Chapter 19: Fury of a Father.

While Dave was being captured…

Strong Shield gritted his teeth as he saw the base light up and he could see the silhouettes of humans lining the rooftops. The unicorn hurried downstairs and found Celestia sat alone in the kitchen, the alicorn was reading a book that Hannah had given her.

“Princess Celestia, we have an issue that…” Strong Shield froze as he saw Nox land in the back garden and the young colt collapsed onto the grass. “Nox made it back.”

Celestia glanced at Strong Shield before following his gaze to see Nox motionless in the garden. “NOX!” The princess called before using her magic to slam open the back door and rush over to Nox’s side.

Strong Shield waited until Celestia had carried her son into the house and gently placed him down on one of the sofas in the living room before trying to start analysing the situation. “Is he alright?”

“He is asleep, must have been flying so hard that he wore himself out,” Celestia nuzzled Nox’s cheek before looking back at Strong Shield. “Is there any sign of Dave?”

“No,” Strong Shield peek out of the curtains and looked back at the base. “I’m sorry to say this but I believe this has all been a trap to capture Dave.”

Celestia looked at Strong Shield’s glare before standing beside him and looking across at the busy base. She could see various humans roaming around and lights began to activate and began searching the surrounding fields.

“What do you think happened?” Celestia asked as she returned to sit at Nox’s side.

“Obviously we were tricked into believing that the base wasn’t well fortified,” Strong Shield sighed as he sat down. “Nox can give us details on their internal security but as for numbers of guards that may be unknown.”

Nox shivered as he opened his eyes and looked up at Celestia, “Is dad ok?”

“Nox, go to sleep, you have been brave and I am so proud of you,” Celestia nuzzled Nox gently until he fell asleep. Strong Shield placed a hoof on the princess and took her into the corridor, closing the door quietly to make sure he didn’t wake the sleeping prince.

“Celestia, Nox was never in any harm but Dave is in serious trouble,” The unicorn stared at Celestia as he lowered his voice. “What humans lack in magic they make up for in technology, so I have a bad feeling they may try to reverse engineer Dave’s body.”

“Reverse engineer? Like the gryphon’s crossbow a few years ago?” Celestia paused as she heard footsteps behind her and Luna walked over to the ponies.

Luna smiled as she hugged her sister, “Hannah has made us some food if we are staying up to wait for Dave and Nox.”

“Actually I think it would be best if we went to sleep, the journey back may be quite tiring,” Strong Shield suggested. “I’ll stay up but the rest of you should go to bed.”

“Oh I suppose that does make sense,” Luna sighed. “Well I will say goodnight to Hannah and Flux.”

Once Celestia and Strong Shield were alone again, the unicorn gave a snort. “Nopony is going to get near that base without being captured or worse.”

“So how exactly are we meant to save Dave?” Celestia growled as she stepped back into the living room. “Now I’m guessing that I can’t start burning the place to the ground can I?”

“No but Luna has given me an idea,” Strong Shield hummed as he looked out at the base once more. “There is a brief opening in their search patterns, I can infiltrate but searching for Dave would require time we don’t have.”

Celestia covered Nox with one of her wings as she watched the unicorn calculate, “So how will you find where they are keeping Dave?”

“I’ll ask one of the humans where they are keeping him,” Strong Shield looked over at Celestia’s confused stare. “But I’ll need your help.”

A couple of hours later…

A security guard yawned as he watched the security cameras, his fingers clutching an empty coffee mug. “Urgh, thank god they pay me well,” He grumbled as he picked up a radio. “Command Echo, this is Overwatch, can you dispatch my food early?”

After a few seconds the radio crackled before a response came through, “This is Command Echo, if you need to we can get someone to cover your shift for the next hour.”

“Sounds great,” The guard responded with a smile on his face. He sat back in his chair and saw on one of his various monitors that another guard in a hat was walking towards the security room door, two mugs in his hands.

The guard stopped before knocking on the door, “I was asked to come take over.”

“That was quick,” The security officer stood up and opened the door and allowed the other guard in. The new guard stepped quickly in and placed the mugs down. “Wow and you brought me a coffee? These science guys must be happy we caught that uh… superguy.”

“Where are they keeping him again?” The new guard asked as he sat down and removed his hat, revealing his long grey hair that was tied into a ponytail, “Can you see him on these cameras?”

“Are you a rookie or senile?” The security guard joked as he walked over. “These cameras see everything…”

As the guard picked up a mug he saw that they were both empty. “Hey what is this?”

The new guard stood and turned around, revealing the large scar over his left eye. “My name is Strong Shield, and I am here for my son.”

“Oh alright,” The guard pulled out a handgun and aimed at Strong Shield’s head. “Now you have been captured and I have the power to shoot you dead right now.”

