Earthside

The sun broke upon two figures as they walked side-by-side into the city, a man and a pony. Victor was panting and breathing hard as he staggered over to a nearby wall and leaned against it for support.

    “Well... at least that's over now.” He stumbled towards a bus stop, tripping over discarded soda cans and cardboard boxes. As he sat down, the sun finally came up slightly over a nearby building. Leaning back, he smiled in relief. “Morning... finally. Like a nightmare lifted.” He rolled his head to face Twilight, who was also quite ragged. He chuckled a little. “We're both out of sorts, aren't we, Twilight?” He didn't wait for a response from her. He leaned forward just as his stomach started to grumble. It dawned on him that he actually had not eaten anything for dinner, and it was about breakfast time. Pushing himself back up, he moved outside of the bus stop as Twilight lay down. As soon as her head hit the hard wood, she was out like a light. Victor watched her for a few minutes. “Animals always look so cute when they're asleep.” He jogged across the street, looking for anywhere he might get food. As he entered one alley, he spied a vending machine. There wasn't much in it, but it would have to do. He pulled out several quarters and plopped them in, withdrawing two bags of chips and a soda from the machine. Returning to the bus stop, he was shocked to see that Twilight was not lying down anymore. She wasn't even in the bus stop anymore. Quickly making his way across the street, he jammed the chips and soda into his pockets and glanced around. Muffled noises from an alleyway not six feet from him drew his attention.

“This sorta thing oughta fetch us a bright penny on the black market.”

“She's incredible. I want her as a pet.”

“Mike, shut up. There's only one of her, and you know we needs the money.” They continued to argue and bicker about what to do with their captive as Victor rounded the corner. Three skinny teens were congregated around Twilight, who was tied up and had a gag in her mouth. She was trying to say something, but when she noticed Victor, she stopped. Victor pulled out his soda, nodded at it, and threw it, clocking one of the three teens on the head.

“Hey, you kids! Beat it, or I will beat you!” He didn't get the response he expected, as the three approached him.

“What'cha gonna do, pops? Call our mommies?”

“Yeah, gonna call the cops?”

“Nope,.” He smiled as he jabbed hard with his fist. He wasn't partial to fighting, and hating to whenever he could, but when he fought, he always did with everything in. The other two came after him, but he socked them in the face as well. They backed up, sweat streaming from their brows.

“Come on, guys. This pony ain't worth a broken nose.” The three hoodlums left. Victor sprinted to Twilight and undid her bindings.

“You okay, Twilight? They didn't hurt you, did they?”

“They were... going to sell me. Do you have any idea what that means to me?!”

“Whoa, psycho! Calm down! They won't be bothering you any more.” He helped her up to a standing position and looked around. The hoodlums had left behind two wallets, and some extra rope. Victor picked them up, looking at each one in turn. “Good for something, I guess.” He tied the rope around his waste and picked what was worthwhile out of the wallets. They definitely had needed the money that selling Twilight would have garnered, but they had not wanted to mess with him. He sat down beside her and hugged her, trying to dispel the fear she might have been feeling at that point. “Twilight, you've just witnessed firsthand what the human race is capable of. We're almost always out for some kind of profit, which makes us worse than super villains sometimes. Super villains at least have an ultimate goal. All we want to do is amass wealth.”

    “I know a pony who would agree with that philosophy. Good thing she isn't here. She'd be taking advantage of all the opportunities, too.” Twilight stood up and shook her head, trying to clear her messy mane out of her eyes. Victor chuckled and stood up as well.

    “Well, we'd best get a move on. Whoever set up that military checkpoint is probably not far behind.” He stopped talking when he heard voices from the other end of the alleyway. “Twilight, stay behind me,” he hissed in a harsh whisper. He watched the end as two grey-suited figures walked slowly by the alley's end. They made Victor's heart jump into his throat. He recognized the agents from when they had bought that pre-order card at the game store. He stood still. Whatever reason they had to hunt him down, it must have been so important that he needed to be killed. He slid down the wall, sitting quietly as he waited. He pulled out the USB stick and examined it. “The Shadow Protocol, huh? You're worth a lot to them, but what are you really for exactly?”

Agents One and Two swept their rifle sights over the area. They hated to use up valuable experimental ammunition, but they wanted Victor Hernandez dead. The lights on the sides of their pulse rifles blinked slowly, the cerulean blue bulbs blinding if one looked directly at them. The Agents wore goggles for the back-blast from the rifles, and the light glinted off of them onto the walls. As they stopped, One heard a crack behind him. He flipped around and fired, a large blue blast vaporizing the ground and leaving a large crater behind. Two tapped him on the shoulder.

