The Rise
Airport
Previous ChapterNext Chapter"That was pretty amazing what you did back there. Making everyone go crazy." Dodge said, floating in the middle of the bathroom. He floated down and landed on the tiles walking towards adagio, who was backed against a wall.
"You saw that?" She asked, backing further against the wall as dodge walked over to her.
"I think everyone who wasn't apart of that crowd saw it." Dodge said, stopping right in front of her. He focused and turned his left hand back to normal and reached out to adagio. She looked at the hand being offered, unsure if it was a trap and he would zap her. With hesitation she grabbed the hand and wasn't sapped, but was instead lifted up to her full height. When she let go his hand turned back to electricity.She grabbed the things she dropped on the ground and looked to dodge. His face was covered by the blue electricity covering his body, but she could see the where eyes and a mouth would be.
"Thanks." She said, she looked at him again and wondered what he was. She looked at his face and saw blue. His face was covered by the blue electricity, but she could see where eyes, eyebrows, nose, and a mouth would be. They were covered in a light.
"What are you?" She asked. She could see him raise an eyebrow before getting what she meant.
"Oh, right." He relaxed and concentrated, he felt the electricity in his body begin to disappear starting at the legs and reaching to his chest. The blue form of his body replaced by the clothes he wore. He opened his eyes and broke the concentration, revealing him to be a normal orange skinned man. He grinned at his success to turning back into his normal form and looked back at adagio. Who was surprised to see him looking like an average human.
"Hi, I'm Dodge." He said, reaching out for a handshake. She hesitantly took it again and hid her nervousness. A new question formed in her head as she looked at him.
"Are you from equestria?" She asked, hoping he could be the way back to her home world. That hope quickly vanished looking at the confused face on dodge.
"No. I'm from here. Well, manehattan at least." He looked to the side as thoughts of his home town went through his head. He shrugged them off and looked back at her. She looked caught up in her own memories and realized his answer saddened her.
"You got family in equestria?" He looked to her with a soft voice. She looked back at him and nodded.
"I did... not anymore, though..." She looked down, holding back tears as she remembered the rest of her family in the sea.
"I lost my family, too." Dodge said, leaning on the wall next to adagio. She turned and looked at dodge and listened to him.
"I made a lot of bad decisions when I was young. Things that im not proud of. I would just act like a jerk to people and just be all around bad."
He sighed, remembering all the fights he'd win in high school.
"My parents didn't know what to do with me. So, when I dropped out of school, they took me to a military school and left me there. Mad was an understatement to what I felt that day. I yelled and cursed as they left. I never mean't any of them. I loved my family, no matter how much I didn't show it. I wish I could've shown them I still cared. " He said, looking down in sadness. Dodge felt a hand on his shoulder and saw adagio looking on in sympathy. He gave her a thankful smile and continued on with the story.
"When I left the school I tried to find them. I looked and looked, but always left with nothing. I tried calling a few times, but they changed their phone numbers. I drove back to the house and saw no one there and a for sale sign. When I gave up looking, I gave in to crime in canterlot. I got mixed in with a crime boss in canterlot. I was with them for a while. Then one day, I had to do something I didn't want to do."
"What did you have to do?" Adagio asked, wanting to know what he didn't want to do
"I had to steal money from some rich guy and give it to the boss. I don't know what he wanted with it or what the rich guy did to want to steal from him, but I didn't think about it."
"Did you do it?" She wondered, interested in what happened next.
"Well, I did it, but not how they wanted it." He grinned, recalling what he did with all the money. before continuing.
"I gave it all away to some family. They were living in poverty and were close to losing their home. So I put it all in a briefcase, left it on the porch, and watched to see their faces." He smiled, remembering the happiness and joyful cries from the family.
"It felt good, seeing how happy they were. It didn't matter what would happen to me if it meant they could have a chance at life. I went back to our hideout and got the worst beating in my entire life. I thought that was how I would die." Dodge said, truthfully.
"Then "he" showed up." He smiled, looking up.
"He?" Adagio asked, wanting to know what this "he" did.
"Yeah, I didn't know what to think when I first saw him. No one knew where our hideout was but he just walked in and claimed it was his. We've been using that hideout for a long time." He explained.
"His name is Behemoth. He's from another universe, I don't know where, but he's here to prevent a catastrophe that will happen in the future." Dodge said, getting a reaction from adagio. She looked at dodge liked he was crazy and he noticed it.
"I know how it sounds, but it's true. He sent me to find you so that we could help him."
