will fight to their last breath. We will all lose heroes that night. The streets will run red with the stolen lives of great heroes. Thousands of kilometers around Kalos Prime will be nothing but dust and ash." Locust described. "Wouldn't it destroy the planet?" Alex asked. "Their planet is massive, and as old as time itself. It will remain in one piece at the very minimum." Locust described. "Why would anyone work with the Inquisitors?" Twilight asked. "Some out of the pure evil in their souls, some because they're afraid, many because it's what they've been preparing for for the past 50 years." Locust justified. "W-Will we survive?" Ruby asked. "One of you will survive at the absolute worst. But the outcome of the battle is uncertain." Locust sighed heavily. "That means... Kat...Mako.." Alex gaped. "And...Yang.." Ruby gasped "My friends..." Twilight was starting to tear up a bit. "Now you understand the full burden of war. Friends and kinsmen are mercilessly slain. Innocence lost." Locust mournfully shuddered. "How do I have to do to end it?" Alex finally asked. "You?!" Vanoss asked, awestruck. "To end the Blood Red Night, you must face the Alpha Inquisitor in battle, and kill him. I advise doing this quickly, for time will be of the essence." Locust explained. "I'll kill the bastard myself." Alex seethed. "Are you insane?!" Twilight yelled. "You can't fight him alone!" Ruby grasped his shoulders. "If it's to keep you all safe, then I'll be damned if I'm not able to protect you all." Alex asserted. "I don't know, you can't even handle Sigma without nearly dying!" Vanoss retorted. "I have to at least try if it's to save everyone I care about!" Alex yelled. "How dangerous is the Alpha?" Twilight asked. "The most destructive in the known multiverse. He has been known to kill thousands of people at the wave of a hand." Locust answered. "No! I won't let you!" Ruby grasped him tighter. "Do you think I want to die?! Do you all honestly think that I'm such a lost cause that I would throw everything I have left in vain?!" Alex asked, bewildered. "It's not that I think I do... It's... I don't want to lose you.." Ruby trembled. "We're all scared shitless here! But I don't just charge into a hockey game without thinking! I strategize, I plan, I at least get help when I need it!" Vanoss yelled. "I know you know we're all in this together. At least acknowledge that." Twilight scolded, tears in her eyes. "What do you expect me to do?! If I go down, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I take you all with me!" Alex spat, rage over his true heritage, and the almost-certain fate that befell them all. His friends looked at him as though he had grown a second head on top of the first. "I know you're all scared as shitless as I am. I know for a fact that I'm not the best fighter, or have the best aim, and I'm hardly huntsman material. All I've got is the ship and It's crew. Everything else was handed to me out of pity. I've lost count of how many times you all scrambled to save my ass. It's high time that, for once in my life, I save myself." Alex asserted. "Alex.." Ruby gasped. "Let's face it, what else could be ripped away from me before this bullshit ends? I lost my parents, my home, I'm in an entirely different f**king dimension, and just five minutes ago I found out my life was a f**king lie! There's only so much shit I can take, and I don't know what I really want for myself anymore!! So, yeah. Next time I see Omicron, or Sigma, or any one of those sadistic assholes, I'm going to freaking KILL THEIR ASSES!!!" Alex huffed, finally plopping down into his seat, the onset of a headache pounding in his skull. "This is hard for all of us to take in! For all I know, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and the rest could die in a matter of weeks, maybe even months if we go through with this!" Twilight yelled back. "Excuse me, Miss Priss, but I just found out I'm a f**king space alien with lightning powers, instead of a wimpy little kid with lightning powers! On top of that, all of my friends, not just you, or Rainbow, or Cloudchaser and Flitter or Ruby, but all of them are almost certain to die at some point, so excuse me for having a MENTAL BREAKDOWN!!" Alex angrily spat back. "Ruby, help me out here! Tell him he's being unreasonable!" Twilight urged the red-cloaked huntress. Ruby turned to face Twilight. "He's right." She sighed. "What?!" Twilight growled. "But you're right about one thing, it's hard for all of us to handle. But he's getting hit the hardest. You aren't trying to reason with another stuck-up magical bad guy. You're dehumanizing someone who already lost everything and might lose everything again. The last thing he needs is another person telling him he's being insane." Ruby explained. "And, besides, we do constantly save his ass from Inquisitors, embarrassment, dying, you know the rest, but I think it is a bad idea to fight the bad guy alone." Vanoss added. Twilight looked back at the two, and then at Alex. "I don't blame you for wanting to get revenge, but it's still a bad idea to fight him alone. We're helping you, whether you like it or not." Twilight asserted. "Okay... Locust, what's our next move?" Alex hardened his tone. "We have installed tracking devices onto various Red Star vehicles. We believe they are going to activate a super-weapon identified as 'ARES'." Locust explained. "You already know something's up when a super-weapon is named after a boss from 'God of War'." Vanoss shrugged. "What does it do?" Ruby asked. "It is a kinetic Dust bombardment satellite." Locust elaborated. "That explains all of the dust robberies in Vale you were telling me about." Alex replied. "What does that mean?" Vanoss asked. "ARES is designed to literally drop giant Dust crystals on Remnant's surface, the speed the crystal will get from falling that fast, combined with the explosive power of a dust crystal of that size will have comparable power to a nuclear weapon." Twilight explained. "Uh... Still not following." Vanoss nervously stated. "You remember ODIN from Call of Duty: Ghosts? It's basically that, but instead of metal rods, it's explosive crystals." Alex simplified. "Oh, shit." "Who's going to intercept the satellite?" Ruby asked. "We've arranged our best high-altitude strike team to deal with the problem, but we will have volunteers assault the craft as well." Locust clarified. "Alright then. Thank you, Commander." Alex nodded before leaving the room. "Get some sleep, you three. We have much to do tomorrow." Locust waved them away. The remaining three stood up and left through the still opened door behind them. "May the Divine keep your souls.." He muttered. Author's Note In hindsight, I should probably have gone into a bit more detail with the new faction. I'll try to have the next chapter up by Thursday, because screw schedules, because I'll end up procrastinating. -The Destoyer Act III, Chapter 7: IN SPAAAAACE!!As the other members of Team Unity and some of the higher-level Ryders gathered at the center of the camp early that day, Russell wasn't sure what to expect. Looking at Alex's direction, the Admiral looked disgruntled, almost angry about something. The C.I.A Agent Mako went up to him and said something Russell couldn't identify. Alex replied in a smaller tone, almost inaudible. "Attention members of the Equestrian Remnantian Coalition and my fellow Ryders!" Locust demanded. He had learned the Commander's name from Twilight Sparkle, now sitting close by her friends in a select corner. "Our first order of business, My intelligence operatives discovered a large orbital kinetic strike weapon above the planet identified as ARES. The payloads consist of large pods containing vast amounts of Dust, if left unchecked, that one satellite can decimate the Kingdoms of Remnant and annihilate millions in the blast alone. If we are to save them, we ask that volunteers please raise their hands to participate in the assault to destroy the satellite and, per Ms. Schnee's request, return the payloads to their rightful owners." Locust explained. "Why return the payloads?" Master Chief Fong asked. "According to Princess Twilight's calculations, if this specialist team simply blasts the satellite into the atmosphere, it will simply plummet, creating an explosion more massive than a single payload would create." Locust's second in command, Auklet, elaborated. "What if we temporarily take control of the satellite, use it to our advantage, and then do whatever that guy just said?" Wildcat asked. "It would be too dangerous. The weapon itself is too destructive to even consider use that close to a kingdom." Blake explained. "What else?" Yang asked. "Our next order of business is location of Adam Taurus and Cinder Fall, we discovered their whereabouts, in an underground city similar to the one underneath their 'Mountain Glenn' called the 'Subterrains'. It is a hub for Inquisitor activity for Vale and Atlas. This is where most of our ground forces will be focused. The task is simple. Discover a way to prevent ARES being used remotely, and capture either Taurus or Fall. If anyone attempts to kill the Inquisitor before we can question them, there will be severe consequences." Auklet debriefed. "They know we're coming, so this is probably the most dangerous out of the two." Alex called out. "Can I say something? If they know we're coming, we're f**ked! We can't handle those assholes or their army! What do we have besides a few thousand people, about 10 or 12 of which are actually able to fight back?!" Mini asked. "I have asked some friends in Adenien for a favor, soldier. You will be augmented with an Exo-Suit in addition to your Atlesian Paladins, should they fail." One of the Ryder's intelligence operators, Ceril, answered. "Okay, now this actually is Titanfall." Moo Snuckel blinked. "I got this, I'm like Alex now." Vanoss smugly announced, unsheathing a sword that looked like it had been ripped straight out of some weird Cthulhu anime game. "What in fresh hell is that?!" Alex gaped. "It's an Apothicon Sword I got from Black Ops 3 Zombies." He replied. "That looks awesome!" Ruby stared. "Yeah, I've seen enough of... this sort of thing... to know where this is going." Sirius face-palmed. "Poor, poor man." Mako cringed. "Squid swords aside, we need volunteers for the space mission. Raise your hand if you want to do this." Alex shook his head and asked. "I'll go." Cloudchaser steadily raised a hoof. "Yeah, that sound epic!" Flitter immediately waved a hoof. "Anything to get away from whatever Evan's holding." Weiss raised both hands as she steadily walked away from the owl. "You're just jealous of how awesome this squid sword is." He defended. "Eh, screw it. Space." Haunt shrugged. "I'm going with Weiss, it's not like I can leave her alone up there." Ruby volunteered. "I'll do it." Russell raised his own hand. It sounded cool enough, he just hoped it wouldn't turn out like that Call of Duty game. "Boop!" Nora poked Ren's face before waving. "I will assist the young ones." Auklet nodded. "May the Divine watch over you, brother." Locust held two fingers in the air as a sign of respect. "Likewise, Commander." Auklet returned the gesture. Alex finally stood up, walking towards Commander Locust. "The rest of you are coming with me to the Subterrains. We need as many people as humanly possible working on this." Alex ordered. Many of the 6,000 people working on the operation cheered him on as those who had risen their hands were rushed over by Auklet. "I thank you, soldiers, for volunteering for this mission." Auklet nodded. "We won't let ya down, Auk. Lead the way." Haunt shrugged. "I set up some temporary launch zones I had the drones build in our sleep. The rockets should blow us into the atmosphere. From there, use the afterburners on the suits I'm handing out to maneuver your way around the satellite. I have a large containment silo that we can fill with the payloads once we're done collecting the Dust, it should be able to survive the fall. Get your suits and move onto the ships. May the Divine watch over us." Auklet instructed, handing out a suitcase for the humans who volunteered, and some for the ponies as well. The suit was slightly uncomfortable, and cumbersome at best, but at least maneuverable. Grabbing the lever-action rifle that the Ryders supplied him with, he stood up, intending to head towards the ship. "Leaving so soon?" Someone had called. Looking behind him, he saw Ms. Nikos. The two had been close friends since their encounter, he smiled back, nodding. "If I can't bring this thing down, who can?" Russell replied bluntly. "Relax, Russell. You have two of the best huntresses I've met fighting by your side. I have full confidence the squadron will complete the mission." "That makes two of us." He nodded. "Here," Pyrrha handed him another mag, "Just in case." "Thank you. I gotta go." Russell nodded, putting the mag in his back pocket. Russell made the trip to the rockets as fast as he could. Ignoring the fact that this thing looked like a 5th grade science project and probably unable to get off the ground, he climbed the steep ladder into the ship. "Alright, It'll take about 20 minutes to get there! Walker and his crew will arrive at the Subterrains at around the same time! Let's show these Red Star bastards how to party!" Haunting yelled out amongst the charging teams. Russell climbed into his seat and strapped in tightly, he even put on the helmet. "Let's go! We gotta move! Ruby, get on!" Cloudchaser pulled the girl inside and strapped her in. "That's the last one! Let's get this tin can in the air!" Russell called out. His words were immediately answered by a large weight pressing against his chest. "What, no countdown?!" He gasped. "Woo!" Flitter yelled excitedly. "ARES, here we come!!" Haunt screamed as the ship continued to fly straight upwards. Wow, Remnant from this height was beautiful. It looked a lot similar to planets such as Equis and even Earth. A large blue marble with green and brown land mass indiscriminately strewn across the surface. "Wow, you can see Vytal from up here!" Ruby gaped as they leaped out from their rocket and into the zero-gravity of space, guns by their sides. "And there's the satellite." Haunt saw a large black-and-orange communications satellite modified with a large revolving chamber at the base. "That's ARES?" Cloudchaser gasped. ARES was roughly as tall as a building, and surrounded by little black and orange specks. Probably enemies. 'Icarus 0-1, have you made it to the satellite?!' Alex asked from the radio. "Affirmative, Admiral. We're currently nearing the target. What's your ETA for the Subterrains?" Auklet asked. 'We've started the assault already!!' he yelled. "Just as I figured, Red Star Hell-jumpers are guarding the damn thing." Haunt scoffed. 'Do what you can! I'll handle the mess down here!' he screamed as gunfire blasted in the air at his location. "Ruby? Can you take out the guards? I doubt they can hear the gunfire all that well." Auklet ordered. "Sure thing!" She smiled through her helmet. Converting the deadly scythe into it's rectangular sniper-form, she aimed two well-placed shots into the helmets of their enemies, blood spraying out of the glass visors and floating in clumps. "Got 'em." She mildly celebrated. "Watch yourselves, I doubt they're the only ones." Cloudchaser shook her head. "I'm heading above the sat. I'll try to find a way to remove the payloads from up there." Russell said, sending power to the boots and flying above the orange-and-black satellite. He stopped himself just in time, two Hell-jumpers. "Iris, can you patch me into their comms?" Russell asked. "On it!" She chirped. 'I just don't see why we have to stand guard.' one of them said. 'Yeah. I mean, who the hell's going to stop this thing?' "Your looking at him." Russell said as he fired a shot at one of the Hell-jumpers, a piece of glass from the visor fragmented and shattered, and a piece cut tight through the other's suit before he suffered a similar fate. "Icarus, I found a way to get the payloads!" Called Weiss. Russell flew to where the ice queen was currently opening the large satellite's canister, large rods containing multi-colored crystal nested inside. "Holy hell." Haunt gasped. "So that's dust." Flitter blinked. "Load it onto the crate!" Auklet ordered. The rest got to work pulling out the large projectiles and loading them onto the crate. "Keep in mind, this thing can survive a fall from space and still not explode, but don't screw this up while the crate is still open!" Weiss ordered. "Okay, then. Sheesh!" Russell threw up his hands as he loaded another dust rod inside the crate. 'Open fire!' Crap! Hell-jumpers! "Watch yourselves!" Auklet ordered as he returned fire, shooting their enemies as accurately as possible. Russell also helped clear out the Hell-jumpers, and the others had almost finished loading the crate when suddenly the satellite exploded before them. Someone shot through ARES while a rod was still inside. "Damn it!" Cloudchaser strained, grabbing a hold of Flitter before she could fall too far. Auklet was not as lucky. He fell away and started to burn along with the dead satellite ARES, horror fresh in Russell's mind. "Do we have the rest of the rods encased?" Weiss asked. "I think so... When's our ride coming up?" Haunt asked. "Watch out!" Weiss warned as more Hell-jumpers attacked. Haunt was immediately ripped a part by gunfire, unable to scream as they tore through the suit, and his bloodied corpse slammed onto the still-opened crate of payloads. Dropping them onto the planet below. "No!" Flitter gasped as the rods fell out. "God dammit!" Russell reached out. They all shot back at their enemies, Russell blew the brains out of one of them before shooting another in the chest, killing him as he drifted about the cosmos. 'Icarus 0-1, what's your situation?!' Vanoss yelled. "Vanoss?!" Ruby asked. 'We lost contact with Alex and Blake a little while ago! Anything important happen?!' He asked. "We lost Auklet and Haunt. The crate was blown down to the planet's surface while we were loading. Mission compromised." Weiss disappointedly replied. 'Shit. That's not your only problem. They have another one of those things up there, you see it?' Vanoss asked. "Oh, hell." Cloudchaser gasped. Sure enough, there were another one of those things about a half-kilometer away. "We're on it. Ruby, Kill the Hell-jumpers." Russell ordered. "Is that really how you address a superior officer?" Weiss scolded. "Got it." Ruby nodded, ignoring Weiss' obvious annoyance. Four shots were fired, and the satellite was probably open. They flew over there in about 6 seconds, this satellite was noticeably different. Similar design, but they would have to find another way to stop this thing. 'If I remember what Alex said, this thing can't be taken down manually, but if you can blow it into Remnant's atmosphere, it should burn and detonate the payloads before they hit the ground. But you'll either be blown into space with no air, or get stuck on the satellite and burn up with it.' Vanoss instructed. "Got it. Moving to the top." Russell said. "What do you think you're doing?!" Weiss asked. "Following orders." He bluntly replied. "You know what'll happen to you, right?" Flitter gasped. "I heard what Evan said. I don't have that long a lifespan anyway." Russell spat. "Why?" Ruby asked. Damn, he didn't expect to be asked why. "Why do you have to go? And don't say it's because Alex'll probably court-martial you." Cloudchaser said. "I've got the Adenien Retrovirus. This thing'll deteriorate my insides until nothing's left. I only got about a month or so, and there's no cure anyways." Russell sighed. "What?" Flitter blinked. Russell visor-palmed. "It means the virus will eat me from the inside out." "Ew." Flitter shuddered. "That's why I'll handle the sat. You guys get back to Remnant." Russell ordered. "No! We aren't going to leave so you can die in a fire or lack of oxygen!" Ruby said back. "I've got no choice! I'll die anyways!" He yelled back. "Wait, where are Cloudchaser and Flitter?" Weiss asked. "Ready? One! Two! Three!" The two pushed the satellite from the top end towards the surface. "No! You idiots!" Russell flew up to stop them. "We'll take care of this! Go with Ruby and Weiss!" Flitter said. "Like hell you are!" Russell yelled back. Russell grasped Flitter in an attempt to throw her off the satellite. "Cloudy! Push!" She yelled as she continued to struggle. "No, god dammit! You'll get yourselves killed!" Russell tensed. Flitter accidentally pushed the magnetic boot option at his belt, causing Russell to cling to the surface. "Dammit! Stop!" He pulled at his legs, trying to move them to no avail. He saw Ruby and Weiss watching from the rocket they were to take home. Ruby was visibly crying and Weiss was trying to pull her in. "They made their choice! We can't stop them!" Weiss sighed depressively. "They're coming back! They have to!" She waved both arms towards them as Weiss sealed the door. "Push! Get this thing in orbit!!" Flitter continued to tug at his grasp. Finally, Russell felt gravity pull them down as some various pressure systems and fail-safes ignited, blowing sections of the satellite apart. Both Pegasi were caught by the solar-paneled wings on the satellite and plummeted alongside him, orange flame circling around them. 'Ruby? Weiss? You there?!' Russell heard Alex yell through the radio. 'We're here, Alex.. But Cloudchaser, Flitter, and Russell chose to take out the second satellite.' Weiss sighed bitterly. 'Russell?! Come in!! Damn it! No response, Sergeant Majors Leone, Cloudchaser, and Flitter have been Killed in Action.' Suddenly, Russell heard a bunch of loud bursts. The payloads! Russell could only watch as his vision was completely engulfed by red and blue, even white before his vision ultimately faded to black. And his breathing ceased. Forever. Author's Note Destoyer be like 'Introduce a new character only 6 chapters before... Aaand he's dead.' Rage in 3...2...1 Act III, Chapter 8: The Battle of The SubterrainsAlex fast-roped into the Subterrains, which were now bursting with gunfire. He saw himself back in Area 51, falling with the helicopter then fast-roping inside, only to be met by splinters of lead. Before any of this. Before RWBY, Before Vanoss and his crew, before even before the ponies. His mind snapped back into reality the second his boots hit the ground. Dual-wielding Adenien Sub-machine Guns that ripped his enemies into fleshy pieces as soon as they met them. Next in line were Blake and Yang, who slammed into the ground relatively unharmed and returned fire. The rest of his battalion went in around the same time they had. The White Fang soldiers scrambled in panic, as though they weren't expecting an attack of that magnitude. "Fix bayonets and move up!" Locust ordered. "Iliad Operators, Blow a hole large enough for the Paladins! We don't got all day!" Alex commanded. 'Roger that, Bunker Busters inbound, ETA; 2 minutes.' An operator on the Illiad replied. "Yang! Nora! I need you two to handle heavy armor! Nothing in or out of these tunnels! Pyrrha, I need you close by, make sure they don't get swarmed!" He ordered. "Got it, Alex!" Yang smiled at him. As he continued his onslaught, Nora poked his shoulder. "You sure you aren't interested?" She asked, turning to the golden-haired huntress. "Not the best time for these questions." Alex grumbled. "Watch your back! We don't need you getting shot before capturing one of these assholes!" Kat shouted. "Snipers! 11 and 1 o'clock! High!" Mako called out. "Icarus 0-1, have you made it to the satellite yet?!" Alex asked through the radio. 'Affirmative, Admiral. We're currently nearing the target. What's your ETA on the Subterrains?' "We've already started the assault!!" He yelled back. 'Just as I figured. Hell-jumpers are guarding the damn thing.' "Do what you can! I'll handle the mess down here!" Alex replied before changing the channel on the radio. 'Admiral. We've identified Omicron and Sigma at the central building.' Ren said. "Confirm visual!" Alex commanded. A video feed opened at the top-right corner of his HUD, a flash of black and red spearing through some of the Ryders and a few dead Atlesians with shards of glass in their faces. "That's them." Blake suddenly, and rather quietly, stated. "Let's move out!" Alex nodded. The two were followed by the rest of Alex's Fire-team and the Princess. "What the?! They got Spider Droids down here!" Blast gaped. He was right. A massive Atlesian Spider-Droid, about as tall as a small building with twice the firepower of a tank suddenly shot various missiles from two launchers at it's sides. "Get down!" Twilight commanded as the others avoided the missile barrage. "Ponyfeathers! They have White Fang markings!" Rainbow spat. "I have a plan!" Ember said, whispering her idea to the rest of the team through their protected channels. 'Have Blast Radius aim rockets at the Droid's leg joints and immobilize it. We can take out the machine's weapons after that, and Alex could safely short the Droid's circuits.' Blast pulled out two Grenade Launchers, firing both at the Spider Droid's front most leg. "Twilight, if you can, Rip the thing's leg off! It's hanging by a thread!" Alex ordered. "Right!" She used her magic to surround the thing's lower front leg, as well as it's missile launchers, and pulled all three parts cleanly off the robot, removing the missiles and sending them towards the monstrous machine. The large explosion cracked the ceiling of the large cave, that crack extended to the bottom wall. Suddenly, something large bashed itself against the crack, and Alex figured it was likely either a very large Deathstalker or a massive amount of Beowolves. "I don't like the sound of that!" Rainbow shuddered. "Take care of 'em! I'll deal with the HVTs." Alex ordered. "I need to take care of Adam!" Blake indignantly scowled. "Oh, right. Come on!" He ordered, charging off towards Ren's checkpoint with the black-haired Faunus not far behind. Alex then heard a very loud 'Boom', and suddenly, the whole ceiling of the Subterrains caved in, sending large hunks of rock downwards and pouring sunlight into the otherwise dark caves. 'Admiral, we're sending Fong and the other Paladins, have you apprehended the Inquisitors yet?' "If I did, we'd all be on our way back." Alex bluntly and sarcastically replied. 'Er... Understood, sir..' Alex was immediately met by a boot to the chest. He fell flat on his back, rolling to one side to get back up, only to see Sigma, Omicron, and another, much taller figure. He couldn't see exact details because it was so dark, but he knew that this person was wearing a black uniform. "Alex! Are you.." Blake's voice trailed off upon the realization of what had happened. "Hello again. How long has it been since we last saw each other? 6 months? 7?" Omicron asked mockingly. "Adam." "Oh, I see you've brought us a... friend." He said that last word full of scorn and disrespect. "Up yours!" Alex coughed. "Now now, Omicron. Allow me to introduce myself. You have heard of the Alpha Inquisitor, haven't you, Walker?" The dark figure standing in the center asked, walking into the light. There, Alex could see more details on the man. He was wearing black armor, but it was also adorned with brushed steel and a billowing black cape. The helmet covered his entire head, and left no opportunity for identification aside from the small slit that revealed piercing blue eyes, bloodshot and scarred horribly. "You... You're the one who wants me dead the most, I take it." Alex cleared his throat. "Don't make any assumptions, kid." Sigma scorned. "Cute. It seems Sigma and the Catalyst have a little bad blood. She killed a friend of yours? A close friend of yours?" Alpha scoffed. "You son of a bitch." Alex narrowed his eyes. Alex lashed out at the Alpha, only for his wrist to get grasped by the cold gauntlet Alpha was wearing. He was pulled upwards, punched hard in the groin, and was thrown about 40 feet back. He skidded on the rough stone below, badly scratching his armor. "Are you okay?" Blake asked him. "Aack.. He punched me in the dick.. Why? Why did he punch me in the dick?" Alex's legs shook uncontrollably in agonizing pain. "Something wrong, Alexander?" Alpha chucked to himself as he pulled out a heavy sword that looked like a cross between a Zanbatō and a Zweihander, both edges of the blade looked wickedly sharp. Even the tips of the cross-guards were sharpened. "Blake! Get Adam! I'll deal with these two!" Alex yelled. She nodded before striking Omicron, locking blades with the murderous White Fang swordsman. "Unwise to say the least," Alpha shook his head pitifully, "Consider this an evaluation of your power. Sigma! Kill him!" "With pleasure." Sigma summoned both of her blades, erupting in flames before revealing the deadly blades. "Okay, this shit again." Alex scoffed, unsheathing Blitzklinge. Alex charged at Sigma, locking blades with his old enemy before kicking her in the side. Using the distraction, he punched Sigma in the throat before attacking with his blade again. His blade was blocked by Sigma's as she leapt above him, flipping and slashing him in the back. Relatively unaffected, he allowed the Blitzklinge to shift into it's revolver form, shooting a few rounds at the Inquisitor. She blocked them effortlessly and grasped his left leg, sharply yanking it up, causing Alex to fall flat on his chest. He swept a leg under the Inquisitor and tripped her, grasping the back of her head before charging and bashing it once on the cave wall. She elbowed him hard in the groin, causing him to buckle in pain, giving her an opportunity to weaken his armor. She set a glyph right in front of her hand, firing a beam of flame that singed his backside and forced him into the wall, leaving a burning hole in the armor. He fired once more. This time, the distraction was more effective, dazed as he grasped both of her ankles and pulled her to the ground, before swinging her like a rag doll into the cave wall again. Enraged, she summoned glass shards, and aimed precisely for his weak spot, each sliver of glass burning in Alex's flesh, he writhed in pain. Infuriated by his agony, he lashed out, punching and kicking at lightning speed. He backed her into a wall, each punch with enough force to shatter a person's skull. She dodged, and his fist made cracked indents into the cave wall. He shifted the blade back into it's sword form, locking her blades with his own. He set the blade to spin at the Inquisitor, she was losing strength. She blocked it for about two seconds before breaking off, while she was distracted, Alex grasped her throat, slamming her head onto the cold stone floor. She staggered up, bleeding profusely, using the last bit of energy to summon one more glass shard. This one burrowed itself into his back before she made it melt inside his body. He writhed as a small cloud of steam billowed from his burnt back. Kicking Sigma in the head in a bout of rage, he knocked her out cold. As she went out, so did the glass. Alex panted, his wounds still stinging painfully. Alpha chuckled. "Not bad. Not bad at all." He mocked. "Save it. If I can take her down with some minor injuries. You'll drop like a f-" Alex could barely finish his taunt before being thrown into a wall and choked. "Alex!!" Twilight ran at the scene, horn glowing brightly. "Finally, the Princess of Friendship arrives to save the child she called a hit on!" He scoffed. "Alpha!" She scowled. "As much as I'd love to stay. I have a friend here who is simply dying to meet you! Gamma!" Alpha called out. Rufio Vincent landed on the ground from a dark recess. "Finish her. I'm done here." Alpha leaped away, using some jet technology to climb to the top of the hole, he looked down. "We'll meet again, Alexander!!" He called before escaping. "Coward.." He coughed, reaching for Sigma. "She's mine!" Vincent yelled as Alex barely grasped a small chip on Sigma's belt. He tossed her into the recess he came from. Twilight shot a bolt of violet magic energy at Rufio. Allowing Alex time to stagger back up again. "We meet at last. Princess Twilight." Rufio laughed. She lashed out in a flurry of magic attacks. Rufio protected himself with a yellow bubble shield and turned it into a spike, hurling it at her with blinding speed. "Woah!" She gasped. She fired a few more bolts, even a few rudimentary ice spells to incapacitate him. "Die!" He yelled. "Not while my friends are still by my side!" She retorted, firing more complex spells at him. Rufio was eventually trapped in a cage of Twilight's magic, she fired a bolt of energy designed to knock him out. He deflected the bolt, instead hitting the recess, and in turn, Sigma. As Blake and Adam, Twilight and Rufio kept fighting, Alex staggered to his radio. "Ruby! Weiss! You there?!" He asked, the rods could potentially hit any second now. It could only be a matter of time. 'We're here, Alex.. But Cloudchaser, Flitter, and Russell chose to take out the second satellite.' Weiss sighed in reply, as though she could have done something. Cloudchaser..? And Flitter? They were dead?! "Russell?! Come in!! Damn it! No response, Sergeant Majors Leone, Cloudchaser, and Flitter have been Killed in Action." Alex sighed. What about Auklet and Haunting? They had to be okay too, right? Alex suddenly heard a very loud boom. Looking up in the sky, he saw a large object burning up in Remnant's atmosphere. That satellite, no doubt. He walked, staring at it before saluting to those who died saving millions of innocent lives. "Alex! Get Sigma!" Twilight ordered. She had Rufio being shocked with a magic spell, he twitched uncontrollably and screamed in total pain. "Alex! Go! Now!" Blake slashed Adam's back as he tried to fight back. He charged for the woman, before only being able to see red and black. Several inches of armor had been sliced off his chestplate, had Omicron sliced a few millimeters closer, Alex would've been half of what he was already. "What?! How did I miss?!" Omicron asked, almost baffled. As Alex ran for Sigma again, he was tripped by the hostile swordsman. "Why...won't...you...DIE?!!" He slashed his crimson-tinted blade on Alex's chest and back, blood spilling out onto the cave floor. Alex grasped Adam's neck, sending a powerful electric current through his hand, frying Blake's former master as he struggled to get away. "He's mine!" Blake yelled at him, kicking Adam/Omicron hard in the face. Alex leaped upwards onto the recess for Sigma. She was being carried away by a very familiar armored inquisitor. "Greetings, Catalyst." Beta coldly stared at him, standing up from behind Sigma's wounded, unconscious body. Alex unsheathed Blitzklinge yet again. This could get ugly. "Well, well, well.." A man slowly walked in behind him. He was a bit taller than Alex, with black hair and dimmed red eyes. His voice was a bit slurred. Was he seriously drinking at a time like this? Wait, there was always someone in Evan's group who always buzzed at least once a week. "Who the f**k..?" Alex backed up, not sure who to point the blade at. "Calm down, kid. I'm not after you." He replied, arming himself with his own broadsword. "It's been a long time, Branwen. I was wondering when you'd show." Beta calculatingly greeted. "Cut the shit, Axil. You know why I'm here." He scowled. "You know exactly why I'm doing this. I'm trying to save us!" Beta reasoned. "Is that any excuse for what you did to Summer? To Raven? Or this kid's dad?" He retorted, his voice slurred. "You know what'll happen if Alexander finds out the location of Kalos Prime. Your nieces will die! Along with the you and rest of these pathetic insurgents." Beta hardened his gaze. "Are you threatening me, Axil?" The other man asked. "The real threat is right in front of us! Why do you not see that?!" Beta removed his helmet, allowing it to clatter against the ground. Beta looked to be in about his early forties, his hair a lighter shade of black than this other man's, but his eyes were stone grey. His face had been badly scarred from previous battles over the years. "Get the girl, kid. I'll deal with Axil!" The man ordered. "Like hell I am!" Alex retorted. "Fools." Beta unleashed a torrent of fire at their direction, the man beside Alex blocked the attacks rather quickly, while Alex merely slid under the branches of flame, slashing Beta's chest from around his navel to the rib cage before kicking him back further into the cave. "Watch it!" He warned, leaping into the fray and blocking a devastating blow intended for Alex. Alex took the opportunity and shocked Beta with most of his power. Beta's armor started to glow bright red and even smoke a little underneath his flesh. Once Alex felt like he had enough electricity flowing through Beta, he stopped. Walking up to him, he kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him out cold. "Gotta admit. You have some guts, kid. But not enough to deal with what's ahead." The man said as he searched Sigma's belt. "It's not about having guts. I really don't have another choice." Alex admitted. "I'll say.." Beta coughed, staggering up. "Get the woman out of here before she comes to! Now!" He yelled. Alex ran, grabbing Sigma by the arm before leaping down to the cave floor. Twilight was getting her flank kicked by Gamma, she was bruised badly and even bleeding. Blake was tiring and it wasn't long before Adam had the advantage. Adam shot Blake in the leg, who fell over, grasping her bloodied knee in agony. "We both know there was only one way this could have ended, Blake." Adam raised his sword. "Blake!!" Yang launched herself towards Omicron in a fit of rage, punching him the chest relentlessly, only for each blow to be blocked by Adam's sword, which he periodically put back in the sheath before Yang began another bout of attacks. "Die!" Someone yelled from above Alex. He looked up, only to see a man falling towards him. Alpha!! "Back so soon, asshole?" Alex mocked. Alpha grasped his neck with one hand, choking him to near unconsciousness before throwing him out of the hole. Alex handed hard on the fields above the Subterrains, coughing up blood. "It's a shame you're so persistent. It never pays off." Alpha shook his head in mock pity. "Exactly." Alex retorted, swinging Blitzklinge at Alpha, intending to end this war right here. Alpha blocked the attack, punching him dead center in the nose, possibly breaking it. Alex's vision went white as blistering pain shattered through his face as Alpha continued to press on, punching harder than even Applejack could buck, each swing of his weapon more devastating than it's predecessor. Alex himself kicked Alpha a few times, aiming nowhere in particular, trying all he could to find a weak spot. Alpha grasped his fist, raising him to the air and charging a punch with electrical energy. Alex could hear the buzz. "What the?!" The punch itself sent him skidding fifty feet away from Alpha, who leaped towards him in a single bound, purposefully landing one foot on Alex's chest "You! Will NEVER! STOP US!!!! WE! CANNOT BE UNDONE!!!" Alpha yelled, kicking Alex harder and harder with each word spoken. Alex tried to pick himself up, only for Alpha to kick him with enough force to land him on his back. "What... The hell are you..?" Alex coughed. "Your worst nightmare, Fa-." Alpha scowled. "SURPRISE, BITCH!!" Someone shouted. Alex saw a giant Mech Suit leap out of the giant hole in the ground. "No one messes with Delirious!" Another mech suit screamed as it fired the Machine Guns on the sides. Alex saw Alpha dodge the train of machine gun fire, flipping out of their way and smashing the back of Evan's Paladin. "Vanoss!!" Delirious shot fire another torrent of machine gun fire at Alpha just as Evan's Mech exploded, the owl-masked Canadian flying high into the air, releasing a parachute, and firing a rocket launcher at Alpha. Alpha dodged the rocket, punching Evan in the throat and kicking him away. "I got this motherf**ker!!" Delirious screamed, charging at Alpha again. Alpha hacked the legs off the Paladin. "We'll meet again, Alexander. But know this," Alpha threatened, grasping Alex's neck and holding him at Alpha's eye level. "You are never safe. I will never stop. I am the one that will keep you up at night. I am the one who will strip you of everything that you have. You have been lucky thus far, but your luck ends here." He kicked him in the chest. Alex coughed as Alpha opened up his own portal, and stopped just in front of it. "You have been warned." Alpha coldly stated before walking through and closing the portal. 'Alex, we just apprehended Omicron. Sigma awakened and escaped before we could contain her.' Skirmish updated. "How are Blake and Twilight?" Alex asked. They had to survive. They had to. 'Ms. Belladonna has been critically wounded in the right leg and Twilight's magic levels have depleted to dangerously low levels. Other than that, everyone's okay.' Skirmish replied. "And Icarus?" 'Ruby and Weiss were the only two that survived the ordeal. Haunting Horseshoe was killed early on in the mission. So was Auklet.' "Wait. Did you find anyone lately?" Alex asked. Who was that man who attacked Beta? An Atlas Specialist had orders to help with this attack. She'll be coming back on the Iliad with us. I think she said her name was Winter..' Skirmish replied. What the hell was she talking about? "Anyone else?" 'We've captured someone in the Subterrains a while ago, Yang's identified him as her Uncle.' Skirmish said. "One last thing. Send a medic up here. I got my ass handed to me." Alex ordered. 'Right away, sir!' Author's Note Edit: After actually watching RWBY Volume 3, I suppose I could write it so that this fits with the original story... Or maybe not.. Okay, yes. Act III, Chapter 9: The Long Road Ahead...Alex sat at the observation deck on the Iliad, deep in thought. The recent battle killed a lot of good people, and hurt many more. Twilight had been beaten nearly senseless and likely killed if reinforcements hadn't gotten to her in time. Blake had to get a prosthetic leg after Omicron shot her in the knee. The search and destroy unit Icarus only had two survivors out of the seven that left. But thankfully, the ARES Marks I and II were destroyed, the resulting explosions even destroyed the payloads, and Omicron had been captured and locked in the ship's maximum security cell, modified to seal in even the most destructive huntsmen. And now, Atlas had sent in a Specialist to assist, and Ruby and Yang's Uncle Qrow even went to help. At least progress was being made. "Hello? You up there, Alex?" Alex heard somebody ask. Alex turned around to find Rainbow Dash climbing the stairs behind him. "Oh, hi Rainbow." Alex nodded in greeting. "Is everything okay?" She asked. "Depends on how you look at the last mission as a whole." Alex shrugged. "Are you still upset over most of the space team dying?" She asked. "And the fact that Twilight was nearly killed and that Blake lost a leg." Alex spat, disgusted in his sheer uselessness. "I know you want to keep as many of us as safe as you can, but you can't save everyone." Rainbow sighed. "... I know." Alex sighed, head in his hands. "As much as I hate to say this, you probably won't be able to... Twilight told me what you and the others talked about with Commander Locust." Rainbow sighed, shuffling closer to his side. "I thought the Princess would at least have the foresight to keep this secret." Alex laid down. "You were going to keep this from us, weren't you? To spare us?" Rainbow asked. Alex groaned. "Yes.. I was..." Alex said, dejectedly. "Why? Keeping secrets from us worked out so well for you in the past." Rainbow scoffed. "Rainbow, I'm legitimately sick in the head. Who wouldn't be after everything to me in the past 4 months? I think I have good reasons to hide all of this." Alex monologued. Rainbow sighed. "But, that doesn't mean I don't regret it." "Do you?" She asked him. "Every damn day. If I had just come clean the first day I dropped into Equestria, literally none of this would be happening. You and the other Elements, maybe even Celestia and Luna, would've kicked Winchester out before everything could go to complete shit." Alex spat. "But what about Ruby? Or Vanoss?" Rainbow asked. "Rainbow, look around you. We're on a giant floating coffin, in the middle of an ocean on in an alternate universe, with a sociopathic killer just a few floors underneath us, about to fight in the apocalypse, knowing full well that we could die. Clearly, they'd get on much better!" Alex angrily shouted. "Calm down. Please." Rainbow tried putting a hoof on his shoulder. "Yang told me a couple hours back that if it weren't for this, they would be competing in the Vytal Festival at their school. A sort of holiday that celebrated the unity of the four kingdoms in this world. They had to stop all of that for us. So, yeah. I regret not telling you. I regret all of this." Alex kicked the concrete floor of the observation deck in a fit of rage. Rainbow stood up, wrapping a wing around Alex's shoulder and back. "Alex. I'm saying this for your own good. Calm down. You know as much as I do that I can't promise I can make everything okay again. But please, at least try." She lifted her wing and walked back down the stairs. Alex rolled onto his back. If he had just bucked up and told the Elements everything from the moment they went in to see him, the alien, he would be hunting monsters and making bullets for that purpose. He could've made a living off of that. And, perhaps if it was in his league, he would join them to defeat Equestria's next big would-be threat. But no, he hid. Bottled up his anger and sickness like a coward. And when Crimson came along. He just ran away again. What would he do after this? If he somehow miraculously survived the Blood Red Night? Would he go back to Equestria, rebuild his new home and town, and live out that idea? Or maybe go to Remnant and go to a combat school until he was old enough to go to a school like Beacon? There was even the smallest chance he could go back to his old home? Move back into Reynold and try to act like he was never wanted by a gang of psychopaths, and forced into going on this long winded adventure, and as though he never had to fight for his very life? Even his origins warranted possibilities, he could move to Adenien and be hailed as a hero to his people! This journey had broken him, yes, but there were so many opportunities now that he never would have considered in his wildest dreams! It could rebuild him. They always said what didn't kill you only made you stronger. He understood now what Ozpin had said to him when he first met the headmaster. And, hell. He had been meaning to make more friends, now he had like twenty or thirty! And how many people could say that? "Got a minute?" Blake asked, interrupting his thoughts. Alex looked behind him, seeing the black-haired Faunus. "Oh, hi, Blake. How's the leg?" Alex asked meaningfully. Blake looked at the appendage, the Adenienites knew their stuff when creating prosthetic limbs, with the Iliad's resources, one wouldn't be able to tell it was ever hacked off at all! "Your... Kinsmen are good at making new limbs. They'd make a killing for the Huntsmen, do you know how many huntsmen have to be removed from duty because an Ursa bit off his or her arm?" She asked. "Ouch. I can't imagine what that feels like." Alex winced. "Weren't you tortured for, like, a whole month?" Blake asked. Alex scowled. "Anyways, you look like you're trying to clear your head up here. Should I leave?" Blake asked. "It doesn't matter. Do what you want." Alex shrugged in a neutral tone. Blake sat down about five feet away, opening a book. Alex laid down again, grabbing his journal and writing down his thoughts as he usually did at times like this. "So. What are you thinking about?" She finally asked. "Just about what I'd do after all of this is over. If by some miracle I live." Alex replied. "Oh... I wouldn't dwell too long, especially since there's a lot that needs to be done right now." Blake said. "Oh, right, I heard about how you had to interrogate Adam. Did he talk?" Alex asked. "No. He usually doesn't talk all that much, he was trained not to." Blake sighed. "Can't Twilight do something? There has to be some kind of spell that can get him to cough it out. I remember her telling me about this freaky ass 'Want it, Need it' spell. For a relatively peaceful nation, Equestria usually doesn't seem to give two f**ks about not messing with the mind." Alex said. "If that's true, why didn't she use that spell on you when you wouldn't talk about your past?" Blake asked. "I guess Twi and the others didn't want to try and mindf**k the alien. But Celestia said that her sister's been looking in my dreams..." Alex's voice trailed off. Blake tilted her head inquisitively before blinking in realization. "You think that's the best way to go about it?" Blake asked. "It's the best I can come up with. Good talking to you, Blake." Alex nodded. "Likewise." She smiled a little bit. As Alex stood up and started to walk out. "By the way. Yang does kind of like you. I figured you already knew, but..." Alex shook his head a little. "Tell her, maybe after all of this is over, maybe we can talk." Alex suggested. "I will." Blake replied before Alex started his trek down the stairwell. Thankfully, Twilight wasn't far off, she was with Rainbow Dash. "Hello, Alex!" Twilight greeted. "Hey Princess, Rainbow." Alex nodded. "You okay now?" Rainbow asked. "Better than okay. I have an idea." Alex smiled a little bit. "Sure, let's hear it." Rainbow smirked proudly. "You know how Omicron isn't spilling anything, right?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Blake told me about that, too." Twilight sighed. "Well, I got to thinking. Can't Princess Luna see into people's dreams and shit?" Alex asked. "Yes. She saved all of Equestria one time because of that." Twilight nodded. "I thought maybe she could look into Omicron's head and get what we need." Alex suggested. "You do know that's a war crime, right?" Rainbow asked. "We are at war right now." Alex reasoned. "You don't seem to understand the complexities of asking a favor like that. There's a lot of paperwork to do, so much to ensure that she isn't breaking any Equestrian Laws by using such advanced methods of psychological warfare." Twilight explained. "You mean to tell me that you didn't get away with using the 'Want it, Need it' spell, or even the little kids essentially forcing people into falling in love with the magical aphrodisiac?" Alex inquired. "Are you saying that Equestrian Magic is unethical?!" Twilight asked, as though deeply offended. "I never said that. I'm just saying that if even little kids can get away with using this sort of thing out of carelessness without severe consequences, surely your Princess can use her magic get information out of a psychopath locked in the basement." Alex shrugged. "That isn't the point. If Princess Luna could be able to extract some sensitive information out of someone as deranged as Omicron, what's to stop her from bringing nightmare after nightmare to an opposing army to break their morale and deprive them of sleep?" Twilight retorted. "No disrespect, but do you have the slightest idea who you're talking to?" Alex tilted his head quizzically. Twilight shuffled uncomfortably, while Rainbow blinked in surprise. "Take this from an actual torture victim, Luna going into his mind would be the most humane way out of this. We wouldn't have to use humanity's most effective and brutal torture methods." Alex argued collectedly. "I have to admit, he has a point." Rainbow shrugged. Twilight sighed. "Very well, I'll address Princess Luna about the matter. From there, what you and her decide is final." Twilight relented. "Thank you, Princess." Alex nodded politely. Twilight trotted off, still looking a bit perturbed. "I didn't think you had a knack for arguing." Rainbow smirked. "My parents made me take a Debate Club at school in middle school. I guess it paid off." Alex explained. "What else did your parents make you do?" Rainbow wondered. "They made me take a karate class for four years, the debate team for two, went on hunting trips in Canada since I was about 12, and Boy Scouts for 6." Alex listed. "Sounds like a lot of work." Rainbow said. "I had a decently busy childhood." Alex admitted. "Also, Twilight happened to tell me about your parents... They're Adenienites?" Rainbow asked. "If what Locust says is true, then yeah. I guess." Alex shuddered. "How are you holding up on that regard?" Rainbow asked. "You ever watch Dragonball Z?" Alex asked. "Dragon who-what?" Rainbow asked, confused. "Superman?" "No." "Transformers: Animated?" "Is that even a show?" "Sailor Moon?" "The hay is that?" Alex sighed heavily. "Power Ponies?" "Ooooohh..." "Yep." Alex blinked. "I have to go, I still have to practice flying!" Rainbow flew off. "Bye." Alex waved slightly. As Rainbow flew away, Alex suddenly felt a bit tired. "Screw this, I'm going to bed." He blatantly muttered. "Alex..." His face twitched, otherwise no response. "Aaaaaaaleeeeeeex...." Alex blinked groggily. "Wha-? Ugh. Who's there?" Alex asked quietly. 'I'm haunting you.' Alex's eyebrows shot upwards upon realization of who was talking to him. "NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Author's Note *sigh* I watch way too much youtube for my own good. Act III, Chapter 10: Breaking and ExitingAlex sat in the target range, personally testing some of the weapons they had onboard the ship. Celestia, Luna, and Ozpin had most of their experimental weapons that haven't even been tested yet in there, and Alex had been given permission to test them. He frequently did so when he had the time, this was one of those special moments. Besides, Karis's ghost was really starting to bug him a little. Wait, is it safe to have a firing range in an aircraft carrier, with the engine room, the fuel tanks, the prison cells, and the ballast tanks not far off from where he was? Ah, f**k it. He pried the metal off one of the containers with a crowbar, and pulled out one of the weapons inside, marveling at it's beauty. Checking the markings on it, he saw that this particular model was a double-barrel battle rifle, capable of switching between full-auto and a burst fire mode. The weapon required two 30 round 7.58 mm bullets, placed smack dab on the 90 and 270 degree angle mark, complete with their own charging handles at the 45 and 315 degree marks. The rear sight was supplemented with an advanced Ver-Kai sight and foldable stock. Overall, an impressive gun. A quick look at the markings at the left-hand side labelled it as the 'VBR Mk. 9'. Loading a mag on each side and sharply jerking back the charging handle after, he pointed the experimental weapon down the range, aiming at a steel target about 125 yards away. Ridiculous waste of space, but then again, this was the Iliad, a ship half the size of an airship that decimated a whole town. He would set the action to burst, just to see how it worked. Pointing the weapon down range and using his pseudo-Aura, he gently squeezed the trigger. Five rounds spewed out of the weapon, tagging the steel plate. The sheer force of the bullets hitting the plate resulted in a residual loud ring. He grabbed a pair of binoculars, scanning for that plate... Five holes, three on the left and two on the right, he had aimed well. "Testing of the VBR Mark 9 is 4% complete." Iris chimed. "I'm sorry, 4 percent?!" Alex tensed. "Not only do you have to check the rate of fire, you have to test for reliability, condition, and practicality. You only fired five rounds, total." Iris explained. "Alright, fine." Alex rolled his eyes, unloading the mags, prying the charging handle open, clicking the safety back on, and placing a cover on each barrel before hopping down the range to install more targets. "At least safety is still a concern." Iris quipped. "Like my dad always said, 'act like the firearm's always loaded'." Alex recited. "Speaking of your father, what did you think about finding out your true heritage?" Iris wondered. "Another surprise psychology test, eh?" Alex smirked. "Yes, Admiral." She replied evenly. "At least you're honest. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to think. On one hand, my mom and dad lied to me for most of my life, but on the other, they haven't lied to me about anything else. At least, I don't think so." Alex answered. "Are you saying you really don't mind?" Iris wondered. "I do mind. Real 'existential crisis' level shit." Alex scoffed. The alarms blared as Alex placed the last target. "Care to explain?" Alex asked. "Three intruders have been discovered, three crewmen are dead and are heading towards the prison!" Iris reported. "Any names?" Alex asked. "No, sir. Either they aren't on Equestrian or Remnantian databases, or they're incognito." "Any DNA samples scanned in? Pictures?" Alex asked, putting on the helmet, for he was wearing the old Goliath Mk. VI armor he kept from when he first escaped to Remnant, he had the helmet temporarily outfitted with a HUD until Vinyl and the other technicians and armorers could finish a new Overcharge V2. "Loading security camera feeds to your HUD now." Iris replied as Alex loaded the VBR as well as the Blitzklinge Revolver. Alex saw two women and one man, all armed and attacking the other crew. They knew they failed miserably at the 'stealth' card and were now simply bludgeoning their way to the prison room. They were close. "Should I call for backup, sir?" Iris asked, the scroll and cellphone numbers of the Team Unity members on the right side of the HUD. "Negative. Tell them I'll intercept, and to just make sure they didn't hack into the systems and shit." Alex ordered. "They initiated a malware download, but I stopped it and am currently deleting the malware." Iris explained. "Hacking an A.I? Idiots." Alex mumbled. He walked to the prison doorway, it was already forced open. "Who the hell are you?" Omicron hoarsely asked. "You don't recognize us? Moron." One of the intruders chided. "Doesn't matter, we have orders to get you out of here." Another asserted. "I think not." Alex walked inside, closing the hydraulic door and locking it. "Oh, the Admiral's here. Where's the A-Team?" The male intruder mocked. "If I thought I really can't handle you four, then why the hell did I lock myself in here?" Alex asked contemptfully. Adam stood up, taking his weapons back from one of the other intruders. "You. Put him out of his misery. You two, come with me." He curtly ordered, pointing to a short girl in a black Goth Lolita style dress. Omicron and the other two intruders destroyed the door and ran out. "So, that dress just for show, or-" Alex asked before getting smacked in the face with the umbrella she carried. She smacked him a few more times, finishing the chain with a jab to the navel. Alex slammed against the wall, trying to process what had just happened. "Okay...no." Alex charged up against the short woman, trying to kick her only for the umbrella to block his attack, giving her opportunities to counter, further infuriating Alex. "Might I suggest shooting the Umbrella?" Iris asked. "Huh. That's a thought." Alex shrugged. He charged again, side kicking the girl, only for her to block it. He rose the VBR and fired a few bursts through the Umbrella. The girl looked at the umbrella, infuriated by the holes in the intricately woven material. "Hahaha. Get wrecked, scrub. Who brings an umbrella to a fight anyways?" Alex snickered. The girl's eyes changed color from green to white and brown. "What the actual-" The girl attacked again, fury fueling her attacks, leaving Alex at her mercy until she finally swung the Umbrella upwards into the crotch. Which might have worked if he didn't have the armor. "Hey. You. Really?!" He rolled his eyes before grasping her by the arm. Alex looked straight at the you. "Hey, reader. Do me a few favors. Open another tab and look up 'Rules Of Nature' on YouTube. Scroll about a minute into the song and play when you read again. Destoyer's too f**kin' lazy to get a link." He raised her straight upwards, bringing her down and bashing her against the ground, before taking her umbrella and sharply kicking her into a wall, breaking her umbrella in two with his knee. The girl's rage reached insane heights, eyes turning white and were noticeably alit with burning intensity. She leaped, trying to kick him only for Alex to grab her by the foot and start spinning. Using his Adenienite lightning power Aura thingy, he manipulated his body to move at lightning speed before loosening his grip, sending her flying through the wall and knocking her out cold. Alex looked back at you. "You can stop playing the song now. Thanks for following orders, I promote you to the rank of corporal or whatever." Alex dismissively thanked you before bringing his attention to the girl. "You're under arrest, you have the right-- actually, you don't have any rights, I was just f**king with you." He carried her unconscious body into another Max Security cell, tossed it onto the bed and walked away. Alex profoundly spat to his right after taking off his helmet. "Amateurs." Twilight dodged another swipe from the rogue's sword, only to be met by a boot to the flank. She'd been fighting the Inquisitor's pawns for the past few minutes, and was failing miserably. The Inquisitor was standing nearby, looking almost unimpressed as the two rogues continued to beat her senseless. She blocked what she could and even attacked, but her magic was beginning to weaken and it was only a matter of time before it would fail her. That Inquisitor merely stood watch, not even bothering to intervene. She realized that he was examining them, testing them, just as Celestia had in her filly-hood. In a final attempt to protect herself, she used her magic to create a shield around her body, protecting her until her magic finally gave out. She was barely affected by the flurry of kicks from the male Rogue, but the girl did significantly more damage to her shield. Pony feathers! Her blade sliced through her shield and cut her back open! She crumpled to the floor in surrender and exhaustion. She couldn't hurt so much as a fly now. "What now?" The male Rogue asked. "She's beaten. Kill her." The Inquisitor ordered. "With pleasure." The girl raised both of her weapons, prepared to deal a killing blow, a sadistic smile stretched across her face. Twilight braced herself for the end, closing her eyes tightly. "Twilight!!" Rainbow shouted, slamming into the girl before she could kill her. Twilight looked up to see Weiss and Yang fighting the two, with Vanoss, Lui, Nogla, and Mini providing cover fire. The two evaded the gunfire and the Huntresses' attacks with ease. "Deal with them. I'm done here." The inquisitor leapt away, heading for the observation deck. "Rainbow! Get Twilight!" Weiss ordered. "We can handle ourselves here!" Lui added. Rainbow nodded, picking up the Alicorn and speeding off into a stairwell. "You'll be okay, Twilight." Rainbow assured. "I'm... Not worried about myself.." Twilight weakly coughed. Alex snuck up the stairwell to the observation deck, from what he heard on the comms, Omicron was headed up here. God knows why. "Adam! This has gone on too far!!" Alex heard Blake yell. "You lose a leg and you're still trying to defy me? Are you that delusional?" Omicron scowled. Alex grabbed the next weapon in his experimental arsenal: a semi-automatic 3 round 25mm sniper rifle. Tearing off the scope using every ounce of his strength and ripping the 1.5 yard barrel in half, he loaded the weapon, locked the bolt in place, and snuck a bit further up the steps. Blake and Omicron were engaged in a duel, Omicron using only simple but powerful attacks against Blake's comparatively more active combat style. In simpler terms, where Blake leaped around the battlefield, Omicron only remained in that one spot. Shockingly oblivious of Alex's presence. He aimed precisely for Omicron's leg, slowly squeezing the trigger until he shot. The rifle produced an immensely loud 'BOOM' accompanied by a grotesque ripping sound as the massive projective screamed through the air. Omicron deftly avoided the shot altogether, charging towards Alex with incredible speed, grabbing him by he neck, and tossing him onto the deck like a rag doll. Alex picked himself up, coughing. "How cute. You made a friend. Shame he has to die." Omicron spat. "Leave him out of this!" Blake demanded. "Like hell I'm not getting involved!" Alex retorted. Omicron kicked Alex hard in the knee. "I'll get to you later. For now. Let us grown ups have our talk." Omicron spat as Alex clutched the affected area in agony. "That does it!" Alex defiantly retorted. Alex stood up, equipping his Blitzklinge. Side-stepping next to Blake. "Neither of you know when to quit." Omicron scoffed, swinging his blade in a wide arc. Alex blocked the attack before ducking and swinging for Omicron's midsection. "This is between me and Adam! Stay out of this!" Blake demanded. "You must be as insane as he is if you think I'm leaving you to lose another limb!" Alex retorted, attacking Omicron again. Before Omicron could counter, Blake leaped into the fray, blocking his attack before Alex pulled out the 25mm and fired again. This shot was also a miss, zipping right past Omicron's ear, temporarily deafening him, most likely. He struck again, slicing open the Equestrian Steel armor and cutting into Alex's flesh. Though the pain was sickening, he grasped Omicron's blade, pulling him in and punching him again. Further damaging the mask. Blake used this opportunity to get a few attacks in, evading Omicron's counters and tagging him in the sides. Alex kicked him away, and Omicron skidded to a halt just before falling off the side. Omicron sped towards Blake, grasped her by her new leg, and held her up. "I'll claim my bounty now. You're next." He scowled at Blake before throwing her off the ledge. He knew she'd be okay. But the idea still infuriated him. He stopped himself temporarily. He needed to ask. "Tell me where I can find Kalos Prime." Alex ordered. "Your methods and tactics are somewhat impressive for someone of your age. But still inferior. They will not save you." Omicron struck, locking blades with Alex with surprising strength. As soon as Alex could, he struck Omicron on the side of the head before relentlessly slicing and dicing what he could. "Hey, Omicron! I beat quite a few Inquisitors in one-on-one duels! Seven times in total! How would you like to be number eight?!" Alex buffed up, his courage growing. He continued his attacks, but Omicron either dodged or tried to counter those attacks, only to be forced back into blocking due to Alex's sheer relentlessness. "This ends here!" Omicron yelled, sheathing his blade before firing it at him, temporarily disorienting Alex and buying Omicron enough time to attack. He was as unyielding as Alex, but much more simple about his attacks, to which Alex could simply grasp Omicron's wrist, twisting it to the right and kicking him. Alex held both Blitzklinge and Omicron's sword in his hands, crossing them in an 'X' shape. "Okay, how the hell am I able to do this-" Alex was immediately interrupted by a fist in the face. Omicron kicked off Alex's helmet, taking back his own sword and hacking at his chest. Alex was knocked backwards, bleeding from the cut on his chest. "It ends here, Earthling." Omicron raised his sword. Alex coughed. "That's where you're wrong." He raised both hands, sending out waves of red electricity, shocking the Inquisitor. "I'm not from Earth. Not anymore." He raised his weapon. Omicron sheathed his own blade, keeping his hand on the hilt, ready to attack. "Now that you mention it, I'm not from Equestria either." Alex swung his weapon hard for Omicron's neck, Omicron blocked his attack, swinging again and cutting him at the shoulder. "Nor am I from Remnant, or Los Santos." He shrugged off the attack, kicking Omicron in the kidney and swinging his weapon in around the same spot, only for Omicron to block his attacks. "Then where am I from, you ask?" Alex slashed at Omicron's chest, successfully landing a blow, leaving a wide slash from Omicron's right shoulder to his lower-left. "You. Tell. Me." Alex accompanied those words with several punches to the solar plexus. Knocking the wind out of his adversary before leg-sweeping him to the ground. "How...how were you able to knock me down..?" Omicron wheezed. Alex laughed slyly. "You think you're the only one who fights in a 'laido' style?" Alex stepped hard on Omicron's back, kicking him in the gut. "Interesting..." He stood up, punching Alex hard in the chest, hard enough to launch him onto the flight deck. Omicron leaped down from there, unsheathing his weapon. "You wouldn't happen to know someone named Branwen, would you?" He smirked arrogantly. "What the hell are you talking about?" Alex asked. Isn't that Qrow's last name? "You're no help." Omicron kicked Alex in the ribs, stabbing him in the chest and pulling him up, the sword dragging upwards in his chest as he did. Omicron twisted the blade inside Alex's chest, worsening the damage, before sharply jerking it out. Alex's blood sprayed out of the wound in a horrifying fashion. "Alex!!!" He heard someone scream behind him. Omicron was blasted into a jet, blowing it up and hopefully killing him. Alex struggled to hold on to life, and he felt someone grab his shoulders and pull him up. "Y-Yang..?" Alex spluttered. He saw her inspect the wound, and she shook her head. "It looks bad, I know. You'll be fine!" She assured, Alex knew she was just trying to stay calm for his sake if nothing else. She moved his right arm around her neck and helped him out or the battlefield. Pain struck his backside again as his blood was blown out the other side again, Alex had been shot! "I...I won't let you get away... Not without my bounty..." Omicron held his sheath, which apparently doubled as a rifle, and limped towards the two. Yang eased him to the ground and attacked him, Omicron blocked a shot before using the hilt of the weapon to knock her to the ground and kicked her once she was down. Omicron limped towards Alex again, the area around him starting to turn shades of red, black, and white as he reared his weapon back. "Oh, f**k." Alex gaped. Omicron's trademark finisher, capable of slicing through literally anything. Moonslice. "D-Die!!" He yelled Alex, who was by now gurgling blood. He saw a shadow flicker behind Omicron, who looked almost surprised and he crumpled to the ground, crawling on his hands and knees. The rogues from earlier ran to him, grabbing either side and holding onto a rope ladder leading to a Bullhead, which quickly sped off. Alex blinked tiredly, pain seeping from virtually everywhere on his body. He felt two pairs of hands pull him up, the first being Yang's, the second... "Here... You aren't going to die.. Not yet." Blake pulled him up, leaning him against another jet until a medic could get over to the flight deck. With the medic, he saw Rainbow Dash and Kat. The four helped him onto the stretcher as the medic wrapped bandage around his wounds, from there, everything faded to black.. Author's Note Chapters should come out more frequently for the next week. Spent so much time pre-writing that I have a bunch of chapters ready. Act III, Chapter 11: RecoveryAlex woke up in a coughing fit. His hands raced towards a tissue box, pulling out nearly five of them and placing them over his mouth and spitting something out. Looking back at the tissue, he was understandably a bit worried as to why it was covered in blood. In addition, he had an intense headache and his chest burned in agony. He grit his teeth just to prevent from screaming, but his hoarse breathing said enough about his condition. "Nice to see you're alive, Admiral." Said a voice to Alex's right. He didn't need to look to know who that was. It was the ship's most notorious field medic; Corpsman Alabaster Sheild. Corpsman Shield was from Equestria. Specifically from Manehattan, if he remembered correctly. He'd helped with the operation that replaced Blake's leg and saved at least 36 people during the Vytal Invasion and the Subterrain Battle collectively. "You haven't the slightest idea. I trust you're the one who patched me up?" Alex asked. He simply nodded. "The wound you sustained resulted in the destruction of your liver and sliced open your lung. The Adenienites were able to make an artificial liver that would likely last you another 20 years before having to replace it. As for your lung, we were able to repair some of the damage, but as you can already tell..." Corpsman Sheild was interrupted by another coughing fit. "I understand. We can get to work on that after I get back to work." Alex started to sit up before more pain immobilized him. "I'm afraid the stress fighting would put on, especially in the state you're in, could likely kill you. Even if you use your Aura to heal yourself." The Corpsman stressed. "So I'm out of commission. How long?" Alex asked. "At least a week and a half, even with our technology." He explained. Alex sighed, rolling onto his side. He suddenly noticed the dozens of cards and letters sitting at the nightstand "Where did all this come from?" Alex wondered. "Most of it's from your friends, some from the other crewmen, and one from Princess Luna." Corpsman Shield pointed to the regal-looking scroll at the center-most area of the nightstand, wrapped in deep blue velvet. He grasped the scroll, untying the seal and rolled it open. Adm. Alexander Gabriel Walker, In regards to the idea of invading the minds of prisoners of war and extracting information such as the location of Kalos Prime, that is something we can not and will not attempt. We will, however, suggest another plan to discover the location. Celestia and I understand you've worked closely with the remaining Inheritors such as Sirius Da Long, and Qrow and Raven Branwen. We would suggest asking them what they already know of the Headquarters. There is something we do know of the location. Due to early multi-dimensional instantaneous transport testing, accidental gateways have been generated throughout the past century. Look into disappearances of large ships or aerial squadrons, then perhaps you may find the city. In the meantime, It would do you well to hear that our Royal Guards, with the combined strength of Remnant's forces, we have pushed back the Red Star as far as the Frozen North. Although we do fear for the safety of the Crystal Empire, we can rest assured that one of our most trusted guardians is ready and willing to defend the city. Humble regards, Princess Luna of the Night Leave it to Princess Luna to be of some benefit. They know something about Kalos Prime! "I'll leave you alone for the moment. By the way, I can allow visitors if you really want to." Corpsman Sheild backed out. "Go ahead. Hang out with some friends. Relax, Corpsman." Alex suggested. "Yes, sir." The Corpsman left abruptly. Alex picked up another envelope, slicing it carefully with his fingernail. He gingerly pulled open both sides of the envelope and pulled out the card inside. This card felt somewhat heavy, as though someone had written a note and taped it inside. Folding open the card, he saw in bold yellow lettering 'Read This' and 'Get Well Soon'. Well, one didn't need to be Nostradamus to guess who wrote this card. He removed the note inside of the card, unfolding it carefully and clearing his throat. Hi, Yeah, not much of an introduction, I know, but you get the idea, right? So listen, I'm sure you already figured, but the people who tried to help Adam escape we're working with Cinder. We got that off our newest prisoner, Neapolitan. She also told us about some of the other goings-on of the Red Star in Remnant. Including but not limited to another shipment of Syndicate supplies and, yes, more super-weapons. The good news is that Crimson, for the most part, is out of the equation. Something about a private investigator completely blowing the CIA's military. They've been forced back to pacify the revolution, so no more CIA killers gunning us down, it's more like the 'Red Square', now that you think about it. Bad news is that they all escaped, got off the ship by stealing a stray Bullhead as soon as we had them cornered. They're still a threat as long as they're working with Cinder, and now that we know they can hop on and kill us off one by one, the Ryders are working with Vinyl on an 'Aura Scanner', which is what Evan and the others are calling it. We can use the machine to figure out what their Aura is, and how much of a threat they are before we engage. I can explain everything later, I'm kinda running out of room here. :) -YXL Behind the letter was a picture taped squarely behind it, her and Vanoss were standing in the training room, with Vanoss wearing the Prototype 'Aura Scanner'. Written in the standard meme form was 'Vanoss, what does the scouter say about his power level?'. Alex groaned in annoyance. 'Sorry, not sorry XP' was written underneath the photograph. Alex heard a light knocking on the door, and someone called to him. "Hello? Alex?" Kat asked. "Come in." Alex nodded, putting away the card. Kat walked in, and sat at the foot of his bed. "How are you holding up?" She asked him. "About as well as you'd think getting stabbed in the chest would be." Alex bluntly replied. "Ouch. Didn't that already happen to you, though? With Winchester?" Kat wondered. "What, that little butter knife?" Alex scoffed. "Right. So, I was thinking about what to do after all of this is over, I already decided." Kat announced. "Really?" Alex asked. "I'm going to go back to Earth after everything ends. I'll help the country and the world get back on it's feet after catastrophes like Bohemian Grove and the Revolution." Kat asserted, smiling proudly. "So, you're going to be a politician-slash-humanitarian aid worker? Sounds like an interesting combination for a marks-woman from a terrorist organization." Alex shrugged. "You don't understand. Jäger told me to join because he said I'd change the world, make it a better place." Kat reproached. "He tricked you into the Militia, didn't he?" Alex raised an eyebrow. She nodded slightly. "There was something else I wanted to ask you.. I never actually thought about it all that much.." Alex wavered. "Okay." She anxiously nodded. "When I first fought Beta, he said something about this 'Fiore' place you went to after '51. What happened there?" Alex asked. She looked a little uneasy, like he once felt about his own experienced in Equestria. "It's fine. I literally can't hurt you or anything, and besides, it's been how many months and you never went back. What happened?" Alex asked. Kat sighed heavily. She explained a lot about this place she went to. Basically what happened was that Kat had fallen in with the wrong crowd, dark wizards or something. The wizards she mentioned intervened, defeated them all, and gave her a choice; either join them or end up in prison. She chose the first option and stayed with one of them in their home. She'd been there for about a week, having built her new weapon and explained everything that happened to her with them. The Inquisitors got involved a bit after that. Theta, who had led the Fiorian branch of the Inquisitors, attacked a few other wizards, killed them in cold blood, and chained their dead bodies to a wall, leaving behind a few shell casings that looked vaguely similar to her own. After realizing what happened, she didn't wait for them to hunt her down and get revenge. She snuck into their HQ and practically turned their archives upside-down scouring for a way to another universe. Kat eventually found a way out of that universe, leaving very little trace of what happened to her or where she had gone. When Kat had finished her tale, she sighed again, laying next to him. It didn't take Alex particularly long to realize she was almost crying. He held her for a moment, reassuring her. "It's fine. That moment's passed. You're with us now..." Alex wasn't entirely sure what to say, but tried his best to help her, then he remembered just how to help. "Kat. Here, listen. If you'd like, as soon as we get the chance. We can clear your name if you really want that. You helped me get somewhat over my doubts about all of this. Let me at least try to return the favor." She sniffed a little. "I'm sorry, somewhat?" She scoffed. "There you are." Alex laughed slightly. She stood up, wiping her eyes and turning to him. "I don't want that, Alex. They don't trust me at all anymore. I bet if we were to head over there right now, they'd just kill you for defending me." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Besides, I have unfinished business at Earth. Now tell me.." She sat at the chair, facing him intently. "What are you going to do when this is over?" Kat wondered. Alex coughed a little bit. "This f**king question.. I have a limb in every universe, so to speak. Picking one to stay in the rest of my life is like picking a favorite child." "What? Keeping it painfully obvious to the other ones which to choose?" Kat retorted. "Ah... No." "Riddle me this, what do you have in mind?" Kata insisted. "I could probably go to Adenien. I'm practically blood there and everyone f**king knows it but me, apparently. Also there's Earth, but I'm not too sure how well that would turn out. Equestria and Remnant are my safest options. I have some experience hunting monsters and all that." Alex shrugged. "What about Evan and the others?" Kat asked. "They're probably going back to Earth as well. They're practically famous there, and they've been gone for months." Alex shrugged. "How long has it been?" Kat wondered. "Let's see, I was arrested in August... Jäger broke us out at about early September, right?" Alex asked. "Yeah, the eleventh, I think." Kat nodded. "And I think we invaded '51 at like three or four in the morning and left at about 5." Alex recalled. "It's November now, right?" Kat asked. "Yeah, let me see... November 13, 2016." Alex replied. "Wow. It feels a lot longer to me." Kat shook her head. "Two months? It felt like 100 to me." Alex blinked. "We're still thinking months? I was thinking it felt like 2 or 3 years!" "You know shit's nuts when you're already thinking about the end of a war and it hasn't even been one month since it started." "I know. I mean World War II lasted about 6 years, The First Cold War went on for decades!" Kay elaborated. "Yeah, but America set the Second Cold War aside because of the Militia, and the entire country is having another Civil War. Everything changes, I guess now it seems everything's changing faster and faster." Alex sighed. Kat looked at him. "How long were you expecting to spend time with all of us, how long did you think the war would last when you first got into it?" Kat wondered. Alex sighed. "When Luna mentioned that the Red Star invaded Equestria, I thought we'd have to be stationed there for at least a year and a half, based on how long these kinds of wars usually last here. And I didn't think I'd be commanding a fleet at all, but in my mind, it was going for another three." Alex explained. "You expected us to get out of this by June 2020?" Kat did the calculations in her head. "I'm not even accounting the leftovers, the juntas left over by the Inquisitors." Alex explained. "You'd suspect that Inquisitors would still be around after the Blood Red Night?" Kat asked. "Like hell I do. There's bound to be at least one. I mean look at the Inheritors. The Inquisitors practically executed Order 66 and killed most of them, and look at Raven! She's even training an apprentice for chrissakes!" Alex scoffed. "There you are. You might be able to dedicate you time finding them all." Kat stood up. "I guess so." Alex shrugged. "I gotta go, meeting up with Evan and Quill for something. See you around." Kat nodded. "Sure." Alex replied. Kat left the room, leaving Alex alone once more. Reading over Luna's letter, he was starting to think about where exactly Kalos Prime might be... '. 'Look into disappearances of large ships or aerial squadrons.' 'We would suggest asking them what they already know about the Headquarters.' This might be interesting... Act III, Chapter 12: The Next Step...It had been roughly three days since Alex was put into the medical bay due to his injuries. The doctors had told him he would be able to get around the ship and maybe some very light training, but they told him no actual fighting for the next few days for fear the stress might re-open the wound. Using this opportunity, Alex figured now would be the best time to take inventory on his supplies, armor, and weaponry while he still had the chance. He was headed to the forge right now, where he was supposed to meet with Vinyl and Twilight. He steadily walked inside and sat down on a table, simply nodding in greeting to the mares. "Hello, Alex! Glad to see the wound's getting better!" Twilight greeted. "Likewise. I heard about how bad the rogues scraped you up." Alex noted. "Anyways, we should get on with your current armor. We just got finished working on it." Vinyl walked over to the small garage door leading to a storage unit bearing Alex's name. Using her magic, she lifted the door upwards, revealing his new armor. The armor looked slightly bulkier than Alex's last Overcharge Suit, and it would add at least three inches to his overall height. The armor looked somewhat different from the alloy once used for the previous suit. "Nice. The outer layer looks slightly different from the last. More Adenienite tech?" Alex asked. Vinyl smirked, nodding slightly. "They added Adenienite Titanium into the armor, they said that with this in the mix, it should protect from most weapon and magic based attacks. I tried holding onto the metal with my magic and it was like trying to hold a wet bar of soap!" Twilight elaborated. "I wouldn't suspect the Princess of Friendship to make prison jokes." Alex scoffed. "I... You..!" Twilight stammered. Vinyl snickered a bit. "And I see you've attached the Prometheus Charge directly onto the actual suit." Alex noticed. "I did more research on the device. Apparently it's only a one time use, so save it for when you really need it." Twilight explained. "Like the Blood Red Night." Alex alluded. "Also, Twi here did some more research. You know how Locust said there would be more help coming in from different dimensions, right?" Vinyl asked as Alex continued to inspect the armor. "Sure." Alex nodded. "He wasn't kidding. Now that the word's actually out, we got drafts coming in ridiculously fast! People from all over the multiverse are signing up!" Vinyl gasped. "How many we talking here, a million?" Alex asked. "Try 50 million. Most of which are the most famous warriors of their various dimensions. I even heard that the Princesses and Discord resurrected Kronus just for the occasion!" Twilight added. "Who?" Alex asked. "Kronus was one of five gods of elemental magic. He represented fire spells; modern day attack and destruction spells. The most famous of his spells is the 'Fires of Kronus' spell, last used before even The Princesses were born." Twilight explained. "Okay. History lesson aside. Vinyl, what're we looking at here?" Alex clasped his hands together in anticipation. "Improved outer layer and internal processing power, amplified repulsing power, enhanced flight capabilities, up to at least Mach 4. Magnetized boots and a built-in retractable Ma Deuce on the right shoulder." Vinyl explained. "You mean I can fire .50 cal off my shoulder while flying almost as fast as Rainbow Dash?" Alex laughed slightly. "Yep!" Vinyl smiled again, admiring her hard work. "Okay, how about my weapons?" Alex asked. "We have Blitzklinge sheathed, we sharpened the blade and made it slightly lighter and we sharpened the Oracon Amethyst at the hilt." Vinyl listed, pulling out the deadly blade. "Also, we recovered schematics of your original Electric Fury and repaired it for you. That's also sheathed at the moment." Twilight added. "You guys work way harder than I give credit for." Alex nodded. "A raise would be great. My roomie and I can hardly get our mortgage paid lately." Vinyl said. "Um, sure." Alex nodded uncertainly. "And we personally made you a rifle for the battle." Vinyl pulled out a box. "Sure. Let's see." Alex nodded, pulling open the box. Twilight ripped the top off the wooden box with her magic and levitated the weapon into Alex's hands. "May I introduce: The Serengeti IX-7 Rifle. Equipped with two sights, a side-grip, under barrel rocket launcher, and a collapsible stock. Chambered in Adenien .45 Meta." Vinyl explained. The rifle looked almost like a cross-breed of an AR platform and a Galil, but with the two sights attached to the top. The under barrel Rocket Launcher looked similar to a standard M203 but with the rocket warhead at the end, the side grip was incredibly ergonomic and quite easy to control. The .45 Meta round was essentially a slimmed out .458 SOCOM with slightly more powder, so punching through Red Star super-soldiers wouldn't be very difficult. Alex smiled approvingly, pulling out the .44 Scratch and walking over to the armor, where another holster was put just at the suit's back. He slipped the weapon inside and locked it into place. "Thank you both. Now, I just need to discuss a few things with the rest of the crew. Head to the meeting room in about 10 minutes." Alex ordered. "Sure thing." Twilight smiled. "Okay. Y'know, it's really sad knowing that not...all of us are going in there." Vinyl sighed. Alex was just outside when he heard Vinyl. "I know the feeling." He sighed bitterly, walking down the hallway. It seemed like just about everyone was in the room at the moment. The Elements, The Wonderbolts, Vinyl, The Guards, The Huntsmen and Huntresses, Inheritors, Ryders, Vanoss's crew, literally everyone. Including the crew. Even Raven went to stay on the Iliad to act in advisory capacity as another Inquisitor had been killed. Alex took a deep breath. He knew for a fact that most of them mistook him for an equal, perhaps a superior. But he always knew that, in the end, he was just as weak and afraid, if not more, than when this whole escapade began. He shoved that thought out of his mind, and began his statements. "Hi, everyone. I'm going to keep this short. There's a lot we have to talk about and even more we have to do. Why not get that out of the way first." Alex began. "Sounds fair. Where do we start?" Ember asked. "I'd say we should start with where the last couple of...accidents...left off." Winter scowled. "Cram it, will you?" Qrow blatantly reproached. "Qrow, not now." Raven chided. "Shut up, all of you." Sirius groaned. "Winter has a point, how do we know where to start if we aren't sure where we last left off?" Weiss defended. "I guess we should take that into account." Twilight shrugged. "I'm with Princess Twilight." Locust respectfully added. "Fine. Iris, give us a complete rundown of the Vytal Invasion, the Subterrain battle, the ARES mission, and our most recent defense of the ship?" Alex asked. "Overall, the death toll has totaled over 972 deaths, including Russell Leone, Lieutenant Auklet, as well as Scratchbolts Cloudchaser and Flitter. As well as 2,659 wounded, including Blake Belladonna, Twilight Sparkle, and Alex Walker on our side. However, we did manage to successfully invade the Island, snuff out whatever the Red Star was planning with the Subterrains, destroy two $50,000,000 satellites threatening the existence of the planet, as well as capture one of Roman Torchwick's personal henchmen." Iris explained. "But the payloads were destroyed and our defenses were breached! Twice, I may add!" Skirmish said. "No victory comes without sacrifice, young warrior." Locust dismissed. "'Young warrior', my plot." Blast scoffed. "Don't dis robot Yoda!" Delirious defended. "...Hostilities aside, I may add that so far, 51,142,222 people from as many as 13 different dimensions excluding Equestria, Earth, Remnant, and Adenien. That has to count for something!" Mako added. "I'm with Mako on this one. We can't always look at the failures! We did what we had to on each of those missions! We invaded a heavily fortified island, drove our enemies out from underground, saved billions of civilian lives, and successfully defended our ship! If we dwell on our shortcomings, we'll never be able to face up against the Red Star!" Kat defended. Most of the room was in utter silence. "That was...actually a decent speech. Kudos to you, Miss..." Winter began to congratulate. "Just call me Kat." She smirked. "So what you're saying is; We f**ked up their shit and they f**ked up ours." Mini asked. "That's basically war in a nutshell." Ren nodded in agreement. "I have a question for the kid. What exactly is our next move?" Asked Sirius. Alex didn't need to dwell on that for very long. "Simple. Recent developments from our prisoner suggest that the Red Star is readying itself for an attack against Vale. We deeply weakened them by attacking both the Subterrains and the ARES satellites, but we didn't completely stop them. Intel suggests that a gang led by a man code-named 'Junior' linked up with the Syndicate and just moved in a biochemical weapon capable of wiping out the continent in a matter of months. Acting in advisory capacity is the Inquisitor Omega, who we aren't yet able to identify. Our mission is to disable this bioweapon and get it somewhere where it can never again be used, and find Omega, if he refuses to surrender peacefully, we kill the sick son of a bitch." Alex explained. "Junior, you sly dog." Yang blinked. "You know that asshole?" Vanoss asked her. "In a way..." "What's the battle plan?" Droidd asked. "We have Quill acting as our inside man, as soon as he discovers where the bio weapon is, we rush in and take it to where Remnant's scientists can kill it, or at least lock it away." Alex explained. "What's the bio weapon?" Blake asked. "Our prisoner identified it as an enhanced form of the 'Vacuo Strain'." Alex replied. Most of Remnant's inhabitants shuddered at the thought. "What's got you so scared?" Wildcat asked. "The Vacuo Strain is basically our version of the Plague." Jaune shuddered. "Well, shit." Nogla blinked. "We'll be arriving outside Vale tomorrow. We'll have our operatives around the Vale area incognito. We can't risk getting discovered. They'll be brought in by Vale's police force with new identities, about 1,500 Lien, and new clothes. We aren't letting the Inquisitors get much of an idea of our plans, but we'll be looking for them. You're all dismissed, but I'll need Qrow, Raven, Sirius, Winter, and Yang to stay here. We need to talk about something." Alex nodded as most of the crew filed steadily out of the room until the six Inheritors were left. "Alright. You got my attention, what is it, kid?" Qrow asked. "I need to ask you all something. You're familiar with the last group of people who tried to stop the Inquisitors, right?" Alex asked. "What, the ad-hoc skeleton crew that included your father? Of course we know about them." Sirius scoffed. "Sirius, please. Show some restraint, this boy's father nearly lost his life in there, and Summer actually died." Raven chided. "I'm just a Specialist, kid. Why did you ask me to stay here and listen to your cultist psychobabble?" Winter scowled. "Just a Specialist? You and Qrow over here seem to know each other well enough for there to be some bad blood between you two." Alex retorted. Winter rolled her eyes. "Why are you asking?" Yang wondered. "Luna wrote me a letter saying that you would know something about Kalos Prime." Alex calmly replied "Kid, none of us know where Kalos Prime is. I mean, there was Kalos Ultra." Qrow laughed slightly. "Kalos Ultra?" "The Inheritor's original headquarters for The Inquisitors, located at Nihilos 0-01 Gamma; Downfall. They moved their operations elsewhere since that terrible day. Where, nobody knows." Raven explained. "Iris, identify the location of Nihilos 0-01 Gamma." Alex ordered. "Identified: Downfall. Located just two dimensions out from Provinence." Iris explained. "Provinence?" Winter asked. "The origin point of all creation. Located at Kai 0-00 Alpha." Sirius explained. "What else did this foreign night god horse tell you?" Qrow scoffed. "To look for the disappearances of large ships and airplanes the past century. I have a place in mind." Alex explained. "Let's hear it." Yang sat down. "In my old world, Earth, there was a place called the Bermuda Triangle. During around the 20th century, ships, planes, and the like disappeared. It's likely related to the interdimensional teleporter testing around that time point." Alex explained. "Wait, these 'dimensions' are stacked one on top of the other, right?" Winter asked. "Yep." Yang nodded. "If that's right, then we should be able to use the Triangle as a guideline and scan every universe, starting with Provinence, and find the headquarters!" Winter elaborated. "That may not be such a terrible idea... Robot! Get us a map of 'Earth' and find the Bermuda Triangle!" Qrow ordered. "I have a name you know. Here!" Iris exclaimed as a holographic image of that general area appeared before them. "Cross reference that area with as many universes as possible, identify large cities, and send the results to our Scrolls!" Alex ordered. "Sure thing, Admiral!" Iris assured. "Good thinking, Ms. Schnee." Sirius curtly nodded. "Glad to see some people pay some respect when it's due." Winter scowled in Qrow's direction. "Sellout." "Drunk." "All of you, shut the hell up." Sirius groaned. "Qrow, settle this childish rivalry soon!" Raven sighed in annoyance. "Anyways, thanks for bringing this up with us. For someone with the least amount of legitimate training I've ever seen, you're actually half-decent. I went over the footage when you fought Omicron." Sirius commented. "I prefer to do my training on the field." Alex defended. "Whatever you say, Adenienite." Qrow rolled his eyes. The inheritors left the room, leaving Alex alone with Yang. "So, you've looked better." Yang began. "Looks don't count for shit here." Alex laughed. "What's with you lately? You've never been this relaxed before." Yang lightly slugged him in the shoulder. "Relaxed? Oh, no. I'm all wound up like a tin toy. I've just accepted that everything's f**ked." Alex chuckled. "I hear you." Yang nodded. "So, what's on your mind?" Alex asked. "Huh?" "You obviously stayed behind for a reason, what was it?" He pressed on. "Just wanted to see how you were doing, and you asked me to stay here." She said. "Oh, right.." "Yeah." Yang shrugged. "Any other reason?" Alex asked. "No. That's it." Yang insisted "Okay, I can take that for an answer if you really want to." Alex relented. "By the way, I should be asking you the same thing." Yang looked at him. "I'm just...thinking." Alex replied. "Always the thinker, what's on your mind?" She asked. "This question always bugged the hell out of me since before Unity actually got together in LS, but did all of you stand by me out of actual friendship like what Princess Twilight and the other Elements constantly flaunt around like an iPhone 7, or do you all just pity me?" Alex asked. Yang looked like she herself was in thought before she finally answered. "I can probably see Twilight and her friends standing by you out of pity, why else would they follow a murderer into other dimensions? That's literally the only way I see them going that close to an ex-fugitive." Yang explained. "Vanoss and his crew are out of the question, I paid them just to keep my ass safe." Alex clarified. "Okay, sure. Back to what I was saying, from what I can tell, Ponies have no experience with violence or warfare until recently. That's just how it is. People like Ruby and I, we're no strangers to violence or death. Hell, we hunt down monsters and bad guys for a living." Yang laughed slightly. "So, where does that leave you guys?" Alex wondered. "Personally, I could tell something was wrong from the moment I saw you, that look of mortal terror in your eye, the constant feeling of paranoia, your overall vibe said something was...off. And it's been off for a while. But that isn't the only reason I stayed with you." "Then, pray tell, what was the other reason?" "Your determination. Your own sheer force of will just to stay alive. Look at what you've done these past few months. You've had to kill, steal, and break a few hearts just to stay alive. And you did survive! You have no rules because, if what you told me was true, you felt like the rules abandoned you. Even right now, you're trying to take back your life with your bare hands, and if it means taking someone else's, so be it!" "Well, that's just the end-all be-all of my life." Alex shrugged. "You're fighting to take back your life, question is, what part of your life exactly?" Yang asked. Another open-ended question, as if he hadn't had enough of these in school already. "I'll be completely honest with you. I don't know anymore, but at the same time, I do know. I'm in the years where I'll have to decide what I want for my own life, not anyone else's, but my own. Locked in that cell for a month made me think I wasn't going anywhere further. But now, everything's so open! I can start fresh in a new environment, new opportunities. A completely different life from what I originally expected. I guess I'm just fighting to have that sense of choice again without anyone standing in my way. And for the moment, it's those bastards threatening me, my friends, as well as everyone else. Right now, all that's standing in the way are those soulless motherf**kers." Alex spat. Yang stood again, her hands on his shoulders. "And that's why I've stood with you. Take care of yourself." She briefly hugged him and walked out the door. Alex reached into his side pocket, reaching for his journal. "Hey. Nice talking to you." Yang called from outside the door. Alex looked up from his journal. "Same here. Stay alive." Alex smiled. "Okay. Don't let all of this be for nothing, got it?" She called out, walking away. Alex laid down on the table, journal in hand, just a little bit tired, and his wound still throbbed with dulled pain. He looked back on his life, what had been stolen from him, and what life had repaid him with. "Trust me, Yang. I don't intend to." Act III, Chapter 13: Incognito"Alright, these credit cards should last you for a couple days. We rented you a place in the hotel about three blocks away from the club this 'Junior' is holding, check with Quill whenever you see anything suspicious. If your cover's blown, check the Aura scanners for anyone with a level above 15, then call us for support! This weapon isn't going to take anyone's life while we're on guard. Good luck, we're counting on you." Those were Alex's last instructions, even saying that the instructions were their Bible for the next couple days or so. Vanoss was with Mini Ladd, Terroriser, and Wildcat on the dinghy they were using to sail 30 miles outside the city of Vale. All of them were dressed in street clothes similar to what any normal citizen from Vale would wear. Their fake IDs were kept safely in their pockets along with the credit cards. And just in case, they kept their SNS pistols concealed in holsters where nobody else would dare investigate. Vanoss personally kept the sunglasses handy to keep the sun from getting in his eyes. "Hold on, why are we doing this?" Wildcat, or 'Jason', rolled his eyes. "You heard what the human bug zapper said, we were hardly in town while we were in the dimension or whatever." Terroriser, 'Clarence', replied. "Does this count for overtime?" Mini Ladd, for the time being 'Jeff', asked. "Iris did say we can keep the checks." Vanoss, 'Steve', recalled. "Let me just say that this is never going to work." Terroriser sighed. "You've fallen for stupider things in Prop Hunt." Wildcat pointed out. "I just hope Quill doesn't sell us out." Mini internally pleaded to God or whomever was up there. "Relax, just remember what we talked about.." Vanoss tried to calm him down. "Right, right. 'My name Jeff'." Mini nodded hurriedly. Vanoss suddenly felt the dinghy scrape against solid ground. Sand! "Land ho!!" Vanoss cheered. "Yes, great. But are we in the right spot?" Mini asked. "Yeah, there's the truck over there!" Wildcat pointed to the dark grey Minivan parked onto the beach. "Alright. Look alive, stay alive." Vanoss staggered upwards, running to the car. "This f**king shit! it's been a year since that video was released!" Terroriser rolled his eyes. "We're wasting our time! Let's just get in the damn car and go! There's a checkpoint about 10 miles up so we should have plenty of time to get into character!" Wildcat urged. They all piled out of the boat, and suddenly got into an argument over who got to drive. "That's it! Rock-Paper-Scissors over who gets to drive!" Mini raised both hands in the air. They all rose their fists partway into the air, bringing them down in a quick motion. "Rock!" They repeated the action, relaxing their hands once they got about the same level. "Paper!" One final raise of the arm to the sky, Vanoss's hands trembled before bringing them down again. "Scissors- F**k!" "God dammit!" "Are you f**king kidding me?!" "Yeeeaah!!!" "Sergeant Quill, your presence is requested with Omega immediately." A messenger told him. Quill shuddered as he turned over to the messenger. "Omega, sir?" He asked. "Who else, Sergeant?" The messenger rolled his eyes. Quill nodded. "O-Of course!" He wavered, walking as casually as he could through the stronghold. Even being here gave him slight shudders. He dismissed them as mild panic attacks, nothing more. Walking into Omega's quarters was a bit scary to him. He stepped inside, trying his best to keep a calm demeanor. "Sergeant Ronald Quill. I was hoping you would make it." The cold, mechanical voice of Omega greeted. "Yes sir, what is it?" He asked. Omega stood up, his height towering over Quill's by at least another foot, and Quill was tall where he was from! "Is everything ready, Sergeant?" He asked. Quill memorized his lie perfectly, reciting it without as much as a stutter. "Yes sir, they don't suspect a thing. And even if they do, I sent a larger force to the center of town, where they're more likely to overshadow the primary crew. You'll get their attention, Lord Omega." Quill bowed. "It is not the entirety of the group whom I await, Quill." Omega turned his back to him. "Then who, sir?" Quill asked. Omega chuckled in a mechanical, demonic, low cackle that would send shivers down anyone's spine and turn their blood to ice. "I figured you would ask, Sergeant Quill. This young man is the biggest threat to the universe we have ever beheld. This is Saigo Emphas. The offspring of one of the original challengers to Inquisitorial Rule. He is dangerous, but inexperienced and driven by his own fear and rage. Easy enough to manipulate, if you ask me." Omega explained. "How do you know this?" Quill asked. "Let us say I happen to know him better than he knows himself." Omega cackled again, the chills running down Quill's spine. "So, we got past the guards and we're in the city, what now?" Vanoss asked Blake, who would answer any questions they had in regards to their mission as Alex was doing other important things by now. 'Have someone check into the hotel, we specifically asked for a penthouse so you could look over the city without having to go all the way to the roof. The other three are going around the club. Not actually inside of it, save that for the assault. If you see anything suspicious, contact Quill and he'll tell you what he knows.' Blake instructed. "I got the hotel, guys." Wildcat raised his hand. 'One of you look for a Dust shop. You never know whether or not Junior's goons will want to relapse.' "Got it." Mini announced. 'Good, the rest of you can browse around. If you hear anything suspicious, call Quill as soon as you can. Illiad out.' Blake shut off the radio. They nodded in similar fashion to Star Wars Episode 6 before splitting up. Vanoss himself headed towards a camera shop, it was never too late to give his hardware an upgrade. Walking down the streets of Vale was a bit daunting, but he was used to seeing new places. Thinking back to his home, career, and friends. He missed it all, but he did volunteer for Immersion back in August. They all spent that next month filming actually inside GTA 5 and Garry's Mod. But by some accident or if it was a pre-meditated incident, his friends all ended up in Equestria, which little did they know, had already started down the path to real war. If it wasn't for the skittles horse, who knows what would have happened? Would they have stayed there forever, or would Alex and the late Agent Thorne have found their way to them anyways? Whatever. This was the multiverse theory incarnate. Anything and everything probably already happened. Once he made his way to a camera shop, he gingerly pushed the door open and stepped inside, the bell ringing as the door snapped shut. "Hello, sir. How can I help you?" The old man at the counter asked. "What's the best camera you have available?" He asked. The old man stretched his chin in thought before walking over to a display counter and gesturing to a full-sized video camcorder, microphone and macro-lens included. Noticing the 2180 Lien price tag, he shied away from the ever-unreachable tool. "Got anything a little less expensive, sir?" Vanoss asked him. The old man walking to his next recommendation as the bell rang again. Vanoss turned around to find himself face-to-face with a young girl, about the same height as Alex and Yang, with a unique, rather familiar mint green hairstyle and an intricate white and olive top, not that he was paying much mind. "I'll get to you in a minute." The old man promised the young woman. "It's fine, I'm just looking around." She shrugged, looking towards the smaller, more 'GoPro-esque' cameras. Something just felt...off about her, though. He wasn't sure if it was her demeanor or what else, but he switched his view to third-person mode just to be safe. "So, how about this? This is the first 'S' series Kino made. It normally comes in at about 950 Lien, but we're having a 30% off sale right now." The old man stated. "That works. I'll take it." Vanoss finally nodded. He shifted his 'viewpoint' behind him, where the girl was, just as she said, looking around. "Wonderful, just need the 665 Lien." The old man smiled. Vanoss quietly turned on the Aura reader, keeping it pointed at the girl, carefully checking to see if she was looking. "Is there an ATM anywhere?" Vanoss asked. "There's one just outside." The old man replied. "Thanks." He smiled, walking outside as calmly as he could. He saw the girl reach out behind him, then, very subtly, recoil in disgust. No one. He stepped outside, turned on the ATM, entered the PIN number the Vale Police gave him, and sipped the check inside. He checked the Aura reader, and through it's technobabble, he read through her ranking. 'Level 16: Red Alert!' Vanoss quietly put away the Aura Scanner and grabbed the cash from the ATM. He would have to tell Blake later. He went back inside, paid the 665 Lien to take the camera and left. Hoping to find someplace more private to talk this over. Author's Note A comparatively small chapter, I know. Still working on some minor details, including the possibility of Alternate Endings. Feel free to share your thoughts, it's been a while since I got a comment from you viewers. Act III, Chapter 14: The Fight Within--0459 hours, November 24, 2016. 6 hours before the events of 'Incognito'-- Alex stood alone in a dark room yet again. There was one part of him that knew instantly that this was all just another nightmare. And yet, even after all this time, the rest of his mind didn't realize any of it. It was just him. Alone. "It's a shame really.." A voice scorned behind him. Alex turned around in shock. He couldn't see who was standing right behind him, as he was wrapped tightly in cold, metal chains that froze his skin with every small movement. "All of this... And for what?" The voice continued. Three, no, four! Four shadowy figures fading in like phantoms in the night, their faces concealed, but their eyes gleaming red. He at last recognized the voice haunting his still-unpleasant dreams. The one who ruined everything for him, stripped him of his very life, liberty, and joy and replaced it with ongoing torment. Agent Winchester. "You..! You're dead! I-I-I killed you!" Alex stammered in cruel realization as his blood turned to ice. "You ran away from him, leaving a trail of blood and tears behind you with every step you took, killed me, and you expect me to forgive you?" The second voice spat in hatred. That second voice... Did that belong to..? "K-Karis?!" Alex pulled hard at his bonds. The memory of her death still brought tears to his eyes. He didn't care about the cold anymore. He wanted to run, leave this place as far behind as he could! "If you had just stayed behind at the castle to defend your so-called 'friend', everyone else would be safe! Do you not see that yet?" The third phantom scowled hatefully. This voice he knew instantly, the voice of Karis' assassin. "Sigma! You're behind all of this, aren't you?!" Alex reached out, this time, for a different reason. "I'm just following orders. Guess who shouldn't have followed theirs?" She smiled cruelly. Winchester, Karis, and Sigma. Those were the first three, but what of the fourth? "You know who I am, Saigo." The fourth phantom called out. Was he supposed to? "I can't say I do. And who the hell's 'Saigo'?" Alex scowled back. This likely meant nothing but trouble. "Don't you worry, Alexander. You will soon enough." The fourth raised the weapon in his hand, a sword, specifically a sort of diesel-punk katana blade, with a relatively large gun barrel that served as the cross-guard, he raised it higher in the air and brought it down on his neck! Alex snapped awake, jerking straight upwards and hyperventilating, he was shaking and shivering as though he were outside during a blizzard for five or ten minutes. He distinctly felt someone next to him, or rather, somepony. Who was that? "Here, it's okay. It was just a bad dream." Fluttershy gently whispered, trying to calm him. "I- Wha- Who-?" Alex stammered. Fluttershy laid him down, and continued to try and relax him, and it was working to some extent. "It's okay. Iris told me to come inside. She said you were having another nightmare." She explained. Alex's breathing slowed down until his breathing was a bit more refined than it was a minute ago. "Well, you aren't far off." Alex blinked slowly. "Maybe I can help you. I'm...not much of a psychologist, but..." Fluttershy began to offer. "Don't trouble yourself. Just being near me will probably make things worse for you." Alex declined. "Are you sure?" She asked. "Fluttershy, think for a minute here. Are you really able to deal with every problem I bring forward?" Alex asked. "I can try." She straightened up, looking a bit more determined. Alex himself slid off the bed, slowly staggering up. "The answer is no, but thanks for asking." Alex replied. She sighed, and walked out of the room behind him. Alex did feel a little bad for turning her down in the way he did, but he knew himself well enough that a pony, especially one as timid as she was, would be too...under-equipped... To deal with his psychological problems, however much they'd try to understand. But there was one thing he needed cleared up. "Hey, Fluttershy. One thing before I head off for work?" Alex asked. She turned around. "Sure, what is it?" She asked. "I feel a little, uncomfortable about asking this, but..." Alex shook his head. "Hmm?" "This might seem like a stupid question, but what do you and the Elements think about...well... this?" Alex asked. "I'm not following.." Fluttershy blinked in reply. "The past month or two as a whole." Alex clarified. "Oh! Well, for me, it's been a horrifying experience! I'm not around to take care of Angel and my other pets, and ponies are dying all around us! I can't blame you for what happened, not since Rainbow helped clear your name, but still...." She sat, her face downcast. "I understand, anyone else share that sentiment?" Alex asked, regretting his words as soon as they sprang from his mouth. "Yes, Rarity is scared to death, and so are Applejack and Twilight. Rainbow still wants to help, no matter what, and Pinkie Pie.." Fluttershy stammered. "Yeah, I get you there. She's a lot like Vanoss' crew in that regard." Alex shrugged. "You're not mad?" She asked. "Mad? No. Twilight, I get why she's scared. Lots of paperwork-" "-That she volunteered to work on-" Fluttershy defended. "...my point is, with that plus her borderline OCD sort of personality, and the fact that she knows that we all might die before this is over.." Alex finished. "They can handle it." Mako interrupted, walking down the hallway and slapping Alex in the back of the shoulder. "Good morning, Mako." Fluttershy greeted. "Hey, Mako." Alex wearily added. Mako looked back at the two of them. "Let me guess, this one had a nightmare again, and you were called down to soothe him awake." Mako concluded. Alex blinked in surprise. "How did you-" "It's the only way I see either of you waking up at 5:00 AM." Mako replied. "Yes, I was told it was serious. Something about his brain activity.." Fluttershy recalled. "I can deal with the human taser, Fluttershy. Go back to sleep." Mako said. "Okay. Good night Mako, good night Alex!" She waved goodbye and flew away. Alex rolled his eyes. "What?" Mako obliviously scoffed. "'Human taser'? I've heard better electro-mancer puns from Yang, for chrissake." Alex chided. "Oh, come on! 'Jelly Man' and 'bug-zapper' we're already taken!" She retorted. "'Jelly man'? What are they, pulling these from f**king Pixar now?" Alex face-palmed. "Okay, okay, in all seriousness. I need you to come with me for a moment." Mako tugged at his t-shirt. "For what?" Alex asked. "Small talk." She replied. "Twenty-six year old CIA agent and a 15 year old kid with lightning powers going off alone. Sounds like a bad idea already." Alex rolled his eyes. Mako colored slightly and sighed uncomfortably. "No." "So, these nightmares, how long have they lasted for so far?" Mako asked. "Since after my arrest." Alex replied blankly. "Since... August 6, 2016, right?" "Only time I've ever been arrested." Alex nodded. Mako nodded, her interest seemed to pique. "Name every time these nightmares changed, better or worse." Mako ordered. "Let's see... My arrival to Equestria, Crimson attacking me, the Canterlot Castle Raid, after my Escape to Remnant, and, most recently, my fight between Omicron, Blake, and I, and that's not even covering half of everything that damaged me." Alex replied. "Sounds like a bad couple of months." Mako commented. "I can't exactly say that." Alex thought. "What do you mean?" Mako asked. "If it weren't for...everything... I wouldn't have met some of the best people I've ever known, and I'm not just saying that because I was surrounded by the standard f**kboys and hipsters I would've had to deal with if it weren't for this. Instead, I met some of the most kind-hearted and sincerest people and ponies... Well... ever! And even if I lose most of them, I'll at least have the pleasure of knowing them in life!" Alex elaborated with a sense of optimism. "Sounds like you've kept up some optimism." Mako noted. "Only f**king thing that gave me any will to live in some danky, run-down, disused 5'-by-5' cell room." Alex replied. "It seems like it all paid off." Mako smiled. "Yeah. I guess it did." Alex smiled a bit himself. "Then why do you think you still have these nightmares?" Mako asked. Alex sighed. "I think it's because, in spite of all the good that might come from this, it still can't patch up the bad." Alex moaned. "Listen, Alex. You remind me of someone I knew from one of my old units, before Winchester's." Mako said. "Hm?" Alex wondered. "His name was Corporal Sanders. We worked together for a short time in the Militia when I was still taking espionage missions, and he told me about what the militia did to him and his family, they threatened to kill his wife and child if he didn't join. Obviously you can guess which he took." Mako sighed. "I'm not surprised, these are the exact same people who would have killed me if I didn't join." Alex bluntly spat. "True. Sanders didn't approve of everything the militia was doing. During an op back in 2015, when he was ordered to steal military aircraft, we secretly sabotaged the mission, and they only got away with a few Little Birds and a C-17. I told him we could get them in witness protection and they could tell us where to find Silas Kahn's Older brother, also in the Militia. Once the mission was set in place, I was cornered by Silas' brother, and Sanders took the bullet meant for me. He said that 'whatever happens, there are two people out there in the world who I saved.' I killed the brother, the news went crazy, and the rest is history." Mako explained. Alex leaned back. "It's people like him, and you, people who would selflessly give their lives if it meant they would defend the people they care about, that I'm truly proud to know. Kat, the Elements. The Huntresses, everyone. You all risk life and limb for a cause you believe in. The ponies, it's the protection of their country and leaders, for peace. For the huntsmen, it's defending their world from the monsters, human or not, that threaten it. For you, it started out with you only wanting to survive, but it's grown to so much more. Now, your goal is saving the multiverse, billions, trillions, octillions of people, most of which you don't even know." Mako put her hand on his shoulder. Alex had just realized the depth of his own mission, this wasn't about him, or the 50,000,000 volunteers, and counting, or the 12,000 he was already working with. He was also fighting for his lost parents, lost comrades, and dreams that might never be. "I never thought of it that way, Mako." Alex realized. "No problem, kid. But we both have to get to work, Evan and some of his friends are on undercover ops starting today." Mako straightened out. "I got it. Let's move." Alex nodded. "One more thing, how's the stab wound coming along?" Mako asked. Alex ran his hands along the scar on his chest, he had been using his Aura to heal that thing whenever he could. The doctors said that he might be able to fight as soon as tomorrow. "It's coming along well enough. The Doctors say I could be out on the field by about tomorrow." Alex replied. "Good to hear, let's get them geared up." --12 hours later, 1745 hours-- Alex walked into the small room Blake had been using to keep in touch with Vanoss and his crew. Normally, Alex would've kept up with them himself, but he was scheduled into a training session with the Inheritors that lasted up until 4:00 PM. "...And you're sure this person had a level 16 rank on the Aura Scanner?" Blake asked as Alex walked inside. 'That's what the thingamajig said. Wildcat said that another guy, a bit taller than her, gray-ish hair, he caught him walking around with the same level.' Vanoss replied from the communicator. "Evan, have any of you been looking at that club, did you see either one go inside?" Alex asked. "Glad to see you're well enough to walk around, Alex." Blake greeted, not even fazed at his arrival. She must have heard him come inside. 'Terroriser saw a bunch of people walk inside that club, but no real match yet.' Vanoss answered. "Have someone watch that club around the clock. Front and back enterances, if you see anything, let us know." Alex ordered. 'We have Mini keeping watch on the penthouse, and we'll go check out places where we might be able to see the back.' Vanoss volunteered. "Did they get anything that they can use for the mission?" Alex asked. "At about 2:00 today, Evan got a camera." Blake answered. "Evan, I have an idea. Set up a wireless link with your camera and your Scroll, stash it away at an angle where we can see the back entrance while still being out of sight. We're watching those things 'round the clock so Iris can notify us before you can." Alex instructed. 'Got you. Really f**king hope you're right about this.' Vanoss replied. "We know what we're doing. Don't do anything that might give yourselves away." Blake assured. 'Okay. I'll set up they camera now.' Vanoss shut off the communicator from the other side. "You really think they can save Vale?" Alex asked. "Just in case, We had Iris keep in touch with the other students at Beacon." Blake replied. "That isn't going to work." Sirius called behind them. "Sirius?" Alex asked. "If we have access to that scroll, so do they. When Sigma hacked into the Transmit Tower, she compromised all of Vale's security. Anything we do there that can be traced back to our scrolls, they're able to plan ahead of whatever we do." Sirius explained. "We have those particular scrolls protected, Mr. Da Long. The Red Star would not be able to access them." Iris assured. "They'll find a way. These guys know what they're doing. Besides, even if that's true, they'll find the camera." Sirius scowled. "Then what should be our next move?" Alex scoffed. "Get everyone you can out of Vale. There's no doubt in my mind that they'll find a way to release that bio weapon." "Not as long as we have someone keeping an eye out." Alex defended. "You're making a grave mistake, Admiral." Sirius pressed. "If 400,000 people just suddenly leave the city, The Red Star know something's up." Alex defended. "They already know we're onto them!" "How?" Blake asked. "Because someone let four members of the bloody A-Team inside working undercover! The two people that are following them are working for the Red Star! The DNA samples we tested with the Aura scanners after Omicron's attempted escape match theirs!" Sirius burst out. Alex shook in realization and horror. "Get Evan on the phone. Now!" Alex ordered "Trying!" Blake replied. "Iris! Issue an evacuation order on both Vale and Beacon, and send in as many hazmat troops as we can! We need to find that device!" Alex called. "The evacuation has just been ordered. Most of them are leaving by Airship and heading here." Iris replied. "Clean up the flight deck and send a medical team over there ASAP!" Sirius ordered. "On it!" Iris answered. "Iris, one more thing?" Alex asked. "Yes, Alex?" Iris asked. "Does Overcharge II protect from biological and chemical weapons?" Alex wondered. "Yes, better protection than a hazmat suit." She answered. "I'm going out there." Alex barged out. Alex walked out of the room heading for the armory, Yang and Rainbow caught up with him. "Alex, what's wrong?" Rainbow asked. "Evan's been f**king compromised. The weapon is probably in there by now, and we just evacuated Vale and Beacon." Alex answered. "You're going in there?! Are you insane?!" Yang gasped. "You haven't noticed?" Alex replied sarcastically. "The doctors said that you couldn't go out to fight yet!" Rainbow protested. "Do you really think that's my concern right now?" Alex asked. Yang blocked his path. "If you're going out there, so is the team." "And i'm the f**king crazy one!" Alex rolled his eyes. "The Wonderbolts are going with you guys." Rainbow Dash saluted. "I swear to god!!" Alex screamed in frustration. "We have Overcharge suits too, you know!" Yang defended. "That doesn't mean I'm letting you out there!" Alex replied. "You have a stab wound and you're going out there!" Rainbow retorted. "And you're an Admiral!" Yang added. "For f**k sakes!!! Stay here! I'm ordering both of you!!" Alex yelled. Why were they throwing away their lives like this?! "Tell us! Tell us why you should go out and not any of us!" Yang shoved him. "Because you have people who need you here! I'm usually the one asking for help anyways!! THAT'S THE ONLY F**KING REASON I'M STILL ALIVE!!" Alex exploded. Rainbow shrank back from the sheer hostility, only Yang was able to stay in place and look him in the eye. "We're going with you. That's it. There's no way around this. If someone is going to help save our homes, be sure I'm somewhere in that mess." She put her hand on his shoulder. "What-" "Go to the armory, get that suit on, get your gun, and go. We aren't staying behind." Yang ordered. Alex stepped backwards in shock. "Fine," Alex surrendered, "Come with me, lose your friends and sister. Just know I'm not forcing whatever happens on either of you." "We've known that since you left for the Embassy." Yang replied as Alex ran to the armory. As Alex ran off to his destination, he felt angry and scared for them, all of them. They wanted to help him? Who would wish that on themselves? That didn't matter. Not anymore. He had people to save. Author's Note Not entirely sure what to put here. It's been, what, 60 chapters already? I'm still thinking about the prospects of cover art, but I'm not entirely sure what would work for this sort of story. Anyways, I should probably let you all know that the big climax of the story is likely going to be a six-parter with each chapter being something, like, maybe 5,000 words per chapter. Just putting it out there now. -The Destoyer Act III, Chapter 15: Battle For Vale Act III, Chapter 15: Battle For Vale Vanoss was on top of a building back behind the Club. He silently placed the camera on a ledge overlooking the back entrance, concealing it with various trash and scraps he found in the alleyways nearby. He hit the record button and checked his temporary Scroll, the footage was being transmitted to his Scroll with no problems at all. Feeling satisfied, Vanoss went to his radio and turned it on, only to find that there was hardly anyone on the other end. Something was wrong. 'Evan, is everything good?' Terroriser asked from Vanoss' scroll. "Yeah, just placed the camera, but..." Vanoss' voice trailed off. 'You can't find Blake's radio signal, can you?' Terroriser deadpanned. "No, I'm looking right now though.." Vanoss kept turning the dial until he was able to hear someone's voice. 'This is Iliad Medical unit 477! We just got the first shipment of refugees! They seem fine, just a bit scared.' the radio crackled. Refugees? He continued turning the dial to find more radio chatter, what was going on? 'EVAN! EVAN, COME IN DAMMIT!!!' Alex screamed from the radio. Vanoss recoiled before answering. "Relax, I hear you! What is it?" He asked irritably. 'WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU FOR F**KING AGES!!! THE RED STAR KNOWS YOU'RE THERE! THEY COULD RELEASE THAT BIO-WEAPON ANY F**KING SECOND NOW! WE HAD TO EVACUATE THE WHOLE F**KING CITY! GET YOUR ASSES OUT OF THERE!!' Alex shrieked. "Where the hell are you, man?! And what's that noise?" He asked. 'I'M EN-ROUTE TO VALE WITH TEAM RWBY AND THE WONDERBOLTS! WE'RE FOLLOWING THE HAZMAT TEAMS SENT TO FIND THE DAMN BIOWEAPON! I'M FLYING THERE NOW!' Alex yelled in reply. "Shit! Terroriser, you hear that?" Vanoss asked him. 'Of course I heard him, dick basket! We're getting on our Gas masks and suits right now!' Terroriser yelled back. 'Oh, god. You're helping too, aren't you?' Alex sighed in annoyance. "It's our job." Vanoss reminded him. Alex groaned. 'F**k it. Fine. But do exactly what I say, when I say it, you all hear me?' Alex demanded. "So, do what we already do on a daily basis. Seems legit." Vanoss shrugged after putting on his Hazmat and mask. 'Except you guys can afford to be a little less careful, since you all can respawn.' Alex notified. "We get the idea, Jelly man!" Vanoss joked. 'F**king Disney.' Alex moaned in annoyance. "You guys ready yet?" Vanoss asked. 'We're good! We'll meet you on the roof.' Wildcat called. Vanoss pulled out his own pistol and stayed above the roof. He saw two Syndicate guards walking past the back entrance, armed with shotguns. He leaped down, shooting the first guard twice in the head before grasping the second guard's gun, shooting him with the pistol as well. Vanoss moved both bodies into a nearby dumpster, taking the two shotguns and all their ammo with, hiding in a trash can and waiting for anyone else who wanted to walk out. "Wildcat, I'm in a 'Coon can' near the back entrance to the club, meet me down there instead, I saved you guys a shotgun." Vanoss informed him 'Assassin's Creed style. Nice!' Wildcat cheered. "Okay, be here as soon as you can!" Vanoss said hurriedly. Alex landed onto the docks, skidding haphazardly to a halt on the wooden surface, his AR at his side. Teams RWBY, JNPR, along with Qrow and Winter, the Wonderbolts, four of six ex-Elements of Harmony, and the hazmat crews, among them Ember, Blast, and Skirmish, arrived not long after, all in their protective gear. "Quick, I need places where they might have stowed the bio-weapon." Alex instructed. "I can probably see them releasing it at the Transmit Tower, or maybe the Club..." Ruby figured. "Intel says those are two likely places." Iris agreed. "Where else?" Twilight asked. "At Town Hall, maybe." Qrow shrugged. "Anywhere else?" Alex asked. "I've identified one more potential area where they may release the weapon." Iris added. "Where?" Rainbow wondered. "The Police Department." Iris said. "Okay, here's the plan: The Elements and the Wonderbolts are going to head to Town Hall, Teams RWBY and JNPR are splitting up and going to the Transmit Tower and the Police Department with either Qrow or Winter, and I'll take the 5th Battalion to the Club, where I'll meet Vanoss and his crew." Alex explained. "Are you giving me orders, kid?" Qrow stood above him. "You're not seriously doing this right now." Alex groaned. "Oh, well I'm sorry, but," Qrow paused to grab at his collar, "I don't listen to orphans." He shoved him backwards, leaving Alex in a mixture of shock and annoyance. "Move out!" Alex yelled, running through the streets with the soldiers in tow. "Come on, kids. Let's show these tools what exactly they're up against." Qrow tapped Ruby on the shoulder and ran off. "Wonderbolts, advance!" Rainbow commanded. "Come on, Weiss." Winter ordered as the remainder of the search party advanced off to their respective objectives. Vanoss had about 15 dead bodies inside the dumpster before Terroriser, Wildcat, and Mini finally showed up. "There you are, Evan! where's the shotgun?" Wildcat asked. Vanoss silently tossed him the shotgun and gave Terroriser his pistol. "So, any ideas?" Mini asked. "How about we save bug zapper the trouble of finding the stupid disease and barge in. We can respawn anyways, and Quill is right in there, probably." Terroriser figured. "Sounds good enough, should we tell him?" Vanoss wondered. "F**k no! the kid's got enough issues, anyway!" Mini shook his head. "Alright, Terroriser, you're going first." Vanoss said. "Why me?!" "Because you suggested it." Wildcat replied. "Fine, Arnold will kill the bad guys first." Terroriser deadpanned in his Arnold voice. They stacked up behind the door, placing a sticky bomb on the door. The door exploded and Terroriser rolled inside. A lot of Red Star troops did a double-take in Terroriser's direction, grabbing their weapons. "Hey, guys! How's your health plan?" Terroriser yelled. The simple reply of everyone in the room was to shoot in his general direction. "Apparently, it's fantastic!" Terroriser concluded, firing both pistols and blowing the heads off most of the dance floor's inhabitants. Vanoss and Wildcat tore the stragglers to bits with their shotguns, reloading every so often and firing indiscriminately at the Red Star's troops. Mini and Quill executed the survivors before Quill all handed them proper weapons: M60s. "Clean up on aisle four!" Mini Ladd joked as he loaded his. The door was kicked inside, leading the charge was Alex, no surprise there. "Hey, Alex! Welcome to the after party!" Wildcat laughed loudly. "I- you- wha-? God dammit." Alex sighed in annoyance. "By the way, we cleaned up the mess so you didn't have to! We're like the Scrubbing Bubbles of the war here!" Vanoss announced. "Did you five at least identify the location of the bio-weapon?" Alex asked. "That's just it, I... I have no idea where it could be..." Quill sighed, "Ow! Shit! I stubbed my toe on some kinda gas canister thingy!" Mini grasped his foot in pain. Alex walked over to the canister, noticing the large 'biohazard' sticker on the side. Alex called Ember over to him. "Get the containment units over here, pronto." Alex ordered. "Got it. Hey Vanoss." Ember waved dismissively. "Hi." --POV shift: Alex-- Alex groaned in sheer irritation. Evan and the others went out of their way to annoy him. Oh well, at least they found the bio-weapon before anything bad could happen. "Iris, we got the bio-weapon, we're getting the containment units here right now." Alex said. "That can't be right... Oh, no..." "Oh, shit. What?" He asked worriedly. "All the other search parties just found bio-weapons there! The containment units are dealing with Twilight's right now, and they're all the way at the center of town!" Iris gasped. "Sounds like quite the predicament, Saigo." Someone greeted from behind all of them. Alex turned sharply around. The voice from his nightmare! The owner of the voice was an Adenienite, the prosthetic limbs and distinctive armor, which, in all, put him at about 7 and a half feet tall, were a dead giveaway. But other than that, he couldn't say much else, since the man, who looked to be in his late teens, was wearing a helmet that concealed his facial features. This was another Inquisitor! "Omega!" Quill gasped. "Hello, Quill. As much as I want to rip your traitorous head from your shoulders, I have more important matters to deal with. Isn't that right, Saigo?" Omega scowls. "Who?" Skirmish asked. "Everyone... I'll deal with this guy, you all get to the Transmit Tower, that's an order!" Alex commanded. "Yes, sir!" Blast saluted as the rest of his men charged out of the club. Sure enough, Omega was still standing there. "Well, Saigo. I didn't expect you to own up to your actions." Omega scowled. "Who the hell are you, and who the hell is Saigo?" Alex asked. "Has father told you nothing?" Omega takes a step closer to Alex. Alex pulled out Blitzklinge, and stood in a defensive pose. "Explanation, asshole. Now." Alex demanded. "Fine then, allow me to introduce myself.." Omega grasped his helmet by the mouthpiece and tore it clean off, revealing a gaunt, scarred young man in his twenties with dark blonde, almost brown hair and piercing blue eyes. Alex started to shake in fear. "Who... Who are you?!" Alex yelled. "I am Saisho Emphas, your brother." Omega cackled. Alex couldn't believe it, he wouldn't. "I don't believe you... I-I.." Alex stammered. "Oh, is that so? I'm not surprised mom and dad never told you about me. After all, I was disowned from the family for my...occupation." Omega, Saisho, spat in anger. "This isn't happening.." Alex gasped. "You already know of your heritage, is that correct, brother?" Saisho smiled sadistically. "What, you mean that both mom and dad were Adenienites and never told me anything?" Alex answered. "Precisely. Now, do you recall what our father did?" Saisho continued. "H-He tried to bring your organization down! It oppressed more people than either of us can count!" Alex yelled in reply. "Very good. I was hoping I wouldn't have to give a history lesson. Now, tell me. You know someone named Ruby Rose, and Evan Fong, correct?" Saisho asked in an aggressive tone. Alex snapped, charging at his apparent brother in sheer rage, screaming like a madman. "LEAVE MY FRIENDS OUT OF THIS!!!" Alex kicked him in the chest, setting both blades to their saw modes and attacking Saisho, rage fueling each and every attack. Saisho blocked every one of his attacks, before grasping both of his arms and kicking him onto a balcony in the club. Alex landed hard on his back, gasping and wheezing in agony. "I'll take that as a yes. Then you must know what happened to their ancestors Summer and Cyrus, I take it." Saisho replied. "What the hell are you getting at?" Alex growled, staggering up and grabbing his swords. "Dear brother, I killed them both in front of our father." Saisho leaped onto the balcony with Alex, walking up to him. Alex finally summoned the strength to pull himself up and punch Saisho in the face and kick him in the shin. Saisho merely responded by grasping Alex's leg and shoving him into the wall, before punching Alex so hard it dented his armor, and threw him down to the dance floor. "It wasn't difficult, despite the fact that I was only a year younger than you at that time. Naturally, our other brother, Chūkan, attacked me. He was only eleven years old during the battle. Needless to say, he too was...eliminated." Saisho leapt down from the balcony and landed directly on Alex's chest. Alex spat blood inside his helmet, and his Aura was all but drained. "That's right, now that Mother, Father, and Chūkan are out of the picture, there's only two of us left. But by the end of today, there shall be only one!" Saisho kicked Alex so hard he was blown out of the club and rolled, battered, onto the street. "It's a damn shame, it really is, Saigo. I heard how you defeated some of my comrades. I only wish that things could have been different, but that's not going to happen." Alex coughed, slowly getting up, he removed his helmet and spat out more of his blood. "You, as well as your friends, they're dead. And their hope dies with you!" Saisho reared up to throw a punch, his fist ripped through the air at blinding speed. Alex blocked the punch with both hands, the sheer force making marks on the ground below as he was dragged by the sheer kinetic power. "Typical Inquisitor... Big aspirations, but your bark is much worse than your bite." Alex shoved his brother back a few more feet, his rage fueling him once again. "All you care about is this stupid-ass attempt to glorify yourselves!" Alex punched Saisho hard in the neck before leaping in the air and kicking him in the face. "That, and some kid in way over his head!" Alex charged up his fist with the little power he gained, and punched him in the chest again, buying him time to pull out .44 Scratch. Alex pulled back the hammer and fired, hitting Saisho in the same spot he punched him. Alex repeated this process until he ran out of ammunition. By that point, Saisho was backed into the wall. "If you're going to threaten me, my friends, and everything I had to build for myself. At least have the power to back it up! Next time, give it your A-Game, jackass!" Alex yelled. Saisho wheezed, pure unadulterated rage builds from him and filled the air around him. "I WILL NOT BE DISRESPECTED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!!!" Saisho screamed in anger, charging at Alex and punching him in the face. Alex was hit so hard he was blown through the air, and he looked to be headed towards... Beacon?! He hit him that hard?! Alex turned backwards to find that he was currently careening towards the tallest tower in the Academy. Ozpin's office. Alex tried to block his sure-to-be rough entrance into the building by shielding his head with his arms before he finally made contact with the wall. Alex slowly blinked awake in intense pain. He shoved most of the rubble off of himself and staggered to his feet, wheezing in pain. "You know, Saigo..." Shit! "I haven't seen anyone build that much power out of sheer rage since I killed the Insolents. You realize that's what we called Father and the others, yes?" Saisho asked him. Alex coughed more blood, and immediately fell to his knees. "I'm going to enjoy this way more than I should.." Saisho raised his weapon, the diesel punk sword-gun from his nightmares, and pointed the gun barrel at Alex's face. "I'll see you in Hell, Brother." Saisho laughed. "Of course I will, you'll be there first!" Alex retaliated, unsheathing Electric Fury and clashing his blade against his brother's. "How are you still alive?!" Saisho gasped. Alex limply kicked his brother, but it was still hard enough to get him away, even for a moment. Alex reached for his Assault Rifle, loading a mag and firing every shot into his brother's armor, fragments of metal and dust crystal scattered throughout the room, filling the air with a distinct mixture of traditional gunpowder and brimstone as his brother was concealed in the resulting smoke. As soon as Alex had ended his spree, he found that his brother had disappeared entirely. "What the?!" Alex rasped in fear. Alex put his Assault Rifle back, and converted his old Electric Fury to it's revolver form, using all of his senses to track Saisho down. Suddenly, Alex heard his brother screaming as he leaped at him with full force, ramming him through the floor and crashing several stories until he eventually crashed against the wall of an elevator shaft and fell the rest of the way, leaving Alex gasping for breath. Given very little warning, Alex heard what appeared to be his brother leaping down from the whole way up. He rolled out of the way, avoiding the potentially deadly blow, and used most of his Aura to electrocute his brother, blasting him out the doorway and into the main hall of the academy. Using his opportunity, Alex charged at Saisho, sword drawn, ready to end this once and for all. "HEADS UUUUUUUUUP!!!!" Alex heard someone yell. Alex stopped midway as Ruby collided with him, sending both injured warriors rolling on the ground, both battered and bruised. "A-Alex..?" Ruby asked. "I'm fine," Alex coughed loudly, "What happened to you?" "I can explain this one. You see, our hacking division is rather adept at corrupting artificial intelligence. Such as Zodiac, as well as our newest addition," Saisho gestured to his right, where a relatively small girl, who looked relatively human save for the green robotic left eye exposed along with other mechanical parts. She was followed by at least 300 Atlesian Knights, armed to the teeth. "Sigma was going to use her for some candy-ass scheme of her's, but we all know how that turned out." "I am Legion, for we are-" she began. "A pain in my ass!" Alex spat. "Well, Alex.. You take the 150 on the right, I'll handle the 150 on the left!" Ruby instructed. "You know we still have to kill 'Raggety Ann' and 'Little Ani', right?" Alex scoffed. "Hey, it's not like we had any time to learn about Earth Culture!" Ruby defended. "Advance, my puppets!" Screamed Saisho. Immediately, the robots charged, Alex and Ruby we're going to have to face these guys themselves! Gunfire and magic immediately ripped most of the robots apart. Twilight and Vanoss stood at the entryway into the destroyed academy, gun barrels and horns alike were smoking. "At long last! You're all in one place! I can end this war myself!!" He screamed. "Alex, who is he?" Twilight asked. "Let me introduce you my older brother, Saisho. Real swell guy, I'm sure you'll all get along!" Alex sarcastically replied. "Hi, Saisho!" Ruby smiled, oblivious to Alex's sarcasm. Alex face-palmed. Twilight immediately attacked Saisho, with Vanoss running up a stairwell and getting his M60 set up properly. Ruby fell in as soon as Twilight had been kicked away by Saisho, and Alex prepared his attack, only to be forcefully strangled by the robot girl. "Ack! D-Dammit! Bad touch!" Alex choked as he struggled getting the girl's hands off of his neck. He shoved her into a wall, kicking her as many times as he could before getting back to Iris. "Iris!! I need this one back on our side!!" Alex gasped, still coughing some blood. "On it, sir!" Iris immediately got to work hacking into the girl's hardware and getting the Inquisitors' software out of her, she stood in place for a few seconds before deactivating. Immediately, she rebooted. However, her eyes were glowing cerulean, similar to Iris' signature color. "I can hold off the Red Star for you until the girl has had the virus removed." Iris explained. Alex nodded and helped the others attack Saisho, using Electric Fury to hold his brother at bay, hacking and slashing away at his weak points. His brother seethed with rage, his fists were buzzing, almost identical to Alex's. This couldn't end well. "ENOUGH!!!!" He bashed his fists against the ground, resulting in a burst of electricity that blew away Twilight, Iris, and Ruby. Rubble fell from the ceiling onto Vanoss, probably killing him and necessitating the need for a respawn. "THIS ENDS HERE AND NOW, SAIGO!!!!" Saisho charged at Alex, punching him so hard that bits of his armor were blown off, revealing his bloody, charred, and broken body beneath. Alex fell flat on his back, breathing raggedly and clutching his wounds. Saisho kneeled on top of Alex, trapping his arms with his feet, which apparently transformed into sharp, mechanical claws that grasped at his upper arms painfully. He leaned down, punching his chest with relentless passion and rage, speed gradually increasing as the blows became more and more agonizing. Before all could end well, Saisho gripped Alex by the throat, rearing a charged electric punch. "FACE ANNIHILATION!!!" he screamed, hitting Alex in the center of the chest as though his fist were a electrically charged sledgehammer. Alex was blown painfully through the statue, and skidded against the ground he was left hanging off the edge of the cliff. Suddenly, a white sphere appeared around Alex, encompassing him until it reached his feet, his whole body glowed a bright blue-violet and was accompanied by a brilliant light blue-violet flash, emitting a sound akin to a loud bell. The resulting surge of power gave him the energy to climb up and face his brother again. The process repeated itself, this time, his body had gradually faded into a light blue color before the flash and the bell-sound erupted from around him. His power increased exponentially, what had happened? Alex looked straight down to find that the Prometheus Charge at the center of his chest had been hit so hard, it shattered completely. He was absorbing all of it's energy, ascending to his full potential. The white sphere encircled him once more, and his Aura grew an even lighter shade of blue before the sphere glowed the same color and burst, the sound blew through the air like a bomb, and his energy multiplied. "What the hell..?" Saisho gasped, backing away for a moment. Alex walked up to his brother, staring him in the eye. "Like I said before, you'll burn in Hell first." Alex smirked.. -- Ruby flipped through the air and landed inside the Transmit Tower, using Crescent Rose to slow her speedy entrance and skidding to a halt near her comrades. "Ruby!" Her sister called. "Kid, what happened? Where's the Robot?" Qrow asked. "Iris is trying to get her back! Alex is fighting Omega!" Ruby explained. "Omega... which one is he..? Oh, shit." Qrow gasped. "What's wrong, who's Omega?" Yang asked. "Alex's brother." Ruby said. "Then why is Alex's brother an Inquisitor?" Yang wondered, concerned. Qrow sighed. "Kids, I have to tell you both something. You're probably not going to like what you're gonna hear.." A loud sound, something like a bell, erupted from the cliffs outside Beacon Academy, accompanied by a brilliant blue-violet flash. "What the hell?" Yang backed up. "Uncle Qrow... What is that?" Ruby asked. "Just asking here, The kid's an Adenienite, right?" Qrow asked. "Yeah..." Ruby and Yang reply nervously. "Oh, no..." The sound burst out again, and the flash faded more into a blue color. "Is something the matter?" Pyrrha asked from the far side of the room. "Let's just say we won't exactly need to head over to Beacon for at least 10 minutes..." Qrow nervously explains. -- Twilight flew around the city until she discovered her other friends finishing off more Knights. "Twi, what happened?" Applejack asked, concerned for her friend's safety. "Alex's brother blew Ruby and I out of the Beacon!" Twilight quickly explained. Twilight and the others took a collective blink of surprise. "Ouch, I'd hate to be him right now." Rainbow cringed. "His brother? You're certain, darling?" Rarity asked. "Oh, no..." Applejack gasped A loud sound, akin to a church bell or a gong exploded through the air, accompanied by a bright blue-violet flash. "Sweet Celestia!" Rainbow gasped. "What in the name of Equestria is that?!" Rarity gasped. Twilight slowly shook her head. "The Prometheus Charge..." Twilight said nervously. -- Vanoss respawned at the edge of the city. He found that Terroriser, Mini, and Wildcat were there shooting down the other Atlesian Knights, Iris was there too, stepping on a Knight's neck and severing it's head. "Hey, Evan, How was kicking Omega's ass?" Wildcat asked. "Some rubble fell from the ceiling and I died." Vanoss spat. "What happened up there?" Terroriser asked. "Apparently Omega is Alex's older brother." Vanoss explained. "God, that trend's been done way too much!" Mini rolled his eyes. A loud ring, accompanied by a bright blue-purple flash burst through the air, blinding and deafening the crew. "What the f**k was that?!" Mini asked. "It would appear as though Alex has activated the Prometheus Charge and is now ascending to his full power." Iris explained. "He's using that thing now?!" Terroriser groaned. "Is he a Super Saiyan or some shit?" Wildcat asked. "Not exactly.." Iris replied. The ringing and flashing persisted, growing brighter, louder, and happening in shorter intervals before finally glowing pure white and dispersing with the final boom. -- The first thing Alex noticed about his new form was that the sheer power was almost overwhelming, the second was that his body didn't exactly look human per-se. His body was now glowing bright blue, the scars that littered his body had changed from their original colors to a dark grey. His hair was only it's dirty blonde color at the tips, while the rest of it was shimmering purple, and his eyes were pure glowing white. He stared at Saisho menacingly, his fingertips sparked very light blue electricity, only now more intense and pronounced. Saisho looked mortified, his hands clasped around the weapon defensively. Alex took one step towards his brother, who backed away, scared out of his skin. "I guess you were right all along, Saisho." Alex began, his voice echoing through the room in a god-like fashion. "Stay back!!" Saisho blasted Alex with his own electricity, which only fueled him now. "Only one of us was going to make it out of this alive. Consider this your reward for killing Summer, Cyrus, and Chūkan." Alex smirked. Alex used his energy to move at lightning speed, before Saisho even could tell what was happening. He punched Saisho in the side, blowing him out of the Academy and charging at him, punching again. This went on about two more times before Alex finally grabbed his brother by the neck and threw him to the ground like a rag doll. The resulting explosion destroyed a few buildings, as well as the street below. Alex sped down again, finding his brother in the rubble and grabbing him, dragging him by the leg and spinning him around at insane speeds. Saisho's mechanical leg ripped at the knee joint, propelling him into another building, the tall structure caving down and crushing him. Alex swiftly dug through the wreckage again, digging him out and throwing him upwards, Alex then flew to about 10 feet above the ground, waiting for Saisho to finally fall, kicking him in the chest and causing him to crash through several buildings. Alex finished him off by using all of his energy to direct a single burst of lightning at his brother, the sheer power of the arc set the last few buildings on fire. The loud buzzing, crackling, and humming was enough to frighten most people, and he was certain that Twilight and everyone else might have heard. His brother leaped at him again, how was he still able to move, let alone survive that?! He slashed at Alex, giving Alex enough time to dodge and unsheath his own blade. He funneled most of his power into it, powering it until the blades of the sword looked like they were forged from lightning itself. "The Prometheus Charge... I understand now.. You've ascended..." Saisho realized with horror. "Smart. Now, say hello to Epsilon for me." Alex smiled. He ran at his brother, who raised his weapon to block. The blades clashed, only to run straight down the blade and blow off his mechanical right arm. Alex kicked Saisho away, a burst of blue lightning trailing behind him until he crashed into yet another building. Alex raised his his weapon high in the air, blade pointed down. "DIE, YOU HEARTLESS PRICK!!!!!" Alex yelled as he shoved Electric Fury into the ground, sending a blue arc of lightning at his brother, blinding Alex until he couldn't even see Saisho in the midst of the lightning, he heard the booming crackle and snap of the electric blaze, he wasn't sure even Saisho could survive that! Alex had poured most of his power he gained from the charge. Enough to retain his epic super-power form. Saisho himself was burnt nearly half to death, reduced to little more than lump of flesh and destroyed scrap metal, still scared to death by Alex's sheer power. Alex ripped his sword out of the ground, dragging the tip of the blade along the ground menacingly as he stalked up to his defeated foe. "Now, I'd like to make a deal with you, Saisho. If you tell me where to find Kalos Prime, I'll let you go." Alex offered. Saisho coughed, blood splattering the floors and his chest. "'Follow the path, where everything began... the Cryptic Triptych marks the dark Caravan,- " Saisho quoted, interrupted by another cough, "But, I will warn you... Saigo... The Inquisition is a powerful force, defeating them is no easy task.." "Oh? Well surprise, surprise. I just defeated you. Bringing the rest down will merely be a domino effect." Alex smugly grinned. "You're a madman, brother. I'm proud.." Saisho gasped. Alex stabbed his brother through the chest, his brother gasped in pain and agony. Coughing more blood before finally fading away, he loosened his grip on what appeared to be the detonator for the bio-weapons. Saisho Emphas, Alex's older brother, the one who caused so much pain for him and his friends alike. He was dead. Alex was the last of his kinsmen now. He would have to explain the difficult truth to everyone later. Alex's form faded away, he had returned to his normal self. He fell to his knees, the transformation, the sheer power of it all had taken it's toll on the boy. He was so tired.. "Walker spotted, there he is!" Alex heard someone say. "What the hell happened?!" "Check Omega!!" "Dead. Alex killed him." "He's in rough shape, someone arrange a medevac for the kid!" "Shit! We're losing him! He lost too much blood!" "WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!" Alex didn't hear a whole lot after that, his vision gradually faded to black as his hearing slowly mellowed out as well. Author's Note Yeah, I know, I've been slacking in terms of chapter-writing lately, so here's one giant chapter. Just letting you all know, this is going to be roughly the size of each chapter once the six-parter finally comes around. And I will probably start asking around for cover art. Not sure why I didn't do so earlier, but whatever. -The Destoyer Act III, Chapter 16: A Light in the DarknessAlex slowly blinked his eyes open, the light from the port window pouring into his eyes. To Alex's own surprise, he was not in a hospital room, hooked up onto heart monitors and IV drips, but rather he was in his own room. Blinking away his tiredness, he noticed that his limbs still felt sore, and Alex still overall felt tired, drained, even. He craned his head over to look at the small clock and calendar to his right, 1:59 PM, November 26, 2016. How the hell did he end up back at the Iliad? He grabbed the blanket he was currently wrapped in and pulled it off of him, only to find somebody's arm wrapped around his chest-. Wait, what?! He checked his clothes, he was still wearing his armor, still cracked and broken from his scuffle that resulted in Saisho's death at his hand. His armor was still on, that was probably a good sign. Pulling the rest of the blanket off, he revealed the person lying next to him, still quietly snoring. The person tightened their eyes in the light before finally blinking awake. "Y-You're still alive..?" The girl yawned, her tiredness was still apparent, but there were subtle hints of joy that sparked in her gaze. "Yang..?" Alex drowsily blinked. What was she doing there? "Hi, Alex!" Yang rubbed her eyes and wrapped an arm around his neck. Alex returned the sentiment, he'd at least gave her that much before he would demand an explanation. "Can I ask why you're in my room, sleeping under my covers?" Alex asked. Yang suddenly jolted. "H-Hey! I didn't mean anything like that-! You were wounded and.." She stammered in realization at what he was actually implying. "Don't worry about it right now, you can tell me later. What happened while I was out?" Alex asked in a calmer tone than his insinuation just seconds earlier. "O-Oh.. The hazmat crew found you and Omega in the wreckage of a Dust shop. Omega was found dead on sight, and you fell into what Locust called a 'Semi-Conscious Healing State'. I followed the hazmat crew and dragged your tired ass back to the ship." Kat explained. "Then... None of you know, do you.?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Qrow told Ruby and I what Omega did. Ruby's kind of an emotional wreck right now, almost as bad as Pyrrha when she found out what happened to Russell." Yang sighed. "Did Qrow tell you that Omega just so happened to be my oldest brother?" Alex sighed. Yang put her hand on Alex's right shoulder. "I heard. That's why I'm here." She pulled him into a small hug. Alex smiled, returning the favor and hugging her back. Alex heard the door open, and the uncomfortable scuffling of hooves. "Is this a bad time?" Vinyl averted her eyes awkwardly. "V, this is purely platonic, trust me." Alex passive-aggressively chided. "Okay then... I just wanted to tell the two of you something... I don't know if you're going to want to hear this, but.." Vinyl's voice trailed off. "What's wrong? Is it Iris?" Yang asked worriedly. "Wait, Iris?" Alex asked. "You know how Iris merged with that robot Penny, right?" Vinyl asked. "Wait... You mean the robot that I caught trying to kill me at Beacon?" Alex wondered. "Yeah... Vinyl told me that the Inquisitors downloaded a virus into her systems, and if anything tried to get rid of the virus, it would delete both Penny and the Anti-Virus.." Yang clarified. "What?!" Alex practically leaped out of the bed. "Yeah, we've been trying to either stop the counter-virus or get Iris out of there.. So far neither seem to be working. She's in the main computer lab." Vinyl said. Alex ran down the hall, up the three flights of stairs, and inside the main server room. Sure enough, there was the coalition hacking division, all sitting around the table working on Penny/Iris. "Iris!" Alex called. The robot looked up at him with a relieved expression on her face. "Admiral, I'm glad you're here." She said, her voice seemed mechanical and badly damaged, fading a little as well. "You're okay, right? We can get her out of this thing?" He asked, turning to the lead hacker, an Adenienite named Haytham. "Sorry, sir. These Inquisitors knew what they were doing. We might lose her in a few minutes." Haytham sighed. "Dammit!" Alex kicked a monitor hard. "Admiral. Qrow told me that you might know where Kalos Prime was, Right?" She asked, the combined voices of both A.I getting weaker and weaker by the minute. "Yeah, but f**king Saisho got all cryptic about it." Alex said. "Hurry! It won't be long before we've been deleted, there's still time to triangulate the coordinates while you still can!" Penny/Iris pressured. "I'm thinking!!" Alex yelled back. "There has to be something... That riddle!! Okay, let's think... 'Follow the path to where it all began..." Alex thought. Maybe Saisho was referring to Adenien? No, if it was, surely Locust would've told him. Right? Scratch that, what else could it have been? Where it all began... Provinence. The Inquisitors are at bloody Provinence. The most obvious f**king place in the multiverse. Now... What did Saisho say about a 'Cryptic Triptych' again..? He was obviously referring to The Bermuda Triangle, precisely where Princess Luna had suggested. And what of the last piece of information? The Bermuda Triangle... Provinence... The 'Dark Caravan'. Was he referring to a gateway? "Iris! While you're still connected, is there a large city at Relative Coordinate point, or a massive amount of gateway energy?" Alex asked. Penny/Iris stayed silent for a moment until she finally blinked. "I'm seeing a lot of magic energy, as if the city is being protected by some kind of spell. Not nearly enough to equate to a gateway, but it's something.." Iris stated. "So, in short, there is something there?" Alex asked. "Yes... You've discovered Kalos Prime... Formerly known as the island nation of Mara Cylia. The birthplace of humanity. It's a spacious island, at least 3 times the size of Earth's Manhattan. The geography and weather is an perpetually changing forest, with one mountain overlooking the rest of the island" Penny/Iris explained. "Mark the location, plot a course. We're going now." Alex commanded. "Sir, what about the volunteers. You'll need every man you're able to get, even if some already arrived." Haytham reasoned. "Volunteers. Already?" Alex asked. "Mostly volunteers from the Valian evacuees, some of them came in from other universes. People also came in from Earth, Adenien, Equestria, and Vanoss's GTA V world, but others are coming in from all over the multiverse!" Haytham explained. "Anyone else I should know about?" Alex looked at Penny/Iris. "There's no time! Should I triangulate the coordinates now, sir?" Iris asked "Yes. This may be your final order." Alex sighed. "Go now, Admiral. I ask that you don't watch us die. You're already suffering, I cannot allow myself, on good conscience, to let you stay." Iris ordered. Alex nodded, and complied with her last wish by leaving the room. He didn't look behind him, and he kept walking until he found a bench to sit on. Alex held his head in his hands, contemplatively. 'Karis, Haunt, Cloudchaser and Flitter, and now Iris. Who else?' Alex thought sorrowfully. If what Locust told him was right, he would lose most, if not all, of the friends he met on this journey. "So now you understand the true cost of war." Locust stalked up and sat next to him. "I knew people would die, that was practically a given, but..." Alex sighed. "Auklet was my best friend from the Ryder Academy in Tsai, a city of Adenien. We were battle partners for 5 years. When I had been promoted to Commander of the Ryders, I personally made him my second in command. And I'm sure you know he died with the others from that mission." Locust explained. "And it's all my fault." Alex spat. "That is where you're wrong. Whether purely by chance or chosen by fate, these were the cards laid out in your future, Alexander. You know that was your father's wish, do you? For us to call you by your earth name?" He asked. "You knew my father?" Alex asked. Locust nodded. "A kind-hearted, courageous young man. You take a lot after him, you know." Locust laughed softly. "And my mother?" Alex wondered. "We were friends since our adolescent years. Your mother was always a talented and strong woman, if not a bit vain and quick to anger." Locust replied. "Funny. You only remember the good things about a person after they've already passed." Alex moaned. "There is something I must ask of you.. Should the war end, would you wish to return to Adenien?" Locust asked. "I'm still thinking about that. I only wish my friends don't all die so I have to make that choice alone." Alex sighed "You may not have to lose all of your friends. You know of the legend of the Enlightened Warrior, yes?" Locust inquired. "Enlightened Warrior?" Alex asked in confusion. "When the Prometheus Charge is activated, it searches the flow of time and space, searching for your very highest potential, rips their traits, and administers the power to the user, using it's own Equestrian Magical Energy to sustain the power. What you became upon it's use was your Enlightened Warrior form. And you became one rather quickly, meaning that it's point in the timeline was somewhere close to the moment you used it." Locust explained. "What are you implying, commander?" Alex asked. "With more training and meditation, you may very easily learn to achieve the Enlightened Warrior form again. Dark times are ahead, now closer than ever before, and you need to prepare, Alexander Walker, Man of Many Worlds." Locust nodded. "That's my epithet, huh? 'Man of Many Worlds'?" Alex smirked. "Yes, Admiral. I shall ask the Inheritors to train you more. Good day, Alexander." Locust shook Alex's hand, walking away. "See you 'round, Locust." Alex replied. Yang walked up to him, hugging from behind. "Everything okay?" She asked. "Fine. At least for now." Alex groaned. "Hey, that battle isn't for at most three weeks or so." Kat said. "Three weeks, three minutes. Do you honestly think it matters when?" Alex bitterly responded. "Alex. Listen to me. I'm not going to tell you that everything's going to be all gumdrops and rainbows, some of us aren't going to make it back. Russell didn't make it back, neither did Penny. Yes, Pyrrha and Ruby are torn up about it, so is Rainbow Dash after losing Cloudchaser and Flitter. But if you died, would you want us curled into a ball on our beds crying our eyes out, or would you rather we make sure you didn't die for nothing?" Yang told him. "..I think we both know the answer to that." Alex said. "Neither do they. I'm going down to one of the training areas with Delirious, Nora, and Pinkie. If you want to make sure that no one else has to suffer because of people like your brother, meet us there." "Fine. I'll go." Alex walked down the stairs with Yang to train for the end. Raven sat down, anger and disapproval still burning fresh in her mind. Qrow, Twilight, Vinyl, Locust, Mako, and Alexander sat on a round table in one of the conference rooms to discuss what to do next. Alex had killed his own brother in cold blood, breaking Inheritor Code in the process. She wouldn't let such bloodlust go unpunished. "So, we all know why we're here. Let's start off with resources. Twilight, will you begin?" Locust asked. "Of course. Celestia and Luna have informed be that our offensive force against Kalos Prime will stand 99,000 strong. Mostly volunteers, with about 20,000 guards, 1,100 of which are already on board. In addition, we had Kronus, The Elemental Alicorn of Fire. He shall arrive on deck in about one more day." Twilight stated, going through her notes. "Raven, Qrow?" Alex turned to the two huntsmen. "Every huntsman and huntress available will assist us. We would have The Maidens on our side, but their hands are tied." Qrow scoffed. "Qrow, you drunken idiot!" Raven spat, he just let everyone in the room know of Remnant's most powerful protectors, he had been sworn to secrecy! "Raven, please." Locust tried to calm her down. "And this isn't the first time someone broke Sacred Law in the past day either!" Raven seethed. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Qrow asked. "Alex killed Omega while he had already been defeated!" "And I had a damned good reason! That psychopath isn't any brother of mine!" Alex snapped back. "Everyone settle down.." Twilight nervously tried to diffuse the situation. "What your brother did was unforgivable, yes. But Inheritor law states-" Raven tried to explain. "Forget about Inheritor Law! I'm sure The Inheritors could have survived being purged of their pesky, archaic laws aside and just killed them! If we want to put these bastards down, we need to do it for good!" Alex yelled. "You're as psychotic as your brother with logic like that!" "When I had to run from Task Force Crimson, do you think Winchester would've stopped as soon as he saw I was done for and just let me live? F**k no! The man would have shot me in the heart and let me bleed out! If you had just let me kill Sigma, I doubt any of this would have been as bad as it was!" Alex retorted. "If we blindly killed everyone who did us wrong, then we are just as bad." Raven explained. "Ozpin and the Princesses didn't order me to beat Alpha and leave him alive. My mission is to kill him. Are you telling me to disobey my orders?" Alex asked. "Alex, you're a sociopath! You think your reasoning is good enough basis for murder, but you're sinking to their level!" Twilight amandantly agreed. "And how would you punish me? With a pat on the back and a cookie with a stern 'don't do that anymore'? Do you two think this is a game?" Alex asked the two of them. "As much as I hate to go against royalty, this isn't Equestria, and it isn't exactly peaceful anymore. This is war, and as much as I hate to say it, you can't properly fight in a war and still call yourself a good pony." Vinyl said. "I'm with the princess. We don't kill soldiers who've already surrendered." Mako said. "The only thing stopping the bad guys is the good guys. If we leave 'em alone, they'll find more ways to hurt people." Qrow explained. "May we get back on track? What are the invasion plans?" Locust asked. "Yeah. I'll pull up the map." Alex said, pressing a button and letting a holographic top-down view of the island pop up on the table. "From what Iris was able to read out before she... passed.... We have a view of their defenses." Alex explained. The top-down view ascended, revealing a mountain overlooking a large city. "What do we have?" Alex asked. "This bay here looks relatively safe, we could storm the beach with drop-ships and invade the city in fifteen minutes." Qrow noticed. "There are weapons overlooking the entire island, there's nowhere to run as soon as we go." Twilight corrected. "Then have our ships surround the island and fire from there, as well as have drop ships deploy hundreds of drop ships and aircraft, erupt the island in a sea of fire surrounding it." Mako said. "What about the guns? We'll lose thousands!" Raven reasoned. "With everything we have, they'll still hit the ship, Plus our defenses have been vastly limited now that Iris is gone." "Shit. There's dozens kinetic strike satellites above the island, too." Alex spat. "I have an idea!" Vinyl gasped. "What?!" Alex was thunderstruck. "Yeah! We hack into at least one of them, fire on the island before the assault, and destroy them, letting them fall to the surface before we attack!" Vinyl explained. "Our hacking division is a skeleton crew, the inquisitors know what they're doing when it comes to hacking." Raven shook her head. "We won't have to, my calculations state if they all fall to the island, their defenses will be crippled enough for us to take out the rest!" Twilight said. "From there, it's just a matter of how much they planned for it." Mako sighed. "Knowing them, it's probably not looking optimistic." Qrow shrugged. "We could use the ship's cannons to take down the satellites." Alex nodded. "Will we still have enough power to knock out the island's defenses?" Locust asked. "Maybe... But the ship's sights for the cannon aren't able to look into space, we'd be firing blindly." Vinyl explained. "And how long for the rest of the volunteer soldiers to get here? We might not have time." Alex shook his head. "Let's see... We'll need more than one ship to get everyone to Providence. Raven, Qrow, does Remnant have more ships?" Twilight asked. "Yes, all in command of the finest leaders in the multiverse. Four others besides ours. The Covenant, The Revelation, The Ragnarök, The Inferno, and last but not least, The Iliad." Raven said. "Have them all meet up here. When do we depart?" Alex asked. "I would say December 14th." Twilight said. "One more thing, who will be on the star squadron? Alex, who'll help you kill Alpha?" Locust asked. Alex thought for a moment before giving his answer. "For starters, the descendants of the original Fireteam White Lotus. From there, people who are asked to join us, by us." Alex replied. "So yourself, Kat, Team RWBY, Vanoss and his friends, and the Elements." Mako figured. "Most likely. But hey, that's not my decision." Alex shrugged. "And what's your squad name?" Twilight asked. "Simple," Alex answered. "I'd say it'll be a Platoon of about 26-36. And the name'll be... 'Ascension'." "Alright. We'll meet back in, say, a week?" Vinyl asked. "Got you." Qrow smiled. "Okay. God help us. God help us all." Alex stood up, walking out of the room instantly. "I don't know what I'm going to do with that kid." Raven sighed. "Neither do I." Twilight turned to her in agreement. Author's Note Let me clear something up before you all start commenting on how I got the Fall Maiden's condition wrong. Keeping in mind, this is an Alternate Universe, so certain events, like Starlight's attempts to change Equestria's future, never happened on account of the events in this story, because Alex and co. suddenly appeared into those other universes and pleaded the other protagonists for help, certain events would not have transpired. Qrow did let the Maidens' existence slip, but he purposely led Alex on because he doesn't want him to know he may very well end up fighting a losing battle. If Alex knew what Cinder and friends did to the Fall Maiden, then he would likely not even fight at all. But then, I did let this lead to a bit more of a favorable outcome, at least for a certain character. Act III, Chapter 17: Preparations For Total AnnihilationDecember 4, 2016: 1500 hours: Vale Alex watched as more and more people piled in hordes onto the ship. The other E.R.C Super-Carriers were docked in port, letting their own masses onto their ships. Alex himself could not believe that so many decided to take part in what may well be the end of the multiverse. The members of his platoon, his closest friends, were letting people onto the ship, writing down information about the participants and handing them identification tags so they could go downstairs and get some extra training. He thought back to a recent summit for the captains of the ships, including himself, at the old Embassy Building. He was a bit disturbed by his return to Winchester's grave, but he got over himself in time. Besides himself, the captains consisted of General Adam Morgan from Earth, a tall, white haired man who was roughly in his seventies and was captain of the Covenant. In addition were Captain Shining Armor and Princess Cadence from Equestria, Twilight's brother and sister-in-law, respectively, who commanded the Revelation. It had been Alex's first time making their acquaintance, and both were slightly perturbed given their prior information about him, but they eventually settled down. Next in line was the captain of the Inferno, Vice Admiral Forrest Pines of Adenien, Locust's high superior. Locust had explained this to Alex before, The Ryders were basically Adenien's version of the Huntsmen, special mercenaries hired by the actual military force used when faced with disaster, Vice Admiral Pines was a member of the actual military force of Adenien. But that didn't excuse him for being a jerk about it. He basically called Alex out for being an orphan, having little military experience, and having gotten the rank of Admiral out of pity by people who, quote, 'who didn't have the necessary qualifications from this Multiversal Military Coalition'. Ironwood, who sympathized quite a bit with Pines, said that Alex had 'disturbed the natural timeline and brought death and destruction to everywhere he went'. Speaking of Ironwood, he ended up becoming the captain of the Ragnarök. The way both he and Pines spoke about him, Alex was worried that they may both try to fire at the Iliad the second the battle plans would go sour. General Morgan basically accused them of trying to break the Coalition itself when it was needed most, while Cadence and Shining Armor tried to settle everyone down. Ah, politics. He felt someone sit down next to him and scoot closer by. "Everything okay?" Rainbow asked. "Shouldn't you be signing volunteers in?" Alex asked. "I asked Ember to fill in for me." She smirked. "Alright, I'm guessing you're going to want to talk, so, what's the topic this time around?" Alex asked. She laughed slightly. "You worry too much." "Rainbow, look where we are, what's happening around us, and what will happen next week. I think I'm in just the right spot to worry." Alex replied. "Even for this, the invasion isn't happening for at least another week." Rainbow assured. "Yes, but there are battle plans, strategies to go over, with the people on this ship and the other captains, half of which are considering running a smear campaign." Alex scoffed. "That's just how people are. Look, I can't tell you everything's going to be okay, I don't think we're all going to make it out alive. But please, just slow down a bit. You might get a heart attack." She patted him on the shoulder. "I gotta go test something for Vinyl, catch ya later!" Rainbow sped off. "But she's also supposed to be signing people up!" Alex yelled back. "Can't hear you, flying away!" Rainbow screamed in reply. "F**k this world." Alex scoffed, throwing his hands in the air. Alex laid down on the observation deck, the late-fall chill sent ice down his veins. He was tired, sick, and wanted nothing more for all of this to finally be over. He heard the familiar sound of boots meeting the stairwell as he turned behind him, finding the crimson-cloaked leader of Team RWBY standing behind him, nearly expressionless, if it were not for the feeling of overwhelming sadness in the air. "Um, hi.." Alex began awkwardly. "Hi, Alex. Everything okay?" She asked. "About as well as could be expected." Alex shrugged. Ruby sat down near him, he would've said next to, but she shifted a bit to the right. "Something wrong?" Alex wondered. "It's just... People like your brother... What would make him-" Ruby sorrowfully wondered. "Kill your mother? Look, I know this can't be easy for you. Keep in mind, the sick bastard took my other brother, too." Alex sighed. "I don't know what would possess someone to do something like that! Every time they kill someone, they leave hundreds of other people without a friend or family member!" Ruby burst out, looking away from him. "Look, Ruby. I can't promise you everything's going to be okay... I'm sorry about what happened to your Mom, but I've lost much more than a mother." Alex stated. "H-How do you go on?! Both of your parents, your entire family is dead! You don't even have a place to call home but you still keep fighting!!" She fell into his shoulder, and Alex could feel tears soaking his shoulder. "Listen, I doubt we're the first people who've been hurt by these assholes, but if we all pull together, we might be the last." Alex helped her up, her head still in his shoulder. "My immediate family is dead, I can never go back to my old life. I've had a month in a CIA cell and three months drifting around the cosmos to figure that out. When I was fighting Task Force Crimson in Ponyville, I lost hope. I thought I was going to die. But then Karis guided me out of there. If it wasn't for her, I would have died, either by Equestria's army or Crimson. I have no real family, but I have a lot of good friends who are willing even to die for me. And, hell, I guess even the other way around." Alex elaborated. Alex guided her to the stairs, and sat down on one, letting Ruby slide awkwardly onto a step herself. "That's the reason I'm willing to put up with Vanoss's near-homicidal antics with his friends, and Twilight injecting random shit into my arm for science, and Yang's painfully awkwardly punny training sessions for hours on end. That's why I'm even willing to risk my life to save hundreds of trillions of people I don't even know. Because the ones that matter most are the twenty-three that followed me to Los Santos." He stated, pulling her into a sincere, albeit awkward hug. He still felt tears sliding onto his shoulder, fueling determination to never let another would feel what he felt, what she felt. Vanoss stood about five steps away, holding a mug of coffee and shuffling nervously. He hadn't even heard him approach. "Um.... Is this a bad time?" He asked, obviously a bit weirded out at the sight of Alex giving a crying Ruby a hug. "It's fine. Remember how Omega.. Well.." Alex began, but stopped himself out of respect for the huntress still clinging onto his shoulders. "Oh... Shit. My bad." Vanoss realized uncomfortably. Ruby sniffled, wiping tears away with her sleeve and locking Vanoss into her own hug. "Um. Uh... What do I do here?" He asked, even more perturbed. "Just let it happen, I don't know." Alex shrugged. Ruby eventually let go, wiping the remaining tears away before walking over to Alex. "Thanks. I needed to hear that." She smiled for the first time since hearing about Omega. