Fallout: Equestria - Most Dangerous Game

Chapter Five:

Okay, if my life out here is always going to revolve around such bad decisions, maybe I should just kill myself now. Jade thought as she peered down into the half-sunken hallway. I mean seriously, I’m robotic, not aquatic.

That said, she was pretty sure her new body could easily handle the water, her mind on the other hoof… It was safe to say the fear of drowning was still just as strong, and that wasn’t counting the fact she could get trapped underwater forever.

“Are you sure you can’t do this?” she asked Ocean, the sea pony’s head bobbing in the pool to her left. “You could just flop out of there and fall right in, problem solved.”

“Only part of the tunnel is flooded, even if I could get through, the pump controls are all still above water.” She lifted both her fins for the synthetic mare to see. “I’d be just as stuck.”

Why can’t things just be easy? Why didn’t I wake up to a world of sunshine and rainbows? She thought, craning her neck to get as clear a view as possible. I can’t even see the bottom.

“Didn’t you say you could swim… Urm… What did you say your name was again?” Ocean asked, trailing off and waving a fin as she seemingly did all she could to recall Jade’s name.

It was only then that the robotic mare realized she’d never even introduced herself, she’d just jumped right into action.

“Jadefire, but everypony calls me Jade,” she told the fishy-mare, then sighed. “And yes, I can swim, or more accurately sink.”

“Well, if you can hold your breath for about a minute, you’ll get through, trust me,” Ocean assured, tapping a fin on the rim of the pool. “I spent weeks clearing that passage trying to get to the filters.”

“Is it off the cards to ask for an option that doesn’t involve getting wet?” X-23 muttered, and Jade felt the suit grow tighter. “I don’t like how it messes with my systems.”

Because that bodes so well for my chances of being sneaky. Jade thought, feeling a twinge of bitterness in her mind from her chameleonic companion. I can’t afford to be caught again!

Regardless, Ocean shook her head, wincing as she added. “The only other way I know of cuts through a watered-off tunnel, where Mako’s pet can find you.”

Okay, yeah, normal water sounds far better than hungry tentacle mouths. She thought, feeling her suit grow a little bit tighter.

“His pet? So you don’t know what it is?” she enquired, but Ocean merely shrugged.

“I’m pretty sure they found the thing living inside the Alicornia, trapped it in here with some kind of zebra aquamancy.” She bit her bottom lip, running one fin over the other. “Every now and then it’ll eat through the walls, or the pumps will shift, then they have to conjure another barrier.”

“You mean the weird water walls?” Jade asked, and the aquatic mare nodded, adding swiftly.

“Yeah, hard water was often used back home. But I’ve no idea how they can sustain the spells on land.” She patted the liquid surface about her, resulting in a series of wide ripples. “It’s painful for anything aquatic to touch.”

Explains why it’s so good at keeping that thing in. She inwardly reasoned, yet from the look on Ocean’s face, it looked like she’d learned that the hard way. Then what am I waiting for, am I going to help or not?

Reminded of just what she was fighting to save, she took a deep breath. Once again her new body felt oddly cold following the purely equine action, but she set aside the disconnect between her synthetic programming and natural instincts. She blinked once and the night vision in her eyes was replaced by a cutting beam of light.

“And when I’m on the other side, then what?” she asked, looking at the aquatic mare, only to dazzle Ocean with her eyes’ glow. “Oops, sorry.”

“Just shut them off, if the rotors are down I can get through to the tanks on that side, then you can toss me the tools and I can make my way to the wave tank,” she confirmed, it all sounded like a solid plan.

What could go wrong, right? Jade thought, trying to ignore the way she remembered Datastream always asking the same thing. No, this is what she would want, her work used for good.

“Okay, we’ll see you on the other side.” She really hoped the sea pony would be there to greet her as she reflexively took another deep breath and stepped into the water.

The pool registered as cold, yet she was unsure whether it was her imagination that made it feel as chilly as it did. Ocean certainly didn’t seem to mind the temperature as she nodded, gave a mock salute, then flipped head over tail before vanishing into the depths with a salty splash.

