Arsenal and Swan: Arc 1: The Queen Gadget Saga

Arsenal and Swan: Arc1: The Queen Gadget Saga

Episode II: Strange New World

The moon shone down upon the unmoving corpse of Sonata Dusk. Next to it, curled into a ball, was a weeping Aria. She mourned her dead friend, reminiscing at all the time they had spent together, good and bad. Specifically, she remembered how much Sonata drove her nuts, and a small smile formed on her face.

Don’t let the sudden surprise happiness derail the unfortunate event that has just occurred though. She immediately began to cry again, burying her face in her hands. Then, she felt something waft over her entire body. It felt like a breeze of wind, that smelled like… tacos.

Aria sat up, quickly wiping the tears from her face as she turned around. Another breath of taco wind nearly knocked the girl over. Aria’s jaw dropped to floor as she saw it was in fact Sonata breathing. Color began to return to the sirens face.

Soon, Sonata opened her eyes, her vision blurry. She blinked a few times as if to remedy it. When things became clear, she saw a surprised Aria standing in front of her, however, Aria had gotten quite smaller to her in scale.

“Why are you so small Aria?” Sonata asked, poking a finger at Aria as if she were a specimen in a lab.

Aria folded her arms, attempting to hide the fact that she was just balling out crying on the floor, as she groaned, rolling her eyes, and responding with, “I’m not small, you’re,” She pointed a finger at her for emphasis, “bigger!”

Sonata sat up, bursting through the ceiling, as she rubbed her head. Debris fell down and nearly crushed Aria.

“Watch it!” Aria screamed in fear.

“Sorry, Aria. So, that metal thingy worked?” Sonata asked, tilting her head.

“Indeed,” Queen Gadget’s voice seemingly came out of nowhere as she stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight, “The procedure went perfect! Just as I suspected. You three must hold the key.”

“The key to what exactly?” Aria asked, giving Gadget a rather angered stare. “You haven’t told us anything!”

Queen Gadget remained silent for a second, her face stiff. Then, a sickening smile began to form upon her face, “Ahahahahahaha!” She cackled insanely as she slowly began to walk up to Aria, all three of Gadget’s tentacles were raised and spinning in a threatening, yet, intimidating way, “I don’t have to tell you a thing, vermin. You’re lucky to be in my presence. If it wasn’t for me, you and your friends would still be scurrying around the streets like rats in New York. You do what, I, say,” Gadget smacked Aria across the face with the back of her hand, leaving a red imprint on Aria’s face. “Got it?”

Aria felt the burning sensation in her face, the slap stinging her as she winced. “Y-Y-Yes Master.”

“Besides,” Adagio came from the doorway, strutting her way into the moonlight, “We can all benefit from this, Aria. Imagine what we could become. We will regain the power that stupid Sunset Shimmer and her friends stole from us and get our revenge.” Her eyes glistened with determination, an evil smirk forming on her face.

“You’re a smart one, Adagio,” Gadget admired the girl’s determination. However, that was short-lived as she smiled that cheshire like smile she always did. Her smile alone could tell that she had more than a few screws loose, it spelled evil as if it were tattooed upon her lips.

“Anyway,” The villainess continued with a self-centered sort of tone, “Sonata, dear, why don’t you shrink back down to regular size. We wouldn’t want you to get caught now would we? We have the element of surprise, remember?’ Gadget explained in a demeaning voice which made one feel sort of like a baby or younger child.

“Totally!” Sonata agreed and then blank-faced, sitting there doing nothing.

“Argghhh!” Aria growled, “Change back now, Sonata, you idiot!” She face-palmed as she normally did, living a life filled with the often dim-witted girl’s actions.

“You’re an idiot!” Sonata retorted, getting eye-level with Aria.

“No, you are!”

“No, you are!”

“Silence!” Gadget and Adagio demanded angrily in unison like they had rehearsed a line for a play.

Aria immediately shut up as did Sonata. However, Sonata seemed frightened whilst Aria simply turned away as if she wasn’t at all phased by the yelling.

“To turn back, just think really hard that you want to be small and the metal will do it’s work.” Gadget explained again in that dehumanizing voice.

“That’s gonna be hard,” Aria muttered under her breath.

Adagio kicked Aria in the leg, giving her a look that read, “shut up!” as if the words had been spelled out for her.