“I have researched your weapons and I can see that they do have some flaws,” Strong Shield sighed as he looked down at his hands. “But these hands have some very promising uses.”

Before the guard could react, Strong Shield slapped the gun away from his face and grabbed the guard’s hair, bringing his head down into Strong Shield’s rising knee. The guard collapsed to the ground and Strong Shield sighed.

“You guards could really do with a decent training regime,” The pony turned human grumbled as he sat down at the control station for the cameras and began to search through all the cameras in hopes of finding Dave.

Eventually one of the screens flicked over to a cell that had chains hanging from the ceiling and wires scattered across the floor, all leading up to an unconscious Dave that hung like a puppet. Strong Shield kept his growl quiet at the sight of Dave strung up.

“Containment level eh?” Strong Shield hummed as he scavenged through all the desk draws until he found a basic layout of the base attached to a clipboard. After taking mental note of all the different corridors and defences Strong Shield walked over to the unconscious guard and took his handgun.

“Trust me when I say that getting used to this body took hours I didn’t have,” Strong Shield grunted as he picked up the unconscious guard and placed him back in his chair. “Now by the time you wake up you will have probably lost your job… but I’m not sorry.”

Strong Shield left the room and placed his newly acquired handgun into his holster before walking down the empty corridor. He continued to stretch his arms as he walked, feeling awkward that his arms had nothing to do as he walked out of the building, covering his face with his hand as he passed a few unsuspecting guards.

“Steal one uniform and you get a free pass in this base?” Strong Shield grumbled to himself as he made his way to the hanger. “It is too easy to infiltrate this place…”

Strong Shield stopped as he looked around the hanger, tables had been placed around the open space and entire squads turned as they heard him mutter. Strong Shield quickly concluded that the ones keeping Dave prisoner wanted to keep as many guards near the exit as possible.

“Hey you don’t have any ID,” One guard snapped as he stood up and pointed at Strong Shield. “What is the six-digit passcode?”

“Umm…” Strong Shield looked at all the angry guards as he turned and saw a few more had entered behind him. “Well… it is… one… two… three, four, five… six…”

Strong Shield stood quietly as all the guards exchanged looks before shrugging. “Alright, make sure you get your ID replaced soon ok?”

“You mean I was right?” Strong Shield stared in disbelief as all the guards carried on eating their lunches or chatting in their groups. “This is a shameful military.”

The disgruntled intruder looked around the room, taking in all the information about all the guards, their equipment, food and all the exits before smirking to himself. Strong Shield made his way to the elevator at the back of the hanger and pressed the small silver button before taking a step back.

“Just for having such a dumb code and for locking up my son I am going to make all of you suffer before this elevator gets here,” Strong Shield called as he turned to face the guards that were now staring at him. “Nopony makes a mockery of my family and gets away with it.”

Before any of the guards could question Strong Shield’s actions he had drawn his handgun and planted the muzzle into the closest guard’s ear and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was quickly followed by yells as all the security guards got to their feet and stepped away from him.

“Duck,” Strong Shield commanded as he used the rest of the ammo to shoot out all the alarms and intercoms around the hanger. “Now one of you please close that door and then let’s start shall we?”

A pair of guards hurried to close the hanger doors as the rest of the mob drew knives from belts or picked up knives from the tables. Those that didn’t have any blades to use began to crack their knuckles and headed towards the intruder.

Strong Shield took a deep breath as the bravest guard charged forward, knife raised high and letting out a yell as he rushed to stab his foe. Strong Shield threw his empty gun into the charging guard’s mouth, grabbed the raised arm and uppercutted the guard’s chin resulting in an unconscious guard and giving Strong Shield a knife to use.

“Going well so far,” Strong Shield glared at the rest of the group as he saw a tooth fall to the floor. “Well I may have hit the first guy a bit hard.” He admitted.

A pair of guards went for Strong Shield as he readied himself, his head barely dodging the first high slash as the second guard reached forwards for a stab. Strong Shield pushed the approaching blade away with his own before slashing across the first guard’s stomach. As the first of the pair dropped another two began to advance on Strong Shield from behind.

The veteran noticed their discreet approach and stepped towards one of the tables and grabbed the closest dinner tray that was clear of food. As the guard that attempted to stab him got near, Strong Shield dropped his own knife to grab the guard’s wrist and twisted his arm to slam his back onto the table.

One of the sneaking guards charged forward as Strong Shield placed the dinner tray into the mouth of the guard who was still in his grasp. As the new guard attacked, Strong Shield swiftly released his first prey and grabbed the hair of his new victim and slammed his face onto the dinner tray, pushing down so he was also biting down on the silver tray.

The two guards looked at each other until Strong Shield lifted a leg high into the air and slammed it down onto the top guard’s head. The resulting cracks made all the guards flinch as Strong Shield stepped back and looked around before picking his knife back up off the floor.

