Diamond's Evil Journey 2: Outbreak

Captain Glaive paced back and forth in front of Dr. Halogen's lab. He shook his head with a sigh “Damn, where is that kid?” he wondered. Just then he turned his attention to the sound of footfalls coming towards him. He stared at the filly and human approaching with a mix of relief and annoyance “Tiara! You're late!” he glanced around and saw no one else “And I thought you had found a survivor.” he said.

Diamond rubbed the back of her neck “We ran into some trouble on the way here. Dr. Halogen and his alicorn pet dropped by and foalnapped her. We think he would have brought her here.” she explained.

Captain Glaive put a hoof to his chin to think “And about that alicorn-”

“He's dead.” Leon cut in.

“Good.” Glaive said before tuning to the lab's door which was boarded up “So Dr. Halogen is probably in there with a citizen? We should move in then.” he said before taking his glaive in his teeth. With one swing, he severed all of the planks of wood to allow the doors to swing open.

As Glaive led them inside, they glanced around. Overhead lights kept the area illuminated. They saw a few devices around the walls and bear the doors. Leon walked up to screen with a few buttons under it to examine it “I'm no expert in equestrian technology, but this seems too advanced. At least from what I've seen of Equestria.” he said. He pressed a few buttons causing the screen to fill up with words.

Glaive walked up to the screen “It's nothing that I've ever seen. Dr. halogen must be been keeping all of his discoveries to himself.” he said.

Diamond shook her head “Or this is just human technology. We know that he's working with humans so it's not too far fetched.” she then turned her attention to the screen “Are you learning anything from that?” she asked Leon.

He shook his head “Just that Dr. Halogen is a nutcase. These are notes of his previous experiments. He's taken so many lives in the name of science. It's not just ponies either, according to this he's also done experiments on griffons and countless animals.” he said.

Diamond started to worry more and more about Silver's well being “We still have to find him. Is there a map of this place in there?” she asked.

“One sec.” he said before searching through more of the information on the device. After a few seconds he shut it down and shook his head “No map, looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way.” he said.

Glaive turned to a hallway that was filled with doors on both sides “If there's a life on the line, we can't afford to waste a single second. We'll split up and start searching rooms. If either of you find Dr. Halogen, be sure to let us know immediately.” he said. They all agreed and went their separate ways.

Leon walked in through a door that was labeled computer room. Once inside he saw a few computer terminals to his right and large capsules numbered 01-05 to his left. He ignored the capsules and ran to the computer terminals in hopes that he can learn more. After searching through the computer, he found information on Dr. Halogen's past. Unfortunately it didn't help since Princess Luna already told them about it.

Before he was about walk away from the computer, he saw an option called 'capsules'. His curiosity led him to click on it. He was given options 01-05, just like the capsules. Against his better judgment, he clicked on 01 before turning to the corresponding capsule.

It clicked and started slowly sliding open. Leon took his handgun out and aimed at it in preparation. He calmed down once it reveled itself to be empty. He turned back to the computer and decided to open the rest of them just in case. 02 and 03 were luckily also empty so he lowered his guard once he opened 04.

Right when 04 was opened an infected pegasus flew out like a bat out of hell. It came straight at Leon with it's bladed legs outstretched. He narrowly avoided being skewered by rolling out of the way. The blades sank into one of the computer terminals, completely destroying the screen. Leon raised his handgun at it and was just about to fire. Unluckily the pegasus threw the computer at him, forcing him to take time to dodge it.

The pegasus wasted no time flying in for another attack as it raised it's blade. Leon was off balance and knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge. Instead he caught the blade with his left hand to hold the infected in place. He then pressed the barrel of his handgun to it's throat before firing. The pegasus dropped dead and Leon looked down at his left palm. There was a shallow cut and a small amount of blood seeping from it.

He knew that he had worse in the past so he ignored it and walked back to the computer terminals. He was glad the the infected hadn't destroyed all of them. He got ready to open 05 but was fully on guard now. Once it opened he saw a unicorn occupying it. He was about to shoot but stopped when he noticed that the unicorn wasn't infected and was already dead.