"And you believed him?" She asked, her voice getting louder.
"Adagio, he gave me these powers." Dodge said, turning his arm blue to emphasize the point.
"He saved my life. I owe him this. Come with me to Canterlot. Let me bring you to him."
"I am not going back to Canterlot!" Adagio shouted.
"Why?"
"I made mistakes too. I've been stuck with my annoying little sister and our irritating cousin on this planet since the first crusade! And I abandoned them when they tried to help me!" Adagio yelled.
"I'm not going back there. I don't want to run in to them. Not after what I did to them." She said, letting tears fall down her. She covered her face to hide them. Dodge was caught off guard by the revelation that she was older than she looked, but he ignored that for now when he looked at her.
"So we're both criminals, huh?" He asked, adagio only nodded in response.
"Don't you see what this is?" Dodge asked, adagio uncovered her face and looked at him.
"This is a chance to redeem ourselves. To undo wrongs, make things right. This is destiny."
"Dodge, I did worse things than just cause riots."
"What? What could you have done?"
"I attempted to take over your world." She confessed, that seemed to have shut him up.
"Wha- you?" Dodge asked in disbelief. He knew her power caused the riot, but he didn't know she could be that powerful.
"When I was there, me, my sister, and our cousin tried to gain power from a group of girls in a high school who were carrying magic. We almost succeeded before they stopped us. A few weeks later they found us and helped my sister and cousin. I was to busy trying to get revenge that I ignored my family. When they tried to convince me, I ran. That's why i'm here. I'm starting over." Adagio confessed. Dodge listened to her reason for coming here and tried to think of a way to convince her to stay. Then he realized, if those girls helped her family after attempting to take over then he would with adagio.
"Adagio, I don't have a chance to find my family, but you do. And i'm not gonna watch as you abandon yours." Dodge said, hoping to get through to her.
"They were given a chance to change and now you do, too. "
"It doesn't matter what this world has done to you. Do it for them. Help us save the world, make them see that you've changed." He pleaded, adagio only turned to hide her face. She didn't want to go back there, but the world she was living in is in possible danger from a threat she didn't know. She remembered the days they tried to convince her. The hurt expression on her little sisters face and the irritation in her cousins.. She may have walked out on them, but she would never let them get hurt. They were her family. And if their lives were possibly in danger then she would save the world. For them.
She turned towards dodge, who was pleading with her still, but she had made her decision. She saw the slightest hint of hope in dodge's face when she turned. She smiled and nodded, dodge only smiled. He had convinced her to stay and help, it might not be for the world, but he knew how much family meant. And with that they left the airport and headed back to the city.
School had just ended for Norman. After dismissing class he leaned back in his spinny chair and relaxed, closing his laptop as he pushed himself back. He took a deep breath and felt the burst of wind hit his beard. He felt the length of it with his hand and stroked it. He liked his beard and was happy to have grown it that long, but now it was getting too long. He told himself that he'd trim it later, but now he had to grade some papers. The most boring part of the day.
Norman hated grading papers for thirty students in five different periods. It was too much work, even with an answer sheet. Norman now felt what it was like to work in the tech division. He wondered how they could sit there on a desk and type things out on a computer. His respect for teachers increased. Norman missed the job assignments he'd do at the agency. They would always be somewhere exciting like a desert or a tundra.
When he finally finished he relaxed again and took another deep breath. He closed his eyes and just sat in the quiet room. He blocked out the students and faculty outside his class and just sat there. He almost dosed off until a knock could be heard at the door. Norman sighed and spun the chair towards the door.
"It's unlocked." He yelled. The door opened and a purple girl with glasses came in. He recognized her as twilight sparkle. He expected the other girls to walk in, only for twilight to close the door.
"If you're asking about the history test, you passed." He said, showing a 100% stamp on her test.
"Oh thanks, but i'm not here for that."
"Something wrong?"
"It's about, sunset. Ever since what happened with applejacks truck, we haven't seen sunset since. The girls are starting to get worried." She said.
"They probably sent her home. Happens all the time."
"We thought so to, so we tried texting her. She hasn't responded to text messages all day." Twilight said, getting his attention. He could see how worried this was making twilight, he could imagine what the others must be feeling. Then he remembered one of his previous jobs in the agency.
It was a missing persons search in Maine. One day she had not shown up to school and hadnt been seen all day. He remembered the search he and the local officers made through the forest. Yelling her name over and over. It took a week to find her. She was found cuffed inside some lunatics house after the neighbors heard screaming next door.