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure your teammates are wondering where you're at right now." Alex nodded. "Okay. Are we still training tomorrow?" Ruby asked. "Yep, there's a war going on, so let's end it. Once and for all." Said Alex. She hugged him again before speeding off to her room, leaving him and Vanoss alone. "So, how's life?" Alex asked merely to break the awkward silence. "Meh, I guess it's okay. Delirious hooked up a few Xbox Ones to that plasma TV we bought for our lounge or whatever, we've been playing random shit on there, recording a lot of it, and uploading it to Youtube." Vanoss replied. "People like it?" Alex wondered. "They seem to. Earlier this month I told them what happened and why I haven't been posting videos, so a whole lot of them are coming here because apparently the government is allowing public inter-dimensional transport now. And people who aren't are wishing us good luck. I even got into an agreement with some of the news networks, we're going to record the whole battle." Vanoss explained. "That sounds like the worst f**king idea I've heard in my life. But hey, imagine if someone dies on camera and one of you is like 'Are you not entertained'?!" Alex inquired in a joking manner. Vanoss couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that comment. "Somebody gonna get the hurt real bad." Vanoss laughed. "Wait, how many did you get to join?" Alex asked. "I don't like to think about numbers that much, it's the thought that counts." Vanoss shrugged. "Just a ballpark is fine." Alex demanded. "Oh, you're serious. I think I heard about 3 mil." Vanoss figured. "THREE MILLION?!" Alex gasped. "I guess. Maybe more.." "My god, we'll wipe the f**king floor with the Inquisitors." Alex laughed slightly. "Why, how many is that total?" Vanoss asked. "Fifty-Five million volunteers from Earth, Equestria, Remnant, and Adenien. Four thousand from Fiore, 56 thousand from other worlds, including Iridia." Alex listed. "Iridia?" Vanoss wondered. "One of my top ten in the retirement list. Lush world, beautiful and relatively open housing, and mercenaries there are paid pretty nicely." Alex smirked. "Nice!" Vanoss nodded. "So, what'll you do after this is over?" Alex asked. "I'll go back to Earth, be with my family and all that. Maybe see you guys on vacation." Vanoss shrugged. "I can respect that. Sorry for keeping you away all this time." Alex sighed. "Nah, it's fine. I got to see new shit, use a mech suit, I don't think I could've done that anyplace else." Vanoss said. "Alright see you." Alex walked off. "I'll see you around. I'm going to show Nora what Netflix is." Vanoss said, running off. "Wait, what?" Kat was lying down on a couch in one of the lounge rooms with Mako along with some of the other Elements and Volunteers. "Kat?" Mako asked. "Hm? What is it?" Kat inquired. "I'm just thinking... Do you ever think you could go back with the way things were before?" Mako wondered. "Before Unity?" She asked. "Before Crimson. What got you into the Militia?" Mako clarified. "Oh, I was pretty normal, went to school every day, went home, hung out with friends, usual stuff. My dad was the one who recruited me into the Militia, he said that because America was steadily growing more corrupt, it was the right of the people to fix it. Little did either of us know that that wasn't what they were planning at all." Kat sighed. "I know, The Government wanted Die Glock, and so did the Militia, and you got caught in the middle, didn't you?" "I guess I kind of did. My dad died one day during a raid on the Pentagon. You know, last year? And the Militia kept me there all that time, i doubted them a bit after that." Kat asked. "What made you finally want to destroy it?" Mako asked. "I found out what they were planning about a week after the Bohemian Grove Massacre. But no new recruits had come in at all since the government put us out there like that. Nobody wanted to be the bad guy. And then, a literal day before the raid, we found someone accused of being our top man tied to a post. I saved him for more reasons than to get out of the Militia." Kat said. "Your new recruit." Mako realized. Kat nodded. "I let him in on the plan when everyone else was busy and he went with it. I didn't think for the kid or anyone at all, I just wanted to escape. I never expected to see the recruit again, alive much less." Kat sighed. "After that?" "You know, I went to Fiore and joined up with the Red Dawn guild, the Inquisitors set me up and framed me for the murder of some Red Dawn wizards. I ran to Adenien where I met up with Locust. He told me they were looking for an old Inheritor A.I called 'Zera'. After I helped the Ryders get that A.I and the information on it, he set a tracker to the A.I and told me to summon him when we needed him. And you know the rest." Kat finished. "Wait, you're the reason the Ryders are with us?" Mako asked, surprised. "I guess I was. I guess Zera's tracker stayed with Iris and she alerted them to us when we were about to lose." Kat realized. "Huh, I never would have thought." Mako blinked. "Yeah. I can't wait to go home, get back to life before the Militia and rest." Kat smiled softly at the thought of returning home. "Trust me, I'm sure we'll be able to." Mako smiled. "Thank god. After this, I won't ever have to fire another gun at a sentient being ever again." Kata sighed happily. "Alpha, sir!" Beta, Sigma, Gamma, and Scarecrow stepped into Alpha's throne room. "Have you any updates on the Coalition?" He asked. "Sire, we noticed volunteers flocking onto the Iliad nonstop." Sigma answered. "We also noticed similar model water-craft on the docks. We have reason to believe they're readying for a large-scale assault." Gamma added. "Do they know the location of Kalos Prime?" Alpha inquired, standing to his full height. "Omega gave the riddle to Walker before he was killed by the latter." Beta said. Alpha unsheathed his sword and ripped apart the tapestries on the cold, stone brick walls and the marble pillars that decorated the room. "DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!!!" Alpha screamed, enraged. "Sir, please." Gamma tried to calm his leader down. Alpha slowed his breathing and sheathed his sword. "Have we any updates on Neapolitan's condition?" Alpha asked. "She's still locked in the Iliad's prison complex. It's how they were able to prevent the bio-attack." Sigma explained. "Good." Alpha lowly growled. "Alpha, sir, what are you planning?" Beta asked. Alpha turned back at his second in command, a low, dark laugh booming from within. "We shall see what breaks first, The Coalition's morale, or their fleet." Author's Note Happy Holidays from the 5/10 horse fanfiction author, The Destpyer Act III, Blood Red Night Part 1: Nightfall [X2 Edited] Mankind must put an end to war, Or war will put an end to us. -John F. Kennedy 0545 hours, December 14, 2016; The Iliad. Alex slowly opened his eyes. The sun hadn't risen yet and he felt a bitter cold setting in on top of his blankets and on his uncovered face. Winter had come to Remnant. And Alex really wished he invested his money in a space heater. Regardless, he threw off the blanket and put on the undersuit for his armor. The suit provided some comfort against the cold, but not very much. Alex then quietly stepped to his door, gingerly opening it and sneaking off. There were so many others sleeping just beyond, and their wake-up time wasn't for at least 15 minutes. Slowly, carefully, he made his way to one of the small break rooms. He knew that there would be small snacks and something warm to drink to tie him over at least until breakfast. From there, the only thing anyone would have to eat would be a seemingly infinite amount of MREs. He stepped inside to find Vanoss, Delirious, Rainbow, Vinyl, and Yang conversing quietly inside. Yang was the first to actually notice his entrance, for the rest it merely took a glance behind them. "Couldn't sleep?" Rainbow asked, sipping a cup of what Alex assumed was either coffee or hot chocolate. "Not really. At least this time, everyone knows why." Alex muttered. "Oh, shit. Is that today?" Delirious blinked. "Yeah. I mean, Iris should've told- oh, right.." Vanoss realized mid-sentence. "I've been meaning to ask, are those personal gunships you were talking about finished yet?" Yang asked the blue-maned unicorn. "Yeah. But I'm not sure how effective they'll be, so I'm not letting any of you take one." Vinyl said to all of them. "Knowing the Red Star for what they are, they've probably already moved their entire army over there. We'll be charging blind." Alex sighed. "I talked to General Morgan a little while back. He said something about this being the 'largest invasion since World War II'. He specifically asked for the ship to be able to deploy troops straight from the ship." Alex blinked in surprise. The Blood Red Night was comparable to D-Day?! "When are we going?" Yang asked. "We have about 11 hours before we have to make the dimensional jump." Alex sighed. "How bad do you think this'll be?" Rainbow asked. "You ever read the Warriors books?" Alex asked. "The what?" Vanoss wondered. "Am I seriously the only one who read those?" Alex moaned. "I read the first six. For a children's book series, it's really dark." Yang said. "What happens?" Rainbow asked. "It's basically cats killing each other with some forbidden love themes in between." She replied. Rainbow backed away. "You humans are crazy." "And proud of it." Alex stood in mock pride. Alex grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and sat down, drinking it in small sips. "Delirious, wanna wake the others?" Vanoss asked. "Yeah, man. I got the air horns and water buckets, how about you?" Delirious smirked through his hockey mask. "I got the firecrackers and strobe lights." Vanoss laughed with an edge of evil in his voice. "Who are you trying to wake up, Sleeping Beauty?" Vinyl laughed slightly. "Along with all our friends. They were all sleeping in the same room, right? Alex was the only one who didn't sleep in the same room." Delirious wondered. "And Weiss, she took the penthouse." Vanoss added. "Listen Vanoss, If you really want to wake them up, play this at full blast. Trust me, years of experience." Vinyl smiled evilly, handing Vanoss a small CD, a CD player, and a giant speaker. "Where did you have the time to hide all of that?!" Alex gaped. "Pinkie taught me how." She answered. Rainbow stood up, rubbing her hooves together like a stereotypical villain. "I have to see this. Catch you two later?" Rainbow asked. "Sure, see you around, Dash!" Yang waved. As Vanoss, Delirious, and the ponies snuck off, Alex realized they left him alone with Yang. "So.. How's life?" He asked. "Ruby's still a bit mopey, but she's getting better. It's been hard, Summer raised me too, you know." Yang sighed. "You're not the only one who lost family that day. Omega killed my other brother, too." Alex reminded her, referring to his brother with his Inquisitor code name. "And it's only going to get worse from here on out. I might not come back, maybe you won't. Who knows, maybe nobody is." Yang somberly added. "Trust me, you're going back to Remnant. If anyone's making it out of there alive, it's you and Ruby." Alex smiled in confidence. She pulled him into a hug, one of those bone-shattering locks that would take even the most experienced escape artists several hours to break out of. Alex returned the hug, but still felt a little awkward. Okay, a lot awkward. Eventually she loosened her grip, allowing Alex to finally breathe before she leaned in... And Rainbow Dash flew in, knocking the two of them over. Alex felt the cold linoleum slam against his arm and small hooves accidentally kick him as Rainbow scrambled up again. "What the hell?" Alex wondered. Rainbow backed behind the two defensively. "Who let Mako sleep with a hunting knife?!" Rainbow gasped. "Wait, what?" Yang wondered, confused. Alex listened closely to find loud dubstep blasting from the direction of Unity's quarters. "I'LL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH, YOU LITTLE PRISMATIC ASS!!! " Mako screamed. "Someone's not a morning person, or she really hates dubstep." Yang smirked. "This isn't funny! Mako's really mad!" Rainbow backed away further. "How are you the only one who got caught?" Alex wondered. "Evan tricked me into pressing the button and the others ran away!" She whispered. "So you come flying in here?" Yang asked, not really angry but extremely peeved or annoyed. "What, was I interrupting anything?" She asked. Yang held her composure for another two seconds, before blushing slightly and turning away. "Oh, my Celestia." Rainbow suddenly realized. Alex heard Vinyl laughing from another part of the ship. "What's so funny?" Delirious asked. "Lui's impression of you!" Vinyl answered. "Look, I'm a gay murderer." Lui said in his kid voice. "F**k you!" Rainbow turned to the two of them. "Well, good for you. I always kind of figured it would be you. Since that whole 'apprenticeship' thing back in LS." Rainbow smirked. "Complimenting a relationship at my expense. Real mature." Alex huffed, irked. "Thanks!" Rainbow smiled. Mako leapt at the door, a large hunting knife in hand. "ALRIGHT, MAGGOTS, WHERE'S THE PIPSQUEAK?!" She screamed. Rainbow flew out, Mako swinging the blade and missing by mere millimeters. "Whoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoop!" Rainbow mocked. "I knew she was watching way too much Futurama." Alex smirked. "Bite my furry pastel-colored flank!" She yelled. "GET BACK HERE BEFORE I TURN YOU INTO GLUE!" Mako charged out of the room. Author's Note: I need to stop. 1458 Hours, December 14, 2016, The Illiad. Alex stood in the intercom room, where the hackers helped connect all intercom systems with the other ships. He was alone, except for Haytham and Callus, another hacker. He had spent the past few hours writing his speech, and he asked some of his closest friends what they thought, and they said it would work for what was about to happen. He pulled up the microphone and waited until Haytham gave the 'go ahead'. Alex cleared his throat, he would be speaking to the entirety of the Coalition. Pulling up the piece of paper, he began. "Attention, this is your Admiral speaking. For too long, we have toiled under the Inquisition's tyranny and oppression. For years we were forced to fight, and kill, and lose everything we ever knew because of Alpha's multiversal dictatorship, carried out by barbarians and marauders! For too long, we lost family, friends, allies, and fellow comrades to their bloodlust! Their rule has brought us pain and suffering, and fear, but it also brought us together as soldiers, friends, and lovers alike! What was intended to divide us has instead united us against them!" Alex's voice rang out as millions, perhaps even a billion people prepared for the fight of their lives. "That period of loss ends today! Equestria's and Remnant's leaders have worked tirelessly to aid us in our mission! We even have the backing of Earth and Adenien, and so many others! We have been selected and called to aid our suffering universes to fight, kill, and die for! And I will not deny it. A great many of us will perish in the fight. But it's better to have fought tyranny and died a hero' death than to fight and die for little more than power, like our enemies! This is the burden we all carry, but we all carry it for the best reasons! We fight to protect the ones we care about, the ones who raised us from darkness and shrouded us in light, the ones we call our friends! We all have our own reasons for coming here today, but we all share the same goal now, saving us all!" He heard loud cheering from outside the walls of the small room in which they stood. "I believe this is the path we must take! Though our backgrounds are different, our stories separate, but with this, our paths are forever entangled! There was a time I didn't believe in heroes, but now I believe that there are those who have to do what must be done, those who aren't afraid, those who defend the lives of those they love. By being here today, on these giant boats, surrounded by perfect strangers, we are all heroes!" Another breath, another sip of water, another booming cheer from beyond. Alex cleared his throat again. "There was also a time when I couldn't afford to make friends, I had thought it was tedious and ultimately useless, but the experiences I've had in these past few months have taught me otherwise. Friendship is not only magic like our Equestrian allies think! It is the driving force, the guiding light that leads us all to true freedom! And today, we're defending that freedom! For years, they've battled us and won! And we lost our loved ones on those skirmishes! It's our turn! Today, we'll charge upon their shores like madmen! So many of us that the Inquisitors will wonder just what the actual f**k is wrong with us! Today, we charge up to humanity's birthplace for all of life's greatest battles! Today, comrades, The Inquisition we all once feared will BURN!!!" Neapolitan had snuck out of her cell. It wasn't that hard, their moronic leader had insisted not to use harsh methods, so she was well healed and angry. 'Phi, This is Alpha, are you familiar with the plan?' Alpha's dark voice asked. "Yes, my lord." Neo replied. 'Not yet, wait until their Dimensional Jump Devices have been activated? This goes for Tau as well.' Alpha ordered. "It will be done, Alpha." She turned off the communicator and snuck towards the room where the ship's main cannons were located, according to the guard... Alex stepped out of the room to find the whole ship cheering in applause, Rainbow flying up and hugging him. "Hi, Rainbow!" He gasped. "Sorry. Good speech!" Rainbow apologized. "Yeah, I didn't think you were necessarily a speech-writer!" Twilight smiled. "Screenwriting." Alex smirked. This did prove helpful. "Holy shit! Look at everyone! You can even hear them from the other ships!" Vanoss gasped, camera in hand. "I know, it's f**king crazy, man!" Wildcat added. "Yeah, kudos to Haytham and Callus!" Alex raised his water bottle. "Nice speech! That's my apprentice!" Yang cheered, Ruby following suit. "Not bad, it reminds of the old White Fang rally speeches." Blake added. "Thanks, everyone. Merriment aside, we got work to do. Are the Dimensional Jump Drives ready yet?" Alex asked. "Just got them up! Same story with the other carriers!" Haytham yelled from a few stories up. "You heard the man! Everyone head to your stations!" Alex commanded. As soon as everyone started to leave, Alex heard alarm bells going off. What the hell?! "Go ahead, Operator!" Alex commanded. 'Sir! The Ragnarök and Inferno have weapons lock on the Iliad!' The operator gasped in fear. No! "Don't fire! This might be a trick!" Alex yelled. "What's going on?" Weiss asked. "F**king Ironwood and Pines supposedly have their main cannons pointing at the Iliad!" Alex angrily spat. "What?!" "Why would they do that after all the hell we've been through?!" Kat asked. "Because they're assholes!" Alex heard a loud ring from both ships, as if their cannons were warming up. Fast. "SHIT! GET DOWN! NOW!" Alex commanded, dropping onto his belly on the flight deck. He heard two loud booms coming from either side, seconds later, huge chunks of the Iliad were blown off, sending people flying into the air. "HOLY HELL!" Mako screamed in shock. "WHAT THE FOOOOOCK!!!" Nogla yelled. "I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! CADENCE! SHINING! FIRE EVERYTHING!!!" Twilight commanded. Seconds later, as The Inferno's cannons were readying for another attack, the Revelation fired it's own cannons directly into their hull, and saw it start to sink. "THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Lui yelled. "NO! THIS ISN'T HAPPENING!!" Ruby screamed in terror. The Inferno immediately turned it's fire to the Revelation, blowing out the command bridge. "OH SHIT!!!" Someone screamed in horror. The Covenant was hit pretty bad by the Ragnarök, as it looked like it was mere inches away from finally succumbing to the depths. 'Sir, we're firing everything we have on the Ragnarök.' The gunner informed him via radio. "NEGATIVE! DO NOT FIRE!" Alex commanded. 'This is more of an FYI, sir. My family was on the Covenant.' The gunner said before the Iliad's cannons shot the Ragnarök to shreds. "MAKE IT STOP!!!" Weiss yelled at Alex. "HAYTHAM! SHUT DOWN THE DIMENSIONAL JUMP! DON'T LET US REACH PROVINENCE!!!" Alex commanded. 'It's too late!! I can't stop it!!' Haytham worriedly shuddered over the radio. "WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER SHIPS?!" Alex demanded, horrified. 'The Jump is linked to the other ships! We're going whether we like it or not!' Haytham gasped. "F***CK!!! THE PLAN'S GONE TO SHIT! GET BELOW DECK, NOW! THAT'S AN ORDER!! GO NOW!!!!" Alex got up and ran for the entrance to the ship, the rest of Unity following close behind him. "HEAD TO THE CENTRAL COMMAND ROOM! DON'T STOP FOR ANYTHING!!" Alex yelled again, running as fast as he could with most of the ship at his back. Suddenly he felt the earth move beneath them, before they ascended, slamming against the roof. "NOT NOW!" Vanoss screamed. "We're getting f**ked here!" Basically struggled to the door, still quite stuck to the roof. "Alex! We have to hurry!" Yang grabbed his arm, helping him along the roof, just before the entryway to the central command room. "Almost... Just a little.. Further..." Alex struggled, reaching even for the edge of the door frame. Just as quickly as it began, eventually they all fell hard against the floor. Alex felt sharp pain in his chest, physical and emotional. "No. This isn't happening.." Alex gasped. "What happened?" Kat asked. "We're in Provinence now, aren't we?" Mako seethed, grabbing her knee in pain. "Yes.." Blake sighed. "What the hell went wrong?" Terroriser wondered. Alex heard dark laughter over a loud voice coming from outside the ship. 'The Equestrian-Remnant Coalition. We finally meet. Sadly it seems it isn't under the best circumstances, as you are, ahem, still recuperating.' "Who's that?" Vanoss asked. "Alpha..." Ruby realized. 'Before I rain hellfire on all of you insolent pests, I'd just like to say one thing to your Admiral.' "That son of a bitch." Alex angrily spat. "He still has the Orbital Strike Satellites, doesn't he?" Weiss asked hopelessly. "Odds are." Vanoss sighed. 'Admiral Alexander Gabriel Walker, AKA Saigo Emphas. I must inform you that your involvement with us was in no way an accident. You've managed to turn a small group of rebels into an army, albeit scattered, charred heaps of what was once an army. Tell you what, since you've come all this way, I'll give you ten minutes to surrender. If you do, I'll let your little friends go home, of course, at the cost of your own life. If, by some accident you don't wish to surrender, I'll ensure your friends all suffer the same fate as you, and the same fate as your brother, Chūkan, as well as Cyrus Fong and Summer Rose. The choice is yours, let's hope you make the right one, shall we?' Alpha shut off the intercom, leaving the remaining soldiers of The Iliad shocked and horrified. "Well, F**k." Alex sat down, still shocked at everything that transpired. The others repeated this action, and cast pitiful glances towards the boy, "What now?" He asked. Leaving his revolvers laying down at his sides. Yang eventually walked to his side, and sat next to him. "Whatever happens, Ruby and I are with you, so are Weiss and Blake." Yang nodded, casting a glance towards her teammates. "Meh, we can't die either way. We might as well help you out." Vanoss shrugged. Vanoss's crew stood up, picking up guns and loading them, putting as many mags and rounds into their pockets as they could carry. "We've fought monsters for the sake of friendship before, we'll do it again." Twilight's horn glowed a bright purple, The Elements of Harmony standing tall, ready to face what could be their final battle. "Alexander, Your courage has inspired a great deal of us. Let's show these Inquisitors what the Ryders are all about." Locust stood up, attaching a mechanical arm with a massive circular saw at the end. Alex looked around, his eyes slightly moistening as he saw the faces of his friends ready to defend him, even if it meant death. He stood up, grabbed his armor from a nearby locker, putting it on quickly and donning his helmet, putting his revolvers in their holsters and grabbing his Serengeti BR. "Let the games begin, Alpha." Author's Note And with that, the Blood Red Night Arc begins! [In retrospect, I probably started off this part with a darker tone. Ah, screw it, there's a reason I put that tag on the story in the first place.] Edit: I chose to make this the first part of the Blood Red Night Arc instead of a pretense. Just figured it would make more sense. Edit again: Both Neo and Emerald now have reputations as illusionists, technically it could still work. Act III, Blood Red Night Part 2: Never Surrender Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. -William Ernest Henley; Invictus Alex stood with his friends inside the now-destroyed Iliad after the ill-fated drop into Kalos Prime. He just got his weapons, ready to fight and likely die in this battle, the Blood Red Night. "Okay, I think the vote's practically unanimous here. But before we do anything, we can't go out blind, someone look for a window or something so we can actually see what the hell is happening outside." Alex ordered, searching for a window. The whole remaining 45,000 or so people got to searching for a window. "Sir, you might want a look at this.." One of them said, standing near a somehow still intact computer drive. "What about it?" Alex wondered. "Something on there's trying to communicate with us! Those blinks are morse code!" The soldier replied. "You know it? Got a pen and some paper or something?" He asked. "Yes, sir." He said. "Well don't just sit there with your thumb up your ass! I'd say we have another eight minutes before they blow the rest of us to kingdom come!" Alex commanded. "Y-Yes, sir!" He grabbed his pencil and the back of an MRE box he was carrying and started writing. "Anyone find out what the hell is happening outside?!" Alex demanded. "I found one in the hall! Gaping hole to the outside!" Another soldier replied. Alex ran over to the hallway, slowing down to a tip-toe to look outside. Sure enough, they were surrounded, hundreds of soldiers outside, hundreds of tank barrels and artillery pointed at the ship, with... Of course. With Sigma standing guard. Alex ran back inside, grabbing a loose piece of hull. He drew out the ship in a destroyed part of the hull, which had some dust exposed. He eventually drew out where he remembered seeing Red Star, adding a giant 'S' for the Inquisitor standing guard outside. "What's the plan? Anyone here a half-decent strategist?" Alex demanded. "What, you, our Admiral, can't think of a plan?!" Nogla screamed, irritated. Ruby ran over, checking out the situation. "What's the giant 'S' stand for?" Ruby whispered. "Sigma. The motherf**ker's standing outside right now." Alex replied. "And those little circles? Is that our cover?" She asked. "It's enemy artillery." "And the dots?" "Infantry." Ruby thought for a moment before running over to the hallway, looking outside, and running back. "Even if we manage to take out all of the infantry and artillery, the Orbital systems will still keep us in check, and there's probably a lot more reinforcements. Sorry, Alex." She sighed. Alex kicked a destroyed computer in hopeless rage. "Sir! Come over here!" The soldier at the computer alerted him. Alex ran over, looking at him. "Yes? What happened?" Alex asked. "If I got this right, then this computer is saying that this is an A.I copy of Iris inside called 'Andromeda'. It says that the ship's main cannons are still active, but the automatic targeting systems have been destroyed in the second blast." The soldier repeated. "Where's the manual controls, anyone?" Alex asked. "Last I checked, Haytham was trying to stop the ship's cannons..." One other soldier recalled. Alex grabbed his radio. "Haytham, come in!" Alex commanded. 'Lex! Lex, is that you?' Haytham asked. "I'm here. There's something I need you to do." Alex began. 'What?' He asked. "Hold on, what is the current angle of the ship's cannons?" Alex asked. A few moments passed. "35, sir!" The soldier called. "Where do they need to be to take out the Orbital Systems?" Alex demanded. Another couple seconds passed. "92 degrees." Alex grabbed the radio again. "Haytham, turn the ship's cannons to 92 degrees!" Alex commanded. 'Won't they be able to tell what we're going to do?' "That's an order, Operator!" Alex said more urgently. 'Yes, sir!' Haytham announced. Alex heard a loud metallic grinding sound. The cannons! "Good work! Get Andromeda out of there and somewhere she can communicate with us without having to use outdated methods of communication!" Alex ordered. Vanoss got a 2 TB flash drive and plugged it into the computer. "In here, I'll get you to a speaker or something.." Vanoss said. Vinyl pulled out a small speaker, pointing out the USB attachment on the side. Vanoss quickly plugged in the A.I. "Andromeda, you there?" Alex asked. "What's going on?" Ruby wondered. "Hello, I am Andromeda, the A.I duplication of the late Iris." Andromeda said. She sounded more like the A.I Veil than like Zera. "Andromeda, is there anything else you can tell us about the situation?" Alex asked. "Satellite imagery from the Orbital systems indicates a Red Star fortress just beyond, but it is extremely heavily guarded, at least three million, as well as one million moving into a large castle a few miles away." Andromeda explained. "You think we can take 'em?" Yang wondered. "With burning hunks of metal falling from the sky as a distraction and weapon, I'm sure you may be able to take out the first wave." Andromeda replied. "Any survivors from the other ships?" Alex asked. "Yes, they're all scattered across the Island, I'll tell them to converge on the fortress in the estimated 20-40 minutes it will take to defeat them. Plug me into the ship-to-ship communicator." Andromeda said. Delirious quickly grabbed the flash drive and plugged her into the comms. 'Your ten minutes are up! Have you come to a decision yet?' Alpha demanded. "Haytham, give them our answer." Alex ordered. 'You got it, Admiral!' Haytham announced. "Everyone, Ready up!!" Alex commanded. He suddenly heard a loud boom, with a resounding crackle as the shot ascended into the sky. 'D-Direct hit! The Iliad has a direct hit on the Inquisitor's Orbital Strike Weapons!' Haytham cheered. "Direct hit! The OSWs are coming down!" Alex announced. Everyone cheered, grabbing their weapons and raising them high. They soon heard what sounded like metal slamming against the ground, accompanied by screams of pain and surprise. "Attack!" Alex commanded, slamming into the wall and destroying it, firing his weapon indiscriminately at the throng of enemy soldiers before converting one of his revolvers into swords, hacking through the crowd. He dodged an artillery shell, leaping over it and landing on another enemy soldier, stabbing him at the top of the head before leaping off his shoulders and flinging the corpse at the tank. "Yang, back me up!" Alex commanded. As soon as he landed on the ground, a multitude of blasts eventually collided with the tank, blowing it up. Alex fired his revolver at more soldiers as his men continued tearing apart their enemies, more rubble falling onto the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, Alex spotted Rainbow Dash and Applejack fighting Sigma. Even this Inquisitor was having trouble keeping up with them. Sigma pulled out both of her swords, leaping into the air and hacking Rainbow's wing, then kicking Applejack in the center of the spine. "Pony, no!" Ruby gasped, firing her sniper at the assailant who merely blocked the bullets with her bare hands. Alex ran up while Sigma was still distracted, kicking her in the center of the chest, sending her skidding backwards to a halt before she put her blades together, forming a bow. Before Alex had time to react, she fired an arrow at his armored chest, which exploded on impact. Alex screamed in pain, rolling onto his chest and seeing Ruby fight Sigma, somehow keeping up with this dangerous opponent. As Alex struggled to pick himself up, he was grabbed by the back of his armor and shoved into a burning pile of scrap, getting the crap punched out of him by... "Scarecrow?! How are you still alive?!" Vanoss gaped, firing a shotgun at his chest point blank. The lead pellets bounced off his armor and some went directly into his wounds, he gasped in pain before staggering all the way up. Scarecrow pulled out a massive machete and attacked the owl-masked Youtuber, who had his own machete blocking the attack. "Back me up, guys!" Vanoss demanded. Delirious smacked an enemy soldier in the side of the neck before shooting him. "We're busy, you little bird bitch!" He yelled back. Alex pulled himself up, attacking Scarecrow while he was caught off guard, punching him in the center of the gas mask he was wearing. Vanoss smirked at him, stabbing Scarecrow clean in the chest, it wasn't fatal, and Scarecrow attacked Vanoss, striking him in the arm. As for Alex, he was hit pretty bad, bleeding profusely from his wound. This thing needed cleaning now. Wait, who had a decent amount of experience in the medical field..? "DIE, YOU UNCOUTH RUFFIANS!! DI- oh, hello Alex darling!" Rarity waved. "Rarity, this isn't the time for..." Alex finally realized. Rarity was a fashion designer, which meant she knew how to sew, and Alex had an open wound which could probably get infected... "Rarity, can I ask you a quick favor?!" Alex asked. "Yes?" She asked, grabbing a Red Star trooper with her magic and flinging him at another group. "I got an open wound, you know how to close up tears in fabric, let's make a deal.." Alex figured. "Er...I don't know about flesh and blood though, darling... Ask Fluttershy." She backed away in fear. "Oh, come on! It's not like you haven't seen any of this before!! Besides, Fluttershy's afraid of her own shadow, she's sure as hell afraid of blood and- oh, dear God, there's pus." Alex felt his eye twitch. "Yeah, that isn't exactly my field of work, darling.." "OH, FOR F**K SAKES!!" Alex grabbed Vinyl's canteen, which definitely contained some kind of alcohol, and poured it on the wound. He screamed in agony before grabbing a needle and some string he stole from Rarity's saddlebag.. "Hey! I may be the Element of Generosity, but it's not okay to steal!" She scolded. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?! I HAVE A F**KING HOLE IN MY SIDE AND WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR ZONE!!" Alex yelled back as he shoved the needle into his own flesh. "Okay, Alex.. Remember what you learned in Art Class; over and under- OH, F**K THAT HURTS!" He hurriedly finished his work, tossing the needle away and wiping away excess fluid. "Okay, that was f**king disgusting.. But it's over now.. Thank god." Alex huffed, the wound still stinging. Pain! God! Alex felt hot lead pierce his shoulder, he'd been shot again! "Dammit! Not again!" Alex grasped his shoulder in pain, he'd have to do this all over again- Oh, right. The healing aura. He manipulated his Aura to his injured shoulder and the wound in his side, he pulled out the bullet in his shoulder first before letting it take full effect, once he did, he was in half-decent condition, but still felt some pain. Alex picked a minigun up off the ground, firing it in the direction the bullet likely came from, resulting in more than a few soldiers falling out of the trees in the forest just beyond. "Ratte! Ratte!" Another soldier called before being blown apart. A P.1000?! Here?! Only the f**king inquisitors. "Concentrate as much fire as you can on that tank!" Alex ordered. "Grenade! Move!" A soldier called out. Weiss ran to their aide, freezing the ground near it and eventually encasing it in ice before it exploded, sending shards of frozen liquid throughout the battlefield. She turned around, stabbing a Red Star soldier in the chest. Another soldier behind her aimed his rifle, but could do nothing as Rarity sent needle upon needle flying at him. "AAAH! MY EYES!!" He screamed as he fell over. Rarity cringed, winking at the heiress. "THERE'S SO MUCH SHIT GOING ON!!! KILL THE TANK!!!" Wildcat screamed. "GWEEEEEEEEY!!!!" Nogla screamed as he fired a machine gun. "AAAAH!! MY HEALTH IS SO LOW!!!" Delirious screamed before he was blown away by a rocket. "NO! DELIRIOUS!!" Lui screamed. "Someone, hit that tank!" Alex screamed as he tried fruitlessly to fend off his enemies. Even dual wielding his Electric Fury and the Serengeti wasn't enough to stop them from pouring everywhere. Alex heard a metallic ringing, as if someone was attacking him. He turned around to find Sigma swinging her sword at his wounded side. Alex barely managed to block the attack with the barrel of his revolver, he kicked her in the chest before Ruby leaped high in the air, swinging Crescent Rose at Sigma's back. Sigma gasped in pain and surprise as she turned to find the young girl beside Alex. "This isn't your fight, child. Walker's my target." Sigma threatened. "I'm as old as he is! What makes me any different?!" Ruby defended. "You don't have a price on your head. Back away from the boy." She ordered again. Ruby turned to him. "Mind if I fight her?" She asked. Alex put the Serengeti against his back, pulling out Blitzklinge and pointing both revolvers at his enemy. "As long as I can get a couple shots in myself." Alex smirked. Both Huntress and Super-Soldier alike attacked the Inquisitor, Ruby's attacks fast and meticulous and Alex's vicious and lethal. Vanoss was still busy dealing with Scarecrow, along with having to shoot at other enemies, on account of their sheer numbers, his friends did what they could to help, but were heavily occupied. Team RWBY were scattered across the battlefield, doing what they could to survive. The Elements' numbers were dropping fast, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were already wounded, with Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity still fighting, and Fluttershy trying to avoid the chaos. Everyone was fighting, but many were dying, and many more had already lost their lives.. Alpha stood at his castle, looking at a holographic view of the battle at the destroyed Iliad. He was severely angered that their All-Star group managed to survive, and even more so that they were actually doing some damage to his forces. "Beta!" Alpha demanded. Beta immediately ran to his master's quarters. "Yes, sir?" He asked. "Have Sigma's pets entered a battle yet?" He asked. "Sir, Neo survived the Iliad crash, and Upsilon and Tau have arrived at the Revelation." Beta reported. "What of the other crafts?" Alpha demanded. "I've dispatched several dozen units to the wreckages, including our Ratte at the Iliad. So far, the Covenant is our only victory thus far." Beta answered. "How much of our defenses are at the Tranquility Complex?" Alpha asked, referring to the base. "75% of our defenses are at the Complex. The other 25% are here." Beta replied. "Sigma is having trouble. Go to the Iliad. Keep those pests from getting out!" Alpha ordered. "Yes, sir." Beta unsheathed his sword and charged off. Alpha smiled, watching the carnage unfold at the ship now. "Alexander, you've made a grave mistake." Delirious eventually respawned for what felt like the ninetieth time, but he was directly behind the super tank. He clasped his hands together, snickering deviously. He grabbed the tank's backside and hoisted himself into an exhaust vent, it was just small enough for him to wriggle inside of it. By the time he was inside, the operators didn't suspect a thing. He pulled out a hatchet and a sawed-off shotgun, sneaking behind the rear-most tank operator and splitting the man's skull open before lighting up the room, they barely had any time to react before the tank was in a practical standstill. He cracked his knuckles and made his way over to one of the seats, finding not the controls for the tank, but their weapons systems. He was admittedly going to just stick a few bombs inside and blow it up, but this seemed a bit more fun. He eventually gained control of the main cannons, turning them towards an innumerable amount of Red Star soldiers, walked over to the guns, hoisted MASSIVE artillery shells into the double barrel cannons on top of this thing, and loaded them up. He ran back to the firing mechanism, zeroing in on the large amount of enemy troops, and with a sinister grin spread across his face, he grabbed his cellphone. At least one person would want to hear what he had to say... Alex leaped over Sigma again to avoid being struck by Crescent Rose for, like, the thirtieth time in five minutes. "Can you f**king watch where you swing that thing?!" Alex yelled in annoyance. "That's what she said!" Ruby and Sigma both called at the exact same moment. Alex felt a vein in his forehead burst. "You okay?" Ruby asked. "I'm fine.. Just.. Just an aneurysm out of sheer stupidity." "Wow. Didn't think you were that stupid." Sigma glared. Alex screamed in rage and irritation, batting Ruby out of the way and practically whaling at Sigma like a punching bag. "You remember what I did to Omega?! Guess what'll happen to you!!" Alex yelled out, more angry than hurt. "Jump off your own ass and DIE!!" Sigma nicked him in the side, but it still didn't exactly stop him. Alex kicked her hard in the gut, lightning practically spewing out of his boot as Sigma was blown backwards into a tree. KA-POW!!! Alex turned to his right, discovering that the P.1000 Ratte the Inquisitors had been using had just blown up whole unit of it's own soldiers. "What the?!" Sigma gasped. "Wait.. Where's Delirious?!" Ruby realized. Vanoss slammed Scarecrow into a tree, pulling out a switchblade and attempting to stab him, only to have the attack blocked by Scarecrow's armored gauntlet. Scarecrow kicked Vanoss hard in the chest, he hit another pile of scrap and fell onto his back. As Scarecrow approached him with a ridiculously large dagger, Vanoss kicked him in the crotch, slit one of the air tubes on the mask, and kicked him again, this time, knocking him completely over. "Get f**king owned!" Vanoss laughed. Scarecrow choked, gasping and coughing. "You bastard! That little stunt on the carrier compromised my lungs!!!" Scarecrow gagged. "Your fault for being a bitch." Vanoss shrugged. "You... You will pay with your life.... Face the might of the Red Star!!" Scarecrow yelled as a massive tank rolled in... And then stopped. "The hell?" Vanoss wondered.. Vanoss then heard felt a cellphone buzz in his right pocket, pulling it out, he found that Delirious was calling him. "Hello?" He asked. 'What's up guys? I'm H2O Delirious, and this is Jackass!' Both barrels of the mega-tank obliterated a crowd of incoming Red Star soldiers, within seconds, they were nothing more than a smoking, gory mess in the center of the battlefield. "HOLY SHIT!" Vanoss gasped. "No.. No..! NO!!!" Scarecrow punched the ground in terror and rage. Vanoss picked up a heavy revolver lying on the ground, loading one round before snapping the cylinder closed and pointing it at Scarecrow's head. "Y'know, there's a saying we hockey players pass around. I think I said it in one or two of my videos at one time or another.." Vanoss chuckled. "Whatever asinine punch-line you have, get it out of the way!" Scarecrow spat. "Keep 'er goin'!" A large sword knocked the gun out of his hand, slashed his leg clean off, and stabbed him in the other leg. "Very poor choice of words." A dark, mechanical voice mocked. "B-Beta, sir.. The Canadian compromised my respiratory gear..." Scarecrow coughed. Vanoss could only watch as Beta lit Scarecrow's body aflame. His foe screamed in agony, flailing around before finally going still. "If he could not defeat a mere civilian, then he would not be able to handle the title of Inquisitor. As for you," Beta scowled, pointing the blade at Vanoss's head, "I'm well aware of your little 'immortality' game, and I could not care any less." Beta swung the blade upwards, and... Long story short, Vanoss respawned three feet away from his death point, looking sheepishly at his own killer. "God, the spawns on this map suck ass!" The Owl groaned before running away, firing back at the brutish Inquisitor as he did. Twilight impaled a Red Star Lieutenant into a tree, the battle had long since moved into the forest. She had Pinkie shooting people with her party cannon, but Fluttershy was backed into another tree, trying to soothe a squirrel. "Not so fast, Miss Sparkle!" A familiar voice called from the distance. She saw Pinkie get immediately covered by a yellow glow. "Gamma!" She realized. "Yes. Order your men to surrender, Princess. It is the only thing that can possibly save your friends." Gamma threatened. "You monster, you're threatening another pony's life, for what?" Fluttershy scolded. "I am the monster? Says the yellow rat- I mean horse- with wings." Gamma spat. "Don't hurt Pinkie Pie, she didn't do anything to you!" Twilight pleaded. "No. She is not entirely blameless here. Neither are you. Stop all of this now and we'll only kill the boy." "You won't stop with Alex! You haven't stopped before!" Twilight retorted. "I am only following orders." Gamma grinned menacingly as he raised her high in the air. "Pinkie!" Gamma flung her cross the skies. The average Earth Pony was durable, yes, but not enough to survive such a fall. "You... You MONSTER!" Fluttershy yelled, flying into Gamma and slamming him into a tree. "Fluttershy!" Twilight tried to stop her with her magic, but she only had Fluttershy's bottom half, while Gamma had the top. "Let her go!" Twilight struggled. "I am not letting go of this little nothing! If you pull, she'll be ripped in two like a wishbone. Let go of her. Now!" Gamma ordered. "Never! I'm not abandoning my friends!" Twilight pulled. "You are a true fool." Gamma scowled. Twilight was conflicted. She didn't want her friend to die, but she didn't want to kill her by accident either! Frustrated, she let go. And shockingly, Gamma released her. "I will not kill either of you... Intentionally!" Gamma grabbed the two of them and flung them against the Iliad. Twilight and Fluttershy fell to the ground. Both ponies were battered and beaten, but otherwise unharmed. "Thank Celestia that at least one of my friends are still alive." Twilight thought as she pulled herself up, immediately having to fight again. Yang punched a Red Star soldier directly in the face, grabbing him by the shirt and blowing him into another group and sending blast after blast in their general direction. As she fired the last couple rounds, she unloaded her weapon, shells flying everywhere, and quickly reloaded. Once she finished, she saw the short ice-cream girl who nearly killed her on that train underneath Vale. She grinned menacingly in her direction, flourishing her umbrella. Yang smirked. She wouldn't make the same mistakes twice! She fired her gauntlets downward, ground-pounding the small clearing just behind her and punching her in the face- oh, wait, she blocked it. "You know what happened to the last person I actually fought?" She asked, referring to that oh so unfortunate little incident at that one bar. Ice-cream lady evaded her punches before spinning behind her, knocking her over with the umbrella and raising it high. She punched again, only meeting the umbrella again as she flipped behind her again. Yang spun around, this was her chance! She leaped straight upwards, ground pounding again only to find the girl had shattered. Yang saw her again sliding past Ruby and Sigma. Oh, this could be bad. She fired one shot at her leg, only to find a familiar voice scream in pain. "GOD DAMMIT!!" Alex screamed, grabbing the afflicted limb. "What the hell?" Yang pondered. "WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K WAS THAT FOR?!" He yelled. "I thought you were someone else!" She called back. "I'M WEARING IRON MAN ARMOR AND I HAVE AN EYE SCAR THE SIZE OF A NAIL! I MUST LOOK LIKE SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE!!" He screamed back. She felt her leg sting with pain again, she fell to one knee and rubbed one finger against her wounded leg, where a neat trail of blood left it's mark. She punched the Mary Poppins cosplayer, still only managing to hit the umbrella, and sent her skidding backwards. "It'll take a lot more than this to get me mad!" Yang smirked, flicking the red off her hand. The girl smirked, leaping over her and pulling a small blade out from underneath the umbrella, she evaded the attacks and punched her again, and the girl only stood there, menacingly. "Wow, you really need work on your bladework-" Yang suddenly noticed a substantial amount of her hair drift like golden string to the frozen earth, immediately feeling blood rush to her head. "Alright... THAT'S IT!!!" Yang's eyes quickly turned from their usual lilac purple color to a piercing blood red as the space around her erupted into brilliant golden flame. The girl looked a bit less confident, grabbing her umbrella again and swinging it, fully extended, at her rival. Yang ducked, evading the attack and hitting her square in the shoulder. The attack alone made her drop the umbrella to clutch her arm in pain, from there, the attacks were relentless. Blow after blow, the girl's aura depleted fast. Until eventually she passed out from the sheer exhaustion and pain. Yang stood victorious over her foe, kicking her in the gut in a final bout of rage. "Serves you right..." Yang smirked. A couple soldiers noticed her victory, running over and grabbing an arm and a leg. "What do you want us to do with this one?" One of the soldiers asked. Yang cocked Ember Celica again, she should kill her for what she did... She remembered someone her height being locked up in the Iliad during Omicron's attempted breakout. That much, she knew. Plus, Yang was pretty sure the girl made her shoot Alex in the leg. He'd probably agree. But then again, Alex literally killed his own brother. Sure, Omega killed her step-mother in cold blood out of hatred for Alex's father. But even so, if Ruby did something similar, even Yang wouldn't bring herself to kill her own flesh and blood. Even if Alex was her apprentice and very close friend, ruthless murder was something that just wouldn't sit right with her. "Lock her up." She ordered. "Yes, Huntress!" The soldiers saluted. Yang then heard more rumbling from what sounded like tank engines. "Reinforcements! There's more coming!" Yang heard Jaune screaming from across the field, carrying a wounded Nora Valkyrie. She didn't see Pyrrha or Ren anywhere. They must have either been somewhere else, or actually... No way. "Fall back! Fall back!" Vanoss yelled, running out of the forest. The remaining coalition forces fell back around the ship. Thankfully, she still was able to see Alex and Ruby had made it, Weiss and Blake as well. Unfortunately, only Twilight and Rarity ran back with them. In the distance, she saw Rainbow Dash writhe in pain as she clutched a dismembered wing, Applejack and Pinkie Pie laid collapsed on the ground. She looked and saw what carnage they had committed. Broken corpses of both Coalition and Red Star laid dead and dying in the battlefield. A light snow fluttered to the frozen earth below, almost burying them. She saw another large mega-tank, different from the Earth models she had seen before, stop directly in front of them. What was once 45,000 had been reduced to a couple hundred in a matter of minutes. At the top of the tank were the Inquisitors Beta and Sigma. "Soldiers of the Equestrian-Remnant Coalition! What was this all for?! Killing and dying in vain like some sick cult?! Is a peaceful rule not what you truly desire?! Is the future of your worlds not worth a single worthless life?!" Beta asked of them. "Worthless?! You're trying to kill a couple of kids! You've tried manipulating us for 4 months now!" Kat yelled defiantly. Numerous soldiers yelled their approval. "And it isn't just a couple kids in way over their heads! You've hurt all of us with your treacherous acts!" Locust added. "We would have been in the Vytal Festival tournament if not for you!" Jaune angrily screamed. "You tried to kill us all more than once! Including multiple counts of attempted use of a biological weapon!" Another soldier yelled. "You turned a happy and peaceful environment into a war-torn deserted wasteland for no reason other than to fulfill your sick power plays!" Twilight flicked the blood off one of her wings. "I did absolutely nothing to any of you back in August! Yet you arrested me for no reason and insisted on continually harassing me and my friends! Not only that, but Earth is in tatters by now!" Alex yelled out. Sigma scoffed, voicing her decision to Beta. "There is no helping them. They made their choice." Sigma told her superior. "I agree. Ready!" Beta called. All Yang could hear were the sounds of her own breathing, and the loading and chamfering of numerous rifles and cannons. "Aim!" She moved in front of her sister and her apprentice. "Stay behind me!" She ordered. "Like hell I am!" Alex moved beside her, but not beside her, as to avoid any awkwardness himself "Well, never thought I'd go out like this." Yang thought to herself. "Well, we had a good run. Vodka, anyone?" Vinyl reached in her saddlebag to find a canteen, tipping it over to find only a few meager drops fall out of it. "What?! I had an open wound and needed a disinfectant!" Alex defended. "Alex, you dork." Ruby sniffled. "Fire!" Author's Note "Look, we got four or five of the main characters on this ship. I think we'll be fine." -Peter Griffin, Something Something Something Dark Side Act III, Blood Red Night Part 4: Base Invaders No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. -Colin Powell Lui's eyes shot open, he was laying in some kind of pod or chamber, connected by a series of wires and electrodes to it's interior. "He's up! Get him out of there!" Someone yelled. Lui instantly felt every wire being ripped off him as he was pulled out of the pod. "Where am I?" Luis asked, rubbing his eyes. He noticed he wasn't in his monkey mask at all anymore, nor did he have any of his weapons on him. "I'm Corporal Wilson, North American Federation. You're in an old CIA hideout." Wilson explained. "Where's Vanoss and the others?! I have to get back there!" He demanded. "Technically, he's both there, and here." Wilson answered, pointing to another series of pods. "Oh, right. That." Lui remembered. This was where Mako, among others, had him and his friends stored during Project Immersion. "According to the CIA documents we unearthed here, your friends were given bodies to transfer their consciousness to while running the simulations. Your Avatars. Your friends' bodies are still over here, but out there, it's a whole 'Sword Art Online' deal except there isn't any risk of you guys dying permanently. Something must have happened, otherwise you wouldn't have woken back up here." Lui sat down, at least making an effort to take all of this in. "Where's the nearest portal to Providence?" Lui asked. "Providence, that's where all of these portals seem to end up. At least since yesterday, when The Admiral gave that speech." Wilson sighed. "I know him! He's over there right now! Our ships just started attacking each other out of the blue after the teleporter thingies started. We crashed on Kalos whatever and had to fight..." Lui stopped. "Fight who? What else happened there?" He asked. "I have to get back there now! My friends are in trouble!" Alpha looked over the reports in anger and disbelief. Beta had been killed by Summer's Daughter and Sigma had been captured by the Boy. The other Inquisitors were either dead, captured, or unable to assist. That is, except for Gamma and Sigma's pupils. "Alpha, Sir!" One of his guards ran, saluting. "Speak, subordinate." Alpha demanded. "The Coalition is en route to Tranquility Complex!! We aren't equipped to handle an invasion of that scale without serious losses!" He babbled. Alpha seethed with aggression, unsheathing his sword. The guard dropped the reports and backed away in fear before Alpha put away his weapon. "What..?" The guard gasped. "Activate the Flux Generator." Alpha ordered. The guard's eyes bulged with fear. "T-The Flux Generator isn't finished yet! The island will be plunged into a singularity, and so will our city!" "Do you think I did not realize this? Activate the generator!" Alpha yelled. "Y-Yes, sir.." The guard walked away, horrified. Alpha let out a low, quasi-mechanical laugh. "Alexander, you will die. One way or another!" Alex put on his helmet again, grabbing the Battle Rifle off his back. "Unity, we're 30 seconds away from the Drop Point. Expect anything and everything down there. We have about 3 million, they have four. And both of us have millions in reinforcements believed to be fighting on the other 2 Islands. Everything's going to go straight to hell down there, but we have our objectives. A: Shut down the base, let nothing in or out. B: Excecute Kill/Capture orders on all Inquisitors, identified or not!" Alex briefed. "And once we're done?" Ember asked. "We move in on the castle nearby. Alpha is believed to be in there right now. A team consisting of Alex, Vanoss, Ruby, Twilight will move in and kill the SOB." Mako recalled. "15 seconds!" The pilot called. "Vanoss and crew, Unicorns, and anyone else who can't survive a 9000 foot drop, put on a chute!" Kat yelled out. The others put on their chutes, except the huntsmen and Alex. "Can your Auras even support a fall of that height?" Twilight wondered. "We have our own landing strategies. Well, most of us anyway." Yang shrugged. "What do you mean?" Vanoss wondered. "I have other plans." Alex simply replied, gesturing to the jets on his armor as he strapped a portable bass cannon to his shoulder. "Moron." Mako dismissively shook her head. "Pilot, before I do anything stupid, are there any Red Star in the air underneath us I should know about?" Alex asked. "I'll call 'em as I see 'em!" He replied. "Remember, guys. Squat, Pray, Leap, 'Aaaaah', and Touchdown!" Vanoss joked. "Doesn't that spell 'Splat'?" Ruby asked, smirking. "Did you really just reference f**kin' Drake and Josh?!" Nogla cried out in disappointment. "Hey, man. It's a classic." "Guys, you're my friends and all, but your jokes are seriously the worst. I'm not even kidding." Vinyl groaned as the door swiveled out, revealing a massive fleet of drop-ships. The red light over the door turned green as everyone ran out, leaping to the earth below. Alex walked over to the door, set his jets low, and fell out. He let the targeting systems and the Auto-Fire on the bass cannon do most of the work and blow up the fighters. The rest he hacked in two or shot at the cockpits. He saw an Inquisitor battleship directly below him, he set the jets to high and careened through it, letting the flames envelop his armor as the ship fell in a heap to the base below. He caught up with Weiss, the only member of Team RWBY still at his height. 'Um... I don't mean to alarm you, but there's a couple huge tanks keeping us from doing anything. Can you take care of 'em?' Kat asked. He turned to the alabaster-clothed huntress knowingly. "There's a couple tanks just below us, you have any ideas?" He asked. "I might have something, get your sword ready!" She called back, summoning two rows of glyphs just below them. Alex sped like a bullet to one of the tanks, he quickly set his blades to their saw modes and ripped the tank into shreds in mere milliseconds. Weiss landed directly on the second, a large explosion ruptured the tank's hull and blew it apart second later. She met with the rest of the group unharmed. "You two sure know how to make an entrance!" Ruby smirked. "That was f**king epic!" Vanoss added. "Thanks, but we still have to destroy the base. Any ideas?" Alex asked. "The base is filled with weapons, right?" Vanoss wondered. "Yeah, what of it?" Yang wondered. Vanoss's group smiled knowingly. "Where there's weapons, there's ammo." Wildcat shrugged. Alex face palmed. "How the hell were they able to catch on before anyone else?" Alex groaned. "That's suicide. They probably have the ammo guarded, and even if one of us can get through, the Red Star will catch on." Blake insisted. "Then again, we might not have to..." Twilight smiled knowingly. "Oh, god. She's planning." Kat groaned, picking her up and carrying her under one arm. Alex knew as much as Kat did that when Twilight was thinking hard about something, she was impossible to budge. "Where's Kronos?" She asked seconds later. "He's still inbound, I think." Alex shrugged. "For a fire god, you'd think he'd be faster." Blake lamented "The last thing this story needs is a Deus Ex Machina. Cheap way to end it if you ask me." Moo added. "F**k it. We're going in." Vanoss slammed the bolt on his assault rifle and charged out, screaming and firing at whatever he felt was necessary to shoot at. "Evan! You still have limited lives, you dumbf**k!" Nogla ran out, the rest of their group following suit. Alex looked back at Ruby, who had the stupidest, widest grin on her face he'd ever seen. "What are you smiling about?" Vinyl wondered. Ruby then broke into a fit of laughter. "Squad goals." She simply stated. Alex, Kat, and Mako couldn't help but groan at that statement alone. "F**k sakes." Alex shook his head in disapproval. "So, are we fighting now or are we just going to sit here and yell at Ruby for making a Twitter reference?" Rarity asked, obviously itching to get revenge on her wounded/dead friends. "Alright fine, but I'm still court-martialing her after this crap is over." Alex relented, charging out behind with Vanoss's crew, along with the rest of Unity. Celestia had finally left the conference room, settling on moving the entirety of their forces to Tranquility Complex in Kalos to assist the already-crippled crews of the carriers. She channeled her mind directly to the spirit realm whilst sitting in a small, dark room. The Alicorn's eyes shot open, pupils dilating as they adjusted to the sheer brightness of the spirit realm. "Prophet! Where are you?" She called out. Immediately, the white cloaked seer stalked out of the fog, casting a reproachful look at the Princess of the sun. "Yes, Celestia?" She asked, showing the same amount of compassion as she had all those months ago, with a slight edge of concern in her voice. "You told me that my people would be safe and that this problem in my kingdom would be taken care of!" Celestia yelled hopelessly at her, "I only said if you did not interfere, that the problem would solve itself. We both know the choice you have made, Celestia. You've taken a course of action unbefitting of your otherwise caring nature by contacting the Inquisition." The spirit explained. "I did not summon the Inquisitor." Celestia held back tensely. "Celestia. We both know who really allowed Winchester to contact Sigma." The ethereal being spoke. Celestia held her head in shame. "Do not worry. Your forces will conquer the Rogue Guard. The deaths of your innocent citizens shall not be in vain. It has not been a fool's errand thus far.." The spirit summoned memories of Alex and Ruby killing the treacherous Iron Talon, and the destruction of the Knight's Myriad moments later. "Tell me, spirit. Why have you allowed all of this to transpire? And furthermore, who are you?" Celestial demanded once more. The spirit only smiled, and pulled it's hood tighter. "You will understand soon... But now is not the time to converse with the dead.." The being replied. White fog filled Celestia's vision once more, her eyes shot open, and she was back in the dark room she resided. Alex threw a Red Star soldier off his back and into Crescent Rose's now blood-soaked blade. Ruby spun her weapon, dispersing and scattering the crimson drops around the battlefield. Twilight slammed another soldier to the ground, pointing the man to her side, protecting her from MG fire as she ran for different cover. Vanoss noticed and pulled out a sniper rifle, pegging the machine gunner in the skull before pulling out a minigun and obliterating more Red Star. Weiss summoned glyphs under Red Star soldiers and pulled them into view, where Kat could easily finish them off. All around them, Coalition and Red Star alike shot each other and blew them to bits, be it from land or the skies above. Air squadrons from either side occasionally turned their attention to ground targets and annihilated them with brutal accuracy. Mako slid under another Red Star soldier's leg and hacked it off before finishing him off and rolling into cover. "Mako, darling! There are Red Star riot squadrons inbound! Do us all a favor and mark their position!" Rarity yelled, holding one at bay with a modified sewing needle. Mako tossed a smoke grenade and pressed a button on her comms. "Riot Squadron marked by red smoke, see what you can do!" She demanded. 'Roger, Atlesian Reaper Missiles inbound.' a pilot answered. "Incoming!" Mako yelled, hiding beneath a destroyed Technical as missiles blew the riot squads apart. Blake hacked apart another Red Star soldier, tossing him to the concrete. "Traitor!" Blake turned around, noticing the White Fang Lieutenant Weiss had encountered in a previous exploit. He tugged sharply at the ignition for a chainsaw, holding it in front of him menacingly. Blake herself prepared for a brutal clash with her ex-comrade, pointing the pistol components of her Gambol Shroud at him. The lieutenant was blown aside by an RPG rocket, obviously Vanoss's doing. The gamer-turned-soldier perked up suddenly upon noticing Blake scowling at him. "Oh, sorry! Was he yours?!" He asked sarcastically, loading another rocket. The Lieutenant leapt at him, enraged at his intrusion. He narrowly avoided the chainsaw's blade by mere seconds. It embedded itself into the concrete below, giving Blake an opportunity to strike, leaping high in the air and severing his arm. Vanoss then bombarded him with shotgun blasts, decimating large chunks of his Aura before Blake went in for a killing blow, leaping and hacking at his chest. He fell to the ground like a stone. Blake panted in exhaustion, this battle would never seem to end. "By the way, Evan?" She began. "Hm?" Vanoss looked up. "What should you be doing right now?" She asked, pointing at an armored vehicle that the other eight of Vanoss's friends were fighting. The armored vehicle fired a multitude of shells, blowing up a number of his friends, most of whom respawned, that is, except for Terroriser and Moo Snuckel. "NOOOOOO!" Delirious screamed. "Evan! Get over here, you dick-cheese!!!" Wildcat yelled. Vanoss ran to find more cover, sliding past the girl he saw from the camera store... "Aw, shi-" Vanoss groaned as she kicked him onto his back. She walked over to him, with a silver-haired kid roughly Yang's age went next to her. "Where is she?" The boy demanded. "Which 'she' are you talking about, 'cause there's like, a dozen girls here, not to mention a couple little horses-" The boy grasped his neck as the girl pointed a blade at his neck. "You're running out of time." The green-haired girl spat. "Wait! I just realized who you were talking about-!!" Vanoss gasped, his hand reaching behind his back. Both smiled, casting a glance towards one-another. "If you tell us where Cinder is, we'll let you live.. For now." The boy informed. "She's right... Here!" Vanoss kicked him in the crotch, pulled out a tracking beacon, and threw it at his chest before pulling out a Carbine Rifle and running off, firing numerous rounds at the pair. "I marked an Inquisitor-looking motherf**ker, see what you can do!" He radioed into another pilot. 'Solid copy, launching a Death-bringer Missile at the marked location.' A pilot reported. Vanoss kept running as fast as he could, eventually hearing a massive explosion behind him. The boy flew past Vanoss, slamming into a wall, somehow still intact. "Y-You...." The boy gasped, clawing at the ground towards him. His legs were severed at the knee joint, and both legs were robotic about halfway up his thighs. "Damn, son. You got taken out like a bitch." He mocked, pulling out a Heavy Revolver. The boy gasped, coughing blood. "E-Emerald!" He called weakly. Vanoss stepped on his back, and held the revolver's barrel against the back of his head. "Hey, you!" The girl, Emerald, yelled, somehow..multiplying herself?! She split from two, to ten, to seemingly hundreds as she got closer and closer. "Well, shit-.. Oh, wait." He fired the revolver in the direct middle of the crowd, and the clones disappeared in a flash. The girl held an injured arm, still unfazed. The bullet hadn't made a noticeable mark. "How the hell did you know where I was?" She asked before pulling out another sword. "I've seen this shit in Black Ops 3. It's kinda on you since you ran in a straight line towards me." Emerald blinked. "What the hell is..?" She shook her head, "It doesn't matter. We're still taking your last few lives, as well as your friends' as well." Vanoss pointed the revolver barrel down, shooting her little punk-ass friend in the head. His blood flew straight up and splattered onto Vanoss' pants legs. Emerald looked shocked at what Vanoss had done to her partner in crime. "Oh, come on! Don't act like you haven't done it either!" He mocked. Her eyes grew bright with rage. "W-Why you..." She gasped, her breathing ragged. A grenade suddenly hit her, sending her flying into another building. "We took care of the tank, you asshole!" Mini yelled. The whole crew held Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, RPGs, Miniguns, and the like as they ran in line with Vanoss. "Right. You see that bitch that blew up?" He asked. "Oh, yeah! That was me!" Delirious chuckled. "We got this! FOR LUI!!!" Wildcat screamed. "FOR LUI!!! FOR ARNOLD!!! FOR EARLY BIRD!!!" The rest of the, yelled, firing indiscriminately at the building, which was soon covered in a cloud of gunpowder-y smoke. "How the f**k are we even doing this much damage?!" Nogla yelled. "We're just that awesome, amigos!" Droidd yelled back. Eventually, they had run out of ammo, and had to reload. Emerald staggered towards them, clutching a wounded arm and spitting blood. "You'll... You'll all pay for what you did..." She spluttered. "You started it." Vanoss muttered as he pulled out a musket. "Wow. Remember how you described what it's like to die by that thing?" Nogla asked, laughing. "I can't even remember, I think it was like 'getting smacked in the face with a dick and dying', something along those lines." Vanoss shrugged. Vanoss aimed for her head, his finger on the trigger. "And... Kapooyah." Vanoss said, firing of the weapon. Emerald fell over, a gaping hole in her head splattering blood everywhere as she finally hit the ground. Yang suddenly landed next to Delirious, scaring the shit out of him... Literally. "Hey! I heard there were Inquisitors here, where are they?" She asked. "There's one asshole there," Terroriser pointed to the silver haired kid, "and Vanoss just 'Old Yeller'd' that other asshole right there." He pointed towards Emerald now. Yang blinked. "How the hell'd you even..?" Yang shook her head in disbelief. "Bullets. And rockets, and grenades.." Basically explained. "I launched a missile at 'Silver Bells' over there." Vanoss pointed to the other corpse. "I'm...actually impressed..." Yang scratched the back of her head. "Bad news is Moo and Terroriser finally bit the dust." Mini said. Yang sighed. "You'll make 'em all pay. You already killed those two." Yang reassured the group. "It's a shame you cannot save yourself.." Someone else said. Vanoss looked straight to his right to find the, unfortunately familiar, face of Rufio Vincent. "Sit the f**k down!" Wildcat shot him with a marksman pistol. Rufio suspended the bullet in the air and flung it right back at Yang. Hard. He sent the rest of the crew flying backwards, suspending them as the Red Star ripped them apart. This time, Mini and Droidd stood suspended, never to respawn. Yang staggered up, seeing two more of their crew dead, likely forever. "Why you..!" She launched herself at the Inquisitor, who held her in the air for a period of time. "I will not kill you, Yang Xiao Long... Not immediately." Rufio tightened his grip, choking the life out of Yang and depleting her Aura fast before finally decimating it, leaving her unable to heal for the remainder of the battle. He finally drew out his blade, and pulled her towards him fast, slashing her in the side and leaving her there. She clutched her side in agony, holding in her blood. "You are young and strong. So I'll give you at least thirty minutes before you bleed out entirely." "Y-You... Son of a b-bitch.." She gasped. "Yang!!" Rufio turned to find Twilight standing, wings extended, horn glowing bright purple, and eyes bright with fury. Rufio let out a hearty laugh. "We meet again, Sparkle Horse." He flung his weapon, flinging Yang's blood off of the blade. "You won't get away with this alive!" She fired numerous bolts of her magic at Rufio, or rather, Gamma. Alex fell in to assist, infuriated at his close friend's maiming at the hands of this scumbag wizard. "And the golden boy wants some too!" Gamma mocked him. "YOU WILL DIE WHERE YOU STAND!!!" Alex kicked him in the face while Twilight fired a flurry of spells at him. "Take care of him! I'll get Yang out of here!" Alex ordered running off, firing a shot at Gamma's leg. While it did little more than anger Gamma, it felt good to at least try and pay him back for hurting her. "Yang!" Alex yelled. "Hold here!" She coughed, guiding his hand to a point above the cut. He inspected the damage meticulously. Her Aura was all but destroyed, and the cut was practically gushing blood. "Medic!!!" Alex ordered. "Listen... Get... Get back out there." Yang demanded. "Not until I'm sure you'll be fine!" Alex yelled back. "I'll... I'll be fine..." She blinked. "Not now, just rest!" He demanded. A Ryder medical team ran to them, Ruby in tow. "Oh, shit." Alex thought. Ruby shouldn't see this... She didn't deserve to.. "Yang!!" Ruby ran for her sister like a bullet. "Ruby... Go... Go with Alex." She said as Ruby ripped off part of her already-tattered cape. "Tie here." Alex pointed to the cut, moving his hand while still keeping pressure at that spot. Ruby quickly tied the cut, pulling the knot tight at the other side. "Get her to safety! Make sure she lives!!" Alex ordered. "Sir..." One of the medics gasped. "I've been through worse! GET HER SOMEWHERE NOW!!" He yelled louder. "Yes... Yes sir..." The medics lifted her onto a stretcher. "W-Wait!!" Yang demanded. The medics stopped dead in their tracks. "Alex... Ruby... Come... Come here.." Yang coughed. Both stepped close to their friend, or sister. "L-Listen... You two... Vanoss... And Twilight... You... You have to defeat Alpha.. It's the only way.." She gasped. "We'll kill the bastard, I-" Alex began. Yang grasped Alex's arm. "You have... To promise me you will.... Promise!!" She demanded. Alex nodded. "I swear on my life that I'll kill Alpha, and keep you all alive." Alex added. Yang smiled weakly. "That's what I wanna hear... Take.. Take these.." Yang detached Ember Celica off both of her arms, handing them to Alex, along with four extra belts of ammo. "What are you doing?!" Ruby gasped. A huntress' weapon was theirs alone! What was she doing?! "I.. I can't accept this." Alex stuttered. "It's.. Not like... I need them right now..." Yang coughed, "Just give those back... When you're done..." Alex nodded, surprise still overwhelming him. "J-Just go.. Go!" Alex ordered, voice still raw with shock. He looked back at Ruby, who Alex suspected had mirrored his own reaction. "Look... I don't get it either.. I could take them if you-" Ruby began. "Get to your teammates, Ruby," Alex ordered. "What?" She asked. "Weiss and Blake probably have their hands full out there!! Just go!!!" He yelled. As Ruby looked at Alex, she saw the same fire in his eyes as her sister's. The two were uncannily similar, now that she thought about it. "Ruby! Where should you be right now?!" He ordered again. "M-My teammates..?" "YOUR TEAMMATES! THEY NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER!! GO NOW!!!" Alex screamed. Ruby nodded, speeding away like a bullet. Alex looked at his mentor's, his friend's, weapons, eyebrow's furrowed. "What the hell is she thinking, lending me these?" Alex pondered to himself, hands shaking. He respected her, yes... And maybe even... "AAARGH!!! Why the F**K AM I STILL THINKING?!" He shook more violently. Memories flashed through his mind, of their first meeting... Their secret mission... The hours spent training... Seeing her come back on the ship... And that moment in the break room... Alex's mind snapped in realization. "Dammit." Alex groaned, ripping off his Suit's standard gauntlets and replacing them with Yang's weapons. There was still work to do. If he recalled, Twilight was still dealing with Gamma... Twilight evaded another deadly blast from Gamma's fingertips, firing one of her own and flying into cover. Vanoss and his remaining friends kept shooting at Gamma, at least four of them at a time. "Get F**KED!!" Wildcat yelled, firing his Assault Shotgun relentlessly. Rarity herself was also in the fray, launching sewing needles at him. He dodged most of them, but at least 10 sunk into his arm. He recoiled, firing another blast at the unicorn. "Got your back, white horse!" Nogla shoved her aside, shooting an AP Pistol at their enemy. "Twilight, I'd run if I were you!" Vanoss yelled. Twilight nodded, flying away as the entire crew bombarded the Inquisitor with their last couple RPGs. She took cover at a roof, hoping to get a chance to breathe. Her hopes were eventually dashed aside as a brigade of Red Star jets flew in towards her. She recoiled, using her wings to shield most of her vital organs. 'TWILIGHT.' a loud, booming, voice called to her from what seemed like her own head. "W-Who-?" She gasped. She suddenly felt powerful, more powerful than when she absorbed the Princesses' energies from when Tirek was still terrorizing Equestria. She suddenly realized just who was speaking. "K-Kronus?!" She gasped. Her horn began acting by itself, spewing her magic, as well as what appeared to be pure, elemental fire magic. The brigade's individual planes eventually exploded, one by one, until there was little left but smoke. "Child. Your bravery and faith in your comrades is commendable. So much so that I will allow you to wield my power until the battle has ended. Due to certain complications, I cannot appear before you. But I assure you. I am here." Kronos said to her. "T-Thank you..." She bowed. "Sparkle!!" Gamma yelled again. Twilight looked down at him, only to find her adversary completely horrified. "T-Those markings on your coat!! Kronos is here?!" He gasped. Twilight looked to herself to find that her coat had darkened into an ash-ier shade of purple, that is, save for the orange, flame-shaped marks scattered all over her. Her wings had also become pure flame at the end. A quick look in a mirror she summoned had shown that her eyes had also changed color. Her irises were orange at the outermost. She flew at him fast. Firing spells, bucking, throwing him to the air, anything she could to damage him. It seemed to be working, with each attack, Gamma's magical energy depleted more and more. She just needed one final blow.. She bucked him aside, charging her horn for a very famous, very specific, attack. "What are you doing?!" Basically backed away, fast. "FIRES OF KRONUS!!!!" The blast was immense, so much that her whole view had been covered in elemental fire magic, she could feel the spell's heat against her, and a part of her enjoyed it.. When the spell had lifted, Gamma had completely vanished, as well as most of the buildings in that path... Thank Celestia they were facing away from the rest of the complex, otherwise her friends likely would've suffered the same fate as her opponent's. "What the hell was that?! And who are you?!" Delirious gasped. "It's me, Twilight!" She yelled. "Twilight? You look kinda different... Did you lose weight?" Basically asked. Twilight face-hoofed in response. "Maybe Kronus actually did show up, but he's actually giving power to Twilight.." Delirious figured. "How did you know that?" Twilight asked. "My name might be Delirious, but I'm not a dumbass." He replied. "I dunno, man. Years of experience is saying something else.." Vanoss joked. "Oh, f**k you!" Delirious retorted. The whole group found Alex running as fast as he could to them. "Where the hell is Gamm- WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!" Alex screamed upon noticing the path of scorched earth trailing as far as the Ocean. "Oh, hey Alex!" Wildcat waved. "Where were you, Darling? And why are you wearing Ms. Xiao Long's Gauntlets?" Rarity asked. "Oh, shit. He is!" Vanoss noticed. Kat and Mako walked up to the group, with Vinyl in tow. "Wait, Alex is wearing Yang's gauntlets?" Mako wondered. "Aww!!! That's so sweet!!" Kat smiled brightly at him. Alex groaned, this time, he was 101% sure he was done with all of this. "Later. But first, tell me what's up with your coat, Twi? Byzantium is a good color on you." Alex wondered. "Kronus gave me his power for the battle. I guess it changes my coat the same way Rainbow Power does." She shrugged. "I'm sorry, Rainbow Power?" Wildcat broke out laughing. "Don't laugh! Magic Energy is a serious business!" Twilight scolded. "Aside from whatever Tyler was implying, why are you wearing Yang's Gauntlets?" Nogla asked. "She was wounded by Gamma when you guys got separated. I got her out of there, and... She gave me these..." Alex looked at Yang's signature weapons again. "How romantic!!" Rarity swooned. Alex sighed, annoyed. "Oh, please, Darling. Anyone with a brainstem could see the chemistry you two-" Rarity continued until Alex sent a threatening glance at her direction. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake eventually made their way to the group. "I thought there were more of you guys." Blake scratched her head curiously. "Dead." Vanoss spat. "What?!" Weiss gasped, sympathetically. The intercoms around the base suddenly screeched. "Who?" Vanoss wondered. "Alpha." Alex realized. "Members of the Equestrian-Remnant Coalition! Are you ready to meet your fate? Are you ready to fade out like your predecessors on Kalos Ultra? It is no secret what you intend to do with the base after you have conquered it. I almost applaud your instant need to use a 'Scortched Earth' tactic, but we've beaten you to the punch yet again." Alpha scathingly explained. "Oh, no.." Twilight gasped. "The hell?" Alex wondered. "I have been working on a personal project on the island for the past few years called a 'Flux Generator', A device with the power to move this entire Island, Fortress, City and all, to any location in space and time. Unfortunately for both of us, it is not yet complete, but I still have some use for it. I believe you're all familiar with faulty dimensional transporters. For those who do not yet understand, an unfinished transporter of this magnitude will open cracks in the dimension, causing whomever finds themselves inside one to end up in any random universe due to the unstable nature of the unfinished device. Within an hour of it's use, it will become a singularity, A black hole, if you will." Alpha explained. "Is he insane?!" Rarity gasped. "Alpha's going to kill us all!" Ruby gasped. "If you are going to stop me, Descendants, I suggest you get on with it. If you can." The intercom screeched, before growing uneasily silent. "Alex... Wha-?" Rarity turned to Alex. "We have to go, Now!" Alex yelled. Suddenly, the ground around them shook as deep violet cracks appeared on the ground, in midair, on the sides of buildings, everywhere. "We have to get out of here!" Delirious screamed, running for a crack. "Are you out of your mind?! He said any random dimension! It might not have oxygen!" Twilight yelled, pulling at her friend. "If anyone has a plan, they better get to it!" Blake yelled, seeing more cracks spawn in. Another, bright white crack apparated directly in front of them. 'Come inside, children. You will be safe in here.' a voice reassured them. Alex turned to the rest of the group. "Anyone agreeing with this one?" Alex asked. "I... Don't know about this one.. I'm not leaving Yang behind!" Ruby yelled. "We can't turn back our friends." Twilight assured. "I am with Twilight and Ruby on this one. Applejack and Yang would not leave us behind. Especially not now." Rarity said. "I'm kinda with them, Alex.. We can't be sure where this will end up.." Vanoss rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Alex turned back to the white crack. 'This will only take a minute.. We will lead you to the fortress after..' The voice beckoned.. Alex looked on, uncertain. On one hand, he knew he needed to stand by his friends, but on the other hand... He wasn't sure... 'There is little time. The Descendants at least should speak... We will lead you to Alpha..' "Vanoss, Ruby, Twilight?" Alex turned to them. He knew exactly who they meant. "No way, man! I'm not going anywhere near that shady-ass portal!" Vanoss yelled. "We need to stay out here and help!" Twilight assured. "I... I don't know... It seems like the quickest path to Alpha.. Maybe we can shut down the generator and stop this..." Ruby wondered. "Are you insane?!" Weiss grabbed her shoulders. "At the very least... I'm going in." Alex answered. "I..." Ruby looked at Alex, then back to them. 'Hurry, children! I cannot hold this portal open forever!' the voice yelled urgently. "Ruby?" Alex asked. "I'll go..." She said, looking at Alex. "I should probably go too...." Twilight sighed. "F**k it. You guys are good. I'm going too. Besides, we might be able to end this shit now." Vanoss begrudgingly groaned. "Ruby..!" Weiss yelled. Ruby turned to her teammates and friends. "Just... Make sure you give Alpha one from us, got it?" Blake asked. "Ah, fock it. We don't always need you for success on our channels." Nogla shrugged. "Twilight... Do be careful." Rarity demanded. "I 'Pinkie Promise'. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Twilight answered, repeating the motions. "Mako, you have the most experience as a leader. You'll have to keep most of them alive. Got it?" Alex asked her. "No problem. I don't think I even need to ask the same." Mako nodded. "Alright... Let's get moving." Alex nodded. The four stood outside the portal, took a deep breath, and stepped inside, unknowing of what would become of them.. Author's Note Hello!! Sorry I haven't been posting anything! I've been a bit busy and haven't had much chance to write, but here I am!! Anyways, back to the supposedly necessary outro. "Alex, Twilight, Ruby, and Vanoss take a plunge into the unknown, leaving behind their friends and loved ones. What fate is sealed for our heroes? How many more will lose their lives before this gruesome battle ends? And who is this mysterious figure guiding Princess Celestia? Find out all of this and more on the next exciting episode of Blood Red Shadows." -The Destoyer Act III, Blood Red Night Part 5: For the Fallen Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway. John Wayne Alex finally opened his eyes, taken aback by the sheer brightness of... Wherever this was. "What the hell?! I can't see shit!!" Vanoss groaned, slowly blinking his eyes open. "Everyone okay?" Alex finally asked, his eyes finally adjusting to the light. "I think so..." Ruby answered, rubbing her eyes. "This looks like where Celestia took me when I became an Alicorn.." Twilight noticed. "You've been here before?" Vanoss asked. "Why would they ask for all of us? Are we going to come out of this with wings and a horn, too?!" Ruby gasped. "Where did you come up with that conclusion?" Alex wondered. "Well, whatever happens, we should probably stick together.." Vanoss figured. "So... Where was that voice who wanted us in here in the first place? Hello?" Twilight called. A figure, draped in a white cloak, gradually walked over to the four. "Who are you?! Why are we here?!!" Vanoss grabbed his assault rifle and pointed it at her. "Take it easy, ADHD. I don't think... This person... Wants to hurt us." Alex pointed the barrel away from the spirit. The spirit smiled from under her alabaster hood. Alex looked at Ruby, who stood with her mouth agape and her breath coming out in short, choked gasps. 'This is weird. Ruby looks like she's seen a ghost! Wait a second... White cloak? They look alike..? Foggy, white room?! Of course! It has to be!! This is some kind of afterlife! And that means..!' Alex's eyes bulged from their sockets. "Hello, Children... Well, I guess some of you aren't exactly children anymore. Twilight. Evan." She nodded her greetings. Both Vanoss and Twilight were in their twenties, while Ruby and Alex were still in their teens. "M-Mom?" Ruby gasped tearfully. The huntress-in-training immediately ran to her, hugging her tighter than Alex himself had ever seen. So he was right! This was Summer Rose!! "What the f**k..?" Alex blinked. "Watch your language. You aren't in battle at the moment." An achingly familiar voice said behind him. Alex turned to see someone he'd never thought he would ever see again. "Dad..?" Alex stood still. The other spirit, his father, walked to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Alex tried to speak, but his own thoughts jumbled in his head. "Alex. You've grown." Alex's father said. Two more spirits came to them, specifically Twilight's uncle and Vanoss' distant relative. Flickering Light and Cyrus Fong.. "Uncle Flick!!" Twilight wing-hugged her uncle, who returned a similar gesture. Vanoss and Cyrus also spoke to each other, shaking each other's hands as they met for the first time. "Listen... I've been meaning to ask..." Alex began.. "About your heritage? I was going to tell you the truth one of these days... But..." Alex's dad shook his head.. "Oh, please. You gave me the talk when I was ten!" Alex yelled half-heartedly in an attempt to lighten the mood "You kept asking!" He retorted jokingly. Both Alex and his dad shared a laugh. "Listen... In any case... I'm proud of you. And not just because your brothers are dead and one of them was an inquisitor. You kept the family's honor even when you didn't know there was any honor to begin with!" He shook Alex's hand. Ruby and her mother were still locked in a hug. "Should we..?" Flickering asked. "Nah. I think we all know they needed this." Vanoss shrugged. "True. Both of Summer's kids seemed beaten up pretty bad when they heard. Even Taiyang didn't talk for a few days." Cyrus said. Summer had eventually settled down Ruby, giving her a kiss on the forehead and wiping the last of her tears away. "Speaking of which, I think giving you 'the talk' that early helped a lot. Have you seen how him and Raven's kid act around each other?" Alex's father joked. "Dad. Stop." Alex grumbled. Wait, what was that he said about Raven? "I thought Yang giving Alex 'Ember Celica' was really cute!" Summer smiled. "Not you too!" Alex groaned more. "I know, right?" Twilight added. "Okay, okay, I think we should stop harassing the boy before his rage breaks again." Alex's father held his hands out. "You Emphas' and your psychotic rage." Cyrus shook his head. "True. You dad here went kind of psycho when he found out Omega had gone off the deep end." Flickering remembered. The eight shared stories for a little while more when Cyrus eventually stopped. "Alright. I think we should cut to the chase. They aren't dead yet." Cyrus said. "Okay, okay. Look. I'm pretty sure you all can guess why you're here." Alex's father began. "You're going to get us to Alpha so we can finish whatever this is you started." Vanoss said. "No. That comes later." Flickering dismissed. "Why are we here? And why just us? Our friends are still out there." Twilight asked. Summer sighed. "This is a more... Serious matter. One that should stay between the eight of us. No Inheritors. No friends. No Inquisitors. Just you four and us." She explained. "We can take it." Alex nodded, hardening his gaze. Jason Walker looked his son dead in the eye. "Listen, Alex. And this goes for all of you as well. Alpha is what we call a... 'Time Traveler'.." Jason said. "From what point?" Ruby asked. "He is from the future, and he is connected to you all. He is someone you all know." Jason continued before stopping. Twilight gaped, horrified, and Vanoss cringed. "Dammit, Zera!!" Vanoss yelled. Summer turned to Alex, sorrow in her eyes. "Born July of 2022. He travelled from the year 2045 to 1989 in order to even be considered for the role of Alpha.." She explained. "Why..?" Alex wondered, more hurt than shocked. "It's a whole lot more than that... Has Locust told any of you what the Chronicai were?" Cyrus asked. "I think he mentioned it at one point, but he didn't touch base on it too much.." Twilight remembered. Flickering sighed. "Long ago, there was one unified force of guardians of the multiverse who called themselves the 'Keepers'. They were responsible for dealing with threats that affected all of reality and existence as a whole... And in the year 1859... They'd had enough." Flickering began. "One group wanted universes to stay separate, no travel whatsoever, and let each reality take it's course undisturbed. Another wanted free travel between dimensions and for them to form alliances and relationships. They were called the Chronicai and the Inheritors, respectively." Cyrus added. "Many Chronicai were Time-Travellers. Some who saw the future and didn't like what they saw, or those from the past who wanted a better future for their loved ones than what was happening already. The Inheritors, on the other hand, believed that a group of warriors from various bloodlines would keep evil in check, saving any universe by any means. The two groups were at war for 20 years before one group had been disbanded. The Chronicai." Jason explained. "Another 20 years were spent hunting down what remained of their group. Splinters and Juntas across dimensions. Eventually the Inheritors got tired of it and hired a group of mercenaries to finish the job." Summer continued. "The Inquisitors." Alex concluded. "Ain't it f**king obvious?" Vanoss shrugged. "I'm with Evan on this one." Ruby added. "Quiet!" Twilight scolded. The dead relatives all collectively nodded. "This deal went well for a while, before an agent of evil sabotaged the group. This man inspired them to rally against the Inheritors and exterminate them. Naturally some Inheritors survived and went on to train those like Raven or Sirius." Jason added. "The Inquisitors have since been busy exterminating all of us one by one... And that's where we came in. The survivors rallied us together to fight the Inquisitors and finish them off. Needless to say.. You can tell how well we turned out." Flickering sighed. "And this... This is where you turn the page..." Cyrus nodded. Alex looked up to find them all tipping their hoods, or horns, or whatever they could tip, towards them. "Alex... Alpha is a Chronicai. A time traveller who infiltrated the Inquisitors ranks. He believes that our bloodline has to be wiped out. If he kills you, he will bring about the end of the universe, on purpose, mind you, and destroy what is left. You promised Yang that you would kill him... Do us all a favor and fulfill that promise." Jason instructed. Alex looked up at his father, anxious and nervous. "If he really knows who I am.. He knows every move I'll make." Alex nervously stated. "Come on, Alex. We'll show that asshole what it means to mess with an internet celebrity!" Vanoss rallied. "I've never faced any threat like this, or in the state we're in... But I know we can beat him." Twilight added. "You promised my sister you would stop him. And, hey. If he is from the future, he should know that this isn't going to end well for him." Ruby grabbed his shoulder. "Alex. You've shown all of us time and time again that you are capable. You're a good man with a strong sense of justice. And you've held the high standards we've demanded of you. Just watch.." Flickering moved his attention to the screen, a screen showing his memories. He saw himself fighting the guards at Area 51 and escaping to Equestria, it showed him slaughtering the dragon, and escaping the Task Force a second time. His friends stared on, experiencing what Alex himself had experienced.. "Shit, man..." Vanoss shook his head. "Oh! I remember this!" Ruby noticed when his memories finally began including her and her team.. Twilight stared on, mystified.. "This is almost exactly what I went through..." She gaped. The screen soon began showing his Inheritor training, meeting with his Royal Guard escorts, and the Myriad attack. "We should get Terroriser and Jäger to meet up and fight... Oh, wait. They're both dead." Vanoss realized. The memories soon became more and more recent. Omega's death, Sigma's defeat, Yang giving him her weapons. Looking down, both gauntlets were clasped around his wrists. They were extremely tight, but he was used to it by now... That or they cut off circulation to where he couldn't feel anything... It was most likely the latter. "You wanna get those off? 'Cause I feel like your arms are turning a lovely shade of purple." Twilight joked. "Nah... I think they'll come in handy..." Alex smiled, his own cheeks turning slightly red. The memories eventually led to him and his friends walking into the portal, and the screen disappeared. "You see? Everyone has faced their own trials in recent years. Twilight's position... Ruby' acceptance into Beacon... Evan's success as an entertainer... And now, you have passed your own trials." Jason nodded. "Even in this quest. Each and every one of you have killed an inquisitor." Summer turned her attention to the screen again. It showed Alex's brutal murder of his own brother... Ruby's frenzied attacks against Beta... Vanoss executing the two Inquisitors, one by revolver and the other by musket... And finally, Twilight's godlike spell that incinerated Gamma. "This is your opportunity to make things right... Your last true test. If you can survive this, then it will be known that nothing, nothing, can stop you if you all work as one.." Flickering used his own magic to open another portal. "So... What are you all waiting for, the bus? Get out there and save your friends." Cyrus pressured. Alex turned to his fellow comrades, his expression hardening. "Ready up, all of you. Best weapons forward." Alex ordered, unsheathing both of his swords and loading Ember Celica. He let his own rage rush into his senses and enhance his ever-decreasing power. Ruby unloaded her standard mags and loaded in her Green Cross mags. Going into a readying stance as her Aura darkened to a blood red. Vanoss put away his standard assault rifle and pulled out a different rifle Mako gave him, one chambered in Armor Piercing .50 Beowulf rounds, designed to be fired at full-auto. This rifle had a large scope attached to it, as well as an under-barrel Dubstep cannon of Vinyl's design and a side-grip. Twilight readied a powerful spell, summoning great amounts of magic until her horn glowed a bright orange. "Well. This is it. You all know what to do." Alex nodded. "On three?" Ruby asked. "Sounds fine with me." Vanoss shrugged. "Guys! We're wasting time!" Twilight urged. "F**k it! Go!" Alex ordered. Alex charged straight for the crack leading to Alpha, diving out and rolling into a fighting stance. Twilight flew inside with a slight air of gracefulness underneath her determination, skidding to a halt as she landed. Vanoss ran, leaping out and pointing the .50 in front of the gang. And finally, Ruby fired one shot, speeding out of the crack and using Crescent Rose's blade to slow her entry. The crack dissipated, the four were ready to fight. "Alright, you bastard. Where are you?!" Alex called out. The dark, ominously low, condescending laugh echoed behind them, prompting the four to turn around. Alpha faced them, brandishing a different sword than what Alex remembered seeing above the Subterrains; a heavy, oversized cleaver with a lengthened blade, adorned with various symbols. The end of the blade appeared to curve upwards, ending in a spine-like point. "So, we meet again, boy." *Tranquility Complex: 55 minutes before Dimensional Collapse* Mako led the remainder of 'Unity' to a garage filled to the brim with vehicles such as tanks, armored cars, and a transport vehicle. "I need someone driving the transport vehicle! The rest can get in the armored cars and defend!" Mako ordered. "What's the plan?" Weiss asked. "I call the f**king turret!" Delirious' hand shot straight up. "We're takin' out the base and headed for the castle before the whole island blows up or something." Basically explained. "Keep in mind, these cracks are popping up everywhere, and I wouldn't want to spend the rest of eternity cooped up in such an untidy place." Rarity snapped. "That's the idea." Ember simply stated. "Alright, team. Here we go. Armored cars on either side of the transport! Helo's taking overwatch!" Mako ordered, sliding into the driver's seat of the transport. Wildcat's and Basically's armored cars started, with Wildcat's moving forward first, then Mako's transport, and finally, Basically's. The helicopter eventually lifted off, hovering a few hundred feet above the small convoy. "Delirious, Nogla, Kat! I need you guys to destroy anything of use to the Red Star! Gas tanks, Ammo Stores, anything you can find!" Mako ordered through the radio. 'Understood. I'll have Andromeda mark targets on our HUDs' Kat replied. The three cars drove through easily, and it wasn't long before various buildings were colored in red, and a yellow circle surrounded them. 'Mako, Wildcat, and Basically! It's advised that you DON'T go into those yellow circles! You'll damage the vehicles, and we can't afford that!' Andromeda advised. 'Don't... F**kin' worry about it..' Wildcat dismissively replied. As they drove throughout the base, they opened fire on anything painted red. One building that Delirious shot at eventually exploded, causing the whole structure to be erupted in a gargantuan fireball. 'Woah, SHIT!' Delirious gaped, laughing maniacally. 'Get 'em, boys!!' Wildcat celebrated. 'Let's get 'er goin'!!!' Nogla yelled. Mako swerved hard to avoid another explosion. Rarity shuffled in the seat next to Mako's. "I really hope you know what you're doing.." She nervously held her seat. "Relax, Rares. Driving is one of my strong suits." Mako nodded. 'We've got company! Light-Attack Vehicles inbound!' Kat warned. Red Star speeders eventually zipped their way into the base, flanking the convoy before being erupted in gunfire. 'Mak! Ram one into that... Damn, I can't say it without rhymin'!' Nogla groaned. Mako nodded, slamming into the speeder as it crashed into a nearby dimensional crack. 'Eyyy! Nice one!' Basically complimented. 'I wouldn't celebrate yet..!' Weiss gaped. Mako looked up to see a huge swarm of bullheads above, bearing Red Star markings. 'DIIIEEE!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!' Delirious laughed, shooting at the Bullheads as one started falling. 'WATCH OUT, TYLER!!!' Blake warned. Their transport swerved out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by debris. 'Whew... Thanks, cat lady..' Wildcat sighed in relief. 'Check your privilege!' She indignantly replied. Mako made the next turn along with the convoy. They were heading dead-center for the complex. "This is Master Chief Petty Officer Mako Cerise requesting MOAB strike on my mark!" Mako yelled. 'Solid copy, Chief. Show us where you want it.' A Coalition pilot responded. 'That's your plan?!' Weiss gasped. 'Face it, Weiss. There's probably a lot of resources stored under there. They need to go down, hard.' Ember defended, obviously embittered towards the deaths of her friends. Another fleet of ships flew in above them, and dove in straight for them!! "Well, shit." Mako blinked. The fighters dove in towards the convoy before eventually being shot down. 'Coalition directly above us!!' Nogla yelled. 'We've got your six, Unity. Paint the target!' A Pilot yelled. They drove faster and faster, eventually driving near a helipad that looked like it was at least near the center of the base. "Rarity, pull the pin and toss it!" Mako yelled, handing her a smoke grenade. Rarity steadily held the grenade with her magic, pulling out the pin and, ever so carefully, dropping it out the window. "Got it!" She yelled. "Pilot! M.O.A.B target marked by red smoke! Give us time to get out, though!!" Mako yelled. 'Wilco. Make it quick.' The pilot demanded. "Alright, we have to MOVE!!" Mako yelled, flooring the gas petal. 'NononononoNONONONONO!!! WATCH OUT!!!' Delirious yelled as hundreds upon hundreds of ships came crashing down. Wildcat's vehicle slammed into one head-on. 'Shit!' Wildcat yelled. 'Dammit! Who was in there?' Blake asked. "Wildcat, Delirious, and Ember.." Mako said. 'I don't see Wildcat or Delirious...' Kat sighed. "We have to keep moving!!!" Rarity yelled. The transport evaded more and more falling debris from the skies, all the while evading the Red Star that were actually cunning enough not to slip into one of the cracks. 'Chief... MOAB inbound..' A pilot notified. "BRACE YOURSELVES!!!" Mako yelled. What felt like a hundred nukes erupted from behind them, the sound causing both Rarity and Mako to clutch their ears in agony. The bright light from the explosion cast long shadows of the two remaining vehicles on the ground as the eventual shockwave rattled their insides and propelled their vehicles faster and faster. Both Mako and Basically had to cut the turn out of the Complex and into the forest road leading to the castle. 'Direct hit! The complex is caving in on itself!!!' Blake gasped. 'Holy fock... That got crazy the last couple o' seconds..' Nogla sighed. 'It's... It's not over yet..' Kat panted. "Right... How far away is that castle?" Mako asked. 'It's... About seven miles on that road..' Blake shakily exhaled. "Alright. Here's step two. Alex, Vanoss, Ruby, and Twilight are definitely going to be fighting Alpha, so I'll need Kat, Blake, Weiss, and Rarity to make sure Alpha doesn't send in more reinforcements and cheat. The rest are staying with the transport, ready to pick them up. We have a certified Exit zone about 17 miles west of the castle. We'll move there once our work is done. We have to be fast... I'd say we still have 45 minutes left here before this whole place is sucked up into a black hole..." Mako monologued as she continued driving.. "Please... Don't let us be too late..." Mako thought... *2 Miles outside of the Tranquility Complex, 44 Minutes before Dimensional Collapse* Locust dove down, rolling out of the way of a large ship. "The Complex is down! I repeat, The Complex is down!!!" Locust yelled, raising his weapon. The Ryders cheered loudly, raising their weapons with their right hand and letting out a victorious yell. "Alright men, this battle is far from over.. There is something I need done. Where is the Inquisitor Alexander captured?" Locust demanded. It was not out of place to interrogate an enemy in the battlefield in Adenien. It was customary, in fact. Two men dragged the girl to him, and by the looks of it, they had already tried. Locust looked her directly in the eye, seeing only malice and deception in them. "What was all of this meant to accomplish, child? What are you planning?" Locust demanded. The girl smiled wickedly at him, letting out a slight laugh that sent a chill down his spine. "Answer me!" He demanded again. "Interesting question, Commander, but misguided.." She replied. "You threaten our worlds with destruction and chaos, yet you have the audacity to call my actions misguided?!" Locust scowled. "In every way possible if you truly intend to destroy us.." "Oh, is that so? Our best men are currently engaging your leader, your Complex is in shambles, and it looks to me the war has come to your backyard." Locust retorted. "So you have Steps 1 and 2 out of the way, what about 3 through 10?" She looked up at him. Just then, the Ryders heard a number of unearthly calls and screeches. The Grimm, no doubt. "Open fire on those monstrosities!!" Locust ordered. Sigma began laughing again. "Nothing will save you from the nightmare that awaits you... Locust." She broke the cuffs at the chain, unsheathing her weapons and slicing off his arms and legs. Locust screamed in surprise, letting one of his severed limbs return to him and grabbed a pistol. Another girl, much shorter than Sigma, ran to the battlefield, looking maniacally at him. "No, Neo... Let the Grimm do their job... We'll move our services... Elsewhere.." Sigma sheathed her weapons. "You'll... You will pay for this..!" Locust fired his pistol, but in vain. The two girls shattered apart, turning into mere slivers of the deadly enemies they once were, then a Beowulf pounced on him, and Locust screamed in agony. His screams were ultimately drowned out by an unearthly, loud, screech, accompanied by the loud beating of leathery wings. *Iridescence, Adenien; 42 Minutes before Dimensional Collapse* "Raven." The Inheritor turned around to face Qrow, who looked rather annoyed and disbelieving. "Is there a problem?" She asked her brother. Qrow looked disgusted. "The hell is the matter with you? Those kids need our help, your own daughter needed your help! And now she's in a crappy little tent bleeding to death because-." "You know as well as I why we have to stay behind. Our days on the battlefield are over." Raven scowled, turning away. "We can't just leave them there!" He insisted. "We already left. One day before this battle began." Raven recalled. "With you knowing full well what would happen! You know why I didn't want to get involved with the Inheritors in the first place?" He asked, raising us voice to almost a yell. "Because you're too weak and overprotective to understand that this is their fight." Raven bluntly replied. "What good is following a cult if they aren't around to help?!" Qrow demanded. Raven went silent for a few moments, at least before delivering her reply. "I already helped him. I gave him as much assistance as was necessary... Perhaps even more than that. You're still thinking like a Huntsman, Qrow." Raven turned to look back at her brother. Qrow almost looked appalled, but remained silent. "I'm not a huntress, Qrow. Not anymore. That time has passed. I have... Other things I must attend to now," Raven began to walk away from the coastlines of Iridescence and leave her brother behind, "But if you still feel the need, there is still some time before Alpha destroys the planet." She nodded before putting her mask back on and walking towards the city. Qrow blinked, smirking a little. "Who's the real wimp here, Ray? Abandoning your teammates in a time like that..." He grumbled. *30 Miles south of Miami, Florida; 41 Minutes before Dimensional Collapse* Lui had now gathered the group of 7 at the portal to Providence, ready to give fighting one last shot. "We ready to go?" Delirious asked. "I don't know, guys.. It seems like a really bad idea to be doing this..." Corporal Wilson figured. "He's right... They already think we're dead as it is. Except maybe Mako.." Wildcat figured. "Eh, They've got this one... But still, it wouldn't be cool just sitting here and letting them probably die.." Mini figured. "Nah, we don't have any sort of advantages like we did back there, no weapon wheel or any extra lives.." Moo said. "They'll be fine... Wait.. Do you hear something..?" Droidd went still, listening for something.. "Oh, no. No! NO!!" Delirious screamed. Adenien Ryders charged out of the portal in droves, opening fire wherever they could. "Woah! Woah!" The Corporal stopped them. "Oh, these are Kat's friends!" Lui realized. "What happened to you guys, you look like you got f**ked up!" Mini noted. "T-That psychopath Inquisitor..." The Ryder gasped. Something was wrong.. "Which one?" Moo asked. "Cinder Fall... She escaped custody and let out a massive horde of Grimm... The horrible F**KING THINGS!!" He shook fearfully. "Grimm? You mean those f**king monster things?" Wildcat wondered. The Ryder nodded. "To make matters worse... There was a giant f**king dragon thing that spawned more of them..! I've never seen anything like it..!" The Ryder continued. "Dragon? Did Walter White hand you some blue rock candy, because you might've been seeing shit." Moo said, chuckling a little. "That's not it. They all said they've seen it, and reports of this...thing are flooding in non-stop." Wilson confirmed. Delirious blinked. "Holy. Shit. I'm not going in there!" He yelled. "We're going back in, you little bitch!" Wildcat dragged him by the mask to the ammo stores. "No! NO! NOT AGAIN!!! AAAAAAAAAAH!!" Delirious screamed as Wildcat physically dragged him into the bunker again. "I.. I should go.." The others nervously shuffled, heading down the stairs with them. Alone, The Ryders waited, loading their weapons, and making a few calls for... Better equipment.. Author's Note Well, this is kinda the second to last chapter of this arc. Not really sure what to put here... Derp. Act III, Blood Red Night Part 6: One Final Effort Only the dead have seen the end of war. -Plato *Alpha's Corridor, Kalos Prime, Provinence; 55 minutes before Dimensional Collapse* "So, we meet again, boy." Alex turned to face Alpha, as did the others. He was standing at the end of the massive corridor, roughly fifty feet away from them, brandishing his ceremonial weapon and flourishing it. "I'll deal with Alpha. You three keep the castle clear in case any Red Star are still around here so search and rescue gets here." Alex ordered. "You're not doing this by yourself. At least let one of us stay here." Twilight demanded. "Alpha's mine." Alex asserted, putting on his helmet. "But--" Ruby began to protest. "But nothing. The way I see it, you've all suffered enough for me." Alex unsheathed Electric Fury, pointing it's blade at his opponent. "...And if I have to die, I'll die fighting for my friends. Now go!" Alex urged. "No f**king way!" Vanoss fired a burst at Alpha, who had seemingly appeared directly in front of Vanoss and reared back his blade for a killing blow. Alex blocked the attack with his own sword, feeling the full force of Alpha's attack. "Just go..! Clear the damn castle! That's a direct order!!" Alex yelled, struggling under Alpha's bladelock. "Twilight, cover me." Ruby nodded, dragging Vanoss by the back of his jacket as Twilight fired spells at Alpha, who evaded them all, giving Alex enough time to strike. The sword created a brilliant orange spark as it scraped against the metal of Alpha's chest plate, leaving a long grey mark on the intricate metalwork. "This is the end for you, Alex Walker. Only one of us can exit this room alive." Alpha coldly stated, spinning a full 180 degrees for a full-forced strike. Alex was blown back a few feet, but still relatively safe. Alex leaped at Alpha, clashing blades with the armored warrior and evading a killing blow. "Only one of us, eh? I like my odds." Alex lashed out again, hitting the ground and causing a large burst of electricity to come up from under Alpha and shock him. Alpha leaped backwards and ran at Alex swinging his sword. Alex blocked the attack, but at the cost of his own weapon. The blades broke off, leaving two jagged blades separated by an inch-wide gap. Alex stabbed Alpha, but the sword only bounced off the armor and left some minor scuff marks. Alpha hit Alex hard in the chest, a dark-blue burst of electricity following as he was blown straight backwards into a wall. He managed to pry himself out, but he was hurt badly. Alex unsheathed his other weapon and charged, setting the weapon immediately to saw-mode. The blade shifted to the right, and spun at high speeds, leaving scattered marks on the marble floor below. Alex rushed in towards Alpha, throwing sparks at the warrior and attacking as fast as time would allow, but Alpha was unfazed, and growing restless. Alex ducked again, evading a huge attack from Alpha and hacking at his legs, again, to little effect. Alpha stepped on his wrist, keeping him from raising his arm and attacking. He grabbed Alex below the wrist and sharply pulled up, pinning his arm behind his back. "Do you yield, Walker?" Alpha asked scathingly. Alex elbowed at Alpha's head, unable to reach. In response, Alpha spun him around, taking his sword and tossing it aside. Alex went in to punch Alpha, intending to stun him, but Alpha retaliated with a similar blow with particularly devastating results. Both fists collided, and Alex felt every bone in his hand and wrist shatter as though it were glass. He screamed in pain, unprepared for the effect Alpha's punch would have on him. Alpha grabbed Alex's leg, sweeping him to the floor and stepping on his arm and destroying the remaining bones within. Finally, Alpha pulled Alex up, staring at him eye to eye, and punching him in the ribs, sending him flying to the ground, writhing in pain. His arm hung limply at his right side, looking frail and weak compared to the rest of him. Alex suddenly allowed his rage to surge, and a haze of purplish lightning encompassed the arm, returning it to it's former glory in seconds. "Who the hell are you..?" Alex huffed, out of breath. Alpha smirked underneath his helmet, confidence beaming from the sociopathic leader of the Inquisition. "Care to stay and find out?" *Outside Alpha's Fortress, 42 Minutes until Dimensional Collapse* The Armored Vehicles Unity acquired finally pulled up, gunning down as many Red Star they could find. Planes, armored vehicles, infantry, you name it. The Transport and the one remaining Technical skidded to a halt outside of the fortress, the helicopter landing a few yards away. "Move in! Check for Alex and the others!" Mako ordered. Nogla hopped out of the car, landing on his feet and carrying his MG. "I don't know about this.." He muttered. "We came too far just to let our doubts get the better of us. We're going in and nobody's going to stop us." Kat asserted. "I beg to differ!" Someone yelled behind them. The team turned directly behind them to find another inquisitor, a very familiar, much loathed one at that. "A-Adam?!" Blake gasped. "How are you still alive?!" Kat's eye twitched in irritation. "The traitor and I still have a score to settle... Starting with all of you." Omicron scowled, his mask had cracked, revealing a badly scarred eye. He raised his sheath, and pulled the trigger. Mako shoved Kat out of the way, taking the bullet and collapsing to the ground. "Mako!" Weiss gasped. "Go..! There's no time!!" She urged, coughing. "All of you, go!" Blake demanded. "I'm not going anywhere." Weiss stood next to her teammate, sword unsheathed. "Come on, let's get Mako inside.." Kat called for Basically to help carry Mako into the fortress. Nogla and Rarity covered the trio into the castle, killing Red Star infantry and firing a few shots at Omicron whenever they could. Weiss summoned numerous glyphs, making a hexagonal shape around them and the other soldiers, Omicron included. She charged, skewering numerous soldiers as Blake and her old comrade exchanged blows, each one trying to utterly destroy the other. "It didn't have to be like this! You could've just killed the kid yourself!!" Omicron yelled. "I won't kill some poor kid your sick friends scraped off the street, even if he is a monster like you!" Blake kicked Omicron with the mechanical leg, forcing him back a few feet. "Heh heh... So, you admit you don't like the little shit... Fine." Omicron charged again. -- Kat charged inside, laying Mako against a marble pillar to take out a few pursuing Red Star. "Mako, take this.." Kat handed her the Colt 1911 she had been carrying as a spare, loading a mag for her. "Thanks, kid... Not sure how necessary it is, though..." She coughed again. "We're keeping you alive if we can!" Nogla yelled. "So what's the plan?" Rarity asked. "Hold on! Alpha has an unfinished Dimensional Gateway threatening to tear this place apart, right?" Basically wondered. "Yep. Hence the giant cracks to oblivion!" Kat pointed out. "If we can get there and shut it down. Maybe we can buy ourselves some time!" Nogla explained, realizing Marcel's plan. Mako, Kat, and Rarity took a collective blink. "You guys... Are really freakin' smart when you need to be." Kat shook her head. "Hey, man. Video game logic." Nogla shrugged. "Let's face it, we've done this kinda shit, like, a hundred times in CoD." Basically added. "We'll get to it, but we can't do it alone. We need a bit more help, and I'm sure Alex and company are all busy with--" Mako began. A whole battalion of Red Star soldiers charged down the hallway, firing their weapons. "Get down!" Kat ordered, killing at least 3 with one shot from her sniper. Suddenly, a red blur swooped in, wiping the entire force into little pieces of flesh in mere seconds. Twilight then flew in behind them, incinerating another group with her magic. The red blur slowed down, revealing the young leader of Team RWBY.. "Twilight? What are you doing here? Where's Alpha?" Rarity asked. "Alex said he was going to fight Alpha alone, he told us to clear the castle in case anyone came." Ruby explained. "He's fightin' the main bad guy by himself?! Is he ret--" Nogla began. "Hey! This isn't Youtube! Y' can't say that shit here!" Kat scolded. "Oh, right.. This is a BLOODY F**KING FANFICTION!!!" Nogla yelled, charging head-first into another oncoming crowd of Red Star troops and carelessly bashing in their skulls and shooting them wherever he could out of sheer annoyance and rage. "So, what are you guys doing here?" Twilight asked. "Nogla and I decided to find this Dimensional Gateway and kill it so we won't have to be on a schedule!" Marcel nodded proudly. "I'm... Not sure you want to do that.." Ruby nervously said. "Why not?" Kat asked. "I just overheard someone talking about a giant Grimm-Dragon. They're killing most of our guys and theirs. Plus a couple inquisitors escaped and..." She prattled on. The rest of the group looked at her in dismay. "That's it. F**k this noise." Basically pulled a sword from the ground and started killing more Red Star troops out of sheer frustration. "So... Scorched Earth?" Ruby asked. "Leave nothing standing. Got it." Mako struggled upwards, shooting the Red Star troops Nogla and Basically were letting there rage out on. "By the way, where are Weiss and Blake?" Ruby asked Kat. "They're outside fighting Omicron." Kat answered matter-of-factly. "And Omicron is..?" Ruby asked. "Adam Taurus." Kat stated. "N-No!! We have to go now!!" Ruby grabbed Kat by the wrist, dragging her by the wrist towards the courtyard they last saw the Huntresses. "I'll keep Nogla and Basically in check. I found out where the Dimensional Gateway generator is." Twilight assured as the two ran out the door. -- Alex dodged more of Alpha's attacks, evading his blade before kicking him away. "You think you can possibly stop us, boy? For your own sake, surrender." Alpha ordered. "I'm not making any deals with you, you sick f**k." Alex spat back. "You don't understand, kid. You can never hope to understand!" Alpha grabbed Alex by the throat, tossing him into another pillar and breaking it apart. "I know you know all of us! Time Traveller! You came here just to kill me?! Why?!!" Alex demanded, grabbing his sword and charging, clashing blades with the Alpha and kicking when he could. "You entertain me. I may as well return the favor before I take what's left of your life." Alpha scowled, swinging hard and cutting the sword in two. Alex threw his sword at Alpha, who easily cut that apart in one swing. "Do you really think I'm really the most powerful in the multiverse?!" Alpha charged at Alex, who was left to block Alpha's attack with Yang's Gauntlets, being forced back almost too easily. "Do you know how our Order works, Kid? The most powerful agents of chaos hand-pick who they want among our ranks, to prepare them for the great trials of their own worlds. We do whatever we have to do, we get our paycheck, everyone's happy. You don't think they call us mercenaries for no reason, do you?!" Alpha reared back again, this time, Alex evaded his blade, kicking Alpha in the arm to very minimal effect. "Among our biggest contributors are your friends' own personal ills. Equestria's prisoners in Tartarus, including Lord Tirek and King Sombra. And one of our highest beneficiaries, a woman by the name of Salem from Remnant. It's sort of like a campus frat and a mercenary group all in one!" Alpha swung at Alex again, severing another pillar in two as Alex ducked to evade the attack. "Then what the hell is up with you?" Alex asked, grabbing Alpha's sword by the pommel and guard, trying to pry it from his hands. "So you haven't figured it out yet.. Well, allow me to show you who I really am!" Alpha shoved Alex off of him, and pulled a few latches off of his helmet before pulling it off in one quick motion. Alex stared, horrified, as Alpha's helmet clattered to the ground. Alpha looked very similar to Alex himself, same facial structure and build, but the similarities stopped there, as his hair was bright gold and his eyes were the same shade of blue as Alex's, but was purple towards the pupil. "I was never actually given a name, so I simply decided to call myself Romulus. Romulus Walker, pleased to destroy you, father." Alpha sheathed his weapon. Alex blinked in disbelief. "Ugh, shit, okay... First, my brother, and now my f**king son. I guess being an utter disappointment runs in the family." Alex facepalmed. "You tossed me off a cliff at birth, you asshole!!" Alpha charged at Alex again, colliding with him and hacking again and again. "After you left Beacon, you and one of your friends from the war got together, and eventually you two were about to start a family. But unfortunately, you realized what your ancestors' prophecy meant! You didn't give me a chance to make something of myself and simply decided to do away with me, thinking I wouldn't survive, but look at me now!!!" Alpha punched Alex in the arm, breaking it. "You're not looking much better!!" Alex yelled. "I have planned my revenge for so long, traveling back in time and bringing all of your enemies together for one common goal, to DESTROY YOU!!!" Alpha grabbed Alex again, smashing him against the ground and breaking his leg. "Why do you think I arranged the Kahn Militia? Why do you think I had someone go back and make the concept of the Grove! And, pray tell, HOW DID YOU THINK I FOUND A MERCENARY WHO LOOKED LIKE YOU?!!!!!" Alpha leaped, landing on Alex's other leg and breaking it as well. Alpha kept stepping on Alex's chest, breaking his arms and chest again and again before finally bounding on Alex's chest, shattering his ribs. Alpha was panting, alight with fury, but exhausted. "So... What do you think?" Alpha asked, spitting on Alex. Alex crawled forward. "You know what, kid..? I.. I shouldn't have done what... What 'I' did.." Alex coughed. Alpha looked at Alex, a new expression on his face: curiosity. "What are you getting at?" Alpha demanded. "Maybe... I can ma-make things.. Right.. Think about it, if you're really from the future, and you altered the past... By that logic, you created an alternate future..." Alex coughed. Alpha gazed on in wonder. "Go on." "Maybe... This time around... I won't chuck my newborn off a cliff..." Alex smirked. Alpha grabbed Alex's hand. "Looks like I finally came through for once.." Alpha smirked, shaking his hand. "But... Just because the multiverse forgives you... Doesn't mean that I do..!" Alex covered himself with electricity, filling to the brim with anger and bloodlust. "What?!" Alpha looked on in anger. "You basically told me that you were responsible for everything that happened the past 6 months. Meaning you brought my enemies together to destroy me instead of simply telling me what NOT TO DO?!?!?! You selfish, ignorant, SPITEFUL PIECE OF SHIT!!!!" Alex yelled, punching Alpha repeatedly in the chest. "I will KILL YOU!!" Alpha sparked, his arms glowing dark blue with electric power as he charged at Alex. Alex grabbed him by the fist, twisting it at an awkward angle. "You risk destroying the fabric of this universe..! You brought death and destruction to other worlds, and you ENDANGER MY FRIENDS AND EXPECT TO BE FORGIVEN?!" Alex yelled, punching him again and again. Alpha was blown backwards, infuriated at this outburst. "No..! NO!!! NO!!!" Alpha spat, charging and punching Alex in the face. "There's something fathers do to sons for UNBELIEVABLY STUPID CRAP LIKE THIS, YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT?" Alex yelled. Alpha leaped in the air, bashing Alex repeatedly and grabbing his sword, hacking angrily at Alex, who dodged his attacks or countered. Alex eventually used his power to run behind Alpha and load Ember Celica. Alpha turned around, looking at Alex, who had Ember Celica buzzing and sparking uncontrollably. "You're grounded, you little sh-" Alex began. He finally unleashed a full-auto volley from each gauntlet as each shot collided with it's target, with extra help from his Semblance/Lightning Magic thingy/Mary Sue whatever-powers. Alpha finally stopped, letting each blast hit him, and by the end of Alex's rage-induced attacks, he scowled. "I was wondering what would break first. If not your spirit, your body will have to do!" Alpha charged as Alex braced himself for another attack. -- Ruby and Kat ran outside to find Blake fiercely combating Omicron, with Weiss battered on the ground, bleeding profusely. "Weiss!" Ruby yelled, shooting at Omicron and killing another Fireteam of Red Star solders before attacking Omicron, Blake staring in dismay. "Ruby, no!" Blake gasped, shooting at Adam's back, trying to aim along where she struck him that night on the ship. Both Omicron's and Ruby's blades met, making a loud grinding metal sound. Kat loaded her sniper rifle, moving into the brush nearby, making sure the barrel was concealed, but clear. Blake slid in, hacking and slashing at Omicron's front as Ruby attacked his back. "That's enough!" Omicron yelled, exploding in rage and spinning, the blade turning bright red as he spun in a circle, slicing cleanly through Blake's chest and batting away Ruby. Kat could barely stand to look. "Your betrayed us, Blake.. And for what?" Omicron scowled. Ruby shot Omicron once before having to run and evade his attacks once more. "P-Please... Don't... Do this.." Blake gasped, coughing blood. Kat aimed for Omicron's head, gently squeezing the trigger. Omicron noticed immediately, cutting the bullet in two, one fragment landing squarely in Ruby's chest, causing her to fall to the ground, wounded. Kat worked quickly to chamber another round, but twigs had jammed the rifle. 'No.. No..! Not like this!!' Kat thought as she tried to work the mechanism. Omicron pulled out his rifle, and pointed it at Kat's head. "Give up now, Human! This war is over and victory belongs to the White Fang!" He yelled. "I know how you feel. The fires of revolution are an alluring call. I was like you a couple years ago.. But things are different now.. Give up now. War doesn't pave way for change. Violence begets violence." Kat reasoned. Omicron scoffed. "Another traitor to a cause is another corpse to me." He scowled. "Get that son of a bitch!" Someone yelled. "What?" Kat wondered. Was that... LUI?! Hordes of Adenien Ryders, along with a few people Kat recognized as the real-life counterparts of Vanoss' crew charged onto the courtyard, firing rockets and missiles at Omicron, as he could only dodge and slaughter the soldiers. One group fired high-powered Adenien Tesla Guns to suppress the Inquisitor while the rest mercilessly gunned him down, leaving nothing of him but a bloodied pile of flesh. The Ryders helped Blake, Weiss, and Ruby up, all three pointing their weapons at Adam and firing once at his head, killing him for sure. "Make sure...he stays dead...this time around." Blake gasped as she was helped into a stretcher along with Ruby. "Hey... Kat... That was brave... What you did.. You saved us.." Ruby smiled. "I did what I could, Ruby. Do us all a favor and hang in there. That goes for Weiss and Blake too." Kat smiled back. "Hey... No problem.." Ruby smiled as they closed the door on the transports. "Good work, Chief." One of the Ryders commented. "Heh. No trouble." Kat nodded as the ground suddenly shook. "What's happening?!" The Ryder's yelled. "Nogla..!" Someone said. "Wait a second... Is that really you, Lui?!" Kat gasped. "Oh, shit! Hey Kat!" Lui waved, as did the rest of that group. Nogla ran out of the castle with Basically, Rarity, Vanoss, and Twilight. "Aw, NOOOOO!!!!" Nogla yelled. "What happened!?" Delirious asked. "Ugh, Nogla f**ked up the thing and now we have, like 10 minutes before this place is sucked up and f**ked!!" Vanoss yelled. "Get inside! Go!" The Ryders ordered as Vanoss ran by. "Not without Alex!" Twilight yelled. "He's still in there?!" Mini groaned. "FUUUUUUUU!!!!!" Most of Vanoss's group collectively groaned. -- Alex blocked Alpha's attack, Alpha himself growing more and more enraged. "Die!! DIE!!!!" Alpha yelled. "I was expecting someone, y'know, less disappointing." Alex scowled. "AAAAHHHH!!!! I'LL SHOW YOU DISAPPOINTMENT!!!!" Alpha yelled, a black circle enveloping him and ringing, causing a huge burst of energy, before it repeated, and went on again, and again, and again at greater intensity. When the transformation ended, Alpha's hair was basically on fire and the purple in his eyes turned blood red, and his skin was a shiny blue color. "THIS IS THE END FOR YOU!!!!" Alpha yelled. "Oh, shit. He can do that too." Alex moaned. "YOU CANNOT DEFY FATE, FATHER! I HAVE SEEN INTO OTHER TIMELINES, AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE FATED FOR DESTRUCTION!!!!" Alpha charged, firing bolts of electricity at Alex as he could only run and evade them, rather than block them. "WHY NOT LIVE UP TO THE ORIGINAL TIMELINES AND DIE JUST LIKE YOUR FRIENDS IN A BLAZE OF UNHOLY FIRE!!!!!!" Alpha's attacks grew more powerful by the second, and Alex could only run until he finally tired out. Alex ducked behind a pillar and rolled out, only to be struck by Alpha's lightning. Instead of dying horribly like Alex had anticipated, he felt a sharp pain enter his body, but afterwards he only felt more powerful. Alpha looked on in confusion and terror. "What... WHAT IS THIS?!" Alpha yelled, firing more and more lightning bolts in rapid succession. Alex braced himself, standing in intense agony as he slowly raised to a standing position. "You know what happens when you threaten a person's life, 'Romulus'? They finally stand up and do what they have to. And I know what I have to do..." Alex spat. He let this newfound energy surge within him, using it to create a large, electric ball around him and induce the Enlightened Warrior power surge. The ball turned white, surging with violet lightning before flashing, filling the room with blinding light. Using his energy, Alex induced this process repeatedly until he could tell he was ready, and unleashed waves of electricity outwards, encompassing the room in bright light. When Alex emerged, his skin was a similar shade of blue as Alpha's, his hair bright blue, and eyes burning with hatred. "You are a real fool, Alex! Do you think raising yourself to my level will save you?! You'll die just like the worthless trash you call 'friends'!" Alpha yelled, growing angrier. "Shut up! Friendship is never worthless! My alternate self shouldn't have carelessly tossed you off the cliff, you little shit! He should've killed you himself when he had the CHANCE!!!" Alex walked slowly to Alpha, rage quelled by the knowledge that he could break his spirit before breaking his body, just as Alpha himself threatened. "When you brought this madness upon me, I was fueled by hatred and thoughts of revenge. I was a ruthless, bloodthirsty killer just like you. But things change. I don't want to watch anyone else die. I don't want Twilight and the others to suffer anymore... I want to protect them... Just like they protected me!" Alex coldly spat, funneling all of his power into his right fist as he loaded the gauntlet on that hand one last time. "YOU STUBBORN IDIOT!!!! I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!!!" Alpha screamed, charging his own attack, his sword glowing a dark blue color. Both Enlightened Warriors charged at each other, their resolve and fury seemingly infinite as both stuck at once, producing a massive shockwave that spread throughout the room, and sent both flying away. Alex himself was losing strength, and could feel tremendous pain seeping into his limbs again, his Aura was running low. "THAT'S IT!!! SAY GOODBYE, FATHER!!! THUNDERING MALEVOLENCE CANNON!!!!!!!" Alpha screamed, firing a condensed beam of fire and lightning straight at Alex, who was left with no choice to retaliate with an attack of his own. Unfortunately, he didn't exactly have time to name his own attacks, so he just went with what was already in mind. "GENERIC ANIME ATTACK!!!!!" Alex yelled, his own condensed beam of electricity colliding with Alpha's with both under intense strain. "THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM THE AGONY THAT AWAITS YOU!! NOW DIE!!!!" Alpha shrieked, enraged that Alex had dared stand up to him. Alex struggled under the brunt of Alpha's attack, being forced back a few feet and unable to do very much to protect himself. 'Hope is not lost today, Alex.' A voice said. Alex looked up, to find Flickering Light standing to the left of him, almost unrecognizable due to his being a spiritual construct of some type. He stood at Alex's side, in a fighting stance with his horn generating a bright light just behind the beam. 'You can't give up! Not yet!' Another construct, Cyrus, appeared to his right with what looked like a large beam cannon. 'You are more powerful than you know, Son.' Alex's father stood behind his right, arms extended and firing a deadly pulse of spiritual electricity. 'You can still save them. You can still save everyone.' Summer Rose stood next to his father, an unknown weapon in her hands pointed towards the beam. 'Now.. Repeat after us..' The spirits commanded. Alex awaited their word as Alpha's beam reached ever closer to Alex himself, Alex quickly figured they had better hurry up, or he would be a charred stain on the ground. They all collectively whispered the incantation that would spell the end of Alpha. With a deep breath, Alex let out a cry of anger. "CHARGED INVOCATION PULSE!!!" Alex yelled, the beam suddenly glowing bright blue as it eclipsed Alpha's beam and sped towards it's target, enveloping him completely. "NO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! STOP!! STOOOOOP!!!!!!" Alpha gasped as the beam encircled him, likely incinerating his foe forever. Alex let his power dissipate, letting himself return to normal and nearly collapse on the ground, panting with exhaustion. "It's... It's over... I... I won... Heh.... Everyone's.. safe..." Alex exhaled, pain rushing in and causing him to pass out completely. "Why does every battle end with me passing out like a bitch?" Alex thought to himself as his mind slipped into unconsciousness. -- A blue-violet portal opened up inside Alpha's chamber seconds after his death, a figure stepped out of the portal wearing only dull grey armor, with no markings other than a lone, black marking down the helmet's right eye. The figure stepped near Alex, kneeling next to him and checking for vitals. After a moment, the figure nodded once and grabbed him, pulling him up and carrying him. The figure stepped out to look out a window. A black hole was beginning to form that would swallow this place entirely, he would have to hurry. Setting up a small pad, he unrolled the controller for the device as though it were a mere piece of cloth or paper, and slid his thumb over the power button. The pad began to glow blue as he tapped in the coordinates. If he was right, everyone would be heading to Ponyville to recover, where millions would gather in the wake of the battle's end to recover. He placed the boy directly on the pad, curling him into a ball to ensure no part of him would remain here. He pressed a button and the boy disappeared in a bright blue glow. The figure exhaled once, standing up and grabbing a Scroll. He quickly typed a message for anyone in authority to let them know that the young Admiral was safe in Ponyville. Once he finished writing his message, he closed his scroll, destroying it with his bare hands and stepping onto the pad, typing in the coordinates back to where he had come from, setting the self-destruct function to after he had teleported out. A similar blue glow enveloped the mysterious armor-clad figure and disappeared, the pad short-circuiting and exploding seconds later, leaving no trace of what had transpired. That is, save his message. Author's Note And that's that! After a huge battle, apparent reusing of an old enemy, and an admittedly misguided time limit. The Blood Red Night saga draws to a close. But there's still just a tiny bit more, I swear on Penny's life.. Um... I promise on Roman's life.. Wait.. Pyrrha's life..? Dammit, I hate Volume 3. Act III, Chapter 24: Hope's First Light*Ponyville, Equestria; 1200 hours, December 16, 2016* The surviving members of Team Unity were sitting in Sugarcube Corner. Their wounds had been mostly healed, and had all gathered inside, waiting for the person who they had sacrificed so much for, and who had sacrificed for them in turn. Alex Walker. "Jesus, where is he? You did tell him to be here by noon, right?" Vanoss indignantly groaned. Yang raised her hands in defense. "Hey! Of course I did! I don't know what could be keeping him!" Yang pointed out. "Maybe he needs a minute to adjust for... What happened... I don't blame him." Rainbow pouted, shaking her head. Ruby took a minute to look at the Pegasus pony. Cinder Fall had cut off one of her wings early on in the battle and had to be carried away. It had since then been replaced by a mechanical wing made by the Ryders and Atlesian technicians, as well as Equestrian biologists who needed to make sure she could actually fly with the prosthetic. "Did you see his X-Rays? Man!" Wildcat cringed at the thought. "I can't believe I let him fight Alpha alone.." Twilight grimaced again. "It was his mission, Twilight. Oz told us yesterday that Alex was hired to kill Alpha." Mako reminded her. "And besides, Alex freaking did it! We couldn't find anything of Alpha left!" Kat added. "Of course you couldn't. The Black Hole sucked everything inside. Nothing could've survived that. Either way, he's gone." Vinyl said. "Did you see Twilight kill Gamma? That was f**king sick!" Delirious asked, drinking cider. "I still don't get how or why your consciousness didn't have any problems returning to your original body on Earth while we were in Provinence." Weiss said. "Honestly, I expected them to be vegetables if they full-on died, and I worked on Project Immersion." Mako added. "Well, I think it's safe to say that it's been a weird couple of months, right?" Vanoss questioned. The room collectively nodded. They suddenly heard the sound of a door opening, and a bell ringing. The whole room went silent after that. None of them said a word as Alex walked off to the front of the bar type area and sat down. "Hi, just a hot chocolate and a cinnamon muffin?" Alex asked, pulling out a few bits and handing them to Mr. and Mrs. Cake, the proprietors of the shop. "Sure. It'll be a few minutes for the hot chocolate, okay?" Mrs. Cake said, trying to act like Alex was just another normal customer. "Thanks." Alex sighed. He turned behind him, seeing everyone holding their mouths out of shock. "What?" Alex asked. Ruby leaned in and whispered in Weiss' ear. "Should I tell him?" She asked quietly "No, you dunce!" Weiss scolded, raising her voice. "I'll handle this." Yang turned to them both. "Bad idea." Blake dismissed, reading a book that Twilight had loaned her. "Alex... Let's just say you're looking a little..." Yang began nervously. "Don't say it." Alex scowled. "Stumped..." She said, instantly regretting the pun entirely. Alex inhaled sharply, looking as though he was visibly trying to control his temper before exhaling. "It's... This, isn't it?" Alex sighed, rolling up both sleeves, revealing to everyone that both of his arms were completely robotic. "Woah!" Delirious gaped. "Oh god, I thought it was just your hands!!" Pyrrha cringed visibly. "And that's not the best part!" Alex rolled up his pant legs. Just like his arms, both legs were entirely prosthetic. "Ooh! Sorry!" Rarity apologized. "Remarkable!" Twilight looked astonished. Vinyl had a similar reaction. "Are you two out of your minds?!" Weiss yelled at the ponies as they examined his new limbs. "A quadruple amputee, saved by extra-dimensional technology! It's amazing how Atlesian and Adenienite tech blend so well!" Vinyl beamed. "Yes, yes, I get it!! I'm literally Darth f**king Vader! Can we please chill out for five minutes!!" Alex demanded. Vanoss and his crew smirked at the reference, letting out a few laughs, much to Alex's irritation. Alex sighed, slumped over the counter, and let out a groan. "I'm sure there's another reason behind this, I mean besides you people gawking at my arms and legs." Alex turned to face his friends. Twilight nodded, pulling out a small journal and levitating it to Alex. "This is a handbook of the last surviving Inquisitors. Some were actually at the battle, others weren't. In any case, it would do some good to track them down-" Twilight began. "Anyone have a pen?" Alex asked. Nogla handed Alex a #2 pencil, and Alex opened the notebook and started writing inside of it. "What.. What are you doing?" Twilight wondered. "Let him do his thing." Rainbow shrugged. "I'm a bit curious myself.." Ren shook his head. Alex handed Twilight back the handbook after a few minutes, and she looked over at his 'adjustments'. List of Surviving Inquisitors KILL LIST Cinder Fall, AKA 'Sigma'; Remnant Neopolitan, AKA 'Phi'; Remnant Morning Star, AKA 'Delta'; Equestria Xavier Callan, AKA 'Upsilon'; Earth Ultimus Crux, AKA 'Zeta'; Adenien Tirek; Equestria Sombra; Equestria Salem; Remnant "This... You can't be serious, Alex!" Twilight groaned. "I'm serious. What, you think I'm f**king around?" Alex stared Twilight dead in the eye. Ruby picked up the notebook and handed it around. Yang sat there in place, staring intently at the notebook. "It's a hit list." Yang handed the book to Vanoss and crew. "You're joking! You can't expect us to go along with this!" Rainbow reprimanded Alex. "I don't. That's why I'm doing this alone." Alex scowled. "Doing what alone, Alexander?" Said Ozpin as he stepped inside the building, along with Qrow, Raven, and Sirius. "Read this and prepare to be pissed." Basically handed the book to the Professor, who closely examined the contents before sharply closing the book and giving it back to him. "We'll talk about this later." Ozpin stated. "So. I can only assume you're here for a reason, seeing as how you've got bodyguards tailing you." Alex blinked, unmoving. "I came to check on you, as well as my two most promising first-year teams. You all survived. I prepared you well.." He looked over Teams RWBY and JNPR, as well as the rest of the group. "Onto the real reason I'm here." Ozpin began. "Oh, god." Alex groaned. "I'm here to inform you that Princess Celestia has scheduled your trial for tomorrow." Ozpin said. "Trial?" Vinyl asked. "As in, court?" Alex wondered. "Yes. You're finally being tried for your quote-unquote 'crimes'. Including homicide, property damage, crimes against the state, and affiliation with a known terror organization." The Professor listed his crimes, and he suspected it would be a much longer list. "F**k." Alex face-palmed. "I'm not going to take anyone's side in this argument. That's ultimately for the court to decide. But, as they say, 'History is written by the victor'." Ozpin stated before leaving. "Where are you going? I thought we were going to discuss things!" Alex yelled. "When you are at home, and alone, we'll schedule an appointment." Ozpin called back before exiting the room. "Bye, Uncle Qrow! Bye, Sirius!" Ruby waved "Bye, Mom!" Yang waved to Raven. "Wait, 'Mom'?" Alex gaped. "You really couldn't tell this entire time?" Yang smirked. Alex groaned. "Talk about family issues.." "Your parents are dead." Yang retorted. "... Touché." "And so are both of your older brothers." Vanoss added. "Okay... Enough." Alex put a stop to that whole mess before it could begin. "Heh, sorry." Both scratched the backs of their heads nervously. The group talked for hours as pastries were bought and passed around. They talked about all the great times they had as a team, how and when they should meet up in the future, and, of course, their fates now that everything had mostly been cleaned up. Eventually, they all things to do and some needed to leave, so they dispersed, select groups going to other parts of town. Alex himself bought some root beer and grabbed .44 Scratch. It was time for his own personal ceremony. A seven-gun salute. He wandered away until he found an open field, Luna's moon shining brightly over the dark winter skies. The wind howled around him as he sat there, remembering everyone he lost. 'Mom... Dad... Karis... Cloudchaser and Flitter...' Alex shook his head, not wanting to let his grief get the better of him. He carefully loaded six rounds in the revolver, spun the chamber, and cocked it. He squeezed the trigger once, the bullet ascending to the skies, leaving behind nothing but it's sound, and the thin electric 'vapor trail'. 'To those I couldn't save... I'll never forget your sacrifice.' He cocked the revolver again, raising it to the skies and firing a second time, the gunshot echoing in his mind. 'To those who fought so fiercely for me.. Not out of greed or malice, but for what was right.' Alex steadily pulled the hammer back a third time, raising his arm and shooting again. Feeling his emotion well up inside of him again. Sadness overcoming him. 'To those I held dearly, only for them to vanish from my grasp so that I wouldn't vanish from theirs..' Alex fired again, holding back tears as he felt his metal limbs become harder to move in the cold. He slowly cocked the gun again, raising it to the skies in defiance. 'To those who fought not only for my sake, but the sake of their own friends..' Alex pulled the trigger a fifth time, letting one tear freeze on his cheek, only for him to flick it away. He sighed again, pulling back the hammer a sixth time. 'To those who went into the night.. And did not go quietly..' Alex shot the sixth bullet, pulling the cylinder out and inserting another cap into the revolver. He spun it and shoved the cylinder into place. 'Rest well, wherever you are, knowing that your deaths were not in vain.' As Alex fired, he heard another gunshot behind him. Alex turned around to find Yang standing behind him. "You okay?" She asked. "I'm fine." Alex sighed dismissively. "Right. You go out into the fields at night in the middle of winter with a six-pack and a gun and you expect me to think everything's fine." Yang chided. "I'm.. Just.. Keeping the ones we lost in mind." Alex told her. "Oh, is this one of those 21-gun salutes I heard about?" Yang asked. "You got me." Alex smirked. "So, what'd you bring? Oh. Root beer. I was expecting worse." Yang shrugged, funneling through his stuff and uncapping a bottle with her wrist bracelet. "You know I can't stand alcohol." Alex reprimanded. "Whatever you say, Admiral." Yang joked, "Cheers." Alex weakly raised his glass. "Cheers!" Yang yelled, clinking the bottle with Alex's own and taking a comparatively causal sip. . Alex smirked nervously, trying to find something else to stare at, for her own sake and his. "Hey, remember when Blake told you about... Well..." Yang began. 'Oh, dammit.' Alex thought bitterly. He remembered Alex's conversation with Blake on the Iliad, and remembered exactly what he said before. "Tell her, maybe after all of this is over, maybe we can talk." "She actually got around to telling you that, huh?" Alex asked. "Yep! And, besides, I heard from Twi and the others that you actually have a house." Yang recalled. "I do, actually. I got it as soon as I got to Equestria... Y'know, before... that." Alex shakily remembered. "So... What do you say? I think spending the night at your place seems better than staying outside in the middle of winter." Yang commented. Wait, what was that about spending the-? 'Oh, my god.' Alex realized in his mind. "Uhm... I need an adult." Alex stammered nervously in an attempt to dissuade her. "We're close to being adults." Yang smiled broadly. 'Dammit, Yang.' Alex thought regretfully as the girl grabbed his wrist and dragged him into Ponyville once more. Author's Note Sorry for not touching base on the last few chapters in this story. The chapter count is going to be the exact same as Act I. Meaning 26 chapters in total. And this is #24. That, plus an Epilogue is about 3 more chapters, two more before the end of Act III. It's sad, I know.. -The Destoyer Act III, Chapter 25: Admittance2150 hours; December 16, 2016 'I'm not quite sure how to respond to this...' Alex thought as he sat on the couch, with... God, even thinking about who was sitting next to him was enough to make him feel butterflies in his stomach! "Is there anything to do around here?" Yang asked, boredom practically dripping from her tone. "Not much, really. Except for those books and the record player. I've always been insanely busy, so this is the first time in months that I actually have nothing to do." Alex shrugged. "Really? No free time at all?" Yang wondered. "Between battle, planning, building armor and weapons, and keeping everyone in line, There was a hell of a lot to do. And there still is. Even after the court session." Alex figured. "Right... I've been thinking.." Yang began. "Thinking about what?" Alex asked. "I'll... Ask later. You know about Oz trying to get you in Beacon, right?" She asked. "Yeah, he told me in the medic tent. I think he said I could join next year." Alex replied. "Will you?" She pondered. "Technically, I should go when I turn 17, so maybe the year after that. And then I'll have one free year for community service or whatever they're sentencing for me." Alex said. "O-Oh... So I'll be a third year when you finally decide to.." Yang blinked. "I guess... But, hey. I don't wanna worry about that, now. Anything you want to do right now? And I mean that platonically. I'm just trying to be a good host!" Alex assured, the nervous expression on his face badly concealed. "Maybe there's something in town? I'm sure Ruby wants to know where I'll be for tonight." Yang figured "Where she'll be for tonight-- oh, GOD." Alex nervously twitched. "Heh heh... Right.." He stammered. "Well, let's get to it! I heard she was with Twilight and Blake in the library. She was always a bookworm." Yang thought fondly of her sister. "Where's Ice Queen and the 'MLG Brigade' at?" Alex wondered. "I heard they were hanging out at Applejack's place for cider. I still can't believe what happened.." Yang seethed. "What happened to her?" Alex asked. "I think Sigma snapped her spine, so she needed more enhancements." Yang recalled. "All the more reason to hunt her down.." Alex muttered darkly. "So, we're heading out?" Yang asked, preferring to stay off that subject, at least until later. "Sure... Let's go.." Alex nodded, throwing on a jacket and handing Yang a spare. -- The library wasn't too bad of a walk, snow fluttered down from above as the two walked, side by side, one closer than the other would like, to the Golden Oak Library. Alex steadily opened the door with one hand and held it open. "Thanks!" Yang smiled. "Just being polite.." Alex muttered nervously. Twilight welcomed them inside, with Spike hiding nervously behind her hind leg. "Is-Is that him..?" He gasped. "Yep. Hi Alex, Hi Yang! What brings you two here?" She asked. "Just looking for Ruby, you see her anywhere?" Yang replied. "Hi, Yang!" Ruby greeted her sister with a hug, who returned the gesture in kind. "Hi, Bro!" Ruby also gave him a hug, which Alex returned meekly upon hearing Ruby call him 'bro'. "Uh... Dear god.. Hi, Ruby.." Alex nervously replied, patting her back lightly. "Oh, come on! I meant that, y'know, like we're both sort of soldiers, now!" Ruby playfully slugged him in the shoulder. "Heh heh... I totally believe you, but.." Alex sweatdropped. "Is he always this sweaty?" Spike asked Twilight. "Since these two first met, it's actually kind of funny." Twilight smirked. "I like all of you, but, holy hell, you guys can be a bit much. No offense, Spike." Alex turned his attention to the small purple-and-green drake. "None taken." "Alex! Spike is still a baby!" Twilight scolded. "Yeah, I've heard kids younger than him drop F-Bombs like it's going out of style on CoD, so I'll take that advice with a grain of salt." Alex deadpanned. "Twilight, what are 'F-Bombs'?" Spike asked innocently. "Alex!!" "Oh, that's easy. It's this word called 'fu-'" Yang smiled earnestly. "Yang!!!" Twilight scolded her. "Oh, sure! It's fine when a 16 year old princess says it in the middle of a battle, but not two people in a household conversation!" Ruby rolled her eyes in a joking manner. "I'm 23 years old!" Twilight yelled. "I figured Twi was somewhere in her twenties." Alex shrugged. "Do you guys get the point?!" Twilight demanded. "All right, we're sorry." Yang smiled broadly. "Okay, is that all you wanted to do?" Twilight asked. "Yep. I was just going to tell Ruby that I'll be at Alex's place so she won't worry." Yang said. "She can come with, too. I have a guest bedroom, so I can sleep on the couch." Alex shrugged. "That sounds great-!" Ruby smiled. "Nope! That bed was destroyed...in the war, and I can't have him sleep on that uncomfortable couch all by himself!" Yang smiled. "For f**k sake, Yang!!" Alex yelled in his head. "Oh... I get it! I'll stay with Vinyl." Ruby smiled knowingly. "Not you too!" Alex groaned inwardly. Twilight and Spike both were holding in their laughter, holding their mouths with their hooves and claws. "Well, that's all we're here for! Let's head back!" Yang smiled, grabbing Alex by the back of the shirt. "Help... Me..." Alex pleaded. "Have fun, you two! But not too much!" Ruby yelled as they left the Library, Twilight and Spike's laughter muffled as the door slammed shut. -- "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Alex held in his screaming as he lay in his darkened bed, with a certain Huntress laying next to him. "So... Can I ask you a few questions?" She asked, turning her head to look at him. "Uh... Yeah... Sure thing.." Alex replied, his voice tight with awkwardness. "So... About that list you had earlier.." Yang's voice trailed off. "What about it?" Alex asked. "I was wondering... Why do you want to keep going through with this? Why keep stressing over this? The war's over, we won." Yang questioned. "Yang. I expected you of all people would know why, but.. Truth is, I really don't want anyone else hurt because of some idiot.. Not like-" Alex began. "Like us?" Yang asked. "Well... Yes and no.." Alex blinked. "What do you mean?" Yang wondered inquisitively. "I'll explain later.." Alex said. "No, Alex! I'm tired of all this 'I'll explain everything later' stuff! I know when something's bugging you, Alex. What's wrong?" She demanded in anger. Alex hesitated, recoiling from her outburst with more fear and nervousness. Yang noticed, and placed a hand reassuringly at his shoulder. "Come on... You know I'll try to understand." She begged at a lighter tone. Alex sighed deeply, looking her in the eye. "Yang... I don't know how to tell you this, so I'll just give you the facts. No more bullshit." Alex promised. "Okay..?" She waited intently, curious. "When I was in that crack... I met with... People from my past... And they told me that Alpha was actually a time traveller born about 6 years from now, and this time traveller knew all of us." Alex recalled. "Someone we know?" Yang wondered. "And when I fought Alpha... He... He took off his helmet, and.." Alex nervously remembered. "He looked like you, d-didn't he? He was... your son?" Yang realized, horrified. "Yeah... And that's not the worst part... His hair was a lot lighter than mine... And his eyes, near the pupils, his eyes were purple... Yang, he was yours too...I-I can't begin tell you how sorry I am..." Alex sighed. Yang trembled, hugging him tightly. "I... I never.." Yang tried comforting him to little avail. "It hurts like hell. I know... But.." Alex returned the hug as well. "It.. It all makes sense now! That's why you've been trying to avoid me more than usual lately! That's why you want to hunt down the Inquisitors even more..!" Yang concluded. "Now you get it. I want to be...Um...Around you... But fact of the matter is, I still have work to do before we can." Alex sighed. Yang hugged him again, pecking him lightly on the cheek, leaving Alex more nervous still. "Now.. I know it seems like you have to do this by yourself.. But I'm not sure you can do this all on your own.." Yang added. "I can't risk you, any of you for that matter, to fight with me anymore... I can't lose anyone else..." Alex grieved. "So that's it, then? You're just going to run in, alone, and lose another arm?! You almost died after your fight with Alpha! Do you get it, yet?! I spent 15 minutes bleeding from that cut Gamma gave me, and the doctors said I could've died from that, too! That was a walk in the park compared to what Alpha did to you! He completely shattered your arms, your legs, and depleted almost all of your Aura! If it hadn't been for Pyrrha and Nora messing with the medical scanners to power your healing, you actually would have died! Twilight, Ruby, and Vanoss should've shut you up and helped you! Maybe then, you wouldn't be more of a robot than you already are!!" Alex stared at Yang, completely lost for words, and slumped back down into his bed. He let out a ragged sigh before turning over, tossing the rest of the covers over to Yang's side of the bed. "What are you doing now?!" She asked, angered. "What's it look like? I'm going to sleep." Alex snapped back. "Not without a blanket! It's the middle of winter!" Yang screamed. "Winter, Schminter. Keep the covers. It's not like the robot needs any!" Alex retorted. Yang went silent for a moment, and Alex finally closed his eyes. "Look at me." She suddenly said. "Hm?" Alex blinked his eyes open. "Turn over and look me in the eye." Yang demanded. Alex fearfully obliged, only to find the blankets being thrown back over him and his head in her arms. "Look, Alex... I'm... I'm sorry... I know you think we'd be better off without you showing up, but if you can't stand losing any of us, imagine how we'd feel after losing you." Yang smiled, finally meeting lips. Alex could only stare, eyes wide with confusion, as she broke off. "I... Wha.... How..." Alex stammered. Yang smiled at him again. "So... Do you still want to be, quote, 'Around me'?" Yang asked. Alex barely needed to think about it. "Yang, I'd be happy to-" Alex began. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" A rainbow maned Pegasus crashed through their window at blinding speed, carrying with her, a certain Owl-Masked video game avatar. "Rainbow! What the hell was that?!" Vanoss yelled. "You were leaning on my right too far! I lost my balance!" Rainbow screamed back. "Guys.." Alex scowled. "At least I- Oh, shit." Vanoss groaned. "And now we're dead in the next five seconds because of you, Evan!" Rainbow yelled. "Oh..! Sorry, was I interrupting something?" Vanoss asked them. Alex stared daggers into Vanoss' owl mask eyes, red lightning occasionally flickered off of him, lighting the room in short bursts of time. "Shit. Shit! Run! Run!!" Vanoss yelled, diving out the window with Rainbow flying behind him. "Vanoss? Rainbow? What's with the commotion?" Vinyl asked from outside. "This blockhead got me off balance and we crashed into Alex's window." rainbow explained. "Were Alex and Yang doing anything I should know about?" Ruby wondered. "I think they were kissing or something, I don't know!" Vanoss answered. Alex walked over to the window, grabbing the inside storm shutters and slamming them shut, locking them and returning to his bed. "So, I heard a 'yes'." Yang smiled. "Um... You heard right.." Alex said. "Let's pick up where we left off." Yang smiled deviously. "Wait, what?" Yang kissed Alex again, catching him by surprise and hugging him. Alex still wasn't quite sure how to handle any of this. He had accepted the huntress three times, once during the battle and twice now, and he still wasn't sure how to respond. He had seen too much, failed too many times and, now that it was all over, had too much on his mind. 'Huh.. Maybe Kat and Iris had the right idea..' Alex thought as he embraced Yang in turn. -- Author's Note: Before any of you read further, no, they didn't do certain specific things. Just letting you know, this is still a T rated story, so none of that! Shame on you. -- *The Next Day; December 17, 2016; 1300 Hours, Ponyville Courthouse* "Court is now in session, the honorable Judge Bronze Scale presiding." The clerk said as Alex turned his attention to the Judge, a middle-aged bronze-colored unicorn. From Alex's understanding, he was the Princess' most trusted judge. "You may be seated." Judge Scale sighed, as if this session alone had been discussed over and over through these past months. Like U.S court, Alex had been entitled to a jury of his peers. Some, he recognized as members of the Coalition, or just regular soldiers and even regular Ponyville residents. He trusted them to decide what he actually deserved out of this, as he really only knew Weiss in that jury, and Alex trusted her about as much as he trusted, say, Rainbow. Alex himself rejected having a lawyer entirely. He read a bit of Equestrian law, but only enough to perform this one act. "In the case of Equestria vs. Walker, Admiral Walker, how do you plead?" The judge asked. Most of the Jury and the audience, including the rest of his friends, looked at Alex expectantly. "What do you think he's going to do?" Vinyl asked Yang. "I asked him yesterday, but he told me not to tell you what he was going to do." Yang replied. "Why?" "He said something like 'nobody will agree with this'." Yang answered. Alex sighed. "Admiral?" Judge Scale demanded again. "I plead guilty, your honor." Alex stared him dead in the eye. Most of the attendance started yelling in outrage. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Wildcat groaned. "Is he kidding?!" Rainbow gasped. "What..?" Blake sweatdropped. "Order!" Judge Scale pounded the gavel, silencing everyone in the room in a matter of seconds. "Admiral, do you know by pleading guilty you are losing your right to a jury trial?" "Yes, sir." Alex replied steadily. "Do you comprehend what surrendering that right means?" The judge asked again. "Yes, your honor." "Do you know you are also surrendering your right against incriminating yourself?" "Yes, I do." "Is anyone forcing you into that settlement?" The judge demanded. "No, your honor. I'm doing this of my own accord." "Are you pleading guilty because you, in fact, were involved in the assaults on this 'Area 51', The Canterlot Castle, and the residence of Princess Sparkle, as well as the murders of at least 120 humans and 21 Royal Guards?" Judge Scale asked again. "Yes, your honor." Alex sighed. The judge shook his head in disbelief, clearing his throat before reading off the sentence that the jury had provided. "Admiral Walker, you are hereby sentenced to 72 hours in prison, 30 hours of community service, and one year's probation, which will be provided to whomever you will train under after your stay in Ponyville Penitentiary and your community service. And you are hereby demoted to the rank of Captain." Judge Scale slammed his gavel, confirming the charge and sealing Alex's fate. In Alex's opinion, the sentence was a bit lighter than he would've thought. Now he knew what Ozpin meant when he said 'history is written by the victor'. Skirmish and another guard went to either side of Alex, intending to lead him out of the courtroom. "Hey, Skirmish." Alex nodded. "Adm- Captain.." Skirmish politely nodded as he was led out of the courtroom. -- "Captain, what were you trying to prove in that room?" Professor Ozpin asked from outside the cell door. Alex turned to face Ozpin with the facial equivalent of 'Are you f**king serious?'. "To be honest, I'm not trying to prove anything. I did, in fact, commit these crimes, and that was before the actual war. A friend once told me that there's too much wrong with the world to stand back and do nothing about it. I shouldn't be exempt from facing the consequences of my actions just because of a few superficial medals. And if you ask me, this," Alex lectured, gesturing to the stone cell around him,"This has been a long time coming." Ozpin narrowed his eyes and nodded. "I see. Now, may we speak to each other in private?" Ozpin asked the guard outside his cell, who stepped out, closing the door behind him. "I assume this is about that 'list'." Alex figured. "You are correct in this case, Alexander." Ozpin pulled out the booklet in question, turning to the list. "Now, I'm just curious, where did you hear about this... 'Salem'?" Ozpin wondered, dread heavy in his tone. "When I fought Alpha, he mentioned that she was among the Inquisition's highest benefactors, right along with King Sombra and Lord Tirek. You know something about this 'Salem', don't you?" Alex asked. Ozpin hardened his gaze. "Salem is described as the Queen of the Grimm, half human, half abomination. She intends to destroy humanity slowly, and, as we've been made aware recently, had been intending to use Cinder Fall and her subordinates to mount an attack on Vale during the Vytal Festival, which you prevented due to the war effort. You may have saved countless lives." Ozpin explained. "May I ask how you know?" Alex wondered. "An anonymous letter written to my office with the pseudonym 'Scion'. We've been unable to identify Scion or his motives, but it's generally believed he is the one who teleported you to Ponyville, where you could receive the necessary medical attention." Ozpin elaborated. "So, what happens now?" Alex wondered. "Do your time, for now. I've personally decided to search for a necessary mentor for you until you join us at Beacon Academy. Prepare all you can. And, most of all, if you are going to try and kill her, kill her last. She is the most dangerous entity in all of Remnant." Ozpin ordered as he began leaving. "And, Oz?" Alex asked. Ozpin quickly turned around. "I know you gave Pyrrha the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers. If you want my personal advice, she should be the one to kill Cinder." Alex sighed. Ozpin faced Alex, confused, before nodding and finally leaving the room. Author's Note Another chapter to the end. First off, Yang and Alex are 'officially' a thing now. I'm not sure how you guys are going to take this... Ah, f**k it. Posted. Secondly, Horse Prison. Third, Sequel? Meh, probably. I'm setting this up on what is basically a cliffhanger. -The Destoyer Act III, Chapter 26: Valedictions1500 hours; December 19, 2016; one mile outside of Ponyville, Equestria Alex and his friends gathered outside of Ponyville to say their final goodbyes. A teleporter had been placed on the outskirts to act as an gateway to and from Equestria, now that Public Dimensional Transportation was beginning to become widespread. The crowd of almost 30 had been grouped around, conversing among themselves. None of them could believe the biggest adventure of their lives thus far was drawing to a close. "So... Have you decided on what you're going to do?" Kat wondered. "As a matter of fact, I have," Alex began, "I'll spend the next week or two working at Sugarcube Corner in Pinkie's stead while she recovers in the hospital. Then, Oz finally got around to finding someone willing to train me until I go to Beacon." "Who did Ozpin convince to train you?" "Oz never really gave me any of the details, but he did say that they'd be a pain in the ass." Alex shrugged. "Did he actually say that?" "Nah, just paraphrasing." Alex admitted. Alex took a moment to listen to other people's conversations. "You know, Rubes. You're actually really cool to hang around. Maybe we can play the new CoD together if they somehow get online to work at Remnant." Vanoss smiled. "Aww! Thanks, Evan!" Ruby hugged the owl-masked Canadian. "Ow.. You're crushing my lungs..." He gasped. "Heheh.. Sorry.." Ruby smiled sheepishly. "Hey, Keep in touch, okay?" Twilight asked Weiss. "Of course, Princess." Weiss nodded respectfully, both bowing to each other. "So, hey. If you want, I can probably get you guys Wonderbolts tickets. I was finally accepted in the hospital room!" Rainbow Dash smiled happily. "Ooh, dude! Nice!" Wildcat congratulated. "I'm happy for you, Dash!" Yang ruffled Rainbow's mane. "Ah! Don't do that!!" Rainbow batted her wings to move Yang's hand. "Why, is that your pet peeve?" Yang smirked. "Aaaaahhhh!!" Rainbow screamed, irritated. "So, what are you going to do now?" Rarity asked Mako. "I'm going back to Earth. Someone has to clean up Hunter Smith's mess." Mako shrugged, referring to the new Chancellor of the North American Federation. "Ah, yes. I assume Revolution is a tedious thing to clean up after. At least Princess Celestia was able to bring Ponyville back to it's former glory after 3 weeks of Red Star occupation." Rarity figured. "Alex..?" Blake asked. Alex stood up off the ground to face the Faunus of Team RWBY. He knew that Blake didn't necessarily approve of his methods and tactics, even to the point of comparing him to Omicron. He privately wondered what she would have to say about his sentence. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't be comparing you to.. You know who, but.." Blake stuttered. "Blake, listen. I know we may not always see eye-to-eye about these kinds of things. And that's fine. I really don't mind who or what you compare me to. You do you, and I'll do me," Alex explained, "Just... promise me that if I ever end up like any of them, try to be the second or third to try and get my shit together." "I understand.." Blake figured. Alex raised his hand, which Blake held and, with a hint of uncertainty, shook. A sign of mutual respect between the two. "It was an honor fighting alongside you, Ms. Belladonna. Godspeed." Alex nodded. "Good luck." The two eventually broke off and went their separate ways. Twilight flew to Alex, landing next to him and wrapping a wing around his back. "Hey, Alex.. I'll miss you, you know.." Twilight wing-hugged him. "Relax, Twi. I still have community service at Sugarcube Corner." Alex smiled. "Oh... Oh yeah.." Twilight remembered. "Hey, Alex!" Rainbow flew over to Alex, crashing into him. "Ow... Hi, Dash.." Alex rubbed his forehead. "Hey! So, uh... I was wondering, There's a Wonderbolt show up in Cloudsdale next month, I was wondering if you wanted to, maybe you could come.." Rainbow figured. "I'll be training by then, but I'll bring it up with my mentor. I'm sure they'll understand." Alex nodded. "Okay, then. Here's two tickets, in case he, or she, wants to see it too." Rainbow handed him the tickets, which he slid into his back pocket. Alex shook her hoof. "Thanks, Dash. For everything." Alex nodded, pulling her into a hug. "A-Ah!" She gasped in surprise "Hey, don't forget who got you your gun and your armor!" Vinyl ran over to Alex, hugging him. "Oh, right! Hi, V!" Alex greeted, hugging her back. "By the way, this is Octy. She's my roommate." Vinyl introduced a brown earth pony with a black musical note as a Cutie Mark. "Hello, Admiral.." She greeted. "It's Captain, now." Alex reminded. "Oh, right.. The trial.. I can't imagine how you must feel.." 'Octy' shuffled her hooves. "Meh, the war's over. The title's practically meaningless now." Alex shrugged. "I see.." Octavia nodded. "Heads up!" Yang yelled from across the crowd as Ruby tackled him. "A-Ah!" Alex screamed. "Oh my gosh! I'll miss you, Alex! Promise me you'll keep in touch!!" Ruby stammered. "Woah! Hey! Easy! Of course I'm going to talk to you guys! Who else can handle my effed-up head?" Alex shrugged. "Thanks, Alex!" Ruby hugged him again, handing him a rose-colored card with a few scroll numbers written on it with the words 'Xiao Long/ Rose' written on top. "See you in a couple years!" Alex waved. "Seems like she likes you, too." Kat mocked. "Kat. Stahp." Alex blinked. "See you in a few years, Alex!" Nora latched onto his back like a spider monkey. "Get off me!" Alex screamed in shock. "NORA!!" Ren yelled, dragging her off of Alex. "Thanks, Ren." Alex gasped. "Someone has to keep her in line." Ren stated. Alex stood up, scarcely breathing when Yang finally tackled him and pulled him into a kiss. The kiss lasted only a few seconds until Yang finally allowed him to breathe. Alex gasped for breath and when it seemed like his breathing had finally settled, he spoke. "What is up with you people and tackling me?" Alex puffed. "Oh, lighten up. This might be the last time we see each other for a few years." Yang smiled at first before looking disappointed and almost sad. "Hey. I promise we'll keep in touch. I'll call every chance I get without raising your bill." Alex promised. "I'll hold you to that." Yang glared. "Of course." Alex smiled. Alex pulled her into a kiss, even more passionately than Yang had started with, this time, lasting much longer. "There are children present!" Twilight shouted. "Screw the children! We're in the middle of something!" Alex broke off for just that moment before... Yeah, you get the idea.. "Okay, okay! We get it! Long distance relationship shit!" Delirious yelled. "Delirious!" Rainbow shuddered. "Come on! I don't want Ruby to be the next me!" Delirious yelled. "Haha! Classic CaRtOoNz!" Vanoss remembered. "Actually, I think it's too late!" Lui said, pulling a picture of Ruby wearing a hockey mask during the Halloween party on the ship. Both charged at him, screaming and hollering, "Get back here!!" Ruby screamed in mock anger. "F**k you, little monkey bitch!"Delirious yelled. "All eyes are on them.." Yang smiled deviously. "What- OH GOD-!" Yang forced her lips against Alex's one more time before finally breaking off, leaving his mouth tasting like strawberries. "Welp. Best thing ever to come out of this shit show..!" Alex huffed. Pulling himself up. "All aboard for Geo Vector 0-1!" The Controller yelled. The Controller was the pony who would coordinate which dimension one would go, when he called up the dimension of choice, the attendees would step through the portal. Kat hugged Alex before repeating this with everyone, whereas Mako resorted to simply shaking everyone's hand, or hoof. Vanoss and crew said their goodbyes, and when everyone was ready, twelve people stepped through the portal to Earth. "I'm going to miss those assholes." Alex nostalgically reminisced. "We're up next.. We should at least make it count.." Yang smiled. "I'm with you there. I'll miss you." Alex smiled back. Alex and Yang hugged, Alex himself a bit upset that he needed arm replacements, instead of being able to actually feel any of it. Yang didn't seem to mind, and when Alex attempted to move in order to feel more at ease, she moved along with. Ruby eventually joined in, not out of intimacy with Alex, but just for the sake of being with her sister. Alex respected the thought, and shuffled for room between him and his partner. "All aboard for Oum Alpha 0-12!" Yang and Ruby stood up, with all of them saying their goodbyes before stepping a few feet away. Yang instantly spun around, running to hug Alex in what would be their last embrace for at least another 2 years. With one last parting kiss to the cheek, Yang followed her teammates into the portal. Alex waved goodbye as he saw more of his friends leave for their homes. The portal finally closed, as no other entrances or exits were being scheduled for today, leaving Alex and the rest of the Ponyville Party to return to their homes. *December 24, 2016; 2300 hours* Alex had finally sold his house. It had been a rough couple of weeks, but he had successfully managed to sell it to Skirmish, who had been having some difficulty find a suitable place. He sold it for pretty cheap compared to what it was actually worth. He just wanted to sever his ties to this place, as he found this method the least painless. He still thought about how Yang's severance had affected him. He couldn't put Twilight and the others through something similar, but he at least had the decency to write a letter to Twilight explaining his disappearance, which he demanded Skirmish deliver herself the next day. But truthfully, he still felt horrible about leaving in the dark of night like this. "Ticket?" The Controller asked. Alex handed him the small card, with his name, age, and his destination listed on it. The Controller took the card, stamped it, and kept it under a desk before opening the portal. "Interesting choice of dimension. I can't imagine it would be any good living there." The Controller nodded. Alex stepped to the portal, sighing sorrowfully. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I bid you adieu, Equestria.' Alex thought, stepping through the portal. Author's Note I hate goodbyes. Actually, it isn't goodbye yet. There's still the epilogue. And a Sequel. And various unaffiliated one-shots i figure I should write to keep in practice. Now to brainstorm other 1000-2000 word stories just to say I'm still active on this site! -The Destoyer Act IV, Epilogue: Ashes of War Act IV, Epilogue: Ashes of War *December 25, 2016* Dear Princess Twilight, If you are reading this, this means Skirmish delivered this message, I left in the middle of the night and sold her the old house. I sincerely apologize if I caused you any worry. As you know, my sentence, as well as my service to Ponyville, is at an end. I have moved along, as we all must one day, but I will never forget what you, and your, our, friends, have done for me. When I first entered your world, I was only a blind coward, fearing for my life and expecting everything to go wrong, which, of course, it did. But it wasn't what transpired before my enemies banded together, but after, that have truly touched me. You and your friends had shown me mercy, integrity, adherence, joy, and selflessness after you realized your error, and as you forgave me my transgressions, I forgave yours. I guess that's this 'Magic of Friendship' you ponies keep going on about. But, of course, I will come and visit whenever I have the chance. And I will tell everyone about what new joys have since met my presence, and what matters I'll take with you. And, when the day comes, we'll meet again, to fight the forces that feed on chaos as a team. But, unfortunately, like how I shall never forget the good you all have shown me, I shall never forget the evils that dwell within me as well. I'm still tortured at night by inner demons and my own fears. My condition, though it has improved substantially, is still unfavorable. Princess, what I'm trying to say is, your teachings have been invaluable to someone such as myself, who has, since that awful day so many months ago, has grown into so much more than a scared kid waiting for when everything fell apart, with friends and even a lover by my side. This, princess, I won't soon forget. But through all of the blessings in my life, these blood red shadows will haunt me always. Your faithful student, Captain Alexander G. Walker P.S. Happy Hearth's Warming... I heard that was a thing, so... I'm horrible with holidays. I'm sure you can tell. -- Gmod Guess Who, Yang Rage, Channel Update: We're Back! "Hey, what is up guys? Vanoss here. And I just wanted to let you know that I'm back! I survived the whole war and everything. My friends are also back and everyone's fine, and I just wanted to let you know that now that we're all here with all of our old equipment, we should be making videos normally again. Be sure to check out my new friends' channels RWBYOnline and KatPlays, be sure to leave a like, and I hope you enjoy the video." Vanoss said, voicing over Garry's Mod footage in the background. The rest of the video had featured Vanoss, his friends, as well as Blake and Yang, playing the game as if nothing had happened prior to their return.The video got at least double it's usual viewership and the comments were mostly positive, congratulating the gang on surviving what should have been, and could have been, the apocalypse. As Blake and Yang were playing video games with Vanoss and the others, Weiss was writing to her father about what had happened, and that she survived the ordeal, as well as a plea to stay at the Academy. Ruby herself had been talking to Twilight what was happening, as well as when they would be coming to see Rainbow's first flight show as an official Wonderbolt. Ruby was ecstatic at the thought, and texted as many people as possible seeing when they would show. "AT LEAST LET ME GET SOME FOOTAGE FOR THE CHANNEL, EVAN!!" Yang flared in anger. "Yang, calm down." Blake dismissed. "Will you two be quiet?! Can't you see I'm trying to concentrate!!" Weiss yelled, having moved onto studying. Ruby couldn't help but laugh a little, similar to the rest of Vanoss' friends who she could actually hear through Blake's and Yang's headphones, as she finished up her text and sent it to Twilight. Kat and Mako had long since returned to Earth, received their medals, hailed as war heroes, and once Kat had voiced her desire to help rebuild the country. Chancellor Smith had given her a job as a Senator for the Federation's new Parliament, and Mako had been provided with the duty of spearheading the nation's military and Intelligence programs, as the Federation was still young and, unfortunately, retained the same political enemies from when the United States was still the dominating power of the region. At the moment, though, Smith, Kat, and many others were all still working on a new constitution, taking pointers from history as well as from Celestia and the councils on Remnant, as well as Supreme Leader Krete from Adenien, all of whom agreed to help the young nation until it would be determined that the Federation didn't need it anymore. At the moment, though, Kat was filling Mako in on all of the progress that they were getting through on the constitution. "All in favor of retaining the right to free speech, free press, and freedom of religion?" Hunter asked of the other senators and delegates. "Aye!" The uproar had been unanimous. "Motion carries!" Hunter announced as he quickly began typing out the new constitution -- Twilight and her friends had all gathered at the town square, unveil a memorial that all the craftsmen had been working at for days to remember the ponies, and humans, who gave their lives for the defense of Equestria. Twilight and Mayor Mare had been given their speeches, the statue was unveiled, of humans and ponies, fighting side by side, forever immortalized in stone at the center of the town square. "...And let us remember our heroes, and honor their memory forever.." Twilight finished. Cake had been passed, conversations had been exchanged, memories shared. Skirmish had been eating a slice of cake by herself, with only her mother, when Twilight stepped towards her. "P-Princess!" Skirmish bowed. "Come on, there isn't need for any of that. We're friends, right?" Twilight had said. "I... I guess you're right." Skirmish sat down. "Listen.. I'm sorry about what happened to Ember and the others.. There was nothing you could've done.." Twilight sighed. "And that's the worst part.." Skirmish sighed. "L-Listen.. I want to promote you to the Equestrian Honor Guard.." Twilight spat out quickly. Skirmish's ears swiveled in surprise. The Honor Guard consisted of Royal Guardsmen hand-picked by the four Alicorns, and we're often chosen to do the most dangerous work, most of which was meant to be kept secret. The Honor Guard were held in very high regard, hence the name. "I... Thank you, Princess..!" Skirmish bowed again. "It's the least I could do." Twilight smiled. "I won't let you down, princess!" Skirmish stood proudly. "I know you won't." Alex was led up the mountainsides of Expectans, a rather misty and cool part of Vitylis, a dimension that was at least somewhat like Remnant, in terms of the constant monster attacks. Expectans itself reminded Alex of coastal England due to the persistent rainy weather. "Boy, we are almost at the top! Hurry up!" His mentor, an aging, somewhat bitter, and persistent ex-Adenienite migrant by the name of Canis. Ozpin had asked Canis to train Alex, and had offered him a lot of money for him to do so. Alex eventually claimed up the moist and slippery ridge to the top of the mountain. Canis never explained to Alex why they were going up there, but Canis only told him to, quote, "never mind all that and hand me the pickaxe". Once Alex had finally pulled himself up, he was standing in front of a small wooden-and-concrete shack that looked like it could only fit two people. The shed out back was filled with what appeared to be combat gear and metal. "Hey, Master Canis? If I may ask, why are we up here?" Alex asked politely. "Boy, welcome to your new home for the next year. This place has got it's own metalwork shop, combat training area, and comms tower." Canis answered. "Comms tower..?" Alex wondered. He didn't really see any defining features, and the shack, in no way, shape, or form, looked like it had any of that inside. "Yes, boy. It's multidimensional, so you could talk to anyone you wish. Now, didn't you say you had a little girlfriend or something?" Canis snapped back. "Er... Yes. Why?" Alex asked. "Test the stupid thing out for me. What good is a nonfunctioning comms rig in the middle of this dump? Hurry now, before I change my mind!" Canis yelled. 'This is going to be a long year,' Alex thought glumly as he straightened his back and nodded. "Yes, Canis." Alex nodded, running inside. Once stepping inside, he scraped the mud off his boots, hung up his wet coat, and removed his soaking wet over shirt, leaving only a tank top that showed both of his mechanical arms. He tied the over shirt to his waist and searched for the comms area, which was likely downstairs, a downstairs which Alex only knew about because of the open door revealing a dimly lit stairwell. Alex quickly ran down the stairs, and turned to the right, only to be surprised by the sight of a rather futuristic and expansive basement. A large square ring with various droids hung on the walls indicated a training area, and a large interface with numerous screens meant some kind of communications rig. Alex stepped over, pressed the on button, and sat down. "Hello, Alex Walker, this is Andromeda. how may I assist?" Andromeda asked. "Andromeda? Weren't you the A.I on the Iliad after it went kaput?" Alex asked. "Yes, it is good to see you again. So, who do you want to talk to?" Andromeda wondered. Alex quickly cleared his throat. "Yang Xiao Long of Oum Alpha 0-12?" Alex asked. "Interesting choice... Did you two finally-" Andromeda prattled on. "Yes. We sorta got together after the battle.." Alex groaned in reply. "I was wondering when you'd finally get the message. I'll dial her up for you." The screen quickly changed to a dial tone before a camera feed from Yang's scroll finally materialized on screen. "Oh, hey Alex! I didn't think I'd see you for a while, how's training?" Yang waved. 'Oh, Damn it, it works.' Alex thought. "Hi. My mentor wanted me to check to see if this comms rig actually worked, so I figured it would be nice just to check in on you guys. How's everything at Vale?" Alex asked. "Everyone's finally starting to relax and everything. Most of the businesses in Vale reopened, the Vytal Festival was scheduled for next year, and they finally patched up Beacon so classes finally started back up. Where are you at, anyways?" Yang wondered. "Some mountain up in Vitylis. It's cold and rainy as hell out here." Alex shrugged. "And you're stuck there for the next year. Starting to regret waiting?" Yang asked. "I have to keep up my strength or I won't be ready in case Cinder finally get her shit together and attacks you guys or something." Alex sighed. "Calm down. I mean, we arrested Torchwick a few months back, and nothing's really happened since the battle. I mean, the White Fang is starting to mellow out so I don't see any reason to worry. It's all over." Yang scoffed. "I still can't help but feel like something is still wrong, something big." Alex admitted. "You worry too much. Most of us made it, and everything's starting to be rebuilt. Just relax for once." Yang smiled. "As much as I'd like to, I still can't shake the feeling that something else is going to tear all this down... " Alex sighed. He knew he felt something, and when Alex had a gut feeling, he usually wasn't far off. What could possibly be going on..? -- Roman Torchwick sat in his cell, bored out of his mind as per usual. "This is so non-canon it hurts." He groaned. 'Roman..! You will be haunted by three gho-o-osts..! And they're all us.' Emerald's voice taunted as Mercury, The White Fang Lieutenant, and herself appeared in front of him. 'Hi.' All three said at once. "Salem-dammit, I hate Christmas." Roman groaned. Roman soon heard a series of loud explosions, and they were close. "Stop them from getting Torchwi-" An Atlesian guard fired his assault rifle before being shot through the skull. Thinking quick, Roman ducked, only to find Cinder, Neo, and a third person he could not see pry open his cell door. "Took you long enough, Cinder." Roman scoffed as Cinder led him out. "Roman. It's nice seeing you again, but unfortunately, our plans have been halted.." Cinder began. The third person and Neo grabbed him by his arms and sharply pulled him up. Neo handed him his cane, and they set off for the escape pods on the now-burning Atlesian Airship Roman had been imprisoned in, hundreds of guards poured out of every door, firing their weapons, but unable to do anything as the four escaped off the Airship as Cinder typed the coordinates. "So, what now?" The third person, an armor-clad warrior asked. "We'll go back and lick our wounds. We'll let Ozpin, and his brats, and the Adenienite think they've won, until we finally show them they're wrong." Cinder replied, eyes glowing a sinister orange color. "I'm coming for you, Alex Walker." Blood Red Shadows By: The Destoyer Author's Note It's over... It's done.. Well, that was 9 months well spent. How about you guys? By the way, as I already said, there will be a sequel. But there's a small catch. I need a bit more experience before I get back into this story. As I mentioned in a comment, I admittedly tried a multi-crossover fan fiction way, way too early. I kinda bit off more than I could chew with this. Bit it was really cool to see how much you guys enjoyed the story! I was happy with a lot of the positive comments and I loved answering your questions. I look forward to seeing you guys in some of my future stories. Now to actually like and favorite other people's stuff and think about silly one-shots to pass the time. Edit: I added a small segment (That I've since made adjustments to) hinting the sequel. Figured I should've added all of that earlier, but hindsight is 20/20. -The Destoyer Act IV, Sequel Announcement: And apparently, THIS is now happening. Author's Note: The following is (probably) non-canon. Be warned. *Expectans, Vitylis; March 31, 2017, 3:15 PM* Alex dodged the attacks of numerous drones. This was a small, essential part of Canis' training that has been implemented into Alex's daily schedule. His goal was to take out as many of them as he could without using his abilities. It served to enhance his natural strength and speed for a better outcome in the future. The main problem was the fact that his mechanical arms and legs worked exactly like natural muscles, and with his arms and legs hacked off, he would have to start from the ground up if he wanted to be strong enough to take on Cinder. The good news was these new arms and legs were able to get much stronger than an average human's in a much shorter amount of time. "Keep at it, boy! You've gotten soft! Is Fall really goin' to let you take a breather durin' your grudge match?!" Canis ordered. Alex ducked to avoid a drone's leg, grabbing both limbs and knocking it onto it's back. Alex stood up, he robot still in his hands, and spun it around, taking out as many robots as he could before stomping on it's neck. "0% Remaining, damage to neck and spinal cord." the robot chirped as Alex reared his fist back, punching the robot square in the chest and ramming his foot through the robot's chassis. "0% Remaining, chest cavity ruptured." The robot crumpled to the ground. "Damn.." Canis gaped. Alex got on his hands and wrapped his legs around a drone's neck, twisting sharply and pulling it to the ground. "0% Remaining, damage to neck and spinal cord." Alex got hit in the back, causing him to stagger to the ground. Enraged, he charged at the drone, punching it in the face repeatedly and denting the chassis. "0% Remaining, damage to skull and brain." "Alright, that's enough for today, Walker." Canis turned off the drones, letting Alex get up. "Ok, what's next?" Alex asked. "Always the inquisitive one, you are. You'll be having a guest teacher for the next two weeks. You'll be transferred to another universe temporarily to train with this guest teacher." Canis recalled. "Okay.. Who's my guest teacher?" Alex asked. Canis shuddered. "Popo.." Canis nervously said. "What?" Alex asked. "...Popo.." "I can't hear you, Canis. Can you speak up?" Alex asked. "He's talking about me." A voice said behind Alex. Alex turned around to see... Alex wasn't sure how to describe this person. "Hiiiiii..." The figure greeted. "Um... Who is that?" Alex asked. "That is.. That is Mr. Popo.." Canis fearfully said. "TFS version or Original?" Alex wondered. "Abridged version." Canis answered. "Oh... Oh dear god... Is this really canon?" Alex asked. "For your sake, I hope not." Canis replied. *Vale, Remnant; March 22, 2018; 1:30 PM* "...And that's how I ended up with Mr. Popo. I thought my nightmares were bad already, but holy shit, I almost can't sleep at night knowing those eyes are peering into my soul..." Alex shuddered. "So, what did this 'Mr. Popo' guy make you do?" Yang asked, curious. Alex hyperventilated, tearing up slightly. "Um... Alex?" Yang asked again, concerned. Alex let out a small whimper. "C'mon! Just tell me what happened so I can help you! I swear, you haven't changed from when we first met.." Yang muttered, rolling her eyes. "FIRST RULE OF POPO'S TRAINING: DO NOT TALK ABOUT POPO'S TRAINING!!!" Alex cried, yes, cried. "Alex, tell me all about why you're crying, okay buddy?" Yang comforted him as best as she could, pulling him into a hug. "SECOND RULE OF POPO'S TRAINING: DO NOT EXPLAIN POPO'S TRAINING!!!!" Author's Note Yeah, I have some good news to those who enjoyed this tale of a kid in way over his head. But bad news to those who either didn't like it, or those who have already gotten through about 35 chapters of my crap only to discover there is more crap. The Sequel has Landed! By now, there are eight chapters, some of the promises I made for this have been kept, and at this point, I'm just trying to get the word out for it. 