Chapter 01: WHY DO I SMELL BURNT BACON!?
A pair of groans echo softly through the otherwise quiet air as dirt and debris settle around them, two silhouettes sitting up and experiencing varying levels of physical pain. This is understandable, given that they appear to have crash-landed in a bright wooded plain.
“Did anyone catch the license plate on that tank…?” a feminine voice questions no one, in particular, lifting a hand to push her red hair from her furrowed green eyes, and using the other to cover her mouth as she coughs from the aerial irritants, “G-geez, what the hell happened? I feel like I ran a marathon with no shoes… My throat feels weird too.”
Nearby, another individual opens his eyes and finds his vision almost completely obscured by a metal helmet that sits neatly atop his scalp, though the weight feels somewhat lopsided. The helmeted man looks toward the woman who has not seemed to notice him yet.
He takes note of her armor and clothing, the apparel fitting for a spellcaster from a fantasy game and growing increasingly familiar to him as the dust settles completely, allowing the man to see her features more clearly, “Emilia? That you, sis? You sound different.”
Turning her head, Emilia narrows her eyes in confusion from the man’s sudden speaking, her surprise mimicked by the helmeted man seated only a few feet from her, “Frank? Dude…you sound like you swallowed a bucket of gravel after gargling it. Are you alright?”
“I feel like someone jammed a mosh pit into my skull. This is worse than any hangover I’ve ever felt, not to mention my head is stuck in this damn helmet. It smells like the business end of a Skunk that ate kimchi,” Frank grumbles, his hands lifting to grasp at the sides of the helmet before giving it a firm tug, though to no avail, “Okay, I know for a fact that this thing could come off before we wound up here. Is someone fucking with us?”
“Sure hope not,” Emilia mutters as she attempts to get to her feet, stumbling slightly from the weight of her armor, drawing surprise from the woman before she raps her knuckles against the steel plate of her battle skirt, “Bro, this is real metal. How did someone manage to replace our stuff with metal replicas? And why would they do that? That’s just…honestly, kinda stupid.”
“Maybe. I doubt that anyone could make something this close to what we made without plenty of time,” he states with a groan, giving his helmet another tug before giving up and getting to his feet as well, tapping an armored fist against his breastplate, “Yeah, that’s real. Em, we made this stuff at home and never showed anyone. It’s not even the standard Krieg and Gaige outfits, so the chances of someone having the time and the chance to recreate it is…unlikely, at best. Something else is going on here.”
Huffing, Emilia takes a look around where they crashed and crosses her arms as she examines the trees from a short distance. Patting her head with a hand, she discovers that her hat has gone missing from its place and wound up somewhere else. Not seeing it nearby, Emilia looks down at her body and inspects her armor closer, curious about why her plastic chainmail vest, her cloth battle skirt, and her cardboard greaves have suddenly become real armor.
“This isn’t a normal situation, yeah. That crater is over a foot deep, meaning we shouldn’t have survived the landing and…I don’t remember how we even wound up in the air, to begin with,” she states with a sigh, letting her arms unfold and drop to her sides, where one bumps against something decidedly non-metallic, “Huh? What’s this?”
“You find something, sis?” Frank asks as he turns his gaze towards her, his helmeted head tilting a tad and making him look more innocent than anyone in that armor has a right to, spikes and strange runes located all over it, “Hopefully nothing dangerous. We don’t need another incident with you getting bit by local wildlife.”
“That was one time! How have you managed to remember that for so long? It’s been several years!” She practically shouts at her brother in exasperation, grasping the object that drew her attention and lifting it from the back of her belt, the object soon revealed to be a stone tablet of some kind, with a mechanical face engraved into it and a blue gem set in the forehead. The face seems familiar to Emilia, and her eyes widen once she recognizes where she has seen it before, pointing a finger directly at it, “It’s Deathtrap! Or…D4TH-TP, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily.”
“Why did you say the same thing twice?” he questions as he steps closer to his sister and peers over her shoulder at the object in her grasp, internally surprised by the even-greater size difference between the two than before, “And why do you have a stone slab? That isn’t something we made.”