“By Luna, I was never made for this!” X-23 muttered, sucking so tight to Jade’s coat it was a wonder she didn’t crush the synthetic mare. “It’s so cold!”

“It’s all in your head, I feel it too, but we’re not really cold.” In her efforts to reassure her companion, however, Jade failed to find the second step down, and before she knew it, she was plunged into the deeper water.

She wanted to scream, gasp for air, but the second she was submerged her mouth involuntarily sealed shut. Like a plastic bag robbed of air, X-23 crumpled around her as she saw nothing but rusted metal, pipes, broken glass, and rebar in the murky gloom. Bubbles streamed across the light over her eyes in a pale flurry, while her limbs instinctively flailed. It did her no good, she sank like a stone, and with a hard, reverberating clang, she hit the bottom of the tunnel. Dusty sediment bubbled up around her, yet the longer she lay in the cold, crushing darkness, the more she realized she wasn’t drowning.

Knowing she didn’t need to breathe didn’t make actually avoiding doing so any easier, right now she felt like she had more in common with some deep sea rover than a mare. But she shoved that feeling to the back of her mind.

“X-23, you good?” she asked, making sure the thought was as open as possible as she glanced around.

“L–let’s just get this over with!” The suit remarked, and with a dull clunk, Jade placed one forehoof before the other.

Sediment bloomed in small puffs, like tiny mushrooms steadily ballooning into the dull water with every step. Around her, the glass tunnel that had once provided tourists with a magnificent view of the aquatic world was no more than a series of broken glass panels. They creaked and cracked, shifting around like the innards of some great beast. They were not the only things, the few fish that darted by almost had the submerged mare jumping out of her synthetic skin. One of the larger ones resembled a spiky beach ball, another a hammerhead shark, only the size of her foreleg.

The long red and yellow striped eel that wormed by had her staggering into a wall of pipes as it peered at her with a dull expression. She could only imagine it was wondering what this strange, inequine mare was doing in its dank home as its mouth opened and closed rhythmically. Then as fast as it had appeared, it was gone, darting off into a huge rend in the far wall of the tank. Jade really didn’t want to imagine what was in that hole as sediment softly swirled around the breach. She could feel the soft tug of the current surging towards it, and was sure if she’d been free swimming, she’d have been pulled in.

Must be the way Ocean gets in here, thank Luna for small favors. True to the fishy-mare’s words, the way ahead was indeed clear, the rubble having been neatly shoved to the sides. So much for a minute of breath though, anypony with lungs would be dead by now.

That solemn thought was only amplified further, as she thudded along at a snail’s pace. She suddenly had a newfound respect for underwater operatives and recovery teams before she finally looked up to see a second set of rusty steps off to the left.

‘West Tank Filtration Units.’ A chipped sign above read, the likes of which seemed to have been scribbled over with both a happy and a frowning face.

Three guesses who drew that. The bubbly sea pony came to mind, but not before a shifting sound back in the tunnel drew Jade’s focus back.

Her eyes’ glow passed over the submerged ruins, catching the last glimmer of scales as the fish all scattered, and the place became deathly still.

Yeah, time to get out of here, I think! There was no argument from X-23, the suit was practically shivering by the time Jade managed to drag herself up the rusty steps, shaking off the water like a dog.

“See, not so bad,” she told her cold companion, doing her best to mask her own dread at the thought of doing it again.

“Let’s not do that again, please,” the suit muttered, voice still wracked with shivering as Jade nodded.

“Yeah, we can make it a rule,” she agreed, drawing her weapon before she made her way into what appeared to be another maintenance corridor.

It seemed to be an exact mirror of the one on the far side of the tanks, and within seconds, she heard the tell-tale hum of the huge filtration systems. Every crack and crevasse in the wall had her jumping, terrified images of the boneless horror squeezing through coming to mind as she aimed her pistol at each breach. A few steps later, the corridor opened out into the hexagonal filtration room, similarly covered in damp critters, like the last one. Barnacles shunned the light, while muscles clipped shut and small crabs scattered like ants.