'till next time! -The Destoyer Act 0, Prologue: Of Omens and Massacres"Who's there?" This was a question seldom heard from the princess of the sun. Despite knowing full well she was asleep, it was still unnerving to feel an unknown presence in her dreamscape. Just then, a tall, bipedal creature revealed itself to Celestia. She knew about Humans from her pupil's writings about them, as well as her own knowledge. But still the question remained; why was a human inside her dreams? "Calm yourself, I am not here to hurt you, Celestia." The being uttered. "So why are you here?" Celestia inquired, despite her anxiety, she had to know what this creature wanted of her "I am but a messenger," The Human continued, "I am here to speak of what is to come." Okay, now this was just scary. A 'messenger' speaking of future events, what if what the human said entailed the destruction of her people? Now she absolutely had to know. For the sake of her people if nothing else. "I'm listening, spirit." "There will be a time of great distress for you, as well as all that exist. But if you adhere to what is right, and your champions are truly strong, Everyone will survive." What did this spirit mean by 'great distress'? If she didn't know, she will have failed. "What sort of distress, messenger? The fate of everyone is at stake!" Celestia asked, if she allowed anything to happen to Equestria and she was unprepared for it, she would never forgive herself. "A fearful spirit shall enter this nation, you must let him face his tormentors without interloping. The problem will take care of itself, if you allow it." -July 8, 2016- Senator Locke sat comfortably at his seat in his tent, Like many of his fellow officials and businessmen, protected from mosquitoes and gnats buzzing around the surrounding forest. This was the Bohemian Grove, where the most powerful men in the world flew to this safe haven in the redwood forests to take a break from their jobs. He walked up to one of the many tables to speak with his friend, General Wesson. "Hey, Tom!" He calmly greeted. "Devin, how are you settling in to the grove?" Wesson replied. Locke wasn't entirely sure how to answer that, it was very unusual to see his power-hungry co-workers chatting like old friends, which usually meant something very illegal was going on. "Can't complain, how's 51 treating you?" Locke answered. Wesson was apparently asked to oversee a project at the infamous Area 51. "'Weaving spiders come not here', Devin. Besides, I really don't want to risk dying, these C.I.A guys are tough. 'Classified' this and 'Top Secret' that, you know how it is." "Whatever you say, Thomas." Locke rolled his eyes. The next sounds he heard were really out of place in the Grove. The unmistakable sounds of gunfire and the screams of the dying. "Now, Be honest with me here, Tommy, are these the C.I.A killers you're talking about, because I didn't say anything." Locke nervously joked Wesson handed him a gun, it looked like a Colt .45, not that Locke knew about weapons "Can it, Locke. We gotta go!" Wesson ordered. Locke and Wesson sprinted towards one of the many planes in the makeshift airfield as they shot at attackers, surprisingly killing a few. Upon reaching a plane, Wesson looked inside the plane while Locke kept watch. Wesson ran out, terrified. "The plane's rigged with explosives! MOVE NOW!!!" The plane, along with several others, exploded in a fiery whirlwind. Setting the trees on fire and killing more people. Just then, Locke got an Idea; "There's a river nearby, if we can make it there and hijack one of the boats at one of the docks, we might just make it out of here!" just then. Searing pain blew through his knee and deftly went out the other side. Effectively crippling Locke as he watched Wesson suffer a similar fate. One of the attackers walked up to Wesson, grabbing him by the shirt collar, this mercenary was really young, roughly a teenager with ash blonde hair. "You know who we are, General Thomas Wesson?" He asked with a hint of malice in his voice. "Yes, I do, you're members of the Kahn Militia, you're criminals!" "Then you know what we want." "You're insane, Even I'm not sure what is going on over there." The mercenary shot his old friend in the forehead, killing him instantly. He then pulled up his walkie-talkie. "Anyone else in this bug-ridden forest who knows about Project Odyssey?" Locke was smart enough to act dead, as to find out what it is they were trying to accomplish. "Yes, sir. Meet us by the shrine, we have a hostage here who's telling us everything." The man on the other end responded. "Good work, Mordecai, on my way." The mercenary walked away, leaving Locke behind, badly wounded, but with a mission on his mind. -One day later; Reynold, Oregon- Like many people, Alex Walker sat at his couch, watching the news. The Bohemian Grove Massacre had devastated the nation in one night. Only about 50 people survived out of the 2000 who attended. And one of the survivors just happened to be a senator. The survivor, now in the hospital, is about to deliver a speech to The American People. "My fellow Americans, it is with a heavy heart that I give this speech. The Kahn Militia expertly planned this attack on the American people. They've crippled the government, the military, and business all in one night. This act shall not go unpunished, as most of the perpetrators were living near the Grove, I hereby demand that the states in the Pacific Northwest call for martial law, any person suspected to be a part of the attack is to be convicted without trial, and imprisoned. I also demand any remaining military leaders to form a Task Force dedicated to killing these murderous crusaders before any other damage is done. The road to recovery will be long and difficult, but if we take these precautions, Justice will soon be served." Author's Note And here we are, the series has landed! Act I, Chapter 2: Welcome to the Show'It has been two hours since Jäger, Mordecai, and Kat picked me up. How long is this flight?' Alex thought to himself. He was now in a helicopter, on his way to the center of Kahn Militia HQ, from what he could remember, it was somewhere on the California-Nevada border. He was still curious as to why Kat saved him, but he was in no place to ask. "Glad we have the militia back up to full strength, the Task Force that Locke ordered has been getting closer to finding us." Jäger said. "What task force?" Alex asked, this was bad, if there really was someone hunting him, he was in trouble. "Task Force Crimson. Those mercs caught me creepin' out near the Pacific, that's how I was captured." Mordecai spat angrily "The C.I.A basically hired some of their old Operators and say, 10,000 other PMC guys, formed a task force dedicated to bringing us and anyone who helped us down. Mordecai's just mad that they got him so quick, you must've been arrested very early on to not know what Task Force Crimson was, who carried out your arrest?" "Agent Winchester and the FBI. Crazy pricks burned my house down." Alex responded. "We're here, gang." Jäger announced. The base looked like an old warehouse in the woods, they had to land on a duct tape circle to land. I was helped out by Kahn Militia medics and Kat. Alex was taken inside the warehouse, there a middle aged man walked out, and this guy looked like he had been in active combat at least once. "Kat, welcome back, who's the kid?" The man asked her. "Alex, this is our leader, Colonel Silas Kahn. He fought in Operation Desert Storm before he formed the Militia." Kat told Alex. Well, at least he assumed correctly "Sir, this is Alex, the Feds thought he was Jäger and captured him." "Really? How could they mess that up?" Kahn asked Kat, to be honest, even Alex himself didn't see the similarity between him and Jäger. Kat shrugged, and walked to a makeshift booth of weapons. Kahn turned to Alex. "Welcome to the Militia, Private. Just call me Silas." He insisted, "Okay, Silas, is there anything I can do?" Alex asked. "Our battle plans won't be presented 'till 9:00, grab yourself a weapon and uniform." "Okay, sir." Alex politely replied back, he headed towards the booth Kat was in. Kat herself was currently holding a Barrett M82, with a small carving of a cat on the scope of the gun. "Hello, Private Walker, Corporal Anderson was just telling me about you, what would you like?" The man inside said. He looked at the vast array of rifles and Machine guns, he knew a good amount of them by name. Until he knew exactly what this mission was, he better take an all around weapon. "I'll take the Scar-H with the M203 launcher and the ACOG scope." Alex told him, pointing to the rugged battle rifle with the grenade launcher welded under the barrel. The Armorer grabbed the weapon off the wall, grabbed a bandolier of grenades, he then handed him some mags and a dozen boxes of rounds. "How about a pistol?" The Armorer asked. This time, at least the choice was obvious. "The Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum?" Alex requested. He had some experience with the revolver before. He knew he could handle the recoil. The Armorer handed him the revolver, some boxes, and a holster. "Thank you." Alex said as he put on the holster and the bandolier. "You seem to know a lot about firearms." Jäger said. "Not really, aside from what I was taught." Alex admitted. "Anyways, it's time for the briefing." Jäger told him. Alex ran into the room and sat down in a spot "Okay, team." Silas began, "Today we'll talk about our biggest attack yet. Our target is the Infamous Area 51. Our mission is to find 'Project Odyssey', or as many know it, Die Glocke. Our hacking division discovered that the machine was sold to the U.S by Russia, and They are currently testing it, this is out only opportunity to find out what they are planning to do with it. One team will fly in with C-17 planes filled with explosives, draw as much attention away from us as possible, then, The other teams will blow holes in the rooftops and fight their way inside. If our sources are correct, the machine is an Inter-dimensional transporter. The machine must be destroyed before the Government can cause harm to anyone. Base team 1 will consist of Myself, Jäger, Mordecai, Kat, Alex, and O'Leary. Base invasion team 2 will be Samuels, Kaiser, Thorne, Stanley, and Rogers. Move out!" -Meanwhile- Twilight had just received her letter from Princess Celestia a couple hours ago, and was currently asking her friends, the Elements of Harmony, if they had seen anything strange. Like her, most of them hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, which was different because usually they don't last a week without anything going wrong. "Are you sure none of you have seen or heard anything?" Twilight asked again, for the millionth time. "Um, no...thankfully." Fluttershy said. She, like most, was glad nothing went wrong. The animals needed here care, not another scary adventure. "Once again, no, Twilight, I didn't see anything." Rainbow moaned, exasperated to the point where she just wanted to fly out of the window and into a cloud bed. "None of you have seen anything?" "No!" Everyone practically yelled, like Rainbow, they wanted to leave, they all had plans that night and didn't need their friend's paranoia butting in. "If you're sure." Twilight sighed. If there really was nothing, why would Celestia tell her to look out? -September 12, 2016, 0400- Alex, now on his first mission, was drowsy from the early morning start, the helicopter was getting closer, they had to leave early to accommodate for the planes, the base was in eyesight when he noticed two large explosions, and dozens of soldiers flocking over to investigate. "I saw explosions!" Alex shouted, at least he wasn't on board those planes. "Pilot, move faster!" Silas yelled towards the front. "Okay, team. Silas, Alex, Mordecai and Myself will fast-rope in. Kat and O'Leary, provide cover fire for the other teams, Move!" Jäger informed. Alex clipped the lanyard to his bandolier, and followed Mordecai in fast-roping. Then, things took a turn, the rotor of the helicopter was hit! "We're going down! Mayday! Mayday!" The pilot yelled as the helicopter spun uncontrollably closer to the roof of Hangar 18, no doubt this would hurt, a lot. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Author's Note Things are escalating in the third of four initial chapters! Act I, Chapter 16: ...Ye Who Enter Here (RWBY Chapters start here!)Alex, Vanoss, and the others went through that forest None were sure what to do. Alex was still trying to recover from their previous attack. Despite everything, Alex still felt as though this was all his fault. "Stay low, everybody." Vanoss said, quoting his one of his previous videos. "This is creepy as shit..." Delirious sounded pretty scared. "It's just a forest, there's nothing in here that can hurt us, well, maybe, but we can just shoot it." Alex sighed. Alex was always slightly disappointed in the crew. Here they were, in another alternate universe, and they were acting like children. A low growl sounded from somewhere beyond the forest. "What the hell was that!?" Lui asked, pointing a rifle in every direction. "Quit messing around, Delirious." Alex chided. "That scared me, oh god!" He said. More growling. "This isn't funny, guys. Cut it out." Wildcat said. "Where the hell is that coming from?" Alex asked nobody in particular. Just then, giant, wolf-like creatures with what looked like bone sticking out stalked out of the bushes. "What the hell is that thing?!" Vanoss screamed as everyone started shooting. "Oh, my god!" Alex screamed. "IT'S TIME FOR ARNOLD TO SAVE THE DAY!!! YAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!" Terroriser cried out, pulling out a machine gun and charging at the creatures. -Meanwhile- "Uuuugh, this is sooo boring!" Ruby groaned. Ozpin had sent Team RWBY out to investigate increased Grimm activity in the Emerald Forest. Sure, it was nice thinking back to initiation, but pretty much nothing went on in these patrols. What's worse is that to cover the vast amount of ground, the team had to split up. "Ruby, I know this sucks, a lot, but this is our job. It can't always be fun and games!" Weiss scolded. "Why not?" She wimpered. Someone was calling from the data pad, possibly her teammate Blake or her half-sister, Yang. She assumed correctly. The small screen lit up a picture of her and her sister, with the words 'Yang Xiao Long' scrolled underneath. Ruby swiped her finger to the right, to answer the call. "Hey, Yang, what's up?" Ruby asked. "Hey, Ruby, listen, do you hear anything?" Yang asked, it was a pretty odd question, even for her, in spite of being Huntresses-in-training. Ruby listened closely. Accompanied by gunshots and growling, she heard this. "AAAAAAH! WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIE!!!!!" "Delirious, keep them off me!" "What the hell are these things?!" "Daithi, cover me!!" "I'M TOO FAT!!!" "A group of people being attacked by Grimm?" Ruby asked. "Yeah! We have to hurry!" Yang said before hanging up. Alex was having a difficult time fighting these things. They were fast, powerful, bloodthirsty animals. And they were completely outnumbered, to make matters worse. Their weaponry only succeeded in killing one or two of them, so everyone had to constantly kick or shove or shoot them to keep them far enough away. They had few core advantages, Alex was wearing armor, and the others could just respawn, as they often did. But the fight was tiring, more so than invading Twilight's castle.... ...If it were on fire... ... And if there were 3 Sigmas... ...Who were also on fire. Basically, this sucked, no pun intended. One of the monsters lashed it's claws at Alex, sending him skidding back. Pulling out the .44 Scratch, he blew the bastard's brains out. The others were getting swamped by these things, he couldn't let that happen! Alex charged at the monsters, pulling out a knife and stabbing them repeatedly, to little effect. The monsters merely shoved him off, with one snapping at his visor. Alex reached for the .44 Scratch, which was just beyond his reach. Looking back at the monster, it scraped his visor something fierce, even breaking it a little. Alex punched the thing in the face, sending it reeling back, giving Alex enough time to grab the gun and kill the damn thing. He looked back at the others, the monsters were snapping at them, and all they could do was shoot them to death. Alex covered them with his revolver. Blowing the overgrown rats to smithereens. More charged at them, how many were there?! Alex braced himself for this onslaught, raising his revolver, he pointed it at the nearest one and... A large fireball blew the thing up in front of him, others froze into blocks of ice, or got slashed by what he assumed was a flickering shadow, or get shot with some very powerful weapon. Appalled by what transpired in front of him, Alex looked behind him, seeing other monsters dying in the same fashion. "Friendlies! Friendlies!" Alex screamed to his team, they may try something stupid, which was very common. He couldn't start off with a bad reputation here, just because his team fought against...whoever helped them. "What the hell just happened, everyone okay?" Alex checked on his team. A few resounding yells told them they were fine. "Who the hell was that?!" Vanoss asked, looking around. "Hold your fire, they helped us kill these things. Maybe they're trying to help." Lui said. "God knows why." Alex muttered. To the best of his knowledge, they were fugitives, criminals, hell, he would even go as far as 'terrorist'. "Hello?" He heard someone say, it sounded like a girl, roughly Alex's age, if he were to guess. "Hey! Over here!" Alex waved frantically to nowhere in particular, if someone was actually here, he was damn thankful. "Yo!!! Come over here!!!" Wildcat yelled. Four girls walked out of the bushes nearby. All holding various weapons. Obviously their saviors. "Hey." Alex waved awkwardly. "Hello, sir!" The blonde one waved back, rather excitedly. "Who are these guys?" The white one seemed rather suspicious. "Well, it would seem best to introduce ourselves, we have no idea who these men are." The black haired one said. He agreed with that statement, it would be best to be acquainted with these girls, who knows, they may be the only ones. "Of course, I'm Alex. Alex Walker." He introduced. "I'm Vanoss, and this is Delirious, Lui, Mini, Daithi..." Vanoss pointed to each one in succession. "Hi." Delirious said, in the way that reminded Alex of that one spongebob episode... Ah, childhood. It was long gone now. "Well, hello Alex and Vanoss, and...ah...others, I'm Ruby." The red one said. "I'm Weiss." "Blake." "...Are you sure those are your actual names?" Yellow asked. A quick nudge from Blake straightened her out. "Oh, I'm Yang." "It's been nice meeting you, but...well, we have no idea where we are." Alex said. "Yeah, come to think of it, none of us have ever seen them before." Weiss commented. "That's because we ain't from here!" Vanoss interrupted. "What do you mean?" Blake asked. "It's a long story...that I only like telling a few times a week...and only tell in at least 1000 word segments." Alex said. "Well, that's different." Yang notices. "It's still long as hell, and I would just love to tell you about, but..." "...you aren't from Vale at all, are you?" Ruby asks. "No. Not at all." Mini said. "Then, where, Atlas? Minstral?" Blake asked. "No." Moo said. "Outside the kingdoms, maybe?" Weiss asked. "Not even from anywhere on your map." Alex said. "How about this, you come with us, we'll talk to Professor Ozpin, and we'll sort this out." Blake said. "Oh, crap, are we under arrest!?" Alex groaned, pissed that he would have to deal with this kinda crap already. "No. You said you're not from around here, right?" Yang asks. "Yeah. Well, they did." Alex pointed to them. They sold him out! "Well, we just want to know why you're wandering around the Emerald Forest." Weiss told them. "Fine." Alex groaned, holding out his arms, expecting to be handcuffed. The girls looked at him with a gaze that just said 'Seriously, dude?' "Just...follow us. We know how to get out of here." Blake said. "Come on, guys." Alex told the crew. The group of about 15 walked through the forest, frequently checking their corners and raising their weapons at every sound. Another growl. This time, much lower. "What the fu- what the hell?!" Vanoss asked. "At least I've got my adult diaper." Nogla whispered, much to everyone's disgust. "Jesus Christ, Nogla." Basically sighed, he, like the others, were pretty much done with this kind of thing. That growl again... Where was it coming from? A large bear-like creature burst out of the forest! "Weapons free!" Alex ordered. Vanoss and the others got to work shooting the thing, only for the bullets to have no effect on it whatsoever. Alex pulled out the .44 Scratch, cocked the hammer, aimed down the sights, and blasted it back, sending it flying into a nearby tree, knocking it over. The girls also attacked the creature. Alex found this was a good time to study their fighting styles, in case they were to turn on him. Ruby shot her scythe-gun at the ground, leaping in that same instant, she slashed at the Monster's gut, it held the wound in, but didn't stop it's relentless attack. Weiss stood in what Alex assumed was a fencing stance, aiming specifically for the gut, the cylinder on her weapon spun until it reached a red projectile, she lunged out at it, causing a good sized explosion, but it still kept going. Alex charged at the monster, punching it with his armored fist, pulled out his revolver again, and blew the monster's guts out. More gunfire! Alex turned behind him to see Vanoss and the others struggling to bring down another one of those monsters. Blake wrapped her weapon in what he assumed was a black ribbon, throwing it at the monster, and using it as an anchor to pull herself to the monster, slashing at it until she leaped off. Yang's gauntlets seemed to rotate, and she went in punching it, her weapons blowing chunks off said monster. Vanoss and his crew noticed the weak spots on the beast, and concentrated their fire until the thing fell over and died. "We have to move! Where's the exit!?" Alex asked. "We're close enough. Follow me!" Ruby said, running to an enclave. "You heard the girl, move!" Alex ordered, they all followed Ruby into that enclave into what appeared to be a steep cliff, they could climb it, but it would be difficult. "This way! The cliff isn't as steep over here!" Yang yelled. Firing both gauntlets and propelling her upwards. "Well, that's hardly fair, come on, guys!" Alex told the crew. In the arduous process of climbing up the cliff, Vanoss started singing. "Going up the cliff! Going up the cliff! Goinupthecliff! Goinupthecliff!" "Evan!!" Nogla screamed indignantly. "Going up the cliff! Lemme hear you say 'cliff'!" Vanoss sang again. "Shut up, Vanoss!" Wildcat groaned. "Stop referencing your old videos!" Delirious yelled. Well, that 45 seconds of hell was over. And everyone made it up to the top pretty safely, Vanoss and his crew only died a collective 18 times, a new record! Ruby and the others directed Alex and the others to an airship nearby. "Miss Rose! I didn't expect to see you already." A man wearing a long jacket seemed almost delighted at the sight of the young girl. "Professor Ozpin? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked. "A pilot flying over The Emerald Forest saw these men fall out of some sort of portal. I personally wanted to meet them." Ozpin said. "How did you know?" Alex asked. "We have cameras all over that forest, plus a surveillance airship flying around there at all times. My condolences for the loss of your friend, Mr. Walker." "So you heard that, huh?" Alex sighed. "No need to be concerned. I also noticed your compatriots' unique ability to appear back in the world after death." "He saw my special alone time!!!" Delirious seemed pissed. He had asked to use the bathroom a while ago. Ew. "Unfortunately, yes." Ozpin groaned. "How many special times do you have, Delirious?" Moo asked, laughing a little. "24, but that isn't the point!!" Delirious answered. "I don't even want to ask." Weiss groaned. "Good. Because... WILL YOU QUIT THROWING ROCKS AT ME?!?!!" Delirious yelled at Vanoss, who was in fact throwing rocks at him. "I would, but it's too damn funny." Vanoss laughed. "Gentlemen," Ozpin interrupted, "Considering the fact that you suddenly appeared in our world is too serious to just leave it be. We will take the airship back to Beacon Academy, and discuss this further." "You heard the man, get on the plane." Alex told them. Alex, Vanoss, and the others had to split up because the planes could only hold eight passengers at a time, not including the pilot. One of such airships consisted of Alex, Vanoss, Delirious, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Ozpin. The others got their own airship that would arrive shortly. Alex himself stepped onto the plane, getting into one of the seats between Vanoss and Ruby. "So, where exactly are you from?" Ozpin asked from across the seats. "Originally, a place called Earth was my first home, I escaped and went to another place called Equestria, and that only lasted about a month, more or less." Alex told him. Well, Alex surrendered, where ever he would go, questions would ensue. -Meanwhile- Twilight and the other former element bearers had another conference to discuss on how to handle this attack. "I don't get it. When Alex and I fought, all he said was that he didn't have any choice. And that Rainbow would've been happy to answer." Twilight said. "How the hay would Rainbow know?" Applejack asked her. "Why would Rainbow have anything to do with that ruffian?" Rarity asked. Rainbow herself started to look a little sick. "Come on, Rainbow, we are friends, aren't we?" Pinkie beamed in her usual manner, in stunning contrast to Rainbow's composure. "Okay... Winchester was right about Alex attacking this 'Area 51' place." Rainbow sighed The former elements had a collective gasp. "But not about Bohemian Grove." "Whatever do you mean?" Fluttershy asked. "A-Alex didn't have anything to do with Bohemian grove, but one of his neighbors called, they said he looked similar to one of the men who did it, they arrested him...killed his parents...destroyed his home... And the guy who turned him in got 50,000 dollars." Rainbow reluctantly began. Twilight and the others looked appalled. "Winchester tortured him for weeks, trying to get information that he didn't have. They knew he had nothing to do with it and they still tortured him! After about a month...Winchester was about to kill him. But the guys who did it saved him. And he was forced into helping them." Rainbow Dash continued, her voice shaking. "Alex found out that they were going to use this 'Die Glocke' thing to conquer the world. But Alex found out, used it, and destroyed it before they could even use it." Twilight was stunned. Winchester was the evil invader? "Some of the fault had to have been Alex's. he killed four people!" She insisted "Winchester followed him to Equestria. Winchester wanted to finish what he started. Alex attacked Canterlot to find something to clear his name, and when he saw that wasn't going to work, he escaped again! Winchester chased him out of Equestria, and WE HELPED!!!" Rainbow yelled, guilt ridden. "Princess." A voice sounded at the doorway. Twilight's personal Inquisitor friend to find Alex after he attacked Canterlot. "Sigma! Alex is actually innocent!" Twilight said. "Nobody is inherently innocent, Princess. Alex killed a total of 147 good soldiers, and yet you have the nerve to call this man innocent." Sigma explained. "You're still going after him?" Rainbow asked. "Him, his friends, everyone." Sigma elaborated. "His friends?" Rarity asked. "Yes. I already killed one. The others are sure to fall once I discover where he is hiding." "What?!" "Winchester's old comrade, good soldier, shame her loyalties laid with...someone else." "What happens now?" Rainbow asked. "I have my ways. Walker committed a heinous crime. I won't stop until he has paid the ultimate price." Sigma smiled, as if the idea delighted her. "No! I forbid you!" Twilight ordered. "By the way, I quit." Sigma walked out. Leaving Twilight and the others guilt-ridden and scared. "Winchester, it would seem as though Twilight and the six musketeers know everything. What now?" "Get the White Fang together, it's time for Plan B." Winchester said. "My pleasure." Sigma said. Author's Note Well, RWBY chapters start here! I wonder if anyone is reading this far. Leave a comment below telling me of what you think of the story. Act II, Chapter 4: The Aircraft Carrier Heist; Part I of IIIAlex and Yang were currently sitting on the couch. Alex argued that she should just leave and come back when he was ready with the plans, but the Huntress insisted on staying anyways, in spite of his newfound discomfort. "So, this is what you do in your down-time? Boring!" Yang joked. "Yeah, you learn to appreciate moments like this when most of your time is spent killing people and making friends with people who could potentially kill you and escaping the people trying to kill you while making sure those friends who could potentially kill you all survive. So, yeah, this is pretty much it." Alex explained. The two sat in silence, Alex in particular was casually writing in his journal, while Yang searched the apartment for alcohol. Alex was still finishing off the last sentence in today's entry when Yang cleared her throat. Looking up from the page, he saw the Huntress-in-training calmly sipping a cocktail. "You wanna talk?" She asked. "Eh, got nothing better to do. What's on your mind?" Alex asked. "So, when Ozpin offered training, why did you take it? From the way Evan and the others talk about you, you're already a natural fighter." Yang asked him. At least this had an easy answer. "A friend of mine was killed by an Inquisitor, and it was because of what little training I had that helped me beat her, as well as three of her asshole friends. If I hadn't unlocked my Aura and trained so rigorously in those seven-to-eight days, I wouldn't be here to tell you about it." He explained. "Couldn't you have beaten her without your Aura? That dubstep gun is really powerful, and your bulletproof armor would've held out for a while, not that I'm saying I don't want you to have huntsman training." Yang reasoned. "To be honest with you, it was the same deal with Winchester, she killed my friend and tried to kill all of us. That answer is simple, I wanted blood. I possibly would have killed her if Raven hadn't stopped me." Alex retorted. "Okay, I get it now. You're trying to adapt to meet your enemies, go with the flow, right?" Yang asked. "Pretty much." "I can help with that, Raven gave me some Inheritor training, and I can have Ruby help you." "Interesting offer. I'll take it." Alex agreed. "Okay, I'll try to scout out some ideal places to train." Yang smiled. The two shook on the deal, and resumed with what they were doing prior to the conversation. "So, what's your plan, with getting the EMP?" Yang asked. "I'm going to invite the rest of the team over and talk it out with them, Evan and his friends are actually quite smart with this sort of thing, Twilight is pretty much a bookworm, and your teammates were able to discover what these White Fang guys were doing a little while back. Kat is also really good with planning things out, and Zera is an android. We'll figure something out." Alex responded. "You seem to have such faith in your comrades, Commander." Zera said, walking into his apartment complex. "Well, that was fast." Yang commented. "Of course I do, we're still here, aren't we?" Alex asked the android. "I am not saying that your team is incompetent. It is truly an admirable trait." Zera complimented. "Well, thank you." Alex respectfully nodded. "You're welcome, sir." And with that, Zera sent out the text and the rest of the team was there in a matter of minutes. They all sat at various places in his apartment, on the couch, on the floor, some even pulled up a few chairs and sat there. Once everybody was situated, Alex pulled out a map of Los Santos, a few thumb-tacks, and Post-it notes. "Hey, team." Alex began. "Really, who starts out a plan with 'hey, team'?" Weiss taunted. "I'm with Snow White over there, that was pathetic." Wildcat agreed. "Eeyup." Applejack added. "SNOW WHITE?!" Weiss lashed out at Wildcat. It was then Wildcat let out one of the girliest screams in history, much to the rest of Vanoss's crew, Rainbow's, and Ruby's amusement. "That was almost as funny as what Alex did to Yang!" Lui added. "Don't remind me." Alex huffed. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER, YOU FIEND!?" Ruby walked up to Alex and demanded. "It seems like you and Rainbow have similar stances on personal space, as in neither of you know what it is!" Alex retorted. "OOOOOOOOH!!" Vanoss yelled, pulling out his cell phone and playing an MLG air horn sound effect. "Calm down, Alex is only fifteen and your sister is seventeen, I'm sure it wasn't much." Twilight tried to be the mediator in this situation, as per usual. "I fell off the back of Yang's motorcycle." Alex admitted. Ruby, Vanoss, Delirious, Lui, and Kat began laughing again. "That actually isn't all. From what I picked up from Alex's cell phone mic, Yang had screamed 'sexual harassment' and then Alex fell." Zera corrected. This time, most of the room filled with laughter, that is, except for most of the Mane 6, Alex, and Zera. "That reminds me, wanna hear about the time Nogla shit himself?" Moo asked. That had pretty much the same effect as last time, only Alex said something. "Yes, divert the embarrassment! You're a hero, Nogla!" He joked. "What about Alex's voice cracks?!" Pinkie yelled. "Damn it!" Alex yelled. "Yeah, his voice is like; AAAAaaaaaAaAaaaAAAA!" Basically mocked. "What was that, Tarzan?" Vanoss laughed. "Nah, man, more like Mini when we fought zombies on the moon!" Wildcat corrected. "Where is this conversation going?!" Kat asked. "Now, who would like to hear the story of Pablo?" Mini Ladd asked in a deep, Christian Bale-esque voice. "Zera, remember how I said these guys were smart?" Alex asked. "Affirmative." She replied. "I take it back." So, after a couple hours, the team had finally settled on a plan, essentially a repeat of what they did last time, only with a bit more backup. The bad news was he was stuck on a dinghy with Vanoss, Wildcat, and Nogla. "We ride together, eat French fries together." Vanoss said. "We ride together, we buy ties together." Wildcat joked. "We ride together, we die together." Nogla chimed in. Both Vanoss and Wildcat started laughing at that statement. "We just die! We don't do anything else together!" Vanoss laughed. "Well, that wasn't inaccurate... Anyway, what's the plan, gang?" Alex asked them, they were the ones responsible in making sure this went according to plan. "We sneak up, kill anyone in our way, Delirious and Lui are setting up Operation Flying Tank, and you're going to kill the bad guys we're too lazy or too noobish to kill." Nogla explained. "And Rainbow is going to watch us and tell the others if this plan goes to shit." Wildcat added. "And I'm sure Zera is also watchin' us with her android super powers, so we're good." Vanoss finished. "At least you guys put something together. Let's do this." Alex smirked, they got this, besides, he had his full Scarab armor on, there was no way they were losing. "Alpha?" "Yes, Gamma?" Alpha asked. "I do not mean to disturb you, but Sigma's target-" Rufio could barely finish before someone interrupted him. "What about my target?" A young woman asked. Sigma still had a few bandages on, and she still had a limp in her left leg. "Greetings, my star pupil. Gamma here was just about to tell me their location. "Ah, yes. It would appear that they are en route to the U.S.S Zancudo to steal an electromagnetic pulse device capable of bringing down an entire facility, as soon as they figure out our base of operations, we're through!" Gamma lamented. Sigma slapped Gamma on the back of the head. "Don't get all weepy, Rufio. I'm sure Alpha is sending me over there." She said. "That is not the case. I am sending Beta to take your stead in this fight, if he really is the catalyst, we cannot let him survive." Alpha corrected. "What?!" Sigma was outraged. "You are still in no condition to fight. Besides, you already proved your worth, or lack thereof. If an average human can defeat you, then why should I even consider sending an incompetent oaf like you?!" Alpha held Sigma in a choke hold. "Y-You're not stopping me from killing him!" Sigma gasped. "It's treason, then." Alpha threw Sigma back on the ground. Hard. Gamma was stunned, there was no resisting him. "Get this weakling out of my sight!" Alpha ordered. "Yes, sir." Gamma went and picked Sigma up from where she landed. In response, Sigma punched Gamma hard in the jaw and ran. "Stop her!" Alpha ordered. Sigma summoned her bow and shot arrows at the doorway, enclosing them in. "You fool! If you can't stop her, you're even more pathetic than she is!" Alpha scolded. "B-But I..." Gamma held out his hands in defense. "Beta! Another objective has been added to your mission." Alpha began. "Yes, Alpha?" Gamma heard Beta through the comms on Alpha's headset. "Sigma has gone rogue. She is after the boy. Stop her at all costs." Alpha ordered. "It will be done, master." Beta respectfully said before turning of the comms. "Gamma! Exit the room!" Alpha barked. "Yes, master." Gamma bowed before running out the door. Alpha then opened up a small box containing various styled chess pieces and a board, and placed them into their proper areas. "Let the games begin, Alex Walker." Author's Note I promised a chapter and I give you a three parter. Good for you, readers. I have to write more. Act III, Chapter 4: Halloween Special!Alex casually ate his slice of pumpkin pie along with Vanoss's Crew, the Elements, Kat, Mako, and Team RWBY. It was about 8 more days until the invasion, and the official plan wouldn't be discussed with the crew until tomorrow. "So, we were playing this one map in custom zombies, it was a Christmas map, even though it was before Halloween by then.." Explained Vanoss. "Wait, what's Halloween?" Rainbow asked. "You don't know what Halloween is?" Basically groaned. "Can it guys, they don't have Halloween, they have Nightmare Night, which is sort of the same concept!" Alex explained. Though he had been in Equestrian about 3 weeks or so, even he knew about this pony holiday. "Wait a second, did we miss Halloween?" Yang gasped. "Oh shit, we did." Delirious groaned. "Well, it's easy to see why. I've been running around all day and night trying to keep this ship running smoothly. I haven't had time to even think about Trick-or-Treating, and besides, I stopped when I was like twelve anyways." Alex explained. "You stopped trick-or-treating?!" Nogla couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Personally, I've been trick-or-treating into high school." Vanoss smirked. "I imagine Evan always went as an Owl every year." Ruby giggled. "Not always an owl! I went as Batman one year!" Vanoss yelled. "I remember going to training one morning before Halloween and I saw Winchester dressed as Vegeta from Dragonball Z." Mako remembered. "A friend of mine went as Natsu for Halloween one time." Alex recalled. "He's lucky he has no idea that these Alternate universes exist. He'd probably freak out." Kat chuckled at the thought. "So, any possible thing out there is in a universe?" Nogla asked. "By that logic, yes." Twilight explained. "So there's a universe where I'm Batman?" Vanoss asked. "There's a universe where even Weiss is Batman." Yang answered. "Hey!" Weiss turned to Yang, looking a little miffed. "I actually think that could work." Wildcat laughed. "Yeah, I can see that. She's incredibly rich.." Ruby noted. "She's apparently really smart." Kat shrugged. "One problem; she wears white." Vanoss shook his head. "Albino Bat-Woman, maybe?" Moo laughed. "I'd say Blake could probably be bat-woman." Mako said. "No, I think Blake looks more like Catwoman." Terroriser nodded. Blake scowled. "Okay, then. Anyone care to explain that?" Terroriser asked. "Blake's a F-" Ruby started to say before Yang clamped her mouth shut. "A fun loving person who we all respect and admire as a person!" Yang forced a grin. Blake face-palmed. "Wait, we were talking about Halloween before, right?" Vanoss asked. "Oh, yeah." Mako nodded. "So, what can we do to celebrate?" Delirious asked. "We could trick-or-treat, if someone didn't eat all of the candy on deck!" Alex indignantly responded. "Meep.." Ruby planted her face to the table and groaned. "We could probably set something up on the flight deck." Weiss noted. "Too many jets. Can't risk losing one before the invasion." Kat replied. "How about we set up like, a party in the ball room. We have that, right?" Droidd added. "I think we might. Iris?" Alex asked. "Actually, we have 4. Each of them are about three quarters the size of a football field." Iris confirmed. "Great. We might be able to have a bunch of parties at once. The crew could take three of them, and we could have one for VIPs." Alex smiled. "Should we start inviting people?" Ruby asked. "Screw it, the more the merrier, let's invite as many people as we can!" Vanoss rallied the rest. The party had started about 5 minutes ago, and the entirety of Team Unity, including some of the other huntsmen on the ship, as well as Kat's and Mako's squadrons. He also saw Russell and Sirius nearby, as well as Corporal Quill; one of the crewmen that Vanoss regularly hung out with. The party wasn't exactly in full swing, but Vinyl, given her reputation as a DJ, had been asked politely to play some Halloween themed music at this room, while other crewmen who had music experience were hoof-picked by the unicorn to play at the other ballrooms. Now, Alex wasn't one to party all that much. Even before the ill-fated events of late, he would usually stand towards the walls in a dance. For example, when he went to a Homecoming dance, he sat at a table the entire time, only moving to get some snacks and punch, and maybe talk to his peers. Yang, however, was the exact opposite. "Woo-hoo! This party's amazing!" Alex heard his mentor yell from across the ballroom before collapsing on the floor, and...well... "Oh, my god." Alex groaned, face-palming. "Clean up on aisle four!" Yang yelled again. Not even ten minutes in, and Yang's reached her limit. "Dance party!" Vanoss yelled. Now, Vinyl made the mistake of letting people put in suggestions for what to put on. Vanoss had been the first to write down a suggestion. So now Vinyl was playing 'Time Warp' from 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'. "Admiral?" Ember asked him. "Yes?" Alex asked, turning to his Sergeant. "How often does something like this happen?" She asked him. "I've never seen them at an actual party before today. So, I'm dealing with a bunch of loose cannons here." Alex shrugged. "Well, good luck. I have to get Yang to the washroom for a moment." Ember nervously smiled. "Sure, you need any help?" Alex asked. "I think I can handle it, this sort of thing happened to my a friend of mine in Ponyville all the time." Ember waved a hoof. Alex watched Ember help Ruby drag Yang to the restroom, and then he went to get some punch or something of that nature. He was kind of thirsty. The tables had been arranged full of cake and cookies and that sort of thing, along with small coolers where he could get some soda, and finally, there was one large punch bowl, filled about halfway with fruit punch. Scooping a ladle full of the pink liquid, Alex noticed something was a little off about it. He poured some into a little plastic cup, and held it to his nose, wafting it's scent into his nostrils. "Yep, the punch is spiked." Alex groaned, pouring the punch back into the bowl. He sat down, settling for a can of Orange Soda and taking long, slow gulps of the carbonated beverage. "Walker, right?" He heard someone ask behind him. Alex was face to face with the leader of Team CFVY, he had heard from Ruby that her name was 'Coco', or something. "Yeah, you're the leader of Team CFVY, right?" He asked her. She merely nodded in reply. "Nice to finally meet you." Alex raised a hand. "The pleasure's all mine, Admiral." She smiled slightly, returning the gesture. "So, let me guess, you didn't come over here just to say 'hi'." Alex noted. "I have to ask, how many times have you won a fight against these 'inquisitor' guys?" Coco asked him. Counting the number of times he won a fight against his enemies was not all that easy, but after a few moments, he had his answer. "I won about three fight out of the half-dozen or so times I had the misfortune of meeting them." Alex nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, Admiral." Coco smirked. "Why, you're going to gun down an Inquisitor, aren't you?" Alex asked. "You think I'm scared of some overrated storm-troopers with cutesy little knives?" Coco scoffed. "Keep in mind, these are the same people who blew up a train car full of dust and hacked into the Cross-Continental Transmit Tower." Alex warned. "You scared?" She laughed. "You never understand fear until you're leading people who can kill you in four seconds to battle against people who can kill you in two." Alex replied. "I doubt anyone here really wants you dead. I wouldn't worry so much." Coco shrugged, turning to leave. "Alrighty then, just start leaving mid-sentence." Alex scoffed. "So..?" Ruby instantaneously sped over to Alex's right side instantly after the words left his mouth. "Hi, Ruby." Alex nodded politely. "How's the party going for you?" She asked him. "I've never been the partying type, and keeping in mind you and Ember literally had to drag Yang to the bathroom, I'd say things are going well." Alex smirked. "Has this sort of thing happened before?" Ruby wondered. "Ms. Rose, in my one year of High School, I've seen and heard my classmates do really weird shit at parties." Alex remembered. "Like what?" "I don't know, you seem a little to... What's the word? You seem a little to innocent to hear about that sort of thing." Alex replied. "Come on, I'm sure it's not that bad." Ruby assured. "No, I don't want to scar you for life." Alex waved. "Okay, okay!" She laughed a bit. "About Yang, did you at least hold her hair for her?" Alex asked. "Don't worry about Yang, this happens almost every time she goes to a party." Ruby smiled. "By the way, someone spiked the punch, so I wouldn't drink that if I were you." Alex reminded. "I know, Evan told me." Ruby assured him. "Nice to hear." Alex said. "Hey, Alex!" Rainbow flew over to Alex's left. "Hi, Rainbow. How's everything with you?" Alex asked. "Fluttershy drank some of the punch, Skirmish and I had to fly her back to her bunk." Rainbow replied. "Ouch. I imagine they won't exactly be all there for the briefing tomorrow." Alex cringed. "I have a question, Alex." Rainbow asked. "Shoot." "Were you ever accepted into Beacon?" Rainbow wondered. "The Headmaster just let me use some of the equipment and the training rooms, but I doubt I was ever accepted. Besides, I was only there for about a week and a half," Alex replied. "You weren't accepted?" Ruby asked. "Guess not. I didn't even get my Aura activated until after I got in." Alex replied. "I'm still scratching my head over that, why were you able to do that?" Rainbow wondered. "Most of us get our Auras activated by the teachers at some of the combat schools like Signal, it just seems impractical. It's possible for anyone to do it, but it takes more work than it does just asking someone to unlock it for you." Ruby replied. "Who unlocked your aura?" Alex asked. "Yang." "Neat." Rainbow blinked. "How does that work? I was given the impression that only a few people can pull it off!" Alex groaned. "You have to memorize the incantation, if you're just at home and have it written down, like Yang did, it's way easier." Ruby smiled. "Well, twice the Aura for doing it alone, I'd probably take my chances." Alex murmured. "You're actually pretty special. Like Ozpin said, only one other person bothered to even try it, but the legend says it took him months. It's similar to Lucid dreaming in that sense, it's possible, but depending on the person, it's either a piece of cake or it takes people months or years to get it right." Ruby explained. "So, Alex's Double Aura is like my Sonic Rainboom." Rainbow noticed. "Sonic what-now?" Ruby asked. "Wha- you mean that none of you have seen me do a Sonic Rainboom yet?" Rainbow gaped. "No, I guess not." Alex shook his head. "I'll have to show you guys sometime!" Rainbow flapped both wings. Just then, Alex heard the next song start playing; Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. "Oh, my god." Alex groaned. "What is this?" Ruby asked. "Yeah, it doesn't seem like Nightmare Night music." Rainbow shrugged. "It's a song from my world. The radio stations literally over-play this song when Halloween rolls around." Alex sighed. "Homesick?" Ruby asked. "Considering I got tortured and almost killed on Earth, I wouldn't call it 'homesick'." Alex elaborated. "You're still hung up about that?!" Rainbow groaned. "Rainbow!" Ruby scolded. "Too far, I know.." Rainbow shied back. "Wait, do you still have that scar?" Ruby asked. "Right here." Alex said, tracing the trail of the scar down his right eye. "Ow.." She cringed. "Wait, isn't there supposed to be a part of the story where everything goes wrong?" Vanoss wondered. "Like what?" Delirious asked. "I don't know, Zombies attacking the boat, the ghost of the Flying Dutchman showing up, spooky scary skeletons playing in the background?" Vanoss shrugged. A horrid sound, like some inhuman scream, emitted from the other side of the door. "What the..?" Ruby wondered. "Vanoss, what did you do?!" Alex backed away. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! WHO DARES DISTURB THE FLYIN' DUTCHMAN?!!" A ghostly voice bellowed. "Great. This guy." Discord sighed. "You all suck." Haunt spat. "Well, Gang, this next song is a request from Evan Fong, the Spooky Scary Skeletons remix by Wooden Toaster!" Vinyl announced, the trademark song starting to play in the background. "Ruby, you still have that Ray Gun?" Alex asked. "Yep!" She smiled, pulling out the device. "You can keep the sniper, can I borrow that?" Alex asked her. "Sure, thing." She handed him the iconic Zombie-killing tool. "Alrighty, gang! I got the box again!" Terrorizer yelled as dozens of men charged to the back corner of the room. "You four might need these." Alex said, handing Team RWBY four bottles of red liquid with the words 'Juggernog' on the front "More booze?! This is getting better and better!" Yang smiled, cocking both of her Gauntlets. "Someone politely let our guests in." Alex ordered. "On it!" Vanoss and Wildcat fired their RPGs at the door along with Nora and Yang, blowing the door open and letting in swarms of zombies. Their eyes were glowing bright green to match their announcer; the Flying Dutchman. "I'VE COME FOR YOUR SOULS!" The Dutchman screamed. "Even now, you're talking about those pathetic sea creatures!" Discord grit his teeth, unleashing a barrage of magic attacks. As he looked around, defending himself against the hordes of zombies by stabbing them with a broken bottle or shooting them with the Ray Gun, Alex kept one thought in the back of his mind. 'I have the most ridiculous life ever. Like, ever.' Author's Note Hey, Destoyer here! Sorry for not posting anything new the past week or so, been waiting 'till Halloween to post this. Yep. Figured this would be my treat to you readers. Flying Dutchman Zombies vs. RWBY, Vanossgaming, and My Little Pony. -The Destoyer Act III, Blood Red Night Part 3: Fire And Lightning In a battle, all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it's more dangerous to lose than to win. -George Benard Shaw "Fire!" Beta hollered. Alex dropped to the ground the exact instant he heard gunfire. He slammed his eyes shut with his hands clasped firmly around his ears. To his surprise, he felt nothing zip above him, no blood splattered on him whatsoever, none of that. He looked up, curious as to what went wrong.. "Death to the Red Star!!" A whole crowd of about 500 charged in, wearing Coalition uniforms, guns ablaze. The remaining huntsmen and huntresses swooped into action, the ponies found cover and fired whatever weapon they could find, and Vanoss and his crew pulled out rocket launchers and started making the already smoking mess of the Iliad into a barren wasteland. So, pretty much the same, but on fire. Yang flipped backwards, pulling Alex back on his feet. "Did you seriously just duck when you heard shooting?!" Yang chided. "Why didn't any of you?!" Alex retorted. Yang blinked. "Fair point." She shrugged. "So, what the hell are we doing about this, now?" Alex asked. Yang groaned. "Beta and Sigma are going to tear the others apart if we don't do anything. Weiss, Jaune, and Nora, and Blake are attacking Beta. Leaving just me, Twilight, Ruby, and you to deal with Sigma." Yang explained. "God dammit. Sorry, lost my train of thought." Alex face-palmed. "Okay, then. I'll just do this, and..." Yang grasped Alex by the wrist. "Wait, what the hell are you..?" Yang spun him around as Alex felt himself getting sick, he was barely hanging onto Electric Fury. "Sword, now!" She demanded. Alex converted the revolver into a sword yet again, once Yang noticed the transformation had been completed, she let go of him, Alex spinning like a top and barreling into Sigma. Shockingly, the attack actually did damage, Sigma staggered backwards, the armor cracked and she was bleeding like crazy. "You know, I was usually pretty reserved for a crime lord.. And then you came along." Sigma scowled. "I was usually decently happy, and then you and your merry group of assholes came along. Isn't life a pain?" Alex retorted. Sigma glared, lashing at Alex relentlessly, he managed to block or avoid the vicious attacks. Ruby sped in from the left, catching Sigma in the side. Twilight then fired multiple attack spells at her wounds before Yang charged in, punching her with the force of a hundred cannons in the gut. Sigma fell on her back, skidding backwards until colliding rather painfully with a tree. She pulled herself up and hit herself a few times in the side, causing red blood to splatter on the snow-covers ground below. "And she's still standing? What's next?! Is she going to be all like 'This isn't even my final form'?!" Alex's eye twitched out of a mix of fear and irritation. "You watch way too much TV." His rival smirked mockingly. "Where'd you get those, anyway? Another Anime convention?" He shot back. "You talk a lot of shit for a Displaced." "OKAY, THAT'S IT!!" Alex unsheathed Blitzklinge and clashed with Sigma again. "The hell's a Displaced?" Yang wondered. Alex swung both blades at Sigma's sides, only to have them blocked by her own. Alex then noticed a small, threatening orange sort of glyph on the ground. "What the hell?!" Alex leaped backwards to evade the resulting explosion. Sigma glared at him, a wicked smile spread across her face that just rubbed Alex the wrong way, "By the way, I know all about what happened with Omega. It seems as though you've finally ascended. I'm almost proud." "What the hell are you?" Alex backed up next to his friends. "You're not the only one with that kind of power." Sigma glared, the edges of her eyes glowing a bright orange, as though they were aflame themselves. "What is that?!" Twilight gasped. "I've led you on all along, kid. Let you think you could actually beat me in a fair fight. I may know a lot of thieves, but the look on your face is priceless." Alex gaped in horror, what the hell just happened?! "You've heard the story of the Maidens, haven't you? Well, I had my associates help me siphon some of her powers to me, but someone severed the link before it could finish. So you are not merely fighting another huntress gone bad, you're fighting a part-Maiden." Sigma explained. Alex backed away, he didn't quite understand what was going on, but Ruby and Yang sure did, as a look of horror had been plastered to their faces. "Well, holy shit. I was right." Alex blinked before all of them had been blown straight backwards. He leapt off the side of a tree, firing a multitude of lightning bolts, and slashed Sigma as soon as he was sure she was properly distracted. She leaped out of the way, summoning more glyphs in a circle around Alex, he himself leapt backwards to avoid becoming a charcoal briquette. "Deal with Beta! I'll handle Sigma myself!" Alex ordered. "No way! You aren't dealing with a Maiden without my help!" Yang yelled back. "Yang, let him." Ruby tapped Yang on the shoulder. "I'm not going to let her kill him! You heard what Qrow said!" Yang reminded. "If we fight her, we'll be toast! Literally toast!" Ruby pulled her away. Yang fidgeted in anger, then she sighed in surrender. "You're coming back." Yang demanded. "No promises." Alex said back. Alex and Sigma walked in a circle, twirling their weapons, never taking their eyes off one another. "Alpha has to pay for what he did to me. Back out now while I'm still in a half-decent mood." Alex offered. "Save your breath, at least until I take your last!" Sigma threatened. Both charged towards one another, swords spinning, threats yelled across the frozen underground, and through the hundreds of others firing their weapons. Celestia and Luna met with the other leaders backing the Coalition in Adenien's world capital, Iridescence, to discuss what they will do after the battle ends. With them was Hunter Smith, the Leader of The North American Federation, a military junta that replaced the former United States in the months since Alex had left Earth. As well as The councils of Remnant and the Supreme Leader of Adenien, only known as Krete. "Your Highness! Your highness!" One of Celestia's personal guards, Shield, cried out. "What is it, guard?" Krete asked. "We've just received information from a fighter on the Iliad named 'Andromeda' that the carriers all fired on each other, they started shooting after the warp drives engaged!" Stone replied. "They what?!" Smith yelled angrily. "Who fired first?" One of Vale's councilmen began. "Do you think that matters now? The ships were destroyed, and because this was after the warp drives engaged, they landed in Kalos Prime. It's likely that they're fighting an uphill battle." Krete scolded. "Have the other Inheritors revealed anything?" Luna asked. "We just received word. The Iliad crew is still fighting, and just received help from the Revelation's." Another councilman indicated. "Who are the Inquisitors fighting them?" Ozpin, who was also in the group, wondered. "The huntsmen and the Los Santos crew are fighting Beta, AKA Axil Heyes. And the Admiral is fighting Sigma, AKA Cinder Fall. Gamma had engaged Princess Twilight, but did not kill her. He's since evacuated to a nearby fortress." Stone reported. Ozpin sighed, looking defeated. "Is something the matter, Professor?" Celestia asked. "Alexander must know what he's gotten himself into. Cinder Fall attacked one of the Maidens, the guardians of Remnant in possession of legendary power, and stole some for herself. Alex has only been training on-and-off since his stay at Beacon. Think of it this way, his fighting Sigma is like Princess Twilight at base abilities fighting Lord Tirek at full power." Ozpin explained. "Your worries are not necessary, Professor." Supreme Leader Krete dismissed. "You must see the futility in this! An ex-Kahn Militia recruit is fighting a god!" Hunter Smith gaped. Krete only returned this show of doubt with a sly smile. "If that is how you see Saigo Emphas, you are a greater fool than even I can fathom. Don't forget, he is a powerful fighter, like his father and mother before him." Vanoss ducked out of the way, evading Beta's weapon by mere seconds. His friends, the other Huntresses in training, and the remaining Elements did what they could to hold him off. "Delirious! Grenade!" Mini hollered. Beta kicked Mini away, the grenade he was holding rolled away and exploded in the distance, then punching Delirious' mask. "It's over, I've won. Surrender." Beta demanded. "Bitch, I survived Vegeta!" The hockey-masked murderer spat in reply. Beta swung his blade upwards, severing Vanoss' friend on two before he respawned a few feet away. "This is beginning to annoy me! I will never stop!" Beta yelled, lunging at Weiss. "Hang in there! I'll come up with something!" Vanoss yelled. "Alright. Think, Evan? What can we do to stop this asshole?" Maybe if they all fired their assault shotguns, it would weaken his armor... Nah, too overrated, besides, this was supposed to be the apocalypse, not another heist. If the Huntsmen had a chain attack they could use- No, that wouldn't work either... What was that Beta had said earlier? 'I will never stop!' His battle cry echoed. 'Never stop' 'Stop!' Stop! That's it! They could tire him out! But how? Mini, Basically, and Droidd all respawned nearby. They couldn't die! "I have a plan! Hoodini Squadron, do what I do!" Vanoss yelled. "Ugh, is that really what they're calling themselves?!" Yang groaned indignantly. Vanoss shoved Weiss out of Beta's blade lock and let himself get hacked in two. Moments later, he respawned directly behind Beta, grabbed a sticky bomb and placed it on a part of his back Vanoss was positive he wouldn't be able to reach. His friends leaped onto Beta's gore-covered sword, suffering a similar fate reappearing nearby and planting more C4 in parts he couldn't get to due to his cumbersome armor. "What are you doing?!" He demands. "Ruby! Hit him with the glowing green balls!" Nogla ordered. The huntress blushed slightly, raising an eyebrow. "I shoulda worded that differently." Nogla admitted. "Shoot him with your ray gun!" Jaune yelled. "Oh! I got it!" Ruby announced, loading a green cross mag into her gun, clambering it, and pulling the trigger. The beam hit one of the C4s, triggering an immense explosion that destroyed most of his armor, but he still wasn't dead. "Dammit!" Vanoss kicked a loose piece of scrap. "It's okay! We've weakened him!" Blake yelled, kicking at him. "Everyone, open fire! Now!" Weiss commanded. Vanoss and his friends unleashed a torrent of gunfire that ripped the Inquisitor to pieces, or it should have. It instead bounced off of a glowing orange aura that surrounded him. "This magic barrier should sustain me." Beta scoffed. "Ruby, Vanoss, I need all of you to hold him off. I know a spell that could break the shielding!" Twilight whispered. "Got ya!" Vanoss nodded. "Protect Twilight!" Ruby ordered, the other huntsmen falling back, firing relentlessly at the lumbering murderer. Moo leaped onto Beta's back, trying to stab his neck with the Calvary Dagger before being thrown off at the others. Lui fired an AK directly at his back before Beta grabbed it by the barrel and bent it back at him, Lui shot himself in the head and fell to the ground. Instead of respawning normally, he laid there, a collapsed heap on the ground. "What the hell? Monkey, get up!" Delirious ordered, sharply kicking him in the side. "Kids these days. No respect for the dead." Beta scowled. "What's going on here?!" Basically pointed his gun at the Inquisitor. "The Alpha was made aware of your abilities, and we've developed a way to break through it. You can only respawn 99 times, and on your hundredth, it is absolute. Permanent. Your friend is dead." Beta announced, chuckling malevolently. Vanoss' eyes bulged. He hadn't kept count. Ruby and the others stood in shock, one of the unkillable group of ex-gamers had finally bit the dust. "Why do the bad guys always get the good shit?" Wildcat sighed. "Blame Alpha's insistence on collecting old artifacts, most of which are worthless." Beta explained. Ruby actually shook, rather violently, clutching Crescent Rose until her knuckles turned white. "Ruby?" Yang wondered. Her silver eyes had started to glow, dimly at first before flickering intensely as she looked up to face her rival. "You... I won't..let you..get away..with this..!" She stuttered, trembling. "Should we start running?" Vanoss backed away. "I almost have the spell ready, it should be done in about another minute-" Twilight reported. "You don't need it." Ruby cut her off. She walked, unsteadily, towards her opponent, her Aura now shining bright silver. Before Beta could even utter a word, she attacked, swinging Crescent Rose viciously, making marks in his magic barrier. Her screams of rage could even be heard by Alex and Sigma. Her own teammates couldn't help but watch as their once sweet and innocent leader tore at the inquisitor with blinding speed and pure, unadulterated fury. Twilight gasped. "I-Is sh-she actually breaking through?!" Twilight stammered, frightened beyond rational thought. She spun like a top, ripping chunks off the barrier until his chin was completely exposed. Finally, in one final blow, she placed the tip of Crescent Rose's blade just under his chin, firing the gun and swinging upwards, splitting his head in two and blowing him into the skies. Vanoss's remaining crew stared as Ruby's eyes returned to their normal color and the menacing glowing white aura faded from view. She looked genuinely shocked, she knelt down, breathing in short, quick breaths. "Ruby! Are you okay?!" Weiss knelt down. "Yeah... I'm fine... I just pulled an 'Alex'..." She huffed. Vanoss couldn't help but smirk at that comment alone. "Speaking of which, where is he?" Nora wondered aloud. "He's fighting... Sigma... I have...to help.." Pyrrha said, limping nearby, bringing with her an unconscious Lie Ren. "Someone call a medic." Blake ordered. "I got Andromeda to contact command! We'll be okay! They're sending reinforcements!" Vinyl yelled back. "Why do you have to help? Does it have something to do with the Maidens?" Ruby asked, having regained her breath. "Oh... So you know about that.." Pyrrha sighed. "Yeah, Qrow told Ruby and I what happened." "Then you know what I have to do." She said. "What are you doing?" Jaune asked. "Your uncle had explained everything. Either she has to surrender peacefully and relinquish her power, or I take it by force, or she takes the half of the Fall Maiden's Aura I have.." She announced. "You too?!" Yang gasped. "Alex is fighting her now! You don't have to do this now! Backup is on the way!" Nogla announced. "I know. I'm sorry, but this is what has to happen. We're huntsmen and huntresses. We defend the world, or die trying." Alex was slammed into a tree, which had soon exploded under him. He fell like a stone to the ground below, staggering up weakly. Sigma stomped his chest into the ground, pulling him up by his hair. "This is more rewarding than you know... With this much power, I might just finally defeat Alpha!" She smiled malevolently. Alex spat in her face, which she wiped off with a glove that she then pointed at his face. The glove began to glow before a small Grimm-like bug poked partway out of her hand. "What the hell is that thing?!" Alex stammered. "Goodbye, Saigo." She grinned. Alex closed his eyes tight. So this was how he was going out, with a little bug. Admittedly, kind of pathetic. "Hey! You!" Someone yelled to his right. Sigma dropped him and turned to face... Pyrrha?! "Ah, if it isn't my other half!" She grinned, taking off the glove in exchange for a matching gauntlet. "Save it, Cinder." She unsheathed her sword, pointing it at her adversary. Alex himself staggered up, clutching his blades. "You. Out. Now." Alex ordered. "No. This is between me and her!" She demanded. Sigma glanced at her two opponents. "It looks like I got more than I bargained for." Sigma laughed. Alex put on his helmet, thankful there was music in this thing. He pressed 'shuffle' randomly until he found a song which he could properly go on an full-blown rampage to. "Thank Destoyer, he actually figured this out." He muttered. He leaped behind his enemy, pulling his swords out of the ground, making an X-shape while glaring at her before smashing his gauntlets together, trying to intimidate his opponent. "Alex! Just go! You can't fight her!" Pyrrha yelled. "She killed my friend! She tried to kill me! Like f**k I'm leaving now!" Sigma laughed callously, lashing out at Pyrrha first and shooting arrows at her direction, Alex ran behind her, hitting her with the pommels of his swords, giving his ally an opportunity to strike. Pyrrha slashed at her chest, creating a spark as it scraped against the dark armor she was wearing. Alex set both of his blades to their Saw Modes and tried to wear her down. She raised out both arms, causing dead leaves to rise out of the ground and form themselves into Grimm-like shapes, complete with glowing red eyes. "Oh, god dammit!" Alex groaned. 'Alex, ya miss me?' Kat said via radio. Several of the monsters dropped, a thin vapor trail leading up to where they stood. 'I'll help whatever I can. Another wave of reinforcements just showed up and everyone is fighting.' "Got it!" Alex answered back, blocking a torrent of glass shards. Pyrrha slid underneath a Cinder-Grimm and shot her rifle at Sigma three times. Alex hacked at her again with his own weapons, the ring of metal against metal echoing through the dark woods. Sigma grabbed Pyrrha's leg and threw her into a tree so hard that the trunk split in two and she fell with it. Alex blocked another one of Sigma's attacks, but lost one of his swords in the process. He converted his Blitzklinge into the revolver form, and shot two Cinder-Grimms before finally shooting her in the chest. She recoiled as planned, so Alex delivered a kick that sent her flying towards another tree. Alex moved fast to intercept, punching her square in the face and hacking away at the armor, hoping to destroy it. Sigma put both of her hands together, palms open, and fired a devastating ray of fire from the gap in between, incinerating many of the trees. Alex set Blitzklinge back to it's sword mode, then saw mode, and protected himself from the attack, dissipating the flames and striking while she was still open. Pyrrha leapt up again, kicking Sigma in her side before firing her rifle at least three times before Sigma grabbed the rifle and pulled it away, slamming the butt of the gun in the neck. She aimed the rifle at her heart and would've killed her had Alex not fired a bolt of lightning at her while she was occupied. Sigma turned back at Alex, shooting him in the side, causing the armor to cave in painfully. Pyrrha hit her with the shield, throwing it at her Captain America style, causing it to ricochet off the armor and return to her hand, delivering another blow to her head. Sigma grit her teeth in anger, throwing several fireballs towards Pyrrha's direction, giving Alex the perfect opportunity to attack, shooting the remaining ammunition in his revolver before changing it back into a sword and clashing blades with his rival. Vanoss and Delirious saw the commotion from behind a frozen bush, looking amazed at what was going on. "Holy shit! She's getting wrecked!" Delirious gaped. "How does that work? Alex could barely take down Omega without passing out. Either he's just that good, or.." Vanoss pondered. "Or what?" "Power levels are bullshit!" He yelled. She literally blew him away, using the disintegrated leaves and blowing a harsh wind at him, causing him to fly 100 feet back and slam into a tree. "Kat..?" Alex gasped. 'I have a clear shot. Lethal or non?' Kat answered. "Not just yet!" Alex warned, leaping up and attacking Sigma, who blocked his attack and Pyrrha's at the same time. "I'll get to you later." Sigma coldly stated before grabbing Alex by the throat and throwing him into another tree, causing the heavy chunk of wood to fall flat on top of him. He tried lifting the trunk off of him as he watched Sigma ruthlessly slashing at Pyrrha until she could no longer stand, before she dealt a finishing blow that rendered her near-helpless. Sigma walked up to Pyrrha slowly, soaking in as much self-gratification out of this moment as possible. "I've been waiting for this for a long time, Ms. Nikos." She removed her gauntlet and slid the glove back on. 'I'm taking the shot now. She can't get that power, if she does, it's all over.' "Do it, hit the glove." Alex ordered. Mere seconds later, a bullet screamed through the air, colliding with Sigma's wrist, leaving a gaping hole in the center. Alex managed to lift the trunk just enough for him to slide under, standing up to full height. "Sigma!!" Alex yelled. The woman turned to him, hatred glinting in her eyes. And then she smiled. "You know what, I don't even want the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers. Not now. The satisfaction I'll get from watching you die is reward enough." Alex himself grinned with malevolent intent. "Fine then, hit me with your best shot." Alex threw his sword to the ground. Sigma's simple response was to lash out with everything she had. A hurricane of fire, glass, leaves, and chunks of metal debris left a cloud of smoke in the air where Alex once stood. The onslaught was gut-wrenching to watch, but as soon as she finished the attack with a few more explosions, the smoke cloud grew to where one couldn't see one inch inside of it. Sigma grinned satisfied, her work was done. She turned around to finish the job before she suddenly heard a loud booming ring. An explosion quickly dissipated the cloud of smoke, revealing that Alex had survived. Sigma stared on, backing away slowly as she looked on in dread. She heard another loud ring as Alex exploded again, this time, his skin started to turn a glowing blue, along with the roots of his hair. The ringing and the explosions of power grew quicker and faster in pace, before one final brilliant flash of light blinded any bystanders, and by the end of the ordeal, Alex now stood in his Enlightened Warrior form. "Y-You... What.. What the hell are y-you?!" She gasped. "Funny. You said you heard what happened to Omega, and you still didn't expect me to walk out of that attack more pissed off than hurt." Alex grinned smugly. "It's come to this... I don't think you'll try to spare me like your friends will, is that true?" She asked, trying to retain some of her confidence. "Kinda sad how they think you're redeemable." Alex charged, each hand generating massive amounts of electricity and glowing brightly, as though two stars suddenly engulfed his fists. Sigma glared, preparing another attack, both eyes burning bright orange as she readied her swords. Both opponents launched themselves at each other, matching blow for blow at blinding speeds, launching the various lightning bolt or the odd brand of fire here and there. Alex eventually grabbed both of Sigma's wrists, twisting them at an awkward angle before frying her with his sheer power. She was eventually blown backwards into a series of trees, battered and beaten. She summoned her bow, stringing an egregious amount of arrows, tips burning so hot Sigma was almost surprised that they didn't just melt. She eventually released, arrows flying and causing a massive explosion wherever they landed. The dissipated the bow afterwards, keeping one sword and stabbing it into the ground below, causing raw magma to erupt from underneath, engulfing that part of the forest in molten rock. Alex eventually limped out, wounded himself, but still determined. He ran towards Sigma, grabbing her by the throat and charging a fist as he hit her, repeatedly, in the side. "Kidney punch. Kidney punch. Kidney punch, and pause..." Sigma gasped, coughing up blood and losing much of her Aura fast. "Electrical Torrent!!!" Alex kicked her away, firing beams of plasma from his fingertips at her, so fast and powerful that he was sure she was nearly dead by now. He finally stopped, lowering his hand and reverting to his normal form within seconds. Staying awake, he walked over, picking up his sword and walking to where she now laid, infuriated by how easily she had lost. He converted his sword into it's revolver form, pointing it at her. "Alex!" He heard Yang yell from behind. He turned to find Yang and Kat, along with another fireteam. "Where's Pyrrha? Did Sigma steal her powers?" She asked. "She's back there. She's fine. Kat shot Sigma's hand almost completely off just to keep it from happening." Alex assured, nodding thanks to his friend. "So, what are you going to do with her?" Kat asked. "Isn't it obvious by now?" Yang wondered. Sigma coughed. "Go ahead, finish me off, that is.. If you're able.." She coughed, gasping and gagging. Alex stared her coldly in the eye, cocked the revolver, put his finger on the trigger.. And put it back in his holster. "Put her under arrest. See to it that she's put somewhere she won't be able to escape for the duration of the battle." Alex ordered. Yang looked at Alex like he was insane. "This is... Different.." She blinked. "What? You think I kill everyone who deserves it? That's like getting a trophy just for showing up to a track meet. And besides..." Alex turned to look at his defeated enemy one last time. "At least Omega was strong enough to get a few hits in, unlike this pushover." Alex dismissively spun his revolver around his right pointer finger. Sigma grit her teeth in anger, pulling with what energy she had left to rip Alex's throat out, but because she was in such rough shape, the soldiers were easily able to pull her away. "Ouch." Kat cringed. "Well, guess what Ruby did!" Yang smiled. "Killed Beta?" Alex asked. "Yep! She went all crazy after one of Evan's friends died, and when she finished the job, she said she pulled a 'you'." Yang smirked. Alex chuckled a bit, amused at the comment. "That's all well and good, but there's a lot we need to do. This battle isn't over yet." Alex said, "Andromeda just summoned reinforcements, numbering to at least another million. So we'll have a total of 2 million attacking the Tranquility Complex nearby." Kat explained. "How many Red Star are over there right now?" Alex asked. "3 mil, with at least another million on the way." Yang replied. "Good. What Inquisitors are over there right now?" Alex asked. "Gamma, and another two who were known associates of Sigma. Tau and Upsilon." Kat answered. "Emerald and Mercury... In retrospect, they did look a bit shady to me. I'll take care of them, no problem." Yang smirked. A large transport vehicle lowered just above the molten lava that now covered the ground, it released a bridge so one could walk in without having to actually jump or climb inside. Kat walked inside first, then Yang, who reached out for support after Alex had started to stumble a bit. As he walked inside, he saw Twilght, Rarity, Vanoss's crew minus Lui, Jaune, Nora, The other members of Team RWBY, Vinyl, and Ember. "Hey, sir." Ember greeted sadly. "Something happen?" Alex asked. "Blast died fighting against Beta, and Skirmish was almost blown to bits as soon as the shooting started on the Iliad. Sure, she's finenow, but..." Ember explained. "Shit, we just lost Lui." Vanoss sighed. "Is Pyrrha okay?" Jaune asked Alex. "She's fine. I took care of Sigma. She isn't going anywhere, for a while, at least.." Alex groaned, laying his head back. "What's the plan, exactly?" Vinyl asked. "Isn't it obvious?" Alex asked, "We're going to Tranquility Complex." Author's Note Credit to DAGames for the song! Sorry I haven't been posting a lot. I've just been busy with school and everything, plus the sheer length of these chapters means I have to write a crap-ton with the little bit of time I actually have. Also, I'm quite a procrastinator, I'm sure a few of you can relate. -The Destoyer
Act I, Chapter 1: Two Months Later"I'm not going to ask again, Why did you kill all those people?" Alex Walker was now sitting in a dimly lit room, tied to a chair. This was unfortunately a daily thing since his arrest back in August. He was arrested because apparently he looked similar to a mercenary that had actually been a part in the attack. The man standing before him, butcher knife in tow, was Agent Winchester, he had been interrogating and torturing Alex ever since he was dragged out of the armored van that took him here. And because he didn't actually know anything and the fact that the real perp hadn't been detained, he was still the prime suspect. "Sir, with all due respect, I didn't do crap. I'm ninety-nine percent sure you just arrested me to boost your paycheck. I really didn't do it." Alex anxiously replied. "Then where we're you on the night of July 8?" Winchester threatened. He had just planted the tip of his knife above his eye, slowly pulling it down to about his eyebrow. "How can anyone remember exactly where they were on some random night two months ago?" He actually meant that, memories of that night were foggy enough, and was too distracted by the new cut on his forehead. Winchester sharply yanked the knife down, just barely missing his eye and met the skin below. Alex grunted in pain. Winchester had done similar things to him for the past month, but he still wasn't entirely used to pain, yet. Instead of asking another question. Winchester started untying him. This was new, Winchester never stopped a torture session early, and he would never untie a suspect. Was the actual mercenary caught? Because Alex was getting pretty sick of being a murderer's fall guy, more so considering the punishment. Winchester grabbed Alex by the wrist, dragging him back to a small cell. He opened the steel bar gate, threw him inside like garbage, and locked the door. Then, the agent spoke. "Kid, you haven't given me anything remotely useful since the day we brought you in. But there is one use for you." Alex perked his head up, he agreed when Winchester said nothing useful came out of the ordeal, but he didn't exactly see how he could be of any use as a prisoner. "For the safety and security of this country, you and the other traitors are being executed. Today. You have five minutes left to live. If you have any more to say, the guard is right out there." Winchester coldly finished. He walked away, giving Alex time to think. The day he was arrested had to be one of the worst days of his life, the government burned his home to the ground, knocked him out, and his family? That was too painful to think about. What Alex didn't understand was what Winchester said about 'other traitors'.'Were they wrongfully accused and imprisoned like him, or were some actually guilty? He figured at least one of the others had to have been involved. He wiped his new wound with his hand, leaving red smeared across his palm. This wasn't his first wound. He'd been electrically shocked, stabbed, beaten, even shot once or twice. But in spite of all of that, he still wasn't fully used to this kind of pain. A guard opened his cell and cuffed his wrists and ankles. The guard was still nervous even pacifying him. Seriously, he did kill two SWAT guys during his arrest, but even he wasn't cunning enough to get out of it, besides. He was already tired and weak. Alex was dragged to a small room with 4 posts in a straight line, and the guards immediately tied him to one of them. It wasn't hard to notice the line of soldiers carrying rifles pointed in his direction. Death by firing squad was seldom used simply because it was barbaric and ancient, but they must've decided that if their bosses were shot to death, so would they, or something like that. The first suspect had to be carried inside, he was incredibly frail. Alex felt a pang of sorrow for the kid. He looked like he had been in the prison for at least a month before him. He had cuts and bruises on every inch of him, and looked malnourished. The second was already chained on his post. This guy was better off than Alex was. He wasn't as wounded as Alex was. This boy looked to be about 16, built like an NFL linebacker. His head was shaved, but this guy had facial hair that could double as steel wool. The third was, to Alex's surprise, a girl. About, say, 15 years old. Shoulder length lightish-brown hair, and. Let's just say if looks could kill, the guards would be long dead by now. As soon as they were all bound to their posts, Agent Winchester walked behind the executioners and spoke. "If there's anything any of you have to say, this is your last chance." The weakened child to the far right coughed, prompting the Agent to walk over to him, the kid mumbled something that Alex couldn't hear, and when Winchester leaned in closer, the kid spat into Winchester's shades. The operative wiped his sleeve over his sunglasses and stabbed the poor guy between the eyes and just left the knife stuck in there, scarlet dripping to the floor. "Ready!" Winchester yelled to his men, immediately, three guards point their weapons at them, the inevitable looming closer and closer. "Aim!" He screamed again. Alex could've sworn he heard something beeping, and one of the guards turned his head to find the source of the noise. The ceiling above appeared to crumble down in front of him. Fire lapping in from above. He saw a canister drop to the ground on front of them. The sounds of gunfire roared in the small room as smoke filled the room. The two men fought, one hitting the other with the butt of his gun, as the second fell to the ground. The smoke cleared, and he saw a man in his late teens with ashy blonde hair, similar to his, grabbed a key ring from the unconscious body of Agent Winchester. "Took you long enough, Jäger." The girl said. Jäger, huh? This is the guy Alex was mistaken for. He unlocked the girl's chains and she took the key ring out of his hands and got to freeing the other suspect. "Zip it. Can you finish up here, we have to go." The other suspect said "Mordecai, fancy seeing you here!" Jäger snapped at 'Mordecai'. Well, Alex guessed most of these people were involved. He was apparently the odd one out. Wouldn't be the first time. "Kat, what are you doing, this guy isn't one of us!" Mordecai scolded. To his surprise, this 'Kat' person was unlocking his chains and pulling Alex up. "Come on, you expect us to leave him here?" Kat pleaded. Alex didn't quite know the answer himself, but thank god someone was helping him. "She's right, Mordecai, he can help us with something." Jäger agreed. Now Alex was obligated to help them with whatever they needed me for. The last thing he needed was to join the very people he was blamed for being part of and tortured for it. Kat must've noticed Alex's reaction to that statement, because she looked Alex in the eye and told me "Listen, aren't you mad at these guys for torturing and almost killing you? We're trying to help." "Fine, what do I need to do for you guys?" He groaned inwardly, he was in enough trouble as-is. He didn't need to be in more. "For right now, kid. Grab that rope, we're pulling you up and taking you to HQ." Jäger ordered. Just because Alex was a little skeptical doesn't mean he wouldn't take help where he got it. Alex grabbed the rope, and was pulled into a helicopter. Upon entering, Alex was greeted by the man holding the rope. "Glad to see you're still among living, Kat, who's the kid?" He asked. "Don't worry about it, we've just recruited another member to our cause." Mordecai stated matter-of-factly, as if it really didn't matter to him what happened to me. "Welcome to the Kahn's Militia, kid, what's your name?" Jäger finally asked. "Alex. Alex Walker." He responded, they saved his life, he may as well be honest. "Correction, Private Alex Walker." Mordecai said. -Meanwhile- September 11, 2016 Dear Twilight, Thank you for your report, I am glad to hear you've been settling in to your new castle, I know it may be daunting at first, but you will eventually come around. The main reason I wrote this is that you tell me if anything unusual happens, due to certain events in my life, It's imperative that you tell me these things, while I know you have proven yourself time and time again, I fear you may still be too inexperienced to properly handle such an event. If anything does happen. Write me a letter immediately, and I will be there as soon as possible. Sincerely, Celestia Author's Note Well, part two of the first four instant chapers! I know you may be asking 'why is Destoyer posting four chapters to his story immediately?" It's because I'm already on an inspirational streak and the fact that this story will likely be really, really long.
Act I, Chapter 3: They Can't Stop All of Us!"Is everyone ok?" Alex heard Silas ask, their Helicopter had crashed and burned. Jäger went to help Mordecai get up, and Kat gripped Alex's hand to help him up. "We're okay!" O'Leary yelled. O'Leary was a 25 year old man with a PKM, Alex knew already not to mess with a machine gunner. "Mordecai, place the charges. Alex, get the ropes from the helicopter. Jäger, throw smoke as soon as the hole is blown, Go!" Silas ordered. Alex ran over to the crash, pulling out his Swiss Army knife. He got to the crash site and cut six reasonably sized ropes, and ran back to his unit. Jäger had a canister and Mordecai planted some C4 on the roof. Silas then ordered everyone to back away. Silas clicked the detonator, causing a decently sized explosion. Jäger pulled the pin on a smoke grenade and threw it in the hole, Alex gave everyone a rope, which they attached to the scrap metal, they roped in and started shooting. Even though the planes caused a sufficient distraction, there were still enough soldiers to give us a run for our money, we took cover behind some crates and started shooting. A few soldiers went down fast, but there were still enough to slow us down until reinforcements could arrive. "Grenade!" Alex shouted, pointing the Grenade Launcher at the soldiers once they formed a nice group, The resulting explosion left a few stragglers. Jäger went to one of the injured troops, pointed a pistol at his head, and threatened him. "Where is 'Odyssey'? Answer me, NOW!" "There's a hatch in the office down the hall, once you go down, make a right. Then follow that hall until you find elevator 1-D. It'll take you down to our operations. It should be obvious where the device is by then!" The soldier buckled. Silas grabbed his radio. Probably to tell everyone our findings. "Attention all units, move to Hangar 18, The device is underground, I say again, Die Glocke is underground, move to Hangar 18, over!" Alex had one question in mind about the mission. "How did a machine developed by the Nazis fall into the hands of the Russians?" "Die Glocke was built by Nazi scientists in Poland. When the Nazis lost, the Russians occupied Poland after the war, they found it and did their own tests on it, it wasn't until a few years ago that the U.S bought it from them." Kat answered. By now, they were climbing down the ladder to the underground section of the Hangar. But we were met by significant resistance upon entering the intersection. O'Leary hip-fired his Machine Gun, killing a bunch of them at a time and leaving the floor a bloody mess of flesh and bone. Kat was shooting multiple backup squads long before they could be a significant threat. Mordecai, Silas, and Jäger continued moving down the hallway, killing anyone unfortunate enough to be stationed there that night. Alex was shooting enemies in the chest, covering the path behind all of them while they pressed ahead. It wasn't long until the team reached the elevator. Alex shot his last enemy while Silas worked on the elevator. "That's the last of them!" Alex called to them. "Dammit! The elevator's busted, Alex, fire a grenade at the door, but first, Mordecai, place the plastic explosive." Mordecai places the C4 on the elevator and everyone ran back, and Alex shot the grenade at the bomb and blew the elevator doors apart, obviously Silas' intended effect. "You still got our ropes, Kid?" O'Leary asked. Alex responded by handing everyone their ropes, he tied his to a locked door, and started going down. Kat started talking, he wasn't sure why she had to whisper, that sorta concerned him. "Do you think the machine is operational, Alex?" "I don't know, probably. The machine is being tested by the government, it's more likely then not fully operational." Alex responded. The machine was definitely operational, it's in the hands of the Military. "Good, because I have my own plans." Kat answered mysteriously. Uh, oh. "What plans?" Alex asked anxiously. This was probably going to suck. "I'll 'test' the machine, then you blow it up." Kat excitedly whispered. "What?! Why?!" Alex asked, frightened. "It's completely obvious what they're going to do, they're going to use it for their own ends, for greed. I can't let that happen." Kat told him, where were these wild accusations coming from? "If you had access to such a device, would you use it?" "Kat," Alex began, "I'm only here because I have an obligation, I owe them." "Wrong, you owe me. I can't let Silas use the device to hurt innocent people. I'm only using it to get away from this militia, it's for the greater good that you destroy it." Kat determined. If they she was telling the truth, then... "Why did you rescue me?" He asked. "I need someone to blow it up, everyone else is loyal to Silas, I need fresh blood to do this." "Fine." Alex gave in. Besides, even he didn't trust them. "Thanks for saving me, if you're right, we need to stop this." Alex actually didn't fully trust her, especially since he would definitely die. But if she was right, he would have to do it. They reached the main room, with a dilapidated bell-shaped device in the back end of the room, bearing the Nazi, Soviet, and American flags. This was definitely it. "Okay, it's go time." Kat signaled him. Whatever happened, he figured he owed her this. Alex ran over and planted the explosives after Kat entered the machine. "You sure you know what you're doing, Kat?" Alex asked as he fitted the last explosive. "Yes, they replaced the old German buttons with English ones, I know what I'm doing, Thank you, Alex." With that, the machine flashed blue, then red, then in one white flash, Kat was gone. Alex was about to hit the detonator when he heard someone yell at him. "What the hell are you doing!?" He gasped, looking behind him, he saw Silas, he looked worried, like 'someone about to discover your secret' worried. "Following your orders, you told me we had to destroy it, sir." Alex remembered the debriefing. "Not here, back at the base, get the explosives off of there!" Jäger yelled. "He knows, Jäger, why else would he destroy it here?" Silas whispered. "Oh, no." Kat was right. And he was standing right there in front. He had to get the hell out. Now. But how could he... The Machine! He could use it and detonate it from the inside as it's in use! More Militia ran in behind Mordecai. "Open fire, shoot him! KILL HIM!!!" Silas shrieked They all shot their weapons at him, he scrambled over to the machine, a few shots hitting him. Sending wave after wave of pain through him. Alex returned fire, but no amount of firepower could be enough to withstand such impossible odds Alex heard screams of dying militia, Could that be the Task Force? Alex then saw, in the distance... The, unfortunately, familiar visage of Agent Winchester. He kept running away, he realized the Agent was shooting at him. And he was actually hitting his chest, continuing the onslaught of pain in his still-wounded body. Alex got in the machine. He noticed the 'shuffle' button on the control panel inside. And he pressed the 'activate' button. 'Die Glocke' resonated a large hum, charging up to sufficient power for the transport as bullets punched inside the device's hollow interior, a few blasting into Alex, leaving him crumpled to the ground. His vision flashed blue as he lifted the detonator to eye-level. Vertigo rushing into Alex's head and making him feel sick to his stomach. The room changed to a very bright red color, Alex felt the ground beneath him becoming less stable as he tried to stand, he pressed the detonator, making the explosives outside the hull beep one last time as the ground seemed to collapse from underneath as the resulting explosion burned his face and chest as he continued falling faster and further down the purplish hole, noticing the hole under him made it perfectly clear, he was nearing an alternate universe, being the second person (to his knowledge) to do so. Alex fell hard against the earth as the portal above him spat him out, flames burning his flesh as the portal dilated like it never was to be. Alex was safe, at least for the moment. Alex, left with a moment to rest, finally noticed how tired he was, and how badly his wounds hurt. He needed to get to the hospital. Looking around, he noticed a town occupied by...small horses? Eh, what did he expect from an alternate universe. He needed help, bad, but in his condition, he wouldn't last long. He needed help. For the moment, he figured he should put away his gun. They probably wouldn't take to kindly to a man with a live weapon at the ready, so to get in the least amount of trouble, he should at least put it away. With the gun at his back, he went to find help, any help. -Moments Later- Cloudchaser left the party nearby and figured it would do some good If she took a walk, besides, her sister, Flitter, practically pleaded her to do so. Not that she would argue, it was a nice night after all, may as well enjoy it. The two Pegasi walked side by side down the path leading near the Everfree. She liked the sounds of the forest at night, always did. The two sisters started talking. "So, Cloudy," Flitter began. "Yeah?" She responded. "How's everything?" She asked. "Everything's fine, sis, I finally got that promotion. I'll try asking them to give you the same job, we work well together, that's all I have to say." Cloudchaser informed. It was true, they did work well together, that was just how it worked, no question about it. "What is that?!" Flitter gasped fearfully, pointing to a bipedal figure limping nearby. "I don't know, looks like one of Lyra's drawings." She muttered that last part to herself. "Hey, buddy, over here!" She yelled to him. To be honest, he looked like he had seen better days. It must've heard her, because it started talking, "Help...shot...hospital." He groaned painfully. Flitter looked shocked. This thing was hurt. Bad. "He needs help!" They had gotten close enough to notice he had been burnt, and was covered in some type of wound. Cloudchaser agreed, whatever it was, it needed help. She flew over to him, grabbing one arm and instructing Flitter to take the other arm. The two sisters flew the creature to the Ponyville hospital, doctors could hopefully help him. But one question occupied her thoughts. "What the hell happened to you, kid?" Author's Note And that's that! Four chapters, released straight away!
Act I, Chapter 4: Out of the Ashes...'Ow... What happened last night?' Alex, immediately upon waking up, was in very deep pain. The events that transpired the previous night had taken it's toll on him. And, wow, it hurt! Alex then tried to recollect just what the hell happened to him. Not with much difficulty, though not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. 'Okay, first, the arrest, government burning my house down, killing my family..' Those memories made it clear that maybe, just maybe, that his little 'escapade' should be kept to himself. If he told anyone, they might turn him in again. 'What else..? Winchester sadistically torturing me, the botched execution... Being recruited into a terrorist cell..' Alex agreed that being strong-armed into the Kahn Militia was far from his best moment. He wasn't sure what fate would've befell him if he hadn't joined Jäger and Kat. 'Joining the Militia in an attack against Area 51... Kat informing him of her correct assumptions about Silas... The Task Force and the Militia trying to kill me... And, what else?' It didn't take long for Alex to realize that he was alone, in a hospital, or something. Alex then decided to get up... Which was immediately met with severe pain. Looking down, he noticed a blood-stained patch on his chest, remembering full well the origin of such wounds. And then Alex remembered. 'Getting the bloody hell away from Winchester and Silas... Using Die Glocke to escape... And getting escorted to a hospital by small, winged horses.' Alex wasn't sure whether or not that last part was a hallucination from the blood loss, but what he saw next debunked that theory... Those same small, winged horses entering the room. "Um...hi." Alex nervously greeted with a wave of his hand. He wasn't sure how to handle the situation. On one hand, he actually made it to an alternate universe... On the other... That alternate universe was inhabited by creatures who looked like they were from a little girl's TV show. Looking at them again, the two small, winged horses... 'the Pegasi", he figured. Looked very similar, like they could be related, or something like that. "Hello... Whatever you are..." One of the Pegasi awkwardly replied. This particular Pegasus had very messed up, almost spiky, whitish hair with a blue streak at the ends. Alex could tell she was having as much fun as he was. Meeting new people was hard enough, after his situation, the fact that they were Pegasi didn't help at all. Regardless, Alex figured he may as well try and be friendly. Make it easier for them. "I'm Alex." Was pretty much all his confidence would get him, But, eh, it was a start. "My name's Cloudchaser, and this," pointing to the other Pegasus, "Is my sister, Flitter." Flitter, unlike her sister, had, green hair, swooping over at the bottom, with a bow tied on. Clearly she was enjoying this as much as Alex and Cloudchaser. "Hi..." Flitter introduced shyly. "I just wanted to say thank you for helping me, I probably would've died out there or something." Alex said. He figured that they did go through the effort of carrying him to the hospital, he may as well be polite. "You're welcome, Mr..-" "Walker, my full name is Alex Walker." Alex interrupted Flitter. Well so much for being polite. "'Alex Walker'? What kind of a name is that? It sounds like something some idiot author came up with in, like, five seconds!" Cloudchaser said. "Hey, 'Alex Walker' is a perfectly normal name where I come from!" Alex scolded. Although he had to kind of admit, she may be right. "Which is..?" Filtter asks nervously. At least someone was trying to be nice. "Yeah, where are you from, Alex?" Cloudchaser asks. "Umm, Earth... I'm pretty sure I'm from a different universe, so good luck finding that on a map." Alex answers, rather rudely, even by his standards. "Oh... How did you get here?" Cloudchaser inquires. 'Oh, god, this question. Alex thought reluctantly. He couldn't exactly tell them every terrible thing that happened to him. He was pretty sure they could tell whether or not Alex was lying. But he had to give them some kind of answer. "I...um, well, you see..." Alex stammers. A Nurse walks into the room just as he was about to answer, a white unicorn, Alex notices the horn sticking out of her head. "Hello Cloudchaser, Flitter, and...um..." "Alex." He replies, thanking whatever gods might have been for preventing him from answering. "Right," The nurse replies, "What's my situation?" Alex imposed. "Well, let's put it this way, your head, neck, and shoulders are covered with second and third degree burns, you're also peppered with some unknown type of wound, and we found this..." she informs, holding up a small bag of what appeared to be a bullet, distorted at the end from the shot, and covered in what appeared to be Alex's blood, "..Inside one of the wounds." "Ouch." Alex responded, stunned. "How long will that take to heal?" "With our magic, about a week, we just need to apply some salve on your head and shoulders, and a few healing spells every couple of days and you'll be good as new." Alex was thunderstruck. "That's it? On my world it would take a few days in an ICU for the gunshots and it would take even longer for the burns." "Why, do you not have magic in your world?" Flitter asks. "Not really." Alex answered. "I'm going over to tell Princess Twilight about you. If you don't mind." Cloudchaser tells him. "Ah... I don't know, I usually get into some type of trouble with authority figures." Alex answers nervously, remembering the FBI, Agent Winchester, and Silas. "Don't worry about it, I think she wants something like this to happen, in fact, she's been asking everyone in town if they've seen anything." Flitter reassures. "One other thing, nurse?" "Yeah?" She asks "Can I have a mirror, if you have one?" Alex inquired, he hadn't seen his reflection in months since the arrest. The nurse levitated Alex a small, portable mirror, he grabbed it, nodding his thanks to the nurse. Alex's eyes stayed the same, ice blue color, but he was now covered in cuts, the most prominent being the one he received from before the execution, his brownish blonde hair wasn't entirely gone, it was about an inch from being a full blown buzz cut, some of it curling a little bit. The scar Winchester had most recently given him started a half inch above where his eyebrow would be and ended at his cheek, never to disappear like the other cuts eventually would. Handing the nurse back the mirror, he took out a small journal he'd gotten from his time in the Kahn Militia, an entry already written inside, practically asking for another, so that his experiences, unlike him, would never perish. Although this was a new world, it was hardly a new beginning. Alex just needed to clear up a few more details. "Where is my stuff?" "Oh, those things? The larger object will be ready for you once you leave, we left the smaller one with you." The nurse replied, pointing to a small nightstand. The gun was still in the holster, sitting on the table. "The doctor said something about letting Princess Twilight study it." Cloudchaser informed. "Fine by me, I can tell her all about it." Alex responded, while there was still a good amount of ammo, he still might need more, he wondered if there was a forge so he could build his own bullets, did they even have gunpowder? There were so many questions. "Well, Cloudchaser and I kinda have to go, It's 7:53, and we need to get to work by 8:00." Flitter realized, as if they had lost track of time. "Oh, wow, you're right. We have to go, like now. You'll be okay, right? Cloudchaser asked. "I'll be fine, thanks again." Alex answered, for the moment, it was probably true. The two Pegasi left the room, leaving Alex alone again. He figured he should probably get some sleep, it would be a long road to recovery, but at least he was safe, at least for now. A new thought entered his mind, a rather unpleasant one at that. 'What if they find me here?' Author's Note Well, here we are, the first chapter after the 4 chapter rush! If anyone has anything to say to help me improve as a writer, feel free to comment! (I am such a noob.)
Act I, Chapter 5: Rude AwakeningAlex was back inside his cell. Tied to a small folding chair, and very weak. No matter how much Alex struggled and pulled against his chains, he wasn't able to break free. Distracted by his attempt at escape, he did not notice the cell door slowly creak open, or the silhouette that entered the room. Said cell door slammed shut, fully gaining Alex's attention. "Hello again, traitor." The shadow coldly greeted as it bashed something against Alex's head. The shockwave of pain knocked him against the cold, stone floor. The shadow turned on the one incandescent light hanging loosely above Alex, now he was able to clearly see the gun being pointed at his chest. The dark figure stepped closer, revealing the identity of his captor. Agent Winchester. Alex stared in horror, what was he doing here? "Where is the Militia, answer me, now!" Winchester threatened. Alex tried to speak, to tell him where he had last seen them, so he could beat up some other poor sap besides him. But he couldn't. "Typical martyrs." The Agent scoffed, placing the barrel firmly against Alex's rib cage, he fired one shot, the sound booming into his ears. "Are you okay, wake up!" Alex bolted up from his hospital bed, frazzled and breathing wildly. It didn't take him long to realize what just happened. He was having a nightmare, in full view of a pony. Alex somehow figured that didn't bode well for him. "What happened, are you okay?" The lavender pony in front of him anxiously inquired. "I'm fine, it was just a dream." Alex reassured, more for himself than her. "I don't think you're fine, should I come back later?" She asked. "Now is fine, don't worry about it." He said, regaining his composure. "Oh...okay then, Mr. Walker, if you say so.." She obviously didn't fully believe him, not that Alex particularly cared. Alex remembered Cloudchaser mentioning someone named 'Princess Twilight', and that only the staff, Cloudchaser and Flitter, and this Princess knew about him. Oh, crap. He just had a full blown nightmare in front of royalty. "Aren't you this 'Princess Twilight' that Cloudchaser mentioned?" He asked, from what the staff told him, the Princess was an Alicorn, a pony with both wings an a horn, noticing said appendages, this had to be her. "Yes I am, Cloudchaser and Flitter told me about you earlier this morning. I just had to come over and meet you!" She beamed excitedly. Oh great, questions. "Cloudchaser also said something about you wanting to study my equipment." Alex said, remembering what the Pegasus had told him in her visit yesterday. "Oh, yeah, can I? Please?" She pleaded. Damn, she is really into this whole 'alien tech' thing. "Why not? Better yet, I can tell you a bit about it, I only ask that you not-" Alex could hardly finish talking until the Alicorn levitated the SCAR into the air above him and dissected the thing, leaving each individual part suspended in the air, some flew over to Twilight for closer inspection. "What is this called?" Twilight asked, levitating a Magazine towards Alex's direction. "This is a Magazine, mag for short, people have also called them 'clips'." Alex stated, revealing what he knew on the subject. "So which is it?" Twilight asked. "Technically, it's a mag, but I can't tell you how many times I called it a clip by accident, it's a pretty common mistake." He answered. "What exactly is the difference?" Twilight inquired again, at least these questions weren't about his past. "A clip is when the ammunition is exposed, held together by a small metal band, a mag is basically a box where you put the ammunition inside yourself." Alex told her. "...what's ammunition?" She asked, yet again. "We'll discuss that later, just tell me the important stuff, deal?" He was getting a little tired of the 'Firearms 101' thing. "Deal." Twilight agreed as she reassembled the gun right in front of him. Wow, it took her four seconds to do what he would in a half-hour, give or take a long ass time. "I know you're here for some other reason then to learn about my armaments, so...what is it?" Alex asked. Twilight cleared her throat, oh boy, this was going to be long. "Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, former protégée of Princess Celestia and The Princess of Friendship, and I would like to formally welcome you to Equestria!" Damn, she seems to have done that same speech a million times! How often did alternate dimensional creatures just drop in here? "Thank you for the introduction, Princess. I just have a couple of questions." Alex said. "Shoot." Twilight seemed ready for a barrage of questions. "Is there a forge near here?" "Yes, the Ponyville forgery is about 2 miles north of here." "Do you have any access to gunpowder?" Alex asked, for safety's sake, it would probably be best to reload, which is hard when you only have what you took with you. "My friend Pinkie might know, she does have a party cannon, so she might know someone." Twilight answered. "Is there much I need to worry about?" Alex inquired, he didn't want another Bohemian Grove to ruin his life here like it did back there. Uh, oh, Twilight seemed a bit nervous about answering this one... "Ponyville has more than it's fair share of monster attacks, and our friendship problems usually cause some type of collateral damage, plus, there's usually some threat to Equestria about once or twice a year. Sorry." She finished. Alex was baffled that all of that could be condensed into one place. Holy hell. "Also, where am I going to live once I'm released from the hospital?" Alex asked one last time, he was an alien, after all, he couldn't be a homeless alien. "There should be a few places, a couple of ponies moved away after that whole 'Tirek' situation." Well, at least He had options. Alex and Twilight continued talking for a while, until Twilight finally had to leave because of some diplomatic talks at her castle... Something like that, leaving Alex alone with some time to think. Alex still felt a sickening sense of fear since his arrest, that only amplified after joining the militia, and more so once he discovered Silas' true colors. He still remembered what happened between him and Jäger on their way to the Militia HQ... -Aircraft Refuelling Station, 63 miles south of Portland, OR, September 11, 2016- "Team, we're stopping here to refuel the helicopter, we have a 10 minute break." Jäger announced. The chopper landed onto the pad with ease, Alex felt the bump that accompanied a landing. That being said, The pilot, Kat, Mordecai, and the other personnel went into a small convenience store inside, leaving Alex and Jäger alone. "So, now that I'm in the militia, what exactly is my job?" Alex asked. "It's simple enough," Jäger stated, "You're going to act as infantry on our missions, the ops are usually simple, kill High Value Targets, gather intel on anything the Government has to even the odds, and weaken their military. Simple." Alex was not entirely okay with this. "I was just blamed for being in the damn militia and tortured for a month! Do you expect me to confirm their suspicions? I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison or with you murderers!" Alex affirmed. Being accused of being part of a group of killers was bad enough, actually being in the group was a whole other level. Jäger pulled a pistol out of his holster, shoved Alex against a wall, and held it in his face, switching the safety to the 'off' position. "You listen here, you are getting a gun, some ammo, and a uniform. You want revenge on these pricks for what they did to you, don't you?" Jäger threatened, this was serious, Alex wouldn't get a say in whatever happened to him. "Uh... Yes sir." Alex nodded, scared out of his mind. "Good, if we get captured, they'll finish what they started, if you're even alive by then, so show some respect when someone offers you a job!" Jäger shoved the barrel into Alex's forehead, his head hitting the wall. Jäger clicked the safety back on and put it back in his holster. "Our ten minutes is up, regroup at the helicopter." Jäger said, the pilot ran out the door with a soda bottle. Mordecai, Kat, and the other guy falling in behind him. "Don't ever let me hear any of that again, you hear me?!" Jäger yelled. "Yes sir!" Alex said, still fearful of what he would do if he disagreed. "Good! Now get to the chopper, we've got places to be!" Jäger screamed again. Alex, still stunned at what transpired, ran back to the chopper. Getting back into his seat, Alex sat down, fear encompassing his mind. September 13, 2016, Ponyville hospital, present day- Alex let the events of that day play again in his mind, as he finished the small meal. 'The past is the past, it's probably a bad idea to let anyone know about that, if I do, I'll be in a crap ton of trouble.' Alex decided. Who knows what would happen to him if they found out he fought against his government, that he killed people. No matter what, this was a new world, it would be best if Cloudchaser, Flitter, Twilight, or anyone else didn't know what he's been through, they might try to help, but he considered that a very unlikely outcome. Author's Note Boom, chapter. I know I promised a chapter dedicated around the Mag vs. clip thing, this wasn't it, but it will come up soon enough.
Act I, Chapter 6: Future Circumstances'It's been 5 days since Alex entered the hospital.' And frankly, Alex was quite bored, between the doctors applying the burn medicine, Cloudchaser and Flitter's regular visits, as well as constant updates from Princess Twilight, there wasn't much for him to do but sit there and think. About his joining the Kahn Militia, about Kat, about his own future. He, once again, thought about the possibility of Task Force Crimson following him, The government had just under a century to study it, they might even rebuild Die Glocke, and finish what they started. The door to his small room glowed golden as it slowly opened, Alex sat taller on his bed, As he instantly realized who may be on the other side. Twilight had told Alex about her former mentor, Celestia, and how they still corresponded to deal with major issues, which, for right now, was him. Some crap about being the first Human in Equestria. The tall, white Alicorn slowly entered his room. Alex wasn't kidding about the 'tall' part. Around normal ponies, Alex would have to watch his step, for fear of tripping over them, as they stood at about 3 and a half feet, Celestia, however, was at least 6 feet tall. Alex, at roughly 5'8 was just shorter than her. "So you are Alex Walker, My faithful student has told me so much about you." Celestia greeted, as far as rulers went, Celestia seemed quite trustworthy and kind, but not enough to fully gain Alex's trust. "Likewise. I'm sure my condition is a bit of a concern, is it?" Alex asked, it was likely that Celestia would be more inquisitive about Alex's past. "I must say, how did this happen?" She asked, Alex wasn't sure how to react, proud that he was right, or worried? "Ah...well, it's quite simple, I-" Alex could barely finish his lie when Princess Twilight burst into the room, with 5 other ponies. "Hello, Alex!" Twilight greeted. Alex wasn't sure about these others. While he knew there was a friendship council, he had no idea who was in this council, regardless, his luck saved him from having to answer about his past. "Hey, Twilight, These are your friends, right?" Alex asked with difficulty, the pink one was bouncing on his chest, obviously exited at the mention of an alien entering the dimension. "Yep!" The rainbow haired one exclaimed, flying in next to Twilight. "Um... Hi." The other Pegasus whispered, barely audible. "Hello." Alex nervously replied, waving a hand in greeting. The orange one in the Stenson grabbed his hand and violently shook it, Alex figured it would be best not to question how she was grabbing his hand with a hoof. "Howdy, Mr. Alien, name's Applejack!" She smiled, still trying to dislocate it, or something. "My goodness, Darling, you're a mess!" A purple haired one shouted, fainting as though she was looking at his old bedroom at home. Looking at himself in the handheld mirror the nurse had given him, his hair had grown about half an inch since having it singed off, but the scar was still present, his eyes bloodshot from the lack of sleep. "Well, hello to you too." Alex muttered, rolling his eyes. Then, the pink one started talking, her voice about as high as an Xbox live squeaker, she was talking so fast that Alex could only make out 'Pinkie Pie' and 'welcome to Ponyville party'. The scene before him was quite chaotic, but also welcoming in some weird way. Celestia spoke again, after some time. "Hello, Twilight, I did not expect to see you here, or your friends, for that matter." She commented "I couldn't stop them, they all wanted to meet him really bad." Twilight told Celestia. "How did you get here?" The rainbow headed one asked him. "It's easy, he found either a natural or artificial wormhole, fell in, and effectively ended up in this part of the multiverse " Pinkie answered... Okay, HOW did she know about quantum physics? "...huh?" Applejack pretty much had the same reaction as Alex. "No, like, how, what's his story?" Rainbow head asked again. "I fell into a sewer and ended up here." Alex lied, hopefully, that and Pinkie's physics lesson would click. "...A what?" The purple headed one asked again. Alex explained to Rarity, which was apparently her name, what a sewer was. By the end of that conversation, she seemed thoroughly disgusted. Much to Alex's amusement. "Well, I do hope you've showered." Rarity shuddered, grossed out by Alex's ruse. "Then how do you explain your wounds?" Twilight questioned. "I fell on the pipes, that 'projectile' were slivers of metal." Alex lied. Trying to keep his alibi as airtight as possible. "There are still a lot of holes in your story, but I'll have to take your word for it." Twilight relented, not willing to go much more into this, probably wanted to study the SCAR more. "You!" Pinkie pointed a hoof at the author, "What's he hiding, tell me or I'll jump right out of this computer and-" "Who are you talking to, Miss?" Alex asked the pink horse pointing at the sky. "Trust me when I say this, 'she's just being Pinkie Pie' is a perfectly acceptable answer around here." Twilight said. "...Is this sort of thing normal?" Alex questioned, just then, Pinkie's tail twitched, said pony leapt off of her bed, with the other Pegasus flying into a corner as an incandescent light fell on his head. "I'll take that as a big, fat 'yes'." Alex said. Applejack walked over to the nightstand, picking up Alex's .44 Magnum. "What does this do?" She asked, pointing the barrel at Alex's direction. "Don't point that at me!" Alex took the gun from her, unloading the weapon. "W-why, is it dangerous?" The Pegasus in the corner asked, quite frightened at Alex's reaction. "Yes! Very!" He scolded. Why he kept that loaded all that time was beyond him, but, hey, hindsight is 20/20. "Then, why do you have it?" The rainbow one asked. "I'd rather not get into that." Alex responded. Twilight levitated one of the rounds over to her for closer inspection. "Kahn Militia .44 Remington Magnum." She read on the back of the bullet, "The what?" Asked Rainbow. "What's a 'Kahn Militia?" Rarity worriedly backed up. The word 'militia' was more than enough to sent the yellow one as far back into the corner as possible, the rainbow one flying over to Alex threateningly. "You'd better have a good explanation for this, Fluttershy is literally crying in the corner!" She yelled. "It's just the manufacturer! It's for self defense!" Alex defended. "Girls, can I talk with Mr. Walker... Alone please?" Celestia asked in a neutral tone. The 6 ponies left the hospital room, leaving Alex alone with a sun goddess, and not in the best situation. This could get very messy. "I can tell there's much more than you are willing to let on, Mr. Walker." Celestia began. "...Am I that transparent?" Alex moaned. Clearly those acting lessons were useless. "No, but you are a horrible liar." She said. "...How much do you know?" He asked. "My sister is the one looking into your dreams, ask her if you get the chance." She commented. "I said how much do you know, with all due respect." Alex chose his words carefully. "Listen closely, Alex, this is one of those problems that will solve itself, but I know enough to be able to tell it won't be easily solved." Oh, crap. It's over, well, he had a good run. "What's going to happen?" Alex nervously questioned, his fate was in the hands of a pony princess, how bad could things be, or not be? "Like I said, this is a problem that will solve itself. I won't tell my student anything, I will put their minds at ease for you. But my help ends there, whatever happens, it is your issue." Celestia told him. "Why?" He asked. "I'm letting you keep your secret, Alex, so let me keep mine." Celestia offered. "Okay, deal, but what about this... 'sister'?" Alex questioned. "I'll ask her to not look in your dreams." She promised. "This seems way too good to be true." Alex said with an edge of doubt. "Do not worry. I'll do you that favor, but you must promise me something, Alex." She told him. "Anything." He promised, anything to keep him safe for another day. "Do not harm my citizens or my guard." "I promise." Alex promised. "Okay, then. I'm glad we could reach an agreement, I will talk to my pupil." Celestia finished. Now Alex had just one more question. "How will everything work once I'm released?" "My student used her wealth and bought you a house down the road from her castle, as well as full citizenship and personal Items. I'm sure there are jobs that may require your...skill set. Twilight also mentioned your interest in metal-working and gunpowder, so she gave you a full membership at the Ponyville Forge, and I will contact my demolitions experts. You've been given more chances than most, I advise you not waste them." Damn, been in Equestria for 5 days and already have a job, a home, and a hobby. "Of course, Princess." He said. "Thank you for cooperating, Alex Walker." Celestia nodded, then left the room, closing the door behind her. Alex sat alone in his hospital room, the day had already passed, and Twilight and her friends apologized for their interrogation, as promised. They then discussed how Alex may fit in. Twilight suggested that he be Ponyville's resident Mercenary, as monsters frequently made a mess of things. Pinkie then did something unusual: she moved his welcome party to after his first job, long after full recovery. "It's the least we can do for scaring you, silly filly!" She had said in her usual squeaky voice. Rarity was generous enough to give Alex a full wardrobe, to be finished a day after his release, free of charge. The others offered to give him some kind of help assimilating into the town due to his being a human. It was now about 8:59, with about a day and a half left, Alex figured he shouldn't get too worked up. He was already receiving aid from his equine benefactors, perhaps too much. Alex looked back on his past, noticing what could have been done to stop it. To know how to stop it from happening again. Yep, things seemed to be looking up for him. But one could never be too cautious, he held his .44, placing it on his nightstand, ready to defend himself at a moment's notice. You can take it, whatever they throw your way. You're a survivor now.' Alex thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep. Author's Note Obvious Mob Of The Dead reference is obvious. Also, just a quick thing, what do you think could be done to improve the general story? Leave a comment below and I'll get back as soon as I can. [good god, almost 2000 words.]
Act I, Chapter 7: Movin' inAlex woke up with a start, he overslept.. In his time here, Alex figured that a lot of his time would be spent sleeping, but he had overstayed his welcome, upon the realization, he bolted to the main lobby. The pain accompanying his bullet wounds was entirely non-existent, but the burns still stung a bit, so the doctors had told him not to do anything too crazy for a couple days. With that note, the first human in Equestria was released from the hospital. Cloudchaser and Flitter immediately greeted him upon exiting the hospital. Happy to see that he had made a full recovery. "Hey, Alex, how are you holding up?" Cloudchaser asked. "To be perfectly honest, pretty good." Alex said, for the first time in a month or so. "We heard from Pinkie that you were going to be Ponyville's Mercenary in residence." Flitter said, impressed. "Apparently, I have the right set of skills for the job, how often do monsters just pop up around here?" He asked. "More than you think." Cloudchaser admitted, "Princess Twilight usually has these sort of problems about once a week." "What kind of things usually attack the town?" Alex questioned. "All sorts of things, timberwolves, ursai, I think I saw some type of 'bug bear' a while ago." Flitter answered. Alex walked over to a small type of house, Cloudchaser and Flitter's lunch break was over, so they said their goodbyes and flew away. Noticing the house nearby, Alex saw that the workers were already putting some large crates outside the door, a few levitating crowbars and opening them up, revealing couches and tables and things. Alex still was not entirely sure what to think of this. Sure, first alien in Equestria was a huge frickin' dealio, but holy hell, he did not expect this kind of treatment. An earth pony in a suit walked up to Alex with some papers. The deed to the house, which he had to sign, and a few bills he had to pay by the end of the month, like the mortgage of about 44,000 bits a year. The Utility bill, about 250 bits a month, basically all that stuff that nobody tells you when you buy a house. Thank God that Monster Hunters get paid so much. Alex noticed a small record player being unboxed alongside the extra-large bed. He enjoyed listening to music back home, hopefully they had something good here. He grabbed the medium-sized bag of bits Celestia had given him to start out, and walked over to a record store close by. Alex hit his head on the top of the doorway upon entering the record store, he hoped that his hipster buddies were right when they said music sounded better on vinyl. Hey, he lived in a Portland suburb, there were plenty of hipsters around there. "Welcome to- oh, my goodness, you're tall!" The stallion behind the desk gaped, staring in awe. "Hi, as you can already tell, I'm new here, so what would you recommend?" Alex asked. He needed something decent, he always did, between the teenyboppers and the hipsters that flooded his schools, he needed something truly original, remembering every time that a Taylor Swift or a Nirvana song played on the school intercom. Thinking back, he didn't miss Earth's music that much. Alex's reverie was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder, or rather, his shoulder blade. Turning around, he noticed a unicorn made with an electric blue mane and sunglasses. "Um... Hi." He waved. The unicorn didn't say a thing, instead, she walked a little ways deeper into the store, waving a hoof as if to say 'follow me'. Alex obliged, following the mare to the back left of the small store, she pointed a hoof at one of the shelves, Alex looked at that particular shelf to see... That same unicorn on the cover, labeled DJ-PON3 at the top. Alex couldn't help but chuckle a bit, shameless self-advertising, his one true comic weakness. PON3 didn't look as amused, rolling her eyes and sighing with annoyance. "Sorry, sorry." Alex apologized. Continuing to browse music, picking out a couple more of her albums, as well as a few others. Before making his way to the counter. "That'll be 50 bits." The clerk said. Alex just barely grabbed the bag when DJ-PON3 paid for him, placing 50 gold coins on the counter. "Thank you." He said. The mare again, did not reply, instead, she gave him a small business card, with the name 'Vinyl Scratch' typed near the top, as well as a phone number. It didn't take long for Alex to figure out what she actually wanted. "Oh, you want to play your music at the welcome party." He concluded. Vinyl nodded, smiling broadly. "Well, it's the least I can do, I'll be sure to tell Pinkie. Thanks again." Alex said He left the record store with a bag in tow. Returning to his new home nearby, the workers finished placing all of his stuff and were just now finishing. "That'll be 400 bits, sir." The foreman said. Alex looked in his bag, counting out 400 coins. He gave them to the foreman and went into his new home. He had to admit, they did a pretty good job. The record player near the couch with a small shelf nearby, obviously for albums and stuff. Alex placed one of Vinyl's records into the player. It was basically dubstep mixed in with some classical. Not much different from what he listened to back in his old world, that and Alt Rock. Alex then figured it was necessary to go to the forge. It was a good mile away from his house, he'd better get moving, reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a couple of shell casings and ran like hell in the forge's general direction. About 10 minutes later, Alex walked into the small forge, a .44 and a 7.62 cartridge in his pockets as a reference. The metalworker there welcomed him, saying if he ever needed help, to not hesitate to ask. Alex then showed the blacksmith the cartridges. Asking how to make exact copies of those casings specifically. The blacksmith then looked at each one, writing down exact measurements and giving them to Alex, telling him to make a mold with the casings he had, then filling it with brass, and then a crap ton of other things to do, like making a hole for the primer, hollowing out the casing, stuff like that, and then to always check that the measurements were exact. And with that, Alex got to work. -8 hours later- Alex made about 330 .44 magnum shells, and 690 7.62 shells, figuring he'd get to the whole primer, powder, and projectile thing soon, according to Celestia, the shipments of Nitro glycerin and magic propellant would be mailed to his house tomorrow. Then he would figure out how to build more Magazines for the SCAR and use the extras for grenades for the M203. Alex lugged the massive haul of shell casings in a two large bags behind him. They were really heavy, and Alex knew one thing for sure, he would sleep like a baby that night. Opening the door with his teeth, Alex placed the casings on the couch, noticing a note on his closet door. How did someone get in the house? And, on that note, who? Alex picked up the note, It didn't take long to figure out who wrote it. Alex, It's me, Vinyl, y'know, from the record store? You weren't home when I stopped by. Thanks again for promising me a gig at your welcome party, business has been a bit slow lately, and I need the money, you know how it is, right? So, anyways, call the number on that card I gave you to let me know when the party is. And if you somehow lost it, just come over to my place, apparently, we're neighbors. I live literally right next door. Thanks again, Vinyl. Alex moved the note over to his phone, and placed the card on the table, he would call Vinyl tomorrow. Right now, he was beat. He stumbled over to the bedroom nearby and plopped right on. Alex fully appreciated the value of a good night's sleep, the bed at the prison wasn't even a bed, he didn't get to sleep in his time with the Militia, and that hospital bed was uncomfortable as all hell, but this was actually quite soft. Wrapping himself in the flannel blanket, keeping him warm in spite of the early fall chill, and went directly to sleep. The work at the forge sapped Alex of all his energy. And, hell, given what happened to him the past month, he felt the universe owed him this one. Alex was awoken by electronic music, the sound exploding from the house next door. Not the best way to wake up, sure, but it was better than torture or interrogation by visitors. Alex looked at the clock on the wall adjacent to his bed. 6:44, it read. Who plays dubstep that loud at 6 a.m? Alex then remembered the record store, the note, and immediately figured out the pony responsible. Vinyl. Who else? Alex got ready for breakfast, these ponies didn't eat meat, apparently, so he got to work on some French Toast, cracking the eggs into a bowl and heating the pan on a stove. Grabbing some cinnamon from a cupboard, and getting the bread, he made his morning meal quick, remembering how to make food from back on earth, thinking back, Earth wasn't all that crappy. Alex couldn't quite get how his fridge was already stocked, or how fast that the workers set this up, he only spent a half hour at that record store, right? Grabbing a glass of milk from the fridge, he drank the liquid in a few gulps. He didn't need to eat very much. The rest of the morning pretty much consisted of showering, getting dressed, all that stuff. When he looked at the clock again, it read 7:23. Before any of this, he would be spending this time lazily moping around the house, while his parents all but pleaded for him to do something. But his parents were now dead, and in an alternate universe, far beyond his reach, and now he had a job? He had pretty much become an adult in the span of a month. Then, there was just the small matter of his past. Rainbow Dash, which was apparently the rainbow headed one's name, still looked doubtful and almost vindictive at the hospital visit. She was probably the one who he should be the most concerned about. Knowing full well that people weren't made to always have to hide, or lie about their past. However, it didn't seem like he had anyone to turn to about it, and that the more time he spent around ponies, the higher the likelihood he'd let something slip, and he'd be done for. 'How will I be able to handle this?' Alex thought hopelessly to himself. Author's Note Well, boom, more on Alex's personal life besides the whole 'Tortured by the government, betrayed by rebels, and riddled with gunfire, multiverse, blah blah blah' stuff, I bet most of you were waiting for this sorta thing to happen, well, here.
Act I, Chapter 8: A Little Hunting Trip (EDITED)Alex had pretty much nothing to do.. This was a very rare opportunity in his new life. While he hadn't once been called to hunt monsters, between planning a party that would probably never happen, and his hobby at the Forge, he had a busy life, although distant from Twilight and the others, only visiting her amethyst castle once for testing, but at least something important came out of it, that magic propellant was damn powerful, one shot from the test cartridge sent him flying backwards, now remembering to use two grains of propellant, three or four for larger opponents. Alex himself was listening to more of Vinyl's music and reading a book he'd gotten from Twilight. He'd finished building his ammunition, rounding out at roughly 354 .44 Magnum bullets and 672 7.62 bullets, he told Pinkie to have Vinyl DJ at his welcome party, and had gotten his wardrobe from Rarity, his favorite being his hunting outfit, making him ever more eager to receive his first target. In regards to Alex's occupation, Mayor Mare would call him, where he would then discuss with her and Twilight's council about what to do in regards to the threat, and Alex would respond accordingly. It seemed simple enough, and a very good idea, Alex couldn't say how many times he went into something without seriously thinking about it, his temporary stint with the Militia being his biggest. Alex closed his book and finished the iced tea he had been drinking, looking again at the clock, 2:23. The day felt long enough to him, in spite of the time, and figured it was best to take a small nap, so maybe he would find some way to spend the rest of his day. He barely got out of his chair when suddenly, the phone rang, probably Vinyl asking what songs she should play at the party. Regardless, it would be best to answer the phone, he wasn't very tired anyway. Alex picked up the telephone. "Hello, Alex here, how can I help." He began. This was pretty much his standard intro. It worked for him. "Hi, Alex, this is Mayor Mare, could you come over here, it's pretty important." The voice at the other end said. Oh, crap, was this his first job?! "I'll be over there as soon as I can." Alex said with urgency. "Thank you." Mayor Mare finished. Alex, now giddy with anticipation, ran into his bedroom, opening the closet and grabbing his gear. Alex first changed out of his casual wear, leaving him in nothing but his undergarments. And quickly put on the pants that were part of his uniform. Placing several magazines into the pockets. Then the undershirt, grabbing his old bandolier of grenades from the militia, and a new one, meant to accommodate the .44 bullets. Alex then pulled on the jacket, placing more mags and .44 bullets inside the pockets. Next, Alex put on his holster and put the Colt revolver inside. Alex then strapped the SCAR-H on his back, triple-checking that the safety was on and the gun was unloaded. Finally, Alex grabbed his satchel, with some water, food, and a thick cloth that would be used to keep sand out of his eyes, or to shield him from cold in higher altitudes. Finishing the look with a pair of black sunglasses, he left his home, to begin his first assignment. Alex entered the city hall about 3 minutes later, and the secretaries there kindly got him into the conference room for debriefing. "Hello, Mr. Walker, have a seat." The mayor greeted. Alex sat down, still ecstatic about his first day. "What's the situation?" Alex asked, containing his excitement. "We seem to have some sort of a dragon problem." Rainbow scoffed, obviously not caring about this at all. "A dragon made it's nest inside of a cave on the outskirts of town, we've been having the same problems with it, it keeps coming back." Twilight said dejectedly. "Where is the cave?" He asked. "There." Applejack pointed towards a very high mountain, Alex noticed a small hole just under the summit. The Dragon's Lair, no doubt. "Okay, what are my options?" He asked, in the time he was here. He learned that killing was a massive taboo in Equestria, pretty much a capital sin. "When we tried this the first time, diplomacy, charm, and kicking it in the face didn't work." Rarity chimed in, obviously thinking back on that day. "How about, I don't know, asking nicely?" He asked in a mocking tone. Alex was stunned when he learned that Ponies, for the most part, were mostly pacifists. He thought back to his arrest, when he would've done anything to escape the 'authorities', including killing two members of the SWAT team. "Nope! It just flew back a few weeks later!" Pinkie yelled, very close to Alex's eardrum. Ow. "... That was right in my ear." Alex complained. "What are we going to do? Even when I stood up to it, it came back." Fluttershy murmured desperately. "So all I have is 'no diplomacy, charm, petty assault, asking nicely, or yelling at it'. At least we narrowed it down, any other options? Say, teleporting it away?" Alex suggested. "That won't work. Even If I do teleport it, dragons have a keen sense of direction. All that would happen is that my magic would be drained to basically nothing and the dragon would be back a few weeks later." Twilight sighed. This was getting difficult. "Any other ideas?" Alex asked, although killing it was, for him, the best way to go, it would be very bad for his reputation. "I suppose we have no other option." Mayor Mare glumly concluded. "You're not telling us that Alex is going to-" Fluttershy could barely finish that sentence before she started weeping. Oh, crap, this is serious. "It appears so, Fluttershy. Alexander, I need you to evict the dragon, and seal away the cave." Mayor Mare replied. "You're sending me to force out a dragon at least 5 times my size, blow up the rocks above the cave, and somehow escape the ensuing avalanche of death? Biggest middle finger I ever received." Alex commented. The mountain was huge, blowing up such a large chunk of it would mean that several-ton boulders would crush him to death if the Dragon didn't. "You have weapons, don't you?" Rainbow asked him. "At all times, but what the bloody hell is that going to do to a huge dragon and solid rock?!" Alex asked, almost infuriated that his request was fulfilled. Be careful what you wish for. "I have diagrams of weak points on the dragon, the eyes..." Twilight started as Fluttershy continued crying her eyes out, with greater intensity. "Yah do know that dragons keep a huge haul of loot with 'em, right?" Applejack questioned. "What good is a reward if you aren't around to use it?" He asked. "Darling, stop being such a baby. You signed up for this, didn't you?" Rarity chided. "...okay, yes." He relented, so he would be keeping his secret to his grave... Or to his charred remains. "We've tried everything else. If you can, find another solution." Mayor Mare sighed. "I'll try, Is there some sort of finder's fee I have to pay?" Alex asked. "The proper term is 'taxes', Alex." She said. "Do your job, we'll be ready for you once you get back." Rainbow said. "Before I go, do any of you have like a large bag? Like a huge burlap sack?" Alex asked, if Applejack was right, he would be carrying in a large haul. Twilight tossed Alex a small, onyx-colored octahedron adorned with white markings. "I've done studies on pocket dimensions a while back, move all the treasure into the pocket dimension and you can access it anytime you want." She said proudly. "Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go get myself killed." Alex left the room after that. Alex soon got to the base of the mountain, assessing the peak, he could take the path, but it's a lot of extra work, he could climb up there, doing the same amount of work faster, but he'd be too tired to fight. Alex decided to take the scenic route, donning the cloth, wrapping it around his nose and mouth. And pulled out the SCAR from his back, and started walking. The walk wasn't absolutely horrible, Alex moved up the path with ease, already about forty feet or so up, but the rest of the path moved in a corkscrew type motion, leading up to the mouth of the cave. He continued walking when he thought he saw something further up the path. Alex loaded his weapon, pressing the button on the side that chambered in the first round. Now jogging over to a rockier part of the path. He looked around for the source. "Hello?!" Alex yelled, "It's not the best idea to do this kinda crap with me!" Alex felt something pull him to the ground, and he felt like he was being held down by a...hand?! He looked up in horror at the sight before him. Agent Winchester, holding a gun up to his forehead. "You should have died in 51, kid." He contemptfully spat. Alex grit his teeth as he saw Winchester pull the trigger, the muzzle flashed, and the figure faded away to nothing. What he saw next was even worse. Rainbow Dash. In full view of him hallucinating. "You okay?" She asked, almost genuinely worried about him. "Yeah, it's just the lack of oxygen." He lied. "Really? We're not even halfway up the mountain." She scolded "...Damn it." "Why were you freaking out like that, we're you in a crime or something?" She asked. "Why are you following me, isn't this a solo mission?" Alex questioned. "Hey, someone needs to drag your corpse to the party." She said. "Seriously, Rainbow, go help with the decorations." Alex ordered. "No." She said Well, this sucked. She caught him in the middle of post-traumatic hallucinations and she got to watch him die in a fire. Today sucked. "You know what? Screw this, you can follow, but don't think I'm going to tell you my life story or something." He said. At this point, he was willing to compromise. "I can fly you up there." She suggested. "Don't trouble yourself, I have two perfectly good legs that aren't broken." Alex said. "Are you sure? I can get you up there in ten seconds flat." She asked. "And what if I say-" Alex could barely finish before Rainbow grabbed him and flew him to the summit. Fully aware that he was really far up. "Buck! How much do you weigh?" She asked through the strain. "Don't flatter yourself." He exhaled. She got him to the summit a few seconds later, and dropped him, relieved. "Ten...seconds...flat." Rainbow panted. She literally carried him up here. Still unnecessary, but, eh. Alex only had to look at the mouth of the cave to tremble a bit. "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Alex said to himself. "What?" Rainbow asked. "Just stay close." He said, walking inside. The stench of brimstone filled Alex's nostrils as the two snuck inside, hopefully unnoticed. Alex heard something inhaling deeply, it seemed to echo throughout the cave walls, Alex immediately knew what was about to happen. "Rainbow, get down!" Alex yelled as he dove to the ground. Fire swirled above Alex's head, the image of his entrance into Equestria flashing through his mind, sending splinters of pain inside his head. As soon as the flame dissipated, Alex rolled behind a rock, pulling out a diagram of the Dragon's anatomy. Twilight had circled sensitive spots in red ink, the eyes, belly, joints...other areas. He looked at the dragon again. It was a huge beast, crimson red scales, exhaling smoke and ash and sickly green eyes. Eyes that made the best available targets. "Well, I'm royally screwed." Alex fired several rounds towards the dragon's eye, the rifle digging into his shoulder as he squeezed the trigger. It seemed to work, the dragon held it's eye, roaring in agony and arching into a bridge type shape. "Dash! Hit his belly, knock him over!" Alex yelled. Rainbow reared back as far as she could, leaping into high speeds and punching the dragon, knocking it into an upright position. Alex switched the SCAR's safety switch from 'semi' to 'full' and unleashed a torrent of gunfire, ripping through the beast, screeching and spewing flame. Alex then put a grenade inside the launcher, pulling the tube back. "Rainbow, get out of the way!" He screamed. She immediately complied, flying far back as Alex fired the grenade. The magic propellant resulting in a huge, cerulean explosion. Alex continued spraying lead towards the weakened beast. "Alex! Move!" Rainbow yelled. Alex rolled over to the right side of the cave In time to see a large fireball blow the rock he had been using for cover to cinders. Alex inserted a magazine labeled '4' to indicate the grains of propellant he used. The rifle's kickback threatened to dislocate his shoulder. "Kid, use one of those...uh..." Rainbow seemed lost for words, but knew what she meant. Loading in another grenade into the launcher, one he called 'the big boy', which he had filled the remaining propellant into the projectile. Alex fired the grenade, causing a much bigger explosion than the one preceding it. Rainbow then sped like a bullet through the cave, the dragon screeching in pain as rainbow flew out. Alex funneled the rest of the mag into the dragon before pulling out the .44. Loading six shots into the cylinder, pulling back the hammer and sending bullets screaming into the beast. The recoil was quite unforgiving, more so than the SCAR. "Alex, grab my hoof!" Rainbow ordered, Alex grabbing the Pegasus, who was in full speed at the moment. Alex pulled out a large kitchen knife that he carried with him in the satchel. Pointing the end towards the dragon's heart, Rainbow released him, sending him barreling into the dragon's chest. The cold steel blade burying itself into it's flesh. Using it for support, he fired six more bullets into the dragon's chest. The dragon's screams died down to a murmur as it's body went limp and fell forwards, Alex still grasping the knife. The dragon was stone dead. "Woah... Y-You just.." Rainbow gasped in surprise. "It was him or me, Dash. Maybe even you, too. On the plus side, we don't have to worry about the ensuing rockslide that would've happened if I had to seal the entrance." Alex scoffed. Alex pulled the knife out, placing it back into the satchel. Alex rolled over, breathing raggedly, tired. Rainbow herself landed nearby and plopped down, panting with exhaustion. Alex's head turned over to the right, noticing the massive amount of gold and jewels. This would pay for more that his little house, this would be able to buy him a whole mansion! He walked over to the haul, pulling a large bag out of the satchel. And began filling it with treasure. Tying it up once it felt full, he lifted it, testing it to see if he could carry it. The bag weighed something like 80 pounds, but it was possible. Pulling out a flask, he placed the contents near Rainbow, who looked up at him in confusion. "Here's your cut." He said. "I can't-" she began. "The water is my way of saying 'thank you'." Alex said. "But the money... Well, it's a bribe." "For what?" She asked. "All I want is for you not ask me too much about my past. Also, don't tell them about what happened with 'Puff the Magic Dragon' over here." "That? Wait, you were involved in a crime?" She asked Alex looked at her with an expression that said 'shut up for the love of god'. "Why is this such a big deal? The whole dragon-killing, I get, but who doesn't want to talk about their life?" She contemplated. "You're looking at him." He said as he opened up the pocket dimension, tossing coins into it indiscriminately. "Look, I get that whatever might've happened to you wants you to lock that in your head, but you can't hide that sort of thing forever." She said. "So?" He asked. "...It's not your fault." She sighed "I know that." He snapped. "Alex, look at me... It's not your fault." "Don't even try that, I've seen Good Will Hunting." "It's not your fault." "Knock it off, please." "Okay, fine! I thought that would work out better." She relented. Alex was nearly done moving the treasure into the pocket dimension, all things considered, she was kinda right. He was blamed for being someone he wasn't, tortured for weeks because of that suspicion, and forced into fighting with the Militia. The only thing that was, was his entering Equestria, and even that was a lucky shot. Alex closed the Pocket Dimension, placing the black octahedron into his satchel. "Come on, Alex, I won't tell anypony else, I'm not the Element of Loyalty for nothing." Rainbow tried. "Who are you loyal to more? Me, a stranger that someone scraped off the street that you only knew for, how long, a week? Or are you more loyal to your friends, who you've known for, probably years? Using powers that could rival gods, which is strengthened by that resolve?" Alex questioned her. It was a completely valid argument, as Rainbow herself was lost for words. He felt bad for invoking an existential crisis on the poor mare, but she was too persistent, she would've been at this until he cracked like an egg. Alex and Rainbow walked out of the cavern with their riches in tow. "Do you need me to fly you down?" She asked. "I got it. See you at the party, Dash." He said, sliding down the mountain on it's side, which was probably more dangerous. On the way down, Alex again thought about the subject. 'How long can I keep this up? Certainly not forever if she keeps asking. But is this really the best way to cope? I have a legitimate condition, I need therapy, bad, but they'll know something's up. Why am I the only god damned person to deal with this?' Alex knew that last part was not true at all. Kat must be going through something similar. How would she react to seeing me like this? She was able to figure out Silas's plan and he didn't suspect a thing! In the skies above, Alex noticed a streak of what appeared to be a rainbow headed for the town. No doubt it was Rainbow, on her way to tell her friends about his freaking out. This was gonna suck. "Well, Alex, you stupid prick. Better get to that party." He said to himself. This was freaking pitiful. Regretting decisions that weren't his own. Author's Note You people probably wanted to see some more action, as that's probably what drew you into this story in the first place, so Skyrim Alex. Yeah. [3000+ words!? How did I do that?!] [EDIT:] I changed some details of the story so Alex's outing was more or less of an eviction 'gone wrong' sort of thing, rather than pastel horses hiring a hit man. Also helps to establish Alex's mindset throughout the story, more or less of a Darwinist philosophy; adapt or die.
Act I, Chapter 9: Worst...Party...Ever!Alex Walker was bone tired. He just fought a huge dragon alongside a winged horse, carried every last cent of the treasure haul the dragon had kept into his pocket dimension, and yet again reevaluated his decisions. All he wanted to do was sleep, but his party came first. From what Alex and Pinkie discussed, the party would be at Sugarcube Corner, the local bakery and Pinkie's home, Alex figured it was a bad idea to have Pinkie live upstairs from the town's bakery, but hey, their choice. Alex wondered if he could drink, hell, he was practically an adult, with a home, a vastly overpaying job, and was acquaintances with a local celebrity. All things considered, he needed this. The bakery was not far from where he now was, complete with a 'Welcome Alex' banner over the entrance, and the whole inside of the bakery bustling with ponies. Alex opened the door, the entirety of the town's residence welcoming him, including Vinyl, sitting behind the turntable, as promised. He sat down at one of the tables, and that one table was instantly filled, Twilight, Cloudchaser, and Flitter greeting him happily. "Alex! Congratulations on...well, surviving!" Twilight smiled. "What? You'd think I'd go down that quick?" He joked, smiling for the first time in ages. "So, what was your life like before coming here, Alex?" Flitter asked, eager to hear a story of some type. "Well, I was born in Reynold, Oregon. Lived there pretty much my whole life. My parents were wonderful people, and my father taught me everything there was to know about weapons by the time I was about 12." He started. "Oh, yeah, I've been meaning to ask, how old are you, anyway?" Cloudchaser asked. "Fifteen and a half, I'll be sixteen in March." He said. "You're only 15? And you held your own against a dragon?!" Flitter asked, bewildered. "I can't take all the credit, Rainbow followed me up, probably would've died in about 15 seconds of that fight if not for her." He said. "Oh, yeah, we couldn't take a chance on you doing anything drastic, so we sent her up there for you." Twilight sheepishly admitted. "Are we going to ignore the fact that he's fifteen and killed a dragon?" Cloudchaser asked. "Why, how old are you?" He asked. "Twenty-two, but that's not the point!" Cloudchaser defended. "Alex!" Pinkie yelled, carrying a tray of cupcakes. "Hello, Pinkie." He greeted. "Pinkie, did you know Alex here is only 15?" Asked Flitter. "Well, duh! His voice cracks all the time!" She scoffed. "My voice doesn't crack!" Alex said. "It just did!" Twilight said, laughing. "Hey, AJ, settle a bet, would you, does my voice crack?" He asked the orange pony. "Like an egg." She giggled. "He's as red as a tomato!" Pinkie yelled in between laughs, pointing at his cheeks. "Yeah, bartender, the strongest you've got?" Alex asked. "Okay, sir." He said, handing him what looked like a root beer, after one sip, he noticed that it was. "Isn't this root beer?" He asked. "Sorry sir, you have to be at least 18 to drink." "Eighteen?! In my world it was 21!" He said, bewildered. "Okay, I can make an exception. Age 21 to drink?" The bartender laughing. "What is this? A 'pick on me' day?" He asked. Alex looked at the door, seeing, in horror, a scene from his worst nightmares. Four humans, all dressed in military uniforms, carrying SCARs and MP-7s, and a picture of Alex under a 'Wanted, dead or alive' caption, in bold. Alex quietly unholstered his .44 Magnum, loading six rounds into the cylinder. "Hey, is something wrong, Alex, you look like you've seen a ghost." Cloudchaser said. "You could say that." "Miss, we're looking for a Mr. Alex Gabriel Walker, have you seen him?" One of the soldiers asked Vinyl. He could just barely hear the conversation from his seat. "Who, Alex? He's over there with the princess." Another pony said. "Thank you." The soldier finished. Alex waited until the soldiers could move away from the other guests, they were going to be quite pissed at him for what he was about to do. "Cloudchaser, can you get my contact lens, I think it fell under the table." He lied, her head was blocking his view of the soldiers, he didn't want to accidentally kill her. "No probs, I'll look." She said, ducking down. In the second that Cloudchaser ducked under the table, Alex pulled out his Colt, Aiming it at the soldier closest to him. The first shot hit the Soldier right in the middle of his visor, blood splattering out the gaping hole in the back of his head as the bullet hit the wall. The second bullet screamed into the next soldier's neck, holding his throat as he went on his knees. Gurgling and coughing blood. "Suspect at Sugarcube corner, repeat, High Value Target is at the bakery." The third said into a transmitter as the third and fourth shots crippled and killed him, respectfully. The fifth shot bounced off the last soldier's helmet and into the second soldier's chest, killing him. The last bullet went into the fourth soldier's neck, grasping his neck and spluttering to the ground, choking on his own blood. Alex immediately noticed the look of horror on everyone's eyes, a few running over to the dead soldiers, trying to help them, to no avail. He was clearly trembling, with the realization of what happened hitting him like a brick wall. His suspicions confirmed, their suspicions confirmed, and the effect of firing all six rounds, all of them four-grain. In his fear, Alex got up, stole a walkie-talkie from one of the corpses, loaded the SCAR, and ran like all hell was at his heels, which it probably was. The other ponies tried to process exactly what happened, to them, a newcomer, someone welcome in their home, their society killed four people, whom they knew nothing about, all carrying similar weapons to Alex's, and Alex himself didn't say a thing about the soldiers, why was he so mortified? Alex ran through the streets of Ponyville as fast as his legs could carry him, trying to find which channel their COs were giving orders, all the while evading and killing more soldiers, all fire teams. Alex stole a large butcher knife from his newest kills, putting that into the satchel. He flipped through radio channels at a constant pace, and continued to do so until he heard a female voice from the other end. "High Value Target, This is Spectre 0-1 calling on a private channel, I repeat, High Value Target, respond, this is Spectre 0-1!" Alex wasn't sure what to think of this, Spectre wouldn't communicate on any open channels, yet she seemed to want him to answer with urgency, he figured he should respond. "Spectre 0-1, this is the HVT, I'm all ears, over!" He yelled, shooting the SCAR as well as a stolen MP-7 at another squad. He clearly had no idea where to turn, Twilight and the others would find him any minute, if Task Force Crimson didn't gun him down first. "High Value Target, I'm going to direct you to a nearby safe zone, follow my instructions precisely and you should make it in one piece." Spectre responded. "10-4, Spectre, I'm currently a half-mile away from a large purple castle to the east, I'm listening." Alex responded, he needed all the help he could get right now, and if Spectre was going to turn him in, that would be her mistake. "High Value Target, I'm picking up feeds that an armored patrol is moving in your direction, recommend you move a half- click north. What's your inventory?" Spectre asked. "SCAR-H ACOG sight and M203 attachment and a Colt Anaconda, over!" He responded. Alex ran as far as he could, returning fire at any Crimson soldiers who dared to attack. He really hoped that Spectre wouldn't turn out like the Militia, using him to her own ends. "Spectre, I'm seeing helos coming in from the south, what's your recommended course of action?" Alex asked, looking at the three Apache helicopters above him. "Stay low, move a half click more to the west." Alex was bewildered, that led him straight through the heart of town! "Spectre, where is this safe zone?" He asked. "Northwest corner of Ponyville, just before reaching the Orchard. Over." Spectre responded. "Wilco, moving west." He continued charging through the town, firing at anyone holding a gun. Alex moved on to using his .44 Magnum, the SCAR's barrel was another mag away from melting before him. Pulling back the hammer and unleashing a volley of bullets in that direction. Dammit! A bullet zipped inches away from his hand, hitting the Colt Revolver, leaving him with a piping-hot SCAR-H and a knife. He charged at his opponent, dodging shots from his M4 Carbine. He lunged for his aggressor's neck, jabbing the blade into his throat and stealing the gun. "High Value Target, I just picked up some comm chatter, enemy Humvees coming your way, recommend using your grenade launcher and running." Spectre warned. Oh, crap, they were everywhere, and on each one was a Minigun, it's barrels rotating as they sighted him in. Alex pulled out his SCAR and fired a grenade at one of the Humvees, blowing it to cinders and sending the gunner flying. Then using his M4 to pick of the remaining gunners, blood splattering the cars as he ran like hell. "High Value Target, Crimson fire team Metal Storm moving fast in your direction, use the rooftops." Spectre ordered. Alex charged for one of the houses, climbing onto the roof without struggle. Sweet Apple Acres wasn't too far away now, just gotta jump these rooftops and avoid being spotted. Pain! God! A red hot splinter seared into his leg, Alex had been shot! Looking down, he noticed several men bearing M249 SAWs, absolutely tearing this house apart. Alex returned fire, picking off two soldiers, but there wasn't much he could do without getting shot again. "Spectre, I'm pinned down on the roof about a half click away from your quote-unquote 'safe zone'." He complained. "Roger, friendly mortars inbound." Spectre responded. She had artillery?! That would've been much more useful when he was cornered. As promised, a large explosion blasted in front of Alex, the house caving in as he leapt off, sending more pain into wounded leg. The soldiers pinning him down were obviously blown to bits. "Spectre, I'm wounded." Alex said into the speaker. Limping frantically towards the safe zone, he was likely very close . "Where are you?" Spectre asked. "Pretty damn close to the safe zone." He said. "I see you, popping flares at safe zone now." Spectre said. Sure enough, a brilliant red light popped up about a quarter mile away from where he was right now. Alex dropped his M4, the shock of being shot was in no way, shape, or form a new experience, but it still hurt a LOT. Moving as best he could with a hole in his leg, he noticed a young woman with hair as dark as the night sky waving a flare, no doubt it was Spectre, did she work alone? Spectre noticed his difficulty, running close to him and helping him into the spider hole. "Hello, you are Alex Walker, I assume, is that correct?" She asked. "Yeah. Thanks for helping me out." "Anytime, an enemy of Winchester's is a friend of mine." She smiled. "How do you know about Agent Winchester?" He asked. "I was his comrade from an old CIA unit, He offered me a job at Crimson as soon as it formed. When I found out the full extent of his actions, I left." Spectre sighed, as if the fact that Winchester would kill kids was new to her. "Then why help his target?" "I only needed to read your file once to know you were innocent. I knew it, he knew it. The only reason he didn't let you leave was because he didn't want to look like a failure, he knows if you got out, you would tell everyone what he did." Spectre said. "I didn't tell another soul, in fact, I made myself look like a total ass in front of a potential friend just to hide it." He admitted. "What?! Why?" Spectre seemed bewildered. Maybe he was wrong to hide it. "I'm just scared to death of what will happen when I tell people. Murder is a condemnable crime here, I felt like if I were to talk, it would be like giving my gun to Winchester and saying 'here, kill me'." Alex said. He truly did feel like if he did talk, Twilight and the others would turn him back in as soon as Crimson got here. "You can't always expect everyone to betray you, you have to put trust in someone." She said. "Why the hell not? The Kahn Militia certainly felt it was a reasonable idea." Alex sarcastically stated, "You joined them?!" "It's not like I had much choice! It was that or die a slow, painful death!" "Did you ever think the reason bad things happen to you is because you're a dumbass?!" Spectre chided. "Now that you mention it, yeah." Alex relented. "Look, I can't promise anything too fancy here, any opportunity I see to help us take down Winchester, I'm taking it. From now on, you do as I say until you can somehow get on your feet. Got it?" Spectre asked. Now, Alex could think about this. One one hand, he was working with an ex-C.I.A operative who could slit his throat in his sleep if she so wanted, until luck finally returned to Alex's side, he was stuck. But on the other hand, Spectre was offering Alex a second chance, an opportunity to kill the man who ruined his life twice now. "I'm in." Alex decided. "I think that's the first smart decision you've made in a while." Spectre seemed to approve of this choice. "What's the plan?" Alex asked. "You hunted monsters before this, right?" "Once, I killed a dragon, and that was today." Alex said. "Wow, you've had one hell of a day, don't dragons have a treasure haul?" Spectre asked. "Right here." Alex said, pulling the Octahedral pocket dimension. "Princess Twilight gave me this to put the treasure in." "Good, I have a mission for you. You still know people who trust you, right?" Spectre asked. "That's up in the air right now, I shot four people to death in front of all of them." Alex said. "I figured you would say that, I need you to buy some Equestrian Steel." "What's that?" "It's a metallic alloy used in royal guard armor, It's damn near indestructible, but expensive." "Why do you need this?" Alex asked. "A suit of armor for your next missions. Imagine yourself charging through the battlefield, unaffected by gunfire and mowing down your enemies." She fantasized. "I'm a fugitive, how am I supposed to get some?" He asked. "I know someone." Spectre said casually. "When do we start?" Alex asked. "Tomorrow, I bet you need some sleep, you've done nothing all day but fight. You need your rest." Alex looked around the spider hole, and he saw the basic minimum of living standards, two small cots and two thin blankets, a few radioes, and a hit list. A small fire lit up the room, and the only ventilation there was the door, with a few small holes drilled into it. "One more thing, what exactly is your name?" He asked, he couldn't always call her 'Spectre'. "Oh, I nearly forgot, my name is Karis." "Good meeting you, Karis. I haven't heard that name before." "It's not very common." Karis admits. "Well, then, I'm tired as all hell, I need some rest." "Sure, good night, Alex." Karis yawns. "Night." Alex responds. Here we go again, Alex thought, back to the old, unpredictable life. Twilight, her friends, and Cloudchaser and Flitter sat around the table in her castle, discussing what to do about Alex, he killed at least 18 soldiers, and none of them knew why. "Does anyone know anything about these other humans?" Twilight asked her friends. "I just remember Alex looking really scared about something, then he told me he lost his contact lens, next thing I know, he killed four other humans." Cloudchaser searched her memory, and didn't find much else. "I saw Alex hallucinating on our way up to fight the dragon, then he tried to bribe me into not asking about it!" Rainbow clearly felt betrayed. Twilight scribbled down some notes on a piece of paper for her next letter to Princess Celestia. "Why do you think he would do that?" She asked. "In my experience, it would mean that Mr. Walker is getting desperate." A deep voice bellowed behind them. Twilight turned around to look at the source of the voice, he was a tall, able-bodied man with brown hair, turning gray at the edges. "Um, who are you...?" Fluttershy asked, cowering further into her chair. "My name is Agent Timothy Winchester, C.I.A. I believe I know a thing or two about your... 'Friend'." Agent Winchester said that last word full of anger and contempt. "Like what?" Rainbow asked. "Alex Walker is not the man you know, he is a menace, very dangerous, and fierce in active combat. We believe that Mr. Walker was in cahoots with the Kahn Militia, a social reform group gone violent, responsible for a massacre that killed almost 2,000 people, and a raid on a recently declassified testing facility known as Area 51." Winchester continued. "If that's true, how did he get here?" Flitter asked. "Mr. Walker used Die Glocke, a century-old device recently acquired by our government. He used it, obviously, to escape the Kahn Militia, and destroyed it before we could follow him." Agent Winchester answered matter-of-factly. "Alex told us he fell in a sewer, through a wormhole.." Rarity said. "He must have told you that to divert suspicion, terrible liar, always was." "I won't let you call my friend a murderer! He told Cloudchaser to duck when he shot your men! There's something you're not telling us!" Rainbow yelled. Even Agent Winchester was surprised to hear her defend her friend. "Rainbow does have a point, did he kill any ponies?" Cloudchaser asked. "It would appear not. He trusts you as much as that one," Winchester said, pointing to Rainbow Dash, "trusts Mr. Walker, and Ms. Sparkle, you, as well as all your friends are on a need-to-know basis." "What is up with these humans always keepin' secrets all the time, it ain't healthy." Applejack muttered. "What are you suggesting here, another 'welcome to Ponyville party, perhaps?" Pinkie says, smiling deviously. "No. As of right now, Alex Walker is Public Enemy #1, nowhere is safe, we will send garrisons all across this land, anyone who opposes will die. If any of you pastel horses have him in custody, I will demand you turn him back in, upon doing so, he is United States Government property." Vinyl walked home, head downcast, while the party was a success for the first hour or so, the guest of honor screwed everything up, for himself and his friends, she wondered how Twilight must be handling this. Ow! She stubbed her front hoof on something, it stuck out of the ground at an angle. Levitating it with her magic, she noticed it was the weapon that Alex used to kill the soldiers. In the short time she knew Alex, Vinyl knew he wouldn't use it without good reason. She pulled back a switch and saw the cylinders pop out of the weapon. While she her job description was 'disk jockey' she also had to build highly advanced speakers all by hoof. It's not like they had huge speakers before she came along, not good ones, anyway. Vinyl knew what she would be doing for the next week or so, she would give this gun an upgrade, DJ- PON3 style. Author's Note First off, I originally thought of naming Karis 'Akira', but then I read 'Black Ops: Ember' and, for the sake of artistic integrity, used something different. Second, what do you think of this story, leave a comment telling me on how to do better, always room for improvement.
Act I, Chapter 10: Aftermath'Alex, wake up.' Karis poked at his arm for the third time, threatening to pull him out of dreamland, where at least nobody tried to shoot him dead...well... "Come on, we won't be able to kill Winchester if you're asleep." Karis poked Alex's arm again, and again, and- "Okay, fine! God forbid someone actually gets some shut-eye! What time is it anyway?!" Alex asked, flustered and drowsy from yesterday's several encounters. Alex killed a dragon alongside Rainbow Dash, and like an hour afterwards, got chased out of town by Winchester's goons. "If I'm right, it is... About 0600 hours." Karis answered, looking through a hole leading to the outside world. "You woke me up at 6 a.m?! Need I ask?" "We'll be meeting up with one of my contacts in about a half hour, I advise getting on some different clothes. I have some here." Karis tossed him a small bag, they seemed to contain some olive colored cargo pants, a t-shirt, a camo jacket, and a balaclava. Alex acted accordingly, fear of Karis killing him if he didn't overriding the general awkwardness of changing in front of a girl, lord knows he's had plenty of that when Rarity sized him for clothes. "Who is this contact, anyway?" He asked. "She's sort of the treasure hunter-y type. She would do anything for whatever you have in that 'pocket-dimension' of yours." Karis replied. "Where do you find these people?" Alex felt like he shouldn't even need to ask that. "Everywhere, you meet a lot of weird people in the CIA." She replied, almost casually, as if that sort of thing happened all the time. A dark thought crossed Alex's mind, Applejack lived around here, what if she found their hideout? "What if someone, or worse, some pony, sees us walk out from the underground?" He asked. "I've got you covered." Karis said. She led Alex down a hole, and a tunnel that seemed to go on forever and ever. Barely able to see anything. "Where the hell did this come from?" "What do you think I was doing while you slept?" "Planning the best time to slit my jugular?" He asked. "You really aren't the trusting type, are you?" Karis asked. "Weren't you with that Winchester psychopath?" He retorted. Karis didn't say another word until they reached an incline, pushing up on whatever was there, Alex was nearly blinded by Celestia's piercing light. "Ah! My eyes!" Alex yelled, unable to see much with the sudden change of light. "Your eyes will adjust, you big baby." Karis seemed annoyed with Alex's noobishness. Karis and Alex must have waited for hours until a yellowish Pegasus with a monochrome mane and tail stalked out of the Everfree before them. "Hello, Daring." Karis introduced calmly. "Well, well, well. if it isn't Ms. Karis Thorne, I was wondering if you'd show up at all, who's the kid?" 'Daring' asked. "Don't mind him. Remember the deal?" Karis asked. "I believe it was '500,000 bits for 500 five-by five sheets of pure Equestrian Steel'. The most top quality metal I could find." Daring replied. "Show me the goods, first." Karis demanded. "Okay, miss. Brutus!" Daring yelled. A large Minotaur the size of a two-story house started piling the metal sheets before them, putting a small one foot by one foot square at an angle. The metal was almost a gold-ish copper mash up. From what Karis told him, the stuff was very malleable when heated up, and very difficult to punch through at room temperature, making it ideal for armor and weapons. "Kid, can I borrow your gun?" Karis asked. Alex handed Karis the SCAR-H that he still carried with him. Karis then clicked off the safety, loaded a mag, and fired the whole thing into the little metal square. The bullets flew off the metal like raquetballs, bouncing off the metal square and hitting the dirt around it. Karis handed him back the SCAR, quickly placing it behind his back once more. "You've got yourself a deal, Ms. Do. Kid, the pocket thingamajig!" Alex opened up the pocket dimension, the portal opening an 8 by 4 foot rectangle, looking like the night sky inside the pocket dimension, and, of course, the massive amount of gold, jewels, and other assorted riches inside. Daring pulled out a large bag and walked inside the dimension, hearing the clatter of coins filling up the bag, Daring walked out after about two minutes of being inside. "Glad we could do this without much trouble, Brutus, you and Karis' little friend get the metal inside that hole!" Daring ordered. Alex moved over to the pile, where he and the Minotaur started lifting the steel. They came in reams of, like, fifty. And even though it was supposed to be lightweight, it was still rather heavy. This went on for about five minutes, by the time they got the last ream of fifty inside, Alex felt really tired and sore. With both parties satisfied, Karis and Alex left. Going back in the hole. "So, kid, you knew a blacksmith, right?" Karis asked. "Yeah, I think his name was Hammering Sickle, or something." Alex responded. "Was he at that party?" She asked again. "Actually, no, his anniversary was that night, he couldn't make it." "Good. I need some tools to get to work on this armor." "You're building the armor?" Alex asked. "Yeah, I already know all of your sizes in clothes?" Karis responded. "How?" "While you were whining like a wuss at the tunnel, my A.I did a diagnostic on your dress sizes." "A.I, why do I feel like this is turning out like Red vs. Blue?" Alex asked. "Red vs. Blue; a web series developed by Rooster Teeth, starting out in 2003 after the release of Halo: Combat Evolved and still on-going." A small voice coming from Karis' wristband said. "Who is that?" Alex asked. "I am the A.I program known as Veil; developed by the Central Intelligence Agency and designed specifically for Field Operative Karis Victoria Thorne on September 25, 2015." Alex was astounded. Sure, they had things like Evie or Cleverbot, but nothing as advanced as this. "Veil, why isn't Karis getting any armor?" Alex asked. "Agent Thorne's position is in Logistics, Weapons design, and assassinations. Not for active combat. You, however, seem to have a natural ability to fight, and will benefit the most from wearing this armor." Veil said. "Karis Victoria Thorne? That's your full name?" Alex asked. "Yes." Karis says. "Notable Missions on Agent Karis V. Thorne include overseeing the assassination of former Kahn Militia leader Viktor Rutherford Kahn in 2014, assassination of Syndicate leader Anthony Vincent, and-" "That will be all, Veil. Alex, get to Hammering Sickle." Karis orders. "Will do." Alex said, getting back in the main hole and leaving. Alex got to the Forge a while later, panting in exhaustion, he had to run, for fear of being discovered. "Hammering! I'm here!" Alex panted. A heavyset stallion with a black goatee walked out of his office. "Ah, Alex! You are here! I did not expect to see you! I thought the humans killed you!" Hammering said in a thick Russian accent. "What, you heard about that?" Alex asked. "Da. Do not worry, I do not trust the Agent or his men." Hammering said. "Thank you, listen, there's this girl-" Alex began. "Listen, when Mare and Stallion love each other very much-" Hammering interrupted. "Not like that! She wants to use the forge!" Alex yells, in embarrassment. "Oh! My bad! Of course she can use forge! You are nice guy, she probably nice too. What will she work on?" "She's building a suit of armor with Equestrian Steel." Alex said. "My! How expensive! But if she need help, I will not hesitate to assist" Hammering assured. "Thank you, sir." Alex said. "No need to thank me. I am just doing my job." Hammering said. "Okay, her name is Karis, she's got incredibly black hair, a bit taller than me, and a bit of a- never mind." Alex didn't want to finish that last part, she was apparently some kind of master of stealth. "Okay, Karis, beautiful name." Hammering says. "Thank you." A voice says from above. Karis dropped down between Alex and Hammering. "So you are girl Alex is talking about! Very nice to meet you!" Hammering says. "Likewise. Alex, we have to go, someone called Crimson, we gotta go!" "Oh, crap! The Task Force!?" Alex asked in bewilderment. "Go out back, I handle Agents." Hammering says. Karis grabbed Alex's hand and they ran to the back, the door led to an alleyway that they would easily escape into. "Hello, newcomers! Would you like to work in shop? Maybe an extra something for your boss?" Hammering asks, distracting the Death Squads. --POV Shift: Vinyl-- Vinyl continued tinkering with Alex's weapon. Beautifully designed, but left wanting in firepower. Vinyl then thought of something, suppose this called for a new propellant entirely, and she knew just the one. Sound. She heard of nerds at home making ridiculously small speakers and condensing them into one super speaker, Vinyl herself used that technology, and the holes the bullets were meant to go into were just big enough to place six into them, but something like that required mass quantities of power to make a bullet fly fast enough to do some damage. So maybe in the middle, she could condense some of her own magic into an infinitely producing power source, though it took some very powerful unicorns to pull that off. No matter what, this gun was going to be badass by the time she was done! Looking back at her unfinished masterpiece, she had spray painted an eighth-note logo in white on the grip, added some glow-in-the-dark purple lighting for the rear sights and some thing similar in yellow towards the front. The cylinders were also painted in luminescent, light blue paint. The barrel was also switched from a 6 inch barrel to a 7 inch barrel, to improve accuracy. Looking back at her sketches, the cylinders would have the setup in the back, the high powered speakers in each cylinder, and the generator right in the middle, for this to work, there wouldn't be any casings, just the bullets, so whenever one needed to reload, Alex would only need to drop six bullets, or 'caps' as she called them, into the front of the cylinders, where they would be magnetically held in. Oh, yes. Things were certainly coming together. --POV Shift: Karis-- Karis entered Hammering's establishment, it was dark now, and Alex was so chock full of questions, they talked all day, about her occupation, her partner, everything! He was rather inquisitive to say the least, unfortunately for her. He had no idea about what really was going on. She pitied him, she really did. "Hello, Ms. Karis, ready to get to work? May I help?" Hammering walked in. "Huh? Oh, sure, I just need to know where everything is." Karis innocently replied. "Oh, sure! The blowtorches used for Equestrian steel are over there, the hammers by the iron bars, and the protective gear is right by my office." "Thank you." Karis said. Grabbing everything she needed, Karis set out to work. "Veil, put up model...5." Karis ordered. "Right away, ma'am." Veil said. A hologram instantly popped up in front of her, a perfect scale on Alex's physique. Also in front were the several pieces making up the armor. This, according to Veil, was the best jack-of-all-trades armor. Good maneuverability, brilliant all-round protection, and looked pretty damn cool to say the least. Karis suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder blade, interrupting her intense focus. She turned behind her to see a white unicorn with an electric-blue mane and tail with purple sunglasses. "Can I help you?" Karis asked. "Do you know what the best metal is for, say, projectiles?" She asked. "Well, Lead is a perfectly suitable projectile metal." "Anything else in mind? I need a magnetic metal that can fly really far when shot out of a gun." She said. "How about iron, it's magnetic, cheap, and pretty easy to manipulate." Karis said. "Wow... Thank you. Alex is really going to be happy when he sees this." "Alex, as in, Alex Walker?" Karis asked, thunderstruck. "Yeah, he paid me for a gig at his welcome party, well, before it all went to hell." The unicorn said. "I'm helping him too. Mostly because he's helping me with something." Karis said "What?" The mare asked. She seemed a bit nervous, as if she hadn't been expecting to talk this long. "It's a long story." Karis responded. The two talked for a little while more. Vinyl, as she was called, had made a few hundred metal caps that looked like bullets before fitted with the cartridge. As for Karis, she finished making the boots and greaves, nearly done making the codpiece. "It's been nice talking to you." Karis said "But I really need to get back." "Same here, it's almost sunrise already." Vinyl groaned. "Bye." "Oh, uh, see you around." Vinyl waved her goodbyes and walked out the door. Karis herself had a bit of time to think. Alex had a difficult time trusting people, and for good reasons, her old comrade had tortured the poor kid for a month after killing his parents so he wouldn't look bad, the Militia betrayed him for their own ends, seeing him as merely an expendable kid with nowhere else to turn. And when he was closest to actually being accepted, Winchester screwed him over a second time. Alex was not ready to know what is actually going on, and he may never be ready, but at this rate, it's just a matter of when. She knew that killing Winchester would not solve everything for him, there is too much going on behind the scenes. She just hoped that the CIA would at least do this final favor for her. --POV Shift: Unknown-- "Ugh... Where am I?" A man in a red and white leather jacked groaned as he stumbled up from the dirt. Pulling out his AP Pistol and aiming it anywhere that felt unfamiliar. He walked backwards and felt his leg scrape against something. Turning around, he picked up a brown and white owl mask, complete with large, yellow eyes and a sharp-looking beak. He put on the mask, looking for any of his friends. "Ow...shit. What the hell kinda glitch was that?" A man in a light blue hoodie wearing clown makeup grumbled in pain. He slowly staggered upwards, slipping on a hockey mask, complete with red markings that looked like lightning bolts on the cheeks and eyebrows of the mask, pulling out a hatchet. "Delirious, where the hell are we?" He asked, looking around at the mess of unconscious bodies. "I don't know, Vanoss, when the hell did GTA 5 turn into freaking H1Z1?" Delirious asked. "Oh, yeah, I just remembered, 'my name Jeff'." Vanoss said, laughing as he remembered that game. "Yeah, but seriously, we should build some shelter, before zombies come and eat our faces or something." Just then, out of the darkness, a voice that sounded like it was coming from above them landed just out of sight. "Hey, who are you?!" A brash, angry voice asked from what seemed like nowhere. "AAAAAAAH!!! ZOMBIES!!!" Delirious screamed, running around until he hit a tree. "NOOOOO!" Vanoss shrieked as he put a pistol up to his head and shot himself, before his corpse blinked three times and disappeared. A few other humans, obviously soldiers, walked around, getting a good look at the scene before them, eight men were unconscious in the forest and the other two...reappeared right in front of them. "Stay where you are! Put your hands up!" One soldier ordered, the man had a two patches on his right arm, one a red hawk-like bird, and the other a cloud, shooting out a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt. "Hey, what do you call a magic owl?" Vanoss asked the soldier in front of him, the yellow eyes staring daggers into the man. "God damn it! I already have thousands of that joke on my twitter, you dick!" Delirious groaned, knowing full well what was about to happen. Vanoss himself pulled an AK-47 from out of nowhere, and finished his joke. "HOO-DINI!" The soldier was completely unprepared for the onslaught of gunfire that ripped through him. Vanoss shot a full extended mag's worth of bullets into him, reloading as he fell to the ground, dead. Delirious pulled out a hatchet, burying it into another soldier's head before violently yanking it out and repeating the act two more times. "I'm the real Delirious, bitches!" He yelled as he yanked the now bloody hatchet from the corpse. "Uuugh... What are you two idiots doing?" Asked a man wearing a pig mask and a white motorcycle helmet, as well as a fluorescent green hoodie and similarly colored undergarments. "Aaaugh. Arnold needs a nap really bad." Another man groaned, in an obviously bad Austrian accent. "Zzz. Cockatoos..." Snored another man, wearing a pink polo shirt in an albeit extremely racist accent himself. The remaining soldier had to stop himself from laughing his ass off, but still terrified of what would happen to him. "Honestly, can you guys shut up? I'm trying to sleep you fockin' pricks." A man wearing a paper bag, a green button-up shirt, and an adult diaper whisper-yelled. "Okay, fine, Jesus." Vanoss nonchalantly pulled out an RPG and aimed it at the last soldier. "This is how we do it in Team Canada!" He yelled again, blowing the soldier into a pile of ash. "Good job, Evan, now can we go back to sleep?" Another man asked, agitated beyond belief. "Okay, fine, Marcel." Vanoss relented, passing out after finishing that sentence. Only one other pony now knew of the existence of these men. That mare hid behind a cloud, peering into that scene, unable to look away. The one, the awesome, Rainbow Dash. She knew of other humans. The first one seemed scared to death, none of them knew why, the others, they were after him, and they wouldn't say why. But these guys, they were something else entirely. She knew she was supposed to let Agent Winchester know about these men, but she figured she should only entrust Twilight with this information. It wasn't treason, it was just... She didn't know what this was anymore. The job for her was simple; be awesome, zap villains with her combined strength with her friends, maybe reform them, but now, with all this...complexity, all this being kept in the dark. This was too much. Now Rainbow herself had her own secret. And she was not above keeping it. Author's Note Yeah, remember when I said the crossover tag was for future events in the story? This is only a glimpse. I may lose a huge amount of my audience in doing this, but there is also a chance this could help things. We are dealing with multiple universes after all.
