Canadian Pacific 5-5

The bell that signalled the start of lunch woke all of us up. We then groggily got dressed and staggered, half asleep, to the cafeteria. We ate a hearty lunch before heading to the lobby to see what our next assignment would be.

“We have been informed that the Princesses themselves would like you to stay here and help protect the ambassadors,” the day receptionist told us, “Just so long as it’s not a problem for you.”

“Oh, no, of course not,” I assured her, “We’re just going to head out to our truck to grab some supplies and lock up. We’ll only be a minute.”

We were kept busy with odd-jobs around the Bureau though we were never very far from the mane 6. While the work wasn’t very demanding we were all glad to hear the bell that signalled the start of supper. We kept mainly to ourselves but we agreed later that just having so many other people around was a nice change of pace. When we finished eating we escorted Twilight and her friends to their room. On the way I got an idea, “Would you like to hear chapter two? I’d be happy to tell you when we get to your room.”

“That would be wonderful. I-if you don’t mind that is. I wouldn’t want to waste your time,” Fluttershy said.

“It’s no trouble at all,” I replied cheerily, “Besides; I don’t offer to do something if I don’t plan on following through.”

When we got to the room I created a chair for myself from the concrete floor as they made themselves cushions from the bed sheets. As they got comfortable I glanced at the clock, “We may even have time for me to tell you chapter three; so long as there aren’t any interruptions.” At that Rainbow Dash became very interested in a corner of the room.

I snickered and said, “Alright then.”

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Chapter 2: The Testing

That week felt like it had lasted only an afternoon when we met back up. We talked and told each other what we found out about new powers. We all seemed to have gotten a power that “regular” heroes with our powers never got, however they were still related to our elements. John found that he could manipulate the content of the air, Brent found he had some control over objects that had water in them, Brody found that he could start flames just by rubbing his fingers together and I found that I could control metals. They all made logical sense, metals are made of minerals that came from the earth, but they were still slightly surprising.

“Do you want to see what I can do with metals?” I asked.

They all answered, “Yes” at the same time. I smiled and stuck my hand into my pocket and pulled out a block of metal about the size of my fist. I set it on the table and placed the fingertips of my right hand onto it. I focused and the metal began to flow around my fingers and up my arm, creating a metal glove that moved as freely as cotton.

I stretched my now silver fingers allowing the sun to glint off of them as John said, “Cool! But now it’s my turn!”

He waved his hand in Brent’s general direction and Brent collapsed. I rushed over to him, but he was fine he had only momentarily fainted. I laughed because I knew he had gotten the idea from the manga Fullmetal Alchemist’s Colonel Roy Mustang.

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Seeing the puzzled faces on the ponies I explained, “A manga is a type of Japanese comic.”

When they nodded I took it as a sign that I’d guessed right and that was all they were wondering about. They didn’t really need to understand the reference.

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Brent showed us how he could control things with water in them by having Brody repeatedly smack himself in the face. We all laughed, even Brody. Then Brody entertained us by creating intricate flame trails that sprouted from his fingertips. But just as we were about to leave we heard sirens. We all looked toward the noise and saw several police cars pull up to the bank across the street; someone was robbing the bank. John, Brent, and Brody all pulled their hats down to disguise their faces while I ran over to the swing set and used it to create a suit of armour for myself.

“Stay behind me!” I called as we ran toward the bank, “I’m going to be your shield!”

We ran through the police blockade, much to the surprise of the officers, and up the steps of the bank. I pushed on the door but the bank robbers had already locked it. I took a half step back and twisted the metal hinges until they fell out and the doors crashed inward. I took one glance at the floor and sighed in relief, it was made of marble and would be easy to control if I needed to. We stepped inside to find the bank robbers waiting for us, guns drawn. They each fired multiple shots at me, creating many small holes in the floor. The bullets had bounced off my armour. They raised their guns to take more shots but their arms suddenly snapped to their sides.