Sonata nodded, “Okay, I can totally do that.”

Her eyelids shut as she saw blackness. Harder and harder she thought, concentrating on the task at hand. Her face was scrunched up, her nose curling as she thought with all her thinking might to turn back to her regular size. She peeked one eye open and blurrily saw she hadn’t succeeded in her efforts to reduce her size.

With a low growl, she shut her eye and thought again. She cleared her mind of tacos and more tacos as she focused her brainpower on the one thought she needed. I want to be regular-sized. At that moment, even though she herself could not see it, she began to shrink back down to regular size, until finally she was her normal self again. A few pieces of debris crumbled down to the ground behind her, filling the air with dust.

Sonata coughed as she walked out of the dust, a gleaming smile on her face, “I did it!”

“Yes, you did, dear. Now,” Gadget snapped her fingers, “Let’s go to my place where we can train you.”

Before any of the sirens could speak, a pink aura surrounded them and soon they were spinning into a whirlwind of colors. The colors swirled together making a funnel shape as the girls, all gripped in fear, felt the sensation of falling. They tumbled and tumbled until finally they saw a white light. It was like the light at the end of the train tunnel and even comforting in a way.

As they approached the white light, they squinted and everything went completely white. Soon, they found themselves standing on a rather hard structure. At first, they didn’t want to open their eyes, unsure if their trip had reached it’s conclusion.

When they did, their jaws dropped at what lay before them. They were standing on a cube made of a white metal with small blue lines separating them four ways, intersecting at the middle of both sides. Beyond were more cubes which moved erratically every two seconds as if they had a mind of their own they couldn’t seem to make up. However, the cube they stood upon remained in place, unmoving.

In the room they stood in was a large black throne, decorated with all sorts of diamonds and multicolored crystals. Instead of a normal oval shape it had bits of metal that stretched out like spikes in all different directions. A large velvet carpet led up to the throne and sitting upon it was Queen Gadget.

“What is this place?” Aria asked quizzically.

“This, my apprentices, is the Mindscape,” She walked using her claws, the metal scraping against the floor with each step, “It was created by my father Arthur Prescott as a sanctuary for psychics and to police human thought and spark imagination throughout the universe.” Then, she began to giggle, “Soon, a war sparked between humans and psychics as they believed this to be an invasion of privacy, can you believe it? The nerve.”

She pressed her face against the glass, gazing out into the sky of this strange world. She then turned to the three who were listening intently, “So, a deal was made. Psychics would live in the Mindscape and have no direct access to the human mind. My father, however, began to change after the war. He drank and began to abuse me and my sister, Sarah. He began to break mentally and became the villain known as Mastermind. And he took me along for the ride, forcing me to find this metal for him. Ha, but the metal had plans of its own. It spoke to me, it told me things,” Her eye twitched as her creepy evil smile grew even more gruesome, “It chose me. And for good reason.” Gadget finally finished and sat back on throne.

Aria folded her arms, “What’s the reason?”

Gadget looked up, her face deadpan in expression. Her evil smile was gone as if it vanished. She then walked over to Aria, seemingly getting bigger and bigger, her shadow looming over Aria. The tentacles made her much taller than she really was.

“Because of Jason!” She screamed in anger, balling her fists. She said Jason with disgust like she had just eaten something truly rotten. “That so called ‘hero’ was more preoccupied with work then our miscarriage!”

Aria and Adagio both looked at Gadget when she said those words while Sonata remained oblivious, rocking back and forth.

“Jason made me see the truth about humanity, no about the universe.” She leaned in and with a serious tone she said, “Everyone is out for themselves and no one, not a single person or pony has your back. Not when it truly matters.” Gadget went back and sat on the throne. She was silent for a moment, “Enough questions, we must train Sonata. You and Adagio come with me, you stay here Aria and look over the plans, I’m sure they could use some fine-tuning.”

Aria nodded, but had not heard what Gadget said, nor did she notice the three leave the room. All she could think about was what Gadget had said about Jason, the miscarriage, and Gadget’s own childhood. Something in her brain nagged at her, telling her that something was up. Gadget seemed to have motivations of her own that didn’t match up with hers.

Aria lifted her hand to where she was struck by Gadget, it still burned upon contact, causing her to wince. Then, it hit her like a ton of bricks. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped to the floor. She’s using us.