Act I, Chapter 11: The Canterlot Raid: Part 1The past week spent with Karis had been turblent to say the least.. And Alex enjoyed absolutely none of it. He still suspected that Karis might betray him, that their hideout would be discovered. That either Twilight, Karis, or Winchester may be the ones to take what little of his life was left. The nightmares had gotten much, much worse. Now featuring his former equine allies, and Karis. It was never a good feeling to not trust anyone, but he more or less got used to it. At the moment, Alex had an iron grip on the SCAR-H, Alex's only remaining weapon, loaded and ready to kill in an instant, Karis was out doing god knows what, leaving him alone and very afraid. He wasn't sure what was worse for his well-being, Karis being gone, or not. "I'm back!" Karis yelled from the other end of the tunnel she dug, leading to the very edge of the Everfree. Karis pulled out the pocket dimension emitter from her pocket, she had been taking that thing with her everywhere, what she was doing, he could only guess. "Hello, Karis. How was your trip?" Alex asked. "Well, Alex, first off, I have a gift for you." Karis beamed. This was unsettling, Karis never seemed visibly delighted, or even pleased. To see her like this was unthinkable. "You're serious?" Alex asked skeptically. Karis opened up the pocket dimension, and brought out multiple pieces of the Equestrian Steel, Alex assumed it was the armor. "Allow me to introduce... The Goliath Mark. V armor, capable of full maneuverability and speed, while providing an impenetrable defense against bullets, knives, even Magic." Alex looked at the chest piece, it was remarkable, Karis was one hell of a craft maker. The piece was adorned with silvery markings, standing out amongst the overwhelming gold-ish copper color, a marking of some type of skull at the front. Alex put on the chest piece, to his surprise, he hardly felt any weight, maybe a little... Next, he put on the Shoulder plates and the Codpiece, the shoulder plates also featuring a skull on each one, the codpiece was pretty standard. Then, Alex put on the shin pieces, elbow pads, wrist pieces, gauntlets, greaves, and boots, leaving Alex with substantially covered and protected throughout his body. "Wow, this is actually really good! Thank you, Karis." Alex respectfully nodded to her, smiling as best he could. "There's more good news, Alex." Karis said excitedly. "What, you found Winchester?" "Yep! He's in Canterlot right now, overseeing a garrison transfer, probably to augment the regular guard." "Wow, what's your plan?" Alex asked. "DJ-PON3 is going to Canterlot with Twilight and her friends to keep anyone from disturbing the full transfer. But you're not killing him." Karis said. "What?" Alex asked, that was their end goal, was it not? "I received word that some sensitive files were being transferred with Winchester. You find them, get the word out that Winchester can't be trusted, and get the hell out." "How the hell do you expect me to do that?" Alex asked, with a hint of exasperation in his voice. "The train Ms. Scratch is going to Canterlot in will leave in roughly an hour. Sneak onto the train, hide yourself inside the luggage, let the men sneak you in so you won't have to." "And...?" "In case you're discovered, I advise wearing the Armor. You'll be protected from most, if not all, damage that will normally kill, but if you can? Sneak out, the next train leaves tomorrow that morning. You'll have to hide in the alleyways, the streets, anywhere." Karis orders. "And you'll be doing what? Sitting pretty in your little cave while I go out and die?!" Alex questions, bewildered. "Just do what I tell you, it worked last time, didn't it?" Karis retorts. "Fine." Alex coldly replies. He nearly walked out the door when Karis whistled at him. "You may need this!" Karis tossed Alex what looked like a helmet, the eyes seemed to have a yellowish glow to them, the eyes were jagged and uneven, but symmetrical at the edges, like that guy's mask from the E3 2015 Star Wars Knights of the Fallen Empire trailer, there was no mouth, only holes for breathing. Alex nodded his thanks again, grabbing his Battle Rifle and putting on the Helmet and mask before walking away, possibly forever. He waited at his spot two miles north of the train station, waiting for the train to pass so he could sneak on unnoticed. Alex had waited in that same spot for a while now, it was noon when he got there. Alex was alone with his thoughts until he heard a loud horn and a distinct chugging noise. The train! Alex bent down as the train whizzed past his visage, waiting for the best moment to climb on... Almost... Now! Alex nearly slipped and fell off the train, he headed for the luggage cart, still hanging off the side, just under the windows. This went on until Alex found what he was sure was the cart. Climbing in through the window, Alex looked around for any and all guards that may be attacking him, to his surprise, there were none. Just boxes of audio equipment that he assumed belonged to Vinyl. He looked around for a compartment that looked to be his size and snuck in, letting the dark envelop him. Damn! He heard hooves clopping his direction, this was definitely a pony in here. And by the sound of it, the horse was getting closer. Alex braced himself for the onslaught as the compartment door opened, revealing a very familiar white unicorn with magenta sunglasses. "Vinyl?" Alex whispered. She seemed to know who he was, even without seeing his face, why, he didn't know. Said unicorn smiled at him, nodding as she ruffled through a saddlebag. She pulled out what appeared to be his .44 Magnum, but very heavily modified, featuring some glow in the dark paint jobs and extensions of the barrel, it looked badass to say the least. She levitated the new weapon over to Alex, picking it up to look at the gun more closely. Then, she handed him a few bags of what appeared to be the bullets, no casings, just bullets, Alex took them, realizing that the gun was no longer set to accommodate regular .44 bullets, instead, they were replaced by...speakers? He would have to find out how that worked later, he had a job to do. "You aren't going to give me away, are you?" Alex asked. Vinyl shook her head, closing the door in front of him. Alex put the SCAR on his back, he would have to try out this beast of a gun once the mission started. The soldiers placed Alex's hiding spot among the rest of the equipment, leaving as soon as their job was done. Alex slowly crawled out of the confined space of the spot. Looking in the direction of the castle, which wasn't far at all. He lowered to a crouch and moved as fast as he could. Alex hid behind several corners and walls, realizing that stealth was a massive pain in the ass, he wasn't even inside yet! Groaning in dissatisfaction, he snuck up behind a human soldier, brandishing the butcher knife he stole on his escape. Covering the soldier's mouth before stabbing the blade into his neck. Killing him almost immediately before dragging his body away. Hiding it in a nearby bush. Alex was inside now, the fear of being found out was not new, so it didn't affect him as badly as it could have. Sneaking past royal guard ponies and killing any human soldiers in his path. He had to be close by now. Eventually, Alex made his way towards the archives, which were apparently top-secret to anyone. Alex was able to get inside using a key he had stolen from one of the many corpses. The door slowly clicked open, so Alex could wall inside. Alex wandered around more until he noticed a small guard patrol, he had been seeing more ponies than he expected here, he thought they were all at the concert with Twilight and the others, who he knew 100% that they were there. Regardless, he made a promise to Celestia about not killing any ponies, he may as well keep some promises. Besides, it would result in less confrontation if he was somehow discovered. He snuck around the archives, stifling his way through several archaic spells and runes until he came across a Manila folder bearing the seal of the CIA. He opened the folder and found his picture, along with a physical description and a bio. Alex flipped through several pages, including a picture of the Kahn Militia Logo, Die Glocke. Jäger, the man he was mistaken for, and, the big finish. 'Alex Walker stands accused of Perpetrating the Bohemian Grove Massacre of July, 2016. There is no evidence that Walker was even involved, however, the Agent responsible for his capture still believes Mr. Walker is a valuable source of information on the attackers, despite not providing any new knowledge.' Bingo! He placed the files into his pocket dimension, using a 1 inch by 1 inch square of Equestrian Steel as a paperweight before heading back out and closing it. Placing the octahedron back into the duffel bag, he snuck out of the archives, hearing two voices talk about something. "I know that, princess, but he is dangerous!" One voice said. "I have seen into this young man's nightmares! You've irreversibly damaged him!" The other retorted. Alex listened closer, were they talking about him? "Good. With nowhere to run or hide, the fear will cause him to turn himself in." The first coldly discussed. "Fear is unpredictable, the boy may just kill you to spare himself!" The other defended. Alex looked for a place to run or hide, only to run straight into... Agent Winchester and who he assumed was Princess Luna. Well, crap. Luna looked surprised at the sight of the armored man in her castle, but saw that she seemed to notice the immense fear and pain clouding his mind. She flew off somewhere, he didn't know why. Agent Winchester merely looked angry and pulled out his P226, and kickedAlex away. "All soldiers, HVT is inside the castle!" He yelled into his microphone. Alex ran away from the scene, only to be met with more soldiers going in a straight line down one hallway, and another, and another. Eventually, Alex was surrounded by Winchester's men, all bearing SCARs, MP7s, M249s, anything and everything "Open fire!" Winchester commanded. The gunfire rang out indiscriminately in Alex's direction, feeling almost nothing and hearing the projectiles plink as the hundreds of bullets bounced off of his armor, a few even hitting the soldiers. Smoke filled the intersection as more soldiers kept firing every last bullet at their target. Alex, dazed but unharmed, stood up, pulling out the .44 Scratch, as he preferred to call it. "My turn." Author's Note Well, a one chapter gap between two battles and a full overhaul on Alex's arsenal. Leave a comment below, feel free to tell me what you think could be done to improve the story in any way, basically: Constructive Criticism is very highly recommended.
Act I, Chapter 12: The Canterlot Raid: Part 2"My turn." Alex was currently surrounded by Winchester's soldiers at the Royal Castle in Canterlot. Alex went there to steal some sensitive CIA documents about his imprisonment, which were now in his possession. Now for the tricky part; Getting out alive. Alex pulled out the .44 Magnum that Vinyl had modified for him, which he now called the .44 Scratch, in honor of the mare who had gone through the trouble of fixing it and revamping it. He raised the new weapon in the direction of a cluster of soldiers, pulling the hammer back as he found his targets. BZZZZZOW! The weapon produced at least thrice the recoil of the original gun, even when using 4 grains of magic propellant. The iron bullet burst out of the gun, producing a visible sonic boom, and it left a thin trail of lightning behind the projectile. As for the soldiers, they were blown away, all 5 of them, dead. Leaving only the still-echoing sound of something similar to a gunshot combined with a dubstep bass drop. Alex ran as fast as he could down the hallway containing the corpses of his attack, with more soldiers firing their weapons, making a slight plink every time a bullet hit his armor. Firing another round of the .44 Scratch. Killing more and more soldiers. Where could Alex go? Soldiers were pretty much everywhere, occupying each hallway as Alex continued to move. Trying to head towards the main entrance. It wasn't the best way to go, but he was running low on options. More soldiers popped out from the direction of the entrance, blocking Alex's path and shooting at him. Alex fired the .44 Scratch again and again in attempts to thin out the crowd. Where else? Maybe there's a back exit of some type. But again, soldiers occupied the halls of the castle. How many soldiers were there in this damned death trap? Alex reminded himself to flip off Karis if he survived this. It was about then that Alex figured he should try going out through a window. Nope. Bad plan. Celestia would be pretty mad if she found out that Alex jumped through one of the very expensive windows. Sure, he could pay for it, but that would drain the wealth in Alex's pocket dimension entirely. Where else?! Alex was starting to worry. These A-Holes were everywhere, all of them shooting their weapons at him. Ow! A bullet punched through the armor! It must've worn out since these guys were firing at him nonstop. The wound wasn't serious. It hadn't even broken the skin! Alex reloaded his .44 Scratch for what was quite possibly the third or fourth time. The weapon blasted away many of his foes in just a few shots, but the sheer firepower was proving tiresome for Alex, and downright painful, this thing could break something! Pulling out the SCAR, he fired a grenade out of the launcher into a group of soldiers, blowing them back to the Stone Age. He fired about 11 rounds into the next group in front of him, slaughtering them. Alex then ran towards a long staircase. He figured it was that or die down here. He ran up the stairs, closing the wooden door behind him. As Alex ran up the stairs, he saw more of Winchester's men. "HVT spotted going up the stairs!" One soldier reported. Alex shot him first, right in the neck, blood oozing out of the wound and choking him to death. The other soldiers returned fire, a few more rounds piercing through his weakened armor. The hot red metal burning him from inside his chest and leg. Alex looked out the window and saw something that made him wet himself a little. A large, blue hued energy wave, coming right for him! Alex leaped out of the way as the energy obliterated everything behind him in a blaze of dubstep. Looking down, Alex noticed a group of soldiers, kinda far off from the main party, with a large speaker connected to it. Alex ran for his life as the beam followed him. Shooting and killing a couple more soldiers, Alex looked up the staircase. Damn, how high up was this?! From there, one of two things happened; 1: The soldiers broke through the wooden door, and were ganging up behind him. 2: Another beam shot out behind another group of soldiers further up the stairs Alex had to think about this, he could retreat, but what good would that do? Or he could fight his way up, shoving the soldiers into the beam. He went with the latter. Alex charged for the soldiers, the men shot him with pistols and machine guns, while Alex kept Sparta-kicking, uppercutting, or whatever he could to throw the soldiers into the beam. Then, for some reason, the beam stopped. Using this opportunity, Alex sprinted up the stairs, occasionally turning around and shooting them, until... The SCAR blew up in his face. His one untouched souvenir from the Militia was destroyed right in front of him, the projectile blowing up the barrel of the gun. Desperate, he threw the gun at the soldiers, hitting one in the leg as the others kept shooting, further weakening the armor. Alex came across a locked door, shooting it with the .44 Scratch, he smashed the door open. Alex got a pretty good view of the concert from up here, but he was cornered. The soldiers ran through the door, Agent Winchester falling in close behind. Alex could end this right now! He aimed the .44 Scratch directly at Agent Winchester's neck, a more painful way to go, cocked back the hammer, and- *click* No ammo!? *click* *click* *click* "... Well, this is embarrassing." Alex muttered. The soldiers and Winchester fired another torrent of bullets at Alex, forcing him to run towards the railing and leap off the edge, screaming bloody murder on the way down. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" Out of practically nowhere, a cyan blur picked up Alex before he could reach terminal velocity. Alex looked to the left to find out the identity of his savior. "R-Rainbow Dash!?" Alex was horrified. She had been the one to follow him up the mountain to fight that dragon. He hadn't seen her since that day. Alex then noticed that she wasn't flying him back up the castle perch to turn him in, if not that, then what? Alex had another moment to rest. Looking at the vast plains intersecting north of Ponyville and west of Canterlot. The sun was just beginning to set as the day prepared for the arrival of the night. Rainbow lowered him to about ten feet above the ground. And dropped him. The impact sent more pain to his wounds and tired muscles. Grasping his leg, he staggered up to find Rainbow glaring at him. "What the hell was that?!" Alex asked in disbelief. "I should be asking you the same thing! Killing four of your kind in front of everyone, attacking the castle, not telling us anything!" She stared daggers at Alex, who was still very afraid of what would happen to him. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe there are some things you shouldn't know? For god's sakes, show some restraint!" Alex retorted. "Alex! You've been hiding something since you got here, I can tell! There's no use hiding what you did in Bohemian Grove!" So Winchester fed her false information. He did kind of see this coming, but he started to get angry at the suggestion that Winchester lied to them, and she believed it. "Do you honestly think that's what happened," Alex began, growing more and more enraged by the second. "Do you really believe that I would do this?" His voice started to shake. Rainbow's eyes widened, she had gone too far. "Alex..." "I had nothing to do with that damned massacre! I would've had nothing to do with the Militia if Winchester hadn't gotten desperate!! And I NEVER WOULD HAVE COME HERE IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THOSE PSYCHOPATHS IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!" Enraged, he opened the pocket dimension, stormed inside, and went out carrying the file on his case with the government. "YOU LIKE READING ADVENTURE BOOKS!?! WELL READ THIS!!! IT'S NON-FICTION!!!!!" He finished angrily. Dropping the folder on the ground and kicking it to Rainbow. She seemed astonished that this had gotten him so angry. Alex had released his repressed fear, anger, anxiety, pain, everything. Everything he had felt the past month and a half. He had been through hell, back, and into hell again. By the time she had gotten to the details on Die Glocke, she was trembling. He would be lying if he said he didn't feel bad for her. Now she would know all about him. As she turned the next page, he knew this was probably the worst part. "Full details on the interrogation of Alex Walker... Electrical shock...waterboarding...forced removal of molars..." He heard Rainbow read out loud, reading off everything that Winchester did to him. She occasionally looked up sympathetically at him. Tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes. By the time Rainbow finished reading the file, she looked like she could barely stand, falling into a sitting position, stunned. "Winchester and the FBI came to my house the next day, a neighbor reported that I looked like the police sketch of one of the Militia's men. The Feds killed my parents and burned my house into a pile of ash. He did it for the reward money. $50,000. That was the value they placed on our lives." Alex himself was starting to shake. "That sick bastard Winchester tortured me for weeks. Then, once they seemed me worthless, they were about to execute me..." "S-Stop!" She pleaded. "...if it hadn't been for the militia, I would have died. I was forced to fight for the Militia after they rescued me, but they manipulated me. If I did what the militia told me, I would have died. So, yes, next time I saw these people hunting me down, I lost my shit, WHAT THE HELL WOULD YOU DO!?!?!" Both Alex and Rainbow sat in silence. Now Rainbow understood his pain, his fear, all of it. Though he wished he didn't have to go about it like that. He now moved into a laying position, hardly having any energy to move. He just revealed his darkest secret to Rainbow Dash, and in one of the most cruel ways imaginable. Despite his tiredness, he got to work removing the armor. The chest plate was shredded and mangled. He threw it inside the pocket dimension like garbage, then, he got to rest of the armor. And chucked it all in the pocket dimension, he also took the file from Rainbow and placed it inside there as well, neglecting to notice a few pages had been torn out. Upon completion of his work, he took out the small bottle of alcohol and some bandages and started tending to his wounds, feeling the painful sting as he dabbed some on one of the cloth bandages, and crudely wrapped the bandage on top of the wounds. The sun set behind them, and Alex sat down. What would happen to him now that someone knew the truth. Would she help him, or hurt him? Rainbow walked up to Alex, tapping him on the shoulder. "I...I didn't know it would be that bad... I just...I'm sorry." She said in a low, respectful tone. "Don't be. You had nothing to do with it, I was wrong to treat you like that." Alex said back to her. She sat down next to him, watching the sun set in an explosion of orange, pink, blue, and red. "Hello, Mr. Walker." A voice sounded behind them. Alex turned around to see an Alicorn as dark as the night itself, she looked sypathetic. "Princess Luna?" Rainbow questioned, bowing. "How much did you hear?" Alex asked. "I didn't need to hear very much. Your mind may be an enigma, Mr. Walker, but you cannot hide from your fear forever." Luna told him. "I've noticed." Alex said, referring to his confrontation with Rainbow. "I admire thy resolve. Not many ponies have such will." "What are you getting at here?" Alex asked. "As thine sister hath said, the fight is your own, but you are not alone." Luna said "What do you mean?" Alex questioned. "I believe Ms. Dash can answer that." Luna says. "After you left, I found these weird guys inside the forest, they killed Winchester's soldiers really quickly. and when they got shot... they didn't die.. They just... 'Respawn'." Rainbow reluctantly admitted. "How did Luna find out?" Alex asked Rainbow. It was Luna who answered. "'Twas simple. Rainbow told Twilight, Twilight told Celestia, and Celestia told me." "Do you think they will be any help?" Alex questioned. "They have already been acquainted with Rainbow, and she seems to have told them about you." Luna informs. "Good, there's just one more tiny little detail I need to clear up." Alex said. "Karis!" Alex yelled "I'm not dead!" Karis walked out of the spider hole, looking indignant. "What the hell are you thinking?! Don't attract attention!" She yelled. "Too late." Rainbow Dash walked out from behind some bushes. Karis responded by holding Alex's mouth, pointing her M1911 at the mare. Alex moved out of the lock, pointing her gun away from Rainbow. "Calm down, she's with me." Alex says. "Why are you here?" Karis asked. "We found some people outside the Everfree, Alex said you should be able to help him." Rainbow said. "I think you may know something about it." Alex said. Karis seemed to understand what was going on. "Project Immersion was a CIA test on certain video games, seeing how test subjects would work together. I pulled some strings, and had the CIA pull in a team that had been dominating the youtube charts for about 4 years now." Karis explains. "Oh, god... You don't mean..." Alex says. "Yes. Them. They work well together, but lack any sense of professionalism, I had a friend of mine send them here to see how they would fare in this situation." Karis replied. "Who are we talking about?" Rainbow asked. "You'll find out in the morning, meet us back here at 0800." Karis said. Rainbow saluted, then moving to Alex, spoke to him. "Again, I'm sorry, about everything." She said, hugging him. "It's not your fault. Rest up, we have a long day ahead of us." Alex comforted,returning the hug. It still felt awkward. But, he actually felt slightly better. Rainbow flew off, and Alex and Karis went inside the spider hole again. "Did you complete the mission, at the very least?" Karis asked. "Yep, how do you think I have Rainbow helping us?" Karis gaped. "So you just... told her everything?" "Yes. It's just...I hate this. I hate all of this." Alex admitted, tired. "I understand. We will get you through this, Alex. Just trust me." Karis comforted. "Okay, okay, enough with the pity party." He gruffly laid down on the cot, still uncomfortable as all hell, but it was better than sleeping on the ground. "One more thing, Karis." Alex said Karis turned her attention towards Alex, who lifted up both middle fingers, looking really mad at her. She just sends him out to do this crap without another thought? What kind of crap is that? "My point being that you really do suck." Alex scowled. Karis stared him down as she put on a pair of brass knuckles. "Ah, crap." Author's Note Well, boom, third or fourth major chapter in the story and possibly the darkest, as you find out why Alex was framed. I also figured he should have like a mental breakdown as he's telling Rainbow everything, to me, he was starting to look too much like a Mary Sue type character, god knows what that would do to my reputation, am I right?
Act I, Chapter 13: Gaining AlliesVanoss sat in the makeshift encampment that Rainbow Hair helped them make. It was a bit of work setting up and maintaining, but it gave him time to chill with his youtube friends. "Hey, Vanoss! Check Mini out!" Wildcat yelled from across the camp. God dammit. He had things he wanted to do today, he walked over to where Wildcat was, only to see Mini Ladd with his hands in the air, with a Sticky Bomb on his back. "Wait, wait, I had nothing to do with the blue stuff!" He yelled. Delirious walked over to Mini, inspecting his condition, walking away shortly after. "Yeah, yeah, there's no hope for him." He said through that mask. "Hold on, let me observe this-" Nogla walked over to Mini Ladd, who exploded; killing them both. Pretty much everyone started laughing at Nogla's corpse launch. "Ha ha, 'let me observe this', kaboom!" Vanoss was still laughing. Lui Calibre ran towards the group, he looked like he had something important to tell them. "Vanoss, Droidd found these guys outside the camp, follow me!" Lui said. What? He thought that this would be secluded. Who was there? "Let me out of these ropes!" Alex yelled at a guy in a pink shirt. "No can do, Sénor. Vanoss!" He yelled again. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Alex asked Karis, who was also tied up. "At first, I was, but now I'm having second thoughts." She admitted. Just then, the guy with a red and white jacket and the iconic owl mask ran over alongside the other guy in the monkey mask, another guy with a hockey mask, and this other guy wearing the pig mask. "Who are these guys?" The owl asked. "I-I don't know Vanoss! These guys just showed up over here!" The monkey masked guy said, in a rather high pitched voice. "Ah, so were they born in the darkness?" This other guy asked, clutching a Pringles can and doing his best Bane impression. Alex groaned, he was already getting pretty damn sick of this. "So then, who are you?" The guy wearing the pig mask asked them. "Alex Walker." He replied. "I'm Agent Karis Victoria Thorne, CIA." Karis said. "Well, I'm Vanoss, the badass of the group." Vanoss egotistically introduced. "I am H2O Delirious, the axe murderer!" Delirious yelled, splitting Piggy's head open. "You sound a lot like this guy I know called the Masturbating Fisherman." "Well, you sound like this other guy I know called-" Delirious was about to finish when Vanoss so rudely interrupted. "HOO-DINI!" Vanoss yelled, shooting Delirious in the face with a musket. "NOOOOOO! YOU BITCH!!!!!" Delirious yelled, falling off a conveniently placed cliff. "Anyway, the Pig is Wildcat," Vanoss said, pointing to this Wildcat person. "Are you ready, Kids?!" Wildcat asked, pulling out a mini-gun. "...what?" Alex asked. "I can't hear y-" Alex shot Wildcat in the face by his .44 Scratch. "Alex!" Karis scolded. "What?!" "Why the hell did you do that?" "Sit down, you punk bitch!" Vanoss yelled. Vanoss swung at him with a 9-iron. Alex deftly evaded the blow, spun behind Vanoss, wrestled the golf club out of his hands and swung at his neck. The Owl clutched his neck, giving Alex another opportunity to attack, before he was surrounded by the crew, all pointing various weapons at him. "You've gotta be kidding me." Alex grunted, pointing his own weapon at them. They all shot at him, but he dived down, all of their shots missed, and hit the others. "AAAAAH! IT'S BATMAN!!!" Delirious screamed. "Where did he go!?" Another man wearing a paper bag asked, looking around. Alex stood behind him, getting close to his ear. "I'm right here." He said, sliding between him and the Monkey Masked fellow. Paper Bag guy shot his weapon at another guy. "Nogla! Don't shoot me!" A guy with a Mohawk and a multicolored t-shirt said. "C-c-c-combo breaker!" Someone else said as Alex kneed some guy in the face, placing a foot on his chest once he was knocked over. "Marcel, you noob!" Delirious laughed. Alex pointed his gun at Delirious' face, then he flipped on the safety, putting it back in a holster. "Look, you guys' combat skills are...average at best," Alex began. "Alex..." Karis warned. "...But still good, I have a proposition for you." Alex continued. "What kind of proposition?" Vanoss asked. "Perhaps he is the instrument of our liberation?" The guy with the Pringles can said again. "Shut up, Terroriser. What do you want?" Wildcat asked. "Rainbow told you about me, right?" Alex questioned. "Yeah, mentioned you killing people in front of everybody." 'Marcel' said. "...well, there's a reason behind that." Alex started to explain. "Get to the point." "I'm going to need some help getting through this crap, so I'll pay you all to help her and myself kill a rogue CIA agent, I'll pay you all about...10,000 bits." Alex proposed. "Pfft, we could get more money by doing a heist," Vanoss scoffed."150,000." "100,000 bits." Alex said. "125,000. Final offer." Vanoss had given him an ultimatum, there were at least 10 of them, this would completely drain his resources! But he had no other choice. "Deal." Alex raised out a hand, Vanoss shook it, and demanded his money up front. "Sure." Alex opened up his pocket dimension, and handed everyone a bag. Vanoss and friends went inside, each coming out with their bags full of loot. "Okay, now my first order as your boss, untie her." Alex said, pointing to Karis. Delirious cut Karis out with his axe, and helped her up. "Okay, team. You're going to go about your daily lives until Karis and I need you. Sound like a plan?" Alex asked. "125,000 gold coins to do nothing? Sounds good to me." Mini Ladd said. "Well, I think it would be best to reintroduce ourselves, especially since Alex here tried breaking Evan's neck. Sound good?" Karis asked. "Okay, I'm Vanoss, and that guy in the mask is Delirious," Vanoss began "'Sup, bitches?" Delirious introduced, brandishing an axe. "And these guys are Lui, Mini, Nogla, Terroriser, Wildcat, and...who else?" "I'm Basically." Marcel said. "And these other guys are Droidd and Moo." Terroriser finished. "Good meeting you all, I'm Alex." Alex said. "Agent Karis Thorne." Karis introduced herself to the other men. "Okay, Alex, now that we've been paid and already introduced ourselves, what exactly is the plan?" Mini asked. It was Karis who answered. "I'm going to dig up what I can about Winchester, that's the guy we're paying you to help us kill, Alex is going to do some extra special missions for me, and we'll call you guys if we need you." Karis instructed. "Question, what the hell does Alex have, exactly?" Wildcat asked. "Yeah, that's one hell of a gun." Basically said, admiring the gun. "Yeah, it looks epic as shit, where did you get it?" Moo agreed. Alex thought back to Vinyl, always a trustworthy mare, she helped him on his first day in town, and gave him the weapon after it got damaged in his first scuffle against Crimson after getting here. "The gun got broken during a battle, and this mare, Vinyl, fixed it up, made it a thousand times cooler that what it already was." Alex said, remembering the events play back in his head. "What do you guys have?" Karis asked the crew. "We have our phones and some money, we could buy, like, tanks and helicopters and shit." Delirious said. "One more thing, is there an extra tent somewhere? It's a little cramped in our old base camp, and they probably found it by now." Alex asked Vanoss. "Well, we have Delirious' extra tent, though you may want to burn it, or clean it, or at least spray some febreeze inside..." Vanoss' voice trailed off, thinking about some dark subject. "Hey! Don't judge my special spongebob time!" Delirious defended himself, looking indignantly at Vanoss. "That reminds me, remember that giant spongebob trap?" Vanoss asked, laughing. "Don't remind me..." Moo facepalmed. Rainbow Dash flew in looking like she missed the bus, looking around, and noticing that Alex and Vanoss had already been aquainted. "Buck! I'm late!" Rainbow looked rather flustered, as though she had just woken up from a nap. "Yes, yes you are." Nogla rolled his eyes through his paper bag. "Wait, Nogla, why do you wear that paper bag over your head?" Karis asked. "Do you really want to know?" Wildcat asked. "...No." Alex said. "Oh, fock you guys!" Nogla looked pretty mad, it was kinda funny. And with that, Rainbow helped Karis and Alex move into the tent, Karis decided it would be best to try and redesign the Goliath Mk. V armor to better handle gunshots. As for Alex, he figured it would be best to train Vanoss and Friends in combat as best he could. Looking back, Alex had no idea how he managed to survive his past encounters, he had backup at first in Area 51, and got wounded pretty badly after they turned on him. The fight against Task Force Crimson at Sugarcube Corner, maybe the need to escape, plus Karis' instructions helped him get there without dying an awful death, but he still got shot in the leg and other various spots. And his most recent attack, he survived because he always wore that armor. Thank god for Karis' handiwork. He still wasn't sure what was going on back in his old world. And he thought about Kat for the first time in weeks. He wondered how she was doing... --POV Shift: Kat-- Kat fell out of another portal, landing hard against the rocky ground. Writhing in pain, she staggered up, only to back away in terror as she was standing over the edge of a cliff overlooking a base of some kind. "Where the hell am I this time..?" Kat groaned inwardly. She knew she shouldn't have pressed 'shuffle' again! In any case, she ducked out of sight. She didn't know where she was, and considering how things went last time, they weren't exactly going to treat her well. "Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air!" A voice demanded. Kat thought the man sounded kind of odd, since he sounded like he was talking through a cheap voice-changer from Target. "Who are you?" She asked in a low whisper. "I should be asking you the same thing." A tall man, about seven feet, in fact, introduced. He looked like he was in some type of military. "I'm not from here.. My name is Katherine Anderson, former Corporal of the Kahn Militia." Kat introduced herself. "My name is Kaiver Locust, Commander of the Adenien Ryder Corps. And you're going to help retrieve something for me." Author's Note Well, I'm trying to get the word out about the story as best I can. And without people telling me how else I can improve, I have no safe method on how to help you guys read a good fan fiction. Also, I told you about Crossover elements being added into the story, so here it is. What do you guys think of my adding Vanoss into this, like, I know it's been done to death already and I also know this may seem like a Cheap shot for likes, but truth be told, the way I wrote the story makes it so that these elements are interwoven into the storyline from the get-go, so it would seem obvious looking back. Also, one last thing, a certain web-series will be crossed over in this fan fiction, can anyone guess what that web series is? EDIT: I've been making edits to most of the chapters to better segue the story in the direction it was going.
Act I, Chapter 14: Plan BAlex never could be able to tell a good idea from a bad idea. But now, at least it was clear. This was one of those plans that were pretty much doomed to fail (not unlike the story). Vanoss and his crew were usually ok, but, much like his brief assimilation into Ponyville, there were a fair amount of shenanigans. Firstly, was their moving in. Someone mentioned 'Delirious' Special Spongebob Time', and Alex had feared the worst. Really, it was just Delirious hauling in a crap ton of snacks and watching Spongebob, but this was Delirious, and often, he would make a huge mess every time and not clean it, so the floor of the tent looked like the floor of a movie theater that the janitor just hasn't gotten to yet. Cheetos and Pringles and other assorted snacks left an inch-thick layer of sugary, disgusting crust on the floor, the occasional soda spill, all of that. Much to Alex and Karis' annoyance, they forced him to help clean it all up. "I ain't cleaning that shit off the floor!" Delirious yelled. "Hey, I don't care about what shows you watch, but for the love of god, at least clean up after yourself!" Karis had told him. "NOOOOOO!" And then there was the constant killing, exploding, and all sorts of crazy things, maybe even a race now and then. Alex still remembered their musket fight, lead balls flying to and fro, nearly hitting Alex or Karis, and ripping huge holes in the tent, but at least they had a bunch of small windows now. Alex was now trying to tape up any holes that resulted from their little Revolutionary War reenactment, and Karis... She was somewhere else, probably building his new armor or getting information on Winchester. Until Alex had finished, Vanoss would be in charge, he prayed for his sanity, but not from the constant nightmares and that other crap, which was very different. KABOOM!! "Holy shit! Delirious!!!" Vanoss yelled from across the camp. "What?" The masked killer asked in an innocent tone. "What the hell happened?" "Nogla took off his bag, so I threw a grenade at his ugly face." "Oh, okay, sounds reasonable, carry on." "For Fock sakes, Evan!" Nogla angrily screamed. Alex was getting quite annoyed, but he just had to finish taping back this one last hole... "Lui, are you sure you know the controls to this tank?" Terroriser asked. "Yeah, the controls seem pretty straight-forward... What does this button do?" Lui asked, confused. This could only mean one thing... Alex leaped out of the tent just in time for a large tank shell to rip through his tent, right where he was standing. "Jesus! I almost died!" Alex was really starting to get tired of this. "Marcel drew a dick on the wall!" Someone yelled. "It's a brontosaurus! How many times do I have to tell you!" Basically yelled. "Anyone else think that this 'Destoyer' guy is reenacting old videos because he has no original ideas?" Mini Ladd asked. "Me!" Wildcat agreed. "Could you guys go two seconds without drawing on the wall, or blowing stuff up, or breaking the fourth wall!?!" Alex yelled, exasperated. "...No." Moo said. Alex looked up at the sky, and put his middle finger in the air. "Do you see what I have to deal with here? Why couldn't you have crossed this story over with something cool like... I don't know..." "How about this one web series called R-" Destoyer asked, his voice booming from the sky. "Don't...say it... You know what? I will go along with this." Alex said, with an air of determination in his voice. Droidd crashed a car into a nearby tree. "Droidd, what are you doing?" Alex asked in a neutral tone. "I-I just wanna go to Cockatoos." Droidd responded. Delirious also stumbled out of the car, obviously drunk. "Really, Delirious? It's not even noon." Alex chided. "You don't know my life!" Delirious retorted, his voice slurred. Karis walked back into the encampment with Alex's pocket dimension, looking around at the chaos around her. "Really? I leave for, like, two hours and this place looks worse off than it was when I left." Karis said, just...disappointed. "At least I tried to fix things around here!" Alex defended. "You really are helpless, you know that, right?" Karis rolled her eyes. "Yeah... Idiot authors and their desperate attempts to ingratiate themselves to their audience..." Alex muttered contemptfully. "I don't know about 'idiot'...but the whole thing about redeeming themselves to the reader...yeah... He did kinda fu-" "Don't... He's going to try and keep this slightly kid-friendly." Alex scolded. "To who exactly?" Karis replied. "...yeah, you're right." Alex relented. "So, you want the good news or the bad news?" Karis asks. "Bad news. Just get it out of the way." Alex said. "Okay, Princess Twilight gained Winchester's trust, probably on account of the destruction of the castle." Karis said. "Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't see it coming." Alex admitted. "There is some good news..." Karis began. "What?" Alex asked. "I figured out how Winchester and Crimson got here, in the time the Government had studied Die Glocke, they made more than just the one." Karis said. "That would explain things, how did they find me?" "They probably traced your signal after you blew up the original." Karis concluded. "Oh..." "And I also learned that Princess Twilight has a Die Glocke of her own, probably as a gift from Winchester." "Really?" "Yeah... But there are still a few problems." Karis admitted. "What, the like-to-dislike ratio?" Alex asked. "No. Twilight's castle is very heavily guarded, Crimson, Your old Militia, the Guard..." "What?! The Militia?!!? How?!" Alex gasped, the militia was after him, too? How did Winchester do that? "I don't know." Karis said. "What are our options?" Alex asked. "The only way to handle this is to wait, build up our resources, wait for a weakness and exploit it." "...sounds reasonable." Alex said. "Also, I got to work on the Goliath Mk. VI, it should be done in about 6 days." Karis said. "Okay, so we have at least a 6-day wait. I'll tell Vanoss to start buying up as much equipment as possible. They have us outmanned and outgunned, we may as well try to stand a chance." Alex said. "Okay. Tell the crew, I'll be repairing those giant holes in our tent." Karis said. Alex walked over to Vanoss and friends, and sat down. "Team, we have some developments." Alex began. "Like what?" Terroriser said. "We found out that Winchester is working with Ponyville's hero, Princess Twilight Sparkle." "Isn't she Rainbow Face's friend?" Mini asked. "Yes. Winchester's men completely outnumber ours." Alex said. "You want us to kill the Military men?" Nogla asked. "Not just yet. We're going to wait a minimum of six days so we can prepare for the assault, which brings me to our first order of business." Alex said. "You need us to buy a bunch of Valkyries, Insurgents, and Hydras?" Lui asked. "If by that, you mean buy a bunch of equipment, yes." Alex told him. "How about a Cargobob and a tank?" Delirious asked. "Anything as long as it can kill a bunch of soldiers." Alex nodded. "Is this a heist?" Wildcat asked. "No, the priority is getting to a machine called 'Die Glocke' and getting the hell out as fast as possible, killing Winchester is second on the list." "Oh, what does this machine do?" Basically asked. "It's a machine that is capable of inter-dimensional transport." "What?" Basically asked again. "It's like the teleporter from zombies, but it can take us to different universes." Vanoss said. "Oh." "How is this any different from what you tried last time?" Rainbow Dash walked to Alex and the others, the cyan Pegasus had heard everything. "This time, I'm going to tell people what happened to me, instead of just waiting for someone to lie and incriminate me, like what happened here." He said. "I know this seems like the only way out of this, but..." Rainbow tried to reassure him. "It is. I'm being hunted down by everyone, there isn't anyone I know for sure I can trust, and to top it all of, the rulers of two different countries want nothing more to cut my head off and mount it above their fireplace, or something!" Alex said. "What about us," Vanoss said, "you paid us to keep your ass safe, you're asking us to buy military equipment, and you're trusting us enough to stay in the same place as us." "I'm sure if I didn't pay you guys, I would be nothing but Swiss cheese right now." Alex retorted. "So your best option is to just leave?" Rainbow asked, appalled. "Yes, the way Twilight sees it, I'm too dangerous to be kept alive." Alex said. "That's not true, and you know it!" "I don't know for sure, but if it is as bad as it looks, my only chance is escape." Alex said. "Fine. I won't say anything to Twilight or the others, but if you do attack the castle, I will hurt you." Rainbow said. "Deal." Alex said for the umpteenth time. Rainbow flew away, angry and confused. "Well, let's just give up, Alex just lost the war." Moo said. "No! I'm not living my life in fear anymore! We're getting out of here in a minimum of six days, we're going somewhere else, that's final." Alex said. "You just pissed off the only other pony who was actually willing to help!" Vanoss said. "I have NO other choice!" Alex argued. "Not entirely true, Mr. Walker." A voice said. Alex turned around, staring at a being that was part pony, part dragon, part...everything. He remembered everyone's description of who this was. "Discord." Alex scowled. "Clever observation, boy. I see you have yourself quite an army." Discord complimented. "AAAAH! IT'S THE FLYING DUTCHMAN!!!!" Delirious yelled. "What? Oh, him. Never really liked that guy, always going on and on about that little yellow guy." "Get to the point." Alex said. "You seem rather desperate, enough to turn away help from Ms. Dash. Shocking to say the least." "What do you want?" "Well, it would seem as if someone doesn't trust me. I'm hurt." Discord said, wiping his eyes with a tissue. "I have a history of trust issues, it's to be expected. What do you want?" Alex asked again, hardening his voice. "I have a proposition for you." "What kind of proposition?" "It's simple, really. You help me with something, and I help you with your predicament." "I don't need your help." Alex bitterly replied. "Well, someone doesn't know about Inquisitors, then. If you really don't want my help, I will take my leave." Discord scoffed. What were Inquisitors? Alex didn't like the sound of that at all. "What?" "Oh, just a secret society of inter dimensional warriors bent on conquering the multiverse. If that's what you're asking, but, no, you don't want my help, goodbye." Discord poofed away, leaving no trace. What was he talking about? This kinda scared Alex. He had no help with this. Alex walked back to his tent, starting to rethink his decisions. He made a lot of bad choices, but this probably took the cake. If he went face to face with an inquisitor, what would he do? Author's Note Well. I added more about Alex's thoughts on the Vanoss crew, and more than a few fourth wall breaks. At this point, I'm really starting to reconsider putting this up, but I'm still going to keep writing, because, well, why not? I'm also giving another story development, more antagonists, that kind of stuff. Also, the plan in this chapter plus my hints=...well, you'll find out eventually.
Act I, Chapter 15: Abandon All Hope... (Edited)It's been 3 days since Alex, Karis, and the others started a rough sketch of the plan. Alex went over the details he and Karis made together. They narrowed it down to two options that would seem to work, depending on how the crew wanted it to go. Alex brought over the boards that contained both methods of escaping Equestria. "Vanoss, get you and your crew over here, it's important!" Alex yelled. Karis set up the cork board containing a map of Equestria, a technical readout of the castle, thanks to Veil, and two lists of things they would need for either plan. Vanoss and the others walked to the center of the camp and sat down. "Okay, team, we have two plans on how we can successfully escape the dimension. Which would you like to hear first?" Alex asked, pointing to the two manila folders containing both plans. "How about the one on the left?" Nogla requested. Alex picked up the folder and started setting it up. "Okay, what we would do in this plan is have two teams of three, one in each Valkyrie helicopter, provide air support, one is going to fly lower to the ground, shoot a few targets, and get as many enemies as they can as far away from the castle as possible. The other will fly in later in case the former needs help. Then we're going to have two Cargobobs. One pilot in each, fly us into the entrance. One Cargobob will constantly be carrying a tank, providing support when we need it, the other is going to drop in an Insurgent pick-up. As soon as both Valkyries have sufficiently killed the targets they lured away, they'll fly back to give more Air support. There are 5 possible locations for Die Glocke to be, once we find it, head back in, clear out as many targets as you can, and we get the hell out of here." Karis rambled. "Holy shit, that plan sounds over-complicated and ridiculous." Vanoss said. "Yeah, but it sounds epic!" Wildcat added. "What's the other plan?" Mini asked. "This other plan will only need one Valkyrie, four people in it, eliminate any targets in the vicinity as you can. Four more will gun down any targets the Valkyrie missed in the Insurgent. The other four will search the castle for Die Glocke while clearing out any infantry inside. Once we find it, the four inside will defend the location until the other Eight can get here." "Sounds a little smarter and more tactical." Moo said. "Both plans sound epic, I don't know what to choose!" Basically commented. "Yeah, both sound like a Michael Bay movie." Lui said. Alex figured it was best to put this to a vote. "All in favor for the first one?" Karis said. At least 4 people rose their hands. "All in favor for the latter?" Alex asked. Six people rose their hands. "It seems less complicated to me." Droidd said. "Which one of us gets to GET TO THE CHOPPA!?!" Terroriser screamed. "We'll form teams, Karis leads one, Alex leads the second, and I'll lead the third." Vanoss suggested. "Good point." Alex commented. "Okay, Terroriser, Lui, and...Moo are on my team." Karis said. "Delirious, Wildcat, and Nogla are with me." Vanoss chose. "I guess that leaves me with Mini, Basically, and Droidd." Alex nodded. Well, that settled it, but who would do what? "What about our jobs?" Basically said. "Okay, Alex's team is going to search the castle, Vanoss' team will drive the Insurgent, and My team is going to ride the Valkyrie." Karis decided. Everyone seemed to agree. At least there wasn't too much harm done. "Okay, Alex's team. You're getting a map of Princess Twilight's castle, my team is getting Tracer rounds, and Vanoss' team is getting...how about an IPod with Bluetooth, so you can listen to music as you attack." Karis said. The groups nodded. "How about team names? I call dibs on the Red Hoodinis!" Vanoss yelled. "God dammit, Evan!" Wildcat groaned indignantly. "Sounds fun, I call Blue Flares!" Karis called. "Okay...how about..." Alex started "THE TERMINATORS!!! AAAAAUGH!!!" Terroriser burst out. "That was right in my ear." Alex groaned "It's settled, the mission starts in 3 days." Karis said. "Meeting adjourned!" Alex yelled. The teams left the center of the camp, with a mission in their minds. Alex was left with some time to think. Was this really the best way to solve these problems, go in, wait for your past to come back with a vengeance, only to escape again? He could have told Twilight and the others, if only he had let go of his paranoid delusions when he had the chance. And now he antagonized everyone he tried to befriend. Only that wasn't true. Karis had helped him escape Crimson as soon as they found him, and built him armor he needed to retrieve his key to liberation, and now she was building him new armor for this mission. Not to mention Vanoss and the others. Despite having to pay them, they seemed ok. Alex figured if they were to keep their rampant escapades in check, they would be good soldiers, and, above all, good people. Alex got back to his tent, and started to rest. "Alex, can you come over here for a second?" He heard Karis ask. "Sure... What is it?" Alex asked. "I want your personal opinion on my work." Karis said. "You wouldn't be the first, I'd be happy to come over and help you." Alex walked inside the Pocket Dimension, noticing Karis hauling over some more armor, it looked cool to say the least. The project was an up-armored variant of the Mark V, and the mask looked different, now it looked similar to something from Halo, or something, in terms of the larger visor. The armor itself looked much bulkier and would likely take more damage without breaking down As quickly as it had with that whole charade in Canterlot. "Wow... I didn't expect you to finish it that quick." Alex said. "It isn't, I still have to temper it and add some final touches. But it's still usable now, if you really wanted to move the op ahead." Karis said. "Is it still resilient and repels bullet fire?" Alex asked. "Yes, and it will last longer than the Mark V." "Then I'd be happy to use it now, if the others are comfortable." "I'm sure they wouldn't mind." Karis said. "Okay, let's get this out of the way as soon as possible, we're spending too much time." -The Next Day- Alex, Mini, Droidd, and Basically sat in a bush near the Castle, waiting for their signal. "Where the hell is Evan, he should be here by now." Basically groaned. "I don't know, Sénor." Droidd said. "And why the hell did we let Terroriser name our team?" Mini asked. "I don't know, either." Alex admitted. Explosions ripped apart the space in front of them, The Valkyrie! "Incoming, bitch!" Wildcat shouted into the radio. The Insurgent drove past, gunning down several guards and soldiers, with Wildcat on the M2. "Vanoss! Drive around the castle in circles, nobody in or out!" Lui yelled. "Got it. Alex, go in whenever you see an opening!" Vanoss told him. "10-4. Moving now." Alex said, pulling out the Carbine Rifle Vanoss let him borrow. "Move it, Mini!" Basically groaned, trying to move him. "I'm too fat!" Mini retorted. Alex shoved Mini Ladd out of the bush, shooting the Carbine at several Crimson soldiers. The team ran into the castle, killing several soldiers in the process. Royal Guards! Coming straight for them with spears! Alex charged into the fray, stealing one guard's spear and slaughtering the rest with vicious precision. Alex noticed another soldier coming right at him, placing the spear in the barrel of the gun, he fired, the spear going through the soldier's gut, killing him. He grabbed another one, throwing it like a javelin at another group, slaughtering one as Basically, Droidd, and Mini finished off the rest. "Split up!" Alex said, grabbing another spear and placing it on his back. Alex moved down the eastern hallway, gunning down several royal guards and Crimson soldiers. He breached every room he could and killed everyone unfortunate enough to be inside that day. A violet bolt of energy knocked Alex over, sending him reeling backwards, gaping in horror at who attacked him. Princess Twilight. Alex backed up, putting as much space between him and her as possible. "I have no choice, princess, people are going to die, I can't let that happen." Alex insisted Twilight didn't move an inch, her horn glowing purple as she seethed with aggression. "Please don't make me do this." Alex pleaded. Again, Twilight didn't move, her horn glowing with greater intensity. She left him no choice. With a battle cry, he charged at her, dodging bolts of magic as she evaded or blocked his bullets. Alex raised a foot, preparing for a strike that would hopefully end this fight quickly. Damn! She blocked his attack and blew him away, firing more magic at him. One bolt bounced off him, sending it towards the wall and destroying a part of it. Twilight's eyebrows rose, an opportunity! Alex deftly rolled over and shot at the ceiling, sending more bullets down, further distracting her. He sent one more kick towards Twilight, holding it back with her magic. Her magic held his foot in place, hopefully distracting her, he fired one more shot directly upwards, ricocheting down. Twilight blocked it, weakening her defense against Alex. Alex's foot met her horn, injured, she lashed out with her forelegs, with a palm heel strike, he sent Twilight further back. Twilight picked him up with her magic, lifting him into the air. "How could you... How could you cause all this destruction?!" She asked, pained by this attack. Alex lifted his .44 Scratch, pointing it at her. "I had no choice." He responded darkly, firing the gun, distracting her to the point where she dropped him. Landing on his feet, he fired another two shots at her, unable to cope with his onslaught. Twilight refocused her defensive spell into an attack, turning her dome into a spear, propelling it at him. The construct dissipated, though forcing him back. Twilight sent more spear constructs towards Alex, the Equestrian Steel Armor protecting him. Alex charged towards Twilight, evading the constructs and grabbing her by the horn. "Now. I have my own question; how could you trust Agent Winchester?" Alex asked, calmly. "He's...been telling us...about you...everything that you did..." She groaned, pained by Alex holding her by the horn. "Winchester left out a few crucial details about me." Alex told her. "What...what...do you mean?" She asked. "Ask Rainbow Dash, I'm sure she'd be delighted to answer." Alex coldly said. Alex dropped Twilight. "Where's Die Glocke?" Alex interrogated. "Why do you want to know?" Twilight asked, holding her horn. "You'll find that out later, right now, I need to know. Where is that machine?" "Further down this hallway, take a right, and take the third door on the left..." She answered. "Thank you, Princess. You saved my life." Alex said. Alex left her to heal herself. He knew where it was, time to contact the others. "I know where the machine is! Follow my radar!" Alex told them. "Kick ass!" Vanoss applauded. "Good work, Alex!" Karis complimented. "Thank you. Team! Regroup at Die Glocke location C!" Alex instructed. "On our way!" Mini yelled. Alex took Twilight's instructions, and sure enough, there was the machine. He powered it, set the receiving universe called 'Oum Alpha 0-12; Remnant'. Alex figured that possibly, that universe would seem more welcoming. Mini, Droidd, and Basically ran into the room, taking defensive actions and killing more guards. "Hold them off while I get to the others!" Alex ordered, running out the door and killing more troops. Alex ran to the entrance, where Vanoss, Delirious, Wildcat, and Nogla held off more troops. "Follow me!" Alex ordered. "DIIIIIIEEE!!!!!" Delirious yelled as he fired his SMG, following the others to the east hallway, killing as many troops as they could. "The device is down that hallway, then move to the right! The machine is in the third door to the left!" Alex instructed, the crew went down the hallway as they were told, killing more soldiers and making a mess out of Princess Twilight's castle. "Karis! Vanoss and his crew are En Route to the machine, what's your ETA?!" Alex asked. "Right about now!" The helicopter landed outside, with Karis, Lui, Terroriser, and Moo running out, shooting more enemy troops. "On me!" Alex yelled. Alex and the other barely made the turn... Until Alex was punched in the face by a woman in dark armor, that seemed to glow orange, as did the eyes... "Who the hell are you?" Moo asked. The woman snickered. "Just call me...Sigma." She answered. Alex's spine turned to ice and dripped down his back. This was an Inquisitor! The others shot at Sigma, who blocked the bullets with her bare hands. Karis kicked Sigma away. "Go! Alex and I will hold her off!" Karis yelled. The three ran down the hall, high-tailing it to the device. Alex pulled out his spear, lunging at Sigma, who evaded it skillfully, giving Karis a chance to strike, punching her in the jaw. Sigma backed away, her hands burning as she summoned two vicious looking blades, she simply scoffed. Karis pulled out a machete, holding it in a defensive stance. Alex spun his spear, twirling and tossing it in the air, as he went into an offensive position. It was Sigma who made the first move, kicking Karis away and summoning a volley of glass, Alex dodged it, only to be hit in the head. Karis swung the machete, Sigma blocking it with one sword as she swung with the other. Karis dodged it, attempting to hit her again. Alex lunged in for Sigma again, who blocked it with both swords, leaving her open to Karis' attack. The strike worked, sending Sigma flipping back. "Persistent." She scoffed. Alex spun his spear again, only to have it meet Sigma's blades, he spun the spear, succeeding in dazing Sigma, stepping back. Karis swung her machete in a wide arc, and Alex lunged in, Sigma blocking both blows with either sword. Alex could tell she was holding back. Sigma kicked Alex away, and in the same instant, spun her blade, disarming Karis. Alex got up and threw the spear at Sigma, distracting her as Karis retrieved her weapon. Sigma merely torched his spear, burning it into cinders. Karis swung the machete again, Sigma merely holding the bladed end in a gloved hand. "You and your...apprentice, decent fighters, I will admit. But no match." Sigma pulled away Karis' machete, swinging it towards Karis' neck, who quickly dodged it. Alex pulled out the .44 Scratch, loaded in six caps, and started shooting. Sigma seemed to notice this, as she blocked the bullets again. Open to Karis' attack, trying to put her in a headlock. Sigma moved just in time to evade the hold, and picked Karis up by the head. "Fools. You're just like all the rest, trying to protect your worlds to your last breath." "Alex, go!" Karis ordered. Alex looked at the hallway, then back at Karis. "I would follow her advice, kid. This is your only warning." Sigma threatened. Alex looked at that hallway again, considering his options. Karis was probably going to die, and Sigma was giving him an opportunity to escape. "Do it!" Karis yelled again. Alex made one of the hardest decisions of his life. He ran. Only hearing the slash of the blade meeting flesh, and a dull thud on the ground as he ran as fast as he could down the hallway. Sigma was shooting at him, seeing arrows explode on the ground past him. Firing the gun back without looking. Evading arrows and running for his life. Alex eventually made it to the room where the others waited for him. "Alex! Where's Karis?!" Vanoss asked. "No time! Pull the damn lever! Go!!" Alex ordered. "Don't bullshit us!" Delirious yelled. "NOW!! PULL THE LEVER NOW!!!" Alex ordered again. Someone pulled the lever. His vision turning blue as he felt that old sickness rush into him, as the floor became less and less solid. Stumbling around, he saw Sigma walk up to the door, and place an arrow on the draw string. His vison turned red as bolts of lightning scattered around them, seeing the armored killer aim her shot at Alex and the others. They fell down the hole just in time for Sigma to shoot another explosive arrow at the machine, looking up, he saw the flames above them as they all fell further down the purple-hued portal. Alex and the others fell faster and faster until they saw a small hole at the bottom. The eleven men fell out of that hole into another forest. The flames lapping around them as the portal dilated into nothing, leaving only a small flicker behind. Alex and the others made it to the new universe. 'All except Karis.' Alex scolded himself, he selfishly saved himself and Vanoss' crew, while Karis had to die. "She didn't make it, did she?" Lui asked. "No..." Alex sighed. He was disgusted at himself. Running away from his problems again. Not all of them. "Shit..." Mini sighed. "Now what, Alex?" Terroriser asked. Alex didn't respond at first. Karis had been the one to make all of the important decisions, but now she was dead. Killed by Sigma. "Alex?" Vanoss' voice snapped him back into reality. "We need to keep moving. Stay close, stay together." Alex ordered. Alex took his first few steps in this new place. Now, like Earth. Equestria was a thing of the past, to be forgotten, lost to his nightmares and hallucinations. No. He couldn't do that again. He couldn't let Winchester waltz in and turn the inhabitants of this world against him as he did in Equestria. If there was anyone in this new universe. He would tell them. He would tell them everything. Author's Note Alex makes his way into another alternate universe in this chapter. I know full well that this story is tanking. But I'm still going to keep writing this. Even if this fic sucks. I'm sticking it until the end. EDIT: Dialogue fixing. Let's face it, It's necessary.
Act I, Chapter 17: Beacon Of HopeAlex landed in Beacon Academy a while ago. Now, he was sitting in the main hall, waiting for Wildcat and the others with Vanoss and Delirious. The two were currently engaged in some type of conversation. "Evan, do you really think all this is a good idea?" Delirious asked Vanoss. "I'm not sure. It's going to be hard explaining to 16,000,000 people where I was for the past few weeks, but it sure as hell is worth it." Vanoss replied. "I don't know, man. Alex, what do you think?" Delirious asked him. Alex thought back to that question. Not a day went by where he didn't. "Take it from a guy who spent the last two months as an on/off fugitive. We really have no other option, at least, I don't. So why not at least try to make the best of it." Alex said. "Eyyyyy! Evan! We're here!!" Wildcat yelled from across the room. "Hey, guys!" Delirious shouted. "Piggy!" Vanoss shouted, referring to Wildcat's pig mask. While the others got acquainted, Alex sat down, watching the numerous students walk in and out of the school. Ruby and the others had told him that this is where warriors known as 'Huntsmen', or, in Ruby's case, 'Huntresses', went to learn how to fight those monsters. Alex didn't go to such a school, learning from a month's worth of experience dealing with Crimson, only difference was that he was being hunted during that time. "Alex?" Ruby gained his attention, standing outside an elevator nearby. Alex figured he should follow her, this may be important. "What's going on?" Alex asked. "Ozpin wants to talk to you, he also asked me to come with." Ruby replied. Alex still wasn't quite sure how to take this. "Very well. Let's just get it over with." Alex sighed. Remembering full well the cycle that may repeat here. "Something wrong?" She asked. "Nothing that can't be explained once we meet with the Professor." Alex replied. "If you're sure..." The elevator doors opened, with Ozpin sitting at his desk, with another woman standing nearby. "Mr. Walker, Ms. Rose." "Professor." Alex nodded respectfully. "Have a seat. Make yourselves comfortable." Ozpin said. Alex went to a seat in front of the desk, Ruby sitting in the one next to him. "How are you today, Mr. Walker?" Ozpin asked. "Tired, mortified, slightly aggravated." Alex answered honestly "Why is that?" "Various reasons. I'm sure I'm supposed to tell you how I got here with Vanoss and the others, I'm assuming." "Something along those lines." "You sure? The full story is pretty long." "I've got time, Mr. Walker. Don't be shy." Ozpin answered. "It all started...Three months ago tomorrow. Terrorists attacked a place called the Bohemian Grove, a vacation stop for the most powerful men on my world. Of the 2000 that arrived, only about fifty left." "How does this have anything to do with you, Alex, were you involved in this attack?" The woman asked. "My neighbor said I looked like one of the police sketches of the perpetrators. They arrested me, killed my parents and burned my home to nothing but ash." Alex elaborated. Ruby seemed genuinely shocked, Ozpin didn't even flinch. "This asshole, Agent Winchester, who was in charge of my arrest, oversaw the torture, went on for about two months, even after he knew I wasn't guilty. Once he figured I was useless, he was about to have me executed. But that was when one of the perpetrators saved myself and others who were actually guilty." Alex continued. Ozpin still didn't move, in vast contrast to Ms. Rose, who had him locked in a rib-crushing hug. "Ruby...please...get off me..." Alex pleaded. Reluctantly, the huntress-in-training let go. Alex took a deep breath before continuing his story. "Anyway... These guys, the Kahn Militia, they take me in, they help me, on the condition that I remain a blind follower, a soldier, if you will. We attacked Area 51, which was notorious for supposedly housing alien artifacts. Found a device called Die Glocke, an interdimesional teleporter if you will. A girl named Kat Anderson told me what the bosses were planning, escaped, and left me to get shot at. I escaped and blew the device up. I then landed in Equestria, the magical land of horses." Alex rolled his eyes at that statement. "Go on." Ozpin nodded. "After that, I landed in the hospital, with the knowledge that I could never tell them what happened to me. This went on until Winchester's men cornered me at a welcome party. I killed them all and met up with a woman named Karis. She wanted to help clear my name, so she cracked a plan that required me to steal intel on my case, and she built the armor that helped me survive that mission." Alex said. "So it was there that you learned how to fight?" Ozpin asked. "Not really. After that, I met up with Vanoss and his crew, who helped me hatch another plan; invade another castle and get out of there." Alex continued to spin his little tale. "Wow..." Ruby gaped. "So we get in, kill more enemies, and find another Die Glocke. I was about to get the last group of people to the device when we were stopped by an Inquisitor named 'Sigma'." Alex said. "And she was the one who killed your friend?" The other woman asked. "Yes." Alex answered. "Do you have a description of this 'Sigma' character?" Ozpin asked. "Sigma was an older girl, I would say very late teens to early 20s. Wore grayish-black armor that had some kind of orange glow to it, same with the eyes. She appeared to summon her weapons; two blades. I also noticed that she used a bow, and she could somehow manipulate glass." Said Alex, drawing from his memory. "Odd. This sounds like the woman who I encountered when I first met Ruby." The woman said. "...and the woman I fought at the communications tower!" Ruby exclaimed. They had seen Sigma before!? "What happens to me, now?" Alex asked. Ozpin seemed to seriously think about this. "You are a decent fighter, and I can tell the last thing you want is to have this escalate to a point where it is too much." "True enough." Alex said. "Your weapon already seems fit to handle Grimm, but it may be too little to handle opponents such as Ms. Rose, or Sigma." "That is also true." "Considering that, I advise you build a weapon, we have forges here that specialize in repairing weapons, but I can temporarily accommodate it for full weapon design." Ozpin thought. "I have plenty of material to build such a weapon, and possibly augment my armor while I'm there." Alex contemplated "Of course, Ms. Schnee will have to inform you about Dust weaponry." "Yes, sir." "I apologize that you had to endure such torment, but this is how children become adults." "I understand." Alex lied, he was sure most children didn't have to take this kind of crap. "You are dismissed, Mr. Walker." Ozpin said. "Yes, sir." "Ruby, you may go as well." "Okay, Professor." Ruby said. Getting up just as Alex was walking out the door. "Wait!" Ruby yelled, running over to Alex. -Later- Alex walked into the room that Ozpin set up, it was just a temporary room until he could find a job that paid well enough to get a house. The rooms were accommodated to handle four people, Alex was meant to sit in a room with Terroriser and Nogla. "Fock sakes, Terroriser! Find yer own damn electrical socket!" "Nogla, do you expect me to ask Mr. Death Machine over here to use his?" Terroriser said. "...Fair point." Nogla responded. Alex himself sat in his bed, drawing schematics for his weapon, apparently, since he had the necessary potential (killed more Grimm than anyone on his team combined), he was to have his Aura unlocked, which Alex figured was some sick double-entendre. Then he would be able to use a Semblance of some type, for Ruby, it was the flash-like super speed, for Weiss, it was those glyphs. He had no idea what his would possibly be, or if he had any of that at all, considering this was an alternate universe. Back to the weapon. Alex usually did okay with every type of weapon, be it a spear or a halberd, but Alex set his sights on swords, he preferred them, it allowed more personal additions and had a multitude of applications, the sword he was drawing out was sort of a broadsword, but instead of one solid blade, it would be two blades that could become one large single. Since their weapons always had at least two forms, the sword would be able to convert into a large-caliber revolver, preferably the Kaiser .499 Magnum, Remnant's equivalent to the S&W .500. He was drawing out a rough sketch of his weapon when someone knocked the door. After a brief argument, Nogla went to open the door. "Alex! It's for you!" Nogla yelled back. Who could it be? Alex walked up to the door, unsure as to who it was. "HELLO!!!" "JESUS H. CHRIST!!!" Alex leaped backwards at the jump scare before him. Team RWBY had the pleasure to introduce the other Huntsman teams, in front of him now was Nora Valkyrie from Team JNPR. "My apologies, Nora wanted to meet you after she found out you were from an alternate universe." Nora's close friend Ren apologized. "Noted, even I can hardly keep track of where I end up." Alex admitted. The rest of JNPR followed suit, Jaune following Ren and Pyrrha not very far behind. They all met before, but this was their first time meeting off the record. "What're you doing to me over here?" Terroriser asked, Nora had been asking numerous questions. The rest were a bit more mature...and overall less sporadic than their comrade. Jaune seemed a little nervous, but gradually got more comfortable as Nogla kept talking. Ren himself was keeping Nora in check near Terroriser. Alex calmly sat down, drawing the rough sketch of his weapon. "Ahem." Oh, crap. Alex just realized that he was the only other person in the room not being spoken to, as while the others were busy asking and answering questions, Alex had completely forgotten Pyrrha. He respected the straight-forward mindset she seemed to carry, but would usually continue whatever he was doing to avoid social awkwardness. "Oh, hello. Pyrrha, right?" Alex sat up, he was used to being around people who could kill him with their pinky finger in his time spent with Karis. "Yes, you are Alex Walker, I assume?" Pyrrha asked. "Yeah." Neither had any real clue on what to talk about, Alex figured he may as well get this question out of the way now. "So this whole 'Aura' thing... What is it?" Alex asked. Pyrrha inhaled, which was a clear sign of a very long and arduous explanation. "Aura is the manifestation of a person's soul. It shields out hearts and...." Alex honestly didn't care about the technicalities, but he kept at least one ear open. He had become an expert at completely tuning out speech while looking fully aware. From what Alex was able to muster from that complicated speech was that Aura was basically Remnant's equivalent of unicorn magic, most commonly defensive but occasionally used in offensive attacks. Alex had a theory, Pyrrha had also said Aura could be drained from a long, strenuous duel, could it not be stored elsewhere, to be used at a later time? Or piled on top of normal levels to amplify performance? He would have to try that later, he had other, more important questions. From what Pyrrha said, Aura had to be unlocked by having someone else unlocking it for you, but there were few people who had such ability. "Wouldn't one have to unlock their own Aura before they unlocked the rest of the world's at one point in time?" Alex asked. "In theory, it would be possible through deep meditation in a peaceful environment, but it would be a very strenuous process." Pyrrha said. This held Alex's interest, it was almost sundown. He enjoyed that time, it wasn't like sunrise, where one didn't have to wake early to see it, or so ridiculously late where one would fall asleep waiting for it, and it was really beautiful. "Do you know of anywhere I can meditate?" Alex asked. "There is the back fountain, just behind the school. Usually children practice their fighting skills there, but it is much too late for any of that." She responded. "Then that's where I'm going." Alex said. "Are you sure?" "It seems easier than finding someone who does know how to unlock it." "Actually..." "With all due respect, I have a history of managing things on my own, I'm still alive, am I not?" Alex retorted as he exited the room. Author's Note A little more RWBY related segments of the chapter. I grow tired of asking you guys to leave a comment, so I'm going to try something. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT COMMENT!!!
Act I, Chapter 18: Untapped PotentialAlex stood in the back fountain at Beacon Academy. Listening to the sounds of nature around him as the sun started to set on the horizon, unleashing a barrage of oranges, pinks, and blues. Remembering what Pyrrha told him about unlocking one's own Aura, the person had to be at peace with himself, even if it was only for a second. He feared that he would not be able to pull it off, remembering every single negative thing to happen in his life. Regardless, Alex found a good place to meditate and sat down. He crossed his legs, straightened his back, and waited until the sounds of nature faded from his ears, his back to the setting sun. Alex concentrated, searching his mind and body for such power. Thinking about it, it wasn't power he sought at all, but simply the possibility of a normal life, now unobtainable by his quest. The virtues of peace and prosperity, now nothing but a misguided delusion in his mind. Alex started to question his choices. Thinking back to the Fight or Flight Reaction, he realized that he had chosen to run, to escape his oppressors every time, only for them to find him, or for him to find them. When Alex discovered that the Militia was going to use Die Glocke in their greed fueled conquest, he ran, but not before foiling their plans. When Task Force Crimson found him at Sugarcube Corner, he ran, but not without killing a few before finding Karis. Alex realized that his previous statements weren't completely true. He had chosen to run, to escape. But he also fought back every time, remembering his mission to steal intel in Canterlot, and Alex's escape to Remnant. And instead of running away from those monsters, he had chosen to stay behind and defend his allies. That was beside the point, though. Were Alex's multitude of hard decisions wrong? In the case of the Area 51 invasion, he prevented millions from being enslaved by Silas, giving Winchester a chance to kill him. And in both the Escape from Crimson and the Canterlot Raid, he didn't kill any guards until he was 100% sure they would be fully hostile to him. And forming alliances with Karis and Vanoss' crew weren't all that bad, either. In fact, they were extraordinary strokes of luck. In the short time he knew Karis, she had been honest, dependable, a good soldier who died too soon, Vanoss and the others were okay as well. Their constant puns and other annoying habits had boosted his morale to a significant degree. Kat had also fought for what was right, but not inherently smart, or afraid to leave someone behind, somewhat of a coward, but for all the right reasons. The Kahn Militia had been cruel to their soldiers, only respecting them until they were sure to win, then to be disposed of entirely. Alex couldn't blame the CIA as a whole for doing this to him, it was all the actions of one agent and his men that had resulted in Alex's ill-fated torture sessions. He wasn't sure about Sigma, though, it was completely obvious to him that she had used a code name, whether that just the Inquisitor's ranking system, or something else. Getting his thoughts back on track to finding the key to activate his Aura, he found it had become much easier. His mind less clouded by doubt and self-hatred. What else was holding him back? He knew now. His parents, his home. That awful day back in Reynold, Oregon had forever changed the course of his life. He was so rage-fueled that he killed two members of the SWAT team, what had angered him more? The deprivation of a fulfilling life back on Earth. His family had been killed, effectively making Alex an orphan. He had been completely denied his dream of becoming a screenwriter. That drive to make movies of the future better than their first drafts had been obliterated along with his humanity. He found that after spending a month in that damned cell had bent him, but not broken. His drive now was not to change simple stories, but the very world, or worlds, for that matter. Good, what else? His own insecurities? He was rather unsure of himself. What to do after a mission, what to do if this happens, what if this person died or that person betrayed him? He couldn't live in constant fear that people would betray him. Karis had said something similar when they first met. 'You can't always expect everyone to betray you. You have to put trust in someone." She was right. And his paranoid delusion cost him a chance at possibly leading a good life. He couldn't let that happen again, he wouldn't. Alex just realized something. He didn't. He had told Professor Ozpin, Professor Goodwitch, (which was apparently her name), and Ruby everything. And they would gladly help in case they came here in about a week. And so would Vanoss and his crew. And Team RWBY. And, if Rainbow told the Princess, perhaps they would as well. Alex searched his mind again. His mind completely clear, all doubts erased. His potential obtainable. He inhaled deeply, concentrating while he was still at peace. -Meanwhile- "Where the hell is Alex?" Vanoss asked. "I don't know, Evan, he talked to this red-haired girl and he left!" Nogla said. "Wow. He is one hell of a ladies' man." Wildcat joked. "Oh, shit." Delirious realized what this meant just then. "Did you just now reach that same conclusion?" Basically asked, agitated. "Maybe I did, Marcel!" Delirious retorted. "Hey, could somebody turn that damn night light off?" Vanoss asked, then he realized. You can't plug night lights into windows. And the sun had already set. Vanoss looked outside the window, and saw someone meditating outside. "Guys, you might want to see this." He said. "Vanoss, you pervert, don't watch Alex do that shit!" Delirious chided. "It's not that at all, you creepy bastard, look out the window!" Nogla yelled. Delirious went to look outside the window. What he saw was not what he expected. Someone, probably Alex, was sitting outside, meditating, and glowing a bright purple. "Why the hell is he glowing?!" Wildcat asked. "I don't know! Get someone over here!" Basically yelled. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang ran into their room. "Did you see that!?" Ruby asked, exited. "Yeah, what the hell happened?" Vanoss asked. "It would seem as though your leader unlocked his Aura." Blake said. "What the hell does that mean? That sounds like code for something!" Wildcat joked again. "He's able to become a huntsman. He can use the power that laid dormant inside him!" Yang explained. "So he'll be a badass killing machine?" Delirious asked. "As if he wasn't already!" Nogla yelled. "Yes. If he can find his Semblance, learn how to use a weapon, and receive some training. Then yes, he may be able to become a Huntsman." Weiss said. "He survived in the Emerald Forest, he could very well be one in a matter of weeks!" Ruby came to this realization. "Holy shit." Delirious sounded impressed. Alex walked back into the dormitory, his potential released and ready to use. He was met by several students cheering, applauding the fact that he did this himself. "What's happening?!" Alex was a little nervous, what did he do? "You unlocked your own Aura without any help!" "You're the first person to do that in a century!" "Can I have your autograph?" "Can everyone quiet down for three seconds?!" Alex yelled, a little miffed at the sudden crowd, despite their congradulatory applause. "Thank you, now can somebody please explain why this is such a huge deal?" Alex questioned. "You have unlocked your own Aura alone. This hasn't been done in 71 years, the last person who was able to accomplish this was another dimensional traveler named Colonel Hanz Krieger. Doing so means that your own Aura is twice as strong as anyone else's in this entire school." A voice said behind him. Alex turned around to find Professor Ozpin standing directly behind him. "You have more potential, Mr. Walker, but since Aura is your soul being represented in the physical world, without any neutralizer that most students have, your Aura, and, by extension, your semblance, will directly correlate with your emotions. If you so much as get a little angry during a duel, you're abilities may spin out of control." Ozpin warned. "And if I'm completely enraged?" Alex asked cautiously. "Then your abilities will be amplified, but unpredictable. I would advise that whenever you duel in a sparring match, keep a sound mind." "Will do." Alex promised. Twilight was with her friends in the Testing Chamber, along with Sigma and her remaining Guards and Agent Winchester. She was afraid for Alex's life, if she let Winchester and Sigma get to Alex, she may as well as have done it herself in the eastern hallway. She had been holding back, looking only for some answers. What she got instead was a moral catastrophe! "Have you triangulated his location yet, Inquisitor?!" Winchester asked. "Let me see... Almost got it..." Sigma tried to find his location. "Twilight shot a spell at the device, completely destroying it without either one noticing. "Damn! The machine broke as it was telling me where he went!" "Should have thought of that before you blew it up!" Winchester scolded. "At least I took a screenshot of it before it broke." Sigma said. "Then where is he?" Winchester asked. "Oum Alpha 0-12; Remnant." Sigma said. "Excellent. I will send my men to rebuild the device." Winchester concluded. "Looks like I'll be coming home for this one." Sigma said to herself. Twilight was furious with herself. She failed in preserving what little of Alex's life remained. "I'll come with once the reconstruction is complete." Twilight informed. "And why is that?" Sigma asked. "I have a score to settle." She bluffed. "Wonderful! We can kill him together." Winchester applauded. They had fallen for Twilight's lie. From there, she could keep an eye on them, throw them in a loop, and maybe, if the time came, help Alex and end this immediately. 'I hope this works.' She thought. Author's Note Just out of curiosity, who else would you want to see in the story?
Act I, Chapter 19: Discovered PotentialLife at Beacon was pretty much standard. Alex had grown accustomed to not knowing where he would end up every night. So his readjustment into a predictable setting had been a long and arduous process. For example, Alex was sitting at his seat between Vanoss and Wildcat, which would not be as claustrophobic if it wasn't for the fact that he was sitting across from Yang. Eating his pancakes and bacon in silence, in contrast to...well, everyone else. "Alright, Delirious. I think that you should take off the mask and the creepy-ass clown make-up for once." Vanoss joked. "I don't do face reveals." Delirious retorted. "Vanoss just got H-2-Owned!" Yang punned, much to everyone's utter disappointment. "God dammit, Yang." Wildcat facepalmed, or rather, mask-palmed, as he wore that damn thing everywhere. "What?" She asked innocently. "That reminds me, I think I want to go get another..." "Don't say it, Wildcat!" Vanoss groaned. "...Pun-cake!" He finished. Silence... What Alex thought as impossible, Wildcat actually succeeded in. "...No. Just... No." Yang said in utter disappointment. Alex finished his meal, eating what remained of his breakfast and drinking his chocolate milk in huge gulps. "Well, this has been fun, but very awkward. If you don't mind, I'm going to try and find out what my Semblance is." Alex said. "You still don't know? It's been a whole week!" Weiss asked, shocked. "No, and it's much harder than it looks." Alex retorted. "Good luck, Alex!" Ruby chimed. And with that, Alex left to find a free training room. Jesus, the training rooms were far away! Alex must've ran at least a mile, and that was before he got tired and walked the rest of the way, as he had been doing for the past 5 minutes. Finally, he found an open training room, complete with training droids that they brought in from Atlas, which was pretty much a technological super-power. Alex stepped in, as he did yesterday, and every day after he got here. "Identified: Alex Walker, scan confirmed." A mechanical voice said. "Previously selected: Basic attacks, moving onto battle simulation." Other droids walked in, bearing shock gauntlets, one zap, and it would deliver an electric shock. "Battle simulation in 3...2...1. Begin battle simulation." The droids immediately attacked, Alex having to dodge and evade to avoid being struck by his opponents. Alex evaded his opponents, delivering a kick or a hard punch, resulting in the droids telling Alex their health for the particular exercise. "97% remaining." "95% remaining." "92% remaining." Crap! A gauntlet almost hit Alex in the face, he dodged the attack, holding the droid's arm in place as he brought it down to his knee, a move that would result in breaking the opponent's arm. "68% remaining, right arm critically damaged." Alex redirected more of his opponent's blows before they could touch him, kicking away shock gauntlets and striking one of the droids' heads. "89% remaining." It chimed. Alex swept a leg underneath one of the droids, knocking it over. Grabbing it by the neck, he punched it in the back of the head and using it as a shield. "76% remaining." Alex picked up the droid, bringing it's back down to his knee, which would result in breaking an opponent's spine, paralyzing or killing them. "0% remaining, critical damage to spinal cord." Throwing the disabled droid at others, he took advantage of the opportunity and kicked one in the center of the chest. "85% remaining." Noticing another droid next to him, he delivered a barrage of punches, finishing it off with a strong kick. "32% remaining." Diving low, he grabbed another droid by the leg, pulling it to the ground and sent a foot to it's head. "0% remaining, critical damage to skull and brain." Two down, three to go. Evading more blows, he spun behind them, snapping one of the droid's necks. "0% remaining, critical damage to spinal cord." The droid who's arm he broke swung the limp limb in his direction, using the arm to punch the other droid. "58% remaining." He punched the droid he held in the neck, finishing it off with a roundhouse kick that sent it to the ground. "46% remaining." One of the droids got up, swung hard, hitting Alex inthe chest and delivering a painful electrical shock. He screamed in pain. Punching that droid hard in the face. Needless to say, the outcome was not as he expected. The droid was blown backwards in an onslaught of purple-hued lightning, he had discovered his Semblance! He punched the ground, and sure enough, the droid was electrocuted in a burst of purple lightning underneath the floor. "0% remaining, nervous system compromised." Calmly, he walked to the last droid, who was struggling to get up, and Alex stepped hard on it's neck. "0% remaining, spinal cord critically damaged." So electricity manipulation was his Semblance. Intresting. The droids got up and walked back to their places. "Score: 97%. Recommended combat style: Arcamida." Alex had read a bit on the combat forms in Remnant, instead of several styles with differing techniques, these were very broad and covered a specific form. "Arcamida: the Aggression Form, focuses mostly on offense, meant to chain in Semblance attacks and brute strength in order to incapacitate the enemy. Recommended only for use on the field." Alex figured it would say that, his style was usually dependent on killing an enemy, since Alex was constantly encountering them. "Recommended Secondary Combat Style: Voikara." Alex read exclusively on this form, he knew all about it. "Voikara: The Evasion Form, focuses on agility and redirecting an opponent's attacks, leaving them open to counter-attack. Recommended for use on the field and in dueling scenarios." Alex thought of something, why only use one form at a time, when he could blend both forms into one; a crippling offense and an unpredictable and sporadic defense? He could easily dodge an opponent's attack, disorient them with his lightning, and deliver a powerful blow to end duels quickly and efficiently. Remembering Professor Ozpin's warning about his Aura, he figured he should focus on mostly Voikara techniques, and then use his semblance to knock them off balance, saving a powerful blow for when the opponent got tired. "Previously selected: Battle Simulation, moving on to dueling scenario Level 1; sword sparring." Another, considerably larger droid walked in with the Training Sword, which had similar effects to the Shock Gauntlets. Alex grabbed his own Training Sword, grabbing it with both hands and holding it over his right shoulder. "Beginning Duelling Scenario Level 1 in 3...2...1... Begin simulation." Alex walked back into his dorm, tired after a long day of training. He opened the door, drained of most energy and figured it would be best if he drank something that would wake him up, like soda or coffee. Wait, no, just soda. He disliked coffee's bitter taste. He grabbed his simple soda can, cracking open the can and drinking it in huge gulps. He finished the soda rather quickly, tossing the can in the trash bin, he noticed something. Where were Nogla and Terroriser? Alex shrugged it off, they were probably hanging out with Vanoss. Alex went to exit the room when he heard something coming from outside. " YOU FOCKIN' BIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!!!" Nogla crashed into the room through the window, sending splinters of glass all over the room. "Hi, Nogla." Alex said in a neutral tone. "Aw. We were aimin' for Ruby's room." Nogla whined, disappointed. "Why are you aiming for Ruby's room, Nogla?" Alex asked, annoyed. "Hold on. YOU WERE AIMIN' FOR MY ROOM, YOU PRICK!!!" Nogla yelled out the window. Alex looked outside to find Vanoss and the others with a giant slingshot. "GOD DAMMIT!!!" Vanoss yelled from...200 yards? Yep, 200 yards. Alex aimed for the tight group that formed near the slingshot. Letting a small ball of purple lightning form in his hands. "What the hell is that?!" Nogla asked. "You'll see..." Alex said. Wait for it... Wait for it... Wait for it... NOW! Alex threw his lightning ball at Delirious, who had been launched toward Ruby's window. The lightning ball met it's target, Delirious plummeting to the ground. "NOOOOO!!! YOU BIIIIITCH!!!" Delirious screamed as his body met the ground, Vanoss and his crew laughing from all the way from where they were at. "HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS AMAZING!" Vanoss yelled from below. Alex walked out of the room, he had his fun, now to build his weapon. Grabbing the schematics for the device, he opened the door and walked out. -Later that evening- Yang sat in her bed, thinking to herself. It had been about a week or so since Alex Walker had arrived with his friends, and he hasn't once said anything about his personal life. And he always seemed so...distant, he was almost always training, that or he was alone in his dorm. In the few moments he was even around, he hardly even spoke. Yang knew Alex had explained a lot to her younger half-sister, Ruby, as well as Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch. However none of them said anything. That settled it, tomorrow, she would ask him in private. Regardless if he was in the mood or not. -Meanwhile- Alex couldn't sleep. It was not uncommon. The nightmares still came to him. Visions of Winchester, Twilight, Sigma, everyone killing him. He couldn't tell another soul. Telling Ruby and the others seemed too risky. He told them all about the reasons for the nightmares coming to him, but not the result. It kept him awake at night. He knew one day it would slip. But not knowing who he would tell. It was worse now. He was actually dangerous. It was almost too much for him to bear. But he was above self-pity. He could take it, Task Force Crimson wasn't a concern anymore, neither was Twilight. But not Sigma. The mere name brought waves of guilt. He got to live while Karis was killed. He was a coward. That, at least, was a constant in this vast multiverse. Author's Note Well, I figured I may as well have Vanoss have a 'funny moments' sort of thing at Beacon, like they'd do anything else.
Act I, Chapter 20: Revealing The TruthAlex woke to the abrupt sound of the single alarm clock. Alex hadn't slept that night, but Nogla and Terroriser had, and getting up was, like, the worst thing ever to those Irishmen. He moved up from his spot, grabbed a can of soda, and drank it, hopefully, the energy boost would wake him up. Alex then left his dorm, going into the men's bathroom at the end of the hall, rubbing the remaining tiredness from his eyelids. He was probably the only man to use makeup. It worked well, hiding the bags under his eyes easily. Alex figured it was best to go down and actually eat something. He desperately needed the extra energy. Finishing up his morning duties and went back to the room, threw on his uniform, and went down to the cafeteria. "Remember what happened yesterday, Delirious?" Vanoss asked the Masked Murderer. "What, me getting completely owned by the lightning ball?" "Yeah!" "What are you two talking about?" Ruby asked. "We were messing around with a giant slingshot...don't ask." Wildcat began. "Then when we launched Delirious, Alex zapped him with an electricity ball in mid-air." Terroriser finished. "Alex found his Semblance?!" She asked. "Pretty much." Alex responded, still tired. "Congratulations, man, good job completely wrecking Delirious's ass." Vanoss said. "Shut up. You don't know my life." Delirious retorted. Alex ate his remaining scrambled eggs in silence. Gulping down more chocolate milk. "Alex, you okay? You seem a little tired." Yang said. "What? No, I'm fine." Alex perks up slightly. "He's always like this." Wildcat agreed. "Oh, look at the time, I have to go train. I'd love to stay and chat, but I really have to go!" Alex said as he ran out the door. -Later- Alex was a complete mess in training. So what if he was sleep-deprived? That was no excuse for twenty robots to shock him awake. He stumbled out of the training room, tired and bruised from today's session. At this rate, Sigma would still wipe the floor with him. "Hello?" A voice said behind him, Alex had been so tired, he hadn't noticed someone tapping his shoulder. Stifling a yawn, he turned around to find Yang standing right behind him. "I saw you in training today, I have to say, you're the first person I've seen sleep through a fight." She teased. "Yeah, yeah, I haven't been sleeping so well lately, sue me." Alex retorted. "I also noticed you hardly ever talk. Nobody even knew what your Semblance was until today." "So I'm also anti-social." "And you always seem afraid of something." Yang said. "... And I have my fair share of phobias, so?" Yang pulled him into the bushes, just out of sight. Alex was trapped. Yang was probably going to demand some answers. "What's going on? You can't hide forever." Yang said. Alex was legitimately afraid to answer, Ruby already knew everything, well, almost everything. So why the hell didn't Yang already know? "You can tell me, nobody else will ever know." She insisted in a softer tone. "I can't, I'm sorry, Yang, but this is beyond you." Alex bluntly replied. "You can, there's no reason to be scared." Yang reasons. "No means no, if I don't want to talk about it, then I don't want to talk about it, just leave me be!" Alex almost pleaded. "Alex! You have to trust me!" "And why?! So the second I turn my back, one of you will see it fit to end my existence?!" Alex bursts out in anger. "None of us would do that!" Alex was actually at a loss for words. He didn't want to say anything, but he didn't want to shove the girl away. "Alex, whatever happened to you, I'm sorry, but please, tell me." Yang pleaded. "Fine." Alex relented. No more secrets. No more lies. Alex began his story, purposefully keeping it short, as he told this story like 30 times already. Yang listened intently, occasionally wincing at Alex's descriptions of what had transpired. "...We had another mission, escape Equestria using another Die Glocke, I was about to get the last of our group out, but we were attacked by an Inquisitor-" Alex said before Yang interrupted him. "Wait, Inquisitor?!" Yang asked, shocked. "Yeah, to the best of my knowledge, that was an inquisitor." Alex responded. "Alex. You don't understand what's going on. The Inquisitors are really dangerous. Whatever you did must have made them really mad." Yang said. "Tell me something I don't know." Alex huffed. "Alex. This is serious. I need you to come with me somewhere. Secret mission." Yang said. "Where?" Alex asked. "Patch." She responded. "Why there?" Alex questioned. "I know someone who can help." "Can I send someone with me, Vanoss maybe?" Alex asked. "No, just you and me." Yang replied. "I'm...not sure about this." Alex said doubtfully. "I'm going to go find a pilot, you get your equipment. We'll talk on the way!" Yang says before running off. "Okay, just tell me what the hell is happening! Ms. Xiao Long!" Alex yelled. Not getting an answer, Alex ran for the locker room. Alex was at the locker room, looking for his locker. He repeated the number in his head, '221'. Searching high and low, he eventually found it. Alex opened the locker quickly, grabbing his armor. His own craftsmanship was impressive. This latest project had been an up-armored variant of the Goliath Mk. VI. It was large, bulky, but still highly maneuverable, the helmet had a slightly smaller visor than the Mk. VI with a purple tint to it. He called it the Scarab Mk. I, because it was slightly different from his previous armors, and it was massive. Alex then grabbed his weapon, a broadsword almost a meter long. The sword could also turn into a revolver similar to the .44 Scratch, but with a lot more firepower. The sword form had one more extra feature, the two blades could separate and spin at a very high speed, using this in combat would mean shredding an opponent's armor, or ripping a person to bits. This death tool was called, in honor of his Semblance, Electric Fury. Putting Electric Fury in revolver form and putting it in a holster, he put the .44 Scratch in a separate holster, Alex figured he could always use both revolvers in tandem. Good, Alex just needed one more thing... "Evan, can I borrow a gun?" Vanoss looked up from his latest project, appropriately named 'The Delirious Cannon'. "Well, what kind of gun, an RPG, a Combat MG?" He asked. "Maybe an all-round type weapon, good handling, doesn't weigh too much, with a good mag capacity." Alex responded. "How about the Carbine Rifle that I lent you last time?" Vanoss asked. "It's good, but I need something concealable." "The PDW? I hardly ever even use it, I put extended mags on it last time I used it." To Vanoss, it seemed fair. "Sure." Alex said. Vanoss went to the weapon circle, got to the PDW, and pressed 'Y' "Thanks, Evan!" Alex said, running out the door like he missed the bus. Alex got over to the landing pad, where one airship sat in the pad, sure enough, Yang was nearby. He was very unsure about this secret mission, what had gotten her so worked up about this to where they had to hide in some obscure island. "Alex! You're just in time!" Yang waved, Alex quickened his pace a little bit. "Remind me again why this is so damned important?" Alex groaned. "You'll find out. before that, why not tell me everything else before I went and called for this secret mission?" Yang said. Once they got inside, Alex sat across from Yang, only for her to move over to his left. "Okay, The inquisitor's code-name was Sigma. Karis and I held her off while the others got to the machine. Sigma killed her, and for some reason, she gave me the choice to run." Alex sighed. He felt like a coward, he was a coward. "Then why aren't any of them after you?" Yang asked. "Sigma blew up the machine trying to kill us." Alex replied. "You're lucky. It's a rare moment when an Inquisitor misses their target." "Don't need to tell me twice." Alex bluntly replied. "Why is that?" Yang asked. "Luck is pretty much all I have." Alex sighed. "Don't beat yourself up about this, I'm trying to help." Yang chided. "You just proved my point, with the scores of people who want nothing more than for me to die, very few people actually wanted to help." "How about Vanoss?" Yang asked. "Oh, please. I had to pay them so they wouldn't turn me into Swiss cheese." "What about us?" "It's simple, Ms. Xiao Long. You pity me." "There's more to it than that." "That remains to be seen, what exactly is this mission?" Alex asked calculatingly. "We're meeting up with a...friend...of mine who happens to know all about this stuff. She asked me to come whenever somebody mentioned the Inquisitors." Yang replied. "'She', huh? So it isn't Discord..." Alex said to himself. "I'll tell my friends I'm investigating The White Fang, you better tell your friends something so they won't be worried." Yang said. Crafty. He had heard about their investigation against the terrorist cell. "Got you. I'll tell them I'm looking for more leads on the Task Force being here." Vanoss and Delirious were having another heated discussion. "Where do you think Alex went off to?" Delirious asked. "I don't know, he said he was looking for the task force, but I find it suspicious that Alex and Yang disappear at the exact same time." Vanoss said. "Maybe. She probably went to protect his ass or some shit." Delirious said. "Or..?" "I told you he was a ladies' man!" Wildcat said, walking into the room. "He's sneaker than Hoo-dini!" Vanoss joked. "Haha! 'Vanoss doesn't know that Alex and Yang are hiding here doing that thang'!" He joked. "Tyler, you just can't rhyme shit!" Delirious said laughing. "Off topic, I have a funny idea for tomorrow, Delirious..." Vanoss said, doing an evil grin. "Oh, no! We are not switching bodies again!" Delirious yelled. "Yes we are...Vanoss!" Vanoss said evilly. "NOOOOOO!" Delirious screamed. Author's Note More developments in the story! Recycled jokes and secret missions! Six-to-eight like/dislike ratios! All next week (for that last part, right now). On Blood-Red Shadows!
Act I, Chapter 21: Quoth the Raven...Alex and Yang landed in Patch about an hour ago.. Alex found that the island was so massive, he felt it was more fit to describe it as a continent, from his perspective, anyway. "So where's this friend, Yang?" Alex asked. "I just called her, she told me she would be somewhere in the forest." Yang replied. "Cryptic as always, Ms. Xiao Long. What's the plan?" Alex asked. "We'll split up, you take the right path, and I'll take the left." Yang ordered. "Sure." Alex said, running into the forest. Alex walked at a decent pace through the undergrowth, expecting those Grimm to be sniffing at his behind...or eating it, whichever worked best. A branch cracked just behind him. "Who's there?" Alex pointed Vanoss's PDW in several directions. When he saw nothing, he continued walking. Another branch broke, same general direction. "Show yourself!" Alex yelled. He backed away slowly. Alex had to be cautious, if what Yang said was right, there were more than a few Grimm around here. "You are intelligent, cautious, a true huntsman. But you will have to be much more." a voice emanated from every direction. "Who's there!?" Alex asked, louder this time. Silence. Soul crushing silence. He was sure he was hallucinating again, but there was no way to tell. "Come then, warrior. Test your skill." There was that voice again. Was he schizophrenic now? It would be believable, but it sounded way too real. Regardless, he clicked the safety off the PDW. "Afraid, Mr...Walker, is it?" Alex didn't say another word. This apparition would not get the better of him. He was careful about it. Pointing his weapon in front of him, behind him, even up in the trees, you never know when a Nevermore would swoop in and rip you into confetti. "The silent treatment, Alex? Are you really that petty?" Alex again did not answer this voice. "Fool. Doesn't even pay attention to what's right in front of him." Alex turned around and saw...someone. Upon closer inspection, he noticed it was definitely female, wearing a mask that reminded him of the Grimm masks that the White Fang reportedly wore. She held out a large katana-like blade, which had been colored red, and was pointed directly at him. "Put down your weapon!" Alex ordered. The figure did not move. Instead, she stood in a stance similar to a fencer before a duel. "This is your last chance!" Alex yelled again. She didn't move a single inch, the blade doubled in length before him. "Your choice." Alex fired the PDW, all 60 rounds, aiming specifically for her head. Instantaneously, all he could see was a red blur where his target used to be. Clearly using her sword to block the bullets. Alex put the PDW against his back, put on his helmet, and pulled out the .44 Scratch and Electric Fury. How could have he been so stupid? This was an Inquisitor! He charged at his enemy, firing one shot from each gun as he ran, The Inquisitor blocked it, the .44 Scratch was not much of a deal to that blade, the .499 Kaiser, however, shattered the blade completely. Alex smirked. Some inquisitor this was! She put the hilt back into the sheath, the sheath spinning like a revolver's chambers, and pulled out her hilt, a new blade reattached. He fired more .44 Scratch, hopefully a distraction to her. As he fired Electric Fury, it was clear that tricks would not work with her. She blocked the round with her blade. Unlike last time, it didn't break. Alex reloaded both revolvers, growled, and charged at her, relentlessly firing both guns to the point to where the inquisitor had to dodge his bullets. He kicked the inquisitor in the gut, sending her skidding backwards and almost hitting a tree. She used the momentum to run backwards and front flip, kicking Alex in the process. Reloading .44 Scratch, he shot all six rounds at her while she was still confident. She dodged all of them with stunning agility. Reholstering .44 Scratch, he stuck solely to Electric Fury. Blasting her away with ruthless precision, aiming for her head, neck, chest, leg, chest, and head in quick succession. Carefully dodging and/or blocking his shots, she taunted him. "Is that all you got, boy?" She asked scathingly. "Not even close." He retorted. Alex shifted Electric Fury from it's gun form to it's sword form, holding it in his best stance, over his right shoulder, blade facing the target. She swung first, as planned, aiming for his leg. He leaped over it and slashed at her, the inquisitor's blade locking onto his own. Alex broke the clash, kicking her, and slashing his blade. She leaped back. And, no joke, shot the blade at him. Dodging just in time, the blade stayed embedded in the tree behind him. Seeing it as his chance, he swung hard, only to have it blocked by the inquisitor's new, blue blade. He punched hard, sending her reeling into the corner and swung Electric Fury again. This time, the inquisitor was not so lucky, her blade shattering apart and leaving a hole in her arm. She looked like she honestly didn't care, and punched him in the mouth with her wounded arm. Holding his mouth, to no avail due to the helmet. She swung another, yellow blade at Alex, bringing him to his knees near another tree. Alex roared in fury, Electric Fury grasped in his hands, and swung as hard as he could at this inquisitor. She was taken aback as to how quickly he recovered, and swung her blade again. Alex locked it. Staring her in the eye and kicked again. She recovered fast, swing her sword as Alex struggled to dodge it. "Interesting. It seems you're using both Voikara and Arcamida techniques. I haven't seen that before, but you will have to do a lot better!" Alex swung again, only to have the inquisitor's blade locked in the gap in his blade, holding it in place by turning his sword to the right. With a flick of the wrist, he broke the inquisitor's blade, and before she could replace it, sent purple lightning out of his hands. Taken aback by the attack, she replaced the blade with an orange one. And planted it into the ground. Leaping just as the earth below exploded, he swung the blade again. Only to be kicked away. He recovered fast, furiously swinging his blade as the inquisitor tried to keep up. As she tried to recover, he charged his blade, now glowing a static-y purple, and swung his blade repetitively. The inquisitor tried to block it, only to be blown downwards by his relentless attack. She punched him hard in the gut, and swung her blade at his neck. To no avail. The armor blocked it completely. He grabbed her blade with an armored gauntlet, and broke it with his grip. She kicked him away, replaced the blade with a green one. And charged. Alex set his blade into saw-mode, in which both sides of the sword separated, and spun at high speeds. He batted away her attack easily, and charged it. The inquisitor sheathed her green blade, the sheath rotating until she pulled out a purple blade. Alex swung repeatedly, bashing the death blades against the inquisitor's sword. She quickly dodged each one of his ruthless attacks. And batted away his weapon easily. She then stabbed his armor, barely touching the skin, and pulled the Scarab Mk. I apart with some difficulty. Then, she punched him in the center of his ribcage, holding his chest in pain as he gasped in agony. She punched his visor, breaking it, denting the surrounding metal, and knocked him on his back. "You put up a good fight, for someone who only trained for a week." The inquisitor commented. Alex merely groaned in agony. "Indeed, you are a promising young huntsman. But you are not yet an Inheritor." The inquisitor scathed. "Wh-what?" Alex asked meekly, and in severe pain. "Okay, I think he's had enough for one day." Someone said from his right. "I agree, Ms. Xiao Long. While he is in no way ready to go up against an Inquisitor, he has a good start." The inquisitor replied. "Come on, Alex. Get up." The new voice said to him. "Y-Yang?" Alex asked, struggling to get up. "Yep!" Yang replied. Alex groaned in pain, only barely getting up before falling to his knees in agony. "What... What is going on, here?" Alex asked, spitting blood. "Come on, Raven, I said 'no badly wounding' last time we talked." Yang chided. "Aaack... Seriously... What is going on?" Alex coughed. "Do you think Sigma, Omega, let alone Alpha will agree to that rule?" "Yang, what's going on!?" Alex spoke more clearly this time. "Alex, this is who I was talking about!" Yang said, picking him up. "Mutual friends don't kick each other's asses!" Alex coughed again. "May I remind you that you shot first?" The...person asked, if this person wasn't an Inquisitor, then what? "I gave you fair warning!" Alex retorted, coughing blood. "Raven, this is Alex Walker, that guy who fought an inquisitor." Yang gestured towards him. "It's a pleasure, I'm Raven." Raven introduced. "Alex." He replied, trying to shake her hand, but coughing more blood in the process. "What did you do?" Yang asked. "Probably broke my ribcage...punched me in the face. Usual stuff." Alex buckled again. "I told you, no using 'the disabler'!" Yang yelled. "Hey, he's this supposed up-and-coming Inheritor, he should be able to handle this." Raven replied. "Ow..." Alex coughed again. Barely conscious. "Here. Hold him up!" Yang ordered. "I got him." Raven replied. Alex grabbed Raven's hand, she only pulled him up. "Now. Onto a more serious matter, Alex, if you can. Which Inquisitor did you encounter?" Raven asked. "Sigma!" Alex coughed again. "Listen. You're obviously too injured to be able to handle this. Let's get you somewhere." Raven said. "Where...the guillotine?" Alex asked sarcastically. "Yang, hold him." Raven ordered. "Okay." Yang grabbed him, and held him like a wounded soldier...or a baby. "I can walk!" Alex coughed loudly. Blood pooling on the ground below. "No, you can't. I'm surprised you're almost standing, Mr. Walker. Yang, hold him!" Raven ordered. Yang held him again, Alex still coughing blood. Holding his chest, he feared what would come next. -Meanwhile- "Delirious, let's hurry this up." Vanoss was currently in the pilot's seat on an Attack Helicopter, clad in a blue hoodie, clown makeup, and a hockey mask. Delirious was sitting directly next to him, in Vanoss's trademark red and white leather jacket and owl mask. This was all being recorded on a GoPro-esque camera, to be posted on Remnant's version of YouTube, called 'Beholder'. "DELIRIOUS!!! GO!!!" "This helicopter is hard to fly, Vanoss!" Delirious said. "Screw this, I'm leaving!" Vanoss said as Delirious exited the chopper. "Never mind, I call shotgun!" Vanoss yelled again as Delirious got back in. "This is so confusing!" Lui said from the back seat of the helicopter. -Later that evening- "9 dislikes!?" Vanoss yelled in anger. Vanoss was dressed as himself again, as was Delirious, and they had posted their video on Beholder, only for it to have a 6:9 like/dislike ratio, much to Vanoss's disappointment. "At least you have six likes, that has to count for something." Ruby added, her and the other members if Team RWBY, except for Yang, were in the room with them. "Three of them were from you guys, one of them I know for sure is Jaune, and the other two were from Delirious and Basically!" Vanoss pointed out. "Still, it's only been a half-hour since it got there." Weiss added. "Then who disliked it?" Delirious asked. Pyrrha walked down the hallway, only to see Vanoss and the others inside. She backed further down the hallway before running to her dorm. "That's one." -Meanwhile- "Is that machine ready yet?" Twilight sat with her friends, the Agent, and Sigma, as well as scores of Royal Guards, Ex-Militia Fighters, and the remaining soldiers of Task Force Crimson. With Twilight's help, not only were they able to rebuild it, but expand it so that every last one could hunt Alex and his friends down. "Almost, in order to transport all of our soldiers, it needs a massive amount of energy." Sigma told Agent Winchester. "How much?" The agent scowled. "1.21 Terawatts of power, to be exact." Sigma responded. "It's actually 1.209427 Terawatts, to be exact." Another inquisitor, Theta, corrected. Sigma found that a mission in Remnant would prove difficult, so she arranged to have another three Inquisitors sent to help. The Inquisitor team consisted of Sigma, Theta, Eta, and Iota. "Why aren't we asking the horses anything, didn't they know what they were dealing with?" Eta asked. "I doubt anyone actually knew. I never thought this kid would have anything to do with Remnant." Iota thought. "A mission to Remnant is not very dangerous. Not compared to Fiore, or Vitylis, for that matter." Theta said. "Not for Sigma, anyway." Eta scoffed. Twilight and her friends snuck off to the castle to discuss the plan. "I'm not sure about this, these guys mean business." Applejack started the conversation in a nervous tone. "Neither am I, but Alex needs all the help he can get." Rainbow defended. "I don't know, wouldn't we help him better by not intruding? Surely he won't believe for a second that we are double agents." Rarity asked, obviously wanting to do with as little with this as possible. "I agree." Fluttershy backed away, towards her cottage. "Come on! It'll be like a masquerade party!" Pinkie whisper yelled. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't sure about this myself, but as much as I hate saying it, we put him through this, and we have to get him out of this." Twilight asserted. "Twilight, the other princesses wouldn't touch this case with a ten-foot pole. This isn't our place!" Applejack rolled her eyes. "We weren't even responsible for Alex's criminal acts!" Rarity elaborated. "Alex told me himself this whole case was a sham, I told you everything he told me!" Rainbow yelled again. "I'm sorry, but this is too big to just leave behind!" Twilight told her friends. "There's two ways this thing will end, Twi. Either one person dies or one million people die." Applejack sighed. "Are you saying he deserves this!?" Rainbow was appalled. "He may not deserve it, it's just...it's for the greater good." She defended herself. "If we don't help him, we'll regret it for the rest of our lives!" Twilight yelled. "Which may not be very long if we do!" Rarity yelled. Sigma walked into the castle. "Are you going or not? We have five minutes!" Sigma ordered "In a moment!" Twilight yelled. "So, what are we going to do?" Pinkie asked. "I don't know. Let's put it to a vote... If that's okay." Fluttershy said timidly. "Sounds fair, all in favor of helping Alex?" Twilight asked. Author's Note I know I said I would wait a week, but unless I post new material that people may possibly like, the vote bar will look like Darth Vader's lightsaber.
Act I, Chapter 22: Unwelcome Guests (x2 Edited)Vanoss sat in the dorm, watching the like bar closely. He clicked the refresh bar for the 270th time that hour. 6 likes and 4,972 dislikes. Tough crowd. "Are you still sulking over the dislike bar?" Wildcat chuckled. "No... I'm just... Waiting for this copy of Pacific Rim to finish downloading." Vanoss defended. "Oh, really?" Delirious teased, looking at the dislike bar grow exponentially. 5 likes to 49,728 dislikes. "GOD DAMMIT!" Vanoss seethed. "What's the matter, upset that your video did so bad?" Wildcat joked. "Lemme read one of the comments," Delirious began, "'The most embarrassing thing I've ever seen in my entire life, a newborn could make a better video.'" Both Delirious and Wildcat started laughing like crazy. "I'm not gonna lie, I disliked the video!" Delirious wheezed. "Shut up!" Vanoss twitched "Wait, do you guys hear that?" Wildcat silenced everyone. It sounded like...marching and...was that gunfire? "Holy shit." Delirious gaped. "Who the hell is that? An angry mob?" Wildcat asked. Several of the students ran out of their dorms to see what the commotion was. Ruby and the others ran into Vanoss's room, weapons in tow. "Come on! We're under attack!" Ruby yelled. "By who?" Wildcat asked. "We think it's the people who fought you and Alex! They came out of another portal, near the school!" Blake said. "Not them again!" Delirious groaned, pulling out an Uzi from seemingly nowhere. "Get the others, we'll send an SOS to Yang and Alex!" Weiss ordered. "Alright, fine!" Vanoss pulled out his AK, joining the massing crowd in the halls. Delirious looked out the window, seeing Huntsmen and Soldiers clash just outside the main entrance. "Let's go, Delirious!" Yelled another student as Delirious charged out the door. Alex sat, wounded, inside the base. As promised, Raven repaired his armor back into working order, even adding small jet boosters to further enhance his combat style. "Don't thank me, I'm just doing my job." Raven had said. They had gotten the SOS from Beacon about 15 minutes ago, right now, Alex had both revolvers primed and holstered in their respective places. Loading the PDW, he stood up in what he now called the Scarab Mk. II, because of the new retro-rockets, as well as shatterproof glass to replace his visor. "Alex, you ready yet?" Yang asked. "Yeah, how are we getting there?" Alex asked, cracking his knuckles. "Allow me." Raven said. Raven pulled out her weapon again, slashing the air and generating a red-hued portal. "This should get you two straight back to Beacon, and Alex?" Raven said to him. Alex looked back at Raven, who stared daggers into him. "I expect to see you again soon." "Aren't you coming with us?" Alex asked. "It would be too dangerous, for you and myself, for an Inquisitor to see you and me near each other ." Raven stated. Alex turned back to the portal, and he leaped through it, disappearing completely. Vanoss stood in the range, firing rockets and bullets at the assailants, alongside Delirious and Moo. "How many of these guys are there?!" Moo asked, firing a mini gun at some of the royal guards. "I DON'T KNOW!!!" Delirious yelled, hacking at a soldier who moved too close for comfort. "AAAAAAHHH! DIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!" Vanoss yelled, shooting a combat MG at the Militia guys. "I'm ready for action!" Nogla said, carrying the an MG and wearing a sand-colored helmet and the most ridiculous pair of glasses that any of them had ever seen, making for a really stupid combat uniform. "GET TO DA CHOPPA!!!" Terroriser yelled in an Austrian accent, firing rockets from his Homing Launcher and blowing up several jets in the process. A red portal opened up above the defenders, with Alex and Yang leaping out of it. "Where were you?" Moo asked. "I knew they would be here!" Alex said, falling back on his lie, and doing an okay job at it. "AAAAAH!!! ASSISTANCE NEEDED!!!" Mini Ladd yelled from the front lines. "On my way!" Yang responded, firing both gauntlets at the ground and flying upwards. Ruby skidded to a halt with assistance from Crescent Rose. "Alex! You're back!" She seemed delighted at his return. "I'm really feeling the love, what do you need help with?" Alex asked, gesturing to the pure chaos around him. "We found Sigma among the attackers!" She said. Alex hardened his gaze, red violet lightning starting to crackle at his fingertips. "Show me." He seethed, trying to control himself, at least until he and Sigma were a safe distance away from his allies. Ruby pointed to a dense spot on the battlefield, and sure enough, a black and orange blur was visible in the fray. Alex leaped, with assistance from his new enhancements. He could probably take her, now. Twilight was mortified with the destruction around her, they really wanted him bad. She ducked further behind her shield, turning it into an electrified pulse ray and propelling it at the defenders. She looked above her, to find an armored suit flying above her. Alex! She braced herself for another fight against him, ducking down and placing a protective barrier between her and the assailant. Instead, he leaped for Sigma, noticeably alight with rage as he placed a blow deftly on her shoulder, Sigma recoiled backward, kicking him with great force. "So you come straight to me, did you finally break, or do you just want revenge?" She smirked. Alex was not amused, not in the slightest. Alex pulled out his PDW, swinging the butt of the gun towards Sigma's face. She blocked it easily, giving Alex an opportunity to kick her. He fired 60 rounds of .300 Blackout towards Sigma, who blocked a few of the rounds with her bare hands, but even so, a few managed to enter her arm. Alex kicked again, red-violet lightning spewing out of the blow, sending his foe skidding backwards. Sigma summoned her swords, holding them in a threatening position. Alex pulled out Electric Fury, holding it in his usual stance. "At long last, a fight that may actually be a good use of my time." Sigma swung both blades, Alex blocking both with his sword and his armored glove. He kicked again, swinging hard at his enemy, red lightning starting to spew out of the blade. Alex turned his sword into a revolver, firing all six rounds at Sigma's direction. "Back off!" A yellow blur blocked all six rounds. "Glad to see you, Theta." Sigma said. "This has nothing to do with you. Back off. Now." Alex was positively seething with rage. "A concern of my comrade's is a concern of mine, thou ungrateful whelp." Theta smiled, his weapon at his side. "Fine." Alex pounded the ground, red lightning spewing out in all directions. Sigma leaped out of the way in time, Theta was not as lucky, slamming hard into an M1 Abrams. Alex charged at Sigma, kneeing her in the jaw with assistance from his jump jets. He punched hard, lightning flying out in all directions as Sigma ducked out of the way. She threw an elbow into Alex's side, knocking him back and swinging violently in an effort to defend herself. A black blur knocked Alex further back, and a white blur sent him to the ground. "Eta, Iota. Finish him. I'm done here." Sigma said, "One more thing, Winchester was not the one who hired me." Sigma leapt away from the battlefield, leaving Alex to contend with Sigma's comrades. Alex, even angrier at his missed chance at revenge. The lightning turning a very dark red. He swung at Eta, knocking him away. He leaped in the air to finish the job, only for Iota to slash Alex's back. All three combatants fell to the ground, injured and angry. Alex took out Electric Fury, both blades separating and spinning at high speeds, swinging hard at Eta and turning around to fight Iota. Theta leaped back into the fray, his short sword denting Alex's armor. "Give up, do you have any idea who we are?" Theta taunted. "I don't care." Alex muttered, swinging his blade at all three combatants. Theta leaped backwards with surprise, evading the death blow just in time. Eta was not as lucky, the blades taking it's toll on his armor, scratching it badly and probably managing to penetrate it, as Eta held his arm. Iota was still fighting him, kicking, stabbing, anything to keep him off. Which wouldn't work. Alex set up the jump jets and leaped high above the fray, Iota and Theta looking up in surprise. Using his jump jets as well as his own Aura, he plummeted downwards, destroying the concrete below and seriously injuring Iota. Theta attacked again, swinging his blade and hitting Alex in the shoulder and denting the armor. "Big mistake." Alex grabbed Theta's wrist, twisting it at an awkward angle. Theta screamed in pain, dropping his weapon and falling to his knees. "Where is Sigma going?!" Theta didn't respond, only spitting in his visor. Alex grabbed Theta by the neck, shocking him with red lightning that flashed indiscriminately. "I'm not going to ask again, where is Sigma?!?!" Alex yelled again. Theta was not having the best day, blood dripped out of his mouth and onto Alex's gauntlet, only worsening as Alex tightened his grip. "Sigma... Winchester...Embassy... Two days.." Theta choked. Alex slammed him hard against the broken concrete, and walked away, leaving the battered inquisitors behind. "Who...are you?" Theta gasped. "Your worst nightmare." Alex turned and left for the school. Vanoss fired the last few rounds into another Crimson soldier, the others retreated long ago, only a select few to fight them. "That's the last one!" Vanoss yelled to his comrades. "It's about time!" Basically sighed with relief. Droidd was still beating up another soldier with a nightstick. "We really screwed them up, eh Vanoss?" He said. The battle had taken it's toll on everyone, a few huntsmen even died, Vanoss himself died about 4 times in the span of about a half-hour. Team RWBY were exhausted as well, despite the Task Force's older weaponry, they put up one heck of a fight. Alex walked back to the main hall, where they all were at the moment. "Hey! Alex!" Vanoss waved over to him. "Hi, Evan. Here's your gun back." Alex tossed the PDW in his direction. "Alex, these men, they-" Ruby began. "I know, these were the guys that Vanoss's crew and myself fought to get out of Equestria." Alex interrupted. "We know, Ruby told us everything after the attack started." Blake explained. "I also saw a few White Fang airships." Weiss added. "The hell? Who doesn't want me dead!?" Alex seemed very frustrated. He sat down against the wall. "That isn't all, man. Remember how you told us that someone helped you in your initial escape?" Vanoss asked. "Very well, not a day goes by when I don't think about it." Alex responded. "Ozpin got a call before the attack. Said there's someone who knows you." Wildcat finished. "Who?" Alex was actually a little nervous. There were very few people he knew in the Militia, and even fewer were actually trustworthy. Alex turned at the sound of someone clearing their throat, he turned backward and found someone standing among the burning heaps of jets and tanks and the destroyed concrete. It was a girl, with very familiar shoulder-length lightish-brown hair. Alex removed his helmet, revealing to the girl his identity. "Kat?" Alex asked, thunderstruck that she already lasted this long. "Is...that really you, Alex?" She said. "Yeah." He sighed. "How are you still alive? I thought the Militia killed you after I escaped!" She said. "I used the device and blew it up in the same instant." Alex told her. "That makes sense, how did you get to Remnant?" Kat asked him. "Crimson found me at Equestria. I got the hell out of there." He answered. "Same story, the Task Force found me in a wizard guild in a place called Fiore. How did you manage to find people to help?" Kat asked. "He paid us to protect his ass and kill Winchester." Vanoss said nonchalantly. "Winchester is here?!" "Along with Inquisitors, the Task Force, the Militia, Royal Guards, even a terrorist organization!" Alex angrily said. "Inquisitors?!" "Yeah, Sigma, as well as the three stooges over there." Mini told her. Kat walked over to find the wounded Inquisitors. "K-Katherine Anderson?!" Theta gasped. "Theta. I should have guessed." Kat kicked him hard in the gut. "You know this prick?" Alex asked. "Give me your gun." She told him. Alex handed her the .44 Scratch, as well as his three remaining caps. "Make 'em count." Alex said. Kat walked over to Theta, stomping on his face repeatedly, breaking his nose and leaving a bloody mess on the bottom of her boot and his face. She fired one cap into his neck. So they had the same killing blow. Noticing the other two, she fired both rounds into Eta's and Iota's heads. Killing them before they had the chance to run. Kat handed him back the .44 Scratch. "So, where is Winchester?" Kat asked, pulling out an enhanced Barrett M82, having a new sword-like bayonet and fire decals, not to mention a key lining each side of the scope, and Ice-like bipod attachment. "An embassy building." Alex told her. "Good, let me at 'em!" Kat yelled. "Calm down, Theta said he would be there in two days." Alex said. Looking around, it was just him and her now. "Okay, at least I can load up while I'm here." Kat said. "One more thing, just out of curiosity, did you have any help in this...Fiore?" Alex asked. She seemed to not want to talk about it, but answered anyway. "Four wizards helped augment my weapons and build me some armor. I left Fiore and went to Adenien, another, previously unknown universe, and met an android who was willing to help. She's back at the hotel right now. Once Agent Viktor, Winchester's second-in-command, found me in Adenien, I found Remnant." Kat told him everything. Alex held her shoulder in an effort to comfort her. "It's fine. I've got a lot of help now, and I have my own defense. You'll be fine. Let's just kill the A-holes and we can all go back home and tell everyone everything." Alex told her. "I...Thanks, I needed that. You're right. Let's end this." Kat asserted. "There you are! Let's get back to our homes, I'll call when there's somewhere where all of us can talk this through." Alex said. "I know a place, Alex. I got it." Kat said. She walked away, leaving Alex standing outside the school, alone. Alex walked back inside, a new determination burning deep within. Author's Note I'm not sure what else to say besides- Here's to the first 50,000 words! EDIT: Trying to add in more reason behind Alex's animosity towards Sigma. I'm still trying to think of ways to properly have thing build up so that Alex's rage in Chapter 25 would make more sense. EDIT AGAIN: After noticing the repetitiveness of the dialogue in this chapter, I changed it.
Act I, Chapter 23: Act Of RebellionAlex and the others were nearing the rendezvous point Kat set up.. The group of 15 walked along the various shops and apartments in Vale. For others, it would be quite a sight. For Alex, who had experienced a lot in the past two months, had become desensitized to any sort of sight that beheld him. "How far away is this place?" Nogla complained. "Yeah, my feet are killing me!" Moo groaned. "It shouldn't be too far off, now." Alex said, looking at the park nearby. Sure enough, Kat was sitting on a bench nearby, along with someone else Alex couldn't quite identify. "Alex! Hey, glad everyone could make it." Kat said. "Well, this is too important to pass up. Who's the girl?" Alex asked. "Hello, sir!" She waved from the bench. "This is Zera, the android I told you about." Kat reminded him. "Oh, yeah." Alex remembered. "Are we going to stand around and not do anything, or are we making a plan here?" Weiss seemed a little annoyed at how long this whole conversation was. "Right. We better move." Alex agreed. "Okay, follow us." Zera nods before walking away from the main group. Alex followed Zera, with Team RWBY and Vanoss's crew in tow. The larger group of 17 were sitting in a large apartment, almost the size of a small mansion. They all sat around a table with various schematics, blueprints, and all that crap that was somehow necessary for the plan. "Okay, team. I've made a layout of the Vale Embassy Building using these blueprints. You guys will have to fill in the blanks, what can we come up with in 24 hours?" Kat asked the team. "Vanoss and I have the most GTA 5 money, so helicopters and shit is on us." Lui said. "We can set up a standard Huntress defense, and we can have more on the way." Blake added. "I'll handle assassinations." Alex scowled. "Okay, who do we need dead?" Zera asked. "Winchester, Viktor, Sigma and any other inquisitors, Twilight-" Alex made a list before Vanoss interrupted him. "How do you know Twilight will be there at all?" He asked. "-Or if she's even against you. From what I can understand, she probably would want to help us." Ruby added. "Oh, really? Then explain to me why she, along with the rest of those murderers, attacked Beacon?" Alex retorted, he wasn't fully sure if the ponies were against him at all, but he learned to trust his instincts. "What about reinforcements?" Kat tried to steer away the conversation. "Well, Blake said that they could send more huntsmen, Vanoss can whip up some air support. As for what to do about the Inquisitors, I took on three and lived to tell about it." Alex said. "I'm talking about Vale's army. If they find us attacking their embassy, then why shouldn't they attack us?" Kat asked. "Or what if Atlas attacks?" Weiss added. "God help us." Alex finished. "Okay, back to inventory. Evan, what do we have?" Kat asked. "I can buy up some Valkyrie helicopters, Hydra jets, tanks, the McLarry." Vanoss listed. "Or the Insurgents and the Technicals." Wildcat said, adding to the list. "Get a Cargobob and a Tank!" Delirious requested. "How about the banana bus?" Vanoss asked. "Guys, we get the idea." Yang groaned. "How about weapons? I know Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Alex have their own death machines, but how about you guys?" Zera asked. "That's why I got this!" Basically pulled up a large box with glowing question marks on the top. "Oooooh! The mystery box!" Mini seemed exited. "First!" Nogla yelled, opening the box, several deadly looking weapons floated above, cycling through until Nogla got a sniper rifle, a DSR-50 by the looks of it. "I got a sniper!" He grabbed the gun out of the box. "That's awesome!" Ruby admired the box. Vanoss opened the box himself until he got... The exact same weapon as Nogla. "Oh! Nogla, you wanna join my sniper clan?" Vanoss asked, in a rather nasally voice. "Hold on, let me spin again, I wanna see what clan I join!" Nogla replied. "I'm starting to see where this is going." Wildcat facepalmed. "Really, author?!" Zera groaned. Destoyer looked down from his holy iPod Touch and flipped them off. "Screw you, this is difficult!" He yelled at the group. The Vanoss crew got their weapons, even Ruby, who got a Ray Gun, much to her happiness. "Well, that covers it, I got a base plan now." Kat said, pulling up a hologram of the embassy. "The meeting rooms are here, here, and here." Zera said, pointing to various spots of the map. "The embassy is at the bottom of a small valley, giving us plenty of room for sniper kills. Ruby, Myself, Nogla, Vanoss, and Basically are on over watch." Kat said. "Delirious, Mini, Lui, and Moo will fly around in the Valkyrie helicopter and will take out any reinforcements. Terroriser and Wildcat are flying two Hydra jets." Kat said. "Alex, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Myself are killing any high-value targets." Zera said. "No. What happens between myself and Winchester, I'm doing alone." Alex seethed. "What about Sigma? If you get sidetracked, he gets away and nobody wins." Kat said. "Then I'll kill her too. I have a bone to pick with both those pricks." He huffed. "That's suicide. Even if you kill them both, how are you getting out?" Ruby asked. "I hate Winchester too, but you don't see me grabbing my gun and shooting Viktor in the head!" Kat said angrily. "They took much more from me than a few friends. I'm killing Winchester myself for ruining any and every chance I had at a normal life!" Alex yelled, annunciating his last word with a fist on the table. "Do you see the people you're sitting with?" Vanoss rolled his eyes at the statement. "Does it matter? The son of a bitch needs to go down once and for all!" Alex retorted. "There's a lot more at stake here than just a personal vendetta." Yang told him. Alex glared around the table in silence. "Carry on." He muttered, sitting down. "Okay, so the meeting is at around 12:15 p.m, liftoff is at 11:45, there are cots in the living room." Kat said after informing the team about more logistic nonsense. Alex moved over to his sleeping bag near the T.V in silence. How dare they try to interfere with his chance at revenge. Winchester ruined his life, twice. Sigma killed one of his closest allies, and Princess Twilight stood by and did nothing as she watched the remaining pieces of his world crumble before her. They had to pay, with their blood. Alex stared at the clock, letting more angry thoughts cloud his mind. In order for him to have any sort of closure, they all had to die by his hand, and his alone. No matter what. The time was about 9:59 pm, from their arrival at about 6:00. They were to wake up at about 7:30 am. If Alex could sneak out before then, he could have his own breakfast, be there long before anyone shows up, and kill them all. All he needed was a different gun... Vanoss woke up to find the apartment in chaos. "Where is he?!" "Do you think he's dead?" "Call his Scroll!" "What the hell is happening?" Vanoss asked groggily. "Your commander is missing." Zera told him. "He stole my sniper rifle!" Kat seethed. "He also took quite a bit of Kat's equipment, including fire enchantments, ice pellets..." Zera listed off the missing equipment. "He went rogue?!" Ruby seemed appalled. "Yes!" Kat yelled, exasperated. "Why?" Delirious asked. "Isn't it obvious? He's going to kill them!" Kat gasped. "By himself?!" Nogla also seemed worried. "It appears so. He stole the kill list." Zera replied. "What do we do?" Delirious asked. "Alex knows that the meeting is at 12:15, we have no hope of communicating with him, so we're going to continue as planned and hope he doesn't kill himself." Kat sighed. "We gotta go now! This is way too important!" Yang ordered. "GET TO DA CHOPPAS!!!!" Terroriser yelled, pulling out a Meat Grinder from Black Ops II zombies. Alex sat in his position above the embassy, it was about 12:05, they should be there any minute. He contemplated his actions again, he regretted having to steal Kat's stuff, but there wasn't any choice. All that aside, he screwed himself again, and he knew it, he abandoned his team, even when they tried to help him. But it was all for a good cause. Killing the man who ruined him. Agent Timothy Winchester. At long last, he would have his sweet revenge. Several military vehicles and limousines drove up to the Embassy below, looking through the scope, he counted his kill list. Checking to see if he was going to hit the jackpot. Winchester- check. Viktor-check. Sigma-check. Twilight and the others-check He saw them all walk out of their cars and walk in the building, with Rainbow Dash looking at him through the scope. Was it possible that she saw him, even from a mile up? No matter, he looked at the kill list again, everyone who needed to die was there. He waited again, looking at the several rooms he could see. It was about 12:09 now. Alex saw them all pile in the second floor meeting room, along with several other politicians, they were all in the room. Perfect. He aimed down the scope, Finding Winchester easily. He sat left of Twilight and right of Sigma, directly in his line of fire. Viktor sat across from him, his head blocking Winchester's chest. Even better. He flicked the safety off the gun, aiming for the back of Viktor's skull. He pulled the bolt back on the gun, chambering in a powerful round. He inhaled slowly, focusing on his target with laser precision. Alex slowly exhaled as he pulled the trigger, this was a perfect shot. BOOM!! Author's Note Well, seeing as how hardly anyone reads these anyway, should I stop with the authors notes? Ah, who cares? I'll just do a standard outro. Leave a comment below on what you think of the story, and where I can improve, or if you have questions about the story, comments are very highly appreciated, thank you!
Act I, Chapter 24: Act Of Vengeance Act I, Chapter 24: Act Of Vengeance BOOM!!! An explosion shook the ground beneath him and gave in under the pressure, Alex falling like a rock to the ground below. He took the sniper rifle and loaded in the grappling hook attachment to the barrel. Aiming above the second floor window, he fired the gun, the hook reeling over to his target, a strong steel cord trailing behind it. Using it in tandem with the jump jets, he swung hard, quickly moving to his destination. That is, until he hit the wall of the building. On the ground floor, no less. Alex knew he should have aimed higher, but there wasn't very much he could do. "Hold it right there!" A voice sounded behind him. Alex slowly turned around, meeting the gaze of a few security guards, all bearing standard issue M4 Carbines or, it's equivalent, the RPX-998 Atlean Battle Rifle. "You're coming with us!" One of the guards yelled. "What if I say no?" Alex asked smugly. He grabbed Electric Fury from his sheath, converting it from it's sword form to it's .499 Kaiser Revolver. Firing four shots at the guards, one for each, he ran away. Only to find several of his comrades fighting against the guards, Task Force Crimson, the Royal Guard, everyone! Zera leaped from the fray and pinned Alex against the wall of the building, impressive given her small structure. "What do you think you're doing?!" Zera scolded. "Killing Winchester! That's out mission, isn't it?!" Alex retorted. "Not like this! We go as a team!" Zera ordered. Alex shoved Zera off of him. "Zera, I'm sorry, but this is personal business." He walked away as Zera tried to recover. Alex encountered a few more Crimson soldiers, one of them bearing a Remington 870 shotgun. Perfect. He grabbed a soldier's P226 pistol, shooting him in the head and using the gun to bash in the shotgunner's face. Grabbing the shotgun, he killed the remaining two with the Electric Fury's saw mode attachment, slicing through them like butter. The main entrance was not to far off, he only needed to go a few more feet- A cyan blur knocked him on his back and flew back into it's spot near the entrance. Looking up, he saw Twilight, Rainbow, AJ, and Rarity. All of them looked really pissed. "So good to -ack!- see you guys again! I figured you would be back in Ponyville by now!" Alex taunted. "Can it, can-head!" Rainbow yelled. "Do any of you know where I can find Winchester?" Alex asked scathingly. "He's in the medical bay, along with Sigma, that is, if you can get through us!" Rarity threatened. "A 4-on-1 match, eh? Where are the other two?" "Fluttershy's with Sigma and Pinkie...well, I don't know.." Applejack looked around for the pink horse, only to find air whistling around them. Along with the sounds of battle. "You had one chance to make a normal life for yourself, and you didn't take it. Instead you chose to kill and destroy everything in your path. That ends here!" Twilight yelled as the others charged into battle. Alex was going to have to plan here, Rainbow's specialty was obviously speed, Applejack's was her strength, Twilight her magic, what about Rarity? Said white unicorn threw a punch, Alex gripped the hoof with his gauntlet before it could hit his...area. How hadn't he seen it before? Rarity knew precisely where to hit him, and had he not blocked, he would've been in serious trouble. He shoved Rarity back, leaping to the air to dodge Rainbow's attack. She had attempted to tackle him, which would've given the others a chance to attack. Instead, the Pegasus met solid ground. Applejack kicked Alex with her hind legs, sending him flying back at least 10 feet, and leaving a massive concave in his armor where the hooves met. Trying to recuperate, he rolled to his side, aiming a blow specifically for Twilight. The punch met Rainbow instead, and she went down like a fly, skidding against the ground. Twilight sent a powerful blast in his direction, having similar effects to Applejack's attack. Alex realized he couldn't just throw punches and be done with it, he needed a strategy. Looking around, he saw Rarity levitating numerous sewing needles, all pointed at him. Rainbow had gotten up, rearing up for a vicious barrage about 3 feet behind Rarity. Applejack was roughly 5 feet away from Twilight, her...back facing him, ready to buck as if she was back at that orchard. Twilight was nearest the entrance, charging her horn for a devastatingly powerful attack. He had his plan. Rainbow leaped at him, flying at him scarily fast. Alex redirected Dash to Rarity's sewing needle barrage, all of them sinking rather painfully into the Pegasus. Sliding over to Rarity, he picked her up with his free arm, and threw her at Applejack, who wasn't looking at all, and Applejack kicked her hard across the battlefield, crashing into a battalion of Royal Guards. Alex threw Rainbow at Twilight, Rainbow receiving the entirety of her attack, suffering a similar fate as Rarity, crashing into a nearby tank. The smoke cleared, and Alex leapt through the veil, punching Twilight hard in the nose. Twilight, as expected after a brutal attack like that, held her bloodied nose, and Alex grabbed her by the horn, usually torturously painful to unicorns. What the heck?! Twilight's horn glowed brightly, burning the gauntlet to the point where it started to melt, and meet Alex's skin underneath. Alex grasped his burnt hand in agony as Twilight hit him with a powerful spell, knocking him to the earth below. "This is your last chance. Surrender." Twilight ordered. Alex, in his rage, pounded the ground, red-violet lightning spewing out from underneath Twilight and shocking her badly. "H-How is that possible?! Abilities like that are forbidden!" Twilight groaned in pain. "I just learned how to do this a little while ago, nice to have you test it out for me. Where's Winchester?" Alex asked. "He's in the medical hall! Downstairs, then take the third left!" Twilight held both hooves defensively. Alex entered the building, ready to end this. Once and for all. Running into the building, Alex noticed several people in nobility trying to escape. One in particular ran into him. "A Huntsman! Can you help me? I have a family!" One pleaded. "Do you believe anything Agent Winchester told you about a Mr. Walker?" Alex asked him, he had his helmet and mask on, so the ambassador couldn't see his face. "He made a pretty convincing case, but I can see right through him, what he wants with the kid, I have no idea!" He said. So he wasn't against him. "Find a Huntress named Ruby Rose, she should help you get out of here alive!" Alex instructed. The Ambassador grasped his gauntlet with both hands. "Bless you, son!" He said as he ran towards the entrance. Alex continued his walk inside the building, then a battalion of Crimson soldiers ran at him, firing their Assault Rifles at him. The bullets bounced off his armor as Alex spam-fired the shotgun, killing most of them, only one lay wounded on the ground. "Please...have mercy." He groaned. "All out." Alex said as he blew his head off with the shotgun. Blood and brain matter everywhere. The medical office was not that far off. Third door to the left... Alex received a hard fist to the helmet, knocking it off of him. Winchester, holding in a devastating wound, stood in horror at Alex. "You?! I remember you! You were the armored soldier at the castle?!" Winchester asked in fear. "So you didn't know all this time. Pathetic, couldn't discern the identity of the man who stole his own files." Alex mocked. "Thought you could outrun the CIA? You're the pathetic one!" Winchester defended. "All this time I thought I was running from you and your sad excuses for soldiers." Alex began his lecture, shoving the Agent on a chair. "All this time, you thought you were the one following me." Alex grabbed a scalpel from one of the drawers, and he walked towards Winchester. "No. I was following you. You constantly tried to destroy me, my reputation, my friendships! Because you knew that one day, I would have my revenge for what you did to me in that damned cell." Alex gripped Winchester, raising the scalpel. Ruby, Kat, Vanoss and Twilight ran outside the door, looking at him in horror and trying to break it down. "My name is Alex Gabriel Walker! And that day is TODAY!!!" Alex yelled as the three friends and one enemy broke down the door. "Alex! Stop!" "What the hell are you doing?!" "Stand down, NOW!" "You don't know what you're doing!" Alex flicked the scalpel sharply to the right, slitting Winchester's throat wide open, spraying red blood all over the room as Winchester tried to no avail to stop it. Winchester held his throat as he fell to the floor, gasping and sputtering as the very life drained out of him, until his body spasmed one last time as he released his final breath. Agent Winchester was dead, he would torment him no longer. As for his allies, they rushed on him as they tried fruitlessly to stop him, Alex had stabbed Kat in the side and Ruby held him down. Ruby had the bloodied scalpel in her hand, that was when Alex threw a hard punch that was supposed to knock her off of him. The blow did not do it's intended job, and Ruby gripped Alex's Electric Fury by the barrel, and hit him in the head. Alex didn't hear much after that. "I'm fine! Check Winchester!" "He's dead." That was all he heard as his vision faded to black. "I'm fine! Check Winchester!" Kat gasped, holding the stab wound. Vanoss ran up to the Agent. "He's dead." Vanoss said. "That idiot! He just went in and killed him!" Twilight said angrily. "Calm down. There was no way he would've known." Ruby tried to calm her down. "Ruby's right, the Ambassador told us as soon as he got out of the building. He must not have told Alex." Kat grunted as she rummaged around the med room, looking for something to disinfect the wound. "You could have told him yourself, little miss 'double-agent'! You already knew everything!" Vanoss scolded. "I had to keep up the act or else my whole plan would've fallen apart!" Twilight retorted. "Which was?" Ruby asked, confused. "Get as much information about this as possible so I could help him. I don't think Winchester himself would've done this if there was no other way out of it." Twilight informed. "I have to admit, his whole act was impressive, even I didn't see through it." Kat complimented. "In any sense, this may be the beginning of the end." Ruby sighed, defeated. "The prologue to The Great War has ended. This is where the real story begins." Twilight said. "Hoodini have mercy." Vanoss muttered solemnly. Author's Note Well, as much as I like/don't necessarily mind/ hate (depends on what you guys think of the story) there is a whole lot more to this story. What do you think? Should I keep this all in one story and separate this into Acts? Or write this in a sequel? Tell me what you think in the comments below!
Act I, Chapter 25: The Duel (Edited)Alex awoke, still in the medical office. He was surrounded by Vanoss, Ruby, Kat, and Twilight, all of them looking either pitifully or angrily at him. "What happened. Did I kill Winchester?" Alex asked. A look to his right gave him his answer. The Agent lay unmoving on the linoleum floor, engulfed in a puddle of his own blood. "You have no idea what you just did, do you?" Kat starts choking him. Alex notices the bloodied bandage wrapped around her waist. "Not really, nobody told me anything!" Alex yelled after getting Kat to stop choking him. "The Ambassador found me, I asked him what he knew about all of this." Ruby began. "He said something along the lines of 'The Agent is the Key to Oblivion', or something." Vanoss continued. "I went over and interrogated Twilight on the matter, then, she told me an old tale about the predicted end of her world." Kat added. "Well, I don't got all day. Tell me." Alex insisted. "A while ago, Celestia had a vision. A Spirit came before her and told her what was destined for the whole Multiverse." Twilight answered. "What did Celestia hear?" Alex asked "Alex, think. At the end of almost any myth, what comes last?" Kat asked him. "They were all depict great battles. The ultimate clash of good and evil. The End of the World." Alex replied. "It's not just in your world. In our legends, we call it 'Kazi'ivan, it's an ancient word meaning 'The Great War'." Ruby told him. "Get to the point." Alex ordered them. "Agent Winchester's death made a lot of people very, very pissed. Like these 'Inquisitor' bitches." Vanoss told him. "How exactly?" Alex asked. "The legend goes that 'Two beings, not like any other ponies, would come to Equestria and engage in conflict, then continue it elsewhere'." Twilight said. "Yeah, and in Remnant's ancient writings, it was said that 'The death of either of these beings would anger the Warriors of the Dark into escalating the conflict into a war." Ruby said. "So what you're all saying is, killing Winchester is going to start the Apocalypse?" Alex asked, bewildered. "Well, yeah." Vanoss shrugged. Alex slumped down in his seat, remorseful. "Damn it, why and how does it have to end up like this?" He sighed heavily, as if he wanted this done entirely. Initially, he thought this would end the fighting and he could go home. Alex realized something in that moment. He had no home to fight for. All this time, he had been fighting so having one could be a possibility, so he could have some sort of freedom again. "What now?" Alex hardened, he couldn't lose morale. "Sigma is out there right now. Before she left, she said she was looking specifically for you." Twilight said. "Are your friends okay, Twi?" He asked. "They're fighting Sigma right now, we turned on them." Twilight replied. "What about your Crew, Evan?" He turned to Vanoss. "They're with them." He said back. "And your team, Ruby?" Alex asked Ruby. "Fighting Sigma." She replied, ready to fight. "As for Zera?" Alex asked Kat. "Where do you think?" Kat asked sarcastically. "Let's move, NOW!" Alex grabbed his Helmet, along with Electric Fury. Looking at his weapon, it seemed...different. "I enchanted your weapon, hopefully, it should stand more of a chance." Twilight told him. "Right. Let's go!" Alex and the others ran outside to see their comrades fighting valiantly against Sigma. "I'm not going to lie, you're all boring me. Where is he?!" Sigma demanded. "Right here, you dirty comrade-killer!" Alex panted. Sigma turned to Alex. "Well. I guess you actually killed the bastard. I bet you don't even know what you started." Sigma glared at him. "That doesn't matter right now. Everyone, stand back. This is between me and her." Alex ordered, "Finally, someone who might not be such a bore." Sigma summoned her bow, drawing back three arrows. "This ends here!" Alex said, pulling out a now fully reloaded .44 Scratch and his enchanted Electric Fury, both revolvers cocked and pointed at Sigma. It was Sigma who attacked first, unleashing a barrage of arrows at Alex, who either dodged, shot them with his revolvers, or let them strike, for an explosion like that had little effect to him, his armor...well, there was a huge black mark where that arrow struck. Alex shot at Sigma whenever given the opportunity, knocking her slightly backwards with every shot. Alex kept this up until they were mere feet apart. Then Alex struck. Converting Electric Fury, he slashed at Sigma, who blocked the attack with both swords. Alex shot Sigma with .44 Scratch with his free hand, Sigma stepping back in reaction to the attack. Alex fired relentlessly at Sigma, who blocked the attacks with her bare hands as well as her swords. Alex holstered .44 Scratch, and smashed the ground before him, Erupting violet lightning from the ground under Sigma. "When I killed your friend, she did not die immediately. No, she died slowly, painfully, I'm not one to show mercy to a traitor like her. Or like your friends." Sigma taunted. "I'm not letting you kill them, even if that means I have to kill you myself!" Alex retorted, feeling rage cloud his mind and darken his vison. "Good riddance." Sigma punched him hard in the chest, summoned several razor-sharp spikes made of glass, and flung them at Alex. The attack did not affect him, the thorn-like projectiles shattered on contact, giving Alex the opening he needed to strike. Alex lunged at her with Electric Fury, wounding her to a minor degree and distracting her. With Sigma properly distracted, Alex used his jump-jets as well as his own abilities to fly above her, and come rocketing down in front of her, the lightning erupting before her turning more and more red. Alex swung his weapon with both hands, further disorienting her. Alex ducked down to a crouch and swung Electric Fury in a wide arc, slashing Sigma in the legs as she tried to regain composure. He kicked Sigma hard in the stomach and punched her even harder in the neck, Alex constantly trying to keep her from getting another opportunity to attack him. The next punch he made, Sigma blocked it with her bare hands, twisting it at an awkward angle and hacking Alex from his lower right abdomen to his left shoulder. While not piercing the armor, it produced a significant amount of pain on Alex's part. How had Twilight enchanted it again? Alex felt Electric Fury change again, into more of a rail gun, the handle curving, the blades folding, the gun barrel poking out. The cylinder popped upwards, Alex loading Electric Fury again. Pushing it back into it's designated spot, he pulled the trigger. All six shots flew out of the gun in a rapid pace, disorienting his opponent and damaging her armor. Changing Electric Fury back into it's sword form, he swung again at Sigma, the blow managing to send red-hued bolts of lightning shocking her and frying her insides. Sigma placed both swords together at the pommels, and sharply twisted them. She spun her dual blade in a flourish, distracting him until Sigma landed a blow on Alex's chest. The Armor turned a bright red and burnt his chest painfully. "Agent Thorne died for nothing, child. Just like those two I killed a few months back for personal business, who were they?... Oh, right, Jason and Alice Walker. Let me guess, they were your parents?" Sigma glared "YOU WILL DIE WHERE YOU STAND!!!" Alex screamed, she killed his parents... She had to die. In his rage, he threw down his sword, relying only on his bare fists. Each punch exploding in blood-red hued bolts of electricity, Sigma could only watch as his rage continued. She herself had been disarmed as she blocked and dodged her opponent's anger-fueled attacks. She simply could not attack, even if she had the opportunity, it would only enrage him more and more. Alex's onslaught was matched, but not very easily. Sigma was noticeably injured, but still fighting. His lightning was electrifying his armor, the deep red glow had moved past his fingertips and he was now glowing in the deathly color. Sigma attacked, but nothing seemed to affect him anymore. Suddenly the color moved to his right hand, the gauntlet glowing brightly in that color. He was concentrating all his power into this one death blow. "Still angry over your parents' death, Walker?" Sigma mocked. "I WILL KILL YOU!!!" Alex spat in his intense anger. "They, like your friend, died as they lived, like cowards too scared to fight back. You will too unless you stop this now." He charged, running dangerously fast. Sigma tried to hold him off, delay his attack. Until he struck. Her side exploded in an eruption of energy, breaking all armor in that particular spot. Alex attacked more and more. Sigma countering whenever possible, striking at his back, his neck, his knee, anywhere she could reasonably attack. Alex grabbed his sword again, swinging it even if Sigma got away from him, lightning constructs barreling at her in waves, continuing to fry her. He planted the sword firmly on the ground, a massive beam erupting from where it was planted, striking her again, further weakening her. He walked slowly, the lightning starting to turn a very, very dark red color. Almost black. He lashed out, blackish-red lightning exploding from his hands like a volcano, the attack was ridiculously powerful, leaving Sigma in constant pain as she tried to stand firm against it, only for his power to grow more and more, until she fell to her knees, smoke floating out of the broken figure on the ground. Walking back, Alex picked up the sword from the ground, and strolled slowly over to the defeated foe, he managed to get a closer look at this inquisitor. Her armor completely shattered from where he had hit her, burnt skin underneath, the armor only got to about the lower abdomen, and all the skin underneath looked badly burnt. The helmet Sigma was wearing almost completely broke, exposing the right side of her face, eyes the color of fire, looking fearfully up at him. He raised his sword, ready to deal a killing blow. "Stop!" A voice ordered from behind him. Turning back, Alex noticed Raven, the Inheritor that he had spoken to before reuniting with Kat. "What are you doing?!" She scolded him. "You want her dead as much as I do!" He panted, still alit with fury. "Your Semblance! It seems to correlate with your emotions. You activated it on your own?!" She asked bewildered. "Yes, I did! Apparently I'm more talented that any other huntsman, why the hell am I explaining this? Sigma has to die!!" Alex said. "I don't want her dead just yet!" Raven demanded. "Why?! Give me one good reason why I should let the person who killed my parents walk away?!" He asked, enraged. He turned back, seeing a gravely wounded Sigma stagger to an undamaged airship, and it soon flew off, leaving him and his allies alone. "Inheritors don't kill in cold blood, nor do they use their full power in a duel. Huntsmen have this same rule." Raven answered. Alex calmed down, finally noticing the blistering pain in his chest. Staggering down, he pulled the armor off him, the chest piece peeling his burnt flesh as he removed it. "It's not over, is it?" Vanoss asked him. Alex thought about this for a moment. "I hired you guys to kill Agent Winchester for me. The job is done. You can all go back to your families if you want." Alex responded. "What?" Kat was bewildered. "You heard right, they were hired, and they don't have to stay with us. Unless, by any chance, they still want to go through with this." Alex said. "Well, what'll it be?" Zera turned towards the crew, awaiting their response. They went into a sort of group huddle, discussing their options only in hushed whispers, only glancing at Alex and the others. Vanoss finally cleared his throat. "We're staying." He said. "Okay, what's your price?" Alex asked. "You already paid us. We decided that half of the money we got was payment while the other half was in case you wanted to, I don't know, be in our Youtube videos if you wanted to, but this works." Vanoss replied. Alex was stunned, they were willing to have him guest star in their videos? While that was all well and good, he wasn't sure as to how he would have gotten the computer equipment or any of the games. Alex was officially broke when he paid the crew to help him. "Glad to know you're still ready to help." Ruby said. Twilight spoke up, clearing her throat. "We would have decided to have the Royal Guard help us..." Her voice trailed off. "But apparently, being a double-agent isn't the best way to keep friends." Rainbow said, awkwardly. "The guards branded you all as traitors and are still against us, aren't they?" Alex asked, sighing in disappointment. "Um...yes." Fluttershy said, timidly. "And last time I checked... The Red Dawn Guild isn't all that willing to help us, either." Kat admitted. "But they won't intrude on our missions, I think is what Katherine is trying to say." Zera finished. "And I'm not sure Ozpin is still going to help us much at all." Ruby sighed. "Crap, Equestria doesn't want us, Remnant doesn't want us. We have no safe haven." Alex grunted. "Actually, we have a place in mind." Vanoss said. The trip to Los Santos had been a daunting trip for the 7 people who hadn't been there. It was similar to Los Angeles in a way, but it also had an arid desert north of the city, and a redwood forest even further up. Alex considered this a step down from his daily life as a fugitive, while Vanoss and his Friends frequently were being chased by police, they were not nearly as competent as the Task Force, and they were all far enough away from the Royal Guard, The Militia, and the remaining Task Force members that there should not be that many problems. Vanoss, being the helpful type, had gotten everyone an apartment somewhere in the city, Alex's in particular was a high-rise, complete with it's own planning room, repurposed from it's usual purpose as a Heist Setup area. Alex was now sitting in his new house, sipping some wine. Which tasted horrible, he was not used to the taste of alcohol yet, and spit the putrid red beverage into the sink. He was far too young anyways. The individual members of his team were all contacts on his new cellphone, and he could call any one of them at any given time. Thankful for the rest, and the new home, Alex thought of the future. He wasn't sure when such cataclysms would take place, but he thanked god for every breath he took. He was exhausted from constantly fighting and killing. He needed this. Alex thought again about Raven. The Inheritor didn't come with them, though Alex desperately needed training. But for now, everything seemed to be going for him. Some time spent alone was long overdue. Author's Note I think this chapter had an unclear time gap as to when they were still at the embassy and when they were in Los Santos. I think the least amount of time 10 people could scrape money for 7 apartments, one of them a high rise in-game would be about... 3 days. Assuming Vanoss bought a few Shark Cards (downloadable GTA$). EDIT: I have been told that Alex needed more of a motivator to get that mad in a fight. In retrospect, I probably should have added more to Alex's hatred for Sigma other than the death of a minor character, but I'm still thinking about what could be done to add that element to the fic and where.
Act I, Chapter 26: The TalkAlex laid down in the bed in his apartment. Not unusual to say the least, he had a lot to think about. In the past 2 3/4 of a month, he's had people purposely hunt him down, having to always run, and hope that at least 3 people actually cared enough to help. It was always unpredictable. He never knew when his last day would be, hell, a couple times, he thought for sure it was. In short, Alex's friends were the most random people he had ever met, and he knew hipsters, metal-heads, maybe even a couple otakus, but they took the cake. Alex's life was also pretty ridiculous. Like, who spends a little more than a week perfectly assimilating into the magical land of horses, only to move to a school where the most overpowered teenagers go to learn how to kill people like him, as well as some terrifying gigantic monsters hell bent on eating your face? The odds of getting struck by lightning, Alex knew, was 1 in 700,000. The odds of having to deal with that kinda crap? 1 in, say, A LOT! At least now, he got to spend some peace and quiet... *buzz!* Ugh, who could that be?! Alex walked over to the front door of his apartment, pressed the button, and spoke. "Who's this?" Alex asked, annoyed. "It's Kat." A voice from the other side replied. Why didn't she say so? "Oh. Go away." Alex sighed. "Vanoss and his friends didn't do anything, I'm just here to talk." Kat replied. Like he wanted to talk about his problems, she wouldn't understand... At least, not completely. "Alright, fine." Alex buzzed her in. Shortly after, there was a knock on his door, knowing full well who it was, he let her in the apartment. "Wow, I gotta say, this is way nicer than the apartment Vanoss got Zera and I." Kat admired. "I agree, I would've been perfectly fine sleeping in a box. Not that I'm complaining." Alex replied. "So, is there anything you wanna talk about?" She asked him. "Meh, you first, I'm not all in the mood to talk." Alex encouraged. "Okay, I was thinking about your situation..." Kat began. "Funny how the conversation is about me." He sighed. "I was just wondering, was there anyone you actually connected with? Anyone at all?" Kat asked him. That was actually difficult. Alex purposely tried not to get attached to anyone in Equestria. Karis? He felt he only connected with her was because there was not a whole lot to hide, she already knew about his predicament. Team RWBY? He wasn't trying to connect either, but he told Ruby and Yang everything that happened before then, and he was sure they told Weiss and Blake. Vanoss and his crew? Thankfully, no. "Not very many people, I will admit." Alex said as honestly as he could. "Oh, there's your problem." Kat realized. "Come again?" Alex asked. "Unlike me, you never wanted to connect with anyone at a personal level. I told my friends in the guild about what happened to me, I even told them a little bit about you." "Then what the hell happened? Why did you have to leave?" Alex asked Kat. "They were on a mission, and I kinda had a bad reputation with the others." Kat replied nervously. "The other members set you up, didn't they?" Alex concluded. "Well, when you put it like that, it makes them sound bad..." Kat defended. "And that, my friend, is why I didn't want to talk to anyone. I always have that sense that tells me that someone is going to stab me in the back as soon as I turn around! Had I been in your place, I would have been gone long before I could tell your friends crap." Alex asserted. "You can't always expect someone to betray you..." Kat began. "Funny, someone told me that a while ago. Guess what? She's dead!" Alex scowled. "Nobody really betrayed you in the end, Twilight and the others were double agents, or did you forget?" Kat retorted. "I still don't trust her. Same as how I still don't trust Evan, or Ruby! Hell, I'm paranoid about being in the same room as you right now!" Alex regretted saying that as soon as the words left his mouth. "Ahem... Well, let's stop that conversation, deal?" Kat raised a hand. "Deal." Alex grasped hers tightly and shook it. "My real question was... Have you thought about connecting with someone romantically?" Kat asked. "Never thought about it. Not even once. There's too much going on in my life and it's way too unpredictable to actually give you a straight answer." Alex responded honestly. "So, no setting you up on dates anytime soon?" Kat asked hopefully. "REALLY, AUTHOR?! THERE ISN'T EVEN A ROMANCE TAG ON THIS STORY!" A rather high pitched voice screamed from below, Alex had to assume it was Pinkie. "Oh, yeah, I've been meaning to ask, what's up with Pinkie?" Kat asked. "Schitzophrenia, psychopathic tendencies, somehow floating, a lot of different stuff." Alex responded. "STOP! REFERENCING! CUPCAKES!!!!" That same voice said again. "How can she even hear us from down there?" Kat asked, bewildered. "Twilight told me that 'she's just being Pinkie Pie' is apparently a good answer. So, yeah, let's go with that." Alex elaborated with a hand gesture. "Okay, why not? Anyways, what about Ruby, she's about your age." Kat pleaded. "I already told you, I'm far too... In everyone's thoughts... Paranoid, or rather, delusional." Alex responded bluntly. "So...you're serious?" Kat asked. "I am." Alex sighed, almost sad that all of that was actually true. "Are...Are you sure?" She sighed herself. "Yes. Please. Leave me be." Alex pleaded. Kat stood up, and walked to the door, turning around only to cast a pitying glance in his direction. "I'm sorry you feel that way about yourself." Kat closed the door softly, as to not disturb him any further. Alex laid on the orange sofa, wanting nothing more than to rest and reflect on the conversation. Was he really that negative about himself? It was hard to imagine a life spent with another person, but was he really that damaged? He really wished that things hadn't turned out like they did, and that was true, especially about the more recent events of his life. If things were different, if he wasn't that shallow and self-pitying, then maybe there would have been a chance. No. That life died with his parents back in Oregon. That life died in Area 51. That life died in Ponyville and Vale. That life died with his humanity. Now, he was a soldier, more than that, he was a leader, he had other lives to worry about beside his own. Things were different now, this was not about self-preservation like it was in Ponyville or Canterlot, no. This was about ensuring that his allies lived to see tomorrow. Even if he didn't. His phone buzzed at his side, he flipped it up, and it revealed an unknown contact, he swiped to the right on his phone to answer the call. "Hello, is this Alex Walker?" The man at the other line asked. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. What of it?" Alex asked him. "My name is Rufio Vincent of the Los Santos Syndicate, I'm holding a Mr. Fong hostage, as well as his friends." "Don't even start it." Alex seethed with aggression. "You have ten minutes to pay us $50,000, or else they die. Your call." "Where?" Alex tried to calm himself down. "The Galileo Observatory north of your apartment." Rufio answered. "I'm on my way." Alex said. "Pleasure doin' business with you, Walker." Rufio hung up. Alex went over to his closet, and put on his Armor, the Scarab Mk. III, built in with various rocket launchers and a shoulder-mounted .50 Caliber machine gun, on top of his jump-jets and near indestructible Equestrian Steel hull. He reached for .44 Scratch and Electric Fury, holstering them before reaching for an Atlean KMG-157 Battle Rifle, equipped with a Veir-Kai sight and an A-17 grenade launcher, the equivalent of his original SCAR-H, courtesy of a security guard's corpse from his stint in the Vale Embassy. "Not for the reason you're thinking Mr. Vincent." Alex said to himself as he walked into his garage and into his armored Insurgent, still in it's original black-and-yellow paint job with Batman logos stamped on the sides. Pressing a button on the data-pad on his left wrist, he sent a voice message to everyone who wasn't captured. "Attention all remaining members of Team Unity, Vanoss and his friends are being held captive in the Galileo Observatory to the north! Be there to assist in the rescue mission ASAP!" Alex ordered. "Roger that!" "Yes, Sir!" "I am not missing this!" "Ugh, fine!" "On our way!" "Meet ya there!" "The Elements and I are on our way over!" Everyone said through their radios. Indeed, there was no escaping this life. Not that he had much of a problem with it. Author's Note Anyone else agree that the ending to this chapter had a sort of 'Avengers' feel to it? What do you guys think? Should I... A:) End the story here and tell the rest in a sequel Or B:) Continue with the story, but move onto Act II of the story? Leave your answer in the comments below!
Act II, Chapter 1: The SyndicateKat drove her car over to the Observatory where Alex said Vanoss and his crew were being held. "So, Ms. Anderson. How did your conversation with Commander Walker go?" Zera asked. While Kat respected Zera's caring and straightforward attitude, she was not in as much of a mood to speak. "Alex said he isn't ready for romance yet. He hasn't even thought about it once." Kat replied. "Perhaps he really isn't. To go through something like Alex's situation is not one I would wish on anyone. My sensors indicate that, while psychologically beneficial, a relationship would only deter any progress on this misadventure." Zera figured. "You really know how to make me feel better, Zera." Kat said sarcastically. "Hold on, I just downloaded schematics for the building, and I have a plan for this." Zera perked up. "Phone the others, we aren't called 'Team Unity' for nothing. We need this plan to work!" Kat ordered. "Already sent the texts." Zera said. But how? She didn't even have a phone... "How did you- oh, right, android." Kat realized mid-sentence. Kat's phone buzzed, receiving a text. Opening up her phone, she saw a highly detailed map of the observatory, along with sniping positions, suspected locations for Evan and his crew, orders, everything. Moving along to her GPS, she marked the best parking space nearest the best vantage point, a small hill overlooking the entire building. She drove up near the overlook, went over to the trunk of the car, and opened it, revealing a very heavily modified Barrett M82 .50 BMG sniper rifle, equipped with an ice-like bipod, a bayonet that could change into a grappling hook, flame decals and incendiary bullets, as well as two keys on either side of the scope meant to summon Sentinels, metallic bird-like creatures that had most in common with Nevermores in Remnant. She laid down in her spot while Zera moved over to the northwestern side of the building, out of sight from many of the Syndicate's men. She looked through the scope. Safety on, of course, and saw Twilight and the former bearers of the Elements of Harmony went into their respective corners of the structure like spokes on a wheel. Team RWBY were riding a helicopter above the Observatory, ready to jump out of the helicopter and into the ensuing battle. Alex, she saw, was walking right into the Observatory, as planned, ready to attack on Zera's cue. The cue, she remembered, was the word 'Knightfall'. That was the signal that said Alex, Kat, and the Elements should start attacking. The cue word for Team RWBY and Zera to attack was only if they needed backup, a signal given by Alex, his code word was 'Bishop'. Looking back to her cellphone, her first targets were the ones guarding sites A, with Alex's being B and the Elements' being C. Aiming right for a patrolman's neck, she awaited her signal. Alex walked into the main entrance, ready to attack the Observatory on Zera's signal. He was immediately greeted by guards. "You must be Mr. Walker, so nice for you to join us!" One introduced. "Why are you wearing the armor?" The other asked. "It's a dangerous world, can't be too cautious." Alex replied. "We have orders to take the bounty as soon as you get here." The first said. "How about you tell me where my friends are, then you get your bribe." Alex replied. "Of course! Your friends are being held in the room where the Telescope is. It isn't that far away." Alex awaited Zera's order still. Suddenly, his earpiece chimed in. "Knightfall." The voice said. Two shots were fired above them, and both guards looked around for the source. His MG emitted a sharp beeping noise before shooting the guards, killing them both. "Roger, HVIs are in site C!" Alex said as soon as the second guard died. "Noted, sending Elements to site C immediately, Alex, go assist them, keep the others away from them!" Zera ordered "Understood. On my way." Alex replied, leaping high above the site and killing anyone in his way. His Machine gun roared with fire, killing anyone he missed while killing more Syndicate men with the BR he stole from the guards in Vale. Sniper fire killed what Alex and his MG missed, spurts of blood leaping from their bodies and crumpling to the ground in a useless heap. Alex crashed on top of more soldiers, deactivating the machine gun and shooting them with the Battle Rifle, killing most of his enemies with ruthless efficiency. Reloading a mag into said BR, he killed any survivors of the attack, unloading 32 rounds of 7.89 mm (Remnant's equivalent to a 7.62) into them, resulting in agonizing death. He immediately saw the Elements, and they were struggling. 'That's what you get when you and your friends are mostly pacifists,' Alex thought bitterly as he pulled out .44 Scratch, killing their opponents with relentlessly accurate shots, making full use of each shot. "You ponies sure know how to handle yourselves in a battle scenario." Alex scoffed sarcastically. "Don't blame us, war in Equestria is next to unheard of, it's not like we get much practice, unlike you." Twilight retorted. Ignoring the insult, he turned around, only to find dozens of Syndicate Mercs fast-roping in from above them. Alex pressed a button on his suit, opening up compartments filled to the brim with laser-guided missiles. Launching them all, he blew up most of the helicopers, burnt hunks of metal crashing to the earth as the mercenaries dodged the destroyed vehicles as try plummeted to the earth below. More trucks drove up, most of them armored cars, and started shooting at Alex, only for the bullets to ricochet off of him and into several buildings around him. "Get Vanoss! I'll deal with them!" Alex ordered his on/off allies. They ran in direction of the telescope as Alex reactivated his Machine Gun, loaded his Grenade Launcher, and rose hell on his combatants. Twilight and the others ran into a few lingering foes, with her using attack spells, Rainbow flying them high above the ground and simply dropping them or punching them, Applejack bucking them far away from the area, Rarity levitating sewing needles and flinging them at the enemies, or knocking them out with a hard punch, Pinkie distracting them long enough for the others to attack, and Fluttershy... Twilight looked back at her meek friend, she was crying in the corner, mortified by the chaos around her. She levitated Fluttershy along, even though kindness had no place in a situation like this. They eventually made their way to the Telescope room, opening the door and finding more guards inside, along with Vanoss and his friends. A man in a fancy looking suit and slicked black-and-grey hair looked back at them, looking rather confused. "What am I looking at here? Horses are coming to rescue these men?" The man giggled at the mere sight of them. Rainbow seethed at the comment. "Oh yeah?!" Rainbow yelled as he flew head on at the man... ...And rose a hand, which glowed a bright yellow, and held Rainbow Dash in place. "Pfft... You are NOTHING TO ME!!!" He yelled as he tossed her friend aside like a rag doll. Fluttershy immediately flew to help her friend up. "Kill these men!" He ordered, levitating them up as he walked right past them, dropping them as soon as he left the room. "No!" Twilight rose a hoof in an effort to save her friends. The guards shot them all in the head, killing them all. "Buck! Evan!" Rainbow gasped. The room was silent. They won. Their friends were dead. The room was then bursting with gunfire, the six ducked in an effort to try and save themselves, when Twilight finally looked up, the men were dead, with Vanoss and his friends climbing in through the windows. "You're alive!" Rarity gasped. "But...how?" Applejack asked suspiciously. "You guys do know that we respawn, like, a block away, right?" Mini replied. "These assholes didn't!" Wildcat chuckled. "But, seriously though. You guys went to rescue us, didn't you?" Terroriser asked them. "Of course, silly filly!" Pinkie cheered. "Really? That's not even how you say that! It's like how Nogla says 'hockin' a dookie'!" Wildcat practically died laughing. "You! Yellow one! You seem really familiar..." Basically tried to recall where he had seen her before. "Wait, how's Alex doing?" Rainbow asked, checking her earpiece. "AAAAAAH SHIT!!! BISHOP!!' BISHOP!!! C'MON! SOMEBODY HELP!!!!" Alex yelled in a panic. "He seems to be doing so well!" Delirious rolled his eyes. "There's no time to waste! We have to help him! Let's go!" Twilight ordered as the other Elements and Evan's crew followed her. Alex was not having fun. He was being attacked by way more troops that even he could handle and called for help. Immediately, Team RWBY fell in to assist, explosions and ice structures all around him as they fell and continued their assault. Zera ran in, sang in a mechanized voice, and held a large sword that glowed a bright blue. Kat was not far off, firing sniper rounds and killing anyone she could. The elements attacked them next, violet bolts of magic flying right past him, a rainbow blur knocking several men out of the way, others being kicked upwards, to name some attacks. Vanoss and his crew ran in last, shooting at the opponents ruthlessly, blood flying high into the air and killing them. More troops fast-roped in, others drove in tanks and other assorted military equipment, even the police attacked, shooting at them and their enemies. "I have a plan! Get in a circle around me!" Twilight ordered. Everyone did as they were told, Alex knew exactly what she was planning. The attack was relentless, enemies seemed to come in from everywhere. "Why is no one helping!" Asked Droidd, very worried about the attack around them. "If you've got a plan, you better get to it!" Blake yelled, shooting at anyone she could. "GET OVER HERE!" Vanoss screamed, stealing Gambol Shroud from Blake and skewering a cop. "HEY!" She yelled as Vanoss yanked back, pulling the officer and slicing him up. Blake stole it back from Vanoss, looking very pissed at him. "Don't ever do that again!" She ordered. The more enemies swarmed in around them, the tighter the circle became. "Okay, I worked up enough magic to get us out of here! Hang on!" Twilight yelled as a violet glow enveloped Team Unity. Alex ducked down as the ground fell from under them and the sky above caved in on itself. When Alex blinked again, there they all were, on top of the Maze Bank building. They all fell to the ground, exhausted, especially Twilight, who casted the spell that teleported all twenty-three members of Team Unity, an impressive feat, even for an Alicorn. Alex watched as, from the distance, a large cloud of smoke enveloped the once-peaceful building. Surely the cops and the Syndicate were all killing each other. "Who were those guys?" Kat asked, gasping for breath. "The Syndicate, they're responsible for most of the professional crime in Los Santos." Vanoss breathed. "That guy's name, the guy in the suit, is Rufio Vincent, he's basically their boss or some shit." Wildcat gasped through his pig mask. "He's the one who called me and told me you guys were captured, he said he wanted $500,000 or something ridiculous like that." Alex added to what he knew. "That guy?! He threw me into a wall!" Rainbow scoffed. "He possessed some sort of levitation ability similar to unicorn magic." Twilight explained further. "That can only mean one thing..." Alex's voice trailed off. Rufio was not a happy guy. He never was, nor would he ever be. Events like tonight only angered him further. He grasped the amethyst hued communication beacon, bearing the black mark of the Inquisitors, a dark silhouette with red eyes, bearing a silver scythe and a golden scale. He pressed the button on the side. "What is it, Gamma?" A raspy voice asked. "Sigma's target? I found him." Rufio responded. "Ah, I see. I'll be sure to tell her." The voice replied. "I understand, sir." Rufio nodded. "It appears The Red Star's formation will come a little early, ready your men, Gamma!" The voice ordered. "Yes, Alpha." He sighed. "Sigma's target... He interests me... I will come also." Alpha concluded. "Yes, Alpha." The transmitter stopped, and Rufio put it away. "The Great War has been set in motion. Time to... Prioritize." Rufio scowled. Author's Note So begins Act II. I considered having, like, a vote. But due to the fact that that nobody reads my blogs anyway and there are apparently rules against setting these up in Group Forums, I decided to choose myself, so, here we are.
