RUN GIRL RUN

"Alright, go to the closet opposite of the bedroom upstairs." Thunderhoof nodded vigorously. "Grab everything wrapped in a towel and meet me outside."

Sunfire stood, frozen.

"Go on!"

The words pushed her into action. She ran up the stairs to the aforementioned closet and frantically rooted through its contents. Sure enough, there were several rough objects wrapped in towels. All three of them were spherical, but not perfectly spherical. She knocked the rest of the closet's denizens out as she pulled the three spheres onto her back. She moved as fast as she could under the load of the strange articles.

As she made her way back downstairs, she heard something. It was raining - or rather storming outside. But there was something more to it, it wasn't just a storm. Something bigger was out there, something malicious, something wretched. She couldn't tell what was making that horrific noise, but it was there, and it was coming.

Sunfire gritted her teeth, and tried her best to stay calm. It was difficult, but she managed not to drop anything as she entered the landing. The main floor was near black now, it's one light was shut off. The only thing she could see was the faint ambient light creeping in through the door. She ran as fast as she could manage, making her way outside into the freezing cold night.

"Thunder?!"

"Over here." He replied, sounding just as monotone as he had been hours before. He stood to the side of the dilapidated house, already soaked from the rain. The outfit - or rather armour - he adorned was makeshift at best. Several sheets of corrugated metal were welded together around him, with heavy work boots placed on his hooves. "Lets get a move on."

Sunfire followed him to the side of the house, were she found a cellar door. It was only now that she realized, around his torso was a sheath, a series of leather cuffs holding a massive sword in their clutches. What exactly he needed it for she could only guess, but she found it comforting somehow.

Thunder wrapped his hooves around the doors to the cellar and threw them open, motioning her inside. For someone so slender and emaciated, he seemed quite tough, almost heroic.

Without even thinking, Sunfire leapt into the cellar. Thunder climbed in behind her and slammed the door shut, completely enshrouding the room in darkness. The floor was rough, and cold, probably made of stone. The air was cold, not as cold as the air outside, but still cold. Everything out here was just cold.

Sunfire heard the sound of scraping, followed by light. Thunderhoof had lit a lantern. Sunfire could now see the massive machine that surrounded the room. She was surprised she couldn't hear it before, even over the rain, it was loud. Perhaps she was just shocked. All around the room, pipes carried small components to and from a giant center console, boasting at least 100 different buttons and levers.

Behind her, Thunder secured the door tightly with a coil of rope.

"W-What is this?!" She stammered.

"None of your business right now!" he snapped back. "Unwrap the towels!"

Sunfire winced at the yell, and did as she was told. All three objects were placed to the ground and the towels covering them were removed. One by one, three large - and intricate - hunks of machine metal were revealed. Each one was painted a different colour, green, red, and blue.

"What are th-"

She was cut off as the cellar shook from side to side, all accompanied by a near-deafening roar outside the building. The cellar door buckled as something on the other side pounded into it with a horrific cracking noise.

As the cellar settled once more, Thunderhoof spoke up. "Take the metal, and go! Run!" he shouted. "There's a door behind that main console, it'll take you to the guts of this thing. There are three slots, each coloured to match one of the chunks of metal. I'm sure you know what to do, now go!"

"You're coming with me!"
"I understand."