_________________________________

 Sunset’s house was a mess as if she hadn’t cleaned in a while and she hadn’t with just having dealt with the Friendship Games and the disaster that followed suit. Clothes were everywhere in her bedroom, scattered around in a nonsensical pattern which Pinkie was tracing with her eyes. Her bed, consisting of a queen-sized mattress and ember colored blankets while her pillows had sun yellow covers on them. Posters hung on her wall depicting the things she enjoyed as well as a group shot of her friends from Equestria, those however, were the only things not in disarray. Her desk had a large 16’ computer screen with keyboard and mouse. Old water bottles and pop cans sat there, empty, but not thrown out as they should be. Her computer was on, as Sc-Twi and Princess Twilight were huddled close to look at the screen, Sci-Twi clacking away on the keyboard. One of her dresser drawers were open and her closet was closed, hiding more clothes heaped in a pile, but unseen, shrouded in darkness.

Rarity glanced around the room in disgust. “Darling, why ever would you leave your room in this state?” Immediately, she began to clean up, plucking up a shirt and folding it.

“I’ve just been busy, I’ve been meaning to do it.” Sunset said, not really thinking about her dirty room, but rather the knot still twisted within her stomach. “I mean, it’s nice of you to clean and all, but that isn’t really important right now.”

“Uh!” Rarity exclaimed, “Cleanliness is always important dear,” She explained, as she placed the folded shirt in the open, empty drawer.

“I think we found something!” Twilight squealed in glee, but then she looked around at the confused eyes staring back at her, “Um, sorry, anyway, I think we found an article about those heroes and the organization. It took a lot of digging, but we did it.”

“No way!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, leaping to her feet in excitement. “I love superheroes! I can’t believe I get to meet one, this is so awesome!” Then, she looked around at her surprised friends gazing right back, “I mean, that’s cool, whatever.” She shrugged as if what she said wasn’t true, but her friends knew better.

“Somethins botherin’ me though,” Applejack said, “Why does this Gadget want ta use tha sirens, tho’ they might wanna get back at us. And what in the hay does she have a problem with us for? Ain’t like we did anythin’ to er. It just doesn’t make a lick a sense.” She raised a brow.

“They must be desperate or maybe Gadget is using them, it’s anyone’s guess,” Sunset answered, rather quietly, her gaze planted firmly on the floor, which was getting much cleaner she noticed due to Rarity’s quick efforts. However, no matter how clean it got or how much the floor started to sparkle, Sunset’s mind was on the problem at hand. She placed a hand on her stomach as the knot grew tighter, something just wasn’t right.

“It’s more likely they’re being used,” Twilight said in a saddened tone.

“Then, if that’s true,” Sunset snapped out of her state for a second, contemplating her lessons in friendship. If she had learned anything, it was that even the most vile of villains can be turned good, especially if the sirens were in fact being used as if they were simple chess pieces on Queen Gadget’s own personal chess board. The yellow haired girl narrowed her eyes in determination, gaining a confident smile, and balling her fist in determination, “We have to reform them! We can’t let this villain just get away with this. We have to stand up for not just our world, but every world.” Sunset stood up, passion seeping from every word that spilled from her mouth, “We have an obligation to help out with this crisis, and I know,” She smiled, looking around with pure content, “My friends are with me.”

“Duh!” Rainbow Dash said in a playful tone.

The friends all nodded in unison, especially Twilight. She smiled, happy to see how far Sunset had come. It wasn’t long ago she wanted to take over worlds and enslave the minds of teenagers, now she’s not only conquered three villains, but helped Sci-Twi understand the most important magic of all. And without need of introduction we all know quite well what that magic is.

“The Sirens have motivation to get back at me. At,” She looked around the room and gestured to everyone, “ all of us. We took away their magic, maybe even their identity. I don’t know if this Gadget lady is using them or if they are complicit, but I do know they’ll stop at nothing to get back at us for their defeat.”

“True, we did defeat them, but do you really think they’d go that far?” Twilight asked. “Risking their lives for the sake of superpowers?”

“Are you kidding me?!” Pinkie cried, causing her friends to jump a little, Fluttershy even more so. “They came to our school, brainwashed everyone, made us compete against them for magical power and the fate of the world, and were like pure evil! Of course, they’d get back at us!” Pinkie explained.