Act II, Chapter 2: Another PlanAlex had all of Team Unity at his apartment after that battle. With the intent to discuss what to do about The Syndicate, Alex soon found the group getting hopelessly off-track. "-So then, Delirious got out of that creepy-ass costume and we had to check the cameras..." Vanoss continued his long-winded story about his 'Five Nights at Freddy's' Gmod adventure. "Weren't we supposed to be talking about those guys who captured you and held you for ransom?" Weiss clearly had as much interest on the subject as Alex did. "Oh, yeah!" Delirious jumped up a little, as if realizing the reason why they were even having the meeting in the first place. "As interesting as it was, I'm afraid Ms. Schnee is correct. We have to focus on the current threat at hand. There will be time to talk about our previous misadventures later, Vanoss." Zera calmly replied. "True, those guys were tough! Even I had trouble fighting them, there were so many." Alex recalled. "Yeah, I wonder if those cops managed to hold their own against them." Rainbow sighed. "Do you think we need any backup? I do know a few wizards." Kat asked. "We don't know if they'd even consider helping us. As far as I'm concerned, we're all we've got." Alex asserted. "Commander Walker may be correct. Keep in mind that your friends were in the same guild as those that turned against you, and as the saying goes, 'Birds of a feather flock together'." Zera agreed. "So what's the plan?" Basically asked. "We have to investigate as to why these men are choosing to target us. We've only been here about, what? Five days? There's gotta be something behind all this." Alex decided. "But what about Rufio? If he finds us before we know what's going on, we're all going down in your shit." Mini explained. "It's obvious that this guy is an Inquisitor. According to a certain someone that I know, Inquisitors almost always have some kind of special ability and are usually leaders of some type of group, and Mr. Vincent just so happens to meet and exceed that criteria." Alex replied. "But we're severely out-ponied! How are we ever going to survive this?" Rarity started to panic. "Calm down! I'm sure he knows what to do, so what's your plan?" Yang asked. "The way I see it, we've got two fugitives, ten idiots, six magical horses, four schoolgirls who happen to know how to kill so well that it's borderline Yandere-like, and one android. Zera is going to try and tap all the phone lines to see what they're planning, Team RWBY, Kat, and Myself are going to try and kill the SOB before he can screw us all over, the Elements are going to have to try and put the pieces that we give them together, and Vanoss's crew are gonna root out and kill anyone in the Syndicate and buy as much equipment as humanly possible. Sound like a plan?" Alex planned out. "The chances of success are about... 87.61%" Zera calculated. "What's the other 12.29?" Twilight asked. "The likelihood of this plan failing and every last one of us dying an awful death, of course!" Zera replied cheerfully. "That's a lot better than we usually do." Moo figured. "Are you ready, kids?" Vanoss asked. "Aye, aye, captain." Nogla said. "Aye, aye, Vanoss." Wildcat replied at that exact moment. "I can't hear you-" Vanoss said before he was so rudely interrupted. "AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN!!!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Jesus!" Vanoss scolded. "Well, then. It's settled." Alex concluded calmly, in vast contrast to his teammates. "Already tapping phone lines in the immediate Los Santos and Blaine County areas, sir!" "Meeting adjourned!" Kat announced. Everyone except Alex and Kat left the apartment, Alex lived here, but he wasn't fully sure about why Kat stayed. "Do you wanna talk, Alex?" Kat asked him. "Sure. Any topics?" Alex asked her. "I've been meaning to ask, what's up with you and Yang?" Kat wondered. "It's a long story." Alex responded. "I have plenty of time." Kat assured him. "Okay. So I was training one day, and because of my apparent nightmares, I didn't sleep the night before, but I didn't tell anyone." Alex began his tale. "Why not?" Kat asked. "I was sure everyone kinda already knew. But anyways, Yang throws me into a bush and asks why I wasn't telling anyone anything, so I just... Told her everything." Alex explained. "Anything else?" "As soon as I mentioned Inquisitors, she had us go to Patch for some secret mission regarding a 'friend'." Alex finished. He didn't want to give away a whole lot. "She knew about them?" Kat asked. "Enough that she felt it was necessary to have us sent to some random island." Alex answered, rolling his eyes. "I see." "And what's your story? I know you told me something about a Guild, what's the story behind that?" Alex asked a question of his own. "Oh! You mean them!" Kat realized. Kat began explaining her own interdimesional escapades when Zera called Alex. "Hello?" Alex asked. "Greetings Commander. I do not wish to waste your time so I shall go straight to the point." Zera said. "Go on." "Vanoss, H20 Delirious, and Lui Calibre are currently under attack by Syndicate hit men." She explained. "Where?" "About now, they are near the Ammu-Nation by the overpass south of here." Zera replied. "How are they holding up?" Alex asked. "I hacked into the microphones on their cell phones, you tell me." Zera sighed as the line disconnected and reconnected elsewhere. "We've got two choppers on us, three choppers!" Lui yelled, firing a machine gun. "Delirious! Drive!" Vanoss screamed. "AAAAAAHHH!" The line disconnected again and reconnected to Zera. "Case in point. I should probably help." Alex grumbled. "Yes, You should." Zera said in annoyance as the phone hung up. "Well then!" Alex scoffed, putting on some battle gear he purchased from a clothing store, as well as a heavy bulletproof vest, grabbed a pair of sunglasses and his Battle Rifle and left for his garage, Kat not too far behind. The garage was pretty impressive, Super cars, motorcycles, and armored trucks of some varieties inside. "What should we take?" Kat asked. "Get in the Insurgent and take the wheel!" Alex ordered. "Okay! Sheesh!" Kat rose her hands in defense, walking in the car while Alex got in the gunner. No, this was not the same one he drove to on their previous mission, that was destroyed, he still owed Vanoss $500. "Where to?" Kat asked as soon as they pulled out of the garage. "The highway near that Ammu-Nation to the south, please." Alex informed her. They drove off in the direction the police helicopters were going. This was not going to end very well. For the Syndicate's men, at least. Author's Note Well, here's a short chapter. Anyways, I should have the next chapter up in a little while, so yeah.
Act II, Chapter 3: The ChaseKat eventually got herself and Alex to that overpass. Upon reaching that location, It was pretty easy to see Vanoss and the others being chased by several black and red cars. "Are those Syndicate cars?" Kat asked Alex, who was reaching back up to the turret on top of the truck. "I'd think so, that's Lui shooting them." Alex replied. A look further up the road confirmed his theory, as she saw a monkey firing a machine gun while smoking a cigar. Definitely Lui. "Okay, drive up next to Vanoss and tell him to tell Delirious to get his ass on the gunner position!" Alex ordered. "What about you? What are you gonna do?!" Kat asked. "Lay some hate." Alex replied, grabbing his battle rifle and leaping from the truck. Kat figured he would be fine, he had done stupider things in the past, until then, she may as well follow orders. Alex leapt off the Insurgent and onto another car, a grey sedan. The driver started yelling at him while he was searching for a Syndicate car. Found one! It was a few cars ahead, the passenger shooting what appeared to be a M1927 Thompson. Alex leapt from one car to the next, which was rather difficult given he was on a highway, leaping from car to car at 80 mph. Whilst gripping the top of a car, he shot one of the Syndicate car's tires. The tire didn't explode. Of course they were bulletproof. What about the windows? Climbing to the top of a minivan, he aimed his BR in the direction of the driver, and fired one shot, intended to hit the back of his head. The bullet pierced through the back window and the car skidded to the right, and slammed into a roadblock. A nearby explosion indicated that Delirious and Lui were making short work of the remaining cars, blowing them up seconds after he killed the driver. Damn! A Syndicate car smashed directly into the minivan he was riding, and the driver as well as the passenger were shooting at him. Firing at the engine, he tried to hold them back a little. One look past and he saw about six more Syndicate cars and possibly a red and black helicopter. Alex grabbed his cell phone and called Delirious and Lui. "I don't mean to alarm you, but they have a chopper after us, would you kindly SHOOT IT DOWN BEFORE IT KILLS US ALL?!" Alex yelled, panicking a little. They both hung up on him. "Of course, what else was gonna happen?" Alex sighed, annoyed with the cutoff. Alex resorted to firing grenades at the Syndicate cars, and accidentally blew up a few other cars in the process. And the one he was standing on was currently in flames. He leaped off, and the minivan exploded a few meters away. What's worse is that the Syndicate hit-men stopped in front of him, stepped out of their cars, and shot at him. Alex retaliated by shooting grenades at the cars, blowing them up in a fireworks show of orange and blue, for he still had plenty of grenades from the SCAR. The hit men still shot at him, and Alex was aware that his bulletproof vest's condition was worsening, and fast. "Alex! Do you read? I repeat, Alex, do you copy, over!" a voice from his earpiece beckoned. "Yeah! I'm in a bit of trouble! Syndicate hit men have me cornered!" Alex yelled, calling out to one of his comrades. "I'm on my way, hang in there, kid!" the voice responded. Alex wasn't sure who it was he was communicating with, his earpiece was that damaged, he should probably have someone repair it. But that was beside the point. Alex kept shooting until he ran out of bullets, and when he went to reload, he found that there wasn't a single mag left. In response, he threw it at his enemies, distracting them while pulling out .44 Scratch, killing as many as he could. As soon as he began reloading, a bullet pierced his left arm, the pain was excruciating. "AAGH! DAMN IT!" He screamed in pain as he literally took his thumb and pointer finger and dug into his arm, pulling out the bullet and throwing it to the ground. Alex grasped a Thompson that had been dropped near him and shot back with his right arm only as his left hung limp at his side. It was around that moment when someone in a bright yellow motorcycle landed between him and his assailants, using an Uzi submachine gun in tandem with very powerful blasts from a gauntlet. The rider holstered the Uzi and reached out to him, he recognized her immediately. "Hi, Yang. Thanks for coming." He nodded as he got on the motorcycle. "Zera told me to, she said I was closest to you. Where are Vanoss and the others?" She asked. "They should be further up ahead." Alex responded, then he noticed something. There was no way to ride this thing and not have it feel awkward. Oh, who cares? He grasped Electric Fury, converted it into it's rail gun mode, and had it pointed behind him in case Syndicate hit men were to attack from behind, all the while trying to hang on with only his legs. 'Don't think about it, don't think about it.' Alex repeated this mantra in his head, as he would have to throughout this next part of the mission. Kat was still on the highway, and the view had changed from an urban landscape to a more lush and inviting view, and now it was more or less an arid desert. Delirious knocked twice on the ceiling, demanding her attention. "Drive up to this overpass and make a left!" Delirious said. Kat did as Delirious instructed, only to find more desert. From what she knew, there was a small town just up ahead, as well as the prison. "Vanoss and Lui are pulling into the airport, let's stop here." Delirious calmly said, relieved that most of the Hit-men were dead. Kat pulled up next to Vanoss's Insurgent, put the large truck in park, and exited the car, Delirious had also gotten out of the car and was not far off. "Hey, Kat. You ok?" Vanoss asked. "Don't worry about it, what's the plan?" Kat asked. "I just thought of something a while ago." Vanoss said. "What?" Kat asked, curiosity getting the better of her. "You know about the Humane Labs raid, right?" Lui asked her. "Oh, yeah. Nogla told me about that." "You know how we used an EMP to shut down all their stuff, right?" Delirious continued. "Yeah, why?" "We figured we should probably get ourselves one of those, put it in Alex's weird ass pocket thing." Vanoss said. "Where are we going to get one?" Kat asked. "Same place we got the last one, on a navy boat, from a jet." Lui answered. "How would you even know where to find an EMP?" "We asked Zera. She said there were about two that were somewhere on the map, the first option was the navy boat, and the other one is the one we used, which is in the FIB building, hidden in a vault." Vanoss responded. "Well, I'd ask everyone if I were you." Kat recommended. "We'll bring it up in the next meeting." Delirious shrugged. "No need." A voice said behind them all. Kat looked back, and saw Alex and Yang. "Oh, hey man, where ya been? Secret mission?" Lui asked. "No, I had to save Alex for, like, the second time already." Yang answered. Kat noticed something kinda funny, Alex was blushing a little bit. "You okay, Alex? You're looking a little red." Kat smirked. Alex then muttered something about 'stupid puberty' and sat down on the hood of one of the Insurgents. Kat looked over in that general direction, where a yellow motorcycle had been neatly parked next to the trucks, and suddenly everything made sense. "Oooooh. I get it!" Kat couldn't help but laugh a little bit. "Shut up." Alex sighed, embarrassed. "Oh! I see what she's thinkin'!" Delirious could barely finish the sentence before laughing rather hard. "Shut up, Delirious, I saw your 'GTA V Gay Adventures' video!" Vanoss taunted. That sentence alone had thrown pretty much everyone into a laughing fit, except Delirious and Alex, for obvious reasons. "Calm down, man! We're all friends here!" Yang comforted, still laughing. "Ha ha. Not in the mood." Alex rolled his eyes. "I have a plan." Vanoss said, tossing a C4 at Delirious's feet, and blew him about 10 meters up in the air. "NOOOOO!" Delirious screamed at the top of his lungs. Vanoss and Lui had started laughing again, not before another C4 had been thrown at Vanoss's feet and detonated. Alex began laughing, holding a detonator in his right hand. "NO! DELIRIOUS!!!" Vanoss immediately blamed. "That was Alex!" Lui corrected, laughing. "So what happened, anyway?" Kat asked. "So I drove up to Alex, and picked him up." "I had to sit behind her." "I told him to hold on." "When they say 'keep your hands north of the equator', they never clearly state how far north you go." Alex said, blushing again. "He thought he went too far up and just froze." Yang continued. "I fell off the motorcycle." Alex admitted. "Oooooh! I thought he did something else!" Delirious realized. "Why, what did you think- oh, wait, don't tell me." Yang stopped herself just in time. "Dude! I'm fifteen!" Alex scolded. "And that deserves a-" Vanoss said before shooting Delirious in the head with a marksman pistol. "GOD DAMMIT VANOSS!!!!" Delirious yelled. "So, we're clear, like, the plan?" Alex asked. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Okay, everyone drive home, I'm walking." Alex said. Yang grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "Nah! You're coming with me, don't fall off this time, okay?" Yang teased. "Don't remind me." Alex replied, annoyed. Author's Note Zip Zop Zoobity chapter. The next chapter should be out soon. And, yes, this is actually important to the story. No, I'm too lazy to add a Romance tag, so unless I change my mind, this is as far as it's going. Yes, I learned from my time in the fandom that there will be ships, even though I'm sure that this story won't gain enough publicity for fan art, but ships are bound to happen at some point. Will I have cover art? That remains to be seen, but I can't pay for it with actual money, why? Reasons.
Act II, Chapter 5, The Aircraft Carrier Heist; Part II of III"We're here!" Vanoss and Nogla were the first two to actually get out of the dinghy and into the Aircraft Carrier. "Gotcha, I don't think I see anybody. You guys should be good if you keep quiet." Rainbow Dash said. She was currently flying around 10,000 feet above the ship, not detectable by their radar and still visible. Vanoss had said that the dinghy wasn't so small that it was undetectable, but it was small enough to be confused for something innocent, like some driftwood, explaining why it was so cramped in there. "C'mon, Alex!" Wildcat urged, pulling out a .50 Caliber pistol and climbed off the boat. "Here's the plan. Alex, wait on that balcony and clear out anyone on the next floor that you can on my signal." Vanoss whispered. Alex simply nodded in reply as he got into position. "Okay, Operation Flying Tank is complete, let us know when to come over there." Delirious said through the radio. "Zera, are you 100% sure that this channel is secure?" Alex asked. "Yes, I'm 95.6667% that this channel is secure." The android replied. "That's it?" Alex asked "There are a couple hackers on that ship just chipping away at the firewalls, It should hold out." Zera responded. "Well, ok then." Vanoss, Wildcat and Nogla stood at the bottom of the stairwell, running through the plan again. "Okay, Nogla, do a numbers crunch." "There's about .33% chance of success going up the stairs." Nogla replied. "That's a lot better than we usually do." "Times up, let's do this!" Wildcat shouted. "Tyler!" Nogla yelled, enraged. "LEEROOOOOY JEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIINSSS!!!!!!" Wildcat yelled. "Alex! Go!" Vanoss ordered. "'Bout time." Alex muttered as he initiated the jump-jets. Rearing up for the 25 meter jump, he activated his Shoulder Mounted MG and set it for... 1987 RPM! Looking up to clarify, he extended his legs in a large jump and activated his jump-jets in the span of about a second and flew up to where he needed to go. The soldiers looked behind them in disbelief as they saw Alex in full Scarab Mk. III Armor. "Holy shit! Open fire!!" The sergeant ordered as the dozens of troops shot at him. Each shot merely bounced off the armor, the impact lighting up in a flash of orange, explosive rounds. The MG ripped the men in front of him to shreds before moving onto the soldiers further back, the MG sounding much like a buzz saw as dozens of rounds zipped through the helpless victims like butter. When all was said and done, the soldiers were dead as the floor was a red mess. Alex tapped the button on the headset. "Evan, the second floor is secure. Where are you?" Alex asked. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! WE'RE ON THE SECOND FLOOR!! YOU'RE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE RUNWAY!!!" Vanoss yelled. "... Well shit." Alex ran down the stairs and killed anyone inside brutally, the machine gun was still going strong. He was surprised that the barrel hasn't melted yet. Grabbing one of the corpses that were still in one piece, Alex charged down the stairs to the... 4th floor?! How high had he jumped? Looking back at the meter, he had set the leap to... 1,987 feet. Then what was the rate of fire on the machine gun?! He checked that, and it said that the gun was going at 2211 rounds per minute. Well, that was ridiculous. "We found an elevator leading to the runway! It's another floor up, so we need you to keep the entrance to the elevator on the runway safe so we actually make it all the way up!" Nogla said. "Good thinking, I'm moving in!" Alex assured them. He wouldn't fail them this time! He ran back up the stairs to find that there were more SEALs and a couple Marines blocking his path, all bearing Carbine Rifles. "Hands up! Disable that sentry gun!" One of the soldiers ordered. "Why should I?" Alex asked innocently. "Disable the suit or we'll do it for you!" "And how would you do that?" Alex asked scathingly. "With this." Two of the soldiers walked into the room with what he assumed was the EMP. "And what, pray tell, is that?" Alex asked, though he already knew the answer. "The EMP your friends want from us. Disable the suit, or we activate this thing and the whole ship is without power!" Alex noticed the red and black markings on the SEAL's right arm, and the crimson hawk on the left. "You're one of Vincent's men." Alex deduced. "Who is this guy talking about, Lieutenant?" Another one of them asked. The Lieutenant shot them all with the Carbine Rifle he was carrying. "I'm surprised you figured me out, Walker." The Lieutenant complimented. "Who are you?" Alex asked. Alex suddenly heard what sounded like gunfire from upstairs. "Oh, that's disappointing. You can't even help your friends. We're hearing them die right now, do you know that?" The Lieutenant smirked. "You're forgetting something." Alex said. "And what is that, Huntsman?" "That we respawn." Someone said from behind him. Vanoss ran up the stairs behind him, pointing an Assault Rifle at The Lieutenant. "So this is what's keeping you from saving our asses, now who the hell is that?" Vanoss asked. "If you must know..." The Lieutenant said. He pulled out a dieselpunk-esque gas mask and what looked like a World War II flamethrower, putting on both and glaring at Vanoss menacingly. "... I am Scarecrow." Vanoss put on his owl mask as well as a heavy looking utility vest and a bulletproof vest, putting a brass knuckle on his right hand as he aimed his Assault Rifle at Scarecrow. "I got this bitch, get the EMP to Tyler and Nogla." Vanoss ordered. Alex nodded and sprinted to the EMP, evading branches of fire and narrowly avoiding being roasted alive. Vanoss swung hard at Scarecrow, knocking him in the back of the head before firing a plethora of bullets at his chest, each one bouncing off a metallic vest at his chest. Alex ran up the stairs carrying the EMP device as Vanoss and Scarecrow continued to battle below him. Priming his machine gun for a devastating attack, he broke down the door and saw Wildcat and Nogla taking cover behind a pile of crates. He put down the EMP next to him and aimed at the enemy targets. The resulting maelstrom of bullets zipped through their targets and into the walls of the tower behind them, their blood splattering on the blacktop and seeping off the side of the ship. "Took you long enough, where's Evan?" Wildcat asked. "He's occupied, but I got 'em. Take the EMP and get it in the Hydra and get the hell away from here." Alex ordered. Wildcat grabbed the EMP with both hands and lugged it over to the jet. Nogla went looking around for a jet closest to the runway so he could cover him. Sure, they had hit a roadblock named Scarecrow, but they were so close to completing their mission. "I just thought of something!" Wildcat shouted before getting the EMP in the jet. "What?" Alex asked him. "They'll be expecting the EMP on the hydra, right?" Wildcat asked. "Yeah." "Let's just put it in the pocket thing now! I can jump out when the bad guys are off me!" Wildcat explained. "That is actually a decent plan." Alex admitted, dumbfounded. "Well, get it out then and put the fockin' thing in!" Nogla urged. Alex grabbed the pocket dimension and opened it, all that remained was the dossier on his case and a few extra bits lying about. As Wildcat threw the EMP into the Pocket Dimension, Alex wondered how Evan was exactly doing... "I know that look, what are you planning?" Rainbow asked. "You'll see..." Evan swung again at Scarecrow, knocking him down again. This guy was near unstoppable, almost like Alex... Or him. He needed an advantage against this guy. He had a flamethrower, better training, an epic mask... Wait a second. He had a flamethrower. Vanoss remembered his secret play-through of the CoD World At War Campaign. He tried to remember what Russian Gary Oldman had told him. "Do you see the flamethrowers? A single shot will incinerate anyone nearby. You must choose your moment." Evan swung at him with the Knuckle Duster again, and kicked him hard for good measure. Pulling out the Marksman Pistol, he aimed for one of the large tanks, ran backwards, and pulled the trigger. Gary Oldman was right! The explosion was able to ensure that Scarecrow wasn't going anywhere for a while! He walked toward Scarecrow and gripped him by the throat. "What the hell is going on here! I heard what Alex said! What are you planning?!" Vanoss interrogated. Scarecrow coughed. "You fool. I was just here to distract you so the real work could begin." Scarecrow gasped. "What do you mean?!" Scarecrow pressed a button on his shoulder. "Operative Scarecrow to Beta, I distracted the Owl and The Hydra is leaving." "Good work," a voice from the other end said, "your job is done." "Thank you, Beta." Scarecrow gasped for breath and expired. He was dead. And Vanoss was running up the stairs. Alex watched as the Hydra and the Laser took off and flew towards the Airport in Blaine County. "Alex!" Vanoss yelled. "What?" He asked. "Is the EMP on the Hydra?" "... The EMP was destroyed." Alex grumbled. He heard what Scarecrow had said, and he had it covered, now he needed to convince Vanoss as well as any Inquisitor that dared to listen in. "Damn it!" They both watched as two rockets blew up the two jets. Alex stood in silence. "What now?" Vanoss asked him. "Get to the boat." Alex replied after a moment. "What?!" "Get to the Dinghy. Get back to shore." Alex ordered. Vanoss ran down the stairs nearby, Alex watching as he did so. "Smart to turn away your friend like that." A young woman said behind Alex. "Sigma..!" Alex growled. Said Inquisitor was standing behind him, swords drawn. "Listen, I need an Inquisitor out of the way, and you're going to play along." Sigma said. "Let me guess, you want the satisfaction of being the strongest, and whoever is after me is in your way." Alex concluded. "Something like that, which is why I need your help." Sigma nodded. "You're insane if you think I'm going to help you! After everything you did... After killing my parents!" Alex glared back. "We can kill each other all we want when this is over, but for right now, if either of us wants the other dead, we have to kill Beta first." Sigma reasoned. "Sound reasoning, you dirty traitor." A deeper voice bellowed from behind them. Alex turned around to find a heavily armored super-soldier type of guy carrying a heavy steel Zweihander. "Beta." Sigma glared. "I see both you and your target teaming up against an official inquisitor, not to mention Second-in-Command. Whose side are you even on, Sigma?" "As long as I kill him, I get my bounty." Sigma defended. "Alpha will not allow it, and as for you," Beta pointed the heavy sword at Alex. "Not only are you an official target for the Inquisition, you are the prophesied Catalyst. Someone who must not be allowed to exist for too long!" Beta growled. "Piss off!" Alex shot back. Literally. The shoulder mounted MG fired everything it had at the highest rate of fire he could in hopes of killing him swiftly. Beta merely watched as the bullets bounced off his armor and he swung at the gun, ripping it off his shoulder and falling to the ground. "That was a bad move, Catalyst. Prepare to die!" Author's Note Such chapter, much wow. Anyways, Part III should be out in about a day or two, hang in there.
Act II, Chapter 6: The Aircraft Carrier Heist, Part III of IIIAlex grabbed .44 Scratch and Electric Fury. Spinning them in a flourish, he cocked both revolvers and fired them, Beta lurched back in time to avoid the bullets. Alex saw Sigma leaping high behind Beta, bracing himself for a death blow, only to find that Sigma attacked Beta and had him in a blade lock. As soon as Sigma tried to attack Beta with a free blade, Beta punched Sigma and grasped her by the wrist. "You are in no condition to fight me, I'll deal with you after the boy." Beta glared at Sigma before tossing her aside. Alex fired both revolvers at Beta again, aiming for anything that looked like a weak spot, until Beta swung his Zweihander and knocked him backwards. "Is that really all you've got, Huntsman?" Beta sneered. "Try me!" Alex roared, aiming a swinging kick towards Beta's helmet. Beta merely blocked the kick and punched him hard. "FIIIIIIRE RAAAAAAAAIN!!!!" Beta yelled, summoning a bright orange disc similar to Weiss's glyphs. Streams of flame soared from above, Alex sprinted over and skidded into the comms tower to avoid the flames before leaping off the side towards Beta. Beta lurched back in time to evade Alex's attack, leaving him skidding to a halt on the ground. "What kind of Semblance was that?!" Alex asked, baffled. "Are you that ignorant? Hasn't Ms. Anderson told you anything?" Beta scoffed. "What does she have to do with any of this?" Red lightning crackled at Alex's fingertips. Beta swung his sword again, he was fast for an armor wearing pyromaniac with a broadsword. Alex kicked and shot whenever he had the opportunity, trying not to let his lightning out, for it would compromise his rocket systems. Beta swung his sword, catching Alex right in the chest and knocking him aside and leaving him hanging from the safety net above the ocean. "Pathetic. I thought this would have been a challenge." Beta shook his head slowly. "What...are you?!" Alex asked. "If you must know, there is more to Ms. Anderson's stay in Fiore. Pitiful that she does not trust you enough to tell you." "He's mine!" Sigma yelled from across the boat, attacking Beta with a flurry of arrows and swords. Sigma was fast, but Alex assumed her injuries would end up getting her killed, hopefully. Alex pulled himself up and snuck behind some crates, he readied the rocket launchers hidden inside the shoulders and chest, and pulled down the rockets on his shoulders, after this, he could be able to unleash the full barrage at Beta and give him the opportunity to attack Beta with his lightning without compromising any more of his systems. He looked at the two fighting inquisitors and aimed every rocket he could at both of them. Unfortunately, Sigma saw him and flipped backwards. "YAHTZEE!!" He yelled, firing every last rocket in his inventory, enveloping the area they were standing with thick smoke. "Is he dead?" Sigma asked. The vague sound of a sword swinging behind him told him that Beta wasn't as dead as Alex would've liked. Alex blocked with both barrels of his guns and kicked hard at his knee. Beta didn't seem to care and kicked him much further away than even Alex was able to. "FIIIIIRE LAAAAAANCE!!!!" Beta yelled, spears of flame flying over and threatening to burn his flesh. Alex raised both hands until branches of lightning crackled from his fingertips and blew up the flaming death branches. "Interesting. You use lightning magic without naming the spells." Beta nodded. "I'll take my Semblance over your magic any day." Alex smiled. Beta swung his weapon at Alex, knocking him down, Alex took the time to convert Electric Fury to it's rail gun form, and shot all six at Beta's chest. Beta shrugged them off, and his weapon glowed bright orange before it revealed a steel-colored pair of short swords. Alex converted his rail gun to it's sword and attacked, swinging at the parts that seemed most vulnerable. Beta kicked him to the ground, and before Beta could deliver a death blow, a strange blue light enveloped him, rendering him somehow unable to move. Sigma leaped, slashing at him with both swords while she had the advantage and quickly evading Beta's strikes. "Doesn't your weapon have another function?" Sigma asked. "That depends, are you going to try and kill me afterward?!" Alex yelled back. He should kill her once Beta is out of commission, then Sigma would be easy pickings afterwards. "Use it!" Sigma yelled back. Alex did as Sigma told, both ends of the blade spinning fast as they could, and Alex struck. The attack proved useless, it was a hologram or an afterimage?! Beta held Sigma by the leg and threw her at him, Alex threw her away and threw lightning balls at him, to no effect. Beta then punched him in the throat, throwing him aside and coughing. "Your 'Semblance' did not defeat me." Beta stated. Alex coughed. "It wasn't supposed to." He gagged. The distant sound of a helicopter was heard, and a barrage of 105mm shells ripped through the air, blowing up in Beta's face. This went on until Alex could no longer see wether Sigma or Beta were even there anymore. The Cargobob Lui was piloting dropped a tank in the smoke, and Delirious climbed out, waving frantically. "That was epic as shit!" Delirious cheered. The helicopter landed nearby, the smoke swirling away as Lui stepped out of the Helicopter. "Yeah! We did it!" Lui smirked, joining Delirious. "Well. Mission accomplished." Alex sat down. "I thought you said the EMP was destroyed!" Delirious was clearly confused. "I'll explain after we get to shore." Alex promised. Alex looked to the right to see Sigma looking over the ocean. She looked him right in the eye. "I'll get my chance to kill you later. For now, at least, don't watch your back." She glared. "I get it, you megalomaniacal prick! You have 5 seconds before we start shooting!" Alex yelled. Sigma rolled her eyes and leaped off the side of the boat. "Alright. Let's go home." Alex said, getting inside the co-pilot's seat. Lui stepped into the pilot's seat and Delirious got in the tank, before Alex knew it, they were on the return trip. "Alpha, sir!" Gamma yelled. "What is it?" Alpha asked. "Beta has fallen at the hands of the boy, and Sigma escaped." Gamma said. "Right, escaped." Sigma scoffed. Alpha merely glared in her direction. "I'll deal with you later, but for now.." Alpha dismissively turned away from Sigma, and towards his other subordinate. "I can't even rely on you to kill one pathetic kid!" Alpha yelled, picking him up and punching him square in the jaw. "Don't pin this on me! It was Sigma who stabbed you in the back!" Gamma choked. "Sigma here was hand-selected by one of our highest donors. Besides, she is too valuable to our cause for me to simply cast her aside... for now." Alpha defended. "It's not his fault, either." A voice sounded behind Gamma. Gamma saw a man in a military uniform, bearing a cracked gas mask and the remains of a flamethrower. "Beta. You haven't died like Gamma had assumed.." Alpha concluded. Sigma didn't say anything, but looked quite dissatisfied with her failure. "Walker and his allies are more skilled than even I expected. Mr. Fong put my best man out of commission, at least for a while. However, the EMP was destroyed in the battle." "That is not the case." Alpha corrected. "What?!" Gamma asked, baffled. "Instead of it being destroyed in the Hydra jet, the boy hid it." Alpha explained. "Clever bastard." Gamma concluded. "So, what now?" Beta asked. "We have no choice, we have to get The Red Star assembled as soon as possible, and see to it that Walker, Fong, Sparkle, Anderson, and Rose do know know what we are doing here." Alpha stated. "They will not, I can promise you that." A mysterious voice said from their right. "Zodiac. I did not expect to see you here." Beta noted. "They won't know what's happening here until it's too late." Zodiac assured. "And why is that?" Gamma asked. "Because I'm working with them." Author's Note If any of you are wondering, this is the only point in the story where Sigma and Alex work together, they're still bitter enemies. What are your opinions in the story now that it's gotten to the point where I have to add another Act just because it's that long. It could be a complicated question, or a very simple one. Feel free to add constructive criticism of any kind.
Act II, Chapter 7: Combat TrainingAlex was laying in his bed. He twirled .44 Scratch around, spinning it in a flourish before holstering it once more. It was good to practice that sort of thing. Besides, he was bored. When he last spoke to Yang, she was surprised that he had managed to defeat Beta, and was thunderstruck when she found out that Sigma helped him. To be honest, Alex was disappointed by the encounter, even though they had killed off Beta, Sigma was still alive. He assumed that Sigma was one of those 'if anyone is going to kill him, it has to be me' types, so he should have his chance again soon. He was now looking over a map of Los Santos, a thumbtack over a spot in the ocean which he labeled 'EMP'. He knew he would have more missions in getting what he needed, but first, he needed to figure out what it was he needed. A nuke would be very impractical, as would a nerve agent or a chimera virus, he already had enough military equipment to decimate a small army in a matter of hours thanks to Evan. Alex had heard of 'Atlean Paladins', large mechs made by the Kingdom of Atlas, as that the White Fang had plenty of those. He should consider robbing them for what they had for a few of those. His cellphone buzzed, who could that be? He pulled out the cellphone, and saw that Yang had sent him a text, the description was vague. 'Meet me at the top of the Maze Bank, bring your weapon.' it read. He knew what this was about. Alex put on his Scarab Mk. III Armor, his Atlean Battle Rifle, and Electric Fury, putting .44 Scratch in a safe spot. He walked out of the apartment and into the Elevator, he was alone, as usual. Walking out, he set his armor up for a huge leap that should get him to the top of the tower. His jump-jets were ready, burning the concrete below as he leaped over his apartment complex. Looking out at the massive view of Los Santos, he saw the shape of a girl waving at him. Yang. He set his jump jets to go towards the tower and sped across the sky, skidding into the helipad with ease, putting his BR aside and pulling out Electric Fury, converting into it's sword form and facing the Huntress/Inheritor. "You called?" Alex asked her. "Yep! I bet you know why?" Yang beamed excitedly. "Inheritor training. I remember our deal." Alex answered. "Okay, then! Let's begin with a simple training exercise!" "Which is?" Alex asked. "I need you to go down those stairs, face a wall, and count to 500. I'll be hiding somewhere in the city. After you finish counting, I need you to find me, and if you can, beat me in city-wide combat!" Yang said. "Wonderful. A game of 'hide and go fight'. Any other rules?" Alex asked. "No going north of the city's outer limits, no fighting to the death, and no help. You have to beat me yourself." Yang responded. "Do your teammates know about this?" Alex asked. "I sent them with Vanoss's crew and Twilight's friends to go hang out or whatever, Kat and Zera are with them." Yang replied. "Of course." Alex rolled his eyes. He could only imagine the sheer chaos the bartender must be dealing with. "Okay, get down those stairs and start counting!" Yang ordered. As Alex stepped down the stairs, he heard Yang clear her throat. "Yes?" Alex asked. "One more thing; Hair is off limits." Yang glared. "Okay then. No hair." Alex shrugged, he honestly didn't pay much attention to his hair, it always got burned off or got snagged in his helmet. He'd respect Yang's wishes, but Alex wasn't sure where he should aim, as her golden locks drifted at least down to her back. With Alex down the stairs, he started counting. "One..-" Alex could barely finish before he heard what vaguely sounded like Ember Celica launching the Huntress elsewhere. "This may take a while." 17 minutes later "...497...498...499...500!" Alex finished counting. He leaped down from his perch and rocketed towards the ground. He landed hard on a truck, but his Aura took more damage than Alex himself. Alex looked around. Yang could be anywhere by now! Was there a time limit? Because this would take damn near forever. The rest of Team Unity would be back before Alex found her! Regardless, he walked towards a young girl in her twenties. Yang said nothing about asking for directions. "Excuse me, miss? Have you seen a girl, long blonde hair, about in her late teens? Small brown jacket?" Alex asked. "I saw someone like that, but I don't remember where she went exactly, I think I might need something to jog my memory." She insisted, rubbing her thumb and forefinger together. Materialistic pricks. Alex handed her $25 cash. "Yeah, she was flying around in the direction of the LS Customs." She said. No further evidence needed. He set his jump jets in the direction of the LS Customs. Alex walked inside the car shop, and waved to the proprietor. "Hi. Have you seen a girl in her late teens? Long blonde hair, small brown jacket, gauntlets of death, ring any bells?" Alex asked. "I'm not sure. I think I saw someone like that, but I'm not quite sure..." His voice trailed off, and he rubbed his thumb and pointer finger together. This again?! Alex grabbed a $50 out of his wallet and handed it to him. "Yeah, I've seen her. She said something about an amusement park, wanting to ride a roller coaster or something." He said. "Thank you for your time, sir." Alex nodded. "Come again!" He waved. "Excuse me, have you seen a girl in her late teens? Long blonde hair, brown jacket?" Alex asked the guy operating the roller coaster. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." He replied, rubbing his thumb and pointer together. "Fine, god dammit!" Alex groaned, reaching into his pocket and throwing a $50 and a $20 at him. "Okay, sheesh! I did see her! Said something about a bar afterwards. She also bought a picture we took of her on the ride and asked me to give it to you." He said, handing him a picture. The picture consisted of Yang with her hair flowing back, middle finger extended, with the words 'Find me if you can' written on the front. "Thank you for your time, sir." He said, trying to control his anger. Alex walked into the bar, picture crumpled in his hand, and slammed it on the table. "Has anyone seen this girl?!" Alex asked, pissed beyond belief. "I have, but it'll cost ya." A middle-aged man with black hair stated to his right. "Listen, you. What's your name?!" Alex grasped his collar. "Michael!" He gasped. "Listen here, Michael, I've been looking all damn day, with literally everyone I asked demanding a bribe! I'm completely out of money, so unless you want me to beat you on the damn sidewalk, you'll tell me where she went!" Alex seethed. Alex knew well enough that he wasn't usually like this, but Yang's 'exercise' had really gotten to him. "She said something about a tower..." He gasped. Alex released him, Michael gasping for breath on the seat. "Thank you for your time." Alex nodded, but just as he was leaving, he heard a loud boom and something bounced off the back of his helmet. Alex turned around to see Michael holding a gun up to his head. He merely grasped his gun hand and punched him in the face. "As much as I'd love to kick your ass for that, I really don't have time for this crap." Alex said before leaving the bar. Alex landed on the tower to find the woman of the hour standing on the top of the tower, looking over the view. "About time you showed up!" Yang smiled. "Very funny. Ha ha HA!" Alex wasn't as amused. "Upset because you spent the whole day looking for me? Oh well, I'm gonna split." She teased. "Okay. THAT'S IT!!!" Alex had enough of this crap, and lashed out with Electric Fury. Yang leaped out of the way just in time and was flying away from him. "Gotta go fast!" She yelled. Alex was thoroughly pissed. "GET BACK HERE!!!" He yelled, leaping after her. After he had landed on a construction site, he looked around for the Huntress, who was nowhere to be seen. He peeked around steel frames cautiously, noticing piles of rebar dangling haphazardly above him. "SURPRISE, BITCH!" Yang yelled at the top of her lungs as Alex was hit hard by Ember Celica. Right in the face. Alex reared up an attack and swung with all his might, knocking Yang into a pile of steel beams. Yang got up immediately after and launched herself at him. Alex evaded the attack just in time, Yang skidding across the floor and stopping herself with the steel beams nearby. Alex immediately converted Electric Fury into it's gun form before she could harm him. She launched shell after shell at Alex, who fired back into the blasts, blowing them up in midair before aiming right for her gut. The bullet was met immediately by two shells, one to block and the other for Alex. Alex leaped out of the way, reloaded, and repeatedly shot again and again. Yang seemed to be having a thrill with this fight, and blocked all the bullets with her gauntlets, and went up close. Uh, oh. Yang hit him again and again as Alex tried fruitlessly to defend against such a devastating torrent of flame and buckshot. Once Yang ran out of ammo, Alex's armor was severely damaged, a jump-jet activated and left Alex struggling to balance. This could work. Alex reloaded, and leaped into the air with his good leg, the jump-jet causing him to spin and flip uncontrollably, occasionally hitting Yang and sending her backwards. Yang was fully reloaded. This wasn't good. She punched out his jump-jet and tossed him aside. Alex grasping his injured leg in agony. Using his pain, he fired all six rounds at Yang as fast and as accurate as he could, supercharging his bullets with the little Aura he had left. Yang leaped at him with a rod of rebar and swung it at his leg, she hit it pretty hard and it sent him flying across the room. Alex had to focus his Aura. His leg was likely broken, as it was bent at an awkward angle. What could he do? Alex focused his Aura to his bad leg, it glowed a deep red-violet and straightened up immediately with a loud crack, all pain subsided. "What the?!" Yang asked, baffled. Alex lunged at Yang, firing multiple shots close and reverting it back into sword form, slicing through her blasts. Yang hit him hard in the chest, leaving Alex gasping for air. "Come on, man. Face it, I won." Yang stared at him. Alex lurched up, facing her. "Not yet." He gasped, clutching his chest before focusing his Aura to it. Alex lunged again, a series of punches, kicks, and swings flawlessly meshed together into a formidable attack, Yang could almost barely keep up with him. And for a final attack, he focused his Aura into a blast of lightning that sent her across the room. And disabling his temporary sedation. Alex gasped and screamed in pain, his shattered leg and rib cage were causing him a lot of pain. So much so that he almost couldn't refocus his Aura to his injuries. Alex remembered his hard landing, that hadn't been a temporary painkiller, it was full blown healing, and he used up most of his Aura into it, and Aura took forever to completely regenerate. Long story short, he was in terrible pain. He noticed Yang walking up to him, something sounding vaguely like sounds of pride and encouragement before he passed out. He felt his Aura regenerating again, rather quickly. He could now heal his disastrous wounds. Doing so, he staggered up. Grabbing Electric Fury and reholstering it back into it's proper spot. "Not bad for a trainee. I didn't know your Aura could be used for a painkiller!" She beamed. "Neither did I." Alex replied. "Come on, man. Let's get you back to your apartment." Yang suggested. "Yeah, why not." Alex said, emotionless due to how tired he was. Alex was back in the apartment, watching TV and drinking the closest thing that LS had to offer to a slush. Yang insisted coming over, despite Alex's pleas not to. He just wanted to sleep. "So, Alex." Yang said. "Hmm?" He asked. "I know Kat already talked to you about this, but what's your status, relationship-wise?" Yang asked. "Single." Alex answered. "Are you even thinking about getting a girlfriend?" "Nope." "What about that incident on the motorcycle?" She asked. "That was an accident and you know it!" Alex retorted. "Just teasing you, man. Relax!" She defended. "Okay, then." Alex said apathetically. Silence fell upon the apartment complex until Yang spoke up. "When would be the best time for a date?" She asked. Alex sighed, staring her in the eye. "As soon as this mess is cleared up, and that's if I'm stable enough." Yang seemed a little disappointed. Staring at the TV. "Why do you ask?" Alex said after a while. "Huh?" "About my relationship. Why are you asking?" "I don't know. You seem cool enough, sure you're a little young, but it's normal for couples to be a year or two apart, unless one is 18, then it's probably not okay." "So the customs are at least a little similar." Alex notes. "They're the same in your world?" Yang asks. "Yeah, pretty much." Alex shrugged. "What was it like?" Yang asked. "Earth?" Alex asked, it seemed like a lifetime away now, his old life. "Yeah, tell me about it!" Yang punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Well, to put it simply, nobody is special." Alex replied. "Define special." "Like, nobody had any sort of superpowers, that sort of thing is only in movies and comic books." Alex explained. "Then how come you were able to activate your Aura, by yourself no less?" She asked. "Hell if I know." Alex shrugged. "Sounds boring enough, for you anyway." Yang smiled. "Earth is a lot of things, peaceful is, under no circumstance, one of them. Why do you think I ran off to Ponyville?" Alex asked. "Really?" "Oh yeah, rampant terrorist groups, corrupt governments, and hordes of people who are exactly the same." Alex frowned. "You always felt like you wanted more out of life?" Yang asked. "Precisely. Lemme guess, you felt the same way at one time or another." "Not as bad as you." "Well then." Alex scoffed. "In all seriousness, that's why I became a huntress, I like the feeling of not knowing where I'll be tomorrow." She elaborated. "I'd readily trade my job for yours any day of the week. I don't know what kind of jobs you did in the past, but I'm sure none of them involved leaping through universes being hunted by the same assholes 24/7." Alex said. They continued talking for a while, it was almost one in the morning before Yang left the apartment. "I guess you want me out of your hair, see you around." She waved goodbye and left. Alex staggered downstairs to bed, turned off all the lights, and welcomed sleep with open arms, with one last thought. I literally have the most ridiculous life ever.
Act II, Chapter 8: ConfrontationsAlex sat in his apartment.. The rest of Team Unity returned to the city a couple days ago. After an hour long chewing out about how none of them should even be in public, for fear of their enemies closing in and finishing what they started. They found out that they had no idea in mind as to what to do about the Syndicate, he figured they should sit tight until something happened. After all, none of them had any clue as to where they were. Alex wondered again why Sigma would team up with him, especially after killing his friend and threatening to kill the others. She had said that Winchester wasn't the one who hired her, so who was? It was a question that plagued him day and night since Karis's death. That wasn't the point. She agreed to it, she had to die. Horribly. Alex was immediately met by a buzz at his apartment door. Who could that be? Walking over to his door, he pressed a small button and spoke. "Who's this?" Alex asked. "It's Twilight and the others, can we come in?" Twilight asked. "No problem." Alex pressed another button to let his newest allies inside. A minute or two later, Alex was met by the six ponies. "Hi." Alex greeted, he invited them to sit down and have something to drink. "Hello Alex. I bet you know why we're here." Twilight grimly, but calmly stated. "Not really." Alex calmly replied. "We want to know why you've been killing all of these people!" Rainbow Dash blurted out. Ah, he should've expected this. Ponies were typically against violence and bloodshed. Similar in nature to how normal people would react. Regardless, there was a reason behind it. All of it. "Do you think I really had any other choice?" Alex coldly retorted. "What do ya mean?" Applejack questioned. "If I had just accepted my fate and got taken away by those men, I would be dead. If I didn't use Die Glocke to escape, after killing my way to getting there, I would be dead. And if I hadn't followed Kat and the others out of that damned prison, WE WOULDN'T EVEN BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE I'D BE SIX FEET UNDER!" He yelled. "That's no excuse for what you did after that. Sure you killed to save yourself in the beginning-" Rarity tried to finish. "MY MOTIVES HAVE STAYED THE SAME THROUGHOUT! I'M A WANTED FUGITIVE, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXPECT?!" Alex reasoned. "AND WHY IS THAT? DO YOU EXPECT US TO BELIEVE YOU AFTER EVERYTHING YOU DID! ALL THOSE MEN YOU KILLED? THE INNOCENT DON'T RUN!" Rainbow yelled. "Um... Please stop arguing..." Fluttershy shrank back from the hostility. "LET'S YELL RANDOM THINGS! FORGET INSIDE VOICES!" Pinkie yelled. "IF THE INNOCENT NEVER RUN, THEN WHY WAS I ABDUCTED FROM MY HOME, MY PARENTS MURDERED, AND MY HOUSE BURNED TO ASHES?!" "AND DOES THAT JUSTIFY THE HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE YOU KILLED?!" "THOSE MEN WERE NEVER INNOCENT! THEY TRIED TO KILL ME, OR SEND ME OVER TO SOME SADISTIC ASSHOLE THAT WOULD TORTURE ME UNTIL I PISSED BLOOD! AND YOU SUPPORTED HIM!" Alex angrily yelled back. "HE'S DEAD NOW SO WHY WORRY?! THE BODY COUNT IS NEVER ENOUGH FOR YOU, IS IT?!" "IT'S BECAUSE OF THAT INQUISITOR YOU HIRED! THAT SAME INQUISITOR THAT MURDERED ONE OF MY FRIENDS IN COLD BLOOD!" Twilight stepped back in shock. "Did you think I didn't know? Did you think I was that dim-witted? Sigma told me that Winchester didn't hire her, so I got to thinking, who did?" Alex scoffed. Twilight froze, and her other friends looked guilty. "And when you and your 'Elements of Harmony' drop this topic on me. That's when I realized. It was you. It was you all along. You didn't trust me from the beginning. And it was only after you and your friends called the hit that you finally figured out that what you were doing was wrong all along." Alex continued, that angry stare not even moving an inch from Twilight's eyes. "Do you realize now just what you did? That if we all die, if we all fail in defeating the Inquisitors, that the blame will fall directly on your shoulders, the blood in your hands? And was I even the first? You had to have at least known what the Inquisitors do for a living. Did you call hits on other innocent men like me who lost their way? Or the dozens and dozens of protesters and naysayers?" Alex cruelly finished. Twilight honestly didn't know what to say, how to respond. He was right. This was their fault. "Did you even consider the consequences of your actions? That if I survived, that more, stronger warriors would come my way until, finally, death takes me? Or did you think that if Cinder failed, everything would just be all sunshine and rainbows and I'd live happily ever after? NO! I WON'T! IF I HAD EVEN THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE OF HAVING A NORMAL LIFE, IT'S GONE DOWN THE SHITTER NOW!!" Alex finished. Twilight sat down, shocked. What had she done? "Is that really what you want? A chance for a normal life?" Rainbow asked. "You know me well enough that this is what I've been fighting for all along. Before all of this, I was just your average, run-of-the-mill kid until I was blamed for that attack. And it's only escalated from there." Alex said. "Then, why bother with all of this? You know that you're never going to go back now." Twilight asked. "Yeah. I've never really understood that." Applejack agreed. "I already tried that, in Ponyville. You all know how well that turned out for me." Alex elaborated. "What about Remnant?" Rarity asked. "We all know I passed the point of no return with that. Remnant is anything but." Alex bluntly replied. Alex stood up, walked to the window, and stared Thoughtfully at the view. "Sometimes, I wonder what could have changed, how everything would be if I had just accepted my fate and died. All the lives that would be saved, all the damage that would never be." Alex sighed. Alex turned back to the mares, a sorrowful expression on his face. "I don't expect forgiveness for what I did, or pity from anyone that knows me well enough to know what happened to me all those months ago. But what I do expect is anger, fear, loss, and pain. In here and everywhere that I go. No matter what I do or where I go. I always wonder if I'll even be here tomorrow. But all I'm asking is for acceptance. From the small group of people that I am willing to call 'allies'. Perhaps even 'friends'." Alex finished. Him and the six mares sat in silence. Thinking about what Alex had said to all of them. Even Alex never expected his words to make that big of an impact on them. On all of them. "If it's any consolation, darling," Rarity began, Alex looked at her with an unidentifiable expression,"I will help you get through this. I understand some of the blame may fall upon us, but then again, nobody is innocent. And I accept it. I will help you." "So will I." Rainbow raised a hoof in agreement. "Same here." Applejack assured. "I don't agree with what we're doing here, but count me in... If that's okay." Fluttershy weakly rose a hoof. "WOOHOO!" Pinkie yelled, waving a flag with the word 'Alex' draped in gold. "Alex." Twilight began. Alex looked at Twilight expectingly. "If it's all the same to you. I'll do what I can." She said. "Thank you. All of you. I'm not sure what we're going to do now, but all we can do is stick together and hope for the best." Alex nodded respectfully. The apartment buzzer sounded again, and Alex ran to the door. "Who is it?" Alex asked. "Alex, It's Kat. I need your help. Bring the Elements with you." Kat said. Alex was nervous, she sounded like the Grim Reaper itself had followed her here, she was that afraid. "On our way." Alex nodded. He turned to the ponies. "Kat needs our help, if you want to prove to me if you meant what you said, you'll come with me." Alex stated. "Of course." Twilight replied. "All right. Let's go." Kat led them to an alleyway, Vanoss and company, Team RWBY, and Zera were among them in the alleyway. "Look at this." Kat gestured to a bloodied corpse. "Jesus!" Alex turned away at the sight, and the mares gagged. Vanoss knelt down, emotionlessly, and checked the dead body. "Well?" Alex asked. "This person hasn't been dead for too long." Vanoss stated. "Look, there's an note!" Ruby notices. Alex knelt down and plucked a bloodied piece of paper off the corpse. Needless to say, what was written on that note disturbed him so much that he felt sick just reciting it. Greetings, Team Unity. This sacrifice is addressed to you as a warning. I am a mercenary hired by the Inquisition. I know how your group operates, how you manage to defeat us, and how to defeat you. If Commander Walker does not turn himself into the Inquisition, Team Unity will die, one by one, starting at about 1300 tomorrow. And every day until either he turns himself in or you all die. Oh, and I have a special surprise for those who respawn. Until we meet again. Zodiac. Author's Note Boom! Plot Twist! DUN DUN DUUUUUN! I figured this fic was becoming more RWBY-related than anything else, and then I figured, 'Well this is a website for MLP fan fiction, so I'd better make it more MLP-related or else. 'Or else what?' You may ask? Exactly. One more thing, I've been wondering a lot about this, What do you guys think of this story, it's nice to hear feedback once in a while, especially if it would make a more interesting fic for you people to read, and I can't exactly do that if people never tell me how I can improve, because, truth be told, I know it needs improvement, but I can never be sure what I need to fix and what I need to keep. And I'm boring you guys. Again. You know what? Just ignore these.
Act II, Chapter 9: DeceptionAlex stared at the note in horror. "What's wrong, Alex?" Kat asked. "Is it an eviction notice or some shit?" Delirious smirked inside his hockey mask. Alex turned to his friends, well, his 21 friends and one enemy. "This note says that one of us is an Inquisitor." Alex grimly announced. "What?!" Weiss gaped in disbelief. "I can't believe it. We all just got Hoodini'd." Vanoss blinked. Alex wasn't sure how Vanoss got the inanimate owl mask to blink, but he figured he couldn't be bothered with it. After all, stranger, and occasionally, more embarrassing things have happened. Ruby grabbed the note from Alex's hands and read it carefully. "It also says we have to turn Alex in, or this 'Zodiac' is going to kill us all one by one." She announced. "Wait a minute! We can respawn, we'll be fine! Nice knowing you Alex and the rest!" Wildcat waved goodbye before he was nudged by Twilight, who levitated the note and read it. "It seems like they planned for that." Twilight grimly stated, showing Wildcat the note. "Well, shit." "Anyone have any bright ideas?" Alex asked. "I have one-" Vanoss said before Dash covered his mouth, or rather, beak. "No, you idiot! If one of us is a bad guy, announcing the plan to that bad guy is a terrible idea!" She whispered. "Can we talk about this somewhere else? This place literally stinks!" Blake covered her nose and gestured to the dead body. "Fine by me." Alex nodded. "But I'm hungry!" Vanoss pouted. "I need FOOOOOOOD!" Delirious announced. Alex face-palmed, grabbing a wallet and looking inside. "It's empty. No thanks to Yang's quote-unquote 'training exercise'." Alex rolled his eyes in her direction. "Hey, you're the one who decided to ask for directions in this town!" Yang retorted. "I'll pay, if that's fine." Kat said. "Sure, where do you guys want to go?" Alex asked. -4 mystery pizzas and a 10-piece bucket of Cluckin' Bell later- "Okay, now that we've spent, like, $250 of Kat's money on food and drinks, let's at least try and figure this out." Alex announced. "Hello! Earth to Alex! Bad idea! Villain in the room!" Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. "Oh, please, you know as well as I do that they're all going to be talking about any topic other than this one for, like, an hour, right?" Alex gestured to the rest of the group. "And Alex was all like; 'AAAH! I didn't mean to do that!'" Yang told them all about his embarrassing moment. "Nah, Ah've got a better one, so we were at Sugarcube Corner..." Applejack begins to tell the others about the party all those weeks ago. Rainbow turned back to Alex, waving a hand at the small crowd sitting on his couch. "Huh." "Case in point." Alex muttered, still upset they they were talking about him. Rainbow went over to join in the conversation, leaving Alex with some time to think. 'Now who could it be?' Alex thought. He looked at Twilight and the other Elements. Given their recent reconciliation, he was going to give them a pass, for now at least. Vanoss and his crew? No, they weren't clever enough to plan that far ahead, and they had promised to pay Kat back. Kat? She had trusted him from the start, and he regularly spoke with her, even more so than Yang. Team RWBY were already out of the question, they had taken an oath on not working with people they knew were evil, and he was sure that included the Inquisitors. Who, then? "Something wrong, Commander?" Zera asked. "Trying to think about who among us could be this 'Zodiac' person." Alex sighed. "This could be, in itself, a lie. A mind game designed specifically that we would all destroy ourselves without the inquisitors themselves actually having to lift a finger." Zera explained. "How do you figure? I trust most of the people on this team with my life, and I'm pretty sure this isn't going to change anything in their situation." Alex gestured over to the crowd. "...And then my brother walked in and saw it." Nogla said, telling them an embarrassing tale of his own. "Did you even close the door on your way in?" Kat laughed. "...Ya got me there." Nogla admitted. Alex waited until Zera looked back at him to continue the conversation. "If this Inquisitor really took the time to at least try to know all of us, that inquisitor would probably defect by now. If a fifteen year old pubescent idiot with a bad history can manage to make the same bond with everyone here, then so can a highly trained warrior for hire." Alex nodded, pride encompassing his voice. "So, what you're saying is that, you can't bring yourself to accuse anyone, guilty or not." Zera concluded. "Pretty much." Alex replied. Zera sighed. "Are you sure you're not putting too much faith in your comrades?" Zera asked. "I know, they can be idiots, but hell, even I have my moments." Alex admitted. "Are you talking about that incident with Ms. Xiao Long?" Zera asked. "And a majority of my decisions. Including joining the Militia." Alex replied. "Nobody can blame you for that. You were desperate, inexperienced, afraid even." She elaborated. "I'm not denying it." "Well, then I'm not denying my identity." Zera replied. "Come again?" Alex asked. "I respect your dedication to your comrades, but I am not forgetting my mission." Zera continued. "No way." Alex backed away. "Alex Gabriel Walker, under Article XIII of the Kalos Accords, 'If an undercover agent bonds with multiple targets, that agent is obliged to duel with the leader among them. If the agent wins, the agent will take the target and spare the others. If, however, the target is the victor, the agent is to be permanently associated with the group, the agent's status as Inquisitor is to be decided by the current Alpha Inquisitor.'" Zera announced. "Zodiac." Alex gaped. "There is more to this arrangement. 'I; Neither the agent nor the target is to receive any assistance from their allies. II; The duel is not to the death, both must remain alive. III; the terms of the duel are to be discussed between the agent and the target until an agreement can be reached. IV; The duel is not to be announced to either party, though if the duel is discovered by Inquisitors or the target's allies, neither party will be penalized." "Sounds fair for a cult of assassins." Alex admitted. "'V; to ensure a fair fight, both duelists are to inform one another of their known abilities, augmentations, and equipment, if an ability unknown to either party happens to manifest itself during the duel, neither party shall be penalized.'" Zera finished. "Of course. I accept your challenge, let's discuss this further somewhere where they can't hear." Alex figured. "Glad to see you have respect for the law. Let's take this to your garage." Zera announced. Once both Alex and Zera arrived inside the garage, Alex sat on the hood of a sedan, while Zera continued to stand. "Okay, let's start with a decent location." Alex figured. "I have to go with the Helipad on top of the Maze Bank, no obstacles, nothing in the environment either of us can use to our advantage." Zera decided. "What if either of us is launched to another building in the process?" Alex asked. "Not to worry, one of my ablilities includes shield spells and active cammoflage. Neither of us will be able to leave, and the others will not be able to see us." Zera replied. "Intresting, does it take an extended period of time to set up?" Alex asked. "Yes, it takes a full 30 minutes to fully deploy anything of that magnitude." Zera replied. "Okay. So what time? Tomorrow at dawn is good for me. Your offer starts at 1:00 pm, before you are obliged to kill my friends." Alex asked. "I accept, dawn is about 6:38 tomorrow." Zera announced. "Great, I'll be there at 6:08 so you can set up." Alex agreed. "Deal." "What else? Oh yeah, abilities. Androids first." Alex nodded. "Ah, yes. My model is outfitted with long-range radios, Internet capabilities, and advanced shielding." "So none of that is useful in the duel." Alex wondered. "No." "Good, continue." Alex wanted this over with, he had an idea of what Zera was capable of. "Due to my model being mostly used for performance, enhanced for combat by an Inquisitor called 'Delta'. This allows me to summon bladed weapons using only my voice. Such weapons include a Katana, Zweihander, dual short swords, and a Magnum Research Desert Eagle .50AE, modified with such attachments as laser sighting, a scope, extended magazines, and full-auto firing." "Jesus. A full auto Deagle." Alex gaped. "I am also able to leap about 93 meters, punch with three times the force of an average human punch, and due to my Internet capabilities, I am an unofficial expert in Kung Fu, Silat, Krav Maga, The Atlesian offensive form Arcamida, and the Minstraili defense form, Okira." "Well, shit." "What about you, Commander?" Zera asked. "Ah... I carry a primary Atlean Battle Rifle-" "Two things; One, the proper term is Atlesian. Two; please state the model of your rifle, as well as any attachments you may have." Zera corrected. "Sure. As a primary, I'm carrying the Atlesian KMG-157 Battle Rifle, equipped with a Ver-Kai sight and an A-17 grenade launcher. As secondaries, I'm carrying a heavily modified Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum pistol, able to fire iron pellets at the target, as well as Electric Fury, with four forms; a .499 Kaiser revolver, a rail gun that fires all six rounds at full auto, a long sword, and the blades of the sword separate and spin fast enough to cut through steel. My armor is composed entirely of Equestrian Steel, and is outfitted with rockets, jump-jets, and at one point, a Shoulder-mounted Browning M2 .50 BMG machine gun. My semblance is Electricity Manipulation, I can just fire regular electric bolts, condense them into balls of lightning, use them to augment my weapons, and temporary sedation if I'm injured. If I have enough Aura, I can also fully heal my wounds. Since I activated my own Aura, I can grow more powerful once I'm mad enough." Alex explained all of his abilities. "What combat forms have you used?" Zera asked. "A combination of Arcamida and Voikara, though I only trained for a week or so. I was also a red belt in Kung Fu when I was about 13, not sure how well that stuck, though." Alex admitted. "Very well then. That checks out." Zera nodded. "Okay then. I can't exactly wish you 'good luck' without sounding masochistic, so this is as close as I'm able to get." Alex admitted. "It is not a weakness to wish an opponent luck before a duel. The only reason I am doing this is so you may have a chance to stay with your comrades." Zera replied. "A damn small one, if you ask me. You've got much more experience than I do! I'll probably die!" Alex lamented. "The rules state it is not a fight to the death." Zera stated. "You don't seem to understand. The Inquisitors want me dead more that any target they've been given." Alex elaborated. "I am fully aware of your situation, and you have defeated countless inquisitors before." Zera stated. "Not without help." "True, but when you fought Beta, Sigma was wounded. And when you last fought Sigma, you fought her to near death." "I can't fight an inquisitor!" "There is more reason to this than you think." "Like what?! Dealing with failure, torture for dummies; the sequel?!" Alex exclaimed. "I shouldn't tell you this, but I'm doing this to make sure you are ready for any challenge." "Explain to me how me possibly dying is going to prepare me for anything!" "I did the math, and you may have a slight advantage." Zera answered. "What?!" "I am not telling you in which field this advantage lies, I'm only telling you it is there." "Fine." Alex relented. As Zera left the garage, she turned back. "You will understand. You just need to look." She said as she closed the door. Alex didn't understand what Zera told him. All he knew was he was probably going to be handed over to te Inquisitors and killed. He needed something before this whole mess went down. Alex walked out of the Ammu-Nation store with new grenades for his KMG and some spare parts needed to repair the shoulder mounted MG. Should he really be going through with this? The whole reason he even had the thought to take another life was because of his will to preserve his own. But he had other lives beside his own to protect. He couldn't stand to watch any if his friends suffer more than they already did. No matter the cost. Author's Note After watching a few youtube videos of people reacting to fanfiction, I'm starting to reconsider my options. Imagine that, someone like, I don't know, The voice actors of MLP reacting to your fan fiction. Yep, Cringefest 2015.
Act II, Chapter 10: Preventing A CringefestAlex listened to the others joke about his incident again. And he was getting tired of it. Like, really tired. "Don't you think this is getting a little old yet?" Alex groaned. "Uh... Nope!" Vanoss replied. "Not really." Kat added. "It's still funny." Rainbow shrugged. "Don't you mean it's still punny?" Yang joked. Everyone collectively groaned at the pun. "What?" Yang asked. "Vanoss, you're up." Alex shoved. "For what, exactly?" In response, Alex gestured to the huntress in front of him. "Rainbow, do you know where Twilight is?" Alex asked. "She said something about 'studying the effects of trans-dimensional pathogens' or something weird like that." Rainbow replied. "Of course, where is she though?" Alex asked. "The airport." "Thanks." Alex said, walking out of the apartment door, hearing Vanoss's screams of agony accompanied by yelling and what sounded like gunshots. He didn't expect Vanoss to actually tell her that. The cab driver dropped Alex off at the airport, and sure enough, Delirious was coughing loudly and was visibly shaking. "Come on, Delirious! I still need to inject you with the Blue Flu and the Grimm-pox!" Twilight said, two needles being levitated near him. "Get that shit away from me!" Delirious yelled in response. "Twilight! I need your help with something!" Alex yelled. Delirious took this time to get up from the dirty bench he was laying on, run up to a truck, shoot the driver, steal the car, and drive away at a solid 89 mph. "See you on the other side, Alex!" Delirious waved before crashing through a light pole and continue his escape. "Alex, what is it?" Twilight asked. "You've travelled through time once, right?" Alex asked. "That was to prevent a disaster that was never going to happen anyways." Twilight answered. "Okay, good. Y'know that little 'accident' I had on the back of Yang's motorcycle, right?" Alex asked. "I see what's going on here..." Twilight's voice trailed off. "Yep." "REALLY, DESTOYER?! YOU CAN'T UNDO EVEN THE MOST EMBARRASSING INCIDENTS!" Pinkie yelled. "Pinkie Pie?!" Alex gaped. "Yupperoonie!" Pinkie chimed. "Why are you here?" Twilight asked. "Exposition." "Oh." "Basically, when the not-so-great author, Destoyer, saw a Youtube video of Barbara Dunkelman and Arryn Zech reacting to fan-fiction, he panicked and decided to write this chapter to undo what he already wrote in." "Even if that were true, that's a terrible idea." Alex face-palmed "Do you think I didn't already tell him that?!" Pinkie asked. "So, you want to go back in time to fix your mistake and preserve your now-tarnished reputation?" Twilight asked. "Yeah, pretty much." "But think of the dangers! The sheer chaos that would be produced by messing with the past!" Twilight pleaded. "Nah, The Terminator movies did it, so did Star Trek and Back To The Future." Alex retorted. "And look at the consequences! The new Terminator movie sucked!" Pinkie yelled. "I don't know, I actually liked it." Alex shrugged. "Shun the clueless one!" Pinkie yelled. "But you didn't get the point-" "SHUUUUUUUUUN!!!" Pinkie screamed. "Okay, Jesus!" Alex backed up defensively. "...There's no way I can change your mind, is there." Twilight deadpanned. "Not by a damn sight." "Alright fine, but if you want me to do something for you, you gotta do something for me." Twilight announced, smiling evilly. "What do I have to do?" Alex groaned. -About a week ago...- Alex coughed loudly. Thanks to Twilight, Alex was now colored blue, and covered with itchy red bumps all over his body. He knew he shouldn't have agreed to her demands. But no matter, he had to do this. It was about night now, Past-Alex should be there any minute. Seeing a large amount of explosions down the road, he had his own mission. Prevent Cringefest 2016. Past Alex skidded to a halt in the middle of the highway, shooting at the hit men repeatedly whilst getting badly wounded. He didn't have much time. A yellow motorcycle drove up and the remaining attackers were killed violently. Now! Alex sprinted, tackling Past-Alex before Past-Yang could help him onto the motorcycle. "Don't go on there!" Alex ordered. "Why the hell not?! And why are you blue?!" Past-Alex's voice trailed off as he realized who gave the order. "What the..." Past-Yang was obviously confused. "If you go on that motorcycle, something deeply embarrassing will happen to you, or us... I guess.." Alex said. "Like what?" Past-Alex asked. Past-Yang walked up to Past-Alex, whispered in his ear, and Past-Alex looked deeply disturbed. "Blue Alex is probably right. Something like that happened to a guy named Neptune during a mission." She whispered to him. "Ugh. Now I get why you went back in time." Past-Alex agreed. "But why are you blue?" Past-Yang asked. "Twilight injected me with the Blue Flu and Grimmpox." Alex groaned. "And you tackled me?!" Past-Alex backed up. "Listen... I'm sure blue-you can handle the rest.. So I'll just be on my way.." Past-Yang got back on the motorcycle. "So, what, you're going to leave me with a bullet in my arm?!" Past-Alex asked. "I thought you already pulled it out!" Past-Yang drove away. "Great! So, Mr. Great and Wise Future Blue Me, how do I get home?" Past-Alex asked. "Don't know, don't caaaaare!" Alex yelled as he was being pulled back into the present.. -About a week later...or now.- Alex reappeared, and rolled over to Twilight. "Did it work?" Alex asked. "Not in the way you intended." Twilight cringed. "How do you mean?" Alex asked. "There are two realities now, one where you stopped yourself, and the one we're in right now. This is a lot different from when I tried to stop myself from worrying about the future.." Twilight said. "So..." "You're still in the reality where you... Violated.." "I get the point!" Alex groaned. "But there is a way to see what happened instead." Twilight said. "How?" "Here." Twilight handed, or hoofed, him a small screen, Alex peered into it. And what he saw really disturbed him. "I can't believe he's dead." Yang sighed. "Still, it was nice of him to try and fix something he did." Kat comforted. "Yeah, I guess. I didn't expect that bullet wound in his arm to get infected like that." Yang replied. "That did look really painful." "So much pus..." Yang shuddered. Twilight groaned. "I'll get the spell ready, go... Buy some medicine or something." Twilight said. "Okay." "But first..." "Oh, Christ. Not again..." Alex moaned. -About a week ago (again)- Just as Alex #2 left. Alex arrived at the site where Yang left him, apparently, to die. "Come with me if you want to live." Alex said. "Why?" Past-Alex asked again. "I needed to distract you while I did this." "Did wha- AAAAAGH! WHAT THE HELL?!" Past-Alex screamed as Alex splashed the bloodied wound with peroxide. "There, good as new, get a taxi, Zera is an Inquisitor, buy gold, byeee!" Alex yelled as the time spell faded and was sent back to his own time. -The Present- Alex fell back to his own time, immediately Twilight handed him the screen. And what he saw disturbed him slightly less than the previous iteration. "I can't believe he's dead." Yang sighed. "I'm still not sure how he figured out that Zera was an Inquisitor." Kat comforted "It was obvious in hindsight." "But that was no reason to impale the poor guy." "Yeah, even I felt that one." Yang cringed. Twilight took the screen back. "Okay, you know the rules, two more injections, a sample of Horngitis and Deathstalker Venom." Twilight said. "Deathstalker Anti-Venon, you mean." Alex said. "You wish." "Why do you do these things?!" Alex moaned. -another time travel spell later- Alex returned to his time, and Twilight handed him the screen. "I can't believe he's dead" Yang sighed. "How did he even get a nuke?" Kat asked. "I don't know." Yang shrugged "But still, that doesn't change that I'm covered in radiation burns now." Twilight took back the screen. "Yeah, where did you get a nuke?" Twilight asked. "Don't ask." Alex responded. "Okay, then. Now for your PIV and Sinuitis injections." Twilight said. "Okay, I'm done with this. I'm out. Goodbye." Alex groaned, he was tired of getting injected with every disease Equestria and Remnant had to offer. He would deal with this conundrum himself. Yang sat comfortably in her home, drinking a glass of lemonade and reading Ruby's 'Weapons Weekly' magazine. Her relaxing day was interrupted by a loud knocking on her door. "Who is it?" She asked. "A very embarrassed, angry, angst-y kid." She heard her apprentice, Alex, respond. He didn't sound very happy. Regardless, she went and opened the door. Sure enough, he was blue, covered in itchy red bumps, sweating profusely and visibly shaking. "You don't look very good." Yang noticed. "You don't say!" Alex groaned irritably at her. "There's probably a reason why you're here other than to yell at me infected with dust-knows-what." Yang figured. "I have spent the past 3 hours getting random diseases shoved into my arm! All so I could fix something stupid I did a while back!" Alex yelled. "Oh... This is about that incident a week ago." Yang concluded, smirking. "Yep!!" Alex groaned. "Oh, yeah. Sorry about not telling them the actual truth." Yang apologized. "What do you mean, 'actual truth'..?" Alex asked weakly. "Never mind. Do you need me to get you to the hospital or something?" Yang asked. "Nah... I'm good... Ugh..." Alex said before passing out on the floor in front of her. "Alex..?" Yang asked, poking him with Crescent Rose, which Ruby had left inside the apartment. "Yellow is red..." Alex groaned. Yang sighed. Figuring it was the right thing to do, she picked him up, put him in her newly installed sidecar, and drove to the hospital nearby. -a week earlier; normal continuum- Alex was still riding on the back of Yang's motorcycle, still uncomfortable about his position. "You okay man?" She asked him. "Not really." Alex responded. "Why not?" Yang asked. "Well, to put it simply, I'm a dude." Alex responded. "Okay.." "And you're a girl." "Right, you can tell us apart, you're a genius." Yang sarcastically joked. "Not my point. Look at how we're sitting.." "Oh, I get it now..." Yang realized. "Yes... Now you get why this is disturbing for me." "Yeah, actually, a similar thing happened to this guy named Neptune." Alex had stopped listening at this point, he was too distracted by trying to find an appropriate, family friendly, area to hold onto. The shoulders might've worked, but there was a risk of going too low, the waist had a similar problem, as it would be a disaster if they hit a bump. Eventually, he held onto the seat itself, while in no way secure, it would probably spare him some embarrassment. "And then I yelled, 'Sexual Harassment'!" Yang yelled. Alex lost his grip of the seat, and the motorcycle hit a bump, and Alex fell off the back of the motorcycle, landing on the road. Hard. "OW! MY HEAD!" Alex screamed in pain. Yang stopped the motorcycle and walked over to him. Needless to say, he was a mess. Red splattered on the road in a sticky trail that led to Alex, the road burn was intense, the hair on the back of his head was nowhere in sight. She picked him up, and Alex said. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that!" Alex gasped. Yang realized something, she could use this to get a few cheap laughs out of the other guys. Besides, he was too perfect. "You know what, don't worry about it, it was a first offense, so I'm going to leave you off with a warning on this one." Yang said. "Thanks." "But we're still telling everyone what happened." "What?! No!" Alex defended. "I'm sorry, it's how I roll." "NOOOO!" Alex screamed, similar in manner to Delirious -a week later- Yang looked back on that memory. Still feeling bad about this, she sighed. He was actually okay as a person. She thought, how did he get involved with assassins, Inquisitors, Crime Syndicates, and all that? Getting her mind back to the subject at hand, she read the last of her magazine until someone called her name. "Ms. Xiao Long?" The nurse asked. Yang walked over into the emergency room, and met with the doctor. "Hello, Yang." "Hey doc, how is he?" Yang asked. "He's in pretty rough shape, we got him on some sleeping gas to ease the pain. We're not sure what kind of diseases he had, but thanks to Ms. Sparkle, he should be up and running in about a week." The doctor replied. "Sleeping gas?" "Yep, I will warn you, though, it'll make him a little loopy for a few hours, but he should be just fine." He assured. "Thank you, doc. Can we be alone for a few minutes?" Yang asked. "Sure." The doctor left the room, leaving Yang and Alex alone. "Alex, you still there?" She asked. "Yeah... He said a week, right?" Alex asked weakly. "Not important right now, I have some questions." Yang said. "Sure... Whatever." Alex groaned. "Why did Twi inject you with all that?" She asked. "I tried to change the past... So that incident... Wouldn't happen." Alex replied. Yang was surprised, he did this to save him a little embarrassment? "Why were you nervous about that?" She asked. "I can be kinda... Well, stupid. I don't have that luxury anymore.." "What else?" She asked. "I... Uulgh." Alex groaned. "You what?" She asked. "Never-never mind..." Alex shrugged it off. "Fine, why did you ask if you would be fine in a week?" Yang asked. "Duel... With. Zodiac..." Alex mumbled. "Duel?" She asked. "On top of the Maze Bank... 6:38 am tomorrow..." Alex said. "What?!" She gaped. "It's for.. All of you, if I fail... You all... Live." He groaned. "We're not doing this without you!" "Not...my problem...lives..to worry about...other than mine." "What about us?!" Yang asked him. "You...end this... Without me.. Holding you back.." He said before falling asleep. Twilight ran in the hospital room. "Did you hear?" She asked. "That Zera is an Inquisitor?" Twilight replied. "Zera's the Inquisitor?!" Yang asked. "Yes, is there something you know?" "He accepted a duel with her at 6:00 tomorrow morning!" Yang said. "Why would he do that?" Twilight asked. "Something about him having other lives to worry about other than his. He took it so we could end this without him!" "That's insane!" "We have to stop Zera!" "Yeah, you're right, we have to go now!" Twilight replied. Both ran out the door, leaving Alex in the room. Alex looked up, he heard everything, the effects of the sleeping gas wore off instantly after that realization. The sickness returned with a Vengeance, while his Blue Flu had subsided, the effects of the Deathstalker Venom, Grimmpox, and his other ailments struck back. He couldn't let them kill themselves! He staggered up and out of the bed, coughing up foul mucus and his Grimmpox beginning to itch intensely. A doctor immediately tried to stop him. "Mr. Walker, what are you doing?! You're in critical condition!" He yelled. "Not now! I have to help my friends!" He retorted, shoving him into a wall and staggering into the elevator. Author's Note At first, I made this as a joke chapter, then I figured that this could actually work. So yeah. I will confirm that Pinkie's reasoning behind this chapter is pretty much fact. EDIT: Specific things. Derp
Act II, Chapter 11: Zodiac KillersVanoss was chillin' with Terroriser and Wildcat. Right now, they were recovering from a full-on no-holds-barred brass knuckle/marksman pistol brawl. "Okay, so now what?" Wildcat asked. "I don't know, skydive into the city like in the new Godzilla movie?" Terroriser suggested. "Wrong reference, Brian!" Vanoss yelled, shooting an RPG and killing the Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator. "NOOOOOOOO! REALLY?!" He exclaimed, his corpse flying upwards about 30 feet in the air. "You know what I'm talkin' bout. Right, Evan?" Wildcat asked. Both the pig and the owl inhaled deeply, about to utter one of their most favorite past-times. "DAAAAAAAAARTS!" They yelled simultaneously. "God damn it!" Terroriser face-palmed. When the hell would they stop referencing old videos. "Wait, wait, hold on, Yang's calling me." Vanoss stopped before entering Wildcat's McLarry. "I thought her and Alex were already a thing, Evan." Terroriser warned. "Nah, she's probably still mad that I said her puns were terrible." Vanoss reasoned. "Yeah, but they are, so..." Wildcat shrugged. "Whatever man." Vanoss rolled his eyes. "Evan?" They heard Yang ask through the speakerphone. Vanoss recoiled from the phone, holding an ear in pain before continuing. "Yeah, what is it?" He asked dryly. "I don't care if you and Alex's gf are talking, but can you at least turn it off the speakerphone?!" Terroriser groaned. "Brian, stop talking." She retorted. Terroriser immediately backed away defensively, holding up both hands. "Zera is the Inquisitor threatening to kill us, we need as many people as possible, I already got Team RWBY together, and Twilight and the other Elements are over there now. Get the others!" Yang ordered. "Zera? As in the robot bitch coordinating the missions and shit?" Wildcat asked in disbelief. "Really, do we know anyone else with the name 'Zera'? Seriously, who names their robot child that?" Terroriser scoffed. "Yeah, I have to go with Terroriser on this." Yang agreed. "So, get the rest of the team together?" Vanoss asked. "Yes!" Yang groaned. "Alright, boys. Let's terminate this terminator!" Vanoss exclaimed. "GET TO DA CHOPPA!!! YAAAAAAAUGH!" Terroriser screamed, running towards nothing in particular. -Meanwhile- Zera sat on top of the construction site overlooking the city. She had heard everything. Her comrades were on their way to kill her. Opening up the data pad installed in her wrist, she pressed a small button, and was immediately met by static, and then a deep, raspy, cold voice. "What is the situation?" Alpha asked. "I've been discovered. Unity is on their way to kill me." Zera replied. "Unfortunate. For you at least. If you can, buy us some time." Alpha instructed. "Of course." She sighed. "Is something the matter?" He asked. "I had grown... Attached... To them. Walker is a decent leader, and his allies, no, friends, trust him completely." She sighed. "Do not allow this to get in the way of your prime directive, Zodiac. Alpha out." "You really shoulda called for backup while you had the chance!" A raspy, tomboyish voice came from behind her. "Turn around... If it's alright with you..." A meeker, lighter voice ordered. "OR I'LL FIRE THIS PARTY CANNON RIGHT UP YOUR-" "Pinkie! I think she gets the point!" "Aw... I wanted to swear!" "Pinkie, this ain't the time fer games!" "Swearing isn't a game, but it's fun! FU-!" "PINKIE!" Zera stared in disbelief. The Elements, the self proclaimed defenders of friendship, were the first to try and kill her. "So you're the first to arrive, I figured I'd meet someone decently formidable." Zera coldly stared into them. "We're not afraid of some bucket of bolts!" Rainbow Dash crouched into a take-off stance. "Yeah! If you want Alex, ya gotta go through us!" Applejack readied her hind legs for a powerful kick. "We're not letting you lay a circuit on Alex!" Twilight boldly proclaimed, horn glowing a bright magenta color. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me with no choice." Zera sang loudly and produced a pair of deadly swords, swinging them stylishly before readying into a combat stance. -54 seconds after the battle began- Alex walked back to his garage sluggishly. Those diseases did a number on his immune system. He was actually really sick. "Gotta...uurgh...get to the armory..." He gurgled. The Deathstalker Venom had drained him of most of his Aura and sickened him to his stomach. Running over to a dumpster, he vomited inside, the foul mucus leaving his nose and throat stinging. Looking up, he saw a burst of purple-hued magic, and what sounded like a hardcore fight going on above. "Oh, shit. I gotta go!" Alex gasped, sprinting back to his apartment building. It was only a matter of time before the others got there. He had to hurry up! Opening the garage door, he trudged inside, looking for the key he hid inside the wall, he had to be quick about this, or who knows how many of his friends would fall to her? The key was roughly where he left it, good. Going up the elevator was a challenge. The motion sickness rushed to him like a brain freeze, slowing overall movement and making him feel even more nauseous. Finally, he ran inside his apartment and immediately inside his armory. The main problem was rather obvious. "WHERE THE HELL IS THE SCARAB?!" Only one thing remained in it's spot. .44 Scratch, as well as it's remaining 42 caps. He had to make it work. Running inside and grabbing said firearm, he put it inside his holster and opened up his Pocket Dimension, which had been laying on the ground. Since getting the EMP device, he added a few extra assets to his collection, there was only one thing he was actually looking for. Admiring the EOD he had bought online, he packed it into a bag, which was easier said than done, and ran back out the door, he'd put it on later. But where was his Scarab armor? -meanwhile- "Twilight, watch out!" Ruby yelled to the Alicorn. Twilight quickly set up a magic barrier to defend against Zera's broadsword, she was much faster than most of them had imagined. "Ruby, get out of the way!" Rainbow ordered, Immediately complying, Ruby fired Crescent Rose towards the ground in front of her and was blown away, and Rainbow immediately made contact with Zera afterwards. Zera grasped Rainbow by the front hooves, and with great effort, threw her towards the other side of the rooftop. "Checkmate!" Ruby yelled out, Yang was knocked back after a brief skirmish with the Inquisitor and she needed to reload. Weiss set up a row of glyphs between Blake and Zera, all colored black. Blake leaped onto one of them and sped to the Inquisitor, blocking and dodging each potential blow and dealing out an equal amount. Weiss then arranged a bunch if glyphs around Zera as Blake kept her distracted. Immediately using each one to propel herself and swing at their enemy. Ruby grabbed another mag, this one marked with a black cross, and loaded it, pushing the bolt into place and chambering the first round. Zera looked around her. She knew she was beaten. Or at least looked like it. She planted one foot on the ground in front of her, and immediately a large circle similar to Weiss's glyphs formed on the ground, it glowed an ominous light blue. "Leo!" Zera yelled. The glyph turned a bright orange, and so did this inquisitor. The orange blur sped about the room, much faster than any of them, and knocked them down before they could even react. After finally knocking down all of them, Zera stood tall in the center of the room. "As fun as this was, it is not you who I'm willing to fight. Where is Alex?" She asked. "Right here." A deep, obviously altered voice said behind her. Zera turned around, and saw someone wearing Alex's armor, the Equestrian Steel chassis polished beautifully, with the Machine Gun reattached and pointed at Zera. And Electric Fury glowed a dim blue. "Hello, Alex. I had thought you were recovering." "Aura, Remember?" Alex had scoffed. "Uurgh.. What the hell?!" Another voice gasped behind them. Alex stood, looking quite sick, and pointed .44 Scratch at Zera. "Go back to the hospital, Alex!" The imposter ordered. "Like hell I will! I'm not...uurgh...letting Zera hurt anyone!" Alex groaned. "Admirable. You're willing to masquerade as the boy so he would be safe." Zera nodded "That's not exactly admirable..." Alex grumbled before running to the side of the building. "I know it's you. Kat." Zera concluded. Kat removed the helmet, tossing it to the ground and brandishing Alex's weapon. "I propose a new challenge, if that actually is how you tell people that." Kat proposed. "Let's hear it." "If I win, You're rejoining Unity and telling us exactly what these Inquisitors are doing." Kat announced. "And if you win..." "You kill me and spare the others." Kat glared. "Seriously, do you have any idea...uurgh... How bad of an Idea that is?! I'm not letting anyone else die if I can help it!" Alex opposed. "You're too ill to fight. Besides, I'm already fully equipped with your weapons." Kat scoffed. "Not all of them." Alex smirked, spinning .44 Scratch on his pointer finger. "Interesting proposal. But we'll see if you're worthy enough for me to even consider accepting this challenge." Zera nodded, pulling out the full auto Desert Eagle. "Alex, go to the crane." Kat ordered. Alex nodded and ran up to the crane, leaping off the building and grabbing on at the last second. Kat swung Electric Fury, spinning the blade before locking with Zera's. Alex climbed to the top of the crane. It wasn't easy given his condition, but he did it all the same. Noticing something, he ran over to the end of the crane, and got a look at what it was. Kat's sniper. He grabbed hold of it, grabbing the keys and turning them sharply to the right as she taught him. "Open, gate of the guardian! Sentinel!" He muttered. A metallic bird apparated in front of him, flying over to one shoulder. Repeating the process again, both birds sat on either shoulder. "Help Kat, I'll cover her!" He ordered. Both sentinels flew off and into the battle. Kat was holding up a little better than Alex previously thought. And with the Sentinels, she would probably win. But he needed to do his part. Grabbing the sniper, he looked down the scope, waited until Zera's head was exposed, and pulled the trigger. A brilliant flame erupted from the weapon, and the recoil was actually more manageable than he thought. The bullet had hit it's target, Zera was hit! She staggered to recover, only just in time managing to block Kat's attack. Again! Alex grabbed hold of the sniper, waited until Zera's knee was open, and in that instance he fired the weapon again. The bullet severed Zera's leg in two and Kat could deliver a final blow. Kat grasped Zera by the head, and decapitated the robot. The body grew limp as the metal shell clattered to the ground. Kat dug through wires in the neck and pulled out a small hard drive, tossing the head aside. Alex attached the grappling hook and fired, swinging to where the rest of the group was, and handed Kat the sniper. "That was actually impressive." Alex congratulated. "Thanks, good shooting." Kat replied. Ruby and the others staggered up, injured. "Well. That was a thing." Yang said. "Really, Yang? 'That was a thing'?" Alex rolled his eyes. "And this is the same person who's the self-proclaimed 'queen of puns?'" Kat joked. "Hey! That was a one-time thing!" Yang defended. "Yeah, yeah, 'Yang Xiao Pun." Alex scoffed. "Alex." Kat face-palmed. "See? I can make bad puns too!" He sarcastically announced. "Anyways, bad puns aside, what is that?" Blake asked. "It's Zera's CPU, all of her memories are right here. I did say she would tell us everything." Kat smirked. "But did you really have to decapitate her? That's probably insanely offensive to some people." Alex argued. "Yeah, I'm with the 'king of puns'. Couldn't you have just deactivated her and then get the CPU?" Weiss asked. "We are not in a relationship! What is up with you guys and my non-existent love life?!" Alex groaned. "Well, I guess. I didn't exactly think about that at first." Kat admitted. "Whatever, let's just get Alex back to the hospital." Yang groaned. "Actually, his body temperature is at 102 degrees. He might actually burn the diseases out." Twilight pointed out. "What about the Deathstalker venom?" Ruby asked. "Nah, that was just water and food coloring." Twilight smirked. "How many of those were actually placebos?" Weiss asked. "Just the venom." "Yeah, if it was, he'd be dead as soon as it was injected." Blake pointed out. "Wait, where are Evan and the others?" Alex asked. "Badoop, badoop, BANANA BUS!" Wildcat yelled. A large bus fell on Zera's robot corpse, and Evan's crew walked out of it. "Hey, guys! Why is Kat cross dressing?" Vanoss asked. "Oh yeah!! She is!" Delirious laughed. "Yeah, Kat. Why steal my armor?" Alex asked. "It looked cool..." Her voice trailed off. "Yeah, I'd probably steal it too, if I was her." Yang smirked. "AAAAAAGH! WHY?!" Alex groaned, his face turning a deep red. "He's a tomato again!" Pinkie laughed. "Just kidding!" Yang said. "Also, about that incident on your bike... WHAT THE HELL, YANG?!" Alex screamed at Yang. "I thought it would be funny!" She defended. "It's hilarious." Vanoss added. "YOU TRICKED ME INTO THINKING I DID SOMETHING STUPID WHILE I WAS BLEEDING FROM THE HEAD!!" Alex yelled louder. "How often do you deal with these people?" Kat asked. "All the time!" Alex groaned. "Ouch. Now I feel really bad about hanging out with Trevor." Kat cringed. "Wait. Who's Trevor?" Alex asked. Alex and Kat were alone in the apartment. The doctors gave him some pills and suppositories that Alex was supposed to take twice a day for three weeks. "Alex!" Kat called. "Just a moment! I'm still working on the suppositories!" Alex yelled back. "Ugh. Okay, whenever you're ready. Okay?" She probably cringed. Alex finished his pills and ran upstairs. "Yeah?" Alex asked. "I've been looking through Zera's CPU." Kat said. "What did you find?" Alex asked. "Her mind. Her personality, her memories. Everything." "Sweet. Is there a way we can reprogram her?" Alex asked. "Already did, just one problem." Kat sighed. "What?" Alex asked "Her body was completely destroyed." Kat sighed. "Oh." Alex cringed. "But we can communicate via computer." Kat said. "I have another idea." Alex said. Alex ran into the pocket dimension and grabbed the data pad Karis used, Veil was still installed. He ran back inside. "This data pad could work, but the A.I is still inside." Alex said. "Let's see here..." Kat said, turning it on. A hologram of a woman who looked almost exactly like Karis appeared on the table. "Greetings, Si- oh! Hello, Mr. Walker, Ms. Anderson!" She noticed the two. "Hello again, Veil." Alex waved. "Anything I can help you with?" Veil asked. "We need another A.I in there, she has important information on the Inquisitors." Kat said. "Another individual A.I cannot be downloaded, put I can persuade the A.I to merge with myself." Veil said. "How?" Alex asked. "There is a small cord inside, connect it to the device the A.I is currently on." Veil instructed. "Of course." Kat replied, plugging Veil in the computer. Immediately, two holograms appeared in the table. "Who...who are you?" The second hologram, Zera asked. "I am Veil, an Artificial Intelligence System developed by the C.I.A. Who are you?" Veil asked. "Z-Zera..." Zera replied timidly. "Well, Zera. You seem to be under distress." Veil noticed. "The Inquisitors...they made me betray m-my friends." Zera lamented. "Unfortunate. I'm sure they will understand." Veil smiled at her. "R-really? Even after I hurt them..?" "If they truly are your allies. They will." Veil assured. "What do you want from me?" Zera asked. "Mr. Walker and Ms. Anderson need us to become one singular A.I so we can better assist them." Veil explained. "I-I don't know... What if the Inquisitors hack into us.?" Zera asked. "My programming is equipped with the most advanced cyber security software, and even if they do, You can produce backups." Veil assured. "I see. I'll merge with you.." Zera smiled back. "Thank you for understanding. And before we continue..." Veil stopped Zera before they could fuse. "Alex Walker. You may not know this, but I am a literal A.I copy of your dead ally. The C.I.A could not simply create an Artificial Intelligence. They instead scanned your friend's brain. I currently contain all of her memories. If you'd like, I can manifest this data." Veil explained. "Are you sure?" Alex asked. "It would seem to be the easiest way to provide emotional closure." Veil replied. "What's going on?" Kat asked. "My first recipient was Karis Thorne of the C.I.A. She helped Alex Walker evade Task Force Crimson when they first found him in Ponyville. The two worked closely together for the next month, she assigned him on the mission that led Ms. Dash to forgive him for what he did. She helped Alex join with Mr. Fong and his friends. And, most importantly. She died trying to protect him from Sigma." Veil said. "So, if it weren't for Agent Thorne, Alex would have died." Kat concluded. "I ran the simulations multiple times. Alex, if it had not been for our intervention, would likely have spent that time hiding from them in his own manner. He would grow spiteful towards the Elements after he discovered the Royal Guard were after him. It is likely he would run his own mission. Obtaining revenge on Winchester and the Elements for torturing him. He would likely kill Winchester in the process, until he would be cornered by the Princess and slaughtered." Veil explained. "Ouch." Alex winced. "Indeed. So, I need an answer to continue." Veil stated. "Thank you. But I-" Alex was prepared to deny it. "Yes. He would appreciate that." Kat interrupted. "What the?" Alex asked. "You've been really moody and depressed since I first met you. And that hasn't gotten any better. If Veil says she can help, then let her." She laid a hand on Alex's shoulder. Alex took her hand and placed it at her side. "I got all the time in the world for that once this is over. For now, we have a job to do." Alex reasoned. "Interesting predicament." Zera commented. "Typical human emotion at it's finest." Veil replied. "I know." "I say we put it to a vote. All against?" Veil asked. Alex raised his hand. "All in favor?" Kat raised her hand, and surprisingly, so did Zera. "What?" Alex gaped. "Alex. I've seen the inside your head. Do you think nobody else notices that you still have nightmares? That you're still tormented by everything that has happened to you?" Zera asked. "You know?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "Yep." Kat said. "The part of the brain related to depression has increased activity by 50% the past few weeks." Veil nodded. Alex sat on the couch. "It seems like he just wants to be alone for a couple minutes." Kat sighed. "I'm running the simulation now. Katherine, if you'd like, you can leave." Veil said. "What?" Kat asked. "You said it yourself. He needs a bit of alone time. But we won't let him stay like this. Don't worry." Zera smiled. "Okay." Kat left the armory, walked out the door and closed it softly behind her. -one day later- Alex laid down on the couch. Watching television. Not that there was anything good on. He was honestly bored. Looking at his data pad, he wondered exactly how the C.I.A had gotten so advanced. "Alex?" A voice said. "Yeah, Iris?" Alex asked. The two A.Is had agrees on that name, he wasn't sure why, but he didn't mind it much. "Text message from Ms. Rose." Iris replied. Alex looked at the data pad, reading the text Ruby sent. Ruby: Alex. Kat told me everything about what happened. I wanted to check on you. Alex was not surprised at all. Ruby was generally a caring person, he respected her for that very reason. He privately wished that more people shared that trait. Alex texted back. Alex: Yeah, Everything's fine. Author's Note And that was the conclusion of the Zodiac storyline! I think Act II is going to end sooner than I thought. Act I took forever to complete! To those who don't read my blog,(so everyone) Chapters will be posted on Saturdays! As well as the occasional exception
Act II, Chapter 12: SOSAlex shot at the Syndicate hit men. From what he heard, Basically and Mini walked straight into a meeting and drank all of their alcohol. Sure it was a dumb move on their part, and, had it been someone else, he would have made them apologize, but they were already in too deep. Plus, he hated the Syndicate. He hated them a lot. Firing the KMG at, yet another, car, he killed both the driver and whomever was sitting behind him. Mini and Basically were also shooting at the hit-men, and rather decently, one had been shot right between the eyes, causing brain matter and gore to spew out the back like a 2-liter soda bottle. Another one had been shot in both knees, both arms, and several times in the chest. When the rest had retreated, Alex turned to face both men. "What have we learned here today?" Alex groaned, he'd hoped they would learn their lesson now. Next time, he wouldn't bail them out. "Drinking other people's booze is a bad thing..." Basically grumbled. "And..?" Alex prompted. "...It's even worse when it's the bad guys' booze." Mini Ladd finished. "Good. You're lucky I was getting ammunition and medicine when they attacked you. Next time, I won't go out of my way just to bail you guys out." Alex chided yet again. "Yeah, like I don't have enough problems with Vanoss." Basically scoffed. "Pssh, you wish. At least you guys aren't dealing with holographic projections of dead friends and helpful, creepy mentors." Alex rolled his eyes. "Interesting thought, Alex. May I remind you that you started crying about 30 seconds into the sim?" Iris mocked. "Wow. That is just sad." Mini smirked. "Shut up, Mini." Alex scowled. "Yeah, yeah, Tobey Maguire." Basically laughed. "Laugh it up, assholes." Alex grumbled. After a few more minutes of taunting, Mini and Basically left for their own apartments, leaving Alex alone with an annoying A.I. "Phone call from your waifu, Alex." Iris beamed. "Ms. Xiao Long is hardly my waifu, you know-it-all piece of crap." Alex scowled. "Oh, really?" "Yes. Really." "Well, better hurry up now. The phone is still ringing." "Yeah, sure." Alex calmly replied answering the phone. Alex grabbed his cellphone, sure enough, that same picture Yang had given him of her flipping off the camera with her name written in white underneath appeared on the screen. He swiped the touch screen to the right in a quick motion. "Hello?" "Hey, Alex!" Yang happily sang from the other end. "What is it? Is something the matter?" Alex asked. "Yeah. I heard gunfire coming down the road. It stopped and I wanted to check and see if you were still alive." "I'm fine." Alex assured. "Quite the contrary, Alex was shot once in the stomach and another skinned him. In addition, his blood pressure is at 148/93." Iris said. "What?!" Yang gasped "That isn't true! My blood pressure is at 125/82!" Alex scowled. "Actually, given the stress you have experienced in the past two to three months, your blood pressure has raised significantly. Relatively common in patients with Post-Traumatic Stress." "Is she serious?!" "Oh, please. I don't have PTSD." "Actually, according to what Ms. Dash has said, you've been suffering from symptoms of PTSD as early as your stay in Ponyville." "And you did tell me that you have a lot of nightmares." Yang said. "Alright, fine! So I'm not the healthiest! Maybe my blood pressure is at 150, and maybe I do have PTED!" Alex groaned. "Actually, we are referring to your Post Traumatic Stress, not your Post-Traumatic Embitterment." "That too?!" Alex groaned. "You do constantly reject help." Yang pointed out. "That is not a mental disorder, but it is worth bringing up." Iris stated. "Can you two shut up about my health!?" Alex facepalmed. "I agree, now is not the time to discuss his detrimental state." Iris agreed. "Thank you, Iris. So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Alex asked. "I wanted to tell you that Ruby and I just bailed Vanoss and Wildcat out. They were having a 1v1 sniper duel at the airport and it got the Syndicate's attention." Yang explained. "Thank you for keeping me updated." Alex smiled. "Your welcome! I'm feeling a little tired after killing them though." "Sure. Take care." Alex said. "Bye!" Yang said before hanging up. Alex continued his walk home. "So. About Ms. Xiao Long..." Iris began. "You have 10 seconds to make your case." Alex groaned. "A relationship would likely lower your blood pressure and possibly help you with your nightmares." Iris stated. "So, relationships are prescriptions now?" Alex scoffed. "In all seriousness. It may be time to let go some of that pain inside." "What pain? Winchester's dead, Sigma knows not to mess with me, and Kat's with us, what could be wrong?" Alex asked. "The fallout from the torture, the pain of Karis's death, the fact that you are all being hunted by mad men." Iris began listing every negative thing in his life. "Yeah, yeah. I get the point." Alex groaned. "If you won't have an intensely intimate relationship, then at least try and make more friends, and not just ex-gamers who you had to pay so they wouldn't kill you." "Who?" Alex asked. "Find some. You'll be sure to feel a little better." "Not in this city, I had to bribe 5 or 6 people just to find one girl." Alex scoffed. "Do not worry. True friendship finds you, or you find it." -4 hours later- "Uugh. My head..." Alex groaned as he stumbled around the brightly lit room. Then Alex noticed something a little peculiar. This room had no direct source of light, that and it was white and foggy. "Iris. Come in." Alex automatically beckoned to his A.I, but the wrist-pad that he usually wore was gone. "Hello?" Alex asked, pulling out both .44 Scratch and Electric Fury. He turned to his left, nothing. He turned behind him, still nothing, but the room started to get darker. "Alex Gabriel Walker of Geo Vector 0-1, Faust Zeta 3-7, Oum Alpha 1-2, and RS Eta 7-3?" A voice beckoned. He had no idea what any of those were, but he remembered Oum Alpha 1-2 from his initial escape. And RS Eta 7-3 was where he currently resided. He really needed to ask just who came up with the system of naming universes. "Yes, that's me... I think..." Alex stumbled. A dark blue Alicorn floated in front of him before landing on all fours, a very familiar blue Alicorn. "Princess Luna?!" Alex gaped. "Finally! Do you have any idea how many of you there are?! I must've met at least 36 other yous before I asked Discord!" She sighed, as though exasperated. "Is everything okay?" Alex asked. "I should be asking you the same thing. You left before your trial." Luna scoffed. "Trial?" Alex asked. "So you really don't know..." Luna cringed, as if what had happened was too terrible. "What?" Alex asked. "Rainbow had turned in a few copies of your dossier into Equestrian authorities. They were to have you on trial in court." "How much?" Alex asked. "Torture records and your bio." "Oh." "So, when you left, there couldn't be a fair trial, and Celestia and I formally pardoned you. Naturally, ponies got angry with the fact that you pretty much got away with murder." "A whole political scandal over me of all people?" Alex gaped. "I'm afraid it is far worse than that. A lot of those angry ponies were Royal Guards and Criminals. They, led by a Gryphon named Iron Talon, led an insurgency against Equestria itself, called the Rogue Guard." "That sounds terrifying." Alex backed away. "It is. Most of these ponies thought that war was just something of legend, never to happen again. And now..." Her voice trailed off. "So, Rainbow started a war?" Alex asked. "Not exactly, there were many responsible, but it was Rainbow Dash who set these events in motion." Luna figured. Alex leaped with joy. "Human! 'Tis not the time to be joyful!" Luna scolded. "Finally! Someone started a cataclysmic war and it's not me!" Alex sang. "What dost thou mean?" "Apparently, I killed Winchester, which, according to your mythology, starts the apocalypse." Alex explained. Luna's dark blue visage turned white. "The end times are upon us?!" "According to a bunch of very old books." Luna paced back and forth. "This is bad, this is very, very bad..." She muttered. "Not as bad as what else happened!" Alex added. "God's wounds! Cease thy words!" Luna gasped. "Myself, as well as all 22 of my friends are being hunted by the Inquisitors." Luna deflated, face-hoofing before turning to face Alex. "You ignorant buffoon! Dost thou realize what you've done?!?!" "Apparently doomed multiple worlds, including your own?" Alex meekly added. "...Yes!" Luna's left eye twitched. "What do I have to do?" Alex groaned. "Thou is to return to Equestria to sort this mess out!" Luna concluded. "I can't! I've got my own problems!" "You must! The fate of all is at stake here!" Luna pleaded. "Fine. I'll do this the same way I dealt with the first crisis in Equestria. Alone." Luna looked at him like he had just grown three heads. "This is not something that can be dealt with alone! You need your allies!" Luna slapped him. "Ow! They'll be fine! Kat can lead them! Besides, I may as well be alone! To everyone else there, I'm nothing but a cold-blooded murderer and a coward!" Alex reasoned. "Is that really what you believe they think of you?" Luna asked, an edge of sympathy shining amongst the contemptful anger. "That's what I am! When I found out that the Militia was working against me, I ran! When your sister's pupil was against me, I ran! Even now, I'm running away, trying to delay the inevitable! So if you think that I'm some sort of role model, or someone to be admired, think again!!" Alex elaborated. The princess of the night gaped at him. "You really are ignorant. Thou cannot see what your own comrades see in you." Luna sighed. "What could they possibly see in me?!" Alex scoffed. "They see a brother in arms. A friend, an ally, a trustworthy leader who will stare death in the eye. To some, even a potential lover-" "Too much!" Alex waved both hands defensively. "Thy point is, thou should have more confidence in yourself. But I am getting beside the point." "Which is..?" "Return to Equestria. Aid us in these dark times. Soldier." Luna nodded as she walked away. The room grew brighter. He was waking up. Alex gasped in his bed. He felt the data-pad on his arm glow bright blue. "Good morning, Alex. Your brainwaves were off the charts during your sleep! Any dreams you're willing to share?" Iris asked. "Just one thing. Where can I find the Die Glocke on this world?" Alex asked. "Do you wish to return to Remnant? Earth?" She asked. "Equestria." "What about Equestria?" A voice asked from upstairs. "Who is that?" Alex asked. "Ms. Xiao Long requested to stay in the apartment at 0500, they said their wi-fi was disabled. Ms. Belladonna came very recently.." "What?! Why did you let both of them in here?!" Alex yelled. "You were asleep. I did not want to disturb you. Besides, she drew on your face." Iris stated. "Well, Yang did. I just talked with Evan on the phone." Blake smirked, coming down the stairs. "You guys suck." Alex scowled. "I tried to stop her." She shrugged. "Wait.. Why are you here? Aren't you a little... I don't know... Too anti-social and respectful of other people's space to just drop in to a guys apartment while he's sleeping?" Alex asked. "Actually, I just came to get Yang before your face was completely covered in marker." Blake explained. "Seems reasonable, did she draw anything inapropriate?" Alex asked. "All of it is." "Figured. Now please leave, I'm still in bed." Alex sighed, it was about 8:00, much to early for him. "I was just about to." "Thank you." Blake suddenly perked, and stood very still. "What?" Alex asked. A quick look further up the stairs explained everything. Yang held a small laser pointer in her hand, and had it pointed straight at him. That, combined with the fact that Blake was a Faunus, told him this was probably bad news. "YOU FU-" Author's Note I feel like I'm starting to lose readers as the story goes on, so I'm going to try something here. Long story short, I changed a good amount of the plot to try and get that demographic back, while still trying to keep what's already been written so it doesn't seem like 'A did this and B did that because God was bored' kind of deal. For example- Alex is returning to Equestria, who goes with... Yeah, I'm not going to spoil that much.
Act II, Chapter 13: Return to EquestriaAct II, Chapter 13: Return to Equestria A purple vortex appeared suddenly on the plains south of Ponyville. A young man in full Equestrian Steel armor stalked out of it, with him were the six Elements of Harmony. "Stay close. Luna said that these 'Rogue Guard' pretty much swarmed the town." Alex warned. "I still can't believe Rainbow turned over those documents!" Twilight lamented. "Hey! I had to do something!" The Pegasus defended. "Like having Kat take over Evan's crew in our absence?!" Rarity gaped. "Stow it. I'd be helping Kat and Vanoss out with the Syndicate, or, hell, maybe going with Ruby and the others to Remnant if I wasn't required to come along!" Alex tried to end this as soon as he could. "And how do ya expect to stop them?" Applejack inquired. "Only way I know how." "A PARTY!!!" The hyper-energetic pink horse interrupted. "Er... Something along those lines." Alex admitted. "Just...leave me out of it. My animals must be worried sick! Angel is particularly gun-shy... If that's how you say it..." Fluttershy darted her eyes, almost expecting to be caught dead center in the fray. "Okay then, you two were clearly made for each other." Alex said, more to himself than the yellow Pegasus. "All right, Mr. Big shot mercenary, how are we going to stop them before things get worse?" Rainbow asked. "Go home. All of you." Alex ordered. "No way!" She yelled back. "Yes way. It's me they want. Not you. Go home, try to make the best of it, avoid any confrontation until this is all sorted out." "And how do you think this is gonna end?" Applejack asked. "Two ways. A; They kill me and leave my rotting corpse to the buzzards..." "Ew.." Fluttershy immediately gagged "Or B; By some circumstance, I kill Iron Talon or whatever the bastard's name is, and his whole guard falls apart and you guys are safe." Alex finished. "Ah can tell you're more the 'glass is half-empty' kinda fella." "Thanks a million, Sheriff Obvious." Alex rolled his eyes. "Racist." "My point is that this isn't your problem. It never was and it never should have been your problem." "We are not letting you do this alone! We're helping you!" Rainbow stood directly in front of Alex, glaring at his helmeted eyes. "You want to help me? Good. Go home." "If you haven't already noticed, our homes have probably been destroyed!" Twilight angrily stated. "Oh come on, your ponies, for cripes sake! The closest since this you've gotten to armed conflict is a bunch of insane, egotistical monsters that you've defeated pretty easily." Alex scoffed. "You don't get it, do you? Since Equestria hasn't been involved in a war for a millennium, we have no laws governing what they can and can't do!" Twilight retorted. "Really? In the thousand years you guys had to chill, none of you had the foresight to write something like the Geneva Conventions?" "You've never abided by any of those laws either! I bet once you get home, you'll be tried as a war criminal!" "Who the hell said I was going back to Earth?" "What do you mean?" Alex facepalmed, if he facepalmed any harder, his hand would have gone straight through his skull. "Haven't I told you guys this like, a MILLION F***ING TIMES ALREADY?!" Pinkie gaped at Alex. "You defy the not-so-great Destoyer by using the forbidden word?!" Pinkie gasped. "YOU KNOW WHAT? YES, I DID!" "You fiend! SHORYUKEN!" Pinkie yelled, upper cutting Alex in the face with what appeared to be... "What the hell? Is that Yang's?!" Alex asked in surprise. "She let me borrow it!" The party horse smiled broadly. "You...do know she's back at Remnant, right?" Her smile faded into one of genuine surprise, as if she had completely forgotten that she had to give it back. She ran away, panicking and hollering. "DISCOOORD! I NEED YOUR HEEEELP!!!" Alex heard her say. All of them stared in disbelief at what the hell just happened. "Well, Ah've gotta check and see if Apple Bloom's okay." Applejack said as she walked in the direction of her home. "And I have to make sure that Opal didn't destroy all of my projects in my absence." Rarity nodded her goodbyes and left for the Boutique. "Wait, where's Spike?!" Twilight had immediately come to her senses and ran off for her castle. "Oh! Poor Angel bunny! Momma's coming!" Fluttershy flew off in speed almost comparable to Rainbow's. "Well, I have to check my mail for Wonderbolt acceptance letters!" Rainbow flew off towards her home, leaving Alex alone. As Alex watched Rainbow fly away, he started to think, about all of this. About Earth. About Equestria. About Remnant. He thought about all the times he had to run away from whomever wanted him to die, Task Force Crimson, The Inquisitors, The Syndicate, and hell, maybe even the White Fang. And nothing's changed since. Now he was off fighting whoever the 'Rogue Guard' was. And it all boiled down to this single thought that echoed through his mind. 'I hate always having to do this.' -2 Hours Later- Alex was almost back in Ponyville, the small town was in his line of sight now. Only it was...different. No Fillies or Colts or...wait, did he even get that right? Anyways, no children were out playing, no old friends conversing, nothing. It was...almost scary to think about. The storybook-perfect little world he was first introduced to in this state deeply unnerved him. Even the sky itself was a dark grey-ish color. "What the hell happened here?" Alex asked to himself. "Halt! Hands where I can see them!" Alex turned around to see Stallions in grey armor bearing what appeared to be firearms perfectly designed for use by a pony. "What the-" "Are you deaf? Hands up!" The captain ordered again. "Do you know who I am?" Alex asked them. "No, but you must be quite the coward to hide behind that suit! HANDS UP!" Alex removed his helmet and dropped it to the ground before them. The captain looked up at Alex, and he knew what was running through his mind. "We need backup!" They all fired their weapons at Alex, to little effect. All the bullets bounced off his armor. Alex himself made short work of the patrol in 7 shots, all to the head. Dusting himself off, he walked around the town some more, still not over the fact that the town he once knew was so...barren. "Walker spotted! Moving in!" Alex turned around to see dozens of armed ponies and the odd gryphon here or there, all bearing weapons. Alex shot back, killing two of them before a gryphon lashed out at him with a huge knife. This gryphon in particular held the blade high before finally plunging it down, Alex could barely hold it in place, he was decently strong, but no match for a trained soldier. Alex punched the gryphon in the face, grabbed the knife, and jammed it square into the side of his neck before pulling out .44 Scratch and shooting him off. Before he even had time to react, a pony punched him square behind the knee, causing Alex to kneel to the ground. He lunged for the knife in the dead gryphon's throat, sharply pulling it out and placing it dead center in the stallion's forehead. Alex turned around, firing his gun at anyone he could until he was brought down again by a gryphon. "You're dead meat, Human!" The gryphon spat an Alex struggled to get it off of him. It lashed it's claws, barely noticing that the claws were reinforced by Equestrian Steel before they ripped through the armor and into his skin. The pain fueled his anger, and he punched the gryphon in the beak, enhancing it with his own Aura. It was absolutely devastating, the punch broke the gryphon's beak entirely, grasping what remained in agony before Alex ended it all. He looked on at the dozens of soldiers still on the way. He could take them. Focusing all of his power into his right hand, he leaped high and punched the ground below, sending red lightning out in a huge wave that electrocuted the crowd of soldiers, frying them all and filling the air with a revolting stench. Alex put his helmet back on, holstered .44 Scratch, and unsheathed Electric Fury, it's blade glistening in the light. This time, they brought in what seemed to be horse-drawn carriages armed with machine guns. Alex leaped into the air, bringing the sword down on the gunner, slicing him clean in half. Alex stole the machine gun, aimed it below, where more soldiers were, and fired until the roof collapsed from under him. Tossing the MG in his hands, he set the shoulder-mounted MG to automatically target hostiles, and it absolutely ripped them apart. A large explosion struck at Alex's back. They were using mortars?! The MG was destroyed, but not any of the other weapons. "Something you need?" Iris asked. "Mark all the mortar positions!" Alex ordered. "Now now, say the 'p' word..." Iris stalled. "Fine. Will you please target all the mortar positions." Alex groaned. "Thank you for being so polite! Okay, targeting six Rogue Guard mortar positions!" Alex saw six green dots marked on his HUD. "You have a plan, don't you?" Iris asked. "Don't I always?" Alex smirked. He opened up every last compartment on the suit, causing wave upon wave of rockets to completely wreck the mortars and their crew. "Iris, are we all cleaned up?" Alex asked. "I wouldn't say that." "What do you mean?" Alex asked. "You know how Die Glocke was a Nazi super-weapon, right?" "Yeah but what does that have to do with... Oh, no." "Have you ever heard of the Landkreuzer P. 1000?" "The Rat. How in god's name did they get that thing?!" Alex looked behind him, and saw the massive tank. It was damn huge, even all of team Unity combined would have difficulty taking it down. Alex summoned all of his remaining Aura, pulled out both .44 Scratch and Electric Fury, and leaped towards it, his battle cry echoing through the desolate place. The tank fired everything it had at Alex, quite literally everything. As Alex neared closer to the giant tank, he knew this would probably end horribly. -4 Hours Later- The Armored Pegasus landed on the ground, the shattered remains of a giant tank lay smoking on the ground, only calmed by the light rain that casually landed on the ground and barely dousing the flames. She wandered a bit until she came across a human body, the visor cracked, the armor blackened by rapid fire from the previous battle, at least, what remained of the armor. It was shredded completely, but the body within was completely intact. And alive. The young man was unconscious, and badly injured, but alive. She gently removed the young man's helmet to get a better look at him. The boy had ashy-blonde hair that almost curled at the edges, and it was rather messy, even worse given what had happened. His features were quite gaunt, pale with the exceptions of multiple scars and bags under the eyes. Scars were present almost everywhere on the boy's face, of all shapes and sizes, but almost all of them were barely noticeable that one could only see them from way up close. The scar on his eye was one of the only exceptions, it started just above his eyebrow, ended just above the socket, then met the skin below going another half inch down. She couldn't quite get a clear look at his eyes, since he was unconscious, but she already knew who he was. "It's been a while since I've seen you. I know all about what happened to you. " She said, placing a hoof gently on his shoulder. She removed her mask, and placed it at her side, in a compartment on the powered suit that completely concealed any trace of coat, only the tail bare. The pony herself was a deep purplish color, the mane white lined with a light blue, with bags under her eyes similar to the boy's. She held the boy gently, as she was preparing for the flight back. "But don't worry, We're going to put you back together again." Author's Note Well, here we are, Alex's return to Equestria! I think you guys should know how this exactly worked, since I doubt I described it well enough. Alex and the Elements of Harmony went back to Equestria to deal with the Rogue Guard, Kat stayed in LS with Vanoss and friends to deal with the Syndicate, And Team RWBY went back to Remnant, why? Well it's called a spoiler alert, I can't tell you that yet. I was a little late with this chapter, but I'll try to release the chapter earlier next week. -The Destoyer
Act II, Chapter 14: Scratchbolts"Alex?" A voice echoed through his ears again, it seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "You in there?" The voice beckoned again. Alex cracked his eyes open slightly, the room was dark aside from the blue light. "Wake up, Alex." He drowsily propped himself up on one elbow, but his vison was still foggy. "What...where am I?" Alex coughed. "Alex? It's me!" Alex knew it was a pony, and he knew her, but he still couldn't quite figure out who. "Who are you?" He quietly asked. "Come on, It's only been a month! Don't tell me you forgot!" She slugged him lightly on the shoulder, waking him up. "Cloudchaser..?" He asked. "There you are! I never thought I'd see you again! How's it hangin'?" Cloudchaser asked. "Well, the second time I end up in this town, I get knocked off my ass. So..." "That'll teach you a lesson about dealing with a Rat, am I right?" "Hell yeah." Cloudchaser looked a little concerned. "You okay man? I know you just woke up and everything, but you seem... Different." "Let's just say a lot can happen in a month." Alex replied. Another pony, a unicorn, walked in the room. He could tell who this one was even with the mask covering her face. "I thought I heard voices! Good to see you again, man!" Vinyl greeted. "Likewise. Where are we, though?" Alex asked. "Your basement." Vinyl responded. "What?! I don't own a house!" Alex looked shocked. "Dude, did you fall on your head while you were gone? Of course you have a house!" Cloudchaser scoffed. "A lot happened in the past month." Alex defended. "Actually, Alex's A.I told me everything he did the past month or so." Vinyl agreed. "Dammit, Iris!" Alex groaned. "What? Upset that this 'Yang' person clearly has feelings for you?" Vinyl smirked. "Someone's a bit more talkative that usual." Alex rolled his eyes. "Wait. I'm lost here. Who's Yang again?" Cloudchaser asked. "The blonde girl from Iris' recordings." "You recorded me?!" Alex turned to wherever Iris may have been. "It's pretty obvious that you wouldn't have told them. I took it upon myself to feed them every bit of information I knew about you." Iris replied. "Not only that, she took screenshots of pages from your journal. You say self-promotion jokes are your true comedic weakness?" Vinyl joked. "Damn you, Iris." "Aw. Thank you!" "My personal favorite was Entry 40. You kicked Sigma's ass!" Cloudchaser applauded. "There was even video from Sigma's perspective to go along with it! You went Bat shit insane!" Vinyl added. "I forgot to mention, great job starting the apocalypse, buddy." "IRIS!!!" Alex screamed The three newly reunited friends discussed their escapades in-depth. Apparently, after Dash released those documents and they heard about it, they had been among his most spirited supporters and even tried searching for him when they discovered he escaped. "Then, next thing I know, Twi and the others were gone! All that was left was some type of device that required a ridiculous amount of power. I'm not even sure where they got all that energy!" Cloudchaser explained. "So, then Celestia and Luna are pretty much out of ideas, so when they discovered the tech used in your raid, they went to me." Vinyl added. "Wait, isn't there anyone else who could've helped? It seems like they instantly decided to go to the resident disk-jockey for help." Alex reasoned. "I think Shining Armor and Cadence would've done something, but considering that, for all they knew, Twilight was dead, they were left to just grieve." Cloudchaser shrugged. "Ouch. I know what it's like to lose a family member or two, or all. Considering how close they must've been, it hit them pretty damn hard." Alex winced. "So, Celestia gives me a grant of about 250,000 bits and tells me to build weapons. I decided that weapons were, well, overrated." Vinyl explained. "Vinyl went up to Flitter and I and asked us to be the first to use some type of new technology." Cloudchaser said. "Your armor." Alex figured. "Yep! With this baby, I can fly almost as fast as Rainbow, plus I'm equipped with some kind of dubstep machine gun and a sound cannon. And the HUD on this thing is pretty top notch!" Cloudchaser beamed, showing off the cannons. "Huh. I thought Vinyl said that weapons were overrated." Alex scoffed. "That was before things went straight to hell." Vinyl deadpanned. "I heard, that's why I left the team back in LS. I heard that Ruby and the others were going back to where they came from. Why, I have no idea." Alex shrugged. "Yeah, it's so bad they sent you to deal with this mess." Cloudchaser rolled her eyes. "Wait, where are Twilight and the others now?" Vinyl asked. "I sent them back to their homes. I felt like since this was my fault, they shouldn't have any part in this." Alex replied. "Okay. Good to hear that they're safe." Cloudchaser sighed in relief. "By the way, Alex. Your armor was destroyed when you fought the tank. I hope you don't mind if I make you some based off the designs Iris gave me. We really need you helping out." Vinyl said. "Deal. I'm not sure how long I'd last without it." Alex nodded. "Good. Where's Flitter, I sent her out on Recon about an hour ago!" Cloudchaser asked. Vinyl immediately ran to the computer she designed, and pressed a button. "Flitter? You there?" Vinyl asked. "Yeah. You guys need to see this.." Flitter replied. "Do you guys have a video uplink?" Alex asked. "Who is that? Is Alex here?!" Flitter asked in disbelief. "Yep. He woke up about a minute after you left!" Cloudchaser said. "Yeah. I'll send you the uplink." Flitter replied. On the screen, it showed an aerial view of what appeared to be a convoy of large transport vehicles of all kinds. Syndicate, Crimson, Rogue Guard... "Who the hell are they?" Flitter asked. "Alex here made more than his fair share of enemies on his little vacation." Cloudchaser replied. "I figured they'd all be working together." Alex scoffed. "They've teamed up before?!" Vinyl asked in disbelief. "Once or twice." Alex responded. "Flitter, can you hack into their radio frequencies?" Vinyl asked. "I set up the software, I should be in by now." A small window opened on the upper-right hand corner of the screen, radio frequencies. "Fireteam Platinum, come in, this is Epsilon. I repeat, Fireteam Platinum, come in, over!" Epsilon ordered. "Epsilon?" Cloudchaser asked. "Epsilon... Why does that strike me as odd..." Alex muttered to himself. "Epsilon, this is Platinum 0-1. We picked up a civvie, a human female. I think she said her name was 'Mako', or something. Over." A gruff sounding voice said over the loudspeaker. "Beta to Epsilon, Sigma has decided to assist. She believes the Catalyst is here." Another, deeper voice boomed. "Beta's still alive..? And Sigma wasn't even excecuted?!!" Alex gasped. "No...not Mako.." Cloudchaser gasped. "Who's Mako?" Alex asked. "A woman came into Equestria one day looking for someone named 'Spectre'. She's been our undercover op for almost 2 weeks." Vinyl stated. "Wait... If Beta's here, and Sigma's here... That means Epsilon..." Alex pondered again. "This 'Epsilon' guy must be one of those Inquisitors." Vinyl grimly stated. "Good, I'd appreciate some White Fang assistance from now on, Cinder." Epsilon said. "I'll be looking forward to it, Talon." Sigma retorted sarcastically. "Iron Talon's an Inquisitor?!" Alex gasped. "This is bad, isn't it?" Flitter asked. "Understatement of the f**king century." Alex replied blankly. "Good to see you're working together, Get this 'Mako' girl into questioning immediately. If she is connected with the Catalyst, we have to know." Beta ordered. "Iris, what's the ETA on Alex's armor?" Vinyl asked. "Two days for maximized capabilities, 36 hours for Scarab Mk. III capabilities, and 18 for Goliath Mk. V standard. Agent Mako will likely be alive for at least three, she has no idea who Alex is yet, they may just let her go." Iris replied. "Can Alex possibly help us without the armor?" Cloudchaser asked. "No. You are dealing with at least three higher-caliber Inquisitors and 2,467 armed soldiers." "What do we have here? Gentlemen, we appear to have quite the following about us." Another man came onto the radio, he sounded familiar. "Gamma? Get back to San Andreas! There's still the girl and her group that you have to worry about!" Beta scolded. "What do you mean by 'following'?" Sigma asked. "Scratchbolt. 7 o' clock. High." Another voice said. This one wasn't as familiar. "Who..?" Alex asked himself, he knew he heard him before. "Jäger. I was wondering when you'd say something." Gamma introduced. "It doesn't matter to me. I'll get 'er in the wing." Jäger replied. "That son of a bitch. FLITTER, GET OUT OF THERE!" Alex ordered. Flitter turned a solid 180 degrees and flew off as fast as she could. "Finally, he speaks!" Sigma seemed sadisically delighted to hear him. "Greetings, Catalyst." Beta added. "Walker! There you are!" Gamma introduced. "Hello, boy. I've been waiting for you." Epsilon exhaled. "Hello, traitor. Permission to speak to the boy. It's personal." Jäger asked. "Granted, just don't take too long." Beta allowed. "Alex, if you're hearing this, I want you to know that I know all about your escapades, your actions. You were always a coward, and now you've decided to pay Equestria a little visit again. I know all about your Aura, your pathetic little toys, your weaknesses. And I hear all you have for help is a techno-Wonderbolt knockoff and the prissy princess gang. I've had time to...improve myself, so to speak. Dead or alive, You're coming with me." Jäger finished. "I have unfinished business with Walker myself, Jäger. Don't take all the fun." Sigma warned. "Speaking of which, how the hell are you still alive after that stunt on the carrier? Didn't you turn against Beta? I guess that makes you a dirty parent-killer and a power-hungry sociopath!" Alex retorted, hiding the fear in his voice. "We have waited for your return, boy. Alpha is ecstatic to finally be able to meet you. Adieu." Beta finished, turning off all radio link. "Alex..." Vinyl asked, concerned. Alex himself did not answer, he walked back into the cot he had laid on, and stared blankly in mortal terror. "Kid." Cloudchaser gasped. She had a fair understanding of what that look meant. Flitter burst back in through the door to the basement, still in full tilt. "I heard everything. Is he okay?" Flitter asked. "Th-Those f**kers...." Alex shuddered. "I doubt it..." Cloudchaser sighed. "One of you gather up the Elements, the other has to get to Canterlot. This is serious." Vinyl ordered. "Okay." Flitter said, flying off in the direction of Twilight's Castle. "Got you." Cloudchaser nodded, who flew towards Canterlot. Alex had gotten into a laying position, fear fresh in his mind and terror seeping into his bones, paralyzing him. Vinyl trotted over to Alex, laid a hoof on his forehead, and tried to help him as best as she could. "Come on, man. You've dealt with worse. We're getting Mako, The Elements, and the Princesses. You'll be alright." She repeated. Alex still trembled in fear, hyperventilating like mad. "Ms. Scratch, a word?" Iris asked. "Sure." Vinyl replied. "Are you sure this will be enough? Protocol 267 states that I am to summon Ms. Anderson, Mr. Fong, and Ms. Rose if he ever goes into shock like this. They're all elsewhere." Iris stated. "Why did Ms. Rose go back to Remnant?" Vinyl asked. "I'm not entirely sure, I'd say it was either to get help or complete their training. Given they know where he is, the earliest they may be able to get back is about two months from now, according to my logistics." "One more thing?" Vinyl asked. "Yes?" "Has he ever gotten like this before?" "I've seen him go into shock from his nightmares, but not anything like this." Iris sighed. "Poor kid." She sighed, looking back at Alex. Alex was completely drained of any color, hyperventilating still, and hardly moving at all. "The earliest time of arrival for Kat and the others, though more likely, it may take as little as three days to a week, given they notice Gamma not being in LS anymore." Iris tried to reassure. "I'll get to work on the armor." Vinyl said, rushing for her workbench. She had to help him now. She had to. Author's Note This is part of those rewrites I was talking about. But, man, this chapter got dark. Like chapter 15 dark on steroids.
Act II, Chapter 15: Equestrian Electro-Naut Part I of IIAlex was hidden in the bushes near where the Rogue Guard's convoy would be. Vinyl and the Scratchbolts had argued against it, and Iris had estimated that there was a very slim chance of survival for Alex, but he knew what had to be done. He had to track this convoy. He didn't know where they were going or what they were planning, but it was a start. Readjusting his makeshift ghillie suit, he used a pair of binoculars that Flitter let him borrow to see where he could find a spot to latch onto. Alex knew this was likely a very bad idea, Vinyl had said his new armor wouldn't be finished for at least another 12 hours, but this was his one chance. Missing it meant losing any lead he had on what the Inquisitors were planning. He saw the convoy; One Landkreuzer in front, followed by everything from Semi-trucks, Royal Guard Chariots repurposed into technicals, and M1 Abrams tanks to Helicopters, Fighter Jets and Bullhead VTOLs from Remnant. This was them, all right. Sneaking on was going to be difficult, finding a suitable location for the Tracker that Iris and Vinyl put together was going to be even worse, as foot soldiers patrolled the surrounding vehicles. Taking the Intervention Sniper Rifle that the Scratchbolts acquired, he went over a checklist of those he really did not want to run into. Beta, check. Gamma, check. Sigma, check. Epsilon, check. Jäger... Nowhere to be found. This likely wasn't a good thing. "Alex, come in." Vinyl demanded. "I'm here, V. If you could see the shit they got here." Alex muttered "Just sit tight, I'm having Cloudy and Flits distract the air support so you have more of a chance." Vinyl said. "Two things; one, are we really using pet-names on a military op? Two, that likely isn't the best idea, since these A-holes are armed to the teeth, even without air superiority." Alex sighed. "Also, I have one other objective for you. Y'know about Mako, right?" Vinyl asked. "Let me guess, you want me to save her, on top of getting that tracker on the convoy, and getting out of this alive, despite the fact that I have no armor." Alex concluded grimly. "It's the best we can do for now, Celestia's Guard is pinned down out near Dodge City, and Twilight and the others are helping me build you the armor, It should be finished sooner than I thought." Vinyl elaborated. "What good is armor if I'm not alive to use it?" Alex asked. "Shut up, Alex. Let Iris do her thing." Vinyl argued. "Iris? What the actual f*** are you thinking?" Alex gasped "It's the best I can work with right now, most of Team Unity is out doing Destoyer knows what, and besides, you of all people insisted on taking this op." Iris retorted. "Touché." Alex relented. Alex stalked out, stopping on occasion to keep up the impression that he was nothing more than a bush. "I am the master of my own bladder..." Alex whispered to himself as the convoy drew near. The sounds of multiple engines threatening to deafen the 15 year old. He dove into a crawl, moving as fast as he could without being spotted, the dread of being discovered coursing through his system. Once he was in the Mega-Tank's blind spot, he climbed up some loose steel lining the tank, hoping this would suffice as cover as well as a ladder, it seemed to be doing well enough. What was that? It looked like a ventilation shaft, it was wide enough for a person to fit through if they were thin enough, let alone a tracker. "V, I found a vent on the tank, it might work as a spot for the tracker." Alex reported. "I don't know, it could potentially interrupt the signal to the computer here. I'll have Iris test it." Vinyl replied. "Alex, it will not suffice. Find something else. Maybe a little bit behind the bottom end of the tank, perhaps." Iris suggested. "Screw that! the rest of the convoy is over there, I'm in too deep as is." Alex replied. "Try the front end of the tank, It's slightly less exposed, and the engineers can't exactly see you that well." Vinyl suggested. "WILCO." Alex nodded, shutting off the radio. He climbed down as quick as he could, noticing the small porthole that the tank had. "Jäger, I don't think that killing the woman is the best idea." One man said. "Why is that? She's useless to us. Besides, I have a score to settle with the CIA, anyways." Jäger scoffed. "She doesn't seem to care about this case as much. If you're telling me you're going to kill a surrendering agent, then you're not much better than they are!" Another yelled. "Eh, I've committed enough war crimes in my career, what's one more?" "You son of a bitch!" The first yelled. All Alex heard from there was the sound of a knife ripping through flesh, and the fading screams of that soldier. "I will not tolerate this insolence, next time we stop, get the Agent. Innocent or not, torture them long enough and they'll cave." Jäger seethed. "Y-yes sir!" Alex couldn't exactly say he didn't expect this from someone like Jäger, but it was a little hard to believe that he would do the very thing he stopped Winchester from doing so long ago. Alex was now inches above the ground, hanging on for dear life and he placed the tracker on the bottom of the tank, seeing a little light filter through the mechanics of the tank. He dropped down and rolled onto his chest, hoping his ghillie would convince the rest of the convoy he was nothing more than a bush. Cars and chariots rolled over him, not noticing the boy. Alex didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't even blink as the rest of the convoy rolled over him. Once the last vehicle had passed him, he took out his sniper. "V, tracker has been placed, infiltrating the convoy now." Alex reported. "Nice. Once you're in, I'll have Cloudchaser and Flitter take out the air support." Vinyl sounded impressed. "Gotcha." Alex looked down his scope, it would be easiest to pose as another Crimson soldier. He put on the suppressor, and aimed for the soldier's neck. Firing, the soldier's body fell over, dead. Alex snuck up to the corpse, removing the ghillie suit and putting on the Crimson soldier's clothes, thankfully, it included a balaclava. They didn't exactly fit, the undershirt was a size too large, and the pants cut off most of the circulation to his toes, but it was close. Placing the Ghillie on the dead soldier, he stole his rifle and caught up with the rest of the patrol. Another soldier nudged Alex in the soldier. "Vickers, where the hell were you?" The soldier asked him. "Craziest thing happened, man. I saw a sniper lookin' at the convoy, so I shot him in the neck." Alex shrugged. "You okay, mate? Your voice seems a little wonky." Another soldier asked. "Just a bug, dude." Alex nodded in reply. "Whatever you say, Vick." "When do we stop? My legs are killing me!" Alex groaned. "I know! It's not like we're marathon runners!" The first agreed. "Quiet! The CO is giving us dirty looks!" The second urged. Alex saw Sigma walking towards the three, pretty much in sync with the rest. She specifically stopped in front of Alex. "Lance Corproal Vickers?" She asked. Alex did something he never thought he'd do in his life. He saluted Sigma. "Yes, Ma'am?" He asked. "Our associate is asking you to oversee the interrogation on our prisoner." Sigma explained. "Me?" Alex asked, completely blindsided. Every fiber of Alex's being pleaded to take the rifle at his side and kill his enemy, but he had to be at least somewhat convincing. "Why not? After all, you are Silas Kahn's assassin, aren't you?" Sigma asked. "Yes, Ma'am." Alex replied. Sigma walked away, looking at him one more time. "I feel like I should know you from somewhere else..." Her voice trailed off as she walked away again. Alex sighed, was he just that lucky? "Dude, you seem a bit scared. You good, mate?" The second soldier asked. "Yeah, sure." Alex cleared his throat. "I almost feel sorry for ya, Jäger is really strict." The first scoffed. "I know, man." Alex sighed. "Wait, really?" The second asked. Oh, crap. "Oh! You're talking about Jäger! I thought you were thinking about someone else!" Alex fake-realized. "Whatever you say, Comrade Vickers." Another added. "Hey, Simon!" The first greeted. "Greetings to you too, Comrade Monaco." Simon nodded in reply. "Guess what? Vickers here was assigned with Jäger for some interrogation." The second reported. "Oi, poor kid." Simon cringed. "Alright, listen up, maggots!" A loud voice commanded. "Dudes, clam it!" Alex urged. "Sergeant's pet." Monaco scoffed. "We're about to stop any minute to refuel! I need Lance Corporal Vickers and Corporal Schmidt up here immediately to oversee interrogation." The CO ordered. "That's your cue, man. See you on the other side." Monaco slapped his back. Alex ran up to where the CO was, with him was another soldier, about eighteen years old. "Lance Corporal Vickers reporting for duty, sir!" Alex saluted. "Alright, you too. Meet up with Jäger in the front tank, he'll give you the rest of the details." The CO nodded. "I-" Schmidt gasped. "Corporal Schmidt and I got this under control, sir." Alex assured. "Get out of my sight, maggots!" The CO ordered. Alex and Schmidt ran towards the tank as fast as they could. Jäger immediately greeted the two. "Soldiers, listen to me very carefully. We're interrogating a suspected collaborator of Alex Walker. Do not hesitate to kill her if she does not do as I say." Jäger ordered. "Yes, Sir!" Alex saluted. "Very good, we're going in." Jäger nodded, opening the door. Alex, Schmidt, and Jäger piled into the room, where another soldier's corpse remained, as well as a 20-something year old woman tied to a red-hot post. Alex fell in line across from Schmidt, now all he had to do was wait. Schmidt turned to Alex, unfolding the mask, mouthing the words 'I got this, Walker.' Before slipping it back on. Alex blinked in surprise, how the hell did this total stranger know who he was? "Agent Mako Cerise. Glad to see you here." Jäger mocked. "I don't have time for this, Jäger! For the last time, I didn't have anything to do with the case!" Mako pleaded. Alex aimed his rifle at Jäger, but didn't get a chance to shoot before Schmidt pulled out an M1911 pistol and shot Jäger through the neck, leaving him gasping for air. While Schmidt got to freeing Mako, Alex walked up to Jäger Alex removed his mask in front of Jäger, revealing his identity before he grabbed Jäger's blood-splattered hunting knife and stabbed him in the throat. "Go to sleep, you bastard..." Alex held Jäger's mouth as his eyes dulled and his breath silenced forever. "Took you long enough. Who's the kid?" Mako asked. "Walker. Ex-Private Alex Walker of the Kahn Militia." Schmidt responded. "And I'm assuming you're this 'Mako' person Vinyl keeps talking about." Alex replied. "You're with the Scratchbolts too?" Mako asked. "Yes, Ma'am." Alex nodded. "Then you know the plan." Schmidt nodded. "What plan?" Alex asked. "Oh, come on, don't tell me that you didn't know that tracker is actually a bomb, right?" Mako scoffed. "That thing's a bomb?!" Alex whisper-yelled. Both Mako and Schmidt nodded. "Then you don't know about Overcharge?" Mako asked. "Scratchbolt armor for humans, right?" Alex asked. "Pretty much, Iron Man. They said that I was the original Overcharge, but since you have more experience, You're the main man." Schmidt shrugged, "Sorry for stealing the spotlight. What's the plan?" Alex asked. "Get out of here before these Inquisitors decide to check on us." Mako replied. "Then you're gonna hate this." A raspy voice coughed in reply. All three turned to Jäger, who pulled himself up, a splotch of what looked like liquid metal was all that remained of their attempted assassination. "What the hell!?" Alex asked. "You remember how I told you I made 'Improvements', you son of a bitch?" Jäger asked. "Stand back, I-" Alex pulled out .44 Scratch. "No, I'll deal with Jäger, get out of here." Schmidt interrupted. "Schmidt, no!" Mako urged. "GO NOW! GO!" He ordered. Alex and Mako ran out of the tank, firing at the enemies in the convoy. "Walker!" A few gasped. Next thing Alex knew, it was raining Jets and Dubstep, he had a fair idea why. "I see one major flaw in this plan!" Alex yelled. "What?!" Mako asked. "Inquisitors! Four of them! Want us dead! Ring any bells?!!" Alex yelled as he fired at the soldiers. "Problem solved, Overcharge inbound, ETA 10 seconds." Iris responded. "Okay, then." Alex shrugged, throwing a grenade towards a cluster of enemy soldiers. Alex fired .44 Scratch and Electric Fury before throwing them high up in the air. A large, grey hunk of metal came roaring across the battlefield and instantly began suiting Alex up. Schmidt wasn't kidding about this 'Overcharge' armor. He felt his Aura refuel and go beyond it's limits. Large, metallic wings expanded out of the back of the armor and two Shoulder Mounted Machine Guns latched and clicked onto his shoulders. The mask looked similar to his Goliath Mk. V visor, only like the rest of the suit, it glowed a bright blue. The HUD was also practical and cool. In the end, the armor felt almost completely natural. Grabbing both revolvers before they could hit the ground, he cocked them both. "Let's dance!" The suit even had a voice changer?! Holy hell, he sounded like he had one of those Darth Vader voice changers, only the speakers had better quality. Even so, four inquisitors was likely a challenge. "Mako, run!" Alex ordered as Jäger walked out of the tank. Mako escaped, with Rainbow grabbing onto her before zipping away as fast as she got there Alex was surrounded. This got a little out of hand. "Greetings, boy." Beta glared. "You're surrounded, kid! No way out of this one!" Jäger yelled. "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!" Alex bashed the gauntlets together, causing a distinct red spark to burst between the gauntlets. All four inquisitors, with the addition of Jäger, charged at him, brandishing their weapons. If Alex was going down, he was taking a few of them with!
Act II, Chapter 16: Equestrian Electro-Naut Part II of IIAlex initiated his attack by converting Electric Fury into it's Rail-Gun form. A yellow glow surrounded the gun, and it was ripped from Alex's hands and flung off to the side. Pulling out .44 Scratch, Alex shot 4 rounds at Gamma, who likely stole his gun. All four bullets were blocked by Beta's broadsword, ricocheting back at Alex. Dodging the shots, they cannoned into the trees, probably hitting a timberwolf or something. Alex's next move was to use his new mechanical jet-pack and fly about 30 feet up. Jäger and Sigma fired a Barrett at him and shot glass at him respectively, threatening to down him. 'Let's see what this thing can do,' Alex thought, his suit glowing brighter and brighter. Massive arcs of lightning cascaded from the glowing areas of the suit, pacifying about two of the warriors. Epsilon flew up to where Alex was, being a Gryphon, and clawed at his visor. Alex was disoriented, but not for very long. His simple reply to the attack was to strangle the Inquisitor. A yellow glow formed around Alex. This wasn't good. "FIIIIRE SPEEEEARS!!!" Beta roared from below. Strands of fire lashed at the boy, burning him underneath. In pain and rage, he curled into a ball and lashed out in fury, bands of electricity disabling Gamma's grasp on Alex. Falling to the ground, Alex lashed out at Jäger, punching his old enemy hard in the rib cage. Alex's fist seeped right through the mercenary, liquid metal seeping out from both ends. "Ever see 'Terminator 2?" Jäger mocked. "Series devolved after the second, never stuck around besides that." Alex retorted, swinging the fist straight upwards, knocking Jäger back. Alex ducked, narrowly avoiding Sigma's swords. He punched hard, sending her careening into a destroyed tank. "Iris? You got a plan?!" Alex asked. "Negative." Iris replied. "You vapid, near-sighted little-" Alex could barely finish his sentence before having to block Beta's fist, which would have otherwise slammed into his face. Instead, Alex skidded backwards, his feet making marks on the earth below. "You should have surrendered at the ship, Catalyst." He spat. "I could've stopped long before that." "Damn shame." Jäger fired a revolver at him, a very familiar revolver. Alex moved the fist away before lashing out at the mercenary, grabbing the gun and kicking him aside. Razor-sharp claws lashed at the armor, causing Alex to recoil. "You fight like a young stallion not being held back. Admirable, but futile." Epsilon quoted. "Since when do you watch Christopher Nolan movies?" Alex asked. "As soon as I joined my brothers and sisters." Epsilon smiled back. "Is it just me, or is this pathetic Fanfiction getting more and more unoriginal?" Sigma asked, firing an arrow at Alex and Epsilon, the resulting explosion separating the two. "Tell that to the 40-something people who added this to their bookshelves." Alex scoffed in reply. "You children make me sick." Beta lurched, swinging his broadsword at Alex, blocking it with both gauntlets. "Wait a second. Do we all go on Fimfiction?" Alex asked. Beta, Gamma, and Epsilon charged at Alex, bombarding him with swipes and swings and gunshots. Alex dodged most of them. "Poor kid, he has the commitment," Gamma scoffed as a beam of yellow-hued energy held Alex at bay, "He has the talent, but he lacks constitution." Alex leapt upwards, avoiding any more extensive damage by the hands of these warriors. "He's mine!" Jäger screamed, leaping high up and grabbing his leg. Jäger grabbed the hunting knife and stabbed at his jet-pack. Alex was losing control of his suit. Using this new-found unpredictability, he charged a gauntlet until it glowed red. Aiming his blow at Beta, who was likely the most powerful, he landed a hard punch right at the helmeted face, sending the armored warrior backwards into the destroyed heap of a helicopter. "Beta!" Sigma screamed, aiming an arrow at Alex. Alex ducked just in time, the arrow flying behind him and blowing a gaping hole in Jäger's back. "Power-hungry f**k! YOU KILLED MY PARENTS, YOU DIE FIRST!!!" Alex leaped again, the gauntlet recharged, and punched Sigma. Epsilon blocked the deadly blow, grabbing it with an armored claw. Alex was quite surprised when he noticed the massive sword swinging in his direction. Throwing Epsilon towards the blade, it hit him head on, knocking the Rogue Guard leader into another broken vehicle. Alex reached for Electric Fury and, before Beta could rear up for another swing, Alex converted it into it's rail gun form and shot Beta in the dented helmet. Sigma leaped at him, both swords brandished. Alex blocked the blades with ease, converting the rail gun into the sword, and swinging at his parents' killer. Alex was hit hard in the side, Gamma threw a Jeep at him! The boy was knocked onto his side, caked in mud and blood. "Ach... Should've seen that coming." Alex groaned, nearly standing up before he was attacked again. Jäger shot at him, throwing a knife at him that landed squarely in the shoulder. Gamma threw more vehicles and various junk at him, disorienting Alex further, Beta and Sigma swung their swords at him, sending pain into his muscles strike by strike. Lastly, Epsilon reared into a running start, grabbing the boy and tossing him into the air like a rag doll. Landing hard into the Landkreuzer, he noticed a minor detail. It hadn't yet exploded, but a series of beeps told him it was close. Alex leapt off just in time before the tank, and anyone inside, exploded into a fiery heap, the boy falling to the ground nearby, beaten and bruised. His Armor was in horrid shape, almost worse than Scarab Mk. III's. Pulling the knife from his shoulder, he tossed it to the ground. "We aren't finished yet!" Beta yelled, leaping high above the wreckage and towards the battered teen. Alex blocked the blade, almost completely keeping it from wounding him, aside from the fact that part of the blade seeped into his leg. Alex blasted lightning at the inquisitor, disorienting him and holding the brute at bay. He needed a plan before the rest showed up! "FIIIIIIRE WAAAAAVE!!!" Beta pounded the earth below, and the ground under Alex exploded in a burst of flame, sending him screaming high into the air. As soon as he landed, he noticed Beta kneeling in pain as he held in his blood. He looked in front of him and was met with a surprising sight. The Inheritor Alex met in Patch. Raven. "What. The. Hell." Alex gasped. "Go, now!" She ordered. "I'm not leaving just yet." Alex coughed. "These Inquisitors are some of the most powerful ones alive! You have to go, they'll kill you if you stay here!" She urged. "What's the plan? At least tell me you have some sort of idea for this!" Alex groaned. "There isn't time! Return to your friends!" Raven ordered again. "FYI, lady. Most of my friends are in different universes, so..." "Celestia's sake, NOW!" She yelled, fighting against Sigma and Gamma, who had just arrived. Alex was enveloped in a white glow, he had an idea of what was likely to happen. He was about to be teleported. Before leaving, Alex tossed Raven a small box he had gotten from Vinyl before the mission began, what she called 'Plan C'. "Give those Inquisitors my regards, at the very least." Alex nodded in acceptance before fading completely out of sight. Alex awoke next inside a bedroom, the soft blankets and pillows providing some sort of comfort before abruptly waking up completely. He was definitely somewhere inside a castle. "Where am I?" Alex asked, he didn't exactly hear anyone, and almost no evidence of any other life besides his own was present in the large room. Almost being the note on the nightstand. Alex picked up the note and read it. Alex, If you're reading this, I suppose you have survived the assault. I applaud your persistence. I sincerely apologize for not explaining things sooner, but we had no time to explain the main plan to you completely. Remember how my sister, Princess Luna, had explained that the Rogue Guard had been waging war on Equestria? That wasn't exactly the full truth. As you have probably noticed by now, the Rogue Guard were working with the Los Santos Syndicate, The White Fang, and Task Force Crimson. I am not sure what they were planning, but ours was to decrease their numbers and set back their plans at least a little while longer. I can't exactly explain all of this in detail, given the size of the note, so I ask only that you meet myself, Luna, the Elements, the Scratchbolts, and Raven inside the throne room once you've awoken. Sincerely, Princess Celestia Alex shrugged, he saw this sort of thing coming, but not from the Princess of the Sun. Upon standing up, he noticed the pain throughout his whole body, the aching and stinging present throughout the boy's body threatened to keep him confined in the room. He limped down the stairs, running into a guard. "Excuse me, do you know where I can find the Throne Room?" Alex asked. "Yes, Commander. It's the 4th door to your left." The guard saluted. Commander? Alex nodded politely, ignoring the sudden respect from the guard, and walked down the hall. Turning to his left, he opened the door. The eleven ponies and one human looked expectantly at the door. "Well, look who decided to show up!" Rainbow yelled. Twilight nudged Rainbow, silencing her. "Are you all right?" Twilight asked. "Do I look okay?!" Alex scowled. "I don't expect you to, between four of the Inquisitors' best and a Terminator knock-off, I'm surprised you're even alive." Raven commented. "Speaking of the schmuck brigade, what happened?" Alex asked. "Plan C, baby!" Vinyl yelled. "It turns out that Vinyl arranged a magic wave cannon into Equestria's atmosphere, blew them all away." Cloudchaser elaborated. "So, what, are they dead now?" Alex asked. "I wish." Raven scoffed. "Where's Mako?" Alex asked. "Right here, kid." A voice behind him replied. Turning around, Alex noticed the Agent walk in. "Mako Cerise, CIA. I understand you've met Agent Thorne?" She asked. "I had the good fortune, yes." Alex replied. "I'm... Sorry about what happened to your family and everything. I know it doesn't mean much, but..." Mako sighed. "I get it. Thanks, Mako." Alex nodded. "So, can someone explain to me what the hay is going on here?" Applejack asked. "Yeah, I'm lost here, too." Alex shrugged. "Look, about a week after Twilight left for Remnant, the other factions started coming in, huge armies with weapons once completely foreign to Pony-kind were suddenly commonplace, and we weren't exactly sure why." Luna began. "So Celestia, knowing a fair amount about the other universes, came to me for help. I told her that I could, and I knew someone else who could, too." Raven continued. "Yang, right?" Alex concluded. "Not just her, this was after you met up with Team RWBY, Raven said that once she met you, that they could help us." Celestia said. "Keeping in mind that Celestia had a vision before you came that predicted the situation almost exactly, I knew what was going on right away." Raven said. "Yeah yeah, Great War of the Ages, Apocalypse, blah blah blah. How could I have known?" Alex groaned. "So once you guys went to LS, Celestia had me set up the Scratchbolts before Twilight came back while the Princesses built their military. Once we met with you, we had Iris take the reins on this case." Vinyl continued. "And I shadowed the group and made sure they were on the right track." Mako added "What they found was a bit more disturbing." Twilight said. "Legend has it that before the Great Battle, the forces of darkness would come together and form the Scarlet Army of the Inquisitors, the Red Star Coalition, for short." Raven continued. "The Red Star?" Alex asked. "Five points on the same blood-stained army, The Inquisitors, the Rogues, the Syndicate, the White Fang, and lastly, Task Force Crimson." Luna elaborated. "We had expected all of you, Team RWBY and Vanoss's Crew included, we didn't expect for all of you to go your separate ways." Celestia grimly stated. "Well, shit! Get them over here!" Alex gasped. "We already sent the letters, Darling. We've gotten one response." Rarity said. "Team RWBY still needs time, Destoyer knows why." Rainbow scoffed. "WOO HOO! MAKING RHYMES ALL THE TIME!" Pinkie yelled. "PINKIE!" Twilight clamped a hoof over the pink party horse's mouth. Alex had one last thing to ask. "Earlier, the Guard called me 'Commander'. Was I already promoted or something?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Don't bring yourself down, you earned that title several times over, if what I heard was right." Flitter said, placing a hoof on Alex's shoulder as he sat. "HOLY SHIT, THIS CASTLE IS BOOTIFUL!" someone yelled. "Shut up, Delirious, we're supposed to surprise them!" someone else chided. "Well, that killed the mood." Cloudchaser scoffed. "Oh, F**k no." Mako sighed. "You know them, too?" Alex asked. "I oversaw Project Immersion." She replied glumly. Ten adult men and one fifteen year old girl burst in through the doors in the hall. "SURPRISE, BITCHES! I'M THE REAL DELIRIOUS!" A hockey masked clown yelled. "Hey, man! How've you been?" An owl greeted. "Eyyy, never thought I'd see you again, scary lady!" A pig yelled. "Tyler, I swear to god!" Mako grumbled. "Kat!" Twilight yelled, flying over to the girl, hugging her tightly. The whole throne room was abuzz with conversation from thereon, old friends reunited, new ones made in seconds, and a sense of friendship spread in the room. "So, Vinyl gave me this kick-plot suit and now I can fly a lot faster!" Flitter laughed. "Holy, shit. That's the best f**king thing I've ever seen in my life!" Mini smirked. "Hey, when did Destoyer finally let us say 'f**k'?" Basically asked. "Around when we got back, it was scary..." Fluttershy replied, shrinking back. "So, you're a CIA agent like Karis?" Kat asked Mako. "I take it Alex told you about her, only really close friends knew her on a first-name basis." Mako said. "Every pony, listen!" Celestia yelled, everyone silencing, awaiting word from the sun goddess. "From this point forward, you are now the best of the best, the A-Team, as Mr. Fong would describe it." Luna said. "So, with that said. You are all taking orders from Commanders Mako Cerise, Alex Walker, Katherine Anderson, and Princess Twilight Sparkle." Celestia continued. "So, Commander Walker, what's your first order of business?" Raven asked. "Me?" Alex asked, pointing to himself. "Go ahead, kid. We all trust you." Mako nodded. "You have my approval." Twilight added. "Well, Alex. They're waiting." Kat replied. Alex stared out among his comrades, his peers, the men, women, and ponies he had the honor of knowing and working alongside. "We link up with the Royal Guard troops in Dodge City, help fortify their defenses. Tell Team RWBY that we'll be over there in case they ever decide to show. If we can stop them before anything from this damn prophecy that I don't know about happens, maybe we'll all have a better chance at living out the rest of our lives instead of coming out in a box. Let's end this war." Author's Note And there we have it. I posted a surprise chapter! I'm on a roll here! Now that most of the plot has been established, what do you, the readers think about this overall? Has this been an interesting 7+ hour read, or has it ended up sucking later on, or, worse yet, sucked from the first chapter? Leave a comment below, I love hearing from you guys!
Act II, Chapter 17: Room For Improvement"Okay, I get why I have to stay here, but why keep the rest waiting?!" Under Celestia's orders, Alex was apparently supposed to stay in Canterlot for a while longer for training so he wouldn't get his ass handed to him like his last scuffle with the Inquisitors. He understood why he had to remain, but what he didn't get was why everyone else had to stay as well. "If you really must know, I can't always be around to save you, or your little brigade. You already know that the first years couldn't be around, so here we are." Raven replied calmly, but with a hint of annoyance. Alex and Raven were inside a Royal Guard training room, complete with it's own sparring ring. The Guards would usually use this to keep themselves in shape for the defense of the country. Alex, on the other hand, was going to use this to sharpen his senses, for his aim left something to be desired, in spite of all that time he spent around firearms. Not to mention that he only trained for one week. "Gotcha, what's the plan?" Alex asked, turning to the Inheritor/Huntress. "Simple enough, we're just going to get your baseline physical fitness in so we know where to start." Raven nodded in reply. "And how do you suppose we do that?" Raven leaped to the sparring ring, put on her mask, and drew her weapon. "Attack me." Alex was thunderstruck. "What?!" "Did I stutter?" Raven asked. "Don't you remember what happened last time, with the 'Disablers' and the 'Blade Gun'?" "Yes. Now attack." Alex casually unsheathed Electric Fury, the once-elegant craftsmanship now scarred and maimed by almost constant abuse and weeks without cleaning or repair. "You sure about this? You don't want me crippled before I even go out on the field, do you?" Alex asked "I don't. Attack." Alex summoned the Overcharge armor, fitting on to him with perfect conformity. Sure, the flight was disabled and that the armor itself was maimed so badly that most of the casing and some of the mechanics would have to be replaced, but it's Aura Enhancing features and HUD was still in proper shape, that plus Iris was now able to monitor his technique and inform him when it was safe to stop. "Don't say I didn't warn you." Alex nodded, leaping on the other end of the sparring pit. The Pit was a solid 60 meters in diameter, with seats above for viewing purposes, now empty on account that most of the Guards were fighting in Dodge City. Other than that, it was essentially a dome littered with sand. Alex readied in his fighting stance, feet shoulder-width apart, left side facing his opponent, sword over the right shoulder with both arms wrapped tightly around the handle. Getting a closer look at his opponent, Raven's weapon was not exposed. It was still sheathed, but her hands gripped the handle, Raven was watching his every move through the slits in the mask. 'Let's see... How do I do this...' Alex pondered to himself. He could go in, sword swinging, and hopefully catch her off guard and get the K.O early on. Or maybe he could use his enhanced jumping ability and get behind her before she could so much as blink and distract her. Who said it even had to be a jump! "I'm waiting!" She announced, annoyed. Before Raven could even finish the sentence, Alex's blade met her's, both locked together. "Let's see... Impressive build, you definitely have the raw power, but you're missing one crucial detail." Raven said. "And what's that?" Alex stumbled forward, surprised by the sudden disappearance of his mentor. Where-? Raven seemed to reappear directly behind Alex before even finishing the thought, slashing his back and legs before he could even utter a word. "Your apparent lack of focus. You have the attention span of a gnat." Raven replied. "Do I?" Alex asked, picking himself up and swinging the blade in his hand, each time connecting with Raven's sword. "Where did you learn your sword-fighting techniques? Aim for the person, not the blade." She scolded, catching him right in the arm before he could correct his attacks. Gripping his arm in surprise, Alex swung the blade again, aiming right for Raven's sword hand. Blocking it, her blade slid down Alex's sword and nicked him in the fingers. Infuriated, Alex spun completely, bringing the blade towards the midsection, connecting perfectly and causing the inheritor to fall to one knee. Alex didn't waste any time afterwards, kicking and swinging the sword. That is, until Raven blocked one of his attacks, hit him in the throat, and fired a red-tinted blade towards his chest. Alex was lying flat on his back now, coughing loudly and staggering up. "Good. You learn quickly." She nodded. By this point, Alex was standing up, albeit still grasping his chest in pain. "For an Entry-Level Inheritor, you're okay. I'd say you can take on five lower-ranked Inquisitors or two Higher-ranked." Raven nodded. "What does that make you?" Alex gasped. "I scare most Inquisitors by merely glancing in their direction." She replied. "I gotta ask, how are they ranked? I took on four at once after we first met and won. Why couldn't I beat five now?" Alex asked. "I got their I.Ds. You dealt with a few of the lower level Shadows then, Entry level to 2 years. Shadow-Hunters are more along the lines of Sigma's or Epsilon's caliber, 3 to 9 years. Shadow-Killers are higher level Inquisitors like Beta and Gamma, a solid 10-15 years at least. Then there's the Alpha. You'd have to be a Shadow-Killer for some ridiculous amount of time to even be considered, even after that, you won't be in the running until the old Alpha dies." Raven explained. "They really work at this, don't they?" Alex asked. "They're an Inter-dimensional fraternity of highly trained mercenaries. So I would say so." "Alright. Thanks, Raven." Alex nodded. "Anytime. Back to training." Raven immediately hardened, back in that stance, ready to fight. Alex spun his sword in a flourish before it collided with Raven's. He leaped over Raven and spun around 180 degrees, slashing her in the back and unleashing wave upon wave of lightning. The Inheritor face-planted and regained her composure as quickly as she lost it. She turned around to face him, emotion undiscernible through the expressionless mask. "So we're going all the way, hm?" She asked. "For god sakes, that sounds terrifying." Alex shrank back at the thought of another motorcycle accident type deal. Another blade was fired in Alex's general direction. Alex dodged it, deftly crouch-sliding beneath it and rearing up for a huge spinning attack. Raven completely disappeared when Alex finally looked again. "What the?" Alex was knocked on his back before he could finish his thought. "Next time, don't make it so I know your attacks before you finish." Raven nodded, grasping his hand and pulling him up. "Ok, now what?" Alex asked. "I asked the other Elements and the Scratchbolts to assist with your training." Raven said. Eight ponies trotted inside the pit, armor covering them head to hoof. Some of the nicer ponies waved hello, and the others just nodded their greetings to the boy. "How are they going to help?" "They'll be helping me knock you out. If you last three minutes, you win." Raven replied. "What?!" Alex backed up in surprise, he couldn't take them all on! Rainbow, Cloudchaser, and Flitter flew high above Alex, circling above his head akin to vultures over a dying animal in the desert. Twilight, Rarity, Vinyl, and Raven walked around him, their weapons and horns gleaming in the low-light. Applejack and Pinkie stood to his front and back, AJ's back legs were pointed at Alex, and Pinkie... Well. Pinkie was juggling grenades. And Fluttershy was backed into a corner, so far in that if she were any closer to the wall, she would simply fall right through it. Alex held Electric Fury tightly, looking at his each and every opponent. "Ourfatherwhoartinheaventhyhallowedbethyname..." He whispered to himself, horrified. Eight horses and his temporary master were upon him, swords swinging, horns firing magic, hoof slamming hard into armor, and Fluttershy still buried deep into the corner, weeping softly. "You couldn't handle the little ponies for three minutes?!" Alex had told his embarrassing little tale to his comrades, Vanoss and crew, Kat, and Mako. A mistake he would likely never repeat. "Wow! I knew the ponies were tough, but Jesus!" Vanoss held back his laughter out of respect for Alex, but to little effect. "Yeah! 'My little pony, my little pony, can beat the shit out of you!'" Delirious sang before breaking out in laughter. "Come on, it's not that funny," Mako rolled her eyes, "I mean, sure, Alex got his ass handed to him on a silver platter, but then again, Raven was carrying the team on her shoulders." "Actually, it's f**king hilarious." Mini chuckled, calming down. "The ponies targeted Alex for termination, he only lasted about a minute and a half. Yaugh." Terroriser said in his Arnold voice. Wildcat, of course, was still laughing his ass off. "Oh, my god. That was a solid minute of me laughing without noise!" He continued laughing. "You guys suck." Alex groaned, still sore from getting bucked straight in the stomach, and then blasted with three spells at once, and stabbed. "You need me to bring you your bedpan yet, Alex?" Kat asked. The whole room was then filled in an uproar of laughter. Alex, of course, was not amused in the slightest. "At least I didn't piss myself, like Mr. Hock-a-dookie over here." Alex said, staring straight at Nogla. "Oh, fock you, Alex! I'm wearing an adult diaper, so it's fine!" Nogla fruitlessly defended. Vanoss turned his laughter to Nogla. "Wait, do you even change that thing?!" Moo asked. Nogla merely stared as the sudden realization fell upon him. "Mm hmm." He lied. "Ew." Mako groaned, disgusted. "I'll take that as a 'yes'. One bedpan and one extra-extra large adult diaper coming up!" Kat smiled. Everyone then began laughing again, as Kat not only insulted Nogla, twice, but Alex as well. Raven stalked inside the hospital room, everyone immediately silenced themselves. "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to speak with Alex. Alone, if you'd please." Everyone piled out of the room, many holding in their laughter. "What do you need?" Alex asked politely. "Couple things. One, here are the results of the training session I held earlier today." Raven handed him a piece of paper. He was being graded?! Subject: Alex G. Walker Mentor(s): Raven Branwen, Yang Xiao Long Fighting Forms: Standard Atlesian Arcamida/ Standard Vytalian Vokaira Training Exercise 0-3: Sparring II: Multiple opponents; Introduction Time: 1:38 3:00-2:30: Mastery 2:30-2:00: Proficient 2:00-1:30: Average 1:30-1:00: Needs Improvement 1:00-0:30: Weak 0:30-0:00: Defenseless Mentor's Notes: Walker has improved greatly these past weeks. He is powerful, energetic, and conscientious in his combat. Though he is not without fault. He is predictable and slow in his combat tactics. He leans more towards the powerful and brutish Arcamida over the swift and unpredictable Vokaira he selected at Beacon. He may soon be ready for missions in Dodge City once he recovers. Alex blinked. that was considered Average?! "What else?" Alex asked "Your combat team has been selected once you start fighting at Dodge City. Here you are." Raven handed Alex another slip of paper. Canterlot Military Command: Royal Guard Unit name: Task Force Lightning Acting Commander: Alex G. Walker Second-In-Command: Rainbow Dash Personnel: Blast Radius Burning Ember Haunting Horseshoe Skirmish Sentinel H2O Delirious I AM WILDCAT Vanoss "I have to ask, how did Rainbow get to be my #2? I would think she'd be with Twilight." Alex wondered. "I heard she volunteered." Raven nodded. "What of Team RWBY?" Alex said. "They still have a lot they need to do. Give it time." She said. "Sure, when do we head out?" Alex asked. "Tomorrow, 0900 hours. What you do then is your own decision." Raven said. A Pegasus in royal guard armor walked outside the hospital door, he had an orange coat with a red and black mane, from what Alex could tell. "I heard our CO was in here, team. Remember, this guy might have been through a lot if he's our commander at 15." He whispered, turning behind him. "I think they're with you. I'll be on my way." Raven nodded her goodbyes and exited the room. "Pardon me... Gentlecolt, I think." Raven shrugged. "Thank you, Ma'am." The guard nodded. Once Raven was out of sight, he and three other guards walked in, the second guard was a slightly darker orange Unicorn with a gray mane that fringed black at the edges, a mare, if he was right. The third guard was a light grey Earth Pony stallion with messy grey-green hair, the colt's most distinguishing features were his eyes, both pure black around the near-invisible pupil, in addition to the numerous scars on his face. The fourth guard was a royal blue Pegasus with orange hair that was tied into a single braid, the mare looked a bit more stoic, in spite of her slightly smaller stature. The first stallion cleared his throat, "Are you Commander Walker?" He asked, seemingly trying to retain confidence. "Chill out, Blast. You scared of a little colt?" The third guard scoffed. "Shut it, Haunt. I'm sure he is, though." The second sighed, annoyed. "I'm assuming you're the rest of my squad." Alex nodded in reply. "Yes, Sir. Lance Corporal Skirmish Sentinel." The fourth held a hoof out. Alex politely shook it, and gestured to the others. "Private First Class Haunting Horseshoe, reporting for duty." The third grunted, as if he had other things to do. "Sergeant Burning Ember. Been on the guard for 4 years." The second stood firm, demanding respect from her compatriots. "Wonderful introduction as always. Blast Radius. Corporal." The first chuckled. "Well, nice meeting you all, look forward to working with you." Alex smiled. "With all due respect, sir. Can I ask what happened to where you're in a hospital bed?" Ember asked. Skirmish walked over to a nightstand to his right, grabbing his grades. "A graded training session from a Mrs. Raven Branwen and a Mrs. Yang Xiao Long." "Actually, it's Ms. Xiao Long, as far as I know. Not sure about Raven, though." Alex replied. Haunting took the note. "Says here he lasted a minute-thirty-eight in a Pit Match against multiple opponents, that's just sad." Haunting scoffed. "There's a back side to it." Ember noticed, reading it before gasping in surprise. "You fought against the Elements of Harmony, the Scratchbolts, and this 'Raven'?" She asked in awe. "And got my ass handed to me." Alex sighed. "Pony feathers, I think he might be a better fighter than Haunting if he can last a minute against those psychos!" Blast cringed. "I resent that." Haunting scoffed. "If I am, it's only because I had to." Alex sighed. "Come again?" Skirmish asked. Alex told them all about him, everything that happened to him in these past months, once he was done, they all smiled. "Wait, what?!" Alex asked upon noticing their reactions. "I figured that Celestia'd pick you to command us!" Ember nodded. "We've all been there. I was once held in a Diamond Dogs' lair for two months, had to kill my way out with a sharp piece of amethyst." Skirmish recollected. "I was hunted in vampony territory, sharpened a stick and, well, un-alived them all. Took a month and a half." Haunting gestured to a scar on his foreleg. "Had to fight off a manticore and a chimera at once, you ever deal with those things?!" Blast whistled. "That's nothing. You remember the botched wedding in the Castle,right? I boxed myself in the kitchen and used every last fork, knife, and spoon in there. I killed 26 of those flying bugs." Ember scoffed. 'Holy hell, these ponies are psychos' Alex thought to himself. Ember of all ponies seemed to notice his reaction. "Ahem, anyways. It was a pleasure meeting you, I guess we should meet up with Ms. Dash and the others." She said. "F**king finally!" Haunting sighed loudly in relief. "Sure. See you on the field." Skirmish smiled. "Bye, sir!" Blast yelled before being silenced by Haunting. Once they left the room, he reviewed their psych profiles again. What they said was all true, according to Celestia. These ponies had been involved in some of the messiest battles in Equestria's history. And that was actually saying something, Equestria was mostly peaceful! It was also worth noting that these particular four had worked together before, they were often called the 'Doom Bringers' by other species, even Griffins were afraid of them. How they would be around Vanoss, Delirious, and Wildcat was not a question he wanted answered. He suspected that, considering their often aloof behavior and indifference to bloodshed, they would fit right in. Rainbow would probably be horrified, seeing as how, like the other Elements, had seen disappointingly little combat, and they were probably the most sociopathic ponies out there, but that isn't to say they weren't nice ponies, most of them, with the exception of Haunting, were pretty casual and collected. And if Team RWBY were to actually show up, how would they react? Alex knew Yang likely wouldn't care, as long as they were willing to help out once or twice a week. As for the others, he didn't know. He hadn't gotten to know them personally, but he did respect them to some extent. All Alex knew for sure was that he was going to Dodge City with the Elements, Vanoss's crew,The Scratchbolts, Kat, Mako, and their squads to fight the Red Star, and Team RWBY would arrive later, maybe with reinforcements, maybe not. Regardless, things were back to normal for the most part... ... And using the loosest definition of 'normal' ever. Author's Note Well, another Saturday, another chapter to this fan fiction. I took the effort of making more OCs, as apparent in the chapter. No, I can't get cover art or anything because I can't art! See you all next Saturday! Peace!