“Yeah. This means that someone gave this to us, and probably for a reason. Should we figure out what this thing does now, or later?” Emilia inquires, lifting her head to meet her brother’s gaze and yelping as she jumps away, eyes wide with surprise, “Jesus fuck! Don’t just sneak up on me like that! Oh no, you got even taller… Or did I shrink!?”
Sighing from a combination of concern and fatigue from the confusing situation, Frank shrugs his shoulders and scans the treeline with close interest before responding, noticing that there are trees in nearly every direction around them, “I don’t know. We should probably find a place to stay for the night, though. It’s not a good thing to be caught out in the wild like this without a weapon or supplies.”
“You say that like I won’t be able to do that if we take a few minutes to do this,” Emilia teases with a chuckle, her heart rate slowing back to its normal speed and helping to distract her from the odd situation, “Did you forget what I’ve been doing as a job for the last five years? Wilderness guides aren’t exactly helpless in nature, unlike someone who just hammers metal into shape and knows how to punch things.”
“These fists have gotten us both out of trouble, don’t pretend you don’t know that,” he teases back with a slightly more cheerful tone of voice, his sister’s playfulness cracking through his dark mindset from the seriousness of their situation, a small smile growing under his visored helmet, “That clears up any doubt about you actually being Emilia, I admit. Alright, let’s see if we can discover what the purpose of this tablet is.”
Giving a mock salute and a mischievous grin, Emilia lifts the tablet and gently runs her fingers over the stone surface of the tablet with curiosity, eager to learn what they were sent here for and hoping to discover clues as to the identity of the one who did this. As soon as Emilia’s fingertip makes contact with the blue gem, the tablet lights up in a bright flash of light, startling the armored woman and causing her to drop the tablet with a yelp, “W-what the-!?”
Covering their eyes, the two siblings wait until the blue crackling light begins to dissipate before returning their gaze towards the tablet lying in the dirt and unmoving. Despite the lack of movement, both of them immediately notice the differences between it now and only a few moments ago. Gone is the lack-luster color of the stone, a metallic blue material now in its place and revealing the extra little details that were obscured by the stone that used to cover the tablet, with small arcs of electricity trailing over the tablet’s surface.
“Did…that thing just transform?” Emilia asks with a dumbfounded expression, unable to witness her brother’s growing concern as she quickly leans down to scoop it up into her hands, though she does not appear to be harmed by the electricity now running up her arms from the seemingly magical slab after throwing caution to the wind, “Ohh, that is…tingly. I think this belongs to me. I don’t know why, but it just feels…right. It feels like I’ve always been waiting for this, but didn’t know I was even waiting until now.”
“That’s not creepy or anything,” Frank mutters to himself, internally debating whether taking it from Emilia for her safety would be worth the headache she’ll give him afterward. Feeling a growing warmth on his lower back, Frank carefully reaches behind him with some confusion before pulling a similar slab from its resting place, though the face is different and the gem is a crimson red, “Oh, great. I have one too. Now we can both be killed by the forces of nature.”
“Ooh, what does it look like?” she inquires with a curious smile, stepping closer to her brother and taking a long look at the dull stone in his hands, her tablet still arcing softly, “Yours doesn’t look the same, does it? Is that a scarred face? It looks so angry…”
“I guess so, yeah. I’m getting a bad feeling, though,” Frank states with trepidation, his hand slowly rising to rest on the surface of the tablet, nervousness tingeing his voice, “It feels like I’ll let something incredibly dangerous loose. Like the world might burn.”
“Well, that’s dramatic, even for you. Just touch it, Frank! What’s the worst that it can do? Singe us? It doesn’t even hurt to hold this thing, and you can see what it’s doing,” Emilia points out with a smirk, holding her tablet up and tapping her brother’s arm with it, doing nothing but sending a small jolt up his spine, “You’ll be fine! Besides, even if something does happen, you can still rely on me!”