“Right,” Sci-Twi said, adjusting her glasses, only ever hearing about the Sirens, never having met them herself. “You guys should take a look at this, I’ve been reading and they sound like they’re really heroes who saved a lot of people and stopped many more threats.”

“How does our universe even have this information?” Sunset asked rather dumbfounded that her world had information on heroes from another world.

Sci-Twi glanced up and down the page, scrolling to look for an author, but it was anonymous. “The author didn’t put their name, it’s an article from Cordian Industries about Heroes and the Pros and Cons of having them.”

“Cordian Industries?” Rainbow Dash asked, rather confused.

“They’re a multi-billion dollar company that sells a lot of different kinds of products and owns different kinds of services, but it’s still boggles the mind how they could have obtained this information.” Sunset explained to Rainbow Dash. However, her mind was still on the knot in her stomach, growing tighter and tighter, like a snake around it’s prey.

Cordian? Princess Twilight thought, Why does that sound familiar? Discord? No, it can’t be, I haven’t even seen him in this world… yet, at least. She gulped at the mere thought of a human Discord running amok and spreading chaos wherever he went for this one would be an unreformed wild card unlike the Discord from her world who has proven his reformation.

“So,” Fluttershy spoke up in her soft, quiet, almost inaudible voice, “What do we do now?” She exchanged a glance with each of her friends.

“We wait.” Sunset said, plain and simply.

_______________________

Never had the heroes laid eyes upon the object which was used to traverse to and fro between dimensions. They both pictured something different, more technologically advanced, and more well, not a mirror. However, what stood before them was a person-sized pink mirror with white diamonds along the sides. Instead of glass, there was a portal which swirled in a mix of psychedelic colors as if the mirror was tripping on some form of drug. Hooked up to the mirror, were long spiraling wires which formed a spider web of wires towards a large computer where two men in white labcoats sat, operating the machine.

However, what they didn’t know is the simple fact that everything isn’t invented or designed in their world. They also weren’t aware of the fact that Elliott had collected this mirror after the first ever interdimensional conflict from Princess Celestia and Luna themselves. Of course, they didn’t know because they weren’t the director of H.E.R.O like Elliott.

All the Director could do was smile at their shock and awe. He motioned toward it with his right hand, the other planted firmly in his left pocket, “Go ahead, heroes. Suit up and head out. I have other matters to attend to.” He said, turning to leave the room.

Swan halted him with a simple, “Wait,” however, when Swan says ‘wait’ it doesn’t just mean hold on, it means she knows something is up too.

“Yes, Miss Swanson?” Elliott said, twisting his head to look back at her. He knew all too well what the girl was implying, that he hadn’t told them all the details of their assignment.

“What aren’t you telling us? The craftsmanship on this thing, it’s not even from Metania, where the hell is it from?” She folded her arms and raised a brow.

“Equestria.” He answered simply.

“Equestria?” Both the heroes said in confusion at the same time, exchanging a clueless glance with one another.

“Pony world. Nothing you need to be concerned with.” Elliott said, waving it off and walking out the door.

“Well,” Jason smiled dumbly as if Elliott had said nothing, “Let’s get going Swan, we got people to save and places… to uh… not let blow up… yeah.” Jason’s words became less enthusiastic as he wasn’t good with sayings. If you asked him to build a brand new suit, he could do it in a heartbeat, but Jason was not smart in most other categories besides inventing.

“It’s places to go and people to see, you moron,” Swan snorted, rolling her eyes.

“Whatever,” Jason waved a dismissive hand, “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t.” She said sarcastically.

“Ya see,” Jason started to explain, “I mean we have to save people and…”

“I know! I was being sarcastic!” Swan snapped, rather annoyed at the fact that Gadget had to throw a wrench in her diplomatic plans.

“Well, someone’s in a worse mood than usual,” Jason said, looking away.

“Than usual?” Swan asked with a cocked brow and angered expression, “What’s that supposed to mean, Jason?” The look on her face read ‘say it and you're dead’.

“Nothing!” Jason said quickly, regaining his smile and happy-go-lucky attitude.

The heroes walked over to a large black storage space with shelves and drawers. It had different hero insignias decorating it. On the rack were a number of different weapons and on the golden hangers were different costumes. One looked like a biker’s jacket, a chain next to it along with dual katanas crossing one another. Another was hot pink with a glittery mask that made Jason sigh at the sight of it. This was the costume of someone he had held dear to his heart, his second fiancee who he had hoped to spend the rest of his life with.