    “Keep it together. You're letting the stress get to you. Calm down and keep moving.” Two crept along carefully after imparting that wisdom to One, who seemed like his head was about to explode out of rage.

    “I can keep it together, Two, but this is... gah! Failure after failure! There's no end to it at all!” He pulled back the slider on his pulse rifle, popping out a still-smoking shell. Two shook his head in amazement.

    “If you can, don't go shooting your shadow. Just keep moving. We need to sweep this entire area.” As they turned the corner, two soldiers saw them and ran for cover, fearing the worst. When no shots came, they peeked out, to find no one there. As they sat back down, they came face to face with Agent One, who was less than pleased.

    “What are you leadheads doing here? You've deserted your post. Help us sweep this area, and we'll overlook it just this once.” One smirked a slightly crooked smile, which scared the soldiers into obedience. They trained their weapons on the different areas around, leaving nothing except the first alleyway unchecked.

    “One, didn't we pass an alleyway a minute ago? We haven't checked that yet.” Two jogged back to the alleyway, scanning it to make sure. Victor sucked in his breath and covered Twilight's mouth, trying to keep her from making any noise. “Well, nothing here. It's clear.” Two sprinted to catch up with One and Five. Victor slowly let out his breath and uncovered Twilight's mouth, only to have her bite his hand. Right then and there, Victor realized something that slipped his mind: ponies have incredibly strong jaws. As he pushed her away and bit his lip to keep from screaming, he glared daggers at her as he held his bleeding, lacerated hand.

    “Just be glad it was my left hand, you dolt! If it was my right, I wouldn't have been able to do anything again!” He pulled off his jacket and tore it apart, taking strips out and applying them to his hand. “Why'd you even do that?!”

    “You had your hand over my mouth. It's an appropriate reaction, Victor!” They stopped talking afterwards, staring at each other every so often as they tried to make less noise than they had already made. Victor, in his thoughts, wondered why the Agents had not heard him harshly talking to Twilight. It did not make sense to him at all. He tied what remained of his jacket to his head to keep the sweat out of his eyes. Fear was pounding in his heart and he was fully aware that he was scared. He could tell that Twilight was scared, too.

    As they reached another cross street, Victor sat down and looked at his hand. The blood had seeped through. He needed to get it stitched up, or he was either going to bleed out, get a serious infection, or lose his hand. None of those options seemed very good at all for him. Twilight came up and attempted to use her magic again, but got sparks, nothing else.

    “I can't help you at all. Even if I could, I don't know if I would be of any help. I was never prepared for anything like this. Not even Celestia, in all her great wisdom, could prepare for a test like this.” She sat down beside Victor, who had begun to chuckle.

    “Heh... you think this is some sort of test? Let me tell you something, Twilight. A test, for me, is to see how much knowledge of a certain subject you have. This is not a test. This is reality, Twilight. There is nothing in the history of any planet, at all, that will prepare you for running for your life from maniacs with guns, or any weapons that could be used to kill you in various, nondescriptly unpleasant ways.” He forced himself back up, cradling his hand as he moved out into the street. Down one way, there was several boarded up stores. One was a drugstore. Victor smiled as he looked up and down several times. Down the other way was access to a draw bridge, but even at that time, it was up. Twilight stared at the boards on the windows as they walked passed the various old stores.

    “Why are they all boarded up? What happened?” She read some of the signs out loud to herself, trying to make sense of them.

    “This was the old Chinatown district. After the Western Alliance formed, China and Russia had a bit of a feud. Then the Chinese attacked North America. Suffice to say, the Chinese had no safe place to go. It was a warzone here. There's still no one here at all. Maybe a few drifters, but none with any way to survive outside of criminal aspects of life.” He approached the drugstore and pulled the board off the door with his good hand. “The boards got old. Rains quite a lot in this district.” He kicked the boards on the inside down and clambered through the broken door inside. There was shelves stocked with expired over-the-counter medication, some of it three years old. Victor whistled and shook his head as he rummaged around to see if there was any bandages left. “The Reds put up one good fight after another wherever we found them. President called in the army to forcefully remove any Russians or Chinese from major cities, fearing sabotage. Heh, he sabotaged a major portion of industry to settle fears.” He hummed as he opened a first-aid kit he had found underneath the counter. “Ah, that's more like it.” He pulled out a hermetically sealed bottle of antiseptic, and two rolls of self-adhering bandages, along with a gauze pad. He pulled the strips of jacket off of his hand slowly, clenching his teeth as it ripped scars off. The sight was unbearable, so he didn't look as his shaky right hand poured the antiseptic all over his left hand. He grabbed a nearby piece of cloth which had fallen out of the first-aid kit and bit down hard to keep from screaming. After he was finished, he placed the gauze pad slowly on, grimacing through the tremendous pain. He wrapped it up quickly with the bandages and looked at it. “Better than nothing, I suppose. Come on, let's-” He stood up to face two Chinese teenagers aiming rifles at his head. As they forced him backwards, they began questioning him rapidly in Chinese. Twilight shouted at them, which seemed to make them stop.