“What older brother wants to rely on their kid sister?” he teasingly asks, rubbing his arm where Emilia’s tablet touched him before sighing in acceptance, Frank’s armored fingers touching the red stone set in the screaming face’s forehead. With another bright flash, the slab lights up in a bright red as the two siblings feel the air growing hotter around them, flames soon shooting high from the stone and engulfing Frank completely as Emilia takes a step back in alarm, “Why the hell doesn’t this hurt? It feels hot, but I’m not burning!”
“Fuck if I know, but I need to get some distance,” Emilia declares as she wipes her brow with a sleeve, suddenly wondering if telling Frank to activate his tablet was a bad idea or not while the grass around his feet smolders, “You’re sure that you’re okay? The plants near you are burning up!”
“Yeah, I feel fine! If anything, I…I feel strong!” he calls back to his sister, the flames slowly dying down and revealing his unharmed form a few short moments later, Frank’s slab now cracked and appearing as if it is made of semi-hardened lava, with small rivers splitting the face adorning the surface, still screaming in silent rage, “I-I…can’t believe it. This slab is…”
“Magic, maybe? I don’t know of any way to turn stone into…whatever the heck this stuff is,” Emilia states as she taps her gauntleted left hand against the blue metal, turning her gaze back to her brother a moment later, only to freeze up in confusion and stare at him, or, more specifically, the air above him, “Uh…Frank? Why is your name floating above your head? It says you’re level one.”
“Probably for the same reason that I see your name and level too. It’s not likely to be a hallucination if we’re both seeing it, so I’ll assume that this isn’t a bad thing,” he states with a shrug, then returns the slab to its place on his belt with a chuckle, “At least we’ll know how dangerous someone is now, and what their name is.”
Sighing, Emilia rolls her eyes and huffs in dissatisfaction as she slips her slab back into its resting place, then points into the trees with an armored hand, “Yeah, but we still need to get out of here. The woods are a terrible place to spend the night, and we’re more likely to get attacked if we just stay here and chatter all day.”
“Well, sorry I couldn’t answer your questions. Let’s get moving then since we can’t figure much else out here,” Frank suggests with another shrug of his shoulders, then begins marching in the direction that his sister gestured to, grasping the ax on his back and brandishing it at his side, “We’re going to need to try and find a road, I think. If there’s a road, there’s civilization.”
“Don’t steal my lines, bro! That’s not cool!” Emilia calls to her brother with a snort, hurrying to catch up with the towering man that has managed to walk a notable distance from her, drawing her dagger and awkwardly holding it with both hands, “Don’t leave me behind, either! Damn it, you’re going to be the death of me one day!”
“I doubt it. You’ll probably wind up blowing yourself up in that robotics lab you go to every weekend, or during some crazy stunt,” Frank counters, Emilia practically able to see the shit-eating grin on his face from under his helmet, “They’re not your lines, sis. I don’t see your name on them, after all.”
Growling to herself, Emilia narrows her eyes at the armored man and glances down at her blade, humming in thought before shaking her head with a joking sigh, knowing full well that her brother can see her, “Oh well, I’ll just bring up your emo phase the next time a girl flirts with you.”
“The next guy you flirt with is getting to hear all about the k-pop posters that you keep in the closet,” Frank retorts, waving a hand in dismissal at her threat and pausing as he perks up a moment later, practically shoving his hand into Emilia’s face to cut off her retort, “Wait. Do you hear that?”
“Don’t try to change the subject,” she grumbles out from under Frank’s palm, wrenching her head free and opening her mouth to respond again when before pausing, hearing the faint sound of voices along with what seems like crying, “Oh wait, shit. You’re not joking. Want to check it out? Might be trouble.”
“Let’s go there, yeah. I couldn’t sleep tonight if I knew we didn’t even try to help a crying kid,” Frank says without anything that would suggest him being open to an alternative, the grip on his ax tightening as he begins storming his way through the underbrush, “Keep up. We’re not letting anything happen here if we can help it.”
“If you say so,” Emilia mutters to herself, shrugging in indifference and running past her brother with a grin, not making anywhere near as much noise as him. Turning her head as she passes Frank, Emilia sticks her tongue out and draws her dagger again, flipping it between her fingers as she lifts her other hand to her lips, “You gotta be quieter than that, bro. Things could turn ugly if they notice us.”