I hate seeing Sarah’s costume like this, but she loved this place, it’s what she would’ve wanted. To remembered for her heroism and good deeds. Then, Jason shook his head as Swan broke his concentration.

“Thinking about her again?” She asked with a concerned look on her face and even though she herself would not admit it, a tear formed in her left eye, swelling up with liquid sadness. “She was going to marry you.”

Jason nodded, “Yeah,” He said, sighing as he grabbed his belt and strapped it around his waist.

“If it wasn’t for Gadget,” Tears began to stream down her cheeks, her fist balling up in anger, “She’d still be here, damn it! She should be the one six feet under not Sarah. She was such a kindhearted, selfless hero. Gadget will pay for this, for everything!”

Jason put a comforting hand on Swan’s shoulder, making her look directly at him, “I know. But, revenge is never the answer. You know better, Swan, hell, you’re smarter than me for sure.” He chuckled.

“That’s true,” She said, giggling, and wiping her tears. “And I wasn’t crying! I was just using my water element for ummm… dry eyes.”

“Okay, Swan,” Jason chuckled again, though he knew better, as Swan grabbed her bowstaff.

They were ready, well ready as they possibly could be in this situation, and walked up to the portal. The two exchanged glances and gave a confident nod. It was a silent gesture, an unspoken signal, that meant they were in full hero mode. A serious look crossed their faces as one by one they took a deep breath and walked into the portal.

Just like the sirens did before them, they swirled down a psychedelic mix of colors. It was a rabbit hole and down they tumbled, that sensation of falling gripping them. Both their hearts beat a mile a minute in their chest, fear filling their very being. The same white light from before appeared, blinding the heroes as they attempted to shield their eyes from the intensity of the light. And just like that, they were on the other side, tumbling onto the grass covered ground and out of a stone horse statue.

The heroes had landed in the most awkward position and not the cliched one that one most would think. No, instead of landing on top of one another in a rather risque sexual position, Swan had landed perfectly in Jason’s arms, her eyes looking directly into his.

Swan’s face became tomato red and soon she quickly pushed herself off him, “Get off me, pervert!” She folded her arms, dusting herself off, and turning her head away.

“Oh come on Swan, you know it wasn’t like that.” Jason sighed, shaking his head, “Whatever, let’s get goi-”

Immediately, he stopped speaking, the world around him catching his eyes. Bright beautiful colors made up everything from the sky to the people themselves. They were multicolored with all sorts of different kinds of skin color, hair color, and dress codes. It was as if the heroes had landed themselves inside of a cartoon, and little did they know, well, they kind of did.

“Wow,” Jason said in utter joy, “Would you look at this place!” He said excitedly turning to Swan who had a different look on her face. It was one of panic as she looked down at her own skin. “What’s wrong?” Jason questioned, puzzled by her reaction.

“My skin, look!” She said, putting her arm in front of his face, “It’s purple! And my hair! What is with this ruby red and puke green! It’s hideous!” She sounded rather alarmed at the situation.

Jason looked down at his hands, noticing his own skin had turned bright orange and his hair was spiky and sky blue in color. He simply shrugged, “Rules of the world, maybe, I don’t know. This isn’t the time for stupid little details like that anyways.”

Swan growled in frustration, “Fine, let’s just get looking for this place. Where is it, Jason?”

“Ummm…” Jason said, snatching the paper from his left pocket, “100 Alicorn Lane.”

“And where’s that, exactly?” Swan asked, gazing around the schoolyard.

“Elliott said it was a few blocks over from CHS, so let’s go ‘splorin’ and we can figure this out on the way.” Jason began to walk forward, beaming with joy.

Swan facepalmed, “Why me?” With that, she followed him, not totally confident in Jason’s navigational abilities.

With that, our heroes were off, ready to take on this strange new world they had found themselves in. Everywhere they looked, something caught their attention. From the different shops like Sugarcube corner, where a large muscular man yelling ‘yeah’ slurped down a milkshake, to a rather tasteful exotic diner where a father and daughter happily stood outside with a sigh, attempting to attract more business, everything looked so impressive and strange all at once. A girl wearing headphones, nodding her head to the beat walked by with a smile and beside her was another girl holding a cello case in her right hand.