Act II, Chapter 18: The Knights Myriad Part I of IIIAlex and the rest of the coalition had entered the train headed for Dodge Junction about 30 minutes ago. They had stopped for fuel in Ponyville, so they would be a bit late arriving, but he took this opportunity to look at the old house one last time. He had fifteen minutes before he would have to go back now, he had just entered the front door. Looking around, he found it almost exactly as he left it going out to the Dragon's cave about a month ago, minus the dust. Walking up the stairs to his room, Alex pondered over what significance this would have, seeing his temporary asylum again one last time. He entered the closet, seeing his old clothes hung up after putting on his uniform, ready in case he came back. Inhaling the dust particles, he coughed silently. Why was he here again? Remembering a minor detail, he dug further into the closet. There! An old present box! He still remembered when he got it all those weeks ago... 'Are you really sure you want me to have this, princess? It seems a bit unnecessary.' Alex had said about a day after she initially came to visit. 'It's not necessarily because I pity you, but more of a 'Plan Z' , if it were. Something to have in case something were to happen,' Celestia replied, 'Remember one crucial fact about this, Alex.' 'Sure.' 'Only use this gift when you are dealing with something that cannot be overcome using conventional means.' Celestia directed, tapping one hoof on the box. 'It's a deal.' Alex promised. Opening the gift, he used his fingernail to rip the tape enclosed in the box, and folding it open, he noticed a small, round object wrapped in thick, velvety cloth. He unfolded the cloth, and pulled out what looked like a crystalline TV remote, with only one button. Not sure what to think of it, he re-wrapped the cloth and stuck in in one of his pockets. He would save it when he finally met this 'Alpha' inquisitor. Alex was sitting inside of the train with Vanoss, Rainbow, and Skirmish. The Ex-Gamer and the iridescent Pegasus were talking about some of the things they had to deal with in the past. "...I mean, I like Pinkie and all. It's just that sometimes, her personality is a bit much sometimes." Rainbow shrugged. "Yeah, there was this one time when Delirious and I were playing GTA, and..." Alex figured he should end the conversation there, for fear of having this story bumped up to an 'M' rating. Skirmish cringed, but was otherwise silent. "So, Commander." Skirmish finally said. "Yes?" He asked. "I have to ask, what was your exact situation with Ms. Xiao Long?" She asked. Alex sighed, it was complicated as it was. "Awkward. Just very, very, cringe-worthily awkward." He responded, hoping she wouldn't ask for more. "How so?" She asked. F**k. "How do I put this? I constantly have my life on the line, never have I gone two whole weeks without getting shot once or twice. I was tortured for a whole frickin' month and still, to this day, have never gone to sleep without having a nightmare. But having that on top of a full-blown relationship is a bit too much for me. You can imagine my reaction when Kat and Yang start asking me about this kind of thing.." Alex said. "I understand." She nodded. "And it's even worse because she's a Huntress-In-Training. I hardly consider myself on the same level. This-" Alex continued, pounding the armor on his chest, "- can only get me so far if any of them were to switch sides." "You're not a huntsman?" She asked. "Not at heart. An Aura doesn't automatically equal Huntsman material, nor do my weapons and armor." He said. "Then what are you?" Skirmish asked. "Huh?" He perked his head up. "If you don't see yourself as a huntsman, then what do you see yourself as?" Skirmish clarified. Alex thought for a moment before facing Skirmish. "Somewhere between a soldier and a huntsman. A 'super-soldier', if you will." Alex replied evenly. A conductor ran horrified to where the team conversed. "What's the situation?" Ember asked. The conductor hesitated. "The Macintosh hills collapsed! A giant ship launched from the ground and destroyed Dodge Junction!" He yelled. "What?" Twilight gasped. "There's nothing left! I just looked outside and this giant ship just flew op from the dust!" He replied. "What's the plan?" Alex turned to Mako. Mako thought for a solid minute before announcing the plan. "Full speed ahead!" She yelled. "Are you insane?!" Wildcat said. "The Knights Myriad is here?!" Kat gasped. "How the hell do you know about this?!" Alex wondered. "What's going on?" Skirmish asked. "I'd like to know, too!" Flitter said. Kat sighed. "The Myriad is a massive super-carrier! It takes 8000 crew members to operate and stores at least a hundred jets!" She said. "If that thing gets near Canterlot, we're done for!" Rainbow Dash gasped. "Never mind Canterlot, imagine what happened to the guards stationed here!" Kat's sergeant, a stark white earth pony with a light grey mane named Winter Frost realized. "They wiped out the guard?!" Blast asked, astonished. "And the Junction!" Applejack said. Haunting coughed loudly from the back of the train car, everyone turned to him. "Listen here, if the Humans are as good as the Princess says they are, they should have no trouble at all taking down a measly little ship like that!" He scoffed. "He trying to intimidate me, he trying to intimidate ME? HUH? YOU THINK YOU'RE BIG MAN?!" Vanoss challenged. "Hell yeah, that's a challenge! Let's take the thing down!" Haunting yelled. The whole room was suddenly in an uproar. Did Haunt just rally the entire crew to battle in 30 seconds?! As the entirety of the team charged outside, Alex turned to Haunting. "Did you just boost their confidence in 30 seconds?" Alex asked him. "Meh, I dealt with their type before." He shrugged. "Good work, soldier. ONWARD AND UPWARD!" He ordered, activating the now-repaired jets and soared high into battle. The Myriad was truly massive, to compare, the U.S.S Zancudo that Alex raided for the EMP would make up 1/8 of the carrier in total, yes, eighth. It was about 2700 feet in length, 2010 feet in width, and roughly 18 stories tall and built like an oversized, flying Landkreuzer tank, complete with eight 300 foot thrusters keeping it in the air, and filled to the brim with missile launchers, Machine guns, and five cannons with enough firepower to destroy a city. Needless to say, this was going to take some work. Kat slid to the ground, narrowly avoiding a barrage of missiles. The Myriad was more challenging than she remembered Locust describing it would be. She went to the radio, searching for Alex's channel. '-.-Copy, over! I repeat, this is Atlas One-Two-Six calling for support! Requesting authorization from Commanders Walker and Anderson, over!' one channel crackled. Support? "Atlas One-Two-Six, this is Commander Anderson reporting from Dodge Junction, respond!" She ordered. She heard rustling and struggling until she heard a familiar voice. 'Kat? Kat, is that you?!' A girl asked. "Affirmative! We're surrounded by Red Star and are dealing with the Knights Myriad!" she yelled. 'Do you have Alex? Is he okay?!' "He's inside the Myriad, he's still alive!" 'Thank goodness. I'll tell the coalition to engage!' Alex burst through the hull, landing inside the ship's many hallways, searching for anything vulnerable. What the?! The floor collapsed from under him and Alex found himself in a large storage room of Jets and White Fang Bullheads. In the middle of the room was his worst enemy before Sigma came along. The most terrifying person he met from that time period other than the deceased Winchester. In the middle of the room, was Jäger. "You should've stayed with the convoy. Surrendered while you still had the chance." He scoffed. Alex staggered up. "Alpha wants you to die, but on his own, overly chivalric terms. Human sacrifice or something stupid. I just want to see you dead. No bullshit." Jäger scowled. "Whatever these A-Holes are paying you, I can double it." Alex coughed, unsheating Electric Fury. "This isn't business, kid. This is personal." He replied, ripping a thin, rusty, lead pipe off the wall and spinning it. Alex surged towards his old enemy, their weapons locking in place as they stared hatefully into each other's eyes. "Dead or alive, You're coming with me." He threatened. "That's big talk for a small-time crook." Alex shrugged. "Fine, Dead it is!" He yelled. Author's Note I'm going to be posting chapters all throughout the weekend, after that! I'm disregarding the schedule entirely. Hope you enjoy three days of pre-written chapters! Oh, by the way, here's to another 50,000 words. Don't know how I wrote that much in less time and chapters than the last 50,000. But eh, progress.
Act II, Chapter 19: The Knights Myriad Part II of IIIJäger stared into Alex's eyes with murderous intent, swinging the lead pipe at his head. Alex blocked it with Electric Fury's blade before converting it into it's rail gun form. Jäger then ducked, swinging hard for Alex's chest and denting the armor. Alex coughed, raised Electric Fury, and fired every shot the railgun contained at Jäger's head, leaving decent sized holes in his head and warping it into a flat, six-holed liquid-metal pan. The abomination of nature re-morphed it's face before he simply threw the pipe at him like a javelin. Alex narrowly dodged the pipe before it was embedded into the wall nearby. Swinging the blade through Jäger's midsection before going all 'Metal Gear Rising Zandatsu Mode' and chopping his enemy into a million liquid metal pieces. Exhausted, Alex walked out of the room only to have to dodge a metallic spike. Turning around to find his adversary rematerialized. "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?" Jäger scoffed. Alex turned around, both revolvers ready to fire. "Actually, for a second there, yeah. I kinda did." Alex retorted. The metal spike liquefied and slid under Alex's boot before returning to Jäger, who pulled out his own sword, jagged at one side, wickedly sharp, and a meter and a half long, he pointed it at the super-soldier. "Let's dance!" Mako slid, dodging a barrage of missiles and returning fire, blowing up other missiles easily. "It's no use! Fall back!" Twilight ordered. "No! Wait!" Kat yelled back, still fighting off Red Star infantry that were still fast-roping from the top of the ship. "DIIIIIIE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Delirious screamed, still hacking enemies with a hatchet. "RED BULL GIVES YOU WIIIIINGS!!!" Vanoss yelled, Cloudchaser was pulling him up above her, throwing him in range of the enemies still dropping in. "THIS IS THE FIGHT OF A LIFETIME! I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" Haunting seemed to flourish in the battlefield, his two spears serving as mere extensions of his hooves as he sliced away infantry. "Two, three, six, and nine! Shit! Surrounded!" Frost counted, blowing them all away with an SMG. Just then, a massive amount of ponies in Royal Guard uniforms came pouring over the hillside, there seemed to be no end, they numbered in the thousands. "HERE COMES THE CALVARY!" Mini laughed. Then, Mako saw blurs from above, and Rainbow knew who they were. "The Wonderbolts?!" "In my armor?!" Vinyl gasped, pride edging her voice. 'Atlas One-Two-Six, you are clear to engage!' her radio crackled. "Oh, my god!" Mako realized. "Yep! Let's take this thing down!" Kat smiled broadly, the barrel of her sniper rifle now smoking. "We got the gang back together, boys!" Wildcat yelled, firing an RPG rocket that met a missile in midair, causing a decent-sized explosion. Jäger was launched inside the engine room by Alex, who was still fighting him. Panting with exaustion, Alex holstered his revolvers, and sent electricity directly to the gauntlets on his armor. Jäger staggered up, only to be met by Alex's armored fist. BZZZAP! The gauntlet collided with Jäger's face, generating a huge spark on contact. Alex just kept punching and punching before holding both of his hands, as though he were about to swing a golf club, and delivering a devastating uppercut. Jäger was blown upwards, colliding with the ceiling before falling down and meeting the stairway. Coughing, Jäger picked himself up, noticing too late that Alex had stabbed him with Electric Fury, now glowing red-violet and shocking him. "You...you will never win.." Jäger coughed. "Never, you say?" Alex panted, upping the voltage on his blade. Alex charged, slamming Jäger into a red-hot engine, melting his back and even the front a little bit. Planting a foot on his enemy, Alex pulled the blade out, now partially melted, and irreversibly damaged. Alex then pulled out .44 Scratch, firing all six rounds at his enemy, now nothing more than a silvery puddle on the ground. "Give my regards to Winchester, you son of a-" BZZZZOW!. The final shot all but incinerated Alex's rival, Alex himself was now tired. "Finally..." Alex sighed, sweaty in the burning-hot room. He opened up the Pocket Dimension, went inside, and came back out with a familiar device. The EMP. If all else failed, he grabbed the control, meant to detonate it on a timer if he were to not be there. Placing the detonator in his pocket, he ran out of the room and started up the stairs, hopefully by now able to get back to his allies. He had to hurry, they may already be dead. He charged up the stairs, killing any soldiers unfortunate enough to be in the way. He didn't care, his friends were out there! Running just near the runway, Alex was suddenly knocked on his back by another Inquisitor. Epsilon, AKA Iron Talon. "You really have a death wish if you think you can destroy the Knights Myriad. This ship has been here for ages, boy!" The griffin sneered. Alex staggered up, .44 Scratch in hand. "I do have a death wish, Talon. Yours!" He cried out, firing at the Inquisitor Leader of the Rogue Guard. Alex dodged a reinforced claw, slamming hard into the mythical Eagle-Lion thing, and shoved it out the door. Epsilon staggered up, screeching in fury before latching onto Alex's back and ripping the flight mechanisms, Machine Guns, and rocket launchers to shreds. Alex screamed in agony and ripped the Inquisitor off his back. He lashed again, this time to be met by Alex's gauntlet and blown backwards. "I will tear you apart!" Epsilon yelled, charging at Alex and tearing apart what remained of his armor. Now Alex's Overcharge armor was destroyed, the visor cracked and revealed deep blue eyes, the armor now bloody through the claw marks on Alex's back. Alex took off the armor, revealing dirty hunting gear and bloodstained blonde-ish hair. The boy was wounded badly and was going into shock, staggering down and holding in his wounds "I will end you!" The griffin yelled again before getting blown away by green energy blasts, the Inquisitor getting knocked backwards with every shot before a very large bullet ripped through his cranium, falling onto the battlefield below. Alex coughed up blood and was struggling to crawl away before whatever killed Epsilon got to him too. F**k! A large explosion blew up next to Alex, who was now rolling haphazardly near the edge in shock. He found himself unable to do a whole lot as he nearly fell off the ship itself. What the?! Something was grabbing him by the satchel and pulled him up, his vision was blurry and the blood was in his eyes, so he could not identify his savior. He definitely heard something, though. "Alex? Wake up!" The person screamed as Alex continued to try and hold in a wound on his gut. Another blur went up to the first, looked at him and back at his savior. "He's hurt bad. I don't know if he can make it down by himself." The second shook it's head. "He has to! We didn't come all this way to find him like this! Alex!!" The first screamed as he continued to writhe in agony. Author's Note Part II of the Knights Myriad trilogy continues. I forgot to mention, Part III is pretty much the finale of Act II, just thought I should say it.
Act II, Chapter 20: The Knights Myriad Part III of IIIAlex slowly blinked until his vision started to clear up. His eyes widened once he saw who was currently defending him from Red Star troops. "Ruby?!" Alex coughed, still bleeding profusely. "Alex! Thank god you're okay!" She hugged him tightly. Alex grit his teeth, the soul-constricting hug in tandem with his wounds left him in agony. "Oh, right. Sorry." She apologized, wiping his blood off of her clothes. "When did you get here?" Alex asked, pulling out .44 Scratch and helped her thin out the enemy forces. "It wasn't easy. We had to convince the kingdoms to start-" "I said when." Alex interrupted. "About a half hour ago." Ruby replied. "Listen... We need to get off this thing. Now!" Alex coughed. "Why?" Ruby asked. "Remember the EMP? Yeah, it's in the engine room on this thing and I have it rigged to burst any minute now." Alex said, showing her the remote. "Gotcha covered, hold on!" She said, holding onto him as the two leaped off the Myriad, Alex screaming along the way. "AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" He shrieked, cringing once they were close to the ground. Ruby fired Crescent Rose just before hitting the ground, slowing their fall and landing relatively safe. Alex himself handed hard on his chest, Ruby had slipped about 5 feet above the ground and, while not ending up a red mark on the dust, it still hurt like crazy. "Ow! Damn it!" Alex coughed. "Listen, Blake and Kat are still up there getting whatever information they can, as soon as they're off, then you can trigger the EMP." Ruby instructed. "Alex! Ruby!" Twilight seemed elated to see Ruby again, and even happier to find out Alex survived. "Hey, Twilight." Alex coughed. "Is he okay?!" She asked, checking his wounds. "He fought Iron Talon on the ship!" Ruby replied. "Motherf**ker ripped my armor into bits and almost killed me, thank god she came in with a ray gun!" Alex added. "Ray gun, you said?" Twilight asked. "Yep!" Ruby said, handing her the Ray Gun. "Where did you even get a Ray Gun?" Alex spluttered, then he remembered when Vanoss's crew brought in the mystery box just before the embassy massacre. "The box that your team brought in, remember?" Ruby asked, turning to him. "Just did." Alex replied. "This is remarkable! I didn't know your species had adapted into atomic cold cell research so well!" Twilight beamed, unloading the weapon. "We didn't." Alex said. "Anyways, I'll have to do some research on this to see if I can implement this technology into your own weapon, Ms. Rose!" Twilight promised. "Thank you so much!" Ruby then proceeded to hug the lavender Alicorn. "That's all well and good, but where's the rest of your team?" Alex asked. "It's not just us anymore, Alex. Every Huntsman and Huntress available is working on this, every huntsman school across Remnant has students participating!" She smiled broadly. Alex's jaw dropped to the ground. "Are you mad?! Your comrades are in danger!!" Alex scolded. He cared about Ruby, and couldn't bear to see her encounter more loss than she might already have suffered. "Ahem, anyways, Weiss is helping Evan's squad and the other Elements, Blake is with Kat stealing information from the ship, and Yang is still fighting off any Red Star infantry left." Ruby reported. "Anyone else?" Alex asked. "Jaune and Pyrrha are with Evan and Weiss, Nora's with Yang, and Ren's with Agent Mako." She replied. "Thank god. They're still alive, yes?" He asked hopefully. "I think so." 'Commander Anderson to Huntress Rose, we found an Electromagnetic Pulse device in the engine room, what do we do?' Kat asked through the radio. Alex took the radio from Ruby. "Kat, I need you to stay away from the EMP! I repeat, stay the hell away from that device!" Alex ordered. 'No! Stay away from there! N----' the radio went out. "Kat?!" Alex shook the radio. They set it off and the ship was falling. "No!" Twilight gasped. "Retreat! Fall back!" Alex ordered. Most of his allies in the battlefield ran away from the falling ship, for a moment, he saw Blake and Kat leaping out of the airship. Hopefully they'd make it. They had to! Everyone kept running as fast as they could. "Regroup at the Intersection! Move! Go go go!" Alex screamed as loud as he could to anyone who could hear. They were going to make it. Turning around, he saw the ship crash into the dust, two parachutes above and floating towards the horde. The skip exploded in a giant fireball, the destroyer of Dodge Junction was brought down entirely, seemingly disintegrating in the flames. Once everyone finally got to the intersecting train tracks, Alex was tired, more tired than he had ever been in his life. He staggered to the ground, coughing profusely and spitting blood. His wounds remained untended. "Is everyone okay?" Alex asked. "I've been better, man." Vanoss huffed. "Good thing I read up on long-distance running." Twilight panted. "Meh, I've had hangovers worse than this." Vinyl replied. "No serious injuries in our squad." Ember said. "I'm good, Lex." Mako added. "We're okay, Alex." Ruby gasped for breath. "We're all fine." Blake said, for she had just arrived, with Kat in tow. Alex rolled onto his back, still wounded badly. "Thank god." Alex's vision started to flutter. A medic walked up to him, she looked like she was from Remnant. "Sir, I think you're the only one with untended wounds, we need to clean these. Now." She said. "Sure..." Alex groaned. As the medic continued patching him up, he looked around. Everyone who was originally a part of Team Unity was now here, as well as some new additions. The sting of the disinfectant was pretty much the only thing keeping him awake, Weiss had fallen asleep on arrival, and Vanoss and some of the other Scratchbolts were beginning to get some shut-eye. "There you go, sir. I'd advise not doing anything too crazy the next couple days. But you should be fine." She said after she finished applying bandages. "Thank you." He said, collapsing onto the ground in exhaustion, blood loss, and the like. Someone had sat down next to him and pat him on the shoulder blade. "I haven't seen you in a while, Alex. What's up?" Alex just realized that Yang was laying next to him. "Oh, hey Yang. I just helped take down a huge carrier ship and probably killed most of the crew, fought my old doppelgänger and won, and got torn apart by a bird-lion thing before your sister got to him." Alex replied blankly. "So, just like old times?" She asked. "Yeah, you could say that." He chuckled a bit. Alex just sat there, blinking away blissful slumber for the next couple of minutes. He saw a small light from the other side of the tracks, a train? Here? now? "Who's that?" Alex asked. "I'm not sure. Let's find out." Yang said, picking him up. Walking towards the train, Alex and Yang saw the train slowly come to a halt before him, the door opened, revealing Princesses Celestia, Luna, and... "Professor Ozpin?" Alex asked. "Hello, Mr. Walker. Glad to finally see you again after so long." Ozpin replied, no emotion in his voice. "Eh. I figured you might have something to do with the dozens of huntsmen being here." Alex shrugged blankly. "Miss Xiao Long, may we have a moment?" The Professor asked, turning to the girl. "Gotcha. See you around, kid." Yang waved. Alex was led inside the train, sitting in a booth to Luna's right side, Ozpin and Celestial facing him. "I assume you know I'm not here to antagonize you." The headmaster tilted his head slightly. "It'd explain why you aren't attacking me, especially since I took off to an alternate dimension with some of your best huntresses." Alex replied rather bluntly. "Miss Rose and Miss Xiao Long both explained at length why they went with you." Ozpin said. "And that's why we want to assist you in your efforts, the Inquisition is a scourge." Celestia added. "Well, thank you." Alex blinked, still tired. "It's not just us, Mr. Walker. The Inquisitors hurt a lot of the wrong people. You are familiar with the prophecies, are you not?" Luna asked. "Yes, I am. Beta's even going as far as calling me a 'Catalyst'." Alex replied. "And for good reason. You are the one who will change everything in this universe. You, Alexander, are the key to our collective future." Celestia said. "It's a pain. It really is." Alex sighed. "True. But no burden is without reward. Needless to say, after this, you shall never be in the same situation you once were ever again." Luna said. "I understand." Alex said, this time, he meant what he said. "I would like to offer you a deal, Commander." Ozpin offered. "I'm listening, Professor." Alex nodded, interested. "Full control of Equestria's and Remnant's fleet, led by our best ship, which is outfitted with dimensional gateway technology, and more soldiers than you can count, with your team leading the charge. You'll have a chance at revenge for your lost comrade, life, and freedom, all you have to do is find the Inquisitor's Capital, and kill the Alpha." Celestia said. "Gee, you make it sound much easier than it actually is, but I may need a tiny bit more than that." Alex said. "Huntsman training beforehand?" Ozpin added. "Eeeeehhh." Alex groaned. "Full access to Remnant, Equestrian, and Earth weapons?" Celestia asked. "Little bit more..." Alex offered. "Magic enhancements? Super-Weapons?!" Luna added on. "Just a little bit more..." "By dust! What is it you want from us?!" Ozpin yelled. "All of the above, plus an extra-something special.." Alex said. Celestia's eyebrows shot straight upwards. "Jesus! Not like that, you pervert! I mean as in materials. The strongest possible materials in your possession for armor building, because I swear to god, if I lose one more set of armor, I'm gonna be pissed!" Alex shook. "Oh. Good. I noticed you've been using Equestrian Steel to reinforce your armor. There is another metal comparable to that." Luna said. "I hear you..." Alex said. "Invictium is one of the most durable, lightweight metals known to Equestria, aside from Equestrian steel." Celestia explained. "The strongest metals in Remnant have been used extensively in Huntsman and Huntress weapons and armor, there would be no problem outfitting some to fit your standard." Ozpin added. Alex smiled. "You have yourself a deal. I just need all of those metals melted into an alloy and made into sheets. Two meters by two meters, about three centimeters thick. About... Seven, if it's at all possible." Alex instructed. "We'll be right on it, Mr. Walker. Just make sure Alpha is dead once you get to him." Ozpin ordered. "And Alex." Celestia said before Alex exited the train. "What would you like the name of your flagship to be?" She asked. Alex thought for a moment, his memory hearkening back to 8th Grade English Class for an unknown reason. "The Iliad." Alex said in reply. Alex sat in the train, looking over every member of the enhanced Team Unity. Writing their names down on a list, he looked over them all admirably. List of Current Team Unity Members (As of October 29, 2016) Alex Walker Katherine 'Kat' Anderson Mako Cerise Twilight Sparkle Rainbow Dash Rarity Applejack Pinkie Pie Fluttershy Vanoss Delirious Wildcat Lui Mini Basically Terroriser Droidd Moo Nogla Ruby Rose Weiss Schnee Blake Belladonna Yang Xiao Long Jaune Arc Pyrrha Nikos Nora Valkyrie Lie Ren Vinyl Scratch Cloudchaser Flitter Winter Frost Pitch Black Burning Ember Blast Radius Haunting Horseshoe Skirmish Sentinel Looking at the list again, he gaped. The group count had jumped from 22 to 36?! What the actual f**k?! "Something wrong, Admiral Walker?" Skirmish asked. Alex forgot to note. He ranked up given his position in the Equestrian-Remnantian Coalition. As well as everyone else. "What rank am I again?" Vanoss asked. "Master Chief Petty Officer. Same as Kat, Mako, Ruby, Jaune, and Rainbow." Alex replied. "Haha! Suck it, Delirious! I'm the Master Chief!" Vanoss yelled, shooting Delirious in the chest. "NOOOOOO!" He screamed, running away. "Get back here...uh..." Vanoss seemed lost for words. 'Commodore.' Alex mouthed. "GET BACK HERE COMMODORE DELIRIOUS!" Vanoss charged at the Hockey-Masked man. "Wait, what am I again, Alex?" Yang asked. Alex sighed. "'All huntsmen and huntressess not designated as leader are enlisted at the rank of 'Lieutenant Colonel'. Leaders of huntsmen/huntress teams are enlisted at the rank of 'Master Chief Petty Officer.''" Alex replied, repeating what he read from the syllabus. "Oh." Blast nodded. "So I'm..." Blake said. "Lieutenant Colonel Belladonna. Yes." Alex replied. "That puts me right over Adam's old rank." Blake said, more or less to herself. "Which was?" Alex asked. He hadn't heard much about Blake's time in the White Fang, but then, not many people knew exact details. "Major." She replied. Alex made sure to keep this in mind before looking outside to his right. "There she is, team," Alex said, admiring the large form in the Eastern Equestrian coast, directly between Fillydelphia and Manehattan. "Woah." Vanoss gaped. "Fine ship you got there. What's it called?" Applejack asked. "That's our new home for the foreseeable future, until we find the Lion's Den that is the Inquisitor's Capital City. I present the E.R.C Iliad." Author's Note And so ends the second act of the story. It brings tears in my eyes. Thank you all for enduring the six hours or so it took reading this story. When, even to this day, I didn't bother to include cover art. I may have to start asking at this point. I'm not going to ask your opinion on the story this time, so leave it of your own accord. Until next time, - The Destoyer
Act III, Chapter 1: The IliadOnce the team got on the ship, things seemed to move along a bit more smoothly. "GET AWAY FROM ME, VANOSS!" Delirious screamed, as Vanoss was currently chasing Delirious around the obscenely large flight deck. The Iliad was about half the size of the Myriad in overall volume, but even so, Alex was surprised that the ship itself stayed afloat. It was so huge that Vanoss had actually tired out before he could stab the masked man. "Hahahaha! You can't catch me, bitc- NOOOOO!" Delirious screamed mid-sentence as Vanoss had fired a rocket on the flight deck. "Evan! Not even thirty seconds on deck and you're already destroying Atlesian tech!" Weiss scolded. "And Equestrian, and possibly Earth tech because the dimensional gateway was based off of Die Glock." Twilight corrected. "That'll teach him to steal my loot-crate." Vanoss threatened. "Should we be afraid?" Jaune asked, backing away in terror. "Nah. In the 29 hours I've been with them, they're not much." Haunting shrugged. "It's been one day since the Myriad battle? It's felt like three!" Rainbow asked. "I hear ya, Dash." Mako shrugged. Alex continued the short walk to the stairwell leading below deck. He needed to check the systems on this thing. "All right, I'm going to need Master Chiefs Fong, Rose, Dash, Anderson, Cerise, and Arc with me. Soldiers, stay here until the rest of the crew comes along." Alex ordered. "Yes, sir!" Most of his Company announced. "Welcome, Admiral." A very familiar voice greeted once the group entered the center-most part of the ship. "Iris?! I thought you went down with the armor!" Alex gasped. "You'll have to thank Lieutenant Colonel Belladonna and Master Chief Anderson for that." Iris replied. "You're not going to go all 'HAL-9000' on me for getting torn apart by a psychotic inquisitor griffin, are you?" Alex asked. "She gon' stick a big ol' monolith up yo-" Vanoss joked until Mako elbowed him in the arm. "Ow." He winced. "Thanks for preserving the teen rating on this story, Mak." Rainbow smiled. "Pleasure." She replied. "I severely doubt it will come to that, Admiral. But regardless, I will schedule some training with Lieutenant Colonel Xiao Long so this does not happen again." Iris said. "Oh, Alex. I've been meaning to ask..." Ruby began. "Sure." Alex smiled, turning to the red-cloaked huntress-in-training. "Can I help Yang train you?" She asked him. "I don't see any reason why not. If anyone else wants to, I'll take help wherever I can get it." Alex replied. "And so the trend continues..." Kat sighed, nostalgia heavy in her tone. "Have I asked for other people's help that often?" Alex asked. "Well, not explicitly ask, but rather wait until someone else asks if they can help you." she answered. "Truer words have never been spoken." Vanoss nodded. "I'm with you." Rainbow Dash added. "Ditto." Ruby said. "God dammit." Alex pinched the bridge of his nose, trying with most of his might to keep his internal screaming from becoming external. Alex looked around the dimly lit room while the others continued talking, large computer monitors were laid out in paths, and the only other light source in the room besides Iris's computer, still working on diagnostics. Why were they arranged like that? "Diagnostics complete. The ship is capable of transporting anything in a 40 kilometer radius to other dimensions as far as 100,000 yottaparsecs away from ours. The ship can carry as many as 500 Bullhead VTOLs, 64 M1 Abrams-sized tanks, and 500,000 soldiers excluding crew. The ship requires at least 300 operators to be even remotely managable, and is outfitted with several intercontinental missile launchers, Anti-Aircraft weapons, dozens of heavy machine guns, and one rail gun, capable of firing projectiles one yard in diameter up to 20 miles away with pinpoint accuracy. The ship is also outfitted with training quarters to anyone who may need it, it's own forge is also enclosed inside, and can travel up to 65 knots an hour thanks to two dark-matter reactors on the ship." Iris explained. "Thanks. Iris, what's with the computers?" Alex asked. "The ships systems are meant to holographically project important information in the correct settings. The light over to your right is actually a condensed laser awaiting reaction from the other computers." Iris said. "Let's get to work on that." Rainbow suggested. Several green lights appeared on the floor, indicating where the computers should be placed. Alex and his other friends got behind a few of the monitors and started pushing as hard as they could. Once Rainbow and Vanoss got one of the monitors onto the green light, it made a high beep noise before the light moved towards the monitor, once the light met the monitor, rays of cerulean light refracted around the room. "Ooh, yeah! It likes that!" Evan smiled, moving onto another. Mako and Ruby had placed another one, and one of the beams that shot out from the first monitor met the second, creating more retractions and causing the lasers in between to make a sort of hexagonal shape. "It's working!" Ruby beamed before helping Jaune move another monitor. "One...Two...Three!" Kat grunted, as Alex and her were moving another monitor into it's spot. The beams started to look a bit more complete, forming a shape comparable to a spider's web. "Let's keep this up!" Jaune panted, trying to help Ruby move the monitor. "Almost there..." Rainbow struggled, also helping someone move a computer in place. "And...." Kat gasped for breath, as these monitors were heavy. They placed their monitors in at the same instant, completing the blue hexagonal shape that was currently glowing brightly. "Good work, everyone! I'll notify the crew!" Iris congratulated. "Right... The crew.." Alex panted. "One more thing, Alex." Kat said, walking up to him with a USB drive with the markings '16 TB' etched on the front. "This flash drive contains information about the Inquisitors, some of it talks about the Inquisitors' main headquarters. It's a large island city known as Kalos Prime. We don't know which universe, but several of the higher-up inquisitors might." Kat explained. "Great." Alex smiled, placing the flash drive in his pocket. "Well, I see things have happened down here. Hey, Alex." Vinyl greeted. Alex turned to greet the white and blue unicorn mare. "Hey, V. We just set up the main logistics room." Alex smiled back. "Listen, We have the materials for your armor and weapon in the forge right now. Iris, Ruby and I are helping you with the designs." Vinyl stated. "Wait, Ruby's helping?" Alex asked. "Yeah, who else do you think built the scythe she's always carrying around?" She asked him. "Good point. That doesn't look mass-produced to me." Alex shrugged. "Also, Twilight wanted me to bring you something." Vinyl said, handing him a small, pentagonal, purple hued gem. "What is it?" Alex inquired. "It's a very rare Dust crystal. A 'Oracon Amethyst', if I'm right." Vinyl explained as Alex examined the crystal. Alex hadn't had a lot of experience with dust in it's crystal form. Mainly, it was ammunition for Electric Fury, and that was pretty much it. Granted, he went through the 'Dust for Dummies' pamphlet that Weiss gave him on arrival in about 45 seconds before getting a rough concept of what this stuff actually did. He also remembered reading about rare dust crystals, but could never exactly memorize specific crystals by name. As stated, the Oracon Amethyst Dust crystal was purple hued, a natural match with his own Aura, and carved intricately into a pentagonal shape, and was rather sturdy and unlikely to break. "What exactly is this supposed to do?" Alex asked. "I asked Weiss, she said something about 'Enhancing semblance-related abilities by 20-something percent' or something, I don't know." The unicorn shrugged. "Thanks Vinyl, I have some things I need to take care of, if you don't mind." "Nah man, go do your thing and we'll make the armor later." She patted his back and trotted off. Slipping the small crystal into his right pocket, he nodded in thanks and headed over to a computer to review the data on the flash drive Kat had given him. 'Kalos Prime', eh?" Alex smirked, cracking his knuckles and plugging in the device. Alex had arranged a meeting with the entirety of the team to discuss the plans for their next mission. The seats were filled, and Alex stepped up next to the holographic charts displayed nearby. "Hey, everyone. So, I guess you all know why I called you here?" Alex began. "We already f**king know why you called us! it was on the stupid little card you had the crew deliver!" Wildcat shouted. "Ahem... Anyways, I better start with the big question here; what's our next move?" Alex said, gesturing to the charts, where several highlighted bits of information scattered behind him. "According to the files Master Chief Anderson and Lieutenant General Belladonna were able to retrieve from the Red Star Aero-Carrier The Knights Myriad, The Inquisition's head capital is a huge island-city known as 'Kalos Prime'. Where it is, we don't know." Alex shrugged. "How do you plan on finding out?" Mako asked, hand raised. "It's rather simple, really. The Inquisitors Omicron and Sigma have orders to send a battalion of White Fang soldiers into Vytal. Those of you who have no freakin' clue of what the hell I'm talking about, Vytal is an island located just north of Vale. I believe members of Team RWBY have met both of these inquisitors. Thanks to the records that Raven managed to send after arrival, we know who they are." "Who?" Someone asked. "Sigma has been identified as 'Cinder Fall', a professional criminal who managed to sneak into the Cross-Continental Transmit Tower and hack into it's systems. Due mostly to recent events, she has been revealed to be connected to the White Fang." Alex explained, an image of the Inquisitor appearing on screen. "Wait, then who the f**k is Omicron?" Haunting asked wryly. "Omicron, AKA Adam Taurus, is a Faunus rather high up in the White Fang's ranks. His best known attack was the theft of an entire train shipment of Dust, with just himself and his Ex-apprentice. Both Inquisitors are dangerous on a ridiculous scale, and should be proceeded with caution if we're really going to interrogate them." Alex answered. "How the f**k are we taking two of them down if you haven't even come close to killing one?" Lui scoffed. "You're forgetting something. Just yesterday, Epsilon, AKA Iron Talon, the leader of the Rogue Guard, was killed by Ms. Rose, and I would've gotten away with killing Cinder if Raven didn't stop me." Alex explained. "So, what's the plan here?" Ember asked. "We hire someone to infiltrate the White Fang. Like most of their forces, they'll probably go with Omicron's lot into Vytal. From there, the undercover op should be able to get a decent amount of information before we move in. If we encounter either Omicron or Sigma, I'll need a full huntsman team to attack either. We knock the Inquisitor out, and bring them back into the Iliad for questioning." Alex elaborated. "And once we're done?" Yang asked. "Make the f**ker walk the plank, or just have Nora break the Inquisitor's legs and have him or her crawl down the plank." Nora grinned ear-to-ear. Most of the pony audience looked ready to vomit, except Haunting. "OORAH! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" He laughed heartily. Vanoss and company made a few jokes about that quote. "When your legs don't work like they used to before..." "But before you learn to walk, you must learn to crawl!" "Crawling in my skin! These wounds they will not heal!" Kat sang, trying and failing to contain giggling. "Are you a child?" Weiss asked condescendingly. "Don't patronize me." Kat threatened. Alex himself was surprised to see Kat's mood change that quick. "Infant." The Ice Queen huffed. "Tsundere.." Kat glared back. "This is ridiculous. F**k this, I'm out!" Alex groaned, choosing to head to the forge, grabbing Vinyl and Ruby by the mane and hood respectively. "Ow!" Vinyl winced. "Friendship!" Ruby yelled happily, raising both arms while her feet dragged along the floor. The hills between Manehattan and Fillydelphia were mostly silent, save the occasional Pegasus that drifted calmly across the cold, autumn night. Leaves also billowed through the late night breeze and filled the air with the scents of the season. Mostly quiet except for the birds that continued to chirp through the night... And, of course, the swirling blue vortex that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The portal was roughly six feet in height and spiraled around as though it were a cosmic wheel. Out from this portal stepped a taller man, barely visible due to the silhouette effect made when he stepped in front of it. Two M1911 pistols in hand, the figure didn't so much as glance when this gateway closed. The moon now illuminating the man's features, one would be able to see the man wore a black ski-mask, some night-vision goggles, a respirator, as well as a World War II-era M1 helmet. The man's breathing was raspy and mechanical, almost inhuman in nature. 'Have you arrived at the Target Location yet, Russell?' a voice from his communicator asked. "Affirmative, E.R.C Iliad is in sight, Sirius" Russel said, his voice calm, but still gruff. 'Admiral Walker should be just inside. Knowing him, he'll understand why you're here in a heartbeat.' Sirius noted. "This isn't your world, Sirius. If you're right about this, we can't afford to have him know why we're here." Russell asserted. 'Of course. Have you determined the date yet?' "Roger that, it's October 30, 2016 here." Russell replied evenly. 'Perfect timing, Russell. Perfect timing. Proceed to Phase Two of Directive 2-378.' Sirius ordered. "Gladly, sir." Author's Note Chapter unlocked! So, yeah. Act Three. Yay! I should note that, considering this is an alternate timeline, I won't add a whole lot from RWBY Volume 3 unless it's completely necessary. Before I forget: Whoever's the owner of the white sedan, you left your lights on.
Act III, Chapter 2: Intruder Alert!Russell finished inflating the small speedboat at the edge of shore, being careful to avoid the ship's spotlight. "Sirius, the boat's ready. Any way you can get me in the ship?" Russell asked, moving to his communicator. 'I could potentially hack into the ship and have an entrance opened, but it would be way to dangerous.' Sirius sighed. "Do we have any other options?" Russell asked. 'I wish...' Sirius grimly replied. "Fine, let's get to work." Russell hopped inside the boat, started the engine, and sped towards the large carrier ship. "And... Done!" Ruby instructed. Alex helped Vinyl haul out the boiling vat of alloy, which Alex personally dubbed the 'Tenacia Alloy', as they were all composed of metals known not to shatter or break. Heading to the molds that they had set up prior to heating and combining the metals, they poured the red hot liquid into the first mold, the blade. Much like Electric Fury's old blade, it had a large gap towards the bottom of the blade, for weight as well as tactical reasons, meant to catch the enemy's blade and disarm, but the blades would not separate and then spin like with his original weapon. It was just a feature he rarely used, and it was ridiculously impractical, remembering all the times he nearly chopped off both of his arms. Instead, the single blade would move perpendicular to his right arm and then spin. Tipping the red-hot vat of Tenacia Alloy upwards before the mold overflowed, he sat down, panting. "Not bad, eh?" Alex huffed. "Keep in mind that we'll have to make the cuts in the blade and add the mechanics so that this can turn into a gun, you do still want to be able to keep up with us, right?" Ruby inquired. "Right.. Let's not worry about that now, Let's get to work plating the armor. Iris?" Alex asked. "Yes, sir?" Iris appeared in the forge. "Bring up all models compatable with the Overcharge V2 Exo-Suit platforms." Alex ordered. "Bringing up OV2 Exo models 4-18." Iris stated, fourteen holograms appearing out of nowhere, all with different designs. Ruby, Vinyl, and Alex looked some of them over, interest peaking in Alex's mind. "I kind of like Mark 9, it looks almost like an Atlesian 200." Ruby noted, bringing up Mk. IX's hologram. "I don't know, Mark 13's Chassis looks like it could support more upgrades, plus they can equip similar speakers that Crimson used to destroy the castle." Vinyl figured, Mk. XIII's model now equaling Mk. IX's in size. "I feel like Mark 6 wouldn't short out on me if I were to use my Semblance in a fight." Alex stared, the three prototypes now equal in size. "Couldn't we have traits from all three combined?" Ruby figured. "True. Iris?" Asked Alex. "On it, Admiral." Iris said, the three suits merging into one. The armor they worked together on seemed to have traits from Goliath Mk. V, Scarab Mk. II, and Locke's armor from Halo 5 merged together, large speakers replacing machine guns, the visor was slimmer and wider, encompassing about 3 inches before each ear, and the gauntlets had a 1/2 inch thick layer of rubber under the main metal husk, with Electrical Enhancers in the middle of each palm. "That actually looks badass." Vinyl nodded. "We should do this more often!" Ruby agreed. "I have to agree. Iris, get to work on the molds, please?" Alex ordered. "On it- wait- am I reading this right?" Iris asked. "What's going on?" Vinyl wondered. "There's an intruder on the ship! He just outran Pyrrha and is headed below deck!" Iris exclaimed. "An intruder?!" Ruby gasped. "An Inquisitor?" Alex asked. "Not exactly, he looks a little young for an Inquisitor, and he lacks significant training." "I'll deal with this." Alex stood up, reaching for a red-hot poker. "Here. You might need this." Vinyl said, handing him .44 Scratch. "Thanks, get to your cabins and stay down, I'll deal with him!" Alex ordered again. "Sirius! I'm in trouble!" Russell gasped, bashing in some guy's head with the shield he stole from the girl. 'You weren't discovered, were you?!' Sirius groaned. "Just got rid of Nikos and I'm moving towards the deck-" He could barely finish before he had something extremely hot slam him in the chest and have him landing on his back. Struggling to get up, Russell saw the boy who had done it, the familiar scar...the piercing ice-blue eyes... Oh, no. "Next time, ask permission before you come aboard my ship." Admiral Walker scowled. Russell didn't give it a second thought, he kicked the pike out of the Admiral's left hand and hit him with the shield. Given he had put most of his strength into this one blow, he did well with it. The Admiral simply flowed in line with the roll, conserving a good portion of his own energy before skidding to a halt on his knees, some of the fabric on his knees ripped away under the Tarmac. "So that's how it's gotta be. Fine." The admiral chuckled, standing up, hardening his gaze, and charging at Russell like a bull. Russell had mere seconds to dodge his attack, ducking just milliseconds away from getting hit in the face. The Admiral recovered from his own forceful attack and back-kicked Russell in the back of the knee, giving him even less time to avoid certain death by a dimly-glowing pike. Said pike flung out of his grasp and stuck in the wall, giving Russell some time before the Admiral attacked again, he threw the shield at Walker's back. Giving himself enough time to fire both pistols into his legs. Walker was fast. Much faster than he initially anticipated. He leaped out of the path of the first barrage and ran straight up the wall, the second bullet train slamming into the tower behind him. Walker leapt backwards once he was sure Russell had ran out, and using some inhuman ability, sped his attack and slammed an electrically charged fist directly onto Russell's visage. Recoiling in pain, Russell ripped off the gas mask and pulled out some loose shards on his visor. His mask was severely damaged, leaving the ski mask and parts of Russell's pale complexion exposed. "Surrender?" Walker asked, banging his charged fists together, creating a loud and radiant spark. "You wish, Huntsman." Russell coughed. He heard of Remnant's guardians from Sirius; dangerous and heavily armed warriors hailing from different combat schools across the planet, and among the best trained in the multiverse, behind 'Force-sensitives' but still above 'Marvel superhero'. Russell had been taught how to distinguish Semblances from other, similar abilities, by Sirius. "Blood Royal!" Someone had yelled from above the two. A young woman, roughly Walker's age, dressed, for the most part, in black. Save one defining feature, the billowing red cloak. With her she carried a large scythe and what appeared to be a ninjatō, obviously for Walker. He knew all about her. Throwing the blade for Walker, she fired the scythe away from her and was barreling towards Russell. Russell didn't have a lot of time to dodge, just nearly evading a blow from the back of the scythe. The end collided with him and sent him reeling towards Walker, who slashed at him with the blade, which had been glowing a dark purple and electrically charged. Impossible! No huntsman could be able to use their semblances to enhance their weaponry! Unless... "So the stories are true... You activated your own Aura." Russell coughed. "Enough about me. Who are you and what are you doing aboard my ship?" Walker stalked over and grasped him by the neck, holding him a good three inches above the ground. "I was sent... Backup... Sirius Da Long!" Russell coughed. "Sirius..." Ruby contemplated... "Something wrong?" Walker turned to the huntress, punching Russell in the face and into the wall before walking over to Ruby. "Sirius Da Long was a longtime friend of my father's... Why would he send someone here..?" Ruby contemplated. "I might have a small idea!" Someone had said from across deck. A blonde girl, about the same height as Admiral Walker, casually strolled on deck, despite the trickle of blood running down the girl's forehead. "Yang?" Walker asked. "Are you okay?!" The Red-cloaked huntress ran to her sister. "Yeah, no worries." She shrugged. "What the hell happened to you?" Alex asked, bewilderment blatantly clear in his eyes. "Something came up and I got into a fight, but I took care of it." She smiled broadly, wiping the blood off her face. "Cinder? Taurus?" Walker asked. "The bartender." Yang cleared her throat before replying. "Anyways, how do you know Sirius?" Ruby asked. "I'd rather not get into that." Russell answered. "Anyways, do I need to get you to the medic?" Walker asked. "Later." She simply replied. Yang walked away, grasping the Admiral by the back of the shirt collar. "I'll deal with you later!" Walker yelled. "I got it!" Ruby assured. 'Russell, come in Russell!' Sirius called out. "I'm fine, Sirius. I met up with the kids." Russell responded. "Mr. Da Long!" Ruby grasped the microphone. 'So I hear. I guess there's no point hiding our support.' Sirius shrugged. "So, Mr. Da Long, how are you?" Ruby asked him. 'Never better, kid. I just wanted to say we'll be keeping an eye on you. Make sure you're all safe.' Sirius laughed heartily. "Sir. If I may?" Russell interrupted. Sure, the family-friend-whatever reunion was heartwarming at best, there was work to be done. 'Ahem. Yes. As Mr. Leone wanted me to tell you, I'll be coming along on your little voyage for official Inheritor support. We can't have another Great Purge, I'll tell you what.' Sirius informed. "You're another Inheritor?!" Ruby gasped in awe. 'Of course, child! Again, I will see you soon!' "Bye, Mr. Da Long!" Ruby waved. "You realize that Sirius can't see us, right?" Russell asked her. "Quite the contrary!" A voice said behind them. The owner of the voice was a tall man with cyan hair that faded gray at the edges, dressed in white and blue attire that was often used for combat, but could also pass as formal wear. "S-Sirius! I didn't realize..!" Russell waved both hands in defense, as Ruby ran to hug the aging Inheritor. "No need to be alarmed, boy! You did good in your fight against the Admiral, up until he had you by the neck!" He laughed again. "Heh, yeah." Russell rubbed the back of his neck in raw embarrassment. "I also see Raven did a good job training Mr. Walker! No offense, Russ." Sirius assured. "None taken..." Russell sighed. "And you! I was happy to hear that someone got accepted into Beacon two years early!" Sirius turned to the huntress, who still had him in a death lock. Russell walked away from the horribly awkward scene for the moment. From an outsider looking in point of view, it was odd to see two people so close together. What was he thinking?! Was he just that spiteful?! Only people who didn't have that comfort would feel disturbed by the sight! Maybe a person who lost their family and friends, superficial or real, something like that. ...Something like that... ...Something like that... Happened to him. "Alright! Good form, good tactical planning, but you're still forgetting when you lose the upper hand!" Yang yelled, before firing both gauntlets in different directions, likely dislocating his arm. "DEUUEAUGH! THAT HURTS LIKE ALL HELL!" Alex grit his teeth in agony before sending his elbow towards his, still wounded, mentor. Yang skidded backwards, fired both gauntlets at the ground, and while she was still in the air, fired Ember Celica so fast that even Alex had a difficult time blocking the attack, even without the dislocated arm. Alex himself was now lying on the ground, writhing in pain as the Huntress walked up to him casually, as if she didn't just engage in a fight to the death twice today. "You okay?" She asked. "Sure...just do me a solid and relocate my arm?" Alex staggered up, his right arm still hanging limply at his side. "Gotcha!" She smiled as she shoved the arm back in it's rightful place, a prominently loud 'crack' resulting from the action. Alex gnashed his teeth, trying to keep a straight face. "Are you sure you're fine?" Yang asked again. "Yeah...totally... Can I use the soundproof room for a second?" Alex asked, his voice tight with pain. "Sure!" She agreed. Alex went into the room, deeply inhaled, and screamed as loudly as possible. Yang was pretty sure she saw his shadow rolling around on the floor like Zwei in the backyard. 'AAAGH! MY F**KING ARM!!! WHY IS IT BACKWARDS?!' she heard him yell. After a few minutes of screaming, she saw Rainbow and Skirmish walk into the training room. "Can you tell Alex to keep it down?! Some of us are trying to sleep here!" Rainbow groaned indignantly. "What in the name of Tartarus happened in here? There's blood coming from your face!" Skirmish asked. "Unrelated charge. No worries." Yang smiled, it was still bleeding? "Anyways, what the hell happened here?" Rainbow asked again, covering her ears as Alex continued screaming as though he were in hell already. "Dislocated arm." Yang shrugged again. Rainbow and Skirmish took a collective cringe. "Ouch, if it's anything like a wing, that really hurts!" Rainbow Dash tensed, keeping her wings at her sides. "The skeletal structure is really quite similar. You didn't put it back in wrong, did you?" Skirmish asked. "I'm sure it's on right," Yang assured both Pegasi before twisting her own are the way she saw Alex's arm go into. "Oh, no..." Yang' smile quickly faded. She was going to need a doctor... Author's Note Just another Wednesday ...And yes, I stayed up watching then new 'Death Battle' yesterday, can you please get off my back?! ...And yes, the 'DEUUEAUGH' was a Spongebob reference. it's my fan fiction story, I do what I want. Until whenever I have the motivation to post a chapter! 'Leedle Leedle Leedle Lee!' -Patrick Star; from the Spongebob episode 'Shanghaied'.
Act III, Chapter 3: Next Stop... Remnant!"Alright, boys. We've been on this ship for three whole months, and I'd like to say-" Wildcat could barely finish his sentence before he was interrupted. "Three months? It's been, like, two days." Twilight pointed out. Twilight had decided to call for a meeting in the brief room, where most of the mission planning usually took place. She had let Wildcat begin the briefing after he had been begging for the past 5 minutes. "It's felt longer, okay?!" He replied, exasperated. "Not really, Tyler." Russell, one of two new additions to the team, scoffed. "Yeah, no." Yang agreed. "I can see where you're coming from, Wildcat, but I have to disagree." Winter said. Wildcat sat down, staring furiously at the crowd. "As I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted, I'm sure that Alex and the 'purple horse' and the 'Super Saiyan God Grim Reaper' have something planned out. Cortana?" Wildcat gestured to the center of the table. "It's Iris." She replied before arranging various maps, before layering a map of Equestria over a map of Remnant, adding a small ring around where Vytal was located before extending that ring onto the Equestrian map, forming a tunnel between the two worlds. "The way that our teleporters were designed was that wherever we are, we land relative to that location, in this case, however..." Iris explained before being interrupted. "There's no way we can get there because if we were to land at the island, we would have to be in Vanhoover, on the other side of the ocean, and furthermore, inland." Vanoss noticed, gesturing to where the Iliad was on the map, still outside of the Equestrian East Coast, and then to the tunnel. "Not exactly. We could potentially arrive to Vytal, but we would have to sail around the continent, and be at the exact right spot in order to make the jump, but good observation." Iris congratulated. "How long is it going to take to get from here to the jump point?" Ruby asked. "Let's see... Keeping in mind we can sail, at best, 60 miles an hour, and around the continent... Carry the seven..." Alex tried figuring out the details in his head. "Done!" Weiss announced, having written the estimated time of arrival on a piece of loose leaf paper, having done her work on another piece of paper. "Two weeks?!" Kat gaped. "Yep, two whole weeks! One to get to the southern end of the continent, five days to get to Vanhoover, and two to park!" Weiss smirked. "Keep in mind, Weiss. Two weeks. Stuck on a boat. With us." Mako reminded her. Weiss started to break down in tears. "I hate this game of emotions we play!" She whined, slumping down in her chair. "One of us! One of us!" Some of Vanoss's crew started to chant. "Woooow, that's a bit mean!" Haunting chuckled. "At least you insisted on the penthouse." Kat tried to cheer her up. "You even paid me 3,500 Lien just to take it!" Alex added. "Sleepover!" Ruby cheered, grabbing some blankets from practically nowhere. "I knew she had a magic satchel!" Delirious shouted. "What's that mean?" Sirius asked. "It's when a character can grab anything from nowhere!" Pinkie explained cheerfully. "Stop breaking the fabric of reality!" Alex's right eye twitched. "Let me see... Aha!" Yang grabbed a glass filled with some type of beverage, with the slight addition of an umbrella. "Really? You're doing this crap again! You all know this is filler, right?" Mako sighed, face palming. Everyone instantly stopped what they were doing and stared at Mako. "...Yes..." Vanoss stated before the room erupted in chaos again. A familiar dragonequus suddenly teleported into the room. "Ah, what a beautiful sight! It brings tears in my eyes." He smiled happily. "Nah, that's just the bowl of onions." Nora said. Russell scooted over to Alex, simply sighing and slowly drinking from a bottle of sparkling grape juice. "How often does this sort of thing happen?" Russell asked. "Every single time we have a meeting." Alex replied glumly. "Man, sucks to be you." Russell smirked. "Shut up, Russ. And get me something besides this sparkling grape juice. None of that diet crap." Alex ordered. "What's in it for me?" Russell asked. "Ten bucks. Twenty if you make it quick." Russell charged out of the room in speeds that rivaled even Rainbow Dash, who had apparently gone Super Saiyan. "KAAMEEHAAMEE-HAAAAAA!" Rainbow screamed, a beam of iridescent plasma erupted from her front hooves, leaving a massive hole in the roof. "Nice!" Evan cheered, voicing his approval. "Clean up on aisle... Everywhere." Alex told Iris. "Sure." She replied. Alex sat in wait for his soda. He knew, at this rate, it would be at least another hour before they finally got their act together, and 36 to board up the roof. It would take the full two week trip to completely repair it, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in Equestrian and Remnant taxes. "Little miscalculation there..." Rainbow backed up before flying out of the room. "V? Where's the undersuit? The mechanical parts?" Alex asked from across the storage room. "The exoskeleton should be in the back left corner, the plating's in the cardboard boxes to the right." Vinyl explained whilst setting up the tools Alex would need to put the suit together, including a ratchet, a good amount of bolts, and work in progress weapon that Alex himself named 'Blitzklinge', translating to 'lightning blade'. "Thanks, I'll work on the suit, you set up some targets." Alex ordered as he dragged the exosuit to the workbench, going back to grab the finished armor plating. Heaving the boxes towards the work bench, he ripped open the tape with his finger, opening it and admiring the hard work. The metal, unlike the bronze-gold coloring of his other armors, this armor was dark grey, almost black in color, that is, save the paint job, adorned with slightly brighter purple lightning bolts scattered throughout the armor, and that one decoration around the visor. An electric blue line, right where Alex's own scar was. Carefully inserting the pieces into their proper places, he continued to tighten the bolts, still feeling a twinge of pain in his right arm from yesterday. He respected Yang and all, but dislocating his arm and putting it back in wrong was uncalled for. Thank god he had his enhanced aura, or he'd be out of commission until they got to Vytal. That gave him an idea. "Vinyl, can I borrow one of the targets?" Alex asked. "Knock yourself out, it's 5 feet up to your left." Vinyl replied, placing more steel targets. He knew how to make lightning balls and fire electricity from his fingertips, but was there more he could do? Squeezing his pointer and middle fingers together, he steadily let a thin but powerful ball of lightning form in between the two, after giving them some space. He could thank Delirious for this move. And Dragonball Z. "SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!" Alex roared, swinging his right arm in the direction of the target. Like a rail gun, the lightning zipped through the air incredibly fast, before hitting it's target, a loud crack emanating from where he hit. "Woah! Bullseye!" Vinyl cheered, removing the metal plate, the lightning hit directly in the middle, leaving a black scorch mark in the plate. "Sweet. I'm gonna have to wait until I have another training session. And I should start watching more anime... And Spider-Man." Alex noted. "It's not enough that you have twice the potential of the other huntsmen, but you have to rub it in by repeating moves you see on TV?" Vinyl joked. "Hey, I'm one of those types of people whose jokes need footnotes. Deal with it." He smirked as he returned to his work. "And all I need is to show you another one of my albums." Vinyl retorted. "Touché." Alex replied as he screwed in another bolt, this one placed the purple-hued visor onto the helmet. "So. Be honest. You've seen some crazy shit these past few months, right?" Vinyl asked. "F**king A right." Alex scoffed, as if Vinyl couldn't pick a more obvious question. "I gotta ask, I know Rainbow told me she saw you hallucinating on the mountain before the party, and Yang told me that you weren't able to sleep when you were first at Beacon, but..." Vinyl hesitated. "You're wondering how I can possibly keep a straight face throughout the bullshit, aren't you?" Alex stated. "Well, yeah." Vinyl shrugged. Alex sighed heavily. "I don't think about it. It's as simple as that. On mission, I don't collapse on the ground sobbing because my mind is all 'you might die, keep your head in the battle'. I don't get all... morose until I get some alone time... And I think..." Alex explained in terms Vinyl was likely to understand. "So... You still ha-" "-Have nightmares and hallucinations? Yes. And there are times when I wonder if what I'm seeing is real, or if it's just another memory. Cursed to replay over and over again in my mind like some sick video. Hell, I'm not even sure if I'm even alive, and this is just some...post death dream." He sighed. "Ouch. I can't say I know how you feel, but..." Vinyl said in a more sorrowful tone. "Don't trouble yourself thinking about it. It's not your fault I'm a nut." Alex assured. "No, no, that's not what I was saying." Vinyl waved both hooves in defense. "Look, I know I can be a little off sometimes. That's just the way it is. If anyone has all this crap happening around them, who wouldn't?" Alex thought. "So, all in all?" Vinyl wondered. "... Ever read 'The Killing Joke'?" Alex asked. "Is that another one of Evan's movies?" Vinyl inquired. "It's a comic book." He replied evenly. "Oh, right." Vinyl laughed a bit. "In it, the main villain, Joker, goes into this... Monologue... About how all it takes is one bad day to drive people mad... Not that I'm agreeing with a villain or anything, but..." Alex elaborated. "Sounds a bit dark for Equestria.." Vinyl figured. "Yeah, well, if all it takes is one bad day to drive the sanest man alive into madness... Think about it... I've had more than one." Alex groaned, as if he felt like the conversation should end. "I see your point... Sorry for asking." Vinyl smiled sheepishly and comfortingly. "Don't be. Talking about it actually helps." Alex assured as he put the finishing touches on the armor. "The...armor done yet?" Vinyl asked, still feeling awkward about having Alex open up to her like this. "Should be." Alex replied. "Well, try it on!" Vinyl encouraged. Watching the armor attach itself onto Alex was amazing. Clicking onto him as the gears and springs wired and attached together, by the end of the 15 second suit-up time, Alex looked more like Iron Mare than anything else. "You've outdone yourself, V!" Alex laughed, examining the armor thoroughly. "I have to, I'm an electronic music artist, it's in the job description!" Vinyl replied. "I'm serious! This fits on like a glove!" Alex cheered again. "Don't trouble yourself, I know I'm great!" Vinyl smirked. "Here, I'll test out the cannons on this thing, good work setting up those targets." Alex nodded, walking over to the center of the makeshift range. "Don't blow yourself up!" Vinyl joked. Alex hardened, examining each target. Each at one, three, seven, ten, and twelve, all ready for the lightning! "FUS RO DAH!" Alex yelled as he fired the first bolt, violet zipping across his field of vision and onto the target, watching as the target itself shattered and melted. "GALICK GUN!" The second bounced off three and landed on seven, melting them both. "KAPOOYAH!" Alex shouted, destroying the tenth in seconds. 12 waved slightly in the rocking ship, Alex slammed both gauntlets together, generating a spark. "I'M A FIRIN' MAH LASER!!" He fired both repulsors at once, sending two violet beams towards the target, which melted and sparked, leaving a metallic puddle on the ground after about 10 seconds. "Ponyfeathers, I'm a genius!" Vinyl gaped. "WOOOO! That was the greatest thing I've ever seen in my entire life! And I watched Star Wars VII!" Alex cheered, disassembling his armor. "Not bad, Alex." Someone said from behind them. A familiar blonde huntress had walked into the room, admiring the work he did on those steel plates. "Hey, Yang!" Vinyl greeted. "How much did you see?" Alex asked. "All of it. All the time. I have my ways." She smiled. "So, Alex just tested the suit.. And.." Vinyl hyperventilated with excitement. "I know! Hey, do you think you can give Ember Celica an upgrade?" Yang playfully elbowed Vinyl on the shoulder. "Why? Did Twi really implement Ray Gun tech into Crescent Rose?" Alex asked. "Yep! She just tested it with her and I was wondering what you guys were up to!" Yang replied. "Holy hell. We are ready!" Vinyl gaped. "Yeah. The ship's A-Team is OP as shit!" Alex chuckled a bit. "Yep, and I also know about your little 'Special Beam Cannon'." Yang teased. "Aw." "It's fine! Russell wanted to ask you if you wanted to come with us on a training session with Sirius." Yang said. "Just them and us?" Alex asked. "I got Ruby too!" She replied. "Sweet. I'm in," Alex smirked. "Cool! Glad you want to hang. See you around!" She waved. "Right. Bye, Yang!" Alex smiled. As she walked out the door, Vinyl turned to him. "Are you 100% sure your relationship with her is platonic?" Vinyl asked, smirking. "f**k off." Alex groaned. Author's Note RWBY Volume Three starts today, so I figured I may as well post a chapter before watching, enjoy! -The Destoyer
Act III, Chapter 5: Shock And Awe*Warning!* *Warning!* *Dimensional Jump imminent!* The intercom alerted the rest of the crew as the sirens continued to drone on and on, and the alarms continued to ring. Alex went to explain everything to his teammates and ensure they'd be ready once they're all in Remnant. "Okay, team! Here's the plan! Dimensional Jump is in three minutes, the jump should take about 30 seconds. After that, we'll need to get our asses to the jets and the landing crafts and get moving! The target in question is located near the center, so it's a six hour drive to our target destination. The ship will stay off the coast and fire when ready. Sound good? Great! Now strap in, we gotta move!" Alex explained, moving to one of the designated drop seats, large, gyroscopes with chairs in the middle with more straps than it should. He went in and strapped in tight, Twilight and Vanoss were on his left and right, with Ruby directly across him. *Warning!* *Dimensional Jump in T-Minus 60 seconds!* "Aww, yeah!" Vanoss nodded. "This is the ship's first time doing a Dimensional Jump?" Twilight inquired. "The second, actually." Alex replied. "We got dis! BRING ON THE EPICNESS!!" Delirious screamed from Vanoss's right. "This is going to be AWESOME!" Nora beamed. "Hell yeah!" Wildcat joined. "Are you sure everything's going to be fine..?" Jaune nervously asked. "We'll be fine, Chief, that is, unless you get motion-sick easily." Frost assured. Jaune moaned. "I'm so excited! And terrified, but mostly excited!" Pinkie bounced in her seat. Fluttershy whimpered, crying and not looking up. "Don't worry, Fluttershy. It'll be like flying!" Rainbow tried to calm her down. "You good, Blast?" Ember asked. "Yeah. Haunt?!" Blast craned his head towards Haunt and Skirmish's direction. "Ready for action, baby!" He yelled back. "I'm all set, I hope everyone else is." Skirmish calmly stated. "Hey, Alex." Kat asked Alex. "Yeah?" Alex answered. "Did you ever imagine, in your wildest dreams, you'd be here?" She smiled. "F**k no! If you ask me, I thought I was done for at '51!" Alex replied. "What exactly does this machine do, again?" Cloudchaser asked. "We'll be playing real life Titanfall once we land!" Terroriser rallied the rest of his group. "More like Bioshock!" Mini argued. *T-Minus in 5.* "We'll be fine! Stop worrying!" Ruby told Fluttershy. "I swear, the Valians and Atlesians are gonna shit themselves..." Mako muttered. *4...* "I'll bet you five Lien they don't!" Yang challenged. "Deal, blondie." Mako retorted. *3...* "Oh, fock...oh fock! OH, FOCK!!" Nogla hyperventilated. "Daithi, calm down." Weiss sighed, pitying the Irishman. "I hate this fan fiction, boys.." He moaned. *2...* "You good, Belladonna?" Russell asked. "I'm fine." She calmly stated. "Well, shit, I'm not!" Russell panicked. *1...* "BLAST OFFF!!!" Moo yelled. "KEEP 'ER GOIN'!!!" Vanoss added "LUDICROUS SPEED, GO!" Kat joked. "ADVENTURE!!!" Sirius cheered "THIS IS GONNA SUCK!!" Blast ducked down. "DROP THE BASS!" Vinyl yelled. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" Delirious screamed. The entire room seemed to suddenly go zero-G, various personal items floating and Alex personally felt his stomach fly into his neck. The windows turned bright red before fading into a light blue color. "BRACE YOURSELVES!!" Alex ordered. The drop was immediate, the lights flickered off and they all felt the effect of a 9 million-something pound ship drop into a wormhole. At this point, the seats adjusted them to face downwards into the floor to ensure their equilibrium as they plummeted from Equestria directly into Remnant. The ship suddenly crashed into water, displacing various organs in Alex's body. The Unity Team made a collective sigh in relief as they unstrapped themselves from their seats and collapsed on the ground below. "Heh heh. And fluush." Vanoss laughed weakly. "Holy shit." Delirious gaped. "Is that puke?!" Twilight recoiled. "Sorry.." Jaune sheepishly replied. "This is why I don't hang with the Doctor!" Russell groaned. "Uuuh..." Ruby moaned. "You okay?" Kat asked, helping her up before the two of them fell over. Rainbow tried flying, but was so dizzy she couldn't stay in air properly and fell on her side. "Gyroscopic seats don't do shit..." Sirius shook. "That was AWESOME!" Yang laughed, in stark contrast to everyone else. "YAYY!" Pinkie high-fived the huntress, leaping high to meet the girl's fist. "Only those two..." Alex chuckled. "Come on, Cloudy." Said Flitter, who had been third or fourth to recover, as helped her sister up. "Everyone good?" Alex asked. A few nauseated replies entailed that everyone was A-Okay. "Iris, where are we?" Alex turned to Iris. "Off the coast of Vytal, Valian aircraft flying in above us and the Atlesian Carrier Righteous Fury is currently 2 knots away. "How far are we from the landing zone?" Ruby asked. "Enough that we're ready to engage. The coast is not far off." Iris stated. "Let's move out!" Alex ordered. The group charged out, along with the other 5,000 crew members who survived the Zombie attack earlier that week. "Evan's crew, head to the flight deck, that goes for the Wonderbolts and Scratchbolts. Everyone else is on me, move out!" Sirius ordered. "Move! Move! Move!" Vanoss urged his crew, the Scratchbolts not far behind. Alex ran onto the Landing Craft along with his squad. That is, save Vanoss, Delirious, and Wildcat, who would be dropping in once they arrived at the target. Alex had read that while the island itself was all but uninhabited, hardly anyone went there except for huntsmen on missions. Also, roughly 20 years ago, there was a huge mining operation that was stopped by the Grimm, leaving behind a perfect hideout for Taurus and the White Fang. Teams RWBY and JNPR ran onto the ships on their left and right, respectively, waving as they boarded the craft. The ships dropped into the salty water below and they headed towards Vytal's coast, which was in sight and practically smoking. Alex now was wearing the Armor Vinyl had created for him, keeping Blitzklinge strapped to his hip while carrying the Valian B-482 Light Machine Gun, which was pretty much the SAW from Halo 5. "Sir, what are orders once we're on the field?" Blast wondered. "Iris, what's it look like out there?" Alex asked. "Task Force Crimson patrols and Syndicate cars have been sighted on field." Iris replied. "Anyone nearby?" "The Fury will have reinforcements ready in about 15 minutes. Vale's paratroopers are dropping in as we speak." "As soon as we get out there, the whole beach is going to end up looking like Bloody Omaha. Find cover as soon as you can and return fire until Atlas gets their priorities out of whack. Watch out for Vale's men, they're already landing. Move out!" Alex ordered. "Alex, what's the plan with Evan and the others?" Rainbow wondered. "Vale is going to deal with the AA guns at the beachhead." Iris informed. "Iris just said Vale's working on it." Alex replied. "Thank Celestia.." Rainbow sighed in relief. "Driver! Move as fast as you can! That gun can spot us anytime now!" Haunt pressured. "Blast! I need you firing the rockets as soon as you get off this thing! Ember, help Blast with he mortar once we've landed! Rainbow and Skirmish, I need you two to keep the convoy in the air, don't let up! Haunt, you're with me!" Alex ordered as they drew closer to the beach. 'You there, Alex?' Ruby asked from her communicator. "Yeah, giving orders. You got a plan?" Alex asked. Yep! If you have a chance, run over with us! We'll do what we can!' she ordered. "Sure thing!" Alex responded. "Damn! That nearly hit us!" Blast recoiled as a shell struck the water, causing a massive splash that covered Alex's fire team with a disgusting mixture of saltwater and gunpowder. "10 seconds!" The driver yelled as they approached the beach. "Haunt, follow me as soon as we get out of this thing, you got me?" Alex asked. "Yes, sir!" Haunt put on his Royal Guard helmet and pulled out a SCAR. "Rainbow, Skirmish; I suggest you head out now." Alex ordered. "On it!" Rainbow assured as both her and Skirmish donned their modified Scratchbolt armor and flew out of the ship. "Stinger's up!" Blast called. "GO GO GO!!!" The driver ordered as the door toppled down. Alex was immediately struck with machine gun fire. He recoiled as he protected most of his men from the onslaught of lead. Once Blast had fired the rocket and blew up the MG nest, The four remaining soldiers diverted, Blast and Ember charging for a rock formation to the right while Wlex and Haunt ran left. "Return fire!" Alex ordered as he hip-fired the SAW, killing as many Crimson soldiers as he was able before the armor could wear out. Spotting Team RWBY nearby, Alex and Haunt slid past a destroyed Landing Craft and rolled with the Huntresses. "Where's JNPR?" Alex asked, concerned. "Just saw them at that ridge, they're fine!" Blake assured. "Thank god. Red, what's the plan?" Haunt asked. "One of the Paratrooper Squads is having trouble, we're helping them out!" Ruby smiled, grasping Crescent Rose and inserting a Green Cross Clip, which apparently utilized the ray gun bolts in tandem with a standard round. "Do we have a clear shot?" Alex asked. "Hm, do we?" Weiss slyly replied. "It isn't the time for this kind of crap! Do we or don't we?!" Alex groaned. "Okay! No, we don't! Sheesh!" Weiss waved her hands in defense. "So much for that. Yang! Help me clear a path!" Alex ordered. "Got your back!" The blonde huntress nodded. "Haunt and Blake, keep them covered! Weiss and I will handle the artillery nests!" Ruby commanded. Alex rolled out of their hiding place and held his finger on the trigger, firing streams of ammunition across the field and into the enemy infantry. "Watch it!" Yang warned, Alex spotted a rocket headed his way and leaped high into the air, avoiding the explosion altogether. Yang launched shots from Ember Celica and blew the rest of the patrol into ashes as Alex floated down, taking whomever managed to survive. "You see the Paratroopers?" Alex asked her. "Nope." She shook her head. "Iris?" Alex asked. "Valian 31st Paratrooper Squadron is located at a small crevice about a click north of here." Iris informed. "They're a click that way!" Alex pointed as he ran, with Yang not far behind. "Hey, what's it like having her in your head all the time?" She asked. "Helpful to say the least." Alex simply replied as he punched a Syndicate hit-man in the face. "How far away is a click again?" Yang asked. Alex sighed in disappointment. "Hey! It's an Earth term!" She defended. "It means 'kilometer'." Alex replied. "Thank you." She scoffed. 'Checkpoint one is down! Moving onto Checkpoint two!' someone said on the radio. "Iris is picking up comm chatter, we're almost there!" Alex huffed, simply activating the jump-jets. "Way ahead of you!" Yang smiled, firing both gauntlets and soaring far past him. "Are they dealing with enemies?" Alex asked Iris. "They're currently engaged with Crimson forces just east of their position." Iris replied. "Fire six rockets at the Crimson Battalion." Alex ordered, soaring above the paratroopers now. Six rockets flew instantly out of Alex's suit, slamming into the ground nearby and blowing them into ash. To make sure they were done for, Alex fired beams of electric energy and swiped them through the landscape, reducing it to blackened plant life and burnt human. "Someone ask for a huntress?" Yang asked as Alex finally landed on the ground. "Sergeant Indigo reporting, miss!" One of the paratroopers saluted. "At ease, Sergeant." Alex waved a hand. "Hello, Admiral." He nodded respectfully. "Sergeant." Alex replied mirroring his earnesty. "We were about to meet with The 42nd but we got cut off by White Fang." The sergeant sighed. "They're here?" Yang asked in disbelief. "Oh, they're everywhere, now. I saw one of them wearing this mask execute one of the more unfortunate ones in the squads." Indigo reported. "Taurus." Alex spat. "Where did you last see him?" Yang asked. "A half-click east of here. He said something about 'ARES'..." He recalled. "Thank you, soldier. You're with us now." Yang slapped Indigo on the shoulder. "Blake, I got a hit on Taurus. He's a half-click west of my position." Alex informed her through the radio. He knew somewhat of their personal history, she'd be interested to hear this. 'Thanks, I'll deal with it once Haunt and I finish off the rest of these patrols.' she answered. "What's the plan, Admiral?" One of the other soldiers asked. 'Walker...I don't mean to alarm you, but..' Russell began nervously. "Spit it out." 'Another Trans-Dimensional slip occurred about 5 clicks west of here. Hundreds of unidentified transport inbound, Twi just confirmed.' Russell sighed. "Shit. We got a huge wave of transport vehicles inbound, they were unable to identify whether they're friends or foes!" Alex warned. "How does someone not know if someone's with us or against us?!" Yang threw her hands in the air. 'It's... Oh, god...' Russell gasped. "Soldier! Do you copy?!" Alex yelled into the communicator. 'We got Adenien Ryders. They're engaging the Red Star!' Mako yelled in Russell's communicator. "'Adenien Ryders?" Alex asked. "Super Soldier Cyborgs from the Adenien Dimension. They're especially known to antagonize the Inquisitors, they must not have heard..." Iris replied. 'Alexander Gabriel Walker, offspring of Jason Alexander Walker. We know you're here, and we know why.' a semi-mechanical voice called. "Who are you?" Alex asked sternly. 'That's not important now, what is important is that you meet us at Achilles Ridge just northeast of your current location. There is something we must discuss along with the leaders or your faction.' the Ryder replied. "Alex, who..?" Yang asked. "Don't tell me, I have no freaking clue what's going on either." Alex shrugged. 'Alexander, listen to me. All will be explained at Achilles Ridge. Meet us there, if you wish to understand what you have to do.' He urged. Alex stood, deep in thought. "Alex..?" Yang asked again. 'There is no time. Decide now.' The Ryder pressed on. "Are you just going to do what some creep on the radio thinks is right?" Yang scoffed. "...I'll help you, if you help me." Alex replied. 'State your price, boy.' "You help my men chase these guys off and track where they're headed, we'll do whatever you want." Alex compromised. "What?!" Yang gasped. "Face it, we don't have another option, Yang." Alex reasoned. 'Wise decision, Catalyst. We will see you there.' He cut off connection. "Are you insane?!" Yang asked. "No- wait, Yes! Just a little!" He answered. "You could be walking into a trap!" Yang scolded. "...Or I could be hitting a gold mine. I'm well aware of what's going on. Think about it, this guy knows who my father is, he knows my full name, Iris says they're against the Inquisitors." Alex defended. "You're going to trust the A.I? Even though you know that half of it tried to kill us!" "What do you expect me to do?" 'A-Alex! They're helping us now, their medics are healing the wounded!' Russell stammered. 'Admiral, mission successful, Convoy en-route to suspected Red Star hideaway.' Skirmish announced. "Tell them to land a half-click east of Achilles Ridge. There's something we need taken care of," Alex ordered. 'Roger that, giving them the order.' Skirmish replied. "Ruby, Twi, Vanoss, I need you guys to meet us at Achilles Ridge once the attack is over." Alex commanded. 'Atlas just landed, they're sweeping for Red Star stragglers. I hope you know what you're doing, Alex.' Kat announced. "Come on, we can't exactly stay in one place, now can we?" Alex turned to Yang and the two paratroopers that remained. "I'd say so." Someone said from above. "Who the hell?" Alex asked, grabbing his SAW again. "Where is that coming from?" One of the Paratroopers wondered. "Iris, I need the perimeter scanned." Alex ordered. "On it." She replied. "Reliance on your crutches is not the best way to go about a fight." The voice echoed. "Scan 86% complete..." Iris anticipated. 'Spotted Adam! I'll deal with him!' Blake announced. "Scan 100% complete." Iris announced. A small red light blinked in his HUD, which turned into the silhouette of a man, and mere milliseconds later, said man was punching him across the face. Alex fall to the ground, only to hear the clash of metal, the bursts of gunfire, and the shuffling of feet. "Watch out!" Someone yelled. Someone grasped Alex by the head and slammed it into the ground. "You know who I am?" He spat. Alex pushed himself up, slamming a fist into the man's visage. Without realizing, he had punched Adam Taurus in the face. He was fighting the Inquisitor. This could be his chance! He readied into a proper fighting position, fists closed and buzzing with electric power. Taurus himself looked back at him, the mask he was wearing was horridly cracked on his right side as he scowled back at him. Looking behind Alex, Omicron's gaze darted as he leapt away from the potential battlefield. "He got away?!" Yang growled. "Get back here you coward!!" Alex ran after him. Blake stopped him in his tracks, one arm blocking his path. "If anyone's going to fight him, it's me. And besides," She said, "we'll get another chance."
Act III, Chapter 6: Achilles RidgeThe temporary camp that the Ryders came up with in the short time they waited appeared to be just that. Most of the shacks had wheels attached to them, and heavy machine guns were strapped onto each one, some even with rocket launchers. Achilles Ridge looked more like the Midwest than anything else, sweeping valleys with the occasional Beowolf that they had to put down. In essence, the place looked like a rusty diesel-punk version of the Kahn Militia base in the California-Nevada border. "I really f**kin' hope you have a reason for stopping a $50 Billion operation." Mako groaned. "So do I, Mako." Alex groaned. "Well, at least it isn't just us." The 20-something year old C.I.A agent waved a hand around. "True. True." "So, I have to ask. Why did you think this was a good idea?" Mako turned to face him. "Let's face it, who's half-cocked idea was it to appoint a traumatized 15-year old kid as the Admiral of a multi-dimensional fleet?" He retorted. "Touché." She shrugged. "Touché, indeed." "Alex, We'll be seeing you and the others now." One of the Ryders told him as he walked past. The Ryders were cybernetic super-soldiers, usually they had a mechanical arm or leg, but some were wearing layered armor similar in design to the Samurai. Their helmets looked similar to some of the Goliath or Scarab models, at the outermost layer were thick, black capes or scarfs that drifted in the wind on occasion. The Ryder led him into the largest mobile-base, where Ruby, Vanoss, and Twilight were seated, in front of them another Adenien. He sat down next to Vanoss and Twilight. "Welcome, Alexander. Let's begin by introducing ourselves, shall we?" The Ryder greeted with a colder demeanor than even Ozpin's. His voice reminded him very faintly of the bus driver's from Tranzit. God, that map sucked. "Hello, My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, former student of Princess Celestia and the Princess of friendship." Twilight was the first to introduce herself. "What's up, My name's Evan Fong, but you can just call me Vanoss." The owl-masked Canadian cleared his throat before moving along. "I'm... Er..." Ruby stammered. "Not to worry, miss. Just say your name and, if you'd like, occupation." He waved a mechanical hand. "O-Okay, My name is Ruby Rose, and I'm a Huntress-in-Training at Beacon Academy in Vale." She nervously stammered. Alex himself knew social awkwardness painfully well. "My name's Alex Walker, Admiral of the Equestrian-Remnantian Coalition and Ex-Private of the Kahn Milita." Alex stated evenly. "Wonderful to meet you all, my name is Kaiver Locust, Commander of the Adenian Ryders." He replied. "Nice meeting you, Commander Locust. Now can you tell us why I shouldn't be rethinking my decision about stopping here?" Alex asked, in mock politeness. He himself wanted answers. "Ahem. I invited you all here so I could answer some burning questions. What are the Inquisitors? What is their plan? And why is he, a traumatized 15 year old kid, standing before me now, leading the boldest band of heroes since the Great Battle of Year 13842436816?" "Wha-?" Twilight and Vanoss instantly gaped. "In terms of your human years, it's 2005 Anno Domini." Locust elaborated. "Uh..." Vanoss scratched his owl mask. "2005," Alex sighed, "he's talking about 2005 A.D." "What happened?" Ruby asked. "The Inheritors were conglomeration of Warriors from other universes, in 1899 they formed the Inquisitors, designed to hunt down traces of an older enemy, but this plan backfired." Locust explained. "Older enemy?" Twilight asked. "I'll explain the Chronicai later, The Inquisitors turned on their masters in 1962 and purged them, slaying many, forcing some to exile, and only the strongest survived." "That's terrible!" Ruby gasped. "The Inheritors desperately searched for a solution, they turned to the Oracle. The Oracle prophesied that four great heroes would lead an army and force the inquisitors to their end. One from Earth, another from Equestria, Remnant, and Adenien itself. In 1999, they recruited four of the best warriors from each in an attempt to stop them. This finally went into action in 2005. However, two of them were slain in the line of battle, the last two were forced into hiding, waiting until they were extinguished many years later. "The remaining inheritors realized, these were not the prophesied ones, but their ancestors. Twilight Sparkle, Niece of Flickering Light of Equestria. Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer Rose of Remnant. Evan Fong, great nephew four-times-removed of Cyrus Fong of Earth. And, lastly-" "Hold the phone, Locust! Are you saying I'm an Adenienite?!" "I'm afraid so, Alexander Walker, son of Jason Walker of Adenien." Locust confirmed. "How-" Alex wondered. "-Are you able to produce an Aura? Everything that possesses a soul has Aura, but the ritual did little else but awaken your potential. It is a mixture of an activated Aura, as well as similar ability shared by some Adenianite bloodlines, the ability to manipulate electric fields. It is how we can use our prosthetics." Locust explained. "If that's remotely true, then why-?" "-Do you possess abilities similar to Aura. You have only scratched the surface, as they have. And plus, you are special." "How?" Alex asked, growing more and more infuriated by the minute. "Your father's bloodline, The Emphas Clan trained extensively in use of Electro-Wavelength Manipulation, your mother's was the Sirant Clan, who were adept at similar abilities utilizing their very soul. Those abilities are present in your blood. Princess Celestia knew this right away. It is why she has given you the Prometheus Charge." Locust explained. "The Prometheus Charge?! But archaeologists have been searching for that for centuries!" Twilight gasped. "You know of this device, hm? Kindly explain, Equestrian." Locust waved to her. "The Prometheus Charge was said to be able to boost a pony's abilities to their absolute limit. Unicorns could lift entire continents! Pegasi could clear skies in less than a second!" Twilight babbled. "If I were to use it, would I be able to run laps across the world?" Ruby asked. "Not necessarily, Ms. Rose. Instead, what would most likely happen is that you become the physical manifestation of your soul, which is what allows you to run so fast, I assume." Locust explained. "Go on." Alex demanded. "The Inquisitors are trying to gather such items, make themselves the immortal rulers of the universe, and 'immanentize the eschaton', or bring about the end. However, they will be unable to do so without first killing you all. This is where the prophecy comes in. When Alexander killed Winchester, the Inquisitors realized who they would be up against. They have tried to kill you all, while form their own army to counter your own; The Scarlet Army of the Inquisitors." Locust disclosed. "The Red Star." Vanoss concluded. "Correct, Earthling. According to prophecy, the deciding battle will transpire at Kalos Prime, Capital of the Inquisitors' domain, in a cataclysmic battle known as 'Götterdämmerung', 'Armageddon', 'Kerivan', 'Ragnarök'." "Wasn't it Kazi'ivan, though?" Ruby asked. "You severely mistranslated, huntress. You said 'cookie' in ancient Valian." Locust corrected. "Aw..." Ruby pouted. Vanoss couldn't help but start laughing a bit. "But, the true name of this battle, the real term the Inquisitors used to describe this conflict, is called the 'Blood Red Night'. "That would almost sound badass if it didn't include the idea of us dying horrible deaths." Vanoss shuddered. "The basic idea is that, thousands of universes will come together, hundreds with you, and hundreds with the Inquisitors-" "What?! With that much power in one place.." Twilight stammered. "Yes, I'm afraid a great deal of men will fight to their last breath. We will all lose heroes that night. The streets will run red with the stolen lives of great heroes. Thousands of kilometers around Kalos Prime will be nothing but dust and ash." Locust described. "Wouldn't it destroy the planet?" Alex asked. "Their planet is massive, and as old as time itself. It will remain in one piece at the very minimum." Locust described. "Why would anyone work with the Inquisitors?" Twilight asked. "Some out of the pure evil in their souls, some because they're afraid, many because it's what they've been preparing for for the past 50 years." Locust justified. "W-Will we survive?" Ruby asked. "One of you will survive at the absolute worst. But the outcome of the battle is uncertain." Locust sighed heavily. "That means... Kat...Mako.." Alex gaped. "And...Yang.." Ruby gasped "My friends..." Twilight was starting to tear up a bit. "Now you understand the full burden of war. Friends and kinsmen are mercilessly slain. Innocence lost." Locust mournfully shuddered. "How do I have to do to end it?" Alex finally asked. "You?!" Vanoss asked, awestruck. "To end the Blood Red Night, you must face the Alpha Inquisitor in battle, and kill him. I advise doing this quickly, for time will be of the essence." Locust explained. "I'll kill the bastard myself." Alex seethed. "Are you insane?!" Twilight yelled. "You can't fight him alone!" Ruby grasped his shoulders. "If it's to keep you all safe, then I'll be damned if I'm not able to protect you all." Alex asserted. "I don't know, you can't even handle Sigma without nearly dying!" Vanoss retorted. "I have to at least try if it's to save everyone I care about!" Alex yelled. "How dangerous is the Alpha?" Twilight asked. "The most destructive in the known multiverse. He has been known to kill thousands of people at the wave of a hand." Locust answered. "No! I won't let you!" Ruby grasped him tighter. "Do you think I want to die?! Do you all honestly think that I'm such a lost cause that I would throw everything I have left in vain?!" Alex asked, bewildered. "It's not that I think I do... It's... I don't want to lose you.." Ruby trembled. "We're all scared shitless here! But I don't just charge into a hockey game without thinking! I strategize, I plan, I at least get help when I need it!" Vanoss yelled. "I know you know we're all in this together. At least acknowledge that." Twilight scolded, tears in her eyes. "What do you expect me to do?! If I go down, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I take you all with me!" Alex spat, rage over his true heritage, and the almost-certain fate that befell them all. His friends looked at him as though he had grown a second head on top of the first. "I know you're all scared as shitless as I am. I know for a fact that I'm not the best fighter, or have the best aim, and I'm hardly huntsman material. All I've got is the ship and It's crew. Everything else was handed to me out of pity. I've lost count of how many times you all scrambled to save my ass. It's high time that, for once in my life, I save myself." Alex asserted. "Alex.." Ruby gasped. "Let's face it, what else could be ripped away from me before this bullshit ends? I lost my parents, my home, I'm in an entirely different f**king dimension, and just five minutes ago I found out my life was a f**king lie! There's only so much shit I can take, and I don't know what I really want for myself anymore!! So, yeah. Next time I see Omicron, or Sigma, or any one of those sadistic assholes, I'm going to freaking KILL THEIR ASSES!!!" Alex huffed, finally plopping down into his seat, the onset of a headache pounding in his skull. "This is hard for all of us to take in! For all I know, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and the rest could die in a matter of weeks, maybe even months if we go through with this!" Twilight yelled back. "Excuse me, Miss Priss, but I just found out I'm a f**king space alien with lightning powers, instead of a wimpy little kid with lightning powers! On top of that, all of my friends, not just you, or Rainbow, or Cloudchaser and Flitter or Ruby, but all of them are almost certain to die at some point, so excuse me for having a MENTAL BREAKDOWN!!" Alex angrily spat back. "Ruby, help me out here! Tell him he's being unreasonable!" Twilight urged the red-cloaked huntress. Ruby turned to face Twilight. "He's right." She sighed. "What?!" Twilight growled. "But you're right about one thing, it's hard for all of us to handle. But he's getting hit the hardest. You aren't trying to reason with another stuck-up magical bad guy. You're dehumanizing someone who already lost everything and might lose everything again. The last thing he needs is another person telling him he's being insane." Ruby explained. "And, besides, we do constantly save his ass from Inquisitors, embarrassment, dying, you know the rest, but I think it is a bad idea to fight the bad guy alone." Vanoss added. Twilight looked back at the two, and then at Alex. "I don't blame you for wanting to get revenge, but it's still a bad idea to fight him alone. We're helping you, whether you like it or not." Twilight asserted. "Okay... Locust, what's our next move?" Alex hardened his tone. "We have installed tracking devices onto various Red Star vehicles. We believe they are going to activate a super-weapon identified as 'ARES'." Locust explained. "You already know something's up when a super-weapon is named after a boss from 'God of War'." Vanoss shrugged. "What does it do?" Ruby asked. "It is a kinetic Dust bombardment satellite." Locust elaborated. "That explains all of the dust robberies in Vale you were telling me about." Alex replied. "What does that mean?" Vanoss asked. "ARES is designed to literally drop giant Dust crystals on Remnant's surface, the speed the crystal will get from falling that fast, combined with the explosive power of a dust crystal of that size will have comparable power to a nuclear weapon." Twilight explained. "Uh... Still not following." Vanoss nervously stated. "You remember ODIN from Call of Duty: Ghosts? It's basically that, but instead of metal rods, it's explosive crystals." Alex simplified. "Oh, shit." "Who's going to intercept the satellite?" Ruby asked. "We've arranged our best high-altitude strike team to deal with the problem, but we will have volunteers assault the craft as well." Locust clarified. "Alright then. Thank you, Commander." Alex nodded before leaving the room. "Get some sleep, you three. We have much to do tomorrow." Locust waved them away. The remaining three stood up and left through the still opened door behind them. "May the Divine keep your souls.." He muttered. Author's Note In hindsight, I should probably have gone into a bit more detail with the new faction. I'll try to have the next chapter up by Thursday, because screw schedules, because I'll end up procrastinating. -The Destoyer
Act III, Chapter 7: IN SPAAAAACE!!As the other members of Team Unity and some of the higher-level Ryders gathered at the center of the camp early that day, Russell wasn't sure what to expect. Looking at Alex's direction, the Admiral looked disgruntled, almost angry about something. The C.I.A Agent Mako went up to him and said something Russell couldn't identify. Alex replied in a smaller tone, almost inaudible. "Attention members of the Equestrian Remnantian Coalition and my fellow Ryders!" Locust demanded. He had learned the Commander's name from Twilight Sparkle, now sitting close by her friends in a select corner. "Our first order of business, My intelligence operatives discovered a large orbital kinetic strike weapon above the planet identified as ARES. The payloads consist of large pods containing vast amounts of Dust, if left unchecked, that one satellite can decimate the Kingdoms of Remnant and annihilate millions in the blast alone. If we are to save them, we ask that volunteers please raise their hands to participate in the assault to destroy the satellite and, per Ms. Schnee's request, return the payloads to their rightful owners." Locust explained. "Why return the payloads?" Master Chief Fong asked. "According to Princess Twilight's calculations, if this specialist team simply blasts the satellite into the atmosphere, it will simply plummet, creating an explosion more massive than a single payload would create." Locust's second in command, Auklet, elaborated. "What if we temporarily take control of the satellite, use it to our advantage, and then do whatever that guy just said?" Wildcat asked. "It would be too dangerous. The weapon itself is too destructive to even consider use that close to a kingdom." Blake explained. "What else?" Yang asked. "Our next order of business is location of Adam Taurus and Cinder Fall, we discovered their whereabouts, in an underground city similar to the one underneath their 'Mountain Glenn' called the 'Subterrains'. It is a hub for Inquisitor activity for Vale and Atlas. This is where most of our ground forces will be focused. The task is simple. Discover a way to prevent ARES being used remotely, and capture either Taurus or Fall. If anyone attempts to kill the Inquisitor before we can question them, there will be severe consequences." Auklet debriefed. "They know we're coming, so this is probably the most dangerous out of the two." Alex called out. "Can I say something? If they know we're coming, we're f**ked! We can't handle those assholes or their army! What do we have besides a few thousand people, about 10 or 12 of which are actually able to fight back?!" Mini asked. "I have asked some friends in Adenien for a favor, soldier. You will be augmented with an Exo-Suit in addition to your Atlesian Paladins, should they fail." One of the Ryder's intelligence operators, Ceril, answered. "Okay, now this actually is Titanfall." Moo Snuckel blinked. "I got this, I'm like Alex now." Vanoss smugly announced, unsheathing a sword that looked like it had been ripped straight out of some weird Cthulhu anime game. "What in fresh hell is that?!" Alex gaped. "It's an Apothicon Sword I got from Black Ops 3 Zombies." He replied. "That looks awesome!" Ruby stared. "Yeah, I've seen enough of... this sort of thing... to know where this is going." Sirius face-palmed. "Poor, poor man." Mako cringed. "Squid swords aside, we need volunteers for the space mission. Raise your hand if you want to do this." Alex shook his head and asked. "I'll go." Cloudchaser steadily raised a hoof. "Yeah, that sound epic!" Flitter immediately waved a hoof. "Anything to get away from whatever Evan's holding." Weiss raised both hands as she steadily walked away from the owl. "You're just jealous of how awesome this squid sword is." He defended. "Eh, screw it. Space." Haunt shrugged. "I'm going with Weiss, it's not like I can leave her alone up there." Ruby volunteered. "I'll do it." Russell raised his own hand. It sounded cool enough, he just hoped it wouldn't turn out like that Call of Duty game. "Boop!" Nora poked Ren's face before waving. "I will assist the young ones." Auklet nodded. "May the Divine watch over you, brother." Locust held two fingers in the air as a sign of respect. "Likewise, Commander." Auklet returned the gesture. Alex finally stood up, walking towards Commander Locust. "The rest of you are coming with me to the Subterrains. We need as many people as humanly possible working on this." Alex ordered. Many of the 6,000 people working on the operation cheered him on as those who had risen their hands were rushed over by Auklet. "I thank you, soldiers, for volunteering for this mission." Auklet nodded. "We won't let ya down, Auk. Lead the way." Haunt shrugged. "I set up some temporary launch zones I had the drones build in our sleep. The rockets should blow us into the atmosphere. From there, use the afterburners on the suits I'm handing out to maneuver your way around the satellite. I have a large containment silo that we can fill with the payloads once we're done collecting the Dust, it should be able to survive the fall. Get your suits and move onto the ships. May the Divine watch over us." Auklet instructed, handing out a suitcase for the humans who volunteered, and some for the ponies as well. The suit was slightly uncomfortable, and cumbersome at best, but at least maneuverable. Grabbing the lever-action rifle that the Ryders supplied him with, he stood up, intending to head towards the ship. "Leaving so soon?" Someone had called. Looking behind him, he saw Ms. Nikos. The two had been close friends since their encounter, he smiled back, nodding. "If I can't bring this thing down, who can?" Russell replied bluntly. "Relax, Russell. You have two of the best huntresses I've met fighting by your side. I have full confidence the squadron will complete the mission." "That makes two of us." He nodded. "Here," Pyrrha handed him another mag, "Just in case." "Thank you. I gotta go." Russell nodded, putting the mag in his back pocket. Russell made the trip to the rockets as fast as he could. Ignoring the fact that this thing looked like a 5th grade science project and probably unable to get off the ground, he climbed the steep ladder into the ship. "Alright, It'll take about 20 minutes to get there! Walker and his crew will arrive at the Subterrains at around the same time! Let's show these Red Star bastards how to party!" Haunting yelled out amongst the charging teams. Russell climbed into his seat and strapped in tightly, he even put on the helmet. "Let's go! We gotta move! Ruby, get on!" Cloudchaser pulled the girl inside and strapped her in. "That's the last one! Let's get this tin can in the air!" Russell called out. His words were immediately answered by a large weight pressing against his chest. "What, no countdown?!" He gasped. "Woo!" Flitter yelled excitedly. "ARES, here we come!!" Haunt screamed as the ship continued to fly straight upwards. Wow, Remnant from this height was beautiful. It looked a lot similar to planets such as Equis and even Earth. A large blue marble with green and brown land mass indiscriminately strewn across the surface. "Wow, you can see Vytal from up here!" Ruby gaped as they leaped out from their rocket and into the zero-gravity of space, guns by their sides. "And there's the satellite." Haunt saw a large black-and-orange communications satellite modified with a large revolving chamber at the base. "That's ARES?" Cloudchaser gasped. ARES was roughly as tall as a building, and surrounded by little black and orange specks. Probably enemies. 'Icarus 0-1, have you made it to the satellite?!' Alex asked from the radio. "Affirmative, Admiral. We're currently nearing the target. What's your ETA for the Subterrains?" Auklet asked. 'We've started the assault already!!' he yelled. "Just as I figured, Red Star Hell-jumpers are guarding the damn thing." Haunt scoffed. 'Do what you can! I'll handle the mess down here!' he screamed as gunfire blasted in the air at his location. "Ruby? Can you take out the guards? I doubt they can hear the gunfire all that well." Auklet ordered. "Sure thing!" She smiled through her helmet. Converting the deadly scythe into it's rectangular sniper-form, she aimed two well-placed shots into the helmets of their enemies, blood spraying out of the glass visors and floating in clumps. "Got 'em." She mildly celebrated. "Watch yourselves, I doubt they're the only ones." Cloudchaser shook her head. "I'm heading above the sat. I'll try to find a way to remove the payloads from up there." Russell said, sending power to the boots and flying above the orange-and-black satellite. He stopped himself just in time, two Hell-jumpers. "Iris, can you patch me into their comms?" Russell asked. "On it!" She chirped. 'I just don't see why we have to stand guard.' one of them said. 'Yeah. I mean, who the hell's going to stop this thing?' "Your looking at him." Russell said as he fired a shot at one of the Hell-jumpers, a piece of glass from the visor fragmented and shattered, and a piece cut tight through the other's suit before he suffered a similar fate. "Icarus, I found a way to get the payloads!" Called Weiss. Russell flew to where the ice queen was currently opening the large satellite's canister, large rods containing multi-colored crystal nested inside. "Holy hell." Haunt gasped. "So that's dust." Flitter blinked. "Load it onto the crate!" Auklet ordered. The rest got to work pulling out the large projectiles and loading them onto the crate. "Keep in mind, this thing can survive a fall from space and still not explode, but don't screw this up while the crate is still open!" Weiss ordered. "Okay, then. Sheesh!" Russell threw up his hands as he loaded another dust rod inside the crate. 'Open fire!' Crap! Hell-jumpers! "Watch yourselves!" Auklet ordered as he returned fire, shooting their enemies as accurately as possible. Russell also helped clear out the Hell-jumpers, and the others had almost finished loading the crate when suddenly the satellite exploded before them. Someone shot through ARES while a rod was still inside. "Damn it!" Cloudchaser strained, grabbing a hold of Flitter before she could fall too far. Auklet was not as lucky. He fell away and started to burn along with the dead satellite ARES, horror fresh in Russell's mind. "Do we have the rest of the rods encased?" Weiss asked. "I think so... When's our ride coming up?" Haunt asked. "Watch out!" Weiss warned as more Hell-jumpers attacked. Haunt was immediately ripped a part by gunfire, unable to scream as they tore through the suit, and his bloodied corpse slammed onto the still-opened crate of payloads. Dropping them onto the planet below. "No!" Flitter gasped as the rods fell out. "God dammit!" Russell reached out. They all shot back at their enemies, Russell blew the brains out of one of them before shooting another in the chest, killing him as he drifted about the cosmos. 'Icarus 0-1, what's your situation?!' Vanoss yelled. "Vanoss?!" Ruby asked. 'We lost contact with Alex and Blake a little while ago! Anything important happen?!' He asked. "We lost Auklet and Haunt. The crate was blown down to the planet's surface while we were loading. Mission compromised." Weiss disappointedly replied. 'Shit. That's not your only problem. They have another one of those things up there, you see it?' Vanoss asked. "Oh, hell." Cloudchaser gasped. Sure enough, there were another one of those things about a half-kilometer away. "We're on it. Ruby, Kill the Hell-jumpers." Russell ordered. "Is that really how you address a superior officer?" Weiss scolded. "Got it." Ruby nodded, ignoring Weiss' obvious annoyance. Four shots were fired, and the satellite was probably open. They flew over there in about 6 seconds, this satellite was noticeably different. Similar design, but they would have to find another way to stop this thing. 'If I remember what Alex said, this thing can't be taken down manually, but if you can blow it into Remnant's atmosphere, it should burn and detonate the payloads before they hit the ground. But you'll either be blown into space with no air, or get stuck on the satellite and burn up with it.' Vanoss instructed. "Got it. Moving to the top." Russell said. "What do you think you're doing?!" Weiss asked. "Following orders." He bluntly replied. "You know what'll happen to you, right?" Flitter gasped. "I heard what Evan said. I don't have that long a lifespan anyway." Russell spat. "Why?" Ruby asked. Damn, he didn't expect to be asked why. "Why do you have to go? And don't say it's because Alex'll probably court-martial you." Cloudchaser said. "I've got the Adenien Retrovirus. This thing'll deteriorate my insides until nothing's left. I only got about a month or so, and there's no cure anyways." Russell sighed. "What?" Flitter blinked. Russell visor-palmed. "It means the virus will eat me from the inside out." "Ew." Flitter shuddered. "That's why I'll handle the sat. You guys get back to Remnant." Russell ordered. "No! We aren't going to leave so you can die in a fire or lack of oxygen!" Ruby said back. "I've got no choice! I'll die anyways!" He yelled back. "Wait, where are Cloudchaser and Flitter?" Weiss asked. "Ready? One! Two! Three!" The two pushed the satellite from the top end towards the surface. "No! You idiots!" Russell flew up to stop them. "We'll take care of this! Go with Ruby and Weiss!" Flitter said. "Like hell you are!" Russell yelled back. Russell grasped Flitter in an attempt to throw her off the satellite. "Cloudy! Push!" She yelled as she continued to struggle. "No, god dammit! You'll get yourselves killed!" Russell tensed. Flitter accidentally pushed the magnetic boot option at his belt, causing Russell to cling to the surface. "Dammit! Stop!" He pulled at his legs, trying to move them to no avail. He saw Ruby and Weiss watching from the rocket they were to take home. Ruby was visibly crying and Weiss was trying to pull her in. "They made their choice! We can't stop them!" Weiss sighed depressively. "They're coming back! They have to!" She waved both arms towards them as Weiss sealed the door. "Push! Get this thing in orbit!!" Flitter continued to tug at his grasp. Finally, Russell felt gravity pull them down as some various pressure systems and fail-safes ignited, blowing sections of the satellite apart. Both Pegasi were caught by the solar-paneled wings on the satellite and plummeted alongside him, orange flame circling around them. 'Ruby? Weiss? You there?!' Russell heard Alex yell through the radio. 'We're here, Alex.. But Cloudchaser, Flitter, and Russell chose to take out the second satellite.' Weiss sighed bitterly. 'Russell?! Come in!! Damn it! No response, Sergeant Majors Leone, Cloudchaser, and Flitter have been Killed in Action.' Suddenly, Russell heard a bunch of loud bursts. The payloads! Russell could only watch as his vision was completely engulfed by red and blue, even white before his vision ultimately faded to black. And his breathing ceased. Forever. Author's Note Destoyer be like 'Introduce a new character only 6 chapters before... Aaand he's dead.' Rage in 3...2...1
Act III, Chapter 8: The Battle of The SubterrainsAlex fast-roped into the Subterrains, which were now bursting with gunfire. He saw himself back in Area 51, falling with the helicopter then fast-roping inside, only to be met by splinters of lead. Before any of this. Before RWBY, Before Vanoss and his crew, before even before the ponies. His mind snapped back into reality the second his boots hit the ground. Dual-wielding Adenien Sub-machine Guns that ripped his enemies into fleshy pieces as soon as they met them. Next in line were Blake and Yang, who slammed into the ground relatively unharmed and returned fire. The rest of his battalion went in around the same time they had. The White Fang soldiers scrambled in panic, as though they weren't expecting an attack of that magnitude. "Fix bayonets and move up!" Locust ordered. "Iliad Operators, Blow a hole large enough for the Paladins! We don't got all day!" Alex commanded. 'Roger that, Bunker Busters inbound, ETA; 2 minutes.' An operator on the Illiad replied. "Yang! Nora! I need you two to handle heavy armor! Nothing in or out of these tunnels! Pyrrha, I need you close by, make sure they don't get swarmed!" He ordered. "Got it, Alex!" Yang smiled at him. As he continued his onslaught, Nora poked his shoulder. "You sure you aren't interested?" She asked, turning to the golden-haired huntress. "Not the best time for these questions." Alex grumbled. "Watch your back! We don't need you getting shot before capturing one of these assholes!" Kat shouted. "Snipers! 11 and 1 o'clock! High!" Mako called out. "Icarus 0-1, have you made it to the satellite yet?!" Alex asked through the radio. 'Affirmative, Admiral. We're currently nearing the target. What's your ETA on the Subterrains?' "We've already started the assault!!" He yelled back. 'Just as I figured. Hell-jumpers are guarding the damn thing.' "Do what you can! I'll handle the mess down here!" Alex replied before changing the channel on the radio. 'Admiral. We've identified Omicron and Sigma at the central building.' Ren said. "Confirm visual!" Alex commanded. A video feed opened at the top-right corner of his HUD, a flash of black and red spearing through some of the Ryders and a few dead Atlesians with shards of glass in their faces. "That's them." Blake suddenly, and rather quietly, stated. "Let's move out!" Alex nodded. The two were followed by the rest of Alex's Fire-team and the Princess. "What the?! They got Spider Droids down here!" Blast gaped. He was right. A massive Atlesian Spider-Droid, about as tall as a small building with twice the firepower of a tank suddenly shot various missiles from two launchers at it's sides. "Get down!" Twilight commanded as the others avoided the missile barrage. "Ponyfeathers! They have White Fang markings!" Rainbow spat. "I have a plan!" Ember said, whispering her idea to the rest of the team through their protected channels. 'Have Blast Radius aim rockets at the Droid's leg joints and immobilize it. We can take out the machine's weapons after that, and Alex could safely short the Droid's circuits.' Blast pulled out two Grenade Launchers, firing both at the Spider Droid's front most leg. "Twilight, if you can, Rip the thing's leg off! It's hanging by a thread!" Alex ordered. "Right!" She used her magic to surround the thing's lower front leg, as well as it's missile launchers, and pulled all three parts cleanly off the robot, removing the missiles and sending them towards the monstrous machine. The large explosion cracked the ceiling of the large cave, that crack extended to the bottom wall. Suddenly, something large bashed itself against the crack, and Alex figured it was likely either a very large Deathstalker or a massive amount of Beowolves. "I don't like the sound of that!" Rainbow shuddered. "Take care of 'em! I'll deal with the HVTs." Alex ordered. "I need to take care of Adam!" Blake indignantly scowled. "Oh, right. Come on!" He ordered, charging off towards Ren's checkpoint with the black-haired Faunus not far behind. Alex then heard a very loud 'Boom', and suddenly, the whole ceiling of the Subterrains caved in, sending large hunks of rock downwards and pouring sunlight into the otherwise dark caves. 'Admiral, we're sending Fong and the other Paladins, have you apprehended the Inquisitors yet?' "If I did, we'd all be on our way back." Alex bluntly and sarcastically replied. 'Er... Understood, sir..' Alex was immediately met by a boot to the chest. He fell flat on his back, rolling to one side to get back up, only to see Sigma, Omicron, and another, much taller figure. He couldn't see exact details because it was so dark, but he knew that this person was wearing a black uniform. "Alex! Are you.." Blake's voice trailed off upon the realization of what had happened. "Hello again. How long has it been since we last saw each other? 6 months? 7?" Omicron asked mockingly. "Adam." "Oh, I see you've brought us a... friend." He said that last word full of scorn and disrespect. "Up yours!" Alex coughed. "Now now, Omicron. Allow me to introduce myself. You have heard of the Alpha Inquisitor, haven't you, Walker?" The dark figure standing in the center asked, walking into the light. There, Alex could see more details on the man. He was wearing black armor, but it was also adorned with brushed steel and a billowing black cape. The helmet covered his entire head, and left no opportunity for identification aside from the small slit that revealed piercing blue eyes, bloodshot and scarred horribly. "You... You're the one who wants me dead the most, I take it." Alex cleared his throat. "Don't make any assumptions, kid." Sigma scorned. "Cute. It seems Sigma and the Catalyst have a little bad blood. She killed a friend of yours? A close friend of yours?" Alpha scoffed. "You son of a bitch." Alex narrowed his eyes. Alex lashed out at the Alpha, only for his wrist to get grasped by the cold gauntlet Alpha was wearing. He was pulled upwards, punched hard in the groin, and was thrown about 40 feet back. He skidded on the rough stone below, badly scratching his armor. "Are you okay?" Blake asked him. "Aack.. He punched me in the dick.. Why? Why did he punch me in the dick?" Alex's legs shook uncontrollably in agonizing pain. "Something wrong, Alexander?" Alpha chucked to himself as he pulled out a heavy sword that looked like a cross between a Zanbatō and a Zweihander, both edges of the blade looked wickedly sharp. Even the tips of the cross-guards were sharpened. "Blake! Get Adam! I'll deal with these two!" Alex yelled. She nodded before striking Omicron, locking blades with the murderous White Fang swordsman. "Unwise to say the least," Alpha shook his head pitifully, "Consider this an evaluation of your power. Sigma! Kill him!" "With pleasure." Sigma summoned both of her blades, erupting in flames before revealing the deadly blades. "Okay, this shit again." Alex scoffed, unsheathing Blitzklinge. Alex charged at Sigma, locking blades with his old enemy before kicking her in the side. Using the distraction, he punched Sigma in the throat before attacking with his blade again. His blade was blocked by Sigma's as she leapt above him, flipping and slashing him in the back. Relatively unaffected, he allowed the Blitzklinge to shift into it's revolver form, shooting a few rounds at the Inquisitor. She blocked them effortlessly and grasped his left leg, sharply yanking it up, causing Alex to fall flat on his chest. He swept a leg under the Inquisitor and tripped her, grasping the back of her head before charging and bashing it once on the cave wall. She elbowed him hard in the groin, causing him to buckle in pain, giving her an opportunity to weaken his armor. She set a glyph right in front of her hand, firing a beam of flame that singed his backside and forced him into the wall, leaving a burning hole in the armor. He fired once more. This time, the distraction was more effective, dazed as he grasped both of her ankles and pulled her to the ground, before swinging her like a rag doll into the cave wall again. Enraged, she summoned glass shards, and aimed precisely for his weak spot, each sliver of glass burning in Alex's flesh, he writhed in pain. Infuriated by his agony, he lashed out, punching and kicking at lightning speed. He backed her into a wall, each punch with enough force to shatter a person's skull. She dodged, and his fist made cracked indents into the cave wall. He shifted the blade back into it's sword form, locking her blades with his own. He set the blade to spin at the Inquisitor, she was losing strength. She blocked it for about two seconds before breaking off, while she was distracted, Alex grasped her throat, slamming her head onto the cold stone floor. She staggered up, bleeding profusely, using the last bit of energy to summon one more glass shard. This one burrowed itself into his back before she made it melt inside his body. He writhed as a small cloud of steam billowed from his burnt back. Kicking Sigma in the head in a bout of rage, he knocked her out cold. As she went out, so did the glass. Alex panted, his wounds still stinging painfully. Alpha chuckled. "Not bad. Not bad at all." He mocked. "Save it. If I can take her down with some minor injuries. You'll drop like a f-" Alex could barely finish his taunt before being thrown into a wall and choked. "Alex!!" Twilight ran at the scene, horn glowing brightly. "Finally, the Princess of Friendship arrives to save the child she called a hit on!" He scoffed. "Alpha!" She scowled. "As much as I'd love to stay. I have a friend here who is simply dying to meet you! Gamma!" Alpha called out. Rufio Vincent landed on the ground from a dark recess. "Finish her. I'm done here." Alpha leaped away, using some jet technology to climb to the top of the hole, he looked down. "We'll meet again, Alexander!!" He called before escaping. "Coward.." He coughed, reaching for Sigma. "She's mine!" Vincent yelled as Alex barely grasped a small chip on Sigma's belt. He tossed her into the recess he came from. Twilight shot a bolt of violet magic energy at Rufio. Allowing Alex time to stagger back up again. "We meet at last. Princess Twilight." Rufio laughed. She lashed out in a flurry of magic attacks. Rufio protected himself with a yellow bubble shield and turned it into a spike, hurling it at her with blinding speed. "Woah!" She gasped. She fired a few more bolts, even a few rudimentary ice spells to incapacitate him. "Die!" He yelled. "Not while my friends are still by my side!" She retorted, firing more complex spells at him. Rufio was eventually trapped in a cage of Twilight's magic, she fired a bolt of energy designed to knock him out. He deflected the bolt, instead hitting the recess, and in turn, Sigma. As Blake and Adam, Twilight and Rufio kept fighting, Alex staggered to his radio. "Ruby! Weiss! You there?!" He asked, the rods could potentially hit any second now. It could only be a matter of time. 'We're here, Alex.. But Cloudchaser, Flitter, and Russell chose to take out the second satellite.' Weiss sighed in reply, as though she could have done something. Cloudchaser..? And Flitter? They were dead?! "Russell?! Come in!! Damn it! No response, Sergeant Majors Leone, Cloudchaser, and Flitter have been Killed in Action." Alex sighed. What about Auklet and Haunting? They had to be okay too, right? Alex suddenly heard a very loud boom. Looking up in the sky, he saw a large object burning up in Remnant's atmosphere. That satellite, no doubt. He walked, staring at it before saluting to those who died saving millions of innocent lives. "Alex! Get Sigma!" Twilight ordered. She had Rufio being shocked with a magic spell, he twitched uncontrollably and screamed in total pain. "Alex! Go! Now!" Blake slashed Adam's back as he tried to fight back. He charged for the woman, before only being able to see red and black. Several inches of armor had been sliced off his chestplate, had Omicron sliced a few millimeters closer, Alex would've been half of what he was already. "What?! How did I miss?!" Omicron asked, almost baffled. As Alex ran for Sigma again, he was tripped by the hostile swordsman. "Why...won't...you...DIE?!!" He slashed his crimson-tinted blade on Alex's chest and back, blood spilling out onto the cave floor. Alex grasped Adam's neck, sending a powerful electric current through his hand, frying Blake's former master as he struggled to get away. "He's mine!" Blake yelled at him, kicking Adam/Omicron hard in the face. Alex leaped upwards onto the recess for Sigma. She was being carried away by a very familiar armored inquisitor. "Greetings, Catalyst." Beta coldly stared at him, standing up from behind Sigma's wounded, unconscious body. Alex unsheathed Blitzklinge yet again. This could get ugly. "Well, well, well.." A man slowly walked in behind him. He was a bit taller than Alex, with black hair and dimmed red eyes. His voice was a bit slurred. Was he seriously drinking at a time like this? Wait, there was always someone in Evan's group who always buzzed at least once a week. "Who the f**k..?" Alex backed up, not sure who to point the blade at. "Calm down, kid. I'm not after you." He replied, arming himself with his own broadsword. "It's been a long time, Branwen. I was wondering when you'd show." Beta calculatingly greeted. "Cut the shit, Axil. You know why I'm here." He scowled. "You know exactly why I'm doing this. I'm trying to save us!" Beta reasoned. "Is that any excuse for what you did to Summer? To Raven? Or this kid's dad?" He retorted, his voice slurred. "You know what'll happen if Alexander finds out the location of Kalos Prime. Your nieces will die! Along with the you and rest of these pathetic insurgents." Beta hardened his gaze. "Are you threatening me, Axil?" The other man asked. "The real threat is right in front of us! Why do you not see that?!" Beta removed his helmet, allowing it to clatter against the ground. Beta looked to be in about his early forties, his hair a lighter shade of black than this other man's, but his eyes were stone grey. His face had been badly scarred from previous battles over the years. "Get the girl, kid. I'll deal with Axil!" The man ordered. "Like hell I am!" Alex retorted. "Fools." Beta unleashed a torrent of fire at their direction, the man beside Alex blocked the attacks rather quickly, while Alex merely slid under the branches of flame, slashing Beta's chest from around his navel to the rib cage before kicking him back further into the cave. "Watch it!" He warned, leaping into the fray and blocking a devastating blow intended for Alex. Alex took the opportunity and shocked Beta with most of his power. Beta's armor started to glow bright red and even smoke a little underneath his flesh. Once Alex felt like he had enough electricity flowing through Beta, he stopped. Walking up to him, he kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him out cold. "Gotta admit. You have some guts, kid. But not enough to deal with what's ahead." The man said as he searched Sigma's belt. "It's not about having guts. I really don't have another choice." Alex admitted. "I'll say.." Beta coughed, staggering up. "Get the woman out of here before she comes to! Now!" He yelled. Alex ran, grabbing Sigma by the arm before leaping down to the cave floor. Twilight was getting her flank kicked by Gamma, she was bruised badly and even bleeding. Blake was tiring and it wasn't long before Adam had the advantage. Adam shot Blake in the leg, who fell over, grasping her bloodied knee in agony. "We both know there was only one way this could have ended, Blake." Adam raised his sword. "Blake!!" Yang launched herself towards Omicron in a fit of rage, punching him the chest relentlessly, only for each blow to be blocked by Adam's sword, which he periodically put back in the sheath before Yang began another bout of attacks. "Die!" Someone yelled from above Alex. He looked up, only to see a man falling towards him. Alpha!! "Back so soon, asshole?" Alex mocked. Alpha grasped his neck with one hand, choking him to near unconsciousness before throwing him out of the hole. Alex handed hard on the fields above the Subterrains, coughing up blood. "It's a shame you're so persistent. It never pays off." Alpha shook his head in mock pity. "Exactly." Alex retorted, swinging Blitzklinge at Alpha, intending to end this war right here. Alpha blocked the attack, punching him dead center in the nose, possibly breaking it. Alex's vision went white as blistering pain shattered through his face as Alpha continued to press on, punching harder than even Applejack could buck, each swing of his weapon more devastating than it's predecessor. Alex himself kicked Alpha a few times, aiming nowhere in particular, trying all he could to find a weak spot. Alpha grasped his fist, raising him to the air and charging a punch with electrical energy. Alex could hear the buzz. "What the?!" The punch itself sent him skidding fifty feet away from Alpha, who leaped towards him in a single bound, purposefully landing one foot on Alex's chest "You! Will NEVER! STOP US!!!! WE! CANNOT BE UNDONE!!!" Alpha yelled, kicking Alex harder and harder with each word spoken. Alex tried to pick himself up, only for Alpha to kick him with enough force to land him on his back. "What... The hell are you..?" Alex coughed. "Your worst nightmare, Fa-." Alpha scowled. "SURPRISE, BITCH!!" Someone shouted. Alex saw a giant Mech Suit leap out of the giant hole in the ground. "No one messes with Delirious!" Another mech suit screamed as it fired the Machine Guns on the sides. Alex saw Alpha dodge the train of machine gun fire, flipping out of their way and smashing the back of Evan's Paladin. "Vanoss!!" Delirious shot fire another torrent of machine gun fire at Alpha just as Evan's Mech exploded, the owl-masked Canadian flying high into the air, releasing a parachute, and firing a rocket launcher at Alpha. Alpha dodged the rocket, punching Evan in the throat and kicking him away. "I got this motherf**ker!!" Delirious screamed, charging at Alpha again. Alpha hacked the legs off the Paladin. "We'll meet again, Alexander. But know this," Alpha threatened, grasping Alex's neck and holding him at Alpha's eye level. "You are never safe. I will never stop. I am the one that will keep you up at night. I am the one who will strip you of everything that you have. You have been lucky thus far, but your luck ends here." He kicked him in the chest. Alex coughed as Alpha opened up his own portal, and stopped just in front of it. "You have been warned." Alpha coldly stated before walking through and closing the portal. 'Alex, we just apprehended Omicron. Sigma awakened and escaped before we could contain her.' Skirmish updated. "How are Blake and Twilight?" Alex asked. They had to survive. They had to. 'Ms. Belladonna has been critically wounded in the right leg and Twilight's magic levels have depleted to dangerously low levels. Other than that, everyone's okay.' Skirmish replied. "And Icarus?" 'Ruby and Weiss were the only two that survived the ordeal. Haunting Horseshoe was killed early on in the mission. So was Auklet.' "Wait. Did you find anyone lately?" Alex asked. Who was that man who attacked Beta? An Atlas Specialist had orders to help with this attack. She'll be coming back on the Iliad with us. I think she said her name was Winter..' Skirmish replied. What the hell was she talking about? "Anyone else?" 'We've captured someone in the Subterrains a while ago, Yang's identified him as her Uncle.' Skirmish said. "One last thing. Send a medic up here. I got my ass handed to me." Alex ordered. 'Right away, sir!' Author's Note Edit: After actually watching RWBY Volume 3, I suppose I could write it so that this fits with the original story... Or maybe not.. Okay, yes.
Act III, Chapter 9: The Long Road Ahead...Alex sat at the observation deck on the Iliad, deep in thought. The recent battle killed a lot of good people, and hurt many more. Twilight had been beaten nearly senseless and likely killed if reinforcements hadn't gotten to her in time. Blake had to get a prosthetic leg after Omicron shot her in the knee. The search and destroy unit Icarus only had two survivors out of the seven that left. But thankfully, the ARES Marks I and II were destroyed, the resulting explosions even destroyed the payloads, and Omicron had been captured and locked in the ship's maximum security cell, modified to seal in even the most destructive huntsmen. And now, Atlas had sent in a Specialist to assist, and Ruby and Yang's Uncle Qrow even went to help. At least progress was being made. "Hello? You up there, Alex?" Alex heard somebody ask. Alex turned around to find Rainbow Dash climbing the stairs behind him. "Oh, hi Rainbow." Alex nodded in greeting. "Is everything okay?" She asked. "Depends on how you look at the last mission as a whole." Alex shrugged. "Are you still upset over most of the space team dying?" She asked. "And the fact that Twilight was nearly killed and that Blake lost a leg." Alex spat, disgusted in his sheer uselessness. "I know you want to keep as many of us as safe as you can, but you can't save everyone." Rainbow sighed. "... I know." Alex sighed, head in his hands. "As much as I hate to say this, you probably won't be able to... Twilight told me what you and the others talked about with Commander Locust." Rainbow sighed, shuffling closer to his side. "I thought the Princess would at least have the foresight to keep this secret." Alex laid down. "You were going to keep this from us, weren't you? To spare us?" Rainbow asked. Alex groaned. "Yes.. I was..." Alex said, dejectedly. "Why? Keeping secrets from us worked out so well for you in the past." Rainbow scoffed. "Rainbow, I'm legitimately sick in the head. Who wouldn't be after everything to me in the past 4 months? I think I have good reasons to hide all of this." Alex monologued. Rainbow sighed. "But, that doesn't mean I don't regret it." "Do you?" She asked him. "Every damn day. If I had just come clean the first day I dropped into Equestria, literally none of this would be happening. You and the other Elements, maybe even Celestia and Luna, would've kicked Winchester out before everything could go to complete shit." Alex spat. "But what about Ruby? Or Vanoss?" Rainbow asked. "Rainbow, look around you. We're on a giant floating coffin, in the middle of an ocean on in an alternate universe, with a sociopathic killer just a few floors underneath us, about to fight in the apocalypse, knowing full well that we could die. Clearly, they'd get on much better!" Alex angrily shouted. "Calm down. Please." Rainbow tried putting a hoof on his shoulder. "Yang told me a couple hours back that if it weren't for this, they would be competing in the Vytal Festival at their school. A sort of holiday that celebrated the unity of the four kingdoms in this world. They had to stop all of that for us. So, yeah. I regret not telling you. I regret all of this." Alex kicked the concrete floor of the observation deck in a fit of rage. Rainbow stood up, wrapping a wing around Alex's shoulder and back. "Alex. I'm saying this for your own good. Calm down. You know as much as I do that I can't promise I can make everything okay again. But please, at least try." She lifted her wing and walked back down the stairs. Alex rolled onto his back. If he had just bucked up and told the Elements everything from the moment they went in to see him, the alien, he would be hunting monsters and making bullets for that purpose. He could've made a living off of that. And, perhaps if it was in his league, he would join them to defeat Equestria's next big would-be threat. But no, he hid. Bottled up his anger and sickness like a coward. And when Crimson came along. He just ran away again. What would he do after this? If he somehow miraculously survived the Blood Red Night? Would he go back to Equestria, rebuild his new home and town, and live out that idea? Or maybe go to Remnant and go to a combat school until he was old enough to go to a school like Beacon? There was even the smallest chance he could go back to his old home? Move back into Reynold and try to act like he was never wanted by a gang of psychopaths, and forced into going on this long winded adventure, and as though he never had to fight for his very life? Even his origins warranted possibilities, he could move to Adenien and be hailed as a hero to his people! This journey had broken him, yes, but there were so many opportunities now that he never would have considered in his wildest dreams! It could rebuild him. They always said what didn't kill you only made you stronger. He understood now what Ozpin had said to him when he first met the headmaster. And, hell. He had been meaning to make more friends, now he had like twenty or thirty! And how many people could say that? "Got a minute?" Blake asked, interrupting his thoughts. Alex looked behind him, seeing the black-haired Faunus. "Oh, hi, Blake. How's the leg?" Alex asked meaningfully. Blake looked at the appendage, the Adenienites knew their stuff when creating prosthetic limbs, with the Iliad's resources, one wouldn't be able to tell it was ever hacked off at all! "Your... Kinsmen are good at making new limbs. They'd make a killing for the Huntsmen, do you know how many huntsmen have to be removed from duty because an Ursa bit off his or her arm?" She asked. "Ouch. I can't imagine what that feels like." Alex winced. "Weren't you tortured for, like, a whole month?" Blake asked. Alex scowled. "Anyways, you look like you're trying to clear your head up here. Should I leave?" Blake asked. "It doesn't matter. Do what you want." Alex shrugged in a neutral tone. Blake sat down about five feet away, opening a book. Alex laid down again, grabbing his journal and writing down his thoughts as he usually did at times like this. "So. What are you thinking about?" She finally asked. "Just about what I'd do after all of this is over. If by some miracle I live." Alex replied. "Oh... I wouldn't dwell too long, especially since there's a lot that needs to be done right now." Blake said. "Oh, right, I heard about how you had to interrogate Adam. Did he talk?" Alex asked. "No. He usually doesn't talk all that much, he was trained not to." Blake sighed. "Can't Twilight do something? There has to be some kind of spell that can get him to cough it out. I remember her telling me about this freaky ass 'Want it, Need it' spell. For a relatively peaceful nation, Equestria usually doesn't seem to give two f**ks about not messing with the mind." Alex said. "If that's true, why didn't she use that spell on you when you wouldn't talk about your past?" Blake asked. "I guess Twi and the others didn't want to try and mindf**k the alien. But Celestia said that her sister's been looking in my dreams..." Alex's voice trailed off. Blake tilted her head inquisitively before blinking in realization. "You think that's the best way to go about it?" Blake asked. "It's the best I can come up with. Good talking to you, Blake." Alex nodded. "Likewise." She smiled a little bit. As Alex stood up and started to walk out. "By the way. Yang does kind of like you. I figured you already knew, but..." Alex shook his head a little. "Tell her, maybe after all of this is over, maybe we can talk." Alex suggested. "I will." Blake replied before Alex started his trek down the stairwell. Thankfully, Twilight wasn't far off, she was with Rainbow Dash. "Hello, Alex!" Twilight greeted. "Hey Princess, Rainbow." Alex nodded. "You okay now?" Rainbow asked. "Better than okay. I have an idea." Alex smiled a little bit. "Sure, let's hear it." Rainbow smirked proudly. "You know how Omicron isn't spilling anything, right?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Blake told me about that, too." Twilight sighed. "Well, I got to thinking. Can't Princess Luna see into people's dreams and shit?" Alex asked. "Yes. She saved all of Equestria one time because of that." Twilight nodded. "I thought maybe she could look into Omicron's head and get what we need." Alex suggested. "You do know that's a war crime, right?" Rainbow asked. "We are at war right now." Alex reasoned. "You don't seem to understand the complexities of asking a favor like that. There's a lot of paperwork to do, so much to ensure that she isn't breaking any Equestrian Laws by using such advanced methods of psychological warfare." Twilight explained. "You mean to tell me that you didn't get away with using the 'Want it, Need it' spell, or even the little kids essentially forcing people into falling in love with the magical aphrodisiac?" Alex inquired. "Are you saying that Equestrian Magic is unethical?!" Twilight asked, as though deeply offended. "I never said that. I'm just saying that if even little kids can get away with using this sort of thing out of carelessness without severe consequences, surely your Princess can use her magic get information out of a psychopath locked in the basement." Alex shrugged. "That isn't the point. If Princess Luna could be able to extract some sensitive information out of someone as deranged as Omicron, what's to stop her from bringing nightmare after nightmare to an opposing army to break their morale and deprive them of sleep?" Twilight retorted. "No disrespect, but do you have the slightest idea who you're talking to?" Alex tilted his head quizzically. Twilight shuffled uncomfortably, while Rainbow blinked in surprise. "Take this from an actual torture victim, Luna going into his mind would be the most humane way out of this. We wouldn't have to use humanity's most effective and brutal torture methods." Alex argued collectedly. "I have to admit, he has a point." Rainbow shrugged. Twilight sighed. "Very well, I'll address Princess Luna about the matter. From there, what you and her decide is final." Twilight relented. "Thank you, Princess." Alex nodded politely. Twilight trotted off, still looking a bit perturbed. "I didn't think you had a knack for arguing." Rainbow smirked. "My parents made me take a Debate Club at school in middle school. I guess it paid off." Alex explained. "What else did your parents make you do?" Rainbow wondered. "They made me take a karate class for four years, the debate team for two, went on hunting trips in Canada since I was about 12, and Boy Scouts for 6." Alex listed. "Sounds like a lot of work." Rainbow said. "I had a decently busy childhood." Alex admitted. "Also, Twilight happened to tell me about your parents... They're Adenienites?" Rainbow asked. "If what Locust says is true, then yeah. I guess." Alex shuddered. "How are you holding up on that regard?" Rainbow asked. "You ever watch Dragonball Z?" Alex asked. "Dragon who-what?" Rainbow asked, confused. "Superman?" "No." "Transformers: Animated?" "Is that even a show?" "Sailor Moon?" "The hay is that?" Alex sighed heavily. "Power Ponies?" "Ooooohh..." "Yep." Alex blinked. "I have to go, I still have to practice flying!" Rainbow flew off. "Bye." Alex waved slightly. As Rainbow flew away, Alex suddenly felt a bit tired. "Screw this, I'm going to bed." He blatantly muttered. "Alex..." His face twitched, otherwise no response. "Aaaaaaaleeeeeeex...." Alex blinked groggily. "Wha-? Ugh. Who's there?" Alex asked quietly. 'I'm haunting you.' Alex's eyebrows shot upwards upon realization of who was talking to him. "NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Author's Note *sigh* I watch way too much youtube for my own good.
Act III, Chapter 10: Breaking and ExitingAlex sat in the target range, personally testing some of the weapons they had onboard the ship. Celestia, Luna, and Ozpin had most of their experimental weapons that haven't even been tested yet in there, and Alex had been given permission to test them. He frequently did so when he had the time, this was one of those special moments. Besides, Karis's ghost was really starting to bug him a little. Wait, is it safe to have a firing range in an aircraft carrier, with the engine room, the fuel tanks, the prison cells, and the ballast tanks not far off from where he was? Ah, f**k it. He pried the metal off one of the containers with a crowbar, and pulled out one of the weapons inside, marveling at it's beauty. Checking the markings on it, he saw that this particular model was a double-barrel battle rifle, capable of switching between full-auto and a burst fire mode. The weapon required two 30 round 7.58 mm bullets, placed smack dab on the 90 and 270 degree angle mark, complete with their own charging handles at the 45 and 315 degree marks. The rear sight was supplemented with an advanced Ver-Kai sight and foldable stock. Overall, an impressive gun. A quick look at the markings at the left-hand side labelled it as the 'VBR Mk. 9'. Loading a mag on each side and sharply jerking back the charging handle after, he pointed the experimental weapon down the range, aiming at a steel target about 125 yards away. Ridiculous waste of space, but then again, this was the Iliad, a ship half the size of an airship that decimated a whole town. He would set the action to burst, just to see how it worked. Pointing the weapon down range and using his pseudo-Aura, he gently squeezed the trigger. Five rounds spewed out of the weapon, tagging the steel plate. The sheer force of the bullets hitting the plate resulted in a residual loud ring. He grabbed a pair of binoculars, scanning for that plate... Five holes, three on the left and two on the right, he had aimed well. "Testing of the VBR Mark 9 is 4% complete." Iris chimed. "I'm sorry, 4 percent?!" Alex tensed. "Not only do you have to check the rate of fire, you have to test for reliability, condition, and practicality. You only fired five rounds, total." Iris explained. "Alright, fine." Alex rolled his eyes, unloading the mags, prying the charging handle open, clicking the safety back on, and placing a cover on each barrel before hopping down the range to install more targets. "At least safety is still a concern." Iris quipped. "Like my dad always said, 'act like the firearm's always loaded'." Alex recited. "Speaking of your father, what did you think about finding out your true heritage?" Iris wondered. "Another surprise psychology test, eh?" Alex smirked. "Yes, Admiral." She replied evenly. "At least you're honest. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to think. On one hand, my mom and dad lied to me for most of my life, but on the other, they haven't lied to me about anything else. At least, I don't think so." Alex answered. "Are you saying you really don't mind?" Iris wondered. "I do mind. Real 'existential crisis' level shit." Alex scoffed. The alarms blared as Alex placed the last target. "Care to explain?" Alex asked. "Three intruders have been discovered, three crewmen are dead and are heading towards the prison!" Iris reported. "Any names?" Alex asked. "No, sir. Either they aren't on Equestrian or Remnantian databases, or they're incognito." "Any DNA samples scanned in? Pictures?" Alex asked, putting on the helmet, for he was wearing the old Goliath Mk. VI armor he kept from when he first escaped to Remnant, he had the helmet temporarily outfitted with a HUD until Vinyl and the other technicians and armorers could finish a new Overcharge V2. "Loading security camera feeds to your HUD now." Iris replied as Alex loaded the VBR as well as the Blitzklinge Revolver. Alex saw two women and one man, all armed and attacking the other crew. They knew they failed miserably at the 'stealth' card and were now simply bludgeoning their way to the prison room. They were close. "Should I call for backup, sir?" Iris asked, the scroll and cellphone numbers of the Team Unity members on the right side of the HUD. "Negative. Tell them I'll intercept, and to just make sure they didn't hack into the systems and shit." Alex ordered. "They initiated a malware download, but I stopped it and am currently deleting the malware." Iris explained. "Hacking an A.I? Idiots." Alex mumbled. He walked to the prison doorway, it was already forced open. "Who the hell are you?" Omicron hoarsely asked. "You don't recognize us? Moron." One of the intruders chided. "Doesn't matter, we have orders to get you out of here." Another asserted. "I think not." Alex walked inside, closing the hydraulic door and locking it. "Oh, the Admiral's here. Where's the A-Team?" The male intruder mocked. "If I thought I really can't handle you four, then why the hell did I lock myself in here?" Alex asked contemptfully. Adam stood up, taking his weapons back from one of the other intruders. "You. Put him out of his misery. You two, come with me." He curtly ordered, pointing to a short girl in a black Goth Lolita style dress. Omicron and the other two intruders destroyed the door and ran out. "So, that dress just for show, or-" Alex asked before getting smacked in the face with the umbrella she carried. She smacked him a few more times, finishing the chain with a jab to the navel. Alex slammed against the wall, trying to process what had just happened. "Okay...no." Alex charged up against the short woman, trying to kick her only for the umbrella to block his attack, giving her opportunities to counter, further infuriating Alex. "Might I suggest shooting the Umbrella?" Iris asked. "Huh. That's a thought." Alex shrugged. He charged again, side kicking the girl, only for her to block it. He rose the VBR and fired a few bursts through the Umbrella. The girl looked at the umbrella, infuriated by the holes in the intricately woven material. "Hahaha. Get wrecked, scrub. Who brings an umbrella to a fight anyways?" Alex snickered. The girl's eyes changed color from green to white and brown. "What the actual-" The girl attacked again, fury fueling her attacks, leaving Alex at her mercy until she finally swung the Umbrella upwards into the crotch. Which might have worked if he didn't have the armor. "Hey. You. Really?!" He rolled his eyes before grasping her by the arm. Alex looked straight at the you. "Hey, reader. Do me a few favors. Open another tab and look up 'Rules Of Nature' on YouTube. Scroll about a minute into the song and play when you read again. Destoyer's too f**kin' lazy to get a link." He raised her straight upwards, bringing her down and bashing her against the ground, before taking her umbrella and sharply kicking her into a wall, breaking her umbrella in two with his knee. The girl's rage reached insane heights, eyes turning white and were noticeably alit with burning intensity. She leaped, trying to kick him only for Alex to grab her by the foot and start spinning. Using his Adenienite lightning power Aura thingy, he manipulated his body to move at lightning speed before loosening his grip, sending her flying through the wall and knocking her out cold. Alex looked back at you. "You can stop playing the song now. Thanks for following orders, I promote you to the rank of corporal or whatever." Alex dismissively thanked you before bringing his attention to the girl. "You're under arrest, you have the right-- actually, you don't have any rights, I was just f**king with you." He carried her unconscious body into another Max Security cell, tossed it onto the bed and walked away. Alex profoundly spat to his right after taking off his helmet. "Amateurs." Twilight dodged another swipe from the rogue's sword, only to be met by a boot to the flank. She'd been fighting the Inquisitor's pawns for the past few minutes, and was failing miserably. The Inquisitor was standing nearby, looking almost unimpressed as the two rogues continued to beat her senseless. She blocked what she could and even attacked, but her magic was beginning to weaken and it was only a matter of time before it would fail her. That Inquisitor merely stood watch, not even bothering to intervene. She realized that he was examining them, testing them, just as Celestia had in her filly-hood. In a final attempt to protect herself, she used her magic to create a shield around her body, protecting her until her magic finally gave out. She was barely affected by the flurry of kicks from the male Rogue, but the girl did significantly more damage to her shield. Pony feathers! Her blade sliced through her shield and cut her back open! She crumpled to the floor in surrender and exhaustion. She couldn't hurt so much as a fly now. "What now?" The male Rogue asked. "She's beaten. Kill her." The Inquisitor ordered. "With pleasure." The girl raised both of her weapons, prepared to deal a killing blow, a sadistic smile stretched across her face. Twilight braced herself for the end, closing her eyes tightly. "Twilight!!" Rainbow shouted, slamming into the girl before she could kill her. Twilight looked up to see Weiss and Yang fighting the two, with Vanoss, Lui, Nogla, and Mini providing cover fire. The two evaded the gunfire and the Huntresses' attacks with ease. "Deal with them. I'm done here." The inquisitor leapt away, heading for the observation deck. "Rainbow! Get Twilight!" Weiss ordered. "We can handle ourselves here!" Lui added. Rainbow nodded, picking up the Alicorn and speeding off into a stairwell. "You'll be okay, Twilight." Rainbow assured. "I'm... Not worried about myself.." Twilight weakly coughed. Alex snuck up the stairwell to the observation deck, from what he heard on the comms, Omicron was headed up here. God knows why. "Adam! This has gone on too far!!" Alex heard Blake yell. "You lose a leg and you're still trying to defy me? Are you that delusional?" Omicron scowled. Alex grabbed the next weapon in his experimental arsenal: a semi-automatic 3 round 25mm sniper rifle. Tearing off the scope using every ounce of his strength and ripping the 1.5 yard barrel in half, he loaded the weapon, locked the bolt in place, and snuck a bit further up the steps. Blake and Omicron were engaged in a duel, Omicron using only simple but powerful attacks against Blake's comparatively more active combat style. In simpler terms, where Blake leaped around the battlefield, Omicron only remained in that one spot. Shockingly oblivious of Alex's presence. He aimed precisely for Omicron's leg, slowly squeezing the trigger until he shot. The rifle produced an immensely loud 'BOOM' accompanied by a grotesque ripping sound as the massive projective screamed through the air. Omicron deftly avoided the shot altogether, charging towards Alex with incredible speed, grabbing him by he neck, and tossing him onto the deck like a rag doll. Alex picked himself up, coughing. "How cute. You made a friend. Shame he has to die." Omicron spat. "Leave him out of this!" Blake demanded. "Like hell I'm not getting involved!" Alex retorted. Omicron kicked Alex hard in the knee. "I'll get to you later. For now. Let us grown ups have our talk." Omicron spat as Alex clutched the affected area in agony. "That does it!" Alex defiantly retorted. Alex stood up, equipping his Blitzklinge. Side-stepping next to Blake. "Neither of you know when to quit." Omicron scoffed, swinging his blade in a wide arc. Alex blocked the attack before ducking and swinging for Omicron's midsection. "This is between me and Adam! Stay out of this!" Blake demanded. "You must be as insane as he is if you think I'm leaving you to lose another limb!" Alex retorted, attacking Omicron again. Before Omicron could counter, Blake leaped into the fray, blocking his attack before Alex pulled out the 25mm and fired again. This shot was also a miss, zipping right past Omicron's ear, temporarily deafening him, most likely. He struck again, slicing open the Equestrian Steel armor and cutting into Alex's flesh. Though the pain was sickening, he grasped Omicron's blade, pulling him in and punching him again. Further damaging the mask. Blake used this opportunity to get a few attacks in, evading Omicron's counters and tagging him in the sides. Alex kicked him away, and Omicron skidded to a halt just before falling off the side. Omicron sped towards Blake, grasped her by her new leg, and held her up. "I'll claim my bounty now. You're next." He scowled at Blake before throwing her off the ledge. He knew she'd be okay. But the idea still infuriated him. He stopped himself temporarily. He needed to ask. "Tell me where I can find Kalos Prime." Alex ordered. "Your methods and tactics are somewhat impressive for someone of your age. But still inferior. They will not save you." Omicron struck, locking blades with Alex with surprising strength. As soon as Alex could, he struck Omicron on the side of the head before relentlessly slicing and dicing what he could. "Hey, Omicron! I beat quite a few Inquisitors in one-on-one duels! Seven times in total! How would you like to be number eight?!" Alex buffed up, his courage growing. He continued his attacks, but Omicron either dodged or tried to counter those attacks, only to be forced back into blocking due to Alex's sheer relentlessness. "This ends here!" Omicron yelled, sheathing his blade before firing it at him, temporarily disorienting Alex and buying Omicron enough time to attack. He was as unyielding as Alex, but much more simple about his attacks, to which Alex could simply grasp Omicron's wrist, twisting it to the right and kicking him. Alex held both Blitzklinge and Omicron's sword in his hands, crossing them in an 'X' shape. "Okay, how the hell am I able to do this-" Alex was immediately interrupted by a fist in the face. Omicron kicked off Alex's helmet, taking back his own sword and hacking at his chest. Alex was knocked backwards, bleeding from the cut on his chest. "It ends here, Earthling." Omicron raised his sword. Alex coughed. "That's where you're wrong." He raised both hands, sending out waves of red electricity, shocking the Inquisitor. "I'm not from Earth. Not anymore." He raised his weapon. Omicron sheathed his own blade, keeping his hand on the hilt, ready to attack. "Now that you mention it, I'm not from Equestria either." Alex swung his weapon hard for Omicron's neck, Omicron blocked his attack, swinging again and cutting him at the shoulder. "Nor am I from Remnant, or Los Santos." He shrugged off the attack, kicking Omicron in the kidney and swinging his weapon in around the same spot, only for Omicron to block his attacks. "Then where am I from, you ask?" Alex slashed at Omicron's chest, successfully landing a blow, leaving a wide slash from Omicron's right shoulder to his lower-left. "You. Tell. Me." Alex accompanied those words with several punches to the solar plexus. Knocking the wind out of his adversary before leg-sweeping him to the ground. "How...how were you able to knock me down..?" Omicron wheezed. Alex laughed slyly. "You think you're the only one who fights in a 'laido' style?" Alex stepped hard on Omicron's back, kicking him in the gut. "Interesting..." He stood up, punching Alex hard in the chest, hard enough to launch him onto the flight deck. Omicron leaped down from there, unsheathing his weapon. "You wouldn't happen to know someone named Branwen, would you?" He smirked arrogantly. "What the hell are you talking about?" Alex asked. Isn't that Qrow's last name? "You're no help." Omicron kicked Alex in the ribs, stabbing him in the chest and pulling him up, the sword dragging upwards in his chest as he did. Omicron twisted the blade inside Alex's chest, worsening the damage, before sharply jerking it out. Alex's blood sprayed out of the wound in a horrifying fashion. "Alex!!!" He heard someone scream behind him. Omicron was blasted into a jet, blowing it up and hopefully killing him. Alex struggled to hold on to life, and he felt someone grab his shoulders and pull him up. "Y-Yang..?" Alex spluttered. He saw her inspect the wound, and she shook her head. "It looks bad, I know. You'll be fine!" She assured, Alex knew she was just trying to stay calm for his sake if nothing else. She moved his right arm around her neck and helped him out or the battlefield. Pain struck his backside again as his blood was blown out the other side again, Alex had been shot! "I...I won't let you get away... Not without my bounty..." Omicron held his sheath, which apparently doubled as a rifle, and limped towards the two. Yang eased him to the ground and attacked him, Omicron blocked a shot before using the hilt of the weapon to knock her to the ground and kicked her once she was down. Omicron limped towards Alex again, the area around him starting to turn shades of red, black, and white as he reared his weapon back. "Oh, f**k." Alex gaped. Omicron's trademark finisher, capable of slicing through literally anything. Moonslice. "D-Die!!" He yelled Alex, who was by now gurgling blood. He saw a shadow flicker behind Omicron, who looked almost surprised and he crumpled to the ground, crawling on his hands and knees. The rogues from earlier ran to him, grabbing either side and holding onto a rope ladder leading to a Bullhead, which quickly sped off. Alex blinked tiredly, pain seeping from virtually everywhere on his body. He felt two pairs of hands pull him up, the first being Yang's, the second... "Here... You aren't going to die.. Not yet." Blake pulled him up, leaning him against another jet until a medic could get over to the flight deck. With the medic, he saw Rainbow Dash and Kat. The four helped him onto the stretcher as the medic wrapped bandage around his wounds, from there, everything faded to black.. Author's Note Chapters should come out more frequently for the next week. Spent so much time pre-writing that I have a bunch of chapters ready.
Act III, Chapter 11: RecoveryAlex woke up in a coughing fit. His hands raced towards a tissue box, pulling out nearly five of them and placing them over his mouth and spitting something out. Looking back at the tissue, he was understandably a bit worried as to why it was covered in blood. In addition, he had an intense headache and his chest burned in agony. He grit his teeth just to prevent from screaming, but his hoarse breathing said enough about his condition. "Nice to see you're alive, Admiral." Said a voice to Alex's right. He didn't need to look to know who that was. It was the ship's most notorious field medic; Corpsman Alabaster Sheild. Corpsman Shield was from Equestria. Specifically from Manehattan, if he remembered correctly. He'd helped with the operation that replaced Blake's leg and saved at least 36 people during the Vytal Invasion and the Subterrain Battle collectively. "You haven't the slightest idea. I trust you're the one who patched me up?" Alex asked. He simply nodded. "The wound you sustained resulted in the destruction of your liver and sliced open your lung. The Adenienites were able to make an artificial liver that would likely last you another 20 years before having to replace it. As for your lung, we were able to repair some of the damage, but as you can already tell..." Corpsman Sheild was interrupted by another coughing fit. "I understand. We can get to work on that after I get back to work." Alex started to sit up before more pain immobilized him. "I'm afraid the stress fighting would put on, especially in the state you're in, could likely kill you. Even if you use your Aura to heal yourself." The Corpsman stressed. "So I'm out of commission. How long?" Alex asked. "At least a week and a half, even with our technology." He explained. Alex sighed, rolling onto his side. He suddenly noticed the dozens of cards and letters sitting at the nightstand "Where did all this come from?" Alex wondered. "Most of it's from your friends, some from the other crewmen, and one from Princess Luna." Corpsman Shield pointed to the regal-looking scroll at the center-most area of the nightstand, wrapped in deep blue velvet. He grasped the scroll, untying the seal and rolled it open. Adm. Alexander Gabriel Walker, In regards to the idea of invading the minds of prisoners of war and extracting information such as the location of Kalos Prime, that is something we can not and will not attempt. We will, however, suggest another plan to discover the location. Celestia and I understand you've worked closely with the remaining Inheritors such as Sirius Da Long, and Qrow and Raven Branwen. We would suggest asking them what they already know of the Headquarters. There is something we do know of the location. Due to early multi-dimensional instantaneous transport testing, accidental gateways have been generated throughout the past century. Look into disappearances of large ships or aerial squadrons, then perhaps you may find the city. In the meantime, It would do you well to hear that our Royal Guards, with the combined strength of Remnant's forces, we have pushed back the Red Star as far as the Frozen North. Although we do fear for the safety of the Crystal Empire, we can rest assured that one of our most trusted guardians is ready and willing to defend the city. Humble regards, Princess Luna of the Night Leave it to Princess Luna to be of some benefit. They know something about Kalos Prime! "I'll leave you alone for the moment. By the way, I can allow visitors if you really want to." Corpsman Sheild backed out. "Go ahead. Hang out with some friends. Relax, Corpsman." Alex suggested. "Yes, sir." The Corpsman left abruptly. Alex picked up another envelope, slicing it carefully with his fingernail. He gingerly pulled open both sides of the envelope and pulled out the card inside. This card felt somewhat heavy, as though someone had written a note and taped it inside. Folding open the card, he saw in bold yellow lettering 'Read This' and 'Get Well Soon'. Well, one didn't need to be Nostradamus to guess who wrote this card. He removed the note inside of the card, unfolding it carefully and clearing his throat. Hi, Yeah, not much of an introduction, I know, but you get the idea, right? So listen, I'm sure you already figured, but the people who tried to help Adam escape we're working with Cinder. We got that off our newest prisoner, Neapolitan. She also told us about some of the other goings-on of the Red Star in Remnant. Including but not limited to another shipment of Syndicate supplies and, yes, more super-weapons. The good news is that Crimson, for the most part, is out of the equation. Something about a private investigator completely blowing the CIA's military. They've been forced back to pacify the revolution, so no more CIA killers gunning us down, it's more like the 'Red Square', now that you think about it. Bad news is that they all escaped, got off the ship by stealing a stray Bullhead as soon as we had them cornered. They're still a threat as long as they're working with Cinder, and now that we know they can hop on and kill us off one by one, the Ryders are working with Vinyl on an 'Aura Scanner', which is what Evan and the others are calling it. We can use the machine to figure out what their Aura is, and how much of a threat they are before we engage. I can explain everything later, I'm kinda running out of room here. :) -YXL Behind the letter was a picture taped squarely behind it, her and Vanoss were standing in the training room, with Vanoss wearing the Prototype 'Aura Scanner'. Written in the standard meme form was 'Vanoss, what does the scouter say about his power level?'. Alex groaned in annoyance. 'Sorry, not sorry XP' was written underneath the photograph. Alex heard a light knocking on the door, and someone called to him. "Hello? Alex?" Kat asked. "Come in." Alex nodded, putting away the card. Kat walked in, and sat at the foot of his bed. "How are you holding up?" She asked him. "About as well as you'd think getting stabbed in the chest would be." Alex bluntly replied. "Ouch. Didn't that already happen to you, though? With Winchester?" Kat wondered. "What, that little butter knife?" Alex scoffed. "Right. So, I was thinking about what to do after all of this is over, I already decided." Kat announced. "Really?" Alex asked. "I'm going to go back to Earth after everything ends. I'll help the country and the world get back on it's feet after catastrophes like Bohemian Grove and the Revolution." Kat asserted, smiling proudly. "So, you're going to be a politician-slash-humanitarian aid worker? Sounds like an interesting combination for a marks-woman from a terrorist organization." Alex shrugged. "You don't understand. Jäger told me to join because he said I'd change the world, make it a better place." Kat reproached. "He tricked you into the Militia, didn't he?" Alex raised an eyebrow. She nodded slightly. "There was something else I wanted to ask you.. I never actually thought about it all that much.." Alex wavered. "Okay." She anxiously nodded. "When I first fought Beta, he said something about this 'Fiore' place you went to after '51. What happened there?" Alex asked. She looked a little uneasy, like he once felt about his own experienced in Equestria. "It's fine. I literally can't hurt you or anything, and besides, it's been how many months and you never went back. What happened?" Alex asked. Kat sighed heavily. She explained a lot about this place she went to. Basically what happened was that Kat had fallen in with the wrong crowd, dark wizards or something. The wizards she mentioned intervened, defeated them all, and gave her a choice; either join them or end up in prison. She chose the first option and stayed with one of them in their home. She'd been there for about a week, having built her new weapon and explained everything that happened to her with them. The Inquisitors got involved a bit after that. Theta, who had led the Fiorian branch of the Inquisitors, attacked a few other wizards, killed them in cold blood, and chained their dead bodies to a wall, leaving behind a few shell casings that looked vaguely similar to her own. After realizing what happened, she didn't wait for them to hunt her down and get revenge. She snuck into their HQ and practically turned their archives upside-down scouring for a way to another universe. Kat eventually found a way out of that universe, leaving very little trace of what happened to her or where she had gone. When Kat had finished her tale, she sighed again, laying next to him. It didn't take Alex particularly long to realize she was almost crying. He held her for a moment, reassuring her. "It's fine. That moment's passed. You're with us now..." Alex wasn't entirely sure what to say, but tried his best to help her, then he remembered just how to help. "Kat. Here, listen. If you'd like, as soon as we get the chance. We can clear your name if you really want that. You helped me get somewhat over my doubts about all of this. Let me at least try to return the favor." She sniffed a little. "I'm sorry, somewhat?" She scoffed. "There you are." Alex laughed slightly. She stood up, wiping her eyes and turning to him. "I don't want that, Alex. They don't trust me at all anymore. I bet if we were to head over there right now, they'd just kill you for defending me." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Besides, I have unfinished business at Earth. Now tell me.." She sat at the chair, facing him intently. "What are you going to do when this is over?" Kat wondered. Alex coughed a little bit. "This f**king question.. I have a limb in every universe, so to speak. Picking one to stay in the rest of my life is like picking a favorite child." "What? Keeping it painfully obvious to the other ones which to choose?" Kat retorted. "Ah... No." "Riddle me this, what do you have in mind?" Kata insisted. "I could probably go to Adenien. I'm practically blood there and everyone f**king knows it but me, apparently. Also there's Earth, but I'm not too sure how well that would turn out. Equestria and Remnant are my safest options. I have some experience hunting monsters and all that." Alex shrugged. "What about Evan and the others?" Kat asked. "They're probably going back to Earth as well. They're practically famous there, and they've been gone for months." Alex shrugged. "How long has it been?" Kat wondered. "Let's see, I was arrested in August... Jäger broke us out at about early September, right?" Alex asked. "Yeah, the eleventh, I think." Kat nodded. "And I think we invaded '51 at like three or four in the morning and left at about 5." Alex recalled. "It's November now, right?" Kat asked. "Yeah, let me see... November 13, 2016." Alex replied. "Wow. It feels a lot longer to me." Kat shook her head. "Two months? It felt like 100 to me." Alex blinked. "We're still thinking months? I was thinking it felt like 2 or 3 years!" "You know shit's nuts when you're already thinking about the end of a war and it hasn't even been one month since it started." "I know. I mean World War II lasted about 6 years, The First Cold War went on for decades!" Kay elaborated. "Yeah, but America set the Second Cold War aside because of the Militia, and the entire country is having another Civil War. Everything changes, I guess now it seems everything's changing faster and faster." Alex sighed. Kat looked at him. "How long were you expecting to spend time with all of us, how long did you think the war would last when you first got into it?" Kat wondered. Alex sighed. "When Luna mentioned that the Red Star invaded Equestria, I thought we'd have to be stationed there for at least a year and a half, based on how long these kinds of wars usually last here. And I didn't think I'd be commanding a fleet at all, but in my mind, it was going for another three." Alex explained. "You expected us to get out of this by June 2020?" Kat did the calculations in her head. "I'm not even accounting the leftovers, the juntas left over by the Inquisitors." Alex explained. "You'd suspect that Inquisitors would still be around after the Blood Red Night?" Kat asked. "Like hell I do. There's bound to be at least one. I mean look at the Inheritors. The Inquisitors practically executed Order 66 and killed most of them, and look at Raven! She's even training an apprentice for chrissakes!" Alex scoffed. "There you are. You might be able to dedicate you time finding them all." Kat stood up. "I guess so." Alex shrugged. "I gotta go, meeting up with Evan and Quill for something. See you around." Kat nodded. "Sure." Alex replied. Kat left the room, leaving Alex alone once more. Reading over Luna's letter, he was starting to think about where exactly Kalos Prime might be... '. 'Look into disappearances of large ships or aerial squadrons.' 'We would suggest asking them what they already know about the Headquarters.' This might be interesting...