He holstered his handgun and walked up to the body. It was wearing a lab coat so he assumed that it used to work here. He noticed an ID card clipped to his coat. He took the card and inspected it “Dr. Alkali.” he read aloud. He decided to pocket the ID card before heading out.

Diamond walked into a room labeled test subjects F. With just the name alone, she knew she was about to run into trouble. She already had her rifle in hoof as she walked through the door. She immediately saw tables lined up on both sides of the room with some kind of pony on each one. She cringed slightly as she passed them. They all seemed to have been experimented on and to have died because of it.

The ponies she passed were all horribly butchered. Some were missing body parts, some had extra, and some had body parts that belonged nowhere near a pony. She was sure to prod them with her rifle as she passed by them to make sure they were actually dead. After checking almost every one of the abominations, she stopped at the last one.

This one had two torsos. One was a stallion while the other seemed to be a mare. Both of them merged into one being around the midsection. The mare's coat was blue while the stallion's was green and they both had black manes. Their faces were frozen in shock and pain. The body was of an earth pony and neither head had a horn.

Diamond felt sorry for them but she had to prod them just in case. Her rifle's barrel touched their side and they immediately jolted off the table with a ghastly scream. Diamond was caught off guard and was hit by a flailing hoof causing her to drop her rifle.

The twins, as she named them in her mind, scrambled to their hooves. Their standing and walking was obviously difficult since they had a total of six hooves. They turned to her with the same shocked expressions they had before and gave an almost frightened scream.

Diamond decided that it would take too long to retrieve her rifle, opting for her revolver instead. She fired into their shared body as the twins charged her. They ignored the bullets and the mare got her hooves around Diamond's neck and forced her onto her back. The stallion then raised a leg in preparation for a stomp.

Diamond luckily kept her grip on her revolver and fired a bullet through the stallion's head. The stallion's head and fore legs fell limply forward but the mare still lived and continued chocking diamond. She thought quickly and threw a hard kick into the twin's gut to lessen the mare's grip. She then grabbed her fore legs and used her hind legs to flip the twins over her head. They landed on their back and Diamond flipped back onto her hind legs.

The mare had trouble getting up due to the dead stallion not helping so Diamond had time to pick her discarded rifle from the floor and finish the mare off with a single shot through her head. The twins' body finally fell lifelessly to the ground as diamond breathed a sigh of relief.

She gave the twins on last sad glance “That madpony has to be stopped.” she concluded before exiting the room.

Captain Glaive entered a room that had a scratched out label. Once the door opened a pitch black room awaited him. He glanced around the room that seemed to be empty. Luckily his eyes were used to seeing in the dark due to being a batpony. He still couldn't see everything in the room but it was better than nothing.

He had his glaive at the ready just in case. Suddenly he heard something in front of him. It sounded like slow tapping of talons on metal. He lowered into a fighting stance since he now had an idea of what he was facing. The tapping sound continued to circle around him until it stopped directly behind him.

He didn't turn so he could lure his opponent into a false sense of security. He then heard the sudden sound of wings flapping and a violent roar. He whipped his body around and swung blindly in the direction of the sounds. He struck it across the chest causing it to squawk in pain. It was now close enough for him to see. It was a griffon that seemed to have lost most of it's feathers and had razor sharp teeth. It's talons were overgrown and dangerously sharp.

The beast retreated to the safety of the darkness. Glaive didn't hear any more sounds around the room. He closed his eyes and listened in for anything that would give away the griffon's location. He then heard a faint dripping sound from his left. He threw his glaive towards it quickly. What followed was the sound of metal piercing flesh, a pained squawk and metal colliding with metal.

He stayed still for a few more moments and listened for signs of life. After a few silent seconds, he walked over to where he threw his weapon. Once he reached to wall, he saw the griffon being pinned to the wall by the glaive in it's chest like a morbid decoration. He took his glaive back causing the griffon's body to fall to the floor.

Captain Glaive assumed there was nothing more for him in the room and left it at that.

Leon walked to the end of the long hallway to see Captain Glaive standing in front of a large door. He walked up beside him “Find anything useful?” he asked.

Glaive took his eyes off the door to answer “Unfortunately no, I was just attacked by one of Dr. Halogen's experiments. You?” he asked back.