After aweing at the scenery, the heroes found Alicorn street and began their trek down the sidewalk. Each house number was low and began to get higher and higher as they walked. Soon, they came to a rather small brown house that almost seemed like a garage. It was one story with a few windows in the front, back, and on each side of the house.

At first, the heroes glanced at each other unsure what to expect when they knocked upon the oak wood door. For a moment, they were both hesitant to knock. However, it was inevitable that one of them would have to knock eventually. They couldn’t very well just stand on the small stone step in front of the door for eternity, now could they?

Jason raised his hand and knocked upon the door with a clunk, clunk, clunk. He heard shuffling from inside the house. Soon, a pink-haired girl with a huge, happy smile on her face opened the door.

“Hiya!” Pinkie said, shaking both their hands quite quickly. “I’m Pinkie Pie! You guys must be the heroes!”

“What gave it away?” Swan murmured sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“WellnooneelseiscomingandyourwearingabeltwithanAonitsoitporbablystandsforArsenalandyou’recarryingabowstaff-” Pinkie was interrupted by a blonde girl with freckles, covering her mouth. Pinkie still spoke through the mouth not shutting up, though it was simply inaudible gibberish.

“Don’cha mind her, she’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.” Applejack extended her hand out for a shake, “I’m Applejack, you can call me AJ if ya want. Now, get a move on, we’re all waiting for ya.” She motioned them inside after shaking both of their hands.

As the two heroes entered the house, they looked around, noticing the house was quite nice on the inside. The walls and ceiling were painted a pearl white and the floor was carpeted with a beautiful beige rug. Pictures hung on the wall and a large flat screen television sat in the corner on a large, black entertainment center containing DVDs and CDs. To their right was the entrance to the kitchen which had all the things a kitchen should have, a microwave, stove, toaster, and fridge.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie lead the heroes into Sunset’s room which was now glistening with cleanliness. All eyes turned to the door as the four entered the room, closing the door behind them. Swan was used to eyes being trained upon her as she often gave speeches and was the face of her country, but Jason wasn’t a fan, in fact he did anything he could to not look directly at those staring back at him. AJ and Pinkie took their seat on Sunset’s bed.

“Hello,” The group said in unison and each introduced themselves, breaking the awkward silence.

Rainbow Dash ran up to Jason with a speed Sonic the Hedgehog would be jealous of. “So you’re like a real superhero?” She asked, wide-eyed and excited like a kid opening presents on christmas morning.

“Yup, I’m a full-time superhero. Got a belt and some weapons, it’s uh… pretty neat,” He rubbed the back of his neck, not sure how to respond to her. In his world, superheroes were commonplace and widely accepted.

“You’re such a moron,” Swan rolled her eyes, “She obviously hasn’t seen a superhero before.”

“Right, I knew that,” Jason responded in a tone that said he hadn’t truly known that.

“This is so cool!” Dash shouted in excitement. She turned to Swan, “What’s it like? How many villains have you stopped?”

“Well, it’s not all fun and games like in the movies. It’s a serious job, not a cool one.” Swan seemed annoyed by the girl’s ignorance. “And thirteen villains.”

“Pssh, I stopped like forty,” Jason puffed his chest out in confidence.

“Twenty two, don’t exaggerate, and it’s not a popularity contest!” Swan snapped, “Do you take anything seriously?”

“Nope.” Jason answered with a goofy smile.

“I can relate to that!” Pinkie said, raising her hand.

Sunset cut in, “We really should get down to business. I mean it is cool to meet real life superheroes and all, but we kind of have a problem here.” She gave a soft smile to them.

Rainbow Dash nodded and returned to her seat, knowing full well that the task at hand was much more important than her fondness of superheroes.

Jason nodded, “Yeah, Gadget.” When he said her name, it was tainted with despise. “But, who are these siren chicks?” He asked, clueless about the group’s run-in with them.

Sunset didn’t say anything, but she caught the sickening way Jason said the villainesses name.

Princess Twilight spoke up, “They’re a group of beings from my world who were banished to this one. Recently, they tried to brainwash the school with their hypnotic music and then the world, but we put a stop to that and destroyed their amulets, the source of their power.” She explained to the two heroes. “After that, they ran off and we never knew what became of them until now.”

