Ponyshock: "Knight" Squad

Trails turned from the badly wounded Brute, that pony wasn't going to be up much longer. Next target. He turned to the the splicer that was charging his wounded squadmate and took aim. 1...2...*bang* he fired his last bullet, aiming for their throat.

(1 shot at Leadhead Splicer's throat with Cowpony Repeater)

Ashen quickly swapped the spark battery on his rifle, throwing out the drained one and inserting a fresh one, before swiftly snapping the rifle back up and aiming at the charging Brute’s head. He fired off one at the beast, before diving out of the way at the last second and firing two more shots into the monster’s side.

This of course, all assumed that his first shot didn’t kill it, or that someone else didn’t kill it before it reached him.

[Shoot Brute’s Head, Prism Rifle, Energy Weapons 50]

[Dive out of way, Agility 6]

[Shoot Brute Again, x2, Prism Rifle, Energy Weapons 50]

Petal took a hold of the metal strut which continued to pin her in place as the battle took place around her. Unfortunately she lacked the strength to be able to pull the strut from her leg. The metal just groaned as and slid deeper as she tried to pull on it.

Ale went to tackle the splicer who was making its way towards the pinned down Pegasus, to end her life once and for all. Unfortunately for Ale it spun just as he was about to tackle it, and the splicer jumped away, avoiding the tackle completely. The splicer cackled as Ale fell to the floor and was about to fire on the pony before a shot from Trails ripped through it's throat, ending it's life forever.

Lightening Flash sprayed the brute with another salvo of bullets as it charged towards Ashen and Shutter. Once again the bullets scrapped by it's legs making it angry but seemingly slowing it down in the process. The Brute could not take much more of this.

Ashen and Shutter dove to opposite sides unleashing a horrific display of death in their wake as they opened up on the Brute. Energy blasts and led smashed agasint it's body burning and ripping flesh like paper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enemies remaining:

None ^^

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The Brute staggered as it struggled to keep itself up before falling in a heap at the feet of the two stallions, Ashen and Shutter. With a heavy exhale the Brutes vision faded to black as it parted this world to head straight for Tartarus. With the remaining enemies dead all that were left was the cowering splicers that had ran away during the fight. But this battle had been won.

Shutter dropped his gun for a second as he let out a deep exhale. The fatigue from that fight only now just catching up to him...however, he found the energy to give out a yell, the reason why there had been a battle VERY much not forgotten by him.

"Are you just going to keep sending your freaks after us? Come on out and show yourself, you sick bitch!"

He screamed out, towards the catwalk, before taking the time to grab his weapon back in his mouth and quickly jam a fresh clip into the pistol. Shutter's burst of rage over seeing his former passion defiled didn't seem to have dulled a bit, and the thoughts going through his head were hazy and hate-filled. He clearly wasn't thinking straight right now...

Ale droped the revolver back into it's holster. The battle was over and he got out with only some brusing and maby a cracked rib (a new record). The others didden't get out so lucky, a few bullet holes amungst the group and a big metal rod jutting out of petal's foreleg.

As ale made his way over to petal's position he kept an eye on their surroundings, knowing that the pony that sent these things after them was still out there, peering into the darkness he hopes he could spot the pony or at lease some sign of were they went.

Taking a knee next to petal ale begain to inspect the damage the rod made. Remembering that not all of the health potions was with winter ale turned to the group and asked "Hey diden't somepony else take a potion from that footlocker in the art district?" Turning back to petal's leg he added "we're going to bucking need it."

(perception 7, luna sight perk- peer into darkness surrounding the group lookin for signs of the splicer commander)

(perception 7- inspect metal rod for easyer methoods of removal)

Lightning reholsted his weapon once he saw the battle was over. He would look back at the pegasus and tried to figure out the best way to get the metal out. But he wasn't a doctor. If he tried to do anything, he might end up hurting her more than helping her. "Listen, I'm going to go get more help, don't do anything yet."

Turning around, the pegasus could see Shutter in a blood rage. Lightning quickly ran over and tried to calm the pony down, "Shutter, Shutter, it's over, it's ok. We won. You have to put the gun down now. We showed them who was superior. Calm down, please. We're not going to get anywhere angry like this." He tried to offer a small smile to the stallion before adding, "Come on, let's go talk to Trails and figure out what's our next course of action. That pegasus over there too is hurt and we have to deal with these things first."