Brent held the men’s arms at their sides while John altered the air content around them. You could see them begin to lose consciousness as John raised the oxygen and hydrogen levels. Brody snapped his fingers and the hydrogen combusted, creating a wet popping sound not unlike when you light hydrogen in a test tube. Brody then quickly dissipated the flames and we could see the robbers lying on the floor. They were unconscious and their skin was reddened from the heat but, other than that, they were fine. We snuck back out of the bank as the cops poured in to arrest the robbers. We gave each other high-fives as we walked back to my house.

When we got back to my house we all went downstairs into the rec room to watch some Fullmetal Alchemist. I popped the DVD into the player and turned on the TV. As the TV came on it displayed the news channel and the anchorwoman said, “…strange reports from the bank. We now go to Steven, live at the scene.”

“Thank you Debbie,” Steven said, “Earlier today the bank I’m standing in front of was subject to an attempted robbery. Three teens and someone in a suit of armour thwarted the robbers. The police are still trying to discover the identities of the teens, in hopes of finding out who was in that suit of armour. Back to you, Debbie.”

“In other news a swing set went missing from the park across the street from the bank…” Debbie began but I pressed the Input button on the remote and switched over to the DVD player.

“Cool, we made it onto the news!” Brent exclaimed.

“Yeah,” John replied, “but that’s not good. What if they find out our identities?”

“Well,” I said, “Let’s worry about that later. I’d really like to watch some FMA right now.”

“Fine, but I still don’t like that we may have been caught on film.” John said.

I nodded in agreement and selected ‘Play All’. Part way into the pilot episode I began to wonder if I could create Automail with my new powers. I quickly jotted it down on a piece of notepaper and pushed the thought out of my mind. Just as I did however I began to wonder if we might be able to heal our wounds with our elements.

I pressed pause just after the episode ended and asked my friends the same question, “Do you think that we could heal ourselves with our elements?”

“It makes logical sense that we should,” John replied, “but how do we test it without putting anyone’s life on the line?”

“What if we cut off someone’s hand?” Brody asked, “That way we can see if it works and if it doesn’t, well, at least they’re not likely to die.”

“Real comforting thought there, Brody,” I said sarcastically.

“Well,” Brent said, “we wouldn’t have to go to such extreme measures. We could, say, stab someone in the arm with a pen.”

“He has a point. It would create a fairly severe wound that would not heal quickly yet not cause problems if we can’t heal ourselves,” I replied, “Besides, we can always make it look like an accident.”

“But there’s always a risk of infection.” John said, “If I wind up doing this and getting an infection, I really don’t want to live life with only one hand.”

“Well, I was thinking that I might be able to create Automail.” I told them, “I’ll see if I can. If not, we have to come up with a safer option.”

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Knowing they wouldn’t have understood I took the liberty of explaining, “Automail is a metal prosthetic designed to replace and replicate a missing limb. In fact my friends and I each sport at least two.”

I pulled off my glove and showed them my left hand in all its metallic glory.

“Any questions?” I asked.

Twilight and Rarity both raised a hoof.

“Yes?” I said as I pointed to Twilight.

“How does Automail work?” she asked.

“Well, it works much like your own muscles in that it takes the electrical signals from your brain and uses them to trigger artificial muscles to make the limb do what an identical, flesh-and-blood limb would,” I explained before turning to Rarity, “You too had a question?”

“Yes,” she replied, “I was wondering if you could tell me how far your abilities go?”

“Of course,” I replied, “Though our findings are rather, inaccurate and quite circumstantial in either case. Range wise, we’re not sure but I did once pull a piece of metallic space debris out of low Earth orbit; so that could have been anywhere from 200 to 2000 kilometres straight up. As for the actual ability itself, I guess ‘spectrum’ would be a good word to use; I can basically manipulate anything made of minerals that can be found in the Earth’s crust. So things like; gems, glass, coal, alloys, concrete, asphalt, you name it, are all within my power. I assure you that my friends likely have similar ranges and ‘spectrums’. But to be honest, you really don’t need to worry; we’re too caring to purposely injure anyone who comes in peace. It’s only when someone approaches using force do we reply in kind. And even then it’s only for defence. Are there any other questions?”

When they all shook their heads I took it as a sign to continue.