“Vengeance,” Swan said simply. “That’s what they must be after, but Gadget is dangerous. She could easily be using them for her own personal agenda.”

Jason shook his head, “No, she is using them. I may not be a genius, but I know her. She’s manipulative and cruel. A cold-blooded bitch and a murderer at that. Those girls have no idea what she’s truly capable of, but I do.”

“You can’t just jump to conclusions without the proper evidence,” Swan said as if she was a teacher giving a lecture.

“I’m not jumping to conclusions, she’s the impitamy of evil. I should know, Jess. I knew her-” Jason stopped himself, covering his mouth, hoping nobody would catch on.

“Epitome of evil,” Sci-Twi corrected him.

“Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean,” Jason waved a dismissive hand.

Sunset cocked a brow, picking up on Jason’s slip-ups, “What do you mean exactly by you should know?”

Jason froze, not knowing how to respond. All eyes were trained on him as he said, “We stopped her uh… plenty of times, so I mean, I should know, right?” He spoke as if he was trying to convince himself more than Sunset and her friends.

Applejack’s honesty sensor almost immediately caused her to question him, “Ya knew er personally didn’t ya?”

Jason’s gaze met the floor and he let out a sigh and confessed, “Yes, I knew her personally. She… she was my….” He couldn’t form the words as images of Violet and the time they had spent together before she became the villainess she is flashed before him. Then, finally he said it, which made the whole room gasp in shock, “... first fiance.”

_______________________

Lush grass covered the landscape in a blanket of green. Dandelions and other colorful flowers filled the air with a pleasant aroma. Scattered about were tall oak trees, a squirrel scrambling up it’s trunk quickly. No people occupied the area other than Sonata, Gadget, and Adagio. It was the perfect place to train Sonata’s new abilities.

Sonata had grown to her gigantic size, ready for whatever Gadget threw her way. She was determined, but carefree, rocking back and forth, causing the earth to shake beneath her.

Silence permeated the air as Gadget simply stared at Sonata. She circled around her, walking on her tentacles. The villainess looked her up and down as if she was examining some undiscovered species.

Finally, she broke the silence, “Okay, Sonata dear, we know you can transform now.” She gazed around, spotting a tree, “Why don’t rip that tree right out of the ground. I want to know the limits of your strength in this form.”

Sonata nodded and walked over to the tree. Each step she took was like an earthquake to the other two villains. The girl reached down, grasping the tree tightly. With a tug, she ripped the tree from the ground, dirt flying in every direction. She hurtled it like nothing and it flew yards away, landing in an unknown spot far, far away.

That all too sinister smile formed upon Gadget’s face, “You’re stronger than I thought you’d be. Ahahahaha! The heroes will never know what hit them!” She exclaimed, cackling manically. “However, let’s test your might against some actual foes.” With that, she snapped her fingers.

After a few brief moments, Gears began to burst from the ground. Dirt and grass flew in heaps in every direction as the robots began to unload their weapons at the giant girl.

Sonata held an arm out, covering her face from the hellfire of lead. She was nearly unphased by the bullets as they felt like nothing but needle pricks to her. With a swift swing of her humongous arm, she smashed all the Gears to bits. Pieces of metal showered down to the grassy ground.

Gadget was ecstatic, her plan progressing faster and better than she had hoped. “One more test, dear. Smiley!” Gadget called as a large shadow loomed over Sonata.

The giant siren gazed up to see a huge robot dropping from the sky as if a care package had just been called in. With a thud that shook the earth, the tank-like, rocket-armed killing machine known as Smiley had appeared before Sonata’s very eyes.

It launched missiles at her, firing from it’s gatling guns as well. Sonata leapt into the air, dodging the missiles which impacted a tree, blowing it to kingdom come. The girl came down with her right leg extended. She smashed the robot through it’s chest as it exploded into a cloud of flame and smoke. Pieces of metal shrapnel fell like drops of metallic rain to the ground below.

“I believe you’re ready, my dear Sonata.” Gadget said with that evil, sadistic grin she always seemed to wear as if her face was superglued that way.

“Can I pick out a supervillain name?” Sonata asked, gleaming with happiness.

“Of course, dear. Every villain needs a good name.” Gadget cocked a brow, “What will yours be?”

Sonata thought for a second, remaining silent, until it hit her, “Gigantess!” She exclaimed.