Rolling his eyes behind his helmet, Frank slows his pace to lessen the noise he’s making as the two siblings creep closer to their goal, soon in sight of them. The first thing they notice is that nearly a dozen armed individuals appear to be holding up a family and their children while traveling in their cart, the second being that none of the individuals present are human, excluding themselves.
“Just hand over the money, got it? We don’t want to have to hurt that pretty face of yours, Miss,” one of the masked robbers asks, each of them wearing similar apparel and gear as if in some kind of uniform, “And we wouldn’t want to have to bring you back to our base, either. So just toss it to us, and we’ll leave you be!”
“No! For the last time! We need this money to open our medical practice in Ponyville! You can’t have it!” The mint-coated father shouts with fury, standing from the driver’s seat of his cart and displaying his full height, their forms similar to equines standing on their back hooves, “You’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands! Blossom, you keep the foals safe! I’ll handle these miscreants!”
“We should probably step in,” Emilia whispers to Frank without looking back at him, her mouth opening to respond and simply hanging open as she spots her brother run past her, ax brandished in a hand as he screams in a wordless shout of rage, “Orrr, we could just rush in without a plan and alert everyone instead. Got it.”
A bandit armed with a shortsword manages to parry Frank’s downward swing with a cry of surprise, narrowly avoiding having his skull split in half. An upswing sends the brigand’s weapon sailing out of his grasp, leaving him vulnerable to Frank’s side-swing while his sword stabs into one of his friends’ chests, two bodies soon hitting the floor, one sans a head.
“You’re all going to be my flesh puppets! I’ll strangle the life from you!” Frank screeches in incoherent anger, disturbing Emilia a slight bit from how much he’s getting into character, though it allows her the time needed to slip behind one of the assailants and stab her dagger through a horseperson’s throat.
Emilia quickly withdraws her blade from the corpse’s throat in time to block a swing from a shortsword, a flash of sparks running across the steel weapons as they clash, while her brother’s ax finds itself buried inside of another bandit’s friend.
Unable to withdraw his weapon in time, the robber can do nothing but try to dodge as the fierce woman aims for his throat with a wide slash, narrowly avoiding cutting his neck wide open as he pulls back. His eyes widen as the eldest male of the would-be victims brings a heavy-headed mace down onto his shoulder, a loud crack ringing through the air followed by a scream of pain, the bandit crumpling to the dirt road below us.
“Come to me, sweetmeats! My marauding murder marathon must multiply most massively! I’ll crack open your skulls so the end can scream through you!” Frank screams, then grabs the nearest bandit to his left by the sword arm, squeezing hard enough to force the unfortunate equine to release his weapon before swinging him overhead and bringing his ax down onto his chest, “It’s a bountiful, bloody business, Bates! Blossoms of blood bring blooming beauty!”
He then looks to the remaining Bandits, who had, in large, begun to back off the second Frank and Emilia had each taken down a man, and were now trembling in fear. Frank grunted and grasped his faceplate for a moment, before growling deeply, “The Cage calls for cruelty contained… But brief is the break before the battle begins again. Hrrk!”
Steam and smoke can be seen coming from Frank’s helm as he clutches at his faceplate, flame wildly crackling across his frame for a moment before being extinguished the very next. Frank looks back at the bandits and growls, “Leave, now! If I hear even a rumor of bandits in these parts again, I will find you…and what you saw today will seem merciful!”
Each of the bandits, save for one, screams in terror and quickly flees the scene while leaving their weapons on the ground and a family of confused equines staring at us in shock and a healthy dose of fear. The father steps forward and levels his mace towards us with suspicion in his gaze, not seeming to trust either of the siblings just yet.
“While I’m grateful for the assistance, please keep your distance for the moment. My family is terrified, and I’m not certain as to what your motives are. You’re not ponies, and you’re armed, meaning you are either Slab Bearers, or you’re bandits seeking to take someone else’s prey,” he rationalizes as he steps back towards the cart he was pulling by himself, the stallion’s strength not to be underestimated despite his soft appearance.