    “What is going on here?!”

    “Do not be afraid, strange pony. We have business with Westerner here. He enter our store, take items of value, and leave without saying anything.”

    “Hey, I was bleeding out, all right? She... she bit me, all right? Pretty badly too.” They lowered their weapons long enough to allow Victor to stand up. “So, are you with Anon?” When Victor mentioned the name, it had not occurred to him what sort of effect it would have on them. They raised their weapons and backed away slowly.

    “How do you know Anon? He does not like outsiders.” Victor watched one as his hands began to twitch, a finger getting close to the trigger. He squeezed a shot off just as Victor ducked and leaped forward to knock him off his feet. He fired a few more shots as the other tried to get Victor in his sights. Victor pulled himself and slammed his fist into the other teen's face. He stood there, panting, as the one he had knocked down got up and ran away as fast as he could. Cracking his hand, he coughed and sighed.

    “It had to be done. They would have shot me- Twilight?” Looking around, Victor saw Twilight laying down on the ground. Her leg had been shot. It was still moving, but it looked like it was in immense pain. “Twilight! Don't worry, I'll fix this... somehow!” He hurried over to the medical kit and rummaged around, attempting to locate forceps and bandages. Once he had located those items, he sat down beside Twilight and began attempting to pull the bullet out. Piece after piece, shard after shard, parts of the bullets came out one by one until he had all of the pieces sitting on the floor beside him. He grabbed the bandages and wrapped them tightly around Twilight's leg. He did not understand what her anatomy was like – to tell the truth, he did not even understand his own anatomy all that well. He sat with her until they both fell asleep.

    Victor awoke to Twilight groaning as she tried to move her leg.

    “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Twilight. Don't try to move your leg. You got shot yesterday. It was an accident, but you were hurt pretty badly. Where's some rope? Rope, rope, rope... ah, rope.” He got down on all fours and lashed the rope around Twilight's abdomen, then tied it tightly around himself. “We can move slightly faster this way, and this way, I'm protecting you.” Twilight mumbled something in response as he jogged out of the store. Looking around, it appeared just as deserted as before, except now Victor knew otherwise. He could feel eyes watching him as he re-entered the drugstore, removed the clothes from the teen he had knocked out, and set them aside as he set Twilight down and changed into them. When he stepped back out, he was in a grey hoodie, with black, baggy jeans. In his mind, it certainly changed what he appeared to be as he re-attached Twilight to his back. “We're going now. Don't worry, Twilight. John should be able to help you. He's paranoid, which means he might have what we need.”

    One and the other Agents had heard the rifle shot go off, but arrived only to find an unconscious, almost-naked teen groaning as he woke up.

    “Hernandez. He's taken to violence. They all do. You've seen that, right, Two?” One knelt down and quickly knocked the teen out again. “I'm not going to let him see us. The Chinese who still live here don't trust us anyways. The less of them that see us, the better.” He stood up and looked at the other Agents. “Come on, we have to keep searching. He may have left the area already. Check the drawbridge too!”

    Victor stood at the foot of the drawbridge and stared up. It was quite large for a drawbridge, but it had been meant for large cargo ships carrying materials into the city. He sighed and crept carefully over to the shack where the controls were. Looking inside, he could see one guard sleeping at his post. Smiling, he opened the door carefully, making sure that it did not squeak as he tapped the guard on the shoulder.

    “H-hey, w-what?!” Victor placed his hand over the guard's mouth and whispered so as not to alert anyone else.

    “Shh. I need you to lower the drawbridge, or at least give me some way to get across. I need to get out of this district now, and without delay.” The guard stared at them.

    “There's a boat tethered to the maintenance ladder on this side. The bridge has been out of commission for a few weeks, so you won't be able to cross over the bridge.” Victor smiled before punching him in the face. “Ow! What was that for?”

    “To make it look like I forced the information out of you. Trust me, it will save your life.” Victor backed into the shadows and made his way quietly to the maintenance ladder. Sure enough, there was a motorboat tethered to it, just like the guard had said. Clambering into it, he laid Twilight in the middle on top of some nets that were inside and started up the motor, getting it to move as fast as possible across the river before the Agents could discover him.

