Casbah City Outskirts
Cloud Runner

With Spartan Kodiak’s guidance we were able to reach the lab’s perimeter in about ten minutes, backtracking along his original route though partially blocked alleyways and burnt out industrial buildings. From our perch on the second floor of what used to be some sort of office building we could see the small group of three insurrectionists that he had told us about, and he wasn’t kidding about the armor that they were wearing. Even from here the crude shapes of the thrusters on the back was apparent, and I noticed exposed conduits on their helmets. The only thing that looked somewhat professional was the large golden visors on their helmets.

“You said that those guy have shields?” Dusk asked, having taken a perch on top of one of the rubble piles and was using the remnants of the outer wall as a bipod for his marksman rifle.

“They do.” Frank replied.

Dusk shook his head and looked down at Frank. “How the hell did these guys build power armor?”

Frank shrugged. “No clue. And before you ask, I have no idea how they managed a proper augmentation process either.”

“Then let's address the elephant in the room. How do we level the playing field?” Dusk asked. “I’m open to suggestions.”

I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. “What about that lightning trick you do?” Sky wondered aloud. “What did you call it… Hurricane Slash or something like that?”

Sky was definitely thinking, because I wouldn’t have thought to use it. The ‘trick’ in question was a perk that I picked up through the method that gave me my wings back. As Sombra put it, the leading edge of both of my wings can channel the same magic that allows me to manipulate clouds into an electrical discharge. That discharge could either be ‘flung’ as a short-range wave, or employed to make a strike from my wings into a rather shocking blow. Either way, unarmored ponies have been knocked right out.

But in this case we’re talking about soldiers equipped with power armor and shield systems. “If you want me to knock them-” I stopped when a thought popped into my mind. Those are energy shields and power armor. “What if the slash can scramble their armor?”

“Like an EMP?” Frank muttered. “If that was normal Mjolnir it wouldn’t work where the systems are hardened against electromagnetic pulses… But they certainly aren’t wearing a normal setup.”

“So will it work?” Alice asked.

I got up and flexed my wings out. On my display the flight systems all read ‘standby’, and a lightning bolt appeared right next to it. “There’s only one way to find out.”

“Just be careful.” Sky muttered as she patted me on the back.

With a flap I took to the sky, rocketing up to a crest before rolling over into a dive right at the insurrectionists. I leveled out and skidded across the pavement right in front of three of the soldiers. Through that motion I whirled around and flung my right wing out. As I turned to face the human soldiers again I could see the tail end of the electrical ‘wave’ slam into the three of them. The two on the left and right simply froze and toppled to the ground, their armor sparking from various spots. But the one in the center seemed to get off a bit better. Although he was forced to his knees, he clearly wasn’t as helpless as his comrades.

“What are you?” The soldier groaned as he got back to his feet and pulled his sidearm from it’s spot on his thigh.

I felt a tinge of pride as I glaced at the two incapacitated soldiers. “Who, me?” I rushed forward and swung a punch right against the side of my opponent’s helmet. “I’m you’re worst nightmare!.” I brought my knee up against the soldier’s groin as hard as I could.

The soldier stumbled back, but managed to catch his balance. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

As everything seemed to slow down I decided that it was time to finish this third combatant. With speed that would easily rival the self-declared ‘fastest mare alive’, I swung hard at the soldier’s helmet once more. Thud! “I-” Thud! “-am-” Thud! “-Tempest!” The world around me returned to it’s normal speed as the soldier collapsed to the ground, his visor badly cracked with fragments knocked clear during my barrage. Through one of the small holes I could tell that the person wearing the armor had shaved off all of his hair.

POP!

“Damn it Cloud, where’d all that violence come from?” Dusk exclaimed as the flash of his teleportation spell faded.

“I have my moments.” I retorted, turning to face the group that Dusk had brought with him. “Now what’s next Frank?”

The Spartan simply raised his rifle and motioned to something behind me with it. “We deal with the bees nest that you just hit.”

I whirled around and saw that the sliding doors to the base were opening, another group of armored soldiers within the lab rushing towards us. “We can take em’.” I flicked both of my wrists and the microfusion beam emitters spurred to life. As the leader of the opposing group was aiming his rifle at me, I lined up the aiming marks on my HUD with his chest.