Her senses informed her of the salinity in the air as frothy pools of brown water writhed and bubbled, fed by a gnashing maw of metal teeth from behind a grate. In all the bubbling chaos, she hardly noticed the ripples shuddering across the pool behind her, only glancing back as X-23 grew tighter and muttered.

“Why do I feel like we’re being watched?” Jade had to imagine there was no greater worry for a stealth suit than the idea she was being spied on, yet the pool she’d crawled out of was still as a mirror.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it either,” she muttered, looking left to another set of filtration pools, these ones filled with all kinds of trash. “Good to see they really care about littering.”

From the looks of it, food was not the only thing that was tossed into Ocean’s tank. There were old shoes, spent chems, and even some ammunition. The latter Jade swiftly collected, watching her organizational systems lay them out neatly in her bag. Past that, there was a tool locker, and shining her light inside, she saw an array of wrenches, miniature pumps, and aquatic welders behind the ajar door. They were all slightly rusty, yet much like the rest of the place, she assumed they had a resistance to the salty corrosion.

“Okay, remind me again what she said about the filters,” Jade asked, scooping out a set of tools in her magic and setting them on the rim of the filtration pool.

Goddesses, levitating that much stuff with my core still feels so weird. She tried not to think about it as X-23 chimed.

“The terminal over there should let you shut them off.” Creeping over, Jade pressed her forehooves to the keys, the sensation of using her core magic to type feeling just a little too alien. “Okay, let me take a look, I can get in.”

True to the suit's words the hacking part of the task was swiftly concluded, following a scroll of text across her vision and a flash of the word ‘Cinderblock’.

Not gonna think too hard about why a pony working with this much water had that as their password. Jade thought as she set about typing. But working terminals, I can do.

If there was one thing she’d spent her whole life doing, it was sitting in front of a screen, and she swiftly navigated to a section called ‘filtration controls.’ The options flashed up in front of her, but not before an audio recording marked ‘read this first’.

It was her first instinct to click it, memos like that were common back in the MoA. Then she winced as the mare’s crackling voice started to play out loud.

“Seafront, it’s Driftwood again. By Luna, you better listen to this before you start messing with the filtration again.” The centuries-old mare sounded more than a little mad. “Just remember to keep the RPM below fifty percent from now on, you got that? We can’t afford to blow another set of water talismans.”

There was another ripple, a shifting, and a small hum of trepidation from X-23. Jade glanced back, Early Retirement scanning over the empty room.

It’s all in your head, Jade, it’s all in your head. She reassured herself, looking back at the screen as the recording went on.

“Least of all these Hippocampus Three-thousands, they’re worth ten times more than any of our wages.” The synthetic mare could relate to that reality, wincing. “Mind your horn near them too, too much magical pressure and they’ll go off like a bomb. Oh, and please get off your sorry tail and deal with that nematode infestation in tank five too!”

What pony installs water bombs like that in a public aquarium? Jade thought as the recording fizzled out. And what kind of infestation?

Even so, the second she was able, she scrolled down to a tab marked filter RPM, shutting the pumps down just as Ocean instructed. It appeared Seafront had not been doing his job right even all these decades later, the blades were rolling far too fast.

Why does that make my mane crawl? Jade’s ears perked, X-23 grew tight, it had gone eerily silent, save for the rhythmic dripping. Oh, goddesses, not again.

She took a deep breath, catching the slimy shimmer reflected in the screen, and whirled around fast as lightning. Her pistol flashed, illuminating the gloom for a split second as the tentacle maw recoiled, whipped left, and swatted the weapon from her magic. Her eyes shot wide, but in the same motion, the slimy bulk of the thing rolled under her, casting her aside like a mere insect and sending her skidding over the metallic floor. She looked up just in time to see her weapon land in the pool and sink with a dull plop, leaving her unarmed and faced with the tooth-lined maw.