“Neither, actually. Just a concerned pair of siblings that assumed you could use some help,” Emilia says before leaning down and wiping her dagger clean using the clothes of one of the nearby corpses, not phased by the blood or gore in the slightest, “You’re all okay? I didn’t see anyone take a hit, but I figured I should ask before assuming.”
The stallion ponders her words for a short number of seconds before nodding his head and lowering the mace in his grasp to his side, a relieved sigh escaping him as a small smile grows on his muzzle, “Thank Celestia… Yes, I and my family are unharmed. My name is Cloudy Shy, and this is my wife, Bloom Shy,” he introduces with a gesture towards the buttercream-coated mare seated inside of the cart, gazing cautiously through the trees around them, “Where are you headed? We can give you a ride there if it’s on the way.”
“Uh…not sure, actually,” Frank numbly says as he stares down at one of the dead equines, his eyes wide with confusion and fear as he mentally processes what he did just moments before, never having killed before in his life, “Where do you think would be a good place to find work?”
“Well unless you have plenty of Bits and connections, I would avoid Canterlot as a place to seek work. Many of the ponies living there may not take kindly to seeing non-unicorns trying to compete with them,” Cloudy says with a sigh, his green tunic and brown pants swaying softly in the forest breeze, “As for us, we are moving to our new home in Ponyville, just over yonder. Our youngest is deathly afraid of heights, and Bloom agrees with me that living on the surface will be much better for Fluttershy’s socializing skills.”
“Fluttershy? Is she one of your cute tykes over there?” Emilia asks with a smile and a wave towards the curious little foal peeking over the edge of the cart, her eyes wide as she stares directly at the young woman, “Speaking of which, didn’t you say you had two of them? Where’s the other?”
“Hiding,” Fluttershy quietly states before glancing down next to her, an expression of disappointment crossing the butter-colored foal’s features as another pony slowly sits up. Her brother glances around with worry and near panic as he ignores everyone else around him, audibly gulping in nervousness, “You didn’t need to hide, you know. Daddy was going to chase those mean ponies away, anyways.”
“That d-doesn’t mean that I couldn’t have gotten hurt, Shy,” the older of the pony siblings state with more confidence than he feels, glaring down at the smaller foal for a moment before scoffing and looking away, his arms crossed in front of his chest, “Besides, somepony would need to run and get help if dad lost for some reason.”
“Stop glaring at your sister, Zephyr. She’s not wrong about my intent, but you should not be fighting over something like this,” he states with authority, hooking the mace into a hoop attached to his belt as he turns to face the two arguing foals, “You’re fighting in front of our new friends, as well.”
“Sorry, daddy…” the youngest quietly says with a subdued expression, hiding her face behind her pink mane and twiddling with her fingers, “I didn’t mean to b-be rude. Thank you for helping us.”
“I guess you both were pretty cool,” Zephyr begrudgingly admits with a roll of his eyes, uncrossing his arms and glancing at one of the corpses with a grimace, “Even if it’s kinda grossing me out how badly those smell…”
“What we did was not something to be proud of, young one. Those were living beings, just like us,” Frank numbly states as his armored head turns towards Zephyr, spooking the young stallion and making him shrink back a bit, “Everything they were, and everything they could have been is gone forever. All that potential squandered.”
“If they were not brandishing blades at my family, I would entirely agree with you,” Cloudy says with an understanding smile, stepping forwards to pat Frank on the shoulder, “You protected everyone here from a threat. Brigands like them do not always keep to their word about letting their victims leave alive.”
“Still…” he trails off, looking towards the ground and releasing a heavy sigh, straightening his posture as he looks down towards Cloudy Shy, “I just realized, we never gave our names. You can call me Frank, and that’s Emilia. My sister.”
Giving a two-fingered salute, Emilia sheathes her dagger back onto her hip before glancing at the body nearest her, rummaging through their pockets and clothing in search of anything useful, “Yo. Don’t mind me, just going to check if these guys have anything worth taking. Not like they’ll be making any use of this now.”