As the battle came to an end, Sketch looked around in the shadows, making sure that nothing else was about to jump them. Some of them had suffered wounds...it could get ugly if they were ambushed again. Somehow, he had escaped all harm, not a scratch on him.

A miracle? Considering the others' conditions, probably. He went over to where Petal was injured, a metal rod sticking out of her leg, and murmured something to himself.

"Here, take this. You may need it in a moment." he said, passing her the healing potion he had picked up earlier. He had little experience with medicine. Granted, some, but not as much as the others.

He would put his skills to better use by collecting firearms from the bodies littering the floor around them.

Automatic weapons. Very useful.

[Gives 1 healing potion to Petal Shard, goes to collect weapons and search bodies]

Ashen kept his prism rifle trained on the brute’s head, ready to fire it it showed any sign of getting up. However, the beast soon gave his last breath, and the red mark on his EFS winked out, confirming that he was no longer an issue. A sweep around with his EFS confirmed that the room was clear of hostiles, and only then did the stallion allow himself to relax a bit. Not too much though, and he still floated his rifle at his side in the likely event that another attack came. However, he did note that he came out of that battle surprisingly unhurt, although not the same could be said for everypony. Ashen wasn’t a medic though, so there wasn’t much he could do about the others, especially Petal. The most he could do was take one of his own health potions he brought and silently float it over to Ginger. Sketch just gave him one too, but Ashen had a feeling that it wouldn’t be enough.

His ears perked as one of their own started yelling, the buck turning around to see Shutter yelling at whoever sent all those splicers after them, trying to get her attention. He walked over as Lightning tried to calm him down and added his own advice. “If you want to kill her it would be wise to calm down. Anger will only make it harder for you to think clearly, and easier for enemies to manipulate you and guess your actions.” he explained in his usual emotionless monotone.

Petal groaned as the pain in her leg finally overwhelmed her and she passed out.

Trails reloaded his repeater and chambered a round with a satisfying click. He did a quick evaluation of their circumstances, Shutter was too pissed to be of any use, red too hurt. He saw as a number of the rookies went to help their fallen squadmate, this made Trails crack a tired smile. Guess they have their hearts in the right place, just too green to know what to do with them.

"Unpin her but leave the metal in there, don't want her bleeding out before we can get to Bell." He said to the group surrounding the wounded pegasus. "Shutter, you keep watch over them. Flash and Ashen, let's go find and kill that psycho. Need her dead for our meeting to take place after all."

Trails shouldered his rifle and left their barricade. Photo had clearly been up in the rafters, watching the whole fight. She seemed to be a textbook sadist, saw beauty in the suffering of others. Trails intended on letting her become a prime example of her 'art'.

The battle was now finally over, the remains of the bodies that littered the area filling a foul stench in the nostrils of the group. The surrounding area was coated in body parts, crushed limbs and blood as they regained their strength and healed wounds.

Well.. some of them did. Shutter in his anger raged into the dark ordering Photo Finish to show herself from wherever it was she was hiding. But there came no reply as the silence was all that greeted the smaller stallion.

Ale attempted to peer into the darkness himself, his perceptive gaze sweeping the areas in search of something that could fit the description of the crazed pony. Apart from the occasional shift in the shadows there seemed to be nothing there. Though Ale would now know they were being watched by splicers. Hostile ? ...perhaps but for now they were keeping their distance.

Sketch attempted to help the Pegasus named Petal who remained pinned down under the sharp strut of metal lodged on her hind leg. He gave her a healing potion but unfortunately the Pegasus mare slipped from consciousness. If they didn't get her to a doctor soon then she would surely suffer. Time would tell the fate of Petal.

As the group moved around, looting bodies and generally taking care of each other the speakers surrounding the theater flared to life as a familiar voice echoed around them. "Haha !! goood, goood" she said happily before continuing more on her speech. "Just the right amount of blad ! and such great poses too ! you should be proud, film them and I pay you with Arcana, yes ? !" she ordered before a shuffling sound came through the speakers followed by a static wine.

Petal Shard jerked slightly then gritted her teeth as a bolt of pain shot up her leg, "oh yeah, I'm in this place..." she sighed as she glanced around. Her vision was slightly hazy but she was lucid enough to make out the disembodied voice praising the group's efforts, "stuck in an underwater city with insane freaks, on a foal's errant for a pack of geldings and to top it all off there is a damn peace of metal through my leg. I hate everything" she grumbled to herself.