____________________________

Aria hadn’t even gazed at the plans sitting on the workbench in the far right side of the throne room. Thoughts raced through her mind as if they were competing in some sort of marathon. Her heart raced a mile a minute as she contemplated her realization.

She knew deep down she had to do something. However, she feared Gadget’s ferocity. Aria wasn’t even sure if Adagio would believe her and she knew Sonata was too dense to fully comprehend what she was saying. It was up to her and that made butterflies dance around in her stomach.

Slowly, she walked over to the workbench which had detailed plans sketched out on blueprint-esque paper. A computer sat next to it, the screen black as the night sky. First, Aria sorted through the plans.

Each one was more devious than the last and it gave the siren a good idea of the person Gadget truly was. However, underneath all the plans was the map her sister had found stapled to a large piece of paper.

Aria read the map over and over, trying to understand what this lead to. It seemed to lead to some sort of vault within the Mindscape. She glanced at the paper which read, Project Cloak in big, bold, black letters.

Cloak? What is that? What is she truly after? These were just some of the thoughts traversing through her mind.

Next, Aria turned the computer on and with a whirr it began to boot up. A logo of a mishmash of animals came up and soon enough the desktop screen came on. Moving the mouse, she clicked on a folder that read Project Cloak, hoping to find more information on what this secret project entailed. However, a password prompt popped up.

Aria groaned in frustration. She had no idea what the password could be as she hadn’t known this Gadget for very long. She reached the conclusion that she would have to guess her way into Gadget’s private plans.

First, she tried all the obvious ones, like Gadget’s name, her father’s name, Omega, and a few others, but with the same fruitless result. Every time a big red prompt said: Access Denied, no matter what she tried. Then, it hit her, what Gadget had said earlier about Jason. She tried the name and access was finally granted.

Three folders popped up on the screen. One read: Agents of Despair, the second read: Sirens, and the final one read Cloak.

She clicked on the one with the Sirens as the folder name. When she began to scroll down the page, she shuddered in terror at what she saw. Hundreds of pictures of the three girls roaming the streets as well as a few videos from their failure at the Battle of the Bands were all over the folder. Gadget had been keeping tabs them for quite some time it appeared.

Next, she clicked on Agents of Despair, which didn’t have much in it. Some mugshots of strange people she didn’t know. From Puppeteer to Warlock, she had no clue who any of these people were, but deep down in her gut, she knew they were just as horrible as Gadget herself.

Finally, she clicked on the last folder. She began to read aloud without even realizing it, of course, she was alone… so she thought, “A being consisting entirely of Omega located with-”

She was immediately cut off by a sweet yet sadistic, all too familiar voice. “... within the Omega Vault.” Gadget finished for her.

Aria froze in fear, her eyes widening. Slowly, she turned around to see the villainess looming over her. “I… I was just…” Aria began, however Gadget cut her off again.

“You were just what?” Gadget asked, her tone becoming more and more aggressive with each word, “Tsk, Tsk, Tsk, whatever will I do with you? You’ve been quite the bad girl, Aria. First, you question your Master, the one who saved you from a life on the street, then, you have the audacity to look through my personal files.” She paused, leaning in close to Aria, so close, Aria could feel her hot breath on her neck, as Gadget whispered almost seductively in her ear, “If I had half a mind, I’d kill you right now and make your little friends watch until the last bit of life left your pathetic little eyes. But, alas, I need you. You and your siren friends will help me to achieve what I desire.” Gadget turned around and silence permeated the air for a few brief moments.

Without warning, the villainess whipped around and stabbed Aria in the shoulder with one of her pincers. Blood began to run down her shoulder, staining her shirt. Aria screamed in pain, gripping her shoulder.

Aria spoke up, “What’s your plan? What do you want with us?”

Gadget smiled wickedly, “My plan? Why, to wipe out all of existence of course and start fresh. I’ll be a goddess.” With that, she cackled manically as Aria looked at her horrified.

“What are you going to do to me?”

Gadget did not answer the girl nor did she acknowledge her question at all. All she did was laugh crazily.

Aria was terrified beyond belief, shaking in fear. She gazed at ther shoulder as blood ran through her fingers. Her friends must have still been training as they were nowhere to be found. She felt the world around her spin out of control and soon her eyes began to close. Aria blacked out, fainting onto the floor.