Leon shook his head “Didn't learn anything I didn't already know.” he said.

Diamond walked up to join them “I didn't run into anything useful either.” she glanced to the large important looking door in front of them “Where does this one lead?” she asked.

Glaive frowned “Not sure. It's not labeled so I thought that it may lead somewhere important, but I can't seem to get it open. There's no handle.” he said.

Diamond's gaze fell on a device that was on the wall right next to the door “That's a card reader. We probably need a key card of some kind to get through.” she pointed out.

Leon hummed in thought and pulled out the ID card he found “This might work.” he said before walking up to the card reader. He swiped the ID card through causing a light beep to ring out and the door to open.

Diamond smiled “Nice job Leon!” she complemented.

Glaive walked through first to see a humongous room that was almost completely empty. Leon glanced around in confusion “What could this room be for?” he wondered.

Diamond shook her head “This place looks big enough to fit a fully grown dragon. I hope he didn't do what I'm thinking of.” she then turned to another door leading past this room “Let's continue on, we don't have time to be standing around.” she said.

Leon grabbed the handle and was about to pull it open but stopped when he heard yelling coming from the room ahead “Buck me!” said the angry voice that sounded like Dr. Halogen. Leon, Diamond, and Glaive all glanced at each other before crowding around the door to listen in. They cracked the door open enough to be able to see. The room ahead was small and at the end was a door leading to another room that was shown with a large window.

Through the window they could see Silver Spoon strapped to an operating table with a terrified expression. Next to her was Dr. Halogen who was pacing back and forth while yelling “It's not working. Why isn't it working!” he yelled. He faced Silver with a scowl “I have injected countless ponies with Las Plagas and not one has given me the trouble that you are! Every egg I inject into you dies mere moments later! It's almost like you're im-” he suddenly stopped and his expression took a 180 as he smiled “Immune. You're immune!” he concluded happily.

Silver gulped and gave a slight hopeful smile “Are you going to let me go then? Since you can't infect me.” she said.

Dr. Halogen shook his head and opened and nearby drawer “Of course not, I'm not letting an opportunity like this escape me. I'm gonna find the reason behind your immunity. You may not survive the operation but you'll rest easy knowing that you contributed greatly to science.” he pulled out a scalpel and walked back to her.

He ran the the dull side of the scalpel down her cheek while breathing excitedly “We are gonna have a great time together. It'll be a learning experience for both of us.” he said.

Diamond couldn't listen to anymore of that so she busted through the door “Get your hooves off of her you creep!” she commanded.

Dr. Halogen smiled and dropped the scalpel “It seems that we'll have to postpone our play date.” he said.

Leon held his handgun threateningly “Hand over the girl and give yourself up! This doesn't have to get messy.” he said.

Glaive tried to walk through the door leading to Dr. Halogen's operating room but the door didn't budge. He growled and turned to deliver a strong buck to the door, unfortunately the door held strong. Dr. Halogen let out a laugh “You're wasting your time, you're not getting into this room.” he suddenly gained an idea “In fact, maybe I can start with the filly while you all can do nothing but watch.” he said.

Diamond took out her rifle and aimed it at the window “Not happening!” she shouted before firing at the window. The bullet only bounced off and ricocheted into the wall behind her.

Dr. Halogen retrieved his scalpel and returned to Silver's side “While you all are floundering, I'm just gonna start if you don't mind.” he said.

Leon, Diamond, and Glaive's minds all started racing to find a way into the room. Dr. Halogen loomed over Silver with the scalpel raised until “Halogen!” yelled a high pitched female voice. They could tell that it was the same voice as Dr. Halogen's boss and that it came from the room ahead.

Dr. Halogen turned to look at the mysterious pony who was just out of view from the window “Oh, welcome. I wasn't expecting you so soon.” he said.

“What is all this?” the pony questioned with a hint of anger in her voice.

Dr. Halogen gestured towards the strapped down Silver “This filly here has some kind of immunity to Las Plagas. I was just about to run some tests to figure out what's causing it.” he said.

“No you're not!” the pony yelled. Diamond was puzzled as to why this pony isn't letting her subordinate run his tests.

Dr. Halogen glared back at his boss “Why not?” he questioned.