"That crazy bitch wants us to photograph those bodies now?" Ale muttered under his breath in almost complete astonishment. Refocusing on the task at hoof ale took trails advice and tried to remove the rod from the ground rather than petals leg. "You might want to bite down on this." He said as he offered a peice of wood to petal. "This is going to hurt." Ale enveloped the metal rod in a feild of magic and attempted to dislouge it from the floor.

(Strength - 4,magic - 22, attempting to romove metal rod)

Shutter turned to Trails, anger still in his eyes as he heard what he said.

"WHAT?! No! I am not staying here and playing babysitter while that sicko is still alive! You are NOT leaving without me Trails, and that is final!"

He yelled, the fury seeming very out of place for Shutter, but very genuine. He clearly had no intention of sitting this fight out, no matter what.

It was at this point that he then heard Photo chime in again, letting out a growl under his breath...however, it did remind him of something, and he seemed to calm for a little bit as his thoughts became distracted for a moment.

"...Oh, right...uh, Ashen, how good are you at magic...stuff...sensing? because I think I might have something a bit odd here that needs to be looked at..."

He mumbled, before reaching over and grabbing the Camera Case in his mouth, before holding it out.

Petal Shard brushed the stick the white stallion had offered her away, "I'll be fine...thanks" she monotone as she regarded the stallion. She didn't understand why these ponies were helping her but there was no point questioning their motives now and it wouldn't matter anyway given that she had no choice but to trust them. Petal glanced back at the metal in her leg and narrowed her eyes, "it already hurts" she muttered to herself as she took a moment to prepare for the coming pain.

Lightning just let out a soft sigh as Shutter ignored him and also decided to go against Trails. The pegasus would turn and give a nod to Trails, showing that he heard his command. "Got it. Let's go find her." Of course, the crazy pony decided to start talking to them and what made Lightning feel just sick and angry was the fact that she was enjoying it. Watching him and the rest of his friends being hurt and watching her own minions being killed. But he resisted the urge of letting the anger overtake his mind. He still had to think clearly and logically if he wanted to survive. Lightning would quickly walk back over to his discarded hunting rifle and pick it up, putting it back on his back before scanning the rafters above, looking for some place that would be perfect to hide a psycho pony.

Ashen starred at the camera Shutter presented to him, sensing the active hum of a spell matrix inside the device. A twinge of...curiosity was visible on his face as he turned to Trails, who was getting ready to head up and kill Photo, and expected him to come with. “When she’s dead, and we have more time to spare, I will take a look at it. I’m reasonably certain I’ll be able to figure out how it works.” He did want to take a look now, but he doubted that Trails would appreciate that, not to mention that time may be a factor here. Couldn’t let their target get away.

With that settled, he approached Trails, Prism Rifle at ready. He nodded at the stallion. “Ready.” he simply said.

Trails had been pissed earlier, tired of these greenhorns and their ideas of the way things should go, now he was furious. First trusting some ghost in a radio, then wasting ammo and giving away their only advantage instantly, and now just being a flat out asshole and idiot. Trails was done with this shit, he was done with this squad, done with these greenhorns. He was an inch from flipping out, every ounce of him wanted to yell at shorticus until the buck wet himself, but he decided not to follow his DI's example. Instead he took a more...dynamic approach.

Trails calmly turned to Shutter, and fired his repeater at the buck's hooves. "That was warning one, two is in the leg, there is no three. Now sit here and guard these nice ponies while we go and take care of the problem. You are not capable of the kind of combat we are going into, physically or emotionally. So take a smoke break, that is final."

Petal watched as the little drama played itself out and for a second she thought the little stallion was going to get shot. She huffed dismissively as the bullet imbedded itself in the floor, "never a tape measure around when you need one" she laughed grimly. Under normal circumstances this sort of half-flanked posturing bored her but given her current predicament she was glad of the distraction.

Turning away from the stallions Petal began turning over the information she had gathered in her head and scowled as a conclusion formed in her mind...no, not the conclusion but the ramifications such a conclusion presented.

These ponies where, for whatever reason, attempting to help her so if she lived through this current situation she would make them aware of what she had concluded and let them deal with it in whatever manner they deemed appropriate.