Oh Luna, why do things always have to get worse!? Despite all of her system’s warnings, she backed up, rump skidding across the floor before her back hit hard concrete. What happens when a monster that digests ponies alive eats metal?

She didn’t want to think how resistant Data’s body was to stomach acid, but as the thing coiled towards her like a mass of writhing flesh, she was sure she wouldn’t have to wait long to find out.

I’m sorry, Datastream, I did my best! She reflexively lifted both forelegs to cover her face, shying away with her eyes closed as X-23 screamed. This was hardly worth it.

The flash that lit up the room a moment later was accompanied by the dull woosh of a silencer as the tentacle was struck over and over. Dark ichors splayed out across the wall as the writhing beast shrank away into one of the pools.

“How do you like that!?” Ocean Blaze declared triumphantly, before fumbling with the pistol in her fins, almost dropping it again. “Oh, fish sticks!”

“Ocean!” Jade exclaimed, her machine brain taking over as she dove to catch the pistol, falling against the filtration tank. “The pumps are off, but we…”

The sea pony’s webbed ears drooped, her whole body seeming to dribble as much as the water dripping from her scales as she peered above Jade.

Drip… Drip… Drip…

The droplets pattered against her forehead, right as she peered up to see a trio of the toothy things all peering down at her.

“Okay, fuck you!” she yelled jumping left as one of the gibbering maws came down, earning a mouth full of rusted metal.

Early Retirement sang, causing the monsters to dance as they ate the bullets in fountains of gore. Yet with no time to reload and Ocean already having emptied half the chamber, four shots later, the gun clicked empty. Right as three more mouths bubbled up to replace those she’d shot.

What is this thing, a Hydra!? She thought, desperately trying to reload as her back hit the poolside next to Ocean. I’ll run out of ammo at this rate!

“Running now, please!” X-23 screamed, Jade’s machine and equine mind conflicting as she floundered to reload.

“There’s nowhere to go!” she exclaimed, yet that was when she felt a hard tug at her collar as teeth gripped her suit. “Wait, no wait!”

Before she knew it, she was dragged over the side of the tank and wrapped in Ocean’s fins. Of course, that was the moment the sea pony realized just how heavy her new friend was, and despite all her swimming, the two sank like a rock. Bubbles spewed from her fishy companion’s mouth, the muffled sound of her colorful curses the only thing to meet Jade’s ears in the watery depth as the world grew darker and darker.

If not for her eyes and Ocean’s mane, the two of them would have been in pitch-black darkness as the synthetic mare finally hit the bottom with a dull clang. Sediment billowed up around them, as the tools she’d rested on the rim of the tank followed as if trapped in slow motion. Jade once again thanked the goddesses for small favors. Yet the tools were not the only thing to fall in after them, seconds later, there was a series of loud splashes above.

Of course, go into the water to escape the aquatic monster, genius! The phrase out of the frying pan and into the fire had never felt so poetic as the cyber mare glanced about. Damn it, it’s all just walls!

The only means of escape she had was Ocean. Who despite her stern face, seized the tools and began to tug on Jade’s forehoof. Half trudging, half sliding, the aquatic mare dragged her across the metallic base of the filtration tank as the tendrils uncoiled above. Jade did all she could to maintain her magical grip on her weapon, not wishing to lose the thing a second time, while X-23 muttered a slew of terrified murmurs in the back of her mind.

I’m really starting to hate water. She thought with a pang of sympathy for the waterlogged suit as she suddenly found herself sliding down under a great. This whole lack of breathing thing too, really takes some getting used to.

She really hoped Ocean was aware of such a thing, pretty sure the sea pony would have accidentally drowned her by now if she were still flesh and blood. Even so, the second Jade thudded down into the filtration tunnel, Ocean swam down after her, pulling the barred grate closed behind them. She appeared in front of Jade in a flurry of bubbles as the mare blinked out her lights in favor of night vision. It didn’t work half as well underwater as it did above, but if the monster hunting them could see any light at all, she guessed they were better off.