With a twitch of my thumbs, two red beams coursed out from my gauntlets and smacked into the still-active shields of the leader. “Shit, cover!” I heard him yell as the doors stopped, his group taking cover on either side of the large metal slabs.

“Open fire!” Dusk yelled. Behind me rifle reports made themselves known, followed by showers of sparks as the bullets slammed into the large entry doors.

“Cloud, come with me!” Frank yelled as he broke off into a run towards a part of the building that jutted out, interrupting the otherwise clean lines of the building’s utilitarian architecture.

I tore off after the Spartan without question, catching up to him at a sealed bulkhead that was otherwise out of sight of the insurrectionists. “Where’s this go?”

“It’s a maintenance corridor.” Frank replied. “Should take us right into vehicle storage.”

“And why do we want to get into a glorified garage?” I asked.

“Because we can access the core room from there, then cut through to get behind those insurrectionists.” He explained. “It’s just a simple flanking maneuver. It's either we try to get a leg up on these guys, or we’re going to run out of ammo exchanging fire.”

I didn’t say anything, as I couldn’t find any real issue with Frank’s impromptu plan. I’ve seen those doors, and they don’t appear to be prone to a catastrophic failure when facing simple rifle fire. Frank did manage to get the door to slide open wide enough for the two of us to pass through after some struggling. Maybe the issues with opening the door had something to do with the doors themselves being locked, but I can’t say for certain.

Rushing after Frank I finally entered the storage bay he had referenced. While more the size of a hangar, there were certainly ‘vehicles’ lining the walls of the room, assuming one could count the large grey and yellow robot things as vehicles. “What are those?” I asked.

“Those would be Mark IX Armor Defense Systems.” Frank answered. “We just call em’ Mantis. As far as I known Hannibal has been using those to test weapons upgrades they’ve been developing.”

So they’re prototypes… “Can they shoot?” I asked.

Frank shrugged. “They should be able to, why?”

“Go grab one.” I said. “I’ve got a feeling that those soldiers will be more scared of one of those than just the two of us alone.”

Frank swung his rifle onto his back and nodded. “Head out into the main corridor. Stairs on the left will take you into the core room. About twenty feet away is a door on the same wall as you entrance. That’ll take you out into the entry area.”

I turned around and broke into a sprint. Right beyond the door was the corridor with the staircase that Frank had told me about. I tore up it and was rounding the corner into the core room right as something swung out from my left and slammed right into my face. I stumbled back from the blow, not yet having seen my attacker, only to be grabbed around my waist tossed to the ground.

“Whatever the hell you are, don’t even think about it.” One of the rebel soldiers ordered as he stood over me. I managed to roll onto my back and stare up at the rifle barrel that was aimed right at my face. “Seriously, don’t do it!”

While I couldn’t see the soldier’s face under his helmet, I could tell that this guy was spooked. His hands were shaking, and he kept shifting his weight from foot to foot. Something had this guy scared, and I don’t think I was the prime reason of his clear concern. I simply put my hands ‘up’ and nodded. “Just take it easy.” I said softly.

“Why should I? Your buddy took out my whole squad!” The soldier yelled.

I certainly doubt that Frank has move that quickly, and I don’t think that Dusk and Red Team have managed to get in through the front door as of yet…

“Stand down!” I glanced off to my right and saw a white and gold armored Spartan standing on the opposite side of the room. But that helmet… That helmet was something else. Come to think of it, that looks like Dusk’s old helmet. Hell, that sounded like Dusk.

The soldier swung his rifle up towards the Spartan and shook his head. “No, stay back!”

But the Spartan didn’t stay put… Instead he started glowing as he marched towards the insurrectionist. As he grabbed the human by the neck I saw his helmet shatter and fall away into a pile of dust on the floor. There was certainly an equine head under there, but I couldn’t tell who it was through the glow that radiated from the rest of the armor he was wearing. “Now… Be gone!”

The heads up display on my helmet darkened to protect my eyes from the sudden flash of light. As everything faded I could hear a ringing in my ears… But as for what was in front of me? Try absolutely nothing. As I rolled up onto my knees and looked around there wasn’t even a sign that anyone else was in the room. “That was creepy…” I muttered.

“Cloud!” I heard Sky yell as she ran in through the other door. “What the hell did you do?” Red Team came in right behind her with weapons already stowed away.

I looked at the Spartans before pulling my helmet off and turning my confused gaze at Sky. “What are you talking about?”