Shutter quickly withdrew his hoof from where the shot landed in reflex, but his responce afterwards was probably not what Trails had been expecting.

Shutter had started to calm down, especially after his mind had focused on the camera, and less on the murdering splicer that was up ahead, and Trails responding to him by taking a shot, had gone and shown him something during this moment of clarity.

...Somewhere, along the line...he had stopped being that scared of Trails...when he thought about it, he had done some incredible things these past few months...fought massive beasts from another world, met and worked with a hellhound...and in comparison, Trails threatening him didn't seem like the worst possible thing anymore. Sure it was still scary, but Shutter was sure Trails wouldn't shoot...he'd have to be an idiot to start wasting ammo on teammates, after all, let alone think that there wouldn't be repercussions for shooting someone on your own side...

So, instead of backing down, Shutter stomped his hoof back down, eyes glaring holes through the larger pony.

"Not prepared physically or emotionally? Thats pretty weak Trails, especially considering how many we just killed! Sure, I'm angry at the psycho up ahead, and for damn good reason! She's not only murdering, but doing it in the name of MY artform! I NEED to come along Trails! I need to see this fixed with my own eyes and gun!"

He stated back strongly, hoping in the back of his mind that he was right, and Trails wasn't going to be an idiot about this.

Sketch looked over one of the corpses and pulled up a Splicer's 9mm SMG. He looked over it for a moment, as he listened to the various shouting, sounds of pain, and the the sharp *crack* of Happy Trails' repeater. He tossed a glance behind him, then went back to looting corpses.

He came back to the little group with both of the 9mm SMGs the Splicers had been carrying, tossing one to Ginger Ale at his hooves. Without a word he stepped back over the chairs and nudged Ginger away from Petal, who still had the metal post impaled in the flesh of her leg.

"Don't." was all he said, pointing to the trickles of blood running down her leg. If that strut was pulled loose, she would undoubtedly bleed out, faster than any of them could aid her. Having possibly saved the mare's life, for now, he went on over to where Trails fumed at the rest of the group. He tapped him on the shoulder.

"Where do you need me."

He was unwounded, so he could be of use...anywhere, really.

"We, not you. You aren't a combat pony, we're not going to be in cover, there will be no element of surprise." Trails cocked his repeater, Shutter seemed to think that Trails wasn't going to shoot him if he disobeyed, that just showed how much of civie he was. "And artistic fury is not effective on a battle field, nor is insubordination. Now I suggest you reset your head before I do it for you." Trails turned to Sketch now, keeping his repeater trained on Shutter's foreleg. "Make sure Red's taken care of."

Ale broke the magic feild he had around the metal rod, stuborn thing woulden't budge. Taking a moment he gathered his thoughts and inspect the new toy sketch droped at his hooves.

Hearing the argument on the other side of the room ale turned to trow in his two bits. "Hey camara boy, i'd listen to trails if i was you, he's not afraid to use his ammo to make a point." He said gesturing to the small scar on his foreleg left there by trails when they had a "disagreement" outside fillydelphia.

Turning back to the 9mm smg ale droped the clumbsy firearm into his saddlebag, he never cared for "spray and pray" type of weaponry. Standing up he looked over shoulder back at petal, still pined to the ground, and said "I'll be right back."

(Footnote: Level up)

Petal's ears pricked at what the trigger happy stallion had said, sigh again with the red, ugh whatever she mentally grumbled as she watched the blood trickle from her leg. She sighed at the line of crimson liquid and decided it wasn't worth worrying about. As she glanced around the room, noting with annoyance that she wouldn't be able to get her samples something occurred to her, "oh would one of you colts be a dear and get me one of those creatures' weapons. Mine is a little underpowered" she said in an obviously faux-sweet tone, the vague amusement it brought her mildly easing the discomfort she felt.

"Trails...look at what we just did, and we barely had cover! I'm sorry, but I can't back down from this, no matter how scary you try to be."

Shutter said, clearly having no intention of moving, Ginger's voice not reaching him as he focused completly on this stand. Trails would be a fool if he attacked, and Shutter knew that. He just hoped he did too.

"Trails, you're not going to shoot me. We're friends, and you know I can handle myself...you've seen it yourself! I'm calm now, let me come too!"