That idea was only reinforced as Ocean cupped her glowing mane bulb, seemingly taking a deep breath to will its glow away. Then the fishy mare pressed one fin to her pursed lips, and one to Jade’s, a rather futile gesture considering the two of them were submerged.

Eccentric and crazy, she reminds me of Data. Jade was pretty sure having been saved by the aquatic mare had something to do with her newfound fondness too. Better submerged in water than digestive acids.

The hungry maws appeared above the grate seconds later, prodding around in a closed state, they rippled and squished as they bumped into things. Minutes passed, and before long the probing tendrils coiled back, disappearing above. Jade made note of the fact they were not the most perceptive things if she wasn’t standing right out in the open. Yet she didn’t want to wait too long in one place to find out how long it would take them to be found.

I’ve seen octopuses work out how to get into some seriously crazy places. She recalled experiments on cuttlefish back before the war, trying to adapt their camouflage abilities. Just glad to see this thing can’t cloak too.

She imagined the slavering maws pulsating with color, hypnotizing her into falling right in. Seconds later, she was staring at Ocean again as the mare’s mane came back to life. Using the glow, she peered between the bars of the grate, then came surging back in a flurry of bubbles. She nodded up once, jabbing a forehoof down the tunnel before tugging Jade along once again. She felt like a filly carted around by her mother, but didn’t relent, thudding along after the sea pony until the two of them came upon an incline.

Safe to say, trudging up the algae-coated slope would have been hard if she didn’t sink. She practically had to indent the metal with her hoof stomps, before finally emerging into an air pocket above. The space was tight, cold, and she imagined it smelled awful. Even so, she stifled a gasp, being underwater for so long was unnatural enough, but that instinct to breathe was slowly fading. A second later, Ocean appeared next to her, the glow of her mane lighting up the rusty walls and hatch above.

“Next time you want to take me for a swim warn me first,” Jade muttered, feeling a weird urge to cough up water she’d failed to swallow. “I could have drowned!”

“But you said you could hold your breath! You wouldn’t have even made it into that room otherwise!” Ocean countered and Jade had to admit, she had her there.

Great, she’s witty too, so much like Data. Even so, she was at least glad to see the sea pony could work things out for herself. Not so dependent after all.

“Fair enough…” Her ears folded. “And thanks, better than getting eaten.” Ocean smiled, seeming to bask in the first genuine praise she’d earned in years.

“It must have found a way in when the filters shut down, and with how heavy you are…” She tapped her fins together. “Maybe you should get out of the water.”

“You don’t say?” Jade’s expression fell flat as she deadpanned, the mental image of Data scowling at the idea her body was somehow being called fat. “How far is it to the cantina?”

“This leads to a maintenance hall east of the main tank, after that, it's down on your left,” Ocean informed her, tapping a fin to the hatch. “I can swim back for the tools, then try to access the wave tank… Should be able to talk to the slaves if you hit the wave switch.”

“You want to go back down there?” Jade nodded back to the dark tunnel, but Ocean only smirked.

“Oh, that thing’s been after me for years, I’m way too fast.” She looked at one of her fins as a pony would casually admire a forehoof.

“And if there are guards?” X-23 muttered, that shivering inflection still raking her voice. “I don’t know how long I can cloak you like this.”

Then I’ll have to work it out. I'm good at problem-solving. Jade thought, reaching up with her forehooves and magic to yank open the hatch as her vision filled with information about its integrity. Specter really couldn’t have just made a waterproof suit, could he?

“Hey, I heard that!” X-23 muttered sheepishly, a feeling of shame nagging at Jade’s mind as Ocean helped her into the dark, concrete hall above.

“Sorry,” she thought back with a wince, regretting just how quickly she’d broken her rule about no more water as she finally loaded her weapon and glanced back to the fishy mare.

“Be careful back there, okay.” She clicked the chamber closed, cocking the gun in her magic. “Just a little further and we’ll have everypony out.”