    The boat ride ended up being uneventful as Victor carried Twilight on his back up another ladder to street level. Pulling out the cellphone, he looked at the map Anon had given them. A point appeared, showing where he was in relation to John's house.

    “We're almost there, Twilight. Just hang on a bit more.” Stumbling a little as he tripped over a crack in the road, he regained his footing and kept moving, holding the phone in front of him as he staggered every so often when Twilight struggled weakly. “Don't worry, Twilight. You'll be okay.” He stopped. Something warm was on his face as he stumbled again, his knees giving out and sending him tumbling to the ground. He put the phone away and put his right hand up to his face. There were tears coming down. He had not noticed before, but he had been crying. He sat down against a wall after setting Twilight down on a nearby bench. He grabbed out his wallet and pulled out a photo of his grandfather. He remembered the last time he cried, eight years before, when his grandfather died suddenly of a heart attack. He eventually buried the emotions so he could function, but at that point, there was no one to hide them from. He was alone, a lavender pony out cold on a bench in front of him. Standing back up, he sniffed and picked Twilight up. Lashing her to his back again, he started out again, following the phone's map.

    Agent One scanned three bloodstains on a ladder leading down to a makeshift boat launch on the drawbridge. He smiled.

    “They definitely came this way. Remember the samples we took of blood on the counter in the drugstore?” Two shrugged.

    “One, yes it was him, but from the amount of blood, he seemed badly injured.”

    “Good, then he'll bleed out before I get to him. He will count himself lucky if he doesn't meet me.”

    Turning the corner into a trailer park, Victor began jogging, trying to move faster. His destination was a trailer that looked like someone had outfitted it to withstand a war. There was barbed wire, razor wire, and electric fencing. He smiled, then frowned when he heard Twilight moaning.

    “We're here.” Approaching slowly, he raised his hand to knock when a figure quickly opened the door and dragged them in.

    “Victor, I thought I told you to only come here if it was an emergency.” A figure in a green jacket, grey jeans, black goggles, and red sneakers held Victor by his shoulders.

    “John, it is an emergency. One that threatens everything we know. And it has to do with a conspiracy by the government.” Another head popped out from down a hall to John's left.

    “Conspiracy? What kind?”

    “Dad, just stop, please!” John's father stepped out and turned on the hallway lights.

    “Well, if it isn't Victor Hernandez, our favourite... eh, that's all I've got. Wait, what's that? Is that some kind of government experiment gone wrong and now you're trying to hide it so that they don't kill it?” Victor stared at John's father and raised an eyebrow.

    “Nothing like that actually. Unfortunately, this has to do with something else entirely, mainly, the government hunting me because of this.” He held up the USB drive and handed it to John. “Someone called Anon directed me to come here so you could look at the coding and figure out the true purpose of the program on here.” Victor backed up as John snatched it quickly out of his hands.

    “I'll get right on it. Anon called ahead, said to be ready. Let's hope this isn't as well encrypted as he made it out to be.”

    Agent One stopped as he examined more bloodstains. One was a long skid, and it made it out to seem that there was a second person who was assisting Victor. He punched a wall in anger.

    “He's got help?! Who would help this two-bit thief? Who is there that we don't know about?” One stared at Four as he watched the window.

    “His co-worker, Samuel Irues. He could be harboring the fugitive. I suggest mobilizing all available assets – what military we can get a hold of, and any police in the vicinity. Seven, get on the horn with Gettysburg. Ask him for reinforcements. This punk won't make fools out of Agents.”

    John sat in front of a large bank of twelve monitors, typing rapidly as Victor entered. He pointed over to a nearby cushion on the floor.

    “There. Sit. I will crack this, or my name isn't John S. Nipez!” The lines of code stretched across the screen when a few lit up as red.

    “Wait, what are those?” Victor leaned in just before John thrust his hand out to push him back.

    “Watchdogs. Like security lasers. Trip one, you're instantly traced. Thankfully, I've met a few before, and they are relatively easy to bypass.” He smiled as he pulled up one section of data on something known as Project 'Homeworld.'

    As the time wore on, more data piled up, composing an entire cabinet's worth of hidden data, all on Project Homeworld. Victor stopped John at one piece of data regarding the Shadow Protocol.

    “'The Shadow Protocol was designed as a program for stabilizing the event horizon of the Shadow Gate. On its own, even with a relatively low-powered device, like a home computer, it could create a small dimensional rift. Contact with such a rift would pull a subject through.' That sounds like what happened to Twilight, John!” Victor was about to run out to the couch where Twilight was laying down when he saw her enter the room.