Finally the boss flew into view of the mirror. Diamond and Leon's eyes widened in shock as Glaive only deepened his frown. Her coat was a light pink while her mane and tail were blue and curly. The most shocking thing about her was that she was just a filly, no bigger than Diamond.

The angry filly flew above Dr. Halogen and glared down at him “Because when I arrived at the bridleway theater, there was nopony there! I told you that you'd be punished if you let them escape!” she scolded. The filly then glanced through the window to see Diamond and the others standing there. She turned back to Dr. Halogen, now looking twice as pissed “And now you let them find you here!” she yelled.

Dr. Halogen shrunk back from the filly's verbal onslaught “Cozy Glow, calm down. I'll infect them right now.” he said.

Cozy shook her head “No, just kill them. I don't want to see their faces after how many of my slaves they killed. And as an incentive,” she flew over to Silver spoon and undid her bonds “I'll take this filly with me. You can have her back when you finish what you started.” she said. She then grabbed Silver by the neck as she tried to struggle out of her grip. Cozy started getting annoyed by Silver's constant squirming “Stop struggling or I'll have to make you!” she threatened.

Silver ignored her threat and continued her escape attempt “DT help!” she called.

Diamond growled since she had no idea of how to help her friend “Just hold on Silvy!” she called back.

“Shut up!” Cozy yelled as she threw a hard punch to Silver's temple, knocking her out cold. As the others gasped, Cozy turned back to Dr. Halogen “Kill them quickly. If you take too long, I'll just have to cut this filly open myself. I've learned enough from working with you to be able to.” she said before she flew out of view with Silver in tow.

Leon scowled at the direction she left “What the hell? How is that kid the one behind all this?” he questioned.

Glaive only glared down Dr. Halogen “Ignore that for the moment, we must focus on the problem in front of us.” he glanced to Diamond “Can you do that Tiara?” he questioned.

Diamond was offended that he even felt the need to ask but she knew arguing with him would be futile and a waste of time “Of course.” she said.

Dr. Halogen lowered his head and chuckled darkly “I suppose I could turn this punishment into something positive.” he walked through the door to enter the same room as the other “This will be quite the learning experience.” he said. He threw his glasses to the side absentmindedly as his muscles started growing “I've always been a stallion of brain over brawn, but a true scientist always has a solution to any possible problem. If that solution is brute force, so be it.” he said.

His body continued to grow as his lab coat started to tear. Leon took a few steps back “It's Las Plagas, he's transforming.” he said.

Glaive knew that a fight in a room this small might not go well “We have to fall back to the earlier room! We'll need the space!” he said. Leon and Diamond nodded before running back through the door.

The three of them waited with their weapons ready and their eyes on the door. After a few seconds, Dr. Halogen burst through the wall. He was now more than triple his original size. His midsection had split in half to reveal a long centipede like body connecting his front and back sides. His fore legs transformed into long fleshy tendrils. He had also grown large and sharp mandibles from his mouth. The legs from his centipede-like body held his torso up high.

Glaive eyed the monstrous creature “So this is the true power of Las Plagas?” he wondered.

Leon raised his handgun with a scowl “He may be an ugly bastard but these variants of Las Plagas are no joke.” he said.

Diamond narrowed her eyes in focus “We can take him easily. Come on, let's put him in the dirt.” she said.

Captain Glaive took to the air with his glaive held in his teeth. He flew straight toward Dr. Halogen to swing at his neck. A tendril intercepted the swing and wrapped itself around the weapon. The other tendril whipped the captain in the face, causing him to let go of his glaive and fly back a few feet. He steadied himself in midair and quickly dodged the glaive being thrown at him.

Leon started firing at his centipede-like midsection but it's exoskeleton was tough enough to be unaffected. The only thing the attack achieved was gaining Dr. Halogen's attention. He looked down at the human and dove down at him with his mandibles open wide. Leon performed a backwards somersault right before he was able to bite though him, causing him to miss. He then fired a few shots into the monster's torso. He flinched back in slight pain but was fine overall.