“Roger that,” Ocean responded with a mock salute before disappearing from sight with a flash of yellow scales and a salty splash.

Sealing the hatch behind her, Jade made her way up the rusty steps and out into the tell-tale blue aquarium corridor.

*

“I don’t know if I can do this!” X-23 exclaimed in Jade’s head, a patchwork of chameleonic magic scattering across her hexagonal hide as the synthetic mare peered into the cafeteria. “I’m still full of salt.”

“Just focus, I’m sure they designed you to work in damp environments,” Jade thought in return, pressing her back to the wall as she saw two slavers. “Just look at me, I’m still working fine.”

As fine as I can work out here. She added in a less blunt manner.

“Okay, okay, just let me work on it… I got this.” Jade could only hope her stealthy companion got it sooner rather than later as she made out the mangy cages sitting before the turbulent wave pool opposite the food counter.

There were at least half a dozen pens, between the stools and long tables that had once been filled with hungry tourists. It was a level below her, squat stairs leading between rows of planters boasting long-dead ferns. All the while, each cage was filled with what her vision designated as around fifty ponies. From mares and fillies to full-grown stallions, they all looked like they had more in common with skeletons than ponies, and every one of them was collard.

I can’t let one of them go off. She thought, pretty sure linked collars were surely still a thing. I just hope you’re right about Mako not hitting the detonator, Ocean.

With that in mind, she rolled from her cover, ducking down behind the first long planter as the two slavers milled about by the bar. One was a dull blue mare, the other a sandy-orange buck, both wearing driftwood armor. From the looks of the machine gun saddle, the latter wore, she really didn’t want to get caught out, yet relying on her suit’s stealth field was still not an option.

Don’t think about that, one step at a time. She thought, glancing up to see the bright blue button called ‘wave maker’ beside the long, half-filled tank at the rear of the room. Bingo, that must be what Ocean meant.

“You think those layabouts found the ghost yet?” one slaver asked, flicking over a bottle as Jade crept forward.

“Ghost, really?” the mare responded with a snotty sniffle. “It’s not a ghost, half of them were probably just high.”

“Nah, I saw it fall, it was definitely something,” the buck assured her, flicking over another bottle.

“Whatever you say, Seafoam. So long as it’s not down here, I don’t care,” the mare added, while Jade felt a spark of pride at the idea she had some of them genuinely convinced she was supernatural.

Let’s see what they make of this then. She thought, rear pressed to the wall by the button. I hope you know what to say, Ocean.

A few of the slaves perked up, clearly not oblivious to the flickering mirage of colors dancing across Jade’s hide. She pressed a forehoof to her muzzle, and thankfully they understood the motion to shush as she hit the button. There was a deep churning sound, the wall at her back vibrating as a huge paddle heaved and a surge of salty water gushed into the long tank, before rolling out the opposite end.

“What in Equestria?” the slaver buck muttered, his bottles forgotten as he and the mare took a step toward the tank.

“Okay, who thinks it’s funny to hit the button again!?” the mare called, scowling at the slaves as if this wasn’t too uncommon an occurrence.

None of them said a word, not even a cough. All their eyes were focused on the tank, and good thing too. As if on cue, Ocean flopped in from under the paddle, wielding a wrench like a mighty sword. Even from where Jade was huddled, the fish mare looked glamorous. Yet to the slaves, the light of her mane seemed comparable to the sun itself. The slavers on the other hoof, not so much. The two of them scowled, marching right up to the tank. Forcing Jade to duck out of sight again.

“What the hell are you doing in there!?” snapped the mare, while the stallion warned the slaves back with his weapon. “You’re supposed to be upstairs!”

“It is I, the mighty mare of the sea, come to smite you!” Ocean proclaimed, putting on a rather good act as Jade winced.

It seemed to do little more than confuse the slavers as the mare looked at the stallion, only for him to shrug. All the while the fish-mare jabbed the tool at them like a spear. One group her show certainly seemed to entertain, were the slaves. There was a cheer, and Seafoam loaded his weapon.