“Not to worry, we don’t think less of you for it,” Blossom finally chips in, leaning back in the cart and waving a hand towards her husband with a smile, “Cloudy here does plenty of jobs clearing Dungeons, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.”
“Dungeons?” Emilia asks with interest, perking up as she slides her hand out of the pocket of the dead marauder, a small pouch in her grasp for only a moment before she pockets it, “What’s that? Like a video game dungeon? Monsters and loot, things like that?”
“What’s a video game? Never mind, that’s not what you asked. Yes, Dungeons are filled with dangerous monsters and valuable treasures. They appear at random, some remain after they have been cleared, but some remain indefinitely,” Cloudy explains, lifting a hand and raising three fingers into the air, “The teams that clear them are usually serving one of three main purposes. Fighting, gathering, and support. Fighters clear the Dungeon’s monsters while support teams keep them going. Afterward, gathering teams are sent in to collect the various monster parts, gather any other valuable resources, and determine if any secret rooms may have been missed before.”
“Sounds pretty simple, but I doubt they let just anyone inside of those. Do we need some kind of license?” the young woman questions, smiling eagerly and seeming excited to learn more about these Dungeons, “Is that related to those slabs you were talking about?”
“Mhm. You need a license to delve into Dungeons, though anyone with a Class Slab may enter if the Dungeon is at risk of rupturing. If a Dungeon ruptures, every monster inside will be able to exit through the Dungeon’s entrance, causing unimaginable damage to the surroundings,” Cloudy states with a smirk, working in his natural element and straightening his posture until he looks like a veteran soldier standing ready for battle, “People like me, and other Slab Bearers, clear these dungeons regularly to prevent such an event from occurring.”
Frank hums in thought for a moment before reaching behind him and slipping his red slab from his belt, holding it towards Cloudy Shy with a curious tilt of his head, “Would this happen to be a Class Slab, by any chance? This seems to fit the description well enough.”
Leaning forwards to examine the slab closer, Cloudy nods his head after a moment of consideration and practically beams at the two humans, seemingly impressed by something, “Ah, so my instincts are not dulling. You are a Slab Bearer after all, and in possession of one, I’ve never seen before. That’s saying quite a bit, given my two decades of Dungeon delving.”
“I got one too!” Emilia exclaims with glee, quickly taking her slab out and holding it towards Cloudy as well, bouncing a bit in place with wide eyes, “This one’s rare too, right? Come on, It’s gotta be at least as good as Frank’s! Right?”
The stallion’s eyes widen in surprise from her sudden burst of excitement, then leans closer to examine her Class Slab as well. He tilts his head with a furrowed brow a moment later, clearly unsure of what he is looking at, “Well, it’s definitely a Class Slab. I couldn’t begin to tell you which one, or even what it does, but I know it’s rare. Maybe even a Mythic Slab.”
“Yes! Woohoo! I got a rare class!” she cheers, a bright grin on her face and a skip in her step as she dances in place, eyes closed while enjoying the moment, “I got a rare one~! Gonna kick some ass and make big money!”
“I do know of a place that you can have your Class Slab identified, Miss Emilia. Both of them. You can learn what they are, and what they do with a small fee, which I will cover the cost of,” Cloudy says with confidence, his mood only improving by the moment from the good news, “I won’t hear a word of complaint. You saved my family, and it’s the least I can do. We’ll give you a ride to Ponyville, at least.”
Frank chuckles softly and shakes his head in acceptance, slowly plodding towards the cart with none of Emilia’s enthusiasm as she follows suit behind him, still dancing happily, “You say that like I could have lived with myself if I hadn’t. Thank you for all your help, sir.”
“Not a problem. There are few enough Slab Bearers as is, and investing in the newest arrivals seems like a wise idea, thanks aside,” he admits, chuckling softly and gesturing towards the cart with an arm, “Hop on in, and we’ll get going. I can still pull this amount of weight without issue.”