While he was distracted, Diamond jumped onto his back and took her knife out. She aimed between two of his body segments in an attempt to cut him in half. She plunged her knife down making Dr. Halogen scream out in pain. His torso turned to her and grabbed her by the neck and started choking her. Captain Glaive quickly flew in and sliced at the tendril that had a grasp on her. The attack wasn't enough to sever the appendage but it did cause it to let go of Diamond.

She landed with a roll but saw Dr. Halogen's torso coming down at her again. She pulled to pin out of a flash grenade and dropped it before retreating “Flash!” she called out to her teammates. The three of them covered their eyes as the flash went off and blinded him. While he was trying to recover from his stinging eyes, Captain Glaive whacked him in the head with the blunt end of his polearm before slashing him across the face with the blade.

Dr. Halogen finally recovered and closed his mandibles on Glaive's head in retribution. Luckily his helmet took most of the force but he grunted in pain as the doctor continued to crush his head. Leon saw this and quickly fired a rifle shot into Dr. Halogen's torso to lessen his grip on Glaive. The captain took this chance to throw a kick into the monster's throat to cause him to let go completely.

Leon glanced up at Captain Glaive who hovered above him “You alright Captain?” he asked.

He took off his damaged helmet and tossed it to the floor “I'll be just fine. Focus on the battle.” he said sternly. Leon nodded and turned back to Dr. Halogen as he was about to charge.

He was interrupted by Diamond firing her handgun at him. She then turned to her two teammates “I'll keep him distracted! You two finish what I started to his back!” she ordered.

Captain knew that he didn't need to follow her orders since he outranked her but he decided to go along with her plan anyway. Diamond faced the monster at Leon and Glaive ran to get into position. Dr. Halogen's torso came in fast in an attempt to strike her with his tendrils. Diamond rolled out of the way and fired her handgun into his torso causing minimal damage.

Leon and Glaive found the body segment that Diamond had already damaged and they each started slashing at both sides of it. This quickly got Dr. Halogen's attention as his torso turned to face them. Diamond aimed her handgun at him and bit on the trigger but all that happened was a click. She took a quick look in her saddlebags and growled “Damn it, I'm out.” she said.

She took her knife in hoof and climbed onto Dr. Halogen's back instead. He tried to shake the filly off but she held on and started stabbing him in the upper back repeatedly. After a few seconds, he wrapped one of his tendrils around her waist and pried her off of him before he threw her hard into the floor. Diamond started slowly getting to her hooves as she saw Dr. Halogen diving down at her.

Captain Glaive gave the weakened body segment one final strike to sever it. Halogen's torso fell short of Diamond and hit the ground right in front of her. He tried to lift his torso slowly with his tendrils as his breathing started to waver. Diamond got to her hooves and took her rifle out. She stuck the rifle's barrel into his mouth “Now you get to learn about the afterlife, lucky you.” she said before blasting a hole through his head. He fell lifelessly to the side to Diamond's relief.

Leon and Glaive returned to her side. Leon looked down at the doctor's body “Considering he was the one working with Las Plagas, the production should hopefully stop.” he said.

Captain Glaive frowned “I can't help but feel the worst has yet to come. What could that filly have planned?” he wondered.

Diamond hummed in thought “Cozy Glow, who is she and how did she even find out about Las Plagas?” she questioned.

Leon's expression hardened “Wesker's probably to blame for that. I don't know why he would work with someone like her but it worries me.” he said.

Diamond shook her thought away “We should tell Luna about all of this.” she said. The others nodded and she pressed her earpiece “Luna? We killed Dr. Halogen and we figured out the identity of who's behind all this.” she reported.

Luna's voice came back with slight panic “Captain Glaive, Diamond Tiara! I need your team back here!” she commanded.

Glaive joined the conversation with concern “What's the problem your highness?” he asked.

“Canterlot is under attack! I need to know if your whole team is ready to return. We already have our forces out protecting the civilians but we could use you're help.” he said.

Starshot's voice came next “I'm ready! I can't find anymore of those monsters or living ponies. I'm kind of getting lonely.” she said in a joking manner.

Time Step responded next “It's the same here p-princess. We can't find anypony else.” he said.

Leon nodded “It sounds like we're all ready to go. How long will it take for us to get there?” he questioned before they all disappeared.