"You think something has happened to her?" He said, quickly getting up from his chair.
"I don't want to think about that, but I know it's a possibility."
"Do you know who took her to the infirmary?" He said, grabbing his coat from the desk.
"Some tall red doctor. I don't know the name." Norman stopped what he was doing when the memories from his dream forced their way out. Tall and red. Tall and red. Tall and red. Then the image of behemoth came into his mind and a horrible realizatio
"No, no, no, no." He repeated, quickly taking everything he owned from the desk. Twilight was confused and didn't know what was wrong with him. She looked at him with concern.
"What's wrong?" She asked, as norman started to walk out the door. He turned and looked at her with a frightened expression. He walked towards her and got close. His face was the most serious she had ever seen and got nervous.
"You have her number, right?"
"Yes?" She answered with confusion.
"Call it as many times as you can. I'm heading to the infirmary!" He shouted, charging out the door.
"Wait, what are you doing?" She shouted.
"Call her!" He yelled across the hallways.
He entered the hallway with the infirmary and opened the door. He spots the two doctors looking at something on a computer. They heard the door open and turn to Norman with a puzzled look. He hears one of them ask if something's wrong, but he ignores them. He looks around for the other doctor and sees only them.
"Where's the other doctor?"
"What other doctor?" They asked, looking at Norman with confusion.
"The other doctor that brought sunset shimmer in here?" He asked, they only looked at each other in confusion.
"We never had sunset shimmer come in here?" He responded.
"We only had flash come in here today." Norman looked at them with confusion.
"What? But the doctor took her here immediately."
"We heard what happened after five minutes. When got there the only one there was flash."
"What? That's not-" He cut himself off, when he heard the faintest sound of a phone ringing. It was low, but it was there. He quickly turned and left the infirmary, trying to follow the ringing. He had an idea whose phone it was, but he didn't want it to be true. He could hear the phone louder than before, looking around the hall before realizing it was in the janitors closet.
He motioned towards the door knob and hesitated. He hoped, absolutely hoped it was the janitors phone and not hers. He opened the door and looked around the closet. He saw the phone ringing on the floor and picked it up. Sweat was dripping off his face and onto his beard as he looked at the phone with hesitation. He answered the phone and his thoughts became true when he heard the voice of twilight sparkle.
"Sunset, is that you? Are you there?" The nightmares surged through his head as he remembered the house and the bodies inside. The tall red figure killing them all and laughing. He hung up the phone and ran out the janitors closet. He pulled his own phone out and called the agency. It wasnt the normal phone number it was the emergency number. Meant to skip through everything and head straight to the one and only madame. Starlight Glimmer.
Starlight was luckily in her office and not in a meeting so she answered without a second thought. She picked up the phone and listened to the concern and tired out Norman coming through the phone. After everything was said and done. She could only tell him to protect the kids with your life and that more agents were on their way. Norman was about to say something but stopped. He listened to the orders from her and ended the call.
She growled, throwing the phone at the wall. She sat down and pulled on her hair in frustration. Alarms going off in her head as Chows warnings came through her head. She pulled out a coin from her desk cabinet and held her thumb on it. The Tv turned on and chow was staring at the screen. He noticed the sweat and worry spread across her face and knew something bad had happened.
"Get here now!" She urgently demanded. Chow didn't have a chance to say anything when she quickly turned off the tv. She decomposed her self as she fixed her up. Which were sticking up from the stress of the situation. She looked at the mic on her desk and pressed a button. She heard her assistant pick up the phone on the other line and told her there is an emergency.
"Bright, tell the agency in canterlot that an emergency situation has occurred. Send every agent on and off duty in and tell them I'll be there by the morning."
"But what about your meetings?" She exclaimed.
"Cancel them."
"You're coming with me also, so get to work!" She strongly demanded.
"Yes, madame glimmer." She responded, turning off the intercom.
At the agency in canterlot. The whole structure was in full alert. Agents were preparing to arm up, tech division was using every possible technique . Nearly a hundred cars left the buildings garage that day. They all knew what the mission was. They all separated heading towards the schools, police stations, and fire department. The whole city in just a few hours was being monitored by the entire agency.
In the tech section of the building the workers were in a frenzy. Papers were flying and people were scrambling to get to their stations. Tech division was tracking every single google search, every radio channel, television, every camera, and every phone in the city. Whatever happens next, they would know about it.
Author's Note
Here's the second half
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