“Remind me not to mess with you, Cloudy. I get the feeling that it wouldn’t end well,” Emilia jokes with a chuckle of her own, passing by him and hopping inside of the cart, Frank soon following, “How old are these little tykes, anyways? Never seen pony children before.”
“Thirteen and fifteen, respectively. One of Fluttershy’s friends is also moving here, so she shouldn’t be too lonely,” Cloudy informs the human siblings, stepping back into place and quickly lifting the pull bar before starting to pull the cart towards Ponyville, “They’ll be going to a local school, so that should keep them out of trouble. Besides that, the income I’ll make from clearing Everfree Forest dungeons will more than make up for lost work in Cloudsdale.”
“Cool. Nice meeting you both,” Emilia responds with a smirk and a two-fingered salute to both of them, Zephyr laughing quietly to himself, earning a raised brow in response, “What’s funny? I got something in my teeth?”
“N-no, sorry,” he says, waving a hand and leaning back in the cart with the intent to make himself more comfortable, “Just thinking how odd it is that you look close to my age, but do all that fighting. How old are you two?”
“I’m twenty-two, and Emilia is twenty,” Frank answers without hesitation, a sigh echoing inside of his helmet as he adjusts his armor.
“Well at least one of you looks your age,” Zephyr teases with a chuckle, ignoring the brief glare that Emilia sends his way, “I would think you were her dad if you didn’t tell me that.”
“I will send you to Jesus,” she says with a growl, pointing at the young stallion and narrowing her eyes in mock anger, “You will not talk shit in my Christian Minecraft server. I will banhammer you with the fury of Thor himself.”
“Is…she always like this?” Bloom asks with growing concern, while Zephyr simply blinks dumbly at her, the pony family not having understood a single word she just said, “Who is Jesus, for that matter? You’re not sending my son to some stranger, young lady.”
“Sorry, force of habit. I don’t think my explanation would make much sense, either. I’d be here for a while explaining how it all works, and that’s being generous,” Emilia states, shrugging and laying down in the cart, resting her head atop her hands and folding her leg over the other, “Unless everyone wants to hear it, I guess. No reason not to, since it’s going to take a while to get to town.”
“Please no. This is the perfect time to stop making those dumb references, sis. This world doesn’t need that,” Frank says with a hollow voice, definitely having had to deal with her crap for many a year.
Emilia giggles evilly and sticks her tongue out at Frank, blowing a raspberry before sitting up and smirking at her sibling, “You sure? I still think those chungus memes are hilarious. Do you know the way, my brother? I can has cheeseburger? Four-twenty blaze it? You mad, bro?”
“I will literally throw you off of this cart if you don’t knock that off,” Frank says with a neutral tone, sitting up and leaning forwards in his seat as he locks his large hands together, practically radiating waves of anger despite his face not being visible, “Do it. One more time. Try me. I will make you sail like a paper airplane.”
“Then it’s a good thing I identify as a threat, because my pronouns are try/me!” Emilia cheers with a happy grin, throwing her arms up into the air and leaving herself unprepared for Frank’s assault, his hands wrapping around her midsection and lifting her into the air with ease, “W-wait! Bro, I’m sorry! Shit! No! Frank, please!”
“Time to fly, little birdie! Now think about what you’ve done!” Frank shouts, hauling her over his shoulder and tossing her with surprising strength even for a man his size, Emilia spinning as she screams at the top of her lungs. Clearly surprised, Frank stares in stunned silence along with the rest of the Shy family, wincing as Emilia seems to impact against a tree, “That was…a lot farther than I meant to throw you! You alright, sis?”
“Who the-!? What the fucking hell!?” Emilia screams in fear and surprise, quickly bolting to her feet and stumbling back in a disoriented stupor, revealing the armored figure slumped against the tree. Eyes widening as she recognizes the figure before her, Emilia points a finger at him and growls in irritation as she continues to shout, “Who are you!? Have you been following us!?”
“Ow…” the figure responds, groaning as he gets to his feet and brushes his black armor clear of the leaves and branches that landed atop him. Tilting his head to one side, a soft crack echoes through the air, making even Frank wince from the volume, “Who is this child? I am not your enemy. You will need me here. Nice cart.”