“The insurrectionists. They’re all gone.” Jerome said. “Not just gone, but no trace that they were ever here.”

I thought back to the spectacle that I had only just witnessed and shrugged. “I don’t know...”

“Well it doesn’t matter!” Dusk called out as he and Dart came around the back of the power core escorting two humans. “Whatever the case, those rebels are gone.”

One of the humans, a grey-haired male, stepped past Dusk and helped me get back to my feet. “I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to be thanking aliens for saving my hide today.”

I recognized the human’s face from the picture that I had seen shortly after the prowler dropped out of slipspace. “Hey, you’re Senator Del Rio.”

The Senator looked rather confused at my unexpected recognition. “I don’t think we’ve met before…”

“We haven’t.” I assured the Senator as I held out my hand. “I’m Cloud Runner.”

The Senator froze for a moment before returning my gesture of friendship in kind. “Andrew Del Rio, Senator of the United Earth Government… But just how did you know who I was to begin with?”

I motioned to Jerome. “Red Team was actually escorting us here when the attack started. Tribute Control sent us your picture.”

Del Rio glared at the Spartan before looking back at me, his glare softening substantially. “And just what were you coming here for?”

“If I may Senator-” The familiar voice of Catherine Halsey rang out as she stepped forward. “-I think I know the answer to that question.”

“You do?” Del Rio asked, looking rather confused.

Halsey nodded and handed the Senator her tablet. “A crystal that was brought here a few years ago. The one I’ve just started studying. That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “So it is still here?”

“It’s in my lab under the scanner.” Halsey replied. “It’s quite unusual… It looks like some sort of preserved organic tissue. It even has a pattern on the outer surface reminiscent of fur.”

“Wait, are you talking about that brown think you were looking at?” Del Rio asked.

Halsey smiled in response. “Indeed. And with Dusk and some of his associates showing up, I feel that my theory has been confirmed.”

“Well don’t keep us guessing Catherine.” I encouraged. “Enlighten us to your line of thinking.”

“I still don’t know what you’re getting at.” Del Rio complained.

“Then understand this-” Halsey snapped “-that crystal is a missing fragment of Princess Amore of the Crystal Empire. And if they’re here looking for it…”

“It’s the last one Doc.” Dusk finally said.

Halsey started to smile when she heard that. “Tell me Dusk, did Sombra tag along with you?”

Dusk nodded. “And he brought the other fragments.”

Halsey’s grin grew even further, more akin to that of a child in a candy store. “Do you know what this means Senator?” She asked.

“Not a clue.” Del Rio admitted.

“It means that we’re about to defy most of the accepted scientific laws that humanity is built on.” Halsey turned around and nodded at Dusk. “No go call Sombra. I think its safe to say that we’re do an education.”

Author's Note

And there's another chapter in what will be a short diversion from my work on E-201 and Broken Mirror. Those of you that have read Chaos Theory know that one of the many "echos" left of Dusk after his inevitable "demise" that's coming at the end of Broken Mirror Part II can seriously effect the physical world. In this case this echo wiped out a squad of insurrectionists and saved Cloud from what would've likely been a messy death. Not only that, but where his "death" involved jumping into a tear in the fabric of reality with a nuclear device, it's not too much of a stretch for these echoes to show up anywhere or anywhen. Dusk's appearances in works of CategoricalGrant and Volrathxp are certianly echoes in Mirrorverse canon, but in those cases the echoes are far more developed, essentially being clones of Dusk as opposed to metaphysical manifestations that exist only to preform a single task before disappearing.

But enough of that, because in the next chapter will see Princess Amore reconstituted! Yay! But it's not going to be all sunshine and roses, no... Amore will present some knowledge to Cloud regarding a prophecy that had otherwise been forgotten by pony kind, one that will help frame the events that will eventually be seen in Broken Mirror: Reflections (which is still a ways off).

And in other news I'm thinking... Which is a dangerous thing, I know, but I'm thinking about what to do with Fragments once it is done. The big thought that I have right now is to commission an artist to turn this deviation into a comic of some sort. Again, still thinking, but the idea is there.

In the meantime, anyone got questions? Like what you're seeing so far? Hell, maybe have some gripes? There's a comment section and the Mirrorverse Codex. Read and comment away, because I want to hear from you fellow denizens of this corner of the internet. Until next time gang!
-Striker