“You’re nothing but a dainty show mare,” countered the slaver mare. “Lucky I don’t come in there and dry you out!”

“No, it is you who will be smited by my godly powers!” Ocean bellowed, yet Jade caught her sideways glance.

“We have to do something. X-23, you need to try,” she called, and the suit grew tight. “Just a minute or two of invisibility, please.”

There was naught but a mental growl from the suit, as if she were a mare caught holding up the weight of a building. Yet with a static buzz across her synthetic hide, Jade saw her form flicker out.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” The slaver mare muttered, resting casually on her rifle as she smirked up at Ocean. “You can’t lay a fin on me from in there.”

“Not true, any second now, you’ll feel my wrath!” Ocean declared, jabbing the wrench at her again. “Any second now!”

“Yeah, right.” The slaver mare rolled her eyes. “Seafoam, check it out, I’m about to be smited by the almighty smiter!”

The buck laughed, the mare laughed as she raised both forelegs to Ocean in mocking praise. That was when her head exploded in a shower of gore as Jade lined up her shots in S.A.T.S, and unloaded two rounds from her pistol.

See if you don’t believe in ghosts now! Jade thought, blood splattering across the tank, causing Ocean to yelp.

“Fish hooks!” exclaimed the stallion, rounding on Ocean with both barrels. “What the fuck did you do to her, you witch!?”

“I–I used my godly magic, yes, yes that’s it!” Ocean declared, jabbing the tool at him next. “Now dance for me, little one, dance for your goddess!”

The click of his weapons made it clear he intended to do anything but what she ordered. Of course, that was the moment Jade rammed into him full force. Invisible or not, she severely underestimated just how hard her synthetic body could hit as she sent him sprawling. Her vision highlighted him red, as well as analyzing his stature and potential fighting style. All the while he staggered to his hooves and aimed both weapons right at her.

Oh, shit!

“Eat this, you damn ghost!” he called as his machine gun roared, turning the damp carpet behind her into splinters as she ran.

Shit, shit, shit! The words ran through her mind, the feeling of her heart racing betrayed by the fact it was calm as ever. Okay, getting shot at is really not fun.

She ducked down behind an overturned vending machine, hearing the crack of his bullets shattering the glass and rending the rusty metal. Then the audible click of the thing running dry.

“Fuck,” he hissed as he arched his head back to reload, right as X-23 muttered that her field was failing.

“It’s now or never, Jade.” Despite everything, she was sure she heard that thought in Data’s voice.

Weapon reloaded, she hopped up over the cover, dropping into S.A.T.S. Time slowed to a crawl, capturing the stunned faces of the slaves, and the shocked Ocean, as Jade charged across the hall. Two shots impacted his weapon, severing it from his side in a spray of shrapnel and blood. Another two, his forelegs, dropping him. Time resumed as he staggered in front of her, bloody and screaming, right as her stealth field faded.

“Boo!” she hissed, pointing the gun to his head.

“W–what the fuck are you?” he stammered through his whimpers, doing his best to look up at her.

“Like you said, I’m a big scary ghost,” she declared, itching to pull the trigger, only to pause.

Look at him, he’s done. She glanced at Ocean, her face and fins pressed to the glass, then the slaves. No, I have a better idea.

“Your goddess of the sea has finally come to liberate you!” she called, heaving the sobbing buck up in her magic. “Rise up as she commands, take up arms against your captors.” She tossed the slaver down into the cage, snagging the keys from his barding.

“N–not a bad speech,” X-23 muttered, voice still shivering. Yet Jade wasn’t done yet, as she declared.

“This first one’s all yours.” Seafoam took one look at the many ponies he’d enslaved, smiling nervously seconds before they set upon him like rabid wolves.

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk Added: Aqua Filly – It may suck, but all that time underwater has to account for something, right? You gain 100% Radiation Resistance while completely submerged, and underwater breathing.