“Huh?” Emilia responds with confusion, reaching for her knife. The figure quickly draws his gun and presses it to her forehead, the revolver chamber turning with a click, “H-hey! Don’t point that at me!”
“You reached for your blade. I only drew in response. Lower your arm now,” he states with an even tone, no hint of emotion behind his voice and reminding Emilia of the character he appears to be dressed as, a red sword sheathed on his back, “I do not want to kill you. You are much better as an ally.”
Arm lowering back to her side, Emilia shudders in fear and waits for the one she assumes is Zer0 to lower the gun, which he soon does with rapid speed. The gun seems to disappear into the air as his hand returns to his side, a thin trail of light all that remains for a moment, “Alright, message received loud and clear. Sorry about that…”
Without a word, the armored stranger turns and begins to approach the now-stopped cart, not a trace of aggression in his body language, Emilia slowly trailing behind him. Frank huffs under his helmet and glares with rage at the man that hops into the cart next to him, who acts as if nothing serious just occurred.
“Apologize to her. She didn’t draw, and you pulled a gun on her,” Frank growls out with clear anger in his voice, jabbing a thumb in his sister’s direction as she too rejoins the group inside the vehicle, “That’s not something you do to someone you just met.”
“I did not hurt her. You should apologize first. You threw her at me,” he rebukes, the first tone of emotion heard in his voice being irritation, arms folding across his chest and revealing the fact that he has only four digits per hand, “I will travel too. You will need my assistance. Do not be stubborn.”
“Fine… You’re right about me owing her an apology. Sorry for throwing you like that, I didn’t realize just how far you would go,” Frank says with sincerity, turning his attention towards his younger sibling as she brushes herself off in the cart, “Either you’re suddenly very light, or I’ve gotten stronger.”
“It’s all good. Just scared the shit out of me, is all,” she responds with a shrug, glancing over at the man wearing the black helmet obscuring his features, a brow cocked in confusion, and bracing herself against the cart wall as it begins to move again, “Seriously, though. Who are you? You wind up here, same as us?”
“Indeed I did, Miss. My name is Alexander. Nice to meet you both,” the mystery man answers, holding a hand out towards Emilia and startling her when a ‘: D’ appears over his visor, Alex not seeming to notice, “Though you should know that. My name is above my head. The same as you both.”
Hesitantly grasping his hand, Emilia accepts the offered handshake and glances over at Frank, who seems to have calmed down from his earlier anger, his arms now resting at his sides. The young woman gives a playful smirk, releasing Alex’s hand and poking her brother’s leg to gain his attention, “Wanna bet Alex here has a Class Slab too? No way we’re the only ones who got one.”
“Do you mean this thing?” Alex asks with a tilt of his head, seeming to conjure a dark black slab from thin air and holding it towards us. Sure enough, the two siblings quickly realize that the object being displayed to them is exactly what Emilia claimed he must have as well. The black slab appears to be made of reflective metal, making it difficult to see the featureless face engraved into it, along with pinpricks of darker metal inlaid across its surface, “I had it when I awoke. I think it is mine.”
“Huh. Looks like we’re adding one more examination to the to-do list. Welcome aboard, Alex,” Emilia states, patting Alex on the shoulder and pretending she does not notice the ‘?’ displaying across his helmet’s visor, “My name’s Emilia, and that there is Frank, my brother.”
“I know what it is. My class is the Void Baron. I can be silent. You never saw me coming,” he says with his usual neutral tone, soon slipping the slab back onto his belt before it seems to vanish. Frank stares at the place that the slab used to be with surprise and curiosity, unsure of how Alex did this, “Is this new info?”
“Uh…yeah, actually. Think you could teach us how to find that out as well?” Frank asks with interest, leaning forward in his seat and locking his hands together, “We have a few hours to kill, after all. Might as well learn a bit more and exchange information while we have the time.”
Author's Note
The adventure begins! Alex will be explaining to the rest of our cast how the class slabs work, and we will learn more next chapter! Hopefully Frank doesn't throw Emilia into any more ninjas.
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