Another guard leapt onto the table but didn’t go any further as Strong Shield spun and threw his knife directly into the guard’s throat. As the guard dropped to the floor even more guards rushed forwards, throwing caution to the wind as they attempted to swarm Strong Shield.

With no weapon to use Strong Shield resorted to climbing onto the table and took a running leap across the wave of guards, clearing the first few before crashing down on the one at the back of the mob.

As the human’s head cracked against the stone floor it removed another threat for Strong Shield to worry about. One guard was pushed ahead of his comrades as he slowly advanced towards Strong Shield.

“Administering shock to… calm subject,” A voice said over the damaged intercom. A few guards stopped before one began to look through his pockets.

“What are you doing?” A guard yelled in annoyance.

“The engineers said electricity to lower levels hasn’t been upgraded for the new prisoner yet!” The guard finally pulled out a small flashlight from one of his pockets. “If he activates it then…”

The lights went out before the guard could even finish his sentence, the darkness made all the guards stagger about in confusion before the sounds of grunting, coughing and fighting began to fill the empty void.

The guard with the flashlight was pushed over before he could flick the switch. The small torch fell from his grip and rolled a few feet away. The sounds kept getting nearer to the desperate guard as he dropped to his knees and began to crawl in search of the flashlight.

The grunting began to be replaced with gurgling and cries of pain, like an invisible demon was thinking of crueller ways to hurt the simple guard as he crawled for freedom. Eventually the guard’s finger grazed the cold surface of the flashlight and he immediately brought it close to his chest.

As the guard began to search for the switch he noticed the sounds had stopped, and maybe the intruder was just as blind as the group. But as the light flicked on and illuminated the floor in front of the terrified guard he froze when he saw a blood soaked blade standing and the point staring up at him.

“I would end a thousand of you to save my son,” Strong Shield muttered as he placed his boot on the back of the guard’s head and pushed down with enough strength to sheath the knife into its resting place.

Strong Shield took a moment to recover his breath as he picked up the flashlight and turned it off, not wanting to see the mess he had made. But as the last remaining human stood he heard the alarm ring outside, the shrieking noise was soon followed by the noise of guards approaching the hanger.

“Damn, can’t get a break around here,” Strong Shield groaned as he walked back to the centre of the hanger and sat at one of the benches. The hanger door was pulled open and the moonlight revealed to the reinforcements that they were to slow to save their friends.

A younger man walked in wearing sunglasses, making Strong Shield smirk as he glanced over the large rifle in his hands. A few guards saw inside the hanger and all they saw was blood and bodies that were littered around a single old man sat by himself.

“What the hell happened?” A guard yelled out but was immediately silenced as the young man turned and punched him.

“I’m guessing you are another intruder?” The young man spat on the floor. “Damn Discord didn’t mention this would be such a major hassle.”

As the lights flickered on the guards all saw the actual extent to which Strong shield went to kill all the guards, some with limbs in ungodly directions. Jack was smirking until something caught his attention and he began to stare at the floor.

“Hmmm,” Jack readied his rifle as his gaze slowly travelled upwards. As he looked past Strong Shield he began to hear the sound of grinding metal and the elevator burst outwards as shrapnel and sparks were sent into the air, the metal box landed on the floor, followed by the torso and coat of the scientist.

Strong Shield turned to see Dave crawl out of the elevator shaft; dirt covered his body as the grazes on his hands healed slowly. “Dave? What have they done to you?” The shocked father asked before noticing the bloodlust in Dave’s eyes.

“So the chains didn’t work huh?” Jack smirked as he fired a round at Dave. The bullet passed through Dave’s body and caused a considerable mess on the way out. But to the shock of all the guards and even Jack: Dave didn’t even stagger.

Dave growled as he stared at Jack, his body leaned forwards before rushing forwards before even Strong Shield could react. By the time Jack had begun to squeeze on the trigger again, his all-seeing eyes were an inch from Dave’s bloodied hands.

Strong Shield froze as he glanced over his shoulder, seeing the tall shadow that watched Dave’s rage, making the connections instantly. “The warden of Tartarus? Why now?”

“I want you to know that this is what Dave’s potential is like,” Warden seemed to hum in pleasure. “I know how far I can push him but I want to see you fail trying to save him.”

Strong Shield heard the pained yells as he looked over at Jack and Dave, his teeth grinded against each other as he saw Dave throw Jack aside and advance on the retreating guards. Jack’s hands covering his face, his power to see through objects was now clearly ripped from his head.

“Hmm,” Warden hummed. “I guess he didn’t see that one coming.”

“Wait, you made a joke?” Strong Shield glanced up again. “Are there any evil beings that don’t make jokes?”