Act III, Chapter 12: The Next Step...It had been roughly three days since Alex was put into the medical bay due to his injuries. The doctors had told him he would be able to get around the ship and maybe some very light training, but they told him no actual fighting for the next few days for fear the stress might re-open the wound. Using this opportunity, Alex figured now would be the best time to take inventory on his supplies, armor, and weaponry while he still had the chance. He was headed to the forge right now, where he was supposed to meet with Vinyl and Twilight. He steadily walked inside and sat down on a table, simply nodding in greeting to the mares. "Hello, Alex! Glad to see the wound's getting better!" Twilight greeted. "Likewise. I heard about how bad the rogues scraped you up." Alex noted. "Anyways, we should get on with your current armor. We just got finished working on it." Vinyl walked over to the small garage door leading to a storage unit bearing Alex's name. Using her magic, she lifted the door upwards, revealing his new armor. The armor looked slightly bulkier than Alex's last Overcharge Suit, and it would add at least three inches to his overall height. The armor looked somewhat different from the alloy once used for the previous suit. "Nice. The outer layer looks slightly different from the last. More Adenienite tech?" Alex asked. Vinyl smirked, nodding slightly. "They added Adenienite Titanium into the armor, they said that with this in the mix, it should protect from most weapon and magic based attacks. I tried holding onto the metal with my magic and it was like trying to hold a wet bar of soap!" Twilight elaborated. "I wouldn't suspect the Princess of Friendship to make prison jokes." Alex scoffed. "I... You..!" Twilight stammered. Vinyl snickered a bit. "And I see you've attached the Prometheus Charge directly onto the actual suit." Alex noticed. "I did more research on the device. Apparently it's only a one time use, so save it for when you really need it." Twilight explained. "Like the Blood Red Night." Alex alluded. "Also, Twi here did some more research. You know how Locust said there would be more help coming in from different dimensions, right?" Vinyl asked as Alex continued to inspect the armor. "Sure." Alex nodded. "He wasn't kidding. Now that the word's actually out, we got drafts coming in ridiculously fast! People from all over the multiverse are signing up!" Vinyl gasped. "How many we talking here, a million?" Alex asked. "Try 50 million. Most of which are the most famous warriors of their various dimensions. I even heard that the Princesses and Discord resurrected Kronus just for the occasion!" Twilight added. "Who?" Alex asked. "Kronus was one of five gods of elemental magic. He represented fire spells; modern day attack and destruction spells. The most famous of his spells is the 'Fires of Kronus' spell, last used before even The Princesses were born." Twilight explained. "Okay. History lesson aside. Vinyl, what're we looking at here?" Alex clasped his hands together in anticipation. "Improved outer layer and internal processing power, amplified repulsing power, enhanced flight capabilities, up to at least Mach 4. Magnetized boots and a built-in retractable Ma Deuce on the right shoulder." Vinyl explained. "You mean I can fire .50 cal off my shoulder while flying almost as fast as Rainbow Dash?" Alex laughed slightly. "Yep!" Vinyl smiled again, admiring her hard work. "Okay, how about my weapons?" Alex asked. "We have Blitzklinge sheathed, we sharpened the blade and made it slightly lighter and we sharpened the Oracon Amethyst at the hilt." Vinyl listed, pulling out the deadly blade. "Also, we recovered schematics of your original Electric Fury and repaired it for you. That's also sheathed at the moment." Twilight added. "You guys work way harder than I give credit for." Alex nodded. "A raise would be great. My roomie and I can hardly get our mortgage paid lately." Vinyl said. "Um, sure." Alex nodded uncertainly. "And we personally made you a rifle for the battle." Vinyl pulled out a box. "Sure. Let's see." Alex nodded, pulling open the box. Twilight ripped the top off the wooden box with her magic and levitated the weapon into Alex's hands. "May I introduce: The Serengeti IX-7 Rifle. Equipped with two sights, a side-grip, under barrel rocket launcher, and a collapsible stock. Chambered in Adenien .45 Meta." Vinyl explained. The rifle looked almost like a cross-breed of an AR platform and a Galil, but with the two sights attached to the top. The under barrel Rocket Launcher looked similar to a standard M203 but with the rocket warhead at the end, the side grip was incredibly ergonomic and quite easy to control. The .45 Meta round was essentially a slimmed out .458 SOCOM with slightly more powder, so punching through Red Star super-soldiers wouldn't be very difficult. Alex smiled approvingly, pulling out the .44 Scratch and walking over to the armor, where another holster was put just at the suit's back. He slipped the weapon inside and locked it into place. "Thank you both. Now, I just need to discuss a few things with the rest of the crew. Head to the meeting room in about 10 minutes." Alex ordered. "Sure thing." Twilight smiled. "Okay. Y'know, it's really sad knowing that not...all of us are going in there." Vinyl sighed. Alex was just outside when he heard Vinyl. "I know the feeling." He sighed bitterly, walking down the hallway. It seemed like just about everyone was in the room at the moment. The Elements, The Wonderbolts, Vinyl, The Guards, The Huntsmen and Huntresses, Inheritors, Ryders, Vanoss's crew, literally everyone. Including the crew. Even Raven went to stay on the Iliad to act in advisory capacity as another Inquisitor had been killed. Alex took a deep breath. He knew for a fact that most of them mistook him for an equal, perhaps a superior. But he always knew that, in the end, he was just as weak and afraid, if not more, than when this whole escapade began. He shoved that thought out of his mind, and began his statements. "Hi, everyone. I'm going to keep this short. There's a lot we have to talk about and even more we have to do. Why not get that out of the way first." Alex began. "Sounds fair. Where do we start?" Ember asked. "I'd say we should start with where the last couple of...accidents...left off." Winter scowled. "Cram it, will you?" Qrow blatantly reproached. "Qrow, not now." Raven chided. "Shut up, all of you." Sirius groaned. "Winter has a point, how do we know where to start if we aren't sure where we last left off?" Weiss defended. "I guess we should take that into account." Twilight shrugged. "I'm with Princess Twilight." Locust respectfully added. "Fine. Iris, give us a complete rundown of the Vytal Invasion, the Subterrain battle, the ARES mission, and our most recent defense of the ship?" Alex asked. "Overall, the death toll has totaled over 972 deaths, including Russell Leone, Lieutenant Auklet, as well as Scratchbolts Cloudchaser and Flitter. As well as 2,659 wounded, including Blake Belladonna, Twilight Sparkle, and Alex Walker on our side. However, we did manage to successfully invade the Island, snuff out whatever the Red Star was planning with the Subterrains, destroy two $50,000,000 satellites threatening the existence of the planet, as well as capture one of Roman Torchwick's personal henchmen." Iris explained. "But the payloads were destroyed and our defenses were breached! Twice, I may add!" Skirmish said. "No victory comes without sacrifice, young warrior." Locust dismissed. "'Young warrior', my plot." Blast scoffed. "Don't dis robot Yoda!" Delirious defended. "...Hostilities aside, I may add that so far, 51,142,222 people from as many as 13 different dimensions excluding Equestria, Earth, Remnant, and Adenien. That has to count for something!" Mako added. "I'm with Mako on this one. We can't always look at the failures! We did what we had to on each of those missions! We invaded a heavily fortified island, drove our enemies out from underground, saved billions of civilian lives, and successfully defended our ship! If we dwell on our shortcomings, we'll never be able to face up against the Red Star!" Kat defended. Most of the room was in utter silence. "That was...actually a decent speech. Kudos to you, Miss..." Winter began to congratulate. "Just call me Kat." She smirked. "So what you're saying is; We f**ked up their shit and they f**ked up ours." Mini asked. "That's basically war in a nutshell." Ren nodded in agreement. "I have a question for the kid. What exactly is our next move?" Asked Sirius. Alex didn't need to dwell on that for very long. "Simple. Recent developments from our prisoner suggest that the Red Star is readying itself for an attack against Vale. We deeply weakened them by attacking both the Subterrains and the ARES satellites, but we didn't completely stop them. Intel suggests that a gang led by a man code-named 'Junior' linked up with the Syndicate and just moved in a biochemical weapon capable of wiping out the continent in a matter of months. Acting in advisory capacity is the Inquisitor Omega, who we aren't yet able to identify. Our mission is to disable this bioweapon and get it somewhere where it can never again be used, and find Omega, if he refuses to surrender peacefully, we kill the sick son of a bitch." Alex explained. "Junior, you sly dog." Yang blinked. "You know that asshole?" Vanoss asked her. "In a way..." "What's the battle plan?" Droidd asked. "We have Quill acting as our inside man, as soon as he discovers where the bio weapon is, we rush in and take it to where Remnant's scientists can kill it, or at least lock it away." Alex explained. "What's the bio weapon?" Blake asked. "Our prisoner identified it as an enhanced form of the 'Vacuo Strain'." Alex replied. Most of Remnant's inhabitants shuddered at the thought. "What's got you so scared?" Wildcat asked. "The Vacuo Strain is basically our version of the Plague." Jaune shuddered. "Well, shit." Nogla blinked. "We'll be arriving outside Vale tomorrow. We'll have our operatives around the Vale area incognito. We can't risk getting discovered. They'll be brought in by Vale's police force with new identities, about 1,500 Lien, and new clothes. We aren't letting the Inquisitors get much of an idea of our plans, but we'll be looking for them. You're all dismissed, but I'll need Qrow, Raven, Sirius, Winter, and Yang to stay here. We need to talk about something." Alex nodded as most of the crew filed steadily out of the room until the six Inheritors were left. "Alright. You got my attention, what is it, kid?" Qrow asked. "I need to ask you all something. You're familiar with the last group of people who tried to stop the Inquisitors, right?" Alex asked. "What, the ad-hoc skeleton crew that included your father? Of course we know about them." Sirius scoffed. "Sirius, please. Show some restraint, this boy's father nearly lost his life in there, and Summer actually died." Raven chided. "I'm just a Specialist, kid. Why did you ask me to stay here and listen to your cultist psychobabble?" Winter scowled. "Just a Specialist? You and Qrow over here seem to know each other well enough for there to be some bad blood between you two." Alex retorted. Winter rolled her eyes. "Why are you asking?" Yang wondered. "Luna wrote me a letter saying that you would know something about Kalos Prime." Alex calmly replied "Kid, none of us know where Kalos Prime is. I mean, there was Kalos Ultra." Qrow laughed slightly. "Kalos Ultra?" "The Inheritor's original headquarters for The Inquisitors, located at Nihilos 0-01 Gamma; Downfall. They moved their operations elsewhere since that terrible day. Where, nobody knows." Raven explained. "Iris, identify the location of Nihilos 0-01 Gamma." Alex ordered. "Identified: Downfall. Located just two dimensions out from Provinence." Iris explained. "Provinence?" Winter asked. "The origin point of all creation. Located at Kai 0-00 Alpha." Sirius explained. "What else did this foreign night god horse tell you?" Qrow scoffed. "To look for the disappearances of large ships and airplanes the past century. I have a place in mind." Alex explained. "Let's hear it." Yang sat down. "In my old world, Earth, there was a place called the Bermuda Triangle. During around the 20th century, ships, planes, and the like disappeared. It's likely related to the interdimensional teleporter testing around that time point." Alex explained. "Wait, these 'dimensions' are stacked one on top of the other, right?" Winter asked. "Yep." Yang nodded. "If that's right, then we should be able to use the Triangle as a guideline and scan every universe, starting with Provinence, and find the headquarters!" Winter elaborated. "That may not be such a terrible idea... Robot! Get us a map of 'Earth' and find the Bermuda Triangle!" Qrow ordered. "I have a name you know. Here!" Iris exclaimed as a holographic image of that general area appeared before them. "Cross reference that area with as many universes as possible, identify large cities, and send the results to our Scrolls!" Alex ordered. "Sure thing, Admiral!" Iris assured. "Good thinking, Ms. Schnee." Sirius curtly nodded. "Glad to see some people pay some respect when it's due." Winter scowled in Qrow's direction. "Sellout." "Drunk." "All of you, shut the hell up." Sirius groaned. "Qrow, settle this childish rivalry soon!" Raven sighed in annoyance. "Anyways, thanks for bringing this up with us. For someone with the least amount of legitimate training I've ever seen, you're actually half-decent. I went over the footage when you fought Omicron." Sirius commented. "I prefer to do my training on the field." Alex defended. "Whatever you say, Adenienite." Qrow rolled his eyes. The inheritors left the room, leaving Alex alone with Yang. "So, you've looked better." Yang began. "Looks don't count for shit here." Alex laughed. "What's with you lately? You've never been this relaxed before." Yang lightly slugged him in the shoulder. "Relaxed? Oh, no. I'm all wound up like a tin toy. I've just accepted that everything's f**ked." Alex chuckled. "I hear you." Yang nodded. "So, what's on your mind?" Alex asked. "Huh?" "You obviously stayed behind for a reason, what was it?" He pressed on. "Just wanted to see how you were doing, and you asked me to stay here." She said. "Oh, right.." "Yeah." Yang shrugged. "Any other reason?" Alex asked. "No. That's it." Yang insisted "Okay, I can take that for an answer if you really want to." Alex relented. "By the way, I should be asking you the same thing." Yang looked at him. "I'm just...thinking." Alex replied. "Always the thinker, what's on your mind?" She asked. "This question always bugged the hell out of me since before Unity actually got together in LS, but did all of you stand by me out of actual friendship like what Princess Twilight and the other Elements constantly flaunt around like an iPhone 7, or do you all just pity me?" Alex asked. Yang looked like she herself was in thought before she finally answered. "I can probably see Twilight and her friends standing by you out of pity, why else would they follow a murderer into other dimensions? That's literally the only way I see them going that close to an ex-fugitive." Yang explained. "Vanoss and his crew are out of the question, I paid them just to keep my ass safe." Alex clarified. "Okay, sure. Back to what I was saying, from what I can tell, Ponies have no experience with violence or warfare until recently. That's just how it is. People like Ruby and I, we're no strangers to violence or death. Hell, we hunt down monsters and bad guys for a living." Yang laughed slightly. "So, where does that leave you guys?" Alex wondered. "Personally, I could tell something was wrong from the moment I saw you, that look of mortal terror in your eye, the constant feeling of paranoia, your overall vibe said something was...off. And it's been off for a while. But that isn't the only reason I stayed with you." "Then, pray tell, what was the other reason?" "Your determination. Your own sheer force of will just to stay alive. Look at what you've done these past few months. You've had to kill, steal, and break a few hearts just to stay alive. And you did survive! You have no rules because, if what you told me was true, you felt like the rules abandoned you. Even right now, you're trying to take back your life with your bare hands, and if it means taking someone else's, so be it!" "Well, that's just the end-all be-all of my life." Alex shrugged. "You're fighting to take back your life, question is, what part of your life exactly?" Yang asked. Another open-ended question, as if he hadn't had enough of these in school already. "I'll be completely honest with you. I don't know anymore, but at the same time, I do know. I'm in the years where I'll have to decide what I want for my own life, not anyone else's, but my own. Locked in that cell for a month made me think I wasn't going anywhere further. But now, everything's so open! I can start fresh in a new environment, new opportunities. A completely different life from what I originally expected. I guess I'm just fighting to have that sense of choice again without anyone standing in my way. And for the moment, it's those bastards threatening me, my friends, as well as everyone else. Right now, all that's standing in the way are those soulless motherf**kers." Alex spat. Yang stood again, her hands on his shoulders. "And that's why I've stood with you. Take care of yourself." She briefly hugged him and walked out the door. Alex reached into his side pocket, reaching for his journal. "Hey. Nice talking to you." Yang called from outside the door. Alex looked up from his journal. "Same here. Stay alive." Alex smiled. "Okay. Don't let all of this be for nothing, got it?" She called out, walking away. Alex laid down on the table, journal in hand, just a little bit tired, and his wound still throbbed with dulled pain. He looked back on his life, what had been stolen from him, and what life had repaid him with. "Trust me, Yang. I don't intend to."
Act III, Chapter 13: Incognito"Alright, these credit cards should last you for a couple days. We rented you a place in the hotel about three blocks away from the club this 'Junior' is holding, check with Quill whenever you see anything suspicious. If your cover's blown, check the Aura scanners for anyone with a level above 15, then call us for support! This weapon isn't going to take anyone's life while we're on guard. Good luck, we're counting on you." Those were Alex's last instructions, even saying that the instructions were their Bible for the next couple days or so. Vanoss was with Mini Ladd, Terroriser, and Wildcat on the dinghy they were using to sail 30 miles outside the city of Vale. All of them were dressed in street clothes similar to what any normal citizen from Vale would wear. Their fake IDs were kept safely in their pockets along with the credit cards. And just in case, they kept their SNS pistols concealed in holsters where nobody else would dare investigate. Vanoss personally kept the sunglasses handy to keep the sun from getting in his eyes. "Hold on, why are we doing this?" Wildcat, or 'Jason', rolled his eyes. "You heard what the human bug zapper said, we were hardly in town while we were in the dimension or whatever." Terroriser, 'Clarence', replied. "Does this count for overtime?" Mini Ladd, for the time being 'Jeff', asked. "Iris did say we can keep the checks." Vanoss, 'Steve', recalled. "Let me just say that this is never going to work." Terroriser sighed. "You've fallen for stupider things in Prop Hunt." Wildcat pointed out. "I just hope Quill doesn't sell us out." Mini internally pleaded to God or whomever was up there. "Relax, just remember what we talked about.." Vanoss tried to calm him down. "Right, right. 'My name Jeff'." Mini nodded hurriedly. Vanoss suddenly felt the dinghy scrape against solid ground. Sand! "Land ho!!" Vanoss cheered. "Yes, great. But are we in the right spot?" Mini asked. "Yeah, there's the truck over there!" Wildcat pointed to the dark grey Minivan parked onto the beach. "Alright. Look alive, stay alive." Vanoss staggered upwards, running to the car. "This f**king shit! it's been a year since that video was released!" Terroriser rolled his eyes. "We're wasting our time! Let's just get in the damn car and go! There's a checkpoint about 10 miles up so we should have plenty of time to get into character!" Wildcat urged. They all piled out of the boat, and suddenly got into an argument over who got to drive. "That's it! Rock-Paper-Scissors over who gets to drive!" Mini raised both hands in the air. They all rose their fists partway into the air, bringing them down in a quick motion. "Rock!" They repeated the action, relaxing their hands once they got about the same level. "Paper!" One final raise of the arm to the sky, Vanoss's hands trembled before bringing them down again. "Scissors- F**k!" "God dammit!" "Are you f**king kidding me?!" "Yeeeaah!!!" "Sergeant Quill, your presence is requested with Omega immediately." A messenger told him. Quill shuddered as he turned over to the messenger. "Omega, sir?" He asked. "Who else, Sergeant?" The messenger rolled his eyes. Quill nodded. "O-Of course!" He wavered, walking as casually as he could through the stronghold. Even being here gave him slight shudders. He dismissed them as mild panic attacks, nothing more. Walking into Omega's quarters was a bit scary to him. He stepped inside, trying his best to keep a calm demeanor. "Sergeant Ronald Quill. I was hoping you would make it." The cold, mechanical voice of Omega greeted. "Yes sir, what is it?" He asked. Omega stood up, his height towering over Quill's by at least another foot, and Quill was tall where he was from! "Is everything ready, Sergeant?" He asked. Quill memorized his lie perfectly, reciting it without as much as a stutter. "Yes sir, they don't suspect a thing. And even if they do, I sent a larger force to the center of town, where they're more likely to overshadow the primary crew. You'll get their attention, Lord Omega." Quill bowed. "It is not the entirety of the group whom I await, Quill." Omega turned his back to him. "Then who, sir?" Quill asked. Omega chuckled in a mechanical, demonic, low cackle that would send shivers down anyone's spine and turn their blood to ice. "I figured you would ask, Sergeant Quill. This young man is the biggest threat to the universe we have ever beheld. This is Saigo Emphas. The offspring of one of the original challengers to Inquisitorial Rule. He is dangerous, but inexperienced and driven by his own fear and rage. Easy enough to manipulate, if you ask me." Omega explained. "How do you know this?" Quill asked. "Let us say I happen to know him better than he knows himself." Omega cackled again, the chills running down Quill's spine. "So, we got past the guards and we're in the city, what now?" Vanoss asked Blake, who would answer any questions they had in regards to their mission as Alex was doing other important things by now. 'Have someone check into the hotel, we specifically asked for a penthouse so you could look over the city without having to go all the way to the roof. The other three are going around the club. Not actually inside of it, save that for the assault. If you see anything suspicious, contact Quill and he'll tell you what he knows.' Blake instructed. "I got the hotel, guys." Wildcat raised his hand. 'One of you look for a Dust shop. You never know whether or not Junior's goons will want to relapse.' "Got it." Mini announced. 'Good, the rest of you can browse around. If you hear anything suspicious, call Quill as soon as you can. Illiad out.' Blake shut off the radio. They nodded in similar fashion to Star Wars Episode 6 before splitting up. Vanoss himself headed towards a camera shop, it was never too late to give his hardware an upgrade. Walking down the streets of Vale was a bit daunting, but he was used to seeing new places. Thinking back to his home, career, and friends. He missed it all, but he did volunteer for Immersion back in August. They all spent that next month filming actually inside GTA 5 and Garry's Mod. But by some accident or if it was a pre-meditated incident, his friends all ended up in Equestria, which little did they know, had already started down the path to real war. If it wasn't for the skittles horse, who knows what would have happened? Would they have stayed there forever, or would Alex and the late Agent Thorne have found their way to them anyways? Whatever. This was the multiverse theory incarnate. Anything and everything probably already happened. Once he made his way to a camera shop, he gingerly pushed the door open and stepped inside, the bell ringing as the door snapped shut. "Hello, sir. How can I help you?" The old man at the counter asked. "What's the best camera you have available?" He asked. The old man stretched his chin in thought before walking over to a display counter and gesturing to a full-sized video camcorder, microphone and macro-lens included. Noticing the 2180 Lien price tag, he shied away from the ever-unreachable tool. "Got anything a little less expensive, sir?" Vanoss asked him. The old man walking to his next recommendation as the bell rang again. Vanoss turned around to find himself face-to-face with a young girl, about the same height as Alex and Yang, with a unique, rather familiar mint green hairstyle and an intricate white and olive top, not that he was paying much mind. "I'll get to you in a minute." The old man promised the young woman. "It's fine, I'm just looking around." She shrugged, looking towards the smaller, more 'GoPro-esque' cameras. Something just felt...off about her, though. He wasn't sure if it was her demeanor or what else, but he switched his view to third-person mode just to be safe. "So, how about this? This is the first 'S' series Kino made. It normally comes in at about 950 Lien, but we're having a 30% off sale right now." The old man stated. "That works. I'll take it." Vanoss finally nodded. He shifted his 'viewpoint' behind him, where the girl was, just as she said, looking around. "Wonderful, just need the 665 Lien." The old man smiled. Vanoss quietly turned on the Aura reader, keeping it pointed at the girl, carefully checking to see if she was looking. "Is there an ATM anywhere?" Vanoss asked. "There's one just outside." The old man replied. "Thanks." He smiled, walking outside as calmly as he could. He saw the girl reach out behind him, then, very subtly, recoil in disgust. No one. He stepped outside, turned on the ATM, entered the PIN number the Vale Police gave him, and sipped the check inside. He checked the Aura reader, and through it's technobabble, he read through her ranking. 'Level 16: Red Alert!' Vanoss quietly put away the Aura Scanner and grabbed the cash from the ATM. He would have to tell Blake later. He went back inside, paid the 665 Lien to take the camera and left. Hoping to find someplace more private to talk this over. Author's Note A comparatively small chapter, I know. Still working on some minor details, including the possibility of Alternate Endings. Feel free to share your thoughts, it's been a while since I got a comment from you viewers.
Act III, Chapter 14: The Fight Within--0459 hours, November 24, 2016. 6 hours before the events of 'Incognito'-- Alex stood alone in a dark room yet again. There was one part of him that knew instantly that this was all just another nightmare. And yet, even after all this time, the rest of his mind didn't realize any of it. It was just him. Alone. "It's a shame really.." A voice scorned behind him. Alex turned around in shock. He couldn't see who was standing right behind him, as he was wrapped tightly in cold, metal chains that froze his skin with every small movement. "All of this... And for what?" The voice continued. Three, no, four! Four shadowy figures fading in like phantoms in the night, their faces concealed, but their eyes gleaming red. He at last recognized the voice haunting his still-unpleasant dreams. The one who ruined everything for him, stripped him of his very life, liberty, and joy and replaced it with ongoing torment. Agent Winchester. "You..! You're dead! I-I-I killed you!" Alex stammered in cruel realization as his blood turned to ice. "You ran away from him, leaving a trail of blood and tears behind you with every step you took, killed me, and you expect me to forgive you?" The second voice spat in hatred. That second voice... Did that belong to..? "K-Karis?!" Alex pulled hard at his bonds. The memory of her death still brought tears to his eyes. He didn't care about the cold anymore. He wanted to run, leave this place as far behind as he could! "If you had just stayed behind at the castle to defend your so-called 'friend', everyone else would be safe! Do you not see that yet?" The third phantom scowled hatefully. This voice he knew instantly, the voice of Karis' assassin. "Sigma! You're behind all of this, aren't you?!" Alex reached out, this time, for a different reason. "I'm just following orders. Guess who shouldn't have followed theirs?" She smiled cruelly. Winchester, Karis, and Sigma. Those were the first three, but what of the fourth? "You know who I am, Saigo." The fourth phantom called out. Was he supposed to? "I can't say I do. And who the hell's 'Saigo'?" Alex scowled back. This likely meant nothing but trouble. "Don't you worry, Alexander. You will soon enough." The fourth raised the weapon in his hand, a sword, specifically a sort of diesel-punk katana blade, with a relatively large gun barrel that served as the cross-guard, he raised it higher in the air and brought it down on his neck! Alex snapped awake, jerking straight upwards and hyperventilating, he was shaking and shivering as though he were outside during a blizzard for five or ten minutes. He distinctly felt someone next to him, or rather, somepony. Who was that? "Here, it's okay. It was just a bad dream." Fluttershy gently whispered, trying to calm him. "I- Wha- Who-?" Alex stammered. Fluttershy laid him down, and continued to try and relax him, and it was working to some extent. "It's okay. Iris told me to come inside. She said you were having another nightmare." She explained. Alex's breathing slowed down until his breathing was a bit more refined than it was a minute ago. "Well, you aren't far off." Alex blinked slowly. "Maybe I can help you. I'm...not much of a psychologist, but..." Fluttershy began to offer. "Don't trouble yourself. Just being near me will probably make things worse for you." Alex declined. "Are you sure?" She asked. "Fluttershy, think for a minute here. Are you really able to deal with every problem I bring forward?" Alex asked. "I can try." She straightened up, looking a bit more determined. Alex himself slid off the bed, slowly staggering up. "The answer is no, but thanks for asking." Alex replied. She sighed, and walked out of the room behind him. Alex did feel a little bad for turning her down in the way he did, but he knew himself well enough that a pony, especially one as timid as she was, would be too...under-equipped... To deal with his psychological problems, however much they'd try to understand. But there was one thing he needed cleared up. "Hey, Fluttershy. One thing before I head off for work?" Alex asked. She turned around. "Sure, what is it?" She asked. "I feel a little, uncomfortable about asking this, but..." Alex shook his head. "Hmm?" "This might seem like a stupid question, but what do you and the Elements think about...well... this?" Alex asked. "I'm not following.." Fluttershy blinked in reply. "The past month or two as a whole." Alex clarified. "Oh! Well, for me, it's been a horrifying experience! I'm not around to take care of Angel and my other pets, and ponies are dying all around us! I can't blame you for what happened, not since Rainbow helped clear your name, but still...." She sat, her face downcast. "I understand, anyone else share that sentiment?" Alex asked, regretting his words as soon as they sprang from his mouth. "Yes, Rarity is scared to death, and so are Applejack and Twilight. Rainbow still wants to help, no matter what, and Pinkie Pie.." Fluttershy stammered. "Yeah, I get you there. She's a lot like Vanoss' crew in that regard." Alex shrugged. "You're not mad?" She asked. "Mad? No. Twilight, I get why she's scared. Lots of paperwork-" "-That she volunteered to work on-" Fluttershy defended. "...my point is, with that plus her borderline OCD sort of personality, and the fact that she knows that we all might die before this is over.." Alex finished. "They can handle it." Mako interrupted, walking down the hallway and slapping Alex in the back of the shoulder. "Good morning, Mako." Fluttershy greeted. "Hey, Mako." Alex wearily added. Mako looked back at the two of them. "Let me guess, this one had a nightmare again, and you were called down to soothe him awake." Mako concluded. Alex blinked in surprise. "How did you-" "It's the only way I see either of you waking up at 5:00 AM." Mako replied. "Yes, I was told it was serious. Something about his brain activity.." Fluttershy recalled. "I can deal with the human taser, Fluttershy. Go back to sleep." Mako said. "Okay. Good night Mako, good night Alex!" She waved goodbye and flew away. Alex rolled his eyes. "What?" Mako obliviously scoffed. "'Human taser'? I've heard better electro-mancer puns from Yang, for chrissake." Alex chided. "Oh, come on! 'Jelly Man' and 'bug-zapper' we're already taken!" She retorted. "'Jelly man'? What are they, pulling these from f**king Pixar now?" Alex face-palmed. "Okay, okay, in all seriousness. I need you to come with me for a moment." Mako tugged at his t-shirt. "For what?" Alex asked. "Small talk." She replied. "Twenty-six year old CIA agent and a 15 year old kid with lightning powers going off alone. Sounds like a bad idea already." Alex rolled his eyes. Mako colored slightly and sighed uncomfortably. "No." "So, these nightmares, how long have they lasted for so far?" Mako asked. "Since after my arrest." Alex replied blankly. "Since... August 6, 2016, right?" "Only time I've ever been arrested." Alex nodded. Mako nodded, her interest seemed to pique. "Name every time these nightmares changed, better or worse." Mako ordered. "Let's see... My arrival to Equestria, Crimson attacking me, the Canterlot Castle Raid, after my Escape to Remnant, and, most recently, my fight between Omicron, Blake, and I, and that's not even covering half of everything that damaged me." Alex replied. "Sounds like a bad couple of months." Mako commented. "I can't exactly say that." Alex thought. "What do you mean?" Mako asked. "If it weren't for...everything... I wouldn't have met some of the best people I've ever known, and I'm not just saying that because I was surrounded by the standard f**kboys and hipsters I would've had to deal with if it weren't for this. Instead, I met some of the most kind-hearted and sincerest people and ponies... Well... ever! And even if I lose most of them, I'll at least have the pleasure of knowing them in life!" Alex elaborated with a sense of optimism. "Sounds like you've kept up some optimism." Mako noted. "Only f**king thing that gave me any will to live in some danky, run-down, disused 5'-by-5' cell room." Alex replied. "It seems like it all paid off." Mako smiled. "Yeah. I guess it did." Alex smiled a bit himself. "Then why do you think you still have these nightmares?" Mako asked. Alex sighed. "I think it's because, in spite of all the good that might come from this, it still can't patch up the bad." Alex moaned. "Listen, Alex. You remind me of someone I knew from one of my old units, before Winchester's." Mako said. "Hm?" Alex wondered. "His name was Corporal Sanders. We worked together for a short time in the Militia when I was still taking espionage missions, and he told me about what the militia did to him and his family, they threatened to kill his wife and child if he didn't join. Obviously you can guess which he took." Mako sighed. "I'm not surprised, these are the exact same people who would have killed me if I didn't join." Alex bluntly spat. "True. Sanders didn't approve of everything the militia was doing. During an op back in 2015, when he was ordered to steal military aircraft, we secretly sabotaged the mission, and they only got away with a few Little Birds and a C-17. I told him we could get them in witness protection and they could tell us where to find Silas Kahn's Older brother, also in the Militia. Once the mission was set in place, I was cornered by Silas' brother, and Sanders took the bullet meant for me. He said that 'whatever happens, there are two people out there in the world who I saved.' I killed the brother, the news went crazy, and the rest is history." Mako explained. Alex leaned back. "It's people like him, and you, people who would selflessly give their lives if it meant they would defend the people they care about, that I'm truly proud to know. Kat, the Elements. The Huntresses, everyone. You all risk life and limb for a cause you believe in. The ponies, it's the protection of their country and leaders, for peace. For the huntsmen, it's defending their world from the monsters, human or not, that threaten it. For you, it started out with you only wanting to survive, but it's grown to so much more. Now, your goal is saving the multiverse, billions, trillions, octillions of people, most of which you don't even know." Mako put her hand on his shoulder. Alex had just realized the depth of his own mission, this wasn't about him, or the 50,000,000 volunteers, and counting, or the 12,000 he was already working with. He was also fighting for his lost parents, lost comrades, and dreams that might never be. "I never thought of it that way, Mako." Alex realized. "No problem, kid. But we both have to get to work, Evan and some of his friends are on undercover ops starting today." Mako straightened out. "I got it. Let's move." Alex nodded. "One more thing, how's the stab wound coming along?" Mako asked. Alex ran his hands along the scar on his chest, he had been using his Aura to heal that thing whenever he could. The doctors said that he might be able to fight as soon as tomorrow. "It's coming along well enough. The Doctors say I could be out on the field by about tomorrow." Alex replied. "Good to hear, let's get them geared up." --12 hours later, 1745 hours-- Alex walked into the small room Blake had been using to keep in touch with Vanoss and his crew. Normally, Alex would've kept up with them himself, but he was scheduled into a training session with the Inheritors that lasted up until 4:00 PM. "...And you're sure this person had a level 16 rank on the Aura Scanner?" Blake asked as Alex walked inside. 'That's what the thingamajig said. Wildcat said that another guy, a bit taller than her, gray-ish hair, he caught him walking around with the same level.' Vanoss replied from the communicator. "Evan, have any of you been looking at that club, did you see either one go inside?" Alex asked. "Glad to see you're well enough to walk around, Alex." Blake greeted, not even fazed at his arrival. She must have heard him come inside. 'Terroriser saw a bunch of people walk inside that club, but no real match yet.' Vanoss answered. "Have someone watch that club around the clock. Front and back enterances, if you see anything, let us know." Alex ordered. 'We have Mini keeping watch on the penthouse, and we'll go check out places where we might be able to see the back.' Vanoss volunteered. "Did they get anything that they can use for the mission?" Alex asked. "At about 2:00 today, Evan got a camera." Blake answered. "Evan, I have an idea. Set up a wireless link with your camera and your Scroll, stash it away at an angle where we can see the back entrance while still being out of sight. We're watching those things 'round the clock so Iris can notify us before you can." Alex instructed. 'Got you. Really f**king hope you're right about this.' Vanoss replied. "We know what we're doing. Don't do anything that might give yourselves away." Blake assured. 'Okay. I'll set up they camera now.' Vanoss shut off the communicator from the other side. "You really think they can save Vale?" Alex asked. "Just in case, We had Iris keep in touch with the other students at Beacon." Blake replied. "That isn't going to work." Sirius called behind them. "Sirius?" Alex asked. "If we have access to that scroll, so do they. When Sigma hacked into the Transmit Tower, she compromised all of Vale's security. Anything we do there that can be traced back to our scrolls, they're able to plan ahead of whatever we do." Sirius explained. "We have those particular scrolls protected, Mr. Da Long. The Red Star would not be able to access them." Iris assured. "They'll find a way. These guys know what they're doing. Besides, even if that's true, they'll find the camera." Sirius scowled. "Then what should be our next move?" Alex scoffed. "Get everyone you can out of Vale. There's no doubt in my mind that they'll find a way to release that bio weapon." "Not as long as we have someone keeping an eye out." Alex defended. "You're making a grave mistake, Admiral." Sirius pressed. "If 400,000 people just suddenly leave the city, The Red Star know something's up." Alex defended. "They already know we're onto them!" "How?" Blake asked. "Because someone let four members of the bloody A-Team inside working undercover! The two people that are following them are working for the Red Star! The DNA samples we tested with the Aura scanners after Omicron's attempted escape match theirs!" Sirius burst out. Alex shook in realization and horror. "Get Evan on the phone. Now!" Alex ordered "Trying!" Blake replied. "Iris! Issue an evacuation order on both Vale and Beacon, and send in as many hazmat troops as we can! We need to find that device!" Alex called. "The evacuation has just been ordered. Most of them are leaving by Airship and heading here." Iris replied. "Clean up the flight deck and send a medical team over there ASAP!" Sirius ordered. "On it!" Iris answered. "Iris, one more thing?" Alex asked. "Yes, Alex?" Iris asked. "Does Overcharge II protect from biological and chemical weapons?" Alex wondered. "Yes, better protection than a hazmat suit." She answered. "I'm going out there." Alex barged out. Alex walked out of the room heading for the armory, Yang and Rainbow caught up with him. "Alex, what's wrong?" Rainbow asked. "Evan's been f**king compromised. The weapon is probably in there by now, and we just evacuated Vale and Beacon." Alex answered. "You're going in there?! Are you insane?!" Yang gasped. "You haven't noticed?" Alex replied sarcastically. "The doctors said that you couldn't go out to fight yet!" Rainbow protested. "Do you really think that's my concern right now?" Alex asked. Yang blocked his path. "If you're going out there, so is the team." "And i'm the f**king crazy one!" Alex rolled his eyes. "The Wonderbolts are going with you guys." Rainbow Dash saluted. "I swear to god!!" Alex screamed in frustration. "We have Overcharge suits too, you know!" Yang defended. "That doesn't mean I'm letting you out there!" Alex replied. "You have a stab wound and you're going out there!" Rainbow retorted. "And you're an Admiral!" Yang added. "For f**k sakes!!! Stay here! I'm ordering both of you!!" Alex yelled. Why were they throwing away their lives like this?! "Tell us! Tell us why you should go out and not any of us!" Yang shoved him. "Because you have people who need you here! I'm usually the one asking for help anyways!! THAT'S THE ONLY F**KING REASON I'M STILL ALIVE!!" Alex exploded. Rainbow shrank back from the sheer hostility, only Yang was able to stay in place and look him in the eye. "We're going with you. That's it. There's no way around this. If someone is going to help save our homes, be sure I'm somewhere in that mess." She put her hand on his shoulder. "What-" "Go to the armory, get that suit on, get your gun, and go. We aren't staying behind." Yang ordered. Alex stepped backwards in shock. "Fine," Alex surrendered, "Come with me, lose your friends and sister. Just know I'm not forcing whatever happens on either of you." "We've known that since you left for the Embassy." Yang replied as Alex ran to the armory. As Alex ran off to his destination, he felt angry and scared for them, all of them. They wanted to help him? Who would wish that on themselves? That didn't matter. Not anymore. He had people to save. Author's Note Not entirely sure what to put here. It's been, what, 60 chapters already? I'm still thinking about the prospects of cover art, but I'm not entirely sure what would work for this sort of story. Anyways, I should probably let you all know that the big climax of the story is likely going to be a six-parter with each chapter being something, like, maybe 5,000 words per chapter. Just putting it out there now. -The Destoyer
Act III, Chapter 15: Battle For Vale Act III, Chapter 15: Battle For Vale Vanoss was on top of a building back behind the Club. He silently placed the camera on a ledge overlooking the back entrance, concealing it with various trash and scraps he found in the alleyways nearby. He hit the record button and checked his temporary Scroll, the footage was being transmitted to his Scroll with no problems at all. Feeling satisfied, Vanoss went to his radio and turned it on, only to find that there was hardly anyone on the other end. Something was wrong. 'Evan, is everything good?' Terroriser asked from Vanoss' scroll. "Yeah, just placed the camera, but..." Vanoss' voice trailed off. 'You can't find Blake's radio signal, can you?' Terroriser deadpanned. "No, I'm looking right now though.." Vanoss kept turning the dial until he was able to hear someone's voice. 'This is Iliad Medical unit 477! We just got the first shipment of refugees! They seem fine, just a bit scared.' the radio crackled. Refugees? He continued turning the dial to find more radio chatter, what was going on? 'EVAN! EVAN, COME IN DAMMIT!!!' Alex screamed from the radio. Vanoss recoiled before answering. "Relax, I hear you! What is it?" He asked irritably. 'WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU FOR F**KING AGES!!! THE RED STAR KNOWS YOU'RE THERE! THEY COULD RELEASE THAT BIO-WEAPON ANY F**KING SECOND NOW! WE HAD TO EVACUATE THE WHOLE F**KING CITY! GET YOUR ASSES OUT OF THERE!!' Alex shrieked. "Where the hell are you, man?! And what's that noise?" He asked. 'I'M EN-ROUTE TO VALE WITH TEAM RWBY AND THE WONDERBOLTS! WE'RE FOLLOWING THE HAZMAT TEAMS SENT TO FIND THE DAMN BIOWEAPON! I'M FLYING THERE NOW!' Alex yelled in reply. "Shit! Terroriser, you hear that?" Vanoss asked him. 'Of course I heard him, dick basket! We're getting on our Gas masks and suits right now!' Terroriser yelled back. 'Oh, god. You're helping too, aren't you?' Alex sighed in annoyance. "It's our job." Vanoss reminded him. Alex groaned. 'F**k it. Fine. But do exactly what I say, when I say it, you all hear me?' Alex demanded. "So, do what we already do on a daily basis. Seems legit." Vanoss shrugged after putting on his Hazmat and mask. 'Except you guys can afford to be a little less careful, since you all can respawn.' Alex notified. "We get the idea, Jelly man!" Vanoss joked. 'F**king Disney.' Alex moaned in annoyance. "You guys ready yet?" Vanoss asked. 'We're good! We'll meet you on the roof.' Wildcat called. Vanoss pulled out his own pistol and stayed above the roof. He saw two Syndicate guards walking past the back entrance, armed with shotguns. He leaped down, shooting the first guard twice in the head before grasping the second guard's gun, shooting him with the pistol as well. Vanoss moved both bodies into a nearby dumpster, taking the two shotguns and all their ammo with, hiding in a trash can and waiting for anyone else who wanted to walk out. "Wildcat, I'm in a 'Coon can' near the back entrance to the club, meet me down there instead, I saved you guys a shotgun." Vanoss informed him 'Assassin's Creed style. Nice!' Wildcat cheered. "Okay, be here as soon as you can!" Vanoss said hurriedly. Alex landed onto the docks, skidding haphazardly to a halt on the wooden surface, his AR at his side. Teams RWBY, JNPR, along with Qrow and Winter, the Wonderbolts, four of six ex-Elements of Harmony, and the hazmat crews, among them Ember, Blast, and Skirmish, arrived not long after, all in their protective gear. "Quick, I need places where they might have stowed the bio-weapon." Alex instructed. "I can probably see them releasing it at the Transmit Tower, or maybe the Club..." Ruby figured. "Intel says those are two likely places." Iris agreed. "Where else?" Twilight asked. "At Town Hall, maybe." Qrow shrugged. "Anywhere else?" Alex asked. "I've identified one more potential area where they may release the weapon." Iris added. "Where?" Rainbow wondered. "The Police Department." Iris said. "Okay, here's the plan: The Elements and the Wonderbolts are going to head to Town Hall, Teams RWBY and JNPR are splitting up and going to the Transmit Tower and the Police Department with either Qrow or Winter, and I'll take the 5th Battalion to the Club, where I'll meet Vanoss and his crew." Alex explained. "Are you giving me orders, kid?" Qrow stood above him. "You're not seriously doing this right now." Alex groaned. "Oh, well I'm sorry, but," Qrow paused to grab at his collar, "I don't listen to orphans." He shoved him backwards, leaving Alex in a mixture of shock and annoyance. "Move out!" Alex yelled, running through the streets with the soldiers in tow. "Come on, kids. Let's show these tools what exactly they're up against." Qrow tapped Ruby on the shoulder and ran off. "Wonderbolts, advance!" Rainbow commanded. "Come on, Weiss." Winter ordered as the remainder of the search party advanced off to their respective objectives. Vanoss had about 15 dead bodies inside the dumpster before Terroriser, Wildcat, and Mini finally showed up. "There you are, Evan! where's the shotgun?" Wildcat asked. Vanoss silently tossed him the shotgun and gave Terroriser his pistol. "So, any ideas?" Mini asked. "How about we save bug zapper the trouble of finding the stupid disease and barge in. We can respawn anyways, and Quill is right in there, probably." Terroriser figured. "Sounds good enough, should we tell him?" Vanoss wondered. "F**k no! the kid's got enough issues, anyway!" Mini shook his head. "Alright, Terroriser, you're going first." Vanoss said. "Why me?!" "Because you suggested it." Wildcat replied. "Fine, Arnold will kill the bad guys first." Terroriser deadpanned in his Arnold voice. They stacked up behind the door, placing a sticky bomb on the door. The door exploded and Terroriser rolled inside. A lot of Red Star troops did a double-take in Terroriser's direction, grabbing their weapons. "Hey, guys! How's your health plan?" Terroriser yelled. The simple reply of everyone in the room was to shoot in his general direction. "Apparently, it's fantastic!" Terroriser concluded, firing both pistols and blowing the heads off most of the dance floor's inhabitants. Vanoss and Wildcat tore the stragglers to bits with their shotguns, reloading every so often and firing indiscriminately at the Red Star's troops. Mini and Quill executed the survivors before Quill all handed them proper weapons: M60s. "Clean up on aisle four!" Mini Ladd joked as he loaded his. The door was kicked inside, leading the charge was Alex, no surprise there. "Hey, Alex! Welcome to the after party!" Wildcat laughed loudly. "I- you- wha-? God dammit." Alex sighed in annoyance. "By the way, we cleaned up the mess so you didn't have to! We're like the Scrubbing Bubbles of the war here!" Vanoss announced. "Did you five at least identify the location of the bio-weapon?" Alex asked. "That's just it, I... I have no idea where it could be..." Quill sighed, "Ow! Shit! I stubbed my toe on some kinda gas canister thingy!" Mini grasped his foot in pain. Alex walked over to the canister, noticing the large 'biohazard' sticker on the side. Alex called Ember over to him. "Get the containment units over here, pronto." Alex ordered. "Got it. Hey Vanoss." Ember waved dismissively. "Hi." --POV shift: Alex-- Alex groaned in sheer irritation. Evan and the others went out of their way to annoy him. Oh well, at least they found the bio-weapon before anything bad could happen. "Iris, we got the bio-weapon, we're getting the containment units here right now." Alex said. "That can't be right... Oh, no..." "Oh, shit. What?" He asked worriedly. "All the other search parties just found bio-weapons there! The containment units are dealing with Twilight's right now, and they're all the way at the center of town!" Iris gasped. "Sounds like quite the predicament, Saigo." Someone greeted from behind all of them. Alex turned sharply around. The voice from his nightmare! The owner of the voice was an Adenienite, the prosthetic limbs and distinctive armor, which, in all, put him at about 7 and a half feet tall, were a dead giveaway. But other than that, he couldn't say much else, since the man, who looked to be in his late teens, was wearing a helmet that concealed his facial features. This was another Inquisitor! "Omega!" Quill gasped. "Hello, Quill. As much as I want to rip your traitorous head from your shoulders, I have more important matters to deal with. Isn't that right, Saigo?" Omega scowls. "Who?" Skirmish asked. "Everyone... I'll deal with this guy, you all get to the Transmit Tower, that's an order!" Alex commanded. "Yes, sir!" Blast saluted as the rest of his men charged out of the club. Sure enough, Omega was still standing there. "Well, Saigo. I didn't expect you to own up to your actions." Omega scowled. "Who the hell are you, and who the hell is Saigo?" Alex asked. "Has father told you nothing?" Omega takes a step closer to Alex. Alex pulled out Blitzklinge, and stood in a defensive pose. "Explanation, asshole. Now." Alex demanded. "Fine then, allow me to introduce myself.." Omega grasped his helmet by the mouthpiece and tore it clean off, revealing a gaunt, scarred young man in his twenties with dark blonde, almost brown hair and piercing blue eyes. Alex started to shake in fear. "Who... Who are you?!" Alex yelled. "I am Saisho Emphas, your brother." Omega cackled. Alex couldn't believe it, he wouldn't. "I don't believe you... I-I.." Alex stammered. "Oh, is that so? I'm not surprised mom and dad never told you about me. After all, I was disowned from the family for my...occupation." Omega, Saisho, spat in anger. "This isn't happening.." Alex gasped. "You already know of your heritage, is that correct, brother?" Saisho smiled sadistically. "What, you mean that both mom and dad were Adenienites and never told me anything?" Alex answered. "Precisely. Now, do you recall what our father did?" Saisho continued. "H-He tried to bring your organization down! It oppressed more people than either of us can count!" Alex yelled in reply. "Very good. I was hoping I wouldn't have to give a history lesson. Now, tell me. You know someone named Ruby Rose, and Evan Fong, correct?" Saisho asked in an aggressive tone. Alex snapped, charging at his apparent brother in sheer rage, screaming like a madman. "LEAVE MY FRIENDS OUT OF THIS!!!" Alex kicked him in the chest, setting both blades to their saw modes and attacking Saisho, rage fueling each and every attack. Saisho blocked every one of his attacks, before grasping both of his arms and kicking him onto a balcony in the club. Alex landed hard on his back, gasping and wheezing in agony. "I'll take that as a yes. Then you must know what happened to their ancestors Summer and Cyrus, I take it." Saisho replied. "What the hell are you getting at?" Alex growled, staggering up and grabbing his swords. "Dear brother, I killed them both in front of our father." Saisho leaped onto the balcony with Alex, walking up to him. Alex finally summoned the strength to pull himself up and punch Saisho in the face and kick him in the shin. Saisho merely responded by grasping Alex's leg and shoving him into the wall, before punching Alex so hard it dented his armor, and threw him down to the dance floor. "It wasn't difficult, despite the fact that I was only a year younger than you at that time. Naturally, our other brother, Chūkan, attacked me. He was only eleven years old during the battle. Needless to say, he too was...eliminated." Saisho leapt down from the balcony and landed directly on Alex's chest. Alex spat blood inside his helmet, and his Aura was all but drained. "That's right, now that Mother, Father, and Chūkan are out of the picture, there's only two of us left. But by the end of today, there shall be only one!" Saisho kicked Alex so hard he was blown out of the club and rolled, battered, onto the street. "It's a damn shame, it really is, Saigo. I heard how you defeated some of my comrades. I only wish that things could have been different, but that's not going to happen." Alex coughed, slowly getting up, he removed his helmet and spat out more of his blood. "You, as well as your friends, they're dead. And their hope dies with you!" Saisho reared up to throw a punch, his fist ripped through the air at blinding speed. Alex blocked the punch with both hands, the sheer force making marks on the ground below as he was dragged by the sheer kinetic power. "Typical Inquisitor... Big aspirations, but your bark is much worse than your bite." Alex shoved his brother back a few more feet, his rage fueling him once again. "All you care about is this stupid-ass attempt to glorify yourselves!" Alex punched Saisho hard in the neck before leaping in the air and kicking him in the face. "That, and some kid in way over his head!" Alex charged up his fist with the little power he gained, and punched him in the chest again, buying him time to pull out .44 Scratch. Alex pulled back the hammer and fired, hitting Saisho in the same spot he punched him. Alex repeated this process until he ran out of ammunition. By that point, Saisho was backed into the wall. "If you're going to threaten me, my friends, and everything I had to build for myself. At least have the power to back it up! Next time, give it your A-Game, jackass!" Alex yelled. Saisho wheezed, pure unadulterated rage builds from him and filled the air around him. "I WILL NOT BE DISRESPECTED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!!!" Saisho screamed in anger, charging at Alex and punching him in the face. Alex was hit so hard he was blown through the air, and he looked to be headed towards... Beacon?! He hit him that hard?! Alex turned backwards to find that he was currently careening towards the tallest tower in the Academy. Ozpin's office. Alex tried to block his sure-to-be rough entrance into the building by shielding his head with his arms before he finally made contact with the wall. Alex slowly blinked awake in intense pain. He shoved most of the rubble off of himself and staggered to his feet, wheezing in pain. "You know, Saigo..." Shit! "I haven't seen anyone build that much power out of sheer rage since I killed the Insolents. You realize that's what we called Father and the others, yes?" Saisho asked him. Alex coughed more blood, and immediately fell to his knees. "I'm going to enjoy this way more than I should.." Saisho raised his weapon, the diesel punk sword-gun from his nightmares, and pointed the gun barrel at Alex's face. "I'll see you in Hell, Brother." Saisho laughed. "Of course I will, you'll be there first!" Alex retaliated, unsheathing Electric Fury and clashing his blade against his brother's. "How are you still alive?!" Saisho gasped. Alex limply kicked his brother, but it was still hard enough to get him away, even for a moment. Alex reached for his Assault Rifle, loading a mag and firing every shot into his brother's armor, fragments of metal and dust crystal scattered throughout the room, filling the air with a distinct mixture of traditional gunpowder and brimstone as his brother was concealed in the resulting smoke. As soon as Alex had ended his spree, he found that his brother had disappeared entirely. "What the?!" Alex rasped in fear. Alex put his Assault Rifle back, and converted his old Electric Fury to it's revolver form, using all of his senses to track Saisho down. Suddenly, Alex heard his brother screaming as he leaped at him with full force, ramming him through the floor and crashing several stories until he eventually crashed against the wall of an elevator shaft and fell the rest of the way, leaving Alex gasping for breath. Given very little warning, Alex heard what appeared to be his brother leaping down from the whole way up. He rolled out of the way, avoiding the potentially deadly blow, and used most of his Aura to electrocute his brother, blasting him out the doorway and into the main hall of the academy. Using his opportunity, Alex charged at Saisho, sword drawn, ready to end this once and for all. "HEADS UUUUUUUUUP!!!!" Alex heard someone yell. Alex stopped midway as Ruby collided with him, sending both injured warriors rolling on the ground, both battered and bruised. "A-Alex..?" Ruby asked. "I'm fine," Alex coughed loudly, "What happened to you?" "I can explain this one. You see, our hacking division is rather adept at corrupting artificial intelligence. Such as Zodiac, as well as our newest addition," Saisho gestured to his right, where a relatively small girl, who looked relatively human save for the green robotic left eye exposed along with other mechanical parts. She was followed by at least 300 Atlesian Knights, armed to the teeth. "Sigma was going to use her for some candy-ass scheme of her's, but we all know how that turned out." "I am Legion, for we are-" she began. "A pain in my ass!" Alex spat. "Well, Alex.. You take the 150 on the right, I'll handle the 150 on the left!" Ruby instructed. "You know we still have to kill 'Raggety Ann' and 'Little Ani', right?" Alex scoffed. "Hey, it's not like we had any time to learn about Earth Culture!" Ruby defended. "Advance, my puppets!" Screamed Saisho. Immediately, the robots charged, Alex and Ruby we're going to have to face these guys themselves! Gunfire and magic immediately ripped most of the robots apart. Twilight and Vanoss stood at the entryway into the destroyed academy, gun barrels and horns alike were smoking. "At long last! You're all in one place! I can end this war myself!!" He screamed. "Alex, who is he?" Twilight asked. "Let me introduce you my older brother, Saisho. Real swell guy, I'm sure you'll all get along!" Alex sarcastically replied. "Hi, Saisho!" Ruby smiled, oblivious to Alex's sarcasm. Alex face-palmed. Twilight immediately attacked Saisho, with Vanoss running up a stairwell and getting his M60 set up properly. Ruby fell in as soon as Twilight had been kicked away by Saisho, and Alex prepared his attack, only to be forcefully strangled by the robot girl. "Ack! D-Dammit! Bad touch!" Alex choked as he struggled getting the girl's hands off of his neck. He shoved her into a wall, kicking her as many times as he could before getting back to Iris. "Iris!! I need this one back on our side!!" Alex gasped, still coughing some blood. "On it, sir!" Iris immediately got to work hacking into the girl's hardware and getting the Inquisitors' software out of her, she stood in place for a few seconds before deactivating. Immediately, she rebooted. However, her eyes were glowing cerulean, similar to Iris' signature color. "I can hold off the Red Star for you until the girl has had the virus removed." Iris explained. Alex nodded and helped the others attack Saisho, using Electric Fury to hold his brother at bay, hacking and slashing away at his weak points. His brother seethed with rage, his fists were buzzing, almost identical to Alex's. This couldn't end well. "ENOUGH!!!!" He bashed his fists against the ground, resulting in a burst of electricity that blew away Twilight, Iris, and Ruby. Rubble fell from the ceiling onto Vanoss, probably killing him and necessitating the need for a respawn. "THIS ENDS HERE AND NOW, SAIGO!!!!" Saisho charged at Alex, punching him so hard that bits of his armor were blown off, revealing his bloody, charred, and broken body beneath. Alex fell flat on his back, breathing raggedly and clutching his wounds. Saisho kneeled on top of Alex, trapping his arms with his feet, which apparently transformed into sharp, mechanical claws that grasped at his upper arms painfully. He leaned down, punching his chest with relentless passion and rage, speed gradually increasing as the blows became more and more agonizing. Before all could end well, Saisho gripped Alex by the throat, rearing a charged electric punch. "FACE ANNIHILATION!!!" he screamed, hitting Alex in the center of the chest as though his fist were a electrically charged sledgehammer. Alex was blown painfully through the statue, and skidded against the ground he was left hanging off the edge of the cliff. Suddenly, a white sphere appeared around Alex, encompassing him until it reached his feet, his whole body glowed a bright blue-violet and was accompanied by a brilliant light blue-violet flash, emitting a sound akin to a loud bell. The resulting surge of power gave him the energy to climb up and face his brother again. The process repeated itself, this time, his body had gradually faded into a light blue color before the flash and the bell-sound erupted from around him. His power increased exponentially, what had happened? Alex looked straight down to find that the Prometheus Charge at the center of his chest had been hit so hard, it shattered completely. He was absorbing all of it's energy, ascending to his full potential. The white sphere encircled him once more, and his Aura grew an even lighter shade of blue before the sphere glowed the same color and burst, the sound blew through the air like a bomb, and his energy multiplied. "What the hell..?" Saisho gasped, backing away for a moment. Alex walked up to his brother, staring him in the eye. "Like I said before, you'll burn in Hell first." Alex smirked.. -- Ruby flipped through the air and landed inside the Transmit Tower, using Crescent Rose to slow her speedy entrance and skidding to a halt near her comrades. "Ruby!" Her sister called. "Kid, what happened? Where's the Robot?" Qrow asked. "Iris is trying to get her back! Alex is fighting Omega!" Ruby explained. "Omega... which one is he..? Oh, shit." Qrow gasped. "What's wrong, who's Omega?" Yang asked. "Alex's brother." Ruby said. "Then why is Alex's brother an Inquisitor?" Yang wondered, concerned. Qrow sighed. "Kids, I have to tell you both something. You're probably not going to like what you're gonna hear.." A loud sound, something like a bell, erupted from the cliffs outside Beacon Academy, accompanied by a brilliant blue-violet flash. "What the hell?" Yang backed up. "Uncle Qrow... What is that?" Ruby asked. "Just asking here, The kid's an Adenienite, right?" Qrow asked. "Yeah..." Ruby and Yang reply nervously. "Oh, no..." The sound burst out again, and the flash faded more into a blue color. "Is something the matter?" Pyrrha asked from the far side of the room. "Let's just say we won't exactly need to head over to Beacon for at least 10 minutes..." Qrow nervously explains. -- Twilight flew around the city until she discovered her other friends finishing off more Knights. "Twi, what happened?" Applejack asked, concerned for her friend's safety. "Alex's brother blew Ruby and I out of the Beacon!" Twilight quickly explained. Twilight and the others took a collective blink of surprise. "Ouch, I'd hate to be him right now." Rainbow cringed. "His brother? You're certain, darling?" Rarity asked. "Oh, no..." Applejack gasped A loud sound, akin to a church bell or a gong exploded through the air, accompanied by a bright blue-violet flash. "Sweet Celestia!" Rainbow gasped. "What in the name of Equestria is that?!" Rarity gasped. Twilight slowly shook her head. "The Prometheus Charge..." Twilight said nervously. -- Vanoss respawned at the edge of the city. He found that Terroriser, Mini, and Wildcat were there shooting down the other Atlesian Knights, Iris was there too, stepping on a Knight's neck and severing it's head. "Hey, Evan, How was kicking Omega's ass?" Wildcat asked. "Some rubble fell from the ceiling and I died." Vanoss spat. "What happened up there?" Terroriser asked. "Apparently Omega is Alex's older brother." Vanoss explained. "God, that trend's been done way too much!" Mini rolled his eyes. A loud ring, accompanied by a bright blue-purple flash burst through the air, blinding and deafening the crew. "What the f**k was that?!" Mini asked. "It would appear as though Alex has activated the Prometheus Charge and is now ascending to his full power." Iris explained. "He's using that thing now?!" Terroriser groaned. "Is he a Super Saiyan or some shit?" Wildcat asked. "Not exactly.." Iris replied. The ringing and flashing persisted, growing brighter, louder, and happening in shorter intervals before finally glowing pure white and dispersing with the final boom. -- The first thing Alex noticed about his new form was that the sheer power was almost overwhelming, the second was that his body didn't exactly look human per-se. His body was now glowing bright blue, the scars that littered his body had changed from their original colors to a dark grey. His hair was only it's dirty blonde color at the tips, while the rest of it was shimmering purple, and his eyes were pure glowing white. He stared at Saisho menacingly, his fingertips sparked very light blue electricity, only now more intense and pronounced. Saisho looked mortified, his hands clasped around the weapon defensively. Alex took one step towards his brother, who backed away, scared out of his skin. "I guess you were right all along, Saisho." Alex began, his voice echoing through the room in a god-like fashion. "Stay back!!" Saisho blasted Alex with his own electricity, which only fueled him now. "Only one of us was going to make it out of this alive. Consider this your reward for killing Summer, Cyrus, and Chūkan." Alex smirked. Alex used his energy to move at lightning speed, before Saisho even could tell what was happening. He punched Saisho in the side, blowing him out of the Academy and charging at him, punching again. This went on about two more times before Alex finally grabbed his brother by the neck and threw him to the ground like a rag doll. The resulting explosion destroyed a few buildings, as well as the street below. Alex sped down again, finding his brother in the rubble and grabbing him, dragging him by the leg and spinning him around at insane speeds. Saisho's mechanical leg ripped at the knee joint, propelling him into another building, the tall structure caving down and crushing him. Alex swiftly dug through the wreckage again, digging him out and throwing him upwards, Alex then flew to about 10 feet above the ground, waiting for Saisho to finally fall, kicking him in the chest and causing him to crash through several buildings. Alex finished him off by using all of his energy to direct a single burst of lightning at his brother, the sheer power of the arc set the last few buildings on fire. The loud buzzing, crackling, and humming was enough to frighten most people, and he was certain that Twilight and everyone else might have heard. His brother leaped at him again, how was he still able to move, let alone survive that?! He slashed at Alex, giving Alex enough time to dodge and unsheath his own blade. He funneled most of his power into it, powering it until the blades of the sword looked like they were forged from lightning itself. "The Prometheus Charge... I understand now.. You've ascended..." Saisho realized with horror. "Smart. Now, say hello to Epsilon for me." Alex smiled. He ran at his brother, who raised his weapon to block. The blades clashed, only to run straight down the blade and blow off his mechanical right arm. Alex kicked Saisho away, a burst of blue lightning trailing behind him until he crashed into yet another building. Alex raised his his weapon high in the air, blade pointed down. "DIE, YOU HEARTLESS PRICK!!!!!" Alex yelled as he shoved Electric Fury into the ground, sending a blue arc of lightning at his brother, blinding Alex until he couldn't even see Saisho in the midst of the lightning, he heard the booming crackle and snap of the electric blaze, he wasn't sure even Saisho could survive that! Alex had poured most of his power he gained from the charge. Enough to retain his epic super-power form. Saisho himself was burnt nearly half to death, reduced to little more than lump of flesh and destroyed scrap metal, still scared to death by Alex's sheer power. Alex ripped his sword out of the ground, dragging the tip of the blade along the ground menacingly as he stalked up to his defeated foe. "Now, I'd like to make a deal with you, Saisho. If you tell me where to find Kalos Prime, I'll let you go." Alex offered. Saisho coughed, blood splattering the floors and his chest. "'Follow the path, where everything began... the Cryptic Triptych marks the dark Caravan,- " Saisho quoted, interrupted by another cough, "But, I will warn you... Saigo... The Inquisition is a powerful force, defeating them is no easy task.." "Oh? Well surprise, surprise. I just defeated you. Bringing the rest down will merely be a domino effect." Alex smugly grinned. "You're a madman, brother. I'm proud.." Saisho gasped. Alex stabbed his brother through the chest, his brother gasped in pain and agony. Coughing more blood before finally fading away, he loosened his grip on what appeared to be the detonator for the bio-weapons. Saisho Emphas, Alex's older brother, the one who caused so much pain for him and his friends alike. He was dead. Alex was the last of his kinsmen now. He would have to explain the difficult truth to everyone later. Alex's form faded away, he had returned to his normal self. He fell to his knees, the transformation, the sheer power of it all had taken it's toll on the boy. He was so tired.. "Walker spotted, there he is!" Alex heard someone say. "What the hell happened?!" "Check Omega!!" "Dead. Alex killed him." "He's in rough shape, someone arrange a medevac for the kid!" "Shit! We're losing him! He lost too much blood!" "WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!" Alex didn't hear a whole lot after that, his vision gradually faded to black as his hearing slowly mellowed out as well. Author's Note Yeah, I know, I've been slacking in terms of chapter-writing lately, so here's one giant chapter. Just letting you all know, this is going to be roughly the size of each chapter once the six-parter finally comes around. And I will probably start asking around for cover art. Not sure why I didn't do so earlier, but whatever. -The Destoyer
Act III, Chapter 16: A Light in the DarknessAlex slowly blinked his eyes open, the light from the port window pouring into his eyes. To Alex's own surprise, he was not in a hospital room, hooked up onto heart monitors and IV drips, but rather he was in his own room. Blinking away his tiredness, he noticed that his limbs still felt sore, and Alex still overall felt tired, drained, even. He craned his head over to look at the small clock and calendar to his right, 1:59 PM, November 26, 2016. How the hell did he end up back at the Iliad? He grabbed the blanket he was currently wrapped in and pulled it off of him, only to find somebody's arm wrapped around his chest-. Wait, what?! He checked his clothes, he was still wearing his armor, still cracked and broken from his scuffle that resulted in Saisho's death at his hand. His armor was still on, that was probably a good sign. Pulling the rest of the blanket off, he revealed the person lying next to him, still quietly snoring. The person tightened their eyes in the light before finally blinking awake. "Y-You're still alive..?" The girl yawned, her tiredness was still apparent, but there were subtle hints of joy that sparked in her gaze. "Yang..?" Alex drowsily blinked. What was she doing there? "Hi, Alex!" Yang rubbed her eyes and wrapped an arm around his neck. Alex returned the sentiment, he'd at least gave her that much before he would demand an explanation. "Can I ask why you're in my room, sleeping under my covers?" Alex asked. Yang suddenly jolted. "H-Hey! I didn't mean anything like that-! You were wounded and.." She stammered in realization at what he was actually implying. "Don't worry about it right now, you can tell me later. What happened while I was out?" Alex asked in a calmer tone than his insinuation just seconds earlier. "O-Oh.. The hazmat crew found you and Omega in the wreckage of a Dust shop. Omega was found dead on sight, and you fell into what Locust called a 'Semi-Conscious Healing State'. I followed the hazmat crew and dragged your tired ass back to the ship." Kat explained. "Then... None of you know, do you.?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Qrow told Ruby and I what Omega did. Ruby's kind of an emotional wreck right now, almost as bad as Pyrrha when she found out what happened to Russell." Yang sighed. "Did Qrow tell you that Omega just so happened to be my oldest brother?" Alex sighed. Yang put her hand on Alex's right shoulder. "I heard. That's why I'm here." She pulled him into a small hug. Alex smiled, returning the favor and hugging her back. Alex heard the door open, and the uncomfortable scuffling of hooves. "Is this a bad time?" Vinyl averted her eyes awkwardly. "V, this is purely platonic, trust me." Alex passive-aggressively chided. "Okay then... I just wanted to tell the two of you something... I don't know if you're going to want to hear this, but.." Vinyl's voice trailed off. "What's wrong? Is it Iris?" Yang asked worriedly. "Wait, Iris?" Alex asked. "You know how Iris merged with that robot Penny, right?" Vinyl asked. "Wait... You mean the robot that I caught trying to kill me at Beacon?" Alex wondered. "Yeah... Vinyl told me that the Inquisitors downloaded a virus into her systems, and if anything tried to get rid of the virus, it would delete both Penny and the Anti-Virus.." Yang clarified. "What?!" Alex practically leaped out of the bed. "Yeah, we've been trying to either stop the counter-virus or get Iris out of there.. So far neither seem to be working. She's in the main computer lab." Vinyl said. Alex ran down the hall, up the three flights of stairs, and inside the main server room. Sure enough, there was the coalition hacking division, all sitting around the table working on Penny/Iris. "Iris!" Alex called. The robot looked up at him with a relieved expression on her face. "Admiral, I'm glad you're here." She said, her voice seemed mechanical and badly damaged, fading a little as well. "You're okay, right? We can get her out of this thing?" He asked, turning to the lead hacker, an Adenienite named Haytham. "Sorry, sir. These Inquisitors knew what they were doing. We might lose her in a few minutes." Haytham sighed. "Dammit!" Alex kicked a monitor hard. "Admiral. Qrow told me that you might know where Kalos Prime was, Right?" She asked, the combined voices of both A.I getting weaker and weaker by the minute. "Yeah, but f**king Saisho got all cryptic about it." Alex said. "Hurry! It won't be long before we've been deleted, there's still time to triangulate the coordinates while you still can!" Penny/Iris pressured. "I'm thinking!!" Alex yelled back. "There has to be something... That riddle!! Okay, let's think... 'Follow the path to where it all began..." Alex thought. Maybe Saisho was referring to Adenien? No, if it was, surely Locust would've told him. Right? Scratch that, what else could it have been? Where it all began... Provinence. The Inquisitors are at bloody Provinence. The most obvious f**king place in the multiverse. Now... What did Saisho say about a 'Cryptic Triptych' again..? He was obviously referring to The Bermuda Triangle, precisely where Princess Luna had suggested. And what of the last piece of information? The Bermuda Triangle... Provinence... The 'Dark Caravan'. Was he referring to a gateway? "Iris! While you're still connected, is there a large city at Relative Coordinate point, or a massive amount of gateway energy?" Alex asked. Penny/Iris stayed silent for a moment until she finally blinked. "I'm seeing a lot of magic energy, as if the city is being protected by some kind of spell. Not nearly enough to equate to a gateway, but it's something.." Iris stated. "So, in short, there is something there?" Alex asked. "Yes... You've discovered Kalos Prime... Formerly known as the island nation of Mara Cylia. The birthplace of humanity. It's a spacious island, at least 3 times the size of Earth's Manhattan. The geography and weather is an perpetually changing forest, with one mountain overlooking the rest of the island" Penny/Iris explained. "Mark the location, plot a course. We're going now." Alex commanded. "Sir, what about the volunteers. You'll need every man you're able to get, even if some already arrived." Haytham reasoned. "Volunteers. Already?" Alex asked. "Mostly volunteers from the Valian evacuees, some of them came in from other universes. People also came in from Earth, Adenien, Equestria, and Vanoss's GTA V world, but others are coming in from all over the multiverse!" Haytham explained. "Anyone else I should know about?" Alex looked at Penny/Iris. "There's no time! Should I triangulate the coordinates now, sir?" Iris asked "Yes. This may be your final order." Alex sighed. "Go now, Admiral. I ask that you don't watch us die. You're already suffering, I cannot allow myself, on good conscience, to let you stay." Iris ordered. Alex nodded, and complied with her last wish by leaving the room. He didn't look behind him, and he kept walking until he found a bench to sit on. Alex held his head in his hands, contemplatively. 'Karis, Haunt, Cloudchaser and Flitter, and now Iris. Who else?' Alex thought sorrowfully. If what Locust told him was right, he would lose most, if not all, of the friends he met on this journey. "So now you understand the true cost of war." Locust stalked up and sat next to him. "I knew people would die, that was practically a given, but..." Alex sighed. "Auklet was my best friend from the Ryder Academy in Tsai, a city of Adenien. We were battle partners for 5 years. When I had been promoted to Commander of the Ryders, I personally made him my second in command. And I'm sure you know he died with the others from that mission." Locust explained. "And it's all my fault." Alex spat. "That is where you're wrong. Whether purely by chance or chosen by fate, these were the cards laid out in your future, Alexander. You know that was your father's wish, do you? For us to call you by your earth name?" He asked. "You knew my father?" Alex asked. Locust nodded. "A kind-hearted, courageous young man. You take a lot after him, you know." Locust laughed softly. "And my mother?" Alex wondered. "We were friends since our adolescent years. Your mother was always a talented and strong woman, if not a bit vain and quick to anger." Locust replied. "Funny. You only remember the good things about a person after they've already passed." Alex moaned. "There is something I must ask of you.. Should the war end, would you wish to return to Adenien?" Locust asked. "I'm still thinking about that. I only wish my friends don't all die so I have to make that choice alone." Alex sighed "You may not have to lose all of your friends. You know of the legend of the Enlightened Warrior, yes?" Locust inquired. "Enlightened Warrior?" Alex asked in confusion. "When the Prometheus Charge is activated, it searches the flow of time and space, searching for your very highest potential, rips their traits, and administers the power to the user, using it's own Equestrian Magical Energy to sustain the power. What you became upon it's use was your Enlightened Warrior form. And you became one rather quickly, meaning that it's point in the timeline was somewhere close to the moment you used it." Locust explained. "What are you implying, commander?" Alex asked. "With more training and meditation, you may very easily learn to achieve the Enlightened Warrior form again. Dark times are ahead, now closer than ever before, and you need to prepare, Alexander Walker, Man of Many Worlds." Locust nodded. "That's my epithet, huh? 'Man of Many Worlds'?" Alex smirked. "Yes, Admiral. I shall ask the Inheritors to train you more. Good day, Alexander." Locust shook Alex's hand, walking away. "See you 'round, Locust." Alex replied. Yang walked up to him, hugging from behind. "Everything okay?" She asked. "Fine. At least for now." Alex groaned. "Hey, that battle isn't for at most three weeks or so." Kat said. "Three weeks, three minutes. Do you honestly think it matters when?" Alex bitterly responded. "Alex. Listen to me. I'm not going to tell you that everything's going to be all gumdrops and rainbows, some of us aren't going to make it back. Russell didn't make it back, neither did Penny. Yes, Pyrrha and Ruby are torn up about it, so is Rainbow Dash after losing Cloudchaser and Flitter. But if you died, would you want us curled into a ball on our beds crying our eyes out, or would you rather we make sure you didn't die for nothing?" Yang told him. "..I think we both know the answer to that." Alex said. "Neither do they. I'm going down to one of the training areas with Delirious, Nora, and Pinkie. If you want to make sure that no one else has to suffer because of people like your brother, meet us there." "Fine. I'll go." Alex walked down the stairs with Yang to train for the end. Raven sat down, anger and disapproval still burning fresh in her mind. Qrow, Twilight, Vinyl, Locust, Mako, and Alexander sat on a round table in one of the conference rooms to discuss what to do next. Alex had killed his own brother in cold blood, breaking Inheritor Code in the process. She wouldn't let such bloodlust go unpunished. "So, we all know why we're here. Let's start off with resources. Twilight, will you begin?" Locust asked. "Of course. Celestia and Luna have informed be that our offensive force against Kalos Prime will stand 99,000 strong. Mostly volunteers, with about 20,000 guards, 1,100 of which are already on board. In addition, we had Kronus, The Elemental Alicorn of Fire. He shall arrive on deck in about one more day." Twilight stated, going through her notes. "Raven, Qrow?" Alex turned to the two huntsmen. "Every huntsman and huntress available will assist us. We would have The Maidens on our side, but their hands are tied." Qrow scoffed. "Qrow, you drunken idiot!" Raven spat, he just let everyone in the room know of Remnant's most powerful protectors, he had been sworn to secrecy! "Raven, please." Locust tried to calm her down. "And this isn't the first time someone broke Sacred Law in the past day either!" Raven seethed. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Qrow asked. "Alex killed Omega while he had already been defeated!" "And I had a damned good reason! That psychopath isn't any brother of mine!" Alex snapped back. "Everyone settle down.." Twilight nervously tried to diffuse the situation. "What your brother did was unforgivable, yes. But Inheritor law states-" Raven tried to explain. "Forget about Inheritor Law! I'm sure The Inheritors could have survived being purged of their pesky, archaic laws aside and just killed them! If we want to put these bastards down, we need to do it for good!" Alex yelled. "You're as psychotic as your brother with logic like that!" "When I had to run from Task Force Crimson, do you think Winchester would've stopped as soon as he saw I was done for and just let me live? F**k no! The man would have shot me in the heart and let me bleed out! If you had just let me kill Sigma, I doubt any of this would have been as bad as it was!" Alex retorted. "If we blindly killed everyone who did us wrong, then we are just as bad." Raven explained. "Ozpin and the Princesses didn't order me to beat Alpha and leave him alive. My mission is to kill him. Are you telling me to disobey my orders?" Alex asked. "Alex, you're a sociopath! You think your reasoning is good enough basis for murder, but you're sinking to their level!" Twilight amandantly agreed. "And how would you punish me? With a pat on the back and a cookie with a stern 'don't do that anymore'? Do you two think this is a game?" Alex asked the two of them. "As much as I hate to go against royalty, this isn't Equestria, and it isn't exactly peaceful anymore. This is war, and as much as I hate to say it, you can't properly fight in a war and still call yourself a good pony." Vinyl said. "I'm with the princess. We don't kill soldiers who've already surrendered." Mako said. "The only thing stopping the bad guys is the good guys. If we leave 'em alone, they'll find more ways to hurt people." Qrow explained. "May we get back on track? What are the invasion plans?" Locust asked. "Yeah. I'll pull up the map." Alex said, pressing a button and letting a holographic top-down view of the island pop up on the table. "From what Iris was able to read out before she... passed.... We have a view of their defenses." Alex explained. The top-down view ascended, revealing a mountain overlooking a large city. "What do we have?" Alex asked. "This bay here looks relatively safe, we could storm the beach with drop-ships and invade the city in fifteen minutes." Qrow noticed. "There are weapons overlooking the entire island, there's nowhere to run as soon as we go." Twilight corrected. "Then have our ships surround the island and fire from there, as well as have drop ships deploy hundreds of drop ships and aircraft, erupt the island in a sea of fire surrounding it." Mako said. "What about the guns? We'll lose thousands!" Raven reasoned. "With everything we have, they'll still hit the ship, Plus our defenses have been vastly limited now that Iris is gone." "Shit. There's dozens kinetic strike satellites above the island, too." Alex spat. "I have an idea!" Vinyl gasped. "What?!" Alex was thunderstruck. "Yeah! We hack into at least one of them, fire on the island before the assault, and destroy them, letting them fall to the surface before we attack!" Vinyl explained. "Our hacking division is a skeleton crew, the inquisitors know what they're doing when it comes to hacking." Raven shook her head. "We won't have to, my calculations state if they all fall to the island, their defenses will be crippled enough for us to take out the rest!" Twilight said. "From there, it's just a matter of how much they planned for it." Mako sighed. "Knowing them, it's probably not looking optimistic." Qrow shrugged. "We could use the ship's cannons to take down the satellites." Alex nodded. "Will we still have enough power to knock out the island's defenses?" Locust asked. "Maybe... But the ship's sights for the cannon aren't able to look into space, we'd be firing blindly." Vinyl explained. "And how long for the rest of the volunteer soldiers to get here? We might not have time." Alex shook his head. "Let's see... We'll need more than one ship to get everyone to Providence. Raven, Qrow, does Remnant have more ships?" Twilight asked. "Yes, all in command of the finest leaders in the multiverse. Four others besides ours. The Covenant, The Revelation, The Ragnarök, The Inferno, and last but not least, The Iliad." Raven said. "Have them all meet up here. When do we depart?" Alex asked. "I would say December 14th." Twilight said. "One more thing, who will be on the star squadron? Alex, who'll help you kill Alpha?" Locust asked. Alex thought for a moment before giving his answer. "For starters, the descendants of the original Fireteam White Lotus. From there, people who are asked to join us, by us." Alex replied. "So yourself, Kat, Team RWBY, Vanoss and his friends, and the Elements." Mako figured. "Most likely. But hey, that's not my decision." Alex shrugged. "And what's your squad name?" Twilight asked. "Simple," Alex answered. "I'd say it'll be a Platoon of about 26-36. And the name'll be... 'Ascension'." "Alright. We'll meet back in, say, a week?" Vinyl asked. "Got you." Qrow smiled. "Okay. God help us. God help us all." Alex stood up, walking out of the room instantly. "I don't know what I'm going to do with that kid." Raven sighed. "Neither do I." Twilight turned to her in agreement. Author's Note Let me clear something up before you all start commenting on how I got the Fall Maiden's condition wrong. Keeping in mind, this is an Alternate Universe, so certain events, like Starlight's attempts to change Equestria's future, never happened on account of the events in this story, because Alex and co. suddenly appeared into those other universes and pleaded the other protagonists for help, certain events would not have transpired. Qrow did let the Maidens' existence slip, but he purposely led Alex on because he doesn't want him to know he may very well end up fighting a losing battle. If Alex knew what Cinder and friends did to the Fall Maiden, then he would likely not even fight at all. But then, I did let this lead to a bit more of a favorable outcome, at least for a certain character.
Act III, Chapter 17: Preparations For Total AnnihilationDecember 4, 2016: 1500 hours: Vale Alex watched as more and more people piled in hordes onto the ship. The other E.R.C Super-Carriers were docked in port, letting their own masses onto their ships. Alex himself could not believe that so many decided to take part in what may well be the end of the multiverse. The members of his platoon, his closest friends, were letting people onto the ship, writing down information about the participants and handing them identification tags so they could go downstairs and get some extra training. He thought back to a recent summit for the captains of the ships, including himself, at the old Embassy Building. He was a bit disturbed by his return to Winchester's grave, but he got over himself in time. Besides himself, the captains consisted of General Adam Morgan from Earth, a tall, white haired man who was roughly in his seventies and was captain of the Covenant. In addition were Captain Shining Armor and Princess Cadence from Equestria, Twilight's brother and sister-in-law, respectively, who commanded the Revelation. It had been Alex's first time making their acquaintance, and both were slightly perturbed given their prior information about him, but they eventually settled down. Next in line was the captain of the Inferno, Vice Admiral Forrest Pines of Adenien, Locust's high superior. Locust had explained this to Alex before, The Ryders were basically Adenien's version of the Huntsmen, special mercenaries hired by the actual military force used when faced with disaster, Vice Admiral Pines was a member of the actual military force of Adenien. But that didn't excuse him for being a jerk about it. He basically called Alex out for being an orphan, having little military experience, and having gotten the rank of Admiral out of pity by people who, quote, 'who didn't have the necessary qualifications from this Multiversal Military Coalition'. Ironwood, who sympathized quite a bit with Pines, said that Alex had 'disturbed the natural timeline and brought death and destruction to everywhere he went'. Speaking of Ironwood, he ended up becoming the captain of the Ragnarök. The way both he and Pines spoke about him, Alex was worried that they may both try to fire at the Iliad the second the battle plans would go sour. General Morgan basically accused them of trying to break the Coalition itself when it was needed most, while Cadence and Shining Armor tried to settle everyone down. Ah, politics. He felt someone sit down next to him and scoot closer by. "Everything okay?" Rainbow asked. "Shouldn't you be signing volunteers in?" Alex asked. "I asked Ember to fill in for me." She smirked. "Alright, I'm guessing you're going to want to talk, so, what's the topic this time around?" Alex asked. She laughed slightly. "You worry too much." "Rainbow, look where we are, what's happening around us, and what will happen next week. I think I'm in just the right spot to worry." Alex replied. "Even for this, the invasion isn't happening for at least another week." Rainbow assured. "Yes, but there are battle plans, strategies to go over, with the people on this ship and the other captains, half of which are considering running a smear campaign." Alex scoffed. "That's just how people are. Look, I can't tell you everything's going to be okay, I don't think we're all going to make it out alive. But please, just slow down a bit. You might get a heart attack." She patted him on the shoulder. "I gotta go test something for Vinyl, catch ya later!" Rainbow sped off. "But she's also supposed to be signing people up!" Alex yelled back. "Can't hear you, flying away!" Rainbow screamed in reply. "F**k this world." Alex scoffed, throwing his hands in the air. Alex laid down on the observation deck, the late-fall chill sent ice down his veins. He was tired, sick, and wanted nothing more for all of this to finally be over. He heard the familiar sound of boots meeting the stairwell as he turned behind him, finding the crimson-cloaked leader of Team RWBY standing behind him, nearly expressionless, if it were not for the feeling of overwhelming sadness in the air. "Um, hi.." Alex began awkwardly. "Hi, Alex. Everything okay?" She asked. "About as well as could be expected." Alex shrugged. Ruby sat down near him, he would've said next to, but she shifted a bit to the right. "Something wrong?" Alex wondered. "It's just... People like your brother... What would make him-" Ruby sorrowfully wondered. "Kill your mother? Look, I know this can't be easy for you. Keep in mind, the sick bastard took my other brother, too." Alex sighed. "I don't know what would possess someone to do something like that! Every time they kill someone, they leave hundreds of other people without a friend or family member!" Ruby burst out, looking away from him. "Look, Ruby. I can't promise you everything's going to be okay... I'm sorry about what happened to your Mom, but I've lost much more than a mother." Alex stated. "H-How do you go on?! Both of your parents, your entire family is dead! You don't even have a place to call home but you still keep fighting!!" She fell into his shoulder, and Alex could feel tears soaking his shoulder. "Listen, I doubt we're the first people who've been hurt by these assholes, but if we all pull together, we might be the last." Alex helped her up, her head still in his shoulder. "My immediate family is dead, I can never go back to my old life. I've had a month in a CIA cell and three months drifting around the cosmos to figure that out. When I was fighting Task Force Crimson in Ponyville, I lost hope. I thought I was going to die. But then Karis guided me out of there. If it wasn't for her, I would have died, either by Equestria's army or Crimson. I have no real family, but I have a lot of good friends who are willing even to die for me. And, hell, I guess even the other way around." Alex elaborated. Alex guided her to the stairs, and sat down on one, letting Ruby slide awkwardly onto a step herself. "That's the reason I'm willing to put up with Vanoss's near-homicidal antics with his friends, and Twilight injecting random shit into my arm for science, and Yang's painfully awkwardly punny training sessions for hours on end. That's why I'm even willing to risk my life to save hundreds of trillions of people I don't even know. Because the ones that matter most are the twenty-three that followed me to Los Santos." He stated, pulling her into a sincere, albeit awkward hug. He still felt tears sliding onto his shoulder, fueling determination to never let another would feel what he felt, what she felt. Vanoss stood about five steps away, holding a mug of coffee and shuffling nervously. He hadn't even heard him approach. "Um.... Is this a bad time?" He asked, obviously a bit weirded out at the sight of Alex giving a crying Ruby a hug. "It's fine. Remember how Omega.. Well.." Alex began, but stopped himself out of respect for the huntress still clinging onto his shoulders. "Oh... Shit. My bad." Vanoss realized uncomfortably. Ruby sniffled, wiping tears away with her sleeve and locking Vanoss into her own hug. "Um. Uh... What do I do here?" He asked, even more perturbed. "Just let it happen, I don't know." Alex shrugged. Ruby eventually let go, wiping the remaining tears away before walking over to Alex. "Thanks. I needed to hear that." She smiled for the first time since hearing about Omega. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure your teammates are wondering where you're at right now." Alex nodded. "Okay. Are we still training tomorrow?" Ruby asked. "Yep, there's a war going on, so let's end it. Once and for all." Said Alex. She hugged him again before speeding off to her room, leaving him and Vanoss alone. "So, how's life?" Alex asked merely to break the awkward silence. "Meh, I guess it's okay. Delirious hooked up a few Xbox Ones to that plasma TV we bought for our lounge or whatever, we've been playing random shit on there, recording a lot of it, and uploading it to Youtube." Vanoss replied. "People like it?" Alex wondered. "They seem to. Earlier this month I told them what happened and why I haven't been posting videos, so a whole lot of them are coming here because apparently the government is allowing public inter-dimensional transport now. And people who aren't are wishing us good luck. I even got into an agreement with some of the news networks, we're going to record the whole battle." Vanoss explained. "That sounds like the worst f**king idea I've heard in my life. But hey, imagine if someone dies on camera and one of you is like 'Are you not entertained'?!" Alex inquired in a joking manner. Vanoss couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that comment. "Somebody gonna get the hurt real bad." Vanoss laughed. "Wait, how many did you get to join?" Alex asked. "I don't like to think about numbers that much, it's the thought that counts." Vanoss shrugged. "Just a ballpark is fine." Alex demanded. "Oh, you're serious. I think I heard about 3 mil." Vanoss figured. "THREE MILLION?!" Alex gasped. "I guess. Maybe more.." "My god, we'll wipe the f**king floor with the Inquisitors." Alex laughed slightly. "Why, how many is that total?" Vanoss asked. "Fifty-Five million volunteers from Earth, Equestria, Remnant, and Adenien. Four thousand from Fiore, 56 thousand from other worlds, including Iridia." Alex listed. "Iridia?" Vanoss wondered. "One of my top ten in the retirement list. Lush world, beautiful and relatively open housing, and mercenaries there are paid pretty nicely." Alex smirked. "Nice!" Vanoss nodded. "So, what'll you do after this is over?" Alex asked. "I'll go back to Earth, be with my family and all that. Maybe see you guys on vacation." Vanoss shrugged. "I can respect that. Sorry for keeping you away all this time." Alex sighed. "Nah, it's fine. I got to see new shit, use a mech suit, I don't think I could've done that anyplace else." Vanoss said. "Alright see you." Alex walked off. "I'll see you around. I'm going to show Nora what Netflix is." Vanoss said, running off. "Wait, what?" Kat was lying down on a couch in one of the lounge rooms with Mako along with some of the other Elements and Volunteers. "Kat?" Mako asked. "Hm? What is it?" Kat inquired. "I'm just thinking... Do you ever think you could go back with the way things were before?" Mako wondered. "Before Unity?" She asked. "Before Crimson. What got you into the Militia?" Mako clarified. "Oh, I was pretty normal, went to school every day, went home, hung out with friends, usual stuff. My dad was the one who recruited me into the Militia, he said that because America was steadily growing more corrupt, it was the right of the people to fix it. Little did either of us know that that wasn't what they were planning at all." Kat sighed. "I know, The Government wanted Die Glock, and so did the Militia, and you got caught in the middle, didn't you?" "I guess I kind of did. My dad died one day during a raid on the Pentagon. You know, last year? And the Militia kept me there all that time, i doubted them a bit after that." Kat asked. "What made you finally want to destroy it?" Mako asked. "I found out what they were planning about a week after the Bohemian Grove Massacre. But no new recruits had come in at all since the government put us out there like that. Nobody wanted to be the bad guy. And then, a literal day before the raid, we found someone accused of being our top man tied to a post. I saved him for more reasons than to get out of the Militia." Kat said. "Your new recruit." Mako realized. Kat nodded. "I let him in on the plan when everyone else was busy and he went with it. I didn't think for the kid or anyone at all, I just wanted to escape. I never expected to see the recruit again, alive much less." Kat sighed. "After that?" "You know, I went to Fiore and joined up with the Red Dawn guild, the Inquisitors set me up and framed me for the murder of some Red Dawn wizards. I ran to Adenien where I met up with Locust. He told me they were looking for an old Inheritor A.I called 'Zera'. After I helped the Ryders get that A.I and the information on it, he set a tracker to the A.I and told me to summon him when we needed him. And you know the rest." Kat finished. "Wait, you're the reason the Ryders are with us?" Mako asked, surprised. "I guess I was. I guess Zera's tracker stayed with Iris and she alerted them to us when we were about to lose." Kat realized. "Huh, I never would have thought." Mako blinked. "Yeah. I can't wait to go home, get back to life before the Militia and rest." Kat smiled softly at the thought of returning home. "Trust me, I'm sure we'll be able to." Mako smiled. "Thank god. After this, I won't ever have to fire another gun at a sentient being ever again." Kata sighed happily. "Alpha, sir!" Beta, Sigma, Gamma, and Scarecrow stepped into Alpha's throne room. "Have you any updates on the Coalition?" He asked. "Sire, we noticed volunteers flocking onto the Iliad nonstop." Sigma answered. "We also noticed similar model water-craft on the docks. We have reason to believe they're readying for a large-scale assault." Gamma added. "Do they know the location of Kalos Prime?" Alpha inquired, standing to his full height. "Omega gave the riddle to Walker before he was killed by the latter." Beta said. Alpha unsheathed his sword and ripped apart the tapestries on the cold, stone brick walls and the marble pillars that decorated the room. "DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!!!" Alpha screamed, enraged. "Sir, please." Gamma tried to calm his leader down. Alpha slowed his breathing and sheathed his sword. "Have we any updates on Neapolitan's condition?" Alpha asked. "She's still locked in the Iliad's prison complex. It's how they were able to prevent the bio-attack." Sigma explained. "Good." Alpha lowly growled. "Alpha, sir, what are you planning?" Beta asked. Alpha turned back at his second in command, a low, dark laugh booming from within. "We shall see what breaks first, The Coalition's morale, or their fleet." Author's Note Happy Holidays from the 5/10 horse fanfiction author, The Destpyer
Act III, Blood Red Night Part 1: Nightfall [X2 Edited] Mankind must put an end to war, Or war will put an end to us. -John F. Kennedy 0545 hours, December 14, 2016; The Iliad. Alex slowly opened his eyes. The sun hadn't risen yet and he felt a bitter cold setting in on top of his blankets and on his uncovered face. Winter had come to Remnant. And Alex really wished he invested his money in a space heater. Regardless, he threw off the blanket and put on the undersuit for his armor. The suit provided some comfort against the cold, but not very much. Alex then quietly stepped to his door, gingerly opening it and sneaking off. There were so many others sleeping just beyond, and their wake-up time wasn't for at least 15 minutes. Slowly, carefully, he made his way to one of the small break rooms. He knew that there would be small snacks and something warm to drink to tie him over at least until breakfast. From there, the only thing anyone would have to eat would be a seemingly infinite amount of MREs. He stepped inside to find Vanoss, Delirious, Rainbow, Vinyl, and Yang conversing quietly inside. Yang was the first to actually notice his entrance, for the rest it merely took a glance behind them. "Couldn't sleep?" Rainbow asked, sipping a cup of what Alex assumed was either coffee or hot chocolate. "Not really. At least this time, everyone knows why." Alex muttered. "Oh, shit. Is that today?" Delirious blinked. "Yeah. I mean, Iris should've told- oh, right.." Vanoss realized mid-sentence. "I've been meaning to ask, are those personal gunships you were talking about finished yet?" Yang asked the blue-maned unicorn. "Yeah. But I'm not sure how effective they'll be, so I'm not letting any of you take one." Vinyl said to all of them. "Knowing the Red Star for what they are, they've probably already moved their entire army over there. We'll be charging blind." Alex sighed. "I talked to General Morgan a little while back. He said something about this being the 'largest invasion since World War II'. He specifically asked for the ship to be able to deploy troops straight from the ship." Alex blinked in surprise. The Blood Red Night was comparable to D-Day?! "When are we going?" Yang asked. "We have about 11 hours before we have to make the dimensional jump." Alex sighed. "How bad do you think this'll be?" Rainbow asked. "You ever read the Warriors books?" Alex asked. "The what?" Vanoss wondered. "Am I seriously the only one who read those?" Alex moaned. "I read the first six. For a children's book series, it's really dark." Yang said. "What happens?" Rainbow asked. "It's basically cats killing each other with some forbidden love themes in between." She replied. Rainbow backed away. "You humans are crazy." "And proud of it." Alex stood in mock pride. Alex grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and sat down, drinking it in small sips. "Delirious, wanna wake the others?" Vanoss asked. "Yeah, man. I got the air horns and water buckets, how about you?" Delirious smirked through his hockey mask. "I got the firecrackers and strobe lights." Vanoss laughed with an edge of evil in his voice. "Who are you trying to wake up, Sleeping Beauty?" Vinyl laughed slightly. "Along with all our friends. They were all sleeping in the same room, right? Alex was the only one who didn't sleep in the same room." Delirious wondered. "And Weiss, she took the penthouse." Vanoss added. "Listen Vanoss, If you really want to wake them up, play this at full blast. Trust me, years of experience." Vinyl smiled evilly, handing Vanoss a small CD, a CD player, and a giant speaker. "Where did you have the time to hide all of that?!" Alex gaped. "Pinkie taught me how." She answered. Rainbow stood up, rubbing her hooves together like a stereotypical villain. "I have to see this. Catch you two later?" Rainbow asked. "Sure, see you around, Dash!" Yang waved. As Vanoss, Delirious, and the ponies snuck off, Alex realized they left him alone with Yang. "So.. How's life?" He asked. "Ruby's still a bit mopey, but she's getting better. It's been hard, Summer raised me too, you know." Yang sighed. "You're not the only one who lost family that day. Omega killed my other brother, too." Alex reminded her, referring to his brother with his Inquisitor code name. "And it's only going to get worse from here on out. I might not come back, maybe you won't. Who knows, maybe nobody is." Yang somberly added. "Trust me, you're going back to Remnant. If anyone's making it out of there alive, it's you and Ruby." Alex smiled in confidence. She pulled him into a hug, one of those bone-shattering locks that would take even the most experienced escape artists several hours to break out of. Alex returned the hug, but still felt a little awkward. Okay, a lot awkward. Eventually she loosened her grip, allowing Alex to finally breathe before she leaned in... And Rainbow Dash flew in, knocking the two of them over. Alex felt the cold linoleum slam against his arm and small hooves accidentally kick him as Rainbow scrambled up again. "What the hell?" Alex wondered. Rainbow backed behind the two defensively. "Who let Mako sleep with a hunting knife?!" Rainbow gasped. "Wait, what?" Yang wondered, confused. Alex listened closely to find loud dubstep blasting from the direction of Unity's quarters. "I'LL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH, YOU LITTLE PRISMATIC ASS!!! " Mako screamed. "Someone's not a morning person, or she really hates dubstep." Yang smirked. "This isn't funny! Mako's really mad!" Rainbow backed away further. "How are you the only one who got caught?" Alex wondered. "Evan tricked me into pressing the button and the others ran away!" She whispered. "So you come flying in here?" Yang asked, not really angry but extremely peeved or annoyed. "What, was I interrupting anything?" She asked. Yang held her composure for another two seconds, before blushing slightly and turning away. "Oh, my Celestia." Rainbow suddenly realized. Alex heard Vinyl laughing from another part of the ship. "What's so funny?" Delirious asked. "Lui's impression of you!" Vinyl answered. "Look, I'm a gay murderer." Lui said in his kid voice. "F**k you!" Rainbow turned to the two of them. "Well, good for you. I always kind of figured it would be you. Since that whole 'apprenticeship' thing back in LS." Rainbow smirked. "Complimenting a relationship at my expense. Real mature." Alex huffed, irked. "Thanks!" Rainbow smiled. Mako leapt at the door, a large hunting knife in hand. "ALRIGHT, MAGGOTS, WHERE'S THE PIPSQUEAK?!" She screamed. Rainbow flew out, Mako swinging the blade and missing by mere millimeters. "Whoopwhoopwhoopwhoopwhoop!" Rainbow mocked. "I knew she was watching way too much Futurama." Alex smirked. "Bite my furry pastel-colored flank!" She yelled. "GET BACK HERE BEFORE I TURN YOU INTO GLUE!" Mako charged out of the room. Author's Note: I need to stop. 1458 Hours, December 14, 2016, The Illiad. Alex stood in the intercom room, where the hackers helped connect all intercom systems with the other ships. He was alone, except for Haytham and Callus, another hacker. He had spent the past few hours writing his speech, and he asked some of his closest friends what they thought, and they said it would work for what was about to happen. He pulled up the microphone and waited until Haytham gave the 'go ahead'. Alex cleared his throat, he would be speaking to the entirety of the Coalition. Pulling up the piece of paper, he began. "Attention, this is your Admiral speaking. For too long, we have toiled under the Inquisition's tyranny and oppression. For years we were forced to fight, and kill, and lose everything we ever knew because of Alpha's multiversal dictatorship, carried out by barbarians and marauders! For too long, we lost family, friends, allies, and fellow comrades to their bloodlust! Their rule has brought us pain and suffering, and fear, but it also brought us together as soldiers, friends, and lovers alike! What was intended to divide us has instead united us against them!" Alex's voice rang out as millions, perhaps even a billion people prepared for the fight of their lives. "That period of loss ends today! Equestria's and Remnant's leaders have worked tirelessly to aid us in our mission! We even have the backing of Earth and Adenien, and so many others! We have been selected and called to aid our suffering universes to fight, kill, and die for! And I will not deny it. A great many of us will perish in the fight. But it's better to have fought tyranny and died a hero' death than to fight and die for little more than power, like our enemies! This is the burden we all carry, but we all carry it for the best reasons! We fight to protect the ones we care about, the ones who raised us from darkness and shrouded us in light, the ones we call our friends! We all have our own reasons for coming here today, but we all share the same goal now, saving us all!" He heard loud cheering from outside the walls of the small room in which they stood. "I believe this is the path we must take! Though our backgrounds are different, our stories separate, but with this, our paths are forever entangled! There was a time I didn't believe in heroes, but now I believe that there are those who have to do what must be done, those who aren't afraid, those who defend the lives of those they love. By being here today, on these giant boats, surrounded by perfect strangers, we are all heroes!" Another breath, another sip of water, another booming cheer from beyond. Alex cleared his throat again. "There was also a time when I couldn't afford to make friends, I had thought it was tedious and ultimately useless, but the experiences I've had in these past few months have taught me otherwise. Friendship is not only magic like our Equestrian allies think! It is the driving force, the guiding light that leads us all to true freedom! And today, we're defending that freedom! For years, they've battled us and won! And we lost our loved ones on those skirmishes! It's our turn! Today, we'll charge upon their shores like madmen! So many of us that the Inquisitors will wonder just what the actual f**k is wrong with us! Today, we charge up to humanity's birthplace for all of life's greatest battles! Today, comrades, The Inquisition we all once feared will BURN!!!" Neapolitan had snuck out of her cell. It wasn't that hard, their moronic leader had insisted not to use harsh methods, so she was well healed and angry. 'Phi, This is Alpha, are you familiar with the plan?' Alpha's dark voice asked. "Yes, my lord." Neo replied. 'Not yet, wait until their Dimensional Jump Devices have been activated? This goes for Tau as well.' Alpha ordered. "It will be done, Alpha." She turned off the communicator and snuck towards the room where the ship's main cannons were located, according to the guard... Alex stepped out of the room to find the whole ship cheering in applause, Rainbow flying up and hugging him. "Hi, Rainbow!" He gasped. "Sorry. Good speech!" Rainbow apologized. "Yeah, I didn't think you were necessarily a speech-writer!" Twilight smiled. "Screenwriting." Alex smirked. This did prove helpful. "Holy shit! Look at everyone! You can even hear them from the other ships!" Vanoss gasped, camera in hand. "I know, it's f**king crazy, man!" Wildcat added. "Yeah, kudos to Haytham and Callus!" Alex raised his water bottle. "Nice speech! That's my apprentice!" Yang cheered, Ruby following suit. "Not bad, it reminds of the old White Fang rally speeches." Blake added. "Thanks, everyone. Merriment aside, we got work to do. Are the Dimensional Jump Drives ready yet?" Alex asked. "Just got them up! Same story with the other carriers!" Haytham yelled from a few stories up. "You heard the man! Everyone head to your stations!" Alex commanded. As soon as everyone started to leave, Alex heard alarm bells going off. What the hell?! "Go ahead, Operator!" Alex commanded. 'Sir! The Ragnarök and Inferno have weapons lock on the Iliad!' The operator gasped in fear. No! "Don't fire! This might be a trick!" Alex yelled. "What's going on?" Weiss asked. "F**king Ironwood and Pines supposedly have their main cannons pointing at the Iliad!" Alex angrily spat. "What?!" "Why would they do that after all the hell we've been through?!" Kat asked. "Because they're assholes!" Alex heard a loud ring from both ships, as if their cannons were warming up. Fast. "SHIT! GET DOWN! NOW!" Alex commanded, dropping onto his belly on the flight deck. He heard two loud booms coming from either side, seconds later, huge chunks of the Iliad were blown off, sending people flying into the air. "HOLY HELL!" Mako screamed in shock. "WHAT THE FOOOOOCK!!!" Nogla yelled. "I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! CADENCE! SHINING! FIRE EVERYTHING!!!" Twilight commanded. Seconds later, as The Inferno's cannons were readying for another attack, the Revelation fired it's own cannons directly into their hull, and saw it start to sink. "THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Lui yelled. "NO! THIS ISN'T HAPPENING!!" Ruby screamed in terror. The Inferno immediately turned it's fire to the Revelation, blowing out the command bridge. "OH SHIT!!!" Someone screamed in horror. The Covenant was hit pretty bad by the Ragnarök, as it looked like it was mere inches away from finally succumbing to the depths. 'Sir, we're firing everything we have on the Ragnarök.' The gunner informed him via radio. "NEGATIVE! DO NOT FIRE!" Alex commanded. 'This is more of an FYI, sir. My family was on the Covenant.' The gunner said before the Iliad's cannons shot the Ragnarök to shreds. "MAKE IT STOP!!!" Weiss yelled at Alex. "HAYTHAM! SHUT DOWN THE DIMENSIONAL JUMP! DON'T LET US REACH PROVINENCE!!!" Alex commanded. 'It's too late!! I can't stop it!!' Haytham worriedly shuddered over the radio. "WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER SHIPS?!" Alex demanded, horrified. 'The Jump is linked to the other ships! We're going whether we like it or not!' Haytham gasped. "F***CK!!! THE PLAN'S GONE TO SHIT! GET BELOW DECK, NOW! THAT'S AN ORDER!! GO NOW!!!!" Alex got up and ran for the entrance to the ship, the rest of Unity following close behind him. "HEAD TO THE CENTRAL COMMAND ROOM! DON'T STOP FOR ANYTHING!!" Alex yelled again, running as fast as he could with most of the ship at his back. Suddenly he felt the earth move beneath them, before they ascended, slamming against the roof. "NOT NOW!" Vanoss screamed. "We're getting f**ked here!" Basically struggled to the door, still quite stuck to the roof. "Alex! We have to hurry!" Yang grabbed his arm, helping him along the roof, just before the entryway to the central command room. "Almost... Just a little.. Further..." Alex struggled, reaching even for the edge of the door frame. Just as quickly as it began, eventually they all fell hard against the floor. Alex felt sharp pain in his chest, physical and emotional. "No. This isn't happening.." Alex gasped. "What happened?" Kat asked. "We're in Provinence now, aren't we?" Mako seethed, grabbing her knee in pain. "Yes.." Blake sighed. "What the hell went wrong?" Terroriser wondered. Alex heard dark laughter over a loud voice coming from outside the ship. 'The Equestrian-Remnant Coalition. We finally meet. Sadly it seems it isn't under the best circumstances, as you are, ahem, still recuperating.' "Who's that?" Vanoss asked. "Alpha..." Ruby realized. 'Before I rain hellfire on all of you insolent pests, I'd just like to say one thing to your Admiral.' "That son of a bitch." Alex angrily spat. "He still has the Orbital Strike Satellites, doesn't he?" Weiss asked hopelessly. "Odds are." Vanoss sighed. 'Admiral Alexander Gabriel Walker, AKA Saigo Emphas. I must inform you that your involvement with us was in no way an accident. You've managed to turn a small group of rebels into an army, albeit scattered, charred heaps of what was once an army. Tell you what, since you've come all this way, I'll give you ten minutes to surrender. If you do, I'll let your little friends go home, of course, at the cost of your own life. If, by some accident you don't wish to surrender, I'll ensure your friends all suffer the same fate as you, and the same fate as your brother, Chūkan, as well as Cyrus Fong and Summer Rose. The choice is yours, let's hope you make the right one, shall we?' Alpha shut off the intercom, leaving the remaining soldiers of The Iliad shocked and horrified. "Well, F**k." Alex sat down, still shocked at everything that transpired. The others repeated this action, and cast pitiful glances towards the boy, "What now?" He asked. Leaving his revolvers laying down at his sides. Yang eventually walked to his side, and sat next to him. "Whatever happens, Ruby and I are with you, so are Weiss and Blake." Yang nodded, casting a glance towards her teammates. "Meh, we can't die either way. We might as well help you out." Vanoss shrugged. Vanoss's crew stood up, picking up guns and loading them, putting as many mags and rounds into their pockets as they could carry. "We've fought monsters for the sake of friendship before, we'll do it again." Twilight's horn glowed a bright purple, The Elements of Harmony standing tall, ready to face what could be their final battle. "Alexander, Your courage has inspired a great deal of us. Let's show these Inquisitors what the Ryders are all about." Locust stood up, attaching a mechanical arm with a massive circular saw at the end. Alex looked around, his eyes slightly moistening as he saw the faces of his friends ready to defend him, even if it meant death. He stood up, grabbed his armor from a nearby locker, putting it on quickly and donning his helmet, putting his revolvers in their holsters and grabbing his Serengeti BR. "Let the games begin, Alpha." Author's Note And with that, the Blood Red Night Arc begins! [In retrospect, I probably started off this part with a darker tone. Ah, screw it, there's a reason I put that tag on the story in the first place.] Edit: I chose to make this the first part of the Blood Red Night Arc instead of a pretense. Just figured it would make more sense. Edit again: Both Neo and Emerald now have reputations as illusionists, technically it could still work.
Act III, Blood Red Night Part 2: Never Surrender Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. -William Ernest Henley; Invictus Alex stood with his friends inside the now-destroyed Iliad after the ill-fated drop into Kalos Prime. He just got his weapons, ready to fight and likely die in this battle, the Blood Red Night. "Okay, I think the vote's practically unanimous here. But before we do anything, we can't go out blind, someone look for a window or something so we can actually see what the hell is happening outside." Alex ordered, searching for a window. The whole remaining 45,000 or so people got to searching for a window. "Sir, you might want a look at this.." One of them said, standing near a somehow still intact computer drive. "What about it?" Alex wondered. "Something on there's trying to communicate with us! Those blinks are morse code!" The soldier replied. "You know it? Got a pen and some paper or something?" He asked. "Yes, sir." He said. "Well don't just sit there with your thumb up your ass! I'd say we have another eight minutes before they blow the rest of us to kingdom come!" Alex commanded. "Y-Yes, sir!" He grabbed his pencil and the back of an MRE box he was carrying and started writing. "Anyone find out what the hell is happening outside?!" Alex demanded. "I found one in the hall! Gaping hole to the outside!" Another soldier replied. Alex ran over to the hallway, slowing down to a tip-toe to look outside. Sure enough, they were surrounded, hundreds of soldiers outside, hundreds of tank barrels and artillery pointed at the ship, with... Of course. With Sigma standing guard. Alex ran back inside, grabbing a loose piece of hull. He drew out the ship in a destroyed part of the hull, which had some dust exposed. He eventually drew out where he remembered seeing Red Star, adding a giant 'S' for the Inquisitor standing guard outside. "What's the plan? Anyone here a half-decent strategist?" Alex demanded. "What, you, our Admiral, can't think of a plan?!" Nogla screamed, irritated. Ruby ran over, checking out the situation. "What's the giant 'S' stand for?" Ruby whispered. "Sigma. The motherf**ker's standing outside right now." Alex replied. "And those little circles? Is that our cover?" She asked. "It's enemy artillery." "And the dots?" "Infantry." Ruby thought for a moment before running over to the hallway, looking outside, and running back. "Even if we manage to take out all of the infantry and artillery, the Orbital systems will still keep us in check, and there's probably a lot more reinforcements. Sorry, Alex." She sighed. Alex kicked a destroyed computer in hopeless rage. "Sir! Come over here!" The soldier at the computer alerted him. Alex ran over, looking at him. "Yes? What happened?" Alex asked. "If I got this right, then this computer is saying that this is an A.I copy of Iris inside called 'Andromeda'. It says that the ship's main cannons are still active, but the automatic targeting systems have been destroyed in the second blast." The soldier repeated. "Where's the manual controls, anyone?" Alex asked. "Last I checked, Haytham was trying to stop the ship's cannons..." One other soldier recalled. Alex grabbed his radio. "Haytham, come in!" Alex commanded. 'Lex! Lex, is that you?' Haytham asked. "I'm here. There's something I need you to do." Alex began. 'What?' He asked. "Hold on, what is the current angle of the ship's cannons?" Alex asked. A few moments passed. "35, sir!" The soldier called. "Where do they need to be to take out the Orbital Systems?" Alex demanded. Another couple seconds passed. "92 degrees." Alex grabbed the radio again. "Haytham, turn the ship's cannons to 92 degrees!" Alex commanded. 'Won't they be able to tell what we're going to do?' "That's an order, Operator!" Alex said more urgently. 'Yes, sir!' Haytham announced. Alex heard a loud metallic grinding sound. The cannons! "Good work! Get Andromeda out of there and somewhere she can communicate with us without having to use outdated methods of communication!" Alex ordered. Vanoss got a 2 TB flash drive and plugged it into the computer. "In here, I'll get you to a speaker or something.." Vanoss said. Vinyl pulled out a small speaker, pointing out the USB attachment on the side. Vanoss quickly plugged in the A.I. "Andromeda, you there?" Alex asked. "What's going on?" Ruby wondered. "Hello, I am Andromeda, the A.I duplication of the late Iris." Andromeda said. She sounded more like the A.I Veil than like Zera. "Andromeda, is there anything else you can tell us about the situation?" Alex asked. "Satellite imagery from the Orbital systems indicates a Red Star fortress just beyond, but it is extremely heavily guarded, at least three million, as well as one million moving into a large castle a few miles away." Andromeda explained. "You think we can take 'em?" Yang wondered. "With burning hunks of metal falling from the sky as a distraction and weapon, I'm sure you may be able to take out the first wave." Andromeda replied. "Any survivors from the other ships?" Alex asked. "Yes, they're all scattered across the Island, I'll tell them to converge on the fortress in the estimated 20-40 minutes it will take to defeat them. Plug me into the ship-to-ship communicator." Andromeda said. Delirious quickly grabbed the flash drive and plugged her into the comms. 'Your ten minutes are up! Have you come to a decision yet?' Alpha demanded. "Haytham, give them our answer." Alex ordered. 'You got it, Admiral!' Haytham announced. "Everyone, Ready up!!" Alex commanded. He suddenly heard a loud boom, with a resounding crackle as the shot ascended into the sky. 'D-Direct hit! The Iliad has a direct hit on the Inquisitor's Orbital Strike Weapons!' Haytham cheered. "Direct hit! The OSWs are coming down!" Alex announced. Everyone cheered, grabbing their weapons and raising them high. They soon heard what sounded like metal slamming against the ground, accompanied by screams of pain and surprise. "Attack!" Alex commanded, slamming into the wall and destroying it, firing his weapon indiscriminately at the throng of enemy soldiers before converting one of his revolvers into swords, hacking through the crowd. He dodged an artillery shell, leaping over it and landing on another enemy soldier, stabbing him at the top of the head before leaping off his shoulders and flinging the corpse at the tank. "Yang, back me up!" Alex commanded. As soon as he landed on the ground, a multitude of blasts eventually collided with the tank, blowing it up. Alex fired his revolver at more soldiers as his men continued tearing apart their enemies, more rubble falling onto the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, Alex spotted Rainbow Dash and Applejack fighting Sigma. Even this Inquisitor was having trouble keeping up with them. Sigma pulled out both of her swords, leaping into the air and hacking Rainbow's wing, then kicking Applejack in the center of the spine. "Pony, no!" Ruby gasped, firing her sniper at the assailant who merely blocked the bullets with her bare hands. Alex ran up while Sigma was still distracted, kicking her in the center of the chest, sending her skidding backwards to a halt before she put her blades together, forming a bow. Before Alex had time to react, she fired an arrow at his armored chest, which exploded on impact. Alex screamed in pain, rolling onto his chest and seeing Ruby fight Sigma, somehow keeping up with this dangerous opponent. As Alex struggled to pick himself up, he was grabbed by the back of his armor and shoved into a burning pile of scrap, getting the crap punched out of him by... "Scarecrow?! How are you still alive?!" Vanoss gaped, firing a shotgun at his chest point blank. The lead pellets bounced off his armor and some went directly into his wounds, he gasped in pain before staggering all the way up. Scarecrow pulled out a massive machete and attacked the owl-masked Youtuber, who had his own machete blocking the attack. "Back me up, guys!" Vanoss demanded. Delirious smacked an enemy soldier in the side of the neck before shooting him. "We're busy, you little bird bitch!" He yelled back. Alex pulled himself up, attacking Scarecrow while he was caught off guard, punching him in the center of the gas mask he was wearing. Vanoss smirked at him, stabbing Scarecrow clean in the chest, it wasn't fatal, and Scarecrow attacked Vanoss, striking him in the arm. As for Alex, he was hit pretty bad, bleeding profusely from his wound. This thing needed cleaning now. Wait, who had a decent amount of experience in the medical field..? "DIE, YOU UNCOUTH RUFFIANS!! DI- oh, hello Alex darling!" Rarity waved. "Rarity, this isn't the time for..." Alex finally realized. Rarity was a fashion designer, which meant she knew how to sew, and Alex had an open wound which could probably get infected... "Rarity, can I ask you a quick favor?!" Alex asked. "Yes?" She asked, grabbing a Red Star trooper with her magic and flinging him at another group. "I got an open wound, you know how to close up tears in fabric, let's make a deal.." Alex figured. "Er...I don't know about flesh and blood though, darling... Ask Fluttershy." She backed away in fear. "Oh, come on! It's not like you haven't seen any of this before!! Besides, Fluttershy's afraid of her own shadow, she's sure as hell afraid of blood and- oh, dear God, there's pus." Alex felt his eye twitch. "Yeah, that isn't exactly my field of work, darling.." "OH, FOR F**K SAKES!!" Alex grabbed Vinyl's canteen, which definitely contained some kind of alcohol, and poured it on the wound. He screamed in agony before grabbing a needle and some string he stole from Rarity's saddlebag.. "Hey! I may be the Element of Generosity, but it's not okay to steal!" She scolded. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?! I HAVE A F**KING HOLE IN MY SIDE AND WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR ZONE!!" Alex yelled back as he shoved the needle into his own flesh. "Okay, Alex.. Remember what you learned in Art Class; over and under- OH, F**K THAT HURTS!" He hurriedly finished his work, tossing the needle away and wiping away excess fluid. "Okay, that was f**king disgusting.. But it's over now.. Thank god." Alex huffed, the wound still stinging. Pain! God! Alex felt hot lead pierce his shoulder, he'd been shot again! "Dammit! Not again!" Alex grasped his shoulder in pain, he'd have to do this all over again- Oh, right. The healing aura. He manipulated his Aura to his injured shoulder and the wound in his side, he pulled out the bullet in his shoulder first before letting it take full effect, once he did, he was in half-decent condition, but still felt some pain. Alex picked a minigun up off the ground, firing it in the direction the bullet likely came from, resulting in more than a few soldiers falling out of the trees in the forest just beyond. "Ratte! Ratte!" Another soldier called before being blown apart. A P.1000?! Here?! Only the f**king inquisitors. "Concentrate as much fire as you can on that tank!" Alex ordered. "Grenade! Move!" A soldier called out. Weiss ran to their aide, freezing the ground near it and eventually encasing it in ice before it exploded, sending shards of frozen liquid throughout the battlefield. She turned around, stabbing a Red Star soldier in the chest. Another soldier behind her aimed his rifle, but could do nothing as Rarity sent needle upon needle flying at him. "AAAH! MY EYES!!" He screamed as he fell over. Rarity cringed, winking at the heiress. "THERE'S SO MUCH SHIT GOING ON!!! KILL THE TANK!!!" Wildcat screamed. "GWEEEEEEEEY!!!!" Nogla screamed as he fired a machine gun. "AAAAH!! MY HEALTH IS SO LOW!!!" Delirious screamed before he was blown away by a rocket. "NO! DELIRIOUS!!" Lui screamed. "Someone, hit that tank!" Alex screamed as he tried fruitlessly to fend off his enemies. Even dual wielding his Electric Fury and the Serengeti wasn't enough to stop them from pouring everywhere. Alex heard a metallic ringing, as if someone was attacking him. He turned around to find Sigma swinging her sword at his wounded side. Alex barely managed to block the attack with the barrel of his revolver, he kicked her in the chest before Ruby leaped high in the air, swinging Crescent Rose at Sigma's back. Sigma gasped in pain and surprise as she turned to find the young girl beside Alex. "This isn't your fight, child. Walker's my target." Sigma threatened. "I'm as old as he is! What makes me any different?!" Ruby defended. "You don't have a price on your head. Back away from the boy." She ordered again. Ruby turned to him. "Mind if I fight her?" She asked. Alex put the Serengeti against his back, pulling out Blitzklinge and pointing both revolvers at his enemy. "As long as I can get a couple shots in myself." Alex smirked. Both Huntress and Super-Soldier alike attacked the Inquisitor, Ruby's attacks fast and meticulous and Alex's vicious and lethal. Vanoss was still busy dealing with Scarecrow, along with having to shoot at other enemies, on account of their sheer numbers, his friends did what they could to help, but were heavily occupied. Team RWBY were scattered across the battlefield, doing what they could to survive. The Elements' numbers were dropping fast, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were already wounded, with Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity still fighting, and Fluttershy trying to avoid the chaos. Everyone was fighting, but many were dying, and many more had already lost their lives.. Alpha stood at his castle, looking at a holographic view of the battle at the destroyed Iliad. He was severely angered that their All-Star group managed to survive, and even more so that they were actually doing some damage to his forces. "Beta!" Alpha demanded. Beta immediately ran to his master's quarters. "Yes, sir?" He asked. "Have Sigma's pets entered a battle yet?" He asked. "Sir, Neo survived the Iliad crash, and Upsilon and Tau have arrived at the Revelation." Beta reported. "What of the other crafts?" Alpha demanded. "I've dispatched several dozen units to the wreckages, including our Ratte at the Iliad. So far, the Covenant is our only victory thus far." Beta answered. "How much of our defenses are at the Tranquility Complex?" Alpha asked, referring to the base. "75% of our defenses are at the Complex. The other 25% are here." Beta replied. "Sigma is having trouble. Go to the Iliad. Keep those pests from getting out!" Alpha ordered. "Yes, sir." Beta unsheathed his sword and charged off. Alpha smiled, watching the carnage unfold at the ship now. "Alexander, you've made a grave mistake." Delirious eventually respawned for what felt like the ninetieth time, but he was directly behind the super tank. He clasped his hands together, snickering deviously. He grabbed the tank's backside and hoisted himself into an exhaust vent, it was just small enough for him to wriggle inside of it. By the time he was inside, the operators didn't suspect a thing. He pulled out a hatchet and a sawed-off shotgun, sneaking behind the rear-most tank operator and splitting the man's skull open before lighting up the room, they barely had any time to react before the tank was in a practical standstill. He cracked his knuckles and made his way over to one of the seats, finding not the controls for the tank, but their weapons systems. He was admittedly going to just stick a few bombs inside and blow it up, but this seemed a bit more fun. He eventually gained control of the main cannons, turning them towards an innumerable amount of Red Star soldiers, walked over to the guns, hoisted MASSIVE artillery shells into the double barrel cannons on top of this thing, and loaded them up. He ran back to the firing mechanism, zeroing in on the large amount of enemy troops, and with a sinister grin spread across his face, he grabbed his cellphone. At least one person would want to hear what he had to say... Alex leaped over Sigma again to avoid being struck by Crescent Rose for, like, the thirtieth time in five minutes. "Can you f**king watch where you swing that thing?!" Alex yelled in annoyance. "That's what she said!" Ruby and Sigma both called at the exact same moment. Alex felt a vein in his forehead burst. "You okay?" Ruby asked. "I'm fine.. Just.. Just an aneurysm out of sheer stupidity." "Wow. Didn't think you were that stupid." Sigma glared. Alex screamed in rage and irritation, batting Ruby out of the way and practically whaling at Sigma like a punching bag. "You remember what I did to Omega?! Guess what'll happen to you!!" Alex yelled out, more angry than hurt. "Jump off your own ass and DIE!!" Sigma nicked him in the side, but it still didn't exactly stop him. Alex kicked her hard in the gut, lightning practically spewing out of his boot as Sigma was blown backwards into a tree. KA-POW!!! Alex turned to his right, discovering that the P.1000 Ratte the Inquisitors had been using had just blown up whole unit of it's own soldiers. "What the?!" Sigma gasped. "Wait.. Where's Delirious?!" Ruby realized. Vanoss slammed Scarecrow into a tree, pulling out a switchblade and attempting to stab him, only to have the attack blocked by Scarecrow's armored gauntlet. Scarecrow kicked Vanoss hard in the chest, he hit another pile of scrap and fell onto his back. As Scarecrow approached him with a ridiculously large dagger, Vanoss kicked him in the crotch, slit one of the air tubes on the mask, and kicked him again, this time, knocking him completely over. "Get f**king owned!" Vanoss laughed. Scarecrow choked, gasping and coughing. "You bastard! That little stunt on the carrier compromised my lungs!!!" Scarecrow gagged. "Your fault for being a bitch." Vanoss shrugged. "You... You will pay with your life.... Face the might of the Red Star!!" Scarecrow yelled as a massive tank rolled in... And then stopped. "The hell?" Vanoss wondered.. Vanoss then heard felt a cellphone buzz in his right pocket, pulling it out, he found that Delirious was calling him. "Hello?" He asked. 'What's up guys? I'm H2O Delirious, and this is Jackass!' Both barrels of the mega-tank obliterated a crowd of incoming Red Star soldiers, within seconds, they were nothing more than a smoking, gory mess in the center of the battlefield. "HOLY SHIT!" Vanoss gasped. "No.. No..! NO!!!" Scarecrow punched the ground in terror and rage. Vanoss picked up a heavy revolver lying on the ground, loading one round before snapping the cylinder closed and pointing it at Scarecrow's head. "Y'know, there's a saying we hockey players pass around. I think I said it in one or two of my videos at one time or another.." Vanoss chuckled. "Whatever asinine punch-line you have, get it out of the way!" Scarecrow spat. "Keep 'er goin'!" A large sword knocked the gun out of his hand, slashed his leg clean off, and stabbed him in the other leg. "Very poor choice of words." A dark, mechanical voice mocked. "B-Beta, sir.. The Canadian compromised my respiratory gear..." Scarecrow coughed. Vanoss could only watch as Beta lit Scarecrow's body aflame. His foe screamed in agony, flailing around before finally going still. "If he could not defeat a mere civilian, then he would not be able to handle the title of Inquisitor. As for you," Beta scowled, pointing the blade at Vanoss's head, "I'm well aware of your little 'immortality' game, and I could not care any less." Beta swung the blade upwards, and... Long story short, Vanoss respawned three feet away from his death point, looking sheepishly at his own killer. "God, the spawns on this map suck ass!" The Owl groaned before running away, firing back at the brutish Inquisitor as he did. Twilight impaled a Red Star Lieutenant into a tree, the battle had long since moved into the forest. She had Pinkie shooting people with her party cannon, but Fluttershy was backed into another tree, trying to soothe a squirrel. "Not so fast, Miss Sparkle!" A familiar voice called from the distance. She saw Pinkie get immediately covered by a yellow glow. "Gamma!" She realized. "Yes. Order your men to surrender, Princess. It is the only thing that can possibly save your friends." Gamma threatened. "You monster, you're threatening another pony's life, for what?" Fluttershy scolded. "I am the monster? Says the yellow rat- I mean horse- with wings." Gamma spat. "Don't hurt Pinkie Pie, she didn't do anything to you!" Twilight pleaded. "No. She is not entirely blameless here. Neither are you. Stop all of this now and we'll only kill the boy." "You won't stop with Alex! You haven't stopped before!" Twilight retorted. "I am only following orders." Gamma grinned menacingly as he raised her high in the air. "Pinkie!" Gamma flung her cross the skies. The average Earth Pony was durable, yes, but not enough to survive such a fall. "You... You MONSTER!" Fluttershy yelled, flying into Gamma and slamming him into a tree. "Fluttershy!" Twilight tried to stop her with her magic, but she only had Fluttershy's bottom half, while Gamma had the top. "Let her go!" Twilight struggled. "I am not letting go of this little nothing! If you pull, she'll be ripped in two like a wishbone. Let go of her. Now!" Gamma ordered. "Never! I'm not abandoning my friends!" Twilight pulled. "You are a true fool." Gamma scowled. Twilight was conflicted. She didn't want her friend to die, but she didn't want to kill her by accident either! Frustrated, she let go. And shockingly, Gamma released her. "I will not kill either of you... Intentionally!" Gamma grabbed the two of them and flung them against the Iliad. Twilight and Fluttershy fell to the ground. Both ponies were battered and beaten, but otherwise unharmed. "Thank Celestia that at least one of my friends are still alive." Twilight thought as she pulled herself up, immediately having to fight again. Yang punched a Red Star soldier directly in the face, grabbing him by the shirt and blowing him into another group and sending blast after blast in their general direction. As she fired the last couple rounds, she unloaded her weapon, shells flying everywhere, and quickly reloaded. Once she finished, she saw the short ice-cream girl who nearly killed her on that train underneath Vale. She grinned menacingly in her direction, flourishing her umbrella. Yang smirked. She wouldn't make the same mistakes twice! She fired her gauntlets downward, ground-pounding the small clearing just behind her and punching her in the face- oh, wait, she blocked it. "You know what happened to the last person I actually fought?" She asked, referring to that oh so unfortunate little incident at that one bar. Ice-cream lady evaded her punches before spinning behind her, knocking her over with the umbrella and raising it high. She punched again, only meeting the umbrella again as she flipped behind her again. Yang spun around, this was her chance! She leaped straight upwards, ground pounding again only to find the girl had shattered. Yang saw her again sliding past Ruby and Sigma. Oh, this could be bad. She fired one shot at her leg, only to find a familiar voice scream in pain. "GOD DAMMIT!!" Alex screamed, grabbing the afflicted limb. "What the hell?" Yang pondered. "WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K WAS THAT FOR?!" He yelled. "I thought you were someone else!" She called back. "I'M WEARING IRON MAN ARMOR AND I HAVE AN EYE SCAR THE SIZE OF A NAIL! I MUST LOOK LIKE SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE!!" He screamed back. She felt her leg sting with pain again, she fell to one knee and rubbed one finger against her wounded leg, where a neat trail of blood left it's mark. She punched the Mary Poppins cosplayer, still only managing to hit the umbrella, and sent her skidding backwards. "It'll take a lot more than this to get me mad!" Yang smirked, flicking the red off her hand. The girl smirked, leaping over her and pulling a small blade out from underneath the umbrella, she evaded the attacks and punched her again, and the girl only stood there, menacingly. "Wow, you really need work on your bladework-" Yang suddenly noticed a substantial amount of her hair drift like golden string to the frozen earth, immediately feeling blood rush to her head. "Alright... THAT'S IT!!!" Yang's eyes quickly turned from their usual lilac purple color to a piercing blood red as the space around her erupted into brilliant golden flame. The girl looked a bit less confident, grabbing her umbrella again and swinging it, fully extended, at her rival. Yang ducked, evading the attack and hitting her square in the shoulder. The attack alone made her drop the umbrella to clutch her arm in pain, from there, the attacks were relentless. Blow after blow, the girl's aura depleted fast. Until eventually she passed out from the sheer exhaustion and pain. Yang stood victorious over her foe, kicking her in the gut in a final bout of rage. "Serves you right..." Yang smirked. A couple soldiers noticed her victory, running over and grabbing an arm and a leg. "What do you want us to do with this one?" One of the soldiers asked. Yang cocked Ember Celica again, she should kill her for what she did... She remembered someone her height being locked up in the Iliad during Omicron's attempted breakout. That much, she knew. Plus, Yang was pretty sure the girl made her shoot Alex in the leg. He'd probably agree. But then again, Alex literally killed his own brother. Sure, Omega killed her step-mother in cold blood out of hatred for Alex's father. But even so, if Ruby did something similar, even Yang wouldn't bring herself to kill her own flesh and blood. Even if Alex was her apprentice and very close friend, ruthless murder was something that just wouldn't sit right with her. "Lock her up." She ordered. "Yes, Huntress!" The soldiers saluted. Yang then heard more rumbling from what sounded like tank engines. "Reinforcements! There's more coming!" Yang heard Jaune screaming from across the field, carrying a wounded Nora Valkyrie. She didn't see Pyrrha or Ren anywhere. They must have either been somewhere else, or actually... No way. "Fall back! Fall back!" Vanoss yelled, running out of the forest. The remaining coalition forces fell back around the ship. Thankfully, she still was able to see Alex and Ruby had made it, Weiss and Blake as well. Unfortunately, only Twilight and Rarity ran back with them. In the distance, she saw Rainbow Dash writhe in pain as she clutched a dismembered wing, Applejack and Pinkie Pie laid collapsed on the ground. She looked and saw what carnage they had committed. Broken corpses of both Coalition and Red Star laid dead and dying in the battlefield. A light snow fluttered to the frozen earth below, almost burying them. She saw another large mega-tank, different from the Earth models she had seen before, stop directly in front of them. What was once 45,000 had been reduced to a couple hundred in a matter of minutes. At the top of the tank were the Inquisitors Beta and Sigma. "Soldiers of the Equestrian-Remnant Coalition! What was this all for?! Killing and dying in vain like some sick cult?! Is a peaceful rule not what you truly desire?! Is the future of your worlds not worth a single worthless life?!" Beta asked of them. "Worthless?! You're trying to kill a couple of kids! You've tried manipulating us for 4 months now!" Kat yelled defiantly. Numerous soldiers yelled their approval. "And it isn't just a couple kids in way over their heads! You've hurt all of us with your treacherous acts!" Locust added. "We would have been in the Vytal Festival tournament if not for you!" Jaune angrily screamed. "You tried to kill us all more than once! Including multiple counts of attempted use of a biological weapon!" Another soldier yelled. "You turned a happy and peaceful environment into a war-torn deserted wasteland for no reason other than to fulfill your sick power plays!" Twilight flicked the blood off one of her wings. "I did absolutely nothing to any of you back in August! Yet you arrested me for no reason and insisted on continually harassing me and my friends! Not only that, but Earth is in tatters by now!" Alex yelled out. Sigma scoffed, voicing her decision to Beta. "There is no helping them. They made their choice." Sigma told her superior. "I agree. Ready!" Beta called. All Yang could hear were the sounds of her own breathing, and the loading and chamfering of numerous rifles and cannons. "Aim!" She moved in front of her sister and her apprentice. "Stay behind me!" She ordered. "Like hell I am!" Alex moved beside her, but not beside her, as to avoid any awkwardness himself "Well, never thought I'd go out like this." Yang thought to herself. "Well, we had a good run. Vodka, anyone?" Vinyl reached in her saddlebag to find a canteen, tipping it over to find only a few meager drops fall out of it. "What?! I had an open wound and needed a disinfectant!" Alex defended. "Alex, you dork." Ruby sniffled. "Fire!" Author's Note "Look, we got four or five of the main characters on this ship. I think we'll be fine." -Peter Griffin, Something Something Something Dark Side
Act III, Blood Red Night Part 4: Base Invaders No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. -Colin Powell Lui's eyes shot open, he was laying in some kind of pod or chamber, connected by a series of wires and electrodes to it's interior. "He's up! Get him out of there!" Someone yelled. Lui instantly felt every wire being ripped off him as he was pulled out of the pod. "Where am I?" Luis asked, rubbing his eyes. He noticed he wasn't in his monkey mask at all anymore, nor did he have any of his weapons on him. "I'm Corporal Wilson, North American Federation. You're in an old CIA hideout." Wilson explained. "Where's Vanoss and the others?! I have to get back there!" He demanded. "Technically, he's both there, and here." Wilson answered, pointing to another series of pods. "Oh, right. That." Lui remembered. This was where Mako, among others, had him and his friends stored during Project Immersion. "According to the CIA documents we unearthed here, your friends were given bodies to transfer their consciousness to while running the simulations. Your Avatars. Your friends' bodies are still over here, but out there, it's a whole 'Sword Art Online' deal except there isn't any risk of you guys dying permanently. Something must have happened, otherwise you wouldn't have woken back up here." Lui sat down, at least making an effort to take all of this in. "Where's the nearest portal to Providence?" Lui asked. "Providence, that's where all of these portals seem to end up. At least since yesterday, when The Admiral gave that speech." Wilson sighed. "I know him! He's over there right now! Our ships just started attacking each other out of the blue after the teleporter thingies started. We crashed on Kalos whatever and had to fight..." Lui stopped. "Fight who? What else happened there?" He asked. "I have to get back there now! My friends are in trouble!" Alpha looked over the reports in anger and disbelief. Beta had been killed by Summer's Daughter and Sigma had been captured by the Boy. The other Inquisitors were either dead, captured, or unable to assist. That is, except for Gamma and Sigma's pupils. "Alpha, Sir!" One of his guards ran, saluting. "Speak, subordinate." Alpha demanded. "The Coalition is en route to Tranquility Complex!! We aren't equipped to handle an invasion of that scale without serious losses!" He babbled. Alpha seethed with aggression, unsheathing his sword. The guard dropped the reports and backed away in fear before Alpha put away his weapon. "What..?" The guard gasped. "Activate the Flux Generator." Alpha ordered. The guard's eyes bulged with fear. "T-The Flux Generator isn't finished yet! The island will be plunged into a singularity, and so will our city!" "Do you think I did not realize this? Activate the generator!" Alpha yelled. "Y-Yes, sir.." The guard walked away, horrified. Alpha let out a low, quasi-mechanical laugh. "Alexander, you will die. One way or another!" Alex put on his helmet again, grabbing the Battle Rifle off his back. "Unity, we're 30 seconds away from the Drop Point. Expect anything and everything down there. We have about 3 million, they have four. And both of us have millions in reinforcements believed to be fighting on the other 2 Islands. Everything's going to go straight to hell down there, but we have our objectives. A: Shut down the base, let nothing in or out. B: Excecute Kill/Capture orders on all Inquisitors, identified or not!" Alex briefed. "And once we're done?" Ember asked. "We move in on the castle nearby. Alpha is believed to be in there right now. A team consisting of Alex, Vanoss, Ruby, Twilight will move in and kill the SOB." Mako recalled. "15 seconds!" The pilot called. "Vanoss and crew, Unicorns, and anyone else who can't survive a 9000 foot drop, put on a chute!" Kat yelled out. The others put on their chutes, except the huntsmen and Alex. "Can your Auras even support a fall of that height?" Twilight wondered. "We have our own landing strategies. Well, most of us anyway." Yang shrugged. "What do you mean?" Vanoss wondered. "I have other plans." Alex simply replied, gesturing to the jets on his armor as he strapped a portable bass cannon to his shoulder. "Moron." Mako dismissively shook her head. "Pilot, before I do anything stupid, are there any Red Star in the air underneath us I should know about?" Alex asked. "I'll call 'em as I see 'em!" He replied. "Remember, guys. Squat, Pray, Leap, 'Aaaaah', and Touchdown!" Vanoss joked. "Doesn't that spell 'Splat'?" Ruby asked, smirking. "Did you really just reference f**kin' Drake and Josh?!" Nogla cried out in disappointment. "Hey, man. It's a classic." "Guys, you're my friends and all, but your jokes are seriously the worst. I'm not even kidding." Vinyl groaned as the door swiveled out, revealing a massive fleet of drop-ships. The red light over the door turned green as everyone ran out, leaping to the earth below. Alex walked over to the door, set his jets low, and fell out. He let the targeting systems and the Auto-Fire on the bass cannon do most of the work and blow up the fighters. The rest he hacked in two or shot at the cockpits. He saw an Inquisitor battleship directly below him, he set the jets to high and careened through it, letting the flames envelop his armor as the ship fell in a heap to the base below. He caught up with Weiss, the only member of Team RWBY still at his height. 'Um... I don't mean to alarm you, but there's a couple huge tanks keeping us from doing anything. Can you take care of 'em?' Kat asked. He turned to the alabaster-clothed huntress knowingly. "There's a couple tanks just below us, you have any ideas?" He asked. "I might have something, get your sword ready!" She called back, summoning two rows of glyphs just below them. Alex sped like a bullet to one of the tanks, he quickly set his blades to their saw modes and ripped the tank into shreds in mere milliseconds. Weiss landed directly on the second, a large explosion ruptured the tank's hull and blew it apart second later. She met with the rest of the group unharmed. "You two sure know how to make an entrance!" Ruby smirked. "That was f**king epic!" Vanoss added. "Thanks, but we still have to destroy the base. Any ideas?" Alex asked. "The base is filled with weapons, right?" Vanoss wondered. "Yeah, what of it?" Yang wondered. Vanoss's group smiled knowingly. "Where there's weapons, there's ammo." Wildcat shrugged. Alex face palmed. "How the hell were they able to catch on before anyone else?" Alex groaned. "That's suicide. They probably have the ammo guarded, and even if one of us can get through, the Red Star will catch on." Blake insisted. "Then again, we might not have to..." Twilight smiled knowingly. "Oh, god. She's planning." Kat groaned, picking her up and carrying her under one arm. Alex knew as much as Kat did that when Twilight was thinking hard about something, she was impossible to budge. "Where's Kronos?" She asked seconds later. "He's still inbound, I think." Alex shrugged. "For a fire god, you'd think he'd be faster." Blake lamented "The last thing this story needs is a Deus Ex Machina. Cheap way to end it if you ask me." Moo added. "F**k it. We're going in." Vanoss slammed the bolt on his assault rifle and charged out, screaming and firing at whatever he felt was necessary to shoot at. "Evan! You still have limited lives, you dumbf**k!" Nogla ran out, the rest of their group following suit. Alex looked back at Ruby, who had the stupidest, widest grin on her face he'd ever seen. "What are you smiling about?" Vinyl wondered. Ruby then broke into a fit of laughter. "Squad goals." She simply stated. Alex, Kat, and Mako couldn't help but groan at that statement alone. "F**k sakes." Alex shook his head in disapproval. "So, are we fighting now or are we just going to sit here and yell at Ruby for making a Twitter reference?" Rarity asked, obviously itching to get revenge on her wounded/dead friends. "Alright fine, but I'm still court-martialing her after this crap is over." Alex relented, charging out behind with Vanoss's crew, along with the rest of Unity. Celestia had finally left the conference room, settling on moving the entirety of their forces to Tranquility Complex in Kalos to assist the already-crippled crews of the carriers. She channeled her mind directly to the spirit realm whilst sitting in a small, dark room. The Alicorn's eyes shot open, pupils dilating as they adjusted to the sheer brightness of the spirit realm. "Prophet! Where are you?" She called out. Immediately, the white cloaked seer stalked out of the fog, casting a reproachful look at the Princess of the sun. "Yes, Celestia?" She asked, showing the same amount of compassion as she had all those months ago, with a slight edge of concern in her voice. "You told me that my people would be safe and that this problem in my kingdom would be taken care of!" Celestia yelled hopelessly at her, "I only said if you did not interfere, that the problem would solve itself. We both know the choice you have made, Celestia. You've taken a course of action unbefitting of your otherwise caring nature by contacting the Inquisition." The spirit explained. "I did not summon the Inquisitor." Celestia held back tensely. "Celestia. We both know who really allowed Winchester to contact Sigma." The ethereal being spoke. Celestia held her head in shame. "Do not worry. Your forces will conquer the Rogue Guard. The deaths of your innocent citizens shall not be in vain. It has not been a fool's errand thus far.." The spirit summoned memories of Alex and Ruby killing the treacherous Iron Talon, and the destruction of the Knight's Myriad moments later. "Tell me, spirit. Why have you allowed all of this to transpire? And furthermore, who are you?" Celestial demanded once more. The spirit only smiled, and pulled it's hood tighter. "You will understand soon... But now is not the time to converse with the dead.." The being replied. White fog filled Celestia's vision once more, her eyes shot open, and she was back in the dark room she resided. Alex threw a Red Star soldier off his back and into Crescent Rose's now blood-soaked blade. Ruby spun her weapon, dispersing and scattering the crimson drops around the battlefield. Twilight slammed another soldier to the ground, pointing the man to her side, protecting her from MG fire as she ran for different cover. Vanoss noticed and pulled out a sniper rifle, pegging the machine gunner in the skull before pulling out a minigun and obliterating more Red Star. Weiss summoned glyphs under Red Star soldiers and pulled them into view, where Kat could easily finish them off. All around them, Coalition and Red Star alike shot each other and blew them to bits, be it from land or the skies above. Air squadrons from either side occasionally turned their attention to ground targets and annihilated them with brutal accuracy. Mako slid under another Red Star soldier's leg and hacked it off before finishing him off and rolling into cover. "Mako, darling! There are Red Star riot squadrons inbound! Do us all a favor and mark their position!" Rarity yelled, holding one at bay with a modified sewing needle. Mako tossed a smoke grenade and pressed a button on her comms. "Riot Squadron marked by red smoke, see what you can do!" She demanded. 'Roger, Atlesian Reaper Missiles inbound.' a pilot answered. "Incoming!" Mako yelled, hiding beneath a destroyed Technical as missiles blew the riot squads apart. Blake hacked apart another Red Star soldier, tossing him to the concrete. "Traitor!" Blake turned around, noticing the White Fang Lieutenant Weiss had encountered in a previous exploit. He tugged sharply at the ignition for a chainsaw, holding it in front of him menacingly. Blake herself prepared for a brutal clash with her ex-comrade, pointing the pistol components of her Gambol Shroud at him. The lieutenant was blown aside by an RPG rocket, obviously Vanoss's doing. The gamer-turned-soldier perked up suddenly upon noticing Blake scowling at him. "Oh, sorry! Was he yours?!" He asked sarcastically, loading another rocket. The Lieutenant leapt at him, enraged at his intrusion. He narrowly avoided the chainsaw's blade by mere seconds. It embedded itself into the concrete below, giving Blake an opportunity to strike, leaping high in the air and severing his arm. Vanoss then bombarded him with shotgun blasts, decimating large chunks of his Aura before Blake went in for a killing blow, leaping and hacking at his chest. He fell to the ground like a stone. Blake panted in exhaustion, this battle would never seem to end. "By the way, Evan?" She began. "Hm?" Vanoss looked up. "What should you be doing right now?" She asked, pointing at an armored vehicle that the other eight of Vanoss's friends were fighting. The armored vehicle fired a multitude of shells, blowing up a number of his friends, most of whom respawned, that is, except for Terroriser and Moo Snuckel. "NOOOOOO!" Delirious screamed. "Evan! Get over here, you dick-cheese!!!" Wildcat yelled. Vanoss ran to find more cover, sliding past the girl he saw from the camera store... "Aw, shi-" Vanoss groaned as she kicked him onto his back. She walked over to him, with a silver-haired kid roughly Yang's age went next to her. "Where is she?" The boy demanded. "Which 'she' are you talking about, 'cause there's like, a dozen girls here, not to mention a couple little horses-" The boy grasped his neck as the girl pointed a blade at his neck. "You're running out of time." The green-haired girl spat. "Wait! I just realized who you were talking about-!!" Vanoss gasped, his hand reaching behind his back. Both smiled, casting a glance towards one-another. "If you tell us where Cinder is, we'll let you live.. For now." The boy informed. "She's right... Here!" Vanoss kicked him in the crotch, pulled out a tracking beacon, and threw it at his chest before pulling out a Carbine Rifle and running off, firing numerous rounds at the pair. "I marked an Inquisitor-looking motherf**ker, see what you can do!" He radioed into another pilot. 'Solid copy, launching a Death-bringer Missile at the marked location.' A pilot reported. Vanoss kept running as fast as he could, eventually hearing a massive explosion behind him. The boy flew past Vanoss, slamming into a wall, somehow still intact. "Y-You...." The boy gasped, clawing at the ground towards him. His legs were severed at the knee joint, and both legs were robotic about halfway up his thighs. "Damn, son. You got taken out like a bitch." He mocked, pulling out a Heavy Revolver. The boy gasped, coughing blood. "E-Emerald!" He called weakly. Vanoss stepped on his back, and held the revolver's barrel against the back of his head. "Hey, you!" The girl, Emerald, yelled, somehow..multiplying herself?! She split from two, to ten, to seemingly hundreds as she got closer and closer. "Well, shit-.. Oh, wait." He fired the revolver in the direct middle of the crowd, and the clones disappeared in a flash. The girl held an injured arm, still unfazed. The bullet hadn't made a noticeable mark. "How the hell did you know where I was?" She asked before pulling out another sword. "I've seen this shit in Black Ops 3. It's kinda on you since you ran in a straight line towards me." Emerald blinked. "What the hell is..?" She shook her head, "It doesn't matter. We're still taking your last few lives, as well as your friends' as well." Vanoss pointed the revolver barrel down, shooting her little punk-ass friend in the head. His blood flew straight up and splattered onto Vanoss' pants legs. Emerald looked shocked at what Vanoss had done to her partner in crime. "Oh, come on! Don't act like you haven't done it either!" He mocked. Her eyes grew bright with rage. "W-Why you..." She gasped, her breathing ragged. A grenade suddenly hit her, sending her flying into another building. "We took care of the tank, you asshole!" Mini yelled. The whole crew held Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, RPGs, Miniguns, and the like as they ran in line with Vanoss. "Right. You see that bitch that blew up?" He asked. "Oh, yeah! That was me!" Delirious chuckled. "We got this! FOR LUI!!!" Wildcat screamed. "FOR LUI!!! FOR ARNOLD!!! FOR EARLY BIRD!!!" The rest of the, yelled, firing indiscriminately at the building, which was soon covered in a cloud of gunpowder-y smoke. "How the f**k are we even doing this much damage?!" Nogla yelled. "We're just that awesome, amigos!" Droidd yelled back. Eventually, they had run out of ammo, and had to reload. Emerald staggered towards them, clutching a wounded arm and spitting blood. "You'll... You'll all pay for what you did..." She spluttered. "You started it." Vanoss muttered as he pulled out a musket. "Wow. Remember how you described what it's like to die by that thing?" Nogla asked, laughing. "I can't even remember, I think it was like 'getting smacked in the face with a dick and dying', something along those lines." Vanoss shrugged. Vanoss aimed for her head, his finger on the trigger. "And... Kapooyah." Vanoss said, firing of the weapon. Emerald fell over, a gaping hole in her head splattering blood everywhere as she finally hit the ground. Yang suddenly landed next to Delirious, scaring the shit out of him... Literally. "Hey! I heard there were Inquisitors here, where are they?" She asked. "There's one asshole there," Terroriser pointed to the silver haired kid, "and Vanoss just 'Old Yeller'd' that other asshole right there." He pointed towards Emerald now. Yang blinked. "How the hell'd you even..?" Yang shook her head in disbelief. "Bullets. And rockets, and grenades.." Basically explained. "I launched a missile at 'Silver Bells' over there." Vanoss pointed to the other corpse. "I'm...actually impressed..." Yang scratched the back of her head. "Bad news is Moo and Terroriser finally bit the dust." Mini said. Yang sighed. "You'll make 'em all pay. You already killed those two." Yang reassured the group. "It's a shame you cannot save yourself.." Someone else said. Vanoss looked straight to his right to find the, unfortunately familiar, face of Rufio Vincent. "Sit the f**k down!" Wildcat shot him with a marksman pistol. Rufio suspended the bullet in the air and flung it right back at Yang. Hard. He sent the rest of the crew flying backwards, suspending them as the Red Star ripped them apart. This time, Mini and Droidd stood suspended, never to respawn. Yang staggered up, seeing two more of their crew dead, likely forever. "Why you..!" She launched herself at the Inquisitor, who held her in the air for a period of time. "I will not kill you, Yang Xiao Long... Not immediately." Rufio tightened his grip, choking the life out of Yang and depleting her Aura fast before finally decimating it, leaving her unable to heal for the remainder of the battle. He finally drew out his blade, and pulled her towards him fast, slashing her in the side and leaving her there. She clutched her side in agony, holding in her blood. "You are young and strong. So I'll give you at least thirty minutes before you bleed out entirely." "Y-You... Son of a b-bitch.." She gasped. "Yang!!" Rufio turned to find Twilight standing, wings extended, horn glowing bright purple, and eyes bright with fury. Rufio let out a hearty laugh. "We meet again, Sparkle Horse." He flung his weapon, flinging Yang's blood off of the blade. "You won't get away with this alive!" She fired numerous bolts of her magic at Rufio, or rather, Gamma. Alex fell in to assist, infuriated at his close friend's maiming at the hands of this scumbag wizard. "And the golden boy wants some too!" Gamma mocked him. "YOU WILL DIE WHERE YOU STAND!!!" Alex kicked him in the face while Twilight fired a flurry of spells at him. "Take care of him! I'll get Yang out of here!" Alex ordered running off, firing a shot at Gamma's leg. While it did little more than anger Gamma, it felt good to at least try and pay him back for hurting her. "Yang!" Alex yelled. "Hold here!" She coughed, guiding his hand to a point above the cut. He inspected the damage meticulously. Her Aura was all but destroyed, and the cut was practically gushing blood. "Medic!!!" Alex ordered. "Listen... Get... Get back out there." Yang demanded. "Not until I'm sure you'll be fine!" Alex yelled back. "I'll... I'll be fine..." She blinked. "Not now, just rest!" He demanded. A Ryder medical team ran to them, Ruby in tow. "Oh, shit." Alex thought. Ruby shouldn't see this... She didn't deserve to.. "Yang!!" Ruby ran for her sister like a bullet. "Ruby... Go... Go with Alex." She said as Ruby ripped off part of her already-tattered cape. "Tie here." Alex pointed to the cut, moving his hand while still keeping pressure at that spot. Ruby quickly tied the cut, pulling the knot tight at the other side. "Get her to safety! Make sure she lives!!" Alex ordered. "Sir..." One of the medics gasped. "I've been through worse! GET HER SOMEWHERE NOW!!" He yelled louder. "Yes... Yes sir..." The medics lifted her onto a stretcher. "W-Wait!!" Yang demanded. The medics stopped dead in their tracks. "Alex... Ruby... Come... Come here.." Yang coughed. Both stepped close to their friend, or sister. "L-Listen... You two... Vanoss... And Twilight... You... You have to defeat Alpha.. It's the only way.." She gasped. "We'll kill the bastard, I-" Alex began. Yang grasped Alex's arm. "You have... To promise me you will.... Promise!!" She demanded. Alex nodded. "I swear on my life that I'll kill Alpha, and keep you all alive." Alex added. Yang smiled weakly. "That's what I wanna hear... Take.. Take these.." Yang detached Ember Celica off both of her arms, handing them to Alex, along with four extra belts of ammo. "What are you doing?!" Ruby gasped. A huntress' weapon was theirs alone! What was she doing?! "I.. I can't accept this." Alex stuttered. "It's.. Not like... I need them right now..." Yang coughed, "Just give those back... When you're done..." Alex nodded, surprise still overwhelming him. "J-Just go.. Go!" Alex ordered, voice still raw with shock. He looked back at Ruby, who Alex suspected had mirrored his own reaction. "Look... I don't get it either.. I could take them if you-" Ruby began. "Get to your teammates, Ruby," Alex ordered. "What?" She asked. "Weiss and Blake probably have their hands full out there!! Just go!!!" He yelled. As Ruby looked at Alex, she saw the same fire in his eyes as her sister's. The two were uncannily similar, now that she thought about it. "Ruby! Where should you be right now?!" He ordered again. "M-My teammates..?" "YOUR TEAMMATES! THEY NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER!! GO NOW!!!" Alex screamed. Ruby nodded, speeding away like a bullet. Alex looked at his mentor's, his friend's, weapons, eyebrow's furrowed. "What the hell is she thinking, lending me these?" Alex pondered to himself, hands shaking. He respected her, yes... And maybe even... "AAARGH!!! Why the F**K AM I STILL THINKING?!" He shook more violently. Memories flashed through his mind, of their first meeting... Their secret mission... The hours spent training... Seeing her come back on the ship... And that moment in the break room... Alex's mind snapped in realization. "Dammit." Alex groaned, ripping off his Suit's standard gauntlets and replacing them with Yang's weapons. There was still work to do. If he recalled, Twilight was still dealing with Gamma... Twilight evaded another deadly blast from Gamma's fingertips, firing one of her own and flying into cover. Vanoss and his remaining friends kept shooting at Gamma, at least four of them at a time. "Get F**KED!!" Wildcat yelled, firing his Assault Shotgun relentlessly. Rarity herself was also in the fray, launching sewing needles at him. He dodged most of them, but at least 10 sunk into his arm. He recoiled, firing another blast at the unicorn. "Got your back, white horse!" Nogla shoved her aside, shooting an AP Pistol at their enemy. "Twilight, I'd run if I were you!" Vanoss yelled. Twilight nodded, flying away as the entire crew bombarded the Inquisitor with their last couple RPGs. She took cover at a roof, hoping to get a chance to breathe. Her hopes were eventually dashed aside as a brigade of Red Star jets flew in towards her. She recoiled, using her wings to shield most of her vital organs. 'TWILIGHT.' a loud, booming, voice called to her from what seemed like her own head. "W-Who-?" She gasped. She suddenly felt powerful, more powerful than when she absorbed the Princesses' energies from when Tirek was still terrorizing Equestria. She suddenly realized just who was speaking. "K-Kronus?!" She gasped. Her horn began acting by itself, spewing her magic, as well as what appeared to be pure, elemental fire magic. The brigade's individual planes eventually exploded, one by one, until there was little left but smoke. "Child. Your bravery and faith in your comrades is commendable. So much so that I will allow you to wield my power until the battle has ended. Due to certain complications, I cannot appear before you. But I assure you. I am here." Kronos said to her. "T-Thank you..." She bowed. "Sparkle!!" Gamma yelled again. Twilight looked down at him, only to find her adversary completely horrified. "T-Those markings on your coat!! Kronos is here?!" He gasped. Twilight looked to herself to find that her coat had darkened into an ash-ier shade of purple, that is, save for the orange, flame-shaped marks scattered all over her. Her wings had also become pure flame at the end. A quick look in a mirror she summoned had shown that her eyes had also changed color. Her irises were orange at the outermost. She flew at him fast. Firing spells, bucking, throwing him to the air, anything she could to damage him. It seemed to be working, with each attack, Gamma's magical energy depleted more and more. She just needed one final blow.. She bucked him aside, charging her horn for a very famous, very specific, attack. "What are you doing?!" Basically backed away, fast. "FIRES OF KRONUS!!!!" The blast was immense, so much that her whole view had been covered in elemental fire magic, she could feel the spell's heat against her, and a part of her enjoyed it.. When the spell had lifted, Gamma had completely vanished, as well as most of the buildings in that path... Thank Celestia they were facing away from the rest of the complex, otherwise her friends likely would've suffered the same fate as her opponent's. "What the hell was that?! And who are you?!" Delirious gasped. "It's me, Twilight!" She yelled. "Twilight? You look kinda different... Did you lose weight?" Basically asked. Twilight face-hoofed in response. "Maybe Kronus actually did show up, but he's actually giving power to Twilight.." Delirious figured. "How did you know that?" Twilight asked. "My name might be Delirious, but I'm not a dumbass." He replied. "I dunno, man. Years of experience is saying something else.." Vanoss joked. "Oh, f**k you!" Delirious retorted. The whole group found Alex running as fast as he could to them. "Where the hell is Gamm- WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!" Alex screamed upon noticing the path of scorched earth trailing as far as the Ocean. "Oh, hey Alex!" Wildcat waved. "Where were you, Darling? And why are you wearing Ms. Xiao Long's Gauntlets?" Rarity asked. "Oh, shit. He is!" Vanoss noticed. Kat and Mako walked up to the group, with Vinyl in tow. "Wait, Alex is wearing Yang's gauntlets?" Mako wondered. "Aww!!! That's so sweet!!" Kat smiled brightly at him. Alex groaned, this time, he was 101% sure he was done with all of this. "Later. But first, tell me what's up with your coat, Twi? Byzantium is a good color on you." Alex wondered. "Kronus gave me his power for the battle. I guess it changes my coat the same way Rainbow Power does." She shrugged. "I'm sorry, Rainbow Power?" Wildcat broke out laughing. "Don't laugh! Magic Energy is a serious business!" Twilight scolded. "Aside from whatever Tyler was implying, why are you wearing Yang's Gauntlets?" Nogla asked. "She was wounded by Gamma when you guys got separated. I got her out of there, and... She gave me these..." Alex looked at Yang's signature weapons again. "How romantic!!" Rarity swooned. Alex sighed, annoyed. "Oh, please, Darling. Anyone with a brainstem could see the chemistry you two-" Rarity continued until Alex sent a threatening glance at her direction. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake eventually made their way to the group. "I thought there were more of you guys." Blake scratched her head curiously. "Dead." Vanoss spat. "What?!" Weiss gasped, sympathetically. The intercoms around the base suddenly screeched. "Who?" Vanoss wondered. "Alpha." Alex realized. "Members of the Equestrian-Remnant Coalition! Are you ready to meet your fate? Are you ready to fade out like your predecessors on Kalos Ultra? It is no secret what you intend to do with the base after you have conquered it. I almost applaud your instant need to use a 'Scortched Earth' tactic, but we've beaten you to the punch yet again." Alpha scathingly explained. "Oh, no.." Twilight gasped. "The hell?" Alex wondered. "I have been working on a personal project on the island for the past few years called a 'Flux Generator', A device with the power to move this entire Island, Fortress, City and all, to any location in space and time. Unfortunately for both of us, it is not yet complete, but I still have some use for it. I believe you're all familiar with faulty dimensional transporters. For those who do not yet understand, an unfinished transporter of this magnitude will open cracks in the dimension, causing whomever finds themselves inside one to end up in any random universe due to the unstable nature of the unfinished device. Within an hour of it's use, it will become a singularity, A black hole, if you will." Alpha explained. "Is he insane?!" Rarity gasped. "Alpha's going to kill us all!" Ruby gasped. "If you are going to stop me, Descendants, I suggest you get on with it. If you can." The intercom screeched, before growing uneasily silent. "Alex... Wha-?" Rarity turned to Alex. "We have to go, Now!" Alex yelled. Suddenly, the ground around them shook as deep violet cracks appeared on the ground, in midair, on the sides of buildings, everywhere. "We have to get out of here!" Delirious screamed, running for a crack. "Are you out of your mind?! He said any random dimension! It might not have oxygen!" Twilight yelled, pulling at her friend. "If anyone has a plan, they better get to it!" Blake yelled, seeing more cracks spawn in. Another, bright white crack apparated directly in front of them. 'Come inside, children. You will be safe in here.' a voice reassured them. Alex turned to the rest of the group. "Anyone agreeing with this one?" Alex asked. "I... Don't know about this one.. I'm not leaving Yang behind!" Ruby yelled. "We can't turn back our friends." Twilight assured. "I am with Twilight and Ruby on this one. Applejack and Yang would not leave us behind. Especially not now." Rarity said. "I'm kinda with them, Alex.. We can't be sure where this will end up.." Vanoss rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Alex turned back to the white crack. 'This will only take a minute.. We will lead you to the fortress after..' The voice beckoned.. Alex looked on, uncertain. On one hand, he knew he needed to stand by his friends, but on the other hand... He wasn't sure... 'There is little time. The Descendants at least should speak... We will lead you to Alpha..' "Vanoss, Ruby, Twilight?" Alex turned to them. He knew exactly who they meant. "No way, man! I'm not going anywhere near that shady-ass portal!" Vanoss yelled. "We need to stay out here and help!" Twilight assured. "I... I don't know... It seems like the quickest path to Alpha.. Maybe we can shut down the generator and stop this..." Ruby wondered. "Are you insane?!" Weiss grabbed her shoulders. "At the very least... I'm going in." Alex answered. "I..." Ruby looked at Alex, then back to them. 'Hurry, children! I cannot hold this portal open forever!' the voice yelled urgently. "Ruby?" Alex asked. "I'll go..." She said, looking at Alex. "I should probably go too...." Twilight sighed. "F**k it. You guys are good. I'm going too. Besides, we might be able to end this shit now." Vanoss begrudgingly groaned. "Ruby..!" Weiss yelled. Ruby turned to her teammates and friends. "Just... Make sure you give Alpha one from us, got it?" Blake asked. "Ah, fock it. We don't always need you for success on our channels." Nogla shrugged. "Twilight... Do be careful." Rarity demanded. "I 'Pinkie Promise'. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Twilight answered, repeating the motions. "Mako, you have the most experience as a leader. You'll have to keep most of them alive. Got it?" Alex asked her. "No problem. I don't think I even need to ask the same." Mako nodded. "Alright... Let's get moving." Alex nodded. The four stood outside the portal, took a deep breath, and stepped inside, unknowing of what would become of them.. Author's Note Hello!! Sorry I haven't been posting anything! I've been a bit busy and haven't had much chance to write, but here I am!! Anyways, back to the supposedly necessary outro. "Alex, Twilight, Ruby, and Vanoss take a plunge into the unknown, leaving behind their friends and loved ones. What fate is sealed for our heroes? How many more will lose their lives before this gruesome battle ends? And who is this mysterious figure guiding Princess Celestia? Find out all of this and more on the next exciting episode of Blood Red Shadows." -The Destoyer
Act III, Blood Red Night Part 5: For the Fallen Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway. John Wayne Alex finally opened his eyes, taken aback by the sheer brightness of... Wherever this was. "What the hell?! I can't see shit!!" Vanoss groaned, slowly blinking his eyes open. "Everyone okay?" Alex finally asked, his eyes finally adjusting to the light. "I think so..." Ruby answered, rubbing her eyes. "This looks like where Celestia took me when I became an Alicorn.." Twilight noticed. "You've been here before?" Vanoss asked. "Why would they ask for all of us? Are we going to come out of this with wings and a horn, too?!" Ruby gasped. "Where did you come up with that conclusion?" Alex wondered. "Well, whatever happens, we should probably stick together.." Vanoss figured. "So... Where was that voice who wanted us in here in the first place? Hello?" Twilight called. A figure, draped in a white cloak, gradually walked over to the four. "Who are you?! Why are we here?!!" Vanoss grabbed his assault rifle and pointed it at her. "Take it easy, ADHD. I don't think... This person... Wants to hurt us." Alex pointed the barrel away from the spirit. The spirit smiled from under her alabaster hood. Alex looked at Ruby, who stood with her mouth agape and her breath coming out in short, choked gasps. 'This is weird. Ruby looks like she's seen a ghost! Wait a second... White cloak? They look alike..? Foggy, white room?! Of course! It has to be!! This is some kind of afterlife! And that means..!' Alex's eyes bulged from their sockets. "Hello, Children... Well, I guess some of you aren't exactly children anymore. Twilight. Evan." She nodded her greetings. Both Vanoss and Twilight were in their twenties, while Ruby and Alex were still in their teens. "M-Mom?" Ruby gasped tearfully. The huntress-in-training immediately ran to her, hugging her tighter than Alex himself had ever seen. So he was right! This was Summer Rose!! "What the f**k..?" Alex blinked. "Watch your language. You aren't in battle at the moment." An achingly familiar voice said behind him. Alex turned to see someone he'd never thought he would ever see again. "Dad..?" Alex stood still. The other spirit, his father, walked to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Alex tried to speak, but his own thoughts jumbled in his head. "Alex. You've grown." Alex's father said. Two more spirits came to them, specifically Twilight's uncle and Vanoss' distant relative. Flickering Light and Cyrus Fong.. "Uncle Flick!!" Twilight wing-hugged her uncle, who returned a similar gesture. Vanoss and Cyrus also spoke to each other, shaking each other's hands as they met for the first time. "Listen... I've been meaning to ask..." Alex began.. "About your heritage? I was going to tell you the truth one of these days... But..." Alex's dad shook his head.. "Oh, please. You gave me the talk when I was ten!" Alex yelled half-heartedly in an attempt to lighten the mood "You kept asking!" He retorted jokingly. Both Alex and his dad shared a laugh. "Listen... In any case... I'm proud of you. And not just because your brothers are dead and one of them was an inquisitor. You kept the family's honor even when you didn't know there was any honor to begin with!" He shook Alex's hand. Ruby and her mother were still locked in a hug. "Should we..?" Flickering asked. "Nah. I think we all know they needed this." Vanoss shrugged. "True. Both of Summer's kids seemed beaten up pretty bad when they heard. Even Taiyang didn't talk for a few days." Cyrus said. Summer had eventually settled down Ruby, giving her a kiss on the forehead and wiping the last of her tears away. "Speaking of which, I think giving you 'the talk' that early helped a lot. Have you seen how him and Raven's kid act around each other?" Alex's father joked. "Dad. Stop." Alex grumbled. Wait, what was that he said about Raven? "I thought Yang giving Alex 'Ember Celica' was really cute!" Summer smiled. "Not you too!" Alex groaned more. "I know, right?" Twilight added. "Okay, okay, I think we should stop harassing the boy before his rage breaks again." Alex's father held his hands out. "You Emphas' and your psychotic rage." Cyrus shook his head. "True. You dad here went kind of psycho when he found out Omega had gone off the deep end." Flickering remembered. The eight shared stories for a little while more when Cyrus eventually stopped. "Alright. I think we should cut to the chase. They aren't dead yet." Cyrus said. "Okay, okay. Look. I'm pretty sure you all can guess why you're here." Alex's father began. "You're going to get us to Alpha so we can finish whatever this is you started." Vanoss said. "No. That comes later." Flickering dismissed. "Why are we here? And why just us? Our friends are still out there." Twilight asked. Summer sighed. "This is a more... Serious matter. One that should stay between the eight of us. No Inheritors. No friends. No Inquisitors. Just you four and us." She explained. "We can take it." Alex nodded, hardening his gaze. Jason Walker looked his son dead in the eye. "Listen, Alex. And this goes for all of you as well. Alpha is what we call a... 'Time Traveler'.." Jason said. "From what point?" Ruby asked. "He is from the future, and he is connected to you all. He is someone you all know." Jason continued before stopping. Twilight gaped, horrified, and Vanoss cringed. "Dammit, Zera!!" Vanoss yelled. Summer turned to Alex, sorrow in her eyes. "Born July of 2022. He travelled from the year 2045 to 1989 in order to even be considered for the role of Alpha.." She explained. "Why..?" Alex wondered, more hurt than shocked. "It's a whole lot more than that... Has Locust told any of you what the Chronicai were?" Cyrus asked. "I think he mentioned it at one point, but he didn't touch base on it too much.." Twilight remembered. Flickering sighed. "Long ago, there was one unified force of guardians of the multiverse who called themselves the 'Keepers'. They were responsible for dealing with threats that affected all of reality and existence as a whole... And in the year 1859... They'd had enough." Flickering began. "One group wanted universes to stay separate, no travel whatsoever, and let each reality take it's course undisturbed. Another wanted free travel between dimensions and for them to form alliances and relationships. They were called the Chronicai and the Inheritors, respectively." Cyrus added. "Many Chronicai were Time-Travellers. Some who saw the future and didn't like what they saw, or those from the past who wanted a better future for their loved ones than what was happening already. The Inheritors, on the other hand, believed that a group of warriors from various bloodlines would keep evil in check, saving any universe by any means. The two groups were at war for 20 years before one group had been disbanded. The Chronicai." Jason explained. "Another 20 years were spent hunting down what remained of their group. Splinters and Juntas across dimensions. Eventually the Inheritors got tired of it and hired a group of mercenaries to finish the job." Summer continued. "The Inquisitors." Alex concluded. "Ain't it f**king obvious?" Vanoss shrugged. "I'm with Evan on this one." Ruby added. "Quiet!" Twilight scolded. The dead relatives all collectively nodded. "This deal went well for a while, before an agent of evil sabotaged the group. This man inspired them to rally against the Inheritors and exterminate them. Naturally some Inheritors survived and went on to train those like Raven or Sirius." Jason added. "The Inquisitors have since been busy exterminating all of us one by one... And that's where we came in. The survivors rallied us together to fight the Inquisitors and finish them off. Needless to say.. You can tell how well we turned out." Flickering sighed. "And this... This is where you turn the page..." Cyrus nodded. Alex looked up to find them all tipping their hoods, or horns, or whatever they could tip, towards them. "Alex... Alpha is a Chronicai. A time traveller who infiltrated the Inquisitors ranks. He believes that our bloodline has to be wiped out. If he kills you, he will bring about the end of the universe, on purpose, mind you, and destroy what is left. You promised Yang that you would kill him... Do us all a favor and fulfill that promise." Jason instructed. Alex looked up at his father, anxious and nervous. "If he really knows who I am.. He knows every move I'll make." Alex nervously stated. "Come on, Alex. We'll show that asshole what it means to mess with an internet celebrity!" Vanoss rallied. "I've never faced any threat like this, or in the state we're in... But I know we can beat him." Twilight added. "You promised my sister you would stop him. And, hey. If he is from the future, he should know that this isn't going to end well for him." Ruby grabbed his shoulder. "Alex. You've shown all of us time and time again that you are capable. You're a good man with a strong sense of justice. And you've held the high standards we've demanded of you. Just watch.." Flickering moved his attention to the screen, a screen showing his memories. He saw himself fighting the guards at Area 51 and escaping to Equestria, it showed him slaughtering the dragon, and escaping the Task Force a second time. His friends stared on, experiencing what Alex himself had experienced.. "Shit, man..." Vanoss shook his head. "Oh! I remember this!" Ruby noticed when his memories finally began including her and her team.. Twilight stared on, mystified.. "This is almost exactly what I went through..." She gaped. The screen soon began showing his Inheritor training, meeting with his Royal Guard escorts, and the Myriad attack. "We should get Terroriser and Jäger to meet up and fight... Oh, wait. They're both dead." Vanoss realized. The memories soon became more and more recent. Omega's death, Sigma's defeat, Yang giving him her weapons. Looking down, both gauntlets were clasped around his wrists. They were extremely tight, but he was used to it by now... That or they cut off circulation to where he couldn't feel anything... It was most likely the latter. "You wanna get those off? 'Cause I feel like your arms are turning a lovely shade of purple." Twilight joked. "Nah... I think they'll come in handy..." Alex smiled, his own cheeks turning slightly red. The memories eventually led to him and his friends walking into the portal, and the screen disappeared. "You see? Everyone has faced their own trials in recent years. Twilight's position... Ruby' acceptance into Beacon... Evan's success as an entertainer... And now, you have passed your own trials." Jason nodded. "Even in this quest. Each and every one of you have killed an inquisitor." Summer turned her attention to the screen again. It showed Alex's brutal murder of his own brother... Ruby's frenzied attacks against Beta... Vanoss executing the two Inquisitors, one by revolver and the other by musket... And finally, Twilight's godlike spell that incinerated Gamma. "This is your opportunity to make things right... Your last true test. If you can survive this, then it will be known that nothing, nothing, can stop you if you all work as one.." Flickering used his own magic to open another portal. "So... What are you all waiting for, the bus? Get out there and save your friends." Cyrus pressured. Alex turned to his fellow comrades, his expression hardening. "Ready up, all of you. Best weapons forward." Alex ordered, unsheathing both of his swords and loading Ember Celica. He let his own rage rush into his senses and enhance his ever-decreasing power. Ruby unloaded her standard mags and loaded in her Green Cross mags. Going into a readying stance as her Aura darkened to a blood red. Vanoss put away his standard assault rifle and pulled out a different rifle Mako gave him, one chambered in Armor Piercing .50 Beowulf rounds, designed to be fired at full-auto. This rifle had a large scope attached to it, as well as an under-barrel Dubstep cannon of Vinyl's design and a side-grip. Twilight readied a powerful spell, summoning great amounts of magic until her horn glowed a bright orange. "Well. This is it. You all know what to do." Alex nodded. "On three?" Ruby asked. "Sounds fine with me." Vanoss shrugged. "Guys! We're wasting time!" Twilight urged. "F**k it! Go!" Alex ordered. Alex charged straight for the crack leading to Alpha, diving out and rolling into a fighting stance. Twilight flew inside with a slight air of gracefulness underneath her determination, skidding to a halt as she landed. Vanoss ran, leaping out and pointing the .50 in front of the gang. And finally, Ruby fired one shot, speeding out of the crack and using Crescent Rose's blade to slow her entry. The crack dissipated, the four were ready to fight. "Alright, you bastard. Where are you?!" Alex called out. The dark, ominously low, condescending laugh echoed behind them, prompting the four to turn around. Alpha faced them, brandishing a different sword than what Alex remembered seeing above the Subterrains; a heavy, oversized cleaver with a lengthened blade, adorned with various symbols. The end of the blade appeared to curve upwards, ending in a spine-like point. "So, we meet again, boy." *Tranquility Complex: 55 minutes before Dimensional Collapse* Mako led the remainder of 'Unity' to a garage filled to the brim with vehicles such as tanks, armored cars, and a transport vehicle. "I need someone driving the transport vehicle! The rest can get in the armored cars and defend!" Mako ordered. "What's the plan?" Weiss asked. "I call the f**king turret!" Delirious' hand shot straight up. "We're takin' out the base and headed for the castle before the whole island blows up or something." Basically explained. "Keep in mind, these cracks are popping up everywhere, and I wouldn't want to spend the rest of eternity cooped up in such an untidy place." Rarity snapped. "That's the idea." Ember simply stated. "Alright, team. Here we go. Armored cars on either side of the transport! Helo's taking overwatch!" Mako ordered, sliding into the driver's seat of the transport. Wildcat's and Basically's armored cars started, with Wildcat's moving forward first, then Mako's transport, and finally, Basically's. The helicopter eventually lifted off, hovering a few hundred feet above the small convoy. "Delirious, Nogla, Kat! I need you guys to destroy anything of use to the Red Star! Gas tanks, Ammo Stores, anything you can find!" Mako ordered through the radio. 'Understood. I'll have Andromeda mark targets on our HUDs' Kat replied. The three cars drove through easily, and it wasn't long before various buildings were colored in red, and a yellow circle surrounded them. 'Mako, Wildcat, and Basically! It's advised that you DON'T go into those yellow circles! You'll damage the vehicles, and we can't afford that!' Andromeda advised. 'Don't... F**kin' worry about it..' Wildcat dismissively replied. As they drove throughout the base, they opened fire on anything painted red. One building that Delirious shot at eventually exploded, causing the whole structure to be erupted in a gargantuan fireball. 'Woah, SHIT!' Delirious gaped, laughing maniacally. 'Get 'em, boys!!' Wildcat celebrated. 'Let's get 'er goin'!!!' Nogla yelled. Mako swerved hard to avoid another explosion. Rarity shuffled in the seat next to Mako's. "I really hope you know what you're doing.." She nervously held her seat. "Relax, Rares. Driving is one of my strong suits." Mako nodded. 'We've got company! Light-Attack Vehicles inbound!' Kat warned. Red Star speeders eventually zipped their way into the base, flanking the convoy before being erupted in gunfire. 'Mak! Ram one into that... Damn, I can't say it without rhymin'!' Nogla groaned. Mako nodded, slamming into the speeder as it crashed into a nearby dimensional crack. 'Eyyy! Nice one!' Basically complimented. 'I wouldn't celebrate yet..!' Weiss gaped. Mako looked up to see a huge swarm of bullheads above, bearing Red Star markings. 'DIIIEEE!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!' Delirious laughed, shooting at the Bullheads as one started falling. 'WATCH OUT, TYLER!!!' Blake warned. Their transport swerved out of the way just in time to avoid being hit by debris. 'Whew... Thanks, cat lady..' Wildcat sighed in relief. 'Check your privilege!' She indignantly replied. Mako made the next turn along with the convoy. They were heading dead-center for the complex. "This is Master Chief Petty Officer Mako Cerise requesting MOAB strike on my mark!" Mako yelled. 'Solid copy, Chief. Show us where you want it.' A Coalition pilot responded. 'That's your plan?!' Weiss gasped. 'Face it, Weiss. There's probably a lot of resources stored under there. They need to go down, hard.' Ember defended, obviously embittered towards the deaths of her friends. Another fleet of ships flew in above them, and dove in straight for them!! "Well, shit." Mako blinked. The fighters dove in towards the convoy before eventually being shot down. 'Coalition directly above us!!' Nogla yelled. 'We've got your six, Unity. Paint the target!' A Pilot yelled. They drove faster and faster, eventually driving near a helipad that looked like it was at least near the center of the base. "Rarity, pull the pin and toss it!" Mako yelled, handing her a smoke grenade. Rarity steadily held the grenade with her magic, pulling out the pin and, ever so carefully, dropping it out the window. "Got it!" She yelled. "Pilot! M.O.A.B target marked by red smoke! Give us time to get out, though!!" Mako yelled. 'Wilco. Make it quick.' The pilot demanded. "Alright, we have to MOVE!!" Mako yelled, flooring the gas petal. 'NononononoNONONONONO!!! WATCH OUT!!!' Delirious yelled as hundreds upon hundreds of ships came crashing down. Wildcat's vehicle slammed into one head-on. 'Shit!' Wildcat yelled. 'Dammit! Who was in there?' Blake asked. "Wildcat, Delirious, and Ember.." Mako said. 'I don't see Wildcat or Delirious...' Kat sighed. "We have to keep moving!!!" Rarity yelled. The transport evaded more and more falling debris from the skies, all the while evading the Red Star that were actually cunning enough not to slip into one of the cracks. 'Chief... MOAB inbound..' A pilot notified. "BRACE YOURSELVES!!!" Mako yelled. What felt like a hundred nukes erupted from behind them, the sound causing both Rarity and Mako to clutch their ears in agony. The bright light from the explosion cast long shadows of the two remaining vehicles on the ground as the eventual shockwave rattled their insides and propelled their vehicles faster and faster. Both Mako and Basically had to cut the turn out of the Complex and into the forest road leading to the castle. 'Direct hit! The complex is caving in on itself!!!' Blake gasped. 'Holy fock... That got crazy the last couple o' seconds..' Nogla sighed. 'It's... It's not over yet..' Kat panted. "Right... How far away is that castle?" Mako asked. 'It's... About seven miles on that road..' Blake shakily exhaled. "Alright. Here's step two. Alex, Vanoss, Ruby, and Twilight are definitely going to be fighting Alpha, so I'll need Kat, Blake, Weiss, and Rarity to make sure Alpha doesn't send in more reinforcements and cheat. The rest are staying with the transport, ready to pick them up. We have a certified Exit zone about 17 miles west of the castle. We'll move there once our work is done. We have to be fast... I'd say we still have 45 minutes left here before this whole place is sucked up into a black hole..." Mako monologued as she continued driving.. "Please... Don't let us be too late..." Mako thought... *2 Miles outside of the Tranquility Complex, 44 Minutes before Dimensional Collapse* Locust dove down, rolling out of the way of a large ship. "The Complex is down! I repeat, The Complex is down!!!" Locust yelled, raising his weapon. The Ryders cheered loudly, raising their weapons with their right hand and letting out a victorious yell. "Alright men, this battle is far from over.. There is something I need done. Where is the Inquisitor Alexander captured?" Locust demanded. It was not out of place to interrogate an enemy in the battlefield in Adenien. It was customary, in fact. Two men dragged the girl to him, and by the looks of it, they had already tried. Locust looked her directly in the eye, seeing only malice and deception in them. "What was all of this meant to accomplish, child? What are you planning?" Locust demanded. The girl smiled wickedly at him, letting out a slight laugh that sent a chill down his spine. "Answer me!" He demanded again. "Interesting question, Commander, but misguided.." She replied. "You threaten our worlds with destruction and chaos, yet you have the audacity to call my actions misguided?!" Locust scowled. "In every way possible if you truly intend to destroy us.." "Oh, is that so? Our best men are currently engaging your leader, your Complex is in shambles, and it looks to me the war has come to your backyard." Locust retorted. "So you have Steps 1 and 2 out of the way, what about 3 through 10?" She looked up at him. Just then, the Ryders heard a number of unearthly calls and screeches. The Grimm, no doubt. "Open fire on those monstrosities!!" Locust ordered. Sigma began laughing again. "Nothing will save you from the nightmare that awaits you... Locust." She broke the cuffs at the chain, unsheathing her weapons and slicing off his arms and legs. Locust screamed in surprise, letting one of his severed limbs return to him and grabbed a pistol. Another girl, much shorter than Sigma, ran to the battlefield, looking maniacally at him. "No, Neo... Let the Grimm do their job... We'll move our services... Elsewhere.." Sigma sheathed her weapons. "You'll... You will pay for this..!" Locust fired his pistol, but in vain. The two girls shattered apart, turning into mere slivers of the deadly enemies they once were, then a Beowulf pounced on him, and Locust screamed in agony. His screams were ultimately drowned out by an unearthly, loud, screech, accompanied by the loud beating of leathery wings. *Iridescence, Adenien; 42 Minutes before Dimensional Collapse* "Raven." The Inheritor turned around to face Qrow, who looked rather annoyed and disbelieving. "Is there a problem?" She asked her brother. Qrow looked disgusted. "The hell is the matter with you? Those kids need our help, your own daughter needed your help! And now she's in a crappy little tent bleeding to death because-." "You know as well as I why we have to stay behind. Our days on the battlefield are over." Raven scowled, turning away. "We can't just leave them there!" He insisted. "We already left. One day before this battle began." Raven recalled. "With you knowing full well what would happen! You know why I didn't want to get involved with the Inheritors in the first place?" He asked, raising us voice to almost a yell. "Because you're too weak and overprotective to understand that this is their fight." Raven bluntly replied. "What good is following a cult if they aren't around to help?!" Qrow demanded. Raven went silent for a few moments, at least before delivering her reply. "I already helped him. I gave him as much assistance as was necessary... Perhaps even more than that. You're still thinking like a Huntsman, Qrow." Raven turned to look back at her brother. Qrow almost looked appalled, but remained silent. "I'm not a huntress, Qrow. Not anymore. That time has passed. I have... Other things I must attend to now," Raven began to walk away from the coastlines of Iridescence and leave her brother behind, "But if you still feel the need, there is still some time before Alpha destroys the planet." She nodded before putting her mask back on and walking towards the city. Qrow blinked, smirking a little. "Who's the real wimp here, Ray? Abandoning your teammates in a time like that..." He grumbled. *30 Miles south of Miami, Florida; 41 Minutes before Dimensional Collapse* Lui had now gathered the group of 7 at the portal to Providence, ready to give fighting one last shot. "We ready to go?" Delirious asked. "I don't know, guys.. It seems like a really bad idea to be doing this..." Corporal Wilson figured. "He's right... They already think we're dead as it is. Except maybe Mako.." Wildcat figured. "Eh, They've got this one... But still, it wouldn't be cool just sitting here and letting them probably die.." Mini figured. "Nah, we don't have any sort of advantages like we did back there, no weapon wheel or any extra lives.." Moo said. "They'll be fine... Wait.. Do you hear something..?" Droidd went still, listening for something.. "Oh, no. No! NO!!" Delirious screamed. Adenien Ryders charged out of the portal in droves, opening fire wherever they could. "Woah! Woah!" The Corporal stopped them. "Oh, these are Kat's friends!" Lui realized. "What happened to you guys, you look like you got f**ked up!" Mini noted. "T-That psychopath Inquisitor..." The Ryder gasped. Something was wrong.. "Which one?" Moo asked. "Cinder Fall... She escaped custody and let out a massive horde of Grimm... The horrible F**KING THINGS!!" He shook fearfully. "Grimm? You mean those f**king monster things?" Wildcat wondered. The Ryder nodded. "To make matters worse... There was a giant f**king dragon thing that spawned more of them..! I've never seen anything like it..!" The Ryder continued. "Dragon? Did Walter White hand you some blue rock candy, because you might've been seeing shit." Moo said, chuckling a little. "That's not it. They all said they've seen it, and reports of this...thing are flooding in non-stop." Wilson confirmed. Delirious blinked. "Holy. Shit. I'm not going in there!" He yelled. "We're going back in, you little bitch!" Wildcat dragged him by the mask to the ammo stores. "No! NO! NOT AGAIN!!! AAAAAAAAAAH!!" Delirious screamed as Wildcat physically dragged him into the bunker again. "I.. I should go.." The others nervously shuffled, heading down the stairs with them. Alone, The Ryders waited, loading their weapons, and making a few calls for... Better equipment.. Author's Note Well, this is kinda the second to last chapter of this arc. Not really sure what to put here... Derp.