    “Something about me? A rift? What kind?” As she sat down and read the data, she became even more visibly distressed. “Is this what happened? What if I can never go back? What if they catch us, and kill us, Victor? What then?”

    “Twilight, John won't let that happen, right- John?” Victor turned around to face a bank of monitors with red exclamation marks on them, warnings. “John, what happened?!” John turned around to face them with an expression that could only be described as absolute fear.

    “Victor, a Watchdog. They had a hidden one that activated once you dug in too far. They've got our location! I suggest you run, now!” John stood beside Victor as they were about to run, but they were stopped by Mr. Nipez, John's father.

    “I couldn't help but listen in. I guess that it's time, John. In the back, there's a motorcycle. It's fueled up and ready to go. I'll keep them off your backs while you get away!” John held his father's arm.

    “What are you going to hold them off with?! Coat hangers?!” He backed up when his father lifted up a heavy machine gun.

    “With this. I had a few... favours to call in, and they sent me this. Those government lackies won't know what hit them!” Mr. Nipez stood still as he watched the trio rush out the back door of the trailer. “Well, let's see what those lackies are up to, shall we, Resolute?” He opened up the front door to prepare for the almost-certain assault.

    Agent One was about to yell at Seven for a terrible plan when his radio beeped. Activating it, he was greeted by the screaming voice of General Gettysburg.

    “You let him dig into the software! He knows about Project Homeworld! He's going to find out about everything!” Gettysburg rattled off geographical coordinates to One. A smile crept across his face as the call dragged on. Turning off the radio afterwards, he laughed.

    “We've got him! One of the Watchdogs inside of the program sent a digital beacon out! He's in the old trailer park that was supposed to be turned into a park a few years ago! You remember the one I'm talking about? Green Groves Trailer Park? Come on!” He picked up his Pulse Rifle and turned off the safety. “Gettysburg gave me a kill order. He must be dead, and nothing left of him, but keep the program safe!”

    John sat on the motorcycle, trying to get it to work as he heard what sounded like hundreds of heavy boots running down the road. Gunfire erupted from the front of his house as Mr. Nipez opened fire. Kicking the engine, he got the motorcycle to start. Twilight sat in a side car with a helmet barely fitting her, sitting on Victor's lap. John wiped a tear from his eye.

    “Thank you, Dad. I won't ever forget you.” Gunning the engine, he sped away as the gunfire echoed off into the distance.

    Agents One, Two, and Five arrived ahead of the other three that had been assigned, their weapons ready for anything. As soon as they exited the military APC they had commandeered, a private pushed them down as a spray of bullets took his body apart, piece by piece. Two cocked his Pulse Rifle and fired at the source, detonating the box of MG shells.

    John turned around to see his home explode in a flash of blue light. Hitting the brake, he slid to a stop. He stared at the wreckage, light glinting off of a trail of tears down his face. He stared at the motorcycle he was on, and stared at the wreckage.

    “You're going to pay for this, you government lackies. You're all going to pay for the death of my father!” He gunned the engine again, zipping away before any person could locate them. Twilight looked over at John, who had tears flying off his face in the wind. She turned to Victor.

    “John is really upset. What's going on?”

    “Twilight, they killed his father! They murdered him, and we're going to stop them! They are not about to get away with

this!”

    Agent Seven combed through the wreckage as Five gave the report to a nearby radio operator. He found one body, and nothing else.

    “Agent One, sir! There's no trace of Victor Hernandez or John Nipez! They're not here!” Seven turned to see One grit his teeth in anger. A radio message came through, startling him out of his anger.

    “Agents! This order comes from on high! Victor Hernandez, John S. Nipez, and whoever the third individual is, they are all now Priority One targets! I repeat, Priority One! Clearance granted for any and all assets needed to hunt them down! Recover the Shadow Protocol, or you're next on the Priority list!”

    Victor stared down at his right hand, which tightly grasped the USB stick that contained the Shadow Protocol.

    “This contains the key to bring down a government that has lied to every single one of its own citizens. We are not free, but slaves to propoganda. John, you did get some of the information, right?”

    “Yeah! Three locations – the first one's in the ruins of New York! We'll head there first; it seems like the best course of action!” The motorcycle rumbled on into the coming darkness as the day drew to a close, with three of the Western Alliance's most wanted individuals onboard.

    There would be time to grieve, but the time for action....

… had arrived.

                End of Section 1: Shadow Protocol