Act III, Blood Red Night Part 6: One Final Effort Only the dead have seen the end of war. -Plato *Alpha's Corridor, Kalos Prime, Provinence; 55 minutes before Dimensional Collapse* "So, we meet again, boy." Alex turned to face Alpha, as did the others. He was standing at the end of the massive corridor, roughly fifty feet away from them, brandishing his ceremonial weapon and flourishing it. "I'll deal with Alpha. You three keep the castle clear in case any Red Star are still around here so search and rescue gets here." Alex ordered. "You're not doing this by yourself. At least let one of us stay here." Twilight demanded. "Alpha's mine." Alex asserted, putting on his helmet. "But--" Ruby began to protest. "But nothing. The way I see it, you've all suffered enough for me." Alex unsheathed Electric Fury, pointing it's blade at his opponent. "...And if I have to die, I'll die fighting for my friends. Now go!" Alex urged. "No f**king way!" Vanoss fired a burst at Alpha, who had seemingly appeared directly in front of Vanoss and reared back his blade for a killing blow. Alex blocked the attack with his own sword, feeling the full force of Alpha's attack. "Just go..! Clear the damn castle! That's a direct order!!" Alex yelled, struggling under Alpha's bladelock. "Twilight, cover me." Ruby nodded, dragging Vanoss by the back of his jacket as Twilight fired spells at Alpha, who evaded them all, giving Alex enough time to strike. The sword created a brilliant orange spark as it scraped against the metal of Alpha's chest plate, leaving a long grey mark on the intricate metalwork. "This is the end for you, Alex Walker. Only one of us can exit this room alive." Alpha coldly stated, spinning a full 180 degrees for a full-forced strike. Alex was blown back a few feet, but still relatively safe. Alex leaped at Alpha, clashing blades with the armored warrior and evading a killing blow. "Only one of us, eh? I like my odds." Alex lashed out again, hitting the ground and causing a large burst of electricity to come up from under Alpha and shock him. Alpha leaped backwards and ran at Alex swinging his sword. Alex blocked the attack, but at the cost of his own weapon. The blades broke off, leaving two jagged blades separated by an inch-wide gap. Alex stabbed Alpha, but the sword only bounced off the armor and left some minor scuff marks. Alpha hit Alex hard in the chest, a dark-blue burst of electricity following as he was blown straight backwards into a wall. He managed to pry himself out, but he was hurt badly. Alex unsheathed his other weapon and charged, setting the weapon immediately to saw-mode. The blade shifted to the right, and spun at high speeds, leaving scattered marks on the marble floor below. Alex rushed in towards Alpha, throwing sparks at the warrior and attacking as fast as time would allow, but Alpha was unfazed, and growing restless. Alex ducked again, evading a huge attack from Alpha and hacking at his legs, again, to little effect. Alpha stepped on his wrist, keeping him from raising his arm and attacking. He grabbed Alex below the wrist and sharply pulled up, pinning his arm behind his back. "Do you yield, Walker?" Alpha asked scathingly. Alex elbowed at Alpha's head, unable to reach. In response, Alpha spun him around, taking his sword and tossing it aside. Alex went in to punch Alpha, intending to stun him, but Alpha retaliated with a similar blow with particularly devastating results. Both fists collided, and Alex felt every bone in his hand and wrist shatter as though it were glass. He screamed in pain, unprepared for the effect Alpha's punch would have on him. Alpha grabbed Alex's leg, sweeping him to the floor and stepping on his arm and destroying the remaining bones within. Finally, Alpha pulled Alex up, staring at him eye to eye, and punching him in the ribs, sending him flying to the ground, writhing in pain. His arm hung limply at his right side, looking frail and weak compared to the rest of him. Alex suddenly allowed his rage to surge, and a haze of purplish lightning encompassed the arm, returning it to it's former glory in seconds. "Who the hell are you..?" Alex huffed, out of breath. Alpha smirked underneath his helmet, confidence beaming from the sociopathic leader of the Inquisition. "Care to stay and find out?" *Outside Alpha's Fortress, 42 Minutes until Dimensional Collapse* The Armored Vehicles Unity acquired finally pulled up, gunning down as many Red Star they could find. Planes, armored vehicles, infantry, you name it. The Transport and the one remaining Technical skidded to a halt outside of the fortress, the helicopter landing a few yards away. "Move in! Check for Alex and the others!" Mako ordered. Nogla hopped out of the car, landing on his feet and carrying his MG. "I don't know about this.." He muttered. "We came too far just to let our doubts get the better of us. We're going in and nobody's going to stop us." Kat asserted. "I beg to differ!" Someone yelled behind them. The team turned directly behind them to find another inquisitor, a very familiar, much loathed one at that. "A-Adam?!" Blake gasped. "How are you still alive?!" Kat's eye twitched in irritation. "The traitor and I still have a score to settle... Starting with all of you." Omicron scowled, his mask had cracked, revealing a badly scarred eye. He raised his sheath, and pulled the trigger. Mako shoved Kat out of the way, taking the bullet and collapsing to the ground. "Mako!" Weiss gasped. "Go..! There's no time!!" She urged, coughing. "All of you, go!" Blake demanded. "I'm not going anywhere." Weiss stood next to her teammate, sword unsheathed. "Come on, let's get Mako inside.." Kat called for Basically to help carry Mako into the fortress. Nogla and Rarity covered the trio into the castle, killing Red Star infantry and firing a few shots at Omicron whenever they could. Weiss summoned numerous glyphs, making a hexagonal shape around them and the other soldiers, Omicron included. She charged, skewering numerous soldiers as Blake and her old comrade exchanged blows, each one trying to utterly destroy the other. "It didn't have to be like this! You could've just killed the kid yourself!!" Omicron yelled. "I won't kill some poor kid your sick friends scraped off the street, even if he is a monster like you!" Blake kicked Omicron with the mechanical leg, forcing him back a few feet. "Heh heh... So, you admit you don't like the little shit... Fine." Omicron charged again. -- Kat charged inside, laying Mako against a marble pillar to take out a few pursuing Red Star. "Mako, take this.." Kat handed her the Colt 1911 she had been carrying as a spare, loading a mag for her. "Thanks, kid... Not sure how necessary it is, though..." She coughed again. "We're keeping you alive if we can!" Nogla yelled. "So what's the plan?" Rarity asked. "Hold on! Alpha has an unfinished Dimensional Gateway threatening to tear this place apart, right?" Basically wondered. "Yep. Hence the giant cracks to oblivion!" Kat pointed out. "If we can get there and shut it down. Maybe we can buy ourselves some time!" Nogla explained, realizing Marcel's plan. Mako, Kat, and Rarity took a collective blink. "You guys... Are really freakin' smart when you need to be." Kat shook her head. "Hey, man. Video game logic." Nogla shrugged. "Let's face it, we've done this kinda shit, like, a hundred times in CoD." Basically added. "We'll get to it, but we can't do it alone. We need a bit more help, and I'm sure Alex and company are all busy with--" Mako began. A whole battalion of Red Star soldiers charged down the hallway, firing their weapons. "Get down!" Kat ordered, killing at least 3 with one shot from her sniper. Suddenly, a red blur swooped in, wiping the entire force into little pieces of flesh in mere seconds. Twilight then flew in behind them, incinerating another group with her magic. The red blur slowed down, revealing the young leader of Team RWBY.. "Twilight? What are you doing here? Where's Alpha?" Rarity asked. "Alex said he was going to fight Alpha alone, he told us to clear the castle in case anyone came." Ruby explained. "He's fightin' the main bad guy by himself?! Is he ret--" Nogla began. "Hey! This isn't Youtube! Y' can't say that shit here!" Kat scolded. "Oh, right.. This is a BLOODY F**KING FANFICTION!!!" Nogla yelled, charging head-first into another oncoming crowd of Red Star troops and carelessly bashing in their skulls and shooting them wherever he could out of sheer annoyance and rage. "So, what are you guys doing here?" Twilight asked. "Nogla and I decided to find this Dimensional Gateway and kill it so we won't have to be on a schedule!" Marcel nodded proudly. "I'm... Not sure you want to do that.." Ruby nervously said. "Why not?" Kat asked. "I just overheard someone talking about a giant Grimm-Dragon. They're killing most of our guys and theirs. Plus a couple inquisitors escaped and..." She prattled on. The rest of the group looked at her in dismay. "That's it. F**k this noise." Basically pulled a sword from the ground and started killing more Red Star troops out of sheer frustration. "So... Scorched Earth?" Ruby asked. "Leave nothing standing. Got it." Mako struggled upwards, shooting the Red Star troops Nogla and Basically were letting there rage out on. "By the way, where are Weiss and Blake?" Ruby asked Kat. "They're outside fighting Omicron." Kat answered matter-of-factly. "And Omicron is..?" Ruby asked. "Adam Taurus." Kat stated. "N-No!! We have to go now!!" Ruby grabbed Kat by the wrist, dragging her by the wrist towards the courtyard they last saw the Huntresses. "I'll keep Nogla and Basically in check. I found out where the Dimensional Gateway generator is." Twilight assured as the two ran out the door. -- Alex dodged more of Alpha's attacks, evading his blade before kicking him away. "You think you can possibly stop us, boy? For your own sake, surrender." Alpha ordered. "I'm not making any deals with you, you sick f**k." Alex spat back. "You don't understand, kid. You can never hope to understand!" Alpha grabbed Alex by the throat, tossing him into another pillar and breaking it apart. "I know you know all of us! Time Traveller! You came here just to kill me?! Why?!!" Alex demanded, grabbing his sword and charging, clashing blades with the Alpha and kicking when he could. "You entertain me. I may as well return the favor before I take what's left of your life." Alpha scowled, swinging hard and cutting the sword in two. Alex threw his sword at Alpha, who easily cut that apart in one swing. "Do you really think I'm really the most powerful in the multiverse?!" Alpha charged at Alex, who was left to block Alpha's attack with Yang's Gauntlets, being forced back almost too easily. "Do you know how our Order works, Kid? The most powerful agents of chaos hand-pick who they want among our ranks, to prepare them for the great trials of their own worlds. We do whatever we have to do, we get our paycheck, everyone's happy. You don't think they call us mercenaries for no reason, do you?!" Alpha reared back again, this time, Alex evaded his blade, kicking Alpha in the arm to very minimal effect. "Among our biggest contributors are your friends' own personal ills. Equestria's prisoners in Tartarus, including Lord Tirek and King Sombra. And one of our highest beneficiaries, a woman by the name of Salem from Remnant. It's sort of like a campus frat and a mercenary group all in one!" Alpha swung at Alex again, severing another pillar in two as Alex ducked to evade the attack. "Then what the hell is up with you?" Alex asked, grabbing Alpha's sword by the pommel and guard, trying to pry it from his hands. "So you haven't figured it out yet.. Well, allow me to show you who I really am!" Alpha shoved Alex off of him, and pulled a few latches off of his helmet before pulling it off in one quick motion. Alex stared, horrified, as Alpha's helmet clattered to the ground. Alpha looked very similar to Alex himself, same facial structure and build, but the similarities stopped there, as his hair was bright gold and his eyes were the same shade of blue as Alex's, but was purple towards the pupil. "I was never actually given a name, so I simply decided to call myself Romulus. Romulus Walker, pleased to destroy you, father." Alpha sheathed his weapon. Alex blinked in disbelief. "Ugh, shit, okay... First, my brother, and now my f**king son. I guess being an utter disappointment runs in the family." Alex facepalmed. "You tossed me off a cliff at birth, you asshole!!" Alpha charged at Alex again, colliding with him and hacking again and again. "After you left Beacon, you and one of your friends from the war got together, and eventually you two were about to start a family. But unfortunately, you realized what your ancestors' prophecy meant! You didn't give me a chance to make something of myself and simply decided to do away with me, thinking I wouldn't survive, but look at me now!!!" Alpha punched Alex in the arm, breaking it. "You're not looking much better!!" Alex yelled. "I have planned my revenge for so long, traveling back in time and bringing all of your enemies together for one common goal, to DESTROY YOU!!!" Alpha grabbed Alex again, smashing him against the ground and breaking his leg. "Why do you think I arranged the Kahn Militia? Why do you think I had someone go back and make the concept of the Grove! And, pray tell, HOW DID YOU THINK I FOUND A MERCENARY WHO LOOKED LIKE YOU?!!!!!" Alpha leaped, landing on Alex's other leg and breaking it as well. Alpha kept stepping on Alex's chest, breaking his arms and chest again and again before finally bounding on Alex's chest, shattering his ribs. Alpha was panting, alight with fury, but exhausted. "So... What do you think?" Alpha asked, spitting on Alex. Alex crawled forward. "You know what, kid..? I.. I shouldn't have done what... What 'I' did.." Alex coughed. Alpha looked at Alex, a new expression on his face: curiosity. "What are you getting at?" Alpha demanded. "Maybe... I can ma-make things.. Right.. Think about it, if you're really from the future, and you altered the past... By that logic, you created an alternate future..." Alex coughed. Alpha gazed on in wonder. "Go on." "Maybe... This time around... I won't chuck my newborn off a cliff..." Alex smirked. Alpha grabbed Alex's hand. "Looks like I finally came through for once.." Alpha smirked, shaking his hand. "But... Just because the multiverse forgives you... Doesn't mean that I do..!" Alex covered himself with electricity, filling to the brim with anger and bloodlust. "What?!" Alpha looked on in anger. "You basically told me that you were responsible for everything that happened the past 6 months. Meaning you brought my enemies together to destroy me instead of simply telling me what NOT TO DO?!?!?! You selfish, ignorant, SPITEFUL PIECE OF SHIT!!!!" Alex yelled, punching Alpha repeatedly in the chest. "I will KILL YOU!!" Alpha sparked, his arms glowing dark blue with electric power as he charged at Alex. Alex grabbed him by the fist, twisting it at an awkward angle. "You risk destroying the fabric of this universe..! You brought death and destruction to other worlds, and you ENDANGER MY FRIENDS AND EXPECT TO BE FORGIVEN?!" Alex yelled, punching him again and again. Alpha was blown backwards, infuriated at this outburst. "No..! NO!!! NO!!!" Alpha spat, charging and punching Alex in the face. "There's something fathers do to sons for UNBELIEVABLY STUPID CRAP LIKE THIS, YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT?" Alex yelled. Alpha leaped in the air, bashing Alex repeatedly and grabbing his sword, hacking angrily at Alex, who dodged his attacks or countered. Alex eventually used his power to run behind Alpha and load Ember Celica. Alpha turned around, looking at Alex, who had Ember Celica buzzing and sparking uncontrollably. "You're grounded, you little sh-" Alex began. He finally unleashed a full-auto volley from each gauntlet as each shot collided with it's target, with extra help from his Semblance/Lightning Magic thingy/Mary Sue whatever-powers. Alpha finally stopped, letting each blast hit him, and by the end of Alex's rage-induced attacks, he scowled. "I was wondering what would break first. If not your spirit, your body will have to do!" Alpha charged as Alex braced himself for another attack. -- Ruby and Kat ran outside to find Blake fiercely combating Omicron, with Weiss battered on the ground, bleeding profusely. "Weiss!" Ruby yelled, shooting at Omicron and killing another Fireteam of Red Star solders before attacking Omicron, Blake staring in dismay. "Ruby, no!" Blake gasped, shooting at Adam's back, trying to aim along where she struck him that night on the ship. Both Omicron's and Ruby's blades met, making a loud grinding metal sound. Kat loaded her sniper rifle, moving into the brush nearby, making sure the barrel was concealed, but clear. Blake slid in, hacking and slashing at Omicron's front as Ruby attacked his back. "That's enough!" Omicron yelled, exploding in rage and spinning, the blade turning bright red as he spun in a circle, slicing cleanly through Blake's chest and batting away Ruby. Kat could barely stand to look. "Your betrayed us, Blake.. And for what?" Omicron scowled. Ruby shot Omicron once before having to run and evade his attacks once more. "P-Please... Don't... Do this.." Blake gasped, coughing blood. Kat aimed for Omicron's head, gently squeezing the trigger. Omicron noticed immediately, cutting the bullet in two, one fragment landing squarely in Ruby's chest, causing her to fall to the ground, wounded. Kat worked quickly to chamber another round, but twigs had jammed the rifle. 'No.. No..! Not like this!!' Kat thought as she tried to work the mechanism. Omicron pulled out his rifle, and pointed it at Kat's head. "Give up now, Human! This war is over and victory belongs to the White Fang!" He yelled. "I know how you feel. The fires of revolution are an alluring call. I was like you a couple years ago.. But things are different now.. Give up now. War doesn't pave way for change. Violence begets violence." Kat reasoned. Omicron scoffed. "Another traitor to a cause is another corpse to me." He scowled. "Get that son of a bitch!" Someone yelled. "What?" Kat wondered. Was that... LUI?! Hordes of Adenien Ryders, along with a few people Kat recognized as the real-life counterparts of Vanoss' crew charged onto the courtyard, firing rockets and missiles at Omicron, as he could only dodge and slaughter the soldiers. One group fired high-powered Adenien Tesla Guns to suppress the Inquisitor while the rest mercilessly gunned him down, leaving nothing of him but a bloodied pile of flesh. The Ryders helped Blake, Weiss, and Ruby up, all three pointing their weapons at Adam and firing once at his head, killing him for sure. "Make sure...he stays dead...this time around." Blake gasped as she was helped into a stretcher along with Ruby. "Hey... Kat... That was brave... What you did.. You saved us.." Ruby smiled. "I did what I could, Ruby. Do us all a favor and hang in there. That goes for Weiss and Blake too." Kat smiled back. "Hey... No problem.." Ruby smiled as they closed the door on the transports. "Good work, Chief." One of the Ryders commented. "Heh. No trouble." Kat nodded as the ground suddenly shook. "What's happening?!" The Ryder's yelled. "Nogla..!" Someone said. "Wait a second... Is that really you, Lui?!" Kat gasped. "Oh, shit! Hey Kat!" Lui waved, as did the rest of that group. Nogla ran out of the castle with Basically, Rarity, Vanoss, and Twilight. "Aw, NOOOOO!!!!" Nogla yelled. "What happened!?" Delirious asked. "Ugh, Nogla f**ked up the thing and now we have, like 10 minutes before this place is sucked up and f**ked!!" Vanoss yelled. "Get inside! Go!" The Ryders ordered as Vanoss ran by. "Not without Alex!" Twilight yelled. "He's still in there?!" Mini groaned. "FUUUUUUUU!!!!!" Most of Vanoss's group collectively groaned. -- Alex blocked Alpha's attack, Alpha himself growing more and more enraged. "Die!! DIE!!!!" Alpha yelled. "I was expecting someone, y'know, less disappointing." Alex scowled. "AAAAHHHH!!!! I'LL SHOW YOU DISAPPOINTMENT!!!!" Alpha yelled, a black circle enveloping him and ringing, causing a huge burst of energy, before it repeated, and went on again, and again, and again at greater intensity. When the transformation ended, Alpha's hair was basically on fire and the purple in his eyes turned blood red, and his skin was a shiny blue color. "THIS IS THE END FOR YOU!!!!" Alpha yelled. "Oh, shit. He can do that too." Alex moaned. "YOU CANNOT DEFY FATE, FATHER! I HAVE SEEN INTO OTHER TIMELINES, AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE FATED FOR DESTRUCTION!!!!" Alpha charged, firing bolts of electricity at Alex as he could only run and evade them, rather than block them. "WHY NOT LIVE UP TO THE ORIGINAL TIMELINES AND DIE JUST LIKE YOUR FRIENDS IN A BLAZE OF UNHOLY FIRE!!!!!!" Alpha's attacks grew more powerful by the second, and Alex could only run until he finally tired out. Alex ducked behind a pillar and rolled out, only to be struck by Alpha's lightning. Instead of dying horribly like Alex had anticipated, he felt a sharp pain enter his body, but afterwards he only felt more powerful. Alpha looked on in confusion and terror. "What... WHAT IS THIS?!" Alpha yelled, firing more and more lightning bolts in rapid succession. Alex braced himself, standing in intense agony as he slowly raised to a standing position. "You know what happens when you threaten a person's life, 'Romulus'? They finally stand up and do what they have to. And I know what I have to do..." Alex spat. He let this newfound energy surge within him, using it to create a large, electric ball around him and induce the Enlightened Warrior power surge. The ball turned white, surging with violet lightning before flashing, filling the room with blinding light. Using his energy, Alex induced this process repeatedly until he could tell he was ready, and unleashed waves of electricity outwards, encompassing the room in bright light. When Alex emerged, his skin was a similar shade of blue as Alpha's, his hair bright blue, and eyes burning with hatred. "You are a real fool, Alex! Do you think raising yourself to my level will save you?! You'll die just like the worthless trash you call 'friends'!" Alpha yelled, growing angrier. "Shut up! Friendship is never worthless! My alternate self shouldn't have carelessly tossed you off the cliff, you little shit! He should've killed you himself when he had the CHANCE!!!" Alex walked slowly to Alpha, rage quelled by the knowledge that he could break his spirit before breaking his body, just as Alpha himself threatened. "When you brought this madness upon me, I was fueled by hatred and thoughts of revenge. I was a ruthless, bloodthirsty killer just like you. But things change. I don't want to watch anyone else die. I don't want Twilight and the others to suffer anymore... I want to protect them... Just like they protected me!" Alex coldly spat, funneling all of his power into his right fist as he loaded the gauntlet on that hand one last time. "YOU STUBBORN IDIOT!!!! I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!!!" Alpha screamed, charging his own attack, his sword glowing a dark blue color. Both Enlightened Warriors charged at each other, their resolve and fury seemingly infinite as both stuck at once, producing a massive shockwave that spread throughout the room, and sent both flying away. Alex himself was losing strength, and could feel tremendous pain seeping into his limbs again, his Aura was running low. "THAT'S IT!!! SAY GOODBYE, FATHER!!! THUNDERING MALEVOLENCE CANNON!!!!!!!" Alpha screamed, firing a condensed beam of fire and lightning straight at Alex, who was left with no choice to retaliate with an attack of his own. Unfortunately, he didn't exactly have time to name his own attacks, so he just went with what was already in mind. "GENERIC ANIME ATTACK!!!!!" Alex yelled, his own condensed beam of electricity colliding with Alpha's with both under intense strain. "THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM THE AGONY THAT AWAITS YOU!! NOW DIE!!!!" Alpha shrieked, enraged that Alex had dared stand up to him. Alex struggled under the brunt of Alpha's attack, being forced back a few feet and unable to do very much to protect himself. 'Hope is not lost today, Alex.' A voice said. Alex looked up, to find Flickering Light standing to the left of him, almost unrecognizable due to his being a spiritual construct of some type. He stood at Alex's side, in a fighting stance with his horn generating a bright light just behind the beam. 'You can't give up! Not yet!' Another construct, Cyrus, appeared to his right with what looked like a large beam cannon. 'You are more powerful than you know, Son.' Alex's father stood behind his right, arms extended and firing a deadly pulse of spiritual electricity. 'You can still save them. You can still save everyone.' Summer Rose stood next to his father, an unknown weapon in her hands pointed towards the beam. 'Now.. Repeat after us..' The spirits commanded. Alex awaited their word as Alpha's beam reached ever closer to Alex himself, Alex quickly figured they had better hurry up, or he would be a charred stain on the ground. They all collectively whispered the incantation that would spell the end of Alpha. With a deep breath, Alex let out a cry of anger. "CHARGED INVOCATION PULSE!!!" Alex yelled, the beam suddenly glowing bright blue as it eclipsed Alpha's beam and sped towards it's target, enveloping him completely. "NO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! STOP!! STOOOOOP!!!!!!" Alpha gasped as the beam encircled him, likely incinerating his foe forever. Alex let his power dissipate, letting himself return to normal and nearly collapse on the ground, panting with exhaustion. "It's... It's over... I... I won... Heh.... Everyone's.. safe..." Alex exhaled, pain rushing in and causing him to pass out completely. "Why does every battle end with me passing out like a bitch?" Alex thought to himself as his mind slipped into unconsciousness. -- A blue-violet portal opened up inside Alpha's chamber seconds after his death, a figure stepped out of the portal wearing only dull grey armor, with no markings other than a lone, black marking down the helmet's right eye. The figure stepped near Alex, kneeling next to him and checking for vitals. After a moment, the figure nodded once and grabbed him, pulling him up and carrying him. The figure stepped out to look out a window. A black hole was beginning to form that would swallow this place entirely, he would have to hurry. Setting up a small pad, he unrolled the controller for the device as though it were a mere piece of cloth or paper, and slid his thumb over the power button. The pad began to glow blue as he tapped in the coordinates. If he was right, everyone would be heading to Ponyville to recover, where millions would gather in the wake of the battle's end to recover. He placed the boy directly on the pad, curling him into a ball to ensure no part of him would remain here. He pressed a button and the boy disappeared in a bright blue glow. The figure exhaled once, standing up and grabbing a Scroll. He quickly typed a message for anyone in authority to let them know that the young Admiral was safe in Ponyville. Once he finished writing his message, he closed his scroll, destroying it with his bare hands and stepping onto the pad, typing in the coordinates back to where he had come from, setting the self-destruct function to after he had teleported out. A similar blue glow enveloped the mysterious armor-clad figure and disappeared, the pad short-circuiting and exploding seconds later, leaving no trace of what had transpired. That is, save his message. Author's Note And that's that! After a huge battle, apparent reusing of an old enemy, and an admittedly misguided time limit. The Blood Red Night saga draws to a close. But there's still just a tiny bit more, I swear on Penny's life.. Um... I promise on Roman's life.. Wait.. Pyrrha's life..? Dammit, I hate Volume 3.
Act III, Chapter 24: Hope's First Light*Ponyville, Equestria; 1200 hours, December 16, 2016* The surviving members of Team Unity were sitting in Sugarcube Corner. Their wounds had been mostly healed, and had all gathered inside, waiting for the person who they had sacrificed so much for, and who had sacrificed for them in turn. Alex Walker. "Jesus, where is he? You did tell him to be here by noon, right?" Vanoss indignantly groaned. Yang raised her hands in defense. "Hey! Of course I did! I don't know what could be keeping him!" Yang pointed out. "Maybe he needs a minute to adjust for... What happened... I don't blame him." Rainbow pouted, shaking her head. Ruby took a minute to look at the Pegasus pony. Cinder Fall had cut off one of her wings early on in the battle and had to be carried away. It had since then been replaced by a mechanical wing made by the Ryders and Atlesian technicians, as well as Equestrian biologists who needed to make sure she could actually fly with the prosthetic. "Did you see his X-Rays? Man!" Wildcat cringed at the thought. "I can't believe I let him fight Alpha alone.." Twilight grimaced again. "It was his mission, Twilight. Oz told us yesterday that Alex was hired to kill Alpha." Mako reminded her. "And besides, Alex freaking did it! We couldn't find anything of Alpha left!" Kat added. "Of course you couldn't. The Black Hole sucked everything inside. Nothing could've survived that. Either way, he's gone." Vinyl said. "Did you see Twilight kill Gamma? That was f**king sick!" Delirious asked, drinking cider. "I still don't get how or why your consciousness didn't have any problems returning to your original body on Earth while we were in Provinence." Weiss said. "Honestly, I expected them to be vegetables if they full-on died, and I worked on Project Immersion." Mako added. "Well, I think it's safe to say that it's been a weird couple of months, right?" Vanoss questioned. The room collectively nodded. They suddenly heard the sound of a door opening, and a bell ringing. The whole room went silent after that. None of them said a word as Alex walked off to the front of the bar type area and sat down. "Hi, just a hot chocolate and a cinnamon muffin?" Alex asked, pulling out a few bits and handing them to Mr. and Mrs. Cake, the proprietors of the shop. "Sure. It'll be a few minutes for the hot chocolate, okay?" Mrs. Cake said, trying to act like Alex was just another normal customer. "Thanks." Alex sighed. He turned behind him, seeing everyone holding their mouths out of shock. "What?" Alex asked. Ruby leaned in and whispered in Weiss' ear. "Should I tell him?" She asked quietly "No, you dunce!" Weiss scolded, raising her voice. "I'll handle this." Yang turned to them both. "Bad idea." Blake dismissed, reading a book that Twilight had loaned her. "Alex... Let's just say you're looking a little..." Yang began nervously. "Don't say it." Alex scowled. "Stumped..." She said, instantly regretting the pun entirely. Alex inhaled sharply, looking as though he was visibly trying to control his temper before exhaling. "It's... This, isn't it?" Alex sighed, rolling up both sleeves, revealing to everyone that both of his arms were completely robotic. "Woah!" Delirious gaped. "Oh god, I thought it was just your hands!!" Pyrrha cringed visibly. "And that's not the best part!" Alex rolled up his pant legs. Just like his arms, both legs were entirely prosthetic. "Ooh! Sorry!" Rarity apologized. "Remarkable!" Twilight looked astonished. Vinyl had a similar reaction. "Are you two out of your minds?!" Weiss yelled at the ponies as they examined his new limbs. "A quadruple amputee, saved by extra-dimensional technology! It's amazing how Atlesian and Adenienite tech blend so well!" Vinyl beamed. "Yes, yes, I get it!! I'm literally Darth f**king Vader! Can we please chill out for five minutes!!" Alex demanded. Vanoss and his crew smirked at the reference, letting out a few laughs, much to Alex's irritation. Alex sighed, slumped over the counter, and let out a groan. "I'm sure there's another reason behind this, I mean besides you people gawking at my arms and legs." Alex turned to face his friends. Twilight nodded, pulling out a small journal and levitating it to Alex. "This is a handbook of the last surviving Inquisitors. Some were actually at the battle, others weren't. In any case, it would do some good to track them down-" Twilight began. "Anyone have a pen?" Alex asked. Nogla handed Alex a #2 pencil, and Alex opened the notebook and started writing inside of it. "What.. What are you doing?" Twilight wondered. "Let him do his thing." Rainbow shrugged. "I'm a bit curious myself.." Ren shook his head. Alex handed Twilight back the handbook after a few minutes, and she looked over at his 'adjustments'. List of Surviving Inquisitors KILL LIST Cinder Fall, AKA 'Sigma'; Remnant Neopolitan, AKA 'Phi'; Remnant Morning Star, AKA 'Delta'; Equestria Xavier Callan, AKA 'Upsilon'; Earth Ultimus Crux, AKA 'Zeta'; Adenien Tirek; Equestria Sombra; Equestria Salem; Remnant "This... You can't be serious, Alex!" Twilight groaned. "I'm serious. What, you think I'm f**king around?" Alex stared Twilight dead in the eye. Ruby picked up the notebook and handed it around. Yang sat there in place, staring intently at the notebook. "It's a hit list." Yang handed the book to Vanoss and crew. "You're joking! You can't expect us to go along with this!" Rainbow reprimanded Alex. "I don't. That's why I'm doing this alone." Alex scowled. "Doing what alone, Alexander?" Said Ozpin as he stepped inside the building, along with Qrow, Raven, and Sirius. "Read this and prepare to be pissed." Basically handed the book to the Professor, who closely examined the contents before sharply closing the book and giving it back to him. "We'll talk about this later." Ozpin stated. "So. I can only assume you're here for a reason, seeing as how you've got bodyguards tailing you." Alex blinked, unmoving. "I came to check on you, as well as my two most promising first-year teams. You all survived. I prepared you well.." He looked over Teams RWBY and JNPR, as well as the rest of the group. "Onto the real reason I'm here." Ozpin began. "Oh, god." Alex groaned. "I'm here to inform you that Princess Celestia has scheduled your trial for tomorrow." Ozpin said. "Trial?" Vinyl asked. "As in, court?" Alex wondered. "Yes. You're finally being tried for your quote-unquote 'crimes'. Including homicide, property damage, crimes against the state, and affiliation with a known terror organization." The Professor listed his crimes, and he suspected it would be a much longer list. "F**k." Alex face-palmed. "I'm not going to take anyone's side in this argument. That's ultimately for the court to decide. But, as they say, 'History is written by the victor'." Ozpin stated before leaving. "Where are you going? I thought we were going to discuss things!" Alex yelled. "When you are at home, and alone, we'll schedule an appointment." Ozpin called back before exiting the room. "Bye, Uncle Qrow! Bye, Sirius!" Ruby waved "Bye, Mom!" Yang waved to Raven. "Wait, 'Mom'?" Alex gaped. "You really couldn't tell this entire time?" Yang smirked. Alex groaned. "Talk about family issues.." "Your parents are dead." Yang retorted. "... Touché." "And so are both of your older brothers." Vanoss added. "Okay... Enough." Alex put a stop to that whole mess before it could begin. "Heh, sorry." Both scratched the backs of their heads nervously. The group talked for hours as pastries were bought and passed around. They talked about all the great times they had as a team, how and when they should meet up in the future, and, of course, their fates now that everything had mostly been cleaned up. Eventually, they all things to do and some needed to leave, so they dispersed, select groups going to other parts of town. Alex himself bought some root beer and grabbed .44 Scratch. It was time for his own personal ceremony. A seven-gun salute. He wandered away until he found an open field, Luna's moon shining brightly over the dark winter skies. The wind howled around him as he sat there, remembering everyone he lost. 'Mom... Dad... Karis... Cloudchaser and Flitter...' Alex shook his head, not wanting to let his grief get the better of him. He carefully loaded six rounds in the revolver, spun the chamber, and cocked it. He squeezed the trigger once, the bullet ascending to the skies, leaving behind nothing but it's sound, and the thin electric 'vapor trail'. 'To those I couldn't save... I'll never forget your sacrifice.' He cocked the revolver again, raising it to the skies and firing a second time, the gunshot echoing in his mind. 'To those who fought so fiercely for me.. Not out of greed or malice, but for what was right.' Alex steadily pulled the hammer back a third time, raising his arm and shooting again. Feeling his emotion well up inside of him again. Sadness overcoming him. 'To those I held dearly, only for them to vanish from my grasp so that I wouldn't vanish from theirs..' Alex fired again, holding back tears as he felt his metal limbs become harder to move in the cold. He slowly cocked the gun again, raising it to the skies in defiance. 'To those who fought not only for my sake, but the sake of their own friends..' Alex pulled the trigger a fifth time, letting one tear freeze on his cheek, only for him to flick it away. He sighed again, pulling back the hammer a sixth time. 'To those who went into the night.. And did not go quietly..' Alex shot the sixth bullet, pulling the cylinder out and inserting another cap into the revolver. He spun it and shoved the cylinder into place. 'Rest well, wherever you are, knowing that your deaths were not in vain.' As Alex fired, he heard another gunshot behind him. Alex turned around to find Yang standing behind him. "You okay?" She asked. "I'm fine." Alex sighed dismissively. "Right. You go out into the fields at night in the middle of winter with a six-pack and a gun and you expect me to think everything's fine." Yang chided. "I'm.. Just.. Keeping the ones we lost in mind." Alex told her. "Oh, is this one of those 21-gun salutes I heard about?" Yang asked. "You got me." Alex smirked. "So, what'd you bring? Oh. Root beer. I was expecting worse." Yang shrugged, funneling through his stuff and uncapping a bottle with her wrist bracelet. "You know I can't stand alcohol." Alex reprimanded. "Whatever you say, Admiral." Yang joked, "Cheers." Alex weakly raised his glass. "Cheers!" Yang yelled, clinking the bottle with Alex's own and taking a comparatively causal sip. . Alex smirked nervously, trying to find something else to stare at, for her own sake and his. "Hey, remember when Blake told you about... Well..." Yang began. 'Oh, dammit.' Alex thought bitterly. He remembered Alex's conversation with Blake on the Iliad, and remembered exactly what he said before. "Tell her, maybe after all of this is over, maybe we can talk." "She actually got around to telling you that, huh?" Alex asked. "Yep! And, besides, I heard from Twi and the others that you actually have a house." Yang recalled. "I do, actually. I got it as soon as I got to Equestria... Y'know, before... that." Alex shakily remembered. "So... What do you say? I think spending the night at your place seems better than staying outside in the middle of winter." Yang commented. Wait, what was that about spending the-? 'Oh, my god.' Alex realized in his mind. "Uhm... I need an adult." Alex stammered nervously in an attempt to dissuade her. "We're close to being adults." Yang smiled broadly. 'Dammit, Yang.' Alex thought regretfully as the girl grabbed his wrist and dragged him into Ponyville once more. Author's Note Sorry for not touching base on the last few chapters in this story. The chapter count is going to be the exact same as Act I. Meaning 26 chapters in total. And this is #24. That, plus an Epilogue is about 3 more chapters, two more before the end of Act III. It's sad, I know.. -The Destoyer
Act III, Chapter 25: Admittance2150 hours; December 16, 2016 'I'm not quite sure how to respond to this...' Alex thought as he sat on the couch, with... God, even thinking about who was sitting next to him was enough to make him feel butterflies in his stomach! "Is there anything to do around here?" Yang asked, boredom practically dripping from her tone. "Not much, really. Except for those books and the record player. I've always been insanely busy, so this is the first time in months that I actually have nothing to do." Alex shrugged. "Really? No free time at all?" Yang wondered. "Between battle, planning, building armor and weapons, and keeping everyone in line, There was a hell of a lot to do. And there still is. Even after the court session." Alex figured. "Right... I've been thinking.." Yang began. "Thinking about what?" Alex asked. "I'll... Ask later. You know about Oz trying to get you in Beacon, right?" She asked. "Yeah, he told me in the medic tent. I think he said I could join next year." Alex replied. "Will you?" She pondered. "Technically, I should go when I turn 17, so maybe the year after that. And then I'll have one free year for community service or whatever they're sentencing for me." Alex said. "O-Oh... So I'll be a third year when you finally decide to.." Yang blinked. "I guess... But, hey. I don't wanna worry about that, now. Anything you want to do right now? And I mean that platonically. I'm just trying to be a good host!" Alex assured, the nervous expression on his face badly concealed. "Maybe there's something in town? I'm sure Ruby wants to know where I'll be for tonight." Yang figured "Where she'll be for tonight-- oh, GOD." Alex nervously twitched. "Heh heh... Right.." He stammered. "Well, let's get to it! I heard she was with Twilight and Blake in the library. She was always a bookworm." Yang thought fondly of her sister. "Where's Ice Queen and the 'MLG Brigade' at?" Alex wondered. "I heard they were hanging out at Applejack's place for cider. I still can't believe what happened.." Yang seethed. "What happened to her?" Alex asked. "I think Sigma snapped her spine, so she needed more enhancements." Yang recalled. "All the more reason to hunt her down.." Alex muttered darkly. "So, we're heading out?" Yang asked, preferring to stay off that subject, at least until later. "Sure... Let's go.." Alex nodded, throwing on a jacket and handing Yang a spare. -- The library wasn't too bad of a walk, snow fluttered down from above as the two walked, side by side, one closer than the other would like, to the Golden Oak Library. Alex steadily opened the door with one hand and held it open. "Thanks!" Yang smiled. "Just being polite.." Alex muttered nervously. Twilight welcomed them inside, with Spike hiding nervously behind her hind leg. "Is-Is that him..?" He gasped. "Yep. Hi Alex, Hi Yang! What brings you two here?" She asked. "Just looking for Ruby, you see her anywhere?" Yang replied. "Hi, Yang!" Ruby greeted her sister with a hug, who returned the gesture in kind. "Hi, Bro!" Ruby also gave him a hug, which Alex returned meekly upon hearing Ruby call him 'bro'. "Uh... Dear god.. Hi, Ruby.." Alex nervously replied, patting her back lightly. "Oh, come on! I meant that, y'know, like we're both sort of soldiers, now!" Ruby playfully slugged him in the shoulder. "Heh heh... I totally believe you, but.." Alex sweatdropped. "Is he always this sweaty?" Spike asked Twilight. "Since these two first met, it's actually kind of funny." Twilight smirked. "I like all of you, but, holy hell, you guys can be a bit much. No offense, Spike." Alex turned his attention to the small purple-and-green drake. "None taken." "Alex! Spike is still a baby!" Twilight scolded. "Yeah, I've heard kids younger than him drop F-Bombs like it's going out of style on CoD, so I'll take that advice with a grain of salt." Alex deadpanned. "Twilight, what are 'F-Bombs'?" Spike asked innocently. "Alex!!" "Oh, that's easy. It's this word called 'fu-'" Yang smiled earnestly. "Yang!!!" Twilight scolded her. "Oh, sure! It's fine when a 16 year old princess says it in the middle of a battle, but not two people in a household conversation!" Ruby rolled her eyes in a joking manner. "I'm 23 years old!" Twilight yelled. "I figured Twi was somewhere in her twenties." Alex shrugged. "Do you guys get the point?!" Twilight demanded. "All right, we're sorry." Yang smiled broadly. "Okay, is that all you wanted to do?" Twilight asked. "Yep. I was just going to tell Ruby that I'll be at Alex's place so she won't worry." Yang said. "She can come with, too. I have a guest bedroom, so I can sleep on the couch." Alex shrugged. "That sounds great-!" Ruby smiled. "Nope! That bed was destroyed...in the war, and I can't have him sleep on that uncomfortable couch all by himself!" Yang smiled. "For f**k sake, Yang!!" Alex yelled in his head. "Oh... I get it! I'll stay with Vinyl." Ruby smiled knowingly. "Not you too!" Alex groaned inwardly. Twilight and Spike both were holding in their laughter, holding their mouths with their hooves and claws. "Well, that's all we're here for! Let's head back!" Yang smiled, grabbing Alex by the back of the shirt. "Help... Me..." Alex pleaded. "Have fun, you two! But not too much!" Ruby yelled as they left the Library, Twilight and Spike's laughter muffled as the door slammed shut. -- "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Alex held in his screaming as he lay in his darkened bed, with a certain Huntress laying next to him. "So... Can I ask you a few questions?" She asked, turning her head to look at him. "Uh... Yeah... Sure thing.." Alex replied, his voice tight with awkwardness. "So... About that list you had earlier.." Yang's voice trailed off. "What about it?" Alex asked. "I was wondering... Why do you want to keep going through with this? Why keep stressing over this? The war's over, we won." Yang questioned. "Yang. I expected you of all people would know why, but.. Truth is, I really don't want anyone else hurt because of some idiot.. Not like-" Alex began. "Like us?" Yang asked. "Well... Yes and no.." Alex blinked. "What do you mean?" Yang wondered inquisitively. "I'll explain later.." Alex said. "No, Alex! I'm tired of all this 'I'll explain everything later' stuff! I know when something's bugging you, Alex. What's wrong?" She demanded in anger. Alex hesitated, recoiling from her outburst with more fear and nervousness. Yang noticed, and placed a hand reassuringly at his shoulder. "Come on... You know I'll try to understand." She begged at a lighter tone. Alex sighed deeply, looking her in the eye. "Yang... I don't know how to tell you this, so I'll just give you the facts. No more bullshit." Alex promised. "Okay..?" She waited intently, curious. "When I was in that crack... I met with... People from my past... And they told me that Alpha was actually a time traveller born about 6 years from now, and this time traveller knew all of us." Alex recalled. "Someone we know?" Yang wondered. "And when I fought Alpha... He... He took off his helmet, and.." Alex nervously remembered. "He looked like you, d-didn't he? He was... your son?" Yang realized, horrified. "Yeah... And that's not the worst part... His hair was a lot lighter than mine... And his eyes, near the pupils, his eyes were purple... Yang, he was yours too...I-I can't begin tell you how sorry I am..." Alex sighed. Yang trembled, hugging him tightly. "I... I never.." Yang tried comforting him to little avail. "It hurts like hell. I know... But.." Alex returned the hug as well. "It.. It all makes sense now! That's why you've been trying to avoid me more than usual lately! That's why you want to hunt down the Inquisitors even more..!" Yang concluded. "Now you get it. I want to be...Um...Around you... But fact of the matter is, I still have work to do before we can." Alex sighed. Yang hugged him again, pecking him lightly on the cheek, leaving Alex more nervous still. "Now.. I know it seems like you have to do this by yourself.. But I'm not sure you can do this all on your own.." Yang added. "I can't risk you, any of you for that matter, to fight with me anymore... I can't lose anyone else..." Alex grieved. "So that's it, then? You're just going to run in, alone, and lose another arm?! You almost died after your fight with Alpha! Do you get it, yet?! I spent 15 minutes bleeding from that cut Gamma gave me, and the doctors said I could've died from that, too! That was a walk in the park compared to what Alpha did to you! He completely shattered your arms, your legs, and depleted almost all of your Aura! If it hadn't been for Pyrrha and Nora messing with the medical scanners to power your healing, you actually would have died! Twilight, Ruby, and Vanoss should've shut you up and helped you! Maybe then, you wouldn't be more of a robot than you already are!!" Alex stared at Yang, completely lost for words, and slumped back down into his bed. He let out a ragged sigh before turning over, tossing the rest of the covers over to Yang's side of the bed. "What are you doing now?!" She asked, angered. "What's it look like? I'm going to sleep." Alex snapped back. "Not without a blanket! It's the middle of winter!" Yang screamed. "Winter, Schminter. Keep the covers. It's not like the robot needs any!" Alex retorted. Yang went silent for a moment, and Alex finally closed his eyes. "Look at me." She suddenly said. "Hm?" Alex blinked his eyes open. "Turn over and look me in the eye." Yang demanded. Alex fearfully obliged, only to find the blankets being thrown back over him and his head in her arms. "Look, Alex... I'm... I'm sorry... I know you think we'd be better off without you showing up, but if you can't stand losing any of us, imagine how we'd feel after losing you." Yang smiled, finally meeting lips. Alex could only stare, eyes wide with confusion, as she broke off. "I... Wha.... How..." Alex stammered. Yang smiled at him again. "So... Do you still want to be, quote, 'Around me'?" Yang asked. Alex barely needed to think about it. "Yang, I'd be happy to-" Alex began. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" A rainbow maned Pegasus crashed through their window at blinding speed, carrying with her, a certain Owl-Masked video game avatar. "Rainbow! What the hell was that?!" Vanoss yelled. "You were leaning on my right too far! I lost my balance!" Rainbow screamed back. "Guys.." Alex scowled. "At least I- Oh, shit." Vanoss groaned. "And now we're dead in the next five seconds because of you, Evan!" Rainbow yelled. "Oh..! Sorry, was I interrupting something?" Vanoss asked them. Alex stared daggers into Vanoss' owl mask eyes, red lightning occasionally flickered off of him, lighting the room in short bursts of time. "Shit. Shit! Run! Run!!" Vanoss yelled, diving out the window with Rainbow flying behind him. "Vanoss? Rainbow? What's with the commotion?" Vinyl asked from outside. "This blockhead got me off balance and we crashed into Alex's window." rainbow explained. "Were Alex and Yang doing anything I should know about?" Ruby wondered. "I think they were kissing or something, I don't know!" Vanoss answered. Alex walked over to the window, grabbing the inside storm shutters and slamming them shut, locking them and returning to his bed. "So, I heard a 'yes'." Yang smiled. "Um... You heard right.." Alex said. "Let's pick up where we left off." Yang smiled deviously. "Wait, what?" Yang kissed Alex again, catching him by surprise and hugging him. Alex still wasn't quite sure how to handle any of this. He had accepted the huntress three times, once during the battle and twice now, and he still wasn't sure how to respond. He had seen too much, failed too many times and, now that it was all over, had too much on his mind. 'Huh.. Maybe Kat and Iris had the right idea..' Alex thought as he embraced Yang in turn. -- Author's Note: Before any of you read further, no, they didn't do certain specific things. Just letting you know, this is still a T rated story, so none of that! Shame on you. -- *The Next Day; December 17, 2016; 1300 Hours, Ponyville Courthouse* "Court is now in session, the honorable Judge Bronze Scale presiding." The clerk said as Alex turned his attention to the Judge, a middle-aged bronze-colored unicorn. From Alex's understanding, he was the Princess' most trusted judge. "You may be seated." Judge Scale sighed, as if this session alone had been discussed over and over through these past months. Like U.S court, Alex had been entitled to a jury of his peers. Some, he recognized as members of the Coalition, or just regular soldiers and even regular Ponyville residents. He trusted them to decide what he actually deserved out of this, as he really only knew Weiss in that jury, and Alex trusted her about as much as he trusted, say, Rainbow. Alex himself rejected having a lawyer entirely. He read a bit of Equestrian law, but only enough to perform this one act. "In the case of Equestria vs. Walker, Admiral Walker, how do you plead?" The judge asked. Most of the Jury and the audience, including the rest of his friends, looked at Alex expectantly. "What do you think he's going to do?" Vinyl asked Yang. "I asked him yesterday, but he told me not to tell you what he was going to do." Yang replied. "Why?" "He said something like 'nobody will agree with this'." Yang answered. Alex sighed. "Admiral?" Judge Scale demanded again. "I plead guilty, your honor." Alex stared him dead in the eye. Most of the attendance started yelling in outrage. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Wildcat groaned. "Is he kidding?!" Rainbow gasped. "What..?" Blake sweatdropped. "Order!" Judge Scale pounded the gavel, silencing everyone in the room in a matter of seconds. "Admiral, do you know by pleading guilty you are losing your right to a jury trial?" "Yes, sir." Alex replied steadily. "Do you comprehend what surrendering that right means?" The judge asked again. "Yes, your honor." "Do you know you are also surrendering your right against incriminating yourself?" "Yes, I do." "Is anyone forcing you into that settlement?" The judge demanded. "No, your honor. I'm doing this of my own accord." "Are you pleading guilty because you, in fact, were involved in the assaults on this 'Area 51', The Canterlot Castle, and the residence of Princess Sparkle, as well as the murders of at least 120 humans and 21 Royal Guards?" Judge Scale asked again. "Yes, your honor." Alex sighed. The judge shook his head in disbelief, clearing his throat before reading off the sentence that the jury had provided. "Admiral Walker, you are hereby sentenced to 72 hours in prison, 30 hours of community service, and one year's probation, which will be provided to whomever you will train under after your stay in Ponyville Penitentiary and your community service. And you are hereby demoted to the rank of Captain." Judge Scale slammed his gavel, confirming the charge and sealing Alex's fate. In Alex's opinion, the sentence was a bit lighter than he would've thought. Now he knew what Ozpin meant when he said 'history is written by the victor'. Skirmish and another guard went to either side of Alex, intending to lead him out of the courtroom. "Hey, Skirmish." Alex nodded. "Adm- Captain.." Skirmish politely nodded as he was led out of the courtroom. -- "Captain, what were you trying to prove in that room?" Professor Ozpin asked from outside the cell door. Alex turned to face Ozpin with the facial equivalent of 'Are you f**king serious?'. "To be honest, I'm not trying to prove anything. I did, in fact, commit these crimes, and that was before the actual war. A friend once told me that there's too much wrong with the world to stand back and do nothing about it. I shouldn't be exempt from facing the consequences of my actions just because of a few superficial medals. And if you ask me, this," Alex lectured, gesturing to the stone cell around him,"This has been a long time coming." Ozpin narrowed his eyes and nodded. "I see. Now, may we speak to each other in private?" Ozpin asked the guard outside his cell, who stepped out, closing the door behind him. "I assume this is about that 'list'." Alex figured. "You are correct in this case, Alexander." Ozpin pulled out the booklet in question, turning to the list. "Now, I'm just curious, where did you hear about this... 'Salem'?" Ozpin wondered, dread heavy in his tone. "When I fought Alpha, he mentioned that she was among the Inquisition's highest benefactors, right along with King Sombra and Lord Tirek. You know something about this 'Salem', don't you?" Alex asked. Ozpin hardened his gaze. "Salem is described as the Queen of the Grimm, half human, half abomination. She intends to destroy humanity slowly, and, as we've been made aware recently, had been intending to use Cinder Fall and her subordinates to mount an attack on Vale during the Vytal Festival, which you prevented due to the war effort. You may have saved countless lives." Ozpin explained. "May I ask how you know?" Alex wondered. "An anonymous letter written to my office with the pseudonym 'Scion'. We've been unable to identify Scion or his motives, but it's generally believed he is the one who teleported you to Ponyville, where you could receive the necessary medical attention." Ozpin elaborated. "So, what happens now?" Alex wondered. "Do your time, for now. I've personally decided to search for a necessary mentor for you until you join us at Beacon Academy. Prepare all you can. And, most of all, if you are going to try and kill her, kill her last. She is the most dangerous entity in all of Remnant." Ozpin ordered as he began leaving. "And, Oz?" Alex asked. Ozpin quickly turned around. "I know you gave Pyrrha the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers. If you want my personal advice, she should be the one to kill Cinder." Alex sighed. Ozpin faced Alex, confused, before nodding and finally leaving the room. Author's Note Another chapter to the end. First off, Yang and Alex are 'officially' a thing now. I'm not sure how you guys are going to take this... Ah, f**k it. Posted. Secondly, Horse Prison. Third, Sequel? Meh, probably. I'm setting this up on what is basically a cliffhanger. -The Destoyer
Act III, Chapter 26: Valedictions1500 hours; December 19, 2016; one mile outside of Ponyville, Equestria Alex and his friends gathered outside of Ponyville to say their final goodbyes. A teleporter had been placed on the outskirts to act as an gateway to and from Equestria, now that Public Dimensional Transportation was beginning to become widespread. The crowd of almost 30 had been grouped around, conversing among themselves. None of them could believe the biggest adventure of their lives thus far was drawing to a close. "So... Have you decided on what you're going to do?" Kat wondered. "As a matter of fact, I have," Alex began, "I'll spend the next week or two working at Sugarcube Corner in Pinkie's stead while she recovers in the hospital. Then, Oz finally got around to finding someone willing to train me until I go to Beacon." "Who did Ozpin convince to train you?" "Oz never really gave me any of the details, but he did say that they'd be a pain in the ass." Alex shrugged. "Did he actually say that?" "Nah, just paraphrasing." Alex admitted. Alex took a moment to listen to other people's conversations. "You know, Rubes. You're actually really cool to hang around. Maybe we can play the new CoD together if they somehow get online to work at Remnant." Vanoss smiled. "Aww! Thanks, Evan!" Ruby hugged the owl-masked Canadian. "Ow.. You're crushing my lungs..." He gasped. "Heheh.. Sorry.." Ruby smiled sheepishly. "Hey, Keep in touch, okay?" Twilight asked Weiss. "Of course, Princess." Weiss nodded respectfully, both bowing to each other. "So, hey. If you want, I can probably get you guys Wonderbolts tickets. I was finally accepted in the hospital room!" Rainbow Dash smiled happily. "Ooh, dude! Nice!" Wildcat congratulated. "I'm happy for you, Dash!" Yang ruffled Rainbow's mane. "Ah! Don't do that!!" Rainbow batted her wings to move Yang's hand. "Why, is that your pet peeve?" Yang smirked. "Aaaaahhhh!!" Rainbow screamed, irritated. "So, what are you going to do now?" Rarity asked Mako. "I'm going back to Earth. Someone has to clean up Hunter Smith's mess." Mako shrugged, referring to the new Chancellor of the North American Federation. "Ah, yes. I assume Revolution is a tedious thing to clean up after. At least Princess Celestia was able to bring Ponyville back to it's former glory after 3 weeks of Red Star occupation." Rarity figured. "Alex..?" Blake asked. Alex stood up off the ground to face the Faunus of Team RWBY. He knew that Blake didn't necessarily approve of his methods and tactics, even to the point of comparing him to Omicron. He privately wondered what she would have to say about his sentence. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't be comparing you to.. You know who, but.." Blake stuttered. "Blake, listen. I know we may not always see eye-to-eye about these kinds of things. And that's fine. I really don't mind who or what you compare me to. You do you, and I'll do me," Alex explained, "Just... promise me that if I ever end up like any of them, try to be the second or third to try and get my shit together." "I understand.." Blake figured. Alex raised his hand, which Blake held and, with a hint of uncertainty, shook. A sign of mutual respect between the two. "It was an honor fighting alongside you, Ms. Belladonna. Godspeed." Alex nodded. "Good luck." The two eventually broke off and went their separate ways. Twilight flew to Alex, landing next to him and wrapping a wing around his back. "Hey, Alex.. I'll miss you, you know.." Twilight wing-hugged him. "Relax, Twi. I still have community service at Sugarcube Corner." Alex smiled. "Oh... Oh yeah.." Twilight remembered. "Hey, Alex!" Rainbow flew over to Alex, crashing into him. "Ow... Hi, Dash.." Alex rubbed his forehead. "Hey! So, uh... I was wondering, There's a Wonderbolt show up in Cloudsdale next month, I was wondering if you wanted to, maybe you could come.." Rainbow figured. "I'll be training by then, but I'll bring it up with my mentor. I'm sure they'll understand." Alex nodded. "Okay, then. Here's two tickets, in case he, or she, wants to see it too." Rainbow handed him the tickets, which he slid into his back pocket. Alex shook her hoof. "Thanks, Dash. For everything." Alex nodded, pulling her into a hug. "A-Ah!" She gasped in surprise "Hey, don't forget who got you your gun and your armor!" Vinyl ran over to Alex, hugging him. "Oh, right! Hi, V!" Alex greeted, hugging her back. "By the way, this is Octy. She's my roommate." Vinyl introduced a brown earth pony with a black musical note as a Cutie Mark. "Hello, Admiral.." She greeted. "It's Captain, now." Alex reminded. "Oh, right.. The trial.. I can't imagine how you must feel.." 'Octy' shuffled her hooves. "Meh, the war's over. The title's practically meaningless now." Alex shrugged. "I see.." Octavia nodded. "Heads up!" Yang yelled from across the crowd as Ruby tackled him. "A-Ah!" Alex screamed. "Oh my gosh! I'll miss you, Alex! Promise me you'll keep in touch!!" Ruby stammered. "Woah! Hey! Easy! Of course I'm going to talk to you guys! Who else can handle my effed-up head?" Alex shrugged. "Thanks, Alex!" Ruby hugged him again, handing him a rose-colored card with a few scroll numbers written on it with the words 'Xiao Long/ Rose' written on top. "See you in a couple years!" Alex waved. "Seems like she likes you, too." Kat mocked. "Kat. Stahp." Alex blinked. "See you in a few years, Alex!" Nora latched onto his back like a spider monkey. "Get off me!" Alex screamed in shock. "NORA!!" Ren yelled, dragging her off of Alex. "Thanks, Ren." Alex gasped. "Someone has to keep her in line." Ren stated. Alex stood up, scarcely breathing when Yang finally tackled him and pulled him into a kiss. The kiss lasted only a few seconds until Yang finally allowed him to breathe. Alex gasped for breath and when it seemed like his breathing had finally settled, he spoke. "What is up with you people and tackling me?" Alex puffed. "Oh, lighten up. This might be the last time we see each other for a few years." Yang smiled at first before looking disappointed and almost sad. "Hey. I promise we'll keep in touch. I'll call every chance I get without raising your bill." Alex promised. "I'll hold you to that." Yang glared. "Of course." Alex smiled. Alex pulled her into a kiss, even more passionately than Yang had started with, this time, lasting much longer. "There are children present!" Twilight shouted. "Screw the children! We're in the middle of something!" Alex broke off for just that moment before... Yeah, you get the idea.. "Okay, okay! We get it! Long distance relationship shit!" Delirious yelled. "Delirious!" Rainbow shuddered. "Come on! I don't want Ruby to be the next me!" Delirious yelled. "Haha! Classic CaRtOoNz!" Vanoss remembered. "Actually, I think it's too late!" Lui said, pulling a picture of Ruby wearing a hockey mask during the Halloween party on the ship. Both charged at him, screaming and hollering, "Get back here!!" Ruby screamed in mock anger. "F**k you, little monkey bitch!"Delirious yelled. "All eyes are on them.." Yang smiled deviously. "What- OH GOD-!" Yang forced her lips against Alex's one more time before finally breaking off, leaving his mouth tasting like strawberries. "Welp. Best thing ever to come out of this shit show..!" Alex huffed. Pulling himself up. "All aboard for Geo Vector 0-1!" The Controller yelled. The Controller was the pony who would coordinate which dimension one would go, when he called up the dimension of choice, the attendees would step through the portal. Kat hugged Alex before repeating this with everyone, whereas Mako resorted to simply shaking everyone's hand, or hoof. Vanoss and crew said their goodbyes, and when everyone was ready, twelve people stepped through the portal to Earth. "I'm going to miss those assholes." Alex nostalgically reminisced. "We're up next.. We should at least make it count.." Yang smiled. "I'm with you there. I'll miss you." Alex smiled back. Alex and Yang hugged, Alex himself a bit upset that he needed arm replacements, instead of being able to actually feel any of it. Yang didn't seem to mind, and when Alex attempted to move in order to feel more at ease, she moved along with. Ruby eventually joined in, not out of intimacy with Alex, but just for the sake of being with her sister. Alex respected the thought, and shuffled for room between him and his partner. "All aboard for Oum Alpha 0-12!" Yang and Ruby stood up, with all of them saying their goodbyes before stepping a few feet away. Yang instantly spun around, running to hug Alex in what would be their last embrace for at least another 2 years. With one last parting kiss to the cheek, Yang followed her teammates into the portal. Alex waved goodbye as he saw more of his friends leave for their homes. The portal finally closed, as no other entrances or exits were being scheduled for today, leaving Alex and the rest of the Ponyville Party to return to their homes. *December 24, 2016; 2300 hours* Alex had finally sold his house. It had been a rough couple of weeks, but he had successfully managed to sell it to Skirmish, who had been having some difficulty find a suitable place. He sold it for pretty cheap compared to what it was actually worth. He just wanted to sever his ties to this place, as he found this method the least painless. He still thought about how Yang's severance had affected him. He couldn't put Twilight and the others through something similar, but he at least had the decency to write a letter to Twilight explaining his disappearance, which he demanded Skirmish deliver herself the next day. But truthfully, he still felt horrible about leaving in the dark of night like this. "Ticket?" The Controller asked. Alex handed him the small card, with his name, age, and his destination listed on it. The Controller took the card, stamped it, and kept it under a desk before opening the portal. "Interesting choice of dimension. I can't imagine it would be any good living there." The Controller nodded. Alex stepped to the portal, sighing sorrowfully. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I bid you adieu, Equestria.' Alex thought, stepping through the portal. Author's Note I hate goodbyes. Actually, it isn't goodbye yet. There's still the epilogue. And a Sequel. And various unaffiliated one-shots i figure I should write to keep in practice. Now to brainstorm other 1000-2000 word stories just to say I'm still active on this site! -The Destoyer
Act IV, Epilogue: Ashes of War Act IV, Epilogue: Ashes of War *December 25, 2016* Dear Princess Twilight, If you are reading this, this means Skirmish delivered this message, I left in the middle of the night and sold her the old house. I sincerely apologize if I caused you any worry. As you know, my sentence, as well as my service to Ponyville, is at an end. I have moved along, as we all must one day, but I will never forget what you, and your, our, friends, have done for me. When I first entered your world, I was only a blind coward, fearing for my life and expecting everything to go wrong, which, of course, it did. But it wasn't what transpired before my enemies banded together, but after, that have truly touched me. You and your friends had shown me mercy, integrity, adherence, joy, and selflessness after you realized your error, and as you forgave me my transgressions, I forgave yours. I guess that's this 'Magic of Friendship' you ponies keep going on about. But, of course, I will come and visit whenever I have the chance. And I will tell everyone about what new joys have since met my presence, and what matters I'll take with you. And, when the day comes, we'll meet again, to fight the forces that feed on chaos as a team. But, unfortunately, like how I shall never forget the good you all have shown me, I shall never forget the evils that dwell within me as well. I'm still tortured at night by inner demons and my own fears. My condition, though it has improved substantially, is still unfavorable. Princess, what I'm trying to say is, your teachings have been invaluable to someone such as myself, who has, since that awful day so many months ago, has grown into so much more than a scared kid waiting for when everything fell apart, with friends and even a lover by my side. This, princess, I won't soon forget. But through all of the blessings in my life, these blood red shadows will haunt me always. Your faithful student, Captain Alexander G. Walker P.S. Happy Hearth's Warming... I heard that was a thing, so... I'm horrible with holidays. I'm sure you can tell. -- Gmod Guess Who, Yang Rage, Channel Update: We're Back! "Hey, what is up guys? Vanoss here. And I just wanted to let you know that I'm back! I survived the whole war and everything. My friends are also back and everyone's fine, and I just wanted to let you know that now that we're all here with all of our old equipment, we should be making videos normally again. Be sure to check out my new friends' channels RWBYOnline and KatPlays, be sure to leave a like, and I hope you enjoy the video." Vanoss said, voicing over Garry's Mod footage in the background. The rest of the video had featured Vanoss, his friends, as well as Blake and Yang, playing the game as if nothing had happened prior to their return.The video got at least double it's usual viewership and the comments were mostly positive, congratulating the gang on surviving what should have been, and could have been, the apocalypse. As Blake and Yang were playing video games with Vanoss and the others, Weiss was writing to her father about what had happened, and that she survived the ordeal, as well as a plea to stay at the Academy. Ruby herself had been talking to Twilight what was happening, as well as when they would be coming to see Rainbow's first flight show as an official Wonderbolt. Ruby was ecstatic at the thought, and texted as many people as possible seeing when they would show. "AT LEAST LET ME GET SOME FOOTAGE FOR THE CHANNEL, EVAN!!" Yang flared in anger. "Yang, calm down." Blake dismissed. "Will you two be quiet?! Can't you see I'm trying to concentrate!!" Weiss yelled, having moved onto studying. Ruby couldn't help but laugh a little, similar to the rest of Vanoss' friends who she could actually hear through Blake's and Yang's headphones, as she finished up her text and sent it to Twilight. Kat and Mako had long since returned to Earth, received their medals, hailed as war heroes, and once Kat had voiced her desire to help rebuild the country. Chancellor Smith had given her a job as a Senator for the Federation's new Parliament, and Mako had been provided with the duty of spearheading the nation's military and Intelligence programs, as the Federation was still young and, unfortunately, retained the same political enemies from when the United States was still the dominating power of the region. At the moment, though, Smith, Kat, and many others were all still working on a new constitution, taking pointers from history as well as from Celestia and the councils on Remnant, as well as Supreme Leader Krete from Adenien, all of whom agreed to help the young nation until it would be determined that the Federation didn't need it anymore. At the moment, though, Kat was filling Mako in on all of the progress that they were getting through on the constitution. "All in favor of retaining the right to free speech, free press, and freedom of religion?" Hunter asked of the other senators and delegates. "Aye!" The uproar had been unanimous. "Motion carries!" Hunter announced as he quickly began typing out the new constitution -- Twilight and her friends had all gathered at the town square, unveil a memorial that all the craftsmen had been working at for days to remember the ponies, and humans, who gave their lives for the defense of Equestria. Twilight and Mayor Mare had been given their speeches, the statue was unveiled, of humans and ponies, fighting side by side, forever immortalized in stone at the center of the town square. "...And let us remember our heroes, and honor their memory forever.." Twilight finished. Cake had been passed, conversations had been exchanged, memories shared. Skirmish had been eating a slice of cake by herself, with only her mother, when Twilight stepped towards her. "P-Princess!" Skirmish bowed. "Come on, there isn't need for any of that. We're friends, right?" Twilight had said. "I... I guess you're right." Skirmish sat down. "Listen.. I'm sorry about what happened to Ember and the others.. There was nothing you could've done.." Twilight sighed. "And that's the worst part.." Skirmish sighed. "L-Listen.. I want to promote you to the Equestrian Honor Guard.." Twilight spat out quickly. Skirmish's ears swiveled in surprise. The Honor Guard consisted of Royal Guardsmen hand-picked by the four Alicorns, and we're often chosen to do the most dangerous work, most of which was meant to be kept secret. The Honor Guard were held in very high regard, hence the name. "I... Thank you, Princess..!" Skirmish bowed again. "It's the least I could do." Twilight smiled. "I won't let you down, princess!" Skirmish stood proudly. "I know you won't." Alex was led up the mountainsides of Expectans, a rather misty and cool part of Vitylis, a dimension that was at least somewhat like Remnant, in terms of the constant monster attacks. Expectans itself reminded Alex of coastal England due to the persistent rainy weather. "Boy, we are almost at the top! Hurry up!" His mentor, an aging, somewhat bitter, and persistent ex-Adenienite migrant by the name of Canis. Ozpin had asked Canis to train Alex, and had offered him a lot of money for him to do so. Alex eventually claimed up the moist and slippery ridge to the top of the mountain. Canis never explained to Alex why they were going up there, but Canis only told him to, quote, "never mind all that and hand me the pickaxe". Once Alex had finally pulled himself up, he was standing in front of a small wooden-and-concrete shack that looked like it could only fit two people. The shed out back was filled with what appeared to be combat gear and metal. "Hey, Master Canis? If I may ask, why are we up here?" Alex asked politely. "Boy, welcome to your new home for the next year. This place has got it's own metalwork shop, combat training area, and comms tower." Canis answered. "Comms tower..?" Alex wondered. He didn't really see any defining features, and the shack, in no way, shape, or form, looked like it had any of that inside. "Yes, boy. It's multidimensional, so you could talk to anyone you wish. Now, didn't you say you had a little girlfriend or something?" Canis snapped back. "Er... Yes. Why?" Alex asked. "Test the stupid thing out for me. What good is a nonfunctioning comms rig in the middle of this dump? Hurry now, before I change my mind!" Canis yelled. 'This is going to be a long year,' Alex thought glumly as he straightened his back and nodded. "Yes, Canis." Alex nodded, running inside. Once stepping inside, he scraped the mud off his boots, hung up his wet coat, and removed his soaking wet over shirt, leaving only a tank top that showed both of his mechanical arms. He tied the over shirt to his waist and searched for the comms area, which was likely downstairs, a downstairs which Alex only knew about because of the open door revealing a dimly lit stairwell. Alex quickly ran down the stairs, and turned to the right, only to be surprised by the sight of a rather futuristic and expansive basement. A large square ring with various droids hung on the walls indicated a training area, and a large interface with numerous screens meant some kind of communications rig. Alex stepped over, pressed the on button, and sat down. "Hello, Alex Walker, this is Andromeda. how may I assist?" Andromeda asked. "Andromeda? Weren't you the A.I on the Iliad after it went kaput?" Alex asked. "Yes, it is good to see you again. So, who do you want to talk to?" Andromeda wondered. Alex quickly cleared his throat. "Yang Xiao Long of Oum Alpha 0-12?" Alex asked. "Interesting choice... Did you two finally-" Andromeda prattled on. "Yes. We sorta got together after the battle.." Alex groaned in reply. "I was wondering when you'd finally get the message. I'll dial her up for you." The screen quickly changed to a dial tone before a camera feed from Yang's scroll finally materialized on screen. "Oh, hey Alex! I didn't think I'd see you for a while, how's training?" Yang waved. 'Oh, Damn it, it works.' Alex thought. "Hi. My mentor wanted me to check to see if this comms rig actually worked, so I figured it would be nice just to check in on you guys. How's everything at Vale?" Alex asked. "Everyone's finally starting to relax and everything. Most of the businesses in Vale reopened, the Vytal Festival was scheduled for next year, and they finally patched up Beacon so classes finally started back up. Where are you at, anyways?" Yang wondered. "Some mountain up in Vitylis. It's cold and rainy as hell out here." Alex shrugged. "And you're stuck there for the next year. Starting to regret waiting?" Yang asked. "I have to keep up my strength or I won't be ready in case Cinder finally get her shit together and attacks you guys or something." Alex sighed. "Calm down. I mean, we arrested Torchwick a few months back, and nothing's really happened since the battle. I mean, the White Fang is starting to mellow out so I don't see any reason to worry. It's all over." Yang scoffed. "I still can't help but feel like something is still wrong, something big." Alex admitted. "You worry too much. Most of us made it, and everything's starting to be rebuilt. Just relax for once." Yang smiled. "As much as I'd like to, I still can't shake the feeling that something else is going to tear all this down... " Alex sighed. He knew he felt something, and when Alex had a gut feeling, he usually wasn't far off. What could possibly be going on..? -- Roman Torchwick sat in his cell, bored out of his mind as per usual. "This is so non-canon it hurts." He groaned. 'Roman..! You will be haunted by three gho-o-osts..! And they're all us.' Emerald's voice taunted as Mercury, The White Fang Lieutenant, and herself appeared in front of him. 'Hi.' All three said at once. "Salem-dammit, I hate Christmas." Roman groaned. Roman soon heard a series of loud explosions, and they were close. "Stop them from getting Torchwi-" An Atlesian guard fired his assault rifle before being shot through the skull. Thinking quick, Roman ducked, only to find Cinder, Neo, and a third person he could not see pry open his cell door. "Took you long enough, Cinder." Roman scoffed as Cinder led him out. "Roman. It's nice seeing you again, but unfortunately, our plans have been halted.." Cinder began. The third person and Neo grabbed him by his arms and sharply pulled him up. Neo handed him his cane, and they set off for the escape pods on the now-burning Atlesian Airship Roman had been imprisoned in, hundreds of guards poured out of every door, firing their weapons, but unable to do anything as the four escaped off the Airship as Cinder typed the coordinates. "So, what now?" The third person, an armor-clad warrior asked. "We'll go back and lick our wounds. We'll let Ozpin, and his brats, and the Adenienite think they've won, until we finally show them they're wrong." Cinder replied, eyes glowing a sinister orange color. "I'm coming for you, Alex Walker." Blood Red Shadows By: The Destoyer Author's Note It's over... It's done.. Well, that was 9 months well spent. How about you guys? By the way, as I already said, there will be a sequel. But there's a small catch. I need a bit more experience before I get back into this story. As I mentioned in a comment, I admittedly tried a multi-crossover fan fiction way, way too early. I kinda bit off more than I could chew with this. Bit it was really cool to see how much you guys enjoyed the story! I was happy with a lot of the positive comments and I loved answering your questions. I look forward to seeing you guys in some of my future stories. Now to actually like and favorite other people's stuff and think about silly one-shots to pass the time. Edit: I added a small segment (That I've since made adjustments to) hinting the sequel. Figured I should've added all of that earlier, but hindsight is 20/20. -The Destoyer
Act IV, Sequel Announcement: And apparently, THIS is now happening. Author's Note: The following is (probably) non-canon. Be warned. *Expectans, Vitylis; March 31, 2017, 3:15 PM* Alex dodged the attacks of numerous drones. This was a small, essential part of Canis' training that has been implemented into Alex's daily schedule. His goal was to take out as many of them as he could without using his abilities. It served to enhance his natural strength and speed for a better outcome in the future. The main problem was the fact that his mechanical arms and legs worked exactly like natural muscles, and with his arms and legs hacked off, he would have to start from the ground up if he wanted to be strong enough to take on Cinder. The good news was these new arms and legs were able to get much stronger than an average human's in a much shorter amount of time. "Keep at it, boy! You've gotten soft! Is Fall really goin' to let you take a breather durin' your grudge match?!" Canis ordered. Alex ducked to avoid a drone's leg, grabbing both limbs and knocking it onto it's back. Alex stood up, he robot still in his hands, and spun it around, taking out as many robots as he could before stomping on it's neck. "0% Remaining, damage to neck and spinal cord." the robot chirped as Alex reared his fist back, punching the robot square in the chest and ramming his foot through the robot's chassis. "0% Remaining, chest cavity ruptured." The robot crumpled to the ground. "Damn.." Canis gaped. Alex got on his hands and wrapped his legs around a drone's neck, twisting sharply and pulling it to the ground. "0% Remaining, damage to neck and spinal cord." Alex got hit in the back, causing him to stagger to the ground. Enraged, he charged at the drone, punching it in the face repeatedly and denting the chassis. "0% Remaining, damage to skull and brain." "Alright, that's enough for today, Walker." Canis turned off the drones, letting Alex get up. "Ok, what's next?" Alex asked. "Always the inquisitive one, you are. You'll be having a guest teacher for the next two weeks. You'll be transferred to another universe temporarily to train with this guest teacher." Canis recalled. "Okay.. Who's my guest teacher?" Alex asked. Canis shuddered. "Popo.." Canis nervously said. "What?" Alex asked. "...Popo.." "I can't hear you, Canis. Can you speak up?" Alex asked. "He's talking about me." A voice said behind Alex. Alex turned around to see... Alex wasn't sure how to describe this person. "Hiiiiii..." The figure greeted. "Um... Who is that?" Alex asked. "That is.. That is Mr. Popo.." Canis fearfully said. "TFS version or Original?" Alex wondered. "Abridged version." Canis answered. "Oh... Oh dear god... Is this really canon?" Alex asked. "For your sake, I hope not." Canis replied. *Vale, Remnant; March 22, 2018; 1:30 PM* "...And that's how I ended up with Mr. Popo. I thought my nightmares were bad already, but holy shit, I almost can't sleep at night knowing those eyes are peering into my soul..." Alex shuddered. "So, what did this 'Mr. Popo' guy make you do?" Yang asked, curious. Alex hyperventilated, tearing up slightly. "Um... Alex?" Yang asked again, concerned. Alex let out a small whimper. "C'mon! Just tell me what happened so I can help you! I swear, you haven't changed from when we first met.." Yang muttered, rolling her eyes. "FIRST RULE OF POPO'S TRAINING: DO NOT TALK ABOUT POPO'S TRAINING!!!" Alex cried, yes, cried. "Alex, tell me all about why you're crying, okay buddy?" Yang comforted him as best as she could, pulling him into a hug. "SECOND RULE OF POPO'S TRAINING: DO NOT EXPLAIN POPO'S TRAINING!!!!" Author's Note Yeah, I have some good news to those who enjoyed this tale of a kid in way over his head. But bad news to those who either didn't like it, or those who have already gotten through about 35 chapters of my crap only to discover there is more crap. The Sequel has Landed! By now, there are eight chapters, some of the promises I made for this have been kept, and at this point, I'm just trying to get the word out for it. 'till next time! -The Destoyer
Act 0, Prologue: Of Omens and Massacres"Who's there?" This was a question seldom heard from the princess of the sun. Despite knowing full well she was asleep, it was still unnerving to feel an unknown presence in her dreamscape. Just then, a tall, bipedal creature revealed itself to Celestia. She knew about Humans from her pupil's writings about them, as well as her own knowledge. But still the question remained; why was a human inside her dreams? "Calm yourself, I am not here to hurt you, Celestia." The being uttered. "So why are you here?" Celestia inquired, despite her anxiety, she had to know what this creature wanted of her "I am but a messenger," The Human continued, "I am here to speak of what is to come." Okay, now this was just scary. A 'messenger' speaking of future events, what if what the human said entailed the destruction of her people? Now she absolutely had to know. For the sake of her people if nothing else. "I'm listening, spirit." "There will be a time of great distress for you, as well as all that exist. But if you adhere to what is right, and your champions are truly strong, Everyone will survive." What did this spirit mean by 'great distress'? If she didn't know, she will have failed. "What sort of distress, messenger? The fate of everyone is at stake!" Celestia asked, if she allowed anything to happen to Equestria and she was unprepared for it, she would never forgive herself. "A fearful spirit shall enter this nation, you must let him face his tormentors without interloping. The problem will take care of itself, if you allow it." -July 8, 2016- Senator Locke sat comfortably at his seat in his tent, Like many of his fellow officials and businessmen, protected from mosquitoes and gnats buzzing around the surrounding forest. This was the Bohemian Grove, where the most powerful men in the world flew to this safe haven in the redwood forests to take a break from their jobs. He walked up to one of the many tables to speak with his friend, General Wesson. "Hey, Tom!" He calmly greeted. "Devin, how are you settling in to the grove?" Wesson replied. Locke wasn't entirely sure how to answer that, it was very unusual to see his power-hungry co-workers chatting like old friends, which usually meant something very illegal was going on. "Can't complain, how's 51 treating you?" Locke answered. Wesson was apparently asked to oversee a project at the infamous Area 51. "'Weaving spiders come not here', Devin. Besides, I really don't want to risk dying, these C.I.A guys are tough. 'Classified' this and 'Top Secret' that, you know how it is." "Whatever you say, Thomas." Locke rolled his eyes. The next sounds he heard were really out of place in the Grove. The unmistakable sounds of gunfire and the screams of the dying. "Now, Be honest with me here, Tommy, are these the C.I.A killers you're talking about, because I didn't say anything." Locke nervously joked Wesson handed him a gun, it looked like a Colt .45, not that Locke knew about weapons "Can it, Locke. We gotta go!" Wesson ordered. Locke and Wesson sprinted towards one of the many planes in the makeshift airfield as they shot at attackers, surprisingly killing a few. Upon reaching a plane, Wesson looked inside the plane while Locke kept watch. Wesson ran out, terrified. "The plane's rigged with explosives! MOVE NOW!!!" The plane, along with several others, exploded in a fiery whirlwind. Setting the trees on fire and killing more people. Just then, Locke got an Idea; "There's a river nearby, if we can make it there and hijack one of the boats at one of the docks, we might just make it out of here!" just then. Searing pain blew through his knee and deftly went out the other side. Effectively crippling Locke as he watched Wesson suffer a similar fate. One of the attackers walked up to Wesson, grabbing him by the shirt collar, this mercenary was really young, roughly a teenager with ash blonde hair. "You know who we are, General Thomas Wesson?" He asked with a hint of malice in his voice. "Yes, I do, you're members of the Kahn Militia, you're criminals!" "Then you know what we want." "You're insane, Even I'm not sure what is going on over there." The mercenary shot his old friend in the forehead, killing him instantly. He then pulled up his walkie-talkie. "Anyone else in this bug-ridden forest who knows about Project Odyssey?" Locke was smart enough to act dead, as to find out what it is they were trying to accomplish. "Yes, sir. Meet us by the shrine, we have a hostage here who's telling us everything." The man on the other end responded. "Good work, Mordecai, on my way." The mercenary walked away, leaving Locke behind, badly wounded, but with a mission on his mind. -One day later; Reynold, Oregon- Like many people, Alex Walker sat at his couch, watching the news. The Bohemian Grove Massacre had devastated the nation in one night. Only about 50 people survived out of the 2000 who attended. And one of the survivors just happened to be a senator. The survivor, now in the hospital, is about to deliver a speech to The American People. "My fellow Americans, it is with a heavy heart that I give this speech. The Kahn Militia expertly planned this attack on the American people. They've crippled the government, the military, and business all in one night. This act shall not go unpunished, as most of the perpetrators were living near the Grove, I hereby demand that the states in the Pacific Northwest call for martial law, any person suspected to be a part of the attack is to be convicted without trial, and imprisoned. I also demand any remaining military leaders to form a Task Force dedicated to killing these murderous crusaders before any other damage is done. The road to recovery will be long and difficult, but if we take these precautions, Justice will soon be served." Author's Note And here we are, the series has landed!
Act I, Chapter 2: Welcome to the Show'It has been two hours since Jäger, Mordecai, and Kat picked me up. How long is this flight?' Alex thought to himself. He was now in a helicopter, on his way to the center of Kahn Militia HQ, from what he could remember, it was somewhere on the California-Nevada border. He was still curious as to why Kat saved him, but he was in no place to ask. "Glad we have the militia back up to full strength, the Task Force that Locke ordered has been getting closer to finding us." Jäger said. "What task force?" Alex asked, this was bad, if there really was someone hunting him, he was in trouble. "Task Force Crimson. Those mercs caught me creepin' out near the Pacific, that's how I was captured." Mordecai spat angrily "The C.I.A basically hired some of their old Operators and say, 10,000 other PMC guys, formed a task force dedicated to bringing us and anyone who helped us down. Mordecai's just mad that they got him so quick, you must've been arrested very early on to not know what Task Force Crimson was, who carried out your arrest?" "Agent Winchester and the FBI. Crazy pricks burned my house down." Alex responded. "We're here, gang." Jäger announced. The base looked like an old warehouse in the woods, they had to land on a duct tape circle to land. I was helped out by Kahn Militia medics and Kat. Alex was taken inside the warehouse, there a middle aged man walked out, and this guy looked like he had been in active combat at least once. "Kat, welcome back, who's the kid?" The man asked her. "Alex, this is our leader, Colonel Silas Kahn. He fought in Operation Desert Storm before he formed the Militia." Kat told Alex. Well, at least he assumed correctly "Sir, this is Alex, the Feds thought he was Jäger and captured him." "Really? How could they mess that up?" Kahn asked Kat, to be honest, even Alex himself didn't see the similarity between him and Jäger. Kat shrugged, and walked to a makeshift booth of weapons. Kahn turned to Alex. "Welcome to the Militia, Private. Just call me Silas." He insisted, "Okay, Silas, is there anything I can do?" Alex asked. "Our battle plans won't be presented 'till 9:00, grab yourself a weapon and uniform." "Okay, sir." Alex politely replied back, he headed towards the booth Kat was in. Kat herself was currently holding a Barrett M82, with a small carving of a cat on the scope of the gun. "Hello, Private Walker, Corporal Anderson was just telling me about you, what would you like?" The man inside said. He looked at the vast array of rifles and Machine guns, he knew a good amount of them by name. Until he knew exactly what this mission was, he better take an all around weapon. "I'll take the Scar-H with the M203 launcher and the ACOG scope." Alex told him, pointing to the rugged battle rifle with the grenade launcher welded under the barrel. The Armorer grabbed the weapon off the wall, grabbed a bandolier of grenades, he then handed him some mags and a dozen boxes of rounds. "How about a pistol?" The Armorer asked. This time, at least the choice was obvious. "The Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum?" Alex requested. He had some experience with the revolver before. He knew he could handle the recoil. The Armorer handed him the revolver, some boxes, and a holster. "Thank you." Alex said as he put on the holster and the bandolier. "You seem to know a lot about firearms." Jäger said. "Not really, aside from what I was taught." Alex admitted. "Anyways, it's time for the briefing." Jäger told him. Alex ran into the room and sat down in a spot "Okay, team." Silas began, "Today we'll talk about our biggest attack yet. Our target is the Infamous Area 51. Our mission is to find 'Project Odyssey', or as many know it, Die Glocke. Our hacking division discovered that the machine was sold to the U.S by Russia, and They are currently testing it, this is out only opportunity to find out what they are planning to do with it. One team will fly in with C-17 planes filled with explosives, draw as much attention away from us as possible, then, The other teams will blow holes in the rooftops and fight their way inside. If our sources are correct, the machine is an Inter-dimensional transporter. The machine must be destroyed before the Government can cause harm to anyone. Base team 1 will consist of Myself, Jäger, Mordecai, Kat, Alex, and O'Leary. Base invasion team 2 will be Samuels, Kaiser, Thorne, Stanley, and Rogers. Move out!" -Meanwhile- Twilight had just received her letter from Princess Celestia a couple hours ago, and was currently asking her friends, the Elements of Harmony, if they had seen anything strange. Like her, most of them hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, which was different because usually they don't last a week without anything going wrong. "Are you sure none of you have seen or heard anything?" Twilight asked again, for the millionth time. "Um, no...thankfully." Fluttershy said. She, like most, was glad nothing went wrong. The animals needed here care, not another scary adventure. "Once again, no, Twilight, I didn't see anything." Rainbow moaned, exasperated to the point where she just wanted to fly out of the window and into a cloud bed. "None of you have seen anything?" "No!" Everyone practically yelled, like Rainbow, they wanted to leave, they all had plans that night and didn't need their friend's paranoia butting in. "If you're sure." Twilight sighed. If there really was nothing, why would Celestia tell her to look out? -September 12, 2016, 0400- Alex, now on his first mission, was drowsy from the early morning start, the helicopter was getting closer, they had to leave early to accommodate for the planes, the base was in eyesight when he noticed two large explosions, and dozens of soldiers flocking over to investigate. "I saw explosions!" Alex shouted, at least he wasn't on board those planes. "Pilot, move faster!" Silas yelled towards the front. "Okay, team. Silas, Alex, Mordecai and Myself will fast-rope in. Kat and O'Leary, provide cover fire for the other teams, Move!" Jäger informed. Alex clipped the lanyard to his bandolier, and followed Mordecai in fast-roping. Then, things took a turn, the rotor of the helicopter was hit! "We're going down! Mayday! Mayday!" The pilot yelled as the helicopter spun uncontrollably closer to the roof of Hangar 18, no doubt this would hurt, a lot. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Author's Note Things are escalating in the third of four initial chapters!
Act I, Chapter 16: ...Ye Who Enter Here (RWBY Chapters start here!)Alex, Vanoss, and the others went through that forest None were sure what to do. Alex was still trying to recover from their previous attack. Despite everything, Alex still felt as though this was all his fault. "Stay low, everybody." Vanoss said, quoting his one of his previous videos. "This is creepy as shit..." Delirious sounded pretty scared. "It's just a forest, there's nothing in here that can hurt us, well, maybe, but we can just shoot it." Alex sighed. Alex was always slightly disappointed in the crew. Here they were, in another alternate universe, and they were acting like children. A low growl sounded from somewhere beyond the forest. "What the hell was that!?" Lui asked, pointing a rifle in every direction. "Quit messing around, Delirious." Alex chided. "That scared me, oh god!" He said. More growling. "This isn't funny, guys. Cut it out." Wildcat said. "Where the hell is that coming from?" Alex asked nobody in particular. Just then, giant, wolf-like creatures with what looked like bone sticking out stalked out of the bushes. "What the hell is that thing?!" Vanoss screamed as everyone started shooting. "Oh, my god!" Alex screamed. "IT'S TIME FOR ARNOLD TO SAVE THE DAY!!! YAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!" Terroriser cried out, pulling out a machine gun and charging at the creatures. -Meanwhile- "Uuuugh, this is sooo boring!" Ruby groaned. Ozpin had sent Team RWBY out to investigate increased Grimm activity in the Emerald Forest. Sure, it was nice thinking back to initiation, but pretty much nothing went on in these patrols. What's worse is that to cover the vast amount of ground, the team had to split up. "Ruby, I know this sucks, a lot, but this is our job. It can't always be fun and games!" Weiss scolded. "Why not?" She wimpered. Someone was calling from the data pad, possibly her teammate Blake or her half-sister, Yang. She assumed correctly. The small screen lit up a picture of her and her sister, with the words 'Yang Xiao Long' scrolled underneath. Ruby swiped her finger to the right, to answer the call. "Hey, Yang, what's up?" Ruby asked. "Hey, Ruby, listen, do you hear anything?" Yang asked, it was a pretty odd question, even for her, in spite of being Huntresses-in-training. Ruby listened closely. Accompanied by gunshots and growling, she heard this. "AAAAAAH! WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIE!!!!!" "Delirious, keep them off me!" "What the hell are these things?!" "Daithi, cover me!!" "I'M TOO FAT!!!" "A group of people being attacked by Grimm?" Ruby asked. "Yeah! We have to hurry!" Yang said before hanging up. Alex was having a difficult time fighting these things. They were fast, powerful, bloodthirsty animals. And they were completely outnumbered, to make matters worse. Their weaponry only succeeded in killing one or two of them, so everyone had to constantly kick or shove or shoot them to keep them far enough away. They had few core advantages, Alex was wearing armor, and the others could just respawn, as they often did. But the fight was tiring, more so than invading Twilight's castle.... ...If it were on fire... ... And if there were 3 Sigmas... ...Who were also on fire. Basically, this sucked, no pun intended. One of the monsters lashed it's claws at Alex, sending him skidding back. Pulling out the .44 Scratch, he blew the bastard's brains out. The others were getting swamped by these things, he couldn't let that happen! Alex charged at the monsters, pulling out a knife and stabbing them repeatedly, to little effect. The monsters merely shoved him off, with one snapping at his visor. Alex reached for the .44 Scratch, which was just beyond his reach. Looking back at the monster, it scraped his visor something fierce, even breaking it a little. Alex punched the thing in the face, sending it reeling back, giving Alex enough time to grab the gun and kill the damn thing. He looked back at the others, the monsters were snapping at them, and all they could do was shoot them to death. Alex covered them with his revolver. Blowing the overgrown rats to smithereens. More charged at them, how many were there?! Alex braced himself for this onslaught, raising his revolver, he pointed it at the nearest one and... A large fireball blew the thing up in front of him, others froze into blocks of ice, or got slashed by what he assumed was a flickering shadow, or get shot with some very powerful weapon. Appalled by what transpired in front of him, Alex looked behind him, seeing other monsters dying in the same fashion. "Friendlies! Friendlies!" Alex screamed to his team, they may try something stupid, which was very common. He couldn't start off with a bad reputation here, just because his team fought against...whoever helped them. "What the hell just happened, everyone okay?" Alex checked on his team. A few resounding yells told them they were fine. "Who the hell was that?!" Vanoss asked, looking around. "Hold your fire, they helped us kill these things. Maybe they're trying to help." Lui said. "God knows why." Alex muttered. To the best of his knowledge, they were fugitives, criminals, hell, he would even go as far as 'terrorist'. "Hello?" He heard someone say, it sounded like a girl, roughly Alex's age, if he were to guess. "Hey! Over here!" Alex waved frantically to nowhere in particular, if someone was actually here, he was damn thankful. "Yo!!! Come over here!!!" Wildcat yelled. Four girls walked out of the bushes nearby. All holding various weapons. Obviously their saviors. "Hey." Alex waved awkwardly. "Hello, sir!" The blonde one waved back, rather excitedly. "Who are these guys?" The white one seemed rather suspicious. "Well, it would seem best to introduce ourselves, we have no idea who these men are." The black haired one said. He agreed with that statement, it would be best to be acquainted with these girls, who knows, they may be the only ones. "Of course, I'm Alex. Alex Walker." He introduced. "I'm Vanoss, and this is Delirious, Lui, Mini, Daithi..." Vanoss pointed to each one in succession. "Hi." Delirious said, in the way that reminded Alex of that one spongebob episode... Ah, childhood. It was long gone now. "Well, hello Alex and Vanoss, and...ah...others, I'm Ruby." The red one said. "I'm Weiss." "Blake." "...Are you sure those are your actual names?" Yellow asked. A quick nudge from Blake straightened her out. "Oh, I'm Yang." "It's been nice meeting you, but...well, we have no idea where we are." Alex said. "Yeah, come to think of it, none of us have ever seen them before." Weiss commented. "That's because we ain't from here!" Vanoss interrupted. "What do you mean?" Blake asked. "It's a long story...that I only like telling a few times a week...and only tell in at least 1000 word segments." Alex said. "Well, that's different." Yang notices. "It's still long as hell, and I would just love to tell you about, but..." "...you aren't from Vale at all, are you?" Ruby asks. "No. Not at all." Mini said. "Then, where, Atlas? Minstral?" Blake asked. "No." Moo said. "Outside the kingdoms, maybe?" Weiss asked. "Not even from anywhere on your map." Alex said. "How about this, you come with us, we'll talk to Professor Ozpin, and we'll sort this out." Blake said. "Oh, crap, are we under arrest!?" Alex groaned, pissed that he would have to deal with this kinda crap already. "No. You said you're not from around here, right?" Yang asks. "Yeah. Well, they did." Alex pointed to them. They sold him out! "Well, we just want to know why you're wandering around the Emerald Forest." Weiss told them. "Fine." Alex groaned, holding out his arms, expecting to be handcuffed. The girls looked at him with a gaze that just said 'Seriously, dude?' "Just...follow us. We know how to get out of here." Blake said. "Come on, guys." Alex told the crew. The group of about 15 walked through the forest, frequently checking their corners and raising their weapons at every sound. Another growl. This time, much lower. "What the fu- what the hell?!" Vanoss asked. "At least I've got my adult diaper." Nogla whispered, much to everyone's disgust. "Jesus Christ, Nogla." Basically sighed, he, like the others, were pretty much done with this kind of thing. That growl again... Where was it coming from? A large bear-like creature burst out of the forest! "Weapons free!" Alex ordered. Vanoss and the others got to work shooting the thing, only for the bullets to have no effect on it whatsoever. Alex pulled out the .44 Scratch, cocked the hammer, aimed down the sights, and blasted it back, sending it flying into a nearby tree, knocking it over. The girls also attacked the creature. Alex found this was a good time to study their fighting styles, in case they were to turn on him. Ruby shot her scythe-gun at the ground, leaping in that same instant, she slashed at the Monster's gut, it held the wound in, but didn't stop it's relentless attack. Weiss stood in what Alex assumed was a fencing stance, aiming specifically for the gut, the cylinder on her weapon spun until it reached a red projectile, she lunged out at it, causing a good sized explosion, but it still kept going. Alex charged at the monster, punching it with his armored fist, pulled out his revolver again, and blew the monster's guts out. More gunfire! Alex turned behind him to see Vanoss and the others struggling to bring down another one of those monsters. Blake wrapped her weapon in what he assumed was a black ribbon, throwing it at the monster, and using it as an anchor to pull herself to the monster, slashing at it until she leaped off. Yang's gauntlets seemed to rotate, and she went in punching it, her weapons blowing chunks off said monster. Vanoss and his crew noticed the weak spots on the beast, and concentrated their fire until the thing fell over and died. "We have to move! Where's the exit!?" Alex asked. "We're close enough. Follow me!" Ruby said, running to an enclave. "You heard the girl, move!" Alex ordered, they all followed Ruby into that enclave into what appeared to be a steep cliff, they could climb it, but it would be difficult. "This way! The cliff isn't as steep over here!" Yang yelled. Firing both gauntlets and propelling her upwards. "Well, that's hardly fair, come on, guys!" Alex told the crew. In the arduous process of climbing up the cliff, Vanoss started singing. "Going up the cliff! Going up the cliff! Goinupthecliff! Goinupthecliff!" "Evan!!" Nogla screamed indignantly. "Going up the cliff! Lemme hear you say 'cliff'!" Vanoss sang again. "Shut up, Vanoss!" Wildcat groaned. "Stop referencing your old videos!" Delirious yelled. Well, that 45 seconds of hell was over. And everyone made it up to the top pretty safely, Vanoss and his crew only died a collective 18 times, a new record! Ruby and the others directed Alex and the others to an airship nearby. "Miss Rose! I didn't expect to see you already." A man wearing a long jacket seemed almost delighted at the sight of the young girl. "Professor Ozpin? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked. "A pilot flying over The Emerald Forest saw these men fall out of some sort of portal. I personally wanted to meet them." Ozpin said. "How did you know?" Alex asked. "We have cameras all over that forest, plus a surveillance airship flying around there at all times. My condolences for the loss of your friend, Mr. Walker." "So you heard that, huh?" Alex sighed. "No need to be concerned. I also noticed your compatriots' unique ability to appear back in the world after death." "He saw my special alone time!!!" Delirious seemed pissed. He had asked to use the bathroom a while ago. Ew. "Unfortunately, yes." Ozpin groaned. "How many special times do you have, Delirious?" Moo asked, laughing a little. "24, but that isn't the point!!" Delirious answered. "I don't even want to ask." Weiss groaned. "Good. Because... WILL YOU QUIT THROWING ROCKS AT ME?!?!!" Delirious yelled at Vanoss, who was in fact throwing rocks at him. "I would, but it's too damn funny." Vanoss laughed. "Gentlemen," Ozpin interrupted, "Considering the fact that you suddenly appeared in our world is too serious to just leave it be. We will take the airship back to Beacon Academy, and discuss this further." "You heard the man, get on the plane." Alex told them. Alex, Vanoss, and the others had to split up because the planes could only hold eight passengers at a time, not including the pilot. One of such airships consisted of Alex, Vanoss, Delirious, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Ozpin. The others got their own airship that would arrive shortly. Alex himself stepped onto the plane, getting into one of the seats between Vanoss and Ruby. "So, where exactly are you from?" Ozpin asked from across the seats. "Originally, a place called Earth was my first home, I escaped and went to another place called Equestria, and that only lasted about a month, more or less." Alex told him. Well, Alex surrendered, where ever he would go, questions would ensue. -Meanwhile- Twilight and the other former element bearers had another conference to discuss on how to handle this attack. "I don't get it. When Alex and I fought, all he said was that he didn't have any choice. And that Rainbow would've been happy to answer." Twilight said. "How the hay would Rainbow know?" Applejack asked her. "Why would Rainbow have anything to do with that ruffian?" Rarity asked. Rainbow herself started to look a little sick. "Come on, Rainbow, we are friends, aren't we?" Pinkie beamed in her usual manner, in stunning contrast to Rainbow's composure. "Okay... Winchester was right about Alex attacking this 'Area 51' place." Rainbow sighed The former elements had a collective gasp. "But not about Bohemian Grove." "Whatever do you mean?" Fluttershy asked. "A-Alex didn't have anything to do with Bohemian grove, but one of his neighbors called, they said he looked similar to one of the men who did it, they arrested him...killed his parents...destroyed his home... And the guy who turned him in got 50,000 dollars." Rainbow reluctantly began. Twilight and the others looked appalled. "Winchester tortured him for weeks, trying to get information that he didn't have. They knew he had nothing to do with it and they still tortured him! After about a month...Winchester was about to kill him. But the guys who did it saved him. And he was forced into helping them." Rainbow Dash continued, her voice shaking. "Alex found out that they were going to use this 'Die Glocke' thing to conquer the world. But Alex found out, used it, and destroyed it before they could even use it." Twilight was stunned. Winchester was the evil invader? "Some of the fault had to have been Alex's. he killed four people!" She insisted "Winchester followed him to Equestria. Winchester wanted to finish what he started. Alex attacked Canterlot to find something to clear his name, and when he saw that wasn't going to work, he escaped again! Winchester chased him out of Equestria, and WE HELPED!!!" Rainbow yelled, guilt ridden. "Princess." A voice sounded at the doorway. Twilight's personal Inquisitor friend to find Alex after he attacked Canterlot. "Sigma! Alex is actually innocent!" Twilight said. "Nobody is inherently innocent, Princess. Alex killed a total of 147 good soldiers, and yet you have the nerve to call this man innocent." Sigma explained. "You're still going after him?" Rainbow asked. "Him, his friends, everyone." Sigma elaborated. "His friends?" Rarity asked. "Yes. I already killed one. The others are sure to fall once I discover where he is hiding." "What?!" "Winchester's old comrade, good soldier, shame her loyalties laid with...someone else." "What happens now?" Rainbow asked. "I have my ways. Walker committed a heinous crime. I won't stop until he has paid the ultimate price." Sigma smiled, as if the idea delighted her. "No! I forbid you!" Twilight ordered. "By the way, I quit." Sigma walked out. Leaving Twilight and the others guilt-ridden and scared. "Winchester, it would seem as though Twilight and the six musketeers know everything. What now?" "Get the White Fang together, it's time for Plan B." Winchester said. "My pleasure." Sigma said. Author's Note Well, RWBY chapters start here! I wonder if anyone is reading this far. Leave a comment below telling me of what you think of the story.
Act II, Chapter 4: The Aircraft Carrier Heist; Part I of IIIAlex and Yang were currently sitting on the couch. Alex argued that she should just leave and come back when he was ready with the plans, but the Huntress insisted on staying anyways, in spite of his newfound discomfort. "So, this is what you do in your down-time? Boring!" Yang joked. "Yeah, you learn to appreciate moments like this when most of your time is spent killing people and making friends with people who could potentially kill you and escaping the people trying to kill you while making sure those friends who could potentially kill you all survive. So, yeah, this is pretty much it." Alex explained. The two sat in silence, Alex in particular was casually writing in his journal, while Yang searched the apartment for alcohol. Alex was still finishing off the last sentence in today's entry when Yang cleared her throat. Looking up from the page, he saw the Huntress-in-training calmly sipping a cocktail. "You wanna talk?" She asked. "Eh, got nothing better to do. What's on your mind?" Alex asked. "So, when Ozpin offered training, why did you take it? From the way Evan and the others talk about you, you're already a natural fighter." Yang asked him. At least this had an easy answer. "A friend of mine was killed by an Inquisitor, and it was because of what little training I had that helped me beat her, as well as three of her asshole friends. If I hadn't unlocked my Aura and trained so rigorously in those seven-to-eight days, I wouldn't be here to tell you about it." He explained. "Couldn't you have beaten her without your Aura? That dubstep gun is really powerful, and your bulletproof armor would've held out for a while, not that I'm saying I don't want you to have huntsman training." Yang reasoned. "To be honest with you, it was the same deal with Winchester, she killed my friend and tried to kill all of us. That answer is simple, I wanted blood. I possibly would have killed her if Raven hadn't stopped me." Alex retorted. "Okay, I get it now. You're trying to adapt to meet your enemies, go with the flow, right?" Yang asked. "Pretty much." "I can help with that, Raven gave me some Inheritor training, and I can have Ruby help you." "Interesting offer. I'll take it." Alex agreed. "Okay, I'll try to scout out some ideal places to train." Yang smiled. The two shook on the deal, and resumed with what they were doing prior to the conversation. "So, what's your plan, with getting the EMP?" Yang asked. "I'm going to invite the rest of the team over and talk it out with them, Evan and his friends are actually quite smart with this sort of thing, Twilight is pretty much a bookworm, and your teammates were able to discover what these White Fang guys were doing a little while back. Kat is also really good with planning things out, and Zera is an android. We'll figure something out." Alex responded. "You seem to have such faith in your comrades, Commander." Zera said, walking into his apartment complex. "Well, that was fast." Yang commented. "Of course I do, we're still here, aren't we?" Alex asked the android. "I am not saying that your team is incompetent. It is truly an admirable trait." Zera complimented. "Well, thank you." Alex respectfully nodded. "You're welcome, sir." And with that, Zera sent out the text and the rest of the team was there in a matter of minutes. They all sat at various places in his apartment, on the couch, on the floor, some even pulled up a few chairs and sat there. Once everybody was situated, Alex pulled out a map of Los Santos, a few thumb-tacks, and Post-it notes. "Hey, team." Alex began. "Really, who starts out a plan with 'hey, team'?" Weiss taunted. "I'm with Snow White over there, that was pathetic." Wildcat agreed. "Eeyup." Applejack added. "SNOW WHITE?!" Weiss lashed out at Wildcat. It was then Wildcat let out one of the girliest screams in history, much to the rest of Vanoss's crew, Rainbow's, and Ruby's amusement. "That was almost as funny as what Alex did to Yang!" Lui added. "Don't remind me." Alex huffed. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER, YOU FIEND!?" Ruby walked up to Alex and demanded. "It seems like you and Rainbow have similar stances on personal space, as in neither of you know what it is!" Alex retorted. "OOOOOOOOH!!" Vanoss yelled, pulling out his cell phone and playing an MLG air horn sound effect. "Calm down, Alex is only fifteen and your sister is seventeen, I'm sure it wasn't much." Twilight tried to be the mediator in this situation, as per usual. "I fell off the back of Yang's motorcycle." Alex admitted. Ruby, Vanoss, Delirious, Lui, and Kat began laughing again. "That actually isn't all. From what I picked up from Alex's cell phone mic, Yang had screamed 'sexual harassment' and then Alex fell." Zera corrected. This time, most of the room filled with laughter, that is, except for most of the Mane 6, Alex, and Zera. "That reminds me, wanna hear about the time Nogla shit himself?" Moo asked. That had pretty much the same effect as last time, only Alex said something. "Yes, divert the embarrassment! You're a hero, Nogla!" He joked. "What about Alex's voice cracks?!" Pinkie yelled. "Damn it!" Alex yelled. "Yeah, his voice is like; AAAAaaaaaAaAaaaAAAA!" Basically mocked. "What was that, Tarzan?" Vanoss laughed. "Nah, man, more like Mini when we fought zombies on the moon!" Wildcat corrected. "Where is this conversation going?!" Kat asked. "Now, who would like to hear the story of Pablo?" Mini Ladd asked in a deep, Christian Bale-esque voice. "Zera, remember how I said these guys were smart?" Alex asked. "Affirmative." She replied. "I take it back." So, after a couple hours, the team had finally settled on a plan, essentially a repeat of what they did last time, only with a bit more backup. The bad news was he was stuck on a dinghy with Vanoss, Wildcat, and Nogla. "We ride together, eat French fries together." Vanoss said. "We ride together, we buy ties together." Wildcat joked. "We ride together, we die together." Nogla chimed in. Both Vanoss and Wildcat started laughing at that statement. "We just die! We don't do anything else together!" Vanoss laughed. "Well, that wasn't inaccurate... Anyway, what's the plan, gang?" Alex asked them, they were the ones responsible in making sure this went according to plan. "We sneak up, kill anyone in our way, Delirious and Lui are setting up Operation Flying Tank, and you're going to kill the bad guys we're too lazy or too noobish to kill." Nogla explained. "And Rainbow is going to watch us and tell the others if this plan goes to shit." Wildcat added. "And I'm sure Zera is also watchin' us with her android super powers, so we're good." Vanoss finished. "At least you guys put something together. Let's do this." Alex smirked, they got this, besides, he had his full Scarab armor on, there was no way they were losing. "Alpha?" "Yes, Gamma?" Alpha asked. "I do not mean to disturb you, but Sigma's target-" Rufio could barely finish before someone interrupted him. "What about my target?" A young woman asked. Sigma still had a few bandages on, and she still had a limp in her left leg. "Greetings, my star pupil. Gamma here was just about to tell me their location. "Ah, yes. It would appear that they are en route to the U.S.S Zancudo to steal an electromagnetic pulse device capable of bringing down an entire facility, as soon as they figure out our base of operations, we're through!" Gamma lamented. Sigma slapped Gamma on the back of the head. "Don't get all weepy, Rufio. I'm sure Alpha is sending me over there." She said. "That is not the case. I am sending Beta to take your stead in this fight, if he really is the catalyst, we cannot let him survive." Alpha corrected. "What?!" Sigma was outraged. "You are still in no condition to fight. Besides, you already proved your worth, or lack thereof. If an average human can defeat you, then why should I even consider sending an incompetent oaf like you?!" Alpha held Sigma in a choke hold. "Y-You're not stopping me from killing him!" Sigma gasped. "It's treason, then." Alpha threw Sigma back on the ground. Hard. Gamma was stunned, there was no resisting him. "Get this weakling out of my sight!" Alpha ordered. "Yes, sir." Gamma went and picked Sigma up from where she landed. In response, Sigma punched Gamma hard in the jaw and ran. "Stop her!" Alpha ordered. Sigma summoned her bow and shot arrows at the doorway, enclosing them in. "You fool! If you can't stop her, you're even more pathetic than she is!" Alpha scolded. "B-But I..." Gamma held out his hands in defense. "Beta! Another objective has been added to your mission." Alpha began. "Yes, Alpha?" Gamma heard Beta through the comms on Alpha's headset. "Sigma has gone rogue. She is after the boy. Stop her at all costs." Alpha ordered. "It will be done, master." Beta respectfully said before turning of the comms. "Gamma! Exit the room!" Alpha barked. "Yes, master." Gamma bowed before running out the door. Alpha then opened up a small box containing various styled chess pieces and a board, and placed them into their proper areas. "Let the games begin, Alex Walker." Author's Note I promised a chapter and I give you a three parter. Good for you, readers. I have to write more.
Act III, Chapter 4: Halloween Special!Alex casually ate his slice of pumpkin pie along with Vanoss's Crew, the Elements, Kat, Mako, and Team RWBY. It was about 8 more days until the invasion, and the official plan wouldn't be discussed with the crew until tomorrow. "So, we were playing this one map in custom zombies, it was a Christmas map, even though it was before Halloween by then.." Explained Vanoss. "Wait, what's Halloween?" Rainbow asked. "You don't know what Halloween is?" Basically groaned. "Can it guys, they don't have Halloween, they have Nightmare Night, which is sort of the same concept!" Alex explained. Though he had been in Equestrian about 3 weeks or so, even he knew about this pony holiday. "Wait a second, did we miss Halloween?" Yang gasped. "Oh shit, we did." Delirious groaned. "Well, it's easy to see why. I've been running around all day and night trying to keep this ship running smoothly. I haven't had time to even think about Trick-or-Treating, and besides, I stopped when I was like twelve anyways." Alex explained. "You stopped trick-or-treating?!" Nogla couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Personally, I've been trick-or-treating into high school." Vanoss smirked. "I imagine Evan always went as an Owl every year." Ruby giggled. "Not always an owl! I went as Batman one year!" Vanoss yelled. "I remember going to training one morning before Halloween and I saw Winchester dressed as Vegeta from Dragonball Z." Mako remembered. "A friend of mine went as Natsu for Halloween one time." Alex recalled. "He's lucky he has no idea that these Alternate universes exist. He'd probably freak out." Kat chuckled at the thought. "So, any possible thing out there is in a universe?" Nogla asked. "By that logic, yes." Twilight explained. "So there's a universe where I'm Batman?" Vanoss asked. "There's a universe where even Weiss is Batman." Yang answered. "Hey!" Weiss turned to Yang, looking a little miffed. "I actually think that could work." Wildcat laughed. "Yeah, I can see that. She's incredibly rich.." Ruby noted. "She's apparently really smart." Kat shrugged. "One problem; she wears white." Vanoss shook his head. "Albino Bat-Woman, maybe?" Moo laughed. "I'd say Blake could probably be bat-woman." Mako said. "No, I think Blake looks more like Catwoman." Terroriser nodded. Blake scowled. "Okay, then. Anyone care to explain that?" Terroriser asked. "Blake's a F-" Ruby started to say before Yang clamped her mouth shut. "A fun loving person who we all respect and admire as a person!" Yang forced a grin. Blake face-palmed. "Wait, we were talking about Halloween before, right?" Vanoss asked. "Oh, yeah." Mako nodded. "So, what can we do to celebrate?" Delirious asked. "We could trick-or-treat, if someone didn't eat all of the candy on deck!" Alex indignantly responded. "Meep.." Ruby planted her face to the table and groaned. "We could probably set something up on the flight deck." Weiss noted. "Too many jets. Can't risk losing one before the invasion." Kat replied. "How about we set up like, a party in the ball room. We have that, right?" Droidd added. "I think we might. Iris?" Alex asked. "Actually, we have 4. Each of them are about three quarters the size of a football field." Iris confirmed. "Great. We might be able to have a bunch of parties at once. The crew could take three of them, and we could have one for VIPs." Alex smiled. "Should we start inviting people?" Ruby asked. "Screw it, the more the merrier, let's invite as many people as we can!" Vanoss rallied the rest. The party had started about 5 minutes ago, and the entirety of Team Unity, including some of the other huntsmen on the ship, as well as Kat's and Mako's squadrons. He also saw Russell and Sirius nearby, as well as Corporal Quill; one of the crewmen that Vanoss regularly hung out with. The party wasn't exactly in full swing, but Vinyl, given her reputation as a DJ, had been asked politely to play some Halloween themed music at this room, while other crewmen who had music experience were hoof-picked by the unicorn to play at the other ballrooms. Now, Alex wasn't one to party all that much. Even before the ill-fated events of late, he would usually stand towards the walls in a dance. For example, when he went to a Homecoming dance, he sat at a table the entire time, only moving to get some snacks and punch, and maybe talk to his peers. Yang, however, was the exact opposite. "Woo-hoo! This party's amazing!" Alex heard his mentor yell from across the ballroom before collapsing on the floor, and...well... "Oh, my god." Alex groaned, face-palming. "Clean up on aisle four!" Yang yelled again. Not even ten minutes in, and Yang's reached her limit. "Dance party!" Vanoss yelled. Now, Vinyl made the mistake of letting people put in suggestions for what to put on. Vanoss had been the first to write down a suggestion. So now Vinyl was playing 'Time Warp' from 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'. "Admiral?" Ember asked him. "Yes?" Alex asked, turning to his Sergeant. "How often does something like this happen?" She asked him. "I've never seen them at an actual party before today. So, I'm dealing with a bunch of loose cannons here." Alex shrugged. "Well, good luck. I have to get Yang to the washroom for a moment." Ember nervously smiled. "Sure, you need any help?" Alex asked. "I think I can handle it, this sort of thing happened to my a friend of mine in Ponyville all the time." Ember waved a hoof. Alex watched Ember help Ruby drag Yang to the restroom, and then he went to get some punch or something of that nature. He was kind of thirsty. The tables had been arranged full of cake and cookies and that sort of thing, along with small coolers where he could get some soda, and finally, there was one large punch bowl, filled about halfway with fruit punch. Scooping a ladle full of the pink liquid, Alex noticed something was a little off about it. He poured some into a little plastic cup, and held it to his nose, wafting it's scent into his nostrils. "Yep, the punch is spiked." Alex groaned, pouring the punch back into the bowl. He sat down, settling for a can of Orange Soda and taking long, slow gulps of the carbonated beverage. "Walker, right?" He heard someone ask behind him. Alex was face to face with the leader of Team CFVY, he had heard from Ruby that her name was 'Coco', or something. "Yeah, you're the leader of Team CFVY, right?" He asked her. She merely nodded in reply. "Nice to finally meet you." Alex raised a hand. "The pleasure's all mine, Admiral." She smiled slightly, returning the gesture. "So, let me guess, you didn't come over here just to say 'hi'." Alex noted. "I have to ask, how many times have you won a fight against these 'inquisitor' guys?" Coco asked him. Counting the number of times he won a fight against his enemies was not all that easy, but after a few moments, he had his answer. "I won about three fight out of the half-dozen or so times I had the misfortune of meeting them." Alex nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, Admiral." Coco smirked. "Why, you're going to gun down an Inquisitor, aren't you?" Alex asked. "You think I'm scared of some overrated storm-troopers with cutesy little knives?" Coco scoffed. "Keep in mind, these are the same people who blew up a train car full of dust and hacked into the Cross-Continental Transmit Tower." Alex warned. "You scared?" She laughed. "You never understand fear until you're leading people who can kill you in four seconds to battle against people who can kill you in two." Alex replied. "I doubt anyone here really wants you dead. I wouldn't worry so much." Coco shrugged, turning to leave. "Alrighty then, just start leaving mid-sentence." Alex scoffed. "So..?" Ruby instantaneously sped over to Alex's right side instantly after the words left his mouth. "Hi, Ruby." Alex nodded politely. "How's the party going for you?" She asked him. "I've never been the partying type, and keeping in mind you and Ember literally had to drag Yang to the bathroom, I'd say things are going well." Alex smirked. "Has this sort of thing happened before?" Ruby wondered. "Ms. Rose, in my one year of High School, I've seen and heard my classmates do really weird shit at parties." Alex remembered. "Like what?" "I don't know, you seem a little to... What's the word? You seem a little to innocent to hear about that sort of thing." Alex replied. "Come on, I'm sure it's not that bad." Ruby assured. "No, I don't want to scar you for life." Alex waved. "Okay, okay!" She laughed a bit. "About Yang, did you at least hold her hair for her?" Alex asked. "Don't worry about Yang, this happens almost every time she goes to a party." Ruby smiled. "By the way, someone spiked the punch, so I wouldn't drink that if I were you." Alex reminded. "I know, Evan told me." Ruby assured him. "Nice to hear." Alex said. "Hey, Alex!" Rainbow flew over to Alex's left. "Hi, Rainbow. How's everything with you?" Alex asked. "Fluttershy drank some of the punch, Skirmish and I had to fly her back to her bunk." Rainbow replied. "Ouch. I imagine they won't exactly be all there for the briefing tomorrow." Alex cringed. "I have a question, Alex." Rainbow asked. "Shoot." "Were you ever accepted into Beacon?" Rainbow wondered. "The Headmaster just let me use some of the equipment and the training rooms, but I doubt I was ever accepted. Besides, I was only there for about a week and a half," Alex replied. "You weren't accepted?" Ruby asked. "Guess not. I didn't even get my Aura activated until after I got in." Alex replied. "I'm still scratching my head over that, why were you able to do that?" Rainbow wondered. "Most of us get our Auras activated by the teachers at some of the combat schools like Signal, it just seems impractical. It's possible for anyone to do it, but it takes more work than it does just asking someone to unlock it for you." Ruby replied. "Who unlocked your aura?" Alex asked. "Yang." "Neat." Rainbow blinked. "How does that work? I was given the impression that only a few people can pull it off!" Alex groaned. "You have to memorize the incantation, if you're just at home and have it written down, like Yang did, it's way easier." Ruby smiled. "Well, twice the Aura for doing it alone, I'd probably take my chances." Alex murmured. "You're actually pretty special. Like Ozpin said, only one other person bothered to even try it, but the legend says it took him months. It's similar to Lucid dreaming in that sense, it's possible, but depending on the person, it's either a piece of cake or it takes people months or years to get it right." Ruby explained. "So, Alex's Double Aura is like my Sonic Rainboom." Rainbow noticed. "Sonic what-now?" Ruby asked. "Wha- you mean that none of you have seen me do a Sonic Rainboom yet?" Rainbow gaped. "No, I guess not." Alex shook his head. "I'll have to show you guys sometime!" Rainbow flapped both wings. Just then, Alex heard the next song start playing; Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. "Oh, my god." Alex groaned. "What is this?" Ruby asked. "Yeah, it doesn't seem like Nightmare Night music." Rainbow shrugged. "It's a song from my world. The radio stations literally over-play this song when Halloween rolls around." Alex sighed. "Homesick?" Ruby asked. "Considering I got tortured and almost killed on Earth, I wouldn't call it 'homesick'." Alex elaborated. "You're still hung up about that?!" Rainbow groaned. "Rainbow!" Ruby scolded. "Too far, I know.." Rainbow shied back. "Wait, do you still have that scar?" Ruby asked. "Right here." Alex said, tracing the trail of the scar down his right eye. "Ow.." She cringed. "Wait, isn't there supposed to be a part of the story where everything goes wrong?" Vanoss wondered. "Like what?" Delirious asked. "I don't know, Zombies attacking the boat, the ghost of the Flying Dutchman showing up, spooky scary skeletons playing in the background?" Vanoss shrugged. A horrid sound, like some inhuman scream, emitted from the other side of the door. "What the..?" Ruby wondered. "Vanoss, what did you do?!" Alex backed away. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! WHO DARES DISTURB THE FLYIN' DUTCHMAN?!!" A ghostly voice bellowed. "Great. This guy." Discord sighed. "You all suck." Haunt spat. "Well, Gang, this next song is a request from Evan Fong, the Spooky Scary Skeletons remix by Wooden Toaster!" Vinyl announced, the trademark song starting to play in the background. "Ruby, you still have that Ray Gun?" Alex asked. "Yep!" She smiled, pulling out the device. "You can keep the sniper, can I borrow that?" Alex asked her. "Sure, thing." She handed him the iconic Zombie-killing tool. "Alrighty, gang! I got the box again!" Terrorizer yelled as dozens of men charged to the back corner of the room. "You four might need these." Alex said, handing Team RWBY four bottles of red liquid with the words 'Juggernog' on the front "More booze?! This is getting better and better!" Yang smiled, cocking both of her Gauntlets. "Someone politely let our guests in." Alex ordered. "On it!" Vanoss and Wildcat fired their RPGs at the door along with Nora and Yang, blowing the door open and letting in swarms of zombies. Their eyes were glowing bright green to match their announcer; the Flying Dutchman. "I'VE COME FOR YOUR SOULS!" The Dutchman screamed. "Even now, you're talking about those pathetic sea creatures!" Discord grit his teeth, unleashing a barrage of magic attacks. As he looked around, defending himself against the hordes of zombies by stabbing them with a broken bottle or shooting them with the Ray Gun, Alex kept one thought in the back of his mind. 'I have the most ridiculous life ever. Like, ever.' Author's Note Hey, Destoyer here! Sorry for not posting anything new the past week or so, been waiting 'till Halloween to post this. Yep. Figured this would be my treat to you readers. Flying Dutchman Zombies vs. RWBY, Vanossgaming, and My Little Pony. -The Destoyer
Act III, Blood Red Night Part 3: Fire And Lightning In a battle, all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it's more dangerous to lose than to win. -George Benard Shaw "Fire!" Beta hollered. Alex dropped to the ground the exact instant he heard gunfire. He slammed his eyes shut with his hands clasped firmly around his ears. To his surprise, he felt nothing zip above him, no blood splattered on him whatsoever, none of that. He looked up, curious as to what went wrong.. "Death to the Red Star!!" A whole crowd of about 500 charged in, wearing Coalition uniforms, guns ablaze. The remaining huntsmen and huntresses swooped into action, the ponies found cover and fired whatever weapon they could find, and Vanoss and his crew pulled out rocket launchers and started making the already smoking mess of the Iliad into a barren wasteland. So, pretty much the same, but on fire. Yang flipped backwards, pulling Alex back on his feet. "Did you seriously just duck when you heard shooting?!" Yang chided. "Why didn't any of you?!" Alex retorted. Yang blinked. "Fair point." She shrugged. "So, what the hell are we doing about this, now?" Alex asked. Yang groaned. "Beta and Sigma are going to tear the others apart if we don't do anything. Weiss, Jaune, and Nora, and Blake are attacking Beta. Leaving just me, Twilight, Ruby, and you to deal with Sigma." Yang explained. "God dammit. Sorry, lost my train of thought." Alex face-palmed. "Okay, then. I'll just do this, and..." Yang grasped Alex by the wrist. "Wait, what the hell are you..?" Yang spun him around as Alex felt himself getting sick, he was barely hanging onto Electric Fury. "Sword, now!" She demanded. Alex converted the revolver into a sword yet again, once Yang noticed the transformation had been completed, she let go of him, Alex spinning like a top and barreling into Sigma. Shockingly, the attack actually did damage, Sigma staggered backwards, the armor cracked and she was bleeding like crazy. "You know, I was usually pretty reserved for a crime lord.. And then you came along." Sigma scowled. "I was usually decently happy, and then you and your merry group of assholes came along. Isn't life a pain?" Alex retorted. Sigma glared, lashing at Alex relentlessly, he managed to block or avoid the vicious attacks. Ruby sped in from the left, catching Sigma in the side. Twilight then fired multiple attack spells at her wounds before Yang charged in, punching her with the force of a hundred cannons in the gut. Sigma fell on her back, skidding backwards until colliding rather painfully with a tree. She pulled herself up and hit herself a few times in the side, causing red blood to splatter on the snow-covers ground below. "And she's still standing? What's next?! Is she going to be all like 'This isn't even my final form'?!" Alex's eye twitched out of a mix of fear and irritation. "You watch way too much TV." His rival smirked mockingly. "Where'd you get those, anyway? Another Anime convention?" He shot back. "You talk a lot of shit for a Displaced." "OKAY, THAT'S IT!!" Alex unsheathed Blitzklinge and clashed with Sigma again. "The hell's a Displaced?" Yang wondered. Alex swung both blades at Sigma's sides, only to have them blocked by her own. Alex then noticed a small, threatening orange sort of glyph on the ground. "What the hell?!" Alex leaped backwards to evade the resulting explosion. Sigma glared at him, a wicked smile spread across her face that just rubbed Alex the wrong way, "By the way, I know all about what happened with Omega. It seems as though you've finally ascended. I'm almost proud." "What the hell are you?" Alex backed up next to his friends. "You're not the only one with that kind of power." Sigma glared, the edges of her eyes glowing a bright orange, as though they were aflame themselves. "What is that?!" Twilight gasped. "I've led you on all along, kid. Let you think you could actually beat me in a fair fight. I may know a lot of thieves, but the look on your face is priceless." Alex gaped in horror, what the hell just happened?! "You've heard the story of the Maidens, haven't you? Well, I had my associates help me siphon some of her powers to me, but someone severed the link before it could finish. So you are not merely fighting another huntress gone bad, you're fighting a part-Maiden." Sigma explained. Alex backed away, he didn't quite understand what was going on, but Ruby and Yang sure did, as a look of horror had been plastered to their faces. "Well, holy shit. I was right." Alex blinked before all of them had been blown straight backwards. He leapt off the side of a tree, firing a multitude of lightning bolts, and slashed Sigma as soon as he was sure she was properly distracted. She leaped out of the way, summoning more glyphs in a circle around Alex, he himself leapt backwards to avoid becoming a charcoal briquette. "Deal with Beta! I'll handle Sigma myself!" Alex ordered. "No way! You aren't dealing with a Maiden without my help!" Yang yelled back. "Yang, let him." Ruby tapped Yang on the shoulder. "I'm not going to let her kill him! You heard what Qrow said!" Yang reminded. "If we fight her, we'll be toast! Literally toast!" Ruby pulled her away. Yang fidgeted in anger, then she sighed in surrender. "You're coming back." Yang demanded. "No promises." Alex said back. Alex and Sigma walked in a circle, twirling their weapons, never taking their eyes off one another. "Alpha has to pay for what he did to me. Back out now while I'm still in a half-decent mood." Alex offered. "Save your breath, at least until I take your last!" Sigma threatened. Both charged towards one another, swords spinning, threats yelled across the frozen underground, and through the hundreds of others firing their weapons. Celestia and Luna met with the other leaders backing the Coalition in Adenien's world capital, Iridescence, to discuss what they will do after the battle ends. With them was Hunter Smith, the Leader of The North American Federation, a military junta that replaced the former United States in the months since Alex had left Earth. As well as The councils of Remnant and the Supreme Leader of Adenien, only known as Krete. "Your Highness! Your highness!" One of Celestia's personal guards, Shield, cried out. "What is it, guard?" Krete asked. "We've just received information from a fighter on the Iliad named 'Andromeda' that the carriers all fired on each other, they started shooting after the warp drives engaged!" Stone replied. "They what?!" Smith yelled angrily. "Who fired first?" One of Vale's councilmen began. "Do you think that matters now? The ships were destroyed, and because this was after the warp drives engaged, they landed in Kalos Prime. It's likely that they're fighting an uphill battle." Krete scolded. "Have the other Inheritors revealed anything?" Luna asked. "We just received word. The Iliad crew is still fighting, and just received help from the Revelation's." Another councilman indicated. "Who are the Inquisitors fighting them?" Ozpin, who was also in the group, wondered. "The huntsmen and the Los Santos crew are fighting Beta, AKA Axil Heyes. And the Admiral is fighting Sigma, AKA Cinder Fall. Gamma had engaged Princess Twilight, but did not kill her. He's since evacuated to a nearby fortress." Stone reported. Ozpin sighed, looking defeated. "Is something the matter, Professor?" Celestia asked. "Alexander must know what he's gotten himself into. Cinder Fall attacked one of the Maidens, the guardians of Remnant in possession of legendary power, and stole some for herself. Alex has only been training on-and-off since his stay at Beacon. Think of it this way, his fighting Sigma is like Princess Twilight at base abilities fighting Lord Tirek at full power." Ozpin explained. "Your worries are not necessary, Professor." Supreme Leader Krete dismissed. "You must see the futility in this! An ex-Kahn Militia recruit is fighting a god!" Hunter Smith gaped. Krete only returned this show of doubt with a sly smile. "If that is how you see Saigo Emphas, you are a greater fool than even I can fathom. Don't forget, he is a powerful fighter, like his father and mother before him." Vanoss ducked out of the way, evading Beta's weapon by mere seconds. His friends, the other Huntresses in training, and the remaining Elements did what they could to hold him off. "Delirious! Grenade!" Mini hollered. Beta kicked Mini away, the grenade he was holding rolled away and exploded in the distance, then punching Delirious' mask. "It's over, I've won. Surrender." Beta demanded. "Bitch, I survived Vegeta!" The hockey-masked murderer spat in reply. Beta swung his blade upwards, severing Vanoss' friend on two before he respawned a few feet away. "This is beginning to annoy me! I will never stop!" Beta yelled, lunging at Weiss. "Hang in there! I'll come up with something!" Vanoss yelled. "Alright. Think, Evan? What can we do to stop this asshole?" Maybe if they all fired their assault shotguns, it would weaken his armor... Nah, too overrated, besides, this was supposed to be the apocalypse, not another heist. If the Huntsmen had a chain attack they could use- No, that wouldn't work either... What was that Beta had said earlier? 'I will never stop!' His battle cry echoed. 'Never stop' 'Stop!' Stop! That's it! They could tire him out! But how? Mini, Basically, and Droidd all respawned nearby. They couldn't die! "I have a plan! Hoodini Squadron, do what I do!" Vanoss yelled. "Ugh, is that really what they're calling themselves?!" Yang groaned indignantly. Vanoss shoved Weiss out of Beta's blade lock and let himself get hacked in two. Moments later, he respawned directly behind Beta, grabbed a sticky bomb and placed it on a part of his back Vanoss was positive he wouldn't be able to reach. His friends leaped onto Beta's gore-covered sword, suffering a similar fate reappearing nearby and planting more C4 in parts he couldn't get to due to his cumbersome armor. "What are you doing?!" He demands. "Ruby! Hit him with the glowing green balls!" Nogla ordered. The huntress blushed slightly, raising an eyebrow. "I shoulda worded that differently." Nogla admitted. "Shoot him with your ray gun!" Jaune yelled. "Oh! I got it!" Ruby announced, loading a green cross mag into her gun, clambering it, and pulling the trigger. The beam hit one of the C4s, triggering an immense explosion that destroyed most of his armor, but he still wasn't dead. "Dammit!" Vanoss kicked a loose piece of scrap. "It's okay! We've weakened him!" Blake yelled, kicking at him. "Everyone, open fire! Now!" Weiss commanded. Vanoss and his friends unleashed a torrent of gunfire that ripped the Inquisitor to pieces, or it should have. It instead bounced off of a glowing orange aura that surrounded him. "This magic barrier should sustain me." Beta scoffed. "Ruby, Vanoss, I need all of you to hold him off. I know a spell that could break the shielding!" Twilight whispered. "Got ya!" Vanoss nodded. "Protect Twilight!" Ruby ordered, the other huntsmen falling back, firing relentlessly at the lumbering murderer. Moo leaped onto Beta's back, trying to stab his neck with the Calvary Dagger before being thrown off at the others. Lui fired an AK directly at his back before Beta grabbed it by the barrel and bent it back at him, Lui shot himself in the head and fell to the ground. Instead of respawning normally, he laid there, a collapsed heap on the ground. "What the hell? Monkey, get up!" Delirious ordered, sharply kicking him in the side. "Kids these days. No respect for the dead." Beta scowled. "What's going on here?!" Basically pointed his gun at the Inquisitor. "The Alpha was made aware of your abilities, and we've developed a way to break through it. You can only respawn 99 times, and on your hundredth, it is absolute. Permanent. Your friend is dead." Beta announced, chuckling malevolently. Vanoss' eyes bulged. He hadn't kept count. Ruby and the others stood in shock, one of the unkillable group of ex-gamers had finally bit the dust. "Why do the bad guys always get the good shit?" Wildcat sighed. "Blame Alpha's insistence on collecting old artifacts, most of which are worthless." Beta explained. Ruby actually shook, rather violently, clutching Crescent Rose until her knuckles turned white. "Ruby?" Yang wondered. Her silver eyes had started to glow, dimly at first before flickering intensely as she looked up to face her rival. "You... I won't..let you..get away..with this..!" She stuttered, trembling. "Should we start running?" Vanoss backed away. "I almost have the spell ready, it should be done in about another minute-" Twilight reported. "You don't need it." Ruby cut her off. She walked, unsteadily, towards her opponent, her Aura now shining bright silver. Before Beta could even utter a word, she attacked, swinging Crescent Rose viciously, making marks in his magic barrier. Her screams of rage could even be heard by Alex and Sigma. Her own teammates couldn't help but watch as their once sweet and innocent leader tore at the inquisitor with blinding speed and pure, unadulterated fury. Twilight gasped. "I-Is sh-she actually breaking through?!" Twilight stammered, frightened beyond rational thought. She spun like a top, ripping chunks off the barrier until his chin was completely exposed. Finally, in one final blow, she placed the tip of Crescent Rose's blade just under his chin, firing the gun and swinging upwards, splitting his head in two and blowing him into the skies. Vanoss's remaining crew stared as Ruby's eyes returned to their normal color and the menacing glowing white aura faded from view. She looked genuinely shocked, she knelt down, breathing in short, quick breaths. "Ruby! Are you okay?!" Weiss knelt down. "Yeah... I'm fine... I just pulled an 'Alex'..." She huffed. Vanoss couldn't help but smirk at that comment alone. "Speaking of which, where is he?" Nora wondered aloud. "He's fighting... Sigma... I have...to help.." Pyrrha said, limping nearby, bringing with her an unconscious Lie Ren. "Someone call a medic." Blake ordered. "I got Andromeda to contact command! We'll be okay! They're sending reinforcements!" Vinyl yelled back. "Why do you have to help? Does it have something to do with the Maidens?" Ruby asked, having regained her breath. "Oh... So you know about that.." Pyrrha sighed. "Yeah, Qrow told Ruby and I what happened." "Then you know what I have to do." She said. "What are you doing?" Jaune asked. "Your uncle had explained everything. Either she has to surrender peacefully and relinquish her power, or I take it by force, or she takes the half of the Fall Maiden's Aura I have.." She announced. "You too?!" Yang gasped. "Alex is fighting her now! You don't have to do this now! Backup is on the way!" Nogla announced. "I know. I'm sorry, but this is what has to happen. We're huntsmen and huntresses. We defend the world, or die trying." Alex was slammed into a tree, which had soon exploded under him. He fell like a stone to the ground below, staggering up weakly. Sigma stomped his chest into the ground, pulling him up by his hair. "This is more rewarding than you know... With this much power, I might just finally defeat Alpha!" She smiled malevolently. Alex spat in her face, which she wiped off with a glove that she then pointed at his face. The glove began to glow before a small Grimm-like bug poked partway out of her hand. "What the hell is that thing?!" Alex stammered. "Goodbye, Saigo." She grinned. Alex closed his eyes tight. So this was how he was going out, with a little bug. Admittedly, kind of pathetic. "Hey! You!" Someone yelled to his right. Sigma dropped him and turned to face... Pyrrha?! "Ah, if it isn't my other half!" She grinned, taking off the glove in exchange for a matching gauntlet. "Save it, Cinder." She unsheathed her sword, pointing it at her adversary. Alex himself staggered up, clutching his blades. "You. Out. Now." Alex ordered. "No. This is between me and her!" She demanded. Sigma glanced at her two opponents. "It looks like I got more than I bargained for." Sigma laughed. Alex put on his helmet, thankful there was music in this thing. He pressed 'shuffle' randomly until he found a song which he could properly go on an full-blown rampage to. "Thank Destoyer, he actually figured this out." He muttered. He leaped behind his enemy, pulling his swords out of the ground, making an X-shape while glaring at her before smashing his gauntlets together, trying to intimidate his opponent. "Alex! Just go! You can't fight her!" Pyrrha yelled. "She killed my friend! She tried to kill me! Like f**k I'm leaving now!" Sigma laughed callously, lashing out at Pyrrha first and shooting arrows at her direction, Alex ran behind her, hitting her with the pommels of his swords, giving his ally an opportunity to strike. Pyrrha slashed at her chest, creating a spark as it scraped against the dark armor she was wearing. Alex set both of his blades to their Saw Modes and tried to wear her down. She raised out both arms, causing dead leaves to rise out of the ground and form themselves into Grimm-like shapes, complete with glowing red eyes. "Oh, god dammit!" Alex groaned. 'Alex, ya miss me?' Kat said via radio. Several of the monsters dropped, a thin vapor trail leading up to where they stood. 'I'll help whatever I can. Another wave of reinforcements just showed up and everyone is fighting.' "Got it!" Alex answered back, blocking a torrent of glass shards. Pyrrha slid underneath a Cinder-Grimm and shot her rifle at Sigma three times. Alex hacked at her again with his own weapons, the ring of metal against metal echoing through the dark woods. Sigma grabbed Pyrrha's leg and threw her into a tree so hard that the trunk split in two and she fell with it. Alex blocked another one of Sigma's attacks, but lost one of his swords in the process. He converted his Blitzklinge into the revolver form, and shot two Cinder-Grimms before finally shooting her in the chest. She recoiled as planned, so Alex delivered a kick that sent her flying towards another tree. Alex moved fast to intercept, punching her square in the face and hacking away at the armor, hoping to destroy it. Sigma put both of her hands together, palms open, and fired a devastating ray of fire from the gap in between, incinerating many of the trees. Alex set Blitzklinge back to it's sword mode, then saw mode, and protected himself from the attack, dissipating the flames and striking while she was still open. Pyrrha leapt up again, kicking Sigma in her side before firing her rifle at least three times before Sigma grabbed the rifle and pulled it away, slamming the butt of the gun in the neck. She aimed the rifle at her heart and would've killed her had Alex not fired a bolt of lightning at her while she was occupied. Sigma turned back at Alex, shooting him in the side, causing the armor to cave in painfully. Pyrrha hit her with the shield, throwing it at her Captain America style, causing it to ricochet off the armor and return to her hand, delivering another blow to her head. Sigma grit her teeth in anger, throwing several fireballs towards Pyrrha's direction, giving Alex the perfect opportunity to attack, shooting the remaining ammunition in his revolver before changing it back into a sword and clashing blades with his rival. Vanoss and Delirious saw the commotion from behind a frozen bush, looking amazed at what was going on. "Holy shit! She's getting wrecked!" Delirious gaped. "How does that work? Alex could barely take down Omega without passing out. Either he's just that good, or.." Vanoss pondered. "Or what?" "Power levels are bullshit!" He yelled. She literally blew him away, using the disintegrated leaves and blowing a harsh wind at him, causing him to fly 100 feet back and slam into a tree. "Kat..?" Alex gasped. 'I have a clear shot. Lethal or non?' Kat answered. "Not just yet!" Alex warned, leaping up and attacking Sigma, who blocked his attack and Pyrrha's at the same time. "I'll get to you later." Sigma coldly stated before grabbing Alex by the throat and throwing him into another tree, causing the heavy chunk of wood to fall flat on top of him. He tried lifting the trunk off of him as he watched Sigma ruthlessly slashing at Pyrrha until she could no longer stand, before she dealt a finishing blow that rendered her near-helpless. Sigma walked up to Pyrrha slowly, soaking in as much self-gratification out of this moment as possible. "I've been waiting for this for a long time, Ms. Nikos." She removed her gauntlet and slid the glove back on. 'I'm taking the shot now. She can't get that power, if she does, it's all over.' "Do it, hit the glove." Alex ordered. Mere seconds later, a bullet screamed through the air, colliding with Sigma's wrist, leaving a gaping hole in the center. Alex managed to lift the trunk just enough for him to slide under, standing up to full height. "Sigma!!" Alex yelled. The woman turned to him, hatred glinting in her eyes. And then she smiled. "You know what, I don't even want the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers. Not now. The satisfaction I'll get from watching you die is reward enough." Alex himself grinned with malevolent intent. "Fine then, hit me with your best shot." Alex threw his sword to the ground. Sigma's simple response was to lash out with everything she had. A hurricane of fire, glass, leaves, and chunks of metal debris left a cloud of smoke in the air where Alex once stood. The onslaught was gut-wrenching to watch, but as soon as she finished the attack with a few more explosions, the smoke cloud grew to where one couldn't see one inch inside of it. Sigma grinned satisfied, her work was done. She turned around to finish the job before she suddenly heard a loud booming ring. An explosion quickly dissipated the cloud of smoke, revealing that Alex had survived. Sigma stared on, backing away slowly as she looked on in dread. She heard another loud ring as Alex exploded again, this time, his skin started to turn a glowing blue, along with the roots of his hair. The ringing and the explosions of power grew quicker and faster in pace, before one final brilliant flash of light blinded any bystanders, and by the end of the ordeal, Alex now stood in his Enlightened Warrior form. "Y-You... What.. What the hell are y-you?!" She gasped. "Funny. You said you heard what happened to Omega, and you still didn't expect me to walk out of that attack more pissed off than hurt." Alex grinned smugly. "It's come to this... I don't think you'll try to spare me like your friends will, is that true?" She asked, trying to retain some of her confidence. "Kinda sad how they think you're redeemable." Alex charged, each hand generating massive amounts of electricity and glowing brightly, as though two stars suddenly engulfed his fists. Sigma glared, preparing another attack, both eyes burning bright orange as she readied her swords. Both opponents launched themselves at each other, matching blow for blow at blinding speeds, launching the various lightning bolt or the odd brand of fire here and there. Alex eventually grabbed both of Sigma's wrists, twisting them at an awkward angle before frying her with his sheer power. She was eventually blown backwards into a series of trees, battered and beaten. She summoned her bow, stringing an egregious amount of arrows, tips burning so hot Sigma was almost surprised that they didn't just melt. She eventually released, arrows flying and causing a massive explosion wherever they landed. The dissipated the bow afterwards, keeping one sword and stabbing it into the ground below, causing raw magma to erupt from underneath, engulfing that part of the forest in molten rock. Alex eventually limped out, wounded himself, but still determined. He ran towards Sigma, grabbing her by the throat and charging a fist as he hit her, repeatedly, in the side. "Kidney punch. Kidney punch. Kidney punch, and pause..." Sigma gasped, coughing up blood and losing much of her Aura fast. "Electrical Torrent!!!" Alex kicked her away, firing beams of plasma from his fingertips at her, so fast and powerful that he was sure she was nearly dead by now. He finally stopped, lowering his hand and reverting to his normal form within seconds. Staying awake, he walked over, picking up his sword and walking to where she now laid, infuriated by how easily she had lost. He converted his sword into it's revolver form, pointing it at her. "Alex!" He heard Yang yell from behind. He turned to find Yang and Kat, along with another fireteam. "Where's Pyrrha? Did Sigma steal her powers?" She asked. "She's back there. She's fine. Kat shot Sigma's hand almost completely off just to keep it from happening." Alex assured, nodding thanks to his friend. "So, what are you going to do with her?" Kat asked. "Isn't it obvious by now?" Yang wondered. Sigma coughed. "Go ahead, finish me off, that is.. If you're able.." She coughed, gasping and gagging. Alex stared her coldly in the eye, cocked the revolver, put his finger on the trigger.. And put it back in his holster. "Put her under arrest. See to it that she's put somewhere she won't be able to escape for the duration of the battle." Alex ordered. Yang looked at Alex like he was insane. "This is... Different.." She blinked. "What? You think I kill everyone who deserves it? That's like getting a trophy just for showing up to a track meet. And besides..." Alex turned to look at his defeated enemy one last time. "At least Omega was strong enough to get a few hits in, unlike this pushover." Alex dismissively spun his revolver around his right pointer finger. Sigma grit her teeth in anger, pulling with what energy she had left to rip Alex's throat out, but because she was in such rough shape, the soldiers were easily able to pull her away. "Ouch." Kat cringed. "Well, guess what Ruby did!" Yang smiled. "Killed Beta?" Alex asked. "Yep! She went all crazy after one of Evan's friends died, and when she finished the job, she said she pulled a 'you'." Yang smirked. Alex chuckled a bit, amused at the comment. "That's all well and good, but there's a lot we need to do. This battle isn't over yet." Alex said, "Andromeda just summoned reinforcements, numbering to at least another million. So we'll have a total of 2 million attacking the Tranquility Complex nearby." Kat explained. "How many Red Star are over there right now?" Alex asked. "3 mil, with at least another million on the way." Yang replied. "Good. What Inquisitors are over there right now?" Alex asked. "Gamma, and another two who were known associates of Sigma. Tau and Upsilon." Kat answered. "Emerald and Mercury... In retrospect, they did look a bit shady to me. I'll take care of them, no problem." Yang smirked. A large transport vehicle lowered just above the molten lava that now covered the ground, it released a bridge so one could walk in without having to actually jump or climb inside. Kat walked inside first, then Yang, who reached out for support after Alex had started to stumble a bit. As he walked inside, he saw Twilght, Rarity, Vanoss's crew minus Lui, Jaune, Nora, The other members of Team RWBY, Vinyl, and Ember. "Hey, sir." Ember greeted sadly. "Something happen?" Alex asked. "Blast died fighting against Beta, and Skirmish was almost blown to bits as soon as the shooting started on the Iliad. Sure, she's finenow, but..." Ember explained. "Shit, we just lost Lui." Vanoss sighed. "Is Pyrrha okay?" Jaune asked Alex. "She's fine. I took care of Sigma. She isn't going anywhere, for a while, at least.." Alex groaned, laying his head back. "What's the plan, exactly?" Vinyl asked. "Isn't it obvious?" Alex asked, "We're going to Tranquility Complex." Author's Note Credit to DAGames for the song! Sorry I haven't been posting a lot. I've just been busy with school and everything, plus the sheer length of these chapters means I have to write a crap-ton with the little bit of time I actually have. Also, I'm quite a procrastinator, I'm sure a few of you can